Unordinary: A Dream...? More Like A Nightmare

It was quiet as they made their way towards the gates. Wind gently flowed through open windows as children quietly hounded each other, playing and resting in equal measure.

Cecile walked to his left, her energy tendrils forming sharpened spears and drills before disappearing and restarting in a cycle, preparing herself for the fight ahead.

Remi was to his right, her hands and eyes sparking with vibrant electricity, drawing delighted whispers of the kids watching them lass by.

Both were giving an obvious sign of their power, naturally offering silent reassurances of their strength to the powerless.

John did not. His aura was kept tightly under his skin, his senses were all at full blast, and his body was only covered by a thin shirt and loose sweatpants. And still the people were the most relieved when they saw him.

Why then, if he wasn't showing off his strength, were they so reassured? If he didn't offer a show of power and certainty?

Because he no longer needed them. His soul leaking through his body was enough.

His eyes were glowing, John knew. Not just his pupils, but the strangely fitting way his entire eyes filled with his golden orange aura.

It marked him as something different, he knew. No one John had ever heard of had their eyes affected by their power this way. It was unique to him, as well as his mother most likely.

He was different. Had always been different. It was why someone had forced his mother away. Taken the light of his small family away. Someone who could make his mother, the one who passed her own ability to him, afraid.

For her family, never for herself.

Someone with the resources to do such a thing would never go quietly into the good night.

The mystery surrounding his mother's passing would eventually be forced open.

For now, he had other things to worry about.

"Remi. Cecile."

His voice was quiet, careful not to draw any more attention from the tired people around them. One of his scarred hands reached up to run through his dual toned hair, the gray fading into black. Small strands of white peppered his scalp, a last gift from the woman who birthed him.

"Keep each other safe."

John could tell neither were satisfied with his orders, but they didn't snap at him so he'd take the small measure of trust for what it was.

"I know how you fight. How you'll respond to a life or death situation." Remi was confused, of course he knew that. He'd defeated them both with ease during their battles, why wouldn't he know how they fought.

"But you don't know how I will, we'll work on it." He was unpredictable at best and sporadic at worst when he followed his instincts.

Even Claire couldn't guess what he'd do sometimes before his powers came through the seal enough to block her.

""Understood.""

He nodded as they stepped outside the door, and settled near the stairs leading to the gates.

"I want to try something tonight." Their eyes were on him now, completely serious. " If it works, we sould be able to keep these things out for good."

XXXXXXXXXX

John reached out with his pitch black aura, smothering the area within the walls in the power of his soul. Blackened forms hovered in the shadows as the sun went down, eager for blood John knew, but fearful of the presence now known to him.

He wasn't in the right frame of mind to try this last night, but with this little test, John knew that these things were more than just a desire for violence.

He still couldn't understand whatever emotions they were putting out through the strange power that mutated their forms. But they were capable of self preservation.

He could work with that.

The sun went down, and still they refused to come near.

The king of the former school now turned sanctuary in the apocalypse kept his vigil, seated on the steps beside the other two royals.

They were all quiet, focused. Any kind of personal feelings were thrown aside in order to not miss any kind of danger approaching.

A few individual monsters had the courage to approach despite his implied threat and visible cover of aura covering John's territory.

Remi and Cecile both took turns dispatching them. Either tearing them apart dispassionately with whips of black and green energy or erasing them in a shower of sparks and heat.

This was how the first hour was spent, with John focusing on his aura's flow and experimenting on how much power exactly was needed to keep the ever increasing horde away from his settlement.

He'd erased so many that first night in hell, and even more had been erased ever since. It was like they were all drawn to this place, by the souls kept within.

John could not read them as he was learning to do with his people. But the energy they used contained trace amounts of aura itself.

And what he felt from that sample of soul power was disgusting;

Absolute Hunger.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Keep the flow steady, Remi." He was coaching the petite young woman in using her powers now, keeping an eye out for whatever monstrosity was coming for them tonight.

"Electricity isn't like most other elements, it's constantly in motion. Ramping up and calming down in the blink of an eye." His own hand crackled with black electricity for a split second, his shroud covering his grounds shaking before ultimately stabilizing.

His aura was getting closer and closer to settling. Another few days and he would be nearly unstoppable.

"You've got multiple tendrils working at the same time, that was the biggest hurdle for you to overcome. Now you need to start back over, Cecile."

Her tendrils disappeared one by one until only one erupted from her palm. His hand rose parallel to hers, a normal whip appearing in his hand rather than his favored scorpion whips.

Cecile compared the two, and attempted to slice into the whip again and again. Her eyes narrowed in silent rage as she failed and broke her tendril in half trying.

It was pretty cute, watching her pout over the small bit of black energy left in her hand. He forced himself back to the present, and focused back on Remi's attempts to keep her power flowing through her body rather than the short bursts she'd become used to.

Once she was capable of keeping it active twenty four seven, then all she'd have to do was increase her output over time and she'd become a force to reckon with.

"The first step to evolving your ability is to reinforce one tendril, and make another the same exact way until you reach your limit." Her purple eyes narrowed at him under teal bangs, accentuating her pouty lips up at him again.

He was noticing these things more and more as he spent time with the girls.

He shouldn't. He didn't have time to think about either of them like this.

He didn't have time to think of Sera that way, let alone these two.

But he could feel their auras pressing against his own all around them. The contours of their bodies made clear to him through the power rolling off them in waves.

They were both nearly god tiers for a reason, their raw power and potential outstripped anything any of the low tier adults inside could ever bring into the world.

But they both had a long way to go.

