Essence

Hours passed in a blink of an eye.

Somewhere near the border of Yokohama rested a patch of altered space.

Within it, a drop of sweat fell slowly down shadowed cheeks. 

A breath.

The world around him was dulled to a faint grey. A shimmer too far to touch marked the sky's edge. The evening sun looked helplessly over the transparent dome as it slowly lowered toward the horizon. 

Every second felt like a silent eternity, only disturbed by a single fluttering heartbeat...

...and a shifting whisper.

A random Seraph, resigned to the zone's somber embrace, took a step backward, and then another, inching himself through the area. His uniform was laced with shreds revealing deep gashes. The insignia of SL was torn in half at the shoulder.

A single rod of light flickered in his trembling hands before disappearing.

"Come on," he whispered.  "I refuse to die here."

The buildings seemed to shift at his voice. He halted near an intersection, collapsing to a knee.

A shadow unlike the rest darted between the alleyways and corridors.

His head spun toward a noise behind him. A whisper of wind where there was none. 

Empty.

Stumbling to his feet, he rushed toward a nearby lamppost, pressing his back against its cold spine.

Slowly rotating himself around it, his eyes peeled for any irregularities.

Nothing moved. 

The buildings remained still, frozen in time. Nothing of life seemed to exist. But he knew, it wasn't that simple. 

He had seen it.

Before he ran away.

"If only I wasn't so eager to get stronger," he whispered. "I wouldn't be in this position."  

"...Eager to get stronger." 

His words came out again, similar. 

He froze.

Again? 

His mouth didn't even open.

He slowly lifted his gaze to where he thought it came from. The withered light source beamed down on him enough for his eyes to squint. 

Yet there was nothing.

Before he turned away, movement caught the corner of his eye.

He froze his gaze upward, where a piece of the light flickered. 

Time seemed to have stilled as, one after the other thin pieces of shadow gripped the luminaire fixture. 

Finally, a head poked out, revealing a faceless entity with a large mouth. 

The demon faced his direction in anticipation.

It was on the light post?

The demon spoke again. "Eager... stronger." 

This time, it came out fragmented. It was as if it had already forgotten what he had said, or someone else currently motivated it more.

Its mouth stretched open, revealing a hollowed darkness where only jagged teeth were sharply visible. A wail escaped, faintly shaking the surrounding area.

The Seraph pushed himself backward and swiftly pressed his hands against his ears. His clothes shook against the sound wave. Blood began to trickle through his fingers as he collapsed to his knees.

A moment passed before it stopped.

The demon swiftly coiled itself down the pole. Each limb of shadow and flesh left behind splintered prints on the metal as it lunged from the pole's center toward him.

The Seraph's body still shook in shock. With a single eye open, he pushed himself up using sheer willpower. 

He had to be quick. 

His shaking legs turned and bolted with renewed strength; a combination of the help of the Seraph system and adrenaline. But he knew speed wasn't his specialty. 

He had placed his few points equally into strength and magic. 

He gulped at the chilling tatter of claws on pavement closing in.

"Nora," he cried. "How... do I beat this thing?"

The demon shrieked behind him, interrupting his internal conversation with a deafening familiarity. It was still using his voice, bringing a different kind of chill that ripped through the last of his nerves. 

"You're telling me that?" he glanced back as he turned a corner.

"That was a human before?" 

He continued down the street before realizing the noise of chase ceased behind him.

He turned.

It was gone.

His head shifted around, studying every cranny near the corner's edge.

"Nora, what..." he whispered through panting breaths. "Do you mean that it wasn't a demon..."

A flash of pain spiked through his neck.

The demon had its teeth sunk into his shoulder.

Where did it even come from? 

The Seraph's free hand quickly raised toward the demon, trying to pull it off him. His muscles, given to him by the system, felt useless. 

He was too tired.

The demon pulled away, tearing a chunk of the Seraph's body with it.

The Seraph fell to the ground, blood slowly spreading on the pavement with each dwindling heartbeat.

His eyes began to blur as he watched it devour the chunk of flesh before shrieking triumphantly in his voice.

The demon walked toward where he lay. 

A pool of blood had formed around the Seraph's body, almost as if it was trying to keep the cooling body warm externally. 

His cracked lips parted. A faint whisper carried his remaining life.

"...Ban...shee..."

With that, all color in his eyes dulled to finality.

The demon stood over the mutilated body, opening its mouth once more. Instead of expending air, it started to inhale.

Faint white lights, brightened like snow made of glass, started to lift upward from the body. 

The demon drew the essence into its mouth like a vacuum.

The Seraph's body crumbled into floating dust as the Spatial Zone began to fold in on itself.

With each passing second, the mortal plane revealed itself, leaking the last of true sunlight near the horizon.

The barrier finally slipped away, cutting off the path between worlds.

