Eric opened his eyes, feeling sore all over.
"Argh, that stupid priest—" Eric paused. His heart skipped a beat. Over the years, whenever he woke up, he was greeted by tree leaves, the sky, or even the terrible faces of monsters. Yet at this moment Eric was looking at a light bulb. Eric sprang up. He felt something soft beneath him. Looking down, he saw a bed with white linen. To the side was a window; Eric could hear the sound and horn of cars—the norms of traffic. He felt something wet roll down his cheeks from his eyes.
'I'm back?'
The door to his room suddenly opened. A deafening scream pierced through the air of the hospital.
After three years. Eric McAllister awoke from his coma.
------------
Eric stared at the nurse outside his room.
"Um... Hello?" Eric heard his voice crack. He could already feel the emotions threatening to burst out of his chest.
"Where is my family?"
"Huh?" The nurse froze in shock for a second, then bolted away at full speed.
Eric slowly stood up from the bed. He noticed his body seemed to have continued to develop after he fell into the dreamscape. He removed the drips and injections connected to his body and walked over to the window. On a cabinet next to him was a calendar, 3 November 2025.
'Tomorrow is my birthday... three years... So in those three years I was stuck there. I was in a coma here. I thought I died in my sleep. I really am back huh?' Eric chuckled.
'After a while hurried footsteps echoed outside his hospital room. What followed after was a gasp. Eric turned around slowly. Standing outside the door were three others apart from the nurse. One was a short girl with blond hair. She was panting, showing the fact that she had run from wherever she was to this place. Tears began falling freely from her eyes as soon as she saw him.
"Brother!!" She shouted before sprinting and giving him a hug.
Eric let out a little smile to hide his pain and hugged her back. "Hello, Erica."
Erica burst into more tears as soon as she heard his voice, causing her to hug him tighter.
"Eric?"
Eric froze as he heard the voice. His whole body seemed to have stopped listening to him as all the mental fortresses he had built up began falling to pieces.
Before he could even raise his head to look at who had called him, the tears he was trying so hard to hold back flowed back uncontrolled like water from a broken dam.
"Grandpa"
He said, staring at the fairly old man standing at the door. He looked even older, like years had been sucked out of him. Erica let go of Eric amidst tears. The old man walked towards Eric and placed a hand on his cheeks. He wiped away the tears, but they just kept coming.
"Stop crying, Eric."
"I'm trying, Gramps... It won't stop."
"Then let it out, Son. Let it out."
The doctor at the door looked at Eric in shock for a while before turning to his nurse. "Let them be for now. We'll come back later.
-----------------
In a dark cave in a dreamscape, far beyond the forest where Eric stayed.
"Why are you here? Have you come to try and kill me again?" A deep ethereal voice echoed through the cave, followed by the sound of a small bell.
"Why don't you come out and find out?" A second voice answered.
The source of the second voice soon came into view. It was the white-haired priest from before. In his hands was a lantern, and hanging from the side of his trousers were two thin metal bars that would occasionally hit each other, creating a bell-like sound.
"Hm? Where's the other one? Wait, don't tell me. Did he die?! Hahaha..." The unseen being's laughter echoed loudly in the cave. The white-haired priest didn't reply and just continued walking.
The being, noticing the priest's indifference, stopped laughing.
The white-haired priest walked for a while accompanied by the bell sounds. Turning a corner in the cave, he came face-to-face with a portal. The priest stopped and stared at the portal, then slowly he walked towards it.
"Hey?!! What are you doing?!" The voice from the shadows exclaimed.
The priest stopped in front of the portal and stretched forth his hand to touch it. The moment his finger touched the portal, a black flame suddenly burst forth from it and started climbing his arm up his body. He jumped back quickly as similar white flames came out of his body and consumed the black flames. The arm he used to touch the portal was completely charred.
"You fool! Are you trying to get yourself killed? Do you know what the matriarch would do to me?! Leave!!! Get away from here!" The unseen voice panicked.
A mocking smile appeared on the face of the injured priest. "Why don't you try and stop me?"
"You lunatic," the voice muttered in anger. "You're only trying to lure me out!"
