[Interface unlocked.]

Status

Name: Leon Hartwell

Stage: n/a

Race: [Mortal] Human

Level: 1

Mind: 1.93

Body: 2.34

Spirit: 1.03

“What is this stuff?”

Leon was surprised to see a vaguely familiar student behind him, the man trying to touch the mist rising from his skin. Many young people were keeping their distance from Leon, yet this guy, who he guessed was also a med student, had strolled up close enough to touch him. Very bold when he may be infectious.

“Sorry," Leon said, regaining control of himself. The mist stopped rising from his skin and began to recede into his stomach where it lay dormant. "I don’t really know yet.”

“My name is Alex,” The man said, holding out his hand. He was tall, had blond hair, and was likely British judging by his accent. “I was the one whose shirt you tore. About half of us are med students doing our training under Dr Goodwin. Er, well, he was our instructor. University doesn’t exist anymore since it was in the city. Anyway, you gave us quite a scare earlier, me especially. But when the demonic urges strike I guess you have to let them out, hey?"

Alex chuckled, nudging Leon. "Was my favourite shirt, that one. My grandmother gave it to me before she died. Probably wouldn't have lasted long in an apocalypse, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you… Hmm, what did you say your name was?”

“Uh,” Leon said, trying to absorb the word vomit. After a moment, he winced when he realised he should be introducing himself. “I’m Leon. It’s a pleasure to meet-”

“Enough!” Dominic shouted, stomping over to Leon. “This is ridiculous. Are none of you seeing what I'm seeing? That little monster just used some kind of demonic power!”

Eric grabbed Dominic by his shoulder, but he shrugged it off and continued to stomp closer, his hand reaching for his gun. Some of the students muttered to each other and stepped back while Eric picked up the baseball bat next to the milk crate. There was a layer of dried blood on it; probably Leon’s own since the demon creatures didn’t bleed very much.

“Stop being crazy,” Eric shouted, running to stand between them. Surprisingly, Alex also came up and stood behind the doctor, but he held a can of ravioli that he'd randomly picked up instead of an actual weapon. “Does he look like a demon to you?”

“This isn’t up for debate. I don't want to kill him either, but we have to at least restrain him before the demon takes over and kills us all. What happens if he transforms into a demon while we're sleeping? If you won't deal with this threat, I will.”

“Leon?” Marcus shouted from the front of the store, abandoning his shopping cart full of camping gear and, if Leon's eyes weren’t deceiving him, guns. Lots and lots of guns. “What the hell is going on?”

Marcus grabbed an assault rifle from the cart and ran to Leon's side. He pointed the weapon at Dominic before the other man could pull his sidearm out, forcing the now terrified man to raise his hands in surrender. A few of the students also raised their hands while others dived for cover.

“Everyone, that’s enough!” Eric shouted, glancing around the aisle. “There are monsters outside this shopping centre and you want to risk your lives over nothing? What the hell is wrong with you both?”

“Don’t look at us, man,” Marcus said, not lowering his gun. “This psycho was about to pull a gun on my buddy. You want me to just stand there and let him get murdered by some nut job? Besides, I think I’ve got a bullet I can spare.”

“I'm sorry,” Leon whispered, feeling ill. He was already causing problems and it hadn't even been five minutes since he woke up. “I was attacked while shopping and things just kind of happened from there.”

“I didn’t think grocery shopping could be so dangerous,” Marcus said, chuckling despite pointing a loaded weapon at someone. “Wait, you said you were injured?”

Marcus glanced at his bandaged arm. The left was in a sling since it was so badly injured, but his right shoulder was just bandaged and stitched up. It was free for him to use. The only problem was that it hurt quite a bit whenever he did.

“They attacked you?” Marcus said, aiming the gun at Dominic again. More students dived for cover. “What’s your issue, man? Why did you attack my friend?”

“No,” Leon said, pushing the barrel down towards the ground. He waved at the students huddling in the aisle and they got his message after a few seconds. Flipping over a sheet, they exposed the corpse of the demon that Leon had killed. “I got attacked when I walked past the docking bay at the back of the store. If they didn’t come and help me, I would definitely be dead right now.”

“Well, if everything is all fine and dandy, why was this guy trying to pull his gun on you?”

Eric scratched the back of his neck. “Well, Leon here was bitten by that zombie on the ground and…”

Marcus stiffened for a second before his scowl returned in force. “So what? He look like a demon to you?”

“What is the corpse wearing, kid?” Dominic said, his hands still up. “He packed shelves before he turned into that thing. Everyone knows that you turn after getting bitten. Besides, get him to show you that mist. He summoned it with demon powers after getting bit, so stop pointing that got damned firearm at me before you blow my head off. Unlike him, I haven’t been infected yet.”

“Demon magic? Have you been partaking in some recreational substances now that the world is ending, Sir?” Marcus scoffed, glancing at the patch of floating text in front of Leon. “What’s going on with that screen? The more you people try and explain what's going on the more confused I get.”

Leon chuckled. “Let me explain from the beginning.”

***

Ten minutes after Marcus came to his rescue, Leon managed to explain everything with minimal confusion. Well, for a person describing how they almost died, gained magical powers, and ignited their life energies it was minimal. They returned to the girls first, so Mila spent a lot of the story gasping or outright hugging and weeping for him.

