Katie Lockwood collapsed on the ground. All around her was a sea of dead Chaos Descendants. Just the stench of their corpses was enough to make the high school smell like hell. Many of these Chaos Descendants stood several meters tall, but they were dead nonetheless, and that was all that mattered.

Katie did her best to get back up. On first glance, she looked fine, but if someone looked at her from behind...her entire back was gone, erased from reality by some sort of radiation and exposing her insides to the world. Even now, this same radiation fought against Katie’s regeneration powers. Katie healed quickly, but this radiation came from a Chaos Descendant more powerful than any being Katie had faced before. Even with her enhanced attributes, the Chaos Descendant still landed a blow on her and crippled her...for the moment.

She would be able to heal herself, but it would take a while, and unfortunately, the coast was far from clear. The Chaos Portal was still there. Katie was both relieved and disappointed that the colorless and colorful screen has shrunk by a little, but it was still standing, which meant the next wave wouldn’t take too long.

“Grrrrrr!” The radiation in her body just refused to leave, and Katie growled furiously. Suddenly, she had a brilliant idea. She remembered how when Mr. Isaac destroyed every inch of her body, she just grew right back out of nothing. So if she could destroy her own body...maybe she could get the radiation off her? Then again, did she really want to do that? This just felt so...unique!

Suddenly, there was some commotion at the Chaos Portal, and Katie looked up to find a figure that stood two meters tall, clad in a black robe. Mechanical claws reached out under the robe. And its face...it was wearing some sort of...mask? All Katie could tell was the figure had a sadistic smile on. How did she know it was a sadistic smile and not just a normal smile? Well...she saw smiles like this in the mirror every morning.

“Ok…” Laying face down on the ground, Katie casually waved her hand at the fresh Chaos Descendant as if she was just making a casual greeting. “So...how are you doing?”

The Chaos Descendant looked down on Katie and carefully examined the radiation that lingered on her back. The interesting thing was that not all Chaos Descendants were mindless beasts. Many of them were more than capable of thinking. It was just that most of the time the nature of the Chaos Domain forced them to act cruelly and irrationally. It was just in their very bones.

All Chaos Descendants were created by nightmares. This Chaos Descendant in particular was forged by one particular fear...the fear of pain and torture.

Seeing the girl on the ground, suffering, the figure decided to give her a little push and send her over the edge. His mechanical claws reached out and carved across Katie’s cheeks, casting a curse of torment over Katie’s shivering body.

The next second, the Chaos Descendant watched in horror as the radiation wound on Katie’s back disappeared, and as a reward for helping her out, Katie leaped onto the figure and tore it apart piece by piece.

Talk about tactical mistakes...

When legions of Chaos Descendants poured through the Chaos Portal into this world, they expected to find countless lives ready for harvest. They desired blood. They desired pain. Their every cell demanded that they unleash endless cruelty and anarchy upon this seemingly peaceful world.

But they would never get the chance to do that, for between them and the world outside stood a single brunette girl, and she was holding onto a Knife.

For twelve full hours, Katie slaughtered every single Chaos Descendant that came across the portal. Many of the Chaos Descendants were just a matter of a stab or two. Others were a lot mightier, such as the radiation monster that temporarily crippled Katie. Thankfully, as most of the world had no idea what was happening here, the size of the Chaos Portal was not only controlled but also constantly shrinking. This ensured that Katie could single-handedly end this whole mess.

The altar on the elevated stage has been transformed into a slaughterhouse. The Chaos Descendants refused to give up, and Katie simply stood in front of the Chaos Portal and refused to back down. For twelve hours, she held the door like an unbeatable warden. Nothing could get by her in one piece.

There were a few close calls, but the girl was tougher than all the Chaos Descendants were combined. She couldn’t be beaten, and she couldn’t be killed. The nature of the battle also meant it was impossible to avoid her, forcing the intruders upon this world to fight the immortal that was Katie Lockwood to the death.

Finally, as the last Chaos Descendant no longer had any of its three heads left, with another soundless explosion, the Chaos Portal converged into a single point before disappearing altogether. Mr. Isaac’s sacrifice was only enough to keep the portal open for this long without additional kills.

This was finally over. Mr. Isaac was dead. His last-ditch effort to screw everyone else over was beaten. And this school...as Katie looked around the campus, she could barely tell it was the place of education that she spent years at. There were just so many bodies. Students. Teachers. Dark Pantheon Predators. Chaos Descendants loyal to Mr. Isaac. Chaos Descendants that came out of the Chaos Portal. And Katie suspected a significant portion of the blood and guts on the ground belonged to her.

As the only person still alive in this hell, Katie suddenly had a brilliant business idea. She could make so much money if she donated blood or sold organs!

Slowly, the brunette turned around and walked away, heading for outside the campus. She had no intention of cleaning up after herself. Whoever found this place next could take care of that. Plus, she saved everyone! The least they could do was clean up her mess!

And just like that, Katie Lockwood left Riverside High School once and for all. To where? No one knew, not even she herself at the moment.

As Katie left the school, a figure suddenly appeared in one particular classroom. It was the classroom where the love of Katie’s life met her end. He was standing at the window, with his eyes trained on Katie’s back as she disappeared from sight.

He was Dominator Lupon, or as Katie called him, the Agent. He was the one that made this slaughter possible by telling the girls who Mr. Isaac was and what he was after, allowing Katie to defeat Mr. Isaac’s scheming. Of course, he did so much more in the shadows, ultimately sealing Mr. Isaac’s gruesome demise.

