Chapter Text
“Henri Azazel?”
“Come in.”
Sullivan remembered that place perfectly the first moment he stepped inside. Closed, dark, with thick rock walls and barred windows to prevent anyone from flying away. The only illumination in the place came from a lantern on the table and the dim natural light coming through the bars of the room. Henri's prison was one of the most secure in the Netherworld, making escape attempts too risky and almost useless for a normal demon. Any area of that place was well protected, there was no doubt about that.
But this time Sullivan was not going there as a defendant, or someone responsible of some crime. Inside the interrogation room, the demon could see that on that table there were two plates of food and a crystal sphere, arranged in a very neat presentation. He knew there that the reason for Henri's invitation was to discuss something important, especially when the message he received demanded his presence almost immediately. Normally that should always be discussed at the Babel Tower, but Henri told him that it was better to start the conversation in a private way to “avoid causing panic”.
He thought it would have been a better idea to chat at his mansion but decided not to talk about it. At least he was sure he wouldn't be locked up again.
“I'm surprised you invited me back to this place. The last time you brought me here was when you made false charges against me.”
“That was a mistake of the past, you don't need to remind me of that.”
“True, at the end of the day, I guess that would add a bad record to your work, wouldn't it?”
Henri felt a little uncomfortable by his comment, but he knew Sullivan was sometimes annoying. The head of the Demon Border Control decided to let that slide for this one time, as Sullivan chuckled lightly at his reaction.
Sullivan had no plans to see Henri, but upon being informed that it was a situation involving the entire Netherworld, he stopped all his business and went to talk to him. Although he wanted to be spending time with his grandson, he knew that, as one of the Three Greats, he still had important business to do in Derkila's absence.
“Rather, have you had a party recently? There are a lot of balloons at the entrance.”
“That's what I wanted to talk about. Have a seat.”
The two demons sat across from each other, eating something to start while one of Henri's subordinates was on charge of not letting anyone get into the interrogation room at that moment. When they had both finished eating a few bites, Henri began to carefully manipulate the magic ball, which was a map showing every corner of the Netherworld. It showed every sector created by Derkila, as well as all the races that lived in the Netherworld. Henri began to move the map around, until he located what he wanted to show Sullivan.
“Take a look.”
Sullivan went over to where Henri was pointing and was a little surprised to see a new island in front of his eyes.
“Wow, that's a nice island, but how was this created? Derkila is not among us.”
“That's why I brought you here. We don't know how that got into our dimension.”
The dimension of the Netherworld had always had its zones demarcated by Derkila, with each area being divided into islands, cliffs, and even watery zones. It was a place renowned for being created exclusively by the Demon King, with his every word being his law and having exclusive wonders like magma gardens or rivers in the sky.
But this island had none of those features. Besides being much larger than all the lands of the Netherworld put together and being far away from the main islands, at first glance it had many sceneries that had never been seen before, such as a giant mountain with a glowing crystal in the middle of lava or statues of what seemed to be an unknown divine being. In addition, they felt none of the magic of the Netherworld there.
They both knew that they were partially aspects of a human world, but they didn’t sense the presence of those beings there. All they saw from the crystal ball were floating balloons that followed random air currents. Those currents were the ones bringing those balloons to the rest of the Netherworld. Sullivan had even encountered some of these on his way to meet Henri, so now he knew their origin.
“Now I understand why there was a lot of rubber on my way here. But this doesn't make sense. Derkila still hasn't returned, and I don't detect any magic in that place.” Sullivan said.
“We suspect that everything we see there must have come from a spell or a portal cast by a high-ranking demon. Someone who has inside knowledge of migrations.” Henri replied.
There was no way it was an island created from scratch by someone of high rank. There were things about that place that even a demon didn’t know, things that were unique to the human world or the dimension that had appeared, and that were not compatible with the magic that surrounded the lands of Derkila.
“I'd like to think that someone tried to open a portal to the Human World, but instead, had another world merge with ours.” Henri added.
