Inside the building of the White Hawks guild, the guild master Gavynn Guilliermo was having a coffee as he gazed out the window when he received the news.
"Guild master, an umbrella gate has broken out in the Bulacan State High School," the guild secretary stormed inside Gavynn's office and alarmed him.
"I'm aware," Gavynn responded as the peak of the purplish-dark barrier rose through the lofty buildings in sight of his office window.
"The radar estimated it's a D-level umbrella gate and the barrier encompasses the entire school premises. Although D-level is not an existential threat, everyone in that school is a normal human and is incapable of fending off the demons."
The coffee in Gavynn's hand began to sizzle and boil.
The secretary catches on as he can sense an arid energy emitting from Gavynn's temperance.
"What's the verdict, sir?" he asked in a concerned tone.
"Gather every DH and prepare a rescue operation."
"But sir, that infrastructure is in the commission of the Twilight guild. We are in no position to interlope in this gate."
"I don't care!" The mug of Gavynn's coffee irradiates a red burning colour and it slowly melts the mug like ice, leaving the coffee to wet the floor. "This is a rare opportunity to procure the White Hawks' influence in this town. I'm aware of the repercussions, so gather all of our human resources and send them in."
Finally cooling his boiling head, Gavynn added, "Also, bring Ermit into the operation."
~~~~~~~~~~
Gates are an unpredictable occurrence. There is no device yet that could forecast the appearance of the gate.
Gates are like earthquakes, no one knows where or when they will strike. Similar to earthquakes, they also come with different levels; some Gates are filled with high-level demons, and some are low-level.
There are two different kinds of Gates: the Umbrella Gate, and the Gate.
Gate is the original version and it is far more dangerous than the umbrella gate. Gate typically contains mephistophelian demons and they don't come with a barrier.
On the other hand, umbrella gates are normally a weaker gate. They always have a dark barrier which is where the term umbrella is derived from. Inside this barrier, cellular connections are hindered by the demonic force coming from the barrier, meaning phone calls wouldn't be possible inside the barrier. However, an alternative solution for this problem is radio transmission since they are not affected by the barrier.
Although the barrier may seem like bad news since it cuts the network transmission, it actually benefits humans since they can cross the barrier in and out whereas demons can't.
Basically, demons are stuck inside the barrier. However, after a certain time, the gate will close, including the barrier. Hence, demons can break free and rampage everywhere.
That's why the common protocol for umbrella gates is to eliminate all demons before the gate closes.
~~~~~~~~~~
'When a demon perishes, they always crumble into dust, leaving no trace.'
Hayden finally grasped the weird situation.
'But this thing… it leaves a corpse. It could only mean one thing; this is a human who mutated to a demon.'
Although he had figured it out, more mysteries arose and it's making him puzzled.
'Who cursed this human to transform? Is there a demon with curse abilities on the loose? Is this human cursed prior to the gate opening? And how many more cursed humans are taken as hosts?'
These questions run through Hayden's head.
He then decided to leave the thing behind and proceeded to the ABM building. As soon as he got there, he found several piles of students aligned per section and each being supervised by their respective instructors.
Curious and confused chattering is filling the place as lines of students are all slowly marching to exit to the entrance gate.
'Just what the hell are they doing?'
Hayden scouted for his section and found it somewhere in the middle of the piles.
He tried looking around for Aubrey but she was not among the ABM-3 pile. He then approached their teacher and inquired about her whereabouts.
"Sir, where's Aubrey?" he asked, trying his best to sound nice.
"Hayden! Great, you're here. Join the line, quick. We have to evacuate the school immediately," the teacher responded.
"What kind of stupidity is this?!..." Hayden mumbled silently as his anger was trying to break out.
"Oh, forget about those delinquents. Their life is in danger because of their own ignorance." A smirk sounded from the arrogant teacher.
'Can he even hear himself? What kind of teacher wishes their students harm?' Hayden murmured to himself.
Then, he lashes out, hollering through the entire crowd, "Are you all idiots?!! You are all marching to your deaths! The gate opened at the entrance gate, so where the hell do you all think the exit will be? This is not a fucking drill!!! Everyone's life is at stake here!"
"Will you contain your gibberish mouth!" the teacher yelled back at Hayden. "We know what we're doing, so get on the line, Mr. know-it-all. You're causing a commotion."
The marching students were disrupted by all the yelling, and after hearing what Hayden said, all the perplexed students became hesitant and they didn't know whether they should believe a mere student who looked like suffering from a panic attack.
"Is he telling the truth?..."
"Are there really demons at the entrance gate?..."
They're all confused, lacking the knowledge about demon hunting despite being a scholarly academy.
Hayden, being fed up with the argument, turned his head to his classmates and yelled, "Did none of you see Aubrey?!"
On his luck, one female student replied, "She went to the cafeteria with Liam and the others."
