Dear Diary:

  Two weeks had passed since the incident with Reficul. Everything had been pretty calm, but I was quite sure that would end soon, since at some point Reficul would come back. "I hope that when he decides to do it, I'm already strong enough to defeat him," I kept telling myself. I had been training until I couldn't anymore. Jake and Mary obviously noticed and "forced" me to take a day off.

  Jake suggested going swimming at a pool that had been abandoned for a long time. My brother knew I didn't like crowded places, so I guess that's why he chose that spot. But still, I didn't think an abandoned pool would be very clean. Jake said it wasn't a problem, since for some reason the water had stayed clean all that time, although nobody dared to go there because there was a legend saying the pool was cursed and that anyone who entered it would die. I thought that legend sounded really stupid and that someone just made it up to scare the gullible, but still, it gave me a bad feeling.

  After a short drive, we got there and, just like Jake said, it was completely empty. We got out of the car; the three of us were already in our swimsuits. I was wearing a blue one, my favorite color, although not wearing a shirt in front of Mary made me feel embarrassed, since I wasn't very muscular. That was one of the downsides of being a Thunder Knight: no matter how much you train, your muscles will never grow too much.

  Jake, on the other hand, had never been embarrassed to show his body, even when he was a kid and looked just like me. But when he turned 17, because of certain circumstances I'd rather not remember, he became extremely muscular and grew his hair out; he looked like a rock star. And Mary, surprisingly, wasn't nervous at all. I guess she wasn't embarrassed because, now that I think about it, it had already been almost three months since we met. I suppose she already felt comfortable with us. That made me happy. And well, I won't lie: I felt pretty lucky to see her in a swimsuit. She was beautiful, although I tried to play it cool so she wouldn't think I was a pervert.

  We went inside. Before getting into the water, I decided to take a closer look to make sure it wasn't dirty, and to my surprise, it looked extremely clean and didn't smell weird at all. So I decided to jump into the pool with a dive. But to make it more fun, I decided to use electric swim. I climbed up to the diving board while Jake and Mary cheered me on. Before jumping, I struck some dumb poses and they laughed.

  Finally, I decided to jump. My whole body entered the water. I could hear the sound of the water moving past my ears. For some reason, I started to feel a little strange, but I didn't pay much attention to it. I got out of the pool and Jake and Mary were looking at me weirdly.

  I asked them:

  —What are you staring at? Do I have something on my face?

  Suddenly, my swimsuit fell down. I pulled it back up as fast as I could and realized that, for some reason, it was no longer my size. I had to hold it up so it wouldn't fall. It was way bigger than me.

  —What the fuck is going on? Did I shrink or something?

  I walked back toward the water, but this time to look at my reflection. I said out loud:

  —What the fuck? I look like a kid. You've got to be kidding me. Did I just get younger? No... why? Why? I was so close to reaching the next level, and now all my progress went to shit. Goddamn it...

  I started crying. I felt so powerless, since I had become the same useless, weak kid again.

  We decided to go back home. Jake and Mary tried to figure out what happened; they were analyzing the pool water. They also notified the Grand Kingdom's police so they could shut the place down and make sure no one else went through what I did.

  A few hours later, Jake brought me clothes my size. When I grew up, I had thrown away all my childhood clothes, but Jake managed to make ones identical to what I used to wear back then. Mary told me that the water in that place contained a very strange chemical she had never seen before, and that its function was obviously to rejuvenate any living being that came into contact with it. Apparently, the effect is random. I rejuvenated about five years, so now I was 12 years old. Which meant, just like I thought, I was back to level 1.

  Mary also said she didn't think she could find a cure. She apologized to me; Jake did too, since he had "forced" me to go there. But I answered them:

  —It doesn't matter. Luckily, I'm the only one who got into that pool and not you guys.

  They replied, a bit annoyed:

  —What do you mean it doesn't matter?

  Jake said:

  —You went back to level 1, right? You've been training so hard and now all your progress is gone to shit.

