Chapter 2- Revelations of the Past

Atticus just stood in place, his arms trembling ferociously with confusion and terror. He couldn't bring himself to say anything despite trying to think of something along the lines of 'What?'. He just stared at the creature, "Psycho Jenny" as she called herself, for what seemed like hours.

Seeing as how this wasn't going anywhere in the state that the dumbfounded old fool was in, Jenny decided to break the silence by getting straight to the point.

"You see Atticus, I am a demon." She spoke every word with satisfaction, her mouth never moving once as her voice rang out as though three of her were speaking at once. "A true Devil, nothing like those Eldians that the rest of you humans throughout this Earth seek to scapegoat for all of your problems." That last bit she laced with a mixture of amusement and mockery.

Finally, Atticus had gained the strength to ask the only things that he could. "What…is…happening? What- What in the hell are you?"

Psycho Jenny's smile did not cease even though she had become mildly irritated. "Hmmm, I did not come here thinking that I would need to repeat myself. Well, in hindsight I suppose that I should have anticipated this. After all, for all your intelligence, you have proven yourself to be quite gullible. Quite the paradox but let us get back to the point."

She slowly lifted herself off the ground with an invisible force, her entire body and limbs moving as one like a balloon gently floating in the air. The creature hovered slowly to the man, who instinctively moved back about five steps. He only stopped when his right foot stood on an edge, and he realized that he was backed against a fire filled chasm in the ground.

Taking a moment to collect himself, Atticus took a deep breath and stared back at the monster in front of him, which now floated about a meter away for him. "What is happening devil, where are we, and what do you want with me?"

She chuckled at that. "Ah, finally settling back into your little curious researcher guise, are you? Well then, right now we are in your mind, shaped exactly to MY vision. Just as you built a prison for Dillon Amsdale, here is a prison that I built for you. Here is where you will learn the truth, now let us begin." Her eyes let out a tremendous silver glow, first only shining on Atticus. Then, the light expanded, first showering both of their both, then expanded again to consume the entire hellscape around them.

(Scene change)

Atticus could no longer feel his physical body, only seeing things images in front of him from which he could not look away. A clear sign that he was seeing someone's memories, or whatever scenes that this devil wanted him to see.

In front of him was the vast void of space, illuminated by the countless stars floating in the endless expanse. "You see Atticus, your humanity is not the only civilization existing in this vast universe of ours. Throughout this reality, countless other sentient life forms infest worlds such as yours. In many ways, they are very different than you."

Suddenly, it seemed as though Atticus was being catapulted forward at a thousand kilometers per second, with many planets and Suns speeding by. Everything then came to a stop on top of an alien landscape. Plant life emitting a radiant, dazzling blue light covered the land, with the soil having a purple hue to it. It was clearly night on this world, but the difference between this and the nighttime that he knew was that there were two moons in the sky, one of them being a third the size of the other.

What really grabbed his attention was the sight of two armies opposing each other. The soldiers were lizard-like creatures wearing no clothes and seemed to be the size of human children. However, given the medieval swords and shields that they wielded, these beings were anything but children. The legions of both sides stood opposed to each other across a vast plain devoid of the plant life.

"But in many ways, exactly alike. No matter where one is in the universe, hatred and war are constants. War is an urge that you mortal beings naively believe that you can suppress in your hearts." Each of the two armies had one single individual at the front. Each one grabbed an instrument reminiscent of a blowhorn, but clearly designed to accommodate the lizards' mouths. With a loud blow, both armies charged at each other, the booming sound of thousands of snake-like hisses surged through the air. "Of course, no matter how hard you try to suppress war, this innate urge in all of you to kill each other, it gets out. It ALWAYS gets out." To prove her point, the armies clashed, blood scattered over the land as enemies sliced, bit, and bashed each other with barbarous cruelty. The entire battlefield devolved into a deadly storm of swords.

