Purifying zombies was not what Isaac had in mind when visiting Kek Lok Si Temple on the warm late night of January 28th.

  Isaac was supposed to meet with his beloved Tainted sister, but she was nowhere to be found.

  Could she have been behind the infestation? Isaac had dismissed the thought quickly. Violet wasn’t the type to use such cheap tricks.

  On Chinese New Year, the Malaysian Buddhist temple wasn’t only flooded in a sea of colorful lanterns and neon lights, but a horde of zombies inundated it as well.

  In truth, it may have been incorrect to call them zombies. They weren’t undead but infected with a virus—a weak one that Isaac had realized its frailty as soon as he was greeted with the first wave when he reached the Liberation Pond. The infected had overcrowded the platform, causing some to flip over the fence and fall into the pond, where they proceeded to munch on the tortoises.

  The virus that changed the tourists and locals wasn’t complex or even that infectious. It was a low-effort Black Magic zombie disease—a 937.1-Basic Black Zombification.

  A disease that not even late brother Kian would find interesting enough to study. Rest his blessed but misguided soul…

  He just wasn’t meant to be saved.

  The ailment contracted by the sufferers made their skin gray and decrepit, with pieces of it peeling off like old paint, their limbs were misshapen and bent in deadly directions, and they all emitted Black Magic energy. They moaned continually—crying for Isaac’s help, and without hesitation, he called for his Healer’s Garb, put up a barrier, and purified them all.

  That’s what he had thought anyway after scouting the temple, lit up with a thousand lights blending well with the night sky.

  While backtracking, rechecking every area on his way to the entrance, he spotted someone in need in the Avalokiteshvara Hall.

  The vast shrine had a trio of giant, golden Bodhisattva statues, and the walls were lined with neatly put-together rows of small Buddha figurines that almost looked like wallpaper with a repeated pattern.

  From where he stood, Isaac had a spectacular view of the multi-colored luminescent pagoda looming near the outside of the main hall.

  The person in need’s choked cry got his attention back. She was a small, poor thing hiding behind a column and peeking her head out.

  Isaac lowered his mask as he ambled up to the girl, widening his amicable smile. He hunched down as he got closer, holding out his hand.

  The girl was Malaysian. She shook and took a glance at his hand before redirecting her teary gaze at Isaac. “Are you… an angel?” she asked in Malay.

  “No…” Isaac responded in her language while shaking his head. “I’m better.” He stepped closer, stretching his other hand as well.

  The girl stepped away from the column and outstretched her hands, getting closer to Isaac.

  She continued moving up to him even after her head had fallen off.

  A flag pole raised from the stump, and a purple flag appeared; it read: “GOT YOU.”

  Isaac snickered, understanding why Zeke was so interested in her.

  As the illusion dissipated with a pink flash. He stood up but was attacked before he could turn around.

  Violet latched onto his back, wrapping her legs over his arms and around his body, snaked one arm around his throat, and thrust a sharp object onto the front of his skull.

  Isaac groaned slightly as he tried to shake Violet off him.

  His fellow Tainted sibling was brilliant.

  Even with her illusionary magic capable of manipulating Mana senses; someone as keen as Isaac had learned how to detect Violet’s magic. Therefore, she masked the entire area with a copious amount of Black Magic energy to the extent that he wouldn’t pay attention to the distinct feel of a Healer’s Garb’s Black Magic beneath it all.

  However, Violet felt strange while latching onto his back. With his arms being held down by her strong thighs, thus no way to bring his hands together, he turned and pressed back onto the column, crushing her, but she maintained her grip.

  Throughout the struggle, a black viscous substance squirted out of her and splashed down on his forehead. The liquid felt sinisterly cold as it cascaded down his face and onto his lips. Isaac realized it was the same feeling he was picking up from Violet’s Container.

  “I thought you were on humanity’s side and only got rid of people who got in your way,” Isaac said, laughing at the pain. “And here you are infecting innocent people with a virus.”

  “I had to do what needed to be done,” Violet said in a strained voice.

  “Using a subpar virus onto the innocent and now succumbing to the use of Tainted Mana,” Isaac said, seeing bursts of silver-black energy flashing in his eyeline. “Oh, how out-of-character you are acting today, Sister.”

  “Don’t call me that, bastard!” Violet neared her lips to Isaac’s ear and sang an incantation.

  Isaac could feel her purity levels plummet as she continued a spell he wasn’t familiar with, weakening him.

  Violet began to twist the sharp object lodged into his head, forcing Isaac to drop his knees and scream in genuine discomfort.

