"I see you weren't lying when you said you don't remember anything from your past life," the entity said, showing a pile of images to a young man. Remember what happened.

The school year ended, and many teenagers left high school happy; among the crowd was Jean pushing the other students to get out quickly; the young man had only one thing in mind. A blond man also walked quickly through a pile of students in a school hallway, which looked like a New York street because of so many posters and advertisements pasted since the beginning of the year. He turned his head, looking both ways: only empty rooms with messy desks and papers on the white ceramic floor; he arrived at the entrance of the school.

Many students regrouped into small groups, talking about what they wanted for the summer or how their school year went. Jean was alone, staring at the front door, waiting for the blond man; their quarrels had been going on for two years, and every problem Jean got into was to get into a fight.

Jean was a young white man; the color of his eyes was black, and his hair was black also, long tied in a small ponytail, and he had a black bandana tied to his head, and his forehead was covered by long strands of parted hair, upturned nose adorned with freckles, which crossed both cheeks; his height was 1.77. He wore a purple varsity sweatshirt on his torso with gray sleeves, denim shorts, and black tennis shoes.

The blond one was called Kevin, and his height was 1.70. His skin was tanned, his nose straight; her hairstyle was pointed, pointing upwards thanks to the fact that he wore a red band that covered his ears. The color of his eyes is blue; he wears a denim jacket, black pants, and red tennis shoes; the typical clothing that you would see in a series of teenagers where the bully on duty appears.

"I finally find you; now no one will be able to stop a good fight," Kevin said, running towards the freckled man.

Jean stepped back a little, grabbed a student from behind who, confused, could not get away from him, turned on himself to gain momentum, and threw him at Kevin. The blond was dragged a couple of meters, and the nerd was on his body. Later he got rid of him by sending him flying against the entrance doors and rejoining to continue fighting.

The crowd put aside their business to focus on watching the showdown, surrounding the pair of young men. Kevin tapped Jean's biceps with his fingertips; both arms lost tension for a couple of seconds. The Australian continued to hit his opponent's chest nerves with superhuman speed.

Jean tried to regain control of his body, but the blond did not let him get back up, attacking his chin with his right palm and moving him away several meters; the dark-haired man got up from the ground, taking momentum with his legs, as he was quite upset.

The freckled man ran, lowering his height, and made a couple of movements with his legs in the air, kicking the blonde's right side several times. He hit him with his right knee and began to punch him several times in the pit of his stomach and ribs; he wasn't going to let his opponent rejoin either, but Kevin attacked his windpipe with two fingers to make Jean lose his breath.

Their rivalry lasted for years. Kevin enjoyed hitting weak students, but Jean wouldn't let him disturb them; it wasn't because he was a nobleman, but because he benefited from helping nerds, as he charged them to defend them. He learned to win from the bad things that always happened to other people and even used to play practical jokes on the other students, including Kevin.

In other words, they are the same type of person who can fall low and doesn't care if, in the end, they will be victorious and all to aggrandize their ego. Kevin's family wasn't dysfunctional because he literally doesn't have a family; he doesn't remember anything at all, or that's what he's told his "friends," so he doesn't mind disappointing anyone with his actions.

They always found themselves fighting, as Jean liked to fight, and the money the nerds gave to him, he never said no when he had to stop Kevin's abuse, so their squabbles were always a brutal sight to watch. This is how the other students were afraid of both of them, although Jean was easier to convince or live with due to his childish attitude, but they still quickly distanced themselves from him because of how extremely trickster he was.

Generally, the freckled man threw balloons full of water, and released the frogs in science classes, causing chaos in his classroom; he damaged school computers by posting pornography or websites that had viruses; he almost always blamed someone else, so that made him laugh a lot.

Kevin, on the other hand, was someone who was grave and quite bitter. Since the death of one of his friends, he had changed drastically; he never laughed, and the few things he enjoyed were music; he took away his frustration by beating the weakest, and he was furious that Jean intervened in his affairs. In addition, he disliked his immature attitude.

In the distance, a man watched the fight as well. He was an experienced woodcutter who had been lost since the night before, and no one knew where he was; the police couldn't do much, as it's forbidden to go out at night due to the creatures that coexist with humans.

For as long as humanity has existed, various creatures and species have lived alongside it; if the nature of the human being is sinful and evil, that of some creatures is twice as sinful. On any other world they are known as fantastic or mythological creatures, sometimes thought to have been born from a force of the earth to counteract or punish human beings, such as in the Middle Ages, an even darker time due to the existence of bestiary entities such as wyverns or lobizons.

But man found a way to defend himself against them; the Church decided to abandon the crusades and dedicate itself to fighting against the entities that, according to them, were opposed to the will of God, although the pope still did not allow certain types of people who developed the ability to defend themselves against creatures. Thus a three-sided fight was formed, with the third group being the smallest but the most suitable for the fight.

One way that proved quite effective in helping the population was to surround towns and large cities with seals. When they wanted to unify them with roads and bridges, they first called someone capable of putting seals and eliminating the creatures of the night. That town in the state of Oregon was no exception.

The woodcutter had pale skin; you could tell he was weak. His eyes were abnormally crossed, but he could see perfectly, and both young men caught his attention. I would wait for the right moment to attack. He walked over to stand behind one of the school buses, but its stench would give him away if he stayed long. Both boys had their cheeks swollen from hitting each other so much when a professor and the rector stopped the teenagers when they saw the crowd surrounding the fight.

