Sebastian made his way to the men's room. He was walking leisurely, looking at the priceless works of art that adorned the walls, when he noticed the waiters guiding a couple of diners leaving the hall. Several of the tables were already empty and the rest of the guests were also starting to leave. He looked at the rest of the diners. They were all on their last course, except for a couple or two who were still finishing their dessert. He then looked at their table. His friends were quite lively. The rest of the tables around them were already empty.
'Perhaps they got offended by how noisy we were,' he thought with a sigh.
Until he saw one of the waiters roping the area off.
Dorin took a bite off the fat éclair he was holding when he saw Sebastian hurrying back to their table. He took a gulp and fell unconscious on the table.
"Dorin?" Vincent placed a hand on Dorin's shoulder, shaking him.
"What happened?!" Bennette looked at Dorin wide eyed, while Sebastian slapped the éclair that was halfway to Johan's mouth.
[It's a trap!] Sebastian said to his companions.
As he said this, a silver membrane enclosed their area off from the rest of the dining hall.
"What trap?" Vincent asked, confused, "How could there possibly be a trap here?"
"What happened?" Margarette stood up, her right hand floating to her hip, but the sabre that was always there was left in the storage room with the rest of their belongings.
Sebastian was beside Dorin by then, shaking him.
[They are sending all the diners out! I don't know what their plan is, but they have roped this area off, and even enclosed it with a magical barrier! They mean to trap us!] He looked at Dorin, the french cream still trailing from his mouth. [The desert is probably laced with sleeping potion, or worse, poisoned.]
Vincent's gray eyes widened and glowed until it was a golden color. The pupils slanted vertically and dilated. His white hair blew to an invincible breeze as he rose from his seat and faced the translucent wall that separated them to the rest of the dining hall.
"Someone is coming," said Vincent in a low voice.
"Where from?" asked Johan who suddenly stood beside him, his clothes slowly burning off his body, revealing the dark dragon suit underneath.
"I do not have my sabre, but I can still fight!" said Margarette, joining their ranks.
[I too...] Sebastian started, but Vincent touched his shoulder to silence him.
"Stay with Ray. Keep him safe," said the young man, his eyes not leaving the same spot. "I will not loose him again."
Sebastian shivered at the sound of the his voice. It was not the playful voice of a child that they have been accustomed to, but that of a person who was ready to kill for the one he loves.
"Let me take a look at Dorin," Bennette said beside him. "
They pulled Dorin off the chair and carried him to the other side of the table.
Vincent took a deep breath.
Slowly, he let it out as he felt the presence of a wormhole beginning to open right in front of them.
"Be ready," he hissed to Margarette and Johan.
Margarette took one of the iron chairs and snapped off one of its rear legs that connected to the backrest with such force that the two stared at her.
"I like to improvise," she told them as brandished the long iron bar.
A hole in the firmament appeared, so did four images clad all in black. They were dark skinned and yellow eyed, with hair of the same darkness. They quickly assumed formation, one to the right, one to the left, the remaining two dashing forward towards Vincent.
Vincent stretched his arms at opposite directions, his limbs flexing, stretching, and catching the two assailants on the throat. Johan faced the third one, blasting him with such heat that even Vincent's suit got singed. Margarette stood her own ground with her make-shift sword, using her unusual strength to subdue her opponent.
"You." Vincent hissed at the assailants. "Did my brother send you?" he asked them. "Can't he come by himself?" As he said this, he raised the two up in the air, his arms stretching even longer, and threw them both at the translucent shield. They flipped in mid air and landed on their feet, mumbling to themselves.
"Your brother sent them?" Johan asked with surprise as he created a sword of fire, compacting metal from the surroundings as a core, and fended off a dark dagger from the third assailant. "Is this a family fight, then?" he added, sounding pissed.
"No." Vincent answered flatly. "They are not my family."
"Oh, I am hurt!" said a voice from behind them.
Vincent turned around in time to fend a dagger of dark energy aimed at his nape. He held it with a third appendage which sprouted from his chest.
A slim figure slipped out of a sliver of a gate that floated in mid air. His skin was as pale as death and his eyes were the color of burning coals.
"Could it be that you no longer remember me, big brother?" he said to Vincent who looked back at him coldly.
"A pale Morel." Vincent replied. "Are you Octavius?"
The boy started to laugh. "A good guess, brother," he said, "Perhaps you are not as stupid as brother Randalle said you were." Another laugh. "And I see the change in appearance had somehow made us look... slightly the same."
"Where's Randalle?" asked Vincent.
"Still recuperating from the wounds you inflicted on him."
"So he sent the youngest instead?"
"Not the youngest," Octavius replied, raising a hand. "I am now, the new head of the family."
Octavius sliced his hand down, opening a portal to the in-between. He sliped his hand inside while mumbling spells, and pulled out a talon. The rest of the body followed.
It was a creature of shadow that was hard to describe by mere words alone, for it oozed and writhed and changed its shape with every movement, keeping only its slimy tentacles with talon tips.
"You plan to kill me with that?" Vincent said, eyeing the creature.
"I wish," answered his little brother. "I was told to take you back alive."
"And you call yourself the new head?"
With that, Octavius pointed at Vincent, calling out words indiscernible to the human ear. The shadow creature stretched out like a net and aimed itself towards Vincent, but a wall of flame went around it and enveloped it in a fiery embrace.
"What is that disgusting thing?" Margarette asked Vincent with distaste while Johan burned the screeching creature alive.
"That's my youngest brother. He's always been a brat..." answered Vincent.
"No, I meant that dark tentacled... thingy!" Margarette asked once more as she fended off attack after attack from the assailants. They were holding swords of darkness now, and her make shift weapon was no match to it. It looked like it was about to snap in half.
"That's a creature of shadows from the in-between," Vincent answered nonchalantly. "You can summon them with the use of an arcane magic spell," he added, "or you can just pull them out straight from the darkness, like so..."
Vincent sliced the air with his hand and mumbled words that Margarette can not decipher. He then placed his hand inside the slit in the air and said "Come forth."
What Vincent pulled out was a creature that could only come from the imagination of a person with a sick mind. It had some difficulty coming out of the portal for it was too huge. Its head was small and pointed like a goat, but its mouth was so wide that its skull almost split in two as it opened its jaw and gave a bloodcurdling scream. Three pairs of eyes lined its length and oozed a dark shadowy substance. It had a long neck connected to two spiny bodies with appendages of different length, all of which bore sharp spikes and ended in talons.
Vincent spoke an inaudible sound which seems to be its name.
"Incapacitate them." He ordered it.
"AS YOU DESIRE" answered the creature with a voice that seem to come from the abyss itself.
The appendages suddenly burst out, pinning the 4 assailants to the walls. Octavius, quick on his feet, was able to dodge the spiked arms, he even ripped one of them off.
"Good, but not good enough!" hissed the youngest brother, making a meal out of the severed appendage.
"I'm just warming up," replied Vincent as he reached into the portal once again.
Octavius's eyes widened as three more creatures came out of the void.