"What you vermin fail to realize is that this same hatred and envy that you feel towards one another is what brings evil into physical form. The collective will of sentient species is far more powerful than you realize, your desire to have something to blame for all your suffering, to give meaning to your deaths, is what allows for the creation of monsters… abominations…demons."

Next, Atticus saw a black void. At first, nothing, then a small purple flame came into being. The flame grew bigger and bigger, then exploded as though a volcano erupted. From the purple flames, a wide array of horrifying monsters manifested. Many were seemed like twisted version Earth animals, many others were completely different with disgusting features such as gigantic eyes and multiple clawed limbs, some were just masses of teeth and tentacles.

Everything change back to the planet he had seen, only this time, the lizard people were being attacked-no, slaughtered, by a horde of demons descending from the sky. Terrified soldiers ran for their lives as centipede-like demons swallowed them whole. A few brave souls tried to fight back, only to by sliced by the claws of humanoid demons with dozens of arms.

Atticus wished that he could vomit, but currently had no mouth to do so with. He could only speak with his mind. "W-W-We…we make you monsters…? Just by fighting?" He asked in utter terror.

"A rather blunt way of interpreting that, but putting it simply, yes. In the beginning of existence though, we merely existed as primordial chaos. As life was born and evolved though, your negative emotions gave us shape, form, will. So long as great evil exists in your collective hearts, so do we. Demons exist with a burning desire for your suffering, we exist to hate you all, we exist to KILL…YOU…ALL." She followed up on the last three words with a dark laugh.

"For eons, demons had carved a path of fire and death across every planet we have come across." Psycho Jenny's tone changed from an informative one, to a tone of venomous anger. "Until eventually, one civilization took up arms. This civilization had advanced enough to the point that they could see across the stars. They had seen the calamities that we brought upon the cosmos." A vision came of an Earth-like planet, with a large-ring like structure surrounding it. "They had technology and an understanding of magic beyond anything humans are capable of. Deciding that they would not allow us to wage our crusade against life, these people took up arms and formed an army dedicated towards our extermination. They named this army, The Night Sentinels."

"The Night Sentinels?" Atticus asked.

The scene shifted to the surface of another world, one with floating islands with cities built on top of them and auroras of lights dancing in the sky. However, everything was not peaceful as the bird-like people inhabiting these cities fled as demons rampaged throughout their streets. However, just as it seemed like this would be their last day alive, legions of armored beings, whose bodies had an uncanny resemblance to humans', wielded metal shafts that emitted blue light forming blades and descended from the sky. They rode flying machines that Atticus compared to automobiles in Marley, only they wielded powerful guns and were heavily armored. Many of these Knights also rode gigantic dragons the spewed green fire upon the monsters.

As other, much bulkier flying machines, clearly some kind of troop carriers, dropped off more knights, up in the sky floated gigantic machines that Atticus guessed served the same role as battleships in the Marlyean navy. These capital ships blasted at similarly sized demons charging at them. On the ground, the foot soldiers sliced at every demon they could get their hands on. One of them pulled a fallen little girl behind him has he sliced a charging mantis-like demon in half.

"This planet was but the first battlefield, both sides prepared for war. We were led by the most powerful demons in existence, five archdemons that reigned supreme over us. These five, glorious beings stood in a state of being high above ordinary demons such as myself. Just as you humans worship all manner of deities, we worship these supreme archdemons, this…God Hand." Atticus could only see a glimpse of this so called "God Hand", and even then, they were clouded in shadow. He could barely make out shapes of various sizes, one seemed morbidly obese, another was of a similar size to Psycho Jenny, one seemed like it was covered in a cloak. The other two figures seemed to be on the scale of Titans, with one being in the shape of a female. The tallest one seemed to be about at the height of the Colossal Titan, only its shoulders were much less broad, but it let out a far more menacing presence.

