?, not too long ago

"So, what would my little princess like to do next?" I ask my daughter.

"Oh! Can we go to Stylish Occult? They sell weird taxidermy there." She replies.

Never heard of that place, didn't think she was interested in that kind of stuff.

"Um, okay…?" I reply, she chuckles.

"Thanks Dad. You're alright sometimes." She smiles.

"Thank you, my little starfire." I say, cuddling her as I take her to our next destination.

As we leave behind Loo Loo Land while it burns, rightfully so as the past must stay where it is, Octavia tells me something.

"Also, Dad?"

"Yes, honey?"

"I know it's not really the best time, but I wanted to let you know...last night before I woke up, I had one of those dreams again."

"About that being, right?" I ask, familiar with her talking about this.

"Yeah. This time it felt like the red being…conflicted with the black and white, as if it were fighting it off. I don't know how else to describe it…" She utters, holding my form as she lays in my arms.

This has been a recurring issue for a while now...and I don't know why…

"Well…no matter what happens, 'Via…"

"You'll always be here…" She smiles at my reassurance, hugging me all the while.

Octavia…I only ever hope to be.

As for whatever that red being was…

I don't know how long it will take…

But I believe my daughter and what she has seen.

I will find out who you are.

Maybe I should consult either my father, or lord Lucifer…

Even his daughter might have some insight into this…

Kai

"Been a minute, Speak." I address the being in front of me as I hold him off via my upgraded spear.

"…"

The name is ironic, as he doesn't talk vocally. Ever since he became this way, he's never said a word.

"Right. Enough talk. Let's fight." I say, cutting to the chase.

I relent in my push, allowing him to lunge in my direction. I turn this against him by rolling backwards, pulling him towards me and kicking him away from me all the while.

He catches himself with his legs, stopping like a statue before not even looking back as he aggressively leaps towards me.

Brandishing my spear, I dodge the wild kick he throws at me as well as the follow up he delivers right as he passes me.

When he stops again…

WHEE-SHKK!

I send my extra rope dart from my arm mechanism soaring towards him, stabbing him in the sternum and allowing me to yank him towards me. It only staggers him, but I use the momentum to pull myself towards him quickly and deliver a quick slug to his face and a sweep of his legs. In the split second he's in mid-air I slam him straight into the ground.

This does little to him, however, as he simply rolls quickly to the side and recovers like nothing even happened.

I have to wear him down…

Suddenly, as if he takes a page straight out of my book…

He sprints at me, gripping his hand, it pulses with his presence.

Then…he thrusts it at me.

SCREE-BANG!

An instantaneous, overwhelming light and sound emits from his palm, slamming into my eardrums and eyes.

Should've known he'd have brought this out at one point.

Still haven't gotten used to it yet.

I feel the sensation of him slamming his leg straight into my chest area, of which is fortunately protected by my breastplate on my armor.

After falling backwards and rolling to regain my stance, I'm met with a vicious punch to the face, knocking me down again, but I recompose again by doing a kip up (kicking up from my back to stand up).

I take a more tactical approach via whipping out my Bergmann and charging at Speak, opening fire as I do to keep the pressure up.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

He uses his forearms to block the bullets, though resorts to dodging when he can.

I swipe at him with my staff, he limbo dodges under it, I follow up with another strike that he blocks. He finesses a parry by pushing it to the side and doing a 360 degree spin, elbowing me towards the face and forcing me to block. I retaliate by shooting twice right at his face, the mask protects him, but it stuns him. He tries to reverse somersault backwards to get space, but I keep up the heat. I leap up and strike downwards at him, he redirects it, but I follow up with three more shots to his chest area, stunning him again.

Using this opportunity, I psych myself for up an exceptionally strong blow to him, and spin my staff gracefully to confuse him further in his stupor as to when I'm going to attack. With the centrifugal force I generated with the rotating action…

SLAM-CRAACK!

I throw my hands outwards, connecting the staff with his mask, throwing him backwards/down several yards.

He remains there for a moment before shambling to his feet.

He looks up, revealing his cracked mask.

"Had enough yet?" I ask him, holding out my staff to him.

Shockingly, he holds out his hand to me in response in the same way he did earlier…

Except this time…in a split second…a sphere of black and white forms in his palm…

VMMM….

Wait…not this early…!

He thrusts it upwards…and crushes it

From the broken sphere comes countless miniature sparks of it, like an army of fireflies in a meadow, illuminating the entire area and drowning out the sunlight.

As if this entire situation isn't insane enough…he does something…that I never thought he would…

"No."

After I've heard Speak…well speak, in his electronically distorted voice for the first time in forever, if ever…

He redirects his arm down, pointing it right at me.

In a multitude of miniature sonic booms, the traces of light begin seeking out their target.

Me.

Thinking quickly, I press a button on my neck.

