REYNA watched Isaac intently.
She ran to the nearest window as soon as Bael entered the smoke.
Thankfully, there was no barrier around it.
She broke the glass and rushed outside.
The question that she'd been asking since the chapel was evacuated was finally answered. Wraiths roamed the corridors with students and teachers exorcising them. The whole school was in chaos.
Bael probably used the wraiths as a diversion so that nobody would pay him any attention.
Reyna clenched her fists in anger. She had bigger fish to fry than wraiths.
The spatial distortion of the chapel was on her side.
She crept along the wall to the next window and peeped inside.
Bael was holding Isaac up by his neck.
The plan wasn't much of a plan. All she'd told Isaac was that he had to fight Bael. If he knew anymore, Bael would just read his mind and find out everything. It was better to go unprepared.
She took a deep breath and focused all her energy, hoping she could exorcise Bael.
* * * * *
Isaac was running out of air.
Where was Reyna?
"Your friend abandoned you, didn't she?" Bael said as he licked his lips.
The window closest to them shattered and a web shot through.
It grabbed Bael's arm.
"Disgusting!" he exhaled and pulled on the web, which in turn dragged Reyna into the chapel.
It wasn't going to work.
Isaac couldn't let it end this way.
He pulled back and escaped Bael's grip.
"Forgive me, Brandon, but I have to repay the favour," said Isaac.
Still holding Brandon's hand, he brought his knee upwards and his arm down.
He heard the satisfying sound of the radius and ulna crack.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!!!" Bael yelled.
Isaac didn't stop there, he couldn't stop. He jumped onto Brandon's back and executed the body triangle lock. He summoned the last ounce of mana he had and placed his hand on Bael's temples.
He muttered one word.
"Somnus."
It was a sleep spell.
Bael didn't drop unconscious but that wasn't what Isaac was aiming for.
The spell only worked effectively on people who didn't expect it. Bael obviously didn't expect Isaac to cast a sleep spell but Isaac was only after the process of the spell. It dulled a person's senses gradually by reducing brain activity until the person fell asleep.
Isaac only needed to temporarily weaken Bael's psychic powers so that Reyna could resist it.
He wasn't sure if it even worked on exorcists with the Solomon charism because of their enhanced brains but it was gamble he had to take.
Bael's eyelids dropped for a second.
"NOW!" Isaac yelled and Reyna ran forward.
She shot her fist out at Brandon's chest.
He grabbed her hand before it could even connect.
"I... told you it was futile," he said. His eyelids were slowly closing as if he were about sleep but he regained consciousness.
Isaac thought it was over until Reyna shook her head.
"Guess again," she said and her hand erupted in white flames.
Bael's eyes opened as wide as saucers. "It can't be."
Her hand became intangible causing Bael's hand to pass through hers. She thrust her fist into Brandon's chest.
A black mass like a shadow started to come out of Brandon's body. The veins on his face started to recede.
Bael tried with all his efforts to back away but Isaac pushed forward.
Isaac was exhausted. A broken arm, empty on mana and bashed up really bad. It was a miracle that he was still conscious.
"It won't go through!" Reyna yelled.
Isaac grabbed Reyna's elbow with his good hand and pulled with all his might. Her hand passed through and Isaac watched it sprout out from his back.
The shadow evacuated Brandon's body and went out of sight.
Brandon's legs buckled. He and Isaac rolled onto the ground. Reyna fell to her knees drenched in sweat.
He grabbed Brandon's hand to check for a pulse. Although it was faint it was still there.
Reyna looked at him and Isaac understood.
"He's fine. Is it over?" Isaac asked her.
Reyna nodded.
Isaac chuckled softly.
Their troubles were finally over.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!!"
Isaac jumped to his feet and looked around. Leo was already conscious running towards him but that wasn't Leo's voice, besides Leo barely raised his voice. He yelled something but Isaac couldn't hear a word said.
The voice was Bael's.
He should be gone, Isaac thought.
His vision reddened and something hot ran down his face. He touched it and realized it was blood.
He staggered backwards until he touched the cold wall.
"NO!"
It was Leo's voice.
He could hear it clearly but he didn't understand why.
"What's this?" Bob's voice came from behind him.
Isaac turned around and looked at what he had placed his hands on.
Jesus-in-the-Mirror, as Isaac decided to call him was looking down him and Isaac's hand was on the stained glass window.
He backed away and wondered how he would solve this problem.
There was a flash of light and Isaac dropped to the ground unconscious.
* * * * *
Leo turned over in the rubble.
The blow he'd received to the head had rendered him unconscious. He was lucky that it wasn't worse than that. He had used a sonic scream to destroy a bunch of stakes Bael had thrown at him.
Unbeknownst to him, the demon had launched a stone pillar at him before he could react. John had jumped in between him and the pillar but the force at which it rushed at them was too much. It knocked them both into the wall behind them and they became unconscious.
Well it served him right for not using his forte. He was lucky that his headphones were still on covering his ears.
