…About 100 km away from the man, the sound of a baby crying was getting weaker and weaker.
Inside a small house, a group of figures cloaked in red cloaks was kneeling on the ground as they swayed from side to side while chanting something under their breath. The inside of the house was completely dark, saved for the dripping white candles on the floor. Each of the figures was also holding a lit white candle as they remained in a formation.
"This innocent child should be the sacrifice…" a man, who was standing over the raised stone altar in the middle of the room, said in a deep voice. The constant chanting in the background almost drowned his voice.
When he lifted his left hand which was holding a b.l.o.o.d.y knife, the chanting stopped, as if waiting for his next instruction. Using two fingers on his right hand, he slowly swiped at the blood on the knife before looking down at the altar.
Lying on the altar was an almost lifeless naked baby boy who was covered in blood. A gaping wound was on his chest, right where his heart should be. The baby boy was bleeding out and was barely moving. The only sign of life was the fingers that would twitch occasionally.
The man looked at the baby he just stabbed, and he swiped the blood on his hand on the baby"s forehead, drawing the Sigil of Lucifer on the baby"s forehead.
The man then took a step backward as he licked the remaining blood off his fingers. "We call upon you, Lucifer, to bless us with your power!"
"We call upon you, Lucifer, to bless us with your power!" chanted the other figures in the room.
They kept repeating it, and their voices were getting louder and louder.
BAM!!!
The door was suddenly kicked open, and a heavy gust of wind blew in, blowing out the lit candles in the room and causing the figures cloaked in red to jump up both in fright and excitement.
When the man in black cloak stepped into the house, his green and blue eyes glowed slightly, thus giving him vision in the darkness. He had caught the smell of fresh blood from a long distance away, but he still came to check nevertheless.
"Lord Lucifer?" The man who was standing by the altar looked over at the intruder and opened his arms wide. His eyes were almost fanatical as he said in a reverent voice, "Please take the sacrifice and bestow us with your power!"
The man in the black cloak, Warlock, looked at the "sacrifice", and when he saw the poor baby, his lips twitched slightly. He then turned to look at the man by the altar. "I accept your sacrifice…" Warlock said clearly as he lifted his right hand and pointed it at the man. He then curled his right fingers tightly, upon which the man"s head exploded, sending pieces of brain, blood, and bones everywhere.
"W-what the h.e.l.l!" some of the other figures in the room yelled when pieces of their leader"s brain fell on their bodies. Some of their leader"s blood was on the ceiling and was now dripping onto their bodies.
Warlock then grinned, and under the light of the red moon, he looked more like a demon right then than a human. The door slammed shut behind him before he said, "In fact, this is not enough…"
Piercing and painful screams threatened to break the small house apart from inside, but oddly enough, not a peek could be heard from outside the house. Small birds were flying around, going about their normal days.
It was as if the inside and outside were in two different locations.
Once the cloaked figures in the house were completely gone and the house silent, Warlock slowly walked to the altar, where the baby had almost turned completely blue.
"Ah, you poor thing…" Warlock lamented as he reached down to gently pat the baby"s stomach. No matter which dimension he was in, the sacrifice of an innocent would always be there, lurking somewhere in the dark.
With a disappointed sigh, he then glanced around the walls of room, which was now covered with blood, guts, and brains, and his eyes landed on the pentacle drawn with blood on the wall. With a roll of his eyes, he then looked back at the baby on the altar. "I can"t believe those humans sacrificed you for something that"s impossible. As if someone like them could contain the power of a demon…"
Warlock placed a hand on the baby"s chest, and a soft golden light appeared on his palm. After a while, the light disappeared and a frown appeared on Warlock"s face. He shook his head disappointingly. "Too late…"
He was about to leave, but when he saw the baby"s twitching pinky finger, he stopped himself to gather his thoughts.
After a moment of hesitation, he looked down at the bundle that was still tucked in his left arm. Throwing the cloth of the bundle away, he then looked at a black and red gas-like thing that was now floating up until it was right in front of Warlock"s eyes. Golden symbols appeared around the gas-like thing as it moved continuously in an X position.
"Be good, the shackles are there to protect you… Anyway, what do you think of this body? He"s about the right age as you. Do you want to try and see if you can take it?" Warlock asked with a smile as he pointed at the baby on the altar.
When the gas-like thing did not move and merely remained in midair, Warlock said softly, "Do you understand what I"m saying?"
As if it was sentient, the gas-like thing moved and hovered above the baby. Then without any warning, it dove into the baby"s body from the opening on the baby"s chest.
"You!" Warlock gasped, and he tried to convince the gas-like thing to come out, but it was to no avail.
"You chose this one?" Warlock asked eventually, somewhat surprised that his mission would be completed so fast. He then watched as some of the blood around the baby slowly floated into the air, drop by drop, before slowly going back into the baby"s body.
Once the blood returned to the baby"s cheek, his body temperature raised, and his lips no longer looked so blue, the wound on the baby"s chest slowly knitted together until it formed a straight yet slightly raised b.u.mp, like a scar.
"Well, she said to let you choose…" Warlock sighed as he picked up the baby carefully in his arms. Other than the blood of those dead men that had unfortunately splattered onto the baby"s body, the angelic-looking baby was quite adorable.
"This is not a bad body anyway… Long eyelashes, dark hair… You"ll be a good looking one once you grow up." Warlock then gently tapped the baby"s nose, upon which the baby"s eyelashes fluttered slightly before he opened up his eyes.
Bright blood red eyes stared back into Warlock"s mismatched eyes, lighting up the dark room and making it even eerier than earlier. However, the redness of the eyes gradually turned darker and darker, until it became completely black before settling down at a normal brownish-black color.
"Such a fast rate…" Warlock murmured as he looked at the baby. Once the red eyes were gone, the baby looked just like what it originally was, a human baby.
At this moment, gray congealed air slowly moved out of the dead men"s bodies before forming into their images in a somewhat translucent and light form.
"Ghosts?"
The ghosts looked at the baby in Warlock"s arms, and as if possessed by something, they lunged at the baby.
"Impudent!" Warlock snarled as his green eye glowed eerily in the dark.
...
(Present)
Back in his office, Warlock smiled gently when he thought about how well the kid had grown up. It was a good thing that he found him after accidentally lost him as a baby. If he had failed his mission, that woman was going to skin him alive.
Warlock looked at the image of the woman on his palm for another few seconds before curling his fingers up, thus removing the image completely. He then stood up and looked outside the window. From his office, he could see the students playing on the G-floor clearly.
"To let him choose, to let him decide on his own path… Woman, you"re not making this any easier for me," Warlock murmured with a complicated expression.
...