There Can Be Only One

"I have a question for you," says a male voice, as a man in a black robe and a hood above his head suddenly appears in the middle of the hall.

"I'm listening," I say, with a shrug.

He takes off the robe and throws it to the ground, revealing a brown-haired man around thirty, dressed in expensive-looking clothes, including black leather shoes, dark dress pants, and a grey dress shirt.

But perhaps his most notable feature was his purple glowing necklace...

"Why can't I target you with my spells? Not when you held the hex bags, and not now," says the man, seemingly fearless, as he starts to walk around me, observing me like a rare specimen.

After completing a full circle, he asks again, "Are you one of us, perhaps? I can't quite pinpoint it, but there's something ancient about you."

"If card tricks count as being a witch, then sure, I'm one of you," I say relaxed, while taking out my pistol and aiming it at him. But he only raised his hands with a mischievous smile.

"Let me ask you something too: where are the guys who were with me?"

"My coven member is dealing with them right now, so you don't have to worry about th---"

*Bang*

I shoot him in the head, and he drops to the ground.

"Thanks for the information," saying this, I walk away from him, intending to find an exit. However, after a few steps, something catches my attention, and I quickly turn back towards the 'corpse.'

I could sense his aura being absorbed by the necklace. However, after a few seconds, it suddenly begins to return to his body, and the supposedly deceased witch suddenly stands up again.

Afterward, he inserts his fingers into the wound on his head, extracts the bullet, and says, "Ouch, that wasn't really nice of you. Vulnera praeterita sunt, caro recens est, praeteritum est futurum," and the wound on his head heals.

(Wounds are in the past, flesh is new, the past is the future)

"Too bad something like that doesn't work against me," says he arrogantly.

"Is that so...?" I ask, while becoming curious about his next move and simply wait for him to take action.

He stretches his arm towards me and says, "Arma separare et dilaberentur," and an impulse that resembles a shockwave shoots out of his hand, flying towards me at immense speed. (Weapons to be separated and scattered)

*Clack*

When it strikes me, I feel nothing. However, all of a sudden, my pistol shatters into multiple pieces, and the sheath with my knife falls from my belt to the ground.

Afterwards, the sheath starts to break apart, followed by the knife separating itself into different pieces.

What the hell? He just demolished my new knife...

While I mourn over my knife, he continues happily, "It seems you are only immune to direct spells, but you don't nullify already casted spells. Therefore, I am able to do this. Ignem congrega et omnia quae desidero ignis ure."

(Gather the fire, and let the fire burn all that I desire.)

Flames appear around him and fly towards me, while I kneel down to retrieve the full-tang blade of my broken knife. In the next moment, the flames hit me, throwing me backwards, and I crash to the ground while burning.

"Disappointing... Well, maybe I was too cautious," he says after seeing me remain motionless on the ground.

After a few seconds of being grilled, I've had enough. So I stand up, extinguishing the flames by hitting them, while he looks at me with a mix of shock and curiosity.

Afterwards I throw the blade of my broken knife at him, but he waves it away annoyed, causing it to fall to the ground next to him.

"I don't know if you're too cautious or not, but you certainly have a talent for breaking others' property..." I say to him, tossing away my burned hoodie while my hair starts to regrow, and my burned wounds disappear.

---

I walk towards him and ask, "Why did you kidnap the girl if you're already so powerful?"

"I think you've misunderstood something... I offered her the opportunity to join me and my coven, even though I never invite witches and only create them.

But she wasn't just a natural witch she was even rarer; she had a familiar eagerly waiting to form a bond with her. So I needed to have her! Sadly, like every natural witch, she believed she was something better.

I asked her to join me, but she ignored me... I ordered her to join me, but she ran away and thought she could hide. So I gave up on her and bestowed her powers upon someone who deserved them," he proudly proclaims.

This guy is a lunatic...

I approach him and grab his glowing necklace, but he only grins at me and when I attempt to rip it off, it doesn't even budge...

"Ventus eum auferat et me protegat" (wind blow him away and protect me).

As he starts speaking Latin again, I swing at him, but my fist stops midair, and I'm thrown back by powerful winds.

I rise to my feet again and can sense the wind swirling around him.

