I feel as if my head is about to split apart from the inside, like something’s trying desperately to escape.  I grab my head, falling out of my sprint, my face falls forward hitting the ground, scraping away my face at incredible speed. I begin shaking violently, veraciously, clawing and hitting myself.  What, is, happening?!

My mind goes blank.

Before Ifrit can understand what’s going on, Thomas has the beast by its throat, latching onto it with his teeth.  With a violent swing of his head, he rips open the beast’s throat, its black blood gushes forth with intensity, as its main arteries are ripped and exposed. 

This, this is amazing! Thinks Thomas in the recesses of his mind, the blood, the warm black blood! All that could be heard throughout the space, was the sounds of flesh being torn and discarded.  The adrenaline pumping through Thomas was enough for a legion of men, his heart, trying it’s very best to pump the thick blood in his veins. 

Soon, it became something like a siren’s song, the ripping and the tearing echoed throughout the area.  As the sound of crackling laughter attracts even more delicious beasts.  “It’s my lucky day” He screeches; blood rushing from his mouth, his nails seemingly became harder, sharper, with every tear.

Thomas, having been fully taken over by his animalistic instincts; lets out a loud and terrifying laugh.  It’s enough to make Ifrit, who until now, had been watching in pure shock, become startled, and fearful.  “I Love It!” He shouts.  “The blood, so much blood!”

“What the hell has he become? This isn’t my magic… all he has is a magic circle on his back and its barely in effect right now, is something cancelling out my power?”  “This……. No, it couldn’t be…” She shudders as she looks on in horror.

Thomas stands upon a mound of corpses, monsters of various race, and size, torn to shreds, their blood pooling underneath them.  It can’t be, she thinks.  It absolutely can’t be! She begins to have flash backs to a certain horrific event in her world’s history.  The scene in front of her, its almost identical, to the massacre. 

Having burned through his rush of adrenaline, Thomas became quite tired, the things he did, the ripping, the tearing, it wasn’t all his doing.  Something was in control, it was as if he was being piloted by something within him.  He looks on, seeing the mound of monster flesh and bone; the blood still dripping from his hands and mouth; “What the hell…” He says under his breath. 

“What the…. Did I do all this?” “I did, I did, I saw it all, but I wasn’t the one moving! Or I was…? No… I don’t know…”

“I did this…. Ha-ha-ha wow!”

“That’s a ton of blood!”  Looking at the pool that’s formed in the middle of the floor, it’s an un-godly amount. 

Was this Ifrits magic? It felt so natural, so good! Like it was coming from my very core, the void, deep in my gut.  It doesn’t feel wrong at all, in fact I’m elated! This is phenomenal, it’s not like it was a human or something, it was just some monsters, and they wanted to kill me, so, no harm done, right?

Thomas starts to laugh almost hesitantly, should he really be laughing right now? “Hey! Ifrit!” “Look it’s a literal bloodbath!” Pointing down to the collection of beast blood on the floor, with a laugh.  

Ifrit, although shocked, doesn’t want to show her concern, it couldn’t be what she was thinking, there wasn’t any possible way.  This could be beneficial, if anything, they were in a tight spot, and, having him so ready to kill like this, is far from a hinderance; she convinced herself.

She starts to laugh, “That was amazing Thomas! I didn’t think you had that in you, that was crazy!” “That blood!” “That ripping!” “Look at those nails! Did they get sharper?!” Nudging me in a buddy-buddy way; “Did you sharpen em on the bones? Ha-ha huh? Ha-ha! That was awesome!

“Ifrit! Your magic is incredible! That was insane, I was like a bullet with teeth and claws, weren’t these beasts supposed to be difficult? I just tore through them!”

Ifrit looks away from Thomas; thinking whether to tell him that wasn’t her magic or not.  If I say it’s not, he’ll for sure have a follow-up question, and if I say it was, I’d be lying, and maybe miss out on some information.  I do need to bring him in, I have my orders, so learning everything I can beforehand is crucial; but man, he’s awesome, that was awesome, I kind of want to keep him to myself…...

She lets out a sigh of hesitation, looking at the ground.  “Listen, Thomas, that wasn’t my, that wasn’t my magic.” “I don’t know what that was to be honest.” “While impressive, and just my kind of thing, it wasn’t me.” “Whatever that was, it ended up almost cancelling my magic completely.” “It was something dark, something opposite of my magic, it had a depth to it, I can’t explain it.” She says. 

