Chapter 4: Serafina's Demons
(Ersa)
Ersa saw the corner of Jet’s mouth twitch with rage as they all questioned Serafina after she had revealed her not-so-secret secret. She looked at Serafina in a new light as Lux leaned forward on his bed.
“So… that was a portal…” he said slowly.
"Yup!” Serafina’s bright purple eyes looked at each of their faces, as though showing off a prize for winning an art contest and expectantly awaiting their approval.
“From your home…” Amber’s perfect eyebrows were knit together.
“In Hell.” Jet finished.
Chan stood next to Ersa, arms crossed. His rapier was at his side. The way he stared at Serafina told Ersa he didn’t trust her and didn’t want to believe what she was saying.
“Well,” Serafina said slowly. “Technically I’m from Macabre, the 9th level of Hell. My daddy’s the Duke in charge of Macabre!”
“So you’re like a demon princess?” Lux asked.
“Yeah!”
“But…” Chan glared at her. “You don’t look like a demon.”
Serafina blinked at him. “What do you mean? Have you ever seen a demon before?”
Chan was taken aback at this. “Well…. No…”
“I’m just teasing!” Serafina giggled. “I haven’t gone through my metamorphosis yet. All demons are considered fledgelings until they go through the metamorphosis. It’s kind of like… oh what’s it called? Adolescence? Puberty?” she shrugged. “After that, we take on more demonic attributes.”
Ersa gave an exasperated sigh. They hadn’t even been a team for more than a couple of days and she was already fed up with Serafina’s shenanigans.
“Serafina,” she began slowly. “You do realize that all eternal beings-including demons- are banned from the mortal world right now, don’t you? It’s even rare that a cambion- a half demon- or a nephilim- a half angel- exists. That law has been in place since the Demon of Destruction nearly destroyed the world about 12,000 years ago.” Serafina’s smile slowly began to fade. “On top of that, traveling by portal is extremely dangerous. You could get lost between dimensions, or accidentally create a door that allows monsters worse than Erseugen to appear and terrorize the Realms-Serafina! What were you thinking?!” Ersa could feel herself getting way too heated about this. But honestly; what the hell?! Literally!
Serafina’s eye began to water. “I just wanted to bake cookies with my mommy.” She admitted shyly.
“Be more careful about where you open your portals!” Ersa scolded. “And don’t leave them open! When you’re done, close them.” She breathed in and took a deep breath out. She had been accepted into the university for a reason. They must know she’s a demon. Headmistress Zenith’s decision was not to be questioned at the moment, right now there were more pressing matters to attend to. “Now then, how long was that portal open?”
“About an hour.”
“Dear gods!” Lux threw his hands up in the air.
“We’re doomed.” Amber’s eyes dashed wildly around, as though looking for an escape.
Jet glared angrily at Serafina.
Chan and Ersa’s eyes met. “Who knows how many demons, monsters, and creatures from alternate dimensions could have escaped within that time?” Chan said, mimicking her thoughts exactly.
Lux and Amber were trying to console each other as they assumed the worst and began to talk about the end of the world. Serafina was downright bawling, big crocodile tears streaming down her face.
Ersa whispered to Chan. “We need to check the school.”
Chan nodded. “It’ll be difficult to sneak around since it’s already after curfew. But I don’t think we have a choice.”
“Agreed.” Ersa turned to the others, “Everyone calm down!” she commanded, shutting everyone up at once. “Now, from what I remember reading about portals, it’s that if there’s an object blocking its path-like a shut door for example- then the only creatures from the beginning and end points can enter and exit the portals. So since this portal led to Hell, the only creatures that could’ve possibly entered our Realm are demons.”
“Great!” Lux sarcastically whined. “Now we just have to worry about every demon ever from Hell haunting our halls.”
“No,” Serafina corrected. “Only demons from Macabre.”
