The Awakening Of Fire
1510 Words
Rumbling thunder cracked through the night sky. Toji’s eyes shot open, his body drenched in sweat. His chest rose and fell with deep, heavy breaths as the lingering echoes of his dream clung to his mind. He sat up abruptly, heart pounding. The fragmented memories surged within him like a tidal wave, crashing down with undeniable clarity.
“That’s it… that’s it…” he whispered, his voice hoarse. His fingers dug into the fabric of his uniform as he processed the revelation.
Somehow, something in this world had muddled his thoughts, clouding his memories. But now, they returned with relentless force. His father’s words, his past life, the mission given to him before he was ever reborn—he remembered it all.
His lips curled into a smirk. “I have God. I serve God.” A quiet chuckle escaped his throat. Then another. It built into full laughter, a wild and unshackled sound.
The tent flap was thrown open. Francis and Frankie both rushed in, startled by the noise.
“Toji?” Francis asked. “Are you alright?”
Toji turned to them, the gleam in his blue eyes intense and burning with newfound clarity. “I feel normal now.”
And then—
BOOM.
A massive explosion erupted from the heart of the city, the force of it shaking the earth beneath them. A column of black smoke curled into the sky like a serpent, blotting out the stars.
A second passed in eerie silence before an ear-piercing screech ripped through the air, a chorus of inhuman wails filling the night.
The soldiers outside began to shout in panic. "Demons! Demons!"
Frankie’s face went pale. He turned to Toji with a nervous expression. “Oh, right… I forgot to tell you. There are other beings aside from elves and humans. One of them is our greatest enemy—the demons. They have no humanity in them, no morality, no conscience. Evil and rotten to the core.”
Toji blinked, processing the information. Then, a slow grin stretched across his face. “No humanity, huh?” He let the words roll on his tongue as if tasting them.
Frankie and Francis both felt a chill crawl up their spines.
Toji stepped out of the tent, rolling his shoulders. His movements were loose, casual, yet carried an undeniable weight. The other soldiers, including Felaad, were already gathered at the city center, their faces twisted with terror.
In the distance, they could see them—grotesque creatures with elongated limbs, glowing red eyes, and bodies wreathed in shadows. Their mouths stretched into gaping maws, dripping with unnatural darkness. The air around them warped, an oppressive aura of malice distorting reality itself.
Felaad, gripping the hilt of his sword, muttered under his breath, “There are too many… We don’t have the numbers to—”
Toji walked past him, unfazed.
Felaad grabbed his shoulder. “Toji, don’t be reckless! These are demons—not mere soldiers!”
Toji barely glanced at him. “You told me to prove myself, didn’t you?”
Felaad’s grip weakened. He watched in disbelief as Toji took a step forward, then another, until he stood alone in the open, facing the horde of demons.
A chuckle rose from the creatures. One of them, taller than the rest, pointed a clawed finger at him. “Look, a child with a stick!”
Laughter erupted from the demons, cruel and mocking.
Toji twirled the stick in his hand, his expression unreadable. Then, tilting his head slightly, he asked, “Oh? So you can talk?”
The demons continued laughing—until they saw his smile.
A wolfish, predatory grin.
“Then let’s cook.”
The first demon lunged, claws slicing through the air. Toji sidestepped effortlessly, barely shifting his weight. In the same motion, he swung the stick.
A sickening crack echoed through the battlefield as the demon’s skull caved in. Its body crumpled to the ground before it even realized it was dead.
The laughter stopped.
The other demons hesitated for a brief moment—just a moment.
Then they charged.
The battle became a blur of motion.
Toji weaved through them like a storm of destruction, his movements too fast for the eye to track. His stick struck with lethal precision, shattering bones, crushing throats, tearing through flesh like a divine instrument of wrath.
Every strike was deliberate. Efficient. Merciless.
A demon’s claws swiped toward his neck—Toji ducked and snapped its arm backward, the bone splintering.
Another lunged from behind—he pivoted, thrusting his stick forward and piercing through its eye socket.
The battlefield was a slaughterhouse.