"The Night Sentinels were led by a band of their world's mightiest warriors, who were bestowed with their people's most powerful weapons and most potent magic. With these, they even managed to hold their own against the God Hand, albeit barely and only temporarily. The God Hand could only be stalled, never defeated. Even then, Sentinel technology could only extend the lifespans of their greatest fighters for so long. Eventually, the members of this Band passed on, either in battle or through the ravages of time and chose new warriors from their society to lead their armies. For eons, we warred against the Night Sentinels, battle after battle, world after world, neither side was ever able to obtain an advantage over the other."

Everything shifted to Earth's orbit, Atticus looking on in wonder at seeing his own planet from this view. He may have just seen other world, but he still enjoyed look at his him, of course it was spoiled by the fact that a demon was the being showing him this.

"Eventually, the war came to your world, for we sought a strong staging point from which we would launch attacks upon our enemy. 10,000 years ago, our God Hand themselves came to oversee your extermination and establish this planet as a critical base for demon kind. The Night Sentinels followed us to this outpost, determined to annihilate us here before we could exterminate you vermin. Unlike other worlds however, you humans were a particularly stubborn lot.

Shifting to a desert, a barbaric tribe of humans wielding clubs and spears charged at a large group of demons. Many humans were slaughtered on the spot, but more than a few cut down many demons. The leader of this human tribe jumped on a four-legged demon as big as a 4-meter Titan and a large horn on its head. The human growled as he stabbed at the demon's singular eye with his spear, with blood sputtering out as the demon fell dead. This victory did not last, as he was bitten in half by the jaws of a demon with an elongated mouth. Atticus was REALLY glad that he couldn't vomit.

"Your primitive ancestors sought to fight us, not matter how feeble their struggle. Of course, the Night Sentinels must have been impressed with your stupidity. For they had decided to work with you to defeat our kind, but they knew you would need way of properly standing alongside them in battle. Your ancestors were too primitive to use their technology, so they invented… other means." The scene shifted to large, rocky plains.

Before Atticus could ask what she meant, a boom of thunder occurred in the distance. Atticus could not believe his eyes, as standing before him, was a large 15-meter Titan. Unlike ordinary Titans, this one's body was highly muscular, with a physique that was the envy of any body builder. Instantly, hundreds of more explosions occurred next to him, with male and female Titans of similar physique standing proudly behind this first Titan, clearly the head of this army. Above them were thousands of Night Sentinel troops hovering with metal wings, giving them the appearance of angels. As one, both armies charged at a tremendous horde of land-based and flying demons hungry for meat and blood.

To say that Atticus was flabbergasted would be an understatement. "TITANS?! I-IMPOSSIBLE! The Titans came into being 2000 years ago! Ymir Fritz, the-the real one, she was the Founder!"

"You humans tend to re-write history any way you see fit. I have existed for eons, fought in this war from the very beginning and have witnessed events that your species has buried in myths and removed from your writings. Ymir Fritz was no different, and I believe that she re-wrote the history of the ancient war between our factions. She must have used her power to ensure that even her own descendants would not know. But never mind that. The Night Sentinels created strong magic to combat us, and through this they made the Titans for mankind to fight against us. They created the Paths for this power to flow through-"

"But…this is the power of devils…it causes nothing but suffering wherever it goes…it couldn't have been-" Before he could finish, he felt a sharp pain shear through his head. He screamed in agony.

"Word of advice, DON'T interrupt me." The demon warned in a stern voice. Atticus shut up.

In another flash, the scene shifted to a lone human carrying a flag very familiar to Atticus. The flag of the Eldian Empire. The human wielding it was a tall, rather good-looking man in his early thirties. He had black hair and slightly dark skin, but what really stuck out were two things: a dark armor that looked too advanced to be of human origin, and a gigantic sword in his right hand that was almost as long as he was tall.

