It was morning, the sun was shining through the windows. Outside the chirps of birds and chattering of people could be heard. A warm and cozy home. although in the beginning, he thought he would never get used to a house so small.

Some weeks had passed since that incident. Kaiten was slowly getting used to these powers. The unbearable headaches and the voices that occasionally screamed inside his head were now gone. The fear of losing his mind and going on a rampage didn’t exist anymore.

So contrary to what he feared before, he now felt his body full of vitality. Even his colleagues were astounded by his seemingly endless stamina, no matter how hard he worked. And to his surprise, his vision had been getting better and better at seeing in the dark. Now he can see even in total darkness. It looked like his power was getting stronger as time passed.

He had a lot of doubts, especially about how he got this power, and of course, the fear of being found out by the church remains rooted in his mind.

" Kai, the food is ready," said Eris with a glow in her eyes.

“Okay, just a moment.”

As we ate breakfast, Eris talked about her friends at school and other mundane things; in the background, the radio station that was playing songs stopped abruptly. A voice then announced that a neighboring district was under martial law. A disaster had happened, buildings had collapsed, hundreds if not thousands had lost their lives. Something that never had happened in this region, a demon had appeared. Kaiten was stunned by the news.

"Didn't have you heard of that? the teacher at school said to us that the church almost got him, hmm, It is just a question of time," said Eris looking at the startled face of her brother. “…everyone only talks about this these days.”

"You are kind of strange these days Kai, did something happen?" Eris seemed concerned.

"Don't worry, I'm just a little tired... that's all."

“Brother, uh, be careful when you come back at night.”

“It’s okay, you don’t need to worry,” said Kaiten while patting his sister’s head.

****

As the day progressed, Kaiten asked his coworkers about the demon. The mood inside the factory was horrible. The factory where Kaiten worked wasn’t so far from the affected region. It seems a considerable number of his friends have been affected. The demon first attacked Heraclion, then as he was injured he began to flee in this direction.

The news said he had very large wounds, especially a huge slash wound on his chest. Those who survived an encounter with the demon were rare. Many desperately tried to fight the demon but it was a stupid choice. Cold weapons unless poured with divine power are useless and of course, bullets don’t work on demons. So the only hope is the Church but even they couldn’t stop him. It’s said a least 6 Deacons have died trying to stop the carnage. Many more were injured. Some ingenuous people with their minds polluted by revenge wanted to chase the fleeing demon, not understanding that even an injured demon is yet a huge threat.

The Vehrad Forest, that’s the place the demon went. Even berserk he knew it was the best place to hide. The church was mobilizing to hunt this demon but the forest was vast. They had till sunset to find him, if not they had to retreat. To fight a demon at night in the middle of a forest is suicide. They had mobilized their best forces to find the beast when the sun was still high.

A desire began to burn inside Kaiten’s heart. Since he got there in the morning he could feel it, he wouldn’t be able to explain how, but he could pinpoint its location, it was not too far from there. The demon was injured and he felt stronger than ever. The church would see themselves forced to retreat when the day ends, but for Kaiten darkness was not a problem, he could see at night as if it was day. He had a divided feeling about this on one side to defeat this demon which caused so much suffering and despair is definitely a good thing. However, It could be him, rampaging and destroying everything in his path. What would be of his sister? That monster before losing his reason and doing those atrocious acts was human, a human like him. But anyway, the demon needs to be put down either by the church or him.

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Finally, the sun had set, and the Church had retreated from the forest. Kaiten found no difficulty in finding a place to enter the forest. Even though it was surrounded by walls Kaiten easily jumped over after seeing that there were no cameras around.

Although it was weak, he could feel the demon’s presence. It would take some time to get there. The demon was much deeper inside the forest than he had anticipated. As he approached, he could see several fallen trees, some with uprooted trunks.

He couldn’t react in time. An enormous pain coursed through his body. His body was slammed against a tree. There it was the creature in front of him. But he didn’t have time to think as it went in his direction. Another punch was thrown at him. He barely avoided by rolling on the floor. With some struggle, he drew his dagger and stood up. The creature was huge, it probably was more than four meters tall. Kaiten, feeling frightened, infused his dagger with dark mana. The creature didn’t let him wait too long, it gathered mana in his hands and lunged at him. Kaiten with great agility avoided the creature’s punch and stabbed it in the head with the dagger.

His heart was skipping, he didn’t think it would be so hard. As he tried to calm himself, he noticed his right arm was broken. He was so focused on the fight that he hadn’t perceived it. He put his broken bone inside and his arm in place, and soon it healed and the pain disappeared. Looking at the creature on the floor, Kaiten understood why they called them Demons and Monsters. The creature at his feet didn’t look human at all. Its skin had a gray tone, it was bald and its eyes were completely black.

Kaiten was surprised! The creature wasn’t dead yet. He squatted down and was about to end the job but to his surprise, he opened his eyes in a completely different space. He looked at his hand it was like it was only his soul in this place. As he looked around despair began to surge in his heart. In this place, there’s nothing but darkness. Suddenly he saw countless beings surround him. He put his hand on his back to grab his dagger, but he grabbed something different. He lowered his eyes to see, a rapier, an impressive silvered rapier.

Then the beings revealed themselves and rushed on Kaiten’s way. There were many but Kaiten easily slashed them, as if they were tofu. The more he defeated the more he understood these beings had no self, their eyes glowed a faint blue light, their body had the appearance of a ghost and they screamed and growled like ghouls. These remembered the screams he heard in his head before, he began to suspect they were what caused people to fall into madness.

The horde seemed infinite, but Kaiten knew there was no way to get out here than eliminating them. So he slashed and slashed and slashed again till the point of him finding himself alone there, or to better say almost alone. In the middle of this darkness, in a pound, a man was lying with his face down on the floor. Kaiten was astonished. Was he the demon he fought just now? When he looked closer, he was sure. Yeah, it was him, and not only that, the man was alive. Very different from the gray-skinned and elevated-stature creature. He looked like a normal guy, only a bit tall.

Kaiten approached to lift him up and then the man slowly came to his senses and gradually opened his eyes. Then they were in the forest again. The man looked at his surroundings with unbelief in his eyes, completely befuddled. He sat on the floor and put his hands on his head. Kaiten could understand what he was feeling and gave the man time to assimilate everything that happened. He took a cigarette out of his pocket and offered him, but the man refused.

"You…who are you?" The man said while looking down.

"Th–that’s not important. Do you remember something?"

"I remember everything…the people I killed and, uh, you know…everything" His eyes were remorseful, he seemed to be remembering difficult memories.

"It was not your fault…you know…don't think more about that shit, you know," said Kaiten. He felt sympathy for this fellow, who had suffered way more than he could understand. Kaiten didn’t know much about how to console people, he was a man of short words. He always bottled up whatever he was feeling, he couldn’t show sadness as he had to be strong for his sister.

“But excluding that… you are from Heraclion, right?” Said Kaiten.

“Yeah, born and raised there—”

“Great! people in this region won’t be able to recognize you,” said Kaiten as he helped the man to stand up. “Let’s just forget the past, your name from now on will be Hector,” said Kaiten as he offered again the man a cigarette.

The man lit that cigarette and took a long, slow draw while looking at the starry sky. ”That’s an…unusual name,” said the man.

Kaiten patted the man’s shoulder. After smoking, the two went on the way out of the forest.