Money Loving CEO's Detective Lover

Minho was staring at Anyal with a cold anger but he did not say anything. The demon was smirking and still drinking his wine, enjoying the torment he was inflicting on his enemy. But Minho knew that it was not the time to become angry or afraid.

He was sure that Anyal was hiding something from him. The ritual, there was something more to it than merely opening the gates. His great grandmother died opening and closing the gates but as far as Minho knew, something had happened midway which caused her to close the gates again. Even though she nearly completed the ritual, something made her disobey Anyal at the cost of her life. 

If Minho went through with this, he would not survive but there was no other choice. He could not figure out Anyal's puzzle. Only one piece was missing and he needed it to stop the demon. 

"You have no choice," Anyal said, reading his mind. "Your daughter is with me. Your friend's body is under my control. You really have no choice, famous Money Lover."

Anyal's smirk was beginning to irritate Minho but he kept his cool. 

"Let's get on with it," Minho said in a hollow tone. "What do I have to do? Utter a bunch of hocus pocus? Throw in some money to the Devil? Will credit cards do?"

Anyal sighed and put his drink away. He sat on a table with his legs crossed and looked at Minho with Kanji's lazy eyes.

"I'll be the one to conduct the ceremony," he said. "When it'll start, you can't leave. I'll have your daughter brought in at exactly 11:59 PM so that you'll be assured she's under our custody and alive. At exactly midnight, you'll start to open the portals by repeatedly saying 'Patentibus'. As soon as it's 12:04, the gates will open. If you break the rhythm, I'll kill your daughter on the spot!"

Minho did not give in to the threats but remained silent. 

"Good," Anyal said. "You're being obedient."

He checked his watch which read 21:00 PM. "In two hours, we'll be going to the Fort," he told Minho. "Unlike you Transporters who can't move from one location to another without a loop, demons can move wherever they want in the World of the Dead. All I have to do is, open a portal and we'll reach there."

"You seem to know a lot about Transporters," Minho said warily. 

"You really don't have any idea about your powers and their origins, do you?" Anyal scoffed. Minho frowned but the demon only kept on smirking.

"Then again, if you knew," Anyal went on. "You wouldn't have fallen in this predicament. After all, you had the key in your hands and yet, you kept on looking at other places."

"What do you-"

"Enough chit chat!" Anyal snapped. "Now, we will only wait."

Minho sensed that the demon knew something that they had missed out on but did not ask him anything else. The key was in their hands? What was he talking about?

He looked at his own watch. Two hours...two more hours and they would have to start the ritual. Jina was in Anyal's grasp and Gayoon must be hysterical. But he was putting all his hopes on Gayoon.

Please figure out the puzzle, he prayed. Just figure it out and stop him!

The clock was ticking and they were nowhere. Could they survive this ordeal?

…..

"Keep going south!" Yumi ordered Gayoon. They had entered the jungle and slowly drove towards the fort where Jason had told them to go. Despite the full moon above them, the route was darkened by the large trees hauntingly looming above them. The road was a little rocky but it was faster by car than on foot. Junho was checking the map on his phone.

"There's no waterbody in this jungle," he muttered. 

"This place feels really spooky," Yumi said.

"Yumi thinks htis place is spooky," Gayoon interpreted.

"A ghost talking about spookiness?" Junho muttered. But Gayoon understood what Yumi meant. The energy in that part of the jungle was unbelievably crazy. There were no living beings at all. However, what struck her the most was the lack of dead spirits as well. Instead, she felt a daunting sense of isolation in that forest stalking them like a predator.

"Lady Cop, I hate to ask this out loud, but do you feel that we're being...watched?" Yumi whispered.

"Watched?" Gayoon echoed. "Yumi is saying that she feels we're being watched."

"She's right," Shinjin said in a grim tone. "I'm having the same feeling."

"But there are no ghosts here other than Yumi," Gayoon said. "Yet…"

"They ain't ghosts," Shinjin stated. "They're souls. Remember, this place is directly linked to hell thanks to what happened to Anyal's lover. A gate was opened here and that pulled hell closer to this very spot. It's a theory but maybe, the souls trapped in hell are forced to watch the living. Kind of like a punishment."

"Punishment?" Yumi and Gayoon asked.

"They're forced to watch people live," Shinjin explained. "The demons are sadistically showing them that they had given up their souls for useless pursuits. What those souls wanted was to live happily but by selling off their souls, they've damned themselves. It's a punishment for them to see others live and do normal things which those souls are aching to do. At least ghosts wandering amongst the living have ways to communicate with others while the spirits in World of the Dead are completely shut out from the living world. It's the souls in hell who are being tormented. Can't communicate nor be shut out from the living world. They're suffering a cursed existence."

"Psychological pain," Gayoon muttered. "That's worse than anything else."

"True," Junho agreed. "The sooner we finish our work here, the better. What's the time?"

"It's nine o'clock," Shinjin replied. "Within two hours, the demon will have to start the ritual and at midnight, the gates will begin to open."

Junho nodded and they kept on driving ahead. After half an hour, a fort came into view.

"Is that it?" Gayoon whispered. Shinjin parked the car behind a bush and they all got out to observe the place.

"Seems to be it," Shinjin said. 

"Where's Anna?" Yumi asked.

"I don't see Anna," Gayoon said.

"Jason said she's around here somewhere but put him in charge of guarding Kanji and Mina," Junho informed them. "But she doesn't know that Jason broke the spell. Something in this area is hindering her senses. She couldn't even sense Kanji in the fort."

"The energy of hell is disturbing her powers," Shinjin agreed. "This might work to our advantage. Let's go in and meet up with the others!"

They quietly strolled through the forest to enter the ruins. Silently walking through the once magnificent hallway, they reached the middle of the first where Kanji, Mina and Jason stood, talking amongst themselves.

"Mina!" Gayoon hissed. Startled, all of them looked around.

"Gayoon!" Mina exclaimed softly and ran towards her. "Jina...she's in there!"

She pointed at a hollow spot where Kanji told her that Jina was kept. Gayoon stared at the place before nodding.

"Where's Anna now?" she asked Jason.

"She said she'll be here in five minutes," he stated.

"Good," Gayoon said. "Because I have a plan."