ear diary:

  One week after getting out of the hospital, Mary and I were facing some armed robbers. They were about to escape, but we managed to catch up to them. There were four of them, and they had pretty powerful illegal weapons, but with my electric fists I could shield myself from their attacks and then knock them out with a single punch. Mary, on the other hand, was too fast for them; she easily dodged all their bullets and left them unconscious. And just like that, another easy job was finished.

  After the police took the criminals away, we decided to go rest at a shopping mall since we didn't have much else to do. I felt kind of nervous, because ever since Krok's death we hadn't talked "romantically" again. I had simply forgotten the whole topic of our kiss and the fact that I wanted to ask her out. Besides, lately we'd had very little time to rest; there were always problems everywhere, and because of that, we had a lot of work.

  At that moment we were resting in a restaurant while drinking some juice. I decided to bring up the kiss again, but before I could, Mary asked me:

  —By the way, Tommy, what about Jake?

  I replied:

  —You're right, you haven't seen him in a few days. Honestly, I don't know what the hell he's been up to. We haven't talked much this week, but I imagine he's probably out with his girlfriend or something. Remember that woman with the kid? He's probably with her; that's why he hasn't had time to join us on missions.

  Mary just replied, "I'm happy for him," and after that I lost the motivation to talk about the kiss. We stayed silent for a while, drinking our juice, and since we had nothing else to do—and I was feeling kind of down—I decided to go home. I told Mary I'd drop her off at her place, and she agreed. By the way, about a month ago Jake taught me how to drive, so we were able to get back to Grass Kingdom much faster than if we'd gone on foot.

  While we were in the flying car, I couldn't stop thinking about how weird Jake had been lately. He used to talk to me all the time and tell me everything, but back then it was the complete opposite; even his attitude had changed a bit. It reminded me of how he used to be when we were kids.

  While I was lost in my thoughts, I heard a strange noise next to the car. I figured it was another flying car, or maybe even a plane or helicopter. I looked out the left window and saw a very strange creature flying beside us. I had never seen anything like it. At first I thought it was a dragon, but then I remembered all dragons were gray, and this one was crimson red. It looked pretty terrifying, but I decided to ignore it—until the bastard started attacking the car.

  I told it to stop several times, but it didn't seem to understand Spanish. So I put the car on autopilot and decided to go out and punch the bastard. It escaped at high speed, but I couldn't just let it go, since it scratched up the car pretty badly, and that pissed me off. I tried to catch up by propelling myself with the True?ioion, but the bastard was faster. So I decided to use a few lightning bolts I had stored to boost myself with a fire bolt at full power, and I barely managed to catch up.

  I was on top of it, about to land a solid punch on its head, but it shot fire from its mouth, causing several burns. I started falling at high speed. I had no lightning left, and on top of that, my arms were too damaged to move, since I'd used them to shield myself from the fire. I couldn't propel myself with the True?ioion. I thought about biting the handle of my sword, but my teeth kept slipping—they weren't strong enough.

  Luckily, Mary rescued me. I didn't know she could drive. After that she wanted to take me to the hospital because of my burned arms, but I told her it wasn't necessary since the injuries weren't that serious and would heal on their own. Even so, she took me home, and when we got there, she wrapped my arms in bandages and stayed for a while taking care of me, though eventually she had to leave.

  —Damn monster. If I see it again, I'll cut its head off. By the way, Jake's not home... Where the hell is that idiot?

  The next day my arms were much better, though still a bit sore. Even so, Mary and I had to go out to complete several missions. Jake never came back home. I figured he probably stayed at his girlfriend's place, but it surprised me that he hadn't told me.

  Several hours later it was already getting dark. Mary and I were heading home in my car, as usual, when suddenly I saw the monster that attacked us yesterday not too far away. I couldn't resist the temptation to get revenge, so I followed it at full speed. For some reason it was heading toward the Desert of Death, and to make things worse, the car ran out of fuel and we had to land.

  Mary said we should go back, but I told her we had to take down that monster since it was dangerous and could attack innocent people. She agreed, so we decided to chase it on foot. I used electric speed; I wasn't as fast as Mary, but she didn't get too far ahead of me.

  After a while we saw the monster enter what looked like an abandoned cabin in the middle of the desert. I assumed that's where it lived. We decided to go in, ready to fight. To our surprise, the place looked much bigger on the inside than on the outside. It looked somewhat like my house, but much darker and larger. It had a strange and terrifying atmosphere. There were no rooms, just a giant hallway that we followed while staying alert.

  Finally, we reached a door. We decided to open it, but first I counted down:

  —Three, two, one... NOW!

