10. A Strange turn of events

Three months had passed since Alexander declared Zero his rival, and the both of them were training to their hardest but for completely different reasons.

Apart from them, Wilsh was also working very hard so hard that his angel number rose from 52 to 112 in those three months. Nero and Neon were also working hard reading their books and sparring with one another as often as they could.

All in all, everybody was working hard to not be left behind and this made Kia who was in charge of them very proud considering that everything was running smoothly even though she hadn't been attending classes for quite some time due to missions assigned by the Headquarters.

The new angels' training was going well, and all seemed fine in the Red Valon Society headquarters, that was until it all took a turn for the worst.

It was a hot day, and Zero had come out of the training ground early to return his book because it was overdue for return Zero had been forgetting to return it for a week because he forgot but now he couldn't risk forgetting.

After telling Alexander and Neon his farewell, he left for the library where he found a black hair girl seated on a seat in the library though he didn't pay much attention to her and instead turned to the librarian's desk.

"Hey there, Luu." greeted Zero as he leaned on the librarian's desk.

"What do you want, Zero?" asked the librarian with a rather harsh tone almost like he never wished to talk to Zero that day.

"Well, crumpy face, Luu. I came to return my books," said Zero with a wide smile on his face.

"Return the books. Oh, right, the ones that you took and have decided to return now. I mean, I would understand all the other demon books you've been borrowing, but you have been with that angel training book for three months, and you decide to bring it today a week late. You're honestly a loss, you know that." yelled Luu, the librarian.

"Hey, come one. It's not my fault that I forget about your books when I'm too busy getting powerful."

"Powerful, powerful my ass angel 0 you've remained the same number for three months and you say powerful. Just return my books and do whatever. I don't care, though. Remember not to go to the higher two floors."

"Yeah, I know." said Zero as he walked away from the desk before turning his head to the librarian, " I'll make you eat your words. Luu, just you wait. Goodbye." He walked away and headed straight for the floor with all the information about demons and angel powers.

Meanwhile, as he was walking to the staircase, the girl from before had been observing everything that had happened and decided to approach Luu.

"Yoo, Luu. Who is that guy, and what is he going to read?" asked the strange girl.

"Oh, he's just a nobody that comes to the library every week to borrow one book and leaves usually a book about demons, but this time it looks like he's decided to read something else," answered Luu much more politely than before.

"Huh, what do you mean, what's on that floor?" The strange girl asked.

"It's just books on demon and angel powers, nothing more," answered Luu as he arranged the four books that Zero came with.

The girl looked at the staircase to the floor and bid Luu farewell before vanishing from sight only to be seen running up the stairs.

'Damn, that girl is fast. She's a triple-digit angel, if I remember correctly. Man, this year has some weird characters.' Luu thought as he went back to his business.

Meanwhile, on the upper floor,

Zero was looking through different books on the floor, trying to the right one. He would find a book and quickly read through it before closing it and putting it back. And thus continued for around two hours until Zero shouted, "I got it."

He looked at the cover that was hard and had no words or images but when he opened the book he saw that most of the book was mainly drawings and a few words that were slightly poetic though not hard to understand.

'This must be it. The book that Rune used to talk about.' Zero thought as he read through the book.

'What's wrong with this guy? He looked for a book for two hours just to pick a book with a blank cover. Just who is he?' The strange girl thought as she closely watched Zero, who was eyes deep in the book.

After three hours of reading, Zero closed the book and went over to the librarian's desk to sign for the book, and then he was out of the library.

Meanwhile, the strange girl who was spying on him had fallen asleep from boredom, and when she woke up, she saw that Zero had already left the library.

"Huh, what he's gone? Guess he wasn't all that interesting. I thought that an angel 0 would at least be somewhat fun, but he's just a bookworm." The strange girl sighed and left the library to her dormitory because it had gotten very late.

Meanwhile, in the medical room

Mai and her associate, July, were doing some late-night sorting of all the first year's medical reports for the past three months.

"These new years are quite incredible, aren't they?" asked Mai as she held Alexander's medical report.

"Yes, they sure are. Looks like they'll make excellent angels," replied July.

Mai and July continued sorting out all the medical reports until the very last one that was Zero's.