For instance, he forged the psychic presence of all the dead Spiers and Predators at the abandoned factory. For instance, he kept Caitlin alive until Katie could see her one last time. And how did the Chief find his way to that abandoned factory at such a perfect timing? His work as well.

The Dominator casually waved his hand, and a gray mist took form right beside him. The mist shuddered in place before suddenly speaking up. It had no physical body or mouth, but its psychic power served the function of vocal cords.

“Lupon! You traitor!” The voice cried out in endless fury. “Why did you save me?”

Lupon barely turned his head at the question. “I thought you may have something to say, Predator Elias.”

“What…” Predator Elias, the Dark Pantheon Predator that took Mr. Isaac’s body, found himself truly confused. When Katie dissected him piece by piece, he thought he was going to die. To his surprise, Lupon suddenly stepped in and saved him...well, kind of. Lupon, without Katie’s knowledge, sliced off a piece of Elias’s soul and kept it safe while the rest of him, body and soul alike, was obliterated by the furious girl. In a sense, the real Elias was dead already, literally from a thousand cuts.

Yet, the man was far from grateful.

“You know what...if you think saving me will exonerate you of your transgressions, then you’re wrong! I am a dead man, but you’re doomed too! Lord Horen will hear about this, and he will punish you for your most blatant betrayal!”

The Dominator stood there in silence, and a small wicked smile slowly climbed onto his face as if Elias just said something very funny. Suddenly, he snapped around to face the tiny piece of Elias’s soul. His eyes turned pitch black.

“I assure you, Predator, that Lord Horen has already heard about this. Unfortunately...unlike the girl who killed you, I have no desire to punish myself.”

He wasn’t Dominator Lupon. He never was.

“That...that is impossible!” Elias’s soul fragment shook violently as he came to a horrifying conclusion. As a matter of fact, he could barely control his psychic power to talk. “What...why, my lord! I have served you well! Why are you doing this?” And then he realized it. “It’s...it’s Katie Lockwood, isn’t it? I...my plan was never supposed to work! It...”

“It was merely a trial for Miss Lockwood.” Lord Horen continued on with what Elias failed to say. “It was a wake-up call to bring out her true nature. Her true identity. For reasons you don’t and will never understand, she has been trapped in this...persona for way too long. She is destined for so much more, but certain incidents happened that rid her of the...lessons she was supposed to learn a long, long time ago. Thankfully, we have managed to put her back on the track.”

“The track of endless torture, agony, and slaughter. The track she was meant for the day she was born.”

“And as for you...”

He said as he grabbed onto the mist of soul. His words were quiet and not at all threatening, but that was enough to make Elias’s soul shake in utter terror until finally, Lord Horen gave voice to his decree.

“You are no more than a tool. A toy. A side character of a grand play. And now that you have served your final purpose...it’s time for you to exit the stage.”

Before Elias could even beg for mercy, Lord Horen crushed what was left of his soul into oblivion, terminating the entity that Katie knew as Mr. Isaac once and for all.

As the room went silent again, Lord Horen, the leader of the Dark Pantheon, slowly made his way to the corner of the room. There, laid Caitlin’s lifeless body.

Without a word, Lord Horen knelt down beside Caitlin’s gradually decomposing body. He rested a finger on Caitlin’s forehead. For a moment, time itself seemed to be turning back. One hour. Two hours. Twelve hours. Lord Horen watched as Katie first set Mr. Isaac’s head in front of Caitlin. He watched as the brunette went on her knees and begged for help, any help, to bring Caitlin back. Finally, as time moved backward even more, he observed in silence as Caitlin reached for Katie’s Knife, ready to kill herself and force Katie to do what had to be done.

It was at that moment that Lord Horen reached out into the stream of time, grabbed onto Caitlin, and yanked her out into this reality.

The Dark Pantheon Lord just looked back into the past and extracted a copy of Caitlin the moment before she killed herself. She was still dying, but the unsolvable curse by Mr. Isaac was nothing to the leader of the Dark Pantheon.

Of course, an act like this didn't leave Lord Horen untouched. As soon as Caitlin was out in the real world, the Lord collapsed on the ground. Blood oozed out of his mouth, but the real damage was done to his soul. Irreparable damage, in fact. But as he set his eyes on Caitlin, who was lying still on the ground beside him, unconscious but alive, he knew all was worth it.

Wind blew through the slaughterhouse, clearing out some of its stenches. Lord Horen turned to the side and found himself facing four other Dark Pantheon Lords. All of them lowered their heads in submission as they awaited their orders.

“Clean this place up. The world will never know what happened here.” Lord Horen ordered quietly before glancing at the unconscious Caitlin. “And her...bring her back to my palace and prepare for an induction ceremony. She...she belongs to the Pantheon now.”

“Soon...she will become one of us. She will become one of the Pantheon's mightiest champions.”

The Lords all nodded before one of them raised a question.

“My Lord, what should we do to the girl that did all this? Katie Lockwood? Should we take her out?”

Lord Horen scoffed at the notion before waving his hand. “As far as you are concerned, Miss Lockwood is irrelevant.”

“As you wish, my Lord.”

As the four Dark Pantheon Lords disappeared from the room, and as countless Dark Pantheon Predators and Dominators marched into the campus below and started clearing up any sign of the slaughter that had taken place here, Lord Horen turned back to the direction where Katie first disappeared.

“Farewell, Miss Lockwood. The Dark Pantheon awaits your ascension. Soon, let it be a year or a thousand, your name will be known across a million worlds, and when that happens, the Dark Pantheon will be your most loyal servants.”

He whispered before looking down on the back of his right hand. There, sat a brand that looked like a bolded capital ‘P’.

“After all...such was our fate since our very creation.”

“Long live...the Corps.”