Chapter 1

The noise of people overwhelms my senses. I've always wanted to silence them somehow — I've never felt good enough to step outside and ruin other people's scenery. Either way, I've skipped several days of school. I have to show up, or they'll contact my parents.

Not that they'd really care, but I'd rather avoid the hassle.

The moment I sat down on one of the benches in the school courtyard, something felt off.

Forty minutes had passed since the bell, and I hadn't seen a single person walking around. Did the schedule change? There's only about ten minutes left before they lock the doors.

I headed to my classroom. It was empty.

I checked every room on my floor.

Nobody…

Not a single soul besides my own.

I'd heard about this on the news a few days ago — demons kidnapping crowds of people, devouring them in packs. Like a rabid pack of wolves…

I hope that's not what's happening here. The nearest hunter agency is several minutes away, and I forgot my phone today.

As I reached the third floor, I heard laughter — macabre, sharp, and high-pitched.

Every instinct told me to hide. Whatever was coming, danger was imminent.

"Oh? There's still one left?"

A man with a blood-drenched face staggered toward me, clutching a long, curved blade.

"Kid, you've seriously got some luck," he sneered. "Our Lord is coming soon, so I'll leave you just alive enough to appreciate it."

I spun around and ran — but the hallway kept stretching, growing longer with every step. I looked back.

He was right in front of me.

Urgh—!

Cold. Straight through the abdomen — tearing through my gut—

I dropped to my knees.

My vision blurred. I fought to stay conscious.

Then — darkness.

My eyes wouldn't open. I had no strength left.

I felt my cheek split open. The pain was unbearable. Someone was slicing through my face and I couldn't do a thing…

The deafening roar of something monstrous was drawing closer.

My mind went blank.

A surge of energy erupted from my body.

I heard the man scream.

"He's back up!"

I opened my eyes. The man was holding a severed human arm — and extending it toward the amorphous monster before him. Purple tentacles. Grotesque suckers. An obscenely massive, bloated body, with a gaze straight out of Hell.

The creature looked… surprised.

"It's YOU. How long has it been, you filthy sin."

One of its tentacles came at me like a missile — but I dodged it without thinking.

The man hurled his massive blade. It drove straight through my hand and lodged there.

I grabbed it with my left, yanked it free, and sent it back — straight into his forehead. He dropped instantly.

I launched myself at the monster and shattered one of its tentacles with a single kick.

It refused to go down, so I got personal.

I climbed onto its neck. It thrashed and lurched, trying to shake me off. I drove my right hand into its mouth, grabbed its jaw, and tore it clean off.

It was still moving.

I went back to the man's body, compressed it into a tight ball of flesh and bone, breathed life into it, and hurled it straight at the creature.

Blood and viscera rained through the air — followed by an explosion that put a very definitive end to that repulsive thing.

I walked out of the school. The building was in ruins. The authorities would arrive soon.

"Stupid monster."