Gate To The Demon World ~ Lykfilia

I woke up later than usual this morning. I went downstairs for breakfast to see Sirius and Reyna already there.

"Good morning, did you guys sleep well?" I asked them.

"Yeah, I did!" Reyna replied cheerfully.

Sirius put down his glass of water and, turned to me and spoke.

"Say, where do you think Spectre and Leviathan are, this early in the morning?"

I stopped, suddenly taking notice that they were, in fact, not here. Just as I was about to reply, the door was kicked open and Spectre stumbled inside, looking as If she had just come from a fight.

"Spectre, what on earth happened to you? Where's Leviathan?" Reyna started raining down questions as soon as she had sat down at the counter.

Spectre sat still, completely silent as she downed a glass of something undoubtedly alcoholic.

She slammed the glass down with such force it cracked, and then looked at me.

"We were attacked." She started. "In the night. It was silent, but I woke up when I felt an unknown presence. I followed then for a while to see what they wanted with Leviathan, but they noticed me before I could do anything. There's was a bit of a fight," she exhaled slowly. "As you can see, I lost."

I suddenly felt the worry swell up inside of me, but then I realized that Spectre hadn't answered any of Reyna's questions yet.

"Spectre," I started, taking a deep breath. "What happened to Leviathan?"

She turned away.

"They took him to Mizeareigh, at his father's command."

Mizeareigh. My mind broke into a thousand pieces at those words.

It seemed as if his father finally achieved something he wanted, but-

"Okay, what do we do?" Sirius's voice broke me out of thought.

"Obviously we need to get him back, but how?" Reyna asked nobody in particular.

Silence.

We all looked at Spectre, waiting for her answer.

"Well, breaking into Mizeareigh isn't the problem. It's breaking back out." Spectre started talking. "Since the barrier has been broken, the chances go from impossible to almost impossible. It can be done, but we need to be careful not to set off any alerts, or we're doomed."

"So you're saying we have a chance?" Reyna asked her.

"We do, but it's small. Argo will most likely be expecting us to come, and he'll be well prepared. Therefore, I'm asking only Lykfilia to come with me, since having someone with me already increases the chance of failure- no offense Lykfilia."

I just nodded, gesturing for her to continue.

"What if you have to fight? No offense, but I don't think that you can take on an army of demons on your own."

Spectre turned to Reyna.

"Is he always this stupid?" She asked her, and both of us had to hold in the laughter.

"Well, he has his good days and bad days." Reyna replied, still trying not to laugh.

"I'm serious! What makes you think you can just waltz in there, grab Leviathan, and walk back out?" Sirius replied, even though his tone was slightly humorous.

"Sirius, have you already forgot who I am? A former member of Raziel's squad of elite soldiers? I think I can take a few demons, and that's without Joyeuse."

"Really, though?" Sirius replied to her instantly.

"Oh shut up you two!" Reyna said.

"Please continue Spectre, with the planning."

"Right. The reason I'm taking Lykfilia is because she's a healer, and we might need a healer. Any other questions?"

I decided to ask what I had been throwing around in my mind.

"Spectre, Mizeareigh is huge. How will we know where Leviathan is?"

Spectre turned to me with a smile.

"I know my way around the island, and I have a feeling I know where they'll be." She said, and my chest immediately felt lighter.

Reyna looked a bit suspicious of that, but she turned back to normal almost instantly.

"So.." I started. "When do we leave?"

"We leave early in the morning tomorrow, not sooner, not later. So be ready Lykfilia, because if you aren't there, I will leave without you."

I nodded. Spectre turned to Sirius and Reyna.

"You guys don't have to worry about this place, I'll change the warding spells a little so that nobody should be able to come here except for you two, me, Lyka and Leviathan."

She then stood up and left the room.

_________________

The morning after, I went downstairs as soon as I woke up. Spectre was already there, drawing runes on the floor with- something that looked too much like blood. I decided not to ask.

I thought it was strange though, usually she just cracks the fabric of the universe and ta-da, instant portal. That, I decided to ask about.

"Hey, Spectre?"

"Mhm?"

"Why the extra work for the portal?" I asked her.

"Well, I considered making a regular one, but that could set off an energy spike that the demons would sense, and then it's game over for us." She answered the question smoothly. Almost too smoothly.

I just nodded, understanding her extra effort to give us a few more minutes to live.

Spectre stood up, bandaging the finger she'd cut for the runes. She took a step back, admiring her work for a few seconds, then placing a note on the counter.

"We'll be gone before they wake up, so it's best if we leave a note." Spectre explained, half convincing, half not. I didn't want to ask any questions that'd give me any answers I didn't want.

"Open up." Spectre said in that goddamn-creepy-spellcasting voice that seriously scares the living hell out of my plant-loving soul.

The runes started glowing, and the portal opened up, revealing the swirly nothingness of the Shadow world. Spectre took my arm and dragged me through, but when she did, I felt a slight burn on my arm and a disturbance in the portal's energy flow.

Suspicious, I thought, but shook it off as an after effect of portaling.