The difference between the weakest level six and the strongest level five was nearly insurmountable.

"Don't just add power to it, Cecile." His right hand reached out and crushed the growing tendril before it could surpass the width of his wrist. "Keep it small, don't just throw aura at the damn problem and expect it to go away. Condense it into the shape you want."

Her purple eyes glared up at him for a minute, until she tried again with a growl. Another attempt, another failure to even scratch his whip.

But it was a little stronger.

"Good, keep going."

His voice startled her enough that she dropped her tendril.

Purple eyes met golden balls of light, annoyance and frustration clear in her amethyst gaze.

"You know exactly when I'm getting it wrong so why the hell aren't you telling me?" She knew better than to scream at him and throw a tantrum as she might have if they were alone, but she knew the importance of a united front.

And what could be better for their people's state of mind than watching their king teach others to be stronger while he protected them?

"You and I both know that becoming stronger is as much a journey as it is a grind." She was the first to look away, unwilling to concede, and unwilling to walk away.

A contradiction that defined the young woman he knew as the ex head of the school newspaper.

His eyes came to rest on the adorably scrunched up face of Wellston's ex queen. Her red eyes were squeezed shut as lightning covered her form every other second. She'd understand soon enough how to ground herself against its flow.

All that was left was for both of them to practice and learn at their own pace.

He'd have to put their bodies through their laces. Their forms were atrocious when they weren't using their abilities to compensate.

It would be a work in progress.

Something to look forward to after tonight.

"RAAAGGGGHHH!!!!"

Peace is gone.

The cam moment was gone.

Time for war.

What approached the horde just outside his 'claim' was… something that made his stomach turn.

Because he could feel this thing's emotions as easily as Arlo's.

It was vaguely humanoid, white bone like armor covering every inch of skin below it's neck.

Long barbed claws dripped with fresh blood.

Human blood.

His territory wasn't this bastard's first stop for the night.

Somehow, someone had managed to survive outside his sanctuary until tonight.

And now they were dead, judging by the utter glee and satisfaction he could feel from this new abomination.

How the hell was this thing 'alive'?

Whatever these things were made of, it naturally repulsed or twisted any aura that came into contact with it, despite the small amounts of aura inside each and every single one.

So how the hell had a human been corrupted?!

It hit him like a hammer seconds later; the only way for a human to 'survive' against such an invasive energy.

It was for their bodies to put up no resistance that was natural to anyone capable of manipulating their auras.

In other words, anyone powerful enough to be considered a low tier.

This being was a cripple in life.

And now it was a monster in death.

XXXXXXXXXX

"John." Remi's voice carried to her king as his aura became heavier and denser in the air around them in response to that thing's approach. "Let us try first."

She could feel the eager smirk of her teal haired comrade behind her.

They needed this.

Both of them.

To show themselves that they could survive against the monsters their new world was throwing at them.

They had both been helpless since this had started.

Against that first horde. The lion. And their recoveries had hit them all hard, she knew.

Remi needed to see for herself if she could keep up with their enemies. If she could keep up with amazing people like John, Sera, and Arlo.

And she knew Cecile felt the same way about being saved like a weak princess.

And besides, Remi had her pride as a former queen to consider.

If she couldn't keep up with at least one of her rivals, she wouldn't be able to look herself in the mirror.

He looked them both in the eyes, abd she knew he was going to say no.

To let him handle it.

He would try to reassure them that he was strong enough. That they didn't have to put themselves out here like that.

And then he looked them both in the eyes, and stopped.

He'd come a long way during his month-long absence.

Impulses and first thoughts no longer dominated his reactions. He was considering things now. Asking himself questions.

It made him look so much better than the endless pain and rage that he'd nearly torn her body apart with, over a month ago.

John worked his jaw, his gorgeous golden champagne gaze boring into them. Looking for something. Considering.

"Five minutes." That was a compromise she hadn't expected. She could feel his protective instincts through the aura that surrounded them.

They were nearly overwhelming in their intensity, just as overbearing as the focus that had shifted between herself, Cecile, and the monster nearly swaggering his way toward them.

"Thank you." She stood on her tip toes and jumped high enough to plant a sloppy kiss on his cheek, quickly walking forward with Cecile at her side so he didn't see the atomic blush on her cheeks.

"Bitch." Red met purple, and Remi was surprised to see none of the usual wrath the older queen had always held for her. Only steely focus and a promise.

'He's mine.'

She had many rivals in the pursuit of her own happiness, and one large mountain in the form of her emotionally exhausted queen, Sera.

But she knew that as long as she was fighting under the eyes of her new king she had one person in her corner.

And right now, she has two.

Lightning arced around her body, roving every inch of her body and heightening her perception speed and her own muscles.

Many black limbs tore through the air beside her, almost a dozen tendrils wrapping together to form two large whips.

The former human stopped just outside of John's barrier, and roared his challenge.

Cecile and Remi answered by throwing themselves forward to meet his sudden charge head on.

This wasn't their end.

This was just the beginning to a bright future.

One where everyone was considered an equal. Where the weak idolized the strong, and the strong in turn guarded the weak until they too were strong.

The seeds had been planted. Now they just had to nurture it until it sprouted into something… beautiful.

Remi was sure of that.

Notes: I'm back guys, with a new chapter I cranked out over the last few hours. I haven't updated this story in a while so I hope you notice the way my writing has evolved over my experiences. Let me know if you like the changes.

Up next is fixing what I've done to poor Sera. Did that girl dirty with how weakened and dependent on John so I'm going to try to fix that going forward.