At exactly 12:00 AM, five vanquishers appeared inside Winfield Research Institute through a portal.

They split up and set out within the vast research institute to investigate whatever mystery was going on. It was time to find out if Winfield indeed had something to do with the missing people.

As the others took other sections of the institute, Narvari and Pheera went together, running along the long empty hallways, bypassing several rooms with glass walls everywhere. Most of the rooms had laboratory equipment and machines. But there was no one around. It was odd that no security team had come to stop them yet, Narvari thought.

Their xuul suddenly beeped. They glanced at each other and nodded. It was happening.

A malicious growl, which could only have come from a demon, echoed through the hallways. In an instant, they had both summoned their savaz.

The growl turned into a piercing screech. Narvari clenched her jaws as the sound pounded into her eardrums. It was a good thing Zemeron had put up a holy veil around the institute. If not, the entire city might have been awaken from their good night’s sleep. What could have made such a vile, horrifying sound?

Narvari didn’t have to wonder for long. Branching out of one of the hallways, and crawling towards them, was a spider-like creature, a thousand times larger than an actual spider.

Narvari grimaced at the sight of the hairy demon tarantula. Now she was sure that Winfield Research Institute was no ordinary research institute. Narvari clutched her savaz ready to fire. It may only be a fifth-order demon, but they must not take it lightly. The demon screeched again, and Narvari wanted to tear her ears off. She lost her focus, and in effect, lost her savaz. Thick silver strands shot out of the giant tarantula’s mouth towards Narvari and Pheera.

Their reflexes kicked in as they swiftly swerved out of the demon’s silver web. The spider sped up its attack, spraying millions of thick webs toward them, but they deftly evaded it all, scaling the walls like the ground itself. The webs clung to the walls like sticky ropes. Narvari had no idea what the webs were supposed to do once they touched her, but she was not ready to find out.

The tarantula sent a long hairy leg at Narvari. She lost her footing and dropped heavily to the ground. The demon’s leg crashed through the wall, opening a massive hole in its place. She did not even have the time to ponder over the strength of the spider’s leg because a massive net of the demon’s web lunged towards her.

She flipped out of the way. Then the demon screamed. On top of its large hairy head was Pheera in Trinity mode, sending barrages of sacred fists into the demon. With Pheera’s shadow clone technique, she seemed to have multiplied. The demon shrieked as each of Pheera’s attacks opened a gaping wound in its body. Of course, the wounds slowly began to regenerate. As if summoning one last bit of strength from within, the demon shook itself hard. Pheera went gliding in the air before landing right next to Narvari.

“Maybe you should vanquish it before it fully regenerates,” said Pheera.

Narvari suddenly realized that she had been staring at the girl all this time. She was just shocked at what she had just witnessed. She knew Pheera was strong, she just hadn’t imagined how strong. Why didn’t she fight like this when they faced the wraith lord? Narvari cleared her throat as she summoned her savaz. With a loud boom, and an ear-splitting screech, the demon dissolved into nothingness.

“There are probably more demons here,” said Pheera. “We should keep going.”

They resumed running but soon came to a halt when armed men in black suits suddenly surrounded them. It seemed these were regular humans. Did they know a demon tarantula was walking around the halls? The men opened fire.

Shooting at a vanquisher was always a bad idea. Vanquishers were trained to dodge bullets. With sacros charging up their bodies, Narvari and Pheera lunged toward the men, punching and kicking them one after the other. Glass shattered all around them as some of the men were flung into the glass walls.

The institute must have an infinite supply of guards because the deeper underground they went, the more guards came after them. Every single time, however, Narvari and Pheera beat the guards to a pulp.

All was calm as no guard came forth but the commotion of explosions and breaking glass in the distance showed that the fight was far from over. The others had run into a little opposition, Narvari thought.

“Narvari, here.” Pheera’s blue eyes were glued on something.

“Holy shit.” Narvari scanned the vast room full of human-sized glass pods — possibly hundreds of them.

Each pod contained an unconscious person floating in a deep green fluid.

“What is this?” Pheera whispered, moving from pod to pod.

