Veratis Kalohella part 2

Okay, so after Pavouk ran away (like a pussy!) I entered the giant stone door, which was unlocked for some reason. I was inside of a vast, dark chamber. I couldn't see a goddamn thing. Then I heard a voice, speaking in that weird ass language. But thanks to the weird lizard thing on my head, I could understand it perfectly.

"Who's there?" it demanded.

I recoiled a bit. Someone else was there, and he didn't sound too happy.

"Tell me your name!" the voice demanded.

"It's Dan," I said nervously.

"Your FULL name!" the voice commanded.

"Daniel Xavier Ferris," I said.

"Ferris...," the voice said thoughtfully.

Suddenly, lights came one, and I could see a man in front of me. He was taller than me by about a foot (And I'm 5'9", so that's pretty tall), and he was dressed in black clothing. His outfit looked really weird. His shirt was cut off in a bizarre way. One one side, it was short enough to expose his pale ribcage, and the other side went down almost to his waistline. His pants were made of a rigid, spiky material, and a long cloak hung from his right shoulder. He had pitch black hair, which was long on the sides but shorter in the back. He had on a mask concealing his face.

"You aren't by chance related to Leopold James Ferris, are you?" he asked curiously.

"He was my ancestor," I said.

"You look nothing like him," the man said.

"I take after my mother," I said.

"I see," he replied.

"Did you... know him?" I asked.

"Leopold James Ferris came here a long time ago," the man said. "There was some difficulty communicating, but I was able to learn his language fairly quickly."

"You mean you speak English?" I asked.

"I used to," he said. "It has been a long time. The memories of that tongue have faded away."

"Oh," I said. "So who are you?"

"My name is Has'thyk," he said. "I am the son of this castle's owner."

"So, you live here?" I asked.

"I am prisoner," he said. "Half human, half monster. I'm not allowed to leave these walls."

"That... sucks," I said.

"Leopold James Ferris once promised to free me," he said. "But he is gone now, isn't he?"

"I'm afraid so," I said.

"A shame," he said. "I was sure he was gone because of this."

He reached into a pocket on his cloak and pulled a mirror out of it. This was what I was here for. I could tell, just like Kelterry said.

"I gave this to him a long time ago," he said. "When it leaves this tower, it will return once its holder is killed. I knew he had died when it reappeared here."

He handed it to me.

"This is what you came for, isn't it?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said. "What does it do exactly?"

"It's a unique object," he said. "You see, just as the Fears are unable to enter this layer, items from this layer can not be touched by the Fears."

"You know about the Fears?" I asked.

"Of course," he said. "My mother was a servant."

"Wow," I said, looking into the mirror and seeing my reflection. "So, you mean the Mother Of Snakes can't get to me through here?"

"No, she cannot," he said. "The Fears are bound to the first layer."

"Cool," I said.

"There's more to it," he said. "That mirror can only reflect the truth. Illusions will not appear in it."

Our conversation was interrupted by another loud roar, this time from inside the castle somewhere.

"My father," Has'thyk said. "You must go."

I turned to head for the door, but he grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Not that way!” he said. “The guards will get you before you make it to the ship! Go that way!”

He pointed to one of the walls.

“ don’t see a way out over there,” I pointed out.

“Use the mirror!” he said.

I positioned the mirror so that I could see the wall through it. But there was no wall there. Just a large opening into a huge tunnel.

“What the...?” I said.

“The mirror won’t show illusions,” he said. “This castle is full of them. Use the mirror to find your way through.”

I ran to the fake wall, before turning back to him.

“Are you coming?” I asked.

“My father will catch you if I don’t stop him,” Has’thyk said. I could feel something powerful growing closer to us.

“I’ll come back sometime and get you out of here,” I said. “I’ll do what my ancestor couldn’t.”

“Do you mean that?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“You’re a good man, Daniel Xavier Ferris,” he said, turning to face a door at the end of the room. That massive presence was somewhere behind it. “He’s almost here. Go, now.”

I turned and ran. The castle was difficult to navigate. There were walls that weren’t real, openings that should have been, fake floors, trick staircases. I’d have died if I didn’t have the mirror to guide me. I eventually found my way to an upper balcony. I could see the Tantalus nearby, but I couldn’t jump all the way there.

There was suddenly an explosion a few feet from me. I turned to see three massive bug like creatures flying at the other end of the balcony. One of them opened its mouth and shot a ball of fire at me. I dodged it, but I got hit by the next one. It crashed right into my chest, knocking me to the ground. Demetri fell out of my hair, hitting the ground in front of me. One of the bugs shot another fireball, which crashed right next to me and detonated. Both me and Demetri were blown a few feet back by the explosion. I quickly picked Demetri up and ran to the edge of the balcony. Jumping didn’t seem like a good idea, but then again, neither did staying there with the explosion shooting bug monsters.

I jumped off the edge just as another fireball exploded behind me. It was time to see if any of my Devil Killer powers would work on that layer. I concentrated, then, with a great deal of pain, a pare of wasp-like wings sprouted from my back. I flapped them as hard as I could to remain airborne, and flew toward the ship. I landed on it a bit clumsily. I’m not used to using the Intrusion’s power.

“Holy shit, you can fly!” Tony asked when he saw me.

“Yes, now let’s get the fuck out of here!” I said.

So yeah, we got out of that place, and eventually made it back to the first layer. Took a while. Kelterry has been giving Demetri medical attention. He says it’ll be a while before he’s back to full health. Right now, we’re waiting for Marshall to get back, because apparently Kelterry needs to talk to the creepy glowing ghost guy.

Anyway, I’m gonna sign off here. I’ll update when something happens.