The Boss stood outside the circle, he turned his head towards seed. "You're wondering what'shappening, right?" he asked. "That girl's carrying a weight heavier than this whole city....Let me tell you how she ended up a vessel for a fallen angel."
Seed nodded, swallowing his saliva as the Boss's words pulled him into a vision of Mira's past, like a movie's flashback.
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Mira Thorne grew up in a cold mansion on the edge of a bustling city, far greater than Ashwick could ever be. The Thorne family was a legend in the supernatural world; generations of monster hunters, from exorcists banishing demons to vampire slayers wielding silver.
Her father, a man who had faced down werewolves and all sorts of creatures, led the family with an iron grip. He had three kids: two sons from his first wife, still alive and venomous, and Mira, the only child of his second wife, who had died when Mira was barely five. The first wife loathed Mira, spitting words like "bastard" or "slut's child" whenever she passed.
The brothers, training to be hunters in their teens, followed suit. "Half-blood" they'd sneer, shoving her during their sparring sessions, leaving bruises she hid under her long sleeves. Her dad? He barely looked at her, his eyes; dark, heart; hardened and mind clouded with grief from losing her mom.
Mira was different, always had been. The Thorne blood made her a beacon for spirits, ghosts whispered to her in her room at night and she would see spirits of the dead whenever she went. As a kid, she'd wake screaming, seeing eyeless faces or hands clawing from walls.
Her family called it weakness. "A Thorne, afraid of Mere Ghosts?! Pathetic! " her dad would bark at her whenever she complained. The brothers would laugh, spreading whispers that she was unhinged.
The first wife fanned the flames: "She'll bring ruin to us." So Mira toughened up and generated a rough and fake persona to shield her from her family.
When she was seventeen, A storm raged outside the mansion, lightning cracking everywhere. Alone in her room, Mira felt the air turn heavy, a voice rumbling through her:
"Let me in... I need rest..."
It was the voice of the fallen angel, cast from heaven, wounded and seeking shelter in the human world. Her Thorne blood; a beacon to spirits, made her vulnerable. She fought, clutching her chest, but it was like resisting a tidal wave. The angel fused with her soul, pain burning her like fire.
When it ended, a halo flickered above her head weakly. Her strength from therein surged; she could shatter doors, leap rooftops and sprout black wings from her back. The family saw the halo and flipped. "She's Possessed!" the first wife screamed.
The brothers, jealous or scared, backed their mother. Her dad saw her as a stain on the Thorne name, no one in their family history has had to sort powers from other beings to be strong.
So they shipped her to Ashwick, a nowhere city to hide their shame, with cash for school and an apartment, but no love. "Get rid of that thing in you or don't come back," her dad said.
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"The angel is healing inside her, recovering it's strength and if it recovers fully, it'd take her body and push her soul out like trash"
The Boss's voice cut through the vision, pulling Seed back to the grass field. "That angel's no welcomed guest. It's fused to her being now, coexisting...for now. That's why she's got the halo, the wings, the divine energy. But it won't last. When it's healed, it'll take her over. We're trying to see it clear, figure if we can seal or kill it without losing her." He gestured at the circle, where Mira's screams had softened to gasps. "That's... messed up," seed muttered, staring at Mira.
In the circle, Mira still hovered, her body shaking less now. Tears streamed down her face. The six-winged figure above her pulsed, its blurred face twisting, as if fighting to stay. Black smoke tightened around her like chains, then loosened, swirling slower. Her wings drooped, the feathers trembling.
"That's Enough, Cassie" The boss's voice rang through the field.
"We've seen all we needed to see, Shut it down." Cassie nodded, her face tense, and lowered the talisman from her lips, her Latin chant cutting off gradually.
The glowing pillars flickered, then collapsed into sparks, the magic circle's lines disappearing into the grass. Mira's screams softened to a whimper as the Fallen angel's figure started disappearing back into her body as she was dropping from the air, Seed lunged forward, his arms catching her before she hit the ground.
"It's gonna be alright, kid," he whispered.
"Everything is gonna be alright..."