"The Night Sentinels chose the strongest human tribe who constantly resisted us when many others had wisely given up. This was the tribe of Eldia, led by their leader Fritz, from whom the Sentinels allowed their mightiest warrior to join their ranks. This man served as Fritz' general before joining the ranks of our ancient enemy." Atticus felt a surge of shock and bafflement fill his heart. The Eldian devils, the same people who terrorized the world for 2000 years with their Titans, defended humanity from demons?! It cannot be! Surely Psycho Jenny was playing mind games with him! It had to be…right?

The armored warrior walked alongside a group of over a dozen Night Sentinels; however, these wore armor different from regular soldiers. Their armor reminded Atticus of suits that knights on Earth wore in medieval times and were silver with small streaks of blue light glowing from different sections of their bodies. This group, however, wore green armor and possessed all manner of swords and guns between themselves. They were joined by Fritz, who stood by in his Titan form, the same one that Atticus previously saw leading the Titan army. Together, they faced down the same five silhouettes, both sides clearly ready for a fight.

"Years of conflict ensued, yet this alliance was not able to score a decisive victory, and they could not kill the God Hand nor destroy their armies no matter what. Eventually, they must have decided that if they could not destroy us, then they would seal us away. Somehow, they found a way to imprison us all in a realm separate from this one. I do not know how, but I strongly believe that they found some way to use the Paths through which the Power of the Titans flows to shape reality around the Earth to create this dimension that demonkind now resides in."

The scene shifted back to the hellscape that Psycho Jenny had Atticus trapped in, with the man finding himself back in his body. Yet he had a tremendous question mark forming in his head. "But, if they imprisoned you, then how are you here now?" He asked.

"I can only give an educated guess, as I did not arrive in the human realm until after it happened. I have lied to you about a great many things, but I speak the truth when I say that somehow, Ymir Fritz corrupted the Power of the Titans, altering the Paths and leading to a weakening of the veil between our worlds." She said before turning her back on Atticus, who widened his eyes in shock.

"I do not know how or why she would do this, but regardless, it did help some of us find our way back into this realm. However, the veil was only weakened to a small extent, not enough for the legions of our brethren let alone the God Hand to return. Even then, we can only cross over as particles and must find humans with darkness within them. Fortunately, though our numbers are depleted in this plane of existence, the Night Sentinels are clearly not present on Earth anymore. I believe they had gone off to combat our disorganized forces across the cosmos to destroy or imprison them as well."

The Psion narrowed his eyebrows and gritted his teeth, deciding to inquire about the demons' connection to his motherland. "Listen and listen well. Suppose I do believe all this nonsense." Psycho Jenny let out a scoff, clearly not being one who can stand doubters. "What exactly does this have to do with Marley. Calvi, or whoever he is, mentioned that the military high command is 'hiding secrets' that-" That's when it hit him, a realization of what Calvi meant by those words. But surely that couldn't be true. It couldn't be! "No… it can't be." He said as he lowered his head to the ground in shock. "The military…"

Psycho Jenny felt amusement and a sense of superiority when she saw that Atticus realized what was going on. "Oh yes, it is my gullible friend. We control the Marleyan military." She said this before turning around to face him again. "Your entire country obeys our whims, as it has for decades, for the seeds were sprouted 100 years ago when you achieved your so-called 'independence' from the Eldian Empire."

"Who else?" He asked in shock.

"Theo Magath, Sybille Birkin, and Richard Wulfenhaus to name a few, along with most of the lesser ranked commanders and a significant fraction of your regular soldiers across all the branches of Marley's armed forces. Even have over a third of your senate are counted among our ranks"

"Why have you chosen my country? Couldn't you have gone after any other nation, the Mid-East Allies?"

"We seek to inflict absolute despair upon humanity but were too few in number when we were able to arrive 2000 years ago. As Marley grew in strength following the Great Titan War, we slowly began the process of infiltrating their military and society."

"You were attracted by the fact that we had the seven of the nine Titans." He said in realization.

