Chapter XL

The sun was setting when Damien received the text from Lilly asking him and Liz to return to Scott Reiner’s workshop, and the two of them hadn’t hesitated to hurriedly depart Liz’s house and begin making their way back. It had now been a handful of hours since their memories were restored and they had spent all of that time just enjoying each other’s company. They had been apart for nearly five months and they hadn’t even remembered each other, so all Damien wanted to do was hold Liz close to him and just be with her. Her touch was soothing and he prayed with everything he had that there would never come a time when they were separated like that again. Magic had done its damage to them and he wanted that torment to finally end. He wanted to get out of the erased realm and he wanted to finally make good on Liz’s threat to Nigreos and Album.

“Then we’ll come back. I’ll find some way…anyway…to crawl out of that place…and find you again. You won’t get away with this. We’re…the Magical and Other Anomalies Investigation Team. We won’t go down…this easily. We’ll find you…and make you regret…ever coming…to Wilham.”

Those had been her final words before Album erased them, and Damien knew that Liz had meant everything she said. She had faith that the club would find a way to defy the erased realm and in the end, she had been right. Whatever The Angel that Eric put inside Lilly was, it had given her the chance to break past the charms of this world and present them with a fighting chance—one Lilly hadn’t allowed to pass her by. Damien was impressed by the way she had handled everything thus far and he had faith that her plan would succeed. Because of this, he was excited to get back to the workshop and greet her as his proper self rather than the angry and bitter person he had been before.

And Vinny’s there, too. We can finally start reuniting the club and, when we reach Eric, we can be whole again. The Magic Club may have lost the battle in Wilham, but this war is going to continue, and this time, we’re going to win.

He smiled to himself then glanced down at Liz, who was tightly holding his hand as she walked alongside him. Before leaving her house, she had removed her makeup and contacts, then put her glasses on and stole a pair of her father’s headphones to wear around her neck. She looked like the Liz he knew and it was clear in the way she held herself that she felt more comfortable now. Though, he realized that he must have stared for too long because she suddenly turned to gaze at him with a sly grin.

“Can I help you, Damien, or are you just gonna keep ogling me?”

He chuckled then shrugged. “Well I planned to keep ogling you. After all, I haven’t gotten to see you in months so I need to make up for all the lost time.”

“Well, I guess I can’t blame you then,” she teased. “I am gorgeous, so it makes sense that your eyes would be drawn to me. But if that’s the case, then I get to stare at you all I want, too. Fair is fair, right?”

He nodded. “Oh, of course. Stare all you want.”

The two of them laughed as they made a right turn onto a different street and as Damien glanced around, he recalled that they were rather close to the workshop and he felt his excitement increasing the closer they got. To distract himself, he instead turned his attention to their surroundings as he took in the erased realm’s copy of Wilham. It was only once he got his memory back that he was able to truly appreciate just how insane this world was. It looked exactly like their home town and even the people they’d interacted with that weren’t erased victims perfectly represented their real life counterparts. If the existence of the body-swapping gemstone and the Ijirian mages were enough to turn his understanding of reality upside down then the erased realm completely destroyed it. The extent of what magic could do seemed almost infinite and that both scared him and intrigued him. He always enjoyed learning about the world and how it functioned, so to find out that there were other realms where magic was possible only served to make him wonder how much knowledge there was to learn.

Hell, we haven’t even come close to learning all the answers about our own universe, so how could we ever hope to know the secrets of the others?

“You know, I forgot to say this, Liz, but good job,” he muttered. “Your theory about the erased realm was spot on.”

She grinned proudly. “Thanks. Honestly, I’m a little surprised I got as much right as I did, and I’m glad I wasn’t wrong. Now we’ve got a proper fighting chance. We can do this, Damien. I believe in us and I believe in Eric and Lilly. The Magic Club is gonna win.”

He chuckled at her confidence and couldn’t help but gently tighten his grip on her hand. “Damn right we are.”

