Reid stared at the demon inhabiting his little brother's body. Somehow, the creature had clawed its way inside Evan and was now wearing his face. It responded to Reid's accusation with perfectly human shock, but he wasn't fooled. He'd seen demons wear innocent faces before, and every time someone hesitated, people died. Whatever form they took, whatever they said, it didn't matter. Never trust a demon.
"What are you talking about, Brother?" the demon asked. "And... why are you pointing your gun at me?"
"Don't bother lying," Reid said. "You reek of demonic energy." Through his enhanced vision, he could see cloying darkness saturating Evan from the inside out.
"Are you joking?" the demon asked. "It's not funny."
"Get out, or I'll blow your head off." Reid waited for the usual threats: that killing it would only harm its vessel, that doing so would accomplish nothing. He'd heard those excuses countless times from demons trying to buy themselves another few seconds. Yet none came. Instead, the creature seemed utterly bewildered, caught somewhere between confusion and alarm, like a fish gasping for air.
"Brother... you're scaring me..." it said, its lips trembling.
"Don't call me that. Stop pretending to be my little brother. I know you're not."
"But I am Evan!"
"Then prove it."
"What? Like how my first steps were me trying to walk over to you when I was a baby?"
"Nice try. I know demons can access their host's memories once possession begins."
The demon threw up its hands in frustration. "What do you want me to say, then? If this is a prank, you're the only one laughing. What even is this demon nonsense? Is it some new type of monster?"
"I think you'd know that better than I do," Reid said.
"Me?! I literally just got kidnapped and beaten half to death, and this is how you greet me? You point a gun at me and threaten to shoot me? What if I just screamed for the nurses and doctors?"
"I've sealed this room. Scream all you want. No one outside these walls will hear you. So drop the act. Admit what you are and get out of my brother. The sooner you do, the sooner I can put you down."
"Are you serious? Did you not hear a word I just said? I was kidnapped and nearly died! I got choked half to death, by the way!" The demon jabbed a finger at the thick bandages wrapped around its throat.
Seeing that the demon continued its pretense, Reid wondered if he should begin the exorcism immediately. But when he looked at Evan's battered form, he hesitated. Performing the ritual in his current condition would put even more strain on his injuries, and there was a real chance his brother could slip into a coma once the demon was forced out.
As for the other method... no. He would rather not resort to it unless there was no other choice. Since the demon was unusually talkative, Reid figured he could humor it a little longer. It might still provide useful information. "Go on, then. Since you're so insistent on talking."
"I... I was looking for Marcus's cousin, Tyler," the demon began. "He was kidnapped not too long ago, and Marcus blamed himself for it. I thought that if I searched the place where Tyler disappeared at night, the kidnapper might come back, and I was right. His name was Isaac, and when I found him, he was activating some strange device that tore open a Rift inside an abandoned warehouse. It wasn't like any normal Rift... it was empty, and there were no usual monsters. He'd turned it into some kind of hideout."
Reid frowned at the flood of information. Was it an attempt to confuse him or divert his attention? He chose not to interrupt, allowing the creature to ramble.
The demon continued, "Anyway, I followed him inside and found Marcus's cousin along with a bunch of other kidnapped kids. I tried to free them, but Isaac caught me and locked me up too. He was... strange. I think he was insane. He kept talking to himself about human sacrifices and how lucky he was to have found another offering. He even had a juvenile wyvern that obeyed his every command, perched on the rooftop. At first, I thought he planned to feed us to it, but he kept us imprisoned for several days. Then one day, he dragged all of us onto the roof, where a huge magic circle had been painted across the floor, with dark-colored crystals arranged around it. The wyvern was sitting right in the center."
Reid's mind jumped to a sacrificial ritual.
"I finally got a good look at it. It was pretty big, but I'm sure it was still a juvenile. The strange part was the symbol on its forehead." It tapped its own forehead. "I didn't pay much attention to it, though. I was too busy staring at those teeth. Then Isaac started shoving us into the circle. He began chanting and activated it. It... it was cold. I heard screams. And then... I... I don't know. Something must have gone wrong. He suddenly stopped the ritual, and I lost consciousness..."
"That's a nice story, but how did you escape?" Reid asked. "A practitioner and his beast. Evan couldn't possibly escape something like that."
"I'm getting there." The demon bit its lip. "Like I said, I lost consciousness. When I woke up, the wyvern was gone, and there was someone else there. S-rank Awakener Shinomiya Ryusei."
Shinomiya Ryusei? The head of the Awakener Affairs Bureau's Enforcement Division? How had he suddenly become part of this tall tale?
Reid's grip tightened around the gun.
"He took care of Isaac. They seemed to know each other, but Isaac fought him and got killed. Ryusei... I'm not sure. I knew he had shadow abilities, but back in that Rift, he actually used dark flames. It was really weird. He even burned Isaac to ashes with them."
"You're accusing a well-known S-rank Awakener of being a practitioner of the Demonic Arts. Do you know how difficult that is to believe?" Reid said.
"I'm just telling you what I saw, okay? Then he did something to me. I don't know what it was, but I lost consciousness and woke up here." The demon looked up at Reid, seemingly hoping for some sign of belief, but Reid offered none.
The demon sighed, its shoulders slumping. "Fine... whatever. Seems like no matter what I say, you're just going to keep refusing to believe me anyway. Go ahead then. Shoot me. Do it."
