“The gloves? Ulrich asked. “Yeah, I have them, but…”

“Get them.” The girl commanded sternly. Her voice didn’t sound panicked or frightened. She was just agitated if anything. The same tone of voice for when a friend does something stupid. But she had her own gloves, and she could shoot goddamn ice out of them, so it was probably worth it to do as she said.

“Sure, I’ll go. On one condition.” He pointed to the Green Metal store. “You gotta protect that until I get back.”

“I will, I will.” The girl replied, sounding more annoyed with each passing second. “Now get going.”

And with the promise made, he started running back to his house. Quicker than he ever felt himself running before. He barely ducked under a demon leaping at him. There were dozens of demons now, all mostly focused on other massacres. He felt his phone ring in his pocket. It could be from his mom. Or Mina. Or Gene. But he couldn’t afford to check. He looked to see one of his classmates grab his leg as a demon skewered his leg. He whispered some kind of cry for help, only for Ulrich to take his foot back, hearing him scream as the demon pulled him back. He couldn’t afford to help anyone, he just had to keep moving.

Once he got back to his house, he immediately burst into his room. He grabbed the gloves and quickly put them on. The chill was still felt, but not as much as last time. Now he just needed to get to the girl…

…and when he turned around, there was a demon standing in the doorway.

He left the door open in a panic. And it was just standing in front of him. He silently tried to back away from it, trying to go by t-rex rules of having it not notice him. And it could be working.

Until he tripped over his bedframe. If the demon didn’t notice him, it did now.

Ulrich desperately tried scrambling into the corner of the wall as the demon approached him. But he remembered the gloves. If they were the same, he could possibly shoot ice as well. With nothing to lose, Ulrich shot his right hand out…

After about ten seconds, he opened his eyes. He stood up, his legs shaking. There was a purple smear on the wall slowly drifting towards an open window, with the smear separating into purple orbs and floating towards the sky. He glanced at his hands, and the stripe on the glove was a dark red, going back to black.

But…he had powers. Could he do…magic? Like the girl. But he didn’t have time to think about anything. He just ran, hoping to find a survivor. Like His mom, or Mina, or Gene.

He stepped outside, and the portal was still there. It looked a little smaller, and the black orbs were still falling, but at a smaller rate. He noticed a crowd of demons who all seemed to be circling someone. He thought about fire again, concentrating energy into his right hand until a stream of wild fire came out. After a few demons were burned, he clapped his left hand over his right to stop the fire. The burned demons fell into more particles, which flew back inside the portal, just like the first one.

In the centre of the crowd was the girl, freezing demons, water bottle in hand. Gene was also there, wearing a white shirt with short blonde hair. The only new things about him were the wound on his arm and the sword he was struggling to hold.

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The girl unleashed a wave of ice forward, taking out any demons nearby. She turned to Ulrich, looking to be in a state of surprise for a second, before quickly regaining her composure.

“You can use the gloves?” She asked.

“Yeah?”

The girl turned to Gene, then back at Ulrich.

“I see. So I’ll leave protecting this place to you.”

“Wait, what?!” Ulrich yelled. “No way I could! I just got these! How am I able to protect a whole town with these?”

“So you can come with us.” She replied coldly.

“What? No! I have to save my mom!”

“Understood. Just remember, Saving everyone is impossible, just protect those who matter. We’ll find you eventually, just survive until then.”

The girl put her hand on Gene, and the two started being enveloped in a white light. The light intensified in a matter of seconds, until looking at the pillar of light was nearly impossible.

“Wait, what about my mom?” Ulrich screamed. But before he could even finish his sentence, the light was gone.

Ulrich looked around. At the demons, the panicked people being slaughtered by them. He felt like throwing up. He was ditched, left to fight for himself. And even then, the glove lady said he couldn’t save everyone.

So he moved onto the most important person.

His mom’s shop was a small while away, and he bolted towards it. The pool of victims was growing smaller by the minute, so more and more demons were looking to him as their next kill. Ulrich tried snapping his fingers to produce a spark, but nothing happened. His other hand, and still nothing. Nothing else to do, he quickly turned around with enough force for his sneakers to make a noise against the asphalt. He thrust both his hands out, and a blast of fire shot out of both of his hands. After a few seconds, it stopped by itself.

With no demons following him, Ulrich turned around to go back to the store, and immediately fell on his face. He tried to get up but noticed he couldn’t move his right hand. He could barely moved his left hand, but thanks to some kind of adrenaline rush he managed to push himself upwards. He ran, but at a slower pace due to his messed-up hand. It felt cold, just as cold as when he first put the gloves on.

But he finally made it. To the Green Metal motor shop. The doors were opened, and the windows were smashed. He crept in, and there was his mother, shotgun in hand. Face down, blood dripping on the counter.

“M-mom? You…doing okay? It’s me, Ulrich. Come on…you gotta answer me.”

But she didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Ulrich waited for the nightmare to be over, but it didn’t end. All of this was real. Tears welled up in his eyes, before he involuntarily let out a scream of pure rage and anguish.

Two demons came inside the room, looking like they were mockingly checking in on him. Ulrich slowly turned around, and the numbness in his body was slowly going away. He thrust his hand out, incinerating the demons.

He stepped outside into the middle of the town, where around twenty demons were standing around. One of the demons leapt towards him, And he casually put two fingers forward in the shape of a gun, incinerating the head off a demon, leaving it’s entire body to evaporate into the portal.

“Alright, you bastards think you can just invade my world and kill me? Do you!?”

The demons approached him, and he felt his hands simultaneously flare up. He lunged at the three closest to him, moving his hand to create a wave of fire which destroyed them. He curled his right hand with a remaining flame into a fist, and his hand lit up. The next demon to try to attack him lost it’s head with a single punch. He punched through the demons wildly, quickly attacking all of them. He punched the final demon in it’s chest, watching it melt around his hand.

The heat around his hands faded, and he looked towards the sun. The portal was small, almost disappeared. But Ulrich felt one last of flash of energy build up inside him.

“Hey! All you demons in the portals! Try coming back here, I dare you! Because I’ll kill you! I’ll keep killing you, until you stop invading my world! You hear me?”

And with one final outburst, he felt his body freeze up. He was unbearably cold and numb, and his limbs stopped working. He looked towards the clear sky, without a portal in sight. He remembered Gene, and the girl. And everything that happened.

They’d be back for him, right?