  A reel of thousands of random imagery played before his eyes at near lightspeed. His head throbbed from the overload of information it was receiving.

  Whatever the spell Violet was using had to be something only accessible with dangerously low levels of soul purity. Tainted Mana spells were a gamble that could be worthwhile if used right.

  No being’s Mana Gauge actually reached 0 percent. Every creature’s Mana Gauge had a “built-in” limiter that stopped them from depleting it in its entirety.

  Breaking the limiter allowed one to use up all the Mana in the System to access the reserves of the Mana System, which was the equivalent of a gas-starved vehicle running on fumes.

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  These reserves were where Tainted Mana lay.

  The Tainted Mana seeping into the soul diminishes a Container’s life expectancy and forces soul purity levels to plummet to low levels. Granting access to the most powerful Black Magic spells.

  Isaac felt as if his brain was put inside a blender. Not only was he seeing random imagery, but his other senses were also going off the rails. A succession of flavors came and went from fruity to nutty to bitter to rancid while he smelled a variety of aromas and stenches, and a cacophony of static-like sounds ringed in his head like listening to a broken radio changing stations.

  He could feel himself losing power over his body and soul as the incantation went on.

  Congrats, Sister. I guess this is checkmate. Isaac smiled. I’m sorry, Vistrea. I’m sorry, Gussalen. Skaggsy, I have failed.

  A surge of heat pulled Isaac out of his thoughts, followed by an agonized scream from Violet.

  The grip was lost, and Isaac slowly returned to his feet, still wobbly, as he turned back and saw Violet screaming and rolling across the floor with her body burning with black flames.

  Isaac shook his head as he watched Violet burn; her mask was already lowered. Despite having her Healer’s Garb equipped, the tradeoff of defense for power that came with using Tainted Mana disrupted the Garbs’ automatic White Magic healing.

  “I’d apologize for interrupting,” a voice with a British accent said, “but I did just save your arse, didn’t I?”

  The overweight Demonologist was in the scene, clad in his Healer’s Garb over a wool gray suit.

  Gill lowered his mask made of black flames as he reached the writhing Violet, rolling around and splashing her black blood everywhere.

  “This your first time feeling those flames, innit?” Gill said, looking down at Violet with a cruel smile. “Ah, sorry, it looks like it hurts, well it should. Demonfire hurts a whole lot more than Hellfire,” he kicked Violet in the stomach. “Enjoy!”

  “Now, that was unnecessary, don’t you think, Brother?” Isaac said.

  Gill gave Isaac a glower and then pointed his finger at him. “You… you remember what we talked about just before we raided the Winterberry Adytum?”

  How could he forget? Gilliam had proposed for them to unite in the ascension of demonkind, but how could he govern a peaceful world overrun by demons? Their grand ideas didn’t coalesce well.

  Isaac slipped his hands into the pockets of his Healer’s Garb. “I told you, I only helped you break the Great Seals to find the Diagnostician. What Hezekiah and I will do to save Heaven will be beautiful, and you can drop your plans and join us—”

  Violet got back up, screaming, and charged at Gill.

  Gill waved a hand, and a long creature covered in black fur and a bulbous head sprouted from under Violet with its giant maw opened and swallowed her whole.

  “Luv, just wait a bit, yeah?” Gill said and turned to Isaac. “I was able to enhance one of my creatures. Doesn’t it look better now? Soon, they’ll all look like this.”

  The hairy monster with one yellow eye looked at Isaac, blew a raspberry at him, shared a nod with Gill, and then withdrew, disappearing into the ground.

  Then, Gill made devil horns with his hand and pushed it into his flabby chest. He doubled over and started retching. “You’re going to regret not being on my side, ya got that?” Gill raised his head. “I’m going to be the bloke to wipe that stupid smile off your mug.” His body convulsed as he grabbed the bottom half of his mouth with one hand and the upper half with the other.

  Isaac’s Tainted siblings were so full of wonderful surprises he couldn’t help from standing and watching Gill stretch his mouth open.

  Gill upchucked a cow skull.

  “Oooh,” Isaac said and clapped.

  Gill glowered at him again, bent over to grab the slobbery cow skull, and threw it at Isaac.

  He dodged the pathetic attack easily and turned to look at the wet cow skull as it landed and slid across the ground. It was emitting an impressive amount of Black Magic energy and kept increasing.

  When Isaac turned back, Gill was gone.