"What the hell are you thinking about, you pair of brats," said the rector.

"It's a damn reckoning," Kevin replied, shaking his head.

"I have nothing to adjust with this freak," Jean lied. The reason they were fighting for the last time was because, in their last job, Jean smashed Kevin's locker, forcing it open, breaking all his stuff, and writing on the walls and lockers, "Kevin is a repressed freak", causing the other students to enjoy seeing the bully receive another punishment from Jean.

"Keep talking, you're going to bite the dust!" Kevin shouted, red with anger.

"No one is going to bite the dust!" The rector scolded, but hands came out of the crowd, seizing him by the neck and pulling him back with such force that he seemed to be only a rag doll; the man was dragged more than twenty meters, everyone looked with horror at the owner of the arms, which were almost black.

"That's it...

"It's not Donny!" The rector shouted in his last moments of life, for he seemed to know the lost woodcutter. The entity simply threw it into the air until it exceeded the height of the building; his body sounded like a gunshot when it hit the pavement, resulting in a viscous mass of blood and ground meat, while all the students looked on in terror.

The entity ran quickly in the direction of the two young men. The other students, seeing this, began to escape, crying for help; the two rivals ran alongside, while with each step the beast took, its human skin was peeled off and its real physical form was quickly revealed.

It was a black humanoid beast, with long and bony arms, with its face barely visible because of how black it was and in which only the eyes and a large mouth were noticeable.

He jumped like a frog, propelling himself with his legs, and managed to crush the boys with his huge hands, letting out a raspy, guttural screech at the same time.

"I... The t... Be... "Go," said the beast as both young men screamed in terror, kicked, and gasped, trying to get rid of their captor. The skinwalker brought his left hand, which held Jean, to what appeared to be his nose; the boy breathed in that putrid scent that emanated from the monster's face; he was pale with fear, as well as sweaty.

"I can't let this thing eat me," Jean said in fright, and he managed to get a Swiss knife out of his right pocket. He waited for the right moment to bury it in the eye of the beast, which screamed in pain, furiously releasing both boys and slamming them to the ground to rub his wound as if it were a small child.

The two young men tried to stand up, but the pain did not allow them to move quickly. The monster took off the weapon when he realized that his prey was trying to escape and was about to catch them again when a cloud of dust covered his good eye, preventing him from seeing. He sneezed and moaned, irritated by the situation.

"What... Did? The skinwalker shouted, looking at Kevin. That confused Jean, since his opponent was stunned and could not be seen to be trying to fight. The monster punched him and sent him flying into a bus; Kevin felt a huge burn in his back as he bounced off the chassis of the machine.

"Run, Jean," Kevin said with his last words, becoming unconscious.

Their troubles wouldn't end here; more humanoid monsters came out of the forest. They had heard the skinwalker's roar and were laughing maliciously. Their appearance was that of a human in a state of decomposition: they walked on all fours and were smaller than the skinwalker. Normally they are enemies of the latter, but this case was special, since they would finally enter a town after centuries to feast with people.

"Wendigos!" Jean shouted\, trying to wake Kevin. ``They are devouring the rector``.

The skinwalker kicked Jean in the stomach and held him on the ground, opening his mouth, letting out a long tongue, with which he licked the face of the freckled man, who was panting with pain.

The Wendigos began to scatter around the village looking for something else to hunt, but a small group stayed behind to protect their leader. The warning sirens began to sound; in a couple of minutes, the specialized forces would arrive against the beasts, and Jean knew it, but he did not believe that it would last until that point, and he did not even know why they were not yet dead from the blows of the beast.

The small group approached Kevin, grabbed him by the legs, and dragged him into the woods; in the last few seconds, he came to his senses, realizing the fate that awaited him once there. He screamed in fear, desperate to get out of the beast, stretching out his left arm towards Jean, but one of the Wendigos cut it from his elbow with his sharp claws. Their screams of pain ceased to be heard as they entered the woods, and the sounds of weaving tearing drowned out their screams.

Jean was completely terrified and screamed in frustration knowing that he was now alone with that demon. he was losing his breath. At last he believed that the end of his torment would come: he was unconscious looking at the street, but before closing his eyes he saw a black car arrive a few meters from where he was.

"They are... "Here," said the skinwalker.

Three people dressed in black got out of the black truck with gear that consisted of a black helmet that covered the entire skull, with the part of the face similar to glass, also of a black tone, so that their faces could not be seen; their costume was spandex and was covered with black plates that resembled armor.

The Association itself is a military institution that was founded around 1700. It was the queen of that time who saw the potential of humans with supernatural abilities. He decreed a law that did not allow the execution of this type of people because they could be a help against magical beings, and for that reason, many people offered their gifts to help the queen in her fight against mythological beings.

Thanks to this, family branches of people with skills and, in rare cases, surnames that were almost extinguished by the Inquisition emerged; they managed to survive, but something that good could not be real: they must cover their faces by a direct order from the queen. Having your face discovered while in a government institution becomes bad if something shady is discovered, and you will end up executed. It also serves to avoid being persecuted by any entity if the mission fails.

