Five

The giant goat demon began marching towards Vanya. She was still comprehending what happened to her gravity balls. She'd been to many battles before, but her gravity balls were never smashed into pieces like that. Deflected yes, but breaking them as the demon did earlier that was a revelation to her.

This goat demon might not be just an ordinary lesser demon she thought he was. She glanced briefly behind her and saw the fleeing figure of the boy. Now, she had one less to worry about.

Vanya faced the demon and raised her handguns again.

"Miyuki, can you do a quick scan on this demon? He just smashed my gravity balls," she requested to her companion on the other line.

"Yeah, saw it too. I was also surprised when it happened," she paused for a moment. "I'm doing a quick scan right now, but it seems that the goat demon is just an ordinary lesser demon. Let me rescan it again. I might miss something. In the meantime, buy me some time while I analyze the demon thoroughly. Make sure to not get too far away from the demon while I'm analyzing it."

Vanya just sighed in frustration as she wanted to finish this quickly. Unfortunately, fates had other plans for her. She began firing her handguns again while the goat demon marched forward.

"Surround him!" she shouted.

The goat demon halted his movements and looked around him. Hundreds of gravity balls began surrounding him. He clenched his fists preparing to smash the gravity balls again.

"Drop!" Vanya yelled while backtracking from the demon.

The gravity balls suddenly started freefalling towards the demon. Some balls hit directly the goat demon creating a loud cracking sound from the shattered bones. But the majority of the gravity balls were smashed and kicked into pieces through inhuman speed. The demon was fast despite the injury he'd obtained from the gravity balls he missed smashing.

But at the same time, Vanya noticed that the demon was panting heavily. He might smash the majority of her attacks, but the others took a toll on him.

Unfortunately, he was not the only one panting. Vanya had been releasing hundreds of gravity balls already, and she could feel that she can only shot a few more before her she faints.

What to do now, she thought. "Miyuki please tell me that you're done analyzing this demon. I'm running out of juices." Her tone was almost like she was pleading to her partner.

"Yes! I just finished analyzing the demon's core, and something is off about it."

All demons created by the opposing Ancients had a demon's core found at the center of their bodies. The exorcist's main job was to destroy the core, so the human possessed by it can return to normal.

"What's wrong with his core? Aside from the fact, that it's a demon core," she teased Miyuki while keeping her eyes at the demon. The goat demon was having a hard time marching his way to Vanya as there were visible injuries all over his body.

"Remember that all demon's core colors should be in black color, right?" Miyuki confirmed with Vanya.

"Yeah, that's one of the first few lessons taught at the academy."

"Well, the one you're facing right now has black color," she paused for a few seconds, "with a mixture of red-orange colors in it. It looks like lava encased in a sphere form," she finished.

"What?" Vanya's brows creased and looked at the chest of the goat demon. "What the hell they did to his demon? Are you saying that our system has no record of it?"

Miyuki replied to her, but Vanya no longer heard her as the demon surprisingly launched his body in the air. As he started to fall from the gravity, he raised his two arms and clasped his hands together. He was planning to smash her from the fall.

She quickly fired her guns above him. "Push back!" As soon as she shouted those words, two gravity balls formed before him in mid-air. He unclasped his hands and smashed them into the gravity balls breaking them again.

When he was about a few meters below the ground, he could no longer see the figure of the red-haired girl. She used that chance as a distraction to escape from him.

He came crashing on the ground creating a huge wave of impact sending the cars and trees flying in all directions while some of the foundations of the stores nearby were hit also shattering all the glass windows and wrecking the whole area from the impact.

Meters away from the epicenter of the monster's fall, Vanya secured a safe position from the wreckage. She was panting heavily and feeling light-headed now. She was hiding in another alley where she sat on the ground while resting her head on the wall.

"Miyuki, I need back up. Please. There's a civilian involved, and I don't know if I could rescue him in this condition," Sweats began forming around her forehead while she no longer had the energy to rise from her position.

"Don't worry, the moment I found the irregularity on the demon's core I've already requested for a backup. But Vanya, you need to get up! If you don't move, the demon will kill you. He's fast approaching your position now," Miyuki pleaded at her.

Vanya laughed briefly at Miyuki. "Let him. I can still manage to shoot one bullet of my gravity ball."

From the background, Vanya could hear the stomping sound as the goat demon marched towards her. Every second the dreadful sound inched closer at her.

*****

As soon as Vanya gave him the order to run, Yavin found a two-story store and that was where he hid. He came inside the store and found it was a clothing store for men's and women's formal wear. Everything looked so similar to the place where they came from. He couldn't still believe that he was trapped right now to a parallel Rockvale City, an astral plane where magic can be manifested.

But he felt powerless right now. He wanted so badly to help the exorcist named Vanya. From the sound of ruckus outside, it seemed that she was having a hard time exorcising the demon.

He couldn't make himself sit on the corner as adrenaline continuously pumped throughout his system. He was pacing around the store then a deafening sound startled him. The ground shook for a moment and looking at the outside, he saw cars and trees thrown out from the impact.

"Vanya!" He immediately marched out of the store and saw from the distance the figure of the demon marching towards an alley.

Vanya must be in there, he thought.

He dashed towards them thinking that he must save her even though he didn't know how. He remembered what Vanya said to him earlier that magic be coursing through his blood, so that was why he's transported into this plane along with them.

Whatever magic I have right now in this body, please I summon you now! He screamed the hell out while yelling on top of his lungs to get the attention of the goat demon.

But the goat demon appeared to ignore him while he continued his slow march to the alley.

When the goat demon was inches away from the alley, he noticed the small figure of a man running towards him. He was yelling at him. The demon found a lamppost near him. He pulled it from its stand and raised it above his head. Then hurled the lamppost towards the direction of the young man.

Yavin saw what was coming to him, and it was too late to dodge it now. Then the next thing he knew, an agonizing pain somewhere on his stomach erupted.

The lamppost skewered him and blood started to flow around the hole. Yavin felt cold and he could feel that he was losing his consciousness already. Then everything went blank.

*****

Blank.

Dark.

Blank.

Dark.

Blank.

Dark.

Then a droplet of water broke the silence.

Yavin found himself in a dark space. Everything is black, but the weird thing was he can see clearly his whole body despite the whole space was black. He was still wearing his school uniform, but no gaping hole on his stomach.

He kept on touching his stomach to make sure that no hole will appear on his body.

Am I dead already? He thought.

No human, a cold voice suddenly spoke in this dark space interrupting him from his thoughts. The voice sounded genderless also as it echoed throughout the empty space.

Yavin turned around and was left gaping when he found three giant glowing symbols floating in mid-air before him.

A sun.

A crescent moon.

An eye.

"What the hell?" Yavin uttered.