Reid's training and experience told him to perform the exorcism and be done with it. At the same time, seeing Evan's battered body curled in on itself while he pressed a gun against its temple gave him pause.
If what the demon had said wasn't complete nonsense, then the most likely explanation was that Isaac, an untrained practitioner, had attempted a human sacrifice to strengthen his demonic beast. He must have made a mistake while drawing the circle or used the wrong materials. Whatever the reason, it had failed, allowing Evan to survive.
Normally, a failed sacrificial ritual would cause the accumulated energy to run wild, sometimes even triggering an explosion. But there was another possibility, one Reid had witnessed only a handful of times. The ritual's flow could reverse, sending the demonic energy surging back into the sacrifices instead of its intended target. That would explain why Evan was now saturated with demonic energy.
Seeing that Reid still hadn't pulled the trigger, the demon asked, "What? Having second thoughts now?"
"If you really are who you claim to be," Reid said, "then you shouldn't mind letting me examine you."
"Examine what?"
Reid stretched out his free hand and pressed his thumb against the center of the demon's forehead before reaching out with his astral body.
It was a very risky, almost foolish thing to do. If his late brothers and sisters were here to witness this, they would rip him apart for his recklessness. Every Demon Hunter was taught to subdue a demon first and ensure it was completely incapable of fighting back. What Reid was doing now was essentially leaving himself wide open so he could examine Evan's soul.
Closing his eyes, Reid projected his astral body into Evan's mindscape. Passing through the thick, cloying demonic energy surrounding it, he was surprised to find himself standing inside a rundown apartment. The air was stale and heavy. Mold crept across the walls and ceiling in dark patches, while strips of peeling wallpaper curled away from the plaster. A sagging sofa rested against one wall beside a scratched wooden table, and a flickering fluorescent light bathed the cramped room in an uneven glow. This was... Evan's mindscape?
Reid frowned, but his attention was soon drawn to a small child sitting on a thin, low bed. The boy stared blankly ahead, his little arms wrapped tightly around himself.
As Reid approached, the child didn't react. Only when Reid gently rested a hand on the boy's small shoulder did he slowly lift his head. Empty black eyes met Reid's gaze. Reid studied him in silence, searching for even the faintest trace of a demon's soul clinging to the child.
There was none. Although the mindscape was battered and dark energy drifted through every corner, there were no signs of corruption or the presence of a demon. Only the manifestation of Evan's soul sat before him.
The child scrunched his nose. "Get out."
A tremendous force hurled Reid's astral body out of Evan's mindscape and back into his physical body. He clutched his head as pain exploded through it.
"Are you okay?!" Evan asked, reaching out to grab Reid's arm.
Reid opened his eyes and met his brother's worried gaze. "It's okay. I'm fine."
Evan blinked. "Are you… finally believing me?"
Reid glanced at the gun he was still pointing at Evan's chest and quickly holstered it. He then gently took his brother's hand. "I'm really sorry. I must've scared you."
A flurry of emotions crossed Evan's face as shock gave way to relief, followed quickly by indignation. "As you should! Who barges into their brother's hospital room and points a gun at his head? If I were any weaker, I would've had a heart attack and died already!"
"I'm sorry. It's my fault," Reid said, lowering his head. Then a thought struck him. "You said you were hurt, right? Let me heal you."
Sacred Light spread over Evan, mending the remaining bruises and easing the lingering pain. Reid paid particular attention to Evan's neck, where the swelling had yet to fully subside.
Annoyingly, despite his best efforts to purge the demonic energy clinging to Evan, some of it refused to disappear. Deep within Evan, the energy continued to shift, faint but unmistakable. Reid considered pouring more Sacred Light into him, but ultimately held back. Evan had already been through enough. For now, he could keep watch over the lingering energy and deal with it if anything changed.
"There. How do you feel now?" Reid asked with a smile.
Evan rubbed his neck. "Better. Your ability really is handy. But what's this about demons? Why were you so sure I was one?"
"It's... a bit complicated. For now, just think of them as a new type of monster. One that's far more insidious and dangerous than any monster humanity has encountered before."
"Are we talking about actual demons? Like, demons from hell?"
"In a way. My ability makes me especially sensitive to demonic energy. When I arrived, you were saturated with it, so I assumed..."
"...that I was possessed," Evan finished, crossing his arms.
Reid nodded. "I'm really sorry..."
"No, it's fine. I'm sure you had your reasons, even if I don't fully understand them. But..." Evan raised a finger. "I'm still mad, so if you want me to forgive you, you can buy me a pizza."
"I don't think your doctor would agree with that."
"I don't care. I'm hungry. And my throat doesn't even hurt anymore. I could leave the hospital if I wanted to."
"Let's wait until tomorrow, shall we?" Reid said, ruffling his hair. "But in exchange, I'll buy you a pepperoni pizza."
"Yup! And don't forget the extra cheese!"
Reid chuckled and left the room.
Click.
As the door closed behind him, the warm smile on Reid's face vanished. He still didn't understand exactly what had happened to Evan, but one thing was certain: his brother wasn't possessed by a demon. Yet that brought him little comfort. Somehow, Evan had become entangled in something just as dangerous.
Practitioners of the Demonic Arts were operating on Earth, and now there was Shinomiya Ryusei, the man Evan claimed had wielded powers frighteningly similar to theirs. Reid's expression hardened as he sensed the turmoil gathering on the horizon. He had an investigation to conduct.