"Oops..." Gio muttered. He didn't mean to overcook it. Miscalculated the voltage drop.

  "Woah! Is that a Railgun!?" An enthusiastic shout broke Gio's focus. Soft voice, yet energetic.

  He spun around, startled by a two-meter knight towering behind him. The figure wore a matte-black full-plate armor with no aesthetic engravings, complete with a flowing red cape. Classic RPG fantasy design.

  Recognizing the moe voice behind the steel helm, Gio lowered his guard. "Lumi? Since when were you here?"

  "Since you initiated AP," she replied.

  Yep, the walking fortress was Lumi. It still baffled Gio how a 150-cm chibi girl piloted a 220-cm metal-suit without moving like a clunky robot.

  Unbeknownst to him, its mechanism resembled a mind-controlled exoskeleton. The interior was packed with shock-absorbers. Only 15% kinetic force came from Lumi’s muscles; the rest was low-tier telekinetic Nexus.

  Lumi approached, the ground vibrating faintly. "What's that weapon btw? Railgun? Looks sick!" They’d met into each other in Ophema before, but this was her first time seeing him craft such a complex weapon.

  Gio shook his head. "Not a Railgun. Railguns use parallel conducting rails. This is Coilgun. Specifically, a Coilgun-Taser hybrid." He showed off the hand-mounted device while Lumi watched, mesmerized. "Coilgun shoots the projectiles, Taser shocks the target."

  "Insane..." Lumi praised. "But it looks impractical." She wasn't wrong. This setup was an absolute nightmare for any engineer.

  Numerous technical issues made a taser-coil gun far from practical. However, this was Ophema, a domain governed by Consciology. Gio utilized his Nexus to bypass the annoying physics.

  Like the coil's magnetic field causing EMI that would fry the taser's circuits? Irrelevant. Gio didn't need circuits. His consciousness and psion-waves modulated the current directly, totally immune to EMI.

  Coil activation timing needed frame-perfect precision, advanced sensors, and high-speed Thyristors? Here, Gio's fingers were the hardware. His nervous system controlled the trigger with millisecond accuracy.

  A Coilgun capacitor bank weighing dozens of kilos? Here, Gio extracted energy straight from the air particles, converting it into electricity.

  The immense heat from electrical resistance should've melted Gio's skin? He coated himself with an insulator and thermal transfer Nexus.

  However, there was a huge price to pay: mental bandwidth. Gio's entire brainpower was monopolized by a single weapon that relied on multiple Nexus. Maintaining the coil, tweaking the voltage, syncing the launch, suppressing the heat... It was like solving calculus underwater.

  He couldn't even move. If he tried to run, his concentration would shatter, and the taser-coil gun would blow up in his hands.

  "Yes. It took me awhile just for setup," Gio admitted. "Using explosive gas Nexus or direct impulse transfer would be more practical, but I haven't mastered those yet."

  Gio sighed. "So for real combat, I prefer bow or slingshot for range. This taser-coil just to train my concentration and parallelization."

  Lumi gaped. "Why does that... sound so complicated and scientific?" It was a reasonable reaction. Gio knew the Association was dead-set on archaic mysticism, not the science of Consciology.

  "Well, it is..." Gio added the credits. "Arua taught me, btw."

  "Swear to god, anytime you show me a trick, it’s always Arua. Is there anything that guy can't do?" Lumi commented. She sounded amazed, yet skeptical.

  "Anyway—" The knight's index finger started tracing the air, pointing downward as if drawing something. Upon the paving blocks surface, a geometric lines of 2D sketch appeared: the base blueprint for a longsword blade.

  "Activate: SCP-8003 Form One!" A completely unnecessary spell roar echoed out.

  Then, a Molecular Manufacturing process started. The ground's atomic existence-level got downgraded, protons and electrons deterministically recompiled, transformed into solid iron.

  Extrude: The metal emerged from the ground, growing layer-by-layer. Identical to 3D Printing Mechanism, but overclocked at thousands of the normal speed.

  Once the rough blade formed, Lumi set its base as a new workplane. She traced another sketch. Revolute: The 2D shape rotated on its axis, generating a cylindrical metal hilt.

  Followed by a Cut: She sheared the blade’s edges from multiple angles until it was razor-sharp. Chamfer & Fillet: She smoothed the hilt and tang corners for ergonomic grip. The whole CAD-to-Reality pipeline completed in just nine seconds.

  It was ironic how the girl managed to execute all of them without understanding a science behind material transmutation or Computer-Aided Design. She relied entirely on pure instinct and years of Association's horribly inefficient, archaic training. Much like a Bar-tailed Godwit flying from Siberia to Australia using Earth's magnetic field, without knowing what "magnetic inclination" actually means.

  A black steel longsword rested on the ground. The knight snatched it up with right hand, aiming the tip straight at Gio’s face, leaving a sharp aerodynamic hiss.