"Yes. It took the last 100 years, but we have been able to seize near total control over this land. On its own, Marley took territory from other nations of their own will, but with our eventual influence, their tactics grew much more brutal and aggressive."

Atticus's face fell, and he felt grim and ashamed. "We've been terrorizing humanity for you. You've been using us as tools to slaughter more and more people across every nation."

"Now do not feel so forlorn Atticus, it is simply in your species' nature to kill each other." Psycho Jenny had the audacity to say that with mock sympathy. "All we did was provide you Marleyans with encouragement. And the more of your kind you kill, the easier our takeover of this world will be, thanks to Project Psion."

He jerked his head up at that. "What does that mean?! What are you planning to do with MY work?!" His panic had laced every word.

The red demon snickered. "Now, now, that is not something that you need to know."

"You dare?! I have every right to know!" He screamed with the anger of a rabid dog. How typical of humans to whine like brats when things don't go their way.

"I will say this. The culmination of your work will allow us to achieve the goal we desired to achieve by using the Founding Titan."

Now Atticus became confused. Before he could ask, the demon had already figured what questions he had in mind.

"As I said before, we were sealed by the Night Sentinels and their Eldian allies using the Power of the Titans, and only the Night Sentinels could tell you how. Regardless, we sought to study the Founder so that we could use it to free our kind from the Other Realm."

"But if that's true, then why send the Warriors to retrieve it? Surely you monsters have the capability defeat the inhabitants of the Walls. You could have even possessed members of their own society and take the Founder from within."

"For some reason, demons are unable to enter Paradis Island. We have tried to enter before, but some sort of magical force causes us to hit the air surrounding the island like a wall. It even prevents us from manifesting from the Other Realm into this location. Again, I suspect the Night Sentinels to be behind this." She explained, clearly annoyed with this reality about Paradis.

Atticus would have continued further, but he needed to get through a moment of shock. Paradis, the island of the hate and feared Devils, could be the only location that was free of this otherworldly hellspawn?! It seemed that the universe was playing some kind of joke on his motherland by making it the one, true nation of devils instead.

Getting out of his shock, Atticus went back to the topic. "What exactly is your interest in Project Psion if you want the Founder. If you don't plan to tell me exactly you will use it, you can at least tell me this much."

Psycho Jenny momentarily turned her eyes up, pondering this. She decided to grant him that much. "We did originally want the Founder for the purpose I mentioned, but now we have found a 'homegrown' alternative. Once they are created, Psions are instantly connected to the Paths, regardless of whether they can turn into Titans or not. As we studied the results of your progress, I realized that a sufficient number of powerful Psions could achieve the objective we want with some…modifications."

"I take it you must have infiltrated my operation then." The man solemnly summed up as the knowledge that he unknowingly took part in potentially unleashing literal hell on Earth sunk in. "After all, I started it with only the contributions of my family, and we were the only ones working on this field ever since the original project was canceled years ago."

"Indeed, I sent some of my people to serve as certain doctors for your program. I personally took the role of a secretary so that I could monitor the situation and help them make our own alterations to any Psions you created."

She took the form of a rather attractive human woman with red lipstick and hair, yet she still had the same terrifying eyes. Atticus recognized her as the woman who helped organize the mundane work such as appointments and organization of paperwork. She was hidden in plain sight, in a position where no one would suspect her of any dirty work.

"So to help with this, you needed someone like Dillon. The innate potential of his power must have made him a crucial part of your plans. But that doesn't explain how you even learned of him."

"Through Elise of course. I was secretly watching her for quite some time, and when I discovered that she was planning to find Carolyn on Paradis, I discretely installed a way into her mind that allowed me to learn of the events that had transpired around her, including the existence of Dillon Amsdale. It was through her that I managed to establish myself in the boy's mind as well." She shifted back into her demon form.

"And in order to obtain him, you needed me to secure the Warrior unit's help in capturing him. You couldn't speak to their Warchief yourself, for he wouldn't go behind his superiors' backs, so you had me act as a proxy."