“Well, that does eliminate alternate dimensions.” Amber twirled an orange gold end of hair nervously. Jet rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her golden head and patted it. “There, there.” She said as comfortingly as possible. Amber seemed to calm a little at her touch.
“You keep mentioning this level 9.” Chan looked at Serafina. “What do you mean by that?”
“Oh!” Serafina brightened up a little. “Well Hell is made up of ten different levels. Basically the more powerful a demon, the higher you can go. The tenth level is for the King of Hell. I think his name is Melchior?” she shrugged. “Something like that. All I know is we’re on the ninth level. I don’t know what any of the other ones look like. Oh! Also the more bad a mortal is, the higher level they go.”
“Level nine…” Lux shook his head and ran his fingers through his light blonde locks.
“Back to the portal,” Ersa interrupted. She looked Serafina up and down with bright silver eyes. “Portals are a high level magic that very few can create, much less control. Especially for an hour.” She picked up one of the demon’s arms. “Don’t you feel any fatigue? Are you tired in any way? Hungry? Blood thirsty perhaps?”
“Ersa!” Lux reprimanded. “Save the dissecting for later, girl.”
“We need to search the halls.” Chan reminded.
“Right.” She sighed, defeated. There were so many questions she had about all this and so little time for them all to be answered. “Tell me, were there any demons missing that you could tell from the other end of the portal?”
Serafina shook her head as they all got up to leave. “Since the portal just led to my kitchen the only people who had access were me, my mommy, daddy, all the servants in our house, my pets-”
“So screwed.” Lux muttered.
“Let the apocalypse begin.” Jet huffed angrily as she adjusted her black fingerless glove on her left hand.
Ersa sighed “Let’s go guys.”
“I can follow the trail.” Serafina stated, making everyone look at her.
“What?” Amber cocked her head.
Serafina nodded, dark green hair flying about. “There’s a faint magic trail I can sense left by the demons.”
“Wait!” Lux looked at her, eyes wide. “Demons? As in plural?!”
“Yeah. There’s at least two.”
Lux whimpered at this and clutched his dagger tighter.
“Let’s hurry, then!” Chan held the door open for everyone. “Lead the way, Serafina.”
Dear gods in Heaven, Ersa silently prayed as they all dashed madly around the halls, following Serafina as she led them down the trail. Please let it be a lower class demon. Though she knew better. Only the truly powerful creatures could survive a trip through a portal. At least based off of what she’d read that was the case. She glanced at Serafina in wonder yet again. She may look like a ditzy girl, but she was really a demon packing a powerful punch. If she had more self-control, she’d be on par with Ersa, maybe even professor Soji. She stiffened at the thought and straightened her shoulders a little more.
Serafina stopped running suddenly, as though sensing something.
The others stopped, too.
Suddenly they heard a massive roar echo the halls, followed by destructive booming noises and panicked shrieks from students.
“Kuro!” Serafina’s eyes went wide with fear as she ran off at break-neck speed. “My black kitty! Don’t worry, Kuro! I’m coming!”
“Dammit!” Lux groaned.
Suddenly the dark halls filled with flashing red lights as alarms blared. An automated voice system commanded everyone head towards the ballroom in the center of the school and that this was not a drill.
“We have a ballroom?” Lux asked as Ersa took off in the opposite direction of the center.
“Duh.” Jet responded.
Bright red arrows appeared on the walls and flashed in the opposite direction they were running. Ersa led them down the halls. She had nearly memorized a map of the school, it was just this final turn she couldn’t quite remember. Was it left to go out or right?
She decided to try the right.
Bursting through the door they came to not the outside, but a smoky lab with glowing vials of potions scattered all about. A small black cat was perched high on one of the shelves. She looked them all over and cocked her head to the side, as though reprimanding them for entering her domain.
“Here Kuro!” Lux called, holding out his hand to the black cat.
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Ersa sighed. “That’s not Kuro.”
