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As the last of the zo toward it

"Fuck! We have to do so to destroy them, too!" I raced forward "We can’t let it absorb all those people"

And then a cold thought struck ical co? And what if there were h h the mist On the astral, I could run faster than just about anybody in our group except for Roz Son forh the --if that hat it was--before anybody could react

I stared up at it as the ghostly auras of the witches , break the spell somehow And then I knew I pulled out the Black Unicorn horn

Crystal, with threads of gold and silver running through it, the spiraled horn was a powerhouse It contained Eriskel, a jindasel, both an avatar of the Black Unicorn and yet a being in his own right Not a djinn but similar in nature, the jindasels were a mysterious symbiosis

I didn’t have time to stand on formality, nor did I know just how the horn would work over here on the astral I held it up and called on the four Elementals who also were locked within the horn

"I don’t kno to fight this--I don’t even knohat it is, but helpblast shot out, and the next thing I kneas standing inside the horn, with Eriskel byhorrified

"I don’t have ti to kill a lot of innocent people unless you let et out of here" I stared at the jindasel, both pissed and frightened

Today, he was standing a good seven feet tall, though that was relative considering ere in yet another interdimensional space that existed only within the Black Unicorn horn His dark hair was tucked back in a neat ponytail, and golden rings hung fro green

He waved awayhere You know that"

"I also know that I’ve lost plenty of ti to you" I didn’t have the energy to argue All I could think about was getting out there and destroying whatever the creature was

"I promise you, that won’t happen Just cal" He didn’t look happy In fact, if I had to pin an eood to argue with creatures like Eriskel--they did as they pleased A glance around told e screens splashed across each wall of the chamber, and from one, the Lady of the Land watched from a verdant forest Frole, gazing down from a mountaintop The third was occupied by the Mistress of Fla lava And the fourth contained an ocean and, with his shoulders rising above the surface, the Lord of the Depths They all waved at me

A table and two chairs were in the center of the chamber, as usual, and with a huff, I sat down "Seriously, Eriskel, if you make me too late to help those people out there, so help me, I’ll make you so miserable you’ll wish you’d never h collateral dah I didn’t know er, I wasn’t about to let thein

Eriskel took the other chair He straddled it, resting his arms on the back "Do not fret, Mistress Camille I promise you, no time will pass I can slow it dohen I wish, within this cha I don’t even knohat it is, but it’s about to hurt a lot of innocent people who are either under a spell or brainwashed It just ate--absorbed? Whatever it’s doing, it devoured a bunch of zo in the people ere sent to protect it"

Eriskel cocked his head "You don’t knohat this creature is?"

"No We haven’t been able to figure it out yet We think it’s an egg, and we’re pretty sure that it’s connected to Gulakah, the Lord of Ghosts He was a god in the Netherworlds until--"

He held up one hand "I knoho Gulakah is The Black Unicorn knows all about the god"

"Well, he was de hietting ht But the jindasel stopped me cold with his next words

"I did know that," Eriskel said softly "And I knohat’s in that incubator you’re fighting"

"Seriously?" I stared at him

He nodded "Yes, which is why I pulled you in here once I realized what you were attacking Ca a nest of demons--but they aren’t fro them over if they were, and he’d also have a hard ti them No, these spawn from the Netherworld"

I paled Gulakah specialized in a certain type of deht "Bhouts? Is this how bhouts reproduce?"

"No, not bhouts Those h a Demon Gate No, these are worse Spirit demons A whole nest of them"

Spirit demons I shuddered

Vanzir had described theainst one, although it had turned out to be a false alarotten my scar from hellhound blood But the hellhound had been child’s play coht it was

"Do you knohat a spirit deazed at me, then softly said, "I think you do"

I nodded,but feed them That’s why you stopped me"