After stepping into the white chamber that hosted the war, my eyes widened at the sight of Janet on the floor, battered and unconscious. Alvin stood in the middle of the room and turned to me, unscathed from the battle.

“Hello again, Aliyah. I assume you couldn’t release the Dreamers as planned? It’s a shame you’ve come so far only to fail.”

Ignoring his comment, I dashed over to Janet’s side to protect her from further harm. “What the hell did you do to her?” I sneered at him.

“I punished her. Anyone who dares to defy mankind’s transcendence shall be judged and executed.”

“You’re insane,” I retorted. “The world doesn’t need rapid evolution. We’re already struggling to keep up and find an identity in the world we’re in now. If we’re all given the power to shape society into whatever we want it to be, none of us will survive, and you know it. It would be chaos. You told me that, remember?”

“Ah, indeed I did.” He caressed his beard and gazed into the red eyes of the beastly Shadow beside him. “But that was before I obtained this power. I will now rule over the living beings on this earth. I will be their king and guide them to a new world of endless possibilities.”

“One man can't control an entire planet, especially not you. You’re preying on the emotions and desires of everyone in here. You’re not a god, no matter what that demon tells you.”

He huffed. “It’s disappointing that someone with so much potential fails to see what the world is destined for. Very well. It is now my responsibility to kill you.”

A painful sensation suddenly came over my body. An ounce of salvia rushed up my throat and splattered on the floor before I gasped for air, slowly coming to the realization that I had taken a blow to the gut. On my knees, I looked up and saw him standing inches away from me.

“You stand no match against a god,” I heard him say over my rapid breathing. “Allow me to demonstrate further.”

Again, his actions happened too fast for my mind to register until I felt my back colliding against a wall. The impact ejected a spurt of blood that painted the white floor.

“You should give up, Miss Dawn.”

“Nah. That was nothing,” I bluffed, struggling to stand on my feet. “Let’s do this.”

“As you wish.”

Thinking he’d charge straight at me like last time, I released a beam of light in hopes of hitting him before he got close. Instead, the radiance missed its mark due to his sudden disappearance.

Either the bastard teleported, or he freakin’ turned invisible.

Solely in my view was the colossal Shadow, but this wasn’t just any demon. No, there was no mistaken it. This was that demon.

“Here we are again,” I said to it, receiving no reaction. “You tried taking Valeria from me. You tried taking Janet away as well. But guess what? They’ll still here. So if you want them or anyone else, you’re gonna have to get through me. Let me see you try, dammit.”

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The beast actually guffawed before accepting my challenge, rushing forward with its claws spread out. I hurled chakram after chakram trying to do as much damage as possible before it reached me, but my weapons disintegrated on impact.

This demon’s darkness was stronger than my light.

Towering over me, it hammered its massive arms down with crushing intent, but my legs moved swiftly to evade the strike that shattered the floor beneath us. This thing was slow, a weakness I had to use to my advantage if I had any hope of surviving.

The creature unleashed a roar that called for reinforcements. The lesser demons surrounded me in a tight area of the room and quickly attacked one by one. I danced around most of their strikes and combated them with a combination of light beams and chakram throws, but the giant Shadow had made its way toward me just as they were defeated.

With a powerful, monstrous swing that I was thankful to have avoided, the beast smashed through the walls of the room and continued its rampaging assault until it stopped to glare at me.

“You’re too slow, big boy,” I said with heavy breaths and false confidence. I knew it was only a matter of time before the demon caught me. It was just too big and too strong for me to stand a chance against.

“Did you forget about me?”

Alvin appeared out of nowhere and threw a punch in my direction, his fist being blocked with the raise of my chakram as a shield. “Looks like your deal with the devil backfired,” I said with a smirk. “I can sense you and that demon share the same dark energy, so my chakram of light can resist your attacks and do some serious damage to you.”

He retreated halfway across the room with inhuman-like speed and laughed. “My, you continue to impress me at every turn, Aliyah Dawn. You are indeed special.”

“Screw you. I’m not special. I’m just like everyone else. We’re all fighting for survival and living for happiness. The struggles and hardships we go through are what builds our character. It’s what makes us who we are. We chase dreams, not have them given to us. You can’t just erase the most important process of life.”

“I see.” He walked toward me with his hands behind his back. “What a shame. I figured using the ability of a child who wishes to be invisible to the world would be beneficial, but it appears that power brought no advantage to this battle. I guess I’ll have to dispose of the boy once this is over, hm?”

“Do you hear yourself, asshole? You’re talking about killing an innocent person because he didn’t live up to your expectations. I can’t stand you and your damn god complex. You want the planet to evolve so badly that you can’t see how exploited the world already is. We tried making everything accessible in hopes of advancing human evolution, but all we’ve actually done was remove our sense of wonder. I won’t allow you to take away the rest of our imagination.”

A burst of energy flowed through my body, increasing the glow in my palm. With it, I generated a large chakram that weighed no more than my usual weapon, but it damn sure felt more powerful.

Using as much strength as I could muster, I sent the chakram flying at Alvin, who appeared unfazed by the incoming attack. Unfortunately for me, he had every reason to be, because the giant Shadow stepped in and used its body to shield him from harm. My ring of light shattered into pieces on impact with the demon, as did any hope of me winning this fight.

“You foolish girl,” Alvin shouted before unleashing a torrent of water out of his right hand. The force of the blast knocked me to the floor and created an endless stream that filled my lungs.

“I’ll punish you with the ability I used to defeat your friend,” he gloated. “Though she was strong and resilient, her burning spirit was doused by my unlimited source of power.”

I couldn’t respond to his animated narcissism even if I wanted to. My source of air had been saturated with water and my body stuck to the floor from the overwhelming pressure of the torrent. Nothing could prevent my death at this point.

Through the submersion, I could see him levitating in mid-air with a current of electricity flowing from his left arm into his hand. “Ah, the dreams of flight and electrical power,” he said with a grin. “Childish and typical, but valuable nonetheless. Why don’t we see what happens when water meets electricity.”

This was it. The end… Or so I thought.