Damien opened his apartment door and peered inside quietly. He entered, and as he walked toward his room, a young girl ran toward him.
Damien looked down at her. "Emily, what are you doing up so late?" he asked, his voice gentle despite his exhaustion.
"Can't sleep," she said. Then she looked at her brother a second time, her eyes narrowing with concern. "Are you okay?"
She stepped forward, studying his face more closely.
"I'm fine," Damien said quickly, avoiding her gaze.
"Why?" Emily persisted, tilting her head. "It's just... your eyes. They're strange."
Damien sighed, trying to play it off. "It's nothing. Just the lighting."
But her eyes widened as she noticed something else. "Your nose!" she said, pointing at his broken, crooked, messed-up nose. The bridge sat at an unnatural angle, and dried blood crusted beneath his nostrils.
"Can I fix it?" she offered, her small voice filled with determination.
"Fine, but when you're done, go to bed," he said, resignation settling over him.
"I will," she promised.
Damien lowered himself toward her face as she placed her hand on his nose. A golden, radiant light emanated from her fingertips. His nose began to reform, the cartilage and bone putting themselves back together. Damien's broken nose was healing, but there was one thing Emily didn't understand about all of this—it was very, very painful.
Damien almost screamed out in agony, but he couldn't. He just couldn't let his little sister see him suffer. So he kept silent, even though a single tear fell from his eye and traced down his cheek. His jaw clenched so hard he thought his teeth might crack.
When the process was done, Damien stood back up. He was shaking a little from the pain he'd felt—his nose healing on its own while he felt every excruciating bit of it.
Then Emily looked down and noticed he was still holding the sword Jack had given him. "What's that? Is that a sword?" she asked, her eyes growing wide with curiosity.
Damien glanced at the black obsidian blade that was still warm in his hands. The weapon seemed to pulse with an otherworldly energy.
"Oh, I just picked this up while I was walking home," Damien said, completely lying through his teeth. The fabrication came easily, born of necessity.
Emily believed every word of it. "Okay," she said simply. "Anyway, I'm going to bed now."
She went off to her room, and Damien sighed, glad to be done with all that. "I think I should go to bed as well, even though I just recently woke up. Still, it's normal to go to bed at night, right?" He sighed again as he stood up and walked toward his room.
He opened his bedroom door, fell onto his bed, and less than a millisecond after his head hit the pillow, he completely fell asleep.
*Shadow dragon: 10% completed,* a voice said in his head, but he was unconscious and couldn't hear it. The voice was dark, deep, ancient.
*Shadow dragon: 11% completed. Host has entered hibernation. Shadow dragon completion status has been multiplied twofold. Shadow dragon: 13% completed.*
All of this was happening while Damien remained unconscious and unaware of anything occurring to his body. Dark cells were killing all of his red and white blood cells—but they weren't killing them so much as absorbing them, corrupting them, transforming them into something else entirely. Shadowy bars and chains encaged his heart and all of his vital organs, leaving them protected but imprisoned.
*Shadow dragon: 19% completed. Shadow dragon: 20% completed.*
---
Four hours later, Damien woke up. Sunlight was blinding his eyes. He quickly covered them with his forearm and let them adjust to the brightness. He groaned as he got out of bed, his body stiff and sore.
He looked at his nightstand. A half-drunk water bottle sat there from at least two days ago, but it didn't have to be cold for him to drink it. He picked up the water bottle and drank it all, the lukewarm liquid leaving his body more alert. When he finished, the grogginess he'd felt was practically gone.
"Now," he said, "let's see if I can order anything for breakfast, because I'm not cooking today. I'm way too tired for that, especially after last night."
He grabbed his phone from the bottom drawer of his dresser and began scrolling through delivery options. He scrolled and scrolled until he finally settled on something simple—an egg and cheese croissant that he had enough to pay for. It cost one coin. He bought two, one for him and one for his sister, meaning two coins went down the drain.
"How unfortunate," he sighed, his heart swelling with the hurtfulness of spending two precious, glorious coins. But he had to. After all, food was a necessity.
Eventually, he left his room. Thankfully, Emily was still asleep.
"Well, guess I'll just wait for the food to come and wait for her to wake up," he said as he sat down on his couch in the living room. "Now, let's see what these scales can actually do."
He stood up and grabbed the black sword, then hesitated. *If I do this, I'm technically trying to cut myself. Who knows how protective these scales actually are? I could end my own life. I could cut myself in half by doing this.* But then again, it was worth a shot.
