Playing Villian with My Hell system

The ground cracked

Lucas lay on the floor, back pressed against the icy tiles, his chest heaving, eyes wide. Around him, lockers twisted , lights flickered, and reality itself seemed to stutter.

Kade came crashing down beside him , skidding to a stop with a GRUNT and a twitch.

"Ow. Again with the flying ghost body slam," he muttered, clutching his side. "I swear my afterlife insurance doesn't cover this."

He turned to Lucas. "What are you doing lying there?!"

Lucas, eyes wild with panic, replied, "I'm saving my life by staying down! You know—not dying?"

Kade flailed an arm. "That's not how this works!"

"I'm only seventeen!" Lucas cried. "I'm too young to be turned into an emotional smoothie by Satan's third cousin!"

Kade rolled his eyes. "Well guess what, Crybaby Casserole—age exemptions don't apply when demonic soul-vacuums are involved!"

They both jerked their heads toward the hallway just in time to see Drough—scarlet scarf flapping—hurled like a chew toy across the hall, slammed into a row of lockers by invisible force. Lockers folded in like tinfoil.

Kade winced. "Oof. That's gonna require vet insurance and probably divine intervention."

The possessed boy—demon eyes still flaring—turned to them.

"Your turn."

Lucas sat up, pale. "What do we do?"

Kade didn't hesitate. "We run!"

They scrambled to their feet, bolting in tandem.

Only… they weren't moving.

Lucas blinked. "Why do the lockers feel like they're running instead of us?"

Kade looked down and then up—his face twisted in dread. "Oh. Oh no. It's the Recycle Technique."

Lucas blinked. "That a yoga pose?"

"It's a hell-tier combat magic," Kade snapped. "One of the nastier ones. The demon's not moving us—it's moving everything else while we stay locked in space!"

Sure enough, the world twisted around them. Walls blurred like a painting dipped in acid. The possessed child floated effortlessly toward them, untouched by time, space, or sanity.

Kade gulped. "Okay, okay, little demon buddy. We can totally work this out. Maybe a group therapy session? A smoothie? I know a good spa that—"

The demon's glowing eyes slid away from Kade and locked onto Lucas.

"The ghost is already broken. But you… you carry pain I can taste."

Kade paled. "No—no, no, no, wait—take me instead!"

But the boy ignored him.

Lucas yelped as he was yanked upward by an invisible force, suspended like a puppet on a string. The Book of Death pulsed in the demon's hand, vibrating with hunger.

"You," the demon growled, "are perfect. Such lovely misery. Years of rejection. Shame. Loneliness. Fear. It will make your soul so… flavorful."

Kade screamed, fighting the invisible weight holding him down. "Lucas! No!"

The demon touched Lucas's jaw gently, mockingly—and opened its mouth. A dark wind howled. Lucas's soul began to rip free, dragged from his body in form of a glowing smoke.

His skin paled.

His body trembled.

He was fading.

The ghostly dome that once flickered around him was gone

"LUCAS!" Kade roared, crawling, clawing his way forward through the crushing pressure. Half of his incorporeal body already dissolving.

He reached out.

One last push.

He touched Lucas's leg.

FLASH.

BLACKNESS.

Mist. Cold. Empty.

Kade stood alone in darkness, disoriented. Then he heard it

"He's a mistake."

Kade turned toward a massive, floating screen.

A hospital. A woman—Lucas's mother—sat across from a doctor.

"I tried to end it," she whispered. "It didn't work. Is there another way?"

The doctor shook his head.

The scene shattered—replaced by Lucas, younger, being shoved into lockers.

"Why won't you leave?" his younger brother sneered. "Nobody wanted you anyway."

Another shift—Lucas being expelled. Sitting alone in the rain.

Kade winced, hands balling into fists. "What the hell is this…"

Then he saw him. Lucas. Kneeling in the dark. Hollow eyes. Shoulders slumped.

Kade walked forward, sat beside him.

"Hey," he said softly.

Lucas didn't look up. "Go away."

"I would," Kade said, voice unusually quiet. "But… I didn't know."

Lucas spoke, almost a whisper. "Nobody wants me. They all judge me. I screw up. I'm never enough. People just… expect me to fail."

Silence.

Then Kade sighed

"You think you're weak," Kade said. "But out of every intern I've trained—and I've trained a lot—you're the strongest."

Lucas blinked.

Kade continued. "You endured. The pain didn't break you. You're still here. That's your superpower, man. Endurance. You survived a world trying to erase you, even escaped death. Trust me you are the bravest kid I've ever met . I want you to know. Fate chose you. And maybe that sucks. But maybe it's because you can win."

Lucas met his gaze. Something flickered in his eyes.

And then

SYSTEM ALERT

[💥 NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: "SOUL FUSION: FLAMEBOUND"]

Description: When bonded in will and soul, Kade and Lucas can merge into one demonic hybrid: faster, stronger, immune to telekinesis, and able to burn through emotional parasitic entities.

Warning: only usable through mutual trust and synced emotion.

Lucas blinked. "Wait… did I just unlock anime powers?"

Kade gawked. "WE JUST UNLOCKED ANIME POWERS."

A beat.

Then Kade straightened. "We don't have time."

Lucas stood. Nodded. "Let's burn this sucker."

Kade extended his hand.

Lucas grabbed it firmly.

"Together."

BACK IN REALITY…

The demon was still feasting.

But something pulsed inside Lucas's body.

Light burst from him in molten arcs of fire.

The demon shrieked as Lucas's soul rebounded Kade appearing beside him, their forms glowing, overlapping, merging.

A voice echoed

"Flamebound Initiated."

Their fused form rose, fiery wings, ghost armor, eyes blazing with light.

Lucas, Kade stood .

And smiled.

"Hey, demon freak," they said, voice doubled. "You ever been burned ?"

Lucas's voice cracked through the fusion, hesitant, pained

"Wait. That's my brother…"

The fire around them flickered.

Kade's voice whispered inside his head. "Uh, yeah, I kinda forgot that part."

Lucas looked down at their burning arm. "We can't just barbeque him."

"Right, right," Kade mumbled. "So, Plan B: non-brother-roasting exorcism. Got it."