After the Principal's voice dies down, the mages levitating around the Academy appear as all faces turn to Raphael who just shrugs with a mischievous smile.
His hair, covering half of his face gives him a mysterious look, drawing the attention of all the females surrounding him.
His eyes, scanning the surroundings glow with crimson light as his black pupils thin out when he hears the whispers of the students.
"First grade and already a seventh-rank MAGE! " Everyone's whispering as Sarah releases Deril from her grip and throws him on the ground, saying.
"Huh? But I need to change?! I don't wanna go out in this outfit..."
Raphael just smiles at the whispers and asks Sarah-
"Why didn't you say that then? "- as she shrugs and comes closer.
"Guess I don't want any of those perverts roaming through my stuff..." she states, making Raphael imagine the blurry picture of what this Academy probably hides.
"Hmm, I know ways how to get in, so I might help you if you let me~" Raphael offers as he appears behind Sarah from the shadows like a demon offering a deal.
"But it needs to remain between us as a secret~" Raphael adds, whispering to Sarah's ear as the only people who hear that are Rose and Monika.
Sarah is startled for a second but when he touches her hand, and their fingers intertwine, all Sarah's worries are thrown out of the window as she agrees with a cute nod.
Just with a simple touch, Raphael manages to convince people to trust him, but when he is about to run with Sarah, Monika unconsciously catches his other hand.
"Wait... Mind taking me with you? I-I wanna take something as well..."
"What will I have in return? " Raphael asks with a casual expression of playful annoyance, looking as if Monika suddenly lost every piece of interest in his eyes...
He pulls his hand slowly away from her...
For an unknown reason, she feels hurt by this sudden gesture of his, so she desperately starts thinking about how she might turn the tables in this situation.
In the end, she offers:
"Um, you might go out with me... Yeah, we can go together, all four of us~" Monika says with a happy smile as Raphael, with a facepalmed expression, asks.
"Four? "
"Yeah, me, you, Sarah, and my boyfriend~" Monika explains as Raphael seems to start thinking about it.
"That's a great deal... We should take it, my love... We might even have some time alone afterward... I know a place... of course, only if you want... Hell, this might be our first DATE! And it will be a Double Date at the same time! This is so exciting!!! "
Sarah screams, calling everyone's attention to herself, mainly Rose's as Raphael smiles in response to both, Sarah's excitement and Rose's heartbroken expression.
"Deal..." Raphael nods as Monika unconsciously touches his hand again and asks: "Will you take me with you then? "
"Kay, hold tightly if you don't wanna lose your limbs in the process~"
Hearing this, Monika and Sarah cling to Raphael's body, hugging him around his neck as he dissolves into shadows and enters the Academy's building almost unseen.
But before he disappears, his right eye shifts at Rose and winks.
"Huh? Where's Raphael? " One of the students suddenly asks as all, like chickens, turn at the spot where Raphael and the others stood just a second ago, seeing only Rose.
"He was here a second ago... Do you think Monika and Sarah... you know... kidnapped him? " Another student asks, forming conspirations with her over-boosted imagination as the first one replies-
"Well, seems like it..." -and the discussion starts.
While talking, Rose seems to be drowned deep in her thoughts, ignoring the surroundings and their chattering whispers and voices.
All of them start to form just some kind of noise in her head as she thinks.
'He-He-He left... He swapped me for my best friend and that pathetic Sarah who doesn't even have any magical talent... Am I not enough for him? Am I not good enough to become his girlfriend? Why he didn't call me instead to go on a date with him? '
While wandering around the yard aimlessly, Rose's eyes start watering as she continues with her thoughts.
'We shared moments so beautiful, so intimate, worthy to be cherished in our souls forever, yet he threw them out of the window, treating my love as if it doesn't mean ANYTHING! '
Feeling she is not worthy enough to live in this world anymore, Rose falls into deep sorrow as she hugs herself, and walks away from the yard, heading to a place where she can be alone, where she can end this nightmare she found herself in so suddenly.
So many feelings like hatred, sorrow, pain, love, lust, and many more are flowing through Rose's soul as if water, smashing and crashing against the walls of her body angrily, craving to be released.
All due to one boy who gave her everything and then snitched it all away.
