How To Get Levi?

IT HAS BEEN over a week since she started attending Transylvania Academy. The double doors of her balcony welcomed the flashing lights from the lightning zaps outside the House of Lamentation. Unlike the peaceful night of the magical floating island, the hill where the House of Lamentation was located was the only place adorned with ominous Nimbus clouds which were constantly inflicted by thunderclaps and lightning zaps.

The once black-colored and spotless egg turned gray. A reptile's scale replaced the once smooth surface of the egg. Red stripes close to the image of lightning decorated the egg that was now placed atop her desk. With Crescent's chin on her palm, her glowing green eyes with the same color as her brooch stared at the familiar's egg.

Somehow, she was both looking forward and scared of what she would see behind the rough-looking eggshells. She remembered her father who had great expectations for whatever familiar she would possess. According to her father's butler, the goblin Gukasho, the more she used her demonic powers, the more the familiar would change to its final form.

Clad in her black-colored How to Tame Your Dragon pajamas, Cent stared at her familiar's egg. Anxiety deprived her of sleep. The very thought of showing this egg in front of her class in History of Demonic Arts and in front of that professor, Demon Lord Asmodeus, made her anxiety triple.

Anxiety gnawed Crescent. Familiars were a big help to thwart her enemies. She learned from Matilda that the ownership of familiars was the privilege of the citizens of the Malevolent World. But this privilege was limited to the creatures that could house and provide demonic magic to others like the goblin race, incubus race, succubus race, the demon clan, and the Halflings. Zombies like Matilda did not have this ability due to their small capacity to use demonic magic.

"What kind of creature are you, little one?" Crescent poked the egg the same size as an ostrich egg. "I really, really hope that you can be something like my fellow Halflings' familiars."

Matilda told me that among the three Halflings who already got their familiars, Damon has the strongest. Apparently, Damon has the Hydria also known as a water and forest dragon with three heads – it has a great generative ability that if anyone cuts off its head, it will grow in a matter of seconds with twice the number of the original heads.

Damn! Just thinking about him having that advantage boils my blood.

It was whispered among the students of Transylvania Academy that the Hydria was located at the cave inside the Forest of Lamentation. The second one with the strongest familiar was Levi, son of Leviathan the Envious, who got the Basilisk also known as a creature with a bird-like upper body and a giant snake for its lower body.

It was born from a serpent that had been incubated by a rooster. It got a dangerous ability wherein one glance from its crystal eyes would kill any human and could poison any creature. Angels and demons were not immune to its lethal gaze that it could weaken their magical power – this would be enough to find an opening to the opponent.

Basically, it's kinda cheating – weakening your enemy and then striking them while the iron is still hot. But, it is not like I can't say that it is a natural way to survive in this kind of environment wherein our capabilities are constantly being tested and questioned.

Crescent sighed. She placed her familiar's egg on a soft and cottony pillow before heading to the bed. Drawing the drapes, she climbed onto her bed with an occupied mind. She was thinking about the third Halfling, who got the Gryphon as a familiar, Sylvia the daughter of Satan the Angry.

The creature called the Gryphon was a gigantic creature with a body of a lion and the face and wings of a hawk. Its offensive skills and flexible ability due to its wings were comparable to the Hydria and Basilisk. Unlike the Basilisk that was sleeping under the great tree, Ygdrasil, or the Hydria that was said to be located at the cave inside the Forest of Lamentation, the Gryphon was used freely by Slyvia as a transportation means to come and go on the island. She was treating her familiar as a pet and was showing off her familiar at the same time.

Crescent remembered what Matilda told her.

"If the three of them fight with their familiars? I am sure that this floating island will collapse. But of course, they will incur the wrath of our Headmaster Kirk, the Kraken."

"Ha, I just hope that my familiar can fight them head-on," Crescent muttered before conjuring the image of her Slaughter Butterflies – calling them to report to her.

Sitting on her bed, her toes covered by the warm blanket that reminded her of her father, the fluttering of a single butterfly immerged from the darkest part of her room. It was traveling through the shadows. After all, her mastery was shadow arts.

- - -

"Let us see what you got." Lifting her finger, the slaughter butterfly bit her – drawing blood in the process. Upon the contact, flashes of images bombarded Crescent's mind.

The first surge of images was a report from the butterflies attached to Apollo Sky's shadow. Closing her eyes, she saw an orc, a beast with a giant body with a boar's face, whipping the son of Michael. His arms were lifted and tied to the walls, his back was barely leaving him with only his bloodied white pants, and his head was chained enabling him from looking up.

"Whip him more," said a man behind the orc. His long and tied silver hairs glinted like Apollo Sky. his eyes held centuries of experience as his cold azure eyes stared at the young man without an ounce of emotion. "He should know that angering the headmaster and incurring the wrath of Lucifer the Prideful is enough trouble, not to mention, involving the offspring of Beelzebub. That monster is a ticking time bomb, we must think twice before killing him. Do not worry, my son. Beelzebub will die, that, I promise you."

- - -

The moment the surge of images stopped, Crescent's glowing green eyes glowed brighter. Blood sipped from biting the insides of her cheeks. Grinding her molars and clenching her fists, Crescent tried to set aside the emotions engulfing her right now.

"What's the next one?" On cue, the second surge of images flowed into her mind.

- - -

A large hooded figure choked the slender neck of the Halfling, Levi. His toes barely touched the muddy forest floor. Drenched by the rain, the darkness of the place swallowed the silhouettes of the two. Pinned onto the shriveled Willow Tree, Levi stopped struggling.

A thundering roar of the lightning bolts made Crescent see the two figures cloaked by madness and darkness. One, pinned onto the wall, was staring at the demon before him. His eyes were blank as if he lost hope and was waiting for death – an emotion he could only see from the humans.

The second one, whose horns were identical to Levi, was grinning and mocking the weakness of his son. His eyes held no remorse as vile words escaped from his razor-like teeth. Though he seems identical to Levi, his eyes held the insidiousness that Levi did not possess – he was a type of monster that bathed the blood of innocent children when he wanted to.

Gripping the hair of Levi, he pulled his face towards him. "Do better! If that brat Damon wants you to lick his soles then do it! You can't afford to slack off when your greatest competition just arrived – Beelzebub's wee child."

Blood dripped from Levi's forehead. His unfocused eyes stared at his father. "I-I will do better, Father."

The echo of the ringing slap muted the thunderclaps. A red imprint marked Levi's left cheek, his drenched hair covering his eyes – hindering his father from seeing his murderous gaze, something Crescent saw.

"Never forget, I have your human sister with me."

- - -

The second surge of images stopped from rolling. Thunderclaps illuminated Crescent's dim-lighted room. In the darkness, her glowing green eyes were grinning. An ominous feeling surrounded the daughter of Beelzebub, Transylvania Academy's newest Halfling and the Nether World's greatest candidate to oppose Damon.

"I just found an opening to secure Levi. What's left is how to get him."