WHEE-WA-CLANK!

In a series of quick mechanical sounds, from my back area comes a special invention of my design.

A rapidly deployed battle helmet.

Now fully armored up and having to go on the defensive for the first time in this fight, I take evasive maneuvers to dodge and destroy the seeking projectiles.

I start off by eliminating a couple by switching to my LeMat and using the Dragon's Breath shell I had in there to detonate them when they meet the fire.

BOOM!

After I do so, he seems to have redirected some upwards to the buildings above me, causing rubble to fall down to me. I make myself absent from that immediate area by dive-rolling and retaliating by taking a shot right at Speak.

He sidesteps it as I attempt to go on the offensive, keeping the fire up as I did earlier, continuing to dodge while he joins me in the sprint.

I launch myself off a piece of rubble as well as him, I'm brandishing my staff and gun while he's going all fisticuffs.

Bold.

I strike at him midair, but he knees me in the gut, and uses the split second where I'm stunned to kick me towards the ground. I take a page out of his book and land to where I can recover relatively quickly, and attempt to take another shot at him…

WHEE-BOOM!

He apparently sends another one of those projectiles he created earlier speeding down from the sky, slamming right into my back and sending me face first into the ground again.

I'd imagine he had it in stasis in the air to use as a trump card…

Better have that in the back of my mind for future reference…

As for the now, at least my helmet protected me from further damage.

With my armor protecting me from a concussion, I feel as if I might need to break a few things out to win this…

As much as I don't want to…

I get up from my prone position, and witness Speak sprinting full force at me.

I prepare myself to continue this…

Something…bittersweet…happens.

WHAAA-SLAM!

A figure appears seemingly out of nowhere spontaneously, driving a knee straight into the already cracked face of Speak, kicking him like a football all the way back to where he originally was.

After a few moments of recovery, and feeling up the mask, Speak looks at the figure.

He looks as if he knows he can't win this now, and gives me a mere salute of 'We will meet again'.

VRROOM-WHOOOSH!

In a flurry of particles emanating his presence, Speak disappears, going off to wherever he's wanting to cause either razing or recovering himself next.

With the threat now absent, I exhale, knowing that the day and the battle has been won.

My relative joy of this is slightly soured when I realize the presence…and when I take off my helmet as he turns to see me, I witness the face…of who saved me…

I take in the details of his appearance, and when I do…it's confirmed…

Yep, it's him…

Dammit…

He has medium length slightly curly black hair, about my height and similar build to me, bold light skin, distinct scarring on his body evident of an extensive history of combat, currently wearing plated armor like that of which my friends and I like to wear.

His armor and eyes are a distinct emerald green.

"Kai." He says with his signature cheeky smile.

"Coen…Krauss." I reply through my helmet, slightly exasperated to see our associate. "Why are you here?"

"Just being a friendly neighborhood lifesaver. What else? Seems like you've also taken a page out of yer buddy's book huh? Not overcompensating on me now, are ya?" He innocently asks.

"No, he's coping in his own way. I do so by working. I would say you should respect that, but your career consists of just racking up more debts, huh? So you don't exactly have that capacity to do so. You know I had this situation under control." I retort.

"Hey, you're the one who just decided to go out and get a tab. Besides, taking a little while longer than normal, huh? You haven't gotten rusty on me now, haven't ya?" He raises his eyebrow.

"Yeah, sometimes a bit of a hiatus will do that to you." I say.

"Eh, looks like it. Anyway! Don't lemme keep you busy for too long, go on ahead and do your stuff, man. I'll be around!"

"You always are." I stare at him deadpanned.

"Ha! Humor! Well, gimme a holler if you ever need me!" He waves me goodbye as he prepares to vanish as he's known for doing.

"One of these days you'll be owing us!" I retort again.

"Su-u-ure!" He teasingly says. "Ciao!"

WHOOSH!

In a pulse of force, he's already gone, leaving me among the destruction of my earlier duel.

Coen Krauss: The Indebtor

Known for pulling off favors for people and then asking for their help in return.

Sometimes if he's feeling mischievous, he'll basically pull a Loan Shark and ask for a significantly greater favor in return as well.

The favors are mostly things he needs an extra hand with as he's always around, as I've said, it's just tedious as hell to do so.

Especially the bigger ones…

I shake my head to get myself out of it, what matters is that at least I've been blessed with more time to work with.

I knew someone like Speak was going to show up inevitably.

Glad it was only him and not someone else…so to say…

At least, I hope…

I…better get back to the Academy…

Damian is likely there and if he's any more injured than he already was, I'm not in the mood to hear it from the teachers.

Though…as I retrieve my bike, place my helmet back on my head and begin to ride back…I wonder if his encounter with Speak has affected him at all.

