70 Bayfront Coast 12

A translucent shield with black and red edges appeared a quarter of an inch in front of Juin's head and fell in between Juin's head and the advancement of the green talons.

TANG!

A sharp screech could be heard when the green talons struck the shield, while the ripples caused by the collision of two different types of energy spread out, causing deep claw-like marks on all the walls of the room.

"Peasant…" Juin, who was now taken over by Lucifer, smirked and blew slightly, upon which, the shield suddenly glowed in bright red.

BAM!

The creature was pushed by the attacking shield and thrown back against the wall with the newspaper clippings, creating a huge impact that shook the house from its very foundation. Unable to take it anymore, combined with the fact that the house was already in a dilapidated state, the wall with the clippings finally crumbled, leaving a huge hole in the middle of it where the point of impact was.

CRASH!

The creature fell onto the ground outside.

At the same time, somethings started to fall out of the wall, one by one, like dominoes toppling over.

Lucifer and Juin, who was watching from within his consciousness, raised their brows as they looked at the items that fell out.

"Argh! What the f*ck!" Juin yelled when he figured what it was. "Skulls! Those are skulls!"

Lucifer, who was in control of Juin's body, frowned slightly as he stared intently at one of the skulls, which was a little small to be that of a fully grown adult. "He used the bones of the children to form the foundation of the wall… Ah, of course. Humans."

"Children…?" Juin gasped in horror. "C-could Ashton…"

"Don't be silly," Lucifer mumbled. He then jumped out from the hole, landing a few meters away from the creature. "I have no time to play around with you…"

With his left index and middle fingers put together, he pointed at the thrashing creature and lifted it into midair. He then made a beckoning sign, upon which the creature floated over to him.

"Juin, get ready…" Lucifer said as he set blue flames on the creature, starting from its feet.

"ARGGGH!!!" the creature yelled when it felt the agonizing pain of being burned by the magical flames.

"Huh?"

Lucifer placed his hand on the creature's head, and in a split second, his fingers dug into the creature's skull and connected with its brain.

Before Juin could even know what was happening, a series of images started to enter his mind.

"ARGGGGH!!!" the creature yelled in pain, both from having its memory assaulted and stolen and from the flames that were slowly creeping up its body. Its screams were so sharp and horrifying that it would have destroyed the eardrums of any normal humans within 5 feet.

However, despite that horrible noises, Juin and Lucifer's minds were elsewhere. Juin was looking at the memories of Jim Mack at a lightning-fast pace, causing him to feel extreme dizziness. He "watched" as Jim Mack grew up in an upper-class family and everything was fine until he was in university, from where he met his best friend who slowly introduced him to his Satanic group.

And he "saw" as Jim Mack and his friends went through babies after babies, in search of the best vessel, and how they found him… and how they killed his biological parents in cold blood before taking him away from his cot.

"Urgh!" Juin grabbed his head in pain, even though he shouldn't have felt it since he was in his soul form now, just like how Lucifer did not feel any pain when Juin's physical body was under attack.

Juin and Lucifer both "saw" how Jim Mack broke his leg a few days before the ceremony and had to stay at home, thus missing the summoning ceremony, and how angry he was when he heard about the massacre, and how Jim Mack made it his life mission to find the lost baby, kidnapping and torturing kids who had the similar features as Juin and then burying them into the house to increase the evilness in the room for he believed that he would be able to increase his probability of calling upon Lucifer.

"ARGGGGH!!!" Juin yelled out, and he took over his body back by force, pushing Lucifer's soul back and causing the attack on the creature to cease. But not before he saw what he wanted to see.

…

3 years ago,

Jim Mack saw Juin playing water guns with Ashton and David, and when he saw the scar on Juin's chest, he started to slowly get closer to him. Going over to the Smithsons' place almost daily with various excuses, just so that he could talk more to Juin, he eventually gained Juin's trust.

However, Ashton felt that there was something wrong with him, and he kept stopping Juin from going over to Jim Mack's house. Jim Mack knew that to get to Juin, he had to get rid of Ashton. Hence, he used David as his puppet.

It was easy. At his age, David trusted people easily, especially his old neighbor whom he basically grew up knowing.

Jim Mack gave David some chocolates. Knowing that Ashton preferred dark chocolate while the other two kids hated it, he laced the dark chocolates with sedatives and told David to share it with his "brothers" at night and to not tell anyone that he was the one who gave it because "Ashton doesn't really like me".

Jim Mack knew that David's parents did not like it when he ate sweet stuff, so he was sure that David would only bring it out at night.

And he was right.

David snuck into Ashton and Juin's room that night and shared it with them, saying that he got the chocolates from when they went to the town earlier that day. The boys did not think much about it since David did it before, so they merely ate the chocolates happily.

And after midnight, Jim Mack started his plan.

He lured Juin with the chant that the cult members used on him before. He was sure that Juin was the child from before. All the other kids did not respond to the chant, but Juin did when he tried he tried it on him before, back when Ashton was in the house and Juin and David were playing at the front yard.

It was only for a few seconds, but young Juin responded to the chant by looking around at where Jim Mack was hiding.

That was how he knew Juin was the right child. They had been chanting it to the baby from the moment they snatched him from his cot as it was supposed to give them control over the baby once Lucifer was called upon and taken over the baby's body.

But now, it became something like a luring spell.

Jim Mack lured young Juin out and led him to his house before feeding with a glass of milk laced with a sedative. Within minutes, Juin was out.

The man then brought Juin to the room, where he proceeded to tie the boy's limbs up.

While chanting the summoning spell, he took the black dagger that he prepared and left on the ceremonial table and slowly pressed it down on the scar on Juin's chest.

ROAR!!!

The sky suddenly turned dark. Claps of thunder raged through the town as if something ominous were about to land on them. However, Jim Mack's attention was on Juin's open wound.

Once he made the cut, he placed the dagger aside. Without stopping the chant, he dipped his right index and middle fingers into Juin's blood. As he chanted louder and louder, he drew the Sigil of Lucifer around Juin.

Just as he completed the drawing, he heard someone running up the stairs and burst into the room.