Neo Chronicles
Episode 18: Demon Hunting
Table of Contents
Ah, Saturday morning. It's a good day. I can tell it's gonna be good. The sun is out, it's bright. My mom says the news people don't predict any rain for the whole weekend.
“Noah! Momma told you to take out the trash!”
“Alright, Jessica!”
Sis is still as annoying as ever, so this is still real life. She's been shouting that for the past ten minutes. I heard her the first time.
After taking care of that, I tell my mom I'm goin' out. It's not so unusual for me. I usually head to the neighbors house on weekends to play games, go exploring, set off on adventures—do silly stuff in the middle of the street. She says “okay” without too much thought to it.
Me and the gang said we'd meet up at the school. It's within walking distance, but it's still a trip away. About thirty minutes away if I run it. I head back in the house to pick up my music player and then hit the streets.
When I get there, I see everyone—even Kai—standing around waiting and talking. Music's booming in my ear so I don't hear a thing. I think I prefer it this way, because I know whatever's going on—well maybe this could be important. I lower my headphones, but still have the rock music blaring around my neck like the cool kids do in school.
“—sure you can do this? I mean, we're not gonna end up exploding or anything crazy like that?” Kai asks.
“Or end up with frogs down our throat?” Nexus remarks on the side. I see he decided to bring that sword thing of his along. Didn't it get broken last time, though?
“Sheeze, you boys are so squeamish. I got this.” Don't know if it's just the sun getting caught in my eye, but I swear Lynn's hands start to glow for a bit. Then they stop. I'm about to ask what that was about, but she cuts me off.
“There, that wasn't so bad was it?”
We all look around completely lost. Apparently she did something while she was talking. I think she's still doing something, too, because I see that shine around her every so often. When I ask her about it, she says that she just cast some sorta defensive spell.
“It's supposed to make it so we don't get killed as easily. I don't know how effective it is, but it's pretty similar to the one Jabari did when we were with him, so it should work. And with that done, we should be ready.”
The next thing I know we're in that weird place. I didn't even see her do anything. One second we're standing in front of the school, and the next we're here. Here being that cold, empty, white space in between everything.
“You guys remember, the Axis Mundi, right?”
It's kinda scary how much she has a handle on this. I personally don't know Lynn much from anywhere. I don't know what type of person she is, where she comes from, or anything like that. From the way she's acting now, though, it's pretty clear that she's all about taking charge. With how adamant he was about it, I thought Nexus would be the guy leading the way, but he's way back in the background with the rest of us guys.
Lynn starts off walking. I guess she knows where she's going, but it all looks the same to me. White, white, white—I keep thinking that I hear some sort of breeze or something, but that doesn't make any sense to me, because the whole place is a vacuum. I can't tell if we're floating or standing on something solid. If I were to think about it long enough, I'd go insane. I got this same exact feeling last time we were here, too, and it scares me.
Thankfully it doesn't last any more than a few seconds. There's no grand entrance or exit. Just as we came in, we go out—in an instant. We're in a desert now. It's dark. It's cloudy. It's windy. It's raining—no, that's more than rain. I hear thunder booming violently. Lightning is shooting every which way. I need to stop thinking altogether, because the more time I spend doing it, the more I wanna go home.
“You couldn't of picked a better spot to land!” Kai doesn't do much to hide his sarcasm.
In the midst of mother nature's temper tantrum, Nexus points out two shadowy figures in the sky. It takes me a while, but the rest of the group spots them, too. Whatever those things are, they're moving really, really fast. It's hard to tell them apart from the bolts of lightning jumping in the dark clouds.
“What is that?” I ask.
“It's a fight.” Lynn answers. “You guys wanted demons, well there you have it. I wouldn't be surprised if they're the source of the storm.”
“So, why are they fighting?”
“I like how you're asking me like I know.”
“Maybe it's Jabari up there fighting someone.” Kai says.
“That would make sense,” Lynn responds. “Jabari or someone else.
“I know that dude,” Nexus speaks out. “Yeah, it's that nobody from woods.”