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“How would you know? It’s a black cat. Serafina kept going on about her black kitty.”
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“This one’s not demonic enough.” Jet sighed, sounding somewhat relieved.
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“What?” Lux looked at the cat as she hit a glowing pink vial down on the countertop, its contents spilling out.
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“I meant to take us outside anyway.” Ersa admitted her mistake as they followed her out.
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“Why out?” Chan asked as they emerged and stood on a balcony. “Oh.” He stood there gaping at the gigantic black demon cat that was clinging to the far side of the university’s walls.
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The huge black beast spat fireballs at several professors and students who were trying to defeat it from the roof.
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“So that’s what a demon really looks like.” Chan gaped at the sight of the black beast with sharp claws that could cut through the toughest of metals and razor sharp fangs that could snap bones with just one bite. Two dark grey horns emitted from its head, just between its pointed ears. Its tail swung wildly at the people who tried desperately to sneak up from behind.
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“Up we go.” Ersa grinned mischievously, casting a spell and running up the wall.
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Jet and Chan immediately followed. Amber and Lux hesitated and remained down below.
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“Amber and Lux,” Ersa hollered back to them. She was about to tell them to go back inside and hunt for Serafina when she suddenly felt the beast’s overwhelming demonic aura.
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Shit. She collapsed to the ground, barely able to breathe. She began coughing up dark blood, her body screaming in pain as though thousands of tiny pinchers were ripping her skin from her body. She looked around and through her blurry vision saw several other students in the same situation she was in. Her vision then began to fade and she could mostly hear an annoying ringing in her ears. This is what I get for using Heavenly Light magic, she chastised. When exposed to so much light, you become more sensitive to the dark. Though with her amount of training, she should be over this shit by now. This must be an extremely high class demon.
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She saw Jet and Chan looking worried as someone else ran towards them.
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She coughed up another clot of dark blood before looking up to see a fist rushing at her, knocking her out cold.
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(Chan)
“WHAT THE HELL?!” Jet glared at Pyaar, more enraged than Chan had ever seen her. She looked like she wanted to rip Pyaar’s entrails out and strangle him with it. Why the hell did he just punch Ersa? Especially when she was clearly in pain? Chan didn’t think Pyaar could sink any lower, but he was proven wrong.
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“YOU SICK PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT!” she raged, about ready to fight him.
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Pyaar’s cold emerald eyes glared at her “AT LEAST IF SHE’S UNCONSCIOUS SHE WON’T BE AFFECTED BY THAT THING!” he yelled back, pointing at the demon that was currently slaughtering several students. Chan felt himself gag as their blood kept dying the roof red. The putrid smell of fresh blood bringing him back to a time long ago when he was little.
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Flashes of bodies and fire littered his mind’s eye before Lux’s voice brought him back.
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“Whoa.” Lux looked at Ersa, who looked at peace now. He and Amber had hurried up when they heard Jet scream. “How the hell did you know that?”
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Pyaar just turned his back in response. “I came here to kick some ass and I don’t want word getting around that the girl who beat my time and threw me through a wall couldn’t even handle a little pest like this.” He said then rushed back into the fray, slamming his golden war hammer into the beasts jaw, making it go slack.
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“Did he really get the second best time?” Amber looked at Chan.
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“For First Years… Actually, yeah.” he looked at her. “His time was paled in comparison to Ersa’s though. I completely forgot.”
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He shook his head, trying to figure out what to do next. A professor ran over to help take Ersa to the infirmary. “I’m going to find Serafina and get her to stop this thing.” he finally decided. “Jet, go help Pyaar. Lux and Amber, make sure Ersa’s okay and help the other students get to the ballroom. Serafina said there’s more than one demon. Let’s just hope there’s only one more.” he shuddered.
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Jet glared at the demon with her magenta eyes. “Stay alive, guys.” she nodded then rushed off to join the others in trying to defeat the demon.
