A/N: With exams over and me having passed them, I have a new, long awaited chapter.
Chris' wanderings found him in a tall cave, with a blackened cauldron in the centre. It looked like a large chunk had been taken out of the ceiling, for there was a huge, perfect round circle there.
And there were notes next to it.
Chris picked them up and read through them, and was incredibly hurt by what they said. They read out a spell. So this was what Skye had been working with the demons on. How she'd gotten away with it without the Elders knowing Chris didn't know, but it explained why Honjuu had needed Chris' blood. The notes cited an incredibly complicated spell on removing magic from all magical beings apart from demons, and the blood of the child of a Charmed One.
A laugh from the entrance to the cave caught Chris' attention. As he'd been reading, the Leuctra had obviously left Honjuu's side, because it was now standing facing Chris, bouncing a fireball up and down upon one of its tentacles.
"Bugger," Chris whispered, looking around for some possible exit from the cave. He had no chance; the Leuctra was stood in the only entrance and exit to the cave. "Double bugger," Chris corrected himself.
The Leuctra chose that moment to hurl his fireball at Chris.
Chris dove behind the cauldron and attempted to orb again. Nothing happened except for the cauldron shattering into a million pieces above his head. "Dammit," Chris muttered to himself. Luck really wasn't in his corner today. There was nothing left he could do. Unless …
"OK, what exactly is the deal here?" he asked, acting a lot braver than he felt and causing the Leuctra to snap the new fireball up and extinguish it. "You kidnap me, and use my blood to stop magic, so why do you guys still have magic? You can at least tell me that before you kill me." Chris began slowly edging around the stone the now broken cauldron was sat upon.
The Leuctra followed Chris' gradual progress, keeping him within his sights as it replied, "We will kill all humanity and rule the world. All thanks to your heritage. What more could there be to ask for?" The Leuctra conjured up a new fireball and threateningly bounced it upon his tentacle.
Chris warily watched the bouncing fireball and took a few more cautious steps. "So … if your race is planning on taking over the Earth …" He took a few more steps. "Why the hell aren't you up there helping your buddies? Surely that'd be more fun?"
"More fun than killing the second son of the eldest Charmed One? I think not."
The Leuctra raised his fireball and hurled it at Chris, but it collided with the cave wall. Chris had edged his way around to the exit from the cave and belted out of there the first chance he had when the Leuctra had lowered its guard.
Surprisingly, the entrance to the cave was void of any other demons, so Chris took a gamble and ran down the passageway to his right, hoping it would somehow lead him to somewhere he could orb. He hadn't got very far, however, before he began to hear voices again. Chris subconsciously held his breath and came to a halt outside a second, slightly smaller cave than the one containing the cauldron.
"We believe they have come up with a method to bring magic back to the world," one demon was saying.
The response sounded completely garbled, as though the second demon was talking in complete gibberish.
"Yes, master," mumbled the first demon. "I understand, master. I shall do that. Thankyou, master." The demon who had been conversing with its Master left the room and Chris was stunned to see that it was Honjuu. So Honjuu was answering to someone else, Chris thought. Chris debated sticking his head into this small chamber out of sheer curiosity to see who Honjuu was taking orders from, but decided that while he couldn't orb this would be a very bad idea.
Releasing the breath he'd been holding, Chris continued down his chosen passageway for a while, wondering why the Leuctra wasn't tailing him, or why he wasn't running into any more demons.
It wasn't long before he realised why there were no demons following him.
The end of the corridor led him to stairs leading down into a third chamber, only this one was the rough size of a cathedral. In the centre of this chamber was an orb suspended in mid-air, emitting a faint silvery light. The ground around the suspended orb was crammed tight with thousands of Leuctra, all watching the orb.
Chris looked at the orb too, and saw many Leuctra surrounding his home, where his family were attempting to bring magic back into the world.