The priest's smile grew. "Your matriarch placed you here in order to monitor us and make sure we don't try to leave the dreamscape, right? But I'm also sure she must've told you not to let anything happen to us... can't let her 'beloved experiments' go to waste. I wonder what would happen if one of these 'beloved' died under your watch?"
'This bastard. He's trying to use the matriarch's words to lure me out. Tch, even with his arm injured like that, I'm not sure I could beat him. The White Exorcist, Hermes, is one of the Twin Priests. The so-called Bane of Monsters. Even a demon like me would not want to get into a fight with this guy.' The voice thought.
"Hoi Demon," Hermes called.
"What?"
"I want to leave."
"What?" The invisible demon watched as Hermes slowly walked towards the portal even with his injured arm. "Hey! Stop! Stop that! You'll die, you fool!" The demon shouted in a panic.
Hermes stopped in front of the portal just like before.
"Hehe, say hi to the matriarch for me." Hermes jumped.
Hermes's body lit up in black flames, but before he could completely enter the portal, a dark figure suddenly flew out of the shadows and pushed him out of the way.
The demon that had just come out of the shadows was like a mass of black fog with a human silhouette. It had no facial features or vocal cords, yet somehow it could still talk. It looked at Hermes's badly burnt body and clicked its tongue. Half of Hermes's body was charred black; he lay down on the floor panting slowly.
"You thought you could lure me out with such provocations. I guess you did, but you underestimated a demon's craftiness. If I came out, there would probably be no way for me to defeat you. That is why all I had to do was let the portal's restriction damage you to the point where even though I'm forced to come out, you won't be able to do anything to me. You failed, pathetic human."
The demon looked at the portal. 'The matriarch restriction must be really strong to injure someone like Hermes to that extent-'
The demon's thought was interrupted by the sound of a bell. It's instinct screamed danger. It turned around quickly but was flung into the wall by a punch to the face.
"Arrgh, I had to put up such a performance and this moron still almost refused to come out."
The demon climbed out of the rubble of the broken wall. The black fog shrouding its body seemed to have been slapped off of its body when it was punched. It was now a black humanoid monster with horns. On its body were torn sackcloths. "You! How?!"
Right in front of the demon was Hermes, standing without a care in the world. His clothes were burnt off, leaving only his trousers. White flames danced around his body as his injuries healed at a rapid pace.
"You awakened regeneration!!! That's impossible! You're human!" The demon shouted. Its face was completely covered in fear.
"Awakened? I gained an enlightenment when I saw a certain kid do it." Hermes opened and closed his palm as he watched his burns heal.
The demon's heart sank. "You didn't awaken it... You learned it."
'He learned spontaneous regeneration? How? Even monsters need a lot of time and power to awaken. Humans don't even have that ability. Yet he learned it? Is this because of Divine Energy? No, how much divine power and mastery of divine power do you need to have to pull that off? He changed the universal law that stated that humans could not regenerate; he might not even be human again. That kind of feat is in the level of gods.'
"You are a monster." The demon muttered.
Hermes looked down on the demon. "You're a literal demon. You kill and eat children. You cause pain and wars just to satisfy yourself. Yet you have the audacity to call me a monster?"
Hermes raised his already healed arm and faced his palm towards the demon. White flames came out of his body and flowed to the space in front of his palm, forming a white flaming ball.
The demon tried phasing into the shadows but failed.
"Did you already forget why you never showed yourself to us until now? It was because you knew once you did. If we wanted to kill you, you would never escape."
"Oh? What is going on here?" A playful and seductive female voice sounded behind Hermes.
"Matriarch!!" The demon shouted.
Turning back, Hermes saw a female vampire materialize in the air. A smile suddenly appeared on Hermes's face.
"Eh? Hermes? You're smiling. That's a first. Are you that happy to see me?" She said with a smile, her voice dripping with power.
"I was waiting for you."
"Really? Hm? Where is Herman?" The vampire asked looking around.
Hermes's smile grew. "Leave your head... filthy bloodsucker."
The vampire faced the direction of the cave's entrance. On a mountain a large distance from the cave was the other priest taking a sword stance. A crazed smile appeared on the vampire's face as the loud voice of the black-haired priest echoed from the outside in the cave.
"Divine Cleansing: Guillotine's Blade"