The town was already dying when Jack Storm arrived.
Not burning—crushing.
Buildings bent inward like they were being pulled toward an invisible center. Concrete cracked, steel groaned, and gravity itself seemed confused about which way was down. Cars slid across streets without engines running, dragged toward a towering shape at the heart of the destruction.
Jack stood on the hill overlooking it all, coat whipping violently in the warped wind.
A B-rank demon.
No disguise.
No host body.
No restraint.
It walked openly through the streets, each step collapsing pavement, pulling debris and people toward it like loose paper.
Jack exhaled slowly.
"…Alright," he muttered. "I see you."
He ran.
THE WEIGHT OF A B-RANK
Jack hit the street hard, boots cracking asphalt as gravity surged instantly to crush him. Force Guard flared, pressure screaming through his bones as the world tried to flatten him into the ground.
He bent—but didn't break.
The demon loomed ahead, nearly twenty feet tall, its body a warped mass of stone, twisted metal, and compressed force. Where its face should have been was a vertical fracture glowing white-hot, pulsing like a wound in reality.
It turned slowly.
The gravity spike doubled.
Jack dropped to one knee, teeth grinding as invisible pressure forced the breath from his lungs.
"So that's how you want to play it," he growled.
He stood anyway.
FIRST COLLISION
The demon swung.
Not fast—inevitable.
Jack met it head-on.
Absolute transmission collided with condensed gravity, and the shockwave detonated outward. Windows shattered three streets away. Cars flipped end over end. A bus slid sideways into a building hard enough to collapse the first floor.
Jack was hurled backward through a shopfront, crashing through brick and glass before skidding to a stop.
He lay there for half a second.
Then rolled to his feet.
Blood ran from his nose. His ribs screamed.
"…Yep," he muttered. "Definitely B-rank."
Outside, people were running.
Some escaped—diving into alleys, scrambling uphill, fleeing away from the gravity well.
Others weren't fast enough.
Jack felt it—lives ending abruptly as bodies were crushed, bones snapping under invisible pressure.
His jaw clenched hard.
"No," he said. "Not today."
THE SCHOOL BUS
The scream hit him next.
Children.
Jack snapped his head toward the sound.
A yellow school bus lay sideways at the edge of the demon's gravity field, pinned against a collapsed storefront. Gravity dragged it inward inch by inch, metal shrieking as windows cracked.
Kids screamed inside.
Jack didn't hesitate.
He sprinted sideways, forcing himself through the gravity distortion. Each step felt like running underwater with chains around his limbs, but he pushed through, force manipulation flaring violently around his legs.
He reached the bus and slammed both hands against its side.
"Hang on!" he shouted.
Strength upgrade engaged.
Jack roared as he lifted.
The bus peeled free slowly, metal bending as gravity fought him for ownership. Blood streamed from Jack's nose and ears as pressure spiked—but he didn't let go.
With a final scream of effort, he threw the bus sideways.
It skidded across the street and slammed safely into a reinforced parking structure just as the storefront collapsed completely.
Teachers and older kids scrambled out, dragging the younger ones free.
They ran.
All of them.
Jack staggered back, chest heaving.
"Okay," he gasped. "Worth it."
POSSESSION WAVE
The demon noticed.
Its fracture brightened.
The air rippled—and possession surged outward like a psychic shockwave.
People froze mid-run as shadows poured into mouths and eyes. Screams echoed as demons seized hosts violently, hijacking bodies already broken by fear.
Jack turned as three possessed civilians lunged toward him.
A man.
A woman.
A teenage girl.
Jack moved fast.
He disarmed the man with a sharp twist and knockout strike, ripped the demon free from the woman with a controlled Soul Scream, and caught the girl mid-lunge.
She was crying.
"I don't want to hurt anyone," she sobbed.
"I know," Jack said tightly.
The demon fought viciously, clawing at Jack's mind, screaming for blood.
Jack snarled and tore it free.
Purple flame erased it instantly.
The girl collapsed, alive.
Jack didn't relax.
Because the B-rank demon advanced.
THE DEMON UNLEASHED
It raised both arms.
Gravity inverted.
Everything flew.
Cars, debris, bodies—ripped upward and hurled inward.
Jack was yanked off his feet and slammed through a wall, Force Guard flaring violently as he hit the ground hard enough to crater concrete.
He rolled, sprang to his feet, and launched himself straight at the demon.
Midair collision.
Jack punched.
Absolute transmission cracked the demon's outer shell, fissures spreading across its body like shattered glass.
The demon howled—a sound that shook buildings and shattered remaining windows.
Not pain.
Recognition.
THE FIGHT TURNS
The demon retaliated, compressing gravity around Jack's limbs mid-strike. His movements slowed as pressure wrapped him like concrete.
Jack grunted, muscles screaming.
He forced another punch through.
The demon staggered—but adapted instantly.
Gravity thickened again.
Jack felt his Force Guard screaming now, draining him rapidly.
The demon grabbed him.
Crushed.
Jack screamed as pressure threatened to implode his ribcage.
Use the gold, the whisper returned.
Jack snarled.
"Not like this."
THE SAVE
A second scream cut through the chaos.
More kids—trapped in a collapsed daycare two streets over, gravity pulling the structure inward.
Jack twisted violently, ignoring the pain, and ripped free from the demon's grip by redirecting gravity against itself.
He landed hard, didn't slow.
He ran.
The daycare building was already folding, walls bending inward as gravity warped violently.
Jack slammed both hands against the structure and held.
Force manipulation surged outward as he stabilized the gravity field around the building, counteracting the pull with everything he had.
"Go!" he shouted. "Now!"
Adults grabbed children and ran as Jack held the building together with raw force and will.
The last child cleared the doorway.
Jack released.
The building collapsed instantly.
Jack fell to one knee, coughing blood.
But the kids were alive.
THE FINAL EXCHANGE
The demon roared in fury.
Jack turned back toward it, eyes blazing violet.
"Your turn," he growled.
He sprinted straight into the gravity field, twisting force around himself, running up the distortion like a ramp. He launched into the air above the demon, pulled his fist back—
And punched.
Absolute transmission met inverted gravity.
The demon's core collapsed inward like a dying star.
The shockwave flattened what remained of the street as the demon unraveled into stone and ash.
Jack was thrown clear, crashing through rubble until he slammed into a standing wall and slid to the ground.
Silence fell.
AFTERMATH
The town was ruined.
Entire blocks flattened. Fires burned uncontrolled. Sirens wailed as emergency crews flooded in.
But children cried in arms instead of under rubble.
Some civilians lived.
Some were injured.
Some died.
Jack sat amid the wreckage, chest heaving, blood running freely.
He had held the line.
He turned away before anyone could get a clear look at his face and vanished into the smoke.
WATCHERS
Crowe lowered his binoculars slowly.
"…He saved them," an aide whispered.
Crowe nodded once.
"That's the problem," he said quietly.
HELL STIRS
Deep below, Hell shifted uneasily.
"He intervened beyond probability," a voice rumbled.
The Infernal Broker smiled thinly.
"Yes," it replied. "And it cost him."
Jack sat alone on a hill as dawn broke, watching rescue lights flicker through the ruined town.
His hands trembled.
His infernal core pulsed—stronger, heavier, strained.
B-rank demons were here.
And Jack Storm had just proven he wouldn't stop saving people—even when the world tried to crush him for it.