[center][h2][color=indigo]Vanishers,[/color] [color=red]We are here,[/color] [color=yellow]To end the prelude.[/color][/h2][/center]
The final floor, the final student, and the cat. They each had a separate reason to climb the Apartment building, and now they were about to face it.

[b][color=red]"Isn't it a possibility that that cat of yours has moved on to the lower floors by now?"[/color][/b] Clara asked as they climbed the stairwell.

[b][color=yellow]"Sure, but I'll just find it again when we come back down,"[/color][/b] King replied.

[b][color=red]"But surely it could move past you and into the apartment by that point?"[/color][/b]

[b][color=yellow]"Then I'll find it again on the way up."[/color][/b]

[b][color=red]"..."[/color][/b]

The other two didn't seem to be taking it all that seriously because it was likely they already knew the nature of the threat. Alto had also figured it out by this point but it still just felt like spinning around in a revolving door, listening to these two.

If this many imps hadn't been found yet, then it meant only one thing. They were being kept here by a greater Demon. The Otherworld is ruled by Demon Lords, but they fulfill the same purpose the Gods do in this world. The only difference is that they tend to rule, and interfere with affairs, directly. This quells major rebellion for the most part, and they remain free to crush anything they wish to.

They can crush rebellions effortlessly, and their people don't need to advance, they only need to make their Demon Lords stronger, and they will become stronger in turn. However, living under the shadows of the Lords, those of lesser, but still great power were bound to chafe eventually.

No one in the human realm knew what a Demon Lord looked like now. They're images were lost to time, and even back then, stepping into the Human world would provoke a direct intervention from the Gods, so it wouldn't have happened often.

A Greater Demon at the very least was needed to open a portal between worlds. Such an existence was not beyond their powers. It would seem that this one had chosen to act subtly. Taking the 8 students rather secretively, and amassing a small army of imps and ghosts.

Clara's and King's actions made more sense with that assumption. Clara would not miss the chance to turn a Greater Demon into her minion. King would stand to gain a reward for not only the death of the Greater Demon, but also sealing a portal to the Otherworld, and perhaps also stopping a potential invasion before it started.

And Alto was just here for duty. Out of them all, he had nothing to gain, but that wasn't exactly an unfamiliar feeling.

They rounded the stairs and finally found themselves on the rooftop.

[b][color=firebrick]"So you've finally arrived."[/color][/b] The Demon said.

His suspicions were correct, this was most certainly a Greater Demon. A female one it would seem, in her lap was a cat with an orange collar, and floating next to the throne in a purple bubble of demonic energy was the last missing student.

[b][color=firebrick]"You can have him back, by the way."[/color][/b] She said. Unfortunately she wasn't talking about the student, who was female anyway.

The cat jumped down and padded over to the trio, where King was able to pick him up.

[b][color=firebrick]"Ah, but I can't have you moving right now."[/color][/b]

She clapped her hands together twice, and a red magic circle appeared, floating just above the back of the cat's neck. It activated an invisible magic circle right under their feet which erected a wall of flames around them.

The three weren't fazed in the slightest, however.

[b][color=lightblue]"What is your goal?"[/color][/b] Alto asked.

[b][color=firebrick]"I don't see the need to reveal such a thing. I don't know how it is in your world, but in ours, the dead don't keep secrets as easily as the living,"[/color][/b] The Demon replied. [b][color=firebrick]"Though I must say, I was never expecting to succeed here. I was simply testing the waters, but I never anticipated it would be so easy to just... take you humans."[/color][/b]

She drew the bubble over with her clawed fingers, and stroked the shell while gazing at the student inside.

[b][color=firebrick]"You took so long to respond, who knows what I could've done in that time? You are fortunate I have to return to the Otherworld, but before that..."[/color][/b]

She finally got up from her throne and began walking towards them, magic circles forming in her hands.

[b][color=firebrick]"I'll eliminate you. I apologize, but I can't leave any witnesses."[/color][/b] She finished. [b][color=firebrick]"Any last words?"[/color][/b]

Alto felt a light touch on his back.

[b][color=red]"Are we finished?"[/color][/b] Clara asked.

[b][color=lightblue]"...Yeah."[/color][/b] He said.

Clara's book unfurled and an inky blackness surged out from it, engulfing the trio and the magic barrier. The Demoness didn't drop the initiative however, and a pillar of fire erupted from the centre of the darkness. Yet the darkness seemed to absorb it all. It was only absorbing light, of course, but the light which should've emanated from the pillar didn't appear at all, until the pillar breached the dome. However, through the inky darkness a light shone through.

And suddenly, Alto was behind the Demoness, blade racing towards her neck. A spark of light, and her head fell forwards with a spurt of blood. Yet Alto did not put away his blade.

[b][color=firebrick]"...Interesting."[/color][/b] The Demoness said from above them.

She had sprouted leathery wings and was flying in the air while her 'body' slowly faded away. The inky blackness was disappearing as well, little bits of it simply ceasing to exist, like fog disappearing as the sun reappears. Through the darkness, the magic circle which had created the barrier, already in pieces, crumbled away.

Clara's Dream Eaters, the worm-like creatures in her Grimoire could eat away Demon magic as well as metaphysical existences like Ghosts, but they ate magic at a much slower rate. To destroy the circle, she just had to destroy the essential components, but it was vital to keep her strengths and numbers a secret from an opponent like this, one who was the same type as her.

[b][color=yellow]"On your left,"[/color][/b] A voice said suddenly.

The Demoness whipped around to her left, and then was impaled from the back by a light saber. The body faded before it hit the ground.

[b][color=firebrick]"You..."[/color][/b] She said, holding her hand to where she'd been impaled. It seems she'd been able to escape death, but not the entire attack.

The cat in King's arms [i]mewed?[/i] at her before looking back up at King.

[b][color=yellow]"I can't pet you up here Donatello,"[/color][/b] King said. [b][color=yellow]"I can fight fine with one hand though."[/color][/b]

[b][color=firebrick]"Fine, then so be it..."[/color][/b] The Demoness said, many magic circles appearing in the air.

The floated and settled down over her skin, and then she multiplied. Her shade separated from her as if someone hit duplicate in some editing software and pulled the two copies apart. The spell repeated, and now there were four.

[b][color=firebrick]"How will you handle this?"[/color][/b]