The bitter taste of victory

(A/N You'll notice that I don't have many character descriptions. On one hand that's because it gives you the freedom to decide what people look like, on the other hand it's because many characters are loosely based on people I know. I have certain opinions about them and that might affect the way I describe them. Anyway, I know that part's a bit messed up so you don't have to point it out.)

Blades flashed in the bright midday sun. Cries of pain and anguish filled the air, combined with the metallic clangs of blades colliding. We hadn’t expected an attack and this sudden strike had nearly overwhelmed our defenses. Boiling with anger, I raised the Crimson Heart and lunged at one of the demons, piercing its heart and causing it to sink to the ground in agony. A girl not too far from me was suddenly attacked by another demon. “Look out!” I yelled as I impaled a demon behind me with a quick spinning stab. She saw the incoming danger and jumped out of the demon’s way, jabbing at it with her weapon as it landed. Maybe I should back up and explain what’s going on here. It wasn’t even that long ago, only a few days…

The blades made contact with each other only lightly, but even that small touch was enough for my opponent to sense his opportunity and lash out at me. Before I could react, I felt the tip of his blade hit my shoulder and heard the beep of the scoring apparatus.

“Halt! End of the match! Victor: Nick Masters,” the referee announced.

I sighed and pulled my mask off my face. A 15-12 loss against someone who hadn’t trained for more than a month. I shook his hand and detached myself from the machine. My national fencing championships were over, it seemed. My name is Ryu. I’m a 17-year old kid who likes to play games, read, write and fence. I had just been defeated in the second elimination round of the national epee championships and with that I’d probably end up at around the eighth place. It wasn’t too bad, all things considered, but still it was a drop of two places.

Well, at least this loss was against someone from my own club. A guy who used to fence on foil, which explained his blindingly fast sword arm. Epee fencing is more deliberate, but damn, with speed like his you just need one small opening to get a hit. Well, maybe I’d beat him next time.

“Hey, you did well,” someone else from my club said.

“Thanks. I didn’t expect to beat Nick anyway,” I replied, a little more casual than I felt.

Despite the fact that I knew I lacked the discipline to actually become the champion, it still felt a little fucked up to lose, especially if your opponent hadn’t trained for a long time. I decided to get changed back into my normal clothes and walked over to the locker rooms, passing a few bouts as I went.

When I had reached the locker rooms my annoyance at losing had vanished, and just when I had put on my normal clothes again, someone entered. It was someone you’d expect to see on some medieval movie set, wearing battered chain mail armor with rough leather over it. His black hair was messy and under his left eye was a scar with traces of blood still visible around it. It looked like he had just stepped out of a battle.

“Are you Ryu?” he asked with an obvious French accent.

“Um, yes I am,” I replied, not too sure what to say to this strange man.

An uneasy feeling was spreading through me, sort of like the feeling you have when your teacher is about to hand you back your test when you know you messed up.

“I am in need of your assistance. You must come with me at once,” Medieval Guy said.

“Come with you? What’s going on?” I asked nervously. I’m not used to French knights or musketeers or whatevers needing my assistance.

“The demons have killed the Wielder. You have been chosen as his successor.”

Now I was really getting confused. This guy wasn’t making any kind of sense at all. “What do you mean? Who the fuck is the Wielder? Better yet, what the fuck is the Wielder? And how come I’m his successor? I’ve never even met you so how the hell do you know it’s me?” I know it’s impolite to say words like fuck to people you’ve just met, but I was too freaked out to really care about politeness. I never really care about politeness, except maybe to elderly people.

“The Wielder is he who uses the Crimson Heart to fight the demons and keep this realm safe from invasion. You have been under observation by the Dragon Order and marked as the next master of the Crimson Heart,” the armored man said, clearly having difficulties speaking English.

This answer just gave me more questions so I said, “Look, if you don’t start making sense right now you can just go find another Wielder. Since when do demons exist? Aren’t they just fictional beings invented to terrorize people, you know, by churches and whatnot?”

The French man frowned impatiently and said, “You have to believe me; this is very important.”

Strangely this argument didn’t convince me. “I’m not going anywhere, much less with someone whose name I don’t even know.”

The man looked almost desperate now. “My name is Jacques. I’m one of the members of the Dragon Order and have been sent to retrieve you. Please, you have to come with me.”

I thought for a moment. This guy didn’t seem to be a liar and usually I have pretty good instincts when it comes to people. On the other hand, if I went with this dude I had no way of knowing where I’d end up and how I’d explain this to the rest of my club, with whom I’d be driving back home when the matches were over. “For some strange reason I believe you. But I can’t go with you; see there are people here who expect me to be here. If I’m gone they’ll start to wonder where I am and somehow I don’t think they’d like it if I went with a medieval armored guy.”

Jacques thought for a moment, or maybe he was just trying to understand what I’d said. I wondered why this Dragon Order would send a French person to pick me up; if they’d been observing me they should know that French is not exactly my native tongue.

“You will just have to find an explanation then. All their lives may be in danger if you don’t come with me.”

I hate that line. Even though it sounds like something out of an incredibly bad movie, hearing it in real life will definitely send a chill down your spine. Especially when the appearance of the guy who’s telling you suggests he’s telling the truth, what with the scar and armor.

“Fine, it seems like I don’t have a choice then,” I said reluctantly.

Even though I’m really not a very brave person, I don’t have much trouble dealing with very weird scenarios, even if my life could potentially be in danger. God I wish I would’ve told Jacques to piss off. Maybe, however, that would’ve only hastened all of it in the end. But I’m running ahead of the facts.

Jacques looked in my eyes for a moment and said, “Good. Let’s go.”

With that, he pulled a pendant out of his pocket, clutched it tightly in his gloved fist and closed his eyes, focusing. I tried to see what the pendant looked like, but Jacques’ hand was clenched too tightly around it. Suddenly a golden glow appeared from inside his hand. He opened his eyes and the glow intensified. A glowing golden portal opened in midair; visible beyond it was a large room, almost like a mess hall. No matter how many times you’ve seen portals opening in movies and games, seeing it happen before your very nose is something entirely different. I felt heat coming from the golden edge around the portal, and static electricity seemed to be present in the air around it.

“Quickly, step through the gate. I can’t maintain an opening like this for long,” Jacques said, his voice sounding strained.

I nodded and stepped through. Aside from a static tingle when I passed through, I didn’t feel anything extraordinary when I passed the border between dimensions. Jacques came through the portal behind me and as soon as he did, the golden edges moved together to a flying golden spark before disappearing completely.

An armored man approached me from across the room. Like Jacques, he wore battered chain mail armor and had messy hair. His hair was a dark brown and looked like it hadn’t been cut in a long time.

“I assume you’re Ryu,” he said with a deep voice.

Now that he was close to me, I noticed he was incredibly tall and built like a pro wrestler. His face was decorated with scars.

“Yeah, that would be me,” I said, trying not to tremble before this incredibly intimidating guy. Even though I was quite tall, I wasn’t really muscular so being confronted with a scarred warrior was a humbling experience.

“I am Drake. I am the leader of the Dragon Order and the one who ordered Jacques to bring you here.”

I nodded and said, “So why exactly do you need me? I mean, I’m not strong or fast; I’m no warrior like you or Jacques.”

Drake shook his head. “I know you aren’t. But you are the one chosen to wield the Crimson Heart, and that is why we need you.” I wasn’t entirely satisfied with that answer, all the more because it was about the same thing Jacques had said.

“What is the Crimson Heart? And what do I have to do with all this?” I was slightly losing my patience, but if you’re talking to a guy who seems to be chiselled from granite you watch your tone, period.

“I know this is all very weird to you. I’ll explain everything.”

He fell silent and looked at me, so I just nodded. Drake started to talk again.

