Jack Storm arrived too late for applause.
The city square was chaos when he stepped out of the distortion—cars abandoned at odd angles, storefronts shattered, smoke curling into a sky already bruised purple by storm clouds. Sirens wailed in overlapping waves, police and emergency crews scrambling to evacuate civilians as something wrong pulsed beneath the ground.
A possession cluster.
Mid-tier.
Manageable.
Jack took one step forward.
The ground stilled.
Not cracked.
Not burned.
Stilled.
Gravity around him flattened, pressure equalizing instinctively as the Nether Core reacted before he consciously commanded it. People nearby staggered as the sensation passed through them like a sudden drop in an elevator.
They turned.
And they saw him.
Jack's eyes glowed red.
Not bright.
Not flaring.
Just… present.
Like embers that never cooled.
A woman screamed.
Not because of a demon.
Because of him.
Jack stopped.
That was new.
THE SAVING
The possession erupted anyway.
The street split as three humanoid shapes clawed their way out of their hosts, bodies tearing apart as demons forced themselves into the open. Flesh ruptured. Screams echoed. Blood hit pavement.
Jack moved.
He crossed the square in less than a second.
A flick of his wrist collapsed gravity around the first demon, compressing it into a screaming knot of shadow and bone. Purple-black flame touched it for a fraction of a moment.
Erased.
The second lunged at a group of trapped civilians.
Jack didn't even look at it.
He pointed.
Force imploded.
The demon vanished in a soundless crush, leaving the host unconscious but alive.
The third tried to flee—slithering into an alley, attempting to jump bodies.
Jack's gaze followed it.
The Nether Core pulsed.
Soul Authority answered.
The demon froze mid-motion, dragged backward by something it could not see, could not resist.
Jack stepped forward and closed his fist.
Gone.
Silence fell.
Jack turned toward the civilians.
They stared at him.
Some clutched each other.
Some backed away.
One man fell to his knees, shaking.
No one said thank you.
Jack felt something dull in his chest.
Not pain.
Absence.
FEAR
A child pointed at him.
"Mom," the girl whispered. "His eyes…"
Jack blinked.
The red glow dimmed slightly—but did not vanish.
The mother pulled the child behind her, fear naked and unfiltered.
"Stay back," she said.
Jack took a step backward instinctively.
"I'm not—" he started.
The words died in his throat.
He realized, suddenly, that he didn't know how to sound reassuring anymore.
His voice felt… heavier.
Too steady.
Too calm.
Police arrived, weapons raised—not at demons, but at him.
"Hands where we can see them!"
Jack complied without argument.
That scared them more.
He turned away before it escalated further and vanished into the smoke, leaving behind people who were alive—
And afraid of the thing that saved them.
CROWE STEPS IN
Jack didn't get far.
He felt Crowe before he saw him—human presence sharpened by purpose, rage honed into focus. Crowe stood at the edge of an abandoned overpass, coat fluttering in the wind, soldiers holding back at his silent command.
"Storm," Crowe said.
Jack stopped.
They faced each other across broken concrete and twisted guardrails.
Crowe studied him openly now.
The red eyes.
The unnatural stillness.
The way the air around Jack subtly bent inward.
"…You've changed," Crowe said.
Jack didn't deny it. "I know."
Crowe's jaw tightened. "This is why I wanted you eliminated."
Jack nodded once. "Fair."
Crowe stepped closer.
"I didn't hunt you because you were powerful," Crowe continued. "I hunted you because you were becoming necessary."
Jack's eyes flickered.
"Explain."
Crowe's voice dropped.
"Because the moment humanity needs a devil to survive," he said, "it stops trying to save itself."
Jack felt that one land.
Crowe stopped an arm's length away.
"But now?" Crowe exhaled slowly. "Now I can't afford to kill you."
Jack met his gaze. "Because you can't stop what's coming."
Crowe's lips pressed into a thin line.
"…Two A-rank entities breached simultaneously," he said.
The world answered.
THE SKY BREAKS
The clouds split.
Not lightning.
Absence.
Two vertical scars tore through the sky above opposite ends of the city, reality peeling back like wounded flesh. Pressure rolled outward, shattering windows across kilometers.
Jack turned sharply.
His Nether Core screamed.
Two presences.
Not one.
Not coordinated.
Parallel.
Independent.
A-rank.
Crowe whispered, "…Jesus."
Jack stepped forward.
"Evacuate everything," he said calmly. "Now."
Crowe hesitated only a second—then barked orders.
Sirens screamed anew.
A-RANK: THE HOLLOW TYRANT
The first descended in silence.
A massive humanoid form dropped from the sky, landing without sound despite the crater it formed. Its body was pale, smooth, featureless—like a statue carved from bone.
No eyes.
No mouth.
Just a crown-like ring floating above its head.
The pressure around it was suffocating.
Jack approached slowly.
The demon turned its head slightly.
"Nether-forged," it intoned without lips. "You smell… incomplete."
Jack's eyes burned brighter.
"Then don't get close."
The Hollow Tyrant raised one hand.
The city knelt.
Gravity tripled instantly. Buildings buckled. People collapsed screaming as the world tried to crush itself flat.
Jack stepped into it.
Force Guard screamed.
Jack walked forward anyway.
He punched.
Absolute transmission slammed into the demon's torso, cracking its smooth exterior for the first time.
The Tyrant staggered.
Then retaliated.
Jack was launched across three blocks, slamming through a parking structure and out the other side in an explosion of concrete and steel.
Crowe watched, heart pounding.
"…That didn't even slow it."
A-RANK: THE SCREAMING QUEEN
Across the city, something worse arrived.
A figure descended wrapped in writhing shadows—feminine in silhouette, wings of screaming faces unfurling behind her. Her voice echoed everywhere at once, a psychic howl that shattered glass and sanity alike.
People clutched their heads, collapsing as possession spread instantly.
Crowe swore. "Two fronts…"
Jack stood, regenerating already, body snapping back into shape as the Nether Core burned.
He looked at Crowe.
"Get everyone out."
Crowe hesitated. "You can't fight both."
Jack's expression didn't change.
"I know."
THE CHOICE
Jack turned toward the Screaming Queen.
He disappeared.
He hit her mid-air, force detonating like a nuclear blast as they collided. Psychic pressure slammed into his mind, thousands of voices screaming at once.
Jack screamed back.
Soul Authority flared.
The Queen reeled, wings tearing apart as Jack drove her downward, slamming her into the street hard enough to create a crater that swallowed an entire intersection.
But the Hollow Tyrant advanced.
Unopposed.
Crowe watched the city tremble.
"…Storm," he whispered. "You're not enough."
Jack heard him anyway.
He clenched his fists.
The red in his eyes deepened.
"Then I'll be what's needed."
And for the first time since his rebirth—
Jack did not think about the cost.
THE WORLD WATCHES
Helicopter footage streamed live.
Two gods walking through a city.
One man standing between them and annihilation.
Commentators went silent.
Social media stopped joking.
Governments stopped denying.
The age of secrecy ended in real time.
CROWE'S REALIZATION
Crowe stared at Jack—at the way people fled from him as much as the demons.
He understood now.
Jack wasn't becoming a hero.
He was becoming a boundary.
And boundaries scared everyone.
"…We need him," Crowe whispered.
"And one day," he added quietly, "we may need to stop him."
Jack stood between the two A-ranks, red eyes burning like warning lights.
The city shook.
The demons smiled.