The Crypt of the Capuchin Friars turned out to be a few eerie rooms filled to the brim with skulls. It should have been no surprise as the catacombs were meant to be tombs, but they were everywhere. Skulls lined the walls and the ceilings and the resting places of the dead themselves until there was no place free of them. I couldn't help the nagging feeling that their soulless pits were watching us, studying us, taunting us. 

It was nine o'clock in the evening and there was nobody in sight. Tourists weren't allowed anywhere near the tombs at night and whilst that was good for us now, I didn't like how isolated I felt. The only light we had was a large lantern Dev was holding, which he'd found in an old caretaker cupboard on the way here. The bulb flickered occasionally but other than that the light was strong, revealing the eerie nature of the tomb in its entirety. 

The place wasn't beautiful. It couldn't be any further away from beauty. But it was strangely captivating; a haunting dedication to death and its victims in a way that was neither sad nor bitter. I'd never seen anywhere like it. 

Dev, on the other hand, wasn't impressed. "Of all the places The Oracle could send us, why did she choose here?" 

I rolled my eyes. "Were you expecting us to hear about one of the oldest books in the world over a picnic in Hyde Park?" 

"No," he said, bothered by my sarcasm. "But it didn't have to be in some horrible tomb full of skulls."

He had a point but I ignored him. We couldn't really question The Oracle's decisions when we didn't know enough about the situation to make our own way. Unfortunately the only thing we could do right now was follow her advice blindly, even if it seemed illogical. 

The corridor we were walking through suddenly opened up to the largest room we'd seen so far. The small hall had the most elaborate decorations of all of the tombs, with skulls in a gold coating lined in swirled patterns all over the walls and ceilings. Three solitary figures stood guard over the far wall where the designs were the most captivating, dressed in plain brown robes from head to toe. At first I felt a sudden shock and a pang of fear when I saw them, but as I looked closer I realised that they were most certainly dead, for which I was thankful. They must have just been the monks this tomb was based around. 

"This place keeps getting better and better." 

I turned around and smirked. Dev had gone slightly pale and was pointedly avoiding my gaze. "Are you, like, okay?" 

He glared at me as I tried and failed to smother a laugh. "I don't like tombs you know, like any other normal person." 

"But you're a demon." 

"And?" 

"You were born in Hell."

"So?" 

I couldn't help but let out another chuckle. "So you're scared of tombs and yet you come from the biggest tomb in the entire universe?" 

He paused for a second. 

"Okay, you might have a point there." 

I grinned and was about to make another snarky comment before Dev suddenly dropped the big lantern. It landed on the ground with a smash and everything went black. 

I created a tiny fireball in my palm to give us some sort of light, but it was nowhere as powerful as the lantern. I gave Dev a glare. "What did you do that for?" 

He stayed silent but I could see him shaking in the firelight. 

"Well?" 

"Roman..."

"What?" I was getting irritated now. 

"They moved." 

I was about to give an exasperated response before I heard a sinister crack from behind me. I whirled around and shone my fireball up towards the source of the sudden noise, and I found myself stumbling back at the sight before me. 

And I immediately understood what Dev had meant. 

The monks. The supposedly dead monks. The figures that had been in a stationary position of lifelessness for hundreds of years, who couldn't possibly move, who couldn't possibly think for themselves, who couldn't possibly possess any human ability...had just taken a step towards us. 

But that crack had not been the sound of a step. Rather, it had been the eerie creek of the centre monk slowly raising a bony arm to reach up towards its dingy hood. I watched with panicked fascination as the figure clenched the material in its fist and pulled it down from its head. 

Dev let out a gasp from beside me and I suddenly felt sick to the stomach. I didn't want to look but I had to. My eyes were glued, my body was frozen. 

The monk's head was still a decaying skull I'd been expecting to see, but its face was anything but dead. It had ghostly, translucent skin that flickered continuously as if it was about to give out at any second. Instead of eyes the monk had two orbs of rotten green slits, oozing out drops of gunk that slid down near its toothless mouth which was twisted open with a permanent sneer, black gums bleeding out a stench of decay.

It let out a high, cold laugh that made the bones in its body shudder and creek, spitting out tar-like blood in the process. "It's been