A noise like someone scratching their nails against a chalkboard echoed through the chamber. The watchmen's gaze shot towards the stone table resting beneath the soft limelight. On the other side was a figure they had never seen before. A figure whose inhuman features gripped onto their hearts, whispering sweet lies that tempted their desires.

The being's crimson robes shifted with each movement, bringing its pale, ghostlike skin into the light. Its head's smooth, irregular shape had no nose, no ears, just a mouth with rows of perfect teeth, and a single gigantic eye in the center of its forehead, with a sclera as dark as the night and an iris matching the color of the ocean.

The melody they heard rewound as if time were flowing backwards, repeating over and over again as the figure hummed in an off-tone rhythm. None of them could piece together what was happening. Yet every muscle in Tucker's body screamed at him to run. The golden crisscrossing embroidery on the robe was unlike any design he had seen, with a sinister energy radiating from the surface.

It was like they were staring at a false prophet, one that offered hope disguised as misery. Tucker stood there in the somber chamber, fully on guard, while at a loss for words. It wasn't that he wasn't able to assess the threat in front of him. He simply couldn't. If the monstrosity had emitted a desire for bloodlust, some sort of pressure, then he could gauge its strength. But in the distorted space before them, all it did was merrily move its hands as if performing surgery on the empty space above the table.

"Hm… yes, yes, this'll do nicely," it said with a grin. "Practice makes perfection, and soon I'll have it. The perfection I desire will manifest through thy very hands."

Ray glanced at Tucker and slowly shook his head.

"No… no… no… little wanderers." The demon slowly raised its head, gazing at the three. "Surely thou art not thinking of leaving."

They didn't dare utter a word.

"Do not fear, mortal, I feel it upon the air… the unease creeping into thy bones." The demon revealed a smile that never reached its eyes. It held out its left arm, beckoning them toward the stone table. "I welcome thee to my humble sanctum. Thou hast come far from the lands between. Only a single man has ever crossed through my passage with his mind intact… but for three to overcome such trials…" The demon's eye gleamed with delight as it fell on Tucker. "…brings the utmost joy to my heart."

He swallowed hard as his gaze focused on the newfound creature. The tomes in the Order never described a demon such as this one. If it had, then Alex would have told them something, anything to help overcome this predicament. All he could do now was try to piece together what it said.

It talked about a trial and crossing lands between, but what did it mean?

Tucker clenched his hand as the verdant aura solidified around the lumenite sword. They had ventured through a dark passage leading to the unknown. No trial. No gauntlet. Just a rusty door that refused to release them from its hold until they wandered through its darkness. And yet, that was when it struck him.

He couldn't sense Gale.

Since when? Did Gale get ambushed by the Empire? No… impossible. If that happened, he would have felt a violent snap of spirit backlash tearing through his heart like lightning. His pulse quickened as a bead of sweat trickled down his chin. He spread out his spirit essence, searching for the faint tether that should have always been there.

But the thread was gone.

The demon softly chuckled upon seeing their conflicted gazes. Every instinct within them screamed to stand and fight. Rover released a low growl, bearing its sharp fangs at the robed figure. Flames raged along its body as it prepared to lunge at the foe standing before them.

"Intriguing… art thou not interested in why thou hast come so far?" It asked. "Doesn't thou have desires wandering within thy minds?"

None of them answered. Tucker stared at Alex and Ray, watching them both deliver a firm nod. In an instant, Ray shouted. "Rover… sic 'em!"

The fire spirit sprang into action, its paws striking the emerald fabric as it lunged towards the demon with its jaws wide open. The flames burned with such intensity that they warped the surrounding air. With each meter Rover crossed, the demon simply watched with amusement, waiting for the watchmen to make a move while ignoring the spirit.

It observed the watchmen's movements, analyzing their tactics like some sort of feedback loop. Ray and Tucker charged down the center of the chamber while Alex vanished into the darkness of the bookshelves. Their armor shimmered with pale azure light, empowering their bodies with profound strength. The black tabards fluttered in the wind, following the scorching embers as Rover leapt straight at the demon.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

But right before the hound could collide with the monster's midsection, the fiend raised its left hand into the air as if it were lifting a boulder and swiped it across the void before it. The stone table vanished as black ichor rushed out from the gaps between the stone bricks, sizzling as it touched the emerald carpet and struck Rover from below. The force crushed the spirit's ribcage and sent Ray's companion flying into the side of the bookcase.

"Rover!" Ray gritted his teeth, helplessly watching his flame spirit's figure disappear into a cloud of dust. It squealed in pain, but he couldn't stop there. With Tucker by his side, both of the watchmen narrowly slipped past the viscous sludge.