In the past, the members used their own techniques, trained themselves, and were mentally prepared to face the monsters. Currently this has certain restrictions; a certain strength should be measured if you are in public; if a teammate is seriously injured by a carelessness of your skill, it will result in an execution for treason.

Church members may not interfere in the affairs of the organization or in the affairs of the country. If one were to break that agreement, one could either fight to the death against a "soldier" or settle the matter judicially, where he would lose his stay in the Church. Unfortunately, men with skills choose to assassinate them, as they waste less time and paperwork.

One of them was a woman. You could tell by the female figure of the costume. He had a throwing weapon in his hand; it was a large chakram. She didn't need to turn it with her fingers, because with her skill she could make it levitate on her right hand. The weapon was fired at a high speed, becoming embedded in the monster's neck; the skinwalker screamed in pain and ran towards the girl, while one of the men quickly made his way to Jean's position.

This man was constantly firing two shotguns at the monster's chest, so the skinwalker turned sharply to attack the man, using his long tongue and piercing his left arm to his shoulder. The arm was hard as a rock, and his veins protruded from the skin.

"Do it now," the man ordered the woman.

The chakram spun like a saw around the monster's neck, spinning several times until the skinwalker's head fell to the ground dry. The man pulled his tongue hard, revealing a large hole in his limb. Because he was in enormous pain, his arm was kept hard to prevent bleeding. Nothing was supposed to be able to break through his magic armor, until now that he was fighting a high-level skinwalker.

"The hard part begins now. "D, take the boy and get away from here," the other man ordered in a serious tone to the guy with the broken arm.

"Understood! D shouted. He took the young man unconscious and ran to the other end of the street.

The man who was the captain of the group was on the roof of the establishment. He carried no weapons with him, for he depended merely on his skill as full support; the Skinwalker's body convulsed, standing up, another head grew from his wound, but this time it was not humanoid, but similar to that of a deer. A green glow emanated from the inside of his mouth, as did from his elongated eyes. Its lower jaw was open up to 160 degrees, letting out three tentacle-like tongues; he attacked the woman by punching her in the stomach, moving her several meters away from him, and extended his tongues to try to kill her.

The chakram flew again in the direction of the beast, cutting off all three tongues in one slit, and the beast's green blood splattered on the ground; the weapon left a magnetic state in the wound, drawing the bus against the black body, crushing it against the walls of the establishment. The monster threw the truck angrily; the girl divided her chakram into three equal parts and directed them to quickly cut the monster's body, making deep cuts to it. The skinwalker grabbed the woman and was about to devour her when something bit its arm.

A two-meter black frog amputated the limb, chewed the piece of the arm, and swallowed it in a "glup" way. The skinwalker roared in pain and attempted to kill the frog, which spat sticky slime around its much larger foe. At that moment the woman tried to free herself from the member, which was tense: if the frog failed, she could die in that place.

Jean woke up from the noise of the fight that was taking place beyond; he tried to get up, but the pain did not allow him to do anything. D kept fighting a couple of wendigos. One of the monsters grabbed his face intending to blow it up but failed to hurt him. D blew off his head with a shotgun, reloaded the weapon, charging it down to kill a wendigo who was going to attack him from below and who fell dead when his neck was crushed by the impact; he shot another enemy again, and since he could not use his other arm to load the weapon, he decided to use it as a baton. hitting three of them with a single attack and bursting their jaws.

"Stay behind me, kid," D said as he broke the spine of a Wendigo who wanted to eat the boy by spreading out his rotten arms.

"How did these things come in?" Jean asked, trying to move his body away from the black blood that flooded the floor. The young man was attempting to remain calm in the face of the grotesque situation in which he was unfortunately abruptly involved; his pride was far greater than the beast that murdered the rector and probably ordered his rival to be eaten, so he wouldn't allow himself to pee in his pants.

"I don't know\, and if I did\, I wouldn't be able to answer civilians about things they don't understand. "It is impossible that the seals that surround the town could have been ruined out of nowhere\," replied D. ``I also don't know why you survived the attacks of your little friend over there``. He pointed to the skinwalker\, who was almost paralyzed below his hip from the black frog's slime.

"Snaaatch!" cried the frog with a harsh, cavernous sound. He leapt at his enemy's head by opening his jaws to bite his jugular with his three rows of fangs, but the skinwalker struck a direct punch to his jaws, and the arm pierced the back of Snaatch's neck, and he fell dead.

The man on the roof dropped a pile of papers, which were seals to exorcise paranormal entities more easily, as they weakened them or even managed to eliminate them. They stuck in Snaatch's slime and, consequently, also in the body of his semi-anthropomorphic enemy; the Skinwalker counterattacked by sticking out six more tongues, which extended to the ceiling, trying to catch the man, who dodged it by twisting and running the six muscles with inhuman skill.

"From nothing I come, to nothing I go, and I have nothing. Manifest yourself, holy spear," said the subject. A six-foot-tall spear emerged from the ground with a thin tip, shining like gold. It was a pilum and came from the same place as Snaatch, a place where weapons and creatures that he tamed during previous missions can be stored.

