"And class, that is why you must always pour acid into water and not the other way around," the alchemy teacher, Mr. Pale, had just concluded his lesson for the day.
Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring… Ring.
School was over.
"Finally, final lesson for the week," Xavier said in excitement after the bell rang.
He quickly got up, picked up his cross bag, and left the class before the teacher himself could have.
"See you next week, Mr. Pale," he told the gentle teacher before he was even permitted to leave the classroom.
"Xavier, wait. Don't forget the assig…", Mr. Pale tried to remind Xavier before his hasty exit.
He raced through the hallway and slid down the rails on the stairs leading to their courtyard below, where he met his best friend, Ace, waiting for him at the base of the stairs with the rest of the dismissed students.
"What took you so long? You spent 10 seconds on coming downstairs," Ace said.
"Sorry about that. Next time I'll try to be faster. It's the last day of the week, so when can we leave for sword practi—"
As the two boys were still talking, another boy stepped into the discussion, appearing more rogued and equally as good-looking as the previous two.
As he bounced towards them with his proud and annoying smile, he said, "What's up, losers?"
It was Millo. He was the only son of the mayor of the town and yep, you guessed it, also a big-time jerk—especially to Xavier.
"I can see you are all set for your weekly sword defense lessons. I bet you haven't even been able to master any technique since you began two years ago with that wee body of yours."
Xavier and Millo's rivalry began ever since the fifth grade, and despite the incessant and consistent insults from Millo over the years, Xavier has never really gotten used to the role of him being the little one.
He always acted irrationally in a bid to defend himself and ended up embarrassing himself in front of the entire school.
But the previous weekend, he decided to take a more effective approach. An approach that proved itself most diligently —fighting fire with fire.
He armed himself over the weekend with a cumulative knowledge of stinging burns that was sure to run veins down Millo's head.
"At least I don't rely on talking and bossing others around to win fights. Too bad your mouth doesn't come with a sharp edge, it could have come in real handy during a fight."
"Uuuu!!!", background ears that heard Xavier echoed.
The crowd echo motivated him to deliver another sting.
"Let me just let you know, in case you do not. You're just like a cloud. Whenever you are not around, it is always a beautiful day, for everyone," Xavier underscored his earlier statement.
The attention of the entire students there soon turned to their direction.
Xavier felt proud of his new approach but didn't completely run through his thoughts before delivery.
Millo got so pissed off.
He began to energize a ball of light blast in his hand and missiled it towards Xavier with a simultaneous punch into a nearby wall and said in a rough and loud voice, "Small trash is talking big now, right. Me and you, in the school park, five p.m., today. Bring your sword and don't chicken out, or you're dead."
Millo immediately left after his aggressive shot at Xavier.
Xavier couldn't care less about Millo's threat. The truth of the matter for Xavier is that he was done for either way it went, so the best option for him was to get it over with as soon as possible.
"That guy. If somehow… I could get the power... a celestial power, no one will ever stop me from destroying that guy," he said as Ace helped him up.
"Let's get outta here," Xavier said after dusting himself up.
As they walked on the streets of Aedes City, the two talked for a while to dissolve the tension generated.
Ace started up the conversation, "Back there, I think you were about to tell me something about sword practice. Speaking of which, we are terribly late."
"Ya, you are right. Let's walk faster to meet up. The instructor hates it when we're late. At least there I won't have to see Millo's ugly little face."
And then, in that moment, it all began.
The merge happened.
A rift appeared in the sky, appearing as a glowing cut of light up above.
It began widening and Seekers started pouring in. Some began killing people while others descended them.
It was a terrible experience for everyone, especially those closer to the rift.
The sharp-clawed demons sunk into the chests of humans. Both old and young—no one was left out of the demon apocalypse.
The Seekers were extracting soul cores from the humans, glowing with their descent white light.
Xavier got even more annoyed by what was happening. He wasn't bothered by the descensions or even the deaths going on around him.
What bothered him the most was that the peaceful aura he had tried to maintain had just dissipated.
"Damn it. What were the chances that this would occur now, at this exact moment of my frustration."
The only ray of joy he had amidst his internal chaos was when he thought of how Millo would be devoured by one of the beasts, and he smiled a bit.
'Serves him right.'
One who saw him would have wondered why he was smiling in a time like this—He probably must have lost it.
Just then, caught in his daydream, he wasn't self-aware. A Seeker above dove through the air towards Xavier and pierced his chest, extracting his soul core, but his didn't radiate a white glow like the rest. Instead, it was a bit bigger and was pitch black—as dark as the devil.
"Arghh," he screamed in pain, blood spilling everywhere as he dropped dead on the streets of Aedes City.