Inna felt as if she was being pulled into the void. As she felt the drag she started having flashes of her past. In one of the vision, she saw her younger self standing at the edge of the cliff and looking down nervously. Every time she walks to the edge, looks down and moves a few steps back. She was given a task by her Father to jump off. But she could not bring herself to do it. Each time she would reach the edge and felt as if an invisible force was pulling her back. The constraints on her heart were so strong that it would not let her be free.

“Hahahahaha!!!!! Little one, I thought you wanted power. and I thought you were brave! Alas, I was wrong.” a voice sighed from her behind. The image of her impaled father, desecrated mother and disappearance of her brother started to burn in her memories fueling her rage towards all existence. This was enough to bring up the courage and she ran towards the cliff and jumped.

As she started falling, all of existence came to halt. It was only her eyeball that she could able to move. “Hahahahahaha!! So you finally did it, but it’s not enough!! Do you remember what I told you to do?” asked the voice. “You told me to jump off the cliff,” replied Inna. “What were my words?” asked the voice again in a reverberant tone, enough to make a dragon cower in fear. “Fa…th…er y…o…u a….re cru…..sh….in..g meeeee…..” said the child. “Just answer me child.” the voice asked again. “Le…ap o…f fa…ith” replied the girl and with that, all the pressure crushing her was relieved in a wink. She reduplicated it again “You asked me to take a leap of faith into the heap of hope, Father.”

“Yes, my dear. You are not alone anymore. You are not the you that you were before. You are even more. You are me and I am you, we are, now, one. We are the Devils and I am your father. Always remember that. We would be there for you, now and forever. You are a part of our family, the …………………” before the voice could finish she was once again swept into the void and she felt the drag but this time, she was not the one being sucked in but the one sucking the void.

“Child, do you know why you got stuck in that memory?” echoed the voice inside the void. “Yes, Father,” replied Inna. “Hahahahaha child, you have grown so much, it’s indeed a pleasure to be your father. Now, go make yourself proud.” said the voice as it faded into the void. With that, she closed her eyes and started meditating and dragging the void into her with much greater inward force of gravity. As the void was being sucked in, she gradually pushed back to the present realm.

As she opened her eyes, with her vision still blurry, she saw Attir hovering above her and Rialz and Hamir sitting above the rubble on either side. “Master, you are finally awake.” said the new servant. “Yah, I was taking a trip down my memory lane” replied the master with a smirk. “Well, where were we?” said Inna as she turned around to look at the ancient door. “Master, I have never been able to open the door before, even after years of research. I just know one thing that it strengthened the defenses of the city. It was strong enough to repel an army of demons although you just walked passed it.” Attir said with a disappointment in his voice. “Huh!” was Inna’s replies, “You need to unlearn a lot before you can even start learning.”

She walked towards the door and touched it and transferring a little amount of spiricule into it and the door vibrated resonating to the energy. “Well for one, I am not a demon. I am a Devil. Two, it did not strengthen the defenses; it just created an invincible space with the same energy signature of that devil, who is inside here. So now, I need to know who built this place. That is where you come in Tyrant. So tell me who was the one that builds this place or to whom did it belong.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, Master, as I have not an iota of knowledge about the nature of the contraption inside; let alone its history. I don’t think I can be of any help to you in this matter, Master.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. You are not supposed to know all such details. Firstly, studying about us would make you a heretic and that would be considered a sin by everyone here irrespective of their religion, caste, creed, and species. Not even demons research us, who are considered as heretics. Secondly, knowledge is only useful if you are a Devil yourself since our knowledge resonates with our energy signatures. So, I just wanted to know from you about your spiritual impression of your family that has been in control of here. I know now that you are my servant or else I would have absorbed your spiricules to know what I wanted. Lucky you, Hahahahahaha!!!!” Inna said with a laugh.

Inna closed her eyes and started meditating as the spiricules started to get concentrated inside her. Once the energy level reached the limit she transferred all of it at once into the door. This time the door not only vibrated but also started to glow which intensified with the passage of each tick. As the door’s energy level started approaching its peak, she started drawing a magic circle by waving and moving around all over the place. And as she moved, her afterimage created a wonderful remnant, which felt like lines. And as she kept moving and the lines kept joining and intersecting each other, the image started getting clearer.

“Devil’s Dance,” Attir said with amazement in his eyes. “It is a secret technique, unique only to the Devils. They are the only ones. who are capable of making such a magic circle in 3-Ds. I have only heard and read about them, but this is my first time that I am witnessing this grandiosity. This is indeed a sight to die for.”

As she completed the dance along with her magic circle she said: “Now –Ang de vouys ves phus gem das let pha”. With those chants, the door started to crack open like being burst opened from inside. Thump-dumph-whoosh and the door broke with the gust of wind blowing out from inside, as if they were trapped for eternity and with that, the whole place was filled with dust and smoke.

Link to previous episode: Episode 14: The First and to the next episode: Episode 16: Finding the Relic