"I knew their little time of peace was only the calm before the storm."

  Lucius thinks to himself. His brows are furrowed while he stares at the big screen inside the control room. At the same time all six of the young Corps members are scattered around a city that lies in ruins, fighting nightmares and trying to save the remaining citizens that weren't evacuated by now. The sky is grey, and heavy rain pours down. The group split into duos to work more effectively.

  "We're lucky that these are only normal nightmares. We would really be screwed if it were only the speaking once."

  Kai says, already seeming quite exhausted, before hurling his lightning bolt at one. Max responds that some of them are still quite strong while slicing open the throat of a rather small one.

  Less talking, more killing! I can't concentrate when you all talk on the channel.

  Lloyd complains loudly while fighting off two bus-sized monsters at the same time. Despite the complaints, Teon makes a comment that he isn't concerned about the nightmares but much more about something else before glazing over at Kaia. She takes note of it and kicks him in the back, causing him to yelp out and fall to his knees.

  "You know I can hear you, right?"

  "You know what I mean."

  He responds with an apologetic look on his face. Kaia sighs and nods. Turning away from him, she runs to a full car that is being attacked by a nightmare.

  "I can watch after myself. I have more control now. Aziel won't take over again."

  "Don't make a promise you can't keep, or you break his heart."

  Aziel mutters inside her head before chuckling cruelly. Kaia ignores her. The same moment Percy's voice echoes through the comms channel.

  "I think I found where the nightmares are coming from."

  He stands on top of the few skyscrapers left standing.

  "There is an old factory building here at the outskirts of the city. I just killed three nightmares that came out of it."

  He pouts his hand over his eyes and squints.

  "And there is a yellow glow coming from the windows."

  Kai suddenly appears right next to him.

  "Did you just leave Max alone?"

  "She got this."

  "Of course I do."

  Kai looks excited at the building and then at Percy, asking if they should go in. Percy agrees, but not without calling Kai a battle-hungry lunatic. With the use of FlashStep, the two close the distance between them and the factory building. While walking towards the big entrance gates, Kai's eyes fall on the spear Percy is holding in his right hand. Percy sees the gaze and smirks.

  Lucius sent me to get it. I don't really like weapons like this, or my trident, but I'm never sent to find any kind of swords."

  "That's interesting, but I'd be much more interested in what weapon this is."

  Kai responds colder than he had intended. Percy ignores his tone and explains that the spear he's holding is the spear of Longinus. The spear that was used to deliver the final blow to Jesus as he hung at the cross. He further continues that it is legit and not a fake. Cain confirmed, as he was there as it happened.

  "Wow, man, it must be really strong then!"

  "Strongest one yet."

  Percy says smiling. Both of them wince as Max's voice rings in their ears. Yelling at the two to stop their small talk and enter the factory already. Both sigh before pushing the gate open together and entering the building. The rift that caused the glow Percy saw earlier is right in the entrance hall. But in front of it stands a nightmare. Just like Cynder and Agnarok, it is of tall stature, but compared to the two, it is rather thin. It slowly turns around to look at whoever just made so much noise behind it.

  "Humans. But not strong."

  Its head oddly resembles that of an insect, but neither Percy nor Kai has ever seen one. It turns back to the rift, paying them no more attention.

  "What do you mean not strong?!"

  Kai protests outrageously. Percy points his spear at the monster.

  "You don't look that strong either. Cynder was more intimidating!"

  The thing tenses up, its head slowly turning over its shoulder to look at the two. Its eyes are drilling into Percy's.

  "Cynder... Did you fight her?"

  Percy ignores the question, his spear still pointed at the nightmare.

  "I guess you have a name. Care to tell us?"

  Before Percy manages to finish his question, the nightmare stands right in front of them, its claws resting on the shaft of the spear. Kai's eyes move to look at it, stunned in shock by its speed.

  "I didn't even see him turn around."

  "The name is Grinshroud."

  The nightmare introduces himself, looking at the ground.

  "You should be more scared. I'm way worse than Cynder. The only reason she is still alive is because she is his favorite."

  As he speaks, Grinshroud's body grows slightly. And before the two boys can respond, they're sent flying out of the factory and crash into the skyscraper they stood on before, causing it to crumble and fall. Kai slowly walks out of the ruins, brushing dirt from his shoulder. Percy follows suit.

  "Glad we're used to crashing into buildings by now."

