Hey all, so let me preface this by saying this was not written by me. This was written by one of the discord members (and Sirius/Epiphany's submitter), the same guy who wrote the PoaH DnD story. Go check him out (ThalioTP on fanfic), he's a very talented writer and has worked as a beta for PoaH on occasion.

I lifted my head up in a sudden jolt. The shake of my surroundings brought my fatigued, still half asleep mind into full discharge. That was when I remember that I had been on a bus a couple moments ago, before falling asleep like a log had made me completely lose track of time.

Quite dangerous, I immediately inferred, worrying that I might have missed my stop. I checked my watch; half past seven—not quite late, I suppose, which was pleasing. I forced my body up, even if I was still a bit tired, and checked my surroundings. The dimly lit, lonely interior of the public bus greeted me and it's occupants. I quickly searched for the indicators, which I easily spotted from the orange LED lighting, and sighed in relief when I saw that I hadn't missed my stop.

I slouched back down onto the plastic seating, waiting yet again. My eyes wandered off into the darkness outside the vapor stained window, watching the streetlights pass by before the sight of an American suburb. My inner peace was cut quite short, however, when I felt a chill down my arms. I glanced down, towards the sleeves of my overcoat, and saw goosebumps standing at the edge of my wrists.

Right. I dreamt of something. Something important, I deduced. But what was it? It couldn't have been quite mundane to have made me feel as unnerved as I was, so why was it I could not remember?

The bus stopped with a screech the second I stopped asking. I glanced up, and saw the words "Green Avenue Rd." written boldly on the indicator. This was my stop.

I tapped my transit pass on the reader machine next to the driver's seat and hastily got myself, along with a briefcase I brought with me, down onto the sidewalk outside. The bus continued on towards the rest of the night as I stared and watched under the winter's chill. I pulled the hem of my overcoat front tighter towards each other, before looking around the neighborhood.

"The house on the 14th," I mused to myself, "If it was one number short, this situation would be quite foreboding."

I took a short walk before finding the house in question. I paused for a moment to observe my surroundings, especially the house itself. Externally, I spotted nothing abnormal; a very modern-like, two story house with a driveway; it blended nicely into the neighborhood as far as I could tell. However, the blinds on all the windows had been oddly covered, some rooms had been darkened but the porch light indicated a resident or residences.

I got up onto the porch and knocked on the door, to which a middle aged lady answered.

"Yes?" She said, quite meekly.

"Hello, I am Sirius Wilsk," I answered, "I'm the Specialist you called for."

The lady gasped, "I thought you'd be taller!"

I grimaced, but enough for her to not notice. "Are you Mrs. Thornn?" I inquired, to which the lady nodded, "May I come in?"

I stepped inside as soon as the lady opened the door. I was met with the sight of a quite lovely suburban sight of an interior, if not a bit dark. And as the lady closed the front door behind me, I start to notice things I didn't from the outside.

"Have you called someone else?"

The lady shook her head, "No cops. No heroes. Like you said."

"Something smells…" I pondered, "Is someone boiling water?"

"No…" Mrs. Thornn approached me, offering me to take of my coat for her to hang, "That's what we called you here for…"

I got a good look at lady of the house. She had bags under her eyes, her behavior was as if she hadn't seen sleep for a couple of days. And what's more, she was dressed in minimum clothing yet still sweating like mad. How was such a thing possible when it was the middle of November?

"Honey, who is it?!" Another voice shouted from the second floor up the flight of stairs.

I turned my head to see what I assumed to be the man of the house. He was quite robust, taller than I was, and he was wearing even minimal clothing than her wife with a tanktop and shorts. There were also glasses framing his head, and they too had odd traits on them, namely the mist forming around the rims as if they had been inside a sauna.

When the man came down, I also see him sweating as if he had just been out under the sun.

"Sirius Wilsk?" He asked. For a man his size, he seemed a little unnerved before me.

"Yes?"

"About the payment. I regret to say I don't have it right now. I need to see if you're—"

This was why I hated modern media. They always gave people like me the portrayal of a pampered worker that demanded money above all else for me to do my work. People who needed my help would always worry about paying me when, in reality, money was never important in the first place. I never did this gig to be rich.

