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  Coming out into the chilled, ocean air, Lucia felt an unusually cold chill start to swirl around her. She looked back at Elas, but the Midrardian girl didn't look disturbed. The stone walls stood strong, bearing the weight of the ocean breeze greatly. Even then, the courtyard started to develop a wind all it's own, slowly getting stronger until it was hard not to notice.

  "Elas," Lilly started to say, but Elas cut her off.

  "It isn't me," she told her bunny friend.

  "Then what is it?" Draco asked, holding his captain's jacket closed.

  "Draco," Lucia pegged curiously, "are you cold?"

  "Yeah, this it's freezing," Draco hissed, buttoning his jacket shut.

  "How are YOU cold? Even when we were on the mountains you were in the tropics?"

  "I don't know," Draco whined, pulling the collar up on his jacket as the cold grew colder.

  A sudden burst of wind accompanied a loud cracking sound, like the sound of a canoe snapping in half. The wind all went to the very center of the castle, where there was a fracture in the universe. It bent light around it, creating a fracture in the world itself. This wasn't an uncommon dealing in the world, but it had never been this close before.

  Draco, Lilly, Elas and Lucia all stood amazed as a demonic portal began to open right in front of their eyes.

  "What the hell," Draco swore, his hand immediately going to his side where he usually kept his sword. He grabbed empty space, looking down only to be reminded that he had been disarmed at the beginning of this little excursion. The sound of crackling reverberated as the group started to shuffle their way out of the castle.

  Then it broke apart completely, a rift into the demonic realm that seemed to drag in everything around it. Only, now things started to pour out of it in excess, hideous monsters that seemed to be half-formed growths which had no true form. There was groaning and growling from the mass, but each individual thing seemed to climb over the next. It was a wave that crawled towards the four adventurers, trying to get at the fresh meat.

  Suddenly, the ground shook as the sound of godly laughter echoed across the world. A message popped up in front of Eric's party, but they ignored it until they got outside of the castle. They shut the door, then held it back as they looked around for the boat. It was sailing off into the distance, too far to even properly identify it.

  "Woah, that's a lot," Draco said in shock, looking at the message in front of him. Everybody read the tiny blue screen that had appeared, but none of them could properly vocalize their opinions.

  Exp:13,834,325 Gold:829,485

  "Where did this come from?" Lucia asked, but then she heard a glorious sound.

  "AREA CONSTRICTION," Eric shouted, then the ground quaked. Lilly was shaken to her bones, Draco's scales stood on end, Elas breathed a frozen sigh of relief, but Lucia could only smile. The sound of fighting was erratic and heavily destructive, with Eric laughing maniacally all the while.

  The group stepped away from the door to let the demons out, watching them scurry down the road without even glancing at the humans. They seemed frightened, moving as quickly as their half-formed bodies could manage. It was all for naught as a hammer suddenly flew out and obliterated them into squishy jelatin. The hammer floated still for a few moments, then it was dragged back through the door by an invisible force.

  Looking into the castle grounds, Lucia almost cried when she saw Eric standing on a pile of bodies that led up to the fracture in the universe. He was standing there triumphantly, looking up at the sky where the storm clouds were encroaching on the blue sky. The fracture was still open, but Eric didn't seem to mind it's presence as his eyes finally landed on his four companions.

  "Sup, mofos?" Eric asked, a smile forming on the edge of his lips. "Miss me?"

  "Eric!" Lilly shouted, leaping across the huge gap and tackling the big man down the pile of bodies. They tumbled down together until Eric rolled onto the ground with his little bunny. "Oh my gods, I missed you!" Lilly nuzzled into Eric's shoulder until his body covered mose of her.

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  "Fashionably late, as always," Draco said, running up the bodies then sliding down himself even as more poured out.

  "You've got a lot of explaining to do," Elas chastised, but she hugged Eric anyways.

  Then Lucia stepped up, looking at Eric with a very stern expression. The tension in the air suddenly rose, even as the portal to a demonic realm remained open. Lucia's tiger eyes stared into Eric's sad blues, mixed emotions swirling around. Lucia suddenly lashed out and slapped Eric across the face, the sound of the slap seemingly silencing the world around them. There was a moment's hesitation as Eric's head remained facing away from his first friend, and his greatest companion.

  Then soft hands guided Eric's face down as Lucia pulled the big man in for a kiss.

