6 The Order

…

While everyone was boarding the bus, they kept glancing at Juin, who had been pulled to one side by Mr. Smith.

"Damn, he can't even do one thing right," Patrick mumbled as he glanced at them from his seat.

"A useless prick will forever be useless," John said with a sigh. He folded his arms as he glared at Juin, who met his glare and immediately turned away. "It's unfortunate that we can't see the things inside."

"It's unfortunate that there's a ward placed within," Patrick mumbled under his breath as his light green eyes glowed softly. "Or we could have gotten the stuff ourselves."

John's brown eyes glowed softly, for just a split second, before he closed it. When he opened his eyes, they were back to normal. "Watch it. We are still outside. If the Order found out about this, you would be punished again."

"Heck…" Patrick tried to get his emotions under control. When his eyes turned back to normal, he sighed and said, "What's the point of having all these powers if we can't use it?"

"You know the rules… We have to remain hidden," John said in a low voice to avoid being eavesdropped on, "until the arrival of a new king."

There was a piece of news that was passed among the noble supernatural families a few years back, that the king that they were waiting for had arrived and was now roaming on Earth.

And around three years ago, there was an extremely strong wave of demonic energy that spread throughout the world, so strong that tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions happened to many countries all over the world, all at the same time.

The humans thought that it was a natural coincidence, but the supernatural beings all over the world knew that something strong had descended upon them; something so strong that nature itself was afraid.

However, since then, no one heard of anything new, and they quickly thought of it as a being from a parallel world merely using Earth to cross to another world.

Patrick looked around them and made sure that no one was looking before asking in a whisper, "By the way, did you feel the fluctuation of energy just now? Don't you think that it was similar to back then?"

He could still remember that day from three years ago, when he was woken up from his sleep by the wave of energy, causing him to roar out loud as if his body were no longer his. His father, who had the supernatural blood, had to knock him unconscious to prevent him from exposing them to their human neighbors.

John glanced at him and nodded. "It was subtle, almost like someone was trying to contain it."

It was only for a split second, but both of them felt it because they were very near the room. They were sure that it came from the room.

"Do you think…" Patrick looked out the window and saw that Mr. Smith had finished scolding Juin. "Him?"

John looked at Juin, and a second later, he laughed and said, "Really? A weakling like him? There was no way unless he was being possessed… But…It would be the joke of… tens of centuries… if a demon king actually chose someone like that."

"Then what could have explained that? The energy came from that room, and there was no one else there."

"Maybe there was someone else there, but no one could see him or her…" John said, though he found it hard to believe his own words. The ward would have prevented any supernatural beings from hiding themselves using invisibility techniques or items.

So, after a moment of thought, he added, "Or maybe he touched something that contained the energy and accidentally released it. It has happened before, when humans accidentally touched things that they should not and released the energy that was contained within certain vessels."

The ancient supernatural beings had the tendency to hide a part of their powers, or themselves even, within certain vessels, with the hope that they would be resurrected in another form in the event that they died prematurely… or to be used as weapons should the need arise.

And the humans' need to constantly explore that world had released some of these powers unknowingly… resulting in inexplainable curses and possessions by demonic creatures.

John and Patrick came from two of the most influential families in their city, and their families were part of a secret society that governed supernatural beings—Order of the Supernatural Code. The Order ensured that people who had somehow come to know about the existence of supernatural beings like them would either cease to exist or be turned into one of them.

A long time ago, many supernatural beings were either feared or worshipped by humans. People who looked different were oftentimes considered gods. The Egyptians of ancient times in particular. Sphinx, the griffins, anubis, etc. No one would hunt them down.

After the Salem Witch Hunt, however, the supernatural beings that found their way to Earth, whether by accident or not, felt that it would be better to remain hidden than to try and walk among normal humans, and they created the Order in order to protect themselves and their offsprings.

Their first order of business was to eradicate all supernatural beings that insisted on being "normal", and the next was to get rid of most documents that proved their existence. Within a short few years, supernatural beings became myth and legends, and humans gradually forgot about the truth of their existence.

Once the Order had stabilized everything, the next thing they did was to support the creation of supernatural offsprings with human blood in them to ensure that whatever weaknesses the first generation of beings had would be diluted.

John and Patrick were such offsprings. Unfortunately, with the dilution of the weaknesses came the dilution of strength as well. After so many generations, John and Patrick, while displaying supernatural strength and intelligence, were unable to wield any elemental powers. They were more humans than supernatural beings at this point.

And they were hoping that they would be able to remedy it by using the Book of the Daemon as well as the Sword of the Daemon King. They weren't told about it, but John found out from his mother, who was part of the council of the Order, that an archaeologist found a sword that belonged to an ancient demon king, and it was rumored that the sword would give its bearer a huge boost in strength.

The person the Order sent to do research on the items reported that while the book and the sword had some energies in them, they were too weak to actually belong to a demon king. As such, the Order decided that those items were probably of low value and would not harm the world if left as it was.

However, John and Patrick were interested in them.

They were hoping that they could somehow gain the powers to wield the elements so that they could join the Battle of the Underground Beings at the end of the year. If those things were real, they would try to convince their parents to figure out a way to steal them.

Unfortunately, they failed in their attempt to check the authenticity of the items.

"I wonder who could have taken it," John murmured as he looked at the museum. There must have been a supernatural being in the team of guards, and that person probably placed the ward there to avoid any beings from attempting to steal it. Even if the items were of low value, to the humans, they were priceless artifacts that must be properly kept and protected.

Besides, those weren't things that normal beings could touch and activate. A human that touched them would most likely feel nothing, and any supernatural beings that touched them would probably be injured if they weren't strong enough.

"The ward was still intact when that idiot went in…" John thought to himself. "Who broke it then?"

...