"Hmm, Angel 0 is quite an interesting person. His number hasn't increased at all, but his body is getting much stronger. It's quite strange, don't you agree, July." asked Mai, but July never replied and just walked out of the room and robotically walked in the direction of the girl's hostel.

"Huh, July? Where are you going?" asked Mai but never received a reply almost as if July had gotten possessed by a ghost. She decided to follow her and see where she was going.

Mai followed July closely behind, trying not to get noticed by her. She followed her for thirty minutes to the girl's hostel, where she saw other workers gathering at an underground entrance hidden in some bushes in the girl's hostel compound.

'What are they all doing?' Mai thought and decided that she was going to have to enter and pass through the underground door where they were all gathered.

Once the door opened, all the people that were gathered rushed through it into an underground passage. Mai, who was following closely behind, quickly ran through the door silently while concealing her presence before it shut behind her.

"Whew," Mai sighed before quietly following behind the crowd of people to a room under the girl's hostel.

'Wait, I know this place. This used to be an old emergency room in case any demons attacked the headquarters. But wasn't it abandoned when they set up the academy? Strange.' Mai climbed up into an air vent that was no longer operational, so the room was very hot, but she didn't mind the heat and crawled to where the group had assembled.

In the room, there was a strange marking on the ground that was in the shape of an upside-down cross enclosed in a hexagram framed by strange symbols that resembled those found on a demon's body.

The group gathered around the hexagram as Mr Ronn, the deputy secretary of the organisation, handed them all knives.

"Today, we bring rise to the greatest demon known to mankind. He was destroyed by the angel 1000s over 20 years ago, and parts of his body were scattered throughout the headquarters. Now that we've gotten all the parts together, we shall let him rise and grant our wishes."

The crowd of people let out a thunderous cry of tribulation.

"Now then, let's turn our lives around and show the world who the true king is." The people shouted again in agreement, and they all raised their left arms and began to recite what seemed like a prayer.

"Fallen king,

Rise again, fallen Prince

Answer our wishes,

Fulfil the path that the fruit has set

And let chaos become order."

After the chant, they all cut their wrists in unison, and blood began to flow onto the hexagon down to the upside-down cross where it took its shape. A crimson fire surrounded the hexagram, and a loud snarl resonated throughout the room.

"Oh no this is bad," exclaimed Mai as she saw the crimson fire flow to the cross and the silhouette of a person appeared and after a few seconds the fire blew out including the ones that were lighting up the room.

The room was covered in a sheet of darkness for a few seconds before the fire on the lamps lit again on their own, revealing what was hidden in the darkness.

The symbol that was in the centre of the room had vanished, and now there was a human with blond hair standing in the centre of the room.

The crowd of people immediately bowed down in a show of utmost respect.

"Gilmont of Gluttony, please grant our wishes, for we have brought you back into this world that is yours," said Ronn as he faced the ground.

The mysterious human standing in the centre of the room yawned and faced Ronn with his left eye, having the symbol that was on the ground earlier.

"You humans, you're the ones that brought me back, are you?" asked the demon.

"Yes, we are, and we ask that you grant our wishes in return," replied Ronn.

"Already with the demands when I haven't eaten a thing. Quite uncharitable people you humans are. You tell me this is that old bastard Borollo still alive." asked the demon.

"Yes, he is. He's alive, and well, he's in this very headquarters," answered Ronn.

"Hmm, that old bastard's alive. Guess I'll visit him." said the demon as he looked at the ceiling of the room. "Anyway, catch you later."

"Wait, you great. We request that before you leave, you grant us our wishes first," said Ronn as he continued bowing down.

"Oh, so you think that your wishes are more important compared to mine. And besides, if you wanted a wish to be granted, you could have summoned god instead. It's not like he'll ever listen to you."

"But you're great, please..."

SLASH

Ronn's head was cut off swiftly.

"I almost forgot that food was right in front of me." said the demon as he held Ronn's body and turned to the rest of people.

Mai looked at the whole scene and quickly crawled through the air space to another exit near the boy's hostel but before that she witnessed a massacre of over thirty people in an instant all their heads fell to the ground and Gilmont began to eat them all.

Mai quickly got out through the exit, and the moment she got out, she immediately fell to the ground due to shock and tried to think of who she could tell but no one came to mind until she subconsciously whispered out a name.

"Zero."