A month has passed already. Today was one of the few special times of the year for Arlo; it was Halloween, and he saw Zero walking to school without a costume. "You're not wearing any costume?" Arlo inquisitively inquired Zero. "I am." Zero responded, casually slouching more as he stood there. How does that even work? "Where is it? Is it under your clothes?" Zero looks like he's about to fall asleep. "Nah." Arlo looked even more confused. "What are you supposed to be dressed as then...?" Zero closed his eyes to rest them. "I'm dressed as Zero." …Of course, it was. Arlo’s grin falters. “I should’ve known.” Zero was almost dozing off. “Anyway, this conversation is getting real exhausting.” Arlo watched Zero was about to colpse, falling asleep standing, only to watch Scarlett catch him in her arms.

  I can’t believe I have him in my arms… “Goodness, silly boy. You shouldn’t fall asleep on a girl’s chest. Unless you’re a couple, of course.” Wink Wink.

  Zero was too zy to move, but also because Scarlett was holding onto him like he was going to disappear. Arlo looked jealous, but then he noticed Scarlett’s costume. It was a bride’s dress with blood stains on it. “Nice costume, Scarlett.” Arlo was thinking to himself how she was in love with him and wore a costume to represent her emotions, prompting him to blush— Zero, who also noticed her dress, dropped his two cents. “Who’s the unlucky groom?” Zero casually asked as if he wasn’t practically being suffocated.

  Jayden, Micah, and another friend were walking by when they saw the scene. “DAMN ZERO, I didn’t know you had a thing going on with the school queen. MY man. Dap me up.” Zero responded zily. “We’re not a thing. I think she applied for the ‘hold me up when I’m sleeping’ position or something.” Micah ughed at Zero’s joke before he spoke. “ Oh yeah, this is our friend Muhammad Akel.” He spoke up. “Yoo, you’re the crazy guy that pulled that poem stunt?! I wish I had come to school that day. I heard you got Mr. Fisher fired. I don’t know how you did it but damn that was sick.”

  Arlo looks confused about what they are talking about, but he is distracted by Jayden’s costume to care. “ What are you supposed to be for Halloween?” Jayden grinned as he looked at his attire. “This is the pumpkin armor. You like it? My mom helped me make it. It glows, too.” Arlo was stunned; Jayden’s suit looked so cool, while he was just wearing a boring bnket with eyeholes, D- for the ck of creativity. He turned to look at Muhammad and Micah, they weren’t wearing costumes. “Where’s your guys’ costumes?” The two exchanged gnces as Micah spoke. “We don’t celebrate Halloween.”

  Arlo looked dumbfounded, but he decided not to press on. The scene became awkward with his question already. Then Muhammad suddenly spoke up. “Yo, you guys heard about the Clown of Empyrean Empire Academy? Supposedly, legend has it, that every year a clown shows up to kill students and adults alike. Arlo’s heart dropped upon hearing this, he just wanted to have fun on Halloween, not live through a nightmare. Jayden spoke up. “I ain’t gon let some clown hurt my friends.” He said almost triumphantly. As Muhammad ughed at their reactions. “Rex, I’m just pying. Or Am I…? WoooOOOoooOOO… Spooky…”

  Scarle— I can’t believe Zero is brushing me off like this. Just kidding. I don’t really mind, as long as he doesn’t go to other girls, that is… Then we’ll have a problem... But for now, I’m okay with him being my zy teddy bear, as I screw over the author and the readers??.A chill began to flood the halls, not the chill of broken AC, but something more primal.. “Hey, who turned the AC on?” Zero casually spoke, his voice being the sound needle drop in the suffocating silence. The light dimmed ever so slightly as the darkness crept inward from every direction, slow and deliberate like fog with a mind of its own. There was not a single student or faculty in sight, all hiding away in cssrooms, the atmosphere screamed otherwise. A lone figure stood at the far end of the corridor, motionless, fixated on them with eyes that didn’t blink. It was a boy, whose appearance was eerily uncanny. Then Jayden squinted and whispered, “Is that a… person?” But there was no breath, no motion. Jayden spoke up again. "Nevermind. That's just a mural." And yet, this didn't help the pressure wear off.The silence shattered with a sickening scraping noise— like metal on stone. The sound echoed as it dragged across the floor, drawing nearer and nearer. From the other end of the hallway, a grotesque clown approached, walking through the mural wall, phasing through like a phantom. Its axe left behind a trail on the floor. The ground was cleaved by the axe that dragged beside it, its edge carving through solid tile like it were butter. The clown had their full focus now. Its face was a still mask, and that expressionlessness made it more terrifying than any menacing grin. Its body twitched in jerks as if it were being marionetted by another, there was no other.

