The Origin of Stained Souls

"Wake up, Little Curls!"

Devin awoke to the sound of the twins. Andrei was grinning at him while he scrunched his face.

"You're still here?" Devin asked, sniffing the air, and smelled the lingering scent of bacon and eggs inside the room.

"Technically, we never left," Andrei said as he walked inside the room with a tray inside. "We went to the Purgatory and went back here before dawn broke."

"Who broke?" Devin asked, his mind was foggy.

The twins looked at each other and laughed at the little boy's response.

"You're so adorable," Andrei said and rustled the curly boy's hair.

They left Devin alone after telling him that his Lecture would start at 9 AM. It was still 6 AM which made Devin irritated. He was having the best sleep of his life when the two woke him up.

"Annoying!" Devin muttered and ate his breakfast. From his calculations, an hour in the real world is about 7 minutes in the Purgatory. He slept at 11 and the twins should've got back at around 5. That made them stayed in the Purgatory for only 42 minutes.

Was that enough to finish a mission? Devin asked himself.

When 8:30 struck, Devin walked to one of the Y-shaped buildings. Each building had its own name, a name to where the direction the point points at.

His Lecture was in the East building, the farthest from his dorm. It will take him about 15 minutes to walk which Devin took as a chance to observe the school.

Besides the tall walls that surround the compound, everything looked nice. The style was modern, consisting of minimalist designs and the color scheme was from black to white.

The pathway was made of the same black shiny marble from the dock. Bermuda grass covered the soil, making the shoes of the students clean and the marble floor maintain its shine.

That's a way to save for cleaning. Devin thought.

"Devin!" A voice called out from behind him. It was Rodney, Kagura, and Sofia.

"Good morning," Devin greeted.

They were all wearing their uniforms now. The boys were wearing a light gray dress shirt and a black suit jacket with white outlines and a logo of the Institute. The trousers were black with a white outline at the bottom while the shoes were black and made with special leather.

The Institute's logo was similar to the Union, a white 12-pointed star that has a black outline and black cross in the middle. The outer line of the star was a gray circle with a white outline. The only difference between the two was the words under the star. "Twilight" was written under a student's logo and "Evenfall" was for the Exorcists.

After the three greeted him back, they all went to the East building for their Lecture. The others were already there when they got inside the large classroom.

Inside their classroom was a large whiteboard. The seats were theater-like so the students from the back could still see the instructor clearly.

"What's our first class?" Devin asked Rodney.

The boy pursed his lips and took his phone out. "Lecture 1: History with– oh, no."

Devin was about to ask his friend what's wrong when the door opened, revealing a tall woman with an Exorcist uniform. She wasn't wearing a gray cloak but her dress shirt and skirt was white instead of black. She was a very beautiful woman. Her hair was tied into a bun, making her look neat and clean.

"Good morning class," she greeted. "My name is Stephanie Velasco. And I will be your Lecture Professor."

"Velasco?" Team Lea all looked at Rodney while the boy gulped and stared at their professor.

"I assume you know where my little bro– ah." She smiled when she saw Rodney who was now sweating. "There he is, good morning to you, little brother."

The entire class gasped at what Professor Stephanie said. Looking closely, you could see the resemblance in them. They both had light brown eyes and their eyebrows were thick but clean.

"Open your textbooks that are under your desks to page 3 and let us discuss the war between Stained Souls and humanity."

Professor Stephanie's lecture went on. She was not the typical professor everyone thought. Her skills in teaching were excellent, making sure that everyone is on the same page. She made sure that her students were able to interact with her for them to avoid being bored.

As she went on, she discussed the origin of Stained Souls.

More than 900 years ago, there was a crack in the planes between humans and Stained Souls. They hypothesized that when a human dies, they are divided into three. The physical body who will rot under the earth, the spirit who reconciles with the Almighty, and the soul who awaits to be purified by prayers from the ones who are living.

When 45 days have passed and a soul isn't purified, they will become corrupted, thus forming a Stained Soul. These monsters roamed the night and would devour every human they could find. When half the entire human population was wiped out, humanity acted.

A portal was created to connect with the realm. The first team of 300 humans was wiped out almost instantly. After more than a hundred years of exploring, humanity found its greatest weapon, the Holy Stone.

It gave the remaining 18 humans from the final exploration the gift to combat Stained Souls. However, the 6 were killed before they could even go back to the human realm.

The remaining 12 were named Apostles. A white cross they named as Emblem hovered from 10 feet over their heads and weapons made of light appeared in their hands. The 6 continents divided the 12 Apostles to defend themselves. Yet, the population still kept on declining.

3 years later, one of the Apostles gave birth to a child. After the first cry the child let out, an Emblem appeared over him. Thus, the era of Exorcists started.

"That is all for today," Professor Stephanie said. "Goodbye, everyone."

Devin was still lost for words. In his old school, this was never taught. They were told to act as if Stained Souls didn't exist at all. The classes he took were never about the history of the monsters.

"That was so awesome," Devin said.

"True!" Yuri agreed.

They were walking towards the pathway and into the Market where they wanted to explore. Apart from the Institute Compound, there was a small city outside the tall walls.

Students, professors, and staff of the Institute were allowed to exit and enter the compound once a day. And since they only have one class a day, they decided to explore around town.

From the compound, the city known as Roverton was 30 minutes away. Vehicles weren't allowed on the island, so they had to walk the whole way there. Good thing the path had roofs since no one brought an umbrella.

When the group walked inside the city, Devin heard the sound he never thought he'd hear.

The siren rang throughout the city.

"There's a Stained Soul!"

"Call the Exorcists!"

"We're all gonna die!"

"But it's daytime!"

…

The people panicked. Everyone was running inside, including the group, when the siren stopped abruptly. A familiar voice spoke from the speakers.

"Good afternoon everyone," Mr. Franco said. "There are no Stained Souls on the island. I believe we have another malfunction of the system. Rest assured we will replace the ancient technology. Thank you very much."

"Again?" Rain asked. "This is the second time."

Devin looked at everyone and they were worried. "This has happened before?"

Kagura nodded, "The siren rang two days ago too."

"Hey, don't get too worried," Adonis said and grinned. "As the man said, the system is old. It's bound to have a system error or two."

They decided to walk out of the café they were hiding when they saw Yuri shake. His body trembled and his eyes were filled with fear.

"I-I don't want to die," he said. "I don't want to die! P-Papa..."

Yuri got everyone's attention. Adonis wrapped his arms around the thin boy when Yuri fell in his knees. Tears gushed from his eyes and his body continued shaking.

"Is there any room we could occupy?" Kagura asked the woman in the counter.

The woman nodded and led them inside one of the rooms. Adonis carried the sobbing Yuri and placed him in one of the sofas. He was still shaking so Adonis placed the smaller boy in his lap and swayed him so he could calm down.

"Sofia, calm him down," Kagura ordered.

Sofia nodded and used her Sanctity, Emotion Ascendancy, to calm Yuri down. It was working when the frail boy slowed down from sobbing.

"Thank you, Sofia," Yuri said and smiled. "Thank you, everyone."

"Do you mind talking about it?" Sofia asked. Her Sanctity suited her well. Sofia is a caring person, always thinking of others before her own. Although she gets carried away at times, like what happened yesterday when she was too happy.

Yuri shook his head. "It's not like I don't want to. I just can't."

"Then let me help you," Rodney grinned. "Time to show you the Sanctity of Rodney Velasco."