“A long time ago, hundreds of years even, demons roamed the planet. They pillaged cities and villages at will, and were humanity’s greatest enemies. Of course we fought back, but the demons, with their superior strength, always beat us. That is, until we found the way to fight back. You see, a demon’s skin has very peculiar properties. It is almost impossible to cut, but piercing it with stabbing weapons works extremely well. That discovery also solved one of the greatest mysteries of that time: why demons only used epees. You see, we noticed that demons only used epees to fight, both us and each other. Demons are very warlike and often fought amongst themselves. In those civil wars, however, they only fought with their own weapons. If they broke, they rather fought with bare hands than using nearby human swords. It turns out that epees are the most damaging weapons you can have when fighting demons. Their triangular form and the blood grove make them perfect stabbing weapons, and they are easy to wield. Knowing this, the Dragon Order was established. Now that we too used epees the battlefield became even. In time, we discovered demonic artefacts that allowed the demons to open portals to the parallel dimension we’re currently in. Using these objects, we managed to create a fortress for ourselves in the Other Realm, which quickly became our base. A few years later, we found the ultimate weapon: a crystal with the property to draw out one’s potential and use it effectively without ever training. You might wonder how such a crystal could be a weapon. Well, shortly after finding the crystal, which was named the Crimson Heart, we managed to capture a demon blacksmith. Under the threat of the epees of half our order he was willing to forge the best epee ever made. The Crimson Heart was used as the pommel weight, so that the one wielding the weapon would be able to use all his fencing talent against the demons. Of course we had to find someone with a lot of talent so as to maximize the damage we could do with our new weapon. The demon blacksmith taught us how to use the pendants we also use to open portals to locate talent in people, and with that we’ve been tracing down talented fencers ever since. In this realm, we are able to use the magic in the pendants to a far greater extent than in the real world, so to speak, and using it we find and trace the most talented person alive. That is where you come in. We have determined that you have the talent to be the greatest in the world, and since the previous Wielder of the Crimson Heart has been slain, his duty has been passed down to you.”

Drake stopped talking and gave me a moment to process all of this. I didn’t really know what to say, since I wasn’t very keen on being drawn into a war with demons. On the other hand, the fact that these guys had found me and pulled me into another dimension purely because of my supposed talent was almost flattering.

“So…where is this Crimson Heart?” I asked.

I feared Drake would tell me that it was in the hands of the demons and that it was my task to retrieve it, but fortunately I was wrong. Drake gestured to someone in the back of the room, and another armored person came navigating through the maze of tables that were placed at seemingly random locations in the room. He was carrying a sheathed epee. I presumed it was the Crimson Heart, but I didn’t have a clear view yet so I couldn’t tell. The man handed the sword to Drake, who pulled it from its scabbard and placed in on a nearby table to give me the opportunity to inspect it. The blade was silver and incredibly bright; there wasn’t a stain on it. Since it was an epee, the blade was triangular, with a blood grove on the top. The bell guard was a sharp contrast with the bright blade. It was pitch black and seemed to drain all the light from its environment. The grip too was black, and I could only just make out the crossbars inside the bell guard. The pommel weight was a deep crimson crystal, the true Crimson Heart. Attached to this epee, it would supposedly draw out all my talent if I held it. I took a step forward and stretched out my left arm, reaching for the grip of the Crimson Heart. As soon as I picked up the sword, a rush of warmth travelled from my hand and arm through my entire body. Also, it felt as if my arms and legs were suddenly stronger.

“What’s with this feeling? It’s like I’m much more powerful all of a sudden,” I said.

This was unreal! The energy within me seemed to be begging to be used.

Drake grinned. “Of course. All your talent is being drawn out by the Heart and you’re able to use it. I’ll prove it to you. Follow me to our training hall and we’ll have a quick sparring match.”

I wasn’t sure if going up against Drake was a very smart idea, but somehow I felt like I could win. Maybe I could, with the aid of the Crimson Heart. I went with Drake to the training hall, which was about as large as two large sports halls combined. Despite the size, it was hard to find enough free room to have sparring match, since people were fencing everywhere. Eventually we found a lane that wasn’t being used, and Drake prepared to fight me.

“Wait a minute. Don’t I need armor? I mean…your epee is sharp, isn’t it?” I asked, slightly worried about being skewered.

Drake stared at me for a moment, and then he said, “You’re right.” He grinned apologetically. “You’ll have to forgive me; I have a tendency to forget the most important stuff. Follow me; we’ll go to the armory and get you set up with some armor.”

I nearly fell over. I wondered if he would’ve noticed if I hadn’t said anything. We walked back out of the training hall, through the mess hall and to another part of the fortress, the armory. Just like the training hall the armory was huge. Here though, there were only a couple of warriors. Drake took me to a guy in the back of the armory and said, “Hey, is the Wielder’s armor ready yet?”

The man looked at me and seemed to scrutinize me. “Yeah, it’s done. I think it’ll fit him nicely,” he said to Drake.

“Ryu, stand over there, please,” Drake said, gesturing to an empty spot nearby.

I stood at the indicated place and waited. The armorer brought what looked like a pile of steel and leather over to me.

“Put these on,” he said. “I’ll strap the leather parts on once you’re wearing the chain mail. Leave the gloves and boots for now. Oh, and before I forget, it’s made to be worn over your normal clothes, so it will feel as comfortable as possible.”

I nodded and put on the chain mail pants and vest. Once I had, the armorer told me to spread my arms. He strapped rough leather patches on the front and back of the chain mail. The sides were left open. The leather seemed to be covered in black tar, making it even more resistant to weapons. On the front, back and outside of my arms similar straps of leather were placed and on my legs as well.

“All right, now put your boots and gloves on,” the armorer instructed.

Both the boots and gloves were made of rough leather, but this time it hadn’t been covered in tar, probably to enhance mobility. The armorer tossed me the sheathed Crimson Heart. He had attached it to a belt, which was also made of leather. I put it on and noticed that the sword was actually on my right hip, which meant that the armorer knew I was left-handed. They had really studied me well.

“And finally there is your mask,” the armorer said, and handed it to me.

It was slightly heavier than my normal fencing mask, probably because the steel was thicker. The neck protector was made of (what a surprise) leather covered in tar. Despite the weight of the armor, it was quite easy to move around in it, which was a huge relief. I had assumed moving would be next to impossible in all this steel and leather.

“How does it feel?” the armorer asked. I put on my mask and moved around a bit.

“It feels great. I can move freely and the weight isn’t much of a burden.”

“As long as the Crimson Heart is either attached to your belt or in your hands you won’t notice the weight. If you lose it, however, it will feel a lot heavier,” the armorer warned.

“Alright then, Ryu, let’s go back to the training hall and practice. I’m sure you’re eager to test the Crimson Heart,” Drake said.

I nodded. He was right. I really wanted to use the sword and see what it was capable of. Back in the training hall, we found that our lane had been taken.

Drake sighed and said, “I guess it can’t be helped then.” He cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed, “Listen up! The new Wielder is here and I want to show him the powers of the Heart. So lane one, postpone your match! The Wielder and I will be using that for now.”

Excited murmuring went through the crowds of warriors, and as Drake and I passed them I caught parts of their conversations. “…really the Wielder?”

“…must be…Crimson…”

Drake and I arrived at lane one and we faced each other. “Ryu, since you’re using the Crimson Heart I won’t hold back. To win, try to remove my mask. I’ll be doing the same,” Drake said, drawing his epee. It glittered in the light.

I felt nervous, but I tried not to show it. I drew the Crimson Heart and saluted Drake. He too raised his blade in salute. We put our masks on and the sparring match began.

I felt calm descending upon me as I stood there, waiting for Drake to make his move. Without warning, he lunged. His movement was faster than that of anyone I’d ever fought. I would’ve lost immediately in a normal fight. But the Crimson Heart showed its value. Drake’s movement seemed slowed somehow, and I raised my arm to knock his blade aside. He recovered quickly and retreated, deciding to wait for me rather than attacking himself. I was happy to oblige. I stepped forward and jabbed, provoking his defense. As soon as he started to parry my feint, I twisted my blade beneath his and raised it. I lunged and hit his chin, slightly lifting his mask. I pulled my arm back just a little and put the tip of my blade under his mask. I made an upward motion and Drake’s mask fell onto the lane. Since my feint not even two seconds had passed. I removed my mask and looked at Drake. He seemed stunned. Then he grinned.

“So, what do you think of your new power?”

I grinned too. I felt exhilarated by my new skills. “That was great! I didn’t even know I could do such a thing. It’s like I’m unstoppable.”

Drake looked in my eyes, serious all of a sudden. “Don’t get overconfident. You have to remember that this is merely your own talent. If a demon is better than you could ever be, you’ll be killed. You’re not invincible, no one of us is.”

His words troubled me. He was right. I shouldn’t get overconfident just yet. But it was impossible to stop my excitement so soon. I guess Drake saw that too, because he said, “Try sparring against some of the others using the same rules. When you’re done, I’d like to see you in the mess hall. You need to learn how to seal the Heart and your armor, and how to open portals.”

With that, he turned around and walked away. Immediately people started to challenge me. I grinned and said, “All right. I’ll take you on.”

In the next thirty minutes I fought several challengers and beat them all without any effort at all. The Crimson Heart was really doing its job well. When the twentieth challenger had lost, I said, “Look, I’m gonna find Drake now. There’s more stuff I need to know. You guys go back to fighting each other for now.”

