THE EXORCISTS ACADEMY

Shall now exorcize you.

 The monster broke free from the grips of the earth, tearing the ground apart, which resulted in a shockwave that swept the entire surrounding, drastically sweeping obstacles off its radar. The monster floated in mid air, its body reformed itself, slowly, transmuting in the process.

  Its fur skin tore open, and a new entity came out from within it. This figure's skin was pitch black, it had a humanoid physique, its face was without a nose, and its eyes were crimson red as blood, its mouth was extremely wide, engraving a maniac smile that revealed its sharp teeths.

 

 It rotated its head thrice in a roll, in excitement, giving off a wicked mumbling laughter; "Hehehe!" Its mouth attempted to speak, but the words coming out from its mouth were inaudible, they were more like mere murmurs, unclear to the ordinary ear, it just felt as if it was giving off reverberating vibrating frequencies with its mouth.

 It descended forcefully to the ground on its feet, furtherly tearing the earth beneath it's feets to shreds, as this action created a crater, sweeping waves of sands and gravel towards the lads. It gestures its head forward, pathing its lips to speak. The attempt sent sonic waves towards the lads, with the aim of obliterating them to bits. But Sean was quick to move, picking the lads off their feets and jolting of the way, clearing a path for the sonic waves to pass through and they ended up colliding with the huge walls behind them,  destroying it in the process.

 

'What was that?' The three teenagers thought to heart, simultaneously. Indeed curiosity enveloped them.

"Stay behind me." Sean advised, he too was marveled. 

   Absorbing the devil curse, the devil spirit had evolved to a higher threat monster, which was trouble for him, given that he was a first grade exorcist, and the fifth grade devil spirit had absorbed a special grade devil curse, transforming into an incomplete special grade devil spirit. This was too much for him to handle, his usual exorcisms were carried on, on second grade to fifth grade devils, he never even dreamt of encountering a first grade devil spirit, let alone, an incomplete special grade. He felt that there was no difference between an incomplete special grade devil spirit and a special grade devil spirit, they were both insanely powerful. Only that the latter is like an infant still growing, while the former was the adult stage. 

    He gestures his hands forward, locking his fingers together, tightly.

 "DIMENSION STORAGE!" He uttered with authority, and inky black spots surrounded him, appearing from nowhere. "Black Tooth!" One of the pitch black spots grew from being a mere dot, to the size of a football, creating a tear between reality and a space void dimension. The red handle of a sword was spotted, coming forth from the rift, slowly. Sean grabbed the handle, pulling the entire sword out, drastically.

 Holding tightly, the red handle of the black bladed claymore sword, he took a stance, readied to charge towards the devil spirit.

"This clash isn't going to be easy, my blade's potential isn't close to the power level of this monster, so I fear if am going to inflict that much damage to it. Stay far behind me, you don't want to get caught up in any of its attacks. You all saw how it destroyed that wall without even trying. Remember to keep your distance, but remain behind me." Sean advised, he dashed towards the malevolent being, attempting to draw the first blood, but the monster was fast enough to dodge any incoming attack, seeking out an opening to release its sonic waves.  Sean was skilled enough to slice the approaching sonic waves that the monster had successfully sent towards him. He repelled most of the sonic blast, driving them back, to collide with the monster, but the former's reflexes were on another level.

 They came in close ranges with one another, Sean swiftly sent two powerful slashes , simultaneously, towards the devil spirit, but the attacks were only able to inflict a slight cut to the monster's chest that dripped little or no quantity of emerald blood.

 The monster smirked evilly, mocking Sean's efforts to exterminate it. 

Sean's weapon was a first grade devil tool, capable of incapacitating devil spirits from second grade to the fifth grade. It is powerful enough to bruise or even kill a first grade devil spirit, but is almost worthless against special grade devil spirits. But not all special grade devil spirits are powerful enough to render a first grade devil tool useless, most suffer grave injuries from encountering a first grade devil tool user. But at the very moment, the devil spirit he was facing off with, was one not to be reckoned with. The reasons were widely clear to him. The devil curse that the spirit had consumed belonged to a formal very powerful special grade devil. And to think that it's second hand was still out there in the world.

 Devil curse objects were classified into grades making it easy to purchase in the black market, or from a priest. They ranked from special grade devil curses to fifth grade devil curses. The higher rank curses were very expensive but rare, and thus, owned mostly by businessmen, politicians, wealthy families or nobles, and exorcists. Most families obtain them as heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation. Only lower rank devil curses were available in markets.

  This devil curse absorbed by the monster belongs to Henry's family, which explains why it was of a higher rank devil curse, his family was wealthy. 

The world of devil spirits, devil curses and devil tools, were only known to a few minority of the country's population. Majority of people live without knowing about the existence of demonic monsters that soar in the dark, feasting on human souls and flesh. They were totally blindfolded to the supernatural world that coexists with them.