“Something dark? What do you mean?” Thomas asks. “Don’t hold anything back Thomas, what happened, do you know?” “When you launched at the beast, the circle was active, but, when you started to attack it, it changed, the magic began to dampen.” She explains.

“I wasn’t, I wasn’t in control of my body, I had a splitting headache, like something was clawing my brain.” “There was this rush of power from deep within me, I have no idea what happened.  I got all tingly, the word “Kill”, began repeating, over and over in my head.”

“I don’t know many humans; however, I don’t think this is normal for your species.” “The claws, the teeth? That’s not normal, smile for me?”

I give her a full-face smile, bearing my teeth; “Huh? There, it’s just normal teeth, the sharp teeth you had before are gone, there’s no way you could have torn through with your human teeth, the hides to thick!”

“Ok, so, what does all this mean though, did I change? I did notice my nails were sharp, and hard, but, they look normal now.”

Ifrit held back from answering, she has an inkling to what Thomas could be, but she doesn’t want to say.  The chances of her being right are literally impossible; “I have no idea Thomas…” “regardless of that!” shoots ifrit.

“That **** you just did? Was ******* awesome, I mean really freaking cool.  It reminded me of when I killed that god! You have that same energy if not maybe more.  I would be lying, if I said I didn’t want to use you.” She says with a smile. 

“Just going to come right out with your motives huh? Use me? How refreshingly honest, I mean, I would rather stick together anyway Ifrit, I have no idea where I am.” As I let out a nervous laugh. 

“I want to mold you, have you harness this power, humans shouldn’t have magic, but I think you might.” 

Maybe encountering this world did something, no, no, that’s not possible.  He’s still a human, and he can’t be what I thought earlier, could he?  Maybe that’s why I had to retrieve him? What the hell is up with the void I saw in him? He said something within him, a voice, a power, what the **** is going on?

“I think.” She begins to say, with hesitation in her voice.  “I think, I’m going to turn you into a hero.”

“A hero? Isn’t that cliché, and not to mention I did just massacre a huge gaggle of beasts and a huge guardian.  Does “Hero” really suite someone like me? Would people cheer a “Hero” ripping and tearing, covered in blood?”

“Yes” she says point-blank.  “Throw away whatever, “Knowledge” you have from your books, hero, isn’t what you may think.”  “The term “Hero” is a title held for the strongest of my world.”  “For example, I am called a hero, I don’t do anything, I’m just strong.”

“Oh.” Thomas says sort of disappointed.  “Ok, fine I’ll go along with your plans Ifrit.  I’ll become a “Hero”.  “Does this mean we’re partners of sorts?” He asks. 

“Trust me and everything will go perfect, well not really, but it’s better than nothing.  I’m not omnipotent sadly, and sure, partners.”

“Back to what we were talking about earlier, I might have changed for a bit back there, but I still feel, like me, human, that is, but that wasn’t the actions of a human being, the strength the power.”

“Interesting!” shouts Ifrit.  “I was just wondering, after tasting such raw power, usually there’s a deep change within, like a shift.” So, he can just change back!?  maybe I was wrong, it must be something else.  Thinking back, they were never able to change back, they became locked in a primal state of bloodlust. 

“I still feel like me” as I look at my hands checking for any anomalies; “That rage I felt is gone, I’m just kind of tired now.” “I’ve never felt that way before it was amazing, like all my dark impulses came to light and took over my body!”  “It was so freeing!”

Ifrit has a look of approval on her face, she cannot seem to stop smiling.  “This is incredible! Not only are you still yourself but you still crave the power! I just... I’m at a loss... I can’t believe I got this lucky, you don’t feel bad? No remorse at all?” She asks, cautious but excited.

“Huh? What the hell do you mean lucky? Did you forget where we fell into?” Thomas says with a loud laugh. 

“No, no, it’s just when I first had to find the human who has caused disruptions, I thought it was another egg head or weak douchebag, sometimes we get alerts where humans are close to touching the veil, but it’s never of their own knowledge.  Most of the time they’re just spacing out or on something” “You were the first human, however, that broke it, causing me to move to your world.”

“Wait... is the veil that easy to penetrate, or see?”  “That any shmuck can touch it?”

