Six

Yavin stood frozen at the strange figures before him. There were three giant symbols in front of him forming a semi-circle formation where the crescent symbol at the middle while the sun symbol on the left and the eye on the right.

He observed also that the sun symbol was covered by red-orange color, white color for the crescent symbol, and purple color for the eye symbol. All of them were glowing dimly in this dark space.

And it sounded that the mysterious voice earlier came from one of those symbols. This made him convinced that he was already in the afterlife. Unfortunately, he didn't see the tunnel of light that most people referring during a near-death experience.

He was just 17 years old, and he hadn't experienced the full life yet. Now it was all over for him.

"Again you're not dead, boy," the cold voice reminded Yavin. And this time, he was sure that the voice was coming from the sun symbol.

"W-What are you?" Yavin stammered while in awe of the figures before him. "And did you just read my thoughts?"

"You're in our realm right now, Yavin. Everything is possible for us in here," the sun symbol declared.

"So if I'm not dead yet, why am I here?"

"You're here so we can awaken you," the sun symbol continued. "The three of us will grant you a portion of our powers."

"Wait! Does magic awakening usually enter in this kind of set up? Did Vanya meet you before?"

"No," this time the eye symbol answered him. It had the same neutral identical voice as the sun symbol. Yavin couldn't figure if he was talking to a man or a woman. "A normal exorcist can wield their magic without meeting us."

"Then I'll ask again. What are you?"

"We will answer you in due time but not this time," the eye symbol replied.

Yavin groaned in frustration after hearing its reply. "Then why do you want to awaken my powers? Vanya mentioned that I may have magic in my blood. So why do I need you to awaken my powers?"

The sun symbol glowed brightly and answered Yavin. "You may have magic in your blood, but that magic is not enough to defeat the demon back in the physical world."

"S-so are you saying that I'm not qualified to be an exorcist?" Yavin protested at the sun symbol.

"Correct," the eye symbol answered this time. "But with our help, we can fulfill your wish to defeat the demon and save that exorcist girl."

Yavin took a moment before answering then faced them again. "What's the price? One thing I learned from all the fantasy media I've consumed was wishes always come with a price."

"You're sharp, boy," the sun symbol sounded impressed at Yavin. "Yes, but for us, instead of price, let's call it conditions."

"What are the conditions?"

"First," the eye symbol announced. "You will tell no one about our appearance to you. Second, after awakening you, you'll have to do our bidding. Those are all our conditions only."

"I'm okay with the first condition, but I'm uncertain with the second condition. What do you need me to do?"

"Don't worry, boy," the sun symbol replied. "The task will be simple. You will be our errand boy in your world."

"What are you planning to make me do?" Out of the blue, a strong wave of nervousness crashed him. He was worried about what they are planning to make him do.

Does he need to kill someone for them? he thought.

"Yes," the sun symbol answered him. Yavin forgot for a moment that they can hear his thoughts."But you don't have to worry right now, we don't have pressing requests for you the moment if you decided to agree on our conditions."

Before answering the sun symbol, he gulped for a moment. "Do I have a choice?"

Utter silence answered him. He was looking at them expectantly waiting for their reply, but no one replied.

Yavin snickered at them. They were pushing his back on the corner right now leaving him with no choice. Though on the other side, he really wanted to wield a magical power. This was one of the few things he wished to break the pattern of normalcy in his daily boring life. But then, he was dealing with magical beings, and he was pretty sure that the tasks they will be asking him to do will not be simple. Worst, they would ask him to kill someone innocent.

Then he plastered a proud smile at them. "Fine. I will be your hire killer if you want me to. But I have a condition too."

"Foolish human! Asking demands from us!" the eye symbol shrieked.

"Here's the thing. I just realized right now that there might be something special about me because you could ask hundreds or thousands of people to do your bidding, but you didn't." Yavin didn't break eye contact with the odd figures before him.

For the first time, the crescent moon symbol glowed. "Aren't you afraid of us? We can practically kill you in a snap for disagreeing with us." The crescent moon symbol had a very distinct voice among the three since Yavin could identify that it was a female voice or at least he thought it was.

"There's nothing to lose for me. I'm practically a dead man walking already."

"You have a point, Yavin," the crescent moon replied. "Fine. What is your condition?"

Yavin flashed his smile at them and announced his condition.

*****

Vanya could feel the imminent presence of the goat demon as he inches closer every second to her position. She pointed her gun in the direction where she will expect the goat demon and prayed to the gods that she would survive this.

"Vanya!" Miyuki raised her tone to her. "I think your boy companion is planning to buy you some time."

"What?!" Then she heard a yelling voice from afar. At first, the stomping sound from the goat demon continued marching to his target, then the next thing Vanya knew, the sound halted.

Vanya tried to rise from her position, but she was having a hard time mustering strength in her legs - one of the few signs of mana depletion for an exorcist.

