Fight!

Suddenly Ru stood up and shouted, "Run away!"

Everyone turned to look at him.

"There's the maniac," Tom said, pointing at him with his index finger.

One of the geeks said, "I think he's crazy!"

A few people were giggling. Some girls felt sorry for him and whispered, "Pity, there goes the beautiful boy..."

...until that moment came.

[A ghost timeline* loaded.]

At that moment, darkness descended on the classroom.

Invisible energy manifested itself by exploding the wall clock. The students' gaze turned dull as they sensed something was wrong in the depths of their souls. What they heard was humming from the depths.

"There's going to be an earthquake!" said one of them.

"Calm down, guys," the teacher had said when there was a violent tremor.

The six fluorescent lights that illuminated the darkness exploded one after the other. Black-colored birds smashed into the windows. Seeing the blood and feathers, the students screamed and some ran for the door.

Caught amid the chaos, Ru asked, "Is this really happening? Is this happening right now?"

The thick smoke that appeared in the middle of the classroom grew in his lush green eyes.

<Come on Dad, finish it off! >

"Finish what off," Ru asked, almost regretting the question.

Red lights shot out from the center of the smoke and reached the classroom ceiling. The rising smoke began to take shape, and a gigantic figure emerged.

As it rose into the classroom, it let out a scream that rattled the walls. Its head, adorned with horns, was so large that when it stood up it pierced the ceiling. The screams of the students upstairs joined the screams of the class.

[Demon vs Ru]

"You've gotta be kidding me," Ru breathed, eyes glued to the demonic creature above.

Alan, a hand already clamped on Ru's wrist, didn't hesitate.

"Let's get outta here, man!" he said, pulling him towards the door.

Meanwhile, due to the demon's movement, the upper floor's ceiling collapsed. Several students fell to the ground, along with pieces of concrete.

A chimera* stood before them, a creature defying categorization. A lion's mane that framed a mask sculpted from madness itself. A long, purplish tongue, slick with a glistening slime, flickered in and out of its gaping maw. Twin yellow eyes, like malevolent pinpricks in the abyss of its skull sockets, gleamed with amusement – an amusement devoid of warmth, promising only pain and suffering. Its body, a twisted mockery of human form, hunched ape-like upon limbs as black as night, etched with jagged crimson veins.

At its feet lay a schoolgirl, her leg trapped under a piece of concrete.

Demon shifted its monstrous gaze, eyes like burning embers settling on the trapped girl.

The girl was moaning, tears streaming from her eyes. Ru looked at her and heard her cries for help hiding behind her dry lips.

Ru tried to escape from Alan's grasp, a raw scream tearing from his throat, "We have to help her NOW!"

Alan spoke, hiding his reddened eyes from Ru: "I can't leave you, their poppa!"

Ru heard those final words, but before he could comprehend them, he was confronted with a scene of savagery.

The demon's foot crushed the girl's skull.

Ru shouted, "No!"

---------------------------------

Ghost Time - A period belonging to another reality. "A ghost timeline" refers to a period that belongs to that time.

Chimera - An imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts. It's like a combination of a lion and a human. Its most well-known example is a monster, a mixture of a snake, a lion, and a goat.