'Why the hell is he here?! I thought he was only a figment of my nightmares!' Hopi thought to himself.
"I'm not sure how to explain it." Nizhoni said as she looked down in thought. When she looked down, she noticed the red tail coiling around her. The tail tightly wrapped around her body as the chief laughed.
"I have finally caught you off guard, Shirai Princess!" He said as his upper body became large and very, VERY plump with a red hue so bright he almost looked like he was covered in blood. He moved closer to her till his nose was almost touching hers. "My my don't you look radiant my dear." He said with a seductive grin.
"Who-Who are you?!" She asks with fear in her eyes.
He looked at her as if she was crazy. "Do you REALLY not know who I AM?!" He yells as he stares at her. Just then a lightbulb went off in his head. "Oh! That's right, it must've slipped my mind for a moment. I'm not in Millennia anymore. I guess that would explain why I don't see any of those annoying 'Dragon people' flying about." He talked to himself. He turned back around towards Nizhoni. "I am known by many names in this dimension. Most Commonly as The Devil, Satan, Abaddon, Antichrist, just to name a few. I used to be called Lucifer when I was an angel. But in my dimension, I am known....As The DEMON KING!" He snarled.
"Wh-What do you want f-from me?" She asked.
He chuckled. "I'm glad you asked my dear. You see, I have a way to merge both our dimensions into one. But I need your help to do it." He said.
"A-And if I refuse?" She asked.
"Should you refuse? Well then I guess you won't ever see your elder brother again." He said as he looked at his razor sharp nails.
Her eyes widened. 'It can't be! How does that fat fuck know about her brother?! As far as we know he went missing in a black hole. Whatever he's babbling about, has to end here and now.' Hopi thought to himself. He sneaks around, trying not to let them notice him. Once he was in place, he stabbed and sliced the demon's tail with his dagger, forcing him to let go of Nizhoni. "Palila What are you doing! Get away from him! NOW!" He called out.
The demon growled. "You little pest! How DARE you injure the mighty Demon King!" He hissed. "I should have you rot in hell for what you've done, boy!"
Hopi stands in front of Nizhoni with his arm out to protect her, while holding his dagger. "If you want the Shirai Princess, then you'll have to go through me first." He said.
"Ahh. There you are, Hoptepshit, or whatever your name is, I was wondering when you would show your ugly face. Sorry but my business is only with the fair Shirai, so I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." The demon said as he turned up his nose and tried to shoo Hopi away with a hand gesture.
"Not a chance, you fat prick." He said as he held Nizhoni close and protectively in one arm.
The demon sighed. "Alright then. I guess this will be your last day alive. And I was so hoping where your life would have led you, should you have married the Shirai Princess." He said in disappointment.
Nizhoni's eyes widened. "H-Hopi?....H-How do you know him?....Wh-What does he mean by that?" She asked. He didn't answer her.
"Palila....I want you to run as fast as you can back to the Vet Clinic, don't look back. I will buy you some time and catch up to you when I can. Take this with you, don't give it to anyone else but me, protect it with your life, and whatever you do, don't let him have it!" He explained as he gave her a small, round, leather satchel before charging at the giant, fat, snakeman demon.
Once when he knew that Nizhoni was out of the demon's sights, he glared at the Demon King as he laughed and his wound instantly healed. "Have you HONESTLY not learned your lesson, boy! Your puny dagger cannot wound ME!" He chuckled.
"I am aware of that but thanks for playing along to my theatrics. Nizhoni is not ready to learn about other dimensions and you know it!" He explained. "So. Why are you here, Trickster?"
He grinned, showing his fangs. "Oh child, I do believe she is ready. But isn't it obvious, child? The stars will be aligning very soon and you know what that means, right? The dimensions will be visible to each other. Everyone in all the dimensions will be able to see and possibly even communicate to one another. It's only a matter of time before my son will become the new King of Demons" The demon king said as he slithered around him.
