Chapter 17: Danger

"Who are you? And how do you know our names!" Lazarus yelled at the dark figure.

The dark figure then started to fade into the darkness of the hallway.

"You can't save anyone anymore you wannabe hero." the figure said as he walked into the darkness.

"Damn you!" Lazarus began to walk deeper into the dark hallway, following the figure.

"Lazarus, wait!" said Luna as she held his arm back.

"What Luna? I need to go right now, Leon is in danger!" Lazarus yelled.

"It's not a good idea, you could be walking into a trap just like Leon did." said Luna.

"I need to help him, what are we gonna do without him?" Lazarus paced back and forward.

"For now, we need to plan something. If you get trapped too, then what? We can't go in blindly, this is an obvious infiltration. Whoever pulled this off, has to be powerful." she said holding Lazarus' hand.

"Ugh, you're right." Lazarus got himself together and took a deep breath out.

Lazarus and Luna left the Enforcer's Office and walked around the Soul Realm trying to draw a plan out. Lazarus was feeling anxious, his own mentor had gotten captured and their original plan had gone to ruin.

"Ugh, what do we do?" said Lazarus.

"I'm not sure, honestly." said Luna.

"At this point, I don't even care anymore, I'm going head first into the Overseer's office and I'm interrogating him!" Lazarus ran toward the Overseer's office leaving Luna behind.

"Hold on, Lazarus wait up! Don't you think we shouldn't act so bluntly?!" Luna screamed but her words didn't get to Lazarus.

Lazarus was in a rage and nobody could tell him to stop. He felt all of his anxiety fade away, as madness took over him. Once he reached the Overseer's office he kicked the door back and barged in. Sitting at his desk, was the second Overseer, Lazarus grabbed his neck and pinned him to a wall.

"Tell me right fucking now, where is Leon!?" Lazarus squeezed his throat until he can barely breathe.

"I-I-don't... I-"

"Yes, you do! Don't act like you fucking don't!" Lazarus slammed his head into the wall.

The second Overseer couldn't let a single word out, and could barely breathe. Lazarus lifted him up from the neck and threw him into the desk.

"P-P-Please l-l-let me e-explain!" The second Overseer said attempting to catch his breath.

"This better be a damned good explanation or I'll spill your blood all over this fucking room!" Lazarus put his sword to his throat.

"Listen, all I can tell you is that at the parade, there is going to be mass destruction of the Soul Realm. That is when the True Reign will commence." said the second Overseer as he was quivering.

"And what the hell does that mean!?" Lazarus' blade touched his neck.

"It means that the one true God will finally be released." he said with a smirk on his face and inched away from the blade.

Lazarus sliced his neck, not deep enough to kill but enough that blood started to spill out onto him.

"Gah, go to hell!" the second Overseer said as he spits blood onto Lazarus.

"I don't want to hear your bullshit, tell me right now!" Lazarus dug his blade deep into his neck.

"Agh, if you want to hear the truth so be it! At the parade, the One True King will take out at least half of the population of the Soul Realm!" he said as he stared off with pain and regret.

"What? Who the hell is the 'One True King'?" Lazarus eased his blade off his neck.

"T-That I cannot, and will not reveal!" He said as he shook his head.

"Oh trust me, you will reveal it." Lazarus slashed his face cutting his eyelid.

"Agh, oh God, agh." he cried out in pain.

"I'll make it real simple. Tell me these two things. Number one, where is Leon? Number two, who the fuck is the 'One True King'?" said Lazarus.

"I-I guess I have no choice, either way, I'm a dead man. He's our leader, someone who has been brewing his army underneath the surface. He will be at the parade, he will bring mass chaos to the Soul Realm." holding his wound he shed a tear.

"Oh, for crying out loud. And where's Leon?" Lazarus shook his head in disgust.

"As for your friend I'm sure he's already a goner. He has to be in the Demon Realm, there's no other possibility." he said.

