100 years ago…
Steel screamed as their blades met, the impact jolting up Lucien's arm. Alchalis pressed forward immediately, no hesitation— a downward cut that Lucien barely turned aside. Sparks spat into the rain. Lucien stumbled back.
Too strong.
Alchalis advanced with controlled fury, each strike precise, economical. No wasted movement.
A thrust—Lucien twisted away, felt the wind of it kiss his ribs.
A backhand slash— Lucien ducked, the blade slicing a lock of his hair free.
"Why did you do it?," Alchalis yelled out.
"You wouldn't understand," Lucien said dragging in sharp breaths.
"You betrayed me brother," Lucien said.
A burst of speed— Alchalis came rushing in with his sword. Lucien twisted using his sword to block the attack.
Unbalanced— Lucien gave an opening and Alchalis noticed this and came rushing, slashing the chest of lucien, sending him to the ground, Alchalis tried to drive the sword into Lucien but Lucien was strong and quick enough to use his sword to deflect the attack from the ground and rolled away.
Lucien got up, bleeding from the strike Alchalis delivered. Alchalis charged once again and their swords clashed once more sending sparks into the air.
I'm slowing down, Lucien thought.
Alchalis knowing that Lucien couldn't keep up decided to increase his speed and power of every strike. Another slash came from Alchalis, Lucien being unable to block it fell to the ground spitting out blood.
"You might be stronger than me brother but I'm not giving up," Lucien yelled.
A thrust— Lucien took his turn and charged towards Alchalis but their swords meet each other once more but this time Lucien's sword skitters away from his hands and Alchalis uses the head of his sword to deliver a blow at Lucien and this brought Lucien to ground—weak, injured and tired.
Defeated—Lucien knelt on the floor with anger and pain painted on his face.
"Why do you fight for them?" Lucien asked tears dripping from his eyes.
"You wanted to rebel against the god's brother, what was I supposed to do," Alchalis said.
"The system is terrible, it needs correction," Lucien yelled with tears dripping from his eyes.
"You still don't see it, you still don't understand do you?" Alchalis said.
"I never would and I would never forgive you for betraying me brother," Lucien said.
"I betrayed you?, you defied your family," Alchalis said tears rolling out from his eyes.
"And I would do it again, there could be a world without pain or suffering," Lucien said.
"I'm sorry brother, for I did not help you as your older brother," Alchalis said.
Alchalis lifted his sword to the sky.
Lightning flashed along the blade, flames dancing across the steel. One strike—that was all it would take. One final blow to end his brother's rebellion.
Lucien knelt before him, bloodied and unbowed.
"Do it," Lucien whispered.
Alchalis' hands trembled.
He had sworn loyalty to the gods. But he had also sworn, long ago, to protect his brother.
The sword would not fall.
Instaed, Alchalis drove the sword into the earth.
Light burst upward, not destructive—binding. The ground split open, and the air turned white with power. Exchanging his physical life to power the prison in which Lucien would be sealed in — but his soul wasn't destroyed.
Lucien's mortal form shattering like glass beneath divine force, vanishing from the world—yet his soul did not follow. It was sealed away, condemned to eternal imprisonment.
"You know I'll find a way to return brother,"Lucien said quietly.
"I know," Alchalis said.
Lucien had already prepared for this.
Before the prison seal, he forged a hidden path for himself— a way to reincarnate and one day return to finish his mission.
Alchalis saw it.
And he made the same choice.
If Lucien would rise again, then he would rise with him—not as executioner, but as guardian. As the one destined to stop his brother when the time came.
Their physical forms were erased, wiped from existence like dust in the wind. But their souls endured.
One lay imprisoned beyond time.
The other waited within the cycle of rebirth, destined to stand against him once more.
Both brothers were gone.
No bodies. No blood.
Only a scorched mark carved into the stone where they had stood.
Some said Lucien had been sealed away beyond time—his soul barred from the heavens. Others whispered he still walked the underworld, waiting.
Others whispered that Alchalis had perished in the casting.
But the truth?
The truth was buried with them.
The present day…
Loud music. Mixed colored lights flashed left to right, painting the sweaty crowd in reds, blues, and purples. The bass thumped through Alex's chest like a second heartbeat. He checked his phone—3:17a.m. Way too late.
He goes to find his friends so they could leave.
"Yo, Jay! Jay!!!" Alex shouted over the thumping bass.
"What dude? Can't you see I'm busy?" Jay yelled back, exhaling smoke.
"We need to leave now— it's getting late," Alex said.
"I can't hear you, the music's too loud— woo!"Jay laughed, raising his drink.
Alex rolled his eyes, grabbed Jay's arm, and pulled him through the crowd to find the others.
They find Thomas and Frank and Alex cuts their night short and they all left the club.
The four friends leave the club. Heading back home on foot.
"Yo alex, you really know how to kill the buzz dude," Thomas said.
"Yeah man, I was about to get my groove on,"Jay said laughing.
" Is it me…. or is the road upside down?" Frank said.
