Thomas came walking from the staircase, closing a small book, rosary in hand. He walked over to her, concern gleaming in his eyes.

  "Samantha? What have you seen, child?"

  "It's a horde," she replied, her voice growing shaky. She blinked repeatedly, and Alexander moved to her by instinct, gently placing a hand under her elbow, steadying her. "I'm sure they're coming tonight."

  "Alexander, lad, make sure the people are safe and our watchmen are ready. The sun is about to set." His eyes moved back toward Samantha. "Are you able to keep fighting?"

  Samantha set her jaw and nodded curtly.

  Alex turned around, clapping his hands and drawing the attention of the people in the building. He rushed to the building where they'd moved the non-combatants and made sure they moved back to the gym.

  "Be ready to do this every evening," he said to the crew, including mothers holding crying children.

  He led the non-combatants, fifteen people including Sofia and the elderly, and made sure they barricaded themselves in the gym. Sandra did a headcount and kept the first-aid kit and supplies ready.

  The remaining survivors, twelve of them, came with Alexander and Samantha.

  They had built a fortress, and they had decided that since they weren't fighting people with guns or other projectiles, the high ground would be advantageous.

  A wall of parked cars, shielded by a second layer of furniture, barbed wire, and broken glass.

  Sets of ladders and stools would help the shooters and system users stay above the enemy, slightly above the cars, and with enough space to shoot from a wide range.

  Mark was still on the roof with his loaded rifle, standing next to Evan, perhaps to teach him a thing or two. Daryush came with a Deagle, while the rest of the defenders held crowbars and bats. Alexander stood ahead, his hunters arranged around him. Fenrir directly ahead, Zorro and Bandit flanking, Samantha and Sean by their side, with the rest of the crowd behind.

  Tyger himself was posed on the roof of a truck, like a fat cat staring at the sunset. He stretched briefly, and in an instant, he transformed into a full-sized tiger, muscles tight and fangs ready to tear flesh.

  On the other side were Thomas and Marion, alone behind a wall of cars and furniture.

  And the sun began to set.

  Darkness fell. When the sun was no more, the screeching began.

  Minutes dragged, and then came a sound like a stampede of feet and claws hammering pavement, scrambling over cars. A mass of creatures preparing to strike.

  "Hold!" Alex exclaimed, hands forward.

  In the darkness, the noise became unbearable, so much so that even Alex's hair stood on end.

  And then they appeared.

  A stampede of demons amassed toward the first layer of the barricade, swarming below them. He saw morphs, dogs with extra legs scrambling over each other, rats the size of pit bulls, eyes burning red in the darkness, and then shoggoths with amorphous shapes straight out of nightmares. Dozens upon dozens of HUDs sprang to life, showing HP.

  They flooded the street like water, climbing walls, leaping from car to car, shrieking like souls condemned to hell. The wave was coming closer and closer.

  A scream echoed among the survivors. Alex couldn't tell who it was, but he heard a man turn around and race to safety.

  His own heart leapt inside his chest.

  But he gritted his teeth.

  He had to protect these people. He thought of them, of the innocent, the mothers with children, Sofia, Evan, hoping for a future where he could also be the hero.

  A coyote-like demon with matted skin went straight up, leaping toward them with massive fangs and crossing the barbed wire.

  Mark's rifle cracked from above. The coyote's head snapped back in pieces, the body tumbling forward, trampled by three dog demons behind it.

  A dog-like abomination climbed up. Daryush brought the Deagle up; the first shot missed, but the second split its head, the body slamming down and skidding while its legs kept kicking. Daryush fired again, and the thing stopped. Three more morphs hit the barbed wire, bodies twisting as the hooks tore into them, yet they kept coming.

  Fenrir snarled by his side, but Alex stretched his hand forward. A powerful burst of mana, manifested in a blaze of red light, pierced the body of one of the demons.

  [MORPH - HP: 105 → 0]

  Three demons scrambled over the second line of cars, and the magnum roared again, bodies bursting apart, black and red spraying across the pavement.

  [MORPH - HP: 80 → 0][MORPH - HP: 110 → 0][MORPH - HP: 95 → 0]

  But more came. Dozens. Hundreds. They piled against the ward, climbing over their own dead, the barrier turning the front ranks into pulp while those behind pressed forward with mindless hunger.

