[ Location: The Upside Down - Creel House ]
The massive, glowing rift in the sky was sealed shut and the angry red lightning was completely gone, replaced by the calm, deep violet clouds of my domain.
I dropped to one knee, my Void Blade resting on the rotting dirt.
My lungs were burning and slashing a skyscraper-sized shadow monster in half and forcing reality shut wasn't exactly a walk in the park.
My Aether pool was running low.
I just took a deep breath.
[ Passive Ability Active: Aether Respiration. ]
My chest hummed and the passive spell instantly kicked in.
My body acted like a giant sponge, pulling in the energy of the Upside Down and it filtered out the toxic poison and turned the raw energy straight into pure Aether, refilling my empty energy pool.
In ten seconds, the exhaustion vanished.
"Much better," I muttered, standing back up.
I looked around at my army.
A thousand Demodogs were pacing nervously and sixty Yellow Hounds hovered in the air, their mustard-colored cloaks flapping.
My giant Basilisk was coiled around the house, waiting.
'I need to lock this place down. If the Mind Flayer tries to pick the lock again, I want a welcome committee.'
[ Ability Active: Hive Mind Control (Level 8). ]
I pushed my thoughts directly into the minds of every single monster in the dimension.
"Patrol the borders," I commanded. "If anything tries to push through the sky or the ground, erase it."
The Demodogs howled and scattered into the dark woods.
The Yellow Hounds floated up into the violet clouds to act as my aerial defense and the Basilisk lowered her massive head to rest on the porch.
My dimension was secure.
I raised my free hand and slashed the air.
[ Ability Active: Portal Manipulation. ]
A human-sized green rift tore open.
I stepped through the portal and let it snap shut behind me.
[ Location: Frostwell Residence - Vivan's Bedroom (Real World) ][ Time: 2:20 PM ]
I landed on the soft rug of my bedroom and the bright afternoon sunlight of Indiana streamed through my window.
I tossed my Void Blade into my Inventory.
Hawkins was safe.
But I know somethings else came in too.
The planetary stealth barrier was cracked and the Mind Flayer had just kicked the front door open, and I know that scout might have slipped through the back window during the chaos.
"I need to know where is it" I whispered to myself.
I grabbed a brush and a bottle of magic ink from my desk and I painted fast.
In two minutes, I had drawn six perfect Proximity Alarm Seals and if any monster crossed these papers, they would send a psychic ping directly to my brain.
"Time to clone" I grinned, forming a hand sign.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
POOF.
Three perfect copies of me appeared in the bedroom in a cloud of white smoke.
"Tag El's cabin, the arcade, and Max's house," I ordered, handing them the tags. "Be invisible."
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
The three clones teleported away using Apparition to set up my early warning system.
I fell back onto my mattress, ready for a nap.
But I didn't even get to close my eyes.
PING!
A sharp, stinging alarm went off inside my head.
[ System Alert: Proximity Ward Triggered! ][ Location: The Hargrove House. ]
[ Threat Detected: Dark Entity. ]
My eyes snapped open and I was irritated.
The nap was canceled.
' I knew something slipped through.'
I jumped off the bed. "Apparition!"
CRACK.
[ Location: Hawkins - The Hargrove House ][ Time: 2:25 PM ]
Neil Hargrove
Billy and Max's abusive, terrible father—was sitting in his living room recliner, drinking a beer and yelling at a baseball game on TV.
"Catch the damn ball!" Neil shouted, throwing an empty can at the screen.
The TV flickered and the baseball game vanished into pure white static.
"Piece of junk," Neil grumbled, standing up to smack the side of the television.
He never made it.
The static on the screen poured out of the glass like black, oily smoke and the smoke swirled, forming a face with too many jagged, glowing yellow eyes.
A Void Stalker.
A scout from the dark spaces between worlds.
Neil froze, dropping his beer and tried to scream, but the shadow shot forward like a viper.
It slammed into his face, forcing itself down his throat.
Neil collapsed to his knees, choking and gagging, his veins turned pitch black.
When he finally stood back up, he wasn't Neil Hargrove anymore.
He cracked his neck.
His eyes opened, glowing with a sickly, jagged yellow light and a cruel, alien smile stretched across his face.