After getting the information he needed, Hayden turned his back on them and ran ahead without uttering any word of retaliation.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?!"
Hayden ignored his teacher and all the teacher could do was let out an exasperated sigh.
After a few seconds, with Hayden already ahead by about 20 meters, a loud scream erupted from the students behind.
Hayden looked back and saw the lines abandoned by the students due to panic.
At that very moment, a couple of students among the clump of crowd transfigure before Hayden's eyes.
Hayden watches them turn into a demon.
*SHRIEK*
After transforming, they immediately attack any humans they can see as everyone runs for their lives. Chaos flooded the campus and it reached a point where some people tripped and fell as a surge of students trampled over them.
Even the teachers are too afraid to do anything but flee.
Seeing the mutated demons tear off their first victim's body into shreds using their razor-sharp teeth and edged claws sends everyone into the terror of their worst nightmare.
'My speculations are correct; there are many hosts of the curse inside the campus,' Hayden thought to himself. 'It became evident that the curses are planted on the students preemptively. But what evil creature has the knowledge to plan such a thing; a high-level demon who resides in the campus even before the gate opens, perhaps?'
Hayden was an inch close to figuring out the culprit behind this, but some pieces still needed to be linked.
Hayden then proceeded to the cafeteria, leaving the chaos behind him.
Frankly, Hayden has the power to kill those mutated demons. However, he doesn't find any good significance in taking that action.
All that matters to him is the success of the mission. It doesn't concern him that there are multitudes of people getting inhumanely slaughtered behind him. His vision is already set to fulfil a goal—and that is to get the protectee outside the barrier… and he will pursue that at any cost or by any means necessary.
~~~~~~~~~~
Outside the cafeteria, Aubrey and her friends are gazing up at the purple barrier.
"You see where the thing shoots from? That's probably where the gate is," Liam said.
"I think that's around the entrance gate," Aubrey said.
"Same guess here. That means the demons will emerge on that side, so we must exit on the opposite side of the campus. The route to the truck area where I got into a fight yesterday seemed off the barrier coverage. We should escape there."
"You sure know a lot about this thing, Liam."
"My father is a DH, so I know the basics about gates."
Suddenly, screams came from a distance. A surge of people getting chased by a galloping four-legged demonic beast is headed their direction. It eventually caught on to the slowest student and munched the poor guy alive.
The demon has the height of a human even in a dog-stand position and it's on the width of an elephant. It has a bulky body with black fur that covers its eyes. It also mildly steams with dark fog and its pointy teeth are stretched outward from the mouth with its gums visible.
The cracking ribs sounded like crunchy chips as the demon chewed the guy's torso.
"Inside the cafeteria, quick!" Liam bellowed.
As everyone fled, Aubrey froze in her place under the influence of overwhelming shock.
She was trembling horribly as she watched the guy in the demon's mouth begging for help.
Having no other option, Liam forcefully dragged Aubrey into the cafeteria and locked the door shut.
"That demon can gallop. We can't outrun that fucker," Liam said, trying to limit the volume of his voice. "We have to wait and hide…" he hushed.
It's only Aubrey and her friends and the one female personnel member in the cafeteria.
The demon has already finished its meal and is searching for another right outside the cafeteria.
"There… there are demons outside…" the personnel grumbled and the fear was obvious in her tone.
"Be quiet, ma'am. It might hear us…" Liam said in a whispering manner.
However, it appears that the personnel don't hear him or her just blatantly disregard Liam's warning.
"My son… I… I have to save my son."
She's murmuring to herself and she looks like she's on the verge of having a panic attack.
She's treading towards the door as she trembles severely. Aubrey went over to the personnel and tried to stop her by gently tying her arms with hers.
"You're getting all of us in danger, ma'am…"
However, that only triggers her insanity to break out. She broke down in tears and retaliated by pushing Aubrey to tumble off the tables.
"My son!!! I need my son!!!" she screamed as tears streamed down her face.
She then makes a run for it as she weeps uncontrollably.
However, when she's about to open the door, the demon is already alerted.
The demon crashes through the door, crushing the personnel with the door on its feet.
*AHHHHH!!!*
Screams sounded from Aubrey's friend.
Aubrey got back up to her feet and they all shuffled to the corner of the cafeteria.
The electricity is also affected by the barrier, so its inside is barely visible.
Unfortunately for them, the demon can see through the dark and it's now prodding slowly towards them.
They can see the blood stains on its teeth illuminating through the darkness.
Liam stood in front of the girls who were huddled in the corner. "Get behind me! I can go toe-to-toe with this fucker," he bravely roared despite knowing he stood no chance.
Unfazed, the demon kept prodding forward, trampling over the tables and chairs on its path.
Liam picked up two heavy chairs in each hand and made them his weapons.
As the demon is about to pounce and Liam is prepared to fight back, something happens.
The window to the cafeteria suddenly combusts.