  Isaac made a face and scratched his head. It was a bit disappointing that a meeting with his siblings ended so abruptly. He moved up to the cow skull, which emitted rising levels of Black Magic, and crouched.

  He grabbed onto its horns, and it burned him. Isaac pulled back and shook his hands.

  I have to use a lot more White Magic for this. He clapped and rubbed his hands until they emitted holy light, and just as he extended his hands toward the horns, a surge of unfamiliar energy had him turn around.

  A pair of new faces were eyeing him with hostility.

  “Do you know who we are?” The one on the right said, stepping forward.

  Isaac smiled. He knew exactly who they were. With his angelic level of soul purity, listening in on angels’ Mind Channel Frequencies became a risk-free hobby for Isaac.

  “Want an autograph?” The one who stepped forward said while raising a fist, armored with a silver gauntlet. “C’mere, I’ll give you a real nice one you won’t forget.”

  So aggressive, Isaac thought, and then noticed energy rising from him but had trouble identifying what kind.

  The Archangel, raising his fist, had medium-length, wavy brown hair, and intense light brown eyes. Like Brother Akachi, he had a lean, athletic build and a deep skin tone that aligned with his evident Southern Asian ethnicity.

  White Enochian symbols were stylized across his skin-tight, short-sleeved black shirt and pants. His apparel also included white cross emblems on his silver gauntlets and the metal guards at the tip of his red shoes.

  The aggressive Archangel put his hand over his chest as he announced, “I, Mackenzie Tojo, and…” He waved his hand over to his more aloof companion to the right as he continued, “And Zakiah Horowitz, in honor of Power and Dominion Chief Irin of the Second Sphere, as the Archangels under the jurisdiction of the Second Sphere will subdue you, Isaac Noble, the First Born of the Fourteenth Tainted Generation and bring you to holy justice!”

  Isaac began clapping. “That was very imposing! Good job, you sound just like Irin,” he said with a smile.

  A chagrined look took over Mac’s face as he clenched his fists. “We have the means to kill you if necessary,” he said. “Surrender or die.”

  Isaac glanced back at the cow skull. It was a beacon for the Archangels.

  Did Gill strike a deal with an angel? Isaac thought.

  “You should stop thinking and give us an answer.” Zakiah, the other Archangel, finally spoke. He had eye-length, messy blue hair with a dark shade. His apparel was a blue astronaut-like jumpsuit and a backpack with harness buckles strapped onto his legs and chest.

  “Unfortunately, I can’t do either for you. Sorry, I just have too many things I need to do first,” Isaac said in response to Mac’s threatening proposal. He turned his back to them and waved a hand as he walked away. “I’m leaving now. Goodbye.”

  Isaac felt the surge of energy nearing from behind and vanished in a white flash. He reappeared behind Mac, who was in the middle of executing a running punch.

  I would’ve expected better from those hand-picked by Irin, Isaac thought and sighed. As Mac turned back, Isaac reached forward and grabbed his face.

  He slammed Mac back onto the temple’s stone floor, pulled back a White Magic-charged fist—a plume of white aura emanating from it—and then finished him with a devastating hit that caused cracks to extend in every direction across the stone. With superhuman quickness, Isaac wet his finger with the fresh blood leaking from Mac’s lips and drew a magic circle near his bruised face.

  The magic circle glowed, and Isaac’s trusty, giant worm-like creature ascended from the divine marking and rose to the ceiling in a looping motion like a Chinese dragon. It released a quaking cry as it crashed through the hall’s roof.

  A thought was all Isaac needed to indicate his Anathemia to attack. It inclined downward, making another hole in the ceiling as it crashed back into the hall. Its gray stone baby face with sharp teeth ringed around the edges nosedived at Zakiah.

  Isaac watched calmly and then blinked.

  Mac sped past him in a burning flash, leaving a trail of volcanic fumes.

  The Anathemia was inches from swallowing Zakiah whole before it got kicked in the side of its face by a flying kick.

  Its head exploded in a magma burst, making Isaac’s mouth fall open slightly.

  The monster’s headless snake-like body collapsed as pieces of molten rock rained from the sky.

  As Isaac dodged the volcanic rain, he kept his eyes on Mac, who had his back turned to him and stood perfectly still beside his partner. Both didn’t put any effort into dodging the flaming rocks, yet none neared them.

  Isaac noticed the bottom half of Mac’s pants were burned off, and on the back of his calves were fuming volcanic craters.

  Anderson’s Supernatural Medical Fun Facts: There is no afterlife when a live summon dies, despite a soul being created for it.