The invisible glass showcase seemed to be indestructible too. Aefia tried every possible way she could find to destroy it, but she constantly hesitated to use the elemental absorbtion skill of hers. The orb, as Aefia had deduced the last time, would constantly send waves to grab the attention of the demons who were currently working and settled in that world.
"Just why do you need it though? I thought the last time you interacted with it, you lost an eye. Are you willing to go blind this time? Because if you do, I am not willing to heal it or try to find any cure. I think it was better that you didn't come here to start with." Helio kept complaining.
"Even when I don't want to come here, it is already a tradition for me that as long as I stay in this unknown dimension, I will have to fight in two different dimensions and help in two different motives. One is to destroy the Torture Cell or whoever they want me to take down. Two is to prevent the next 'Great Yearly Catastrophe' from happening on Earth." Aefia explained.
"And if you ask me about losing my other eye, I can explain it in a way that will actually change your entire perspective about my Elemental magic. If I tell you about my power in dept, you will eventually come to know me as a real villain."
"Then can you explain about why you chose to take off that bandage from your eye? If it really hurts, why did you leave it like that until now?"
"Because my Wolf element is the element which carries the forbidden skill. If you remember correctly, Ms. Avry mentioned it in the first day. The skill allows me to absorb magic from other people, object or any other source without crashing out or losing my sanity and turning into a beast." Aefia took out a new wrap of bandage from her hoodie's pocket and threw it to Helio.
"In the meantime, can you prepare another bandage? I need to return home intact so the others don't find out. And make sure to heal yourself too. Those aren't just scratches but poison which get engraved into your blood later on. But if you choose to become one of those demons, then leave it that way."
Without waiting for Aefia to finish the entire sentence, Helio got to work with healing himself. "How much do you know about this thing ritualistic magic?" He asked when he was done.
"I have read quite a lot, but I am not sure that it is enough information to survive with. For instance, on Earth, when the audience really likes a book, they ask for a sequel from the author. But the real reason, as viewed from an audience, would be because the first book would contain just too little information necessary.
"I am not sure if this volume that I am reading currently is a first and final book or whether it has other sequels written as I am not a citizen of Nikoan. But the small amount of details that I do know, that is what I am using to survive and win in battles."
"Then does that mean the the book you are currently reading or studying, it is the first book and you think the second book has more information. But you aren't exactly sure how much information is yet to be uncovered?"
"That's exactly the point. If I really knew everything about this ritualistic magic, I could have helped to heal those who ingested the spell instead. But I can't pursue much since it will eventually lead to worse things in the future. I already have four unknown creatures watching me from time to time. The only time I am not watched is when I interect with their portal to this world and shut it off."
"So how do you shut it off?"
"Any weak being can't cross through whatever a Guardian uses. As a safety measure, the portal would get locked for a few hours. Within that few hours, I gather whatever information I need to know about them. They always take control over my actions whenever they find me searching out about them."
"And how do you try to cross their portal?"
"I don't have enough strength to keep explaining stuff about whatever I have learnt ever since I came to that dimension." Aefia said with an annoyed face. "Anyway, are you done? If so, keep it for later. I will ask before I need it."
Helio stuffed the wrap of bandage into his pocket. "So what strategy are you planning on using to remove that invisible glass? Although, how is someone supposed to remove this glass when it is invisible to start with?"
Aefia thought about that for the final time. "I think I will settle with absorbing the glass. If I managed to collapse and potentially kill several beast by absorbing their magic, I think I can break this invisible glass barrier by using the same method."
"But I thought if you absorb to much magic, you will slowly grow insane. You even said that that there is a limit until where you will eventually start fading away if you cross it." Helio asked with a questionable face.
"That is why I have the bandage taken off from my eye. I somehow managed to store away a huge amount of magic behind my eye lid. The more I bleed, the more power is taken out, but it never really ends because my Wolf element allows me to regenerate as I lose myself." Aefia said while pointing to her eye.
"So is that why you don't want to wrap your eye? But you are leaving behind prove of your being here by allowing the blood to fall in trails everywhere you are walking."
"But I can also clean it up thanks to the Demons' powers. I still don't understand why they have such a weird skill to keep themselves alive." Suddenly, Aefia's wild imagination turned on. "I think they are forced to clean and polish the Demon King's nasty shoes continuously because the demon king just can't stop stepping on things. I guess you can say that's a disadvantage of being an evil. Like they say, devils have a hard time seeing things in daylight." Aefia laughed to herself.
"I think you could count it as a possibility." Helio laughed too. "But this place is always in nighttime. But maybe he is too blind too see where he is going."
"Yess! The demon king is blind!" An elderly demon laughed while walking towards Aefia and Helio with a walking stick. "I remember when he couldn't tell a chicken and a fish apart!"
Aefia and Helio both stared at each other with shock. They spoke in sign languages for a while. 'Are we supposed to be concerned?' Helio asked. 'I don't know. He seems friendly. Also, he doesn't look like he could fight us with that weakness.' Aefia replied.
"So, may I ask why you are wondering around alone?" Helio asked the elderly looking demon.
"You two seem like nice kids who seem to be from another world. Plus, you are humans, more likely to be from Earth with the way you are dressed." He pointed at Aefia while saying.