I sheathed the Crimson Heart and walked to the mess hall, where I found Drake in discussion with other members from the order, including Jacques. Drake noticed me and said, “Ah, there you are. Good timing. As you’ve seen when you got here, Jacques used a pendant to open a portal. These pendants are of demonic origin and we do not fully understand their powers. We use them mainly for sealing equipment and opening portals. Sealing equipment is necessary in the real world. From what I understand, armor is not exactly normal in this time period.”

That statement was a bit confusing. “What do you mean by that?”

“This dimension has other rules than yours. While time passes normally here, we do not age as long as we’re in this dimension. To say it in simple terms, if you’re in this world for a year, a year passes in the real world. However, you would still be the same age as when you got here. In normal years, I’m several hundred years old, but physically I’m in my forties.”

I thought about that for a moment and drew the conclusion that that didn’t make any kind of sense at all. On the other hand, nothing had made much sense since I learned of the existence of demons. “Okay, I’ll take your word for it, I guess. So, where’s my pendant and how do I use it?” I asked.

Drake picked something up from a table. It was a black angel wing pendant with a small crimson gem in the middle. “This gem is a small part of the Crimson Heart. This will make it easier to seal and unseal your weapon. You armor won’t be as easy to summon, at least not in the real world. Put the pendant around your neck. Make sure it’s under your armor and over your clothes.”

I did as Drake instructed and waited for more information.

“Now, focus on the crystal in the pendant. Close your eyes and visualize it. Once you have a clear picture in your mind, imagine your sword and armor being sucked into the crystal and hold on to that image.”

Again, I followed Drake’s instructions and closed my eyes. I envisioned the pendant absorbing my armor and epee and felt myself get lighter. At the same time, the tingling energy that I gained because of the Crimson Heart seemed to vanish. When the changes seemed to have stopped I opened my eyes and found that my armor and the Crimson Heart were gone. “I guess I did it?” I said, not exactly sure.

Drake nodded. “Yup, you did it. Now try drawing only your sword out. Hold your left hand over the crystal, close your eyes and imagine yourself drawing your blade out of the pendant.”

I held my left hand over the pendant and imagined drawing the Crimson Heart. Seconds later, I felt the almost familiar energy flowing through me. “Good, now summon the rest of your armor. Just imagine wearing it.” A few minutes later I was done practicing the summoning and sealing of my equipment.

“Now, if you run into trouble in the real world, just draw the sword. Summoning armor in the real world takes a few minutes because magic is weaker there. Since the gem in the pendant and the Crimson Heart are the same however, summoning the blade will still be fast.”

I nodded. I hoped I wouldn’t run into a demon in the real world anytime soon though. “Now for opening a portal. Imagine a location, and then envision a door to that location simply appearing out of the portal. As with summoning armor, it’s easier to do here. Also it will take less energy to open a portal from here to the real world than the other way around, as you undoubtedly noticed when Jacques opened one. I suggest you try to open a portal to your home. Just envision it and focus.”

Not too long after that, a portal appeared in the mess hall. It led to my room, which had been easiest to envision. Contrary to Jacques’ this portal had crimson edges. It felt exactly the same though.

“Try to step through. I’ll come with you. You have to open a portal from there to here as well,” Drake said.

I didn’t feel comfortable stepping through the portal. What if someone entered my room and saw the portal? I shrugged off the worry for now and stepped through. Just like the first time I felt a slight tingle when I passed through, but nothing else. When I stood in my room though, the portal suddenly seemed to draw out all my energy, and as soon as Drake stood next to me I dropped my focus and the portal closed.

“What the hell? It seemed to drain my energy,” I said, slightly shaken.

Drake nodded. “That’s normal. I told you, in this world there’s hardly any magic. It’s much harder to sustain a portal here. The Crimson Heart in unaffected though, possibly because it draws out talent and as such, any power it gives you actually comes form yourself. Anyway, try opening a portal into the mess hall. It’s okay if you can’t envision it clearly, I’ll teach you a trick once were back. For now, try to see the general outline. I’ll help you with my own pendant.”

I sighed and focused. I still felt shaky from my last portal, but it didn’t seem smart to argue with Drake. I focused on the mess hall as well as I could and felt my energy being drawn to my pendant. As soon as spark of energy appeared in the air I felt as if I’d dashed a hundred yards. I tried to maintain focus, and a small, shaky portal opened.

“Drake, this won’t last. We have to go through now!” I said, straining to keep the portal open.

Drake nodded and stepped through. I went through after him and closed the portal as soon as I was through.

“You did well. The first time is the hardest, well, at least when you open a portal in the real world. It’ll get easier with time. Trust me, you’ll get used to it,” Drake said.

I sighed. Now that I was in the parallel dimension again, my exhaustion seemed less bad. “You said you’d show me a way to focus on this place easier,” I reminded Drake.

He nodded. “Look over at the far wall. Do you see the symbol?” Drake pointed at the wall, or more precisely, at the symbol on the wall. It seemed to be some sort of four pointed star. A plus shape, the middles of the arms connected by straight lines, forming a square. From the middles of the lines were lines to the center of the plus. The tips of the arms were connected with inwardly curved lines which gave the symbol its star-like shape. On the left and right side of the star were lines which curved out.

“What is that symbol?” I asked, intrigued by it.

“It’s the symbol of the Dragon Order, appropriately named the Dragon Star,” Drake said. “Since it stands out so much it’s easy to focus on. Warriors opening portals here usually use the star to guide their focus. I guess this star is similar to Stella Polaris, the star used by sailors to find the north.”

I nodded. It made sense to use something like a symbol to guide you. “Do the demons have a symbol as well? I mean, they open portals too don’t they?” Suddenly, something occurred to me. “Wait a minute, why haven’t I ever seen demons in our world? I know you fight them, but over hundreds of years something has to leak out to the general public right? And why don’t the demons just open massive portals and take over?”

Drake sighed. “The demons are kept here by a seal. They really have to struggle to get to the real world. At the end of the huge demon wars, an incredibly powerful mage used the Crimson Heart to draw out his talents and seal away the demons in this realm. Anyone with demonic blood is trapped here, but the artefacts that open portals like the pendants we use still work. To answer your initial question, yes, the demons do have a symbol. It’s called the Demon Flower and they do use it to open portals. Only they don’t use it as a focus, but to possess greedy humans and have them open a portal to their fortress. I’ll show you what the Demon Flower looks like; should you come across it in the real world you must contact us at once. It usually means demons will appear soon.”

Drake pulled something out of his pocket. It was small piece of parchment with a symbol on it. It was a cross, with four ovals coming from the center like petals. Drake put the parchment away again and said, “I think it’s time for you to go back to your own world. We contacted you only to get you ready in case something happens. We won the battle that killed the last Wielder, and usually it’s quiet for a while after a large fight. If something comes up we’ll find you.”

I nodded and realized I didn’t know what to tell people. It had been roughly an hour and a half since I left the championships with Jacques. “Um, Drake? I kinda don’t know what I’m going to tell everyone. Jacques wasn’t much help on that point either.”

Drake thought for a moment and said, “I think it’s best if you open a portal to quiet spot near your home and walk over. It wouldn’t be smart to tell anyone about us in case the demons have spies. As for what you should say to your parents…Well, figure that out on your own.”

I sighed. I guess I shouldn’t have expected any useful help from someone who came from the dark ages. Oh well, I’d lied to people often enough, I was sure I could bullshit my way out of this one as well. I focused on the small dike behind my house and opened a portal. “Okay, I’ll be off then. I’ll hear from you when trouble pops up I guess,” I said.

Drake nodded. “We’ll keep you informed. Trust me, you’ll see real action soon enough.”

I wasn’t looking forward to that moment, strangely enough, but to Drake I said, “Good. See you then.”

I stepped through the portal and closed it. I walked home and prepared for a scolding and most likely a cross examination about where I’d been exactly. I entered the garage and realized my coat was still in the locker rooms a hundred miles away. “Great…well fuck it, I’ll get it later with a portal, if I can manage…” I muttered.

I entered the kitchen and walked straight into hell. My mom was in full blown paranoia mode yelling to my step dad, who was listening to it and telling her to calm down. His patience amazed me, seeing how my mom had probably been like that for a while.

“What’s up?” I said casually. Great going, Einstein. That was really the smart thing to say. God I am fucked. These things shot through my mind as I said that highly intelligent phrase. The effect was instantaneous.

“Where the FUCK do you think you’ve been?!” My mom yelled.

She yelled a lot more after that, but I was staring out of the window and trying to block it out, muttering lame excuses all the while. Of course, they were all wasted anyway. It was like trying to stop a hurricane by blowing in the opposite direction. Eventually my mom calmed down and demanded an explanation and I gave a more or less coherent story based on nothing. By some miracle, she accepted it and told me to call my trainer to tell him I was okay. I decided not to provoke her and obeyed.

