23 A Devilish Proposition

…Riley's PoV…

"Oi, wake up!" Steve says while poking me in the ribs, I open my eyes and sigh while swatting his finger away.

"Can't you just let me sleep? It's been such a long time since I had a proper rest," I mumble while getting up and surveying my surroundings. The Med Bay was almost empty except for a few tired-looking people resting in nearby beds and medical personnel running around.

I glance at the clock on the wall, "So we've been out for nearly a day-"

"You've been out for a day and I've been poking you into the ribs for the last twenty minutes. I almost wanted to break a bone or two to wake you up, but the nurse glared at me when I asked her opinion on the matter," Steve interrupts me and laughs while I ponder on the possibility of throwing a fireball into his face.

"But seriously, you need to get up now. Mom wants to see us," he says while regaining a serious expression.

I nod. "I guess it can't be helped then, that woman hates waiting…" I grimace when I feel my new skin moving, it's still somewhat raw and overly sensitive, but it's manageable. "Are there any news on that Devil and his group?"

"Nope, so far I don't know anything else, but maybe Mom knows more than us."

*I hope so, that Devil was very powerful so he must be there for something important, and I would like not being involved in whatever's going on.*

We leave the Med Bay and head towards our mother's office, though it takes us a few minutes since the house is big and we aren't allowed to Shadow Walk inside the property. We finally arrive in front of the ornate double doors, and we exchange a worried glance when we hear violent shouts through the walls.

"Who's in there?" Steve whispers to me and I shrug, I have no idea who's in this office and I wouldn't want to be in their shoes right now.

The shouting comes to an end after a few minutes of increasingly intense berating that culminated when Alice smashed her desk with her fist. I shake my head in disapproval since she probably damaged yet another expensive magical desk during her outburst. We have to specially source them from expensive artisans or else they wouldn't even last a week.

*It's really a bad habit, and it's putting a dent in our budget…*

Our furniture budget is no laughing matter. We spend enough on desks each year to buy a couple mansions.

*But it's not like I'll ever say that to her face because she would crack my skull open if I did.*

The doors to the office open, taking me out of my thoughts. We make way for the pathetic figures of the dejected werewolves leaving the corridors without even a whisper.

"Well, what are you waiting for?! Come in now!" she yells at us with a tired voice so we obey and sit in the small room. Alice massages her temples before glancing at a piece of paper, "So what happened to you two to come back in that state? According to the nurse's report, you were quite wounded despite patrolling in a low-risk area."

She takes a deep breath, "Don't tell me this incident involves that Outsider again?" she narrows her eyes and glare at us while releasing killing intent, the amount is small but it's enough to make me shiver.

"No, of course not!" Steve immediately answers, "We did as you asked, and we did not contact him again."

*And this again, I wonder what happened back then for her to hate him that much… He was a bit too disrespectful, but it's understandable since he had to face the Black Claws alone. And I know that his attitude shouldn't be enough for her to forbid us from seeing him again.*

"So what happened?" her question stops my train of thoughts and I explain what happened.

Everything began when we were patrolling a rather calm are in the center of the town, it should've been an easy assignment since things seldom happened in that part of town, but I felt a large magical reaction from a nearby closed nightclub.

Steve and I rushed towards the reaction since such a large magic was worrying, not to mention forbidden since there were too many Outsiders around.

*Why don't criminals do their stuff in hidden caves in the middle of nowhere? They don't know how annoying it is to put an entire city block through the Eraser!*

But let's go back on the topic at hand, we teleported into the club after tracking the origin of the magic and we surveyed the main room. That's when we saw him. The source of the magical reaction was a six foot tall Devil with short white hair sitting at a table in the middle of the dance floor while sipping tea. His bodyguards, who were also Devils, glared at us and started to move in our direction while their long, sharp horns glowed with an ominous red light.

I remember the feeling of helplessness as a force picked both of us up and slammed us in the floor before we could even react.

Innate abilities are mysterious powers that don't need mana to function and that are specific to certain races, or more rarely to certain individuals. Those abilities range from minor powers, like the ability of the Fishmen to slightly influence water, to the mythical breath of Dragons.

Telekinesis is an ability that certain Red Devils are born with, and it's definitely not in the first category. Even a Devil that has a weak Telekinesis can change the flow of a battle if he uses it correctly, so someone with enough power to pick two big werewolves is not to be trifled with. And that's not even accounting for his terrifying amount of magical power that's still lingering in the room.

"What do we have here?" the red-skinned Devil wearing a white suit says after emptying his cup and dragging us in front of him with a flick of his wrist. "I wonder how two stray dogs wandered in there-"

"Who are you?!" I interrupt.