"Yes, we are from Earth. I am assuming you are from there too." Aefia answered. "Maybe you have any memories?"
"Oh yes I do. They dragged me out of my empty house and forced me to eat a disgusting substance. The next thing, my skin turned pale and I was presented in front of a red skinned, human-sized goblin. He told me that he would give me work as a chef at his kitchen if only I stayed there." The elderly demon explained.
Aefia signed to Helio in between. 'I don't know where this is going. You do the talking. I am out'. With that, Aefia walked away with an excuse. "You may continue with my teammate here. I have a few work to do." She walked towards the orb once again.
"I can change the fate of your left eye." The elderly demon called out. Aefia turned around to see if he was speaking with certainty. She walked back to the demon. "How are you going to do that?"
"I know you can open that eye. Can you open it for me? It will be a few seconds worth if procedure. Don't worry, the only difference will be that your eye will become a functional one. I can't change the fact that it will continue bleeding everytime it is left open."
"Sure. But are you certain that it will allow me to get back proper vision?"
"Yes. I can assure you that." The elderly demon answered. She slowly and painfully opened her left eye while covering it with her hand. The elderly demon reached out and in a few seconds, the pain was gone. She removed her hand from her face and looked around. "It works just fine. But how did you do that?" Aefia asked with a surprised tone.
"A part of your power was stuck due to extreme pressure from your other powers. That restricted your eye from regenerating. I only enabled that restricted power to continue flowing properly." The elderly demon explained.
"I am assuming you can control the way a magic works?"
"Yes. That's my power that I received after I secretly stole a potion from the demon king's lair."
'You can earn magic from potions?' Helio signed. 'I don't know. This is the first time I am hearing about this.' Aefia replied. "I am thankful for what you have done. Since you live here, do you may be know about how the invisible glass barrier works? I am trying to break it, but it won't even crack." She told the elderly demon.
"Of course I can break it. But it will be for a cost." He replied.
'What could it be? Money?' Helio asked. 'Don't ask me. I don't know what he might want.' Aefia replied.
"Can I ask what you want before that?" Helio asked.
"I just want to be human again. But I have been enmagicked by ingestion." The elderly man spoke. "And are you already used to having that eye closed like that?"
With that said, Aefia snapped back to reality. "I guess. But is it alright for me to keep it closed for a few moments longer?"
"Sure, I won't mind. Now, for my second thing, can I ask why you need that thing? I am not wrong, that thing is called the 'Sacred Key'. It will cause evilness to grow in a person rapidly in a blink of an eye."
"I need it to stop the descend of the Torture Cell upon a world I am currently staying. My goal is to stop it's destruction." Aefia answered confidentially. "I know where I might find the thing to balance out the negative impact that is caused by the object."
"In that case. Good. I am willing to help." The elderly demon walked towards the orb. "But are you going to be able to remove the enmagicked thing from me?"
"Yes. I think I can try a method. But it is guaranteed to fail if a mistake occurs. Actually, not me. My teammate here will do that." Aefia pointed at Helio.
Helio signed to Aefia. 'Are you talking about surgery?' Aefia replied, 'Yes. But you will only have to cut open the gut I guess. Only the stomach.'
"Don't worry about my life. I am already too old for my world. Even when I die, no one will give an eye to my existence. Unlike you who belongs to a wealthy family. I was a close friend to your grandfather."
"Grandfather? But he died before I was born." Aefia replied. "I believe you were a childhood friend then?"
"Yes I was. In fact, I watched you grow up after your grandfather passed away. Anyway, I will continue with my work." The elderly man reached out to the invisible glass barrier.
Aefia slowly walked towards the pavilion too, followed by Helio a short while after. The orb startrd glowing brighter then an almost blinding shockwave was sent out. "There is not much time until the rest of the demons appear. Come fast and collect this thing." The elderly demon shouted at Aefia.
Aefia ran towards the orb and held onto it until the last shockwave flew out. Then, retracted her arm and the orb was gone. In its place, was a small key with a very intricate carving into it. It almost represented a coral.
With the key in hand. Aefia shouted out to Helio. "Grab this thing and keep your dagger out of your sheald! I am coming just behind you!" Aefia took out her knife carried stabbed the elderly. "I will get done with this in a moment."
She took out the knife from the wound and placed her hand on top of it. Then, she stabbed the wound again but while piercing it through her hand. She continuously placed her hand there while allowing all the enmagicked substance to move into her veils.
Once done, she used her blood strings to sew up the wound. "Pass me the wrap of bandage."
"Don't you need it later?" Helio asked.
"No." Aefia replied with a serious tone.
The bandaged flew to Aefia and she caught it mid-air. She wrapped the wound with the wrap, finishing it entirely. "I think it's done." She said with exhaustion in her voice. She sat down on the ground while holding her wrist tightly.
Her entire hand was black and it seemed to be spreading, but at a slower rate due to the veils being blocked. Her entire hand went number slowly. "Can I borrow your power for a bit? In the meantime, take the elderly and run. I can sense that the demons are around the corner." Helio nodded and ran away with the elderly in his back and the key tightly wrapped with his fingers.
The blackness started settling into a purplish tone while Aefia cleared up the knife's blade. A few hundreds of demons appeared around Aefia. With her blood covered hands, she felt the hilt of the sword starting to appear and she got off the ground.