After telling the same crappy excuse I told my mom to my trainer to create a semblance of continuity I went up to my room and dropped onto my bed. This had really gotten to be a strange day. A little less than two hours ago I’d been on the national fencing championships and now I had been chosen as some demon slayer. Life really had a way of finding strange paths. I decided to take a shower after that I’d watch some anime on internet until I felt like sleeping.

I already knew that sleep was probably not going to happen tonight, but there were still things such as school to deal with and tedious as it might be, it was necessary. I really couldn’t afford being a zombie in class, so demons or no demons, I’d have to at least try and get sleep. Hours later I was still awake and going over everything that had happened. It felt like it was some kind of dream.

Eventually, at around three AM, I decided to try and get my coat back from the locker room. I had no clue why I suddenly wanted to get that damn thing, but since sleep wouldn’t come I had to do something. I stood up and got dressed, and put on the pendant which I had put on my desk for the night. I focused on the locker room and tried to open a portal, but nothing happened.

“What the…”

I thought for a moment and reached the conclusion that I could make portals to any location as long as it was in another dimension. I focused on the Dragon Star now, and this time, I managed to open a portal, which drained all my energy. I stepped through into the mess hall of the fortress and explained to Drake, who was there discussing battle tactics, what I was doing there. He laughed his ass off and after I had caught my breath I opened a portal into the locker rooms of the sports hall. I stepped through, got my coat, went back into the mess hall and opened a portal back home, and once I was there I threw my coat over my chair and collapsed onto my bed. With the exhaustion of opening so many portals in a row I managed to fall asleep this time.

The sound of my alarm clock disturbed my sleep, and not for the first time I wished I could just throw it out of my window into the lake. I opened my curtains and stood up, reaching out for my desk to grab my cotton wristbands, which I my usual habit when I get up, to find they were still around my wrists. I’d forgotten to take them off when I came back from retrieving my coat last night.

I sighed and turned my monitor on. Since my pc had a habit of not finding its own hard drive once it had been turned off I left it on indefinitely. I checked the internet to see which subjects I had and threw the necessary books into my backpack. When I was outside on my bike my mind started to clear.

When I arrived at my school I was more or less awake, at least no more asleep than I usually was. I was early as usual, and sat listening to my mp3 player waiting for the bell to sound. There was a reason I was early, of course, but because I’d gotten used to it, it had also become a habit.

Eventually the bell sounded and announced the first hour of boredom of the day. The first three classes were just a haze of boredom. Usually I’d sit through them thinking, ‘Everything’s useless anyway; it has no meaning at all.’ Now I was thinking, ‘Everything’s useless anyway, if the demons attack math is not going to save our lives.’

Then it was time for the break. I always felt mixed about that moment. On one hand it meant relaxation and freedom for fifteen minutes, on the other hand it annoyed me because I spent those fifteen minutes gazing over at the other side of the lunchroom/main hall or whatever you’d call it. Now was no different. I just stood at a table, gazing over to another spot in the hall. I was looking for Lucy, a girl I had quite strong feelings for, to put it that way. Certain events had led to us hardly communicating in real life, and now I spent my time just watching. Glamorous eh? Right when I spotted her, she hugged a guy named Jim. I had wanted to decapitate him for that on multiple occasions but didn’t do it because it would be such a mess. He wasn’t her boyfriend or anything, but he still generally pissed me off.

Not too far away from Lucy and Jim were a bunch of people I hated as much as Jim, maybe even more. There was Alfred, an annoying nerdy guy who thought he was the king of the universe (Don’t get me wrong, I can be annoying and nerdy too but this guy’s an expert at it), Zeke, our school’s religious extremist, and Louise, the wicked witch of the west. Louise was the only person in the entire world who I truly hated. That bitch had gotten me into trouble before and every time I was talking to someone and she heard anything at all she’d comment on it. I was half hoping for her to suddenly draw an epee and attack me, giving me the right to kill her, but that was probably not going to happen anytime soon.

I sighed and looked at Lucy again. I wanted to go and talk to her but I didn’t have anything to say so I didn’t act, as usual. The bell rang and announced another set of dull hours, and after what seemed like an eternity the day was over. I drove home feeling bad, as if I’d wasted some golden chance or something, but since I was used to that feeling I ignored it and when I got home I logged onto msn just like usual. This day was actually pretty eventless.

I was hoping that now that I was the Wielder I’d have to do something to save the world or anything like that, but I hadn’t done anything extraordinary the entire day. I craved for something unusual. There would be a time, not too long from that moment even, that I’d wish I never hoped for action, but for the moment I was bored. The day passed without anything weird or suspicious, and when I went to bed around one AM I had almost forgotten about my new life as the Wielder.

The next day though, everything changed. It happened in the small break at school. A guy I didn’t know suddenly climbed on a table and raised his right arm. A symbol on the back of his hand glowed and an epee appeared in his hand. People nearby noticed and jumped back, but for the most part people ignored the activity, thinking it was nothing special. That changed when the guy’s eyes started to glow red and he began speaking in a low muddy voice.

“Humans, listen well. The hour of your destiny is at hand. Soon the gates between our dimensions will open and hordes of demons will come and annihilate your unworthy race once and for all. Do not attempt to leave this room; the exits are sealed. You will come here, one by one, and I shall kill you quickly. Resist and you will die a painful death.”

You could almost see the people in the hall tremble. Some were confused, others frightened. I knew I had to act so I raised my hand to my pendant and focused on drawing the Crimson Heart. To my delight it appeared almost instantly. I, too, climbed on a table and yelled, “Demon! You will not harm these people. I won’t allow you to. Now go back to your own dimension or face the Crimson Heart.”

I raised the sword so the demon could get a good look. To my amazement he just laughed.

“So the Order has a new puppet to wield their little weapon? You should learn to value your life boy. Put away that sword and don’t get in my way and I’ll consider leaving you alive.”

I had hoped the sight of the Crimson Heart would intimidate the demon enough for him to run, but that plan had failed miserably. Now it appeared I actually had to fight him. Shit.

“I told you, I won’t let anyone get hurt by you,” I said, trying to sound brave and determined.

“I see in your heart that most of these people mean nothing to you. Why would you waste your life trying to protect them?”

This demon was getting creepy. How the hell could he see my thoughts?

“It’s true that many of these guys mean nothing to me,” I said. “But some do, and that’s enough. You see, the people who matter to me have people who matter to them, and those people have others etcetera. Therefore, everyone is connected. I can’t let you harm them. As the Wielder, you leave me no choice but to defeat you.”

I jumped from table to table and in my final jump I jabbed at the demon, who jumped back to another table.

“So you have made your decision. Now I will take your life. Die.”

He jumped to my table and jabbed. I mimicked his earlier movement and leapt back. But instead of pausing to speak I jumped back immediately. Now we were both standing on the same table, jabbing at each other with deadly precision. For a while we traded blows like that. To the others it must’ve seemed like a very unnatural way to fight, but both I and the demon knew we had to fight like this to avoid having to play tag all the time. Eventually the demon tried to pierce my head with a quick stab. I saw it just in time and raised my blade, knocked his aside and countered. I pierced his right shoulder and my enemy dropped his weapon. The glow vanished from his eyes and he fell off the table.

I sealed the Crimson Heart and looked at Marc, our big, bald janitor. “I’d get this guy to a hospital if I were you. This wound isn’t fatal, I think, but it’s still nasty.” Marc looked at me angrily for a moment, obviously not used to taking orders from a student, but then he decided that in this case he’d make an exception.

I addressed the people in the hall. “You’ve all seen what happened just now. This guy was possessed by a demon. The demons are humanity’s mortal enemies. I am a member of the Dragon Order, a group of warriors who fight to keep everyone safe.”

I paused for a moment, not sure what to say. I’ve always sucked at speaking in public. Like any school though, our school’s filled with assholes who don’t even believe their own eyes.

“Yeah right. This was just a stunt to get attention. He’s not even really injured is he?” someone yelled.

I sighed. “I pulled a sword out of thin air just now. Do you really think special effects can do that? Believe me, I wish it was just a stunt, but it isn’t. This is real, all of it.”

Murmuring went through the crowds, some of it concerned, but mostly people seemed to think it was a setup. Fortunately I have good friends.

“People, there was a guy with glowing red eyes here for fuck’s sake. Like Ryu said, special effects only go so far. Besides, do you really think a high school student can afford effects like this? Stop being such chicken shits and open your eyes.”

That was Anthony, one of my best friends, who helped me out there.

“Look, all this ruckus is obviously for nothing. This is just a prank, a tasteless prank.”

