Orion came back to himself sprawled across his living room floor, gasping like he'd been hurled through a brick wall. His chest heaved. His ribs burned. His muscles screamed. This was a whole new level of pain, and considering he'd just been Mason's punching bag a few hours ago, that was saying something.
He groaned, clutching his side, and forced himself to sit up. The room tilted like a sinking ship. Cold night air knifed through his open front door. Out on the porch, his pizza lay massacred across the concrete like a greasy crime scene - cheese and pepperoni scattered like blood and guts.
"What the hell…" His voice was a rasp as he dragged himself upright.
His hands flew to his face. His right eye throbbed, but his left felt… wrong. Alien. Heavy, like it didn't belong to him anymore. He shut his right eye experimentally, but vision through the left was still clear. No blind spots. No tunnel vision. Just an unnerving weight pressing on his soul.
"I must be going crazy," he muttered, understandably confused and shaken.
Because it wasn't a dream. It wasn't a hallucination. He could feel it, like something had crawled under his skin and made itself at home. That burning, invasive presence. It was real and impossible to ignore.
Then...
{Integrating with the host.}
Orion froze. His eyes darted around the empty room. Nothing. No speakers. No phone.
The voice wasn't outside. It was inside his head.
{Manifesting in the most suitable form for the host's adoption and growth.}
His knees nearly buckled. His palms went slick.
"What… what the fuck?!"
He knew this set-up all too well, and had read it more times than he could count, but that was in fictional webnovels.
The voice droned on, mechanical yet ancient, echoing through his skull.
{Exorcist System awakened!}
Silence.
Orion blinked. Once. Twice. Then his brain caught up. A strangled laugh burst from his throat.
"Exorcist… System?" he wheezed.
'Out of all the systems in all the novels I've read… I get this one?'
He wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.
He wasn't even sure whether this was all real.
"Am I supposed to run around with a cross, splash holy water, and yell 'The power of Christ compels you'? Or maybe shave my head, wear beads, and meditate all day?"
He threw up his hands. "This sounds like the worst possible system! Couldn't I have gotten the Billionaire System? The Supermodel Girlfriend System? Anything else?!"
His body trembled. His eye throbbed harder. And yet, the words didn't fade.
"Are you kidding me? What is this, some bargain-bin webnovel? Did Mason's punches give me a concussion? Am I high? Am I dead?!" He clutched at his head, pacing in frantic circles.
'This is insane. This is literally insane. Next thing I know, I'll get a daily quest telling me to do a hundred pushups, a hundred sit-ups, a hundred squats, and run ten kilometres.'
'And why Exorcist System of all things? It sounds lame, and I don't really feel like chasing around ghosts and cursed spirits.'
But the voice didn't answer. No explanation. Just a faint hum at the back of his mind, like a predator crouched in the dark, waiting. Watching.
Orion swallowed hard, throat dry. His pulse thundered in his ears. Whatever this was, whatever had forced its way into him, it wasn't going anywhere. His reality had just been shattered, and deep down, he knew this was only the beginning.
Slowly coming to grips with his predicament, he let out a shaky laugh. "Please tell me the first mission's something simple. Like… do your laundry or clean your room. Not fight Satan."
As if in response to his plea, the system announced something that caused his heart to sink.
{Mission Issued: Survive the swarm of demons.}
Orion froze. "…What?"
{The energy released upon integrating with the host will attract all nearby demons to the area. If you die, it is game over.}
{However… if the host survives, you will be issued a random Art.}
"A random… Art? What the hell does that even mean?" He staggered toward the door, hands gripping his hair. "This has to be some government prank. They bugged my phone, saw I liked webnovels, and decided to fry my brain with a fake system. Right? Right?!"
"And demons? Pfft. The only demon I've seen is Mason's fat mom." He snorted nervously before freezing in place.
Because the ceiling above him exploded.
BOOM!
Wood, plaster, and dust rained down as a monstrous claw smashed through the roof, tearing reality like wet paper. The claws were as long as his arms, jagged and dripping with a black, tar-like substance that hissed and smoked where it splattered on the floor.
Orion's breath caught. "This can't be happening?!"
He dived, narrowly avoiding the claws as they raked the floorboards where he'd just stood. Instinct took over, and he immediately bolted, sprinting through his ruined doorway and out into the street.
That's when he saw them.
His neighbourhood wasn't his neighbourhood anymore. It was a nightmare turned inside-out.
Demons. Dozens. Hundreds. Grotesque creatures of every shape and size. Some crouched on rooftops, long limbs folded, insect-like faces split into jagged grins of needle teeth. Others crawled low and fast, their chittering carapaces glinting under flickering streetlights.
Their eyes glowed - red, yellow, green - unnatural hues pinning him like prey. Ominous energy rolled off them in waves, thick and suffocating. Above, the sky burned purple, pulsing with the same sinister glow radiating from their bodies.
Streetlamps flickered, casting broken shadows across cracked asphalt. From gutters and alleyways oozed smaller creatures: rat-like things with skull faces and tongues dragging across the ground. They hissed in unison, turning toward him like moths to a flame.
And behind him, tearing fully through his house, was the real monster.
It towered above the buildings, a shifting mass of shadow and muscle. Six colossal arms clawed at the earth, horns scraping the sky. Six glowing eyes locked on him, unblinking.
"Fuuuuuck!"
Adrenaline exploded through Orion's veins. His legs moved on instinct alone. He didn't think; he ran.
But the monsters moved too. The smaller ones skittered down walls, circling to cut him off. Figures leapt from rooftops, jaws snapping. The six-armed horror behind him let out a guttural roar that shook the street like an earthquake.
This wasn't a prank. This wasn't a dream. This was real.
And Orion was right in the middle of it...