"Mark, wake up! It's almost school time!" An unknown woman's voice can be heard, and he is still not waking up.
He tries to open his eyes, yet it doesn't open.
"Ma, it's still Saturday!" He says, rolling to the side of the bed.
"We are buying school supplies Mark, did you forget?"
Despite Mark only rolling half of his body, he swiftly rolls to the side of his bed, landing on his back.
From the fall to the sudden hardness of the surface, his eyes finally woke up. He quickly went out of his bedroom, seeing his Ma watching TV.
"We are going out, you better take a bath and eat now."
Mark takes a bath in their bathroom. After a moment, he leaves the bathroom, refreshed, and he immediately changes his clothes to his strolling wear: a Brown polo and blue jeans. Not too fancy, but enough to be respectable in a venue like that.
Mark goes to the dining table, and he realizes that there are no viands.
"I already ate the remaining viand. You can cook some eggs if you want to." His Ma says, as his eyes tell her that he's very confused.
Mark cooks some eggs, just enough to get him a sufficient breakfast.
He sits at the table, with a plate filled with rice and egg. Right as he sits down, he realizes something, so he looks at the refrigerator.
"Ma, can I reheat those viands in the ref?" Mark asks, looking at her Ma.
"Yeah. Go ahead, Mark."
He reheats a soup, his favourite dish. After reheating, he immediately put the food on his plate, and then he started eating right away.
"You still have the list, right?"
"Yeah, it's on top of my side table."
"Good, just in case."
"I wonder what type of notebook I should buy? I want the one that has sections."
"Don't! Those books don't have a lot of space!"
"But Ma, I only need a notebook."
"Just trust me, okay Mark?"
Despite being the type of kid who does not use his notebook often, he is forced to buy multiple notebooks that will end up blank at the end of the school year.
Mark ate his food slowly, savouring it, although it is not high-quality, it still tastes amazing for his abysmal taste buds. He finishes his preparation by brushing his teeth and putting on his shoes.
He sits in front of the TV, as he waits for his mother to prepare. He switches it to a news channel. He noticed that it's talking about a fire outbreak that happened last night.
As the broadcast progresses, little creatures appear, one is lying on the broadcaster's shoulder. It's a black creature, its face looks like the dread faces of a hundred men combined, yet it doesn't bother the broadcaster at all.
"Ah, Devils on my broadcast, what a time to be alive."
Mark mutters to himself, as he observes the creatures' behaviour.
One of the creatures straight up changed the narrative of what he said to a very irrelevant and immature topic.
"That one, everyone saw it, isn't it?" Mark asks himself.
The Devils laugh, it sounds distorted and eerie, gradually getting louder over time.
After a while, her Ma enters the living room, with a slightly fancy attire.
"The news is getting stranger day by day, isn't it?" His Ma says.
"Looks like I'm not insane. I'd better get something at night." He says in his mind.
"Yeah, it doesn't give them a good look, isn't it?" He replies to his Ma.
The TV screen displays eerie imagery before his Ma shuts it off with a remote.
"Mark, we're leaving."
—·—·—·—·—·—·—
After travelling for a while, they are now in a mall. Mark brings out his list that he got from his enrollment. It lists the following:
口 — Black Ball pen
口 — Red Ball pen
口 — Pencil
口 — Notebooks
口 — Bond Paper
口 — Compass
口 — Scientific Calculator
...
"Ma, can I get a bag?" Mark asks.
"We have some big bags at home, we're not buying that." His Ma refuses, as she looks away.
"Okay."
They enter a massive bookstore, filled with books that target a wide range of audiences, as well as school supplies for kids going to school. One of their targets here is to buy a scientific calculator.
Mark approaches the clerk at the counter.
"Excuse me, sir, do you sell scientific calculators?"
"Yes, we do. What type are you looking for?" The clerk replies.
His brain starts to overheat metaphorically as he tries to contemplate what the clerk has said.
"T—Type? These things have a type?" Mark asks.
"Yes, there are several types. Any ideas where you want to use it?"
"Okay. I want one that suits my strand. Do you have a scientific calculator for STEM?"
"Yes, we have that. For engineering, right?"
"Well, not really, but that's probably what I'm looking for."
The clerk starts gathering calculators for him to select, placing it one-by-one in front of him. After that, the clerk stands in front of him.
"These are our calculators, feel free to choose."
He looks at the calculators. After looking for a while, he selects the one that looks the fanciest to him.
"I like this one." Mark points to the calculator he likes to pick. "I would also like to test it out."
He unboxes the calculator, turns it on, and then tries doing some basic calculations to test it. The calculator works normally with no surface-level issues.
After testing, he puts it back in the box.
"It's working fine, I would like to buy it."
"Okay, that would be ₱2,___. Please proceed to the cashier."
He walks straight to the cashier after he picks up the calculator. He and his Ma paid the cashier the appropriate amount before they received the calculator, which was packaged in a big plastic cellophane.