"Correct. Though I needed a different identity to gain your alliance. Due to the original Project Psion's off the books nature, I was not aware of its existence until long after its dissolution. And since I was not one of its subjects, nor connected to it in another way, you would have had severe questions about the nature of my own psychic abilities."

"There was no way I could convince them to help, and I could not speak to 'Calvi', as you know him, about my efforts with Project Psion until I could be completely sure that it would accomplish our goal."

"But why pretend to be Ymir Fritz of all people? I fail to see the logic in taking on such an impersonation." He internally squirmed at the memory of the times this demon pretended to be a giant, naked woman in front of him.

"Well, you humans enjoy a good story. If one tells you a thrilling tale of fantasy and wonder, you will be too awe-inspired to ask any more questions. Neither you nor Dillon would have ever trusted a demon, but you were both enthralled by a goddess risen from the grave." Her amusement was abundantly clear.

Atticus let out a sarcastic and deadpan laugh. "So, in the end, both Dillon and I were played for fools. No, I am much worse. I was always taught to see Ymir Fritz as the source of all evil, yet I allowed myself to be captivated by her image." He said the last part with a shake of his head.

"Heh, heh, heh. Right again Marleyan. The rest of your people would be very disgusted and disappointed in you if they knew the truth." Somehow, her grin grew even more psychotic. "I suppose it is fortunate that you will not live long enough to suffer the disgrace."

His eyes widened at that. "Oh, I see. Now that I have given you what you want, you want to tie up one last loose end, huh?" He narrowed his eyes with accusation.

"You do catch on quick, for a human."

"Well, if you want to kill me, then so be it. I have already committed the unforgivable sin of helping you monsters destroy my people." Then, his anger melted into sadness as he pondered the young boy whose life he had helped bring to ruin. "And worse, I brought the son of one of my oldest friends into this danger."

Atticus clenched his fists in self-hatred and fell to his knees in guilt for what he had done to Dillon. He was so blinded by the idea of ridding Marley and the world of the grip of the so-called "devils" he once defended years ago, so eager to guarantee the future of his country, that he had crossed lines that he never imagined he would. Matthew's family, destroyed by his and Elise's selfish actions. Dillon's bright future ripped straight out of his hands by forces completely out of his control. Worse yet, Atticus condemned the poor boy to be a lab rat, the same fate that Atticus experienced himself. His regret forced tears down his cheeks.

Atticus dismissed the young soldier as a rage-filled fool fighting for a doomed cause, but only now did Atticus realize that Dillon was right to fight Marley. To stand against the Warriors. All the old man's efforts did was bring the brutality of real Devils onto all mankind. He thought back to when he presented the fruits of his labor to Marley's generals- no- the demons. Break free from the devil's chains? What a joke. We have always been the prisoners of the devils hiding right in front of us, for we took out our hate on innocent people.

He stood back up. "But let me tell you, I am NOT going down easily. If I die here, you can rest assured that I will break your mind as well so that your body becomes an empty shell like me!" He gathered his resolve, determined to make some amends to Dillon for his part in putting the poor boy through his darkest hour.

Naturally, Psycho Jenny was only entertained by this defiance. "HAHAHAHAHA! Oh my poor, deluded puppet. If only an ordinary death was all that we have planned for you." That brought a dire sense of foreboding.

"Atticus, how do you think we took over large swaths of your leadership? Yes, we took over many of your already living commanders by being naturally attracted to them, promoted demons who took ordinary civilians and soldiers to positions of power. But we have developed a new technique for our comrades to obtain hosts here in the human realm."

Atticus raised his eyebrows. What did she mean by that? Suddenly, a small light formed in front of her, one that took the shape of a pentagram.

"This is our symbol. When carved into the skin of a specific human, it serves as a beacon for extremely powerful demons to make their way into this dimension. While we do not know which particular demon will come until during the ritual, but they have always been of tremendous strength. Tell me fool, what do you think has been happening to you real physical body while we have been speaking?"