The rest of the walk was completed in a comfortable silence as they approached the apartment complex where Scott Reiner’s workshop was located. The two of them ascended the staircase to the second floor and made their way to the front door which, when Damien reached for the knob, was unlocked, so he pushed it open and stepped inside. The furniture-less front room was packed with people, causing Damien to stop in surprise. Everybody was there save Scott Reiner himself, and the boy couldn’t help but look between them all with a smile.

Lilly, Vinny, and Jay were standing in the back of the room, talking with Alice, who looked a little pale but seemed to be happy to see the two of them again. Off to the right, Brad and Evan were chatting softly and on the opposite side of the room, beside the hallway entrance, was Rista Pine, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. It was a surreal experience for him to look at them all with his memories returned, showing him that they were safe, and soon enough, they each noticed their presence in the doorway and turned to look. Immediately, the room went quiet and he was certain it was because of Liz’s appearance. She must have realized that, too, and so she was the one who broke that silence.

“Vinny!” she snapped with a mischievous smile. “We need to have a word! Earlier you said I was the inferior club member, knowing I wasn’t in the right headspace to argue back! How dare you take advantage of a girl when she’s vulnerable! Have you no shame?”

Damien snorted as he let out a sigh, completely unsurprised that she would choose such a snarky comment to be her first words to him. But of course, her accusation only made Vinny’s already growing grin get wider as he let out a sharp laugh.

“I only spoke the truth, dear Liz!” he retorted. “We all know that I am the most respectable member of the club and I think everybody agrees with that statement. After all, I’m just too charming and lovable. Isn’t that right, Damien? Back me up here?”

But he simply shook his head. “No, don’t drag me into your little dispute. I’m not getting involved in another one of your arguments.”

As he expected, both of them turned to him with a mock expression of pain.

“But, you’re one of my best friends! How could you leave me out to dry?!” Vinny exclaimed.

“And I’m your girlfriend! It’s your job as my boyfriend to back me up!” Liz added. “You don’t get to be neutral in this scenario! Come on, Damien, you know who’s the superior member!”

He glanced between the two of them and nonchalantly shrugged. “Look, how about we just all agree that none of us are the superior club members. I think it's painfully obvious that Lilly’s the one who should get all the credit here.”

“Huh?! Hell no!” Vinny complained. “Technically, she never submitted a club application so she was never an official club member! She was honorary, but by those rules, she can’t be the superior one! After all, if she was an official member then she would easily be the best, but she’s not, so the best is me!”

Liz smirked. “For once, I partially agree with Vinny. Lilly would be the best, but he’s right, she’s not a technical member, so I’m the best club member! That’s just obvious! I mean, look at how charming and cute I am, then take a look at his butt-ugly mug! It’s really no competition.”

“Hey! I’m not butt-ugly!”

Words couldn’t describe how good it felt to interact with them the way he was, but he was surprised that Lilly hadn’t joined in, so he turned his attention over Vinny’s shoulder to where she was standing, only to see tears rolling down her cheeks and a broad smile on her face. When the two of them looked into each other’s eyes, Damien could see the joy and relief their arrival had brought her, and at that moment, the girl suddenly strode forward and threw her arms around him and Liz, pulling them both tightly against her.

“God, you guys are idiots,” she whispered with a laugh. “Welcome back.”

“Aw, I missed you, too, Lil’!” Liz cheered.

Damien remained silent as he placed his arm around her and embraced his good friend. She was crying and laughing and he could tell just how much stress she had been under throughout their time in this realm. It pained him to know that he couldn't help her, and probably only caused problems for her, but now that he was back, he wouldn’t leave her side. He and Liz would do everything they could to help her.

“Hey, don’t leave me out of this hug!”

With that exclamation, Vinny rushed forward and joined them, his head lowered so that Damien couldn’t see his face. But the subtle shaking of his body told the boy that his old friend was trying to hide the fact that he, too, was crying.

“Now we just need Eric,” Damien whispered. “We need to get him back. So I imagine you called us back for a good reason, yeah, Lilly? What’s happened?”