They weaved beneath the oozing tendrils made of shadows and closed in on the demon, leaving the sludge several meters behind. Tucker held onto his lumenite weapon. A flash of emerald cut through the air, his blade aiming directly at the red-robed demon's neck. But with a single flick of the robed demon's hand, it pulled the coagulated fluid back. A wall of tar rushed at Tucker from behind like a wave that had broken free from a dam.

Yet in its path was Ray. The watchman planted his feet, with spirit essence flaring through his blade until it blazed with flames. With his hands gripped firmly on the hilt of his sword, he raised it above his head as a spiraling fiery vortex manifested towards the ceiling. His knuckles turned white under the strain of the attack, but he persisted, shouting at the top of his lungs as he swung down with all his might. A column of fire tore forward and slammed into the charging wave of ichor with a deafening bang as the two forces crashed into each other head-on.

Heat exploded outward on one side, while darkness on the other. It was the perfect opening for Tucker. His weapon was seconds away from the teal-eyed demon's throat. Until a voice brushed his ear like a whisper from another era.

"How bewitchingly fascinating to behold," the demon uttered. "Little wanderers… thy struggle, thy trembling is unlike any I have witnessed before in this age."

It caught the edge of Tucker's sword with its right hand. Just as it was centimeters away from cutting into their flesh. The young watchman's eyes widened in shock as the force of the attack getting blown back. Tucker hung in midair, refusing to let go of his sword even as the demon held him effortlessly in place.

"I confess freely—I am enthralled by this unfolding development, but…" The demon's head turned to Tucker, but its eye snapped to the side, focusing on Alex, whose figure emerged from the darkness without a whisper of sound. "…thou art far too predictable."

The old man narrowed his eyes as the fiend's left hand swept across the horizon. However, it was a fraction too slow. Alex gathered bits of mana beneath the soles of his boots and propelled his body forward with Swift Stride. The force behind the technique crushed the stone bricks, splintering the tiles like spiderwebs. His figure flickered for a split second, dodging the wave of ichor that crashed into the space where he once stood.

The demon stared with interest, as it had underestimated the old watchman.

Never would it have expected the veteran to charge headfirst into the narrow gap created by the attack's brief wind-up. He used the manifestation time to close the distance before it could remold the battlefield. But now wasn't the time for wonder. The demon focused on Alex and pointed its palm at the man's chest, taking aim as a sphere of shadows spiraled inwards within its embrace.

But right as the projectile shot forth, the red-robed demon's body lurched backward. Just enough to alter the path of its attack and hiss past Alex. The dark sphere struck the bookshelves, creating a large circular area of nothingness as the material on this plane vaporized in the blink of an eye.

Tucker pulled on his weapon, yanking the demon's right arm downwards as he jumped forward and drove his aura-clad knee into its cheekbone. The sharp crack of its bones echoed in the chamber. Alex swooped in from below and plunged his blade into the vile creature's heart. Black ichor spurted from the wound, bubbling as the flames seared the inside of its flesh.

They had done it—or so they thought.

The demon released a deranged gurgling sound that vibrated the shelves and made the dissected bodies sway. Tucker felt his aura stars tremble, quivering with a fear he had never known. It was laughing. As if the entire facade was some kind of twisted joke.

Time felt like it was moving slower.

Yet as the demon was engulfed in its chaotic laughter, holding its face with its left hand. Ray lunged at the opening. Flames trailed off the ends of his blade, but once he entered the demon's range. It stopped in an instant, gaze landing on the last watchman through the gaps of its fingers.

Its posture never moved.

Only one thing changed.

A single, slow exhale as its long white fingers dragged a single inch down its jawline. But that was enough. That was the trigger that changed everything in the chamber.

Tucker felt it in his core before he understood it. A crushing weight was pressing against his ribs and sinking into his lungs. The air twisted and turned. Dust stilled and hung in mid-fall from where Rover fell. The stone fragments beneath its feet groaned as hairline fractures continued to slowly spread outward in concentric rings.

The red-robed demon remained still. Its aura wasn't flaring. It didn't make a sound, so much as a whisper. It was descending like the world itself had decided to kneel.

Alex staggered for half a step, fighting against the force as his boots scraped against the floor. He held his sword through the demon's heart and infused more aura into his blade in a contest of strength. But the moment he poured a shred of aura into his sword. He knew that it was pointless. It was like a single drop falling into an ocean of still water.

Ray's flame was extinguished in the span of a single breath. Robbed of life before it could even amount to anything. While Tucker's heart pounded, not from fear but from the sheer pressure sinking into his very soul. His thoughts slowed as he tried to come up with a plan, any plan to overcome their predicament.

Yet as the demon stood there with its right hand effortlessly holding Tucker's blade. Its left hand slid down its face, eye shifting ever so slightly towards the three.

In a voice as soft as dust falling on stone, it intoned. "I am the scholar of the Undivided… Serevoth the Unbound Curator. And in thy presence… all shall kneel."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.