A tentative peace was also reached, meaning Leon and the rest of the group decided to wait until morning in the upstairs office space. They had discussed several escape routes, but fleeing into the subway was inevitably the safest option.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The demon birds outside simply made it impossible to flee on foot, and no one wanted to test if they could pick up an entire car. Someone suggested they try to shoot one of them to see if they were really liquid, but no one was brave, or stupid enough to volunteer for a potential suicide mission.

So in the end, they came to the conclusion that getting a good night's rest, waiting until the skies were bright and clear of demon birds, and then sprinting into the nearby subway was the safest option. From there, they could hop down onto the tracks and hike to each stop until they could confirm that the demon birds no longer patrolled the skies.

Everyone split up into three groups after the meeting was over. Eric and his students chose to sleep under the desks in the main floor space, Leon and his friends picked what seemed to be the boss's office, and Dominic slept outside their door in case Leon turned. Thankfully, it was lockable from the inside and there was no window Dominic could shoot through. If he tried to break in during the night and finish Leon off, he would have to make quite a ruckus before managing to get in.

“If we kill a demon, we will gain magical powers?” Olivia said, her eyes twinkling. “Are you messing with me right now?”

“No,” Leon said, shaking his head. “I killed the demon by stabbing it in the head, and the next moment I felt like I was soaking in a warm bath. I believe that you have to saturate yourself with aura to gain access to Qi, but I'm not sure how killing demons is related if at all.”

“That’s all you had to do?” Mila asked, looking worried rather than excited. “Are you sure that it wasn’t caused by something else? Say….”

She was staring at his demonic arm.

“No,” Leon said without hesitation. “There’s absolutely no chance this power is from the bite.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“That was different. When my aura saturation reached the limit, a new substance called Qi spread out from my 'dantian'. It’s some kind of metaphysical organ beneath my navel. At least that’s what the message called it. The Qi didn't feel like anything, but it did create a kind of internal pressure inside my body. Like if you squeeze your wrist and stop the blood from flowing back out, you can feel the pressure building?"

Seeing the vague looks they were giving him, Leon decided to carry on with his explanation. "Anyway, when the Qi reached my shoulder, the two forces were in complete opposition with each other. That heat in the bite felt corrupting and evil, but the Qi in my body made me feel strong. I have no idea how to explain the sensation beyond how it created pressure, but just know it feels so natural that I forget it’s even there when I don’t pay attention.”

Silence reigned for a second until Marcus spoke up. “What about your arm? Do you think you’re… you know.”

Leon shook his head. His left arm was completely inert, not even attacking random people when he took the bandages off. It was more or less a dead weight hanging off his shoulder. The demonification hadn't moved at all, so he doubted that he would fully transform. It was like he had interrupted the process of being turned into a demon and now this was his new, unchanging normal. At least it didn't feel like it was going to change without some kind of catalyst to kick-start things.

They continued to chat for a bit with Leon explaining some more things, but everyone was exhausted. Tomorrow would involve a lot of hiking, and God forbid, a lot of running. He needed to go to bed and eat as much as he could stomach while they had access to a whole shopping centre.

The subway tunnels were long, after all.

But when everyone began to get ready for bed, Leon found himself looking at his phone. There was no point in even trying, but he still brought up his mother’s contact and pressed the button. Of course, there was no reception, the call falling out the second his finger touched the screen.

Leon sighed.

He just had to try.

While things hadn’t been the best since he got sick, his most recent encounter with his mother had left a sour taste in his mouth. He didn’t want their last interaction to be a fight. It would be even worse if she passed away in all this chaos, never giving him the chance to prove that he wasn’t the sickly child he’d been all those years ago.

If only she could understand his side of things. He was still a baby in her eyes, the cancer no doubt coming back any day now. Everyone had explained that he was well in the clear, but she refused to listen because children with leukaemia were statistically more likely to develop cancer again later in life.

And because of that, he needed to be protected. Even though his martial art was one of the safest combat sports possible, she firmly believed he couldn’t handle it, his body only coping with the damage until it reached a breaking point and he permanently injured himself. Chemotherapy drugs also damaged the heart and lungs of children, something else that she used as evidence for his frailty, but he couldn’t just give up his sporting career.

Especially now that he’d received over ten sporting scholarships from colleges around the country.

She hadn’t gotten angry at him when he shared the news. His mother had frozen in place, bursting into tears because she was unable to cope with ‘her baby killing himself’. She simply couldn't believe that the other boys weren’t going to bully him. He was too frail and weak to fight against national athletes, meaning he was just painting a target on his back to be harassed.

She simply couldn’t comprehend that Leon was one of the best in his age bracket, but it wasn’t like she’d ever seen him compete in the first place. It really hurt to be ignored like that. He’d tried so hard to recover and build up his strength after getting sick, and all he got in return was endless arguing and guilt.

But now that the world had ended, things would be different. Leon was a cultivator. He didn’t understand exactly what that entailed, but he could feel that his body was fully recovered. His heart thundered in his chest and his lungs felt like they'd been replaced with a brand new pair. Awakening his spirit had given him a second chance at life, transforming and healing his body in ways that he couldn't fully comprehend.

All he needed to do now was show his mother that he was perfectly healthy.

The cause of her worries no longer existed, meaning she had no reason to fear that he would suddenly have a stroke or drop dead on the mat. Not only would he prove that he wasn’t the same frail child he used to be, but no one could ever think of him as a weak little child again. He finally had a chance to get his family back.