Jack woke to the smell of ash and blood. Groggy, he opened his eyes and tried to shake himself awake.

He didn't remember falling asleep, and he was struggling to bring the world into focus. The last thing Jack remembered, he was training in the backyard with Matt.

They were sparring with their new weapons. Matt was a terror to fight. He used his shadows to obscure his blade and hide its current length. His illusions made it impossible to determine where he even was, let alone which direction he would strike from. The only thing keeping him from walking all over Jack was his inferior strength and reactions.

Ever since he had been aligned with his qi, Jack had been improving his physique at a rate that Matt and Arthur couldn't keep up with. Jack guessed that it had something to do with Zachias' Inheritance or the time that he spent controlling Jack's body, but Zachias was reluctant to speak on the subject.

Matt's shadow covered katana appeared to be nearly the length of his body at over five and a half feet. He slashed for Jack's side and Jack blocked with the pole of his naginata. Unfortunately, instead of colliding with the shaft with a clang, the blade dispersed into black smoke. As soon as he was past Jack's guard, Matt jumped forward with a stab and extended his blade at the same time.

Jack had been ready for this strategy from the beginning. It was the first thing that he would try with Matt's katana and abilities. Jack used his superior speed to leap back while pulling his naginata backwards and turning it into a scythe at the same time.

Matt's katana came to a stop just before entering Jack's throat. At the exact same time, Jack's scythe blade came to rest on the back of Matt's neck. It was a draw. They both smiled at each other and grabbed the other's forearm like gladiators.

The next thing he knew, Jack was waking up on the ground, confused and dizzy. Zachias was shouting at him to get up. Behind him, a blurry shadow and a bright light were darting around a blazing fire that seemed to be attacking them.

"Get up and retreat you fool!" Zachias' deep voice boomed into his head.

The world finally came back into focus and Jack witnessed ruin.

His house was a pile of burning rubble, nothing left but broken glass and flaming embers. Jack could feel the heat blasting from the roaring fire.

In the middle of the backyard, in combat with Matt and Arthur was a heavily muscled, dark-skinned man on fire with a set of majestic flaming wings and a furious face.

Arthur was fighting with everything he had. His giant sword was glowing with energy and he was flashing around the angel, attacking from every direction seemingly at once.

Matt was trying to take advantage of the fantastic distraction that Arthur was providing. He would wait for the perfect moment to strike, preventing the flaming man from counter attacking effectively. Just when it seemed like the enemy would catch Arthur, Matt would appear from behind a shadow and slash for his neck, forcing him to break off his attack and dodge.

Despite the amazing teamwork, it was clear that they were struggling. The seven-foot tall angel had not a scratch on him. Their onslaught had only seemed to piss him off more, while they were covered with scrapes and burns.

Jack stood up and prepared to jump in, but Zachias' mental projection appeared in front of him with his hands out.

"You need to retreat!" Zachias yelled at him. "You stand no chance against the archangel of fire. Especially without the ability to manifest your qi."

Jack clenched his jaw and ran through Zachias' incorporeal body. He would rather burn to death than leave his friends behind.

He picked up his scythe and sprinted in. Jack jumped several feet into the air and turned his weapon into a huge Warhammer, bringing it down with all his strength on the angel's head.

The angel looked at him contemptuously and caught the hammer in his bare hand with a wicked smirk. Jack knew he was in trouble, but still refused to give up. He turned the weapon back into a scythe and it sliced his opponent's hand, barely.

The angel’s smirk quickly turned to wrath, and suddenly, he was summoning fire and launching himself like a rocket. The flames blasted from the bottom of his boots, and he kneed Jack in the jaw with explosive power.

Both Matt and Arthur landed attacks in that moment, but they did very little damage, if any. Jack was knocked out cold while he was flying through the air, but when he landed, the pain from his broken jaw shocked him back to consciousness.

"I told you" Zachias was standing over Jack and looking at the angel with hatred. "Rafael will annihilate you. None of you stand a chance."

Jack could not speak with his broken jaw but he was starting to see Zachias' point. He began to grieve his and his friends' lives, when he heard a scream that he thought he recognized coming from behind him.

Dreading what he would see, Jack turned around and witnessed the horrified face of a teenage girl with curly black hair, olive skin, and familiar green eyes.

His sister was standing in the driveway staring at the scene in front of her with terror. He tried to tell her to run, but all that came out was a garbled yell. He turned back around and saw his worst nightmare. The angel, Rafael as Zachias had called him, was looking at Maggie and aiming his flaming hand in her direction.