With that question, the Magic Club broke off from their hug, allowing Lilly to step back and survey everybody there. Jay and Alice were both grinning, and when Damien glanced their way, the two of them silently waved, indicating that they didn’t want to interrupt the reunion but were glad to see them back. As for Evan and Brad, Damien was surprised to see that Brad was smiling, too. He gave a brief nod to Damien, and when the boy turned to stare at Evan, he didn’t see the normal rage and hostility that the boy used to always direct his way. There was certainly a lack of any positive emotions in his eyes, but it was clear that Evan Wright had other things to think about, and his hatred for the club had long since been put on the backburners.

“Alright, I’m glad we’re all here,” Lilly began, stepping into the middle of the room as she addressed those present.

Already, Damien could see that she had comfortably adopted the leadership role in this world. There wasn’t any hesitance or fear as she regarded them all. Instead, she was determined and confident, a girl prepared to go through hell to get what she wanted, and the respect she had earned from the others was just as obvious. Evan and Brad both straightened up to listen to her, as did Jay and Alice. Even Rista, the rather grouchy Ijirian mage, had opened his eyes and was no longer leaning against the wall. Lilly Harper had the room’s full attention, and Damien knew they were in good hands.

Eric would be proud, Lilly. It’s inspiring to me just how far you’ve come. I’m proud of you, too.

“Now, I wanted everybody to come back here because we’ve made two huge steps toward our escape,” she went on. “In fact, if all goes well, we could be leaving within the next few days. Evan, Brad, Vinny, and Rista already know what’s happened so I wanted to let the rest of you know so we’re on the same page. But first, Alice, did Jay tell you what we’re planning?’

The girl frowned. “W-well, kind of. I mean, he explained the stuff about the mana ports but I don’t think I fully understand it all. But still…I’ll do my best to help you guys.”

“Thank you,” Lilly replied with a smile. “In that case, I’ll go on. When Jay and Rista went down to that shack in the woods, they found the second mana port in the building’s second room. We’ve got both locations.”

Damien raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Wait, so then…we’re ready to go, right? Didn’t we just need to find that thing so we can destroy it?”

“Yes, that’s the idea,” Rista chimed in. “And to be honest, if we chose to, we could escape right now. However, Harper has requested that we wait two days and take this time to plan thoroughly.”

“Why?” Liz inquired. “Wouldn’t it be best to get out as soon as we can.”

Lilly nodded. “In theory, yes. But the thing is, something else happened today. Scott finished testing his serum…and it’s potent to some extent.”

“To some extent?” Jay parroted. “Meaning what? It doesn’t completely suppress the mana?”

“Yes, exactly that,” she confirmed. “When he tested it on Rista’s blood, he found that the mana suppression only half succeeded and it didn’t last much longer than ten minutes or so. What that means is that if we were to use it on either Nigreos or Album, they would still be able to use magic, it would just be weaker than what they did back in Wilham.”

Evan snorted. “But they’re still going to be powerful bastards.”

“Yeah, most likely,” Lilly agreed. “But the thing is, we should take whatever advantage we can get. The Angel will already be useful in fighting them, but if they aren’t even at their best, then I do think I can take them myself. We just need to get one shot in on them, and at the moment, Scott only has the one fresh vial.”

“Oh,” Damien murmured, realizing where she was going with this. “So then, you want to take a few days to give Scott time to make a few more?”

Lilly grinned. “Exactly. At the moment, the plan is to coat a few bullets in what we have, but ideally, if we get more of the serum, we can add more. I’d like to get some on Rista’s sword if we could, and we need a lot more if we’re gonna coat an entire blade in that stuff. But Scott says it shouldn’t take him long to make what we need.” Lilly paused, once again taking the time to look at each one of them in turn. “So we’re going to destroy this place in two days.”

“Damn, so we’re actually gonna do this,” Brad said softly, the look on his face a mix of apprehension and excitement.

“We are.” Lilly let out a soft exhale and went on. “So, as for how we’re going to do it, do you remember what Rista said about destroying the ports? Album will sense when one of them goes down, so we have to destroy them almost at the same time.”