His bodyguards gather mana at the tip of their long curved claws while Steve growls menacingly, struggling against the power that forces him to the ground.

The Devil grins and increases the pressure on me, causing my bones to crack, "Who told you that you could ask questions? You answer me, and you and your friend might get out of this alive. But before you answer-" The pressure on me increases even more and causes the air to leave my lungs, "Make sure to never interrupt me again!"

Blood trickles out of my mouth as my entire body is squashed by the invisible force.

"Now, let me ask again. Who are you, and why are you here?"

Now, the Devils Telekinesis might sound like some kind of unfair power. But it really isn't once you know its drawbacks. The user must have a direct line of sight to his target, and he must focus on this target for a couple of seconds for his power to work. The mass of the target also influence the times it takes for the user to focus, so-

"Riley, close your eyes!" my brother, who has the same idea as me, yells just before he unleashes a bubble of pure mana in front of the Devil. The sudden white flash caused by the collapse of the bubble breaks his concentration and releases his hold.

…Alice's PoV…

"…And then we fought the Devil and his guards, but we couldn't even put a scratch on him so we bailed out while we could." I lean back while my son finishes his recollection of yesterday's events.

*Why are there Devils in the heart of the city? I don't know what they want but it doesn't sound good, I better send a Platoon to investigate the area. I hope the Scalebound have nothing to do with this, otherwise intervening might results in a war we can't afford to wage-*

"Mom, are you alright?" Steve interrupts my train of thought so I focus back on the two confused pups in front of me.

"You two did well back there, thank you for your report. Don't worry about it; I'll take care of it, so go back to patrolling."

I sigh once their figures disappear from my sight and look out of the window, my mind is swirling with possibilities. Devils usually stick to themselves and are pretty rare on this continent, so something must be happening for them to move so brazenly and with total disregards for the Rules.

…Alex's PoV…

*Another day passes and I'm still not even close to discovering what the hell's happening here.*

I swallow the last bite of my burger and take a last look at the perpetually busy restaurant. As usual, people are coming and going, some are talking to each other while going straight into this unremarkable storage closet.

Yeah, there's obviously something fishy about this storage closet. I've been observing this place for a few days now, and I quickly discovered that the number of people going into the closet marked "Employees Only" was suspicious. There was no way that this small fast food joint employed that many people, and the fact that the man at the counter didn't even bat an eye when people entered the closet only made me warier.

The mystery only thickened when I started taking notes on my phone about who goes in and out of the closet. At first, I couldn't believe my notes since it seemed too far-fetched, even for someone as well-versed in the occult as I am. But the results of my observations forced me to the same conclusion each time I surveyed the area. Some people never came out of this closet, while others that never entered emerged from it.

I take a deep breath and drink one last sip from my can of orange-flavored soda before heading towards the closet. My heart pounds as I glance at the bald man at the counter, almost expecting him to notice that I'm not supposed to go into that mysterious room, but he doesn't even register my presence as I push the door open. I stop holding my breath as soon as the door closes and muffles the sounds coming from the busy restaurant.

*Now it's time to see what this place really is…Maybe there's a secret passage hidden somewhere?*

I use my phone as a flashlight while I meticulously scan every inch of the closet, hoping to find some kind of hidden mechanism while I already fantasize about the reaction of the other club members once I find what I'm looking for.

My search for a mechanism continues as I peruse over the cleaning products on the shelves and pull on the brooms leaning against the walls since they could be hidden levers.

I think I've spent ten minutes in that closet, and I probably touched everything in here at least once. So why can't I find anything? My notes are not lying so I'm certain that some kind of secret is hidden in there, but why can't I find it?

*Maybe I need to organize things in a certain order to open the door, I'll try to align those bottles of detergent and see what happens.*

I sigh and stop halfway through when I realize how dumb I am. I mean, finding the entrance of some kind of hidden magical place by aligning bottles of detergent? It sounds ridiculous, even for me. I already looked everywhere and found no traces of the mechanism, so my mind latched on the first idiotic idea that popped up without a second thought.

*This is retarded, there's no way that something that awesome would be so easy to find. I'm just wasting my time here, the other guys were right.*

I inhale a deep breath of soap-scented air and take one last look at the normal-looking closet before heading towards the exit. But my heart skips a beat when the door suddenly opens, my body reacts before my mind can process the situation and I jump into a dark corner behind a row of shelves.