And while Rose is walking away from the yard, ignored by everyone around her, the flowing image in the sky sees the back of a girl with her sandy hair tied into a ponytail, wearing the Academy uniform with a navy blue sweatshirt over her white blouse, as she slowly starts following Rose, unnoticed.
...
Appearing in the middle of a hallway on the first floor of male dorms, Raphael releases the girls as all three of them walk together toward the direction of the female dorms.
The girls wear happy smiles, feeling excited about tonight while Raphael wears a smooth smile, his eyes close sometimes as he enjoys the sweet melody of the girls' chattering voices.
Turning corners, and going through different-looking hallways, the way seems to go smoothly.
But at the end of the hall where they are now, a hallway connecting the male and female dorms, a shadow of a person appears out of nowhere, holding two long swords as his face is nothing but darkness.
Visible is also the symbol that summoned it.
A symbol of something similar to silhouettes of two scythes facing opposite directions with their pointed-out blades but their handles connected in the middle with a full circle.
And this symbol is right under the creature.
Now, the visible features of the creature's face are only its eyes and wide smile, but not quite as you would expect.
Instead, his eyes are missing, just like the insides of his mouth, he really looks like a shadow, but rather a two-dimensional one.
Because his eyes and his mouth are transparent inside, you can see through the holes what's behind it as if nothing is there, yet the shadow can see and also talk.
"You should not be here..." The Shadow speaks as it aims its swords at Raphael, forming a word of X while sips and strains of darkness are leaving its body and also the swords.
"Return from where you came, because no one will pass me until the sun sets..." The Shadow adds another comment, but this time, rather than scaring anyone, it makes Raphael actually laugh instead.
"Hahahaha, do you really think that, Daeva? " Raphael places his question as the creature's eyes narrow.
"Calling me a Daeva is an insult to my race. While those shattering images of reality, summoned by demons and wandering unseen through the worlds, murdering everyone are just a myth, a bedtime horror story, I'm actually real, here standing, but I can feel you are trying my patience... Do you? " The Shadow creature asks as Raphael smiles broadly.
"Bedtime stories? You really think that? Hmm, to answer your question... I do... Well, kinda~" He replies while he puts his hands in the pockets of his black, leather jacket.
"You see, my girlfriends here want something from their rooms, and you are the only scarecrow standing in our way... I need to know how much you can carry before your knees start to shake and you begin to run~"
Saying this, the patience of the creature seems to reach its borders as it says.
"Very well, now you have my attention boy... Prepare for a punishment, mage of the seventh rank! "
"Raphael, what's the meaning of this? You two talk as if you know each other... Which is impossible..." Monika, a girl who is always more suspicious than others asks.
"Later girls... I promise..." Raphael replies as he adds-
"Now..." -and pulls his hands out of his pockets.
Then, he gently, like a summer breeze cooling your skin on a hot day, touches Monika's and Sarah's thighs, enveloping them with his arms while he ends the sentence: "Hold on tightly, this is gonna be a bumpy ride~"
Not wasting any seconds, the girls fulfill his orders, holding on to his neck like before as Raphael bends a little, picks up the girls from below so they can sit on his hands, and starts running toward the shadowy creature.
The creature does the same and at the point of an impact, Raphael smiles mischievously, his eyes take on a crimson-red glow, as his and the girls' bodies dissolve in a second into a cloud of misty shadows, black as night itself with stains of blinding light.
As the time slows, the dark blades of the creature pass through the cloud, cutting it in half but when the time speeds up again, the creature lands and the cloud passes, the Shadow turns its face with a smile, only to then open its eyes wide.
Seeing Raphael forming back while still holding the girls, and not having even the slightest scratch on his clothes nor his body, the creature asks.
"How did you... Mages of your rank are unable to do that... unless... Who are you and why did you want to become a student of this Academy..."
With a smile, showing his sharp, pearl-white teeth, Raphael turns half of his face at the creature.
His eye, watching the creature glows in crimson-red color as his black, lizard-like pupil stretches out.
"That's something you'll never find out, brother~," He says as the girls feel kind of strange.
Don't understand them wrong, they feel amazing as they never experienced something like this... But all of a sudden it feels so dark, mysterious, and unknown, that it makes goosebumps run down their spines.
