Yao

Before Dante vanished to deal with the threat that Isha hinted at, my hands were already moving, forming a complicated Mandala that restrained most demonic energy, provided the demon was weakened enough.

The spell wouldn't last forever, but It'd hold long enough to wring out every last secret that she had to hide.

Isha glared at me, but I did not dignify her anger with so much as a brow raise. The spell enveloped and paralyzed her in a multicolored mandala, going so far as to block her mouth just in case.

Kaecilius emerged from a portal alongside Mordo with barely veiled irritation. It was no mystery how he felt about Isha. She was responsible for the death of his family. His entire life at the order had been leading to this very moment. I had to choose my words carefully.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Kaecilius. "You're supposed to be at the Brazilian branch."

"It's quiet on that front," he said, "and I've allocated several apprentices to keep watch of critical locations and potential targets. Nothing goes on without me finding out first."

Kaecilius eyes never left Isha the entire time he spoke.

"If you've come to see her die, you will be sorely disappointed," I said. "She's far more useful as an informant, unwilling or not."

"And when Jean is done with her?" he asked.

"Then maybe a bargaining chip," I admitted, seeing no use lying to him. "There's a child still stuck in Limbo, Ilyana. I'd prefer we retrieved her sooner rather than later."

Kaecilius frowned. "And what of my own child? My wife? You promised me justice!"

"Yes, I did promise you justice, but not revenge," I said firmly. "We cannot allow our passion to drive us, Kaecilius."

The older sorcerer bunched his hands and vibrated in rage. "Aren't you driven by sentimentality and memory yourself, sorcerer supreme? You made two people who've never practiced sorcery a day in their life your apprentices because you knew the father of one and are mildly fascinated by the other. Never mind that Dante's twin brother burned the demons and our order so badly both side lost hundreds in the aftermath. And let's not forget how 'stable' Jean Grey is. You're a hypocrite!"

Gagged, Isha still managed a laugh.

"And you're dangerously close to dismissal," I said in a scathing voice. "Do you presume you're wiser and more capable than I am? Perhaps you know the thousands of Spells I do and have antiquated yourself with the dozens of extra-dimensional threats that knock at the doors of our dimension? Both of my apprentices just saved New York and routinely provide information and abilities that put us ahead of the demons. If anything, it's your impetuousness that puts us all at risk. Abandoning your post to look at a rival you seek to kill? I thought I taught you better. Return to Brazil, Kaecilius. I will not repeat myself."

The man's upper lip grew stiff as he met my gaze but refused to move. It wasn't until Mordo pleaded with him that he budged.

"I see you for what you are," he said as he turned his back to me and opened a portal to the Brazilian branch. "This is not over."

"It is," I said with a sigh.

Before Kaecilius could enter the portal, somebody came running out.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

It was a lithe woman with scars running down her cheeks.

"Our spies just reported that N’topi has vanished from his mansion. He apparently told of the girls he entertains that he's on his way to the Disease Center?"

My eyes went wide. "The Disease Center?" Ntopi was a Cambion who specialized in water manipulation and had quite a reputation for his pride and appetite for all things decadent. If the demons can get even him to cooperate…then there was something larger afoot, and it went far beyond Domina.

"You don't think they'd go so far as biological warfare?" Mordo asked.

"They will with Domina at the helm," I answered, a bit of concern sipping into my voice.

"What about the international treaties, the laws!" Mordo was aghast. "Don't they realize the destruction they can cause?"

"I don't think they care," Kaecilius said. "If they can knock down a third of the population or eliminate us altogether, they'll have an easier time taking over."

The Brazilian sorcerer looked horrified. "What are you orders, Ancient one?"

"Return to your post and secure the prisoner in the deepest pits of Kamar-Taj. Double-check all of the suppression runes," I said. "The New York center was also hit, if memory serves. The attack might be global. Gather the masters, we're visiting every major disease center worldwide."

We arrived at the Brazilian facility just in time to see Ntopi stroll smash through the front door of the establishment. I immediately entered the mirror dimension and charted ahead. I arrived at the main storage room behind a series of vaults and materialized in front of a scientist who was frantically pulling out several test tubes and transporting them to a trolley in front of a door tagged 'Incinerator' in Portuguese.

The scientist was so stunned that he nearly dropped the tray of diseases he held. With one swift movement, I snatched the tray from him and bumped him on the head, expelling his soul from his body.

"Master, what are you doing?" Mordo, the only master to escort me into the facility, asked.

"Getting some information and laying down the ground work."

The scientist was screaming and talking so fast I feared he'd lose consciousness from hyperventilating. Thankfully, he was out of his body.

I spoke calmly as I began to weave an undetectable tracking spell on several disease vials. I layered it with one of Detection, which would alert me if somebody tried to uncork the bottle. The third was an incineration spell that would reduce the vials to ash.

"I know you're afraid and confused," I said to the scientist in perfect Portuguese, "but you'll have to find your courage quickly. You know what N'topi is."

I could see it in his eyes that he was scared beyond belief, but he answered anyway with a nod, and we got to talking.

Everybody knew who N'topi was. To the public, he was a local hero who achieved immortality through mystical means, but the scientific community had long concluded he was a Mutant.

N'topi didn't make it a habit of flaunting his 'mutation' in public. He already had thousands who propped up his legal and illegal businesses, but there was always hell to pay when he acted personally.

So, when John saw N'topi approach the disease center on foot, he just assumed he was after the viruses and diseases and was in a hurry to destroy them.

He became nervous when I told him I wanted N'topi to escape with some of the vials, specifically my charmed ones.

We obviously destroyed the more dangerous viruses—all of the fast-acting, incurable ones and extreme strains—but kept the common viruses and diseases.

I had John hide out in the incinerator when N'topi finally entered the lab. He was covered in blood, some of them his, but most from the human he gutted.

He yakked as he flicked the blood off him in disgust. With a wave of his hand, N'topi produced a cooler he had in a ring with him and surveyed the room. He had caramel skin with deep blue eyes and didn't look a day over 25. If memory served, he was 80 years old.

He chortled when he spotted John in the incinerator, and I hadn't even needed to ask him to act. John started backing away, eyes nervously darting towards the big red button outside the room that said, 'ON.'

N'topi laughed gregariously.

"All that intelligence and you don't know you're supposed to stand outside the incinerator, not in."

He looked at the button, then at the open freezer, which still had rows of viruses in all categories. It didn't take long for him to put it together.

N'topi stalked over to the door of the incinerator and cracked a smile. "You should've met me face-to-face like a man. I could've offered you a better death."

He slammed the button, and the incinerator erupted in fire. John was screaming out his lungs before the flames even brushed him, and he continued to do that long after I teleported him out of the room and the facility. His scream never reached N'topi's ears because of the air-tight seal on the door.

N'topi's eyes lingered on the incinerator for a moment before he went about his business, very much pleased with himself as he transported the viruses into his ring.

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