“The who?” Jamal asks.
“That guy right there! The one with that glowing, black, butter knife of a sword.”
“I think it's called a katana.” I interject.
“Nah dawg, this is a katana.” Nexus responds holding up his sheathed sword. “So like I was sayin', I was out skippin' school one day, went out to the park—an' get this—some poser comes up all dressed in black, trench coat, dyed black hair, pale white skin—emo an' gothic as I'll get out—an' he starts gettin' all uppity like he's some big an' bad. Says he's a demon an' some nonsense. I'm thinkin' he's just your everyday, run of the mill white boy. He got mad for some reason an' we fought. Homie ends up runnin' away like a punk.”
“That sounds—exaggerated .” Lynn says doing her best not to smirk.
“I'm tellin' you, dat's what happened. And that's the dude right there!”
“So you fought a demon and made him run away?”
“Yeah!”
“If you say so.”
“So if that's the demon, who's that other guy?” I ask.
“If I were to guess,” Lynn says, “someone like us—or like Jabari, at least.”
“You mean there are actually demon hunters in real life?”
“Why wouldn't there be?”
From then on, it's like watching a TV show in one of those immersive rooms where all the special effects are in your face. People go on about those things like they're the common man's new play thing, but I haven't seen any common man say they own one. Definitely still a rich person's toy now.
The demon and the so called “demon hunter” are really going in on each other. They're both white guys. They're both wearing black trench coats. It's hard to really tell them apart at first glance, but when they get closer to us—thank God they don't notice us by the way—you can sorta differentiate between 'em.
For instance, the demon is the one with long dark, black hair. Well, it's long enough to come down to his shoulders at least. Plus he's using a sword—a sword a lot like the one Nexus has—a katana. When did everyone decide those things were cool, again? The demon's also the one who's shooting black lightning bolts out of his hands.
As for the demon hunter, he's shooting out black fire balls, but they're not coming from his hands. No sir, he's shooting them like bullets out of a gun. That's kinda crazy, kinda cool. His hair isn't as long as the demon's either. It's also not black, but brown. Nice crew cut and brown hair style.
They're both moving extremely fast too. The thunderstorm—a storm I'm now convinced that they made—doesn't help us spectators out, either. They're jumping from cloud to cloud with each lightning burst. The fire balls the hunter shoots out do well to space things out, but the demon is relentless. He literally cuts through the zoning until he gets right in the hunters face. Then comes the swinging. You'd think the demon just found out that the hunter killed his mom or something, because as far as I can tell, that's rage backing up those sword swipes.
Then the hunter disappears—vanishes in a cloud of ebony vapor leaving the demon to slash at the air. The demon pauses and looks around as he hovers in the air. He's still tensed up, still on guard, patiently awaiting the hunter's next move. Even from way down here, you can tell that he's frustrated. Mere seconds go by without anything done, and he gets fed up with the inaction.
He holds his sword up in the air and suddenly starts glowing. It's a weird glow, odd dark colors—purple, crimson, black, with a little yellow on the side. It's the kinda sight that puts a twisted feeling in your belly. Clouds surround him and with a loud yell, a big, bright burst of white lightning—I'm talking big enough to cover a whole building—beams down from the sky and spreads out covering everything, and by everything, I mean everything.
Lynn manages to put up some sort of barrier to protect us from getting electrocuted to death, but even though the brunt of the blast is taken off, we still feel like we just got jolted with like a gazillion volts of something. Thankfully it doesn't last very long, but just when we think it's over with—a bazillion fireballs start raining from the sky.
The hunter is shooting like a madman, and the demon is deflecting the shots every which way. Lynn's barrier once again keeps us safe. I know I said this before, but she's really stepping up. I know if it was me, I'da been out a long time ago, but her—she's holding her hands up the the sky, taking a stand right in front of us, and it looks like she's trying to work some more magic on the side. It's incredible.
The next thing that happens takes us all by surprise. The demon and the hunter are standing right in front of us. The hunter is the first to notice us and for some reason, we see him smile.
