Everything happened in a flash. Silence returned to the dining hall, with only the lingering smell of sulfur and a few piles of black fragments on the floor to prove what had just happened.
Yet the girl who had unleashed that astonishing power swayed violently, her face white as paper and her breathing shallow and rapid. She had to brace herself against the freezer beside her just to stay upright. The black cloak behind her stirred without a breeze, as though bearing an unimaginable weight.
"Raven!"
Li Jie hurried over and steadied her slender shoulders. "What's wrong? Low blood sugar?"
"...I'm fine."
Raven's voice was faint. She pushed his hand away and straightened on her own. "It's just...using my power wears down the barrier faster."
"The barrier?"
Raven drew a deep breath, seemingly trying to settle the energy churning inside her and the increasingly distinct sense of connection to an outer dimension. "Trigon...my father. An ancient barrier separates his dimension from the reality of your Earth. It's both protection and a prison."
She raised her eyes toward the places where the portals had vanished, her gaze empty.
"He can't come here in his true form. Not yet, at least. All he can do is strain with everything he has to bore tiny holes through the barrier and send over...inferior servants like those."
"Then why doesn't he just send an army?" one of the assault team members asked, still shaken.
"Because the cost is too great," Raven explained calmly. "Each portal takes an enormous amount of his power to maintain, and they're extremely unstable. Only weak demons like these can pass through. For truly powerful beings or large armies, the barrier is still insurmountable."
She paused, her gaze finally settling on Li Jie with profound exhaustion. "But there's one exception...a 'door'