“Well done, heroes, you’ve passed the test.
Now you’ll start the prophesied quest.
To prevent every demon from becoming slave,
all the angelic masters you must fight brave.
Reunite us with glass and we shall guide the way
for there is no reason for you here to stay
in this tower with no way out, no windows, no door.
Pass the mirror one final time to gain freedom evermore
in a world you will save. Your fate you can’t outrun.
Step through the glass and save the world of Abaddon.”
They can hear every crystal as they echo their rhyme throughout the tower. Their voices almost sound like they’re singing, giving Lyssa inspiration for the melody of her next song.
“I guess we don’t really have another choice to get out of there”, Bruq says with a glowing gem in his hand. “We might as well use the mirror.”
Oslando and Dargothoth hang the artefact on the nearest hook.
“But we have no idea where it will take us”, Mero says nervously, his voice vibrating with doubt. “Is it transporting us to another realm? To Abaddon? Can it truly do that?”
Oslando shrugs and shakes his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never encountered magic like this before, but it looks like it has the power to make it happen. Right?”
Bruq walks up to the Enochian relic and, together with Oslando, brings his crystal towards a socket. As they get closer, they can feel the mirror pulling at the gemstones, as if a magical force wants them to be reconnected. A sharp sound shortly rings and the crystals find their way into their magical home.
“So far, so good”, the satyr speaks and he takes a few steps back. Nothing happens with the glass: no portal opens and no ripples across the surface are noticeable.
“Mero, do you need help putting in yours?”
The sorcerer shakes his head.
“I’ll manage.” He smiles and a gust of wind lifts him up. He levitates about two feet above the ground and inserts the crystal flawlessly. “See? No problem at all.”
Bruq smiles at him.
“I had already forgotten you can basically fly. You keep surprising me.” Mero smiles at him as well.
“Thank you for the compliment! Now, does anyone still hear their crystal speak? Mine grew silent after that creepy rhyme. I would rather have a little more explanation than just going through that mirror once again.” They all shake their head.
“I don’t hear anything”, Dargothoth speaks slowly as he observes his own crystal. “If it brings us to Abaddon, we might experience a few… how shall I put it… obstacles. Does anyone of you know what awaits us there or do I need to explain?” His response to the shaking of their head is a short sigh of disappointment. “No worries. I’ll tell you all you need to know”.
Dargothoth holds the amulet he took off the blood cultist’s corpse in his hand. The red markings are glowing in the same frequency as the Enochian Crystals.
“Abaddon is a world of all kinds of demons”, he says. “It exists out of several islands floating in a turbulent ocean of lava, all ruled by their own king, queen or other noble archdemon. They are not as brutal as the demons you know from the children’s stories and folklore, but they aren’t as structured as the devils of the Nine Hells.”
Lyssa raises her hand.
“I have a question”, she says as she tries to comprehend all the information he’s sharing in such a rapid pace. “Well, maybe two questions… Or three. Let’s start with why you know about this world and why I’m completely unaware of its existence.”
The sivak smiles, feeling superior to her, just as he should feel. He hopes they can’t see in how much pain he still is because of his fatal experience with Hadriel.
“Some high priests of my clergy strike deals with the demons that travel from Abaddon to our realm. I don’t know all the details of their affairs, but their stories exceeded most of my wildest dreams.”
Lyssa walks up to the Enochian Mirror and put her crystal in the socket as well, making Dargothoth the only one refraining to have done so.
“It sounds disturbing when you say something like that”, she says and a shiver runs down her spine. She stares at him for a bit before continuing the questioning.
“What’s wrong with Abaddon? Why does it require saving?”
The priest shakes his head with expressionless gaze.
“There are many things ‘wrong’ in Abaddon, if you want to say it like that, but I don’t what the Enochian Crystals speak off. I can only imagine that it has something to do with the angels. That’s probably why Hadriel needed all of this.”
He joins her at the mirror, takes a look at his gemstone and shifts his eyes to Oslando.
“I will be frank, half-elf. I have no interest in saving a world for the greater good. It goes against what my clergy stands for, against the will of Nerull. To prevent the plans of angels succeeding, however, might please him. If you all go to Abaddon, I will join you for as long as I think is necessary. It wouldn’t hurt to have someone with a bit more inside knowledge on demons than you have.”
Oslando smiles hesitantly.
“It’s good to see you are willing to cooperate.”
“On my terms.”
“Yes, on your terms.”
The half-elf can’t help himself but laugh ever so slightly.
“As if he would have it any other way”, he thinks to himself. He remains silent to prevent he makes Dargothoth change his mind. He merely observes how the draconian completes the mirror by filling the last cavity with his gemstone.
“And now it is complete”, the cleric says growlingly.
The glass of the mirror, yet again, starts to change, but in a very different way than the times before. Instead of turning into a liquid gateway, the glass turns red and breaks. Small shards of glass levitate around the the five crystals. A dark fog enters from the created gateway.
“This is it”. Mero speaks with a hesitant tone. “No turning back now, I guess. You are all coming, right?”
He stands at the edge of the portal, looking over his shoulder. They all walk up to him and together they leave this plane, trading it for a different dimension.
“I can’t believe my eyes”, Lyssa says and she shakes her head as if she wants to shake off a spell. As far as the thin mist allows them to observe this new world, they can see giant formations of rocks floating, connected with levitating yellow pebbles. On all of these rocks, big buildings tower over the five companions, casting shadows in many directions. There is no sky above them and no sea or land below. It’s as if they stumbled on a small collection of islands, but without an ocean to cross from one to the other.
“So this is where our true quest begins”, Oslando sighs as he tries to take it all in.
“No.”
They all turn to Dargothoth. His face shows distress. His pupils are narrow and they would swear they can see a nervous twitch near his eye.
“What do you mean?” Bruq sounds just as disturbed as the cleric’s expression.
“I mean this is not where a quest begins”, the draconian explains. “This world… This place… This isn’t Abaddon.”
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