He cut off three tentacles with the tip of the pilum that tightened in the direction of his thorax and disintegrated after being amputated. The rest of the affected tongues were writhing like worms about to die when white lines appeared and reached the body of the monster, which screamed in pain. He made a gesture with his left hand and then stabbed the rest of the tongues with the tip; a glowing sphere appeared in the place indicated by the spear and caused the muscles to fade as well.

The beast's body shuddered as it was enveloped in a luminous aura. A strip that passed from the stomach to the head opened, letting out something black in the fetal position; when the monster completely disintegrated, that thing started to move silly. Humanoid in appearance and thin, she stood up completely furious. He sniffed the smell of D's blood, which was impregnated in the air, maliciously opened his human mouth, resembling a smile, and rose a couple of centimeters from the ground, heading for Jean's position.

"You have to move," D ordered, looking at the skinwalker's real body.

"Even if I wanted to, I can't; everything burns," Jean replied, exhausted and breathing heavily.

"Then you'll die here," D said, "I won't let that thing reincarnate in another body, and obviously it's not going to devour me. Maybe you thought that to save humans we would be something similar to heroes, but it's the opposite; we do whatever it takes to prevent these beasts from emerging, no matter what method we use. You're going to die now.

``Jean remembered that phrase with anguish, the same threat from years ago. It happened when he was six years old and was in a similar situation. In those times, his older brother was an example to follow; he always took care of him in the face of any danger and stayed to play when the freckled man was bored. The oldest was in his second year of university, so his parents did not notice the change in attitude as a bad thing, since they blamed the stress suffered by university students. His brother had trouble paying the rent on his apartment at the same time as he was in school. He made the risky decision to get into the world of drugs to get more money because his salary was quite bad, and he did not have enough to get through the winter.

One day when she was taking care of Jean, a man stood outside her house circling around her to enter the home; he was looking for his brother inside the house cautiously when he saw the young man and the boy in the living room. The university student owed money to his boss and had betrayed them for money, so he sent him to kill him.

His brother pushed the boy behind the sofa when he saw the gunman; seconds later, he drew his gun to defend himself from danger, shooting his adversary in the chest; the enemy, at the same time, also pulled the trigger, giving him an accurate shot to the heart. Jean came out from behind the sofa, dazed and frightened by the dry noise of gunfire, only hearing a high-pitched beep. It was then that she saw her brother on the ground covered in blood and the other man, who was already dead; the little boy was in shock for hours.

As the neighbors heard the commotion that occurred inside the building, they decided to take matters into their own hands, finding a child who did not react and two dead men. They called his parents in addition to 911, but, unfortunately, the police never managed to find the hitman's boss and closed the case. However, for the Thompson family, that wound in their lives would not heal with the passage of time. The freckled man still has that trauma; his feelings were cooling down when he understood that his brother sought that lifestyle, having a weak will, and decided not to be like him, living no matter what.``

The skinwalker was closer, but the man on the roof summoned a fat toad with a wingspan of four meters, climbed on his familiar, and ordered him to jump. The animal fell a couple of meters from the woman and then gave another impulse until it reached its enemy. The monster, noticing this, accelerated its movement and came behind D.

D was choking Jean, who was foaming for short of air, when the skinwalker stabbed him in the back, piercing his chest and killing him instantly. The freckled man fell to the ground, coughing as he caught his breath; D's body twisted upright as he was enveloped in a black aura, all his bones crunching like thin branches. At last he obtained a new body, and the Voidman tried to skewer it with the sacred spear, but the monster's back hardened, and the beast turned sharply, taking its hunter's weapon; White lines appeared on his arm, causing him the same burning pain as before, but thanks to his new ability he was able to resist more, broke the spear, and threw the broken part.

"Fuck it!" shouted Void, leaping from the animal and summoning a pair of pointed daggers with the design of half of King David's star. The skinwalker killed the toad by smashing its nose with a punch before it could do anything, and after that it lunged, punching at Void. The soldier also delivered several blows, but none were lethal, as the entity covered its torso with both hardened arms, incapacitating the summoner with a punch to the chest.

Jean got up as best he could, almost hunched over, managing to lift the heavy tip of the pilum, which took effect against the young man, causing white lines to appear all over his body. The being looked at the young man and took him by the neck to take pleasure in his smell. Four metal blades were embedded in the back of his neck, which gave the boy several seconds of advantage, leaving him unconscious, and the young man skewered the weapon into the enemy's heart. From his chest emerged a sphere of light that grew with the seconds until it exploded half of the monster, finally killing him.

The freckled man fell to the ground with his nose and mouth bleeding just as he cried from the pain, becoming unconscious again. Void and the woman approached the teenager curiously.

"What are you, child?" asked Void.

"You'd better not do anything to him yet\," said a young blond man\, coming out of the woods with his jacket sleeve torn and his arm amputated. He was as good as new and smiled proudly. ``I knew it``.

"In the past there were monsters, long before the age of man and even before us. We believe that they were created by God to punish us for our sins; their great size terrifies us, but I do not deny that they are partially majestic; they represent the order of this land," explained an old voice.

"Who are you?" Jean asked, floating in immense darkness.

"But everything has its counterpart, and all of us helped to extinguish it. The earth no longer had its guardians; the creatures of the night emerged like flies in dead flesh and clung to us like barnacles on the hulls of ships," the voice continued.

"Am I dead? Are you God? What beings are you talking about? ´´The young man asked.