  Kai jokes. Percy nods while starring at his now empty right hand.

  "He has my spear."

  He murmurs. Kai grins and crouches down before immediately jumping into the air, the lightning bolt raised behind him. It grows and lights up red before she throws it with all her strength at Grinshroud. The nightmare, who stepped outside the factory by now, just tilts his head to the side, avoiding the attack while also grabbing the lightning and, with a spin, hurling it back at Kai. His eyes widen as his own weapon hits him and knocks him out of the air. At the same time on the ground, Percy storms at Grinshroud. His trident was held in both hands. Aimed to strike the monster's stomach. But as the three-pointed head connects with its target, it just bounces off, not even leaving a scratch. Grinshroud chuckles before swinging with a big clawed hand at Percy's face. A cloud of dust swirls up. As it settles again, Lloyd stands between Percy and Grinshroud; the bones on his arms formed like a shield. Still, the nightmares' claws managed to pierce the armor no problem, even reaching into Lloyd's chest. Lloyd spits blood on Grinshroud's arm and steps backward, pulling himself off Grinshroud's claws. The wound heals in no time, and the shields on Lloyd's forearms turn into long blades. Taking on a steadfast stance, he points both of them at Grinshroud.

  "My turn."

  Bones grow out of the skin of his face, creating a horrifying bloody mask. Using all the strength he can bring up through his leg and lower torso, he dashes forward. His right arm slashes downwards to cut Grinshroud open while the other thrusts forward. As the first attack, the slash, comes in contact with Grinshroud's chest, the blade shatters. The thrust, on the other hand, pierces his armor.

  A deep, throaty growl rumbles from Grinshroud's chest. He slowly raises his arm. Lloyd tries to pull the blade free, but it's stuck in Grinshroud's chest. He raises his free hand to block the incoming attack. As it connects the bone armor on Lloyd's blocking arms and legs breaks, and he goes down to one knee. In this moment Max appears behind him, sliding over the ground and trying to cut Grinshroud's Achilles heel, but just like Percy's trident and Lloyd's first attack, her knife does no damage at all. She jumps from the ground at a seeming safe distance. Lloyd breaks his own blade of his forearm and limbs away from the nightmare. The armor on his arms and legs slowly but surely healing.

  "What are you doing here, Max?"

  "I'm finished clearing my area, different from you guys."

  Grinshroud laughs at them.

  "Are you their only hope? You're nothing more than insects to me."

  Max looks at him with a confused look.

  "We're the insects?"

  She shakes her head, tightening her grip around her knife.

  "Whatever. You're my equal, so you are just an insect like us."

  "What are you talking abo—"

  The nightmares' compound eyes widen as a sudden surge of weakness overcomes his body and he nearly falls forward. Max uses this moment to dash forward. Grinshroud stumbles backward just in time for her knife only graces his chest. Still, it leaves a small cut. He continues to stumble backwards, doing everything he can to avoid Max's incoming barrage of attacks.

  "Shit... it's getting hard to hold up my ability. Just... a little bit... more!"

  Max begins to show signs of exhaustion. She stumbles, and Grinshroud begins to feel his power slowly return. Then just as he is getting ready to launch an attack, Lloyd tackles him and pushes the bone blade, that was still inside his chest, even deeper until it breaks out of his back. Too late. Grinshroud's strength has fully returned, and with a simple backhand swipe, he slaps Lloyd aside, who collapses. The nightmare follows this up by an upward slash with his claws, cutting Max's left arm off. She screams out, her left hand reaching for the wound, trying to stop it from losing too much blood. Percy runs past her, the spear of Longinus back in his hands, aiming for Grinshroud's head. The metallic point connects. Just as Percy thought he might finally hit a damaging blow, the wooden shaft breaks. The nightmare shuckles and raises his arm for another deadly swing. His attack is stopped by a cracking and the sound of flesh getting torn. Grinshroud looks down at himself and sees the point of Kai's lightning bolt piercing through his lower abdomen.

  "This one is stronger than the rest of them."