"It's alright," I assured him, "Just show me what needs to be done."

Mr. Thornn stared at me with skeptical eyes for a moment, before nodding and urged me to follow him upstairs. Every step I took up the flight, I feel the air start to humidify more and more. Something was definitely wrong, and I feared it wasn't the case of a malfunction Quirk or anything alike. The man led me to the last door on the end of the dark second floor hallway, and when he opened it, I was immediately blasted with heat.

The amount of steam and vapor that exploded out caught me off guard. And only a few seconds later did I realize that I was staring into a bathroom, one with an occupied bathtub at the end.

A little girl not older than 6 was submerged in it as the steam was intesifying around her. I could see her skin reddening painfully from the heat, and the look on her face as if she was on the edge of losing consciousness. I was this close to bursting out in confusion towards Mr. Thornn before I noticed several bags around her labeled "ICE", as well as the uncountable ice cubes around the little girls body, filling the bathtub to it's brim.

"Is she…" I started.

"Yes," Mr. Thornn answered, looking at his daughter in the tub with troubled eyes, "She's been like this for a week. We thought it was just a fever at first, until she gradually got hotter and hotter and we couldn't even lift her out of the tub without burning ourselves anymore."

I tried to recollect my thoughts, "Are you certain it's not Quirk puberty?"

Mr. Thornn only looked at me with his eyebrows furrowed, "Yes. She's Quirkless."

I felt myself starting to lose my nerve. Now I know that they were right to call me. This was certainly one of my special cases. But I couldn't quite focus on pinpointing exactly what I should be doing from here on out from the sheer concern I had just looking at the house owner's daughter.

"This is definitely it, isn't it," Mr. Thornn started, "This is what they called a Transingularity..."

I swallowed my spit hearing that, "We can't be quite so sure, Sir. It could be a lot of things."

"Well, you can fix it can't you?!" He suddenly barked.

That seemed to have disturbed the pooled girl when we heard coughing coming from inside the bathroom.

"D-Dad…? Is that y-you…?" The little girl called out weakly.

"I'm here sweety!" Mr. Thornn immediately approached her, carefully putting a distance between himself and the source of heat, "Don't move around okay?"

"It hurts…"

"I know, sweety, I know," He was in the verge of crying, Sirius could tell, "We'll get you fixed soon, I promise."

Then, I watched as he slowly turned his attention towards me. Looking for an answer, a solution, anything. To which I answered back with a question:

"Do you have any oven mittens?"

I sat myself down on a small, children's chair in front of the steaming tub. I discarded my business suit, and left myself with only a plain white shirt and a tie. Right, and a pair of mittens that I had in my hands right now.

I looked into the eyes of little Cassie Thornn, barely able to keep themselves open due to how unbelievably weak she was. Her reddened chest was rising very slowly, gradually losing it's pace with every cough, every sniffle, from the unending steam that formed around her, suffocating her, as it suffocated me.

I have to finish this quickly. Lest, I'd be prolonging her suffering.

"Can you hear me, Cassie?" I spoke softly, "My name is Sirius Wilsk. I'm the one who will be helping you, tonight…"

Cassie slowly turned her head my way, "... What's happening to me…"

Softly, I smiled. I didn't want to tell her anything short of the truth, "Something terrible, I'm afraid. But it's alright. It's not unfixable, as far as I'm concerned. Which is why I'm here."

With that said, I averted my attention towards the oven mittens and helped myself to them. Behind me, I felt movement, to which I glanced at it and saw myself staring into the silhouette of Cassie's parents, watching impatiently just behind the door frame outside the bathroom.

"Step back, please," I spoke to them in a softer tone. I worried not from that point on with what they had decided to do with my warning. If something out of proportion were to happen, I could only pray that they wouldn't get caught in the middle of it.

With my nerves steeled, I reached out my hand. Even protected by the thick mittens I could still feel the heat coming from the girl. Yet, I marched on, and finally, I was able to touch her forehead.

I hissed in pain and pulled my hand back instinctively. What heat! And this was coming from a Quirkless girl… It's a wonder how she could survive being this for a week…

"HMPH!"

