It was too late. Kaelus brought the sword down, slicing Junior horrifically in two.
The students encircling the field were frozen in disbelief and raw horror. A few managed to break free and sprinted away, their panicked screams swallowed by the open air. But Cj, standing alone at the ring's edge, felt his grief calcify into a cold, terrifying rage.
He strode forward, his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists, and roared across the bloodied grass: "I shall become your next competitor! I will avenge my friend's death!"
Kaelus looked down at the distraught boy, his mocking smile never wavering. "Your friend couldn't even leave a scratch on me, little human," he drawled, his voice thick with condescension. "How can someone by the likes of you expect to do any better?"
Cj planted his feet firmly on the ground, his gaze locked fiercely onto the Angel's eyes—a bold act of defiance that belied his fear.
"Give me the sword!" Cj shouted, his voice cracking but resolute. "And do not lend me any of your power. I will show you the power and will of humankind!"
The air around Kaelus seemed to turn cold as he regarded Cj's fierce defiance. The Angel stood menacingly over the bloodied grass, his beautiful face contorted by a scornful grin.
"Ah," he scoffed, his voice dropping to a seductive whisper that carried perfectly across the terrified silence. "So, you're the human with a spiritual well."
Cj didn't flinch. "What does that even mean?" he demanded.
Kaelus threw back his head, laughter bubbling up again not mocking this time, but genuinely amused. "It means you have the inner reservoir that we, as angels and demons, use to produce magical procurements... a mana field, if you will," he explained, as if lecturing a small child. "But you have no idea how to unlock yours. It's sealed up like a jar you cannot open."
His smile turned sharp and predatory. "Too bad. Such a rare type of human will simply become a tremendous waste after I kill him."
Kaelus made the first move, a blinding slash intended to decapitate CJ.
Yet, to the utter astonishment of every terrified student and Kaelus himself, Cj moved. It wasn't a clumsy parry; it was a perfect, instinctual block. The blood soaked sword, still dripping from Junior's blood, met the Angel's blade with a jarring clang.
Kaelus was genuinely shocked. He abandoned all pretense of playfulness and lunged, delivering a rapid, furious flurry of strikes. Cj, acting on a skill he shouldn't possess, blocked every single one, his movements seamless but weak with his current strength, almost as if he had been wielding a blade for centuries.
Suddenly, Cj found a gap in the assault and countered. His blade whipped out, not for the body, but for the one thing Kaelus truly prized: his deceptive face. The sword cut across the Angel's handsome cheek, drawing a line of bright, unnatural blood.
The pain was nothing, but the damage to his pride was absolute.
Kaelus stopped, the smile completely gone. A guttural scream of pure, agonizing rage ripped from his throat, silencing the whole field. His back arched violently as huge, demonic wings burst out in screams of tearing flesh and splitting fabric. Simultaneously, his fine armor was consumed by an explosion of dark energy as thick, black scales erupted across his exposed skin.
"You worthless little speck," Kaelus hissed, his voice now a grating, multi-layered roar. He pointed a clawed hand at Cj. "You will pay dearly for scarring my beautiful face!"
The air around Kaelus crackled with the sheer force of his rage. Now airborne, the enraged Angel was a blur, launching flurries of strikes invisible to the naked eye. The force of the blows tore trenches in the earth where Cj's feet should have been.
In the middle of this impossible storm, a voice echoed clearly, not in Cj's ear, but deep within his mind: "Just this once, I will help."
Cj felt a powerful, icy aura erupt from the deepest part of his being. The energy surged up his arm, through his body, and into the blood-soaked sword. The blade immediately ignited in a fierce, eerie lime-black flame.
The moment the fire appeared, Kaelus shrieked a raw, terrified sound. "The Forbidden Flame! How... HOW?!"
Cj didn't wait for an answer. Driven by the voice's power, he brought the flaming blade down in a single, resolute slash across Kaelus's chest. The lime-black fire clung to the Angel, and his body was instantly set ablaze.
Kaelus dropped from the sky, hitting the ground on his knees. The otherworldly flames died just as quickly as they appeared, leaving him scorched but not yet dead. He raised his hands in a desperate, broken plea. "Forgive me! Take the power I promised! Just take it!"
Cj stared down at the defeated Angel, his lime-black flame extinguished, his rage still white-hot. "If that is your power," Cj spat, his grip tightening on the sword, "I would rather die than take the same thing that killed my friend."
Kaelus flinched, then quickly seized on a new angle. "No! It's not my power, you fool! It's the Beast right there!"
He gestured wildly toward the reptile chained nearby. "That creature will grant you the power of the beast and shatter the seal on your Spiritual Well! This one is an Axolotl-Class Construct it possesses impressive regenerative abilities and spectacular aggression!"
Kaelus managed a weak, smug look, trying to excuse the fact he had just been humbled. "I was only testing you, human. Take the Beast. Claim its power!"
Cj looked from the kneeling Angel to the terrified, monstrous reptile. The rage in his eyes settled into a cold resolve. He nodded once, a grim acknowledgment.
