Warning, this chapter deals with heavy topics. Reader discretion is advised
As the sun was rising John woke up and got out of his cozy bed, he went over to his coffee maker in the kitchen and made some coffee. He sees Blyke wake up and put toast in the toaster, normally these two would be talking about something like how they just got into Sea of Thieves or how they hate certain teachers, but not today, they just both want to get through the day and have it over with. For something horrible was about to happen.
Mid term exams. All day.
"Ugggghhh, this sucks!" John thought as he stared down at the paper. "WHY, I DON'T GET IT?!" Blyke asked. "Hey um, would you keep it down?" A student asks. Blyke grows angry as he whips his head around. "NO!" The day dragged on, it wasn't like a normal school day, they had to stay in the same classroom for the whole six hours they were at school, no talking to Sera or Remi, no hanging with Isen or Jake, no phones, no computers, nothing but a pen, paper, and the sands of time slowing down, prolonging the misery that was taking place as they took one exam for each of the six courses they took. Suddenly it seemed like a miracle took place, the students by orders of Headmaster Vaughn were told they could go back to their dorms and not complete any academics for the day. John meets up with Blyke, Isen, Jake, and even Arlo and Holden.
"Nice, now we have a squad of four!" John exclaims. "Jesus man, guess that God you were talking about made you one hell of a dumb ass when making you" Arlo laughs as he takes a sip of his soda. "Let's go play some Sea of Thieves!" Isen yelled before Blyke slapped the back of his head. "Hold on you nerd, we gotta create a PSN account for Jake, and I wanna eat first." Jake smiles. "Thanks but I think I can make one myself, let's just eat first, my treat."
Jake's words excited everyone as the six head to a Six Guys and goof around, but they notice all the shops were closed, every business was closed, everyone was inside hiding away and barricading the windows. The group brushes it off and heads to the dorms where they play some Sea of Thieves. Those who end up playing get into an argument, so they break off into teams of two, Blyke and Isen are on a ship together with Jake, who's a newbie at the game. The three gather loot to progress the game in their own discord call when Suddenly the enemy approaches.
John, Holden's, and Arlo's call.
"Okay I see them, let's go!" John roared as his mic peaks. "Hold on, we need to strategize" Arlo suggests. "Dude, sorry you wanna feel smart but look, we have a big ship, let's just yolo it!" Arlo chuckles a little. "No, listen, this is why I'm going to kick your ass when we fight at the end of the week, because you're an idiot who likes to show you all of his cards all at once" Arlo says with a smile, Holden then chimes in. "Uhh, Arlo, have you ever played poker with this guy, or were you too busy thinking about Elaine?" John's peaked mic roars in the background with laughter. "Hey just wait till you see my new ab-" Arlo cuts himself off. "No wonder he's so confident" John thought. "He's been working hard on his ability, haha, that's pretty clever, too bad your emotions blew your cover, now I won't come in with an ability, and I'll be able to copy your half assed unnatural and slaughter you like the little bitch you really are." John starts to take the pirate ship and it goes straight for Blyke, Isen, and Jake.
"Wait, dude, I was just talking crap, we should still plan this!" Arlo yells as Holden takes a sip of his drink. "Oh you pissed him off now, I'll get the flowers for the funeral." Arlo begins to sweat. "Nooo, wait!" Arlo yelled. "I don't even like these games, John ropes me in and makes it sound fun only to do this crap!"
Meanwhile in Blyke, Isen, and Jake's discord call.
"Okay Jake, now you just wanna....." Blyke explains a simple game mechanic when he's suddenly cut off by Isen's awful mic. "Captain!, CAPTAIN!" Blyke moves towards Isen. "Hold on Jake, ye-yeah?" He asks as he begins to shake a little. "LOOK!" Blyke turns his character as the sound of someone joining the server alerts everyone. John joins to hear the chaos and panic, hoping it would cheer him up. Jake is left speechless, unsure of what to do as Arlo and Holden fire the cannons from their ship towards Isen and Blyke. "Please someone save our ship!" Isen yells. "Guys, I think we lost" Blyke says rather calmly. "Hahahaha, noice" John says in the discord chat. His character black beard looks at the pathetic beta males who lose their ship, slowly sinking in the bay. When all of a sudden he takes some damage from behind, he see's Jake's character, but it's glowing red, almost like he's using an ability.
To cheat.
"Okay, two can play it that way!"