With every courage I could muster, I shot my palm out one last time and let the mittens make contact with Cassie's head. My fingers, the skin on my palm, all of them burned up within seconds. I could see the steam rising from where the mittens touched the girl, and felt the fibers starting to catch fire from my end. I couldn't waste any more time, I closed my eyes.

"Feel the heat from behind the fiber…"

"Feel the heart behind her flesh,"

"Feel the mind behind her heart,"

"Feel the soul behind her mind..."

"Call into the void, see who answers…"

"..."

"Whoooo's theeeeeeere…."

I opened my eyes, the pain in my hand still burning like I couldn't believe. I maintained my breathing, steadily trying to hold back the unbearable heat, "I should be the one asking that…"

"Goooo awaaaaaayyyy….. Thisssss onessssssss mineeeeee…."

Suddenly, the heat intensified. I gasped in pain, and Cassie cried under her breath as she too felt her body's heat escalate.

"Fuck!" I said in agony, before steeling my nerves and thoughts once more, "Who do you think you are… Latching into poor souls like her… State your name!"

Silence, until…

"... Heheehehheheh….. Iffff it isn't the specialissssssttt…"

"... You… Guh!... You know me?"

"We'veeee seeeeen youuuuu…. We knoooow youuuuuu….. Heheheheh….. Affffter I eat thissssss soullll….. I can't wait to try yourssssss….."

It was too late for me to realize as Cassie started to choke violently. I quickly pulled out my hand, the sizzling on the mittens stopped, but she didn't. She kept choking, and choking, as if something was trying to force itself out.

Then, I watched as Cassie's mouth started to glow a red hue. Her eyes followed suit a second later. Her parents were rushing in, not seeing what was happening.

"CASSIE?!"

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!"

I had to stop them.

"GET DOWN!"

Without thinking, I shielded both parents and pulled them onto the floor. Behind me came a shrill scream, and, as if causing it, a pillar of flame exploded past, just barely missing me but managed to singe my clothes. I felt the world around me shake. The walls were crumbling, something kept breaking, and then it ended, with a loud bang at the other end of the hallway.

The heat subsided. For a moment I felt like I was being roasted in an oven, ready for Christmas dinner. But as I looked up, I felt the winter's chill seeping into the house, the heat fading as quickly as I sensed it, and my gaze fell upon a large hole on the wall.

From there, I saw the night sky, the crescent moon, and the falling snow highlighted by a streetlight somewhere. But there was something else; a red glowing hue, from something burning, followed by the growling of something large.

The thing had shown itself, finally. I sighed in relief, and lifted myself up.

"Where's Cassie…?"

When I heard the voice of the mother near me, I glanced at Mrs. Thornn, and averted it towards the bathroom. The little girl was gone.

"Oh no..." My face grimaced, and I didn't spend much more time picking up my briefcase from the bathroom floor and dashed towards the direction of the flames, "DON'T GO ANYWHERE. I WON'T BE LONG."

As I said that, I approached the large puncture. The walls were sizzling, and the wallpaper was melted as if exposed to extreme heat. My eyes followed to where the explosion led, and saw myself staring at it.

I looked down, distancing me and the ground, before I leaped off of the edge and onto the soft grass.

There, in the backyard of the Thornn residence, I stared straight into my opponent. At almost 12 feet tall, a skeletal looking humanoid twisted and bent it's impossible shape while burning in pure red flames. 6 arms, and a tail swung madly from left to right, as if stretching in the open air. The heat was strong enough to warm my face, as if I was staring at a large bonfire. The only difference is that this one will willingly kill me.

"Ccccooolddddd…"

The skeleton growled.

"Sooooo ccccooolddddd…."

"CASSIE?!" I shouted, mentally hoping.

The skeleton just turned its head towards me. And I heard it giggle.

"Fuck…"

The glowing orbs it had instead of eyes stared into mine, and I felt my bones freeze upon the ground. The fire that engulfed it's head was like a lion's mane, and I could see it slowly opening it's oversized mouth like a hungry beast.

"You know me," I shouted once more, voice shaking a bit, "How do you know me?"

The skeleton's gaze tilted.

"Hehehehehehhh…" It laughed, "Iiiiiii've been in thissssss woorllld longerrr than you thhhhhhiiink….."

