While I would have done just that merely a few moments ago, realizing we were dealing with a pair of Onis changed everything. I hadn’t perceived any mind control being used against the women. As an Inquisitor, I’d been trained to quickly detect the type of sustained magic it required. Could Vivian and Sienna have been brainwashed or indoctrinated? There was a real possibility that the demons had implanted their blind devotion to Elliot into their minds, convincing them that this was their own beliefs and desires. In which case, I had a duty to rescue them lest they face something even more dire once I left.
The two demons recovered at dizzying speed before launching at me again. Or rather attempting to…
To my shock, they suddenly froze mid movement as if under a paralysis spell. Their eyes lost their terrifying glow and glazed over as the Onis stared in the distance, unseeing. A bright light erupted from the left corner of the room, and my blood turned to ice as a terrifying male appeared to rise from the ground.
He had red reptilian eyes, lightning-shaped streaks that appeared to glow under his bluish-gray skin. Even his whitish blue hair seemed to radiate with barely contained energy. His claws looked more like five-inch blades had extruded from his fingertips. Terrifying dagger teeth filled his oversized mouth as he hissed menacingly at the demons.
A doppelganger?
He couldn’t be. Or at least I had never seen one with that specific skin color and eyes.
“You cannot be here!” Elliot shouted, shock and outrage filling his voice even as he reached for the pants he had discarded next to the altar.
Ignoring him, what I assumed to be a doppelganger marched with determined steps towards the Onis. I attempted to back away, only to also find myself rooted in place. That should not have been possible. When a doppelganger used his mind control or illusion powers, reasonably skilled arcanists would always feel the magic hitting them before they became ensnared. I was too powerful not to have felt anything. So how had he so easily taken control of me?
He stopped right in front of Riku then shoved his right hand, dagger claws forward, straight into his chest. Arisa screeched as the doppelganger yanked the still beating heart right out of her companion’s chest. Her screams faded almost instantly, and her eyes took on that same glazed over expression. Simultaneously, Riku’s lifeless body hit the ground.
My stomach knotted painfully as the stranger began to eat Riku’s heart while stomping towards Elliot, who was almost done putting his pants back on.
“These are mortal affairs,” Elliot snarled, furious that one of his minions had thus been executed. “Your kind has no right to interfere without—”
His kind? Was he a demigod? That would explain his power and unusual appearance.
“Who cursed Ranael?” the doppelganger demanded, interrupting him.
Elliot paled and took an involuntary step back. Fear and confusion dominated his features, although I could also see him thinking furiously. I couldn’t tell if he was attempting to figure out what the stranger wanted with the demon wolf, or how he would get himself out of this delicate situation.
Displeased by Elliot’s lack of response, the doppelganger raised his palms facing forward, and the odd stripes under his skin began to glow again. Almost immediately after, lightning shot out of his hands and began to damage the magic circle behind which Elliot was still taking shelter.
“You will both regret this,” Elliot growled while fishing a small object from his pocket.
Initially, I thought it to be a short stick or straw, then realized it was some sort of whistle when he brought it to his lips. He blew into it, but not a single sound came out. And yet, a cold shiver ran down my spine as I felt a potent wave of magic fill the room, as if the very fabric of the air around us was shifting.
The doppelganger pursued his attack on the circle that was quickly unraveling. Apparently unfazed, Elliot placed the whistle back into his pocket before retrieving a different object. I couldn’t quite see it from where I stood. It was relatively flat and in a dark shade of gray. He snapped it in half, and some sort of fog or smoke swirled around him, swallowing him whole. His gaze filled with hatred shot daggers at us moments before he vanished along with the fog.
Were I not paralyzed, I would have cursed just like the doppelganger was doing. However, dark shadows gathered in the room, turning my blood to ice. I couldn’t tell whether heor something Elliot had done was causing this phenomenon. Frankly, that currently was the least of my concerns.
Heart pounding, I stared helplessly as he marched towards me with an angry expression. He fisted my hair on my nape and yanked my head back, exposing my throat. Terrified, I watched him bare his dagger fangs then bury them into my neck. I whimpered at the sharp sting, my mind reeling at the thought that this was how I died.
To my shock, he stopped barely a few seconds later and removed his fangs, releasing my hair as if its contact disgusted him.
“Get out, Inquisitor,” he ordered, turning his back to me before marching towards Arisa.
He didn’t have to say it twice.
Silencing my burning urge to run out of there, I cast a spell strength on myself and rushed to the still unconscious Sienna.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” the doppelganger shouted.
Ignoring him, I cast a healing spell to revive Sienna. To my dismay, just as her eyes were fluttering, three massive portals appeared out of thin air around the altar, and blood-curdling screeches emanated from their dark depths.
“Get out! Run!” I yelled at Sienna.
Half-groggy, she heavily leaned on me as I helped her up and stumbled forward.
“Release me!” Vivian pleaded.
Without sparing her a glance, I spoke a word of power to free Vivian from the binding hold of the Mark of Janus I had placed on her. All my attention remained focused on the abominations pouring out of the portals. The foul creatures named Lammathens dwelled in the darkest recesses of every circle of Hell.
