Part B

I stopped to think to myself about the location. "Why are we here?" I asked them. Donny scanned the area and told we were looking for a beacon, one that would pinpoint the location of the dimensional gate. I found I just realised that finding this beacon was the first part of the mission. Odd enough for it to be in a police station.

We searched a greyish, 12 storey apartment complex, with fairly large windows, two and half metres apart from each other. While we were searching the building, demons flew by scouting for any survivors in the vicinity. We hurried into the building to reduce our search area. Unfortunately, some of my old 'friends' stopped by and searched the outside area instead. They hadn't noticed our presence, yet. 

Tarius took a quick glimpse outside and looked at me. "Why are THEY here, brother?" he asked in his deep growly voice. Donny and Mary had not spoken but their eyes showed they wanted answers, answers they were not ready for. 

I peeked out the entrance way of the building, which was demolished leaving only the walls standing in one piece. They were just scouters looking for escaped survivors, whom they intended to kill, like all the other massacred humans. Unfortunately for my team and I we had walked into their killing grounds, and had to be careful with our movements.

They released their hellhounds, magma covered demon dogs that were a crimson shade of red, with razor sharp canines and were able to catch the scent of blood and hunt it down to the source. The hounds searched around the area and would attack anything live that would move. I gestured we move further back into the complex, since fighting them was futile and would have lead to our deaths.

If you want to know, our guns would have been useless against those hellhounds and wouldn't even stop any powerful demons, they just unaffected by the electric charge of our weapons. They weren't strong to anyway. With all of this in mind, there was too much at stake for me and a confrontation wouldn't have aided the situation we were in.

The others were in wonder but ultimately accepted I knew what was best. Some rubble fell somewhere far enough, that the hellhounds rushed off too with their scouts following. A sense of relief fell upon us, like all the tension had left us in an instant. "What a break, right?" Donny said. I moved on ahead to use the time we had to keep moving further into the building. 

Once on the fifth floor of the apartment complex, exited the elevator. The hallway was a deafening silence, a little too quiet given our current situation. Donny set down on a bench in front of us to take a break, so did I. I took off my helmet to breathe a bit. It does get a little uncomfortable for me. "What is the plan?" Tarius asked me. I looked at him and took some to think of one.

I had none at the moment, I sighed, put my helmet and stood up. Down the hallway were mirrors of varying sizes all on the walls and one to the right in front. I had my suspicions and tread cautiously. Something was wrong with the mirrors and I just could not tell what was wrong. 

As we tread through the hallway, I only heard two foot steps behind. I turned to look back and didn't see Donny behind us. I left Mary and Tarius to go back to the elevator, to look for Donny but he wasn't there. I went back to those two. "Donny is not with us, he must be in the mirror world," I informed Tarius. 

"Are you sure, Captain?" he asked me.

"I am positive he is going to die," I told him.

Mary looked at both of us puzzled. She became worried for Donny's safety. "Captain, what do you mean 'mirror world'?" she asked. I only gave her a short glance before taking action to rescue Donny, who might be stalked or possibly have died. The mirror world is like ours as an exact copy but barely filled with life forms due to their deaths by vile creatures known as Shrouds. Invisible, quiet and swift monsters that will kill any and all life forms in the mirror world once they sense their presence. Donny had mere moments before he was to die. I had to stop that from happening.

I looked at the wall and saw a peculiar oval shaped mirror, which had an odd reflection in it. I peered into it and saw Donny on the other side. It was too small for me to go through, so, I went back to the elevator area to find the mirror he walked through. It was right there in plain sight and it is indistinguishable from the hallway. I saw him in the mirror and ran to him as quickly as possible. Then I had remembered, I can't be there too long, because in the mirror world, my power is easy to be sensed by the Shrouds. 

Those minutes turned to seconds. I grabbed Donny and searched for the right sized mirror to escape. "We need to leave, Donny!" I urged him. A distinct whisper came about from behind us, followed by a swift rush of air. I looked at the wall in front and there were only but a few different sized mirrors. I had found a mirror wide enough for us to jump through. I threw Donny through the mirror and it was my turn to jump in through it.

There was an unfortunate soul in the mirror world I saw. Already on the brink of death. He began screaming, because the Shrouds had gotten to him. He was being ripped apart, shred by shred, piece by piece. His organs being ripped out of him, blood pouring out of him. I stepped back in preparation of my jump. As a final look I took of him, his head pulled from his body. I dashed and launched myself through the same mirror and barely managed to escape as one of the Shrouds just missed my foot as I was flying through.

I was relieved to have made it out, and I don't want to go back there ever again. I broke the mirror as I stood back up. I kept the Shroud at bay. If they ever found a way into this world we would have been dead. Well, the humans.

I was slightly short of breath, even though I used little energy. Donny was befuddled, first he was alone then I am there throwing him out of a window. It wasn't his definition of a fun time. We went through a door with the engraving,The Enchantment Room. The others didn't know what it read. It was written in Krakeon, which is demon language. Could it be owned by a demon? I thought to myself. 

We entered and we were surprised by the stupendous display of viles, portions, enchantment books, cauldrons, alchemy kits and many more. A tall figure in a cloak appeared from the dark abyss of their backroom and greeted us with a gently, raspy and deep voice.

"Welcome to my shop, new customers," he said.

"Nice to meet you all," he said happily.