Henri didn't want to think the worst. There were already many problems with bringing humans into the Netherworld, and the fact that there was now an entire dimension in the middle of the Netherworld was a much more colossal problem. There could be unknown beings that could be attacked by the demons, or they could even prove to be a threat to everyone. The uncertainty was big as to what consequences such a collision of worlds might bring.
Sullivan, however, showed that his reaction was different from Henri.
“Well, if you want a culprit, then it will be your job to catch him. I was just with my grandson all this weekend.”
Sullivan's lack of seriousness totally surprised Henri. He might be one of the Three Greats, but it seemed he didn't understand the problem he had to add to his list. It was as if he had missed the point of the meeting.
“Why the fuck aren't you worried?!” Henri was starting to get angry and pounded the table. “Can't you see there's a world different than ours right under our noses?!”
“They're balloons Henri.” Sullivan said with complete calmness. “They are not lethal at all and seem to be the only thing on that world. Besides, your investigation into who originated the portal will be very simple for you. There are very few suspects because the subject of migrations is almost exclusive to us in the higher ranks. I can help you if you want, but beforehand, you must take me off your list of suspects. I know how Derkila is like when something is done against his will, and I wouldn't do anything to alter the Netherwold.”
Although one would suspect Sullivan at first, Henri knew he was right. The demon had worked as Derkila's right-hand man for many years, and he knew firsthand that, if anyone did anything against the Demon King's word, they could face unimaginable punishment. Still, that didn't mean he wouldn't watch him from time to time.
“I suppose so, it will be easy to narrow down the suspects. But even if I find out who is responsible, it will take a long time to clean up the mess.”
Henri knew it was going to be difficult to repair the damage that had occurred. It was one thing to bring a human, another to bring an entire dimension right in front of the Netherworld. It was going to take not only a lot of magic, but also knowing more in-depth knowledge of the spell used to do so.
He decided to ignore that problem for now and take it one step at a time. First, he had to know what this new world was like.
“Have any of you met the terrain yet at least?” asked Sullivan as he took another spoonful of his food.
“Well.” said Henri. “Narnia wanted to go there because he wanted to see if he could enforce his policy of destroying the target rather than sending it to his world. But he didn't make it to the island because according to him, even though he tried to pop the balloons on his way, his spells caused more to appear. He gave up when he saw that they were infinite and came back here.”
“He's exaggerating,” Sullivan replied.
Both demons were left wondering how a bunch of balloons could wreak havoc on Narnia. Still, that wasn’t the priority issue. For now, they had to figure out what to do to report the situation to the rest of the Netherworld, who probably already had a reference that something had happened because of the balloons that kept coming from that island. They knew there were going to be a lot of meetings at the Babel Tower, but they felt they could find a quick solution.
“Do you think Poro would think this is a sign that Derkila is back?” said Sullivan.
“I don't think he would be foolish enough to believe that.” Henri replied.
Their conversation continued casually, as they enjoyed their meal with every bite they took. Sullivan didn't deny that the chef at the place had incredible seasoning.
“I think the only problem we'll have is the mess they'll leave behind when they pop. If I'm right, then we'll have to pay the cleaners more.”
Some of the balloons had arrived on the scene; fortunately not in large numbers. Sullivan was surprised at how precise their movements were, being that they didn't just sit in some random place naturally. Nor were they moving aimlessly. It seemed that these balloons followed an exact pattern of movement, knowing what the place was like and not bumping into any walls, looking to hit some demon only to tickle it in the end because of how soft they were.
He felt that his mind was overreacting to the thought that they were a danger to everyone. He even chuckled slightly at the thought. Spending a lot of time with Iruma had made his thoughts manage to get a little crazy, but he wasn't uncomfortable with it.
“Well, at least they don't look dangerous.” Sullivan shot a bolt of magic towards one of the balloons, popping it with one shot. “They'll probably deflate like all normal balloons, so there's no need to worry that these could be a threat.”
“I guess you're right.” Henri replied.
It was already impossible to hide the fact that there was another world in the Netherworld, but they knew that if all they brought were balloons, then there would be no issue with someone going to that terrain and popping some of these. They could even use them in celebrations to save some money.
However, they were both very wrong in thinking that the bloons were not going to be a problem...