"So this is Earth," the thing wearing Neil's body whispered. "Smells like... dinner."
"What the hell is that noise?"
Billy walked into the living room, holding his car keys and max was right behind him, holding her skateboard.
They stopped dead in their tracks.
"Dad?" Billy asked, taking a slow step back.
The hair on his arms stood up.
Neil smiled.
But It was a cruel, alien smile that stretched way too far across his face.
"Hello, William," the thing wearing Neil's body whispered.
The voice sounded like sandpaper. "Your fear smells delicious."
Neil reached out and grabbed the edge of the heavy wooden TV stand with one hand, he effortlessly crushed the solid oak into splinters.
Billy's eyes went wide.
He knew his dad was abusive, but he didn't have super-strength.
"Where is the girl with the red hair?" the monster asked, tilting its head toward Max. "She will make a perfect snack."
The monster took a heavy step toward them.
Billy dropped his keys and put his fists up, stepping in front of Max.
"MAX, RUN!" Billy screamed.
The monster lunged faster than a cheetah and billy swung a heavy punch right at his father's jaw, but it was like hitting a brick wall.
The monster didn't even flinch and it grabbed Billy by the throat, ready to snap his neck.
SSSHHHRRRIP.
A glowing green portal ripped open in the middle of the living room ceiling.
I dropped through the portal, landing silently on the carpet right behind the monster.
"Hey, ugly," I said coldly.
The monster spun around, dropping Billy.
It roared and threw a super-powered punch right at my face.
I just raised my hand and caught Neil's fist in my open palm.
Smack.
The shockwave rattled the windows, but my arm didn't even budge an inch.
My Strength stats were high enough and that meant a possessed human hit like a feather to me.
The monster's glowing yellow eyes widened in pure shock and it tried to pull its hand back, but my grip was like a steel vice.
"You're in my town," I whispered, my eyes flashing a dangerous, blinding violet. "And I don't tolerate abusers or parasites."
I squeezed his fist, bones cracked and the monster shrieked in pain.
I slammed my free hand squarely onto Neil's chest.
"Fuinjutsu: Purge!"
I blasted a wave of pure, burning Aether straight through his body.
The holy white energy acted like poison to the dark shadow.
The monster screamed as the oily black smoke was violently ripped out of Neil's mouth and nose and the shadow tried to escape into the air, but I caught it with my Telekinesis, compressing it into a tiny ball and crushing it until it popped like a balloon.
Neil's eyes rolled back into his head.
He collapsed to the floor like a sack of potatoes, completely unconscious.
Silence filled the living room.
I dusted off my jacket and turned to Billy and Max.
They were staring at me, mouths hanging open.
"You guys okay?" I asked, completely relaxed.
"You..." Billy gasped, rubbing his bruised throat. "What did you pull out of him?"
"Just a little leftover trash from the dimension next door," I said, kicking Neil's unconscious leg. "Don't worry, your dad is just a normal, pathetic guy again and he won't remember any of this."
Max walked over, her skateboard trembling in her hands.
She looked at her unconscious dad, then up at me.
"Thanks, Vivan," Max whispered.
"I told you I had your back, Madmax," I grinned.
I opened another portal to my bedroom.
"I'm going to take a nap now," I said, stepping through the green rift. "If he gives you any more trouble when he wakes up, just give me a call."
The portal snapped shut, leaving the two of them safe, and the monster problem officially solved.
I stepped out onto my bedroom rug.
I fell face-first onto my mattress, completely exhausted.
The Mind Flayer was blocked out, and the stray scout was dead and hawkins was finally safe.
I closed my eyes and let myself sleep.
But I was wrong.
[ Location: Hawkins - Lovers' Lake ][ Time: 2:45 PM ]
The lake was perfectly quiet and the water looked like dark glass.
Suddenly, deep at the bottom of the lake, the mud shifted.
Bubbles rose to the surface and the water started to turn a sickly, toxic black.
A massive, webbed hand covered in dark green scales reached out of the water and gripped the edge of the wooden dock.
The wood instantly rotted and snapped under its giant claws.
Jane the vampire had warned me that shattering or even a hole in the Earth's stealth barrier would attract the real monsters from the Macroverse.
Something much older, and much hungrier, had just arrived in Hawkins.
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