Atticus gasped, knowing now what they were planning to do to him. "You're giving my body to one of your kind…"

"Consider it your last service to demonkind."

(The real word)

Atticus's comatose body lay naked on a table, ironically the same fate that he had subjected Dillon Amsdale to. But in this case, he was surrounded by all kinds of horrifying creatures. In front of his head was Psycho Jenny, next to her was 'Calvi', still in his human form due to his real demon body being far too large to fit in the sound-proof basement of the Project Psion facility. Around them were demons that seemed to be hybrids of humans and birds, centipedes, snakes, and predator fish. One stood on its legs but was hunched over with their fists on the ground like gorillas, except it had spikes on its back and had four eyes on its face which looked like a decomposed bear.

But on Atticus's left stood a demon currently in the form of a male human doctor, but with his hands shaped into razor sharp claws. Its eyes were completely black with only pointy red dots for pupils. It was currently using its right index finger to carve a pentagram into the Psion's chest. Already blood slowly flowed down Atticus's sides and drooped to the floor.

"The ritual is about to begin Lord Xenon." The doctor demon said to the general in a shrill, high-pitched voice.

"EXCELLENT." Calvi- Xenon- said with a satisfied grin. "PREPARE THE INCANTATION, PSYCHO JENNY WILL BE DONE SOON. LET US WAIT UNTIL SHE HAS HAD HER FUN. SHE DESERVES IT AFTER ALL HER HARD WORK." All the demons let out the chuckles of madmen.

(Atticus's mind)

"NO! DAMN IT NO! I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!" He threw his right arm out and sent out a powerful psychic blast towards Psycho Jenny. The ground beneath through open with rocks flying out in the air in all directions. The waves made by the blast hit a blue field around the demon, the ground around her cracked with openings but leaving her unharmed.

"Allow? Who are you to think that we need your permission for anything?" Without moving, Psycho Jenny let out a silver blast towards Atticus, hitting him and sending him spiraling away into the ground. He groaned in pain as his skin scraped along the hard rocks. He stood up and lifted four nearby boulders towards her, to which she quickly flew left to avoid them. She lifted the hundreds of pieces they broke into and shot them forward like bullets.

Thinking quickly, Atticus form an invisible wall, causing the pseudo-bullets to shatter against it. But the demon followed with a mental blast to his side. He willed his power on his body, causing him to land gently on his feet.

Gritting his teeth, he stretched out his arms towards the ground and lifted everything leading to Psycho Jenny into the air, intending to have the earth hit her from beneath. Instead, she stopped the trail of destructions just centimeters away from her, every piece of debris floating harmlessly in the air.

Atticus let out a mental push and sent everything towards her. The same blue field deflected everything; the debris being pulverized into dust.

Jenny sent out another psychic wave toward her foe. Atticus again put up his wall, only to feel as though the blast had created large cracks all over it. Jenny let out another, damaging it again just as he willed the cracks to begin healing. She let out a third blast, this time shattering the wall and punching him with the force of a punch thrown by a boxer. He fell on his back, blood trickling from his mouth.

Deciding to go for another option, Atticus focused on her mind, determined to unleash pain and fury upon her consciousness. Only to grunt as he felt his own mind hit a hard wall on his way into her head. She obviously had mental shields up far stronger than anything he had encountered. She responded with an even more devastating mental assault on him, forcing him to scream as he clutched his head in pain.

After taking a moment to recover, he got up and used his power to fly himself towards the demon. Throwing his hand out, a force of 20 psychic punches flew at her. Again, they bounced harmlessly off the field. Yet the demon began to fly backwards, intending to toy with the Psion. Atticus followed her, lifting and throwing a dozen human-sized boulders towards her. She easily flew to the right to avoid the first, then the left, up and down. Each time letting each rock fly by and crash on the ground with not harm to her.