Were these people really being turned into demons? How long had something like this been going on?

Narvari stopped in front of one glass pod. The person in there looked familiar.

Cecilia Okarfor. Narvari balled her fist. That was Eric’s wife. Did it mean all the other missing people were also here?

“Pheera, we need to get them out of here. All of them.”

Pheera nodded. “Trixan will know what to do. We — ”

“So,” a deep voice interrupted, “you have chosen death.”

The hairs on Narvari’s body stood on end as the overpowering demon energy suddenly filled the room. Narvari clenched her fist to keep it from shaking. This sinister demon energy reminded her of that time she had fought by Servin’s side. This demon was certainly a greater demon.

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A ninth-order demon.

“Vanquishers, huh?” said the voice again. “You people truly are a pain in my ass.”

Narvari looked around, attempting to find where the voice was coming from. But there was no one in sight.

“Are you going to hide in the dark like a little coward?” Narvari asked.

Manic laughter echoed throughout the hallway. Then a shadow emerged from the darkness. Its eyes flashed gold with fury. Slowly, the demon stepped into the light. Narvari froze. This was the same man she had seen in the hospital. I knew it.

“Don’t try to cover your fear with big talk,” he said. “The Order must be desperate sending children after us.”

“You captured all those people,” said Pheera. “Release them.”

The demon tilted his head. He paused, gazing at Pheera as if he had just noticed her. “How about a no.” The foul demon energy effused from the demon, flooding the entire floor. Narvari gagged at the vile stench.

“I guess, we’ll capture you then.” Pheera retrieved a holy cage from her pocket, then hurled the halo towards the demon.

Narvari activated Trinity and lunged towards the demon. With her sacred vision, she spotted two weak spots. She aimed for the one in the neck. But an invisible force flung her backward, crashing her into the concrete pillars. Pheera fell at the opposite end, the halo returning to her.

This wasn’t going to be easy. “Pheera, are you okay?”

“Worry about yourself,” roared the demon, directly above Narvari. He descended towards her.

Her heart racing, Narvari barely escaped from the demon’s path at the last second. A small depression formed beneath the demon upon landing. Narvari panted, quickly getting back on her feet. She needed to pay attention or she would die here.

“Narvari.”

“I’m okay.” Narvari did not take her eyes off the demon.

“Not for long.” The demon charged at Narvari like a raging bull.

Booming sounds filled the air as Pheera shot the demon multiple times. The demon halted, glaring at Pheera instead. The savaz wounded the demon every time Pheera fired it, but he healed in seconds.

“That hurts,” he said, rage brimming in his eyes. Then he charged towards Pheera instead.

Narvari spurred herself into the air and propelled her sacred fist directly on the demon’s neck. The weak spot shattered, sending the demon to his knees. He screamed. The second weak spot was in the demon’s chest. She must crush that too to overpower the demon. Her eyes widened when the demon suddenly grabbed her fist and threw her. Her sacros cushioned her from the violent fall but that didn’t stop the agonizing pain grating her bones.

Blood soaked her face.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” The demon seethed, getting back on his feet.

Two golden horns protruding out of his head. Narvari’s heart raced. The demon was transforming. With their current strength, they couldn’t possibly defeat him if he transformed. They had to stop it at all costs.

Pheera must have sensed the urgency too because she continuously shot at the demon to halt his transformation. The demon bellowed more out of rage than of pain. He raised a hand and a force lifted Narvari and Pheera into the air as though gravity no longer existed. A rope, albeit invisible, wound around Narvari’s neck as the air slowly disappeared from her lungs. Narvari gasped, struggling to free herself. But the demon’s remote grip was too strong.

She slowly faded, her head feeling lighter and lighter. Delirium set in. Was she really about to die? Pheera. She cast one last look at the girl who made her heart flutter. Pheera was dying, she could see. But at least, dying by her side brought a semblance of peace to Narvari. Slowly darkness overwhelmed her. Then suddenly, Narvari found herself plunged into the depths of an ocean. The demon’s grasp around her neck disappeared but the water choked her.