"There's no way her Soul Mate nor I will EVER hand her over to you or your son! No matter what happens, we WILL stop you!" He said.
The demon laughs again. "As if you can communicate with the fair Shirai's Soul Mate. You don't even have a plan!" He said as he calmed down to a chuckle.
This time, Hopi chuckled. "I may not be able to communicate with him 'directly' but someone else's Soul Mate is a Dream Dragon that has been a lot of help to us. So, lucky for us, he has a few plans under his scales." He said.
He growled. "You wretched meddling human! I should have killed you when I had the chance all those years ago. Then there would have been one less thorn in my side to deal with." He said as he balled his hands into fists.
"Even if you would have killed me, they would have found someone else to learn about the dimensions, whether it been one of my brothers, or someone from the Shirai tribe. Maybe even Nizhoni herself. The information would have still been taught to someone." He explained.
"Just you wait, mortal. I will find ways to destroy those plans of yours as well as destroy all of you. I'll be back." He growled before he slithered into the dark back alleys of the city, disappearing from Hopi's sight, and his dimension.
"And we'll be waiting for you." He said to himself before twirling his dagger in his hand and putting it back in its pocket. He ran towards the Vet Clinic. By the time he got to the Vet Clinic, it was already sundown. "Hey ladies. Did you by chance see Nizhoni come back here?" He asked as he looked at Cerena and Arisa.
"Yeah she ran back in looking like she'd seen a ghost or something. Did something happen during her lunch break?" Arisa asked.
"Something like that." He replied.
"She's in the break room if you want to go back there." Cerena said.
"Oh no. It's fine. I'll just wait till her shift's over." He said.
"If I remember correctly, her shift should end in about thirty minutes." Arisa said.
"Tell us what happened, Hopi! She looked terrified when she came back." Cerena said.
He smirked. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." He said.
"Try us, Chief." Arisa said as she crossed her arms.
"Would you believe me, if I told you that we were attacked by the devil himself?" He asked.
The girls looked at each other, then at Hopi, then to each other, then back at Hopi, Then they looked at Angel when she walked in the room. "What?" She asks as she raises her eyebrow.
"Don't you get weird dreams a lot?" Cerena asked.
"Yeah? What about them?" She asked.
"What about a dream about the devil?" Arisa asked.
"Oh god! Don't remind me of that horrible dream." She said as she put her head in her hand.
"What did the devil look like in your dream?" Hopi asked.
"Half snake and half human with scales and skin so red, you would think he was covered in blood at first glance." She said.
"Sounds about right." He said as he looked down in thought. 'So the Dream Dragon must be her Soul Mate then.' He thought to himself.
"What do you mean by that?" Angel asked as she looked at him.
"Oh. That's who attacked us earlier. He's strong enough to escape dreams now. But I wonder why he showed himself today of all days?" He replied.
"What's so special about today?" Arisa asked.
He looked at the girls then smiled and winked at them as he put his finger to his mouth. "Don't tell Nizhoni but I've decided to discuss my father's plan with her and the Shirai Chief." He said quietly to them.
"Good luck with that Chief Hopi cause You're also gonna have to explain to her what happened." Angel said.
"And I intend to tell her the truth. I was hoping this day would never come, but I fear that she's more than ready to know about the other dimensions, and about the Soul Mates." He said.
"You mean you STILL haven't told her!" Arisa said with a bit of surprise in her voice. He nodded his head no.
"You should probably tell her when you're walking her back to her village. The sooner she knows, the more she can understand what happened." Cerena said.
The four of them went silent when they saw Nizhoni come out of the break room, holding a pet carrier with the newborn puppies, with Chandra behind her. His heart ached as he saw how exhausted and worn down she looked. She appeared to have cried herself to sleep at one point. "I'm gonna head home for the night girls. I'll be back tomorrow morning." She said in a saddened tone.
"Nizhoni?! Guess who came to take you home?!" Arisa said excitedly.