  Alexander surged into them, hurling blast after blast, ripping through flesh and bone, demons collapsing into smoking heaps.

  [MORPH - HP: 85 → 0][MORPH - HP: 90 → 0][MORPH - HP: 100 → 0]

  Tyger Tyger's mouth was soaked in blood, fangs clasped around necks and hearts. He frantically swung claws, slashing flesh and biting through veins. Fenrir bit, tore, and snarled at enemies. A mass of morphs and shoggoths kept amassing ahead, dying by the dozens, but more kept coming.

  Daryush's gun roared again as he scrambled for another cartridge. Three shoggoths surrounded Fenrir, pushing him down the barrier, biting into his flesh and stabbing him with knife-like claws. Alex tried to shoot mana, but he knew it could hurt his own morph.

  [MORPH - HP: 120 → 0][MORPH - HP: 95 → 0]

  Someone moved up on his right.

  Sean Jiao stood there, calm amid the noise, eyes half-lidded.

  He drew his hands close to his core. Heat rolled off him as he exhaled. He thrust both arms out, and the street bloomed with flame. A wide sheet of fire formed in front of his hands, then tore through the oncoming mass.

  It charred limbs, collapsing torsos, demons shrieking as they burned and fell, scrambling back with their skins and furs on fire, shoggoths lighting up and dissolving.

  [MORPH – HP: 130 → 0] [MORPH – HP: 90 → 0] [MORPH – HP: 110 → 0] [MORPH – HP: 140 → 0]

  For a heartbeat, the street opened.

  Fenrir climbed up, blood on his neck, but steady and strong. And Alex's eyes swung toward Sean.

  Everyone else stared at the man, who stood rigid, hands raised, breath sawing in and out of his chest.

  "Sean... man... what... what just happened?" Alexander asked, eyes still trained on the scattered mass of morphs with flames lit on their backs and the shoggoths that collapsed and dissolved like gory sandcastles.

  "Cultivation," Sean said softly, letting out a breath. "I'm a cultivator?"

  "That's... awesome, like, Dragon Ball Z kind of stuff?"

  Sean shrugged and smirked. "If you can call it that."

  "Can you do that again?" Alex asked.

  "Need to recharge for a while," Sean replied, looking at the few demons still trying to push through. But something had changed. Not only had they dispersed in fear.

  The attack had seemed to stall.

  After an instant, however, Alexander realized it was probably not Sean's attack that was causing that.

  Even the shoggoths beneath them began to make way, moving to the sides of the street, as if instead of retreating, they expected something else to take over.

  Then, a shadow emerged in the street ahead, so tall that it darkened the streetlights, a bulky mass shifting slowly, human, but with long limbs that weren't quite right.

  Ten feet of extremely defined muscle carrying a torn streetlight pole like a club.

  [OGRE - HP: 850/850]

  "Oh, crap," Alexander mumbled. "I hate those."

  As if in response, the ogre broke into a run. Alexander stretched out his hand, shooting a torrent of mana. It struck its chest, but despite the damage, the demon did not flinch.

  [OGRE - HP: 759/850]

  It leapt forward, clearing the first layer, and swung the pole at the group of defenders. The civilians ducked and jumped down.

  This was the time for Alex to reveal his new allies. It wasn't his first rodeo. He knew how to deal with ogres.

  His thoughts carried to his pack, and his younger morphs sprung forth from his side.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Bandit shot forward at ground level, a streak of motion that slid under the swing and carved across the ogre's ankle, claws opening deep lines. The ogre's leg buckled a fraction. Zorro moved wide, eyes fixed on the ogre's hips, then darted in and bit hard behind the knee, twisting and pulling before the club could come back around.

  The ogre roared and slammed the pole down. Metal crushed a car hood flat, glass exploding outward. Samantha shot mana into its side, the impact ripping flesh open and forcing its torso to turn.

  [OGRE – HP: 790 → 720]

  Alex followed with another blast, aimed low this time. The mana tore into the weakened leg, and the ogre stumbled.

  Bandit leapt up its back and locked onto the shoulder, teeth sinking deep. Zorro went for the throat from the front, jaws clamping and hauling sideways. The ogre flailed, one hand grabbing for Bandit and missing, the other swinging wildly.