Episode 18: Demon Hunting
Table of Contents
Ah, Saturday morning. It's a good day. I can tell it's gonna be good. The sun is out, it's bright. My mom says the news people don't predict any rain for the whole weekend.
“Noah! Momma told you to take out the trash!”
“Alright, Jessica!”
Sis is still as annoying as ever, so this is still real life. She's been shouting that for the past ten minutes. I heard her the first time.
After taking care of that, I tell my mom I'm goin' out. It's not so unusual for me. I usually head to the neighbors house on weekends to play games, go exploring, set off on adventures—do silly stuff in the middle of the street. She says “okay” without too much thought to it.
Me and the gang said we'd meet up at the school. It's within walking distance, but it's still a trip away. About thirty minutes away if I run it. I head back in the house to pick up my music player and then hit the streets.
When I get there, I see everyone—even Kai—standing around waiting and talking. Music's booming in my ear so I don't hear a thing. I think I prefer it this way, because I know whatever's going on—well maybe this could be important. I lower my headphones, but still have the rock music blaring around my neck like the cool kids do in school.
“—sure you can do this? I mean, we're not gonna end up exploding or anything crazy like that?” Kai asks.
“Or end up with frogs down our throat?” Nexus remarks on the side. I see he decided to bring that sword thing of his along. Didn't it get broken last time, though?
“Sheeze, you boys are so squeamish. I got this.” Don't know if it's just the sun getting caught in my eye, but I swear Lynn's hands start to glow for a bit. Then they stop. I'm about to ask what that was about, but she cuts me off.
“There, that wasn't so bad was it?”
We all look around completely lost. Apparently she did something while she was talking. I think she's still doing something, too, because I see that shine around her every so often. When I ask her about it, she says that she just cast some sorta defensive spell.
“It's supposed to make it so we don't get killed as easily. I don't know how effective it is, but it's pretty similar to the one Jabari did when we were with him, so it should work. And with that done, we should be ready.”
The next thing I know we're in that weird place. I didn't even see her do anything. One second we're standing in front of the school, and the next we're here. Here being that cold, empty, white space in between everything.
“You guys remember, the Axis Mundi, right?”
It's kinda scary how much she has a handle on this. I personally don't know Lynn much from anywhere. I don't know what type of person she is, where she comes from, or anything like that. From the way she's acting now, though, it's pretty clear that she's all about taking charge. With how adamant he was about it, I thought Nexus would be the guy leading the way, but he's way back in the background with the rest of us guys.
Lynn starts off walking. I guess she knows where she's going, but it all looks the same to me. White, white, white—I keep thinking that I hear some sort of breeze or something, but that doesn't make any sense to me, because the whole place is a vacuum. I can't tell if we're floating or standing on something solid. If I were to think about it long enough, I'd go insane. I got this same exact feeling last time we were here, too, and it scares me.
Thankfully it doesn't last any more than a few seconds. There's no grand entrance or exit. Just as we came in, we go out—in an instant. We're in a desert now. It's dark. It's cloudy. It's windy. It's raining—no, that's more than rain. I hear thunder booming violently. Lightning is shooting every which way. I need to stop thinking altogether, because the more time I spend doing it, the more I wanna go home.
“You couldn't of picked a better spot to land!” Kai doesn't do much to hide his sarcasm.
In the midst of mother nature's temper tantrum, Nexus points out two shadowy figures in the sky. It takes me a while, but the rest of the group spots them, too. Whatever those things are, they're moving really, really fast. It's hard to tell them apart from the bolts of lightning jumping in the dark clouds.
“What is that?” I ask.
“It's a fight.” Lynn answers. “You guys wanted demons, well there you have it. I wouldn't be surprised if they're the source of the storm.”
“So, why are they fighting?”
“I like how you're asking me like I know.”
“Maybe it's Jabari up there fighting someone.” Kai says.
“That would make sense,” Lynn responds. “Jabari or someone else.
“I know that dude,” Nexus speaks out. “Yeah, it's that nobody from woods.”