  "Gio... Be honest," Lumi's voice dropped. Sudden tension. Her cheerful aura vanished, replaced by pure intimidation. Gio, with the taser-coil gun still active, immediately dropped a defensive stance.

  "I've been watching you for six days. You didn't just become Demihuman without a reason. From what I've seen, you're... ambitious." The sword tip twitched. "Tell me, what are you and Arua actually plotting!"

  The sound bounced off the narrow alley walls, echoing with dead seriousness. Gio's eyes widened, failed to process this drastic situation change.

  "I—..." He gulped, hesitated between dropping the truth or telling a lie. Was it really safe to leak his ideology to a Venator other than Arua, let alone an Association member?

  "I believe... demons and humans can live together." Gio cut the psion sync. The taser-coil gun slowly unraveled, returning to the Existentiuum. Self-disarm as a sign of peace.

  "I know it against existential laws, and perhaps God's will if you believe in that." Gio stared into Lumi's knight helm. "But we're all sentient beings. Our consciousness were more than hunger instincts. I believe, this millennia-old conflict can be stopped."

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Five seconds of suffocating silence. Just the wind howling through the empty alley. Gio began to felt like an idiot. "S-Sorry, that's just an old dream... I don't even know how to—"

  "Cute!" The word dropped abruptly, snapping the tension. Lumi's intonation went back to default setting: a hyperactive, cheerful girl.

  "Eh?" Gio gaped.

  Lumi lowered the sword. "First time I've ever seen a demon with such unique ideology. So cute! I have to put this in my almanac!" Lumi cheered, doing a little side-to-side wiggle. The feminine behaviour completely clashed with the hundred-kilo combat armor she was wearing.

  "I'm... cute?" Gio—a grotesque, messy demon—said internally. This girl's cryptid obsession had reached a concerning level. In Lumi’s perspective, Gio wasn't a threat; but rather an endangered species needed to be preserved.

  "Sadly tomorrow's the supervisor rotation." Her shoulders slumped. "But whatever, we can still hang out. Let's go, Gio! Demon hunting time!" Without warning, Lumi's iron gauntlet clamped Gio's wrist.

  "Uh, I can't go too far—" Gio was dragged helplessly behind the black knight. He tried to break the grip, but the tiny girl's raw strength (and Nexus) completely overpowered him.

  "Wait—" Lumi stopped suddenly. Gio crashed straight into the steel armor’s back by momentum. Thud! Like a literal brick wall, the knight didn't budge a single millimeter.

  "Someone's screaming..." she muttered, running audial Sense-Switching. She temporarily cut her Ophema audio input, rerouting her focus to her physical ears back in class. Auditory Cortex’s signal transmitted through psion-waves, received by her spirit consciousness in a real-time.

  A brief moment of silence. Then, the knight's shoulders slumped. "Erinn's calling me! Ah, damnit..."

  Lumi spun around, releasing her iron grip. "Sorry, Gio. Hunting another time... Bye!" The black knight turned again and bolted down the alley, leaving Gio behind in confusion.

  Steel boots slammed against the pavement, punching out a heavy metallic rhythm that faded into the distance.

  Gio just stood there. Seconds later, the walking fortress vanished behind the wall.

  [Thursday, September 2, 2021]

  First recess hit, and 10-G class was choking on pure dense tension.

  Gio sat on his desk, glared onto a three-hundred-page Biology textbook laid in front of him. He wasn't just reading; he was at war.

  Biology was Gio's natural enemy—and everyone else's too. Not only the syllabus packed with tongue-twisting Latin jargon, but the teacher was a straight-up dictator. Repetitive assignments, pop quizzes, and the absolute horror: verbal recitations.

  Today's boss fight: reciting Chapter 3, Classification of The Living Organisms. From Kingdom Monera all the way to Animalia, complete with full taxonomic tree. No wonder the whole class suddenly found God—praying they didn't get drafted first, while mumbling their notes like a buzzing hive of bees.

  But for Gio—a literal ex-demon equipped with Consciology knowledge—Proteum biology just felt shallow.

  Conscientiuum. The domain of consciousness, consisting of Ophema and Gehenna. Natural laws over there permitted spiritual entities to evolve biological systems that literally violated any common sense.

  The Three-Domain System (Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya) still applied, but the distribution was totally inverted. In true realm, microorganisms were dominant. In spirit realm? Almost extinct. There, physical existence is strictly chained by consciousness. Brainless, single-celled organisms with zero self-awareness just get wiped out by quantum anomalies.

  And the most complicated of them all: Demons. High school biology defines parasite as an organism that lives on or inside a host. But that was way too basic to describe his species.

  Phylogenetically speaking, demons weren't an independent species. They were on far different evolutionary branch of spirits. Thousands of years ago, natural selection forced certain spirit species to adapt in extreme environment full of Antinoi (human’s Psychonegative waste energy).

