sight

Lal and Colonnello track rumours to an isolated parking lot with a lone abandoned car in one corner.

They step from a portal of tar without hesitation, solid forms coming into existence with ease. The mall is well hidden, but Fon has insider knowledge with his link to Alaude so the two demons know something is here.

"Head clockwise," Lal orders and goes the opposite direction herself.

The two pace the parking lot in smaller and smaller circles, watching each other for that slim blind spot that every illusion has.

Colonnello smirks when Lal disappears for a split second before coming into focus again. "Got it," he crows, shifting back a step until the other vanishes again. "Right here."

"Give me twenty minutes. On three," Lal warns and counts down.

At 'three' they both flood the blind spot with demonic energy. The gap is forced open as the edges fray under the combined assault, and Lal leaps into it, fearless as ever. A moment later, Colonnello pulls back on the attack and he's suddenly the only one around for kilometres.

A pang of worry shoots through him at the thought of Lal inside somewhere that he can't reach. She won't be able to get out without his help – the blind spot trick doesn't work if you're the one surrounded.

He shakes off the ridiculous concern. Lal commands the armies of Hell and Colonnello isn't leaving this spot for anything.

...

Lal's feet hit linoleum instead of concrete and she scans the surroundings with a practiced eye. She landed in an open area with a fountain bordered by several escalators that lead up to two more levels.

The hidden shopping mall is saturated with angelic power and almost makes her sneeze. She crinkles her nose and starts her search, immediately dismissing the trails of fallen angel, vampire and werewolf. Their energy has flooded this place with how much time they've spent wandering around so it's obviously not who she's looking for.

Ten minutes later, one of her snakes rears up, hissing at having tasted something different in the air – barely faded. Lal darts through the mall to where the taste is strongest. She ducks into a gym's shower room and comes to a halt.

There's a holy water rune on one shower head, dulled with the line crossed through it but still glowing faintly enough for her to see. Lal begins to step cautiously, assuming the small puddles of water on the ground are dangerous to her. The mall's wards are keeping everything static so the water can't evaporate.

She gets as close as she dares to the damp pile of clothes in one corner, red and grey blood mixing in the material. Her tongue flicks out and catches the taste of Fon before he visited Hell; when he was still fully human.

...

Colonnello throws his power into the blind spot once more after twenty minutes have passed and Lal is striding out, utterly confident at breaking through Daemon's three dozen wards, her snakes loosely curled around her shoulders in a relaxed state.

He grins.

"What's that look for?" she demands.

"Nothing," Colonnello chuckles. "You're just so beautiful."

"Idiot," she grumbles with a small smile.

...

The next few visits don't go as nicely.

They arrive at the rebuilt Alpha kitsune's den but the albino isn't there and the Guardians won't talk without cue from him. They have the eye witness accounts from the cambion and the cerberus anyway so they count it as a waste of time regardless.

They lose the trail for a while but turn up at the Alpha mage's shop who smiles and blows a dark power in their faces. They come to awareness floating in the cold vacuum of space and portal back down to Earth.

They search a gold-filled volcano but apart from several demonic texts, there's nothing interesting. The same goes for a mostly buried dwarven kingdom. At this point they're both rather irritated, so when a fey looks down at them and mocks their attempt at interrogation, they set the forest alight with potent blue Hell fire.

In the end, they return to Hell and discuss it with the others. They may not have exact descriptions of the creature but they now know who's allied themselves with the strange human.

When Lal finishes the report, the room is quiet. Only Mammon and Reborn are missing.

...

Fon hums when the information is presented. "Perhaps… Alaude…"

"Are we accusing him or getting his opinion?" Verde asks, wanting to speed this up.

Skull squints a bit at the green haired man to try and see through. He slips a bit of alp magic in and encounters dreams of money instead of science. "Mammon?"

The jinn changes shape back to their preferred form and simply continues. "And are we asking him in regard to being a hunter or as an angel?"

"Getting his opinion and as a brother," Fon clarifies. "I spoke with Reborn and we both agreed that it would be best to be on the same page with this. If it really is someone like me then it's not an Otherside issue anymore."

"Of course it's still an issue," Lal rejects. "This will effect us either way."

The real Verde walks into the room and takes a seat at the circular meeting table. "I don't know what you're all talking about, but you're probably wrong," he says immediately. "So the fire tornadoes have been moving faster lately because-"

"Don't care," Colonnello cuts in. "No one ever cares about your pointless discoveries, Verde."

