"She knows nothing of me, she knows nothing of me."

  This incessant spiral of self doubt invaded my thoughts, trying to reject the hand that Li was holding out to me as best as possible.

  It must be said that it was not customary for me to meet someone so persistent in their ideology. The time little amount of time I knew her, I felt like I had already grasped most of her character.

  Blind trust in others, accompanied by an unstoppable desire to help those in need. Two incredible qualities that I refused to accept. After all, it is human nature to think of yourself over others in the first pce.

  Why must you even pretend to care about the life of others when you can only care care about yourself ?

  "Hm ?"

  Suddenly, the scene of flies rushing towards the child stopped, only to be repced by the same bck space I was in when I met this other me.

  Once again, I was facing mysef.

  My other me, my alter ego.

  "From what I can see, you always hesitate when the choice is obvious."

  She inquired, anxious about the predicament that was my life and ideas, the mere idea of even sharing the same thoughts disfiguring her face through disgust. This other self sighed, exasperated by my refusal to act.

  She put her finger on my forehead, whispering incomprehensible words.

  Before I could even process what had happened to me, it disappeared before my eyes, leaving me alone in that empty space a second time.

  Alone in a dark void, as I was always destined. After all, there is no other path for someone like me. This is adequate punishment for my weakness and indecisiveness.

  "I wish I was more like her."

  Quite ironic, wishing to be like oneself.

  I was stuck here again as she took control of my body. The feeling of having another person puppeteering your body will remain strange to me forever. My flesh taken over once more, the eyes of the impostor burning bright purple.

  "Everything’s gonna be okay now, kid."

  The other me say in a confident tone, seeking to reassure him. The delicate smile she wore on her face only serving to accentuate the kind nature of her heart. Gentle strokes slowly caressing the young boy's hair.

  She turned to face the monster, the magnificient silver butterfly sword in hand. The butterfly shaped handle, the beautiful silver colour, the hopeful shine of it's metal. It was as beautiful as before.

  "I'm counting on you, Li."

  Were my words, spoken with such utter confidence that it shocked me. If this being truly is the manisfestation of my deepest desires, it would only mean I saw Li as someone I could rely on.

  I refused to believe it. There was absolutely no way I had been so easily swayed by this poor imitation of a witch. Was I always so hypocritical, pretending to refuse connections with others only to go back on my words ?

  As, I couldn't dwell on my self imposed martyr.

  The pressure of my aura disintegrated the flies around us, reducing them to dust. My copy hastened to draw her sword, a gale accompanying the perfect arc of a circle she painted with the air.

  She called that move:

  "[DISASTER WIND]"

  By bringing out the power of disaster into this world, she expertly manifested a small cyclone using the tip of her sword, carefully releasing the air as the arc of a circle descended to the ground.

  "Li, get him !"

  Even though she was suprised that I asked, Li nodded all the same, using the small amount of karmic energy she had left to grab the child and descend into the eye of the cyclone with them. Swiftly preventing the child from falling to his death.

  "Consider it done. [Luftraum!]"

  As she pronounced those words, the cyclone the impostor created turned solid, Li's body gliding on it, firmly holding the child in her arms.

  "Now that's what I call a rescue well done."

  Thousands of flies gathered together, forming a bck dust-like cluster in the sky, gradually dissipating to reveal a humanoid creature with a fly head and dressed in a purple cloak. It's imposing stature was only completed by the colrs it wore on what I supposed to be it's neck, purple human heads assorted to them.

  " Quite strange, though you have the smell of the Son of Man, you also possess the smell of his eminence, the Eternal Void. Foolishness, a pitiful Son of Man daring to mock his eminence by trying to stand in their stead ?"

  The creature directly communicated inside our brains, each sound it actually materialized with it's prosboscis only forming buzzing noises. While it could use human nguage, they either chose to communicate with us this way or simply couldn't directly use our nguage by not relying on our brain waves. Perhaps, it was even us that were unable to comprehend what they said.

  "(Telepathy ?)"

  "Unforgivable ! Vile creature ! Perish from the hands of Beelzebuth !"

  Li’s face turned to pale at the creature’s mental decration, her whole body starting to tremble.

  "This face, this name. It’s worse than I thought... Why is such a demon here ?"

  The dawn lost it's orange color to find itself tainted with an ochre red. The sounds of the creature’s wings fpping, smothering Li and Melissi breath of terror.

  Thousand red eyes that reflect us, a dry skin covered by hair, horrendous pimples and a bck coat hiding the rest of his hideous body. I could only wonder what this creature was. Could it be that thing that Li had mentioned a few moments ago when she was referring to a demon ?

  " That's one of the worst demons we could find! He shouldn’t even be here ! Even with Allison's wish, the mere idea of such a dangerous being interacting with mortals is unthinkable."

  "[DIPTERA]", the creature pronounced, four wings as invisible as transparent gss sprouting from it's back. Each four of them possesing a drawing of skulls and bones.