Jack panicked and time seemed to slow down.

If Maggie was going to die today, it would certainly not be before him. His qi exploded from his body, his aura taking up more space than it ever had before. He decided that if it wouldn't take the shape that it wanted to on its own, he would force it to manifest.

Jack grabbed his qi with his mind and instinctively dominated it into shape. Bright blue light flashed along his skin and time seemed to slow down even more. He saw that Rafael's attack had already left his hand and was headed in his sister's direction.

Jack had never been so angry in his life.

He grabbed a huge chunk of his manifested energy and blasted the fireball out of the air with a lightning bolt that was a foot in diameter. The bolt annihilated Rafael's attack and continued on to strike him in the side.

He was slammed onto his back and he rolled over his flaming wings back to his feet. He stood back up with a look that showed that he couldn't believe what had just happened.

Matt chose that moment to appear from a shadow just behind Rafael and slashed across his wings and back. The angel turned and kicked Matt in the chest, but only managed to disperse one of his shadow clones while Arthur dashed in with incredible speed and stabbed for his chest.

Rafael managed to avoid getting stabbed and even landed a punch to Arthur's stomach. He doubled over and flew back a dozen feet before landing on his back heaving for air.

Jack used this time to pick up his scythe. As soon as he decided to retrieve it, he was standing across the yard looking at it in his hand. It was like his body had moved for him at a mind-bending speed. He was covered in a swarm of small blue lightning bolts arcing out of his entire body.

Jack channeled that lightning through his scythe and the giant silver blade started glowing blue with energy. His eyes met Rafael's and the angel spread his arms and wings wide, summoning a massive column of fire that he compressed into a basketball sized ball of what looked like plasma.

Jack knew instinctively that he would be obliterated if he was hit with that attack. He bent his knees and prepared to dodge. Every muscle in his body was supercharged and his scythe blade was blinding with light from the energy moving through it.

"That is enough" Zachias appeared between them and waved his arm. The angel, his friends, even the ground around him disintegrated into nothingness.

Jack jolted awake with lightning swarming around him. He found himself inside his living room with Arthur and Matt meditating beside him. Their eyes as wide as dinner plates, they jumped to their feet looking around for the cause of Jack's alarm.

Jack took a moment to examine his surroundings and confirm what his eyes were telling him before he relaxed his qi, and the lightning around him faded.

"What the fuck Zachias?" he asked, furious, knowing what the answer would be.

Zachias studied his face for a moment with a blank expression.

"You just experienced a mental simulation that you believed to be reality" he said without the slightest hint of remorse.

"So you made me believe that my friends and my little sister were about to be killed?"

Jack was working himself into a righteous rage. Zachias blank expression broke and his own anger started to show. He pointed at Jack's chest.

"I did that for you" he declared and Jack looked at him with skeptical fury. "It is clear to me that you are the type of warrior who improves only in conflict. You needed high stakes or you would have remained stuck. You would do well to notice that it was successful."

"Successful?" Jack shouted.

"Yes! You have learned to manifest your qi, which has the aspect of lightning. A rare elemental aspect that symbolizes pure power." Zachias said with a note of triumph in his voice.

"I don't give one single fuck about that. Stay out of my god damn head! Or else we start busting big blue ghosts."

Jack knew that he was getting ready to go off. He felt a hand land on his shoulder and he looked to find Arthur smiling at him warmly.

"I don't know what just happened, but congrats on the lightning. Sounds pretty cool." Matt nodded his agreement from behind Arthur and Jack started to calm down a bit. He took a long moment to gather himself and look at Zachias threateningly.

"Stay out of my head" Jack demanded thinking about the simulation he had just experienced. "Who was that angel? Is he a real person?"

"Unfortunately, yes" Zachias answered evenly. "Rafael, the archangel of fire. He was once one of my greatest rivals."

"Angels are real?" Arthur inquired, excited.

"Of course" Zachias drawled with boredom. "They make up one of the Universe's most powerful factions."

"Does that mean that God is real too?" Arthur hurried to ask.

"There are entire pantheons of gods in the Universe. I myself am worshipped as a god on some planets" he said with a self-satisfied smile.

"Quit bragging." Jack thought for a moment then added. "He seemed kind of weak to be a rival to you."

Zachias burst out laughing.

"You faced the weakest version of him that I could possibly imagine" he warned. "In real life, he would wipe you, your friends, and the continent you were standing on off the face of the world with one halfhearted technique."

Jack recalled the angry visage of the seven foot tall angel and shivered.