It crept closer towards me with it's large bony hands. Shaking, as if chilled by the winter's air.

"Weeeee've seeeeeeen youuuuu," It hissed, "Weeeeeee knoooow youuuuuu….."

"Then, I will stop you," I taunted, trying my best to hide my perturbed form, "This ends here. No one else has to suffer,"

The creature laughed once more, "Aaaand hoowwww willllll you doooo thaaat…."

"You said you knew me," The grip on my briefcase tightened. Fake confidence burning, "You tell me…"

And then, the skeleton jumped towards me, it's giant flaming hand reached out to grab my head but I dodged too quickly for it to catch. The skeleton crashed into the house once more, breaking the back patio with the sheer force of its size. I imagined myself in that spot and felt my body shiver. I couldn't lose focus in this fight, yet to focus upon it proved to be harder to do, as my head was filled with thoughts of how I had failed to save the life of one little girl.

My thumb twitched, perhaps angrily, seeking at every inch of my briefcase's handle, until I felt a small protrusion underneath and clicked it. The briefcase unclasped and opened up like a butterfly's wing, to which it discarded each side of it's leather body and leaving me with only it's handle, and a mechanism hidden inside.

The mechanism whirred and clicked, every piece elongated itself, until what I was holding was akin to a sword. Broad is its blade, I lifted it above my shoulder. The weight felt light, as it should be.

"I'm sorry Cassie. I'll end your suffering now!"

I rushed forward. The muscles all over my body were screaming in fear, but I had to move. I had to kill it.

Something in my head clicked, as if an instinctive warning bell rang. Then, just before the skeleton's giant flaming hand could strike me from the side, I rolled, just in time for it to miss.

I heard the creature hiss in frustration. It lunged all of its limbs at me, but I kept my distance, I ran around in circles, predicted their movements, and tried my best to not die. I felt singes and burns from every near-miss, my breath was hitched against my throat, I was running out of stamina. My body could feel my fear seeping into my bones, making me slow. I had to find an opening.

Then, came my chance. Its tail was next to strike me. I quickly dodged it's fiery tip, and watched as it buried itself in the ground, burning the grass around it.

I lifted my sword up, and swung down. One less limb to worry about was all I could manage, but it was better than nothing.

THUD!

"Eh?"

The sword didn't cut through.

Before I could even manage to start thinking, the tail jolted out of the ground and smacked me across the chest. I had my sword up as a guard, but even then I couldn't quite counter the strength of the skeleton.

I felt myself flying through the air for a second, before crashing into the wooden fence that separated the neighborhood. My head was ringing, I must have hit myself there first. Then, came the burning, aching sensation on my arms and torso where the skeleton's tail had hit me. Everything hurt now, and I start to very much regret every decision I have ever made.

I heard growling laughing from afar, I couldn't tell where as my head was still ringing.

"Fuck… What happened?" I thought to myself, "Can't be… that thing's still partly human?!"

Impossible! For a complete minute I had thought that Cassie's soul and body had been consumed, but perhaps that wasn't the case…. I didn't have time to wonder upon the details when my heart sank at a sudden thought; I couldn't kill this creature.

"Cccoooooolldddd…." The skeleton wailed, "Sooooo….. cccoooooolldddd…."

I lifted my head, I felt warm blood trickling down the right side of my face. My face was staring straight into the skeleton's eyes, for a split second I thought I would die right there. Then, I saw its body twisting like a snake, waiting for my next move.

… Waiting…

It didn't want to kill me. It wanted to consume my soul just as it had tried Cassie Thornn's.

So what was taking it so long?

As my mind began to ponder madly, I lifted my body up with my sword as support, grunting as I did.

"I can do this…" I said to myself, "I can do this."

I lifted my sword in its direction once more. My legs were shaking, but I didn't care. If the victim was still in there somewhere, I couldn't afford to be hesitant.

"COME ON!"

"RRRRAAAAAARRRGHHHHH!"

I failed to perfectly anticipate the swiftness of my opponent when the creature's hand just barely missed my face yet again. If not for my perfectly timed parry, I would've had my first ever viewing of my own headless body.

