JUST as the dome shattered, something rammed into him, knocking him to the ground. He didn't have any time to react before the bullets rained down on him.
He closed his eyes, accepting death, but nothing had hit him. All the bullets lay on the ground under him as if they had passed right through him.
What had knocked into him earlier barked, and Isaacs eyes widened with realization.
Feeling the damp hot breath of panting on his legs, Isaac had never been more than happy to see Covi. The dog had actually shared his intangibility with him.
"How?" he asked and realized that it wasn't the time for questions. The demon was still there. Isaac could feel its eerie presence.
Isaac knew he couldn't defeat the demon. He wasn't even sure he had enough stamina to take another round of bullets. He couldn't even stall the demon until the reinforcements Leo had talked about arrived.
"I've got you now."
Before Isaac could react, the demon had punched him, sending him flying.
He hit the floor hard. It attacked again, not giving him time to act and also separating him from Covi. It had probably figured out that the dog was going to be a problem.
Isaac rolled away, dodging a kick that would have shattered his skull.
"Glacies loculus," he casted and slammed the resultant magic circle on the ground.
A layer of ice grew on the ground around the demon. It tried to dodge, but the ice had already encased it.
The ice shattered a few seconds later, but it was enough for Isaac.
He gathered mana around his arm.
"It's okay," he told himself. He knew that the host body was dead. It was more of a feeling than a clarification, but it was still hard for him to kill the demon.
"Interfodio," he casted and thrust his hand into the demons chest. His hand came out out the other end with the demons heart in his hand.
Just as his hand had passed through his body, the demon had also thrusted his hand into Isaac's chest.
* * * * *
He had gotten the passcode right on his 1756th try.
The passcode was 150419. The date seemed important but Quinn didn't have time to rack his head for it.
Quinn walked out of the mansion unharmed and unnoticed. The distraction was working well. He hadn't encountered anyone on his way out, but the lance was surprisingly heavily.
Who knew what the demons wanted it for?
It sure wasn't a souvenir, and they definitely weren't going to use it as an anachronistic toothpick.
He felt a tug, and the lance shot out of his hand and flew into the night sky.
"Nope," Quinn said and gripped the lance before it had the chance to escape. He struggled in the supernatural tug-of-war, and he lost every time. There was no possible outcome of him winning. He tried going back inside and shutting the door, but it flew away, too. He even tried following it, but it was too fast. Its rusted coating didn't help because it was basically invisible at night, but he didn't have a choice.
* * * * *
Time froze for Isaac.
He was going to die. This was it.
This was how Isaac Ezra Wade was going to die.
Strangely enough, he couldn't feel the pain or the warm stream of blood. He looked at where there was supposed to be a hole created by a hand.
The demons hand was definitely in his chest, but that was all it had done. It hadn't even cut his clothes.
Isaac then realized that Covi had jumped on his back. He promised himself that he would reward the dog handsomely when they got back.
Dropping the demon's heart, he pulled his hand out from its chest and backed up until the demon's hand was out of his.
The demon coughed up blood and staggered back.
"Heh!" the demon scoffed. "Do you know how lucky you were?"
"Were?" Isaac asked. The demon wasn't turning to dust nor was it exploding. Pulling out the demon's heart should have killed it, probably, according to movies that is. Nothing could live without their heart.
"You don't know how to kill me, do you?" the demon asked. The hole in its chest had begun regenerating, starting from a new heart.
It charged at Isaac, who could only rely on Covi's charism for evasion.
Instead of attacking him, the demon slammed its foot onto the ground, causing the ground to tremble.
Isaac lost his balance and couldn't feel Covi.
The demon was trying to separate them.
A foot appeared right in front of his face.
Two things happened at the same time.
Isaac was going to cast a spell of fortification, but the words weren't going to leave his mouth fast enough for him to cast it. At the same time, something wrapped around his waist and yanked him backwards.
"Are we late for the party?" three voices echoed.
Isaac turned around to check who his saviours were.
"Sorry, I was late," Filip apologized. "We were held up."
Isaac sighed.
"A 'thank you' would have been nice," Tori said curtly.
He had expected Dominic or Blanc to be the backup Leo was talking about.
"I didn't sign up to deal with a bunch of critters," the demon said and turned away from them. "Au revoir."
It had noticed that they were just stalling, and the longer it fought with them, the higher the possibility of it dying.
Isaac saw its leg shift and predicted what was going to happen next.
"Defe-" he was about to cast, but Tori stepped in front of him.
Since there were more people, bullets would be more efficient than going hand-to-hand. The smartest choice was to take care of them all at the same time.
A round of bullets appeared at its back and fired straight at them. At the same time, the demon ran away.
Green lines of light appeared around Tori's fingers and in front of them. In the blink of an eye, they interwove and formed a blanket in front of them.