"I am not God; I am very far from being one. As far as I know, you are not dead yet; the divine spear is capable of killing non-human beings; in some way it affected you. Guardians are the most powerful and pure beings that once walked the planet; I will show them to you if you want to delight in their beauty.

The freckled man was dragged into a huge gate; inside were images of colossal beasts that exceeded the height of the tallest building in the world. If it weren't for the fact that they were assimilating to dinosaurs, the young man wouldn't be so scared.

"There is only one of them left in the whole world. When he dies, the earth will perish´´.

Jean felt something enveloping his body. The feeling was similar to when you're in a tub full of foam. Something was not right, and he knew it; he wanted to get out of that place. He was slowly weakening, almost as if he had diabetes or as if his soul wanted to pass away. The young man would not allow himself to be defeated easily, since what had happened five months ago caught his attention; the void was claiming the freckled man as his own, and he didn't even know why he was in nothingness or what the hell it meant or why it was created. Was the being who spoke to him the owner, or was there someone else?

Something pulled him back, away from the monsters. After that he was accelerating his speed more and more, making the boy dizzy. His organs moved forward thanks to inertia, and Jean felt as if they wanted to leave his body; a huge and luminous hole opened behind the boy, who shot out forcefully until he was grabbed by someone from his sweatshirt, as if he were a rag doll.

The room was a basement, he noticed when he saw a small and elongated window that was very high; there was a brown sofa with yellow and square cushions and on it a gray blanket that was scattered. In front of it was a plasma screen that hung on the wall, painted beige, and underneath it a black cabinet full of electronic things such as a console, headphones, video game cartridges, women's magazines, a hair straightener, and a Colt gun. Around it were black metal shelves covered with melee weapons, as well as military-caliber firearms. Banners with the flag of Great Britain hung on the walls, as well as posters of rock bands and the logo of their hunters' organization, which consisted of a white background with the red cross of the crusaders and above it a gray sword with a cross command, along with a branch that symbolized peace. There were also three mannequins carrying the black armor of the crusader organization. Jean noticed that on the sofa there were two people sitting playing a video game; one was a black-haired girl, who had her head resting on the shoulder of a blond boy with a red bandana on his head.

"Mom!" Jean shouted when he noticed that he had been kidnapped. The man holding him covered his mouth so that he would not scream anymore.

"It always happens the first time, doesn't it, Edgard?" Kevin said without taking his eyes off the screen.

Edgard Strathman, the Man of the Void, wore a brown coat with several pockets, a green T-shirt underneath with the design of a throne made of swords, black pants, and gray tennis shoes. He was 32 years old, his hair was brown and reached his neck; his eyes were golden and adorned with dark circles; the nose was aquiline; he had a closed beard in the jaw, a little longer in the chin, and his physical build was quite muscular due to the lifestyle he led, as well as being quite tall, reaching 1.87 meters.

"Don't scream, stupid brat," Edgard ordered, throwing him against the sofa.

"And this is the guy who broke your nose," the young woman said to Kevin while smiling mockingly.

The young woman with black hair is called Lisa; she is 19 years old, has a curvy body and a size B bust; the color of her eyes is hazel, the right being the lightest; her hair is short and her sideburns are long, reaching her shoulders with a red dye. He has piercings in his upturned nose and in his right ear. She wears a black women's tank top, military-style cargo shorts that cover her up to the shins, and black Converse.

"I want to know what you are, Jean Thompson," Edgard said, taking a notebook from the sofa, which he opened. ´´It seems strange to me that you are registered in your high school as if you had only entered two years ago, when everyone says that you have been here a lifetime.´´ The boy turned pale.

"I've lived here since I was 8 years old; don't come at me with that!" Jean shouted, clenching his fists. Then he noticed that he was healed of all his wounds and that his whole body was bandaged.

"There is no record of you from any other state in the viceroyalty of New Britain," continued Edgard, who saw the young man looking at his bandages. Relax, you were in my pocket dimension for two weeks to heal there, nothing more.

"There must be an error in your data, which you got from who knows where. I'm not interested in having a secret stalker or admirer, old man; I don't bat on that side, but if you like, there's that faggot who should be dead," Jean said angrily.

"Do you know any other relatives?" Lisa asked. Jean's mind suddenly went blank, and thick beads of sweat fell from his forehead.

—Mi uncle Tony Thompson y...

"Max Thompson is an only child. According to the Civil Registry, he married your mother three years ago," Edgard said. Tony Thompson does not exist.

"W… Where's the camera? This is no laughing matter, old stalker," asked the freckled man, increasingly nervous.

"By the way, you're not even human, faggot," Kevin added without taking his eyes off the plasma. "And not really, I shouldn't have died; that's you.´

"Repeat it, you asshole!" Jean shouted, intending to hit the blond man, but he was stopped by Edgard.

"Unlike you, I do accept it. I'm not a human; let me introduce myself as the real me: the king of the sand," Kevin said.

"Ha, you can shove that sand up your ass if you want; I don't want anything to do with you," Jean added.

"No, you confuse things," said the young woman.

"We don't do this in a good way; you're an abnormal being, and we kill abnormal beings. You've seen us fight with one," Edgard answered. "We are giving you a chance to go on living, but if you leave this house without giving an answer, you will die right here."