Alfred. God I wanted to kill him. But unfortunately I wouldn’t get away with killing him, even though he’s an ass. Scolding him was allowed though.

“Alfred, you brain-dead fuck! You take care of special effects on this school for fuck’s sake; you of all people should know that this is real!” I yelled. I was really losing my patience here.

I glanced over at Lucy to see what she thought. When I looked into her eyes she looked at me solemnly, as if to say, ‘You have to do better.’

Right when I was about to say something though, a portal opened. Everyone took a step back, even those who were sceptical of everything. Drake stepped through the portal, looked around the hall, and said, “Now everyone will listen to me. That demon was real. I don’t give a rat’s ass about your opinion, so the first one to interrupt me is in for a world of pain.”

He paused to gauge the crowd’s reaction. Something about a giant armored person stepping through a portal made them listen.

“Good. Now then, I’ll explain everything. The person who was brought to the hospital just now had most likely been experimenting with summoning demons and he probably stumbled across the symbol that would allow the demons to possess him. However, this attack was no mere fluke. The demons need a massive amount of energy to cross the barrier that keeps them sealed. The fact that they succeeded is reason enough to worry. Therefore I will propose this to you. Everyone who is sixteen or older and wants to stop this threat may come with me to our headquarters in the Other Realm and learn how to fight the demons. Those of you who are either too young or not brave enough; I would advise you to go home and stay there. By my personal decree, school will be suspended until the demon threat has been dealt with. This building is now the real world headquarters of the Dragon Order. Now, decide! Will you fight or will you hide?!”

I knew that everyone was still very confused, because Drake’s explanation had been far from complete, so I said, “Those who will fight, you’ll hear the full story in the Other Realm. The others have no need to know any more than they do now, and that’s for their own safety. The less you know, the less likely it is that the demons will target you.”

Drake looked at me sideways; apparently he had intended to leave everyone in the dark about the situation. I shrugged. I wouldn’t let people fight demons without information. Drake sighed and confirmed what I said to the crowd.

Right then out principal entered the hall and said, “Listen here, you. Who do you think you are, coming in here and saying you’re taking control of this school? I’ll have you removed by the police.”

You have to give the man credit. He was quite small and fragile and he was trying to intimidate a guy built like a grizzly bear.

“My name is Drake and I lead the Dragon Order. I’m trying to save your life so I suggest you get lost for now, little man,” Drake said. He turned back to the masses and bellowed, “Now, who will come?!”

The principal seemed to want to argue some more, but then he sighed and said, “People, just be careful if you’re going okay? I don’t want to have to explain all this to your parents.” Our principal can be a cool person at times. Drake grinned appreciatively and repeated his question to the crowd.

Anthony was among the first to agree to fight; to my amazement Lucy went too, and Jim and Zeke decided to fight as well. Zeke probably thought he was going to fight Satan and Jim…well, I guess he actually had some guts. That or he was just plain stupid. But then, that went for me as well so I guess I’m not one who should be judging. I heard Louise whisper that she’d never risk her life for someone like Drake and I wondered how it would be to be so selfish. Alfred actually decided to fight. I wonder if he knew that the only reason that I fought well was because of the Crimson Heart or that he thought he’d be able to fight like that too. But the more people we had the better. I guess those who decided to fight realized that if the Dragon Order failed they’d die. In the end, nearly everyone decided to fight. Drake was keeping the portal open from the Other Realm so that his energy wouldn’t be drained and everyone could pass through safely.

Once I was in the Other Realm I summoned my armor and waited for everyone to be gathered in the mess hall. When the last person had passed through Drake closed the portal and told everyone the same story as he’d told me. He also told them about the Crimson Heart and how I was its Wielder. After that some people decided they were better off waiting for the outcome of the battle. During Drake’s story I stood next to him, looking pretty stupid, I guess. I looked into the crowd, mostly at Lucy. At one point our eyes met, and she slowly shook her head as if she was disappointed I’d allowed Drake to steal the spotlight, so to speak. I was amazed I could actually feel worse about that little thing than about the possible doom of the human race. When Drake’s introduction was over he told everyone to go with Jacques to receive their first training and to get them some armor.

“It seems that the people in this era are quite brave. I had never expected that so many of them would be prepared to fight,” Drake said to me.

I nodded. “I’m quite amazed myself. To be honest, I’d expected some of those who are here now to be the first to run, but here they are. I guess you can be really wrong about people.” Then I thought about Louise’s disregard for every living person but herself and added, “And really right as well.”

Drake and I went over to the training hall, where everyone was learning how to fight. I spotted Anthony on a lane close by and walked over to him. “So, how’s it going?” I asked.

“This armor’s quite heavy. Be glad you have the Crimson Heart, ‘cause this is really annoying. Other than that though, I guess I’m doing okay. Gotta say I’m amazed to see Alfred and Jim here,” he said.

I grinned. “Yeah I know; especially Alfred with his bullshit about everything being a prank. I’m even more amazed that they stayed after learning about the Crimson Heart.”

“Ryu, we have to continue our training,” Anthony’s opponent said. I’d never met him but everyone here seemed to know me.

“Of course. I’ll talk to you later,” I said to Anthony. He nodded and put his mask back on.

I walked back to Drake, who had apparently been looking for me. While I was talking to Anthony someone had approached him with new information.

“Ryu, we have a problem. It appears the demons have gotten hold of a Guide Spire. If that’s true they have a way into the real world and that could be very dangerous for us all.”

“Um, what exactly is a Guide Spire? If you can tell me what it looks like I might know where it is,” I said.

“A Guide Spire is an obelisk of some sort. It’s about three meters high en has a hollow core. Basically it consists of four thin pillars with a pointed top. It has parallel indentations along the outside and is usually made of a dark stone,” Drake said. “I don’t have any documents with pictures, unfortunately.”

But pictures were unnecessary anyway. When Drake described it, an image appeared in my mind. An image of something in our local mall opposite the police station. I had always assumed it was some kind of weird piece of art, but now it seemed that this was in fact the Guide Spire Drake was talking about. “I know where it is, then. It’s in the City Heart, our mall. Or in any case, something that fits your description is there. I guess it’s the Spire,” I said.

Drake nodded. “I see. That’s useful information; I’ll have someone check it out immediately. Meanwhile you should tell everyone to take a break; it’s almost lunchtime. I’ll brief everyone later.”

“Okay…How am I going to get everyone’s attention? This hall’s massive,” I said. The fact that no-one ever listens to a word I’m saying was another reason I didn’t want to do this, but I decided not to tell Drake. Not having charisma was my problem, not his.

“What do you mean? Just yell. You have a voice don’t you? Use it then,” Drake said. He walked off and I sighed.

I could always try. I yelled, “Hey, time for a break! It’s lunchtime!” Everyone immediately removed their masks, stepped off the lanes and headed for the mess hall. “Wow, guess when it comes to food people will listen,” I muttered to no one in particular.

I walked with the massive exodus into the mess hall, and found an empty space between all the people I knew from school. Anthony sat down next to me. “Heavy training here,” he said.

I grinned evilly. “I wouldn’t know; with the Crimson Heart I don’t need to train. The flipside is that I’ll probably get the most dangerous tasks.”

Now it was Anthony’s turn to grin evilly. “Yeah, well, you can’t have everything huh? How long have you been with these guys, anyway?”

I told him about the championships and how I’d met Jacques, who told me to join the Order.

“That’s kinda cool. Hey, did you notice Lucy’s here as well?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I saw it. I hope she’ll be okay. If she gets hurt I’ll personally rip apart the demon hordes.”

Anthony grinned and said, “Well, that’s your job anyway isn’t it?”

I smiled and said, “Yeah, that’s true. With half the school helping the order I’m sure we’ll win this battle.”

Right then Drake entered the mess hall. “People, listen up. The demons have gotten hold of a Guide Spire. With it they’ll be able to enter the real world at will. Ryu has given us a lead on this Spire, and from the fact that our recon group hasn’t returned I gather that he was right in his assumptions. Therefore we’ll have to act quickly. It would be suicidal to open a portal directly to the Spire, so we’ll open a portal to the real world base and walk from there. Once the real world has been cleared of demons, we’ll…”

A deep rumbling reverberated through the mess hall. Everyone, including myself, looked around in confusion. This could not be anything good. Someone came running in, covered in blood. “Drake! The demons are attacking the fortress! They want to overrun us before we can act against the Spire!”

Drake looked shocked. Evidently, the demons’ action surprised him. “Alright, you heard him! Everyone, get battle ready immediately! Newcomers, go with Jacques and his squad to the west wing; Ryu, you go with them. Everyone else, with me to the east and north gates. Go!”