Yes, I know for a fact he's a d*ck...but as I've seen…

Encounters with anybody like Speak can change someone…and I mean REALLY change someone…

Especially if he got into Damian's head…so to say.

Cameron, a little bit later

"So…t-tell me how you're feeling right now…?" I ask the Antichrist currently sitting in front of me.

It all happened as spontaneously as the vampire attack, I personally never saw it in the flesh, but Damian's friends told me everything that happened up until they got here.

They also said Kai engaged some unknown entity…

They said he hasn't been the same ever since he apparently 'came' down…I don't know what that means, but they asked me to tend to him and see if he's okay.

Alright, it was Jack who asked me, I've been talking with him about his anxieties and I feel the need to help him more. I'm a counselor, and I feel the need to help…

Even if it does mean at least somewhat confronting my fears…especially in the face of the literal Antichrist.

We're currently in the Med Room, the creepy nurse is tending to him physically while I just barely hold up the bedside manner.

"I feel…lessened? I-I don't know, it all happened so fast…" He says uncharacteristically.

Strange…normally he'd be all flirty and mischievous…but I've never seen him so…down?

"I felt so…powerless against this being…I know I was able to at least duel Kai…but whatever that creature was…it just felt like something…else…" He utters, almost starting to shiver at remembering. "It was…drilling into my brain…it felt like…"

"How…so?" I ask, confused on that statement.

"I can't describe it any other way. It had me by the neck, we were above the city, and it just felt like a presence invading my mind! And now I can't use my powers, it's like they're blocked off! I actually had to run for the first time in forever! I normally just float around, but…I just…don't know what to make of this…" He puts his face in his hands.

It's so strange even remotely feeling for someone like Damian, as I've seldom, if ever done so.

As terrifying as he is…

While Damian continues to contemplate his situation, Jack comes in the door.

"Hey Dame…you doing alright?" He asks, only to get a grunt from his cousin, he then looks to me. "How's he?"

"He's at least talking now, better than earlier." I tell him, he exhales in relief.

"Good…" The Jackal looks to the ground, and then to me again. "What happened out there?"

"All he's saying is that something attacked him, and somehow blocked off access to his powers." I explain as briefly as I can.

"Something? What something?" Jack asks, confused.

Before I can say anything, Damian speaks up.

"If we knew what it was, WE'D HAVE EXPLAINED THAT ALREADY!" He shouts, frustrated, and puts his hands back on his face.

Strangely feeling for his cousin, Jack walks over to him and puts his hand over his shoulder, Damian looks at him in the eye as the latter pats him on the back.

I know Damian's a jerk, but I can understand Jack's stance on treating him like family.

Especially in his situation…

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"COME I-I-N!" The nurse's manic assistant from the next room over calls.

The knob twists, and the door creaks open for us to see…

A familiar set of armor wearing an unfamiliar helmet…

"Uh…Kai…?" I ask, unsure if it's really him.

He presses something on his neck.

WHEE-WA-CLANK!

The headwear rapidly disassembles into segments and folds behind his neck, revealing his bruised face.

It is him!

"Kai…what happened to you?" I ask, pointing to his wounds.

Not even those supposedly powerful Vampires managed to do anything against him!

Actually…putting it that way…

What could've possibly done that to him?!

"Since…when did you have that helmet?" Jack asks, gesturing to armor in question.

"Since it hit the fan." He bluntly states, then looks to Damian. "Damian. I know what attacked you."

The Antichrist kid looks up from his hands.

"What…?"

"I'm just going to say, starting off…you're not going to believe me."

"Try me."

Kai chuckles slightly.

"That's exactly what Zechariah said…" He whispers to himself. "Meet me in the teacher's lounge. Jack, get Zill and Kayla and meet me in the teachers' lounge. There are more than a few people here who are at least owed some answers."

"How about now? No one else in my life has ever kicked my ass outside of you, and even then we never officially finished that fight."

"Since when did your ego deflate so much to where you admit that?" Kai asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Like you said, since it hit the fan." He retorts, returning the eyebrow raise.

Kai seems to relent in his original plan to have a big announcement, opting to let Damian hear it first.

"Alright then, Dame." Kai says, approaching him.

He takes a deep breath, also having a moment to gather his words. In addition, he looks at me and Jack as well.

"There's a lot more to this world than you think. More than you could ever possibly imagine, and even then that'd be underselling it." He then looks back to Damian. "I still can't emphasize this enough, Damian. You too, Cameron…Jack. So you'll have to take my word for this."

"Do I really have any other alternatives?" He asks rhetorically.

"No."

"Kai, I don't mean to interject, but please no more suspense?" I ask.

"Okay, Cameron. Apologies." He looks to Damian once again. "Damian…you were attacked…"

We all lean into him in anticipation.

However…what he says…takes us all aback to the Nth degree.

"…by a Demon."

Chapter End