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Sean reassembled himself, retaking a stance, he was almost out of breath, he had been fighting for three straight hours already, without rest. He would've asked the lads to run for their lives, but he was well aware of how cunning, devil spirits were. It would have sneakily gone after any of the lads, knowing that they weren't much of a threat to it. So keeping them in his eyes range was also a way of protecting them. He gathered his strength, ready to unleash powerful strikes.

 "Black tooth, first form." He muttered out loudly, while the lads gazed in astonishment, they watched how a mixture of orange and yellow energy enveloped his sword, and he released a powerful attack, after gathering enough energy. The attack was drastically picked up by the wind, generating wind pressure.

 "CLOCKWISE SLASH!!" He yelled, as a slash projection was sent flying out from the blade of his sword in a clockwise rotation, cutting through the air and delivering a powerful gust of wind pressure, that strikes first, before the actual attack caught up with the monster. "ANTICLOCKWISE SLASH!" An anticlockwise rotational slash projection, immediately followed. Resulting in a strong gust of wind and sand that created a  dust screen.

 As the dust screens were gradually clearing out, the figure of the monster was seen, though concealed to the dust, it was standing unfazed. Before the dust screen that enveloped the entire surroundings could clear out completely, the incomplete special grade devil spirit sped towards Sean, delivering a powerful punch that sent the former crashing heavily to the floor. It attacked the teenage boys, but Vincent tried to exchange punches with it, but the monster's blow threw him off balance, it immediately attempted to attack Brian, but Jordan drew its attention, smashing his backpack to the monster's face. 

  A grin escaped its lips, as it sized Jordan up. It stormed onto Jordan biting off his left leg, this resulted in a blood gush. The lad was lying helplessly on the floor, passing through unbearable pain. Slowly the monster gulp up Jordan's leg, displaying a mockery smile surface on his lips

 Sean immediately deflected the monster away, smashing it with his sword, to a little distance. Jordan bled drastically, the lad cried out in pain. Sean immediately struck his finger into the wound, creating a magical cycle that sealed off the injury, preventing the bleeding and suppressing the pain.

 Vincent was already triggered by the attack, his sclera became reddened, as he boiled with rage on the inside. His body suddenly started leaking off devil energy. The rest of the lads were masked in awe, they hadn't seen Vincent this angry before, and that immense rage had unlocked his potential, making it possible for him to make use of devil energy. Immediately this procedure was achieved, his body unmasked a different appearance. His face was older, probably in his late twenties, his physique had improved, attaining the body and muscles of an average athlete. His body and face were imprinted in strange, ancient markings. His spiky black hair was now sliver and scruffy. His amber eyes were crimson, his fingernails were replaced with claws, and his canines retracted into fangs.

The monster leaped towards Vincent, attempting to attack the lad while his guard was down. But the lad swung his arm effortlessly, slicing the devil spirit in shreds, it gradually faded into dust. 

   Vincent lifted both hands up, he felt an uncontrollable rush of happiness surging inside of him.

"At last. I have been reincarnated. Hahaha!" He let out a diabolical laughter, in a husky tune, that resounded through the entirety of the surroundings. He locked his eyes to that of his friends, sizing them up. The evil grin that engraved his lips, boldly gave out the message; it wasn't Vincent. It was Vincent, only that his subconsciousness had been replaced with another, someone else had taken control over his mind. The ordinaries would simply refer to it as possession. But this was two consciousness occupying one vessel.

 The fear, masked over Sean's face, proved that he was aware of what had happened.

"What is wrong with Vincent?" Jordan asked, ignoring the slight pains he felt. Brian too, wanted to ask, but Jordan was ahead of him. 

 "H_He is no longer the friend you know him to be. His body has been occupied by a powerful devil spirit." Sean responded. Puzzles surfaced on the lads' faces. "But how is this possible, was he an actual living devil curse?" Sean questioned himself.

 "Step aside!" Sean ushered the lads to get away from Vincent. "Vincent! I exorcist Nathan Sean, shall now exorcize you." 

"Wait what?" The right side of Vincent inquired. "How are you still taking charge of this body? I have inhabited it, so flee to the dark side." His left side, harboring the malevolent entity, ordered.

"Hey! Why are you mumbling in my head, get out. Shut up!" Vincent yelled, struggling with the entity that inhabited his body. In no time he had fought off the entity, driving it to the darkest side of his mind.

"So what is it you were saying?" Vincent asked, totally taking charge of his body. Sean was astonished, this was the first time he had seen someone fight off overriding before. Though he knew there were consequences behind every success, so he wasn't quick to make decisions just yet.

"Vincent, is that truly you?" A familiar faint voice spoke, it was Jordan, he was too weak to even speak, his lips were quivering. At that moment Vincent recalled all that had happened, he felt bittered that he couldn't stop it. He attempted to walk towards Jordan, immediately he completed three steps, he collapsed to the floor heavily, blacking out.