Verde rolls his eyes. "The tornadoes correlate to how strong our dimensional barrier is."

"Is that good?" Skull blurts out.

"Depends."

"Depends how?" Fon asks.

"On what you consider good."

"Verde," Luce says pointedly, stopping the circular conversation.

The green haired demon shrugs. "Reborn slowed one of them down so he could sneak into Heaven, but then they started moving faster to make up for-"

"Hold on!" Lal cries. "Reborn did what? And you just let him?"

Verde splutters. "What was I supposed to do? He convinced me it was a good idea."

"In what dimension is that a good idea?!" Skull rants. "You need a new definition of 'good'!"

They all turn to Fon accusingly but he shakes his head. "We were supposed to talk about setting a meeting with Alaude. Nothing was concrete."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Luce reassures. "Reborn knows what he's doing."

...

There are ways of getting inside the angel dimension without being an angel. The dimensions started off as a whole but were cut apart a very long time ago by power stronger than a God and more fearsome than one too.

Now, they're layered on top of one another, occupying the same space in the same reality but never touching. Everything is only thinly connected by the very wards and barriers that keep them apart, yet they're still able to effect each other.

There are thousands upon thousands of spells and enchantments and rituals that can let a caster see or hear or touch the barriers, but it all comes with a high price - the least of which is death. Most are pulled into the containment wards and held there as living batteries for the dimensions to feed off.

Even the most stable, the ones with the most to live for, eventually go insane with the connection because it's not just power being taken away. It's a complete and utter absorption into the barrier, into the universe, into the endless abyss of nothing that runs in between the dimensions.

You feelhearseetaste everything all at once, torn apart and stretched and consumed until there's nothing that identifies you. So when you come out the other side you're still the old woman on her death bed, the new born taking their first breath, the werewolf screaming as their bones break from change, the mage in their workshop playing with time itself, the bee, the daffodil, the dirt...

Some things don't mix, like paint being combined to make a disgusting brownish green with streaks of pathetic navy-grey. Nothing worth saving is left. Creatures have made it out before, quite a few, yet they never make it out together - just frayed pieces of something that might have once been.

But Reborn is in a class of his own.

Reborn plucks at reality softly and gently touches the barrier, feeling as if it might pop any second like a soap bubble, but it holds strong - bending but not breaking. Instead, Reborn is pulled in, dispersing and losing himself instantly.

He breathes in the madness and it feels like home. After all, he's a being of chaos.

...

Reborn emerges from the dense storm cloud surrounding Heaven and coasts down on a double set of wings coloured a solid black. If he didn't have feathers, he'd stand out too much.

The radiation of the angel dimension (something they term Anti Tri-ni-set) is a mild irritant to someone of his power, more of a light pressure than a corrosive force.

He lands smoothly in the midst of a golden forest and folds his secondary wings. The black feathers press against his spine and trail down to the ground like a long bird's tail. He then folds his primary set and the entire ensemble looks like a cloak of feathers.

He walks the rest of the way into a well-hidden clearing, fenced off on one side by trees and blocked on the other by a large cliff and the waterfall that shapes it. Half the area is taken up by a pool of crystal clear water and the rest is long grass, flattened from a certain angel rolling around in it.

An innocent looking brunet glances up and a grin breaks out. "Reboyama, I haven't seen you in forever!"

Reborn braces himself as the angel leaps off the fallen tree he was using as a seat and throws himself at Reborn, immediately wrapping his arms and wings around the (barely) disguised demon.

"Dame-Tsuna," Reborn greets. "You're just as short as ever." He pats the other man on the head, the brunet only reaching his chest, and smirks when he hears a groan.

"You've been here five seconds and you're already throwing insults," Tsuna complains, pulling away from the one-sided hug. "Maybe I won't invite you to the market if you're going to be like this."

"I'm not here for fun," Reborn dismisses. "Now tell me all the information that the angels – that we have gathered on this mysterious human running around."

"You're so dodgy, Reboyama," Tsuna deadpans. "Sometimes I can't believe Giotto consults you."

"Your brother is a special kind of stupid," Reborn agrees. "It must run in the family. By the way, Fon wants to meet up with Alaude tomorrow at around noon, Earth central time."

Tsuna frowns. "First of all, I heard that family comment. And secondly, why are you talking to demons?"

Instead of answering the question, Reborn smiles charmingly. "I've missed you, Dame-Tsuna."

Tsuna melts like he always does. "I missed you as well."