"You say you don't know what's going on. Neither do we, so you must help us, because your family will also be in danger by protecting an entity like you," Lisa added.

"I don't know anything, only that the skinwalker noticed me, then I was in a dimension of the void with an old man, and you brought me here," Jean replied with his eyes dull with shock.

"If you refuse, he's going to torture you," Kevin said, mentioning Void. ´´Anyway, I don't care; the culprit of D's death is also you.´´

"You're guilty too, Kevin," Edgard said. "Old man, I sent you alone into the void so you wouldn't run into any of my servants."

"And the huge monsters and the floodgates?" Jean asked.

"Those aren't in my dimensions," Edgard said, "but then, are you going to join, yes or no? As we already told you, it is to have answers.

"I... I am keen to know more. What am I? Who the fuck am I? Jean said of his breath. ´´For that reason, I will help you for my own benefit.´´

"Perfect, no one should know, so I'll send Kevin with you to watch you," Edgard said. ´In order for the other members of the Crusaders not to kill you, you must officially be inside. I will order that paperwork with Mayor Andersen in two weeks, and I don't want you to say anything about this conversation, because the four of us will be in danger.´´

"What about the villagers of the town of Eternal Acre?" Jean asked, going upstairs, followed by the other three, on his way to the front door of the house, until he reached the lintel of the door. The freckled man turned the knob, looking back.

"We can manipulate the information circulating about you," Edgard said.

The drive home was pretty serious. Jean said nothing; he had many more doubts about everything around him; in so few words, everything he knew could be a lie, but what Edgard said could also be a lie. Kevin maintained his annoyed attitude; he walked haughtily. Seeing his opponent with that crisis made him feel superior, even though he also went through what the freckled man feels right now.

When he woke up, he was on the ground and covered in sand. He was in a dry forest; his clothing was white. In reality, it was just a long silk shirt similar to the Greek one, a bronze belt that covered his abdomen and had inscriptions in an ancient language. Its eyes were slanted like those of a reptile, and its ears were a little elongated.

He didn't remember what happened to end up in the middle of the New South Wales forest, but he could remember that he knew how to control the element that surrounded his body. He felt an evil presence behind him; it was a huge koala ten meters high that attacked him without a second thought; Kevin manipulated the sand to envelop the monster and press it until it broke its neck.

When the crusaders arrived on the scene, they saw the boy on top of the dead monster. They had been looking for him for a week since he devoured a couple of farmers. Void was the one who tried to dialogue with the boy, but they spoke different languages, so he decided to help him; he took it with him and signed paperwork for the boy to enter the Crusader organization by saving his people from the monster. The only condition was that Kevin learn his language and that he measure himself when he wrestled in public.

Jean turned the knob with nerves in his stomach; as he entered, he saw a man with short black hair reading a newspaper about the intrusion of the skinwalker and a brown-haired woman watching television; the woman looked at the door, and her blue eyes filled with tears as she saw her son enter the house.

She jumped off the couch and ran with open arms to hug the young man. The freckled man did not know what to do; he could not cry, but he was also not upset when questioning whether those feelings of his mother were real or false, like everything he believed; his father also got up from the couch to hug the boy. Kevin was unfazed and gave a fake smile greeting to Jean's parents.

"Hi, Mr. Thompson," Kevin said, raising his left hand.

"Son... I thought you were dead, for God's sake! Said the woman, touching the freckled man's cheeks.

"I got lost in the forest when I escaped from that monster, and they already found me... "Mom," Jean said, cutting off his voice as he said the last word.

"It must have been a long drive to get here," Max Thompson said. How come you didn't run into more monsters?

"It was a matter of luck, Dad," replied the freckles. "Can we come in? He's Kevin; he'll stay here for a while since his house was destroyed by the Wendigos."

"It's fine for me; I'll take care of you; just wait while you clean up," the woman said kindly. The father showed Kevin the second bathroom, on the second floor, while Jean bathed in the bathroom on the first. Max noticed that the carpet was not stained with dirt or mud. "Why isn't it dirty?" The man questioned the woman as he crouched down, touching the carpet. The boys arrived at the spacious dining room after ten and fifteen minutes, respectively. They ate as if there was no tomorrow.

"Tell me, son, what were those wendigos like?" asked the mother as she shook the hair of the teenager, who forgot the appearance of these monsters.

"Actually, I don't know; I can't describe them physically," Jean replied.

´´How many kilometers did you walk, or what happened to you during your trip?´´ Max asked.

"I don't know.

"Nothing else out of the ordinary happened," Kevin said, noticing the attitude of both parents.

"Nothing," Jean added with a lost look. Her mother kept ruffling his hair.

"I think you played with his hair too much" Kevin said, taking the woman's wrist, who violently pulled away from him. ´It was you all this time ´´

"What about me, child?" said the woman, standing beside her husband. ´My son reached Arkana just like us; he's a chosen one. Look into his eyes; you can't deny it.´´

"Void was right," Kevin said. ´´Jean, wake up, you're being controlled!´´

"Hey, kid, we didn't have to live with a monster for you to fuck up," Max said, pulling two knives out of his sleeve.

"What did you do to me?" Jean asked, annoyed, as he came to his senses and got up from the table.