John activates his ability and copies Jake's but struggles to maintain a level higher than Jake's. Their abilities allow their characters to have increased stamina and health. They duel on the ship, Jake's character uses some demon power up while John uses some fallen angel's, both clearly using more ability skill than the game's design. Arlo and Holden join the call. "This is why I told you we needed a plan, I knew someone could hack in the game like this!" Arlo yelled. "Yeah well, I got this" John says with a cocky smile
Arlo and Holden's characters help John with the fight, the three are now dueling against Jake and some demonic minions, they swing their swords slicing the freaks up into little pieces. Jake however gets some more mobility and kills Arlo and Holden. "Dammit, alright, enough for today, I'm out." Arlo says. "Yeah I got to go too" Holden says, chiming in. Blyke and Isen join the leave the call train, they make plans to hang in the future and sign off. Not Jake or John, they wanna finish this. "Alright goldy locks, Imma kick your ass!" Jake smiles with delight as one of his eyes glow red while the other one remains green. "Yeah okay we'll see"
John says this as the two duel now on a sinking ship, pulling out loaded flint locks and whatever guns are in the game here and there, they both land on 1 hp each, John is on the tip of a mass while Jake is on a sinking bow. "Man, don't try it, I have the high ground!" John roars. "You underestimate my power?!" Jake yells. "Don't try it man, we all saw the movie!" Jake's character flies at John only to get cut in half with a sword. Jake's character lands in the water, blood is everywhere attracting sharks. "Well, Imma head out now, Evie sent me a text, I think she wants to play some photo roulette" Jake says. "Haha, have fun explaining to her every bad decision you made," John says jokingly. Jake laughs back before he leaves the call, John is left on the discord by himself when his news app pops a notification.
Breaking news, 122 dead agents found at the New Oklahoma city border.
John's eyes widen as he puts everything he saw that day together. The closed shops, the empty streets, it all made sense. They're back, and in numbers now. John rushes to put on his costume, he leaps out of his room and heads to the city.
Earlier that morning
"Hey there" Perbile says as James looks up to see a boy covered in stitches holding a scythe. "You killed those poor girls without any thought on who they were. They were not monsters, not like me." Parible laughs. "What's the point in knowing?" He asks. "You're all just a bunch of monsters anyways." Parable says this as he remembers the death of his parents, watching them being devoured right in front of him. "You guys don't think about who you eat, you just kill like we're mindless food. At least their deaths meant less murder!" James strikes Perbile with his tentacles, now centipede legs are coming out of him. His back exposed, a Giant dragon tattoo covers the white pale, bloodless flesh.
15 minutes earlier, Perbile is in front of two girls, one with white hair, and one with black hair. The one with black hair had one red eye and one normal, the red one being on the right side of her face, which is her left, and the white one having the opposite situation going on with her red eye. "Hey now, those masks aren't necessary, I already saw your face. The Yasuhisa Twins now? I'm Perblile."
"Hello Perbile, it was nice to see you, now hold still so you may not feel any pain" The one with white hair said speaking up. "Yes, hold still so we may put you to rest easily" the other twin said. They strike Perbile with their tentacles but miss as Perbile dodges their attack. "Oh come on now ladies, pain is only natural. Besides, see these stitches?" He points to the stitches on his arms and face. "These are all the times life has thrown hard times at me, all the times where I felt like killing myself, or hurt really bad on the inside. So go ahead, make this as painful as possible, because at the end of the day I have nothing to fear!" The white haired twin sheds a tear as she looks down on the ground. "I'm sorry you had to go through those" she says rather with empathy. However Perible suddenly strikes her. Parable gets kicked a good distance towards Sarah, he pulls out a bunch of knives right when he gets to her. She swings her tentacle at him only for him to get the kill.
As one collapses on the ground while Perbile brutally executes her, the other one screams. "You're nothing but an honor less coward, we offered you mercy!" Perible giggles. "Oh? You say that now, but who was it that killed my parents in cold blood? HUH?! Don't think I forgot about you guys. The freak that took out my parents was yours!" The white haired twin speaks up. "So you're working for the government that allowed this to happen? They could have wiped us out by now but chose not to in order to wage war on us! You people are just as corrupt as us!" Parible takes a step back. "We'll deal with them once you people are gone!" The devil tier nods as she holds her sister who bleeds out on the ground.
