This time, Kiel screamed.
A raw, soul-shredding scream—desperate, fractured, pleading to drown out that voice. Anything but that voice.
Panic surged through his veins like ice water. He spun on his heels, frantic, hunted by the relentless sound that burrowed into his skull. It followed him, ever louder, ever more insistent.
A voice that didn't just speak—it demanded.
Let go.
His heart slammed against his ribs.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Each beat a cruel reminder that he was still here. Still breaking.
He clutched his ears, his nails digging so deep into his scalp that blood wept between his fingers. He had wanted this. Memories. The truth. To know who he really was.
But not like this.
Not in a violent flood of agony and loss, every moment played back in screaming clarity.
Let go. LET GO, YOU IDIOT!
Desperation clung to him like a second skin. Tears blurred his vision, blinding. His mind spiraled into silent screams.
Somebody—please—just make it stop.
---
Sean's voice cut through like a blade:
"Output level... 55!"
Gravitational pressure surged and crashed like a tidal wave. The Kaiju crumpled. First to his knees, then his hands, until he was hunched on all fours like a broken marionette.
His breath came in shuddering bursts.
Sweat glued his hair to his face.
Focus, he told himself. But how? How could anyone fight through memories that sliced like knives? Through a present that pressed like stone?
JUST LET GO.
A deafening ring echoed in his skull—bells of madness. His eyes flickered wildly: amber, red, blue, amber again.
No control.
No center.
No self.
Voices poured in—familiar, foreign, terrifying.
Shut up. Shut up. Let me think. Please.
He clawed at his face, screaming without sound.
Imagine your worst nightmare.
Now imagine being trapped inside it.
That was Kiel. A mind fraying at the seams.
He cried without knowing why. The world twisted, warped by hallucination and fear. Even Sean's voice sounded distant now, like it came from behind a thick wall.
Then—he snapped.
His scream tore through the alley like a thunderclap.
It began human.
It ended... otherworldly.
---
"What the hell?" One of Sean's lackeys murmured, stepping back.
As Kiel looked skyward, his hood fell away.
And they saw him.
Not Kiel.
Not a boy.
Not human.
Something else.
A Monster.
A Kaiju.
The predator behind the mask.
Shock froze them. Sean's bravado faltered. The air changed—thickened with dread. Something wrong had awakened.
Kiel's eyes stayed closed, but his hands ignited.
A glowing blue aura bled from his fists—familiar, but... deeper.
Sentient.
It danced and twirled like spirit-fire, reshaping the very air, warping reality itself.
Then he opened his eyes.
---
The pupils were gone.
What remained were voids.
Cold. Still. Alien.
Not rage. Not sorrow.
Just… emptiness.
This was not Kiel.
This was what remained.
---
"What the hell is this thing? Some kind of devil?" Sean muttered, his voice brittle.
Devil.
The word echoed in Kiel's fractured mind, bouncing off the walls of every memory.
He had been called that before.
Again. And again.
A name etched into him by fear and hate.
Sean's face twisted with something his friends had never seen in him:
Real fear.
Then came the roar.
A sound not made by any earthly thing.
It rumbled from the Kaiju's chest, vibrating the very bones of the city.
Sean recoiled, but stood his ground—barely.
Desperate to look strong.
But strength meant nothing to the thing now standing before him.
---
Kiel, or the thing that had become him, began to rise—slowly, as if shrugging off gravity itself. Sean doubled down, pressure surging, the ground fracturing beneath the Kaiju's feet.
"Stay down, freak!" Sean bellowed.
The Kaiju grinned.
Mocking. Emotionless.
So brave… so pointless.
Sean's triumph melted as he saw the creature tense, saw it refuse to yield.
It lunged.
Faster than Sean could blink.
The blade came out, a flick of silver. But it never reached. The Kaiju's hand cracked downward, bone meeting bone, and the knife clattered away.
Then—impact.
Kiel moved like a blur. One arm hooked beneath Sean's torso, lifting him into the air with ease. The next strike—an elbow—drove into Sean's gut like a hammer, a spurt of blood bursting from his mouth.
Sean crumpled.
Back. Head. Pavement.
The crack of skull on concrete echoed.
Silence.
---
The beast stood victorious. It howled once more, a war cry that shook the alley.
Nearby pedestrians screamed and fled. A man stumbled into a trash can; a woman kicked off her heels mid-run. It would've been funny—if it wasn't so real.
Sean lay still. Alive, but broken.
The school's undefeated bully… was done.
The remaining two froze. Statues in human skin.
They didn't run. They couldn't.
The monster turned. Calm. Mechanical. It picked up the wooden bat once used to beat it.
Then—precision.
It pointed the bat like a sword.
Advanced.
CRACK.
One bully fell, spitting blood and teeth.
The other whimpered.
Eyes shifted—blue to red.
A grin. Twisted. Sinister.
Kiel, lost inside. The monster, in full control.
It stepped forward.
And the Devil smiled.