Chapter 3

Clay found himself in an ominous-looking throne room, perplexed as to how he got there. He looked around the room, he was on high alert and as he looked around he noticed a figure sitting on the throne and black smoke erupted from his hand, transforming into his pistol, Clay took in the features of the throne as he turned to face it.

The figure placed on the throne was a boy around the same age and who strangely resembled Clay, the figure had red shoulder-length hair, purple eyes on his emotionless face and finger-sized horns on his forehead. He was dressed in blood-red pants, a chainmail shirt under a royal-looking robe and black boots. Clay became more alert as he noticed the sheathed broadsword that rested on the boy's lap.

“Who the hell are you and how did I end up here?” Clay inquired, his eyes flashing red, the unknown redhead rested his chin on the palm of his hand as his eyes flashed green, sending a wave of energy over the demon hunter and causing him to fall to one knee. “Be ready, because the end is near. Because you are still weak, use this time to train yourself, brother,” Clay heard the young man exclaim before his vision went fuzzy and turned to black.

***

Clay shot out of bed in a cold sweat, panting heavily. The boy reflected on his recent dream but shook his head to clear his mind of intrusive thoughts, sighing as he caught his breath and taking out his phone and checked the time, which showed that it was still 6 a.m. The boy stood up and went downstairs, running his hand through his hair.

He went into the kitchen and found the girl he had seen before preparing breakfast, Clay sat down and greeted her, "Morning Cady," with a yawn. The girl named Cady turned her head towards the boy for a brief moment before returning her attention to the food she was preparing as she returned the greeting, “Good morning big brother, how’d you sleep?”

Clay stretched and took out his console to play some video games, “How did you sleep?” Clay inquired as he slowly shifted his attention back to his game. “Could have been better,” Cady exclaimed, the young man smiled before returning his full attention to his console. Cady plated the meal and served it on the table after a few minutes.

The girl sat next to her brother and playfully threw a small ice cube at him, Clay caught the cube without a hitch and looked up from his game to see that the food was ready, before they began eating the boy put away his console and joined her in saying a small prayer..

“So, do you have anything today?” Clay asked as the younger sibling nodded and took out her phone, “I'll just send you the info,” Cady exclaimed as her older brother's phone buzzed and he took it and opened the file he had received. “There have been reports of a large swarm of ant-type demons on the outskirts of town. They appear to have been there for about a month, feeding on farm animals, farmers, and hikers. They also appear to be breeding, implying that there must be a large number of them present. The address is in that file,” Cady informed her brother.

Clay nodded as he finished off with the file before placing his phone down and went back to eating, “Alright, I'll go there after school, speaking on which we should get a move on before we're late.”

***

Clay and Cady made their way to school, both listening to their favorite music through their headphones. As his thoughts returned to his earlier dream, the young man gazed up at the sky, It just felt so real and the person he saw was definitely a demon based on the energy he gave off, but he didn't know any demons who looked human or were that intelligent.

He also had this sense of familiarity as if he knew him from somewhere. When he felt a tap on his shoulder, the boy was jolted out of his reverie. He noticed they were outside his high school when he turned to the owner of the tap, who was his sister. Cady removed their headphones and said, "This is your stop bro, don't forget to go do what we talked about,” The older sibling patted the younger sibling's head, causing her cheeks to flush, “Don't worry that pretty little head of yours I'll go do it right after school."

The girl ran off with a huff to continue her journey to school, Clay chuckled as he walked to class, amused by his sister's antics. When he arrived at his destination the boy went to his desk and sat down before pulling out his game console, when he looked up he noticed Caroline sitting on his desk with a smile on her face.

"Clay! Good morning!" the brunette said cheerfully, “Good morning, Caroline.” Clay greeted back as he put the console in his pocket and rested his cheek on the knuckles of his hand, putting an end to his game. “Would you like to join a club? If so, which will you join?” Caroline's tone changed from one of cheerfulness to one of inquisitiveness.

Clay raised an eyebrow before wondering if he should join a club, it seemed like a good idea and if a demon attack occurred while he was still in class he'd have a good reason to leave. With that settled in his mind he needed to consider which club he would join, he didn't want anything serious or physical because his fitness was already at an all-time high and doing things like basketball and demon hunting on the side would exhaust him.

He'd join the Kendo club but he knew they wouldn't teach him anything he didn't already know, he'd join the gaming club but he's had enough of his console, so that's out. Accounting was not his forte and history bore him to tears, the young man was about to give up hope when he remembered there was a science club; he was pretty good in physics and chemistry and the club could teach him something useful for the future.

The boy then remembered Caroline was waiting for an answer and he was sure she was growing impatient with his delay in telling her, “I'm thinking about joining the science club,” Clay smiled and exclaimed. Caroline's eyes widened as she exclaimed, "Yay! You'll be in the same club as Amalea and I!” The hunter laughed at the girl, “Then let's have some fun there together,” Clay smiled warmly as he spoke and the girl nodded in agreement. The two continued to converse until the teacher arrived and began the lesson.