Stein’s insides quivered as though bursting wide open. He screamed as his bones cracked, shifting into positions he didn’t know existed in his body.

He felt his muscles growing denser and more massive until his shirt could no longer take it. His fingers grew longer, scalier, and sharper like the talons of a dragon. Stein ripped out the remainder of his shirt leaving him topless. Golden scales grew all over his body like armor.

When he shouted it came out as a roar. He glared at Narvari, pointing a claw at her. “We are going to destroy you.”

For the first time, he saw fear in the girl’s eyes.

Stein casually strolled towards her taking his sweet time. But her fear did not paralyze her as she suddenly started shooting at him. The bullet hit his hard skin and crumbled to the ground like dust. Narvari froze, gaping at Stein.

“I already told you, child. No mortal weapon can harm me.”

Stein sent his thick talons towards her and he would have ripped her into shreds had she not suddenly leaped out of the way. She gracefully landed on her feet many yards away from Stein. For someone in shock, she really had quick reflexes. It was like her body was acting on instinct to stay away from danger.

Stein didn’t stop. He soared in the air, his body suddenly knowing how to fly. He plunged towards the girl, his massive palm ready to strike. Tremors shook the house as Stein’s claws ripped open the ground.

Narvari lost her balance and tumbled heavily. Stein sent another strike towards her, but she scrambled for safety. Wherever she went, however, Stein followed, ready to rip her in two. The walls and floors were full of rifts caused by Stein’s talons.

Cornering her, Narvari ran into the house. Stein pursued her through the roof, his powerful claws tearing down everything in his path. Walls tumbled down and beams of wood and metal crashed all around them. He would need a new house.

“You are quick on your feet. But how long will you run away from me until you tire?”

He landed on top of the rubble, in his now ruined house. The girl fired her gun at him three more times until she ran out of bullets. Stein laughed. “Bitch, I am invincible. And soon, I shall rule over all the demons. I’m going to enjoy roasting you to ash.”

The rage burned in his throat and he could no longer hold the furnace within him. As though being consumed from the inside by a wildfire, flames burst out of his mouth and set the whole house ablaze. The smell of burning wood and metal filled the air.

He laughed, watching the girl squirm from the heat. Her face was messy with blood and dust. “You say you’re going to make me suffer?” He laughed again. “You’re the one who’s going to burn in this fire.”

Narvari tightened her grip around her guns, sweat pouring all over her body. A newfound resolve, hotter than Stein’s flames, burned in her eyes. This girl was a master at pushing past her fear, Stein thought. She suddenly reminded him of someone.

“I guess you’re right,” she said. “I cannot inflict any harm on you since you’re obviously possessed by a demon.”

“Now you’re getting it.” He pointed a claw at her. “Ordinary people can’t vanquish demons.”

She laughed. The girl actually laughed. She should be quaking in her sneakers after seeing the terrifying power of a demon dragon. Why the fuck was she laughing like this was some picnic?

“I guess it’s a good thing I am no ordinary person then.”

Not an ordinary person? What was she talking about? Wait, this girl had come to face him even though she knew he had demons working for him. Stein narrowed his eyes.

“I was told I couldn’t use this on humans,” she continued, smirking, “but clearly you are no mere human either, wouldn’t you agree?”

What was she going on about? Was she trying to get in his head? No. He could tell she was not bluffing. Stein fumed as the girl soared over the flames towards him.

She was taking him too lightly. He had to end this once and for all. Watching the girl propel towards him with the fierceness of a warrior goddess, time itself seemed to slow down. Stein readied his claws. He would tear out her heart as soon as she got closer.

What happened next, however, almost had Stein’s eyes falling out of his head. Black misty energy surged out of Narvari’s body. Around the black energy was a thin red outline, like the glow of a fire.

Sacros. Stein would know this sacred energy anywhere. A vanquisher? How?

Narvari’s sacros transformed into savaz. Not just one, but two savaz. His eyes widened. Never had he heard of a vanquisher with more than one savaz. What the hell was going on?

He had to focus. So what if she was a vanquisher? It didn’t matter. She’d heard that the Shar descendant was only eighteen years old. At such a young age, and being from the Outer Sphere, her savaz was at most third-order.

With Xarkanu being a fifth-order demon, there was no way her savaz could vanquish him. Moreover, Xarkanu’s strength was amplified now that he was full of Fessel. Stein would love to see the look on her face when she realized that her savaz was not powerful enough to vanquish him.