Hundreds of demons fell, one after another, reduced to nothing more than twitching corpses.
The soldiers watching from a distance stood frozen. Felaad, Francis, Frankie—all of them.
They couldn’t believe their eyes.
Francis swallowed hard. How? he thought. He doesn’t even have magic…
Whispers spread among the soldiers.
“Maybe… he really did take out that enemy troop.”
“Is he even human…?”
As the last demon struggled to crawl away, Toji approached it, his boots crunching against blood-soaked earth.
He knelt beside it, tilting his head. “Have you heard of God?” His voice was calm, almost gentle. “The Holy Spirit, God the Son, and God the Father?”
The demon spat blood. “Screw you.”
Toji exhaled. “Damnation.”
A pillar of fire erupted from his hand, engulfing the demon in an instant. Its screams lasted only for a heartbeat before being reduced to ash.
Silence fell over the battlefield.
Toji stood up, dusting off his hands. Then, glancing back at the dumbfounded soldiers, he asked,
“…Where can I take a bath?”
A heavy silence clung to the air, thick with disbelief. The battlefield, once teeming with demons, now lay in utter ruin—ash, smoldering corpses, and the lingering scent of burnt flesh filling the night.
Toji stood at the center of it all, completely unfazed. He held the severed head of a demon in one hand, his grip loose and indifferent.
The soldiers gawked at him, mouths slightly open, minds struggling to process what they had just witnessed.
Toji sighed, rolling his shoulders before turning to face them. His piercing blue eyes glowed under the flickering remnants of firelight.
“What are y’all looking at? Huh?”
His voice was casual, almost bored.
Frankie took a hesitant step forward. “Toji…” His voice wavered. “What… happened to you? You even used magic just now!”
Toji blinked as if the question confused him. “Yeah.” He shrugged. “It just clicked.”
Frankie’s eyebrows twitched. “‘It just clicked’?! That’s all you have to say?”
Toji’s expression remained neutral. “Yeah. So? Where can I have my bath?”
That was the final straw.
Frankie exploded. “YOU JUST DESTROYED THE WHOLE AREA WITH YOUR FIRE BLAST!”
Toji tilted his head, seemingly unfazed. “Did I?” He glanced around at the scorched ground, the melted stone, the still-burning remnants of the battlefield. He clicked his tongue. “Well, doesn’t matter.”
“‘DOESN’T MATTER’?!” Frankie’s face was red with exasperation. “HOW THE HELL DO YOU PLAN TO TAKE A BATH NOW?! YOU STINK!”
Before anyone could react—
FWOOOSH.
Flames erupted.
Not wild, untamed fire, but flames so perfectly controlled they wrapped around Toji’s body like a second skin. They flickered violently yet moved with precise grace, like a dance crafted by the very will of the cosmos.
The heat was indescribable. 27 million degrees it felt as hot as the core of the son. Hotter than anything nature could conceive.
And yet—
The flames did not spread.
They did not burn the earth beneath him.
They did not harm anyone around him.
They only touched Toji, consuming his clothes, disintegrating every impurity, every speck of dirt, every trace of blood and sweat clinging to his skin.
A few moments passed. Then—
FWOOSH.
The flames vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.
Toji stood there, completely naked, yet untouched by the fire. His skin looked cleaner than it had ever been, glowing slightly from the heat. His white hair swayed gently in the aftermath of his personal inferno.
He exhaled, stretching his arms. “Well… that’s that.”
Then, as if nothing had happened, he turned to the others. “Now, let’s get a move on, shall we?”
Dead silence.
The soldiers were petrified.
Felaad’s sword nearly slipped from his grasp.
Francis’s mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air.
Frankie just stared, his brain short-circuiting.
Toji raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“…You…” Frankie gulped. “You just set yourself on fire…”
Toji blinked. “Yeah. And?”
“…And you burned everything off…”
Toji glanced down at his now naked state.
“Oh. Right.”
A moment passed.
“…So… can I get some clothes or what?”
Felaad fainted.
- Writer