"Look, I'm sorry for the sins my mother committed, but we were too young to understand anything, please, know that" she says rather calmly. "Well, that won't bring my parents back, but just know that out of all the anger I feel for you, I won't see you in hell." The devil tier looks at Perible confused, thrown off just enough to give Perible a window to strike. He takes the opportunity to do so, slicing his scythe across her chest.
She fell back on the ground, bleeding from the large cut that was just inflicted on her. "Maybe I'll forgive you two one day, but I'll won't see you in Hell since I'm not going!" He finishes Shelly off so that she doesn't bleed out to death. He then moves onto the next sister, as he strikes the sister dead he turns back to see another devil tier standing there.
Present Day
"So, you decided to kill them when they were down?" Perible's hands shake as he realizes what his enemy is trying to convey. "They, shut up, what happened is just between them and me!" Perbile strikes at The Devil Man but gets blocked, he throws knives left and right but they prove to be ineffective in this scenario. All of a sudden James finds himself out of his body, the fight between him and Perbile slows down, he sees a horned figure from a distance. "Who are you?" James asks. "I think you know, after all I'm what they call you" the figure leaned up against an invisible wall with his arms crossed. "What do you want? Haven't you ruined my life already?" James asks. "Ohohoho, you've returned the favor plenty of times over, let's not get too carried away here. I just wanted to remind you that you're not some hero for caring about those girls, after all, they were only trophies to you, weren't they" James rolls his eyes. "I may be scum but I'm self aware. I still stand up for what's right." The battle unfreezes, James finds himself back in his body fighting Perbile. "HEY, STOP!" James roars as Perbile finds a safe spot to talk to James from while looking above.
"I get it man, you had something taken right?" James asks. "SHUT THE-" James cuts him off. "NO, BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO HEAR ME OUT, I WAS STOLEN FROM MY FAMILY!" Perbile freezes and looks at The Devil Man. "Look man, I'm James Doe, you must have heard that name right?" Parible pauses as the weight of that name pushes him down. "Dude, we were looking for you, what the FUCK MAN?! These people took you, why are you with them? What happened?!" James sighs behind his sinister mask. "Because, I can change this, I can bring balance and have both parties co-exist, we're all at fault here, so why not fix it?" Parible grows angry. "No, NO! WHAT THE FUCK DID HUMANS DO? You guys existing posed a threat to us, you hunt us for food, how do we play a role in it? You're biologically designed to eat us! There's no co-existing! I hate this naive crap! This isn't racism, you're all aliens threatening our entire race, the HUMAN RACE!" James scowls. "You remember The Pig? The name of one of your agents?" Parible looks at James confused. "The Pig?" He asks. "The guy who has no pupils, part of his face is dark, he has stitches around a huge scarred area." Parible's eyes widened with realization. "Oh yeah, you call him a Pig!"
"He tortured someone just for being cursed with this. He was gonna torture someone else too, someone who wasn't even given a choice in the matter. Someone that my brother cares so much about, that he'd easily kill the whole planet over. He was hunting people who've just turned into devil tiers who've found alternate solutions than human flesh consumption." Parible laughs as he starts to ease up.
Yesterday
James walks down the street as he grabs a snack from a corner store. He opens a bag of chips, only for the smell to make him almost puke. He hears the chatter of humans around him for miles on end. He misses enjoying walks in Wellston, he misses the taste of trash food, he misses having limited hearing, when he wouldn't have to listen to his counterpart enjoying life as a privileged high tier while he suffered the life of a villain. James suddenly hears an ear piercing scream, the pain in his ear causes him to wince in pain as he bumps into a man walking on the street. "Watch where you're going jerk!" the man yells as James just holds his ear in pain, listening to the familiar voice yelling. "SERA? ISEN LOCK THIS PLACE!" James looks back at the man he bumped into and recognizes his figure. The man was rather fat and held a suitcase, the same kind the devil hunters who work for the authorities hold. His name was Bob Sherman, but everyone calls him The Pig behind his back for his brutal devil hunting tactics. Bob turns around as he too reacts to the noise that James can hear. James and Bob make eye contact, realizing that they both hear the Wellston students screaming as he reveals the location of a vulnerable devil tier. The Pig then turns around and walks away, disappearing into the crowd. "I can't believe I'm doing this!" James says as he runs into an alleyway and puts on the mask. His hair remains black as he only uses a fraction of his ability and scales a wall with his tentacles to reach the rooftops. Bob walks over a block towards the school grounds with his authority badge out ready to enter through the gates.
