The Final War: The Mark of Gluttony

The ringing in my ears swallowed the world. Shouts. Wailing. A metallic tang of blood. The smell of burning flesh, my flesh, brought me back to my senses. I tried to stand and my legs folded. It felt as though my bones were being burned from the inside out. What in the actual hell happened? I blinked through the smoke. The quad was a hellscape—craters of burning ground, fallen buildings, trees like torches. My lunch tray lay overturned nearby, the food charred to black crumbs. A moment ago it had been just another noon break. “Marian!” Her name ripped from my throat. My girlfriend. Where was she? Was she okay? Pain roared through my muscles, but I forced myself to run toward the building where I’d left her. Students crawled over debris, some tending the injured, others staggering toward safety. I stumbled, coughing, eyes stinging. “Marian! Marian!” I scrambled through the wreckage, panic rising. A shadow dropped from the sky. A gigantic figure landed in the center of the courtyard—eight feet tall, horns like black scythes, bulk framed in corded muscle, two huge canine teeth jutting from a mouth built for tearing. The ground cracked beneath its feet. “A demon!” someone screamed. The cry became a contagion of panic. More creatures clawed out of a glowing circle at its feet—goblin-like things, exactly like the old paintings of hell, but alive and reeking of sulfur. They leapt on fleeing students, tearing, eating. Fear froze my stomach but something hotter pushed it aside. Protective instinct. Marian. I bolted into the building where we’d planned to eat lunch together. Tears blurred my eyes. I was already imagining her lifeless body. But when I burst into the classroom, the destruction stopped. The room was pristine, eerily untouched. A bubble of calm amid chaos. And in the teacher’s chair sat an injured man, bleeding, his voice echoing off the walls. “Hey, Darien. I’m glad you’ve arrived.” I stopped short. “Who are you?” He looked fortyish, clean beard, messy hair, masculine frame that could have crushed me even wounded. His black hair glistened with sweat. His copper eyes pinned me to the floor. “You don’t want to know, boy, but I’ll introduce myself anyway. I’m Beelzebub.” The name knocked the breath out of me. “Be…Beelzebub? The demon?” I took a step back. He grinned, and for an instant I thought I saw wings of shadow behind him. “The one and only.” My mind reeled. The demon himself here, talking, bleeding. If this was a dream, I wanted to wake up now. I almost peed my pants but forced out the only question that mattered. “Where is my girlfriend? Where is Marian?” I stared into his eyes with everything I had left. “She’s safe—for now. And here’s where we make a deal: her life for your service.” He smiled wider. Every story said dealing with demons ended in tragedy. But only he knew where she was. “What do you mean? Your kind is massacring everyone outside!” I snapped. “I despise them,” he boomed, voice reverberating through the room. “I want my kind to perish—all of them. Including that traitor Lucifer.” The walls vibrated. “This is the Judgment, the Rupture your religions whispered about. The gates are open. The war has begun. And I… I will be siding with the Light.” He dragged himself closer. I didn’t understand any of it. All I could think of was Marian’s face. “I will be disguising myself as an Eumon, a spirit guardian for those chosen to receive powers and fend off evil. You will be my emissary, my last diplomatic act towards The Light, help me defeat my kind, and I’ll keep Marian, your girlfriend, safe.” He is now right in front of me, tapping my shoulders and offering his hand. I know for one thing that if I accept his hand, I will be agreeing to the Devil’s deal, but she kept Marian captive, and I can’t do anything but to accept that in order to keep her safe. “How can I make sure that she is safe, and you are not lying?” I tried to ask and made sure that I was not being led blindly. “Sure, take a look” as he gestured to his back. When I peeked through, I saw a shining man in white robes, with a battle helmet on. I can’t see through his face due to the light, but I can see him carrying someone. A girl with medium long hair, a round face and closed eyes through her glasses. “Marian!” I tried to run to her, but Beelzebub stopped me. “You can’t approach her for now, this is their fail-safe, that I won’t betray them, that I will actually help them in this war through you.” He then placed his hand on my chest. The burning feeling turned warm, as if a surge of power was coursing through every fiber of my muscle. The power was too powerful. I started to faint, but Beelzebub caught my falling body. When I looked at him, he didn’t have that demon-like presence anymore, he looked as if he was a normal middle-aged man. He smiled, and whispered, “Do a good thing kid, you know that this is the last chance for both of us” He smiled, the smile was very kind, and he started to disintegrate in an ash-colored dust. I fell to my knees, and the man in the white robe approached me. “Do your job, and she will be safe. Now go and start your mission” as he disappeared in a blinding light. I would have immediately started my mission to end all this but