"Raphael? Tell us what's the meaning of this! " Monika, the one who somehow feels more of these strange feelings, asks, making Raphael turn his face at her.
His captivating beauty with the dose of mysteriousness added by the strain of his hair covering his left eye drives her crazy as she waits for his answer.
"Nothing you need to know of yet... As I said, I tell you both later... Time shows everything... Now-" He turns at the creature and clasps the asses of those two E-girls hiding behind him as he adds: "Go, and get ready... I'll pick you up when I'm done here..."
Turning his face behind for one last time, he smiles gently "Also, you don't need to hurry, darlings~ We have a time of an entire world~"
With a wink, his gaze returns back at the Shadow creature as Monika and Sarah decide to turn and start to run to their dorms with a strange feeling lingering in their hearts.
It's like they are forced to do it like they are forced to fulfill Raphael's order or request, rather than do it because they want.
As they leave, Raphael's gentle smile turns into a wide grin, his sharp, needle-like teeth shown for everyone to see.
"Well? Shall we? " He asks the creature as the Shadow at first smiles, but then, seeing those teeth and feeling something is not quite right, his expression turns serious as it replies.
"I like you... You have the style of someone I knew, therefore, I'll treat you like I treated him... But, I guess I would also need to send you to the same place, huh~"
Hearing his response, Raphael looks down and shakes his head.
"Nah, that's not gonna happen..." He says, wielding his face up again which has now more greyish-colored skin as Raphael's hair begins to take white tones, coming from the middle of his head.
"You know, I kinda like it here. Many tasty virgins and sluts ready to be corrupted by my lust and ideas..."
"A bunch of primitive dudes like you who don't stand a bit of a chance..."
"Hell, this is a paradise for someone like me~ I don't wanna leave it yet..." Raphael explains as he starts slowly approaching the creature while his hair begins to slowly turn white from the middle of his head, down to their curly ends.
The surrounding walls start to crack from the energy his body is releasing as a black liquid starts sliding down the walls and covering the entire floor, coming from the cracks.
"But I'll make you..." The Shadow replies, repeating Raphael's actions as it walks forward, entering the corrupting area near him as the image shifts back at Raphael and his walk.
"Words, words, words. If you wanna do something, then do it, don't talk about it... Prove to me what you are capable of and I'll maybe spare you... as my pet~"
Raphael stops in the middle of the hall as his eyes start to glow, and shadows begin to envelop his existence as nothingness, only a shadowy-looking being with the height of two meters, horns twisted, forming a crown on his head and claws long and sharp as blades of knives are seen.
"...You are not a mage, nor a human... So you were the one who killed that boy... Am I right, Demon? " A realization hit the creature as he now faces the demon known as Castiel Raphael Gremory in his full glory.
A sight that to this day saw only Raphael's brothers and some of the demons in Hell.
This is what he truly looks like as the surrounding space itself seems to have difficulties holding such an existence as he is.
The corruption around practically tripled as now the walls are not cracking anymore but rather are evaporated from existence.
In a corrupted, deep male voice that's mixed with multiple, whispering female voices of girls he corrupted and consumed in the past, their souls repeating his words over and over again, Raphael speaks as his transformation comes to an end.
"Yeah, he was an annoying bitch... Ordering me what to do... Just like you... Ordering me... Me? ... A demon from a house of Gremory ordered by a primitive Daeva?! A lesser Shadow demon?! "
With these words, a pair of large, black wings made from leather, resembling those of a bat angrily wide-opens, reaching the opposing walls of the hallway as a blast of powerful wind filled with sharp, shadowy-black strains flies at the Shadowy creature.
Cutting the blasts with its swords, the creature smiles and asks... "Gremory? I never heard of that house, yet the Principal will love your words... Your confession will save us so much time~"
"But, aren't you afraid that anyone can see you? Blowing out your cover so casually, only to face me... That's an honor~ " The Creature adds as Raphael's face is revealed from the shadows.
His serious expression on the snow-white-haired, greyish, almost pale, demonic face with heterochromatic black-and-white eyes which have pupils of the opposing color, scares the creature a bit as Raphael replies-
"You talk too much... That's a weakness~" -and launches himself at the creature, as the fight starts.
...
... ... ... ... ...
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