Whispers

Whispering darkness

It came as no surprise for Diavolo when a distressed sounding Lucifer called him late at night. More of the opposite.

The demon prince had anticipated his friend's call for a while now and he already suspected what the mighty first-born would tell him. But he hadn't expected that it would be this worse.

Apparently the shadow he had summoned a while ago was breaking havoc at the House of Lamentation and had unleashed its wrath upon the seven demon brothers after Lucifer had told them not to interfere like Diavolo had instructed him to do.

Truth be told he felt sorry for the brothers that they had to endure the punishment which originally had been meant for him...

But the instructions had been clear and Barbatos had confirmed that everything would turn out the way it should.

At least if he wouldn't mess up this last and most important moment.

Truth be told Diavolo felt worried. He hadn't thought that it would happen any time soon, despite his friend's confirmations and given the time which already had passed since the summoning day.

It had been years since they had gathered at that specific room and had set up everything needed to summon one of those mysterious shadows.

A sentimental smile tucked at the corner of his lips when he remembered how excited he had been while he had uttered the spell repeatedly and could witness the effect of his words.

The candles had started to flicker vigorously, the shadows had grown deeper, and the summoning circle had started to glow in a strange and distressing colour.

Faint outlines had been visible while he had continued to cast the spell; the shadow had been close, so unbelievable close... If he had outstretched his hand he could have touched it – or at least that's what he had thought back then.

But much to everybody's surprise the summoning circle had been empty after the last heightened glow of this strange colour.

Had they failed? Why was there nothing to be seen?!

While Barbatos had checked the instructions and Lucifer had settled on scowling at him, Diavolo had felt antsy, maybe even a bit disappointed.

But what had he expected anyways, huh? He had tried to summon a shadow after all! And shadows rarely held bodies on their own, didn't they?

That they indeed had succeeded in their attempt to summon one of them had shown itself when it had escaped the room – again, much to their surprise and shock.

For a long while they had chased after it, had tried to catch it again, but in the end they had to admit defeat.

How should you catch and imprison something that held no body on its own, huh? And besides, they had some vague ideas where it hid itself from them.

A shiver went down Diavolo's spine while he got ready to head over to the House of Lamentation.

Often enough he had been the one at the receiving end of the shadow's anger, which undoubtfully was directed solely towards him.

No surprise: he had been after all the one to rip the shadow from its world. And albeit he felt sorry for what he had done, he couldn't allow it to return home.

He needed it to remain here, with him.

If only it would know...

Loud shrieks tore his attention back from his thoughts and caused Diavolo to stop dead in his tracks. And what he saw caused him to pale.