*Shit, what do I do?! What if the mechanism is just behind me?!*

I glance at the people who entered the small room through a gap between two big cardboard boxes; they are two black-haired women who are around my age.

*At least they are normal people; maybe they are like me and got curious? I could-*

My jaw drops when the two women start to vibrate and I stifle a scream when their beautiful face turns into an abominable mix of human and angler-fish. My heart races in my chest while my eyes are fixated on the abominable creatures, who speak to each other with a weird gurgled accent.

"Oh my god, I can't believe that you got a card for the Bazaar!"

"Yeah, my mom bought for me for my birthday, I bet Becky is going to be so jealous!"

I can't believe my ears… I never thought I would hear fish monsters speaking like valley girls.

I shake my head and chase the humorous thoughts away; I'm not in a situation where I can laugh, those things look like they can bite my head off.

But my surprise doesn't end here since the first creature pulls out a small purple key from her purse and looks around with a look of intense concentration.

"Like, what's the combination again? It's so complicated, I always forget."

The other creature nods, "I totally get it! That's why I wrote it on a piece of paper, even if my mom told me to not do that."

"Good idea, you're so smart! Now let me see this paper!" The first abomination grabs the piece of paper with her slimy webbed hands and starts to move boxes around while double-checking her note each time she moves something.

*Maybe my idea of aligning bottles of detergent isn't as idiotic as I first thought.*

I shift my position to get a better view of what she's moving around and commit it to my memory. The two creatures finish what they are doing and take a step back to observe their handiwork.

The one with the note nods, "I think it's like, perfect now! So let's open the gate!"

She coughs and says something in a language I can't recognize, but I do my best to record this incantation. A burst of light suddenly appears out of thin air, and I nearly destroy my cover of cardboard boxes when I fall in surprise. I can't believe my eyes. A ball of green light slowly spirals in front of the chanting creature, and the light takes the form of a keyhole once the fish finishes its chant.

The two creatures exchange a glance before holding hands and inserting the key into the keyhole. The mysterious formation reacts instantly. Tendrils of green light flow from the keyhole and form a bubble around the fishes before it shrinks into a small point and enters the keyhole that disappears a second after.

"Holy shit…" I can't help but voice my thoughts.

I stay perfectly still for what feels like an eternity, completely unable to process what just happened.

And who could blame me? I bet discovering that fish monsters are masquerading as humans would stun anyone I know, not to mention that they have some kind of teleportation spell to a place called the Bazaar.

And the whole thing is hidden in the Hot Topic's storage closet.

…Fuck, this whole situation sounds like the plot of a bad movie.

I sigh and pat my clothes to remove the thin film of dust that I earned when I dove into my hiding spot before looking back to the area where the two creatures where standing a few minutes ago. I use my phone as a flashlight again and carefully push the boxes, which somehow moved back to their original position on their own.

I double-check everything one last time before taking a handful of pictures of the boxes to make sure that I won't forget their proper placement before repeating the incantation while recording myself.

*How did it go again?*

My first attempts at the incantation only resulted in a sore throat since speaking like the fishes is harder than I anticipated.

*But it's not like this minor setback will stop me, I'm too close to the truth to stop!*

I use my phone to record my voice since I don't want to destroy my vocal cords when I activate this thing again and force my already damaged voice to make deep and unnatural guttural noises.

…Maybe I'm not good at speaking whatever language those creatures used.

I've been there for close to twenty minutes now, and there's still not a single sign of progress. Maybe there's some kind of security in place to stop normal people from entering by accident?

*Yeah, that's probably it. It makes sense when I think about it since it would be a huge security issue if your secret portal could be opened by anyone with the-*

A small electric shock courses through my spine before I can finish my thoughts.

*Fuck, what happened?! Maybe I triggered some kind of security system because I used a bad password enough times?!*

I'm about to rush out of the closet when a small burst of light appears an inch away from my face, but my panic is soon replaced by overwhelming joy when the light changes into an intricate formation with a big keyhole at its center.

I blink a few times to make sure that I'm not dreaming and quickly get to work. I snap pictures of the magic circle under every possible angle while carefully examining every small detail. I then raise a trembling finger once I'm done taking pictures and press it into the light while closing my eyes, almost expecting the keyhole to grow teeth and eat my finger. But it harmlessly goes through the light without disturbing it.

"Phew…" I let out a relieved sigh and turn around, ready to leave the closet since the formation blinked out of existence in the next instant. I would love to open the portal and see what's on the other side, but I don't have the key and I doubt I could force it open.

I leave the fast food joint with a big grin; I'm already imagining how the club members will react once I show them the pictures.

It's going to be amazing!