HELLSCAPE

CHAPTER 10

As the sun set on the day following when mission control saw the fight that took place in the Arctic, the man with the scar had returned to the institute,

"SIR! YOU'RE BACK!" Agent I exclaimed at the sight of her mentor, the man gave her a confused look as if he didn't know what she was so excited about. He pretended nothing had happened between them that day in the training room. He was pretending as if nothing had happened in the Arctic yesterday. He was acting very natural, well, natural for him at least.

"Where have you been?" she asked

"I just needed to take some time off"

"Right... to relax, huh?" the agent responded sarcastically

He smirked, acknowledging that they both knew that the other was aware of what had happened,

"You hungry?" he said, breaking the silence

"Not particularly" the agent responded

"Perfect, let's go get a bite to eat" he said, disregarding Agent I's response.

—

The man with the scar and the agent went into the city centre to find a place to eat,

"So what's your deal?" he asked her abruptly

"Wha-"

"04 told me you were looking for me while I was away" he continued as Agent I looked away in embarrassment

"You just disappeared so I was-"

"I'm feeling like Tacos! You want Tacos?" he interrupted her as she was beginning to explain herself

"Sure..." she responded, not even noticing that they had walked up to a food truck as she followed him. He ordered for them both and they took their food and climbed to sit atop a wall nearby.

"Can I ask you something?" the agent asked the man hesitantly as he took a bite of his food

"Shoot" he responded, with a mouthful

"So, you know in the training room, when you said you were shielded with Hellfire?" she began. The man lowered his food from his mouth and wiped his mouth clean. He did not seem pleased with the reference to what had happened that day in the training room.

"Yes..." he responded, weary of what questions could follow

"How is it that you are constantly shielding yourself with an ability without it burning away your soul?..." she asked before biting into her taco. The man sighed, almost as if he knew he was just asked a question to which the answer would not be understood by the person who had asked it.

"In simple terms; I keep a layer of Hellfire surrounding my body, a very thin layer. The closer you get to touch me, the hotter it feels." he began explaining

"Then how was I able to grab your hand after I fell?" the agent added. The man looked around and his eyes started to glow his signature blue. He jumped down from the wall and Agent I followed,

"Here, follow me" he prompted Agent I. As the agent followed behind him, the man approached and put a hand on a young man's face that looked like he was in his mid-20s. As the man with the scar put his palm up to the young man, the man began to panic,

"As you can see, my flames naturally burn unnaturals, 'bad spirits' if you will," he continued, moving his palm closer to the young man's face until he was a fraction of a millimetre away from touching it. The young man began to wince in pain,

"I had no intention of burning you when I put my hand out so I did not consciously burn you, and you're not an unnatural so the flames didn't instinctively burn you" he went on, as he finished his explanation the flames had burnt away the young man's face and flames trailed down his neck and into his heart, burning it away.

"Was that man a-"

"Yup, white-level unnatural" he answered her question before she even finished answering it,

"That still doesn't explain how you can keep this ability active constantly without it changing your soul..." he reminded him

"I don't entirely know what makes my abilities different to other Devils" he admitted

"I seem to able to push the limits of my powers a lot farther than most of the agents can" he added

"Did you find any explanation in those books you were reading about my abilities the other day at the institute library?" he asked as he started walking. Agent I was surprised that he still remembered that and slightly embarrassed that she had been caught reading up on his abilities,

"They didn't say much about how Hellfire works" she responded, lying about what she had read. She didn't know what she should and shouldn't disclose what she had found. The agent followed the man as he made his way back to the institute, she thought to herself,

"If Devil's abilities are powered by the essence that Hellfire generates and he can potentially generate Hellfire... that could potentially make him the strongest... ever"

Then she remembered the vision she'd seen. She began to fear...

"If he is potentially this strong, then how powerful was the unnatural that she had seen in her vision... what was that thing?..."