He sold of a bad aura, that wasn't human at all. He did chat with us for a bit. However, I had my suspicions from the he knew exactly what was going on in the city without ever setting foot outside his business establishment. Then he told us who we were exactly. Was he spying or stalking us. I couldn't figure that out. "As for you, Captain, I can't wrap my head around who you are or what you are nor have I felt such presence," he said.

I glanced at him.

"Look, I do not know where you are going with this but I would suggest you not proceed with whatever you are planning here," I whispered menacingly.

"Oh! You have a little secret that your friends don't know about, eh mate. Please do, it will save us all the trouble," he said wittingly and smirked.

"How about you tell me where you got that information?" I asked him.

"Ah, ah, ah, a magician never reveals his secrets, aye mate," he told me.

"That makes the both of us," I replied calmly.

His smirk transitioned to a frown, as if he remembered something awful from his past. I went back over to my team, who were browsing the shop. to speak with them. I spoke to Tarius about this shopkeeper and how all these things are not adding up. As I looked around the shop as well and found a replica of the Titan Slayer, my blade, forged from the depths of the underworld from the ore Sweindenhault, only found in the underworld. The metal is so strong that it can slash through the thickest of skins and stones.

The shop made me uncomfortable, I couldn't sense it, even with this strong aura. I doubt any other being would have sensed it either. The shop and it's keeper are unknown and I don't trust him enough, makes me uncomfortable. I went back to the door we entered the shop through.

"That exist does not exist any longer, for it has moved," said the shopkeeper nonchalantly. How could that be? It didn't even make sense why I was not able to notice its presence. I spoke to him about an exit and he pointed to backroom he had entered the room through. Before I could leave, he pulled me back.

"It's a wise idea to tell them now, unless you want to be left alone like before. Choose wisely, mate, because every action has a consequence, good or bad. You just don't want the bad one," he whispered to me.

He let me go and was about to speak to my team again. He stopped me once more.

"By the way, you noticed that nothing can sense this shop, even yourself. That's because it is always moving between dimensions," he told me.

I walked away from him and thought about he words. The one possibility I wanted to avoid. This would cost me trust of my team. I thought a bit more about the shop moving between dimensions, it was still unfathomable to say the least. I showed my team through the back room door which was not easy to find. Then we ended up at the Downtime City public library. We looked at our digital maps and we were informed that we were approximately 7 km North of the apartment complex. That shop is mysterious still. 

Hours had passed by even though we were only a few minutes in the shop. It seems time moves slower in the shop than outside. It astonished me. The library was not in a good condition either. Torn book pages on the ground, shelves on the ground and some burnt books. What had happened in here? I thought to myself. We were on the second floor of the library and could see the other side, clear with no one around, not even their bodies. It seemed all and well on one hand but on the other something was eerily wrong.

It was in that moment that we were ambushed. We ran for cover, behind large blocks of the wall, which laid adjacent to each other in the hallway we were walking through. In front of us three demons fired in our direction, pinning us down. So much for keeping a low profile. How did they find us here? Did they track my power? These were thoughts that went through my mind in an instant. Something was wrong here, I thought that I sensed six demons.

This must've been a distraction as the other three were missing and would quite possibly flank us from behind. Or could they have separated from each other? No! They were planning on surrounding us, smart bastards. We would become outnumbered and outgunned. We were going to die here. One wish I have asked for but never fulfilled, but the others were not planning on dying here, yet.

I stood up with my rifle as a stupid way to save my colleagues. I killed the first demon in front, the other two took cover and fired back. I was shot at multiple times and it fucking hurt. It aggravated me, until I lost control. I wasn't myself anymore, I had turned into Him, the monster all beings feared, Ravedos. The eyepatch on my left eye disappeared, revealing my blood red eye, horns sprouted with a halo appearing atop my head. I had become the demon-angel. I pointed at one of the demons and it blew up into pieces.

The second one fell to the same fate. The remaining three appeared, I slowly turned around and I held one of them in the air in a blink of an eye. I snapped its neck and I felt great about it. The other tried attacking me, I caught itself arm and punched it and left it in a hole through its head. The last one had shot at me, I had grasped my left hand on its neck and grabbed its shoulder with my other hand, and proceeded to pull it apart. Its head couldn't just leave the spine without any extra force, could it? 

I was panting with the satisfaction of killing again. I was overrun with the joy of what I had accomplished.

"What the fuck are you?" a scared, horrified Donny asked.

That brought back down to Earth. What the fuck have I just done? Fuck, I messed up, I thought to myself. I went back to the man they thought they knew, their captain. I slowly turned back to face them. I was greeted by disgusted, terrified and petrified stares. I was speechless. I took one step forward and Donny held his rifle at me.

"Step the fuck away from us, you demon!" Donny exclaimed.

I stopped in my tracks and tried to explain everything to them. However, Donny wasn't planning on listening to anything I had to say. Tarius looked at me with sorrow. He couldn't help it nor could he do anything about it, as it would only escalate the situation. By the look on his face he knew that, deep down, they would leave me. The sunlight from the hole in the wall shone as if it were dancing atop the surface of my skin in joy. For the first time I had noticed myself without the suit. It had already disappeared into a box. I was speechless. The words I wanted to utter couldn't come out of my mouth. Then all of a sudden I got snatched through the hole in a flash.

CHAPTER END