"Why do I care?" James asks as he feels his hands shake. The Pig powers up, his eyes glow blue, ready to enter school grounds undetected when he feels a presence behind him. James drops down at the end of an alleyway as The Pig turns around and walks towards him. "Ahh, I see, companying me?" Bob Sherman asks. His eyes widen when he sees himself being launched in the air towards an alleyway. The sheer speed alone knocks him out, confused on what is happening. James jumps up to go after The Pig. The Pig gets up and dusts himself, he looks at James not knowing who he is, yet knowing his persona. "Y-you're, The Devil Man" Bob says as James turns his hair white. He takes off his sweatshirt as he uses his full ability. He stares the man down as he sheds a bloody tear from one of his red eyes.
James looks at Bob horrified as his twisted mind runs wild. He see's visions of the girl chained to a chair in the exact same position as he was, her eyes gouged out, her nails picked off, her lips torn off, yet she still is alive, crying at the pain she went through. James gets mad, fear, anger, pain all around, how could someone do this to someone else, to treat the human body with such disrespect, such horrible violence, whether a creator made us or not, we don't truly own these things that we control. The gore makes James vomit, his second eye glows red and black, his emotions so extreme that he can't think logically. It hurts him so bad, but what's worse is when he sees John walk in that room, after killing everyone in the prison, only to find her in such a disguising state, and fully aware of it. He didn't even know this woman, and his brother he only knows by name, yet for the first time in his life he's felt sick of the mistreatment of strangers. He lets out a violent gag noise as he lunges his tentacles towards the man. James stabs The Pig with his tentacles repeatedly, so many times that the body is barely being held, falling apart and disintegrating at every touch. An ironic twist of events as he inflicts what he found disgusting upon his enemy. This wasn't about protecting a helpless stranger anymore, nor was it looking after his brother from the mental trauma, it was revenge for what happened to him.
"YOU'RE SICK, YOU'RE ALL SO FREAKING SICK! I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF GOD CAN HELP YOU! JUST DO US ALL A FAVOR AND DIE!" James yells as he looks down at the mutilated corpse. The entire time he cries tears of pain as his heart aches. He then walks up towards Bob's eyes and stares into his soul. "I know it was you! You people! The authorities! YOU DID THIS TO ME! YOU SET ME UP! YOU SOLD ME TO THEM!" James yells, crying like he's never cried before, releasing years of built up energy into one stream of pain.
Present day
James and Parible standoff, they pose, ready to fight once more. "So then, is our fate sealed to fight now?"
Meanwhile, Greg fights off two Devil tiers, One looks like a black dog, it flies around with wings while her minions charge at him, he slays them with no problem, the other one is known as the devil ape. His minions also charge, Greg starts to get tired, losing the fight he starts to get weak, so he pulls out a trigger with a red button. He looks at the no eyed Devil Tier in the face and smiles before pressing the button.
A giant explosion goes off, Greg explodes himself in a kamikaze bomb and kills everything around him. Including Jeffery, who was fighting alongside Greg.
But not the no eyed Devil.
James and Perbile charge at each other, ready to make the final strike that will kill one of them. James Remembers his mistress before he became a scumbag with the twins. The woman who saved him from insanity, after He defeated Jason and he wanted to kill himself, he couldn't take the mental abuse, but what happened instead was him meeting a young woman. Her name was Okamari Tutsi. A fellow Devil Tier. James finishes tying a noose on a scarecrow when she stumbles upon him. James was fifteen when he met twenty year old Okamari.
"Hey, what the?"
James looks at the purple haired woman charged at him, pushing him away from the rope, she drops her book and subdues him so he wouldn't hurt himself. "Please, if you're just going to hurt me, then make it quick" James insists. She slaps him across the face. "No, stop it, what are you doing James?" She asks. "Wait, huh, what do you mean what am I doing, isn't it obvious?" James asks "You freed us from a tyrant king, but only to hand us over aren't you?" She asks. "King?" James asks. This statement confused Okamari. "James, you don't know me but I know you, you're special, you freed our hierarchy from a brutal king, who does nothing but tortures and kills us, a demon at heart." James looks at the woman pinning him down, wondering what the hell she is talking about? She lets go of James, allowing him to get up. "I, I just feel so dirty, he did so much to me. He, he didn't just torture me, he-" Okamari hugs James, showing him that the devil tiers aren't all the same, wanting to assure him that people are on his side.
