There is Power in Death

Chapter 26

When we enter the portal there is an unbelievable amount of demons, probably the work of Hectie. Benji looks pretty ticked off about it, and I can tell why they would be. Al just looks tired.

"So, we have to kill all of these things?" Al groans.

"Yup."

"What exactly did you say to Hectie?" Talan asks us.

"We didn't say anything to him. He just said that he kept trying to Kill of Phanters with the demons. He also said that he tried to kill us because we kept getting in the way of his plans. I think he's aiming for world dominance," I respond.

"I'm sorry what?"

We talk as we fight off the demons. These ones seem to be easier to kill.

"You heard me. Now could you do Benji and I a favour and tell us more about demons?"

"Sure thing, we probably should have told you two earlier, but it seems to be that we are both quite irresponsible mentors. So, the demons are servants of Hectie, but lately there have been more of them. They started getting out of captivity, and I assume that's when Hectie started releasing them. It started out with only a few per country but then grew," Talan gets blood on him as Maddy speaks.

"Ew! This stuff is disgusting!" He exclaims with disgust.

"Ignore him. Demons are spirits that have been wandering for about a century. They can also be created by Hectie. When the spirits transform, one of Hectie's servants will come to retrieve them. A lot of the time they will leave one or two for a Phanter to kill."

"Well, Hectie orders that to, even though a lot of his staff are quite nice, except for his secretary. She's scary." Talan butts in.

"How do you know so much about his staff?" Benji asks.

"I interned there for one Phanter year. It was pretty hard and I did it after I completed my apprenticeship."

"That sounds harsh, but also fun."

"It was far from fun, but you are correct on the harsh part."

Nobody talks for the next few hours. Demons keep continuing to appear, and we kill them. Eventually there are none left, and none appearing so we start to head back.

"Hey I have a question." Benji mentions.

"What is it?"

"For the apprenticeships, when we were recruited you said it would take one year, but that was in the living world. Were you talking in mortal years or Phanter years?" Benji asks.

"Well, for the year long apprenticeship, it would technically be twelve weeks in Phanter time. The week long apprenticeship would still be one week in Phanter time. Mr. Silvia has yet to change it, but as of now you still have eight weeks. Alex has nine."

"That means we don't have nearly as much time to solve this thing as we thought. We should hurry up on that. We need to, otherwise," Al trails off.

They have changed a lot since we met them. It seems like Al cares ore about things than they did. I don't know when I started noticing it, but I think they have grown closer to Talan. I know that Benji has realized that too. 

We walk back in silence and get some drinks form the vending machine as we rest.

"Well, you guys are free from today's duties. I'm going to be in my room. I'll see you tomorrow."

Talan walks off and the rest of us do the same. When we get up we notice that Maddy has left. She didn't tell any of us when she left, but I guess that's normal for her.

"Oh yeah, I was going to show you how to make your own portal. With how powerful you are, you can probably make one," Benji reminds us.

"Right. I completely forgot about that. Let's go, we can also see if Al can do it."

We all agree and Benji leads us to a clear spot. They show us where we should try it and we go to the spots they recommended.

"So, first things first, you're going to imagine what you want your portal to look like and try to will it into existence. Once it's there you imagine it combining with a portal. You can think of any average portal for this."

I imagine a book and will it into existence. It appears right on the ground in front of me and I pick it up. The cover is brown leather and when I open it up the pages are empty. As I'm holding it open, I imagine what I think it would look like when combined with a portal. In my imagination it appears dark purple, like the portal that lead us to the ruins. When I open my eyes, it has changed, but only the cover is purple. The pages have all turned red. I look over to Al to see that he chose a small sapling for his portal.His eyes are closed and it looks like he's really concentrating. The tree trunk starts to turn into a bright yellow, while the leaves turn the same shade of red as mine.

"Good job! Next is to create your lock, which isn't mandatory, but highly recommended. Beleive it or not, people try sneaking through other people's custom portals quite often. Oh yeah, I probably should have told you this before we started, but if you make an object like Alex's, them you can bring it with you. And you are unable to make or restart your portal. Sorry about that, Al. So to make your lock you can think of any lock you want. For example, I have a lock like a screen lock."

"You would've made a great teacher. I have a feeling that you're going to make a good mentor."

"Well, I was a student tutor, so I have experience."

I imagine my lock. It's a screen-like lock, but also a puzzle that only I can solve. I have had to put passwords on a lot of my things because of my nosy mother, or was it my father? My memories are getting hazier by the day.

"That's it! You have completed your custom portals. Let's go home now."

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