The warriors roared and got up; before I could follow Jacques, though, Drake pulled me aside. “Listen to me. The west wing is our most important wing. Jacques’ squad should be able to handle it but your friends and you have to help them. They can’t do it alone, though they’ll handle most of it. Ryu, you’re the most important asset we have. Don’t waste your life. I saw you looking at that girl and I deliberately sent you with her, but I’m ordering you to stay alive. You are the Wielder and we need now more than ever. Do you understand me?” He spoke extremely quickly, but I hadn’t missed a word of it. I nodded briefly. “Good. Now go and slay those beasts.”

Drake got up and ran off, shouting orders to his men. I followed the others to the west wing. While I was running there I thought about Drake’s words. Especially the part where he told me to worry about myself before thinking about Lucy. I wouldn’t let her get hurt even if it cost me my life. I’m sure he knew that too, otherwise he wouldn’t have sent me with her. Before I could think any more, I reached a gate and walked outside. I had expected this realm to be very different from our own, but the skies were blue and the hills were green. It looked like something out of a Lord of the Rings movie. That picture was reinforced by the army of demons marching over the hills. They wore plain clothes, no armor at all. They were all just as large and muscular as Drake, only their skin tone was reddish and their eyes glowed scarlet. All of them had pitch black, messy hair. And most important of all, they all carried epees. Jacques had already begun setting up his troops, mixing them with the student army, to give them a name. He was bellowing orders but I was too far away to understand them clearly.

When Jacques saw me he gestured for me to come to him, and I ran over as fast as I could. “You and I will be up front. Don’t worry; the Crimson Heart will give you the skill to fight these monsters,” he said in his French accent.

I nodded, put on my mask and drew the Crimson Heart. Feeling the tension in the air, we waited for the demons to reach us. As soon as the first demons came within three meters of us, Jacques yelled, “Now! Attack with everything you’ve got!” I roared and charged. The demon I targeted saw me and blocked my initial attack, but before it could counter I had backed up and lunged again, this time piercing its heart. Without looking if I’d actually killed it I attacked another demon. This time my opponent was stronger, more cunning. It parried my attacks with ease and retaliated with some blindingly fast jabs of its own, putting me into a slight pinch. But then I remembered that this wasn’t a fencing lane and I sidestepped, causing the demon’s lunge to miss. Before it recovered the Crimson Heart pierced its eye and then its brain, killing it instantly.

There was a temporary lull in the battle and I looked around, trying to find Lucy. She was fighting a wounded demon, no doubt under orders from one of the nearby warriors. It seemed she was doing okay, so I focused my attention on my immediate surroundings again, and not a moment too soon. A demon I hadn’t spotted tried to kill me with a sneak attack, but I twisted just in time and its epee deflected off my arm, but not without damage; my arm fell numb for a moment and I had to keep avoiding the attacks before I could counter. As soon as I could use my arm again though, I discovered that this demon wasn’t a very strong warrior and dispatched of him quickly. In the back of my mind I felt worries, thoughts telling me it was too easy, but I pushed them back, dismissing them as unimportant.

I wish I’d listened to my feeling then, because the situation got worse pretty quickly. The sound of a horn filled the air, and over the hills marched another army of demons. All of them wore armor similar to our own and they generally looked way more dangerous than the demons we’d fought so far.

I heard Jacques bellow, “Fuck, they have us! Everyone back to their initial posts, now! We have to regroup before they reach us!” But the demon advance guard wouldn’t allow us to retreat and got between our warriors, driving them apart and preventing them from covering each other.

Before I was surrounded by demons, I saw Lucy’s group being driven apart by the demons. “Fuck…” I muttered. But before I could get to them, I was surrounded on all sides by warriors of the demon advance guard. I felt anger rise inside of me and lashed out violently, trying to break through the walls of demons.

But advance guard or not, demons were strong and I had great difficulties pushing through. In the corner of my eye I saw that Anthony and Jacques were fighting back to back; it seemed they were doing pretty well against the hordes. When I broke through the first wall of demons I saw that most of the student army were being protected by Jacques’ squad, which meant that I could try to get to Lucy without worrying too much about my schoolmates, most of whom I didn’t even know.

But then the actual army reached us. The first line of armored demons reached me, and these guys were entirely different from the first wave of demons. The first demon I fought nearly killed me before I could launch one attack, and I knew I had to calm down in order to survive long enough to help Lucy. I forced myself to take a deep breath and take my opponents seriously.

“All right, you demon fuck, I’m not in a great mood, so if you try to get in my way I’ll fucking skewer you!” I yelled.

The demon laughed and said, “Such enthusiasm. I’ll enjoy killing you.”

Without wasting more time on talking the demon attacked. I blocked its strike and countered only to be countered myself. I assessed the situation and drew the conclusion I had to stab this demon in the head, since that was its only unprotected spot. Demons didn’t believe in head protection, apparently. The demon seemed to hold a grudge against me because it began attacking me non-stop, hardly giving me the time to block. I quickly realized I had to do something or I’d be killed, if not by this demon than by one of the others that were closing in as well. Out of pure instinct, I dropped on one knee just when my enemy lunged. The demon’s epee went over my head and I had a perfect opportunity to retaliate, which I did. I rammed the Crimson Heart through its throat and pulled it back out. I ran forward pushing past the demon that tried to stop me.

I saw Lucy now; she was fighting back to back with little Anthony, a namesake of my friend’s who was almost his polar opposite; only their hair color was the same. Before I could get there to help them, my path was blocked again. I sighed in desperation and fought the demons with every bit of anger I had in me. Everything seemed to blur and I lost track of what happened. I know I was killing demons, and every now and then I’d feel one of my arms or legs get hit, numbing them for a while. A few hits actually pierced my armor, but I didn’t take any serious damage. Most of the attacks that hit my body were deflected by the armor, though I guess they did leave some bruises.

After what seemed like an eternity, I heard a bloodthirsty roar behind me. Killing off another demon, I turned around to look. I saw Drake and his men come running toward us; apparently they had taken care of the north and east wings and were now coming to our aid. With these reinforcements, the demons decided they’d had enough for now and they retreated, leaving their dead and wounded behind. So much for team spirit on their side, I guess. Drake spoke to Jacques for a moment and then approached me.

“From what Jacques told me, you were like a butcher. Good job.”

I said, “It wasn’t so much that I wanted to kill demons. I tried to reach Lucy so that I could help her, but those motherfuckers blocked my path.” I knew it wasn’t a smart idea to tell such a thing to Drake and that he’d probably tell me not to take such stupid risks, but I was overflowing with anger at the demons and I really didn’t care.

To my amazement, though, Drake smiled. “I knew you’d try to reach her. I knew that to protect her you would use your full potential, and I knew that the demons would not allow any of us to fight as a group, much less the Wielder. So I’ll apologize. I’m sorry for using your feelings for that girl to our advantage, but we can’t afford to lose this war, and this battle was very important.”

Right then I wanted to kill Drake for putting Lucy’s life in danger, but then I remembered that it had been her own choice to fight. And if I thought about it logically, Drake had made the right decision. I had fought harder than I ever would’ve done if Lucy had not been there, and since Lucy was fine everything had worked out for the best.

“I guess you’re right. Anyway, we should go back inside and discuss the plans for our own attack during lunch. I’m really hungry.” I guess that sounds really dumb, saying you’re hungry when you’re standing in a pile of blood and gore, some of it demonic some human, but I was hungry, dammit. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and fighting uses a lot of energy.

Drake nodded and said, “We’ll get everyone inside and do a body count, then we’ll eat and discuss our plans. You go ahead; I’ll deal with the formalities.”

I nodded gratefully and walked off. I saw that Lucy was talking to little Anthony (I’m calling him little Anthony to avoid confusion, not because he’s a midget or anything. It’s just that of the two Anthony’s I know he’s the smaller one.) and I went over to talk to her. Strangely my heart beat faster now than it had done during the entire battle.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked.

Lucy turned around and said, “Yeah, Anthony saved my life out there. I’d be dead without him.”

Damn it. That little son of a bitch…Strange to feel jealousy in the middle of a bloodbath, but still I felt it. I guess right now I had to be grateful to him.

“I know. I tried to reach but the demons blocked my path. They want me dead badly because I have the Crimson Heart,” I said, sounding almost pleading.

“Glad I don’t have to bear that sword; I hardly survived this. Anyway, I’m going inside, see you,” Lucy said. She walked off, followed by little Anthony. Of all people it had to be him. Someone she liked. Just great. I shook my head and went in as well, feeling hollow and beaten, even though we’d won the battle. Strange what love can do to you.

I entered the mess hall and sat down next to Anthony. “You okay?” I asked.

He nodded. “I got lucky. I managed to reach Jacques and fighting back to back we did pretty well.”