"Were you really going to leave without even so much as a glance my way, Palila? He must have really terrified you, didn't he." He said worriedly as he put one hand on her shoulder, the other caressing her cheek.
She looks at him with her dark, bloodshot eyes widened. "H-Hopi? Y-You're alive." She whispered to herself. She gently touched his face with her fingertips.
"I'm here, Palila, I'm alright. I was able to chase him off for a while....But I'm afraid that he will be back." He began to say when he saw tears form in her eyes. He wraps his arms around her back, hugging her tightly. "Which is why there is a lot that I must tell you about, like who and what that creature was, where he came from, and what his plans are for you." He explained.
"You mean you know what he wants with her?!" Angel asked in surprisement.
He looked at the girls and nodded his head yes. "He wants to unite the dimensions into one." He said.
The girls' gasped. "But that's impossible, the dimensions can't fuse together unless there's a Soul Mate out there that has the mental power to keep the planets aligned!" Arisa said.
"Not only that but to celebrate the dimensions coming together, he wants to force Palila into marrying his son, The Demon Prince." He said.
"Wh-What are you guys talking about?" Nizhoni asked as she wiped her eyes.
"Anyway I should take her and Chandra home. Thanks to the Prince of the Dragons, she at least knows what a Soul Mate is but she doesn't understand what dimensions are. So I'll have a lot to explain to her on the way home." He explained.
"Will you be needing Dreemur's help?" Angel asked.
"As of right now, no, but when we do I'll let Serenity know and she'll get him." He said. He waved goodbye to the girls and left the Clinic, letting Nizhoni and Chandra out first.
On their way to the Shirai Village, Hopi explained everything about all the different dimensions, how there is only a short amount of time where all the dimensions can be seen at once, and that the dimensions must forever be invisible to all those who know nothing of them. He explained to her about the Demon king, about how he knows him and that he comes from the same Dimension their own Soul Mates are from. He told her of the Demon King's plan to unite the dimensions into one and that that must never happen at any cost. And finally, he told her about what they need to get from every dimension in order to prevent the unification from happening. He was very patient with her as she slowly began to understand what he was telling her. He answered all the questions she had for him.
"He told me what a Soul Mate is....But he didn't really explain them very well....So what are Soul Mates to you, Hopi?" She asked.
He looked at her and smiled. "Soul Mates are more or less like our interdimensional twin siblings, we are born at the exact same time, day, month, and year, yet we are from two completely different dimensions. Sometimes we can act exactly the same with everything about us from our personalities to our favorite people can be exactly the same. Other times we can be polar opposites where, for example, there could be someone in our dimension, Like say my brother Kitchi, that I would absolutely despise, While for my Soul Mate, Serenity, she would have a sister that she would absolutely adore. We can communicate to our Soul Mates through our dreams, sometimes we could even dream about each other's dimension." He explained.
"What's your Soul Mate like, Hopi?" She asked as she looked at him.
He looks up in thought. "In her normal form, She's a very pretty white dragon with aquamarine eyes and her feathered wings are of an angel's. While in her human form she's a woman with long white hair with her white horns coming out of the sides of her head that gently encircle around it, somewhat like a halo, she wears an aquamarine colored, tattered, raggedy dress, as if she was a poor slave, yet she told me that she and her family are famous cooks for the Royal Dragon family and that she grew up with the Dragon Prince himself." He explained.
"She sounds like she's just your type." She said as she giggled.
He stares at her with sadness in his eyes. "Listen, Nizhoni, There are different meanings to the term Soul Mate....but-." He began to say before he was interrupted by her.
"Look! There's the village up ahead!" She said before she handed the puppies to him, and ran past him, towards the Shirai village, followed by Chandra.
He stares at her as she runs towards the village. He sighs and smiles at her. "Sounds to me that you weren't able to tell her the truth again. Were you, Hopi?" A feminine voice was heard around him as she giggled.
"I tried and failed yet again. so, I guess it's up to you now, Prince of Dragons." Hopi said as he turned around to see two black figures standing in a bright white light.