"I think that to have a normal day tomorrow, we will have to use force," Max said, cutting off Kevin's right arm, who did not flinch as he separated his arm, turning it into sand. His left arm turned it into a huge mass with which he hit the woman, pushing her away from the table.

"Run, Jean!" Kevin shouted, holding back Mr. and Mrs. Thompson. The freckled man ran to the door, but his head began to hurt. The image of the turbulent ocean ran through his mind; suddenly, the pipes of the entire house burst, wetting the four subjects; Kevin's body turned to mud, and, therefore, he went on to let go of the parents.

"You shouldn't have come back, Jean; you made things worse than they already were," Max said, approaching his son.

" Give me back my memories, you fucking couple! ´Jean shouted. The water began to boil, burning Max's eyes and the woman's skin, who jumped out of the window, escaping into the forest in fright.

"Aaahah, brat!" Max shouted, waving his blade to try to kill his "son," but he was lifted to the ceiling when he was pierced in the chest by a pile of sand. He fell to the ground dead.

"Da... Dad! ´´ Jean shouted, understanding that he helped kill the man who deceived him. He turned pale from the violent act, kneeling and covering his face while crying bitterly. Edgard was right; he lived deceived all his life without knowing who he was, and the woman who stole his memory escaped. ´For fuck's sake!´

"Freckles," Kevin said, reforming his body and touching his right shoulder.

"You didn't have to... You didn't have to kill him!" Jean shouted, showing his face, which reflected anger and frustration. His pupils were torn, and the iris changed to a green color.

"What option do I have? You are no longer just any civilian; you already have a clue of what happened to you. They manipulated you at will for who knows what reasons; your eyes show that you are just like me," Kevin replied, standing up.

"I could...´´

"No, Jean, you weren't going to make it," the Australian added just as coldly. Honestly, he was not interested in Jean feeling bad; he had already fulfilled his goal of taking care of him, and that is what counts. He feels that air of superiority when looking at his opponent in a terrible mood.

"I'm going to get revenge and kick your ass so you won't be able to stand up" Jean said, gritting his teeth in helplessness, remembering all those "years" of normal life where he was recovering from a loss, a fake death of a person who never existed in a planned family, but who played so much with him that everything felt real.

"React now, asshole; you'd be dead if it weren't for me. They played with you, Jean, and if you have to kick someone's ass, it's her or her group of weird people," Kevin replied. ´´That's why I felt something strange about you in those two years.´´

"Why does someone like you help humans?" Jean asked.

"Like you, I seek the truth, nothing more. I am not interested in honor or justice; I kill anyone who interferes with the organization because they gave me a second chance. What do you know about that? Absolutely nothing; we'll just be partners; don't expect me to give you some advice or support you when you start crying like the bitch you are," Kevin replied, taking out his phone and dialing his superior's number. ´´You're an ancient, Jean; we both are.´´

The ancients, are a humanoid species that have an unknown location in the world, as well as it is not known from what era they come; Edgard Strathman gave them that nickname when he took Kevin as a subordinate, noticing everything about the young man. He also sensed that there could be more around the world.

"The police will not be long in coming. "Yes, he's dead; I had to incapacitate him," Kevin said to his boss as he looked at the freckled man.

Jean ran to his room looking for his green backpack, which he filled with clothes and useful things, such as a toothbrush or phone chargers. He decided to investigate in Mr. and Mrs. Thompson's room and opened one of the drawers of the bedside table, finding nothing more than a photo album. Inside it were images of steel helmets and round wooden shields. The dark-haired man felt another headache, which went from the middle of his face to his nose.

The one who destroys kingdoms, the one who conquered the lands of the East and crushed them, the youngest son of the general, drowned thousands right and left. He is our hero, the pride of the nation, and a relentless warrior.

The deserving of the best weapon of all, accompanied by an incomparable lady, a grown man, our commander.

When the song of thousands of voices stopped playing in his mind, the pain was finally gone. Kevin went to look for him, grabbing his arm, and pulling him to the first floor. He didn't say anything to him until he got there, pointing to the front window. A man was lifted into the air.

Meanwhile, Edward Strathman was writing a report on his blue laptop. Lisa gave him a black bowl containing a coffee she made for him. The young woman continued reading an old book while rubbing her temple, since she still could not understand what she was reading; Edgard sighed and closed his computer as he relaxed on the back of the black couch he was sitting on.

"Andersen will tell the Queen about Mr. and Mrs. Thompson as soon as she confirms that they are a danger to everyone. He's also doing the paperwork for Jean's inclusion," he told the girl.

"The two young men present a problem for us too," Lisa said. ´After all, we are hiding the inhuman species from the queen. ´´

"It's Kevin you're talking about; he does everything for us, and he's loyal to our queen. He did his job to protect the rookie. Even if his method turned out to be cruel," Edgard replied. ´´I thought you two were something.´´

"You said I had to know how to differentiate my personal life from my professional life, man," Lisa said with a slight blush.

The Strathmans, the mythical family that has been helping humanity for several centuries, were there before the queen formed the Crusader organization and used them to conquer several viceroyalties. Before, the Strathmans were persecuted by the Inquisition when they were accused of being witches.

