Seeing how Aefia wasn't going to help, nor was letting the others move, he instantly got back up and found the courage to snap a few bones for the beast. He moved his hand in a fast manner while dropping both of his sharp blades on the ground right next to the broken mirrors.
Suddenly, the beast's jaw snapped shut, but on dusty air, and it skidded back from the slippery floor. It immediately ran forward and barred its teeth once more, as it desperately tried to chomp out a big piece of flesh. A fist flew at its nose before it could land on the ground in front of Helio.
He didn't just punch, he made one motion visible while placing another one without the enemy knowing. A kick to the ribs was followed instantly by a palm strike that rattled its teeth. The wolf hybrid retreated, its claws skidding against the now slick with blood ground, barely catching the next strike on its forearms. This was one of the tricks he had learned from observing Aefia and her lady's son.
The wolf hybrid lay unconscious on the ground as blue blood dropped from its nose and mouth on the ground it was on. Helio picked up one of his daggers, and stabbed it on the area where the lungs and the heart were meant to be. Knowing that this final blow would kill it before proceeding to heal himself where he got bitten.
Within that short amount of time, one of the colourful lion hybrids approached him, but the metallic claws were faster than his reaction time. A flick of its wrist sent a blade slicing through the air, a silver streak that ended with a sling and the sound of glass breaking as it landed on the mirror behind him, an inch from his ear.
He moved to his right at the wrong timing, and the lion hybrid took the opportunity to slam him onto the ground. The broken and sharp edges of glass tore through his scalp and left red stains on his white coat, while he continued trying to reach out for his other knife. A claw approached his face as he rolled to the right and got up to a kneeling position and stabbed the knife through the abdomen.
Even when all this time, on his travels where he accompanied Aefia to Hellas, he had done almost nothing except watching as she cut through the demon's pale limps and throats. Even when he was asked to do nothing, he sometimes helped to contribute in fights but it always resulted in the opposite speculations. At the end, it would be the reason why she had to suffer through the hard work and he was asked to not enter her battles. Although she never said it, Helio knew that she had always planned on punishing him, and this was the way she had always wanted to do so.
By then, every beasts in the room laid dead on the ground while Aefia stood starring at an empty and dark path, filled with only mirrors and repeating images. She seemed to be out of the zone as she walked towards a glowing light, while tightly holding a piece of rotting paper and her small kitchen knife in both hands. Quietly looking both sides while taking careful steps, it always meant something was currently ongoing in her mind. A random thought, or a worst case scenario.
Hmm...that almost looks like the sacred key when I first saw it, but that must mean something must be protecting some other thing then. If I am not wrong, this thing would work with some other thing just the way the sacred key works with the thing the Duchess of Smod is currently handling and has locked up, was what she was thinking.
***
The thing that works with the sacred key, was called Pandora's Closet and it was solely named for its property. Unlike Pandora's box, this thing was a lock which carried the power to store the evil intentions away from a target.
Based on the famous myth about Pandora on her birthday, it was said that her clothes held all good emotions like happiness, laughter and excitement. Out of all the clothes that she had gotten, Pandora got to wearing one of the scarves and that allowed her to stay positive up until the box was opened and effected all the other people who were attending. That brought the legacy of her closet.
Although it was said that her scarf was able to restrict the bad emotions for a slight moment before making her feel guilty, some say that when all the clothes are put together or worn at the same time, it allows all effects of the negative emotions to wear off. This wasn't a famous folklore but it was said to be so old that when Nikoan was created more than four thousand years ago, the lock was already found to be placed inside an invisible glass case and the first owner of the world Aefia was currently residing in, made sure to have a place specially designated for the lock.
The reason why the elderly demon was able to remove the casing, because demons were responsible for casting the glass. Like it was said before, demons were the reason behind the strong, powerful and stable materials which were casted by magic and made with the help of a hundred mages.
Some outer space myths say the lock and the box were both also created by the demons, but the odds were, the demons are too lazy and outnumbered to be able to make such magically powerful things in a matter of time because to have a 'hundred mages' at their disposal, was something even the Guardians couldn't do.
Mages are exceptionally skilled magicians who excel at turning things to be strong, durable, or sometimes the combat ones can physically or mentally attack a person with one of their skills like Aefia's future related ones. They are rare, and to have one work for a huge group would be a probability that didn't even round up to zero point zero, zero, zero one. Unless of course, they were threatened or there were never really 'a hundred' of them.
The answer to that would be rituals. Weapons contained rituals, furnitures contained rituals, and almost everything related to demons are part of rituals. The dark magic or sorcery they do, grants help from the higher ups to increase or provide better properties to these things.
The glass had a ritual written on any part of it but it was unnoticeable because it was hidden to human eye. The elderly demon and all the others have the power to see the invisible glass and can cover the incantation part to lift the glass and let out the object. But for safety matters, they made it heavy and that was another reason why the elderly asked Aefia to do it fast.