Inside that veil of mortality, the demon paused over a body no longer there. Its mouth sealed shut, showing a full smoothness to its face like it was never there to begin with.

It held still, like a machine waiting to be turned on.

Then, it raised its head south, and smoothly moved toward it. Streaks of shadow and dark mist caped the dulled pavement behind it.

Moments later, it clawed up a stilled building towering the highest point of Yokohama: the Yokohama Landmark Tower.

The darkened water of Tokyo Bay reflected its ascent in the light of a moon that had now poked itself from the horizon.

At the building's highest point awaited Abaddon. 

Its form stretched wide in front of the rising moon... it was clear that it had grown larger and thicker.

The faceless demon reached the building's top before it continued toward Abaddon. It collided with Abaddon's dark flesh and disappeared into its body.

Abaddon shifted. Its muscles relaxed before hardening and expanding.

"Eager," it murmured. "...to get stronger."

It gazed ahead, facing north.

"Go," it whispered. "Bring the source."

With a lift of its hand, two more faceless demons slipped off its frame, shaping in front of it. The pair swiftly moved across the roof, disappearing down the tower's edge.

Abaddon stood firm, with nothing but a silhouette in the center of a dim, rising moon.

__________

Shin Amakari hurried toward waiting cars in front of the headquarters building. His expression was filled with pride and anticipation.

An Oracle—the class of one of the lower-leveled Seraphs in his company—felt that the big demon that had been going on a killing spree the past week has reached Yokohama.

He looked at the open door being held by another member of the SL. He slipped into the back seat as the door closed beside him. He stared at the SL agent through tinted glass. The thought that most of the members were of a lower level out of fear for their lives was understandable.

It just meant he had to be the hero to but everyone's mind at ease. And it starts by leading this convoy to Yokohama.

The cars rushed out of the parking lot. In another car following behind sat Yuna and Detective Noboru. 

"Why do I have to sit with this old man again?" Yuna muttered. "Shin should have invited me to his car!"

She faced the window. Her legs rested on the dash as her chair leaned backward slightly.

"You know he prefers his own company, don’t you?" Noboru responded, an unlit cigarette between his lips. "Besides, you should focus yourself. We’re here to back him up once we find that demon."

Yuna didn’t respond. Her mind drifted somewhere else.

A chill.

Then, a sneeze.

"You okay, Yuna?" Noboru asked.

Yuna glanced between both side windows as if searching for something. After a moment, she relaxed.

"Yeah, I am okay." She laid back in her seat. "Let's get this over with. I'm tired."

Noboru smirked as he kept pace with the cars ahead.

__________

Ren stood untouched in front of rising mist of ink.

"I think I am getting the hang of this," he whispered.

He tapped his mark on his hand, closing the interface that was in front of him.

The dullness of the world began to open to color. As the veil started to vanish, the world revealed a darkening sky that lay vast above him.

Nothing but the crisp light of the moon filled its void.

"Is it that late?" he muttered. "I guess I'll head home now."

Aira floated next to him. "It looks like you made decent progress," she whispered.

"...Shhh."  

He lifted a finger to his lips.

Ren's ears twitched to the sound of many wheels spinning aggressively south. 

His range definitely increased. He closed his eyes, zooming in on the beings in the cars.

Seraphs.

He could tell.

Ren scanned each car before stopping on familiar faces. It was the detective and the pipsqueak. The pink-haired Seraph sneezed, shifting her head from side to side as if looking for someone before returning to her laid-back position.

"It was as if she knew she was being thought about," he whispered to himself before opening his eyes. "Impressive."

Aira murmured, "Find something interesting? Are you interested in those Seraphs?"

Ren shook his head.

"They must be heading somewhere important," he whispered. "No matter. It doesn't concern me."

He turned toward the direction of his home. 

"I hope Sayaka forgives me for leaving her alone." 

He made his way down the sidewalk, with Aira floating silently by his side.

__________

Sayaka paced across the living room hallway. She had been awake for a few hours now, wondering where Ren had run off to. 

At first, she called for him in the silent house before checking to see if he was asleep. When she realized he wasn’t in the building and had vanished, she tried calling his phone. 

The issue was that with each ring, she heard a vibration near his sheets. When she went to check, his phone lay there partially covered by a pillow.

She decided to wait for him to return. But he had better be ready for an earful when he stepped through that door.

She turned toward the sound of the main door clicking open.

She stood with her arms planted on her hips as Ren walked through.

"How dare you, Ren," was the first thing said.

__________

Ren Kurosawa

Level: 8
Age: 17
Race: Seraph
Class: Arcanis Seer
HP: 1700 (Note: Increasing all health going forward with base of 1000)
MP: 6
Strength: 2
Magic: 1
Agility: 1
Intelligence: 1
Faith Points: 0