  It was just them and a clown.

  It wasn’t human. But that was obvious. The most concerning aspect about this situation is that non-humans typically possess more dangerous magic than humans— seven out of ten times. Micah’s heart pounded as he activated his Cognitive Simution, his pupils diting as his irises started glowing a neon blue. His perception fractured into countless possibilities— scenes yered over one another like shards of a broken mirror. A trillion outcomes fred across his mind, calcutions processing faster than thought. And at the center of it all: the axe. His stomach dropped. He turned wide eyes to the group, barely able to speak. “Um, guys? Be careful of that axe.”

  What the— Enkay? You can stop with the joking. I know this chapter is about Halloween, but this is going a bit too far, don’t you think…?

  Zero felt Scarlett’s arm wrap around his body tighter, this was no longer pyful, he could see the fear coursing through her.

  The clown raised his hand as a skeleton rose out of the cleaved ground. “Sans?!” Zero feigned surprise. Everyone, including the clown and skeleton, was momentarily stunned by Zero’s sudden input. Arlo was visibly sweating, trembling in his boots. Jayden leaned in and whispered to Zero. “Who’s Sans?” Zero whispered back into his ear. “I don’t know,” Jayden whispers back. “Damn.”

  Muhammad spoke up. “I think we should be running away… I’ve already activated Deus Ex Machina.” Arlo froze as the skeleton approached them; he couldn’t tear his eyes away. He wished Evelyn was here like before when she used to protect him… Suddenly, something within his brain started to resonate; he remembered the way his sister punched him before. Suddenly, a spiritual repy of his sister manifested, lunging forward and punching straight through the skeleton with all her might, causing all of its bones to fall apart, losing the mana stability to stay alive. This is not how Evelyn punched Arlo, but this was how he remembered her punching him.

  Well, it looks like the useless sheep CAN do something. He finally learned how to use his magic. The plot is making progress, and I have my Zero with me to make up for it. But I suppose the little clown boy has yet to be dealt with.

  Arlo wheezed. He could taste the fear as he looked up— just in time to catch a faint glimpse of her silhouette, fading like a mirage. “Evelyn…?” His voice cracked. But there was no time to linger. Jayden’s eyes snapped wide as he noticed the incoming strike. And without hesitation, he yanked Arlo aside, throwing his arm out as magical particles burst into form. A slim golden bde began assembling itself in the air, piece by piece. Radiantly shimmering with scattered silver dots that resembled fragments of the night sky. “I WON’T LET YOU!” he shouted, his voice echoing through the corridor. With one clean motion, he swung down the completed Sword of the Seven Stars in an arc just in time to collide with the clown’s cleaving axe. The collision of their weapons sent out a concussive shockwave, shattering nearby gss. The impact unched both Jayden and the clown away from each other, their feet leaving trails of scorched dust on the tiles as they crashed into opposite sides of the long hall.

  The clown recovered unnaturally fast, limbs twitching with bones snapping back in pce with precision as it rose. It recovered way faster than Jayden. No emotion crossed its mask-like face— not a single sign of hurt or desperation, after all... those are human traits. It charged forward with a high velocity, its steps pounding against the floor like war drums, targeting the stunned Jayden.