I didn't dare to stay and think of the what-ifs lest I want myself dead, I quickly rolled away from the skeleton's line of sight and positioned myself just beside it's left leg.

CLANG!

The blade failed to cut, as I had expected. Even worss, some of the metal started to chip away. But I noticed something else, then: it seemed that the fire wasn't something special, the swing of my sword breezed some of the flames; external forces worked.

Interesting. The Transingularity perhaps affected its ability to create flames, and to an extent the cruel parasitic power to feed on people upon people by jumping from one to the other, not necessarily the flames itself. But how had it not consumed Cassie completely was another question. The fact that my Soulcutter couldn't pierce it's flesh was proof enough. The distortion of form, caused by this supernatural entity, must be painful for the victim to bear. I couldn't imagine what Cassie might be experiencing right now.

The skeleton tried to kick me, but I blocked it before it hit my torso. I felt my arms shake as it tried to suppress the force of the skeleton's power, I myself had to jump back in response just so my elbow wouldn't snap in half. I looked down for a second, and I saw my own sword bending sideways from the hit. This wake-up call hit me in the head like a pile of bricks. My chances were definitely not great.

Then, the second the skeleton went for me again, I started to come up with a plan. I couldn't touch the thing as it currently was, I needed to pull it into a place where I could put all of its fires out.

Suddenly I felt a light tug under my feet; just my luck, I found myself staring at a thick, garden hose just lying around hidden on the ground.

I heard the skeleton cry as it lunged at me once more. Without hesitation, I twisted my wrist, and aimed the swing of my almost bended blade towards the ground.

The creature hissed as it's face was suddenly blasted with a pressured stream of cold water from the cut in the garden hose.

"COOOOOOLLLLLDDDD!" It shrieked in pain. Its 3 pairs of arms trying to wipe away it's face desperately.

I almost felt relieved, but I knew that it wasn't enough. I needed a bigger source of water.

"Over here!" I screamed, positioning myself to the gap in the fences, "I SAID OVER HERE SKULLFACE!"

"URRRAAAAAARGGGHHH!"

"SHIT!"

What I remembered from then on was just running and dodging the attacks, as much as I could, as long as I could.

Water… water… why wasn't there one stupid pool in this neighborhood?! Isn't this supposed to be a middle-class neighborhood?! As these thoughts kept whirling in my mind, I kept doing my best to distract the skeleton, its attacks missed just a hair away behind me. So many fences broken. So many lawns invaded. I am SO going to get sued to hell.

Then, just as I was about to lose hope, feeling the burning in my chest and the heaviness in both my legs. One more jump into a stranger's property met me, finally, with the sight of an exceptionally large pool.

I heard the skeleton scream again. The ground shook as if it's entire weight was just lifted off of the ground by incredible force. This was it!

"HRRRAAAAAARRGGHH"

A burning shadow leapt past me. It missed my position, as I hoped, landing in… not the pool. Just near it.

"Oh, are you k—"

"DIEEEEE!"

"AAAAHHH!"

I couldn't describe what it was. A split second feeling of desperation, mixed with a shock of epiphany. Whatever it was, it made me leap forward without thinking. I didn't even realize I already had my sword wrapped around the creature's torso, it's flames enveloping me completely in the process.

We were off the ground, my weight and acceleration had pushed it backwards. Then, the heat got to me. The unbearable sting sizzling my skin and flesh, until a blanket of viscous, ice cold material enveloped my very being, to which everything, even my senses, haywired.

I instinctively held my breath. Water pressure was forcing itself into my nostrils. And indescribable feeling shrouded my nerves. From agonizing heat, to bone-chilling cold. Shivers went down every inch of my body. And there was that weight pulling me down, thrashing beneath me, but I refused to let go, not until I was sure that it was weakened.

The water around me echoed a gargling, pained howl. By then I braced myself to touch wherever I could touch on the skeleton's body, and did what I do best.

"Feel the heart behind it's flesh,"

"Feel the mind behind it's heart,"

"Feel the soul behind it's mind..."

"Call into the void, see who answers…"

"..."

"Help me…"

"Is that you, Cassie…?"

