“What’s going on?”Cleo asks.My pulse pounds in my chest in this way-too-dark and empty church.
“We’d…we’d like to talk to you, Father,” I say.
Necia and Taz flank his other side, preparing to magically throw down.The priest stares forward, eyes unblinking.
“Father?”I ask.
“Yes, my child,” he says in a scratchy tone.When he turns to me, a chill runs up my spine.He’s wrinkly, with a creepy grin, but otherwise doesn’t seem magical.
I clear my throat and say, “I’m with the feds.We’ve heard rumors of strange activity at this church.We evacuated the nearby town, but wanted to know if you are aware of certain violent activity or strange phenomena.”
The priest doesn’t blink.His smile grows broader, and he says, “Don’t tell lies, dear child.It goes against the code of your human church.”
My eyebrows rise, and I step back.“What do you mean ‘human’?”No ordinary priest would talk like that.
“You’re from the precious Union of Mages.”His head cranes around at the others, and Taz steps in front of Necia.“And you’ve been looking for me.For years.”He points to Taz, and we all exchange looks of shock and fear.
“Alright, if you’re a wizard, then we need to talk to you,” I say.
“Tell us about the cultists.Tell us about the Unheard,” Necia says.
The priest giggles and looks upward, a horrifying sight.His laughter grows, and he raises his hands out.
“I don’t think he’s a wizard,” Taz says.
“You pathetic humans can’t see what’s in front of you.However, those weak cult followers did manage…” The priest’s voice distorts and grows.
“Alright, enough of this.”Necia strides forward and grabs his wrist.“As an agent of SPELL, I’m taking you in to?”
The priest pushes her back with one hand, and she goes flying several yards down the altar.“Neesh!”I yell.
“Manage to FREE ME!”he howls and looks up again.Dark smoke grows from his mouth, billowing upward.His body falls to the ground; he must have been possessed.The black smoke congeals into a form as I run around the altar to get to Necia.
Taz is already helping her up, and she fortunately appears not to be injured.“Are you alright?”
“What kind of spell was that?”she asks with her eyes closed.
“That’s no spell,” Taz says, helping her up on her right.I hold up her left, and glance back at the priest.“That’s an Other Side monster, through and through!”
Hearing his words, the fear in my heart spikes.My gut instinct is to argue with Taz, but the priest collapses as the black smoke turns into a floating sphere.
Then, it opens five eyes, floating around the surface of its dark body.And an inhuman grin grows in the cloud.The mouth opens, dripping with darkness, and it guffaws a bone-chilling sound.
“Cauldrons,” I curse.
Taz helps hold Necia up, and we all grasp our geo arcanum in our pockets.Magic thrums through my fingers, but before I can make a move, the demonic sphere floats down to our level and charges at us.With a maniacal laugh, it rolls toward us like some sort of shadow boulder.
On instinct, I put up a mystic shield, and the monster bounces off.To my right, Taz also raises his hand?I guess he augmented my shield.There’s no time to think about that since the monster won’t be down for long.
“I’m detecting Other Side activity in your region, a massive spike!”Cleo says in my ear.
“Yes, thank you, Cleo,” Necia says with irritation as she finally stands up.
“You good?”I ask.
“I’m gonna need an ibuprofen.”She rolls her neck and grins.“But let’s take this fucker in before he decides to possess one of us.”
“We didn’t prepare for an Other Side being,” Taz says.“Please tell me you brought a binder’s jar.”