“Good to hear that. I tried to reach Lucy for the most part of the battle, but those fuckers just had to get in my way. I got a few cuts, but other than that I’m fine. And Lucy is fine too, but no thanks to me,” I said, still pissed.

“Jim?”

“No, little Anthony.”

Anthony shrugged. “Dude, don’t worry about that. In fact you should be glad right now, that he saved her life.”

I sighed. “I know. It just pisses me off. Right now, I’m so much stronger than he is, and yet I couldn’t help at all. Those demon asswipes are going to be in for a world of hurt when we attack them.”

Right then, our lunch was served. To my utter amazement it was stuff from the McDonald’s. In a medieval fortress filled with armored people that’s the last thing you’d expect. But still it was true. There were carts full of Big Macs and Cokes and French fries, and even the true members of the Order grabbed stuff as if they were used to it.

“Well, that’s…unexpected,” I said to Anthony, who was just as surprised as I was.

“You gotta be kidding me…Mickey D’s in a parallel dimension? No way, man,” he said.

I shook my head in amusement and said, “Well, let’s take advantage of these unexpected riches, so to speak. I’m starving so I’m grabbing whatever I can get my hands on. Not much later I was wolfing down fries and Big Macs which I had stripped from their sauce and salad, with a large cup of Coke to wash it down.

While we were eating, Drake stood up and said, “This attack was unexpected and untimely. In the skirmish just now we lost one hundred and twenty people, eighteen of whom were students. All things considered these numbers are in our favor, seeing how the demons lost several hundreds of troops and we still have over a thousand people left. Right now we have the advantage. It’s critical we attack as soon as possible, before the demons can mount a second attack. I know that the students will be shocked to hear that eighteen people you might have been in class with are gone, but they fell while defending humanity.”

I felt a chill run down my spine. Eighteen people gone. I scanned the mess hall, trying to find people I knew. I discovered that everyone I knew was still alive. I breathed a sigh of relief and then felt a wave of guilt. I should feel bad about the fallen ones, but as long as I didn’t know names I could act distant, and at the moment I needed that to keep my sanity.

Drake went on, “I know these words are meaningless to friends of those who have fallen, so I’ll just say this: Our attack will be in their names. If we win their sacrifice will not have been in vain. But I also warn you: Not everyone will survive this attack. Most likely the demons are defending the Guide Spire heavily, both in this realm and the real world. So anyone who wants to go home after seeing battle, go. We won’t stop you and if your heart’s not with the fight we can’t use you. In the attack, we can’t afford to protect you like we did now. Everyone will fight to defeat the demons so to the students I say cover each other. Now for the actual attack. The Guide Spire is located opposite the police station in the mall. We will march there from the school as we mentioned earlier and we will destroy any opposition. Since we never heard from recon I have checked the site out myself. The mall is crawling with demons. They have not begun to move yet, having need of their warriors here. Now that the battle here is over, they will mobilize in the real world to do as much damage as they can before we reach them. So now the time for talk is over. Everyone will go through the portal; once we’re all in the school those who wish to leave will be given the opportunity to do so. After twenty minutes we will start our march towards the Guide Spire. Once there we engage in battle and try to drive the demons back through the portal there. Then we close the portal. How to do that…I’ll explain that later. Now, let’s move!”

Everyone rose as one, some of the people from school looked slightly nauseous but I guess that’s normal if you’re going to risk your life. When I thought about it, I probably didn’t look too good either. Drake opened a portal and told everyone to go through. Slowly everyone moved through. Once everyone was on the other side Drake announced that anyone who wished to leave should do it now. No one moved, despite the fact that many of the students looked as if they could faint any moment.

Drake nodded appreciatively. “Brave bunch, these students,” he muttered to Jacques, who nodded in agreement.

I scanned the hall to find Lucy, and what I saw seemed to freeze my blood solid. She hugged little Anthony and gave him a small kiss. I really wanted to kill him now.

“What’s wrong?” Anthony asked.

“Nothing. I’m fine,” I said stonily.

“Lucy do something?”

I sighed. “It’s not important. Let’s just focus on the battle ahead, okay?” I said, not wanting to talk about it.

Anthony sighed and nodded. The next fifteen minutes went by in a haze. I had some trash conversation with Anthony, but my mind was miles away. The sight of Lucky kissing little Anthony kept coming up in my mind. It was just a kiss on his cheek and he’d just saved her life so it wasn’t even that weird but still it made me feel horrible. I’m sounding extremely emo right now aren’t I? And in the light of our upcoming attack it was all pretty trivial anyway.

Even though I knew these things I couldn’t ban the picture from my mind. So I decided to harness the anger it summoned to fight the demons. By the time Drake announced we were going to leave I was ready to turn the entire demon race into a bloody pulp. And so we marched through the streets; a raggedy bunch of trained soldiers mixed with students who’d only learned about the existence of demons mere hours ago.

People who didn’t know what was going on looked out of their windows, confusion plastered on their faces. I heard someone say, “Is this some kind of parade? Has a new movie been released or something?”

I would’ve laughed if I hadn’t been so angry. As we got closer to the Guide Spire we ran into some demons. They were threatening people but not killing them yet. Their main force probably hadn’t arrived yet, which was good. We marched on, making sure to kill every demon we ran into. When we were within two hundred meters of the Guide Spire the demons became more aggressive and organized. Then we reached the Spire. The small plaza and the road swarmed with armored demons. Next to the spire there was a portal. It was much larger than any portal I’d seen so far. It was roughly three meters high and wide, and demons came through it non-stop. It seemed we had arrived at the same time as the demon main force. How fitting for a final battle.

When I scanned my surroundings I saw that everyone was getting ready. To fuel my anger I saw Lucy and little Anthony hugging again. I put on my mask and drew the Crimson Heart. Time to butcher some demons.

Drake yelled, “This is it! Kill every last one of them and try to get through the gate. We have to fight them off before closing the gate. Just keep killing!”

With that, he raised his blade and swung it down, signalling the start of our greatest battle. Immediately after I charged I was surrounded on all sides. So much the better.

“Okay, you red-skinned assholes, who wants to die first?” I growled.

The demons lunged practically simultaneously, so I ducked and caused the first two to kill each other. For a split second they lost their unit cohesion and I managed to kill another one before they regained their senses and regrouped. I dodged and weaved as well as I could, taking glancing hits every now and then, but retaliating and doing damage as well.

Still I knew I would be overwhelmed sooner or later, so I pulled off a risky manoeuvre by rolling between them and stabbing one of them in the neck before they could turn to face me again. As soon as they had spread apart enough to turn freely I stabbed another in the face before being forced into a game of tag again.

I spotted some warriors of the Order who just finished killing a few lesser demons and moved toward them. They noticed me and immediately came to my aid. Now that our numbers were even we quickly managed to wipe out the demons which had attacked me and we quickly split up to face the rest. The other warriors knew that I was able to hold my own with the Crimson Heart so they generally stayed out of my way to prevent accidents. That was for the best, because I was still fighting with rage as my most important motivator.

As the battle went on, it became clear that we were more powerful than the demons in this world. The seal that held them in the Other Realm seemed to weaken them even though there was a Guide Spire present. Quickly scanning the battlefield, I saw that even though we had some losses there were mainly demons which had fallen. There were even people who were already going through the portal. I started to make my way there as well when I noticed that Lucy and little Anthony weren’t together anymore. Little Anthony was fighting with some Order members against leftover demons, and Lucy was farther back. When I saw her she just killed a demon. But then a demon rose from the ground. Even though it was badly injured it wanted to add one more kill to its list. I dashed forward, and just when Lucy turned and her eyes widened in fear upon seeing the demon within stabbing range I intercepted. I felt the demons epee hit the armor over my stomach and pierce it. It felt as if a red hot spike had been driven into my gut and it took all my focus not to collapse. I rammed the Crimson Heart through the demons forehead and sank to one knee, groaning in pain.

“Are…are you okay?” Lucy asked in a trembling voice.

“It hurts like hell, but I’ll manage,” I said, coughing. I tried to rise but fell back again. “Anyway, I’m fine as long as you’re all right.”

Lucy gave me a shaky smile. Little Anthony came running over. He, too, had seen the danger Lucy was in.

“Hey dude, are you alright?” he asked.

I got up, grunting with pain. “I’m fine, it’s just a scratch,” I said, sounding as tough as I could manage.

Little Anthony turned to Lucy. “And you? Are you okay?” he asked.

“Sure, don’t worry,” she said. The warmth in her voice…it made me wish I could just vanish right then.

I remembered the mission and said, “I’m going through the portal to end this. I’m the Wielder, so it’s my duty. Besides, I’m probably the only one strong enough to do it.” I don’t know why I was bragging like that, but I guess I was trying to impress Lucy.