"You're insane," I say as I walk calmly towards him once more.

"Am I?" He swings his hand at me, and my right arm falls to the ground. Then he strikes again, cutting my chest with the wind, and blood splashes out as I stumble back.

"You understand nothing... you don't know what it's like to be born into a family of naturals, while you're the only one without powers. You don't comprehend the humiliation I had to endure from them.

But in the end, I was the one laughing. I killed them all, claimed what was rightfully mine, and erased their names from history," the madman says, while looking crazily at me.

"You took what was rightfully yours... but were powerless before? What did you sacrifice to gain such power?" I ask him, as I pick up my severed arm to reattach it.

He smiles and proudly declares, "It was simple, my soul... and you know what's ironic? The demon said he would claim my soul upon my death, but this idiot didn't consider the fact that I could make myself immortal."

"Pfft... hahaha!" I couldn't hold it in anymore. I started laughing at him, to the point where even my stomach started to hurt.

"What are you laughing about?!" he exclaims, swinging his hand and nearly cutting off my foot in the process, but he couldn't halt my laughter.

After laughing for a while, I regain my composure and say, while standing again directly in front of him,

"I laughed at you, of course... a pitiful being who had to strike a deal with a demon out of envy. How pathetic."

This makes him nearly boil out of anger.

---

Sadly the wind kept me from reaching him, so I attempted to break his concentration. As he grew angrier, the wind weakened...

"Do you truly believe you can unsettle me? You'll be buried in these halls! Terram eleva, effigiem assume et hostem meum perfode." (Rise, take form, and pierce my enemy)

He screamed and cast another spell, causing spikes to shoot out and impale my knees, forcing me to the ground while immobilizing me.

But the wind around him vanished...

He then started grinning at me, while more spikes appeared. Utilizing my newfound strength and speed, I seized a spike hurtling towards my left arm, broke its tip, and thrust it into his heart, sending him crashing to the ground.

Despite my triumph, several spikes pierced my left shoulder and lung, rendering me immobile. Meanwhile, I could feel his aura being absorbed by the necklace already...

Glancing beside him, I noticed my blade was still lying there. So I snapped off the spike lodged in my lung, to be able to move a bit and grabbed it.

After picking it up, I hastily began inscribing the Enochian symbols for 'Gheit' on the blade using my own blood.

As I finished, the symbols started to smoke, and the blood became pitch black, while leaving the symbols on the blade. For a moment, I felt a tinge of fatigue, but it quickly disappeared again.

Simultaneously, the lunatic regained consciousness, stood up, and grasped his shirt.

"Do you realize the cost of such a shirt? Now you will suffer even more!"

He extended his right hand towards me, and said "Terram—"

But I freed my left shoulder, seized his wrist, and simultaneously plunged the blade into his abdomen.

"You never... learn, do you? I cannot be... killed," he said with a smile.

But suddenly, the spikes that had pierced me disintegrated, allowing me to stand up again, causing his smile to vanish. Afterwards, I grabbed his necklace, ripped it off his neck, and threw it to the ground.

"What have you done...? I can no longer feel my magic."

"Agh!"

I grip his shoulder and twist the blade, then say, "You currently lack the connection because I have destroyed the witch portion of your soul that was bestowed by the demon's necklace."

Leo mentioned sensing something sinister about the witch. However, it was more likely he detected the necklace, which emanated a similar aura to the entity in Stanford... at least now I know what attacked me that day.

He still stared at me in disbelief as I removed the blade from his abdomen.

After collapsing to the ground, blood began to spew from his mouth, yet his eyes wandered to the necklace. With a determined grin, he summoned the strength to crawl towards it.

However, before he could grab it, I stepped on his hand, shattering his hope once more, which made him weep.

"No! Wait, please, I can— agh!"

*Crack*

To stop his weeping, I grabbed his head and twisted it in the wrong direction, and ended his pitiful existence with it.

I felt absolutely no pity for him, so I even ignored the strange dog-like creature that suddenly materialized, then seized his soul, and vanished again.

The scenery shifts around me once more, and I find myself back in the warehouse. Then I grab the evil necklace and run in the direction of Bobby and Leo.