  Mary said:

  —He's right. We can't just leave it like this. I promise I'll find a way to turn you back to 17.

  I turned my face to hide my tears.

  "Shit, I'm such a pathetic crybaby. I don't deserve them," I said in my mind.

  They hugged me while I kept crying.

  A few minutes later, Jake shouted:

  —That's right! I remember that when I was in that house in the Desert of Death, that guy had a bunch of stuff stored there: books, ingredients, bottles, strange machines, and most importantly, potions. I think he used some of them to turn me into a demon. Maybe there's one that can reverse the effect of the rejuvenating water.

  I replied:

  —I see. It's worth going there, even though there's no guarantee there's a potion like that. Or even if there is one, maybe they already took it. And maybe there's also a potion to turn you back into a human. Well, whatever, I'll go anyway and see what I find. Thanks, Jake.

  Mary and Jake replied:

  —Hey, what do you mean "I'll go"? Don't you mean "we'll go"?

  I told them in a serious tone:

  —No. You're staying here. That place is very dangerous. We don't know if those guys are still there.

  Jake answered:

  —That's exactly why you shouldn't go alone, idiot. Especially now that you're weaker. If you run into them, you won't be able to do anything.

  I shouted:

  —It doesn't matter if it's just me or the three of us together! They'll kill us easily anyway. That's why I don't want to risk it and why I'm going alone.

  He shouted back:

  —You're not going alone! If we're going to die, we'll die together.

  Mary said:

  —If the three of us go together, we'll probably die, but our chances of surviving will increase.

  The two of them hugged me and said in unison:

  —We're not letting you go alone.

  In the end, I couldn't convince them not to go.

  "Shit, I'm pathetic. I don't know what I'd do if they died because of me. I don't want anything bad to happen to them, but well, in cases like this, it's best to be optimistic," I told myself.

  We prepared as best we could and finally headed toward the Desert of Death. This time Jake was driving, since I couldn't reach the pedals. After about half an hour, we arrived at the desert and, a few minutes later, we found the house.

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  We landed a few meters away from it, got out of the car, and prepared ourselves in case we ran into whatever. We were standing in front of the door. Jake decided to open it and go in first, since at that moment he was the strongest of the three of us.

  Finally, the door opened and...

  There didn't seem to be anything or anyone inside.

  We all let out a sigh of relief, but we stayed alert.

  We entered the house with our weapons in hand. Before going in, I activated electric agility in case we had to fight and kept the sphere in my pocket. Mary had her axe in hand. Jake, on the other hand, held his mace and at the same time activated part of his demon powers.

  After becoming a demon, he spent several days learning how to control his power, and now he could partially activate it, doubling his strength. But if he wanted to, he could fully transform into a demon, although according to him it was still somewhat difficult to control that form.

  Even with Jake and Mary beside me, I couldn't stop feeling a deep fear as we walked down the long main hallway. Unlike the first time we were here, the only door that used to be there was gone, but ironically there were now a bunch of doors we could choose from. This didn't look good at all, but we still had to check every door to see if we could find something useful.

  The three of us decided to check the doors separately, but we agreed not to enter any of them in case it was a trap. We opened our respective doors at the same time. To my bad luck, there was only a wall in that "room." I turned my head to tell them what was behind my door, but what I saw was Jake and Mary being pushed by magical hands into their rooms. Before I could go help them, I was also pushed into my own room, which no longer had the wall I had seen before; instead, it turned into a giant but dark room.

  "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" I shouted.

  In front of me stood a monster. It was like some kind of mix between a bird, a dragon, and a demon, and it looked very threatening. I couldn't stop thinking about Jake and Mary. "Are they okay?" I muttered, but my worries were interrupted by the monster's giant paw trying to crush me, though I managed to dodge it. Luckily, it wasn't very fast, although I wasn't sure about its strength. I decided to check it with the sphere while dodging its attacks.