Isaac thought the blanket would be useless against bullets until it tanked all of them.
The Rahab Charism of Thread was being displayed right in front of him.
Blue thread from Ludo and orange from Filip wrapped around the demon's limbs and dragged it back.
"Wow!" Isaac mouthed.
"Yeah, it's colourful," Filip admitted. "But as flashy as it might seem, we can't really go on the offensive."
Isaac nodded. The irony.
He understood what Filip meant. His saviours had saved him for him to go back to his initial dilemma, but this time, he had backup.
Covi barked beside him and Filip's orange thread wrapped around his arms, legs, and torso.
"It seems like I'm not the only one who doesn't want you to go scot-free," Isaac said and faces Covi. "Somnus."
The puppy fell asleep instantly.
"Sorry fella," he apologised. But this fight was between him and the demon.
Bullets appeared all around them.
Isaac placed all his trust in Reyna's brothers and charged forward.
Patches of Tori's thread formed around Isaac and the triplets.
"Petra columna," Isaac muttered.
On his next step forward, a magic circle appeared under his foot. He kicked the circle forward, and it rushed at the demon.
The demon dodged by jumping.
"Glacies," he casted and activated the two circles at the same time.
The earlier one produced a spire of earth rushing back towards the demon, while the one he had just casted sent out ice from the ground upwards.
Bullets showered down on the ice and rock, disintegrating them.
Isaac jumped backwards, but it wasn't enough. Filip tugged his threads hard, pulling Isaac further back out of the bullets' range. Just as he landed, Filip untied Isaac, and together, he and Ludo wrapped the demon in a cocoon.
"Next time, aim for the heart," Filip advised.
"Done that," Isaac snapped, thinking of the next spell he was going to cast. Elemental magic wasn't doing much damage, and status magic would wear off as soon as he had cast them.
"You have to destroy whatever tethers it to this plane. Disintegrate it until there's nothing left," he explained. "They always keep the item close."
Disintegrate?! Isaac thought. He didn't know a spell that powerful. And the item probably wasn't on the demon. It was on his lackey. And Reyna had gone after him.
"What if we can just contain it until someone who has the item arrives?" Isaac asked.
Filip sighed. "Can you do it?"
Isaac shrugged. "Probably."
The cocoon shook violently as a talons came out of it but instantly got wrapped again.
"I've been looking forward to using this spell," Isaac said, suddenly remembering a compound spell from his mother's grimoire. "I need some thread."
Tori followed Isaac's instructions, and together, they created a mini magic circle.
"Hurry up, guys," Ludo yelled as the demon fought harder.
"Now, can you make a bigger one on the ground under the demon. And can you translate this to Italian for me."
Tori nodded and got to work.
Isaac prepared the words.
"Done."
Isaac knelt down on the circle, touching some of the threads.
"Gli element ascoltano la mia chiamata..."
The circle had started to glow, but the demon had torn through the cocoon and was heading straight for him.
Before he finished the spell, the demon's talon connected with his shoulder.
The pain was intense, but Isaac was going to finish what he had started.
"... ci intrappolano in una prigone impenetrable."
A dome erupted from the ends of the circle and encompassed them.
* * * * *
The child had managed to trap him.
But they were also stuck together.
He removed his talon from his shoulder and flung the child into the wall of the dome.
He bounced off it and crashed down to the ground.
The child was done for.
Dis walked over and set his talons to end the bastard who had been a thorn in his side since he shot the kid. Speaking of the kid, where was his toy?
"Vein ad me," Dis called.
It was the summoning spell the demon who had given him the toy, told him would call it wherever it was.
A few seconds passed, and nothing appeared.
"Fuck!" the demon yelled and reverted back to its human form.
Maintaining his true form on this plane was tedious.
He hated himself. Hated himself for taking on Belial's challenge.
He never got involved. Fire the shot and leave. Nothing else.
The child grunted behind him and got to his feet. The red patch of blood from his shoulder on his white clothes made him look like he was an angel shot down from the pinnacle of its glory.
"I should have killed you the moment I saw you," Dis said and walked over to him.
He used whatever power he had left to create a bullet on his palm. He shot his hand forward, aiming for the heart.
Unexpectedly, the child knocked his hand away with his wounded one.
Dis could see his face clearly.
His eyes were radiating white light.
He backed away quickly. Something entered the dome behind them.
Before he had time to react, whatever had entered impaled his chest and Dis looked at what it was.
Though it was rusted, Dis could still identify it.
He had only seen it once in his life, and that was during the battle between Heaven and Hell. Wounds demons received from it were fatal, limbs severed by it were irrecoverable and once it was aimed to kill it would do the job.
Dis looked at Isaac.
This child was much more than a witch or exorcist.
The lance left his chest cavity and flew into the child's hand.
The last words Dis muttered before he disintegrated were, "What are you?"