The Ice Knight ~ Leviathan

I left the basement changing rooms quickly, and went to the main room, searching for Spectre. I found her in a matter of minutes, hunched over a map, talking to Reyna.

I walked up to them, and gently put my hand on her shoulder.

"Hey Spectre?" I said.

"Yes?"

"Can I talk to you for a second?" I asked her.

"Sure. I'll be back in a second Reyna." She replied, and walked to the kitchen. I followed, thinking of ways to form the question.

"So," she said. "What did you want?"

"Uhm, yeah. I was wondering, Sirius seems like he's getting more powerful with every day-" I was cut off.

"And you want me to see whether or not he has a hidden magical power." She finished, looking at me with a strange expression. "I'll see what I can do, but no promises." And then, she went back to Reyna and the mapping process.

______________

The morning after, I woke up later than usual, and went downstairs. When I came there, Spectre was already talking to Sirius.

"So basically this is just advanced mind training?" I heard him ask her, and she nodded.

"It won't be easy, but I think you can take it." She hesitated. "If you ever feel like you can't go on, just tell me and I will stop."

Advanced mind training? Spectre doesn't do advanced mind training. Torture, maybe. But not training. By the Angels, is she gonna use her mentis imperium on a teenager? Just to see if there is the slightest chance that he has a hidden power?

I'm guessing they've decided on yes, because they just left for the training area behind the tavern. I quickly followed them outside, ignoring the questioning looks from Reyna and Lykfilia. As I closed the door behind me, Spectre turned around.

"Don't worry Leviathan, I'm not gonna kill him or anything. He's gonna be fine. I think." She said, and I couldn't figure out whether she was joking or not.

When we were in the middle of the small field, we stopped. Spectre turned to Sirius, and waited a bit for me.

She spoke again, but her tone had changed. It was more of a commanding tone, but nothing harsh or strict.

"So, Sirius. This is your last chance to turn away from this. Are you sure you want to go on?"

"I am." He replied, but his voice and expression said otherwise.

She looked at him for a split second, and then continued.

"Alright. If you are completely sure, let's start. Stand still, but in a position that you are comfortable with. Okay?"

Sirius took a couple of minutes to find the correct position, but eventually he became still.

"Now, I don't want you to say anything unless you are answering me, is that clear?" She asked.

Sirius nodded.

"I'm going to need your permission to temporarily alter your mind's vision center, is that alright?"

I took a sharp breath. So she was planning on using the somnum exterreri solebat visiones method on him. She turned to me, and I looked apologetically back at her.

"Sorry." I said.

Spectre cleared her throat.

"Now, I need you to close your eyes Sirius, and imagine someone you care about, or hold close to you. Do you have a clear image of them?" She said.

Sirius nodded. His expression softened, and he relaxed his stance.

"Got it? Alright. Now imagine that you and this person, are together, walking out the Worthwood coastline. You're talking about something important, when two demons, Void, not Mizeareighean, appear through a portal. You of course, put up a fight, but after a while, they beat you, and the person gets taken." She relaxed her words, and slowed a bit down for Sirius to catch up.

"Now, if I'm correct, while I speak, it flashes through your head, no?"

Again, Sirius nodded. With that, Spectre's expression hardened, and her eyes changed, one completely white, according to her true form. Both of them had a crazy glint in them, as if someone had lit a fire inside.

"Now, of course, you immediately set out to look for them, but someone holds you back, telling you to get at least a night's rest before setting out on that journey. You do so, but as soon as you fall asleep, you start getting dreams. They're not good dreams- they're nightmares. You see a shack-like house, it's almost a ruin, but you walk in. You hear screams from the inside of a locked room, and by the time you manage to open it, you wake up. " Sirius shuddered, obviously horrified by what he was seeing.

"The day after, you ask around for directions, and information on the house from your dream. Eventually you get the location from an old bartender in town. You decide to get some rest, but as soon as you close your eyes, the dream reappears. Except now, the door is slightly open, so you look inside. You see the two demons, and the person you're looking for. They're being tortured. Badly. They're bleeding, crying, calling out for help. Screaming. You wake up, and rush outside, running to the location of the house. It's the middle of the night, and you are exhausted."

Hell no. She shouldn't even know this method, much less use it on a teenage human. This method was used by Mizeareighean demons back in the day, to torture angels they captured.

Sirius shuddered again, this time a little more violently, and his expression hardened, almost as if he was in pain.

Spectre paused for a second, thinking about what she should say next. Or, that's what it looked like to me. Her regular eye had started glowing silver from the energy an strain to uphold the spell.

She closed her eyes, and started speaking again.

"You eventually, get to the location, almost dead from the lack of sleep, and the loss of energy that you used to get here. As you go inside, you realize that you have no idea where the room is. You're dragged from your thoughts a-as you hear a scream, then silence."

By now, even I was beginning to feel my mind twist with every word. Sirius had started glowing silver, like the glow in Spectre's eyes. I could tell that Spectre noticed too, because she had a slight stutter in her words.

"When you finally reach the room, it's open, so you go inside, but it seems to be empty. Until..."

Sirius fell to his knees, and put his head in his hands, the pain agonizing.

"Until you feel something drip onto your head, and you look up."

"....no....please...." I heard him whisper.

"You look up to see them there, hanging by the ankles. You quickly back up, and try to get them down, but that's when you realize it. You were too late."

Sirius let out an agonizing, piercing scream, and all I felt in that moment was a ripple of energy, and then the world went black for a moment.

When I opened my eyes, everything was bright, and the air was a whole lot colder. After my eyes adjusted to the new scene, I gasped in shock. Sirius was on his knees, rocking back and forth, his head in this hands. There were several rows of icy spikes leading outwards from him, and one barely missed me.

Spectre was closer, standing strong, an aura shield protecting her from the ice.

"Holy damn. I expected something, but this, this is definitely not that."