“Meaning we have to split up?” Vinny inquired. “How’s that going to work?”

Lilly considered the question for a moment, then glanced back at Rista, indicating for him to answer the question.

“Well, in order to even destroy a mana port, one needs to have control over magic,” he explained. “The Angel, if my understanding of it is correct, should be able to destroy one of the ports with ease, and while it will be harder, I do know how to dismantle one.”

“So then what’s the point of the rest of us going along?” Evan grumbled. “If only magical people can destroy them then shouldn’t we all just stay home and wait it out?”

Rista shook his head. “Normally, I’d agree, but like I said before, the erased realm may resemble a pocket realm but it isn’t a normal one. It’s possible, and even likely, that there is some defense mechanism should they be tampered with. If that is the case, we’re going to need some backup, and I’m hoping that Mr. Reiner’s serum will help us.”

“Ah, gotcha,” Brad said. “So then, we arm ourselves with whatever anti-magic weapons Mr. Reiner has laying around this place and, if the mana ports fight back, we help you kick its ass. Understood then. How are we splitting the groups?”

“Well, I haven’t given much thought to that,” Lilly admitted. “But I think I’d prefer to split it with the Magic Club and Mr. Reiner in my group and the rest of you going with Rista.”

Immediately, both Brad and Jay seemed about to argue but neither of them wound up saying anything. They would understand why Lilly would want the club at their side, even if they wanted to be there to help her. Brad, in particular, seemed nervous about going in a group separate from Lilly.

The big boy’s jaw clenched a bit as he gave a curt nod. “O-okay. Just…remember, Lilly. Don’t use more of The Angel’s power than you need to.”

She smiled warmly at him. “I won’t. Don’t worry about me, Brad. I’ll be okay.”

Damien noticed Rista, Vinny, and Jay all giving the girl weird looks, but they didn’t speak up, leaving him to wonder if there was something he was missing. Yet, he, too, decided not to say anything, content to trust in Lilly and this plan she had put together. His faith in her wouldn’t waver, and he would do anything she needed him to do. Everybody in the room was ready to fight back and now, the end of the erased realm was on the horizon. They could see the end, and with it, Damien prayed that they could go back to the way things used to be. He wanted to return to the clubroom in the real West Wilham High School and he wanted to put Ijiria behind him. As impossible as it sounded given the daunting task before them, he wanted to believe it would happen.

Let’s bring this nonsense to an end. As fascinating as it is, I’m sick of magic upending my life. I want to bring us back to the simpler times. Please, let this succeed. Let us go home.

***

Fighting back any reaction to the pain in her arm, Lilly Harper held Natalie close, hugging the little girl to let her know that she was there. They were in Natalie’s bedroom in the Hills’ apartment, two days after the final meeting in Scott’s workshop. The last couple days had been hectic as they fine tuned the details of their plans, making sure every variable had been considered. If they overlooked anything, it could get one of them killed, and that was something Lilly would not accept. If even a single person died then, even if they escaped the erased realm and defeated the Ijirian Masters, she couldn’t consider it a victory. In order to win the coming fight, they all needed to reach Wilham safely. That was her requirement and she would stick to it.

Nobody was allowed to die.

So, she and the others did what they could, even going as far as to scout the locations of the two mana ports: the beach and the shack. She’d found it strange that the ports were both located in places she knew, but Rista had said it wasn’t all that surprising. The mana ports had to exist without being observed, meaning that it was Album’s memory that created their locations. Therefore, they had to be located in spots that Album would remember, and since she and Nigreos made their base in the shack and the Omaruan gateway was on the beach, they were two very likely locations. Part of her wished she could have known that sooner, as she would have told Rista to check the shack, but in the end, she decided it didn’t matter. She wouldn’t have made a move until Alice was back anyway, so it didn’t really change much.