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Chan went back inside through a rooftop door and tried to retrace his steps to find Serafina.
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Demons were immortal, so they couldn’t be killed… Right? But they could be stopped… Like the Demon of Destruction. Maybe there was a way to control it since Serafina seemed to recognize the demon trail?
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Or wait. Did she do this on purpose?! Chan tripped over a rug and regained his footing before speeding down a different hallway. No, she wouldn’t… She was too scatterbrained for something like that. And her tears from earlier seemed genuine. But maybe-
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Holy Terra! That was her!
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He slammed on the breaks and ran back to the open door he had just passed.
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“Serafina!” Chan breathed heavily. “Serafina! We… need… your… help!” he gasped as he entered the moonlit room.
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Serafina was on her knees, getting bathed in the light of the nearly full moon. Wasn’t there some sort of rumor that demons were their strongest under the full moon? Or was that werewolves…
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As Chan stepped closer, the putrid metal smell of blood and rotting flesh hit his nose. His stomach dropped as he gingerly stepped forward. As he did so, he saw her shoulders shaking. There was something dark pooling around her on the floor, blood he assumed. But whose was it? As he got closer, he could hear her sobbing. “Serafina?” he whispered softly. He hesitantly touched her shoulder. As he did so, she whipped her head around, eyes completely black save for the bright purple in her eyes, which was now glowing. Chan shot back, putting his hands up, fearing the worst. Black tears were streaming down her pale face, her demonic features terrifyingly portrayed.
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“Why?” she sobbed. In her hands was a tiny white kitten dyed red with blood, entrails draped all around. It looked like it had been brutally murdered and mercilessly left for dead.
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Chan slowly backed up, fearing for his life as Serafina shook with rage and power.
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“Kuro was always so kind.” She sobbed into the lifeless kitten. “He always drank all his milk and made me feel less lonely, like I had friends.” She paused. “But Shiro.” She stiffened, looking off into the night. She began breathing heavily, letting the anger and rage inside her well up. Horns began to break through her skull and twist around as she spoke, sounding more and more evil with each word. “Shiro was always jealous of his brother!” She growled angrily, voice deepening. Her body began to grow and mutate into a monstrous dark creature. Her teeth and nails began to sharpen and grow. “Shiro always picked on Kuro! He’d always hit him, bite his tail, scratch and claw at him, he was so mean!!” Her body had mutated so much that it blocked out nearly all the moonlight from the large window. “AND NOW KURO’S DEAD! HE’S DEAD BECAUSE OF SHRIO!!!” she opened her wide mouth and let out a wild rage-filled battle cry that made Chan nearly wet himself from sheer terror. With that single roar, Serafina managed to break nearly every glass item within a twenty foot radius of her.
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She leapt out the window and flew off into the night, Chan assumed to exact revenge upon her dead pet.
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“D-dear gods…” Chan was shaking all over from fear and exhaustion. “What has been unleashed upon Iilrona?” he stared out at the moon, unsure what to do. He’d never felt so terrified in his life.
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(Kai)
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Kai panted heavily as he rushed through the halls of the university. He felt sore and still swollen, but he couldn’t miss this phenomenon! A demon here in the mortal world! And it was currently attacking several dozen students and faculty on the roof.
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He was happy Chan had been able to sneak his kunai and chain into the infirmary earlier. He ran around the final corner and rushed outside, hospital gown flapping in the wind. He had stopped only long enough to put on some underwear. Since the infirmary was on the first floor, Kai had quite a climb ahead of him. He threw his chain to the top of the mile-high wall and used it to propel himself up.
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He stood flabbergasted for a moment at the sight of horror before him. There were dead and dying students and faculty everywhere. Every attack on the monstrous beast just made it angrier and angrier. Shit, even Professor Soji looked like he was struggling.
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Kai took a deep breath and ran forward to help. Before he got to the beast, something huge and dark sped past, colliding with the demon cat and sending it flying across the field surrounding the school towards the edge of Fariyoh Forest.