Narvari held her breath, wondering if this was what the afterlife was like. But as the demon’s form decayed in the water like flesh eaten by acid, Narvari knew that this was no afterlife.

This was elema. Water elema.

In mere seconds, the demon’s form sizzled into nothingness and the water disappeared. Narvari coughed incessantly, her body sprawling on the dry land. Everything was dry. Her clothes, the floor. If the feeling of drowning hadn’t been so real to her senses, she would have assumed this was nothing but a dream. Or perhaps death.

What had just happened? Whose elema was that? Wait, where was Pheera?

“Pheera?” Narvari got on her feet, feeling slightly dizzy. “Pheera, where are you?”

“Narvari.”

Narvari’s heart skipped a bit knowing very well who that voice belonged to. But she saw no one.

“Up here, Narvari.”

High up on the stairs, Zemeron held Pheera in his arms. As soon as Zemeron put Pheera down, she swiftly jumped, landing next to Narvari.

“Are you alright?” Narvari asked.

“I should be asking you that.” Pheera frowned at her brother. “Why did you leave Narvari behind? She almost drowned.”

“Narvari can handle herself.”

“Really? And you don’t think I can handle myself?”

“I…” Zemeron paused. His eyes softened. “That’s not what I meant.”

“What do you mean then?” Pheera folded her arms.

“You’re my sister.”

“And Narvari is my…” she bit her lips, her voice turning to a whisper, “she’s friend. Don’t leave her behind. Please.”

“Hey,” Narvari took Pheera’s hand, “it’s okay. I’m alright.”

“I thought something happened to you.”

Narvari smiled. “I promise I’m fine. Thanks to your brother.”

Who knew what would have happened had Zemeron not shown up?

“We should get going,” said Zemeron.

Narvari and Pheera followed him. Soon they were back in the room full of the abducted people in the pods.

“They’re so many,” he muttered.

Footsteps approached. Zemeron’s eyes darkened, but they relaxed when Azmel and Yanvirrak appeared.

“Did you capture any demons?” Zemeron asked.

Azmel shook his head. “They were mostly lesser demons. They’re all dead.”

“That ninth-order demon must be overseeing the operation here.” Zemeron’s clenched his jaws. “I should have captured him.”

Narvari couldn’t blame Zemeron for vanquishing the demon who almost killed his sister.

“At least we found the victims.” Yanvirrak nodded, glancing at the pods. “Will they be alright?”

“The medical team will be here soon,” said Zemeron. “They’ll know what to do.”

“Are we done here then?” asked Narvari.

“No. not yet.” Zemeron paused. “Something doesn’t seem right. This feels too easy.”

Narvari narrowed her eyes. This was too easy? She had almost died. But maybe Zemeron was right. The biggest resistance Narvari had faced was that ninth-order demon. Could there be something worse?

“Let’s get out of here,” he said.

They followed him, speeding up the winding staircase until they were on the surface. Then Zemeron froze. “Run,” he said with wide eyes. “Now.”

No one asked why, but they just simply did as they were told. As Narvari took to her heels, she suddenly found herself waging war with gravity. Her motor coordination skills disappeared as she lost balance and tumbled on the floor.

The floor? No, not the floor.

What used to be the floor was now the ceiling. She scrambled to get back up, but the room flipped over again, sending her crashing back to the actual floor.

Narvari crawled on the ground. Her colleagues struggled to get back up, just like she was. The room began turning again. Narvari sidestepped the wall, using it as the floor, but the room flipped again, this time even faster. Narvari fell.

A sinister aura, several times more malicious than that of the ninth-order demon, overwhelmed her senses. Not again. Was there no end to this?

She levitated. Again. While her body struggled to get used to the spatial manipulation, Zemeron stood in midair so casually that one would think he had intentionally put himself there.

“It’s an eleventh-order demon,” said Zemeron.

A royal demon. Narvari’s chest thumped violently. They plunged to the ground when gravity returned.

The foul energy became even fouler and Narvari’s throat burned with disgust. Then something came, concealed within a thick blue-black energy. Or was it someone? Whatever it was, the vileness of its presence was pure demon energy.

A royal demon.