On the first encounter, Aefia had accidentally interacted with the ritual itself and that alerted the surrounding residents to know that someone was near or something was off. Demons do not have fingerprints, but humans do, so the glass was able to tell the difference between a human and one of their residents. Anything that the demons and their king does, it has a way to connect them and their items or materials with the entity they are trying to contact, so the glass was able to respond as soon as Aefia touched it and sent a direct message to the entity themselves.
Once the message was delivered, that instant the entity would cast magic energy into the glass and alter its property to ward off danger. And in that case, the danger was Aefia.
***
So I think even touching that glowing object would cause me trouble because this thing could also have an invisible glass around it and it would alert the final boss about our moves and what if he alters the movement of this stage and the next and the following? I guess we have to avoid it at all cost, but there is no other way in the map.
"You have been absurdly quiet for some time now." Her wolf head appeared in front of her. "They are thinking about what you are about to do next, so you better act that way too." It spoke in a very low voice as to not let the others notice.
"Then suggest an idea of what I am supposed to do." Aefia replied back. While holding out the map in front of the tiny stuffed animal who seemed to be floating in air. "Apparently, the only way forward is this route but the way is not free of obstacles. I definitely don't want to recreate the Hellas incident and I would never want to have whatever that is. For some reason it feels unsafe."
"If everything else is safe for you, like almost dying in the hands of a chimera dragon, how is interacting with a glowing ball of light dangerous to you? I think your brain has shrunk to the size of an amoeba and you have finally gained the fear of something abnormal." The tiny wolf moved forward, but Aefia pulled on its ears to stop it from flying away.
"The fact is, when I scold you, you feel hurt and when I let you do your own thing, you just seem to make the matter worse. And now you are telling me that I am dumber than a bacteria cell?" Aefia spoke annoyingly while whispering.
"Well, okay let's get to the point now. So you want to get to the centre of the room but you have to pass that thing and you don't want anything to do with it?"
"Exactly. And there is no other way around."
"Then break more glass. Break the mirrors and carve your way out, that's the only solution you couldn't think of. Overthinkers like you are really troublesome, like you were thinking about how the invisible glass must have had rituals written on its surface and all that, but you couldn't decode that you can do whatever you want in this room?!"
"I mean...that would be a good idea. Actually, the best idea because the others need to have some skills or knowledge on defeating multiple beasts at once. Otherwise they are just killing themselves the more they move on. They are basically dying mentally and physically if they don't know this few things."
"And you are back at trying to kill them. Your teammate Helio had been badly injured and you just stared at him with cold, soulless eyes like a villain watching their worst victim die, and now you are going to do that to the whole team."
"Look you will not understand because you haven't really fought, but you have seen me try my best to protect and provide them with security. But say I am not around, will they be waiting for me to come and help them like that? I could have jumped in between the beast and Helio, but that would just make him more laid off. And I will obviously not be able to pay them much attention moving forward because I already have a line of task left to finish in Nikoan and Hellas itself."
It was true what Aefia had said, if they couldn't afford to beat a beast like these hybrids, it would be certain that in the upcoming levels they would suffer. She was dedicated to win the fifth stage, that way they would be able to complete the last chapter of Hellas and focus more on the decend.
Furthermore, there was a thing she desperatly wanted to complete. Her pocket watch had a small key attached to the chain and she wanted to return it for another and much newer model. She did have intentions to look for smart watches to keep track of her sleep, but that would be rather useless in a world she doesn't belong. Therefore, she wanted to return it and ask for a refund at the end of the fourth week in Hellas.
Also after clearing this mission, she had to be present in a sub-mission she was assigned by the Guardians. It was to be completed solo and the details for the mission was absurd and something she hadn't expected before. She had to colonize Hellas itself before the Grand Banquet and if she failed, there will be no extra possible help she could get from them in the future on her goal to defeat the Torture Cell.
Although at first, she wanted to give up on the mission but thinking about how Hellas was the only dimension she knew until now, that was her only place of stay at the end of the Banquet. The reason was specific but too detailed to explain. The only thing she hadn't thought about until now, was how to exactly colonize an entire planet which was destroyed.
To rebuild it would cause the higher up's attentions to divert. To invade it, would cause the Torture Cell to fight back. And to rule over the demon slaves who resided there, was to become an enemy with the Demon King who she just recently became politically aligned with. If she lost the first alliance, no others would want to work with her to have the Torture Cell taken down.
From the time she had entered this unfamiliar dimension, to the time it took her to enter the second mission, only a short amount of time had passed. And in this short amount of time, a lot of things had happened, ranging from good to bad to worst. It was no doubt how more unexpected things were to come and how much more she needed to endure before universally retiring.
Suddenly, she got distracted from her thoughts and looked up. I am such an overthinker that I completely forgot about the stage boss. But how is it so that the stage boss was triggered from so far away? We are at the first quarter point of the room only.
A swirl of bright green light appeared in the shape of a tornado and a beast the size of the chimera dragon formed. It had the look of the wolf hybrid, but with the wings of a scaled dragon. It let out a roar and dissappeared in thin air, and rushed at her lady at unapproachable speed.