What is humanity? Does everything have it, or is it exclusive to sentient beings on the level of humans? Or is it exclusive to humans and only humans? What about demons and angels?
The deceptive angel falsely makes humans believe they are holy beings sent to vanquish all evil. Sent into this world out of spite, they're just as bad as the demons they so vehemently hate.
What about the demons? So monstrous even their creator barely recognizes them anymore. Once created out of a curiosity and want for children. But now seemingly bent on destroying the angels, no matter what gets in the way.
Let's not forget humans, their greed knowing no bounds. They kill the planet they live on and then decide to kill each other in senseless wars. They mess with boundaries set by the gods themselves and expect no reprimands. If all three of these races are just as bad as each other, surely, they all have humanity.
It's probably just rotten to the core.
One years later.
Seemingly at the age of eighteen, a young man stood calmly in front of a glass door. He felt a firm hand on his shoulder. Looking over he saw a very tall and tired man with a weak, yet warm smile. The young man, Leonardo, just laughed through his nose while shaking his head. He entered the building inside of a building.
A year had passed, and he was still as pale as ever, which was extremely. One might even confuse him as a ghost if they saw him late at night. Leo still dyed his hair black, and he had grown considerably and was now six feet and two inches tall. He was wearing a normal hoodie with some jeans.
He was currently in a skyscraper dubbed the Tower, inside were many departments for a single organization. The Abyss was the government network for demons near and far. Currently, the young man was entering a café inside the Tower.
It was a place where the people in the Tower could relax and get a bite to eat. The aroma inside the café proved the skill of the people making the food and drinks. Currently, Leo was just here to wait.
The café was built like an entirely different building, rather than like the skyscraper it resides in. Instead of looking like a dull skyscraper, it was built primarily of stained wood, and it had a homey feeling.
Upon entering, a little old lady without care about her appearance stood before him. She wore a loose shirt and a pair of sweatpants; the shirt had a slight stain on it near her hip. Her hair was fiercely pulled into a bun making the young man wonder how her hair hadn't fallen out yet.
"Welcome to my diner, you're a little young so I assume you're here to wait like the others. Order somethin' and I'll make it quick. You still gotta pay of course."
The young man smiled and politely decline her offer for food, he didn't have much money on him. He left and went to find a seat which he found in the corner of the café.
It was a booth in a dark corner. Most of the seats either had light from the windows or the bright bulbs on the ceiling. But this corner had a dim bulb and no window, resulting in it being slightly ominous. The booth's leather was also very worn and needed to be replaced soon.
Leo sat down with a smile and took out a book, he flipped through it a bit before settling on a page and he started reading. It wasn't soon before he was engrossed by the tale the book contained. The various sounds of the outside world were quickly drowned out.
Eventually, someone tapped on the top of his book, snapping him out of his stupor.
"Hmm?"
Across from him sat another person, he looked very timid and had a small frame. Leo looked at them with slightly surprised eyes as he hadn't even heard them sit down.
"I pretty sure they're here to pick us up." They said with a faint smile, pointing towards the café's entrance.
Looking towards the door revealed an ominous character. A tall figure in a black-on-black suit, which held a tiny golden pin in the lapel, was standing perfectly upright. She had a gun holster that went around her shoulders, fitting two handguns, and two more holsters on their hips fitting two more handguns. She wore an animal mask on her face, covering up her features. It was a bunny mask that looked ordinary in every way but still managed to be unnerving.
In the middle of the mask, there was an almost invisible line that separated the top of the head from the bottom. It seems like they could split apart for some reason. The bunny itself was made of wood and was attached to a flat mask that lay underneath. Why the mask was so complex Leo couldn't understand.
Tucked under her armpit was a clipboard that carried some papers. She took it out and glanced at it. After a moment she looked up from the clipboard and looked around. Then her eyes went back to the board, and she flipped the page. The cycle repeated twice more before she tucked the clipboard away once more.
She looked up and spoke, "All of the recruits, follow me. Wander off to snoop and bad things will happen. If you get lost, stay where you are, and we'll come to pick you up. If you do get lost, you're just going to get kicked out, so pay attention." After saying their piece, she turned around and started walking away.
A few of the regular patrons of the café saw her and snickered at the recruits.
Everyone else, Leo included, quickly got up and followed after her. They were led through the complex building, navigating in and out of different hallways, walking up some stairs and down some others. It seemed like the place was built to be a labyrinth but eventually they started to come to a stop.
All of the various workers from before wore regular attire, different from the masked individual guiding them. But now there was another in the same black-on-black suit with another animal mask and golden pin. Their animal was a rather ferocious-looking wolf, its mouth was gripping a strange canister. Unlike the bunny, he had no gun holsters, instead, he carried a rather large, sleek black suitcase. The man was currently talking with someone on the phone.