As for Scott, he had been hard at work creating more vials of the serum, and hadn’t hesitated to force Evan and Brad to be his assistants. Brad didn’t seem to mind, but Evan had been complaining non-stop because Scott had forced him to essentially be his errand boy. Mostly, he just went out to grab the man lunch, and every time Lilly visited the workshop, Evan would demand that she talk some sense into Scott, and every time, she would ignore his request and continue on with her own business, which was to check in on the man’s progress.

In addition to the serums, Scott had been crafting weapons that would be compatible with his new technology. Naturally, they couldn’t just coat bullets in the serum and shoot them from a normal gun, so instead, he created a workaround. The bullets he made were rigged to contain the serum inside of them rather than on its surface so that once it hit the victim, it would inject the serum into their bloodstream. The downside to this was that they would still need to find a way to bypass Nigreos’s shadows, but Lilly intended to use The Angel to do that. Scott also had a few guns of his own making that were compatible with his new bullets, though he only had four of them that were finished. Those four, after a lot of deliberation, were given out to Scott and Damien on one team and Evan and Brad on the other. The rest would be armed with simple knives that Scott would be coating in the serum. The knives themselves weren’t special, but the sheaths had a mechanism inside of them to eject serum onto the blades if a certain button was pushed.

It was all so fascinating and it told Lilly just how desperate Scott had been to find a way to combat Ijiria. Even though his serum had never worked, he had still spent so much time designing weapons and creating tools that could aid him should he ever succeed, and it was because of that determination that Lilly had an advantage she hadn’t planned for.

And now it’s done. Now, we’re ready. They’re all waiting for me back at the workshop and when I arrive, we’ll begin.

“Are you sure I can’t come?” Natalie asked softly. “I don’t want to be left behind, Lilly.”

Lilly smiled sadly. “I know you don’t, but there’s nothing you can do tonight, but I don’t want you to think you weren’t helpful, okay? You’re the one who got through to Damien and Liz and convinced them to trust us…and I do think it’s because of what you said that they were able to break the memory charm on their own. You might not be able to fight, Nat’, but you saved Damien and Liz. I want you to be proud of that.”

“I know, I just…” Natalie sniffled. “I’m just scared. I don’t want you guys to get hurt. The wizards were evil…and if they find out that erasing you wasn’t good enough, then they’ll kill you. I don’t want you to die.”

“I won’t die,” she assured her. “I have The Angel, remember? I’m protected and I can protect them. It’s going to be okay. We’re all going to be okay.”

“It’s almost sad how easily you can lie to this girl. You know The Angel is as much a threat to you as to anybody else. And the wounds you receive are not so easily fixed.”

Another spasm of pain shot through her arm, but Lilly refused to react. She still wore her light jacket over it and thus far, while the others had made comments about her looking like she was hot, nobody had realized the damage that she had done to herself. Only Vinny, Rista, and Jay knew the truth, but she had convinced them to keep it quiet. After all, whatever wounds she received here wouldn’t carry over, so it wasn’t worth scaring everybody.

I’m not lying, she retorted. I’m not going to die. You will protect me, as I know you want to. I’m going to live, too, you hear me?

“I like your enthusiasm, but you know that if we do confront Nigreos and Album, you’re going to have to unleash us again…and they won’t be as easy to kill as a nerich.”

I’m well aware. And if it comes to that, I’ll still find a way to survive. I’m not going to die.

“Lilly,” Natalie whispered, pulling her away from her internal debate with The Angel. “Be careful, okay? I want you to keep coming over and hanging out with me. I don’t want it to end. I’d rather be stuck here forever than go home and not have you anymore. So please promise me that you’ll see me again in the real world. Please?”

“I promise,” she said without hesitation. “Natalie, I’ll see you in Wilham. I’ll come by your house and I’ll babysit you again. And maybe, I can bring Eric and the others and we can finish that party that Nigreos and Album crashed. Does that sound fun?”

Natalie nodded. “It does.”

“Good. Then it's a promise.” Lilly released the girl from their hug and looked at her, reaching up to gently place her hands on her face. “Now, I’ve got to go, so wait for me, okay? When you return to the real world, wait for me to come find you.”