“No.  Its humans with a gene, that you may have, it changes the DNA of a human, with the possibility, that they could touch magic.” “I lied earlier, when I said, humans absolutely could not use, or touch magic.” “Remember when I told you about how humans had built machines?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“They did other things, horrific things, even by my worlds standards.”

“Some factions of humans, instead of making machines that wouldn’t bear fruit, focused on human experimentation.” “Woman, men, even children.  Some went as far, as to experiment on the fetus’s of expecting mothers.” “While not successful, they continued, creating abominations.  Leaving the woman as shells of their former selves, left to die of their wounds."    

“However, with the passage of time, after the Great Separation, that genome from those experiments survived as a passive gene.” “We let it happen since it wouldn’t amount to anything.” “It never has.” “Without the knowledge of the past, we had concluded that what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, and nothing would happen.” “We kept tabs on your world, since the scientists had survived, but still, nothing.”

“Until now that is, apparently” Thomas interjects.

“Well, maybe, you very well could be a mutation of that gene, but it wouldn’t be this extreme, I don’t think.” She says, seemly unconvinced by her own words.

“Well, I don’t remember touching any veil or using some kind of magic.” “So how did I shatter the veil?”

We look at each other with exacerbation as we sigh in unison.

“Well, if my head didn’t hurt then, it certainly does now.” I say.

“By the way, we should be just in time for the penalty.”

“Penalty? What penalty?” I ask.

My body begins to crackle, and shift, the muscle fibers contract and tighten.  My body feels like it’s being filled with electricity or lava, whatever it is, it feels like it’s killing me!

My body seized, bringing the back of my head backward toward my rear.  My arms began to contort, my legs seized forward unmoving.  I felt as if Zeus himself had smote me with his mighty bolt.  I struggled to move my eyes, trying to meet her gaze.

“Hurk!” Is all I can let out, my jaw is seizing as well, I feel any more pressure could make my teeth shatter from pressure.  “Listen, you didn’t use my magic for long, but you did use a little…. It acts as a magnifier of your current abilities, and since, well, you have none… it had to over-compensate”

All I can do is grit my teeth, hopefully I make it to the other side.  I close my eyes, as lovely as ifrit is to look at, it’s getting harder and harder to hold on.

I halt, as I feel a new pain, my flesh, its breaking apart, I force my eyes open to catch a glimpse of my bare skin. Crackling cuts opening my skin like a river cutting into rock.

It ****** hurts.  All I can do is scream along with the tearing to try and block it out.

Until.  I passed out, again. 

“Hey, Thomas wake up!” She yells, smacking his face repeatedly.

“YO!” I yell, “I’m up!” As I dart up to the sitting position.  “I couldn’t hang on, could I?”

“No” shaking her head

“But you did really good, there’s not usually such a huge penalty, I forget, your just a human, usually it’s just a hard shock.”

“You said nothing of a penalty, why didn’t you at least warn me? I might have just gone without it if I’d known.”

“If I didn’t, I don’t think that whole massacre would have happened, my magic may have played a part in you having “the time of your life.” “Be grateful, it wasn’t as bad as the soul magic, right?” She asks

“Actually?” I hold my hands up in the air, symbolizing them both by degree of hight, they were equal, that **** hurt Ifrit, I’m not used to pain on this damn level.”

“Oh, stop being such a baby, I wouldn’t have let you die, so say thank you!”

“My temper flares; “You li-”

“Li, what….”  She glares.

“Li- lo, lovely flame” I say, wincing a smile and holding my hands together like a snake oil salesman. 

“Ha-ha-ha that’s all you could come up with?! Ha-ha-ha!” “Yeah, no I knew about the penalty, I just omitted it, because I wanted you to go all out and fight without thinking about anything like a penalty” “I had no idea it would trigger something though….” “It was quite the sight, that fight, well, more like massacre, was awesome!”

“That seems extreme, and super loose with my life, so glad it’s in your hands.” I say sarcastically. 

I still have no idea why I’m here; she’s told me a lot, but it’s been mostly conjecture, or guessing, as to what is going on with me, and why she had to retrieve me.  Is she taking me to an otherworldly prison? Who sent her if so? Was she just curious and came to see me on her own? She did say something about orders, but from who?  She did say we are partners, maybe she’s had a change of heart as to what to do with me?