  He slams Percy aside before stepping forward, out of Kai's weapon, and turns around to face Kai. With a smirk, or at least what could be described as a smirk on his insect-like face, Grinshroud attacks. Kai manages to keep hold of the nightmare at a distance and avoids the deadly claws. Growling in frustration Grinshroud starts to let his claws grow until Kai is no longer able to avoid the attacks and begins to suffer heavy injuries. He stumbles over rubble and falls. Before he is able to get up, Grinshroud's claws appear in his view. Just as they're about to land the killing blow, Grinshroud is tackled away from Kai. Kaia has both arms wrapped around Grinshroud's waist and pushes him away from her injured friends. The monster slams his feet into the ground, digging its claws deep in it, but he only manages to slow her down. As he realizes that he is not able to stop this little human like this, he grabs her with both hands, picks her up, and smashes her into the ground. Kaia coughs and rolls over the wet and dirty ground to avoid being crushed by his foot. She jumps back to her feet, and just in the same exact moment, Teon suddenly appears right at the height of Grinshroud's head and delivers two kicks to its side, causing the nightmare to stumble. He shakes his head before letting out an unnatural high scream that forces Kaia and Teon to cover their ears.

  "How many of you are there?!"

  The next moment a small, human-sized tornado crashes into his side, sending him stumbling even more. The tornado vanishes, and Kai stops next to Teon. Grinshroud gathers a steady stance again and looks at the three. He spits out blood and looks down at himself once again. Out of his chest sprouts a massive, bone-white spike.

  "Enough to kill you!"

  Lloyd yells. Grinshroud turns around, breaking the spike inside him and grabbing Lloyd by the face. As he tries to crush the boy's head, his forearm is cut clean off by Kai, now holding a golden katana. Lloyd falls back to the ground.

  "Go help Max and Percy!"

  Kai commands before blocking an incoming strike. Coughing up blood, Lloyd nods before running to the injured ones. Grinshroud's arm grows back, and he swings with it at Kai. The attack is blocked by Kaia, and in the same moment, Teon delivers a punch to the monster's back. Holding his fist there till the seventh impact sends the nightmare flying through the ruins of multiple buildings. Kai and Kaia look at him in surprise, never having expected that he could still put out attacks on this level. Teon just shrugs his shoulders.

  "Watch out!"

  Grinshroud stands behind Kaia, his claws buried deep inside her back, the ends looking out of her chest. He raises her off her feet while she squirms in pain.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  "Impressive. You don't even scream."

  "Girl... let me out... Or you die! You can't beat this thing. Not even the tree of you together!"

  Aziel screams at Kaia.

  "No... you'll just kill everyone around."

  "Maybe... but you would survive!"

  "I'd rather die! I believe in the others! They'll beat it!"

  In one swift motion Grinshroud pulls his claws out of her back. She falls. While Teon dashes foreward to catch her, Kai attacks Grinshroud to get his attention. Teon lays Kaia's body carefully on the ground, supporting her head with one hand.

  "Try to heal!"

  "He didn't damage anything important. Go help Kai... I'll survive."

  Teon looks at her wounds before nodding and hurrying over to the two fighting.

  "Why are you lying to him? Blood is filling your lungs. And if you continue to suppress me, I can't heal it."

  Even though Teon used all his strength to get to Kai fast, he was too slow. Before his eyes he sees Kai's lower abdomen being ripped open by both of Grinshroud's hands while he pushes his katana to the hilt into Grinshroud's chest. Kai, face contorted in pain, breaths heavy, trying his best to not pass out. He grits his teeth before spitting blood in Grinshroud's face.

  "Why do you bastards lack a heart to stab?"

  Teon is left stunned, unable to move as all his friends around him are slowly dying. Kai goes down to his knees. His hands slip from his katana's handle to try and hold his organs inside his body. The sword disappears, and the hole it left inside Grinshroud's chest closes. After letting out a deep chuckle, the nightmare kicks Kai away. He lands a few meters away with a loud crack. Tears well up in Teon's eyes. Just as the first one runs down his cheek, it turns into blood. His breath hitches. The nightmare stands now right in front of him, a single claw pierced through Teon's throat. The boy looks up at the nightmare's face with an empty expression and opens his mouth gasping. Blood drips down his lips.

  "Trying to say something? Last words?"

  But no last words come from Teon's lips, not even some gargled sounds. Instead, two pairs of wings spread behind him while a red halo appears over his head.

  "What's this?"

  Grinshroud asks, more of himself than Teon. It cracks, and blood drips into Teon's wet hair. The wings swing as if trying to lift him from the ground, but all they do is spread blood on the surroundings.