  The door opened and we rushed in, ready to attack the monster. Suddenly I told Mary to step back. The one in front of us wasn't just the monster; Crag's father was there too, sitting calmly.

  "Crag was already pretty dangerous, but he obeyed his father like a dog, and they probably came from another dimension. As far as I remember, Mom never mentioned knowing a species in the universe called demons; she only talked about cosmic beings, which aren't the same as a mortal species. She also told me that moving from one dimension to another requires a huge amount of energy. This guy is definitely much stronger and more dangerous than Crag. And he's planning something in Totium and wanted my True?ioion for something," I told myself.

  I told Mary to run, but the door slammed shut and we couldn't open it. No matter how much we forced it or hit it, it seemed to be made of super-resistant wood. It was a trap. I decided to use the True?ioion to break it, but just before my slash connected, the door was protected by some kind of crimson barrier.

  "Damn it, we're trapped... that monster must be Crag..."

  —Excellent. This worked exactly as I planned. We didn't get a chance to talk that night, but allow me to introduce myself to you, Thunder Knight. My name is Reficul, also known as the King of Demons. A pleasure —the man said with a voice as imposing as it was polite.

  I was scared shitless. I had no idea what that guy was capable of.

  "I don't think we're getting out of here alive..."

  —Oh, forgive me, you seem confused. You see, after the Thunder Knight fought my son, he returned to me very cheerful. He had the same appearance as you. He told me we no longer needed you, since he had created a copy of your device. But then he returned to his original form. For several days he tried and tried to transform into you again, but he couldn't. I had already given him many opportunities before, but he always failed. He's useless. Anyway, I decided to handle things myself. First I needed to learn more about this world and your device, so I kidnapped your brother and, through a painful but satisfying process, combined his DNA with that of a demon. In other words, the demon who attacked you and who is by my side is your brother. It was easier than I expected. This human is not a normal human... what an interesting specimen.

  —What did you say? —I replied.

  I hadn't fully processed what he told me, but a few seconds later my brain caught up.

  "Now everything makes sense... that's why Jake had been acting so strange..."

  —YOU MOTHERFUCKER, HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO MY BROTHER? I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!

  I was completely ready to attack the bastard with all my strength, but Mary stopped me.

  —Wait, Tommy. I know you're angry, but calm down. If he has the ability to turn humans into demons, he's definitely very powerful. You don't stand a chance against him.

  Her words managed to calm me down.

  "She's right... Who the hell is this guy? Where does he come from? That doesn't matter right now. The only thing we have to do is escape for now... but how?"

  —Oh, forgive me, Thunder Knight, but I needed someone to explain how this world works and how your device works as well. Then he lured you here. I already know enough, so I knew that once you were here, you wouldn't be able to do anything to escape.

  After saying that, the bastard snapped his fingers and giant wooden hands came out of the walls and grabbed us.

  —Ah, by the way, that human girl isn't important. Get rid of her.

  I didn't know what to do. The only thing I could think of was using my True?ioion to cut the hand holding me and then bring it to my neck. Suddenly, the hand that was about to kill Mary stopped.

  —You need me alive, so don't you dare do anything to her or I'll slice my own fucking throat, got it?

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  —HAHAHAHA, what an interesting human. Fine, have it your way. I'll let her live. You care about her, don't you? Then she may prove useful in the future to persuade you.

  He snapped his fingers again and my True?ioion was sealed inside a bubble and floated toward him. I was grabbed again by a giant hand. I thought everything was over. The bastard stood up from his chair and pulled out the crystal he had given Crag that day. As far as I understood, with that he could take control of my True?ioion, but he probably first had to separate my spirit from it. The guy simply began walking toward us slowly.

  "Shit... what now...?"

  My name is Jake Namor. I'm writing in this diary because someone very special asked me to.

  I've always been a very pathetic person. When I was a child, my parents loved me a lot; they always showed me affection and bought me things, especially my father, since I was his first son and therefore had the chance to become his successor. I believed it too. I always saw how amazing my father was: he defeated the bad guys and was praised by everyone. I wanted to be just like him. I even took it for granted that I would be, since he always told me that when I inherited the True?ioion, I must not disappoint our ancestors and must never forget what it means to be a Thunder Knight.

  Everything was going well. I even had a little brother who admired me. It felt great.

  But everything fell apart when I turned five. My thunder mark never appeared, which meant I would never be a Thunder Knight. My father grew distant from me and shifted his attention to my little brother, since there was a greater chance he would become his successor. Even though my mother told me that in the past there had been Thunder Knights whose marks appeared late—so there was still a possibility it could happen to me—I still had hope and decided to keep training hard, even though my father said it wasn't necessary.

