Pang

The sound of thunder brought my fervent mind to its senses.

Catching my thoughts, I looked up into the sky and the downpour of rain. Unlike the poor puppets scrambling for shelter around me, my tiny frame was covered comfortably by a little raincoat. Still, this thunderstorm was quite the annoyance.

Even as I ran down these flooded streets, every step I took was splashing muddy water all over my delicate feet and shoes. But whilst I would have loved to change this miserable weather, my attention at the moment was unfortunately needed elsewhere.

“Stop! What do a bunch of adults want from us?”

A faint voice broke through the loud torrent of rain, catching my attention. The line I had been waiting to hear for my whole life was finally playing before me, not too dissimilar from the countless fantasies I’ve dreamt up about it. If I had to nitpick one thing though, it was the scratchiness in the voice pronouncing those words. I was expecting it to be a bit deeper, more manlier, but I suppose I can’t have it all, can I?

Speeding my steps to a full-on sprint, I rounded the corner up above and entered a dark alleyway located between two columns of shophouses. As I entered, I hid myself behind a pile of conveniently placed boxes whilst pruning my ears for the ongoing conversation. Taking a deep breath to mentally prepare myself, I poked my head ever-so-slightly out of my makeshift cover, just enough to witness the scene before me.

On one side, was a pair of a young boy and girl, both dressed in shabby clothes. Just one look at them was enough for anyone to identify them as orphans, but my heart melted with an inexorable sense of pleasure at just the sight of them. The sight which matched the description that I had ingrained so thoroughly into my brain.

A scrawny blonde boy wearing a white fabric shirt with ragged torn sleeves, complete with a dilapidated scarf around his neck. Check. And the red-haired girl beside him dressed in similarly rugged clothes, who was looking worriedly at the unfolding situation with tears in her eyes that were obscured only by the falling rain. Check.

My heart leaped up in excitement just at the mere confirmation it really was them. I almost let out a squeal too, though that wouldn’t have done my sneaking around any good.

And before the young duo, was a group of puppets dressed in full-grey outfits. They wore masks and helmets concealing their faces, giving them an ominous atmosphere.

The boy spoke again, this time in a low growl.

“Are you…the Church’s Inquisitors?”

And in return, the leading Inquisitor spoke,

“The ‘Seal Of Solomon’. Hand it over.”

The Inquisitor then unsheathed a sword from his waist, revealing an enchanted silver blade that had undoubtedly slayed countless vampires and other monsters of the night.

Brandishing his weapon, the Inquisitor then continued, “That Seal is dangerous, kid. You have no idea what it’s capable of. Hand it over whilst it’s not too late.”

But the boy merely glared at the man in response. In his trembling little hands was a small wooden pole that fit his young stature. Overall, his atmosphere kind of resembled that of an innocent feral cat, if only you ignore the red bloodstains on the tip of the pole.

Taking in the boy’s silence, the lead Inquisitor sighed disappointedly. Immediately afterwards, the man’s figure vanished, before reappearing right in front of the boy. Before the boy could even respond, his right arm quite literally vanished in an unseen blow, whilst his pole was sent flying into the air. His body was thrown backwards from the reverberating impact, only caught by the girl from behind.

“Don’t resist, kids. This will all be over soon.” The Inquisitor spoke with an air of sorrow, before extending his arm towards the pair and preparing a magic circle. The girl tried to step up in front of the boy, but the circle was complete in less than a second. A massive sword of pure-grey Prism materialised in front of the man, before it shot out towards the unconscious boy.

“Kiel!!!” The girl screamed out in terror, but another Inquisitor swiftly apprehended her from behind. Meanwhile, the lead Inquisitor walked towards the still-unconscious boy, now held mid-air by the sword piercing through his chest.

Looking at the wounded boy, he spoke with a hint of remorse, “This won’t even leave a mark, but it sure will be traumatising.”

The man then reached out towards the sword’s hilt, before pouring in a massive amount of Prism. Almost instantly, the boy awoke, screaming in agony. At the same time, an ominous aura of pitch-black Prism gushed out from his body like a tidal wave. For a brief moment, the lead Inquisitor was overwhelmed, before quickly pushing back against the roaring tide. As the two of them locked into a contest for supremacy, grey and black clashed in a spectacular struggle that quickly engulfed the alleyway in chaos, whilst the rampaging Prism alone was probably enough to send this whole town to ashes many times over.

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“Ugh…”

A small grunt escaped my lips as I struggled to reinforce the invisible barrier of Prism enveloping the alleyway. The Inquisitors had put it up to isolate the alleyway, but it looked like it was about to crack, so I had to step in. Fortunately, my grunt was drowned out by all the noise coming from the two characters up ahead, so I was still in the clear.