They continue to finish the shopping list, checking each box one by one. A few minutes later, they finally bought all the school supplies he needed, which were all located in the same store.
"Mark, let's eat somewhere," His Ma asks.
"Sure, I know a place you'll like."
—·—·—·—·—·—·—
After walking for a while, they decide to eat in a Japanese restaurant, not because it's a Japanese restaurant, but because it's his favourite. For every chance he can get, he will recommend the restaurant to anyone with him.
He slurps his noodles with passion, as he tastes the complex flavors of the soup seeping into the smooth-textured noodles.
"So Mark, what are your expectations?" His Ma asks, with a rice bowl in front of her.
"I will get friends, as well as have a good time," Mark replies.
"What else?"
"Nice environment, nice teachers, nice things."
They both chuckle, as they chow down on their food.
"Do you have any friends who are going to enroll in that school?"
"No, I don't think so." Mark nods down, his voice lowers, so does his mood, and his shoulders slump.
"Well, don't worry, you'll get friends along the way."
"Yeah, I wish."
—·—·—·—·—·—·—
Flashback, the moment he gained consciousness, which was when he was three to four years old.
"Someone is waiting for you, exterminate it!"
Those are the words that are ingrained in the mind of Mark Miranda. Ever since that day, he has always asked himself: "Who is this guy?" But other than the sentence, he also has something he has had ever since he gained consciousness: The ability to purge something known as Devils.
Devils are spiritual creatures that only know evil. Pretty similar to the devils and demons mentioned in the bible, except they're real, and they're probably more eerie than what the holy book wants to talk about.
Devils look supernaturally weird. They are always uncanny; usually, their appearance looks like a combination of multiple forms of common objects, faces included, usually distorted.
Devils are ranked by tiers. Tier 1, the weakest tier, are Devils who could only control the mind of a single person at max. The one that Mark saw earlier is most likely a Tier 1 Devil. Tier 1s are harmless for someone who can exterminate Devils, known as a Devil Hunter.
There are more tiers, which will be explained as the story progresses.
As you can probably guess, Mark is a Devil Hunter, but so far in his journey, he has never seen a Tier 4 Devil. And worst of all, he's afraid that he's the only Devil Hunter alive.
Tier 4 Devils can cause physical destruction similar to an explosive bombing constantly. They can wipe off buildings effortlessly, which makes them a top priority.
For the longest time in his life, he begged the imaginary gods to give him a Tier 4 Devil, even if he dies fighting it.
6 months ago, that's what he thought was going to happen, when something happened in his school. During the daytime, when everyone is in school, he witnessed a disaster. A portion of a 3 storey building suddenly collapsed, and miraculously, people only suffered minor injuries, forcing the school to dismiss everyone.
So later that night, Mark entered the site of the collapsed building. He realized that the building is impossible to collapse that way, let alone accidentally. The building is perfectly cut from itself, only leaving a public school classroom-wide portion to collapse. After venturing for a while, he saw something; a dark, shadowy figure hiding in the shadows of the building. Mark follows it.
The shadowy figure leads him to a classroom. Thankfully, public schools in the Philippines have large rooms to accommodate massive numbers of students. But he's afraid that it's not big enough.
Mark examines the figure. It's a devil, it has arms, yet its size is changing, but it stays relatively small. Mark's tongue clicks.
"Tier 3. Can you believe it?" The aura that he's sensing from the Devil screams "Tier 3" for him, making him disappointed.
Tier 3 Devils can cause physical destruction comparable to a normal human's punch at best. Instead of controlling minds, they tamper with physical objects, causing chaos like what happened to the building.
"How can you total such a building?"
He stops theorizing, as that's too much of a headache to handle. He points his right arm downward, and an odachi (long katana) appears from a purple glow. The Devil readies himself too.
Mark just straight up feels disappointed, as he only fought Tier 3s his entire life. His face looked pale, as his interest began to fade, but he had no choice, since this was a life-or-death situation that he jumped into anyway, plus Tier 3s are a cakewalk for him.
The fight ensues, they both charge each other, as they meet, his sword and the Devil's claws clash together, before they push each other off after a few seconds.
The Devil throws a series of sharp spikes towards him, and he dodges them in large steps, keeping his pace despite the setback.
The Devil throws two more volleys of spikes, which he all stepped aside unto. He swings his sword downward, releasing an energy slash directly towards the Devil. The projectile travels so fast that it forces it to block it with its claws, pushing it out, into the sky.
Mark lunges into the Devil without giving it a chance to move, and it blocks the attack. Using the resistance he got from the clash, he jumps upwards, then he charges himself downward towards the Devil, forcing it to block again, but it fails, receiving damage in the process, its shape deforms for a moment."
The Devil enrage, as it fixes its own shape, firing multiple projectiles all over itself. Mark, who is still on the ground, works his way up as the sharp, piercing rain is pointed towards his location, dodging and slashing projectiles as he ascends.
