The night passed by so fast once I got to my room. I could barely sleep. 

As I walked to the meeting room, the thought of what would go down was going around and around in my head. Would we really have a relaxed day for once? Would something good come out of this?

All of those thoughts went away the moment I entered it. There, I saw Martha. But, where I hoped to see Mark sitting down, Ness was instead, with Mark nowhere to be seen. I greeted both of them, sitting down besides Martha. The air felt awkward, which was probably the reason why Ness broke the ice first

-I’m guessing you were getting bored in your rooms?- He said, in a cheeky tone. Very much mocking us. 

-Hey, we gotta be prepared in case anything comes up. You never know when Anima could attack- Martha responded quickly, trying to break up the situation. 

-Yeah, I guess you’re right- He seemed to quiet down after some time, but it wasn’t long before he asked -So, were you two up to anything interesting yesterday? I didn’t see either you two nor Mark at all- He gave me a side eye as he asked.

-We were training. Martha and Mark thought it best to catch me up to speed with the rest of you- I tried to not move my right hand much as to not bring attention to the Bracelet. All my gestures were done with my left

-So that’s why I heard a lot of commotion from the training room when I passed by it. Makes sense- He chuckled a bit.

Something about the way he was talking, it gave me a bad feeling about this whole thing. But I tried to brush it off. It probably wasn’t anything. 

After a while, the mission alarm started to blare out. We waited for Mark to appear so we could go on the mission, but they weren’t showing up. As we waited for a bit, Ness stood up looking at us

-What are you two waiting for? The alarm’s going off. We should go- He asked this a bit mad

-Oh, sorry, we were waiting for Mark. Maybe it’s a good idea if the three of us go, I feel like we’re all that’s necessary- Martha responded to Ness’ question, to which Ness cut her off

-Nah, I think the three of us will be fine. It should be easy to deal with. After all, the three of us are the heavy hitters- 

Martha and I looked at each other. Why wasn’t Mark here? Did they oversleep? Were they okay? There was no way for us to know without leaving the mission to Ness, and that would be a dumb mistake. 

Martha and I got up quickly and ran through the portal before Ness crossed through.

The portal led us to the middle of a city square in Dubai. People were running around frantically, as we saw multiple fires going on around us. In front of us, we saw the ones causing the destruction. 

Lumina was there, frantically going around killing people with a sword

James was there, lighting fires to buildings and small bus stops.

And… Iris was there. She was rushing through buildings, bringing them down easily. 

Martha quickly turned on her armor before Ness crossed through. 

-You said it would be Lumina, Dee, and James! Where’s Dee?!- She asked this confusedly before running off to go after Lumina.

-I don’t know, I thought that was the situation too!- As I said this, Martha quickly ran towards Lumina. I was about to run towards James, but, Ness stopped me, holding my shoulder 

-Oh, don’t worry, I’ll take out James. You go after that blonde chick- As he said this, he ran towards James, his Dragoon Armor being set up, with the knives ready in his hands. 

I was left to go after Iris. I had never fought her, and I only knew what she could do from word of mouth.

The plan was already not going as expected.

I got in front of Iris as she came out of one of the buildings, hitting her right in the head, while trying to bring her to the ground. My punch did impact, but she quickly back flipped in order to stay on her feet. She laughed as she saw me

-So, the little deserter finally returns!- As she said this, she summoned her armor. She was doing all that in her civilian clothes. She would be strong

-Oh shut up, as if you knew half the shit I went through!- I shouted this back as I set up my gauntlets, covering up the extensions of the bracelet.

-Well, it must’ve been hard enough for a little baby like you to leave their team defenseless- She laughed maniacally as she said this, as she prepared her rapier -But that doesn’t matter. You’re the person from the team I’ve been looking forward to thwarting the most before I take care of that demonic bitch!- She rushed towards me after saying this, with her rapier out in front of her

-Heh, you say that as if it’ll be easy!- I responded with a shout, before knocking her rapier to the side and hitting her on the side of her torso. Since I didn’t activate Power Lust or Fire Witch, it didn’t affect her much. It just made her flinch. She quickly side-hopped after the punch, and sliced my left arm with her rapier, before kicking my side and launching me to the nearest building’s last support. As my back cracked it, the whole building started to break down. I quickly activated Fire Witch, and held two Novas towards the sky. I still felt the impact of a bunch of the rubble, but once the whole building fell, I came out mostly fine. As I looked towards the rubble to my side, I noticed all of the corpses that were left. People that didn’t get out of the building in time to escape.