"Fine," Cj said, lowering the flaming sword. "I will take the power." His eyes then narrowed, landing back on Kaelus. "But I promise you nothing about letting you live after this fight is over."
Kaelus, desperate to escape and delighted Cj had accepted his offering, scrambled to initiate the transfer. "Excellent! A wise choice, human!"
He began a frantic, scorched ritual, chanting in an ancient language as he forced the chained Beast toward Cj. The monstrous axolotl construct shrieked one final time before it dissolved into a mass of thick, black aura. The darkness slammed into Cj's chest and was instantly sucked into his body.
Cj gasped, eyes wide as an impossible surge of raw, aggressive energy ripped through his Spiritual Well, shattering the final seals. He still looked human, but the internal sensation was surpisingly clear a monstorus being was now living inside his flesh. The power was unreal. But nothing compared to what he felt before.
The surviving students who had witnessed the whole horror stood paralyzed in shock and disbelief.
"Get out!" Cj roared, his voice layered with a strange, reverberating depth. "Get back to class! Now!"
He then fixed his gaze on the wounded, kneeling Kaelus, the lime-black flame faintly flickering on his sword. "Listen closely, 'Demi Angel,'" Cj growled, the threat cutting through the air like the promise of death. "If you ever step foot in this country again, I will hunt you down and kill you without a second thought."
Kaelus grinned a final, deceitful smile, bowing low. "Understood, champion. Until we meet again."
With a sudden, violent puff of dark smoke, Kaelus vanished, leaving only the blood and the fresh trenches in the grass. Cj stood alone, the Beast's savage power pulsing beneath his skin.
Cj stood frozen, his eyes burning into the body of his fallen friend imagining his voice and the way he used to laugh. Tears tracked down his cheeks, cold and hot at once, fueled by a single, crushing truth that he was the cause of this. His fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white, and a silent, grief echoed in his mind; "It should have been me"
Cj tore his gaze from Junior's corpse, the crushing weight of his personal guilt driving him into blind denial. He ran, not from the field, but from the simple, terrifying fact that he had failed his friend. He didn't look back; he simply rushed toward the school, with every student dialing and phoning the police and with every strained heartbeat, CJ was anticipating the blare of sirens. Soon, the police would arrive to investigate the massacre, and Cj knew he couldn't explain his role in the horror.
Cj finally drifted out to the front of the school. The sight that greeted him wasn't the aftermath of the early morning storm, but a pristine, orderly lawn. The trees he'd seen shattered hours ago were completely whole, without a single broken branch. This impossible, shocking reality made the blood and the fight he'd just fled feel instantly tenuous. Was I hallucinating? Was any of it real? he thought, his sanity suddenly taking precedence over his guilt.
Driven by frantic confusion, Cj plunged his hand into his pocket, searching for the meteorite fragment. It was gone. The shock was instantaneous and profound. Without that tangible piece of evidence, his memory of the morning fractured. The falling object, the chilling voice, even the lime-black flame, all started dissolving into doubt. Cj pulled his empty hand out, a cold realization settling over him: he was starting to believe he had imagined the entire nightmare.
The terrifying thought that he was delusional was quickly countered by a single piece of cold logic: The students are terrified, not calm. The collective terror was his only anchor to reality. Driven by the crushing need for certainty, Cj spun around and walked back toward the field where Junior had fallen, his steps agonizingly slow. He stopped dead halfway across the grounds. The sky above him was suddenly filled with the frantic, high-pitched whir of police helicopters, and a sharp, clipped voice boomed from a loudspeaker: "Attention! Remain calm! Everyone return to the main building in an orderly fashion!"
Cj froze, the reality of his situation crashing down on him. The fear now wasn't of Kaelus, but of the inevitable interrogation. He was a teenager with a monstrous secret, and he suddenly understood the true, crippling weight of it. No one would ever believe him. He had fought an angel and absorbed a monster, but all the police would see was the bloody aftermath.
With the choppers roaring overhead, Cj knew his only chance was to vanish. He sprinted full-tilt back toward the school building and slid frantically into his classroom, sinking into his seat amidst the terrified cluster of students. Gasping for air, he leaned close to the nearest faces, his voice a ragged whisper thick with desperation. "Please!" he pleaded, his eyes darting across the room. "Don't tell them what happened. Don't tell them what I did." Some students recoiled in fear, but a few, remembering how he had saved their lives, nodded a silent, shaky nod..
The heavy thud of combat boots was instantly followed by the sound of doors violently bursting open down the hallway. Shouts were sharp, clipped, and military voiced: "Stay in your classrooms! Remain calm!"
Cj barely had time to brace himself before their own door was kicked inward with a deafening bang. Two figures in dark, tactical gear stood silhouetted against the light, their weapons held at the ready.
"Everyone out!" one barked, his voice amplified and devoid of patience. "Hallway now! Inspection for injuries!"
As Cj reluctantly stood up, his eyes immediately fell on the insignia stitched to their chest plates. It wasn't the local police seal; it was a cold, official acronym: DCO.
The realization hit Cj with immediate, terrifying clarity. These aren't cops. His mind raced: DCO. what could it mean? Soldiers? Some kind of covert government unit? He understood instantly that this organization wasn't here to file a report... they were here to rid the evidence.