  —Oh, it's not as strong as it looks. Its strength is only 27. Nice!

  I jumped a few times, positioned myself right above the monster, and with my True?ioion, I cut its head off easily.

  "Okay, now I have to find Mary and Jake."

  I couldn't find Mary or Jake anywhere. That place was a labyrinth with no exit. "Shit, maybe with electric tornado I can find them faster... no, wait, if I do that the place will collapse, fuck, and it's darker than my ass in here. Where the fuck are they? I want to get out of this stupid place. I hope they're okay... no, trust them, they're very strong."

  I could see some kind of light in the distance. "It's probably another trap, but whatever, it's better than nothing." I decided to run as fast as I could toward that light. It was coming from another door. I decided to go in with some fear, though I stayed alert. I had my True?ioion in hand, but what I found inside wasn't relief—quite the opposite.

  Jake and Mary were there.

  "Are they dead? No... I can see from here that they're still breathing, so they're unconscious."

  In front of them stood a demon. How could I tell it was a demon? Well, he looked very similar to Crag, only taller, more muscular, with hair and a mustache, and around his body there was a crimson red aura. I quickly checked his power: it was 150.

  "Shit, if I hadn't gotten into that pool, I could kill this guy, but with the power I have now I can't do anything to him. But even so, I have to get him away from Mary and Jake," I told myself.

  So I used electric tornado, sending him flying, but just as I imagined, my electric tornado wasn't strong enough to kill him. Still, I managed to push him away from Mary and Jake.

  —Impressive. For a human, you're quite powerful. You gave me a few scratches, but you can't defeat me.

  I answered him:

  —Who are you? What do you want from us? Are you one of Reficul's lackeys?

  He laughed and replied:

  —I'm not just his lackey, I'm his son. My father sent Crag and me on a very important mission: to obtain your sword. But my stupid brother wanted to do the mission alone, so he locked me in one of the rooms in this house. But I recently managed to escape, and just as I expected, that useless idiot failed his mission, so I decided to do everything myself.

  "Shit, this guy is Crag's brother. If that bastard was already powerful on his own, this guy is more than twice as strong. There's no way I can defeat him alone, and even less now that I'm a kid. Shit, what should I do, Father? Tell me, please..."

  "No, stop acting like a useless idiot. If you don't win this battle, the only two people who care about you will die. You have to win no matter what!!!" I told myself.

  I decided to absorb a bunch of lightning using the sphere.

  "I'm going to try everything I can to defeat this guy. I won't stop until my body is destroyed," I muttered.

  I activated electric speed and ran toward the demon as fast as I could. Obviously, I was much slower than him, but I decided to combine my electric speed with the propulsion I had been practicing for a while—that is, moving my True?ioion telepathically and holding onto it. Now I could do it much faster, and combined with electric speed, it was extremely fast. The only downside was that, with the 12-year-old body I had now, my arms weren't strong enough to withstand that speed. Even so, despite the intense pain, I didn't let go of my True?ioion.

  At that speed, the demon couldn't react. I managed to cut off one of his arms, though I had aimed for his head.

  "Shit, my arms broke right before impact and made me miss."

  After losing his arm, the demon screamed in pain and I fell to the ground as well, hurting, though not as badly as him. Even despite the pain he must have been feeling, he attacked me with his other arm. I wasn't fast enough to dodge, so I activated electric intangibility and his blow did nothing to me.

  I stood up and quickly activated controlling lightning to stun him, and a few seconds later, taking advantage of the distraction, I activated electric speed again and attacked him as fast as I could with my True?ioion aimed at his head. My arms hurt like hell, but I was willing to do whatever it took to finish him. I was about to cut off his head when the demon expelled a crimson-colored energy from his mouth, just like Crag's crimson fire, but this wasn't fire—it was pure malignant energy, just like his aura—and it prevented me from cutting his head off and sent me crashing into a wall.

  That attack nearly killed me. I was in extreme pain, had many broken bones, and was coughing up blood. It couldn't get worse.