She used the wall beside her so she could lean on it while mustering all her remaining strength, then a teeth-grinding sound was heard. Vanya slowly walked towards the mouth of the alley, and that was when she found that the goat demon grabbed the nearby lamppost and planning to javelin throw it to the approaching form of the boy.

Then the worst thing happened.

The goat demon hurled the lamppost and accurately impaled the boy on his stomach.

Unknown to Vanya, she released a scream of despair ignoring the fact the goat demon would find her easily now. She saw the form of the boy collapsed on the ground like a doll and remained still.

She failed her duty as an exorcist to save a civilian from the evildoings of a demon.

Wiping steady streams of her tears, she dropped her handguns, clanking on the ground, and faced the giant goat demon who seemed very impressed with what he just did.

"Vanya! Are you planning to release your gravitational power without your limiters?" Miyuki's voice seemed panicked as she pleaded with her. "Your power is still unstable right now. You may harm yourself in the process."

Vanya ignored Miyuki's pleas as she mustered all her remaining magical essence in her body. The air around the area seemed to change, and the goat demon noticed it too. There was something odd happening in his surroundings right now, and it was coming from the small figure of the red-haired girl.

Ignoring the odd force he was sensing, he moved his feet to get closer to the girl and end her life already. But then, a strong gust of wind hindered him as he approached the girl.

Her long red hair was swaying all over the directions as it swayed the strong current of the wind. He also noticed the eyes of the girl. She was looking at him in a deadly glare.

Something primal awakened in the goat demon making him step back from his position. His instinct was alerting him to flee as something sinister was about to happen.

The girl raised her arms as soon as she moved it the walls from the alley she was hiding earlier suddenly crushed as if someone bulldozed it. Then the air around him felt heavy.

It felt like intense pressure was pressing him to the ground holding him still in a lock position. Looking around him also, the nearby stores, cars, and trees started to creak from the pressure.

The demon roared to let out his frustration. But nothing came out of it. When he kept on squirming on his lock position, he felt another wave of power. This time it was coming from his right direction where he left the corpse of the young man after being impaled.

The goat demon felt cornered as he witnessed the body of the young man glowed brightly then eventually the brightness evaporated quickly.

The lamppost impaled in his body was gone and what remained was the motionless form of the boy.

*****

Yavin groaned when he was awakened by the haziness of his vision. His throat and tongue felt dry, but he could no longer feel the agonizing pain from earlier.

They really healed him, he rejoiced.

When he tried to rise from the ground, an intense pressure greeted him as if some unknown force was forcing him to remain on the asphalt ground.

He tried to move his head and found from a distance the imposing form of the goat demon and on the side was Vanya.

But something odd was happening to her. Her long beautiful red hair was swaying from the intense wind, and all around her things started crushing into pieces.

The goat demon remained frozen in his position as he witnessed the wreckage before him.

The whole street was being wrecked by the gravitational force of this exorcist.

Yavin felt helpless again as he couldn't lift his body from the ground, but then he remembered something now. Those mysterious beings awakened his powers now.

He had a way now to stop this madness. But he only had thirty seconds to stop all of this.

Before he left that unknown realm, those mysterious symbols informed him that they will give him a chance to experience his full potential to save the girl from destroying herself and the physical realm, but only for thirty seconds.

It seemed unfair, but he just needed to eliminate the goat demon quickly and stop Vanya from her outburst.

Yavin focused his energies on his right hand. His hand started glowing with a red-orange glow, and an intense heat was emitting from it. He pointed his finger in the direction of the goat demon and released a scorching flame from his fingertip.

The flame flew straight directly to the goat demon and enveloping him with searing pain. The goat demon roared in pain as the flame consumed his whole body.

As the flame enveloped the body of the demon, a spherical shape came out of it. A black sphere with smudges of red-orange color swirling inside it.

Something in Yavin's mind told him that he needed to destroy that thing. So he extinguished the glow from his right hand and mustered another strength from it. He pointed his pointer at the mysterious sphere and fired a purple energy beam at it.

The moment that the energy beam hit it, the sphere shattered into pieces and fell straight to the ground.

He had a few seconds left before the limit. His body was still being pressed by the intense pressure coming from Vanya.

The whole street was turning into rubble and barely recognizable now from how the way it looked earlier.

Yavin forced his right hand to move as he tried to summon something from a distance. With a few grunts, water came rushing from behind him. The water was coming from the nearby river, so Yavin summoned it to his call. He willed his mind to surround Vanya, and the water crashed at her then enveloped her into an oblong-shaped form made out of water. The water glowed and that was when Vanya closed her eyes.

And the pressing unseen force was lifted.

The water released Vanya dropping her gently on the ground and quickly dissolved and wetting the asphalt road.

Yavin sighed heavily in relief, and he let himself relax his body on the ground.