"Hey, are you coming or not?" Zarkash growled back at Alice on their way down the hall to the classroom. She hurried along, trying to ignore her aching shoulders.
"What are you going to talk about today?" Alice said, when she had finally caught up to Zarkash and was walking beside him.
"You, probably. Something's wrong and I have to think. It helps me think to talk out loud." He glanced over to her, and back up at the door at the end of the hall. "So you'll probably have to talk a little too."
"Not in front of everyone." Alice blanched at the thought. She had never been good at talking in front of the class- she started shaking, then turning red, then feeling numb…
"No, but some of the things I need to know I don't, so I'll have to ask you." His orange and yellow eyes darted around the hallways, looking for any signs of trouble. It had been far too long since the last attack, and he was on edge. Usually by this time another demon had found them and attacked.
"Hello Zarkash, I hope you and Alice are feeling better?" Jeremy greeted them as they walked into the door of the classroom. The headmaster was sitting down at the desk, as if he had been expecting Zarkash to show up today.
"Yeah, we are. Though Alice still has a few problems." Zarkash nodded in greeting to him and the class, his eyes lingering on Ricky before continuing. "Today we'll talk about something relating to demons- how they get to earth from hell."
Jeremy blinked in surprise and leaned forward in interest. He had never heard these facts before.
"Demons can't go through level to level, right? They get killed by either other demons or devils. In order to get to earth from say, superbia- the lowest level, they'd have to cross all 6 other levels in order to get to the surface. But- there's a backdoor." Zarkash looked around and spotted the blackboard. He looked to Jeremy in question before moving to the board, picking up the chalk. He drew a box with seven layers in it, a dot in the lowest level and an arrow to the top of the box from the dot.
"Some demons will risk fighting through all these levels. This is one of the stupidest things you can possibly do, and they usually die horribly. Others try to skip the levels." He made an arrow from the dot to the outside of the box, and close to the side, leading up to the top. "They do that either by making a deal with a devil, being powerful enough to kill a devil or making a deal with the queen."
Zarkash pointed to the dot. "I didn't do any of these. Because I was summoned, I was pretty much just transported to the top from Alice's magic. Normally demons can't do that though, considering there's only one summoner. But I don't know if she can summon more than one thing. Can you?" Zarkash looked up at Alice in question.
"No, I can't. That was the one thing my dad taught me."
"Ah, I see." Zarkash nodded, and looked over to the board. "So, my problem is, I'm trying to find a way to stop these demons from coming to the top and trying to kill Alice and I. Any suggestions?"
Ricky raised his hand. "Talk to the devils or this queen you talked about."
Zarkash blinked in surprise before smiling wryly. "I'm a pretty weak demon- the devils would just ignore me, but the queen might be an idea. She's kind of… um… scary though." Zarkash looked down uneasily.
"What's the queen? Is she a dragon or something?" Alice asked in curiosity.
"No, the queen is something entirely different from any other demon. She's a demi-god, pretty much. One of the last of a very powerful race."
"A demi-god? Does that mean she's immortal?" Mio asked in amazement.
"No idea- all I know is that she's been there since I was born." Zarkash shrugged.
"So then, perhaps you can somehow seal the top level from letting others through?" Jeremy asked.
"I can't do that- all I can do is shoot fire and bite. If you know someone who can seal demonic levels of hell be my guest." Zarkash chuckled.
Jeremy thought for a minute, and sighed. "The only one I knew who could have done that is long past."
Zarkash looked over at the headmaster in curiosity. "Who?"
"Alice's father had the ability to seal hell- he did that to try and keep out demons after you were dismissed, but it failed somehow, and one broke through."
"Who? What was it?" Zarkash said in shock, leaning closer to the headmaster.
"I don't know its name, but it killed Evan. It was a large black dragon with a slightly tattered wing."
Zarkash froze, his eyes wide. "This dragon killed Alice's father?"
"And almost killed her- I managed to get her away." Jeremy nodded.
Zarkash glanced at Alice, then leaned back against the desk, his fangs bared and a low hiss coming from his throat. Fur rippled along his arms, his body glowing green as he tried to restrain himself. He finally calmed and looked up at the class, who were staring at him with a mixture of horror and concern.
"I have to go out for a bit." Zarkash said, his voice laced with a dark growl as he ran out of the room. He ran out to one of the balconies of the hallway, looking down at the ground below, his bright eyes filled with rage. Even after he had left, his enemies had still killed Evan. Even after hell had been sealed, Morg had killed him- had even tried to kill Alice! Zarkash growled fiercely, sinking his claws into the stone wall of the building, raking them down, causing deep rivets in the hard rock. He needed to tear at something- to rend it to shreds in his anger, but anything he tried to hurt in this building would only cause harm for Alice. Was that all he was good for- hurting people who tried to care for him?
It had all been his fault… Evan's death, Alice's horrible childhood- Irtasha's death and Morg's constant need for revenge- it had all been caused by him. He looked out at the sky, letting out a long cry of anger and agony. He froze when he felt arms wrap around him, looking behind to see Alice's blond hair against his back as she looked to the ground. She squeezed him reassuringly, looking up as he turned around in her arms.