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Kai ran to the edge of the building along with several others.
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Many students, and even professors collapsed from this new dark aura that seemed to engulf everyone’s soul. Kai felt his chest hurt as he stared into the dark.
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“Holy shit!” he heard a voice he recognized. He turned and saw Jet a few feet over. He walked over to her. She had a few bloody scratches and scrapes, nothing too serious.
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“What do you see?” Kai asked. Her eyes were glowing a light green from a night vision crystal. She gave one to Kai and he looked down to see two huge beasts looking like they were talking-no, arguing with each other.
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“Hmph.” He heard Pyaar’s gruff voice from the other side of Jet. “It ain’t every day you get to see two demons square up. Take notes, Jet. Maybe you’d learn a thing or two.”
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Jet punched Pyaar’s arm with her gloved hand, sending a shockwave up and down his body. He stumbled and nearly fell, but stayed silent.
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“Oh my gods!” Jet stared at them. “That’s… that must be Serafina! I’d recognize that bright purple aura anywhere!” Kai looked closer and, though she was mutated into a frightening monster, he could still see it was their teammate.
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“Wait,” a fellow student walked over, the left side of his face and body scratched up, bleeding heavily “You know her?”
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“Bitch is our roommate.” Pyaar glared out and crossed his arms.
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Wait a moment, Kai let the wheels turn in his head.
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“What?!” a tall girl with a missing hand wrapped in bloodied bandages joined their conversation. “They let a demon into this school?!” her eyes went wide with fear. “Oh, hell no. Fuck this shit. I’m so done! I’m transferring ASAP!” she stomped away, clearly done.
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“What?!” the guy ran after her. “Babe! C’mon.” he hollered before getting out of earshot.
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“We’re gonna get so much shit for this.” Jet said almost sadistically.
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“Ain’t nothing I’m not used to.” Pyaar shrugged.
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“So we now have the most loved and the most hated girls on the whole campus on our team.” Kai stared out at the demons.
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They waited for a few moments before Serafina and the cat suddenly rushed at each other. They began moving so fast, not even those who excelled in speed magic could keep up with the action.
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“What kinda bullshit it this?!” Pyaar yelled angrily then cupped his hands over his mouth. “Serafina! Slow the fuck down! We wanna see what’s going on!”
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Almost as though she heard him, Serafina stopped suddenly, holding the cat above her head as it squirmed, trying to wriggle its way out. Serafina looked like she barely had a scratch on her, while the demon can looked like it had just been plowed over by a grass cutter.
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“Now that’s more like it.” He nodded his approval as Serafina roared and brought the cat down over her knee, breaking its back. Kai heard a few students gasp or yell in disgust. The monster that was Serafina then threw the cat on the ground and broke all its limbs one at a time. Several students began throwing up at the sight. Finally she grabbed it by the tail and swung it over her head like a lasso, slamming it into the ground next to her.
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She then stood back and waved her hands in an unfamiliar pattern to Kai. A moment later, she had summoned a magic circle, taking everyone aback.
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“What the actual fuck?!” Jet’s petite face was twisted in awe, jealousy and terror. “S-she just summoned a magic circle….. SHE FUCKING SUMMONED IT!” she stood back, as though truly grasping what sort of power Serafina had.
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The beast writhed in pain and let out a terrible gurgling noise as its body was seared from the inside out, before disappearing into black dust.
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Serafina breathed heavily as she collapsed on to her knees, black tears streaming down her face as she slowly mutated back into an innocent looking girl with pointed ears.
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“Dear gods, that was so awesome!” Pyaar smirked and turned.
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Kai had to agree, it was pretty cool. But the aftermath was not worth the few moments of “cool” exuded by the two demons.
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All around him was death and destruction of the school and people’s morale.
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He prepared himself for what was to come next and followed Jet and Pyaar down to the ballroom.