  They hotwired their own brain architecture. Originally feeding only on Noi (Psychopositive’s substance), they mutated to process Antinoi and build Gehenna from scratch. Thus, demons were born: mental parasites that infiltrated human consciousness, the sole Antinoi producers.

  How do they harm humans? Simply put, to harvest more Antinoi, they must amplify the host's Psychonegative. But human brain had limit. Excessive information transfer over the Abyssal Lobe—Proteum-Conscientiuum gateway—gradually degrading it. This could lead to Abyssal Degenerative Syndrome (ADS), one of the leading causes of death in this universe.

  Demon’s life cycle was equally unique. Starting out as Hounds (animal-level intelligence, confined to Gehenna), evolved into Fiends that could roam Ophema. Finally, they metamorphed into Demoniacs (sentient demons at human-level intellect).

  "Humans are really awesome..." Gio thought, amazed by the fact this entire spiritual taxonomy was created by humans. Not the spirits or demons themselves—their civilizations were left centuries behind.

  Gio dropped his face onto the textbook. He tried to focus, but his consciousness had already reached the limit. He only managed one hour of sleep last night.

  Next to him, Zaid was also holding a textbook. But unlike Gio, who looked like a literal zombie, Zaid was perfectly fine. He shot Gio a quick side-eye.

  "You got a problem?" Zaid asked.

  Gio turned his head sluggishly, cheek still glued to the paper. "Eh? Why'd you ask that?"

  "You look like a coder who hasn't touched grass in five years."

  "What’s wrong with not touching grass?" Gio lifted his upper body.

  “Sigh.” No answer.

  Zaid closed his biology book and shoved it into his desk. Honestly, Gio’d already figured out one fact about his seatmate. Zaid was a minimalist—or maybe just an extreme economic survivalist.

  Cheap knock-off shoes with yellowing rubber. Worn backpack. Even his diet was strictly budget-limited. Zaid rarely bought snacks; each time he did, he always chose cheapest menu. And the weirdest part for a Gen-Z kid: Gio had never once seen Zaid holding a smartphone.

  "Zaid," Gio called out, curiosity beating his sleep deprivation. "Do you... not have a phone?"

  "Why? Is that a problem?" Zaid retorted coldly.

  "Not really. Just asking."

  Amidst the chaos, Gio let his eyes wander the classroom until snapped to the back-right corner desk. Sat there, the same isolated girl from yesterday's P.E. class. Narrowing his eyes, Gio performed a quick visual scan.

  With height around 159 cm, she was neat and simple: clean uniform, ankle-length skirt as for school’s regulation, no excessive accessories. A black neck-length bob hair framed her face which sealed behind a white medical mask, while oversized round glasses gave her a cute, nerdy vibe. Pale skin like it never exposed to UV radiation.

  Objectively, she was pretty, but her presence was faint. Like a background character at 50% opacity. She just sat there with her head bowed, staring blankly at the wooden desk.

  "Her name's Kinara Kasna," Zaid's voice shattered his focus. Turns out, his seatmate had been tracking his line of sight the whole time.

  Gio turned. "That girl..."

  "She's just weird. Drop it."

  "Weird? how?"

  Zaid gave a careless shrug. "Don't know. That’s what people say, not mine."

  Gio glanced at the back corner again. "Kinara Kasna... I’ve never actually seen her do anything strange. She just isolated, that’s it."

  Riiiing!!! The bell rang. The teacher marched into the classroom carrying a massive stack of textbooks. They still had to survive one Literature period before entering the Biology boss fight.

  Gio planned to use this time to continue his memorization. But his eyelids felt heavy, consciousness began to crumble. Slowly, his vision faded out to black.

  In a cursed world...

  The sky was bleeding crimson, like a spilled blood.

  No schools. No trees. No cities. Just an endless, barren wasteland, fractured by massive cracks crawling across the dirt.

  Right in the middle of that dead zone, a massive horde of demons had gathered. They roared, shrieked, all eyes locked onto one single target.

  I... was there. Center of the attention. Strapped to a towering execution scaffold.

  I can’t move. My neck locked into a wooden stocks. Right above me, a huge steel guillotine blade was waiting to drop.

  The executioner stood next to me. Face buried under a black hood, hands gripping a heavy battleaxe. My life was hovering at the edge of his fingertips.

  He raised his axe high. Slash!

  The tension rope snapped. The heavy steel blade dropped, plummeting straight for my neck.

  "Hahh!!!" Gio snapped awake. His heart hammered wildly. Heavy breath, cold sweat dripping down his temples.

  His eyes darted wildly, scanning his surroundings in sheer panic. No crimson sky. Just the white ceiling and the boring classroom.

  The wall clock had only ticked forward fifteen minutes. Literature teacher was still droning on his boring lecture.

  Gio looked down, rubbing his face with both palms. "That dream again..." He still couldn't wipe that memory, and perhaps, he never would.