The Black Was Winning

Screams of pain echoed throughout an underground laboratory. Nine people were placed inside a dome, each with black-colored light running through their veins.

"Sir," a man in white coat called out. "I think the dose is enough for today."

"No," a tall man in a red suit said. "Their tolerance is still increasing. There will come a time where they'll completely reject the serum."

"They're dying sir," the man in coat said.

"Not all of them," was all the taller man said and looked over three people who seemed to be adjusting to the pain.

'Someday, we will rule over the world.'

–

Devin was still staring at the ceiling. His thoughts still wouldn't latch on to the fact about the royal family.

"Are you okay?" Rodney called out from his bed.

"I'm just feeling weird," Devin said. "Who knew Exorcist families could do such things."

People sat up from his bed. "Anyone will do anything for power, Devin. Welcome to the real world."

Devin nodded and set himself to sleep. The two went back to bed, while he was still staring at the ceiling.

'The Purgatory, huh?'

His eyes felt heavy and everything was gray.

He was back at the marble platform with the marble columns. Then he was at the throne, watching over the two copies of him playing.

The two were silent and the game was slow. Devin felt his eyes drop in sleepiness, but he kept them up, still watching over the game.

"Can you guys talk?" Devin asked. There was no reply, so he spoke again, "Hello?"

Feeling ignored, Devin leaped from the tall throne down to the two. "Can you even hear me?"

He walked over and he felt a pang of pain in his head.

"What in the–"

He was pulled back by a strong gush of wind. Devin tried to hold on the table, but it was no use. The two kept playing.

The last thing he saw was the black Devin moving his pawn.

"Argh!" Devin yelled that made Rodney and Rain jolt up and run to him.

"What happened?" Rodney asked, face full of worry.

"I-I'm sorry…" Devin trailed off, trying to remember his already forgotten dream. "I'm fine. I just had a bad dream."

Rodney sighed and ruffled his hair. "Hurry up. Breakfast is already served downstairs."

Devin nodded and smiled, "Okay."

The two left Devin alone in the room. He felt his body shudder at the mere thought of the dream.

He was making his bed when he dropped his blanket, remembering one detail of the dream.

The black was winning.

–

The crowd was cheering when they got inside the coliseum. Yuri was up next, participating in a match for the day.

The twins were also right about the final round.

Devin will be going to a match with Liam and Dante. Their match was the only one who wasn't randomly generated. This made Devin wondered why the Union would do this.

The twins said they didn't know either. It was just an order from the top.

It was baffling why the leaders of the Union wanted to match Devin with strong opponents.

He also just knew that the leaders weren't the Bearers. They were merely employees. The ones who give commands were a secret group of elites. Only Tina, the president and Liu, the vice president had seen their faces.

The round Yuri was participating was individual measurement of three core values of an Exorcist, accuracy, speed, and power.

There are three rounds which will measure each quality. The participants would race and compete at the same time.

'Round Five will start in…'

'3…'

'2…'

'1…'

'Start!'

The first stage was accuracy. Colored balls would be thrown into the air. The goal of the participants is to shoot the balls that corresponds the color of their school. Therefore, Yuri should only shoot the red ones. And if he shoots another color, his points would be deducted per ball.

Patrols from the Union would watch over every participant. They would watch over the match.

The others were throwing their weapons as hard as they could. This was the only way they could target the balls.

"Ark." Yuri whispered. "Flash Shoot."

While the others failed to pop a ball, Yuri had hit his first. The grin on his face was short lived when he heard a click of a gun.

'A gun-user.' Yuri thought.

"Royal Shot!"

A yellow ball exploded and everyone looked where the attack came from.

Felicia lowered her gun, facing the palm on the side and breathed deeply. This was her way of reloading her weapon.

Seeing the people look at her, Felicia raised a brow.

"You got any problem?"

She looked at Yuri and smirked. "Guess I'll be winning this one."