"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... is that the most you could do?" Vincent mocked his brother. The younger Morel was able to summon 8 demons from the in-between, but they were all currently being subdued by the demons his older brother summoned.
Twelve of them.
Three of their demons were too tattered for battle, and the first one was still busy with the immobilized assailants. But still, his brother's demons were much bigger and more than he could summon.
"This is not over yet..." Octavius, his hands shaking, made another cut in the air.
"Are you sure you should do that?" Vincent chuckled, his arms crossed over his chest. "A weakened Morel is a danger to himself, you know."
"I know what I'm doing!" the other insisted. Octavius slipped his hand through the darkness once again. "I call upon..."
Before the younger Morel could finish the summon, his face suddenly paled and contorted as a shrill scream escaped his lips.
Instead of pulling a creature out, something was trying to pull him in.
"A-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Vincent laughed, clutching his stomach. "Told you so, didn't I?" he pointed at Octavius. "Do you not know how scrumptious a Morel smells to the beings in the in-between?" he laughed harder. "If you're too weak to control them, then you are nothing more than a morsel!"
Vincent walked closer to his brother whose arm was now almost all the way inside the slit.
"So, should I help you?" he grinned, "Should I cut off your arm?"
"I-I... would... much rather be... eaten...!" Octavius managed to say between screams of torment.
"If that's what you want..."
Vincent raised his hand and snapped. The demons in the vicinity, even the ones that Octavius summoned, stopped and looked at the struggling Morel.
Vincent smiled as his brother stared at him in horror.
"It's time to feed."
Octavius shivered.
The demons rushed towards him. He closed his eyes as the creatures fought to take the first bite, when something bright burned through his eyelids.
The whole area was engulfed in a light so bright that one could hardly open their eyes.
When the light finally subsided, the dark creatures were gone – scattered, hiding in the darkest nooks and crannies in the dinning hall.
Octavius noticed the light came from the table by the balcony.
"Vincent's companions... could one of them be..." His eyes squinting, he looked at Vincent who was equally surprised, then back at the table by the balcony.
The table had toppled over. Five figures were sitting on the floor, one of whom was enveloped in the white flames.
"Holy flames..." Octavius hissed.
It took him a while to realize that his arm was out of the slit which had disintegrated with the advent of the holy flames. He held on to his ragged arm, bloody chunks of flesh missing in areas were white bone showed.
"Ray." Octavius heard Vincent gasp.
Of the four people squatting on the floor, a fifth person rose, covered in golden light and floating in the air, facing them.
The bright light suddenly disappeared.
"Ray!" Vincent ran towards his companions, his voice returning to a higher, childlike pitch. "Are you okay, Ray? I thought they had poisoned you! Are you fine? Does it hurt anywhere? Do you need any help?"
Dorin looked at him, his eyes confused. His hair lost the ribbon and flew about his face, shining as golden as the sun. His eyes glowed the same color.
"You." He spoke. "Vincent Morel." He slowly floated down to the floor, loosing the golden light, his hair and eyes turning back to the color of chestnuts. "I am Dorin Silvius. Not Ray." He looked down at Johan who looked worn out. He knelt beside the fire mage and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for cleansing me."
Johan grinned up at him. "My pleasure," he said, panting.
"What happened?" asked Dorin, looking all over the place.
"Just a little trouble with some people," Vincent grinned. "Nothing much really, I'm just about to finished him off..." he looked behind him, at Octavius who sat on the ground, holding his mutilated arm.
"Is that the cause of all this trouble?" Dorin asked, his hair rising as static electricity cursed through his body.
"Dorin, that's his brother!" Johan called from the floor. "Don't let them fight."
"Why not?" Both Dorin and Vincent said together.
"Brothers should not fight!" Johan yelled, making him gasp even more.
"That's right," Margarette added, "so stop that meaningless bickering this instance!"
"Well..." Dorin said thoughtfully, "if you say it like that..."
"But they poisoned Dorin!" Vincent insisted.
"It was just a sleeping drought, actually..." Bennette said feebly.
"And you were not very truthful about what happened to Professor Morel," Margarette said with a frown. "Your brother said you harmed him."
"But he didn't want me to go with Ray!" Vincent justified himself. "So I told him if I won in a fight..."
"You... You broke his arms and took his wand!" Octavius shouted from the middle of the room. "He only wanted you to return home! But you insisted to go back to this... Ray!"
"Silence." Vincent looked at his brother darkly.
The shadows in the corners reacted to his voice, slipping, slithering, flowing towards the injured Morel who tried desperately to back away.
A ring of blinding light suddenly encircled Octavius as Dorin sent his lightning to keep the shadows at bay.
"Send them away, Vincent," he told the tall lad beside him.
"But Ray..."
"I'm not Ray," Dorin said again. "I'm sorry, but I am not and could not be that Ray from your memory." He looked the boy straight in the eyes. "Send the shadows back."
"Haa..." Vincent sighed, a look of disappointment in his face. "Okay..."
He opened another slit, mumbled words in an unknown language, and called the demons by name. Names that sounded more guttural than anything. One by one, the demons went through the slit and disappeared, until there was only one left – the massive demon who still kept the four Morels pinned to the dining hall walls. It shivered as it heard its name and pulled its appendages back to it's two bodies. The four assailants groaned as they fell and hit the floor, their black blood leaving trails on the walls.
"They need medical attention!" said Bennette who was already beside one of the fallen Morels.
"I'll call Professor Althea," said Margarette.
"No help!" cried Octavius. "The Morels help their own," he gasped, "we keep everything in the family!"
"Your comrades are about to die," said Dorin, standing over one of the assailants.
"The Morels keep everything in the fami–"
Vincent punched his brother on the face, sending him sprawling on the ground. "That's the number one rule I hate about the Morel's!" he told his brother, "Isn't that how we lost brother Leif?"
Octavius stares up at him, his maroon eyes wide. "You..." he growled, "you who disappeared for 14 years..." he stared at Vincent with undisguised malice. "Don't you dare lecture me!"
Octavius lifts his uninjured arm in an attempt to open yet another portal, but Vincent grips it and twists, causing his brother to writhe in pain.
"That's enough, he needs medical attention..." said Bennette who was suddenly by the youngest Morel's side. "Please let me look at him," he said again when Vincent refused to let go.
Vincent looked back at Octavius. "Be thankful." He finally drops his brother's arm.
"Hey, be a little gentler with your little brother, won't you?" said Margarette who was looking at the fallen men. "Where's the rest of the staff in the restaurant anyway?"
"What's more, why did they only send 5 people?" said Dorin. "Are they looking down on us? Why, the empire sent more people to abduct Sebastian and me before."
"And you say you are now the head?" Vincent mocked Octavius. "I beg to differ." His brother simply glared back at him.
"That is because, he has not yet been named as the official head," said a voice from the hall's entrance. They turned to see the main door open. Standing before it, was Monsieur Benson, looking very weary on his feet.
"I knew it!" Vincent snorted. "Father never left home without at least 10 vanguards, and that's just him going for a stroll!"
"Don't worry, master Vincent," said Benson as more people in suits entered the dining room. "I have taken the liberty to call your father."
"Benson!" Octavius hissed. "You promised!"
"I said I would keep it a secret as long as you get things under control," replied their host. "This does not look like 'under control' to me."