  Samantha closed the distance and drove a focused blast into its ribs. Something cracked audibly.

  The ogre surged back to its feet and charged again, slower now, blood pouring down its chest. Alex stepped in and emptied another burst straight into its neck. The blast tore a chunk free and snapped its head back.

  Bandit tore free and bit, ripping at the hamstring. Zorro kept his grip on the throat, shaking hard until the ogre's footing collapsed. It went down on one side, the streetlight pole skidding from its grasp.

  Tyger's claws ripped through its chest, and the demon bit his way down from its torso into the ogre's heart.

  [OGRE – HP: 480 → 0]

  The ogre convulsed and stopped moving in a heap.

  But the attention had made the horde of demons begin to pass through the barricade.

  Alex's bound demons left the dead ogre and raced back through the barricade, with Zorro reaching and catching a crawling shoggoth, then proceeding to tear it to pieces.

  Sean had begun to cast smaller fireballs at other invaders, but the creatures had already broken through and begun to swarm the second line of defense.

  The survivors scrambled backward. Daryush fired his last two rounds, then ran. Mark, or maybe Evan this time, kept shooting from above, but he couldn't cover everyone.

  The survivors reached the inner barricade. Tables and benches piled chest-high. They climbed over and took positions behind it. Twenty feet now between them and the gym entrance. Twenty feet and this last makeshift wall.

  And the demons were close.

  And beneath their feet were wards inscribed with the names of angels.

  As soon as the first shoggoth touched it, they were caught up in light.

  Light blazed from both circles.

  Angels manifested. Six figures in white appeared fully formed, wings spreading wide, blades and spears materializing in their hands.

  The angels dove, and their spears cut through demon flesh like red-hot blades, splitting them in two and erupting into explosions of blood. Morphs died in groups as the angels moved through them like reapers through wheat.

  [MORPH - HP: 95 → 0] [MORPH - HP: 110 → 0] [MORPH - HP: 85 → 0]

  The pressure eased. The flood became a trickle. The angels established a perimeter between the two barricades, cutting down anything that tried to cross.

  Marion stood at the door to the gym, falling to her knees, blood trickling down from her eyes, nose, and ears.

  Thomas was alone, fending off a wave of demons that had broken through the other side. He panted hard but swung his sword with power.

  The angels had begun to fade. Thomas's mana couldn't sustain them anymore, and Alex felt a stab of pain through his ribs.

  [ALEXANDER HP: 45/92]

  He fell to his knees as a massive shoggoth, like a bulbous mass of black and red with dozens of spindly, spear-like legs, punctured through him.

  He grunted, forcing himself up, pulling the knife from his jacket, and began to hack. Another limb pushed toward him, but Alex twisted and cut it.

  His mana was low—too low to summon a blast. But he kept pushing forward, leaning his weight on the being and swinging his axe over and over.

  A whimper mixed with a grunt echoed by his side. Fenrir had pushed his way to help him, blood still on his ribs. The wolf tore off a leg and began biting into the center of the creature.

  The creature dissolved into a black mass.

  Samantha stabbed at one repeatedly, then summoned a blast of mana to destroy another. Even she seemed overwhelmed.

  When Alex turned, the entire building was surrounded by demons. A massive morph, shaped like a bear with bones jutting out of its spine, slammed against the door to the gym and broke it open.

  Sofia and the other children were in danger.

  "No!" Alex scrambled to his feet, rushing forward and pushing through the gym door, warmth and pain burning through his sides. The hinges and chairs that held the door had been destroyed as if by a battering ram.

  Sandra and the children, along with the elderly, hid behind a machine and the weight rack, while the single bear-like demon sniffed the ground, moving swiftly toward them.

  "No!" Alex shouted.

  It stood on all fours, shoulders brushing the hanging lights, hide stretched tight over thick muscle, a blunt snout split by a jaw lined with uneven fangs, and breath steaming as it turned toward the noise.

  Alex stepped into the doorway and slammed his axe against the frame.

  "Hey! Look at me! Not at them, at me!"

  The bear turned, black eyes locking on him, its paws slamming the door hard, muscles tensing.

  "Come at me!!" Alex repeated, louder this time, raising his axe in the air.