“Can you do it as you are now?” little Anthony asked.

“Of course I can do it,” I said a little too roughly. A spike of pain shot through me and I groaned loudly. Damned demon.

“Hey, um, don’t overdo it for me, okay?” Lucy said.

I turned away. I feared I might’ve broken down if I’d stayed near her any longer.

“I won’t. You just make sure you don’t get hurt.”

Before she could say anything else I staggered towards the portal and went through it, back into battle. The members of the order were fighting for their lives, trying to keep the demons from crossing the portal again. I seemed to be in the courtyard of a castle. The heaviest fighting was going on near the donjon and I spotted Anthony near the entrance.

I limped over, helped him dispatch a demon and asked, “What’s the deal?”

“Drake says that there’s something in the throne room that will close the portal here. Once the portal’s closed we’ll go to the Guide Spire and smash it. But more importantly, what happened? Are you okay?”

I told Anthony a slightly clipped version of what had happened and said, “I should go in as well. Drake and Jacques might need my help.”

Anthony looked a little pained and said, “Don’t you know? Jacques’s dead. When we got here we were ambushed. He got stabbed in the back and then through the heart. We barely managed to fight off the demons.”

Jacques was dead? That was kind of fucked up, to say the least. After all, he’d been the one to introduce me to the Order. On the other hand, I hardly had the time to be reminiscing right now.

“We’ll mourn later then. If we don’t hurry Drake’s gonna be dead as well,” I said and started to move into the donjon.

Anthony nodded grimly and said, “You’re right. I’ll give you a hand.”

Anthony and I walked into the donjon, slowly so as not to make my wound worse. Fortunately the demons didn’t care about architecture and the way to the throne room was easy. Through the hall, up one set of stairs and through the large double doors at the top. Since Drake and some others had passed through earlier we encountered no resistance. That’s why we weren’t prepared for what was on the other side of the door.

As soon as we were through we were tackled by demons, who pinned us to the ground with ease. I gave a grunt of pain and muttered, “What the…”

A demon wearing a cape approached me.

“So, Wielder. You are here at last. As you can see, we have won. Though your efforts were valiant, we…”

“Ryu! Smash the Crimson Heart! The demon, he’s…” Drake was silenced as a demon rammed him between the shoulder blades with the grip of its weapon.

“Silence insolent human! Do not dare to interrupt our lord when he speaks!” the demon holding him said.

It was only now that I noticed that Drake and the other warriors who had presumably been with him were still alive and being held by demon honor guards. But why would he tell me to smash the Heart? But right now there was no time to philosophize about that, so I brought up the sword and smashed the crystal against the stone floor as hard as I could, shattering it into fragments. Immediately what was left of my strength vanished and the pain in my stomach seemed to get worse. But the demon lord in front of me went berserk. He yelled and growled and had spasms as if he was having an epileptic attack. Eventually he roared loudly and dropped to the floor, dead. The honor guards too seemed to be in pain and they released their prisoners. Drake lifted me off the ground dragged me off to the courtyard. I noticed that the demonic portal had closed, and Drake opened a new one which led to the Spire. The pain I felt, though, was getting worse by the second, and I guess I passed out for a while, because I woke up when we went through a portal to the fortress of the Dragon Order. The medics there stitched me up and gave me some painkillers and told me I’d be fine in a few weeks.

With the help of Drake and Anthony I managed to get to the mess hall and I listened to Drake’s victory speech, which turned out to be very glum. “The battle is won. Inside the demon castle, we discovered that all the demons we have had to deal with in the past few days were the creations of the demon lord of that castle. They were all its spawn. The Crimson Heart turned out to belong to this very demon lord, and by shattering it we finally killed it and its brood. So along with an enemy, we also lost a powerful weapon. I don’t know how this fight will affect the entire war. I don’t know if this was perhaps a Pyrrhic victory. Because aside from the Crimson Heart, we also lost Jacques, one of our best leaders, strategists and warriors. This war…it’s far from over. We’ve been fighting the demons for hundreds of years, and the war will go on for at least another century. I do not mean to say that the victory today was pointless; it wasn’t. In fact, it was one of the largest victories yet. But the price might’ve been too high.”

Drake shook his head and sighed. “Only time can tell. Now that your lives are no longer in immediate danger, I cannot ask you to remain a part of the Order. Those who want to are welcome. Now that we’ve lost the Crimson Heart, we can use all the help we can get. But joining us means leaving your current life behind. Either you’re in all the way, or out al the way. There is nothing in between. You’re young, so I think it’s best if you don’t waste your life here in this fortress fighting demons. Take the word of one who’s fought them for centuries on this. Most of you have pendants and know how to create portals. Keep them, and use them if you ever want to join us, whenever that might be. I’ll most likely welcome you personally when that time comes. For now, the students should head back home. The battle was opposite the police station and caused a lot of ruckus, so the whole city’s been informed by now. You won’t need to explain anything to your parents. As a final word, I’d like to thank every last one of you for risking their lives to help our cause, and to stand with us until the end. Perhaps I will meet some of you again.”

Drake sighed and stepped down. The crowd stayed silent. They were confused by Drake’s speech. I sighed deeply as well. So in the end everything might’ve gotten worse for humanity. Hurray.

A portal opened and Drake addressed us one last time. “This portal leads to your school; you should all go through for now and if you ever feel like it open a portal here yourself. Thanks again for all you’ve done for us.”

Like a zombie, I went through the portal. I waited for Anthony and said, “So, what will you do?”

“I don’t know…I guess I’ll just try to get back to my normal life and try not to think of this too much. How about you?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, either. Maybe I’ll join them if I fail this year. You know, at least in the Order I can something that has actual meaning. Or at least die trying.” I glanced over at Lucy and little Anthony, who were having some deep conversation, and sighed. “It’s not like I’m needed here, so I guess joining an army that fights for humanity’s sake without regard for personal gain would be good. And hell, I like fencing so I might even become a great warrior there once. At least I know I have the talent for it.”

I tried to smile but I was feeling too depressed to succeed. Anthony thought for a moment and said, “Well, you could go there at times to train and help them out. Not necessarily fighting, but you know, working in the armory, learning to forge weapons and such. And maybe later, when you’re done with school you can see if you want to join the actual warriors.”

I thought that over and said, “Hey, you’re right. I guess I’ll just do that, then. Well, let’s get out of here. Even though I don’t want to think about it now, tomorrow’s a normal school day again.”

Anthony nodded sadly and said, “And Alfred and Jim survived, so we’ll have to put up with them as well.”

“I really don’t want to go to school tomorrow. Probably the names of those who have died will be plastered all across the school and then I’ll start to feel sorry for them in hindsight. I fucking hate that,” I said as Anthony and I walked out of the school.

“Yeah, well, they helped keeping everyone else safe, so it’s the least we can do for them, right?”

I shook my head and said, “It’s just that if I start thinking about this too much I’ll get the feeling we failed in every possible way even though we won the battle. I’d like to have at least some sense of victory left.”

After that we didn’t say much anymore. We just grabbed our bikes and headed home. In the end I decided to walk because I couldn't ride with my injury. When I got home I had to tell everything to my mom, who had heard everything on the news and had been worried I might've died. I didn't tell her I was very nearly killed. Eventually I told my mom that I'd just lay down and watch tv from my bed. Once I was in my room I logged into msn just like I usually did.

I noticed that Lucy was online and typed, “So what will you do?”

A few seconds later she replied, “Just move on, I guess. I don’t want to think about this anymore…And you?”

“I might go back to the Order some day.”

She was silent for a while after that, so I guess she thought I was nuts. I guess I’d have to be if I really wanted to go back. Eventually she said, “Just don’t get yourself killed okay? We lost enough people already…Well, I gotta go now, see you.” Before I could reply she had logged off. I sighed and decided to watch some online videos, trying not to think about the war.

A few days later

Everything seemed to have returned to normal. There had been a memorial speech for those who had fallen, and over at the Guide Spire a monumental slate with names had been placed in their honor. Now, life was going on as usual. I hadn’t used the pendant anymore, but I still wore it every day, thinking I might need it somehow. Little Anthony and Lucy seemed to be together officially now, but of course I hadn’t asked if that was actually true. All I cared about was that it made me want to leave that place and return to the Order. I know it’s lame to feel bad about girl who likes some guy more than you, but that’s just the way I am. I can fight demons without any trouble at all, but I can hardly speak to the one girl I love. So to end this story…I don’t know how our battle affected the war and I don’t know how I’ll end up. I might become a warrior in the Order, or I might become someone who works in a boring office. Only time can tell, I guess…