  He snaps his fingers, and the blood bursts into black flames. Grinshroud screams in surprise, and the flames lick at his body, slowly burning it away. He jumps back, pulling his claw from Teon's throat in the process. Now being able to do it again, Teon takes a deep breath.

  Far away on the island, Nova, alongside Rumi, enters the control room.

  "How are they doing?"

  Nova asks before her eyes fall on the big screen, showing a live satellite recording of the city ruins. Rumi freezes in her step.

  "Why aren't you intervening?!"

  Without taking his eyes from the screen, Lucius responds that if they want him to get stronger, they can't always intervene. They have to push themselves, even if it's to the brink of death. So as long as one stands, no one intervenes. Rumi glares at him from behind before her eyes move to the ground. Her fists are clenched so tight that her knuckles turn white. Nova speaks up.

  "When was the last time Teon lost control in this form?"

  "I don't know."

  Lucius responds.

  "But it seems that in the face of death his subconscious took over."

  Back in the city ruins, Grinshroud and Teon exchange blows after the other. As his wings block a strike, Teon reaches through them, covering his own hand in blood, and grabs onto Grinshroud's face. He begins flying through the city, dragging the nightmare's body over the ground, destroying everything in their way. Suddenly his forearm is cut off, and Teon flies a few meters alone before stopping and turning around. Grinshroud stands up, holding Teon's arm. Teon lands back on the ground, his arm healing back, and he slowly walks towards Grinshroud. His eyes empty like the first time he used this form.

  "Why are some of you always so tough? No matter the universe!"

  Grinshroud growls while growing in size again. He sprints at Teon, but instead of attacking, he grabs a wing and rips it away. Teons expressions remains the same, but blood runs from the corners of his mouth.

  Teon, unscathed, stands in front of a wall in an otherwise empty and dark place. No ground, no sky, just darkness. He looks up the wall, which seems to go up endlessly. He looks at its size, just the same. It goes on endlessly. No way around. No way over it.

  "Is this the end? Did I reach my limit?"

  He shakes his head and punches the wall.

  "I need to know what is behind it. If there is something behind it."

  Grinshroud rips the last wing away from Teon's body and throws it to the ground. Teon leans towards him. Without any strength left, he reaches out for Grinshroud. The nightmare grabs his arm and throws him high up in the air. He hits the ground near where his friends are. Grinshroud slams down right next to him. With an amused clickering sound, he leans down and grabs Teon's face and the halo above his head. In one swift move he rips the halo away. Teon lets out a scream. The first reaction he gave since he transformed.

  Nova watches, getting more and more stressed with each passing second.

  "Lucius, we have to intervene!"

  She looks over at Rumi and yells her name. But as she sees the expression on Rumi's face, she shuts down. Rumi stares at the screen coldly. Lucius glances over his shoulder at her.

  "You feel it too, right Rumi?"

  "Feel what?"

  Nova asks, confused now. Rumi lets out a sigh.

  "Yeah. I feel it."

  "Feel what?!"

  Nova screams at them. Lucius answers with a surprisingly calm voice.

  "His soul energy is spiking. Way above what he should be capable of."

  Using all the strength he has left, Teon crawls towards Kai and Kaia, unconscious from blood loss.

  At the same time, inside this strange place, Teon is still striking the wall. Slowly, small cracks and fissures start to appear.

  "I have to get through!"

  Grinshroud's attention is drawn to the half-dead humans. His amusement intensifies. Chuckling, he walks over to Kai. Standing over the boy, arms crossed over his chest, he slowly raises his foot.

  "You want to protect them?

  He places his foot on Kai's chest and applies pressure. Teon lets out a helpless whimper and stands up. His arms hang down his sides, leaning foreward. He coughs up more blood. The nightmare takes his foot off Kai's chest and walks up to Teon; standing beside the boy, he punches him in the stomach. Teon goes down to his knees. After that, Grinshroud moves towards Kaia, who just regained a bit of consciousness again. She tries to get up, but the nightmare stops her by stomping on her head. She screams out before her body goes limp again.

  Teon lands another punch against the wall. As he pulls his fist away, the wall begins to crumble down, revealing what's behind.

  "Finaly... Nothing?"

  As Grinshroud is about to stomp on Kaias's head once more, his body suddenly starts to tremble.

  "What's going on? Why am I shaking?"

  Nova goes down on her knees, heavily bleeding from her nose and eyes. One hand holds her stomach while the other covers her mouth.