"Demon Realm?" Lazarus took a step back in shock.

"I don't feel like explaining further, if you want to kill me, kill me at this point." he let the blood drip out.

"I'm getting sick of you." Lazarus slit his throat.

Luna then walked through the door seemingly out of breath.

"W-What did you do in here!?" She looked at all the destruction.

"What does it look like? He was pretending to be an Overseer." Lazarus' eyes were filled with flames.

"Lazarus, I understand you are upset but you need to learn how to relax." said Luna.

"Do you know anything about something called the 'Demon Realm'?" Lazarus ignored her.

"The Demon Realm? That was an old tale taught to kids in the Soul Realm. How do you know about it?" she said.

"That fake Overseer, he said that Leon is in the 'Demon Realm'." Lazarus dragged his body to hide it in another room.

"How can that be possible? It's just an old tale." she said.

"This man was just a runt, but he told me at the parade his 'One True King' will wipe out half of the Soul Realm's population." He took a seat and rested his head.

"So the head of the Association is definitely a fake. How are we going to stop this? There's basically just six days left." she said.

"Listen, we go straight to the root." Lazarus said.

"You want to go to the First Floor?" she said.

"That's my plan." Lazarus heard ringing from the dead body.

"What is that noise Lazarus?" Luna said.

Lazarus got up from his seat and inspected the dead body. The ringing seemed to come from his right pocket, Lazarus grabbed deep into it and pulled it out.

"It's a crystal?" Lazarus inspected it.

The crystal then shattered in Lazarus' hand, and a purple sinister mirror appeared in front of them. It wasn't tangible, and within this mirror, they didn't see themselves, they saw another world, only comparable to hell itself.

"Huh? Look over there!" Lazarus pointed at someone in the mirror.

"Leon!" Shouted Luna.

They can faintly see Leon shackled to a wooden post getting beaten, by two hellish soldiers. He was in distress, his clothes were torn, he seemed unconscious and his face was entire body was badly wounded.

"Let me in!" Lazarus attempted to go through this mirror but his body fell to the ground.

"Lazarus..." she had a look of sadness and helped him up.

"One thing after another!" said Lazarus.

"So it seems that I was able to communicate with you at last." said a voice.

"Where is it coming from?" They looked around.

"From the mirror!" Luna spotted.

Within the mirror they can see a man, he was wearing a skinned tiger and a mask, that resembled a tiger roaring.

"You thought what was happening on Earth was bad? No, no, no, no, no. It's a shame though, I love the animals and the vast nature of Earth. But you people..." he said.

"Give me back Leon!" Lazarus shouted at the mirror.

"Hey! Don't yell at me like that! You idiot, what do you think, I'm just going to let you have him?" he said chuckling.

"You people just keep fueling me even more..." Lazarus had flames in his eyes.

"Oh, no! So scary." he said with his hands up sarcastically.

"I promise you, your plans in the Soul Realm will go to waste with me here." Lazarus clenched his fist.

"Oh? I would love to see you try. Come down to the parade! Come see the show that is the mass eradication of the Soul people!" he said.

"Hey, tell me your name, so when I come to beat your ass I know who to look for." Lazarus said.

"Hahahaha, you have some confidence, just for that, I'm going to let Leon get beaten for an extra hour and a half. Well, when you come looking for me, my name is Tigre! Have fun!" he said holding the unconscious Leon by the neck.

"You asshole, you'll see me real soon." Lazarus said.

"I hope I do!" Tigre said.

The portal disappeared and the crystal began to put itself back together. Lazarus grabbed it and took a seat at the desk.

"Goddamn it." Lazarus said pressing his hand against his head.

"We will get him back." Luna held his hand.

Lazarus stared into Luna's eyes.

"Absolutely, thank you for being at my side through all of this." he said.

"You can always count on me." Luna said.

Lazarus let out a smile "Then we are heading for the root, let's move quickly to the first floor, we need to get to the Association itself." he said.