"It's not your fault." Alice whispered. Zarkash sighed, remembering the mental link between them. She had heard everything he had been thinking.
"Your father died because of me, Alice. Because he summoned me by chance, and brought all my enemies down on him. You almost got killed too." Zarkash said, his voice still hinted with a growl.
"No, he didn't die because of you. He messed with hell after you left too, Zarkash. He summoned that fox demon and after that everything went strange."
"Fox demon? A kitsune?" Zarkash said in surprise.
"Yeah, I don't know what his name was though. All I know was that he had brown hair with yellow eyes, and a long fox tail. Sometimes he had ears too, but that depended on his mood, I think."
"But somehow Morg got up here, and killed Evan. How the hell could have done that?"
"Maybe he made a deal with a devil." Alice said, keeping her arms wrapped around Zarkash's chest. He nodded thoughtfully, looking down at her small hands against his chest. He couldn't get it out of his mind that she had almost been killed by Morg as well- what if she hadn't escaped?
He let out a growl and pulled her against him protectively, hearing a small squeak of surprise from Alice as he wrapped his arms around her. Maybe some demon was making her act strangely. If that was the case- he had to find it before this got out of hand.
"I need to go back, and talk with someone." Zarkash said, looking down at her wide eyes. "I think I may have found out what's wrong, but I have to make sure before I start acting on it."
Alice nodded, feeling strangely comfortable in his grip. She looked up at him, smiling. "Your eyes are back to normal." She said
Zarkash blinked in surprise and smiled as well. "That's good. Let's go back." He said, unwrapping her from his grip and walking back down the hall next to Alice.
Jeremy looked up to Zarkash in concern, and smiled when he saw the demon looking better. "Did you have anything else to add, Zarkash? Class is almost over."
"Yeah." Zarkash moved in front of the desk, waiting until Alice sat back down to continue. "How many of you have heard of the story of Risa and Jason?"
The classroom stayed silent for a bit, everyone looking around to see who had heard of it.
"I thought so." Zarkash sighed. "I'm not very good at telling stories, but… Here it goes. Risa was a demon from the same level as me- Luxuria. Jason was a human during the 1700's that met her while she was on earth for a quest for her clan's leader. They fell in love, and wanted to live together. Unfortunately, that's the problem with humans and demons. Demons live to be at least 10,000 years old, and humans only live to be 100, or so I've heard. That's why demons are not allowed to be with humans, and vise versa. It's seen as pointless." Zarkash said softly, purposefully avoiding eye contact with Ricky and Alice. "Any comments?"
Mio raised her hand, her green eyes soft. "If they love each other, why aren't they allowed to be together? What happened to Jason and Risa?"
"Jason was killed by other demons, and Risa died from despair." Zarkash said, looking around the room at everyone's surprised faces. "No, she didn't actually die from despair. That's a demon way of saying she committed suicide."
"How did she die?" One of the students raised their hand cautiously.
"She fell into the fires of hell."
Jeremy cleared his throat to break the silence that had come over the classroom, standing from his seat. "We will learn more of this tomorrow, children. For today, class is dismissed on that note- no homework for tonight, either."
"Wait- Mio, could you stay after for a minute?" Zarkash looked up at the witch, who nodded in surprise. "Alice, Ricky- you too. I want to try something." Zarkash said thoughtfully, and waited until the rest of the class left.
"Mio- can you scry?" Zarkash asked the witch, his tone uneasy.
"Oh, of course. Wouldn't be much of a witch if I couldn't." Mio giggled and pulled a crystal from her pocket. "What did you need to see?"
"I need you to see if you can detect any demons around here other than me. Is that possible?"
"Oh yeah, easy as pie." Mio smiled, holding up a crystal. "I just need a bit of quiet and some time." Mio said, concentrating on the stone, closing her eyes and saying an incantation under her breath. The crystal flashed and inside the gem's smoothed surface was the image of who yellow eyes, followed by rows of fangs. A deep growl sounded from the stone and the image zoomed out to reveal a large black dragon, rain pouring down from the sky around it as it let out a deep dark laughter.
"E s eisoes 'ma!" Zarkash gasped, backing up suddenly, running into the desk behind him. "Fel fynnodd 'ma fel 'n chwim?"
"English, please." Alice muttered, concerned at Zarkash's suddenly pale complexion.
"Morg is here- he somehow arrived to earth so quickly- How the hell did he do it?" Zarkash said, his voice shaking as he glanced to Jeremy, who was also tensed.
"The same way he did before. He'll be after you, Zarkash. You should be on your guard at all time. Who knows where he'll attack?" the headmaster shook his head. "I thought security would be good enough to keep him at bay- he must have found a way in somehow."
Zarkash nodded, looking at the black dragon in the crystal with wide eyes, a mixture of fear and anger running through him. How was he supposed to protect Alice against Morg?