  The demon said:

  —You truly impress me, human. You're just a child and at the same time a human, yet you almost managed to defeat me. You have my full respect, but it's time for me to get serious. By the way, my name is Zyn. I'd like to know your name, but I don't think you can say it right now.

  He transformed. His skin completely changed color; now his entire body was a bright red. But that wasn't all: his muscles and height increased drastically. Horns like a goat's grew from his head, his legs also transformed into goat legs for some reason, and from where I was, I could see that he had grown a tail too.

  "Shit, get up, you useless idiot. Don't give up. You're not allowed to give up. Your life is worthless, but you have to protect those two."

  I took out my sphere to measure his new power; apparently, it had doubled.

  "Now it makes sense. He must have defeated Jake with this form. Shit, that doesn't matter—I have to kill him no matter what."

  I had 4 lightning bolts left. I tried to absorb more, but to my bad luck, he shot a beam of malignant energy from his finger and destroyed my sphere.

  "Somehow I have to defeat him with just 4 lightning bolts. Fine, whatever, I can do it. Even if I die, I'll do it after killing this bastard."

  I got up from the floor despite the immense pain I was in. I only had one chance to kill him. I activated electric tornado; even though I knew it wouldn't do shit to him, it was just a distraction. After launching electric tornado, I activated electric shrink—the last lightning bolt I had left—and at the same time propelled myself as fast as I could with the True?ioion. When I was about three centimeters from Zyn's neck, I deactivated electric smallness and, indeed, he couldn't react and my True?ioion struck his head.

  I fell to the ground. I couldn't stand anymore. I was at my limit, but I did it...

  —Ugh, that was close. I was lucky your strength ran out at the last second. I almost died, human. You're really amazing, but it's over. I have to kill you.

  —You're going to kill my lil bro? No fucking way!!!

  When I thought I was finished, Jake, in his demon form, cut off the demon Zyn's head with my True?ioion. The last thing I saw was Jake's face full of tears, and I could also hear Mary's screams as she ran toward us.

  "Shit, I'm losing consciousness... I think I'm going to die."

  I woke up and the first thing I saw was a very familiar ceiling. I had been there before—it was the hospital. I thought I had died. I got up and looked for Mary and Jake.

  "Where are they? Don't tell me they're dead."

  I almost had a heart attack until I saw them both. They ran toward me, hugged me, and at the same time scolded me for getting out of bed since I hadn't fully recovered yet. After a while, once we had calmed down, they told me what happened.

  After about half an hour of being pushed into separate rooms, they found each other, and after a while, unfortunately, they ran into Zyn and fought him. He was weaker than Jake in demon form, but he used his goat-demon form and knocked Jake out. In that form, Zyn was stronger but slower. Mary could dodge him easily, and that's why Jake was able to kill him, since Jake was faster. But then Zyn returned to his normal form and knocked Mary out, and then I found them and fought him. After that, they took me to the hospital.

  —Shit, so all of this was for nothing. I told you we shouldn't have gone. The three of us almost died and we didn't even get what we went there for.

  They both looked at me with smiles and said:

  —Look at yourself in the mirror.

  I went to the bathroom and, indeed, I was 17 again. Mary and Jake said:

  —Surprise!!!

  I couldn't stop myself from crying.

  —But it still wasn't worth it. You almost died.

  Jake said:

  —Shhh, it doesn't matter. We wouldn't have cared about dying for you.

  I replied:

  —Don't say that. It wouldn't be worth dying for someone like me.

  Mary flicked my forehead.

  —What are you talking about? You're the one who almost died for us. You were amazing.

  After saying that, she kissed me on the cheek.

  "Fuck, I don't deserve them at all. But I guess, besides getting back to my proper age, we also managed to take down one of our enemies. That guy was extremely powerful, but Reficul is surely even stronger than him. I have to become stronger as fast as possible so I can defeat that bastard."

  End of Chapter 9.