Seeing the bunny, he covered the phone's microphone and spoke to her. "Prep after you drop them off, recon found another lab, Site-04. Then, you'll go back to the students." After saying his piece, he went back to his previous conversation and walked off with rather annoyed eyes.
She now started walking again but with slower steps, after only around another minute, they came upon a large vault. Outside stood various guards wearing bullet-proof vests and helmets. Over their shoulders were rifles, but their hands laid on their pistols on their hips, excluding one of the guards.
He walked over to the bunny, and she handed him the clipboard. He skimmed through it before walking away. After around a minute he walked out with a handful of people in white lab coats. There were about five of them and the four in the front were currently putting on their gloves, the one in the back was carrying a container.
They stopped in front of everyone, and the foremost man spoke, "Through those doors is a teleporter, we recently had problems with a rat leaking your training grounds. So, we've increased security even more. Now, all of you will be sedated and none of you will be told the location that you're heading to. I don't care about, 'My father will hear about this' and all that. They have no authority over this, so don't even bother annoying me. We'll be heading down the list of people, when we reach you, hand over your bags, sit in the wheelchair, and stick out your arm."
After saying this, they started going down the list, it very quickly reached Leo. Upon reaching him, he handed over his backpack and sat down in a wheelchair they brought over. He was a little wary sticking out his arm as he didn't like needles. But he did it and quickly felt a slightly cold liquid enter his arm before he drifted asleep.
He shot up in his chair sometime after. He looked around the room in a panic, but he remembered the moments just before and calmed himself down. He took a deep breath and looked around again, but with a clear head.
He was in a large classroom, and he sat at a wooden desk. The windows to the outside world were slightly dusty and they were surrounded by a forest. In the classroom, he noticed plenty of other students, more than in the building earlier. They were all busy sleeping away at their desks, some even snoring. It seemed like he was the first to wake up.
He looked towards the front of the classroom and saw a man with glasses flipping silently through a book. As if sensing the gaze, he looked up and met Leo's eyes. He stared for a minute, seemingly surprised, and waved Leo over.
Before Leo got up, his hand went to his neck, feeling for something. Upon his fingers feeling a cold metal, he faintly smiled and stood up. He quietly scooted his chair in, noticing his backpack laid underneath, and headed over to the man.
"I see you're awake already. You must be the kid John was talking about." He rubbed his eyes with a yawn and continued, "I take it you've been on the program for a while now, how are you faring now?"
Leo watched him for a moment before saying, "Better, I can go a few days without needing to balance myself." They were referring to Leo consuming souls.
"Good. Good. Alright," he took off his glasses, stuffing them into a pocket in his coat, "you should be fine when we give the blank slates demonic blood. During their adaptation period, you'll also need to recover a bit. But I do have a question if you don't mind."
"Go ahead."
"Where did you get the angelic blood?"
"…"
"…" A silence permeated the two, occasionally broken by snores coming from behind Leo.
"I'm honestly not sure," Leo said with a slightly aggravated face. "But I can't wait until I found out."
"…Good enough for me." The man said after another moment of silence. He stuck out his hand saying, "Ethan Burns, your General Studies teacher."
"Mathias Doe."
"I see you've taken John's last name, that's nice." He smiled.
"It was the least I could do."
"Well, you're living up to the name so far," Ethan said with a slight smile.
"How's that?"
"Well," he motioned behind Leo, prompting him to turn around, "as you can see, you're the only one awake. That sedative can knock out an elephant for nearly an hour, the average demon and human for around three."
"…"
"It takes a bit for them to get you all here after checking all of your things. But you got here around twenty minutes ago. So… I hope you keep living up to the name of Doe, it's not easy to impress that man. I'm going to take this as a good omen."
"I see…"
"Alright, you can go sit down now, you're going to be here for a while. Oh. Actually…"
"Hmm?" As Leo was going back to his seat, he turned around to face Ethan.
"Can you smell them?"
"Smell what?"
He clicked his tongue, "I guess you being a seeker would be asking too much." Afterward, he chuckled as he took his glasses back out and opened the book.
Leo stood there for a moment before shaking his head slightly and returning to his seat. He took out a book from his backpack and slumped into his chair. His eyes quickly read through the words, and he flipped the page.
After about an hour and a half, another student woke up. Like Leo, he jumped awake before looking around, attracting both Leo and Ethan's attention.
Leo faintly heard Ethan mummer, "This class is going to be filled with monsters, I just know it."