  "What is happening? I feel like throwing up."

  "He did it."

  Rumi murmurs, visibly shaking, blood running out of her nose and while also covering her mouth. Even Lucius is going through the same.

  "Yes."

  In this moment, Teon got rid of his soul's natural limiter, placed upon every living being. This resulted in all of his souls' immeasurable energy to be released all at once.

  Grinshroud turns around to see the previously near-dead Teon standing in front of him completely healed. Two flashes of light, in the color of Teon's eyes, come flickering from his pupils. He takes a step towards Grinshroud, whose body is barely able to stand and is bleeding from every opening in his body. With pure fear in his eyes, the nightmare steps backward. In front of him he only sees the blacked-out silhouette of Teon and the light flashes coming from his eyes. Teon dashes foreward, grabbing his face, forcing the nightmare to his knees. In Pani, Grinshroud tries to cut Teon's arm off like before. But after his claws sliced through Teon's flesh and bone, it just reattaches like nothing happened.

  "What is going on with this human?! Where does this strength come from?

  With ever-growing panic, Grinshroud begins to wildly punch Teon's chest and stomach, but nothing seems to damage him. Teon just stares down at him while mumbling something.

  "What's this ability that just popped up in my head? I need to concentrate more."

  As he tries to find out what ability just came to his mind, his grip on Grinshroud's head tightens more and more.

  "He is going to crush my head if this goes further."

  As Grinshroud continues to punch Teon, trying everything to get him to let go, Teon manages to find the ability in the chaos of his mind. Behind him emerges a bright glowing angel. The halo over his head was deep crimson red. His wings are massive, feathers raven black. The being's eyes, glowing bright red, lock with Grinshrouds. It raises an arm before a deep voice emerges from the depths of its throat.

  "Wraith!"

  Grinshroud screams in pain as his body ignites in dark flames. In the same instant he desolves into black sand. The being behind Teon disappears just as suddenly as it came, and Teon falls unconscious.

  Back at the island, Lucius, Rumi, and Nova leave the control room.

  "What was all that, Lucius?"

  Nova asks quietly, exhausted from the pressure she endured just now.

  "I'll explain that after we brought them back to the island."

  While the three sit in a rescued heli, Rumi leans over to Lucius.

  "What do you think? How powerful was that thing behind Teon?"

  "To be completely honest. I don't think any of us would've survived that."

  Rumi looks to the floor of the heli, a frightened expression spread over her face. They arrive at the city shortly after. More helicopters and other emergency vehicles, which are rescuing remaining survivors, are all scattered around.

  "So much destruction."

  Nova murmurs to herself as they land. After they step out of the heli, Lucius tells Rumi and Nova to gather the group. He then walks towards the old factory building where the rift is still active, lighting up the entrance area. The moment Lucius enters through the gate, a nightmare comes out. Lucius kills it instantly with a beam of light and approaches the rift. He reaches out to touch it, but as the tip of his middle finger is just about to come in contact with it, a lightning bolt shoots at his hand, and the rift closes. Furrowing his brows, he puts his hand in his pocket, turns around, and leaves. With a dark expression, he walks back to the heli. Rumi and Nova have already sat everyone down. Everyone got provisionally treated for now. As she sees him approach, Rumi asks what he was doing.

  "Checking the rift."

  "And?"

  "It lost as I tried to touch it."

  After all have entered the heli, it takes off. As they land on the estate's roof and carry the injured ones out, Ragnar stands right next to the landing zone and watches. Rumi spots him and barks a command.

  "Stop watching and help!"

  "Yeah, yeah."

  After everyone is securely placed in a bed in the small hospital wing, Ragnar speaks up again while pointing at Teon.

  "Let me guess, he..."

  Lucius just nods in response.

  "So after they're all awake again, you have to hold a lecture about what happened?"

  Lucius nods again.

  "Looks like it."

  Rumi glances at her husband, noting the amused expression.

  "What's so funny about that?"

  "Nothing, love. I just really like hearing him explain things."

  His grin widens, which annoyes Rumi even more.

  "Stop making fun of me, or you lose privileges."

  Ragnar's expression drops, and he stares at her almost scared.

  "Don't look at me like that. You know exactly that I'm serious about this."

  She leaves the room, with Ragnar close behind, apologizing rapidly.

  Patreon members:

  Free:

  - HausCheck .

  - ….