Meanwhile, the girl tried to shout out, “Kiel!! Run awa–Mhmm?!”, but her voice was quickly muffled by the Inquisitor dragging her away. Meanwhile, the boy, Kiel, was slowly being pushed back by the lead Inquisitor. Although, his eyes were vacant and he was snarling under his breath, so I was pretty sure his mind was half-taken over by the Seal Of Solomon by now. At the same time, some of the surrounding Inquisitors were beginning to collapse at the sheer amount of Prism currently being released, with only a few holding out. A few among the remaining called out worriedly towards their boss, but their voices were slowly being drowned out by the intensifying battle between the two characters.

As the Seal began to lose ground, several shadows began manifesting around the boy, resisting the Inquisitor’s light. They began to envelope the blade of Prism stuck in the boy’s chest, trying to break it, whilst several of the remaining Inquisitors rushed in to try and stop them.

So now, I was perfectly content just watching this heartmoving sequence from afar, but I found myself grimacing when a familiar presence began to manifest among the shadows.

[Belial]

[-?!]

[Mind the gap would you]

I quickly snuffed Belial’s passage through the Seal Of Solomon. After all, I can’t have a Lord of Gehenna manifesting in the human world this early on in the story. But even without Belial’s presence, the remaining Inquisitors were already being pushed back by the rampaging demons. Slowly but surely, the lead Inquisitor was also losing ground. But even as the situation was beginning to deteriorate for the forces of the Church, the boy’s body began to twist and convulse unnaturally as more and more Lesser Demons began to materialise around him.

“Aaagh!!”

Suddenly, the boy screamed out, and in one massive burst, a colossal tidal wave of Prism sprayed out in all directions. And within the span of a second, I could sense a demonic presence far outweighing even Belial’s manifesting beside the boy, before it quickly hid itself from my fervent gaze. At the same time, every Inquisitor in the vicinity disappeared on the spot, alongside the figure of the lead Inquisitor which vanished from my view in a raging sea of black Prism. My makeshift cover of boxes disintegrated into dust as the uncontrollable Prism then coalesced into a massive shockwave, before breaching the barrier in multiple places. They shot out in massive bursts, flying off to who-knows-where, and though I would have loved to stop them, I had my hands full at the moment.

“Aah–ah, help–”

The cries of Kiel entered my ears from afar. Turning around, I could still see him at the centre of the rampaging Prism, whilst the figure of the girl was nowhere to be seen. Something was wrong. Regardless of what happens to any of the other puppets, these two characters couldn’t die here. Gritting my teeth, I gathered my hands together, before muttering in a ‘True Voice’.

[Dea Ex Machina]

As soon as those words left my mouth, a massive amount of Prism surged from my body in a divine quantity. I could feel my current ‘Puppet Avatar’ begin to strain against its limits as pure-white Prism surged through every pathway this body possessed.

“Ugh…” Another ungodly grunt escaped my clenched teeth as a storm of pain assailed my mortal body. But even as I struggled against this unfamiliar agony, I found my lips pursing into a wide grin. After all, I couldn’t be any happier.

Stepping one foot towards the boy, I shouted,

“Kiel!!”

The boy turned his head towards my direction. All around him was a swirl of black and the occasional grey, with demonic sigils and crests mixed in. His eyes were dyed completely black, whilst his face was a mixture of horror and agony.

I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Get a hold of yourself, Hero!!”

That did the trick. One of his eyes cleared up ever-so-slightly, whilst his mouth moved an incremental inch. Although the sound of destruction around us was pervasive, with my divine senses, I could just barely make out his voice amidst all the noise.

“...hero–?”

I responded, shouting back, “Yeah!! A Hero!! You wanted to become a Hero, didn’t you? To move away from your past, and to protect Abigail! Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

Even as those words were leaving my mouth, I found myself being surprised by the vigour in my own voice. Simultaneously as I was responding, white Prism began seeping out from my body, before steadily pushing back against his rampaging darkness. I struggled to contain the flood of emotions in my voice as I then continued on,

“To me, you’re more than that. You’re not just another faceless puppet crowding this world. You’re my protagonist, my light, my hope. For so long, I’ve waited for your story to start, and I need you. So please–”

I reached out my hand.

[Please start your story]

Kiel’s eyes began to fully clear up. At the same time, the storm of Prism around us began to die down at last. The air around us was shuddering with divine sparks as I desperately tried to quell the surge of unfamiliar feelings rising from within me. Meanwhile, Kiel, half-conscious, began staggering towards my hand, whilst his mouth seemingly began to move on its own.

“...ar–are you–”

That was as far as he got, before the last of his consciousness slipped by. I sidestepped out of the way just as he fell towards me, before landing face-first on the charred, rugged ground. And as he laid there, unconscious but alive, I found myself staring at his small back with a difficult gaze. The small, broken back that I had been waiting for so long. I fixed my eyes on the massive hole in the centre of his shirt, and was pleasantly surprised to see that the area on his skin where he had been pierced was completely clean and empty. But besides that clean patch of skin was a countless number of faded scars, bitemarks and bruises.

...he really has it tough, huh?

I then turned to look at the unconscious girl lying not too far away, before muttering,

“I’m not your heroine.”

I smiled.

“And you’re not my Hero.”

It was a sad smile.