He's a Mess of a Man

Book One ~ Chapter Thirteen

When the two made it back, Asra's wall of books was twice as tall as before. He spared Leviathan a smile before shoving a stack of spellbooks towards him. "Alright. Time to knuckle down and read really hard!" said Lucio as he leaned over the largest book in the stack, squinting at the fine print. For an hour, the only sounds were the turning of pages, and Lucio's running commentary. "Hey! I found some really gross pictures. Squishy things in tubes? People cut open? And... ew! Is that blood on the pages?" he pointed to the red-bound journal. Sure enough, something dark stained the yellow-ish, aged paper.

"Lovely..." mumbled Leviathan as he gingerly pushed the journal away, but his fingers brushed the strange stain.

Pain.

Pain and desperation radiated from the journal, overwhelming his senses in a nauseous wave. He could very faintly hear Asra's voice calling out,

"Leviathan? Leviathan!"

An anguished, trembling voice crawled through his head, following the scratching of a quill; "Sixth attempt, a failure. It won't work without mortal subjects. All my life's work, for naught! Another failure. Several subjects dead. Can the confluence of realms truly be forced? Still no success, but it matters not. He came to me in the dead of a moonless night. The horned one. The master. He spoke of what must be done. To join heaven and earth, to return this feeble flesh to power unimaginable..."

When Leviathan finally came to, he laid on the journal with his face pressed to the bloody page. He shoved the book away and sat up, trembling all over. "Leviathan! Are you okay? It was like you passed out, but your eyes shot back open and were glowing!" Lucio explained.

Leviathan shook his head, "I certainly didn't pass out. I saw a memory, preserved in the book's pages." he paused, "I think... I think I saw someone else trying to deal with The Devil. The author of this journal, perhaps." Leviathan quickly recounted all he saw and heard. Meanwhile, Asra seized the journal, flipping pages madly.

"This looks like it belonged to an ancient alchemist. It's a mess of experiments and ramblings. 'To join heaven and earth.' Ah, here's the rest of the passage!" Asra cleared his throat and began reading aloud, growing paler with each word, "'At the beginning, all time and space was one. The present division of realms only came about through great labors. And it may be undone by powerful and nefarious magicks. The horned master commands it of me.'"

"Well, damn..." muttered Lucio.

Leviathan's head spun. The potential implications of what Asra read were almost too many to count, "Wh... What does that even mean?"

"Dunno." Lucio groaned, "Sounded like more creepy magic nonsense to me."

"I'm not entirely sure, but I have a guess." Asra pointed to the passage as he explained, "This bit about the division of realms... it's talking about our world and the magical realms. And the possibility of merging them."

"Wait- you mean bringing the weird magic place here? Into the normal world?" asked Lucio.

"A bit simplistic, but yes. Even attempting magic on that scale would have catastrophic consequences. I wonder if this alchemist actually tried to do such a thing..." Just then, the library doors burst open to reveal Morga and Erik. They marched up to the table, eyeing Leviathan and Asra.

"Mother? Sister? I thought you guys were out hunting?"

"You, Leviathan. Asra. Come with us, now." said Erik.

"What? But we're in the middle of–" Asra was interrupted by Morga.

"Don't argue. We've found something. It needs a magician's eyes." Without waiting for an answer, the two women marched right back out of the library.