  A bck cluster formed around Li, swirling in a circle around the wooden scepter she used to point at me.

  My relfection rushed at him, using my left foot to get more support, wielding her sword over my hair, preparing to leap toward the disguting monster.

  "[Nega space]"

  The space around us had become bck and white, our movements frozen in time, our minds eaten by the incomprehensible words that repeated themselves in our heads.

  "This woman here, her true soul was not touched. Very interesting."

  In a moment, a wall of fire separated us from the creature.

  "P-prayer to Agni, p-urification of evil."

  I couldn’t believe my eyes, this wall of fire was created by Melissi, that feeble and fearful girl. It seemed to me that Li had mentioned that she was an exorcist, something along those lines.

  "I’m sure we can kill him if we all work together", Li said, panicked and profusely sweating.

  "Why do I have to go through this ?"

  The long-haired young man, another member of Li’s junk club, expressed, his attitude as rexed as when I first encountered him.

  In a moment, his eyes turned serious.

  "Caith Sith, make it appear."

  The two tailed cat threw up an axe, to my surprise and disgust. How the hell did it store that in the first pce ? Considering it's size, it shouldn't have even been possible.

  "It's a good thing you don't really eat it, otherwise my allergies would get the better of me."

  Li whispered to us, slowly walking backward into the fire Melissi created. I wondered what she was even thinking trying to go into these fmes, however she got past the wall of fire unharmed.

  "Alright, it's unlikely we'll able to kill it. Here's the pn, while Marth and Allison distract it, Melissi will begin reciting an incantation meant to seal demons."

  "How can we even serve as a distraction when it could bind our movements at any moment ?"

  "It's fine, I was able to move while under the negative space."

  "Really, Allison ? Then, I'm sorry to ask this of you but could you occupy this creature for..."

  She turned her head to Melissi, waiting for her to give the approximate time she would need to manifest a seal powerful enough to rid us of this creature.

  "O-One hour..."

  "Are you kidding me ?"

  Li shout, her confidence diminishing by the minutes, bringing down part of her hat into her forehead.

  "S-Sorry, that demon has too much karmic energy, the seal will take a long time to be fully effective. I-It usually takes five minutes for small imps but considering it has twelve times the amount of energy of such small creatures I'm afraid there's nothing I can do to reduce the time."

  After some through consideration, Li's expression darkened as she bit her lower lip consumed by stress and anxiety.

  "In that case... We should grab the kid and run..."

  Seeing white corrupt Li's natural skin tone, my other self put her hands on her shoulders, her eyes filled with determination and certainty.

  "It's fine, Li. Don't be afraid, I'm right here with you."

  Those words seemed to calm her down, even for a little bit. Strange, what is that soft and warm feel I'm sensing inside me right now ?

  "Allison, wait!"

  With those words, my other self expulsed itself from the tornado, directly facing the nightmare's fly.

  Her head proudly raised and sword's tip on the ground, she held the weapon like a knight bound by honour, facing the creature as my blonde hair were balded by the wind.

  "Let's have a duel, Beelzebuth."

  I dared to say, pointing my sword once more at a being beyond human logic and comprehension. At the same time, Melissi came out of the tornado, her hands joined together.

  "G-Good luck, Allison ! I-I'm sorry to ask this of you but you're the only one we cant count on right now!"

  Not wasting a single moment of it's time and assessing the danger Melissi represented, the fly immediatly tried to use it's time manipution trick.

  "[Nega Space]"

  "I don't think so."

  Unfortunately for this creature, they were ready for it to use cheap tricks to hurt us, Marth nding a powerful hit on the creature left ribs, taking advantage of the small window it wasn't focused on all of us to attack it. The fly heading headfirst into a nearby abandonned building.

  Meanwhile, Li, still in the eye of the cyclone, was trying her best to reassure the child.

  "I wish I wasn't so useless. This body is a curse, even when I want to help my friends I'm unable to do it efficiently."

  Her eyes seemed distant for a moment.

  "Miss, are we gonna die ?"

  I couldn't bme this child for asking such questions, trying to fight such a monster was akin to suicide after all. As I continued to observe, I could only be blinded by Li's radiant smile in response to the child's question.

  "Don't worry, I believe in them. When my friends have their heart set on something, they always deliver."

  Those words were empty to me, after all, when had we even become friends. From my perspective, she was only filling this kid's head with delusions and refusing to make it face reality. After all, if hope and good feelings worked, his parents would have still been alive and the school wouldn't have ended up like this

  For as much as this other self represents my inner secret hope, the fact is it wasn't enough to prevent my darkness from overtaking my desires and ruin the world.

  As usual, I was proven right, as right before my eyes, the one named Marth's body was assaulted by a million flies, the eyes of Melissi and my clone filled with horror. As they all screamed his name, the axe he so proudly held in his hand to strike the monster fell on the ground like a vulgar object that had no value whatsoever.