His grin dared Narvari to pull the trigger. She did, aiming for his chest. With a boom, massive firepower of black and red sacros flew towards him and pierced him in his chest. He should be regenerating soon.

Stein laughed. “It’s that all you’ve got?”

Narvari smirked. “I think that’s all you can handle, Stein.”

Stein raised a brow. He touched the gaping hole in his chest. Why wasn’t he healing? Instead, he could feel Xarkanu dying in his body. Stein gaped, caving to his knees. No. No. No. The scales disappeared from his body until he was nothing but his usual mammalian self. The talons retracted, morphing back to his actual human fingers.

It seemed impossible to believe but the girl had just vanquished Xarkanu inside him. A fifth-order demon.

Stein gawked at Narvari’s red and black savaz. They looked a lot like revolvers, although they were much more powerful.

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“Who are you?”

The girl swaggered towards him, the hate still in her eyes. She pressed the savaz against his head.

“Really? You’re going to make me repeat myself?” She shook her head. “I am the Apocalypse.” And now she sounded ridiculous. It didn’t matter anyway, because her enemy was about to die.

Then she pulled the trigger.

----------------------------------------

Narvari gasped as she watched the house go up in flames from the distance. Thick black smoke filled the air. The man responsible for the terror in her home was dead. Yet, a bottomless chasm filled her heart.

With exhaustion overwhelming her, her legs gave out as she sat in the dry grass, with her back leaning against the thick stem of the lonely baobab.

“You can rest in peace now, everyone,” she whispered.

A myriad of emotions swelled within her. The rage was still there, but this time, it was the sadness and pain that prevailed. No longer able to control herself, her shoulders shook as she broke down in tears. She buried her face in her knees and cried for how long she did not know.

Soon, she ran out of tears. Her body, however, would not stop quivering. This wasn’t just grief or pain. There was something more and the utter lack of energy in her limbs was proof. This didn’t feel right. Why was she hungry? She had already eaten before coming to find Stein. Yet, she felt like she had been deprived of food for eons. Narvari was sure she would have collapsed from exhaustion had she not been supported by the tree. She looked up at the orange skies. It suddenly dawned on her that a lot of time had passed since she last ate at noon.

She sighed. She would have to go all the way back to the town proper before she could find something to eat. Luckily, she had a bottle of water in her backpack. She grabbed the bottle, struggled to uncork it, then downed the contents with a long gulp.

The water, however, did nothing to ease the pangs of hunger or weakness crawling over her. There was something very wrong. She hadn’t felt this hungry or exhausted before. Did this have to do with the intense fight she had with Stein? It should be. That man had turned into a freaking demon. Was he a man or a demon?

It didn’t matter. He was dead now. Narvari shut her eyes. Food. She had to find food. She had been so blinded by revenge that she had not thought about packing any food for emergencies. Wouldn’t it be ironic if she simply died of hunger right after surviving a demon? She would have laughed out loud if she wasn’t so hungry or physically drained.

“I thought I’d find you here.”

Despite her fatigue, Narvari’s instincts quickly kicked in as she scrambled to her feet. Who would dare sneak up on her like that? And how had she not heard anything?

Narvari glared at the man. He looked young, probably in his early twenties. She had never seen him before in her life, but there was something particularly familiar about him. Maybe it had something to do with his midnight skin, snow white hair tied up in a messy bun, and his ocean blue eyes which for some reason were frostier than ice.

Pheera. She thought. That was who this man reminded her of. But while Pheera’s eyes were warm and kind, this guy looked like he didn’t want to be wasting his time with the likes of her.

His slender form made him look even more immaculate in casual clothing. Narvari narrowed her eyes when she saw the strange device on his wrist. If she wasn’t certain before, she was now. This man was from Draghein School. Could he be related to Pheera? Or was it a common thing for vanquishers to have white hair, blue eyes, and obsidian skin?

No, she was thinking about irrelevant things.

“Who are you?” Narvari hardened her gaze. As weak as she felt, she wouldn’t let it show on her face. Not when she didn’t know what the man’s intention was. “How did you sneak up on me like that?”

“I’m not surprised you didn’t sense my presence. You are untrained.” He touched his chin thoughtfully, his blue eyes assessing Narvari with boredom. “Did a rookie like you really kill the Vessel?”

This boy was looking down on her. Ignoring being called a rookie, she focused on the part that confused her. “What Vessel?”

