The purple fog spread around the room, clouding my vision. I can't see my surroundings. Where's Cleiera gonna pop up from? My instincts go on high alert. Suddenly, a figure appears from the ground, grips the back of my head, and slams it hard into the ground.
"What the hell is it with demons and smashing people's heads into the ground?!" I ask, trying to kick behind me to get rid of Cleiera, but he stomps on my back, causing me to cough out blood. He holds up my head by the hair, and inches his face closer to my ear.
"Really? Is this all you have for me? How boring." I feel the stinging pain from my back travel up and down my body. I try to get up, but I can, as my whole upper body is at the mercy of Cleiera's control. Oh, shit...How do I get myself out of this predicament? I remember something about channeling pain or something...lemme try it. Thanks to the position I'm in, I can certainly feel pain circulating around my body. Now to channel it...
I feel the pain travel all throughout my body. I concentrate hard, but I can't move a single bit of pain. How the hell was I supposed to do this? Surely there was a way for demons to wield their powers more efficiently...Wasn't there? Maybe channeling powers weren't related to just pain...
Finally, after a few more tries, I manage to get a small bit of antimatter out, which reacts in a giant explosion on the floor, blasting Cleiera back. "Well fuck, you actually did it." Cleiera summons some cards, and throws them at me.
I dodge the cards. The cards land on the floor, making a very visible mark on the ground. It didn't take long for me to realize that if those things impaled my body, I'm doomed. I start to feel an unfamiliar emotion...panic? Was that it? I certainly felt panicked; my heart was beating fa-
Cleiera disappears, reappearing in front of me, dropkicking me, and aiming a punch straight to my waist. In a fit of panic, I manage to summon a bit of antimatter, and have it explode, immediately forcing Cleiera back.
"You are so annoying!" Cleiera now dashes towards me, leaving a sonic boom in her wake. Now, however, I realize one thing. It's not necessarily pain that's the catalyst for powers, it's negative emotions in general. That explains why Cleiera can manipulate her demonic powers so well-
"Bit hasty to conclusions now, are we?" Cleiera's cold breath touches my neck. "No, I haven't used my demonic powers throughout the fight yet." Oh, no...was she mocking me?
Does she dare to mock me?
An antimatter knife appears in my hand, my hip swiveling behind me, propelling the knife behind me, which Cleiera dodges. However, that wasn't my goal. I stab the knife to the floor, the shockwave blasting Cleiera back, creating some smoke in the wake of the explosion.
I have no time to understand how I summoned that knife. All I know is that Cleiera is behind the smoke. As if automatically knowing what I wanted to do, an antimatter ball appears underneath my feet, blasting myself forward to him. Another knife appears in my hand, as I stab and slice in front of me, trying to hit her.
Cleiera effortlessly parries all of my attacks, swiping my hand away in each attack. "Hmm. These hands have seen battle before. Wonder why?" he says, as he chuckles. "That's twisted...Your body's been trained to adapt to any situation you're in. What happened to you, Ethan Lector?"
I say nothing, continually slashing, my eyes widened. I keep on trying to catch him off guard, but he's way too experienced. I know that whatever I'm doing is just a muscle memory, and one distraction could cost me.
Wait. Distraction.
I throw my knife into the air, and Cleiera immediately seizes the chance to go for a chop to my neck, where I duck, and with all of my might, I clap my hands in front of him, causing him to blink. At the perfect timing, I catch my knife, and impale it in his stomach, sending him backwards in an explosion. Every instinct in my body tells me to rush forwards, but in a flash, I get blasted backwards.
"ENOUGH." Cleiera's voice echoes throughout the dojo, and even resonating to the back of the crowd. He levitates, spreading his arms. "You've forced my hand, boy. Joy comes from misery, and misery comes from joy."
"SHADENFREUDE: MISERY OF JOY."
The whole dojo turns red, coins falling from the ceiling. I try to knock a few coins away, but when my hand touches a coin, I slip and fall. Another coin falls on me, and the floor literally splits open, causing my head to fall inside. Cleiera stomps on my back.