He didn't know how long he was out.
John was beside him still unconscious and breathing. Ethan was nowhere to be seen and so was his father.
He heard Isaac's voice coming from behind him.
He watched Reyna exorcise Bael from Brandon but there was a problem.
He had seen Reyna use this power on a wraith before. The wraith had vanished afterwards. But what he saw here was completely different.
The shadow that was expelled from Brandon was dragged into Isaac's body.
That was just horrible.
Leo had to get Reyna and Brandon out of there before Bael could take over Isaac's body.
He ran towards them.
Isaac turned towards him. There were tears running down his face.
No, it was blood.
He staggered back and placed his hand on the window behind him.
"NO!" Leo yelled.
The doors of the chapel burst open and teachers poured inside.
There was nothing he could do in this situation.
"What's this?" Bob said and looked down on Isaac.
Bob exploded in flash of white light and Leo couldn't believe what Bob said next.
* * * * *
Isaac felt like he was floating in space.
He opened his eyes and he found himself nowhere. Everything was black. There was no ground yet he was standing.
His broken arm was healed. He wasn't exhausted and he felt completely fine.
Was he dead?
Maybe.
If this was the afterlife then it sucked.
He thought of who would attend his funeral if he died.
Blanc, Leo, Reyna, his cousins, and no one else.
So his short life was lonely but it was fun while it lasted.
He remembered when he had almost blown Adrien's head off because he didn't know the right amount of force to use.
There was a time when he made the taps in the toilets burst in some of his classmate's face because they were gossiping about him.
Or when he was shirtless in front of Reyna.
He chuckled at the memories, and then his smile faded.
If he was dead, he would get to see his parents again. Maybe he would also meet his unborn brother.
"That turned sad really quick."
Isaac turned around to see Brandon.
"So we didn't make it," Isaac said under his breath. Then he realized the voice he just heard was Bael's.
"What are you doing in my afterlife?" Isaac asked him and tried casting a spell.
"I'm not here to fight and spells won't work," Bael told him and rose up his hands in surrender. "If our powers could work here don't you think I would have blasted your sorry face. Also if anyone of us is dying it's probably me."
"So I'm not dead?" Isaac asked rhetorically and checked his body. "Why are you here?"
"It's kinda your fault we're in this mess."
"I'm still trying understand what this mess was about," Isaac said. Where were they? In his mind?
"It's that cursed girl's power," Bael explained.
"Cursed?"
"You don't know a lot of things, do you?"
"Nope."
"Long story short, her power only attacks the soul."
So that's why her hand passed through his.
"That curse is especially potent on spirits. It separates the souls inside the body by forcefully evicting the foreign one but the only complication is that the hand or whatever is forcing the soul out must pass through the body of the target."
"So what does that have to do with me?"
Bael sighed.
"You pulled her hand deeper into Brandon's chest but you pulled too much," he explained. "Her hand did pass through Brandon but it also pierced your chest."
Isaac understood what he was saying but everything came crashing down at that last bit.
"And again you've become clueless," Bael said. "I don't know why I'm spending my last moments explaining all of this bullshit to you. Anyway her hand didn't go all the way through temporarily opening the path to your soul. Once that happens any roaming enigma would be sucked into your body."
"Hold up," Isaac said feeling violated. "I didn't ask for an unwanted tenant to enter my body."
"And this tenant is getting evicted soon," Bael retorted.
Silence passed between them for a few seconds.
"So how long is it going to take?" Isaac asked.
"Don't know but it'll be pretty soon," he replied. "Aren't you going to ask anything else?"
"Like?"
"Why did I come after you? Did they send others?" Bael listed.
"One, you probably don't know why they sent you. Two, they obviously sent others," Isaac answered. "That's how every series, movie or book goes. The first guy they send doesn't know anything about their plan. So my question should be who are the five people you mentioned earlier?"
Bael laughed and Isaac noticed that he had started to fade.
"Breaking the fourth wall. Be careful, kid," Bael warned him. "The five you mentioned. I only know that the identities of four of them have been confirmed. One is too strong for demons to handle, another is already within our grasp, and the last is being hidden until she comes out to play."
"So I guess this is goodbye then," Isaac said.
"You're being awfully nice for someone who I tried to kill his friends."
"It wasn't your fault. And it's better to forgive a person while they are still alive," Isaac said, regretting a decision he had made. "You had your reasons and the fact that you're helping me shows it."
"Isaac, you are one hell of a kid. You sound like you can never hate someone."
"If you know me very well you know that there are some people who I can never forgive," Isaac replied, suddenly changing the mood.
Bael gave him one last look.
"One more thing, since I was not supposed to possess you there will be consequences for the both of us."
"I take it that you consequence is death," Isaac deduced. "And mine?"
"Who knows?" Bael shrugged.
There was a cracking sound and Isaac looked down. The ground beneath him began to crack like glass and through the cracks he could see white light.
Bael waved his hand at him and the floor finally shattered beneath him.