The founders decided to expand to the rest of the globe to hide and avoid the extermination of their blood. Over the years, new generations of Strathman of different nationalities emerged as they mixed with civilians. Klein Strathman is Edgard's rightful ancestor, having wandered through Denmark and Germany in 1670 and teamed up with a hitherto unknown mage, spawning the Strathman faction with the most magic of all.

Currently, two out of ten wizards are Strathman or descendants of a large family clan, but to reach adulthood, they must go through such cruel training that only half survive. Each clan moves individually and has its own rules, but there are five that are strictly complied with in general:

"They must not mix with the entities of the night. If so, any member has the duty to eliminate it, since it stains the surname.

"If the eldest child behaves strangely and the parents look for someone to see his aura and it turns out to become dark, the eldest son must be eliminated by his parent.´´

"In case one member has an incestuous relationship with another, they will be eliminated together for their obscene sin.´´

"They can be trained by their superior and must also be left in the wild for seven nights. If they survive and return, then they are worthy of being a Strathman, but if the student commits crimes against humanity, he and his teacher will be executed.

"They can't have a romantic relationship with any royals. If there is a case of political ascension, the surname must be changed, and he will be expelled from the family to avoid bad intentions and stains.

Lisa Abena Strathman, a descendant of Marcus Strathman and Marisa Abena, in the country of Portugal, was taken away from her parents when the family learned that they were conducting experiments to create a Strathman with homunculi. It is believed that they mistreated her, even though she did not say anything about it to the authorities, and that confirmed that they did.

Edward Strathman received military honors years after joining the Crusaders; he lived training all his life, although there was a moment in his existence where he was able to settle down and have peace; he finally had something personal to fight for and defend besides his honor, but the twists and turns of life are pretty raw for men like him. He lost his daughter when he was 22 years old and separated from his wife due to the stress and pain that the loss generated for both. When the news of Marcus Strathman became known five years later, he was granted the title of guardian of the girl, even though he could not live in Portugal due to the socio-political differences that exist between Portugal and Great Britain.

When he lived with the girl, he saw her as extremely pale and weak, something rare for a Strathman. That's when he realized Marcus' accusations were true, seeing scars on the girl's abdomen and arms. She reacted reluctantly towards him, did not look at his face, and if it were up to her, she would have remained in her room all day.

"You're going to school tomorrow," Edgard said behind the door of the girl's room, waiting for an answer.

"I won't go," Lisa said. Besides, I don't know how you can understand what I'm saying.

"I know Portuguese," Edgard lied. ´Legally I am your guardian, and as such you have to obey me.´´

"Will you punish me if I don't go?" Lisa said in a panicked tone, pressing her arms with her hands. He was referring to the brutal punishment he received from Marcus.

"No," Edgard said very dryly. "I think it's the only method you know.´´

"The only thing I know, yes, I was never allowed to do anything that they couldn't see," she replied annoyed. ´´They never let me be normal.´´

"I understand. Like your clan, mine trained me harshly," Edgard said, but he was interrupted by a loud blow from inside the room.

"You don't know anything about me.´´

"Neither do you," said Edgard. ´´I know what you went through was traumatic, living for the sake of others...´´

"That's how you live, Edgard Strathman. Like me, you don't have a life to hold onto if it's not something that was instilled in you since you were a child," Lisa replied.

"I have someone to take care of now, child," the man said. ´´I usually travel all over the world so that ordinary people and you too have a life to hold on to.´´

"How come it doesn't terrify you?"

"Yes, I'm scared; I'm human too, but I remember my little girl; I couldn't take care of those things that took her from me, and then I get my courage back," Edgard said. ´´Tell me about yourself.´´

"My skill has to do with metals, especially iron, but it weakened me quickly, so they decided to increase my stamina by applying any medicine and magic substances," Lisa said. ´They... They tied me to a stretcher and did it without anesthesia; my whole body burned.´´

"Mine keeps and takes things out," said Edgard, summoning a small elf inside the girl's room, who, frightened, opened the door. The man flashed a faint smile and put the being back into his pocket dimension. ´´You've got a whole road ahead of you if you want; let's hold on to each other, little one.´´

Over the years, Lisa led the typical double life that those of her people have. On the one hand, he could enjoy friends at school, go to dances, and he could even enjoy the summer; on the other side, Edgard took it with him to eliminate the monsters that wanted to attack towns and cities in the rest of the world, having several adventures. Thanks to this, she was able to strengthen his character, healing his emotional wounds.

Edgard was not fully healed, but he was happy to see that he managed to change a broken person. It was on a mission in Australia that he met a boy who saved a village from a monster. As his tongue was extremely rare, Edgard gave him a translation gem in the shape of an earring and discovered, thanks to Kevin, that before everything, the boy's species existed. Through lies he managed to take him as his son, despite Lisa's displeasure.

He had the idea that the sand king would understand more about his world with Lisa's help. He achieved his goal, but what he didn't predict was that they were both more attached in a strange and affectionate way in a span of two years; obviously, Edgard opposed the idea because of the clan's rules, but ended up hiding that relationship from everyone by using a spell that covered the eyes and the scales of the face by giving him a red band, although before Kevin used black wristbands to hide his true appearance.

"Tomorrow I'll meet Andersen; I don't want any problems," Edgard said, but when he finished saying that sentence, they called again, and it was Kevin's number. He held the cell phone to his ear and heard a woman's voice with unpleasant news. ´Damn it!´