  Zero who casually id in Scarlett’s arms, looked away almost innocently as he whistled a tune. But as the clown raced past him, Zero casually stepped onto the clown’s foot. The monster’s momentum faltered immediately. It stumbled mid-sprint, arms filing before crashing to the ground face-first with a loud smack. The clown clearly did not see Zero as a threat. Despite what Zero just did, the clown was still only targeting the strongest on pure instinct.

  The clown crashed into the floor with a thud. “You should learn physics,” Zero commented. “Maybe understanding how gravity works would help you out. Just saying.” His tone didn’t shift one bit, despite having just saved Jayden from certain death. Why? Because he's Zero. But the clown rose again, its head twitching with erratic spasms. Malice radiating from it like a crushing aura. With a slow and uncoordinated motion, it hoisted its axe toward the group.

  A low hum pulsed from the weapon as its magic charged violently at its base— then it fired. A narrow beam of condensed nuclear energy tore through the air the colorless light cleaving through the air.

  Zero, standing closest, casually kicked the clown’s arm just as the beam was released. This caused the beam to redirect veering wildly into a chaotic zig-zag pattern, slicing across the horizon like a glorified ser pointer. Cutting all the buildings outside like a sword had just cleaved them, the sight extended for miles beyond visible range, leveling a good portion of the city it struck, atomizing everything in its path before the beam gave out. The clown began charging another attack, like a relentless machine. But Jayden knew waiting around was stupid. So he took advantage of the fact that the nuclear attack had a charge-up time; he swung his sword, causing the clown to drop its axe.

  With an intense leap, he sshed with the Sword of the Seven Stars. The bde reflected a golden shine as it struck the clown in the arm, the bde failed to pierce the flesh of the clown, however, it knocked the axe out of its grip. The axe cttered to the floor, and its glow began dimming. Meanwhile, Muhammad’s magic, Deus Ex Machina— had long since sent a psychic broadcast through the campus.

  Deus Ex Machina takes time to activate because it’s a guaranteed get-out-of-jail card. But for it to work, the user must prove themselves worthy by surviving a specific amount of time each use. The nearest teachers, guided by subconscious compulsion, finally burst onto the scene. Their eyes widened upon arrival. But it was too te.

  The clown’s face twisted open splitting into four sections. From deep inside its throat, the unmistakable hum of nuclear energy gathered into a concentrated sphere. No longer confined to the axe’s output, the beam now charged directly in its core. Its head twitched as it was pulled in radiation from around the globe. Micah, using his Cognitive Simution, scanned the buildup with widening eyes “This is bad, the axe was acting as a limiter for the attacks! But without it, not only are we going to get atomized, but it will trigger a chain reaction of nuclear explosives…! The results are going to be cataclysmic…” he warned. Everyone— teachers and students (except Zero) panicked because as it turns out, the axe was merely a medium for an output.

  The group stood frozen, eyes locked on the sphere of energy manifesting at the clown’s mouth between its split hinges. Its glow shifted colors, from green to blue to red to orange, before darkening, like a ticking bomb counting down seconds. The air bent under the pressure of containing immense radiation. The final hue is bck, devoid of any light. It was almost ready, ready to atomize itself and the whole world with it. Suddenly, Zero managed to escape Scarlett’s grip. He had considered what Micah said— though he didn’t voice it, he just knew exactly what to do.

  He rushed to pick up the axe and threw it into the clown’s mouth in a singur motion, specifically targeting the nuclear energy sphere. The moment the limiter made contact, the sphere of nuclear energy reacted violently, as it flickered, then colpsed inward.

  The magic destabilized and the buildup was canceled. The teachers wasted no time, I mean they were the adults here for fuck's sake. Anti-magic cuffs, etched with suppression runes, were tched onto the clown’s limbs as it writhed. With visible effort, they restrained it completely sealing off every access to magic it required, dragging the twitching creature away to exile it to heavy magical containment.

  “Well, that’s Halloween for ya.” Zero casually remarks, amused by his own humor. “Remember to check your candies, just in case you find a nuclear atomizer in it.” Zero casually looked out the window at the destruction that had unfolded. The rest of everyone else was baffled, confused, and on high alert. Except for Scarlett, they all watched her giggle at what was supposed to be a joke.