The four boys laughed.
Suddenly Thomas spotted a dark figure standing ahead.
"Yo, dawg, what's that," Thomas asked.
"We're just seeing things dude— I'm stoned as hell," Frank slurred, still chuckling.
Alex and Jay laughed along, shaking their heads. The figure melted back into the cold night shadows, and Frank shrugged it off as his high playing tricks.
They turned a corner not far from the club.
Then they saw it clearly.
"Yo… I don't think Frank was tripping," Jay whispered, voice dropping.
"Can we… help you?" Alex managed, heart slamming.
The figure stepped fully into the dim streetlight. Glowing eyes. Claws that scraped on the pavement.
Demon.
They wanted to run— but their legs just wouldn't obey. It was like invisible chains had wrapped around them.
The creature's voice rasped like grinding stones."At least…the seal frays. The demon stirs.
It's glowing eyes locked on Thomas.
"Thomas, don't move," Alex said.
"It's kind of hard not to do that," Thomas said.
Alex, about to say something else but was cut off by what he saw.
The demon, nearer than it initially was, Thomas's head dangled from its claws, eyes wide open, mouth frozen in the middle of whatever dumb joke he was about to make.
Thomas body stood for one stupid second before it dropped to the ground.
Alex's mouth opened. No sound came out.
Frank broke first.
"WHAT THE FUCK!!" Frank yelled.
The scream cracked the night open.
They ran.
Alex could hear the screams of Jay and Frank as the monster got to them.
As Alex ran through the dark and lonely night with his heart ready to jump out. He stumbles and falls on the ground.
A low, wet growl rolled up the block— then silence.
The demon was there.
Not behind him.
Not chasing.
In front.
Glowing slits for eyes.
Mouth split in something that wasn't quite a smile.
It tilted its head.
Studied him.
Alex tried to scramble backward. Panic locked on his throat.
Then it moved.
A single and explosive burst— no wind up, no warning.
Reality blinked.
Claws flashed.
Hot pain exploded across Alex's throat.
A wet gurgle replaced his screams.
Alex's hands flew to his neck.
He collapsed backwards, head cracking against the curb.
Vision tunneled.
The last thing he saw was the demon turning away, already bored.
Darkness rushed in fast.
"I don't want to die".
Alex's soul slipped away like sand through cracked fingers.
His eyelids grew impossibly heavy.
The world faded to black.
"I hate demons "
The words echoed in the emptiness as his final breath left him.
Then—nothing.
Alex awakens in a dark void. No pain. No sound. No light.
A place where time had no role to play.
Alex floated, weightless, numb.
"Am I in heaven?"he thought, the question barely forming in his mind.
"Or is this just what comes after?"
He was about to let his eyes drift shut again.
A voice.
Deep. Calm.
"Alex xavier".
The sound rolled through the void like distant thunder, shaking the nothingness itself.
Alex's eyes snapped wide.
"Alex xavier."
It came again—clearer, closer.
"I'm here," Alex whispered, voice trembling in the dark. "I'm here!"
"Your story is not over, Alex."
The words wrapped around him like chains of light.
"You have a greater destiny ahead of you."
"What…what do you mean?" His heart—if he still had one—pounded."who are you?"
"I am Alchalis."
"You have to stop him Alex, before he goes too far," Alchalis said.
"Stop who and how can I trust you?"Alex said.
" I understand why wouldn't trust me," the voice continued, softer now, almost pained.
"Not after living in a world where demons and supernatural battle everyday and you the non-gifted suffers," Alchalis said.
"But you must listen. He is waking."
Alex's chest suddenly seized.
Something yanked him backward—hard.
The void cracked like shattered glass.
Jagged fractures of white light exploded outward.
The darkness tore apart.
Alex woke up.
His back arched off the cold pavement.
Air rammed into empty lungs in a violent gasp. He coughed, fingers scrabbling.
Blood still stained his shirt, but the wound was gone.
"I'm alive?"he rasped. "How the hell am I alive?"
He pushed himself up. The street still quiet.
He goes to find his friends—hoping it's all a dream.
stumbles upon Thomas's body.
Tears came then—hot, furious.
He dropped to his knees beside Thomas's corpse, his fists clenched until nails bit into his palms.
"I'll kill them," he whispered.
"I'll kill all those bastard demons."
Alex sobbed.
Revenge wasn't just a word anymore.
It was a promise carved into his soul.
He fumbled in his pocket, fingers closing around his phone. The screen cracked, but it lit.
With trembling hands, he dialed the emergency line.
He called the Elite squad.
The association that stood for humans and fought and killed what hunted them.
The line clicked.
"This is Alex xavier," he said, voice raw but steady. "I need to report a demon attack."
Alex notices something across the street.
He froze.
Another figure stood at the edge of the shadows.
Smaller than the one that killed Thomas
Still watching.
Not snarling.
Just…there.
"Sir? Are you still on the line?"
The figure vanishes.
"Yes," he whispered into the phone.
"I'm still here."