Once they settled into an area teeming with lava between chasms and smoke filling the air, she stopped flying and floated in place. She brought down an invisible force in front of Atticus from up above, striking him down from his flight path and crashing into the ground. He could feel blood on coming out of his nose, the scent of iron filling his nostrils.

With a growl, the enraged Psion again focused his power on the ground, this time directly beneath Jenny. Clearly, he intended for the fires to consume her. If she was concerned, she showed no signs of it. The lava exploded upwards with the force of a hundred bombs, the liquid fire enveloped her completely.

Atticus's eyes flashed furiously with silver light, molding the shooting lava into a giant ball. Pressing his hands together, his power pressed onto the ball of heated death, forcing it to squeeze tighter upon the demon. He didn't know if this was doing anything, but he was too enveloped in rage to care. He continued to press and squeeze until the demon was dead.

Suddenly, the ball of lava burst out from within, splattering all over the area and setting any spot it touched on fire. From the center, Psycho Jenny still floated, nor a single burn or scorch mark on her. Unimpressed, her eyes let out a flash of red light. Nothing happened. Atticus felt nothing hit him, leaving him to wonder what exactly she was doing.

Then, from far behind her from hundreds of meters away, a volcano erupted. Fire and smoke shot out as though a million barrels of gunpowder exploded at once. Millions of litters of lava flew up, molding into the form of a fist attached to a long arm. Atticus could only watch with his mouth hung open, feeling as though he wanted to urinate right then and there. With no effort, Psycho Jenny willed it to come down upon him. He flew away to avoid the hit, but the lava fist simply followed him with lightning speed.

He tried to break it with a psychic wave, but Psycho Jenny clearly held it together as the blast only caused a ripple over the face of the fist. He couldn't avoid it. With horror, he realized this battle was lost as the force of a burning building crushed him.

Everything went black.

Waking up with a groan, Atticus looked at his surroundings. No longer was he in that hellscape. Rather, he was in a doorless room with no windows. The walls were a lifeless grey, made of clean marble.

He felt that he was lying on his back on a cold, hard floor. He tried to move, only to find that his hand and feet were chained to the ground. He jerked his limbs back in a feeble attempt to break them, but they would not budge.

Suddenly, Psycho Jenny appeared in a flash of purple light above him. As usual, she floated perfectly in the air as though she was standing on an ordinary surface. "Ah, awake are we? Good, because it is time."

In an instant, the walls crumbled into pieces, the pieces faded away into nothingness. Yet the floor and chains remained, with the floor in the shape of a square large enough to hold Atticus. He saw with fear that they were floating in a void of purple and blue. The colors waving togethers in countless streaks like fire.

With no warning, a gigantic being came out between the streaks as though through a curtain. It was clearly another demon. But this was different. On its back was a long, dark cape Its arms and legs were skinny and long yet gave off the sense that they could crush steel. Its hands had fingers as long as knives. The demon's torso wasn't as skinny, but it wasn't bulky either. But on the area where its stomach should, there was a large mouth with teeth twice as long as human hands. The top part of the demon's head looked like a helmet. It was black and covered a section stretching from the scalp all the way to the nose. How it could see Atticus was beyond him. But what terrified him the most was the sinister smile. Its teeth were reminiscent of a snarling wolf, only completely yellow like they had never been washed before.

"Atticus, meet Corvus the Mad. He will be relieving you of your body." Psycho Jenny said before vanishing, completely leaving Atticus's mind, and leaving him alone with this monster. This Corvus looked down at the man with his mouth in a sadistic expression.

"So, Atticus, eh? Well, it's good to know the name of the bloke whose body I'll be using as a meat puppet!" The monster said in a delighted tone.

Atticus only thought he was afraid before.

Author Note:

In case any one is wondering, the voice of Corvus is that of Iwan Rheon. Game of Thrones fans will recognize him as the actor who played Ramsay Snow.