“I will. I’ll wait for you.” Natalie forced a smile of her own. “Bye bye, Lilly. Good luck.”

Lilly leaned forward and kissed Natalie on the forehead then got to her feet. “Bye, Nat’. See you on the other side.”

With that, Lilly turned and depared the apartment, bidding a brief goodbye to the erased realm’s Renee on her way out, and when she reached the hall, she found Rista standing against the wall just a few feet away, his arms folded as he regarded her.

“Ready, Harper?”

“Yup. Let’s go.”

As she walked by, Rista fell into stride alongside her and they began making their way toward the apartment building’s elevator. And as they were walking, a thought occurred to her, one she had been meaning to ask The Angel for a while, but had kept forgetting with all that had been going on.

Hey, tell me. What happens to us when we escape the erased realm? Where will we end up?

She knew she had faded from existence after she and Eric jumped through the portal, so for all she knew, when the erased realm fell, she might awaken right in the heart of the Ijirian Citadel. Before they acted, she needed to know those details so she could prepare. But The Angel’s answer was disappointing.

“I do not know. As far as I am aware, there has never been an escape from within the realm. If there has been, Ijiria either covered it up or didn’t know about it. Light, you’d know more about this. What do you think?”

“Um, I don’t really know, either. However, if I had to guess, I think it would be more likely that you would return to the spot where the erased magic entered your body.”

Lilly frowned. What does that mean?

“Well, erasure takes place in two steps. First, the caster has to inject the victim with erased magic, linking them together so that the eraser can get rid of them at any point in time. Then, when the incantation is spoken, the victim will be erased no matter where they are. That’s what makes it different from other spells. The two steps means that, if one were to escape, it's actually possible that they would return to the place the mana entered them, because that takes more power to achieve.”

As she listened to Light’s explanation, Lilly took a deep breath, realizing that it would be completely up to chance, and she wasn’t even sure which one she preferred. On one hand, if she returned to Ijiria, she would be able to find and make contact with Eric, but Omaruo was where the others would be, and it would be far safer for her. There were pros and cons to both.

Thank you. That’s good to know.

As she and Rista stepped onto the elevator, she glanced up at the man and could tell that he was deep in thought as well, though he must have sensed her staring since he suddenly turned to look back.

“You ready?” she asked. “It’s finally time.”

He smirked. “I’ve been ready, Harper. I’ve been telling you that since the beginning. I didn’t want to wait in the first place.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she grumbled with a dismissive wave. “But in all seriousness, I do want to thank you. You’ve been a huge help in all this and even though you didn’t want to, you still used your magic to help my friends. So regardless of how prickly you were about it, I’m still very appreciative.”

“Well, I wouldn’t think much of it,” he grunted. “It’s just…well, it’s what my mom would have done. She always taught us to help those who needed it, and I could tell that you did. Mom would have been really mad at me if I’d abandoned you.”

Lilly smiled at the thought of Abigail Reiner. “You know, I’ve come to realize something. With everything I’ve been told about Abigail and the Children, I’ve noticed that they were kind of the same as Eric and the Magic Club.”

Rista cocked an eyebrow and glanced at her with curiosity. “What do you mean?”

“You said that Abi reached out to those of you who were alone and needed a family,” Lilly said. “And that she hated seeing people be abandoned. That’s what Eric did with the others. Damien and Vinny have both told me in the past that Eric was the one who extended a hand when nobody else wanted them and this world showed us what it would have been like if Eric never existed. In that sense, the Magic Club was Eric’s own Children of Reiner.”

Rista chuckled softly as the elevator doors opened, admitting them to the lobby. “Well, then I suppose you and I both owe a lot to the Reiners. And now, I owe Scott, too. I hope one day that I can meet Eric.”

“I think he’d like you,” Lilly told him confidently. “And hopefully you do meet him at some point.”

They walked through the doors of the lobby and made it out onto the street where Lilly found the sun already getting low on the horizon. The time had arrived and their attack on the erased realm would begin that night.

“Well then,” she said softly, her lips twisting in a grin. “I suppose it’s finally showtime.”