Controlling my breath, I look at the figure. The figure stares at me like I'm some sort of prey—its milky, pupil-less eyes piercing into my soul. The grin stitched across its face stretches impossibly wide now, amused. Triumphant. It knows. It felt the shift the moment my mana drained dry.
The elf—gone. The assassin—gone. All my defenses vanished in an instant, like they were never real to begin with. And now, it's just me.
The demon takes a single step forward, slowly and intentionally. Its clawed foot clicks against the floor like the ticking of a clock counting down. My instincts scream at me to run, but I can't. My legs tremble, locked in place between terror and resolve.
I've never felt so weak and so breakable, and all I have at this moment is just my mortal body to face this thing.
Boom!
The front door blasts off its hinges.
Light floods in like a divine strike, and two figures step through the dust and chaos—Zach and Will.
Zach's arm is already glowing with sigils. Will's eyes gleam silver.
"Get away from him!" Zach shouts, voice charged with power as a shockwave erupts from his hand, slamming the demon against the wall.
Will doesn't even speak. He moves like lightning, a spear forming midair and launching straight for the creature's throat.
I stumble back as the force of Zach's spell rattles through the walls. My body collapses against the hallway, weak, trembling, drained—but alive. My breath catches in my throat. I can hardly believe what I'm seeing.
I never imagined Zach was part of something like this, and even more unexpected is Will, the guy who always acted like a jerk at school. Now they both stand in the shattered doorway, framed by swirling energy and a quiet power that feels far too real to question.
The demon shrieks, a sound like tearing metal and broken bones. Its form, already damaged by my assassin's strike, begins to mutate—limbs elongating, ribs cracking outward, something unholy struggling to emerge.
Will's spear rips through the air again with a spiraling hiss of energy. It slams the demon back before it can complete its transformation. "Julius, stay down!" he yells, tone sharp but not unkind.
I nod faintly, heart hammering. My hands are stained with dried paint, sweat, and fear.
Zach steps forward, glyphs dancing around his arm like burning constellations. "You weren't supposed to engage it yet," he says, glancing at me without losing focus. "But damn… You held your ground."
"I… didn't have a choice," I manage to say. "It wore my dad's face."
Zach's jaw tightens. "Why in the hell is a demon here?"
Will growls, eyes fixed on the creature as it claws at the ground, trying to rise. "Yes, they're powerful and rare beings. We are lucky that this one is among the weakest ones of its kind."
The demon lets out one last howl before Zach and Will launch their final attacks in perfect sync—Zach summoning a chain of light that binds the creature's limbs, while Will strikes through the skull with a blade made of raw mana.
It doesn't scream this time.
It simply evaporates.
Ash falls like snow.
Silence follows.
And in the middle of it all, I sit there on the cold floor, my heart still racing, knowing this is just the beginning.
They are my saviors.
"What are you guys doing here?" I ask.
"We are here to give you your invitation to Velmara Academy," Zach says, his voice calm but laced with urgency. "A school for people like us. People like you."
I stare at him, chest still heaving from adrenaline, mind scrambling to make sense of it. "People like me? You mean... people who can draw creatures and bring them to life?"
Will nods, stepping forward, his earlier arrogance replaced by something sterner—focused. "Summoners, Channelers, Forgers, Vanguards, Wizards… people gifted with Aether."
"Aether?" I echo the word new on my tongue, strange but electric.
Zach glances at the fading scorch marks on my living room floor. "That thing tonight? It wasn't random. You're being hunted, Julius. Your gift—your connection to the Aether—it's rare. And now it's awakened, the wrong things are going to come looking."
"And Velmara is one of the only places that can protect you," Will adds. "Or teach you how to fight back."
I don't respond right away. My mind is buzzing with too many things. But somewhere in the chaos, a realization breaks through the static—this night didn't just change everything.
It revealed what I've been all along.