The students were rounded up and herded out into the corridor. Terror was a palpable weight, and every student resisted stepping back outside, but the soldiers offered no sympathy. They moved with brutal, practiced efficiency, using the butts of their rifles to nudge anyone who stalled, forcing the huddled students back toward the still bloodied school field.
The DCO soldiers drove the terrified students back toward the field, but when they reached the edge of the grass, Junior's body and all traces of blood were gone. The earth was undisturbed, though fresh skid marks indicated a heavy vehicle had recently been pulled away.
Near the center of the field sat a large, black military chopper, flanked by a team of soldiers who looked more like spec-ops than police. Inside the open container of the helicopter, Cj could clearly see a small, white draped table.
"Everyone sit down! Now!" one soldier barked.
The students dropped to the grass, confusion mixing with their residual panic. The soldiers at the front then produced a large, metallic device, it looked almost like an industrial flashlight but was far too large. Without warning, they activated it. The field was instantly obliterated by a blinding, silent white flash.
When the light disappeared, the students memories had changed. Every student looked around with a profound, blank confusion.
"W-why are we outside?" one girl murmured, shivering. "What happened?"
A DCO soldier stepped forward, his voice calm and authoritative. "We apologize for the inconvenience, everyone. There was a gas leak in the main building. You all fell asleep, and we had to evacuate you quickly. The building has been secured. You are all dismissed. Go home now."
The mass of students, their collective memories surgically erased, immediately rose and began walking, their fear replaced by nothing but the mundane concern of getting home. The only person still clutching a terrifying secret was Cj Ashwood.
Despite the overwhelming flash, Cj's mind remained brutally clear. He blinked, a wave of shock hitting him as the students around him began wandering away, confused but calm, talking about a supposed gas leak. The memory wipe had failed on him.
He was still processing the realization that his memory was intact while everyone elses was gone, when his eyes locked on the large black chopper. It wasn't hovering anymore; it was swiftly ascending.
Cj saw it then: near the open bay door, the white-draped table was visible, and beneath the cloth was a shape that could only be Junior's body in two.
A primal, desperate roar tore from his throat with his voice layered with the Beast's howl "Junior!"
He lunged forward, ignoring the throbbing pain of his new internal power, sprinting toward the ascending machine in a wild, frantic bid to reach his friend. But he didn't get far. Two DCO soldiers, moving with lightning speed, slammed into him from either side, pinning his arms behind his back.
"Let go of me!" Cj thrashed, his voice ragged with grief and rage, but the soldiers were immovable, their hands like iron clamps. He was forced to watch, helpless, as the military chopper carrying the final evidence of his failure and the body of his friend vanished into the high, cold sky.
Cj finally surrendered. With the weight of his guilt and the image of the vanished chopper pressing down on him, he dropped his arms and began to walk. Each step was heavy, slow, and steeped in profound grief as he headed toward the school gates.
He was oblivious to the students wandering by, his mind still reeling from the successful memory wipe and the monstrous secret pulsing inside him.
Just as he reached the main pavement, a sleek, black sedan low to the ground, the size of a limo drifted to a smooth, silent stop directly in front of him.
The rear door opened slowly. A pair of impeccably polished leather shoes appeared first, followed by a crisp, tailored suit. The man who emerged was old but imposing, with a shock of white hair and a carefully stylized beard that framed a shrewd, unsettlingly calm face.
He didn't waste a second on pleasantries. His eyes, sharp and intense, fixed on Cj.
"I know what happened today," the man stated, his voice a low, gravelly command that cut through Cj's confusion. "I know about the field, the demon, and the power you now carry." Now, mind stepping into the car with me? We have a great deal to discuss."
Cj hesitated for only a moment, his gaze flicking from the imposing man to the sleek black car. The weight of his secret the missing fragment, the vanished body, and the monster pulsing inside him was too heavy to carry alone. He bent low and slid into the rear seat.
The limo immediately pulled away, gliding smoothly onto the main road and leaving the small, town behind.
The old man settled back, his intense eyes softened by a calculated, reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Cj. You are perfectly safe now." He paused, his voice dropping to a smooth, cultured tone. "My name, by the way, is Alistair Thorne. And I believe you and I have some very important business to discuss."
As the car accelerated onto the highway, Cj's confusion quickly sharpened into suspicion.
"How do you know my name?" Cj demanded, glancing back at the town. "And where are you taking me?"
Alistair Thorne offered a slow, calm smile that never quite reached his eyes. "Patience, Cj."
It was only then that Cj felt a faint prickling on his arm. He looked down and saw a tiny needle almost invisible inserted into his forearm, injecting a clear fluid. He hadn't even felt the movement.
"Just wait and see," Thorne murmured, his voice laced with finality. "You will understand everything later."
A wave of crushing fatigue slammed into Cj. He fought against the sudden weight, his eyes burning, trying desperately to keep his gaze fixed on Thorne's face, but the powerful sedative was already taking hold. Cj lost the battle, and the world faded to black.