I quickly got up back to my feet and quickly ran towards Iris, with both Novas still charged in my hands. I quickly hit her in the head again. This time, it hit her with enough force to push her back a bit, which I followed up by launching both my Novas towards her, first the water one, then the electricity one. I kept running towards her after the Novas hit in order to try to keep attacking, but after recovering herself, she quickly began walking back.

-I expected more from the prodigal child. It really seemed like your team had gotten worse after you left. At least before they all got those fucking armors- She said this while laughing as she dodged so effortlessly. She was getting on my nerves with her attitude. But surprisingly, I didn’t feel like my demon wanted to come out at any point. It felt like I was in full control. 

-Can you please shut up?!- I shouted this as I quickly charged two other Novas and launched them in quick succession at her. She slashed both Novas with her rapier, cutting them up and sending them in different directions. 

-Oh, gladly- As she said this, she quickly appeared right in front of my face, with a mad look upon her face -Right after you die- Her voice seemed a lot colder compared to her previous statements, and as she finished this last part, her sword began to shine, as if being charged up like a Nova.

As the sword reached its peak glow, she quickly began stabbing at me. 

All her strikes felt like a fire burning inside my body, as she stabbed over and over again, all around my body. My arms, my legs, my torso, it all got affected. I tried to get out of the way, but her armor seemed to make her a lot faster than me. I couldn’t get out.

Eventually, she stabbed me right in the stomach. I quickly spat blood as I received the strike, and slowly buckled to my knees.

-I really thought you’d be stronger. For the person everyone hyped up, you were disappointing- She laughed a bit as her armor began to dissipate, kicking me on my side, making me fall to the ground. She slowly began to walk away

As my consciousness faded, my gauntlets began to disappear, revealing my bracelet and its extension. As it did, the thought crossed my mind. Should I activate the armor now, revealing this secret I had to the enemy? Or should I try activating Power Lust, despite it not feeling like the demon was raring to come out? 

Or maybe, all my attempts for everything I was gonna do would be for naught.

I chose the safer option. I tried to activate Power Lust. As I did, I could see the red marks from my hand begin to spread around, encasing my whole body. Seeing that, I thought I was done for, I thought that was the sign that the demon would take over permanently.

But instead, my body began to shed a purple aura. I could feel the pain of the stab begin to disappear, as my energy came back to me. I looked up towards Iris, and slowly began to stand up. As I did, Iris turned to my direction again, and as she saw me, her expression turned sour.

-You are fucking kidding me! Just stay dead! You are worthless!- She quickly prepared two rapiers as she reactivated her armor. 

I smiled as I began to pull out the sword from my stomach. As it left my body completely, the sword burst into flames, disappearing with the wind. 

-Us? Die? Oh no little one- As I spoke, two voices came out of my mouth. Mine and the demon’s -We’re just getting started!- We chuckled as a copy of the bracelet appeared on my second hand, forming a second semi gauntlet. Our hands quickly charged up a pair of fiery Novas, using the excess energy from Fire Witch. Iris tried to activate her armor again, but as she began, we moved at a lightning fast speed right in front of Iris, hitting her right in her face. The impact of the punch launched her back quite a distance, but we didn’t relent there. As she stayed in the air, we kept moving ahead of her, and kept punching her to the ground repeatedly, making her bounce with each hit, keeping the momentum of the initial launch. As she finally reached a wall, she hit it with such impact that she caused a crater. 

Both her mouth and her nose were spewing blood, and she looked tired. It didn’t look like she could continue to fight. We quickly charged up a Witch Nova, while still facing her.

Despite looking tired, she looked at us, with a shut down look on her face

-So this is it. Despite him dying a stupid way, I’m about to die in the same exact manner- She chuckled as she said this, with it turning into a cough halfway through

As she finished coughing, we just stood there with the Novas staying charged. Her expression began to turn sour as she looked at us.

-Come on, do it, finish me off- Her voice was quiet, as if she had already accepted her fate. But, as I stood there, I quickly deactivated this new form I obtained, absorbing the Witch Novas back into my body. The red cracks slowly receded back into my hand.

-Nah, I won’t. You’d be easy prey- As I said this, with my voice now back to normal, I slowly began to walk away, looking towards the direction of where Ness and James’ fight. As I did, I could hear Iris growling

-Don’t walk away from me! Give me an honorable death!- She quickly got off the wall, and tried to run towards me, but fell to the ground

-Sadly, that won’t be my job. You owe someone else that, and I won’t take that from them- I quickly dashed away towards Ness and James. 

I turned around to look at Iris, just to see what she would do. A portal had appeared close to her, and while still mad, she went back to her base to recover.

She was not my threat to kill. Based on what Dee said, her kill was up to Martha and Lumina for what she caused them. 

For now, we had to get the plan back on schedule.

END OF CHAPTER 36