Eventually, he reaches the Devil, and he swings his sword on his right side, which clashes with the Devil's claws. Using the resistance again, he moves to a different spot, swinging his sword again, just for it to be blocked again. He lands it a few more times, before he catches it off guard, kicking it sideways, flying straight to the building, leaving dust and smoke in the process.
The Devil recovers as it tries to find him behind the smoke. A purple glow suddenly flashes somewhere in front of him. Mark clashes his sword with his claws, dissipating the smoke immediately. Mark swings his sword one more time, it gets blocked again, but it is a trap, as he swings his right leg sideways, sending it flying towards the wall, into the other room.
The Devil can't recover, as his claws are not moving. Glowing in purple, Mark dashes on the floor, then towards the Devil, hitting it successfully, and from above, he swings his sword downward, slashing the Devil, sending it down to the floor. The Devil dropped down to the ground floor due to the power of the swing.
Mark follows it down the way, jabbing the sword. The Devil blocks it, it counters with a kick from a summoned leg, it releases some spikes that also ricochet directly towards him, forcing him to not only step sideways, but also do more movement just to dodge the projectiles.
Before he can fix his footing, the devil hurls another volley of projectiles, which he hastily avoids once more. After that, he lunged forward with immense power directly towards it. The Devil summoned a volley of projectiles once again, which surprised Mark. Fortunately, he deflected the projectiles, especially the few that almost hit him, before he stepped aside, creating a large gap between the two. Before he lunged forward, he grabbed the monster with his left hand.
Mark runs towards a wall, all while dragging the Devil with him, leaving a crater. Mark then throws the Devil towards the wall, sending it to a room. It continues to fly until it reaches the other wall, and the wall glows purple due to the impact. Before the Devil reacts, Mark stabs it with his sword, sending it deep into the Devil, even beyond the walls on its back.
He then swings his sword upward, launching the Devil thanks to the force of the swing, it gets sent straight to the top. Volleys of slashes come after that, gradually speeding up over time. At the peak of the launch, Mark appears on top of it, ready to swing his sword downward. He then swings it, as he sends the Devil back down again with him. Flurries of slashes hit the back of the Devil for the entire descent. They hit the floor, and dust fogs the entire area.
The dust settles Mark can be seen holding a glowing, purple orb in his left hand, inspecting it, as well as a text that reads the following:
***
[Cut Pierce]
+ Gives the ability to cut through all materials with no effort, from real-life materials to hard materials present in certain Devils.
- Cuts or other open wound injuries will be worse (either spiritual or physical).
***
Unfortunately, Mark is not an awakened person in a system-based story. It is instead an ability that he got from another Devil known as "Status Vision". It's an ability that enables the user to see Devil stats in a way that he can understand.
And by the way, Mark can collect the dead remains of the Devils that he exterminated, which he can use to either be used for abilities, or to expand his mana pool, which makes him unable to use the Devil's abilities, but gives him more energy, and thus he becomes stronger the other way.
He finds the ability to be useful, so he keeps it as an ability instead. He raises his left arm sideways, then he clenches his fist, tensing his arm. His arm glows purple for a second as he collects the ability.
Mark leaves the scene with happiness and excitement that he thought to be impure, like fast food, it tastes good, but restaurant-quality foods are better and probably more healthy.
As he leaves the scene, the damage that he caused to the building mends itself like nothing happened. This is because Mark has an ability called the "Spirit-Physical Converter", which converts all spiritual entities to physical objects, which makes it possible for him to fight the Devil. As well as convert physical objects to spiritual, which makes it possible for the building to mend itself before turning back to the physical world.
—·—·—·—·—·—·—
The flashback ends, and he sees his mother finish eating, as he's done with himself.
On Monday, it would be his first day of school as a Grade 11 Senior High School student. He wonders what lies ahead, both his personal life and his secret life.
His goals are simple: Be an honor student, and get the ability known as the "Truthseeker". Being an honor student is easy for him, but that can't be said for the latter, as he believes that ability is exclusive to Tier 4 Devils, which, again, he has never seen in his life.
He analyzes the fight that he had. He slowly began to theorize that the Devil he fought back then is not responsible for the damage, as Tier 4 Devils can probably do more damage than that. But at the same time, he also thinks that it's the one responsible, it's just that the Devil probably took a while to total it.
As his Ma paid the waiter, he was still hypnotized, analyzing all of the fights he had so far, trying to find a trace of a Tier 4 Devil.
"Mark, let's go." His Ma calls him.
He wakes up with a slight shake, before standing up.
"What were you dreaming?" His Ma asks, and she seems to be worried.
"Nothing. Just thinking about school life." Mark replies shakily.
As they leave the restaurant, he strikes up a conversation.
"Ma. I've never seen Pa this entire week. Do you know where he is?"
"Sorry, Mark. Your Pa goes from place to place. I have no idea where he is, plus he doesn't even answer my calls."
"I mean, he still loves us right?"
"Yeah..." Mark leans his head away. "I think he misses us too."
They leave the restaurant, then the mall, bringing the school supplies that he needs when the school starts.