"Cold… It hurts… It hurts…"

"I'll get you out of there Cassie, just you wa—"

"NNNOOO!"

I whiplashed back into the real world, almost choking the water around me. I found myself almost running out of air. My body begged to surface, but I couldn't let it. I couldn't risk this thing having the chance to strengthen itself out of the water. I touched once more on the thrashing skeleton, and closed my eyes.

I heard it's voice.

"Lllleettt…. Goooo!"

"I can't do that. You've taken too many lives. You almost took this one. I can feel your hunger. Your hatred. It's time for you to go."

"Youuu… knowww nothinggggg… of HUNGEEEERRR!"

"I do."

"..."

"I have spent more than 10 years sharing a world with your kind. The pain, the fear, and the desperation never changes. Let go."

"...Noooo…"

"You said you knew me. But you don't know me. You don't even know yourself."

"Noooo!"

"I'm the only one who understands. I'm the only one who can free you from this world. I can send you to a better place. A place where you belong."

"NOOOOO!"

"Let go. It'll be more painful if you hold on. Let go."

"RRRAAAARGGGHHH!"

Moments passed. My head had blanked completely, almost unconscious. I have even forgotten where I had been. Until the squirming between my hands stopped, until the weight stopped, until the heat subsided, my mind hadn't completely returned. But when it did, I surfaced.

I choked out water, gagged every substance in my trachea until there was none left but the following pain. Under me was something rigid and cold, my deduction could only think of the marble floorings surrounding the pool, then my hand nudged something soft beside me. I glanced aside, my wet bangs almost covering my eyes, all I could see was a hazy figure of a little girl lying motionless on the ground.

The winter chill suddenly seeped in. My clothes were wet, and in some places I could feel stinging burn wounds too. None of it was helping. Well… the fact that I had pulled the Transingularity out of Cassie by myself was helping a bit.

There was a rustling in the grass, and I saw two taller figures rushing over to the little girl beside me. I sighed in relief, hearing their joyful cries of seeing their daughter back to normal. My strength had almost washed away completely, but even so I found myself standing once again.

"Where's my sword…" I thought to myself, dizzily looking around me in a trance, but I noticed something else other than what I was looking for.

There were people around me, or at least most of them tried to keep a distance from beyond the neighborhood's fence. I couldn't see their faces, but I could hear their murmurs. I even noticed a house nearby, probably the owner of the pool I just jumped into, and in one of the windows I saw an entire family looking down at their lawn, and at me.

In that moment, my eyes fell upon the Thornn couple again, to which they gazed back in solemn.

Without thinking, I spoke out,

"Told you I won't take long…"

"The enemy outside has become insignificant, so much that the enemy within grows ever stronger."

–Unknown.

A few decades ago, a scientist from Japan proposed the Quirk Singularity Theory. A hypothetical point of time in which humanity's genetical super factor will become too powerful to be controlled. The initial notion was the possible birth of a generation of nigh-invincible Quirk users who'd bring about the destruction of the world. For the most part, it wasn't wrong.

The All for One Incident, The Plague War; those were just the beginning, a peek at what Quirks would become in the following years.

Before long, some people began to change. The strong ones start first. Their Quirks, their abilities, were too concentrated until, at one changes at a time, they became sentient. Some called it evolution, others preferred the term possession. Whatever it is, the tools we value so much to fit into current society turned us into monsters. This phenomenon is called Transingularity. It describes those that strayed from what the Quirk Singularity Theory referred to; people who became distortions of themselves, even gaining new individualities as a transcendent being, both above flesh and soul; a Living Quirk.

They feed upon the Quirk and souls of those who hasn't turned like them, like predators of man, and we, who cannot harm these beings due to our own mortality, could only tuck our tail and run, hoping we would not turn out the same.

We have no hope to predict who will turn, and who won't. We could only anticipate the ones that do. People became afraid of themselves, of each other, and of society.

But there are those who are born with the abilities to touch, to connect with these transcendents, as if these Living Quirks had a soul of their own. And, in some cases, destroy them completely.

For as long as I can remember, I was always surrounded by death. Helpless within the hands of fate, I gave in to the shackles. But now I had an opportunity—an obligation—to do something about it: to act before a person could turn, before a person could die.