He held the black sword up against one of the scales on his arm and tried to cut it off. The scale was severed. The black obsidian scale, like an armor piece, fell to the ground—but then it immediately grew back, less than a millisecond later.
"So it grows back," Damien said silently, fascinated. "How interesting. What else can it do?"
He paused, considering. "Well, I can't experiment too much. I'll continue with this when I'm done with school."
He placed the black sword in a closet near his living room, putting it on the top shelf before closing the door. "There we go. Safe and secure," he sighed. "Now I just wait."
A moment passed.
"Okay, I'm bored," he said, standing up. "There's not really much to do here."
The only electronic device Damien had was his phone, so he decided to scroll on that to pass the time. Just as he was about to begin, a knock sounded at his door.
He put his phone on the couch and looked through the peephole. "Good, the food's here," he said as he opened the door.
The delivery man on the other end smiled as he handed Damien his food. Damien waved him off politely, then closed the door. He placed the two croissants on the table.
"Guess I'll just wake her up so she won't sleep all day," Damien said as he went toward his younger sister's room.
He opened the door silently and approached her bed. *You know what? Why not?* Damien thought, briefly considering dropping ice on her face to wake her up. But then he decided against it. Instead, he shook her awake gently.
Her eyes opened suddenly. She quickly jumped out of bed and looked around, disoriented.
"What—" Damien said, surprised by her reaction. "Did you have some kind of dream or something?"
Emily nodded, her face pale.
"Well, save your dreams for later," Damien said. "Breakfast is ready. Come on."
"Did you cook?" Emily asked hopefully.
Damien sighed. "I'm too tired for that. I just ordered some croissants."
"Anyway, come on."
They both walked toward the table and sat down.
"Well, take it easy," Damien said. "Really, today is probably going to be a long, long, stressful day."
---
**Seven hours earlier...**
Jack was walking back from the alleyway. He knew Damien had probably left by now with his black sword. *I won't be seeing that thing for a hot minute.*
"Well, it is what it is," Jack said as he walked off, his frisbee still in hand.
Suddenly, he received a call. He quickly reached into his pocket and answered.
"Who is it?" Jack said.
"It's us," a man said in a dark, gravelly voice.
Jack quickly moved into a private area where no one would hear him—a dark, secluded alleyway where no one probably was.
"Any reports on the mission?" the man asked.
"Yeah," Jack said. "I saw him. The Destroyer of Worlds. Turns out he was pretty weak back then." Jack smirked. "Honestly, I could kill him right now, and the end of the universe wouldn't occur."
"But—" the man began.
"But I'm not going to do that," Jack interrupted. "I want to see what his potential is like, you know?"
"His potential?" The man laughed bitterly. "He completely eradicated all worlds—the Demon World, the Human World, the Monster World. Eradicated all of them. And you want to see his potential? You know what his potential looks like. Just kill the boy, Jack. Kill him before I kill you."
Jack smirked. "Like you could do something like that, old man. Anyway, fine. I'll do it. I'll kill Damien Rose Blackthorne."
The man chuckled darkly. "You don't have a choice in the matter, Jack. Because if you don't kill Damien, more worlds will be destroyed. Our world has already been eradicated, and we have to save this one."
"I know," Jack said, his voice quieter now. "Let me get an eye on his patterns—where he goes, what he does, when he gets home. Then I'll be able to create a plan to kill him."
Then Jack's eyes widened as realization struck him. *The sword. I forgot I was dealing with the world-destroying being for a moment. I gave him the sword—the same sword he used to slaughter innocents. What is wrong with me?*
Jack muttered aloud, "I need to get that sword back, and I need to kill him. I need to kill Damien before the end of the world happens. Not again."
Jack didn't realize he was speaking out loud, but the man on the other side of the phone heard him—and he was definitely not happy.
"You did what, Jack?" the man's voice was ice.
"I—I just—" Jack couldn't come up with any words, his throat constricting.
"You gave him the Great Void Sword? Why?" The man's voice rose with fury. "I swear, Jack, if you can't kill Damien, I'll have to do it myself, along with the rest of the Void Slayer Clan. Hurry up and kill Damien. Get the sword. Destroy it. Do you hear me, Jack?"
Jack gulped, his hands trembling. "Yes, sir."
"Good," the man said coldly before hanging up the phone.
---
Jack didn't know what to do. He was done for. He might as well be dead at this point, because if he tried to kill Damien, it might end up the other way around—him being dead and Damien being the victor. With that black sword, Damien might as well be unstoppable.
Jack shivered as he walked into the darkness. Whatever Damien would become in the near future, Jack was clearly terrified of it. And fear drove people a long, long way.