"How is it? When these coins touch you, it increases your LUCK VALUE. The more LUCK VALUE you have, the more unlucky you get! Now, boy, you did well. I can say that. However..."
Cleiera stabs a card straight into my spinal cord, paralyzing me. My vision fades into darkness, is this it....? In my last moments, I see Cleiera standing above me, smirking...
~~~
I wake up in a bed, finding Sylvera sitting next to me, feeding me some kind of liquid...I wake up with a jolt.
"Hey! I did not consent-oh." Sylvera stares at me with an annoyed look.
"Relax. It's a healing potion. No allergens in it. Your body healed your broken spinal cord by yourself, this is just to make sure you don't have a nasty scar. Speaking of, what did you do to end up like that? Cleiera never explained."
I look kinda exasperated. "Uhm...I kinda...uh...stabbed him."
Sylvera looks at me. "Huh. You actually did it," she says that in a surprised tone.
"Uhm...How many people have done that?" I ask.
"At least for a beginner, not that much. Not a lot of people have landed blows on her...but I managed to draw blood from her in my first attack." I look at Sylvera, my face in pure surprise.
Wow...As far as I know, she only has a decade of experience. Sylvera scowled at me. "Remember...Don't try to patronize me."
"Huh...So, what happens now?' I ask.
"Well, you have to wait until tomorrow for the judging to be complete. Yes, they judge that quickly. For now, get some rest here," Sylvera replies.
I hold out my hands. "Hold on, hold on, do I have to pay for this? Wait, no, why am you allowing me to do this?" I ask, in an exasperated tone.
Sylvera frowns. "This is a temporary establishment until you move in to your dorms. Unless you wanna leave? I'll be fine with that."
"For a night in these beautiful sheets and comfortable pillows? Hell nah!" I cover myself in blankets, and place a pillow on my face. "Good night." I close my eyes, and for the first time since I enter Hell, I doze off, and get a good night's sleep.
~~~
I get woken up with Sylvera yanking away my blanket, and hitting me with a pillow. "Wake up," she says, in her usual cold tone. "The judging has finished." Sylvera leads me out the door, to the same room where I first met Cleiera. Speaking of, there she was, gathered with two other people there, a man and a woman.
The man was fiddling with what appeared to be a pencil made entirely of light. Whenever his fingers twirled, the pencil would match his every movement perfectly. He wore a simple hoodie and black long pants, with short, spiky orange hair. Next to him was a teenage girl, her short hair stark white, and she seemed to be fiddling with a knife made entirely of fire.
I take a seat behind them. Cleiera stands in front of us and claps her hands. "Welcome fellow entrees! You've been judged, and we've decided that all of you have been worthy of being S-class demons in Lust!" He claps his hands excitedly. "You'll all be classmates together, and go on missions together!"
"So, are you all excited?" No one replied. "So, with that, since there are only you three and Sylvera, over there, you'll all be sleeping in one dorm." The man groaned. I personally didn't object.
Cleiera opens a door, which leads to a room, filled with two white bunk beds. She signals for us to get in. "Your dorms."
~~~
I place my stuff in one corner of the room, the man and the girl doing the same thing. Sylvera was obviously away with something, so I tried to lighten the mood.
"H-hey, guys! Icebreakers, anyone?" I ask, in a nervous tone.
"The name's Halsten. 100 year old demon, pleased to meet your acquaintance," he says, in a casual voice. "I wield the emotion of Pride. How 'bout girlie over there?" Halsten points to the girl.
The girl giggles. "Ahahaha..." The girl pounces on me, pinning me to the ground, holding a needle made of pure magma to my neck. "Pleased to meet you, call me Marionette. My real name isn't important. I reside over the emotion of Lust!"
Instinctively, I summon a bit of antimatter, which makes contact with the needle. She gets blown back a little.
"Name's Ethan. Ethan Lector. I guess...I...reside over the emotion of Emptiness?"
They raise an eyebrow. "Huh. Emptiness. Haven't seen that in a while," says Halsten. He gets finished arranging his stuff, and then gets going out. Marionette also arranges her stuff, and heads out with a smile.
I don't really have any belongings, so...I step out of the door, ready to follow them to my first class. I guess this is my life now, huh?