  He'd fight the thing. He'd probably die, but he'd save them, no matter what.

  [BEAR MORPH: 780]

  In any case, he knew he had to fight smart.

  [MP: 23 / 300]

  The bear charged, as fast as a freight train.

  Alex summoned what little mana he had, pushing it forward.

  The strike bit into the creature's shoulder, but it kept going, faster than its size seemed to allow. A claw missed Alex by an inch, but the impact of the creature's weight hurled him sideways. He staggered back, breath tearing out of him, vision flashing white.

  [BEAR MORPH: 678/780]

  The bear turned, mouth opening wide, a powerful paw slicing into Alex's chest just as he swung the axe into its own chest.

  Pain tore through him. He collapsed on one knee, then pushed forward, sliding around it.

  He was about to die.

  And then, he heard a thumping behind him.

  Fenrir roared, leaping through the broken door.

  The wolf tore into the bear's flank, teeth sinking deep, claws scrabbling for purchase as the bear roared and reared, swatting back with a massive forelimb. The blow caught Fenrir in the belly and smashed him into a weight rack. Fenrir slid down, leaving a dark smear on the wall.

  "Fenrir!" Alex forced himself upright and staggered forward, swinging again, chopping into the bear's neck, then its jaw, then wherever he could reach. The creature slammed him with its shoulder and drove toward the wall.

  [HP: 9 / 92]

  The bear reared over him, shadow swallowing his vision, closer to the overturned sofa that protected the children. They were gone, probably sent upstairs by Sandra.

  He tried to move but couldn't. Others had answered the call, fast, quick shapes rushing into the room. Bandit was there, leaping into the bear's head, biting into its eyes. The massive demon roared in pain and fury, while Zorro tore chunks of its flesh before being struck by a massive paw.

  His mana was low. He knew the binding was soon to be severed. His pets would probably turn against them.

  And then, another shadow moved above him, and a hand pressed against his chest.

  Warmth surged through him, flooding his limbs, forcing breath back into his lungs.

  Sandra knelt over him, face tight with focus, one hand glowing as she poured mana into him, her other hand braced against the floor.

  "Get up," she said. "That's all I can give."

  [ALEXANDER HP: 62 / 92]

  [MP: 68 / 300]

  Alex gasped, feeling energy coming back to him, rolled, and came up on one knee as the bear turned back toward Fenrir.

  "No," Alex said, and hurled himself forward.

  He stretched out a hand and cast a mana blast straight at the blind bear's head.

  [BEAR MORPH HP: 558/780]

  The beast sniffed and charged against him.

  Alex shifted quickly and jumped over the creature's back, holding on with one hand as he drove the axe straight down into the base of its skull, screaming through clenched teeth as the blade split bone and sank deep. The bear thrashed, blood spraying across the floor as the other beasts tore it from the inside.

  It finally collapsed on the ground, crawling forward, joints damaged by Alex's demons.

  [BEAR MORPH HP: 240/780]

  The heart pulsed inside its chest, large and powerful.

  Something called to Alexander. He had tried it once, had savored it. Gross as hell, but revitalizing. It called to him like food after days of hunger.

  He could feel what it offered. Strength. Recovery. The certainty that he could keep going and become powerful. Powerful, yes, to protect, but also to destroy, to crush and tear apart all the beings that he hated.

  But he knew it was wrong.

  "No," he whispered to himself.

  He thought of binding it. But it felt exhausting. He could already feel the restlessness in the other two. He didn't even know if he had enough power to do it. He certainly didn't have enough mana.

  No, he had to kill it. For good.

  He leaned into the gasping bear's snout and swung once again at its neck, over and over, until he found the carotid and tore it with his axe. Blood pooled and washed over the ground, and then, the demon began to dissolve.

  [EXP + 143]

  [LEVEL 3]

  [ALEXANDER HP: 62/101]

  [EXP: 235/300]

  His fingers twitched.

  Behind him, Fenrir let out a weak sound and went still.

  Alex swallowed hard and stepped back.

  The outside was quiet.

  He looked around, chest heaving.

  Why hadn't more come?

  He stepped back outside.

  The street lay empty, demon blubber on the ground and smoke low between the buildings.

