Villain

Ren paced in front of the dome's edge. Light faintly refracted off its surface lining the distortions blue with gold.

"If this really is a Spatial Zone, doesn't that mean I can now locate them?"

Aira hovered nearby, wings still. "Even I'm shocked you can sense it, even if faintly." 

Ren stopped in front of the dome again. "I feel something, sure. But I can’t trust it. It’s like pressing my hand against a solid wall. I can’t tell what is beyond it." 

"If your instinct is correct," Aira said flatly, "you can now use the knowledge to keep your sister safe."

Ren turned to her sharply. His expression tightened. "What do you mean by that, Aira?" 

His voice was low and heavy, as if the air itself stilled.

Aira hesitated before speaking. 

"I meant that you can avoid these zones. You can keep your sister, and yourself, from being pulled into danger. You could live a normal life."

Silence returned.

Then...

A twisted laugh echoed from Ren.

"This isn't like you Aira." He said, stepping in front of her. "Don't you remember your tune when you invaded my body?"

He raised his marked hand. "When you burned this into me. Sure, you might not have killed my mother, but heaven couldn't even keep the world balanced. We shouldn't be in this mess to begin with."

Ren locked eyes with her, waiting for something, anything.

"It wasn't that simple..." she was the first to break eye contact, shifting toward the faint barrier behind him. "We don't know what is happening in the underworld. Once heaven noticed they had found a way through the veil, the decision was swiftly passed to descend. Like I said before, it was the only way for human survival."

"Then why not make every human a Seraph?" He asked. "If the threat is that serious, why only pick a selected bunch?"

Aira faced him calmly. "Remember, the Seraph was the original human. Just because there is a threat, doesn't mean all of humanity deserves returning to that form."

"And I did?"

She drifted closer. Her wings folded around him in an embrace that felt both warm and unbearably distant. "I chose you because out of everyone on this world, I believed you deserved it most."

Ren stepped through her and kept walking, refusing the comfort. He moved toward the glistening dome. Its light rippled across his face as his eyes hardened. 

"You're right about one thing." He stretched his hand toward the distortion. "I do want a normal life. But I'm not going to get that just by running, avoiding."

The veil didn't shift as his palm neared it.

"We don't have all the answers yet," he said. He pushed his hand slowly forward as it started disappearing in the veil. "It's clear we are losing right now. So I'm going to use this power to find them all and take back Sayaka's and my peace."

Aira’s form dissolved into faint light as he stepped through the distorted wall.

__________

Grey surrounded Ren as he studied the Spatial Zone. The familiar absence of life that he had encountered before almost comforted him.

As he took his first step forward, he felt something different within the dulled space. 

He sensed movement.

His eyes closed in quiet focus. 

Somewhere ahead, two entities moved rapidly toward him.

Their movements were different though. Jagged. It was almost like they were chasing each other instead of targeting him.

Ren started forward in stride, following the faint signatures down the empty street. The closer he moved along the edges of the streets, the clearer the presences became in his mind. 

He froze.

He could feel it now.

A demon.

A Seraph.

Both locked in a battle of life and death. 

Traces of their movements lingered, like a map drawing itself across the canvas of his mind.

Ren picked up on their motions more clearly as he drew closer. The Seraph was slowing down, drastically as the demon's presence fell on top of them.

Ren slipped through an alleyway. The sounds of struggle and tension could now be heard with his ears. Peeking from the corner, he saw the pair.

A claw pierced through the Seraph's raised body. Blood dripped from where an arm used to be. The trail led to it slumped on the concrete below. He held the claw with his remaining hand, squeezing it in desperation. 

Ren tightened his fists. Not because of the Seraph's final moments, but because the demon looked the same. Thick claws and a long frame. It's black wings slouched behind, half torn. A flashback of the demon over his mom slowed his breathing.

He wasn't going to forgive them, even if he had to stain his hands.

The demon screeched triumphantly as it glared at the helpless Seraph.

 The Seraph through tears and gasps weakly raised his hand, lowering it repeatedly against the shell of the claw.

The demon shifted in place, as if it was laughing at him.

A moment later, it brought the Seraph into its mouth. With each bite came a dying scream.

The Seraph with his upper body now left, noticed Ren watching from a corner. With no strength remaining in his body, his last wave of screams broke into shattered pieces as he stared at Ren. The Seraph tried to open his mouth while looking toward Ren in even more horror.

Ren's finger had lifted to his lips.

Another chomp.

The Seraph's cries finally muted as Ren was the last thing he saw before blurring to black.

Ren watched the demon feed, nerves steady. He silently raised his hand toward the demon. 

The sound of crunching began to slow. 

He had to fire while it was still distracted.

Closing his eyes, he grounded himself. He tried to replicate what he had done in his mother's room, assuming it would be harder when not under immediate stress. However, a familiar faint light began to form around his body as it gathered in his palm. 

Ren took a deep breath.

And released it.

The light swiftly swept through the air, distorting the dullness around it.

The demon noticed just before it reached.

But it was too late.

It landed surely on the side of its torso.

Unlike the first time Ren had used it, this one immediately began to pull the creature inward, pulling every limb toward the center of it's vortex. 

It clawed at the ground, screamed, tried to stretch out of the pull, but the force overpowered it until nothing remained except drifting blood and a cloud of dark mist.

Ren studied the strike, memorizing every detail.

He stilled himself, making sure he couldn't sense anyone else before walking toward the impact site.

He stepped over the Seraph's arm, halting at where the demon had been. This time, no clump of flesh remained. Just the rising black mist of its end.

The wind began to pick up, as if breathing life into the space. The surroundings started to return to color as the afternoon sun reflected on the nearby windows. 

He glanced back at the arm behind him. It had already begun to disappear along with the barrier, leaving behind a white mist.

"White..?" he murmured.

"Divine energy," Aira whispered in his thoughts. "When a Seraph dies, the angel dies. This is another reason why we could not make every human a Seraph. Many angels chose to stay put above." 

"So even angels are scared of death, huh?" Ren turned, feet moving on its own.

The barrier had completely vanished. 

Aira materialized by his side. "Where are you going now, my Seraph?" she asked.

"Isn't that obvious?" he said, closing his interface. "To the next Spatial Zone."

__________

A pair of eyes hid between the veil. Slowing blinking as it watched the city below.

"Not enough," Abaddon murmured.

It turned its head north. 

"Something delicious. Out there."

__________

Fun Fact: Experience goes to the surviving Seraphs in a Spatial Zone.