Realms of Magic: Demon Invasion

40. Secret Mission

Aelita, John, and I follow Mr Arctus while Remi, Joe, and Agatha goes under Mr Charles. In the patrol, Mr Arctus is incredibly silent.

Midway, we meet Mr Charles and the others. Remi's forehead wrinkles. "What on earth are we doing?" she asks.

"Are we really going to do this, Charles?" Mr Arctus asks cryptically.

"There's no choice; at least Al-Azhar has given the green light."

The six of us watch the two men talk with a feeling that can be summed up as, "the heck are they talking about?".

"You are given a mission to spy on the Empire's holdouts. They have erected a camp at Toulon," Mr Charles explains, "at least, that's the official mission."

"Official?" Remi asks.

"Yes. The real mission, which is given by the Order," Mr Arctus whispers, "is to confirm the existence of a Sacred Gem there."

"Our spies say there is a Sacred Gem held among the Lords," he continues, "we will need you to seek information about it."

Mr Arctus's hand reaches into his pocket, taking out a scroll. "One problem, though," he says with a small smile, "you have to disguise yourself as a demon. To do that, you need to apply some demonic mana in your body and suppress your own mana."

"How are we supposed to get ... demon mana?" Agatha asks as she wipes her sweat with her handkerchief.

"We happen to have a demon sealed inside me," I reply.

Mr Arctus nods, then cuts the scroll into five. Each of the piece of paper has a circle symbol.

Agatha and Remi help sticking them onto my arm. "Hey, this is safe, isn't it?" Remi asks.

"When the Order comes up with something, it tends to work," Mr Arctus assures us, "except that one time Fronica's house exploded when she experimented on a new spell."

"And that time I almost flooded an entire farmland when my water spell went out of control."

"Oh, and that time Vanya almost collapsed an ancient castle while fending off burglars trying to-"

"Can we just make this quick, Arctus?" Mr Charles' voice booms.

I feel some demonic mana being sucked out, as if an octopus has latched itself onto me.

The circles glow red, triggering relieved sighs from Mr Arctus and Mr Charles. They tear off the scrolls, then put them on the skin of my friends.

"Excellent!"

The papers wilt, gradually turning into ash. "We wish you luck."

We divide ourselves into pairs; Remi and I, John and Aelita, and Joe and Agatha.

"I never thought we would work together," Remi comments on our magic carpet.

"Neither did I," I reply while reading–attempting to read–a map.

"Okay," I say while folding the map, not entirely sure if I managed to read it correctly. "We should land now if we don't want to be spotted."

Our carpet quietly lands amidst the noisy winds. After a short but excruciatingly exhausting ten minute walk through the desert, we almost reach Toulon.

Most of the destroyed buildings have been repaired and numerous tents are set up. Blood scent is no longer lingering in the air. We decide to go to the suburban districts of Toulon.

"My brother's dead," one blonde demon sobs, a bottle of alcohol on his hands.

"So is my sister," a veiled one replies.

The disturbing chatter is broken by another demon's words.

"I heard Lady Caitlyn would offer us a few women she captured as some sort of gift."

Remi and I are stopped on our path after hearing that. Another demon replies bitterly, "sounds like a hoax to me. Lady Caitlyn rarely shares her slaves with anyone."

"Well, I got this info from one of her Dollmakers. Anyway, I'm checking it out at the Town Hall," the brunette demon says as he walks away. His companions follow suit.

"Let's go," I mutter to Remi, who nods slightly. We walk slowly behind the demon trio to the Town Hall.

The Town Hall is packed with at least thousands of demons. Peculiarly, they seem to divide into two, opposing each other. Remi grabs my hand, and, in a flash, brings us to the top of a high building where our vision is clear.

"No, Lady Caitlyn!" I hear Lord Eugene's stern voice.

"Lord Eugene!" Lady Caitlyn furiously shouts, "I'm in charge of our prisoners of war!"

"You're the second-in-command after Lady Jessica, Lady Caitlyn. And she has given explicit orders not to do anything to them."

Lady Caitlyn flinches a little, gripping her scythe tightly.

"What's happening here?"

I see a small demon approaching. His robe covers his ebony skin, a smile forming on his lips.

"Lord Abel," Lord Eugene addresses the small demon, "Lady Caitlyn is trying to overrule Lady Jessica's order."

"Should there be a conflict about this?" Lord Abel asks as he sharply stares at Lady Caitlyn."Everyone's dismissed. Return to your posts."

Remi holds my hand once again, moving us back to ground. Without any other leads, we decide on a very risky plan.

"Let's go to a place where the Lords would often meet." Remi nods slightly.

As we turn our backs, our eyes catch a glimpse of the White Witch entering a bar. The old door creaks badly.

We follow suit, pushing open the door. The ancient bar is extremely small and there is only one rectangular table, forcing us to share it with the White Witch; not exactly the person you want to drink with.

"It's been a long time, Edelweiss," the old barkeep comments while scratching his bald head. He pours us the only drink available: beer.

"You still remember me, don't you?" he continues.

"How could I not?" the White Witch replies with a rare smile, "I owe you my life."

The barkeep smiles bitterly. "To think that humans would threaten to kill me out for simply having a pregnancy outside marriage ... humans can be quite terrible, can't they?" the White Witch mutters, to which the barkeep doesn't have an answer, "although I can't comprehend how there are good men, like you, amongst humans."

"Are you not a human yourself?" he asks, a small tear escaping his eye.

"I was."

"How are your daughters?" the White Witch asks, breaking the short yet dreadful silence.

The man puts a photo of a woman wearing an Al-Azhar's military officer's uniform on the table, then raises his head, replying, "Why don't you ask your demon friends?"