  But no more demons. Thomas was helping Marion, Samantha was on the ground. The survivors were on the ground. Two had collapsed, and Sean was performing CPR on one of them.

  "What's happening?" Alex asked through his teeth. A metallic taste pushed through him.

  "I think... I know," Samantha said, hand pressed against the wall.

  "Someone's coming!" Thomas shouted, as if he had run out of patience, his shoulders tense.

  "Is it him?" Alex mumbled, feeling weakness press into his body. He leaned his body against the wall.

  Samantha nodded silently.

  The air seemed to dry up. There was suddenly more silence than there should have been. Alexander staggered out, looking through the dark street. The shoggoths were gone or had gone silent.

  But something coalesced beyond the barrier. It looked like smoke at first, but then coalesced into a green mask, acquiring a humanoid form, even if slightly so.

  It rose twelve feet tall. It looked like a genie, a muscular humanoid torso. Massive horns curved back from its skull, but its lower body was nothing but a trail of green smoke.

  And then, the creature began moving toward them.

  It stopped in the middle of the street. Morphs parted around it like water around a stone. It looked directly at the gym. Then its gaze shifted to Alexander.

  Text appeared in his vision:

  DUKE OF HELL LEVEL: ???HP: ???/???

  Then it spoke. The voice was deep, resonant, almost human, with an edge of amusement underneath.

  "So you are the Dee descendant, the binder... I have been sent to deliver a message."

  Alexander's mouth was dry. He was leaning against the wall, ribs broken, blood dripping from his chin.

  "A message?"

  "My master knows you. He knows what you are. He knows what you're becoming." The demon smiled, revealing teeth filed to points. He was uncomfortable to look at—human, quite human, but still not quite. "You are a black magician, after all. Whether you admit it or not."

  "Who's your master? Satan?"

  The demon laughed.

  "Don't be that naive. No, my master. My... master. He was once a man. He says that his name is not for mortal tongues. Not anymore. But he is patient. He has waited centuries for this moment. He has been dreaming death and now has returned. Your resistance amuses him. For now."

  Alexander's teeth tensed into a smile.

  "A man then? A man is behind all this mess? Tell your master I'm going to kill him."

  The demon laughed. The sound echoed off the buildings, too loud, with wrong frequencies that made windows vibrate. "Many have tried. All have failed. But you are young. Arrogant. Full of power you don't understand. So my master offers you a choice."

  Alexander felt his own head go numb.

  "Serve him." The demon's smile widened. "You are, after all, a black magician. Stop playing around with these pretenses of heroism, of holiness and virtue. Bring him the children. Bind them for sacrifice. Do this, and he will give you power beyond imagination. Immortality. Dominion over lesser beings. Everything your ancestor John Dee sought but never achieved."

  Rage flooded through Alexander.

  Then he spat blood on the ground between them.

  This creature, this man, was behind those sacrifices, behind those evil acts.

  Behind the millions of deaths that the apocalypse had caused.

  "You don't know me at all," he said. "Let him come, and we'll kill him."

  The demon's smile faded slowly. "Then you have chosen pain. Not for yourself. For them." He pointed at the gym. "My master will take his time. He will make you watch while everyone you're trying to protect dies screaming. And when you finally break, when you finally beg to serve him, he will laugh and make you do it anyway. Because that's what will happen in the end, don't you know?"

  The demon turned and drifted, dissolving into the air.

  Dawn broke. Pale light filtered through the smoke, turning everything gray and ghostly.

  On the street, Alex watched as Marion collapsed completely. Thomas caught her and lowered her gently to the ground. "She needs rest. Serious rest. She killed dozens, kept the other side of the street safe, all by herself."

  "Tell her thank you when she... wakes up... I need rest," Alex said, the back of his head pressed against the wall. The pain was numbing, overwhelming, but he couldn't stop thinking that something was wrong about it.

  It should have killed him. He should be dead.

  A bear had clawed his chest, and that had been just the last of tonight's wounds.

  Alexander looked around the street. Many had been wounded. He hoped, that no one had died.

  And Marion was dying. He could see it in her gray skin, in the way her breathing had gone shallow and wet.

  And the man, or demon, or whoever was behind this knew his name.

  Knew what he was becoming and was coming for him.