  But three years later, Tommy turned five and his thunder mark appeared. That meant all my dreams and all my efforts were worthless. I was devastated. My father was very proud of my brother, while he barely even spoke to me. I was so jealous of Tommy... I remember wishing several times that he would disappear or that he had never been born.

  I started to truly hate him. He was very weak, both physically and mentally. He was a crybaby, and it took him a whole year to reach the first level of a Thunder Knight, when normally it only takes a couple of months. I always thought he was useless, that he didn't deserve the True?ioion or our father's attention. But even so, my father always supported him and spoiled him a lot. That only made me hate him more. I wanted to kill him.

  That's why I kept training even harder than before. I even seriously injured myself because of how intense my training was, but I didn't care. I just wanted to prove that even if I wasn't the Thunder Knight, I was far better than that stupid crybaby. I never gave up. Because of the hatred I had toward Tommy, it didn't matter how much it hurt.

  The years passed, and my idiot brother was still a weakling and a crybaby. I was stronger than him without the True?ioion. It pissed me off so much that whenever I saw him at school, I beat the hell out of him. He never fought back, and that only made me angrier. It was pathetic. I remember thinking countless times that he didn't deserve the True?ioion—I did.

  Still, I was glad that my father started treating him more strictly, since he had gotten stuck at level one and my father was disappointed in him.

  Until one day, on his tenth birthday, he finally fought back. Or rather, he was the one who challenged me to a fight. That made me happy, because I thought that after I defeated him, he would finally decide to kill himself, since he was useless, and then I would be able to have the True?ioion.

  But he said he wouldn't use the True?ioion to fight, which made me laugh a lot. I thought there was no way he could defeat me without it, so I agreed, thinking I would crush him even more easily.

  ...Or at least, that was the plan.

  How stupid I was. After a lot of effort, he managed to reach phase two of level one. His base power had increased—not by much, but enough to almost match mine. In fact, he was slightly stronger.

  After a long battle, I was the one who ended up defeated.

  I couldn't believe it. That stupid, weak, crybaby kid defeated me... no, he humiliated me.

  After the fight, he told me:

  —This is the result of my efforts after all these years. And I'm not done yet. I'll become even stronger.

  After that, he left. He didn't look happy about his victory; his face showed sadness and fury.

  I just stayed there, crying on the floor, like the pathetic person I am.

  After that day, I never messed with him again. Time passed, and four months later, he graduated from school. Tommy kept training hard with Dad. I decided to stop training, since I could never get any stronger—I had already reached my limit. I was just a human. I hadn't even inherited my mother's ability to use magic, so I focused on helping her with her business. She was an inventor. The truth is, I just wanted to die. I thought there was no point in me being alive. Tommy was already the son my parents wanted. I was just a burden.

  Five months later, Christmas arrived. It was always a holiday I really liked, but that year was different—I didn't feel happy enough to celebrate it. That day I was ready to take my own life, because I knew someone as pathetic as me didn't deserve to live. But unexpectedly, a demon attacked the Christmas party. Everything turned into chaos. My parents had already faced that demon before, but he had returned for revenge. The difference was that my father didn't have the True?ioion, since Tommy was the current wielder. Even so, my parents risked their lives to fight the demon so he wouldn't harm more innocent people. We couldn't fight—we weren't powerful enough to face that monster—so we ran. Or at least, that's what I wanted to do. But Tommy didn't want to leave. He wanted to help our parents. He knew that without the True?ioion, our father couldn't defeat the monster. I tried to convince him to leave, but he told me:

  "If only I didn't exist, my father could defeat that monster—or even you could. I'm just useless. I can't do anything. I'm so pathetic."

  He was wrong. He was amazing—way more amazing than me. Even though he wasn't as talented as our father, he never gave up. Even after how badly I treated him, he never gave up. He's the most amazing person I know. I wanted to tell him that, but the words wouldn't come out. And besides, he hated me—and he had every reason to—so even if I had said it, those words wouldn't have meant much to him. Even so, he ran off to try to help our parents. I kept trying to stop him, because I knew that if he died, the world would lose the Thunder Knight. I was sure I would never become the next wielder—I wasn't worthy. So I couldn't let Tommy die. But he wouldn't stop, so I followed him.

  We arrived at the battlefield, but it was already over. I could see a witch's seal on a giant rock in the area. I knew that spell. My mother had told me it was her trump card. If they ever encountered a villain they couldn't defeat, she could use that spell to seal them—but the cost of that powerful spell was a huge amount of energy. I saw my parents lying on the ground, lifeless. They had sacrificed all their energy to seal the demon—and as a result, they died.