“Hubert Stein. Did you kill him?”

Narvari folded her arms. “I did. Do you have a problem with that?”

“None.” He said it like caring about a dead Vessel was the most disgusting thing in the world. “The Order has been looking for Hubert for years. All those protective runes around his house kept us from finding him. I guess the fire took it out.” He cast his eyes to the distance, probably looking at the house aflame.

Narvari finally understood what was happening. It seemed the vanquishers had sensed the demonic activity in Stein’s house and had come over to take care of it. Well, they were too late.

“I sensed traces of sacred energy around the house,” the man continued, “so I knew another vanquisher had been there before me. But I’m the only one on this case so that got me thinking. Which vanquisher could it be?” He pointed a slender finger at Narvari. “I tracked you here. It was really easy.”

“Congratulations. You found me. Now I should be on my way.”

Narvari was about to leave when the white-haired man suddenly spoke.

“You are coming with me, Narvari Shar.”

Her eyes darkened. How did he know her name? She never met him back at Draghein School. But if he was from Draghein School, then it wasn’t impossible that he had heard about her. Perhaps Pheera might have told him about Narvari. Pheera, now this guy? What was it with white-haired vanquishers forcing her to follow them? Narvari instantly stilled. Did he also have that captivation power like Pheera? She took a few steps away from the man. Whatever happened, she was not going to let this guy touch her.

“I’m not coming with you. I have somewhere else to be.”

The man’s face remained unchanged. “You are not licensed as a vanquisher. You can’t just go about killing Vessels and demons. It’s illegal so I must arrest you.”

“You just said you have no problem with me killing a Vessel.” Narvari cocked her head. After a moment’s pause, she asked, “What’s a Vessel anyway?”

“Focus on what’s important.”

“Great. Home is important. Goodbye.”

The man blocked her path.

“What?” She glared at him, shaking with fury. “You want to arrest me? That’s not going to happen without a fight.” Her shaking intensified, her voice growing shallower by the second. “You don’t want to fight me.” Her last word came out only in a whisper. She looked at her trembling hands. What was happening to her?

Sweat soaked her face. She could feel her heart drumming in her chest. Her vision blurred, the man’s form doubling before her. She staggered, coming to a halt as her back hit the massive tree behind her. What was going on with her? Was the man doing this to her? No. She was already feeling this way before he came. But somehow, it had gotten worse, almost as if all her energy had been drained from her with a hose.

“I don’t have to fight you.” He shrugged. “At this rate, you’ll be dead soon.”

Narvari gasped. “What?”

“Clearly you still don’t know how to control your sacros,” he said. “If you keep exerting yourself, you will end up dead. You need to relax.”

Wait, was this happening to her because of her fight with Stein? Was it because she had used too much sacros? She had to think of something before she blacked out.

If this man was as skilled a fighter as Pheera, then Narvari didn’t think she could beat him in her current state. She would only end up completely draining her energy. Would she really die if she kept exerting herself? She didn’t want to believe it, but the general weakness in her body told her otherwise. She could really die. She needed to relax and replenish some of her lost energy.

She slumped onto the grass, inhaling and exhaling slowly. “What’s your name?”

The man watched her in silence.

Narvari sighed. “Come on. You already know my name. It’s only fair I know yours.”

Finally, after a long silence, he said,” Zemeron Zoleris.”

Zoleris. Narvari raised a brow. Trixan had referred to Pheera as Pheera Zoleris. “You and Pheera–”

“Yes. She’s my little sister. Now enough questions. Are you coming with me, or do I have to carry you?”

“I’m starving.”

“You will have something to eat when we return to Draghein School.”

“I’m too tired. I don’t think I can walk all the way back”

“We are not walking.”

“I don’t want you carrying me either.”

Zemeron lightly tilted his head, a flash of confusion in his eyes. “That wasn’t meant to be literal.”

“Then how the hell are we going back?”

Ignoring her question, Zemeron did something — perhaps clicked some buttons — on the device on his arm. A glowing blue door suddenly materialized before them.

Narvari’s face remained blank. Right. Teleportation. She had forgotten how Trixan teleported her back home. That felt like a lifetime ago.

“Fine. I will come with you only on the condition that I get to choose whatever food I want.”

Zemeron paused. Perhaps, he was wondering why someone he was about to arrest thought she had any option at all.

“Suit yourself.” He disappeared through the portal while Narvari closely followed.