instead, I fainted for a start. When I woke up, the undamaged room earlier was now clearly on the brink of collapse. I heard the sound of fighting outside. I wondered if that large demon and the goblins were still running havoc around the campus. When I stood up, I felt differently. Like my body was born anew. Something was eager to go out of my arms. I looked down at my body and saw a large marking on my chest. It has an eerie and peculiar feeling, like it is something foreign and powerful, but at the same time, something that is mine and within me from the very start. I looked around the room for makeshift clothing, since at this point, I was only using my boxers and my tattered pants. I guess since my clothes burned. I then found the cloak that Beelzebub was wearing earlier. I immediately grabbed it even if it was too big for me. Surprisingly, upon wearing it, it adjusted to my body frame and became fit. It even adjusted itself to cover my body. I looked like a bandaged man now with a cloak over it. The mark on my chest is now hidden by a bandage. He said that he would disguise himself as an Eumon, but I don’t know what it meant. Anyway, I had to hurry back out and start whatever mission they were pertaining to. As I head outside, a battle is really happening. Corpses of goblins now replace the lying bodies of humans earlier. And the large demon is fighting with students. Students? How are they fighting? Wait, do the students have powers? One of the students was carrying the large column that once supported a building and slamming it at the demon. One was commanding the trees and plants that somehow survived the fire to hold the demon in place. One was creating icicles to continuously attack and damage the creature, while one of them was being a useless attacker, since he attacks the demon with fire, which I guess is resistant to it. And the last one was commanding the attacks from the air while he levitates about the height of the creature. Their relentless efforts were, unfortunately, not making any progress, for the demon keeps regenerating damaged ligaments. It was by this time that the something inside my arms became impatient to stay quiet, as a shadowy figure slowly manifested in one of my hands. The power within me surged towards the thing as it accumulated and formed a solid object. A jet-black katana. From the handle to the hilt to the blade, it was all black, as if it was eating the very light that surrounds it. The feeling gave me a sense of power that I could defeat this huge monster. I saw the demon flinch, as if sensing the appearance of my weapon. I would hate it if people started looking at me with a variety of looks, especially after this commotion ends. So, I hid my face using the hood of the cloak, and as if on cue, the bandage crawled over my neck to my mouth and covered my face. This cloak of Beelzebub is indeed useful and magical in a sense, as if it has its own mind that connects to my thoughts. From the second floor of the building where I am, I had a thought to storm down using the stairs, but an urge to just jump in and fight was a better choice, which I chose, and just jumped in. When I landed, everyone looked in shock, maybe wondering if I was a foe or an ally. And to avoid misunderstandings, I stabbed a dead goblin to show that I am an ally of humanity. However, the sword started to devour the body of the goblin and left nothing in its wake. This created a false sense of alert for the students since the useless fire user started to attack me. “Hey! I’m not an enemy!” I tried to shout to reason out, but the fire was already released. Using my fighting instincts, I tried to block the fire using the sword to either redirect it or to s***h through it. However, neither happened. The sword just swallowed the fire and I felt more power was gained by my sword. This created more confusion for them, but I stopped thinking of talking with them for now and bolted straight to the demon. I have a lot of knowledge of martial arts since I attended several tournaments in it and actually won, but I have never stayed in one. Rather, I jump from one martial art to another. As expected, the students who were attacking stopped for a moment to look at the sudden occurrence, which is advantageous for me since I can avoid being accidentally hit by them. I focused my strength on my legs to gain momentum for my jump. As I leaped, I twisted my body to transfer my momentum to the sword. Aiming the s***h at the demon’s throat will end him in one smooth movement, theoretically, since he can regenerate. The sword went to the demon’s throat as if I was slicing through butter. The demon was helpless and shocked at what happened. As his head fell to the ground, I stabbed it with the sword and had guessed, the sword devoured the demon. Power swelled up to the sword. Even without speaking, I can feel that it was satisfied with the meal it got. And as a dessert. I then stabbed the fallen body of the demon. Everyone stared at me, unknown of what I was and what they should do. I myself, don’t have any idea how to accomplish my mission as the emissary of the demon Beelzebub. “Don’t worry, I’m on your side” I spoke, and hurriedly left the scene to avoid them knowing my identity.