  After that, Tommy fell into a deep depression. He blamed himself over and over again. He even tried to kill himself, but I always stopped him. He kept saying that if our father had had the True?ioion, they wouldn't have died. He said it was his fault our parents were dead. I always tried to tell him he was wrong, but he would hit me and tell me to fuck off. He stopped training and locked himself away for two years. He never went out for anything. He didn't eat, didn't drink, didn't bathe. I helped him do all of that. He had no will to live anymore, so I decided to take care of him. Not because I had "changed"—I just felt guilty for everything I had done to him. Or at least, that's what I told myself. But the truth is, it hurt to see him like that. Even so, from time to time I tried to convince him to go out and start training again, but whenever I brought it up, he would yell at me and start crying, so I stopped. I thought he would never be the same again.

  Until one day he met Alfred. I have no idea how they met, but suddenly he was leaving the house every day to go see him. That made me happy, though at the same time I felt a bit jealous. But thanks to that guy, Tommy found the motivation to train again and managed to reach level two. Two years passed like that, and then one day, out of nowhere, that guy disappeared. He was never seen again. That made Tommy sad, and to make things worse, while he was already so depressed, he met an alien girl and dated her for a few months. That chick was a piece of shit. I always told Tommy not to get involved with her, but he never listened, and she ended up dumping him. He shut himself in again, but by that point our relationship had improved, even though he didn't seem to have fully forgiven me. Even so, I convinced him to go on adventures together.

  We had several fun adventures. In one of them, thanks to an alien, I managed to change my thin, scrawny body—the kind all Namors have—into a muscular one, and my strength almost doubled. I also decided to grow my hair out. Now that I think about it, after our parents' death I had changed a lot. I left behind the envy and hatred I felt toward Tommy, because I understood he had never been at fault for anything. But I didn't deserve the love he had for me. I hurt him a lot, yet despite that, he forgave me.

  But after so many years of suffering, he finally found the right person: Mary, the girl of his dreams—or something like that. She seemed like a good person. I knew she could make Tommy happy and heal all the scars he carried.

  "Where am I? I don't recognize this place, but I can see my lil bro and Mary. They're trapped. Who trapped them?" I looked beside me. "This guy... I remember now. He kidnapped and tortured me. Now I'm a demon. I don't understand anything, but for some reason his mind control isn't working anymore. I have to save them."

  I used all my strength to attack the bastard and send him flying, then I freed my brother and Mary. They were shocked and confused. I managed to return to my human form and told them that somehow I had regained consciousness.

  —I see. Your positive emotions managed to overpower the negative ones. Interesting. You two brothers are very interesting—but you cannot win. After saying that, he snapped his fingers and a portal opened.

  —Good. I no longer need you. I'll kill you, and then I'll take your brother to my planet.

  —Oh? You're going to kill me and take my little brother? OVER MY DEAD BODY.

  I got furious and returned to my demon form. Once again, I charged at full speed toward the bastard, but he was very strong. I hit him as hard as I could, but he didn't even move an inch from where he stood. He simply grabbed me by the neck.

  "He's going to kill me... shit..."

  Tommy and Mary were about to attack him, but they were caught by his giant wooden hands.

  "Wait, I can feel a very powerful aura. Is that Mary? I thought my mother and Jane were the last witches alive."

  —Bastard, you won't get away with this—CONTROLLING LIGHTNING!

  Thanks to Jake's distraction, I managed to break the bubble that was holding my True?ioion and absorb two lightning charges from the sphere, which I used to summon controlling lightning. I didn't know if this would work, but I decided to aim my lightning at the portal Reficul had created.

  "It's the only way. That's it—the portal is starting to suck us in."

  With my help and the power of the True?ioion, Jake managed to push Reficul, and he was about to be pulled through the portal. He suffered a few cuts, but his armor was pretty tough, while Jake used his wings to keep from being sucked in. That bastard Reficul still wouldn't give up. Even though I increased the portal's suction to the maximum, he clung on with all his strength, laughing. Even so, I used all my strength to slowly close the portal.

  —HAHAHAHAHA, you truly are magnificent—ALL THREE OF YOU—HAHAHAHA! Well, you win this time. Until next time.

  After saying that, he let himself be sucked into the portal, and it closed.

  We collapsed onto the floor, exhausted from the fight. Jake apparently fainted after that. With Mary's help, I carried him to the car. He was heavier than before, even though he was in his human form. Since we had no fuel, we decided to ask for help to get to a hospital. Even though Jake managed to return to his human form, the doctors said they couldn't bring him back to "normal." Hours later, when Jake woke up, he told us he didn't care about being half-demon. Even so, I couldn't forgive that bastard for what he did to my brother.

  "Just wait. I'll become much stronger—strong enough to finish you and whatever the hell you're planning. You'll see," I told myself, filled with rage.

  End of Chapter 8.