"Please don't cry, he can't define who you are, not anymore." James looks up at the sweet beautiful woman, her voice is soothing to the ear. Her hands are gentle like an angel's wings. Her face is so sweet looking, even for a devil tier. Her eyes gleamed a beautiful red. She takes him back to the rest of the tribe where he can meet the others, a girl in tape who is the current queen shows him his throne. She wears a red hood over her taped body. Under the tape is a girl's face, which reveals one red glowing eye and one green glowing eye.
James at first doesn't feel comfortable in his own skin, one year later he turns sixteen, he finally feels right, ruthless, and part of something. He see's Jason finally return to the tribe, not many stand up to him, except the Queen, who thinks of James as a distressed little boy still in need of shaping and training. "Leave now, or challenge me, for you have hurt us too much." Etay says. Jason laughs as he grins at the tribe. "No, mankind is the enemy, we will rule them. The Kings will return soon and do it themselves if we don't do this ourselves." Etay scowls. "Yes they are the enemy, but we have no choice but to fight them, one day peace will be achieved, but people like you have disgraced our people." Jason rolls his eyes. "Oh, you want a coward like him to be your king?!" He throws Etay aside twenty meters with one of his massively buffed arms, then he goes for Okamari. "Oh well, look what we have here?!"
He strokes Okamair's face in a creepy way, a vulgar and disgusting way as his sexual lust takes over. James struggles to get up as his fear keeps him down.
A little while ago
"Hey now, what's up with you lately?" Okamari asks. "Ha, I've just been thinking over my life, how crazy and abnormal it has been." Okamari chuckles a little. "We all tend to do that, it's okay." Okamari says. "Thank you, for saving me from myself." Okomari strokes James' face. "It's okay, I knew you were special, it was like someone told me so." James starts to blush. "So uhh, what did you think of the books I sent you?" James asks. "Oh James, I just, never knew you were an intellectual. The Darwin Theory, or the Universe for Dummies, or The Art of War, I'm more of a Romance kinda gal." Okamari says.
Present day
James gets up from his throne to confront Jason as he feels his mind snap. "If I'm even worthy of such things here, I must become what I was meant to be. I must become something. "James recalls to the picnic with Okamari he had a while back."
"Hey Okamari, Um, can I tell you something? Something personal?" James asks. "Yeah, of course" Okamari says as she rests her head on her hand. She can tell what's about to come out of James's mouth, yet yearns to listen anyways. James starts to blush as he chokes on his words. "Well I um, I don't know how to tell you this and I'm afraid to tell you, because you did so much for me, you trained my to use my powers, you talked me out of suicide. You even slept right next to me when I was feeling suicidal, and I'm afraid to destroy what we have because what we have is so amazing, but I, Okamari, I think I'm in love with you." Okamari stares at James, laughing at what he said. James starts to frown, scared he just made a fool of himself. "Okamari doesn't respond with words. She leans up to James as she grabs onto his shoulders as she looks into his eyes. James Rises, screaming bloody hell at Jason right as Okamari was ready to defend her man from this creep. Okamari activates her ability as her eyes crackle with veins. James rises from behind her doing the exact same thing.
"Get away from her you bastard!" James charges at Jason, he knocks him over and starts ripping into him using his ability. James rips Jason up into tiny pieces as he remembers him and Okamari share a kiss. Remembering how much he loved it, how much he loved her, her beauty, her personality, her mind and soul, how good he felt whenever he was around her. Remembering how his lips felt when pressed against her soft neck on that warm sunny day. "You're not taking this away from me! MAYBE MY LIFE BUT NOT HERS!" But he doesn't kill him; he spares him after ripping every limb off and force feeding him his own flesh. Making him his servant as punishment for hurting his people. James watches the crazed killer crawl away, never to be seen again.
Flash to present day and James is with Perible. The boy laid down lifeless and cold. James patted his head and hugged the dead boy out of respect. They both shared pain, making them brothers in his eyes. He lays the boy down and heads back to the devil tiers. He encounters Jackson who has just slain two devil men. The man looks at James and sees a familiar face behind him. He starts to cry in pain as James turns around to see one of his minions standing behind him. "D-dad?" Jackson asked.
To be Continued...