“The who?” Jamal asks.
“That guy right there! The one with that glowing, black, butter knife of a sword.”
“I think it's called a katana.” I interject.
“Nah dawg, this is a katana.” Nexus responds holding up his sheathed sword. “So like I was sayin', I was out skippin' school one day, went out to the park—an' get this—some poser comes up all dressed in black, trench coat, dyed black hair, pale white skin—emo an' gothic as I'll get out—an' he starts gettin' all uppity like he's some big an' bad. Says he's a demon an' some nonsense. I'm thinkin' he's just your everyday, run of the mill white boy. He got mad for some reason an' we fought. Homie ends up runnin' away like a punk.”
“That sounds—exaggerated .” Lynn says doing her best not to smirk.
“I'm tellin' you, dat's what happened. And that's the dude right there!”
“So you fought a demon and made him run away?”
“Yeah!”
“If you say so.”
“So if that's the demon, who's that other guy?” I ask.
“If I were to guess,” Lynn says, “someone like us—or like Jabari, at least.”
“You mean there are actually demon hunters in real life?”
“Why wouldn't there be?”
From then on, it's like watching a TV show in one of those immersive rooms where all the special effects are in your face. People go on about those things like they're the common man's new play thing, but I haven't seen any common man say they own one. Definitely still a rich person's toy now.
The demon and the so called “demon hunter” are really going in on each other. They're both white guys. They're both wearing black trench coats. It's hard to really tell them apart at first glance, but when they get closer to us—thank God they don't notice us by the way—you can sorta differentiate between 'em.
For instance, the demon is the one with long dark, black hair. Well, it's long enough to come down to his shoulders at least. Plus he's using a sword—a sword a lot like the one Nexus has—a katana. When did everyone decide those things were cool, again? The demon's also the one who's shooting black lightning bolts out of his hands.
As for the demon hunter, he's shooting out black fire balls, but they're not coming from his hands. No sir, he's shooting them like bullets out of a gun. That's kinda crazy, kinda cool. His hair isn't as long as the demon's either. It's also not black, but brown. Nice crew cut and brown hair style.
They're both moving extremely fast too. The thunderstorm—a storm I'm now convinced that they made—doesn't help us spectators out, either. They're jumping from cloud to cloud with each lightning burst. The fire balls the hunter shoots out do well to space things out, but the demon is relentless. He literally cuts through the zoning until he gets right in the hunters face. Then comes the swinging. You'd think the demon just found out that the hunter killed his mom or something, because as far as I can tell, that's rage backing up those sword swipes.
Then the hunter disappears—vanishes in a cloud of ebony vapor leaving the demon to slash at the air. The demon pauses and looks around as he hovers in the air. He's still tensed up, still on guard, patiently awaiting the hunter's next move. Even from way down here, you can tell that he's frustrated. Mere seconds go by without anything done, and he gets fed up with the inaction.
He holds his sword up in the air and suddenly starts glowing. It's a weird glow, odd dark colors—purple, crimson, black, with a little yellow on the side. It's the kinda sight that puts a twisted feeling in your belly. Clouds surround him and with a loud yell, a big, bright burst of white lightning—I'm talking big enough to cover a whole building—beams down from the sky and spreads out covering everything, and by everything, I mean everything.
Lynn manages to put up some sort of barrier to protect us from getting electrocuted to death, but even though the brunt of the blast is taken off, we still feel like we just got jolted with like a gazillion volts of something. Thankfully it doesn't last very long, but just when we think it's over with—a bazillion fireballs start raining from the sky.
The hunter is shooting like a madman, and the demon is deflecting the shots every which way. Lynn's barrier once again keeps us safe. I know I said this before, but she's really stepping up. I know if it was me, I'da been out a long time ago, but her—she's holding her hands up the the sky, taking a stand right in front of us, and it looks like she's trying to work some more magic on the side. It's incredible.
The next thing that happens takes us all by surprise. The demon and the hunter are standing right in front of us. The hunter is the first to notice us and for some reason, we see him smile.
