Feeling how the dark metal clung to his forearm, a glacial cold that penetrated beyond the skin, seeking the bone.
It didn't feel like a simple piece of armor, there was a subtle vibration running through the artifact.
A neural connection was established all at once.
And immediately he felt a sensation of "hunger" coming from it, but it wasn't a melodramatic demonic seduction, but a biological and direct need.
The gauntlet was hungry.
"Consume souls to strengthen..." he murmured flexing the clad fingers, and a cynical smile curved his lips "It fits me perfectly."
He stood up, feeling the residual adrenaline of the draw.
He needed to test his new toys, but his room wasn't the place to test them.
While he walked toward the door he thought constantly, 'Devil May cry' 'Devil May cry' 'Devil May cry'
And when he extended his hand, unlocked it and turned the knob, reality had changed.
Instead of opening to the hallway of his house, he crossed the threshold into a completely different space.
He was in his office.
Closing the door behind him, Lief walked up to the full-length mirror.
Projecting the image of a teenager wearing a navy blue silk sleeping robe, but with his left arm wrapped in a dark gauntlet capable of devouring souls.
Raising his right hand, he knocked on the mirror's surface with his knuckles.
Knock Knock
"Airam, I know you're there. Come out, we have to talk."
After his voice resonated, the mirror's surface rippled like a lake receiving the impact of a stone, and a few seconds later, a figure emerged from the depths of the reflection.
Airam materialized on the mirror's surface, crossed her arms and looked around with curiosity before locking her eyes on Lief.
"You call me for this?" she asked with a sarcastic tone and without a trace of fear. "And what is this place? It feels... pretty good actually."
"It's my office, the Agency," Lief replied, resting his hands on his hips with pride. "Not bad for my first venture, right?"
"Agency?" Airam arched an eyebrow. "For what? Do you dedicate yourself to helping people with their decoration problems or do you specialize in getting dead girls out of bathroom mirrors?"
Lief laughed dryly. "Let's just say I take care of... consulting for unusual problems..."
He was going to add something else, but a holographic window blinked in front of him.
It was black with red letters
[External connection attempt detected. Unknown coordinates request access to the Agency. Authorize?]
And this window didn't come from the system but from the agency itself.
"..."
Lief stood motionless for a second. Had he just arrived and he already had clients?
He looked at Airam, who also seemed to have felt something, and then directed his sight toward the office door.
"Seems business is opening ahead of schedule" he said with his tone becoming professional.
He selected the "Authorize" option in the air.
With the confirmation the lock mechanism clicked.
Click
The bronze knob turned slowly, as if the hand on the other side hesitated at the last second.
The heavy door opened with a groan, revealing a slit of darkness.
First, a head covered in short vibrant dark blue hair peeked out, adorned with a dragonfly-shaped brooch.
The door opened completely, revealing a girl about eleven or twelve years old.
She wore a bright yellow raincoat and mud-filled rain boots. Her face was pale, sprinkled with freckles, and her amber eyes, which were very expressive, betrayed her confusion and especially her fear.
She looked at Lief, then at the ethereal figure of Airam in the mirror, and her body tensed, but she didn't scream... she seemed to have seen much worse things recently.
"H... hello..." Her voice was a thread, but with a trace of bravery. "Excuse me... I just opened the door of my living room and... where am I?"
Lief exchanged a quick look with Airam.
The girl was lost, guided by desperation.
Clearing his throat, he walked around the desk and dropped into his chair with a fluid movement, interlacing his fingers on the wood surface.
"You're in the right place... even if you didn't know you were coming here," he said in a calming voice. "This is the Devil May Cry agency. We accept all kinds of jobs, but we specialize in solving... problems that the police don't understand and that science denies."
!
Upon hearing the last phrase, the caution in the girl's eyes completely broke, being replaced by a desperate hope. She ran toward the desk, rested both hands on the table and immediately leaned toward Lief.
"Problems that no one understands?" she asked, her breath coming in gasps. "Then you have to help me! Please, sir! She has taken my parents!"
Here it comes!
Lief's heart thrilled, because the show had just begun.
"Easy. Breathe," he said pointing to the chair in front of him. "Sit down. No one is going to hurt you here. Tell me your name and tell me exactly what happened. Start from the beginning."
The girl dragged the chair and sat on the edge, clinging tightly to the armrests.
"My name is Coraline. Coraline Jones," she said taking a breath before continuing. "My parents and I recently moved into the Pink Palace Apartments. It's an old, huge house…"
"My parents are always working... they never have time for me and I, bored, explored the house, and found a doll, a doll that looked exactly like me, only its eyes were buttons."
"Guided by that doll, I discovered a small door in the living room, bricked up..." Her eyes visibly darkened at the memory.
"One night a mouse woke me up and out of curiosity I followed it, and surprisingly the small door in the living room was open," she recounted. "I went through the door and arrived at a place... identical to my house. But better. There was an Other Mother and an Other Father. They cooked the best food, the garden was alive, the toys worked by themselves... everything was perfect. Except for one thing."
Coraline looked up, with discomfort shining in her pupils. "They didn't have eyes. They had buttons."
"The Other Mother..." murmured Lief, recognizing the witch immediately.
"Yes!" exclaimed Coraline. "At first she was kind, but then... She said I could stay forever, that she would love me more than my real mother... if I let her sew the buttons on me too. She took out a needle and thread!"
"But I told her no! I refused and tried to escape! But she transformed: she locked me in a mirror, and there I met the ghosts of three other children," she exclaimed, without taking a breath. "That witch ate their lives! She tricked them, sewed the buttons on them and swallowed their souls, leaving them trapped! Then I knew that she wasn't any mom, she is a bad witch who uses those dolls to watch every child who moves in, then she seduces them and steals their soul!"
The tears began to overflow. "I managed to trick her... I made her open the door and escaped through the tunnel. I thought it was over, but when I returned to my home... the house was empty. My parents weren't there. I looked for them everywhere."
She reached into the pocket of her raincoat and took out two rag dolls that looked disturbingly like her parents and placed them on the desk with trembling hands.
"I found them under the bed..." she sobbed. "She has them! I know it was her! She kidnapped them to force me to return. If I don't go back... she will eat them too!"
She looked up, with her face bathed in tears but with a fierce determination burning beneath the fear. "Sir, you said that you take care of what no one else understands. Please! You have to help me get my family back before she sews buttons in their eyes!"
________
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