  Eric didn't resist, he just slowly closed his eyes as his hands moved on their own. They slowly encircled Lucia until he was embracing her passionately, then he lifted the girl so that she was on his level. The kiss was sweet, like honeysuckle straight from the hive. The two seemed to melt into each other's embrace until the kiss was broken and they breathed deeply into each other.

  "Ahem," Elas coughed awkwardly, but was then punched by Lilly for ruining the moment. Lucia only now seemed to notice that she was almost two feet off the ground, and Eric didn't realize how red his face was becoming.

  "I hate to be the dragon of bad news," Draco cut in, "but the demons are still coming."

  He was right. As tender as the moment was, it didn't stop a demon infestation.

  "Allow me," Eric said, a smile forming on his lips. He took a few steps away, then flexed his entire body with a hard grunt. His shadow seemed to come alive, forming a dust that wrapped around him like a blanket. Eric was entirely consumed by this darkness, which slowly started to take form. Eric had a twisted helmet that led naturally down to a black chestplate with a linked stomach section. The shoulder pads had horns similar to the helmets' horns, and the guantlets both had minor spikes on the end. His lower body had fewer horns, except for the tips of the boots. All of it was as black as night, deeper than any void and as impenetrable as a diamond.

  "The Demonic Armor," Draco said while Lilly whistled in admiration. Then two bright flashes occured simoultaneously, and Eric was holding the divine weapons of the hammer and chains. Then he disappeared from sight, and a wave of trudging demons suddenly blew apart like water. Liquid body parts went flying as the dual power of Demonic Armor and Divine Weapons gave way to an entirely new class of power.

  Eric was greater than a one-man army, he was an unstoppable force that doubled as an immovable object. He was a war god on steroids with an adrenaline kick. He was a blur, nowhere yet everywhere. Nobody knew what they were witnessing, but they saw the demon numbers quickly dwindle.

  Eric stopped, skidding to a halt next to Lucia. He was drenched in black blood and his face was hidden, but everyone knew that he was smiling under his mask.

  "I know I'll stop asking this question eventually," Elas began, "but how did you do that?"

  "My dopplegangers all had a piece of Demonic armor that they were levelling up on their own," Eric tried to explain. "When we joined, I got all of that experience as well as all of the perks that we had accumulated. I'm currently level three hundred and forty-three."

  "Cheater," Draco said, but his smile broke the seriousness in his voice.

  "It gets better," said Eric, "Legion Link."

  Eric seemed to seperate down the middle, almost as if he was tearing himself apart. The skin stretched until it started to mirror itself, then the two Eric's pulled apart completely. Both of them were wearing Demonic Armor and carrying the Divine Weapons, which drastically increased their individual power. One of them disappeared, still as fast as Eric was before, now he was able to divide his attention.

  "Let's go somewhere quieter," Eric suggested, looking at one of the doors that led into the castle walls. He motioned for his group to follow as he entered, letting them in one at a time. When Lucia passed him, he slapped her lightly on the butt, making her yelp in surprise.

  When the group found a dining hall that had been completely cleaned out, they all sat down to start strategizing.

  "So, what is that thing?" Lucia asked.

  "Best guess," Eric thought, "it's a portal to the demon realm."

  "Okay, smartass," Lucia retorted, "how did it get here? The next wave isn't supposed to be for another two months."

  "The church must have opened it. I didn't think they had the ability, but apparently they do."

  "So how do we close it?" Lilly asked the more pressing concern.

  "Not a clue," Eric admitted, then he looked at Elas for answers.

  "Are you going to make me think again?" groaned the Midrardian regretfully. "Well, we can usually just close the portal by wrapping your chains around it." Everyone looked at Eric for a moment while he closed his eyes. From outside, the sound of fighting was interrupted by an inaudible shout, then the fighting continued.

  "Nope, didn't work," Eric said, opening his eyes with a scowl.

  "Wait," Lilly cried excitedly, "what if we need to close it from the other side?"

  "What?"

  "Well, think about the way we've been doing it," Lilly started to explain. "Whenever the demons open a portal, it's like a door that swings out to our side so that only someone on our side can close it. Except now, we're the ones who pushed the door open, so we can't get to the handle that closes the door."

  "Let me get this straight," Eric said, looking grimly at Lilly, "you're telling me that one of us needs to go into the demon realm and close it from that side?"

  The entire room became silent except for the ceaseless fighting happening outside. Even though nobody wanted to say it, they all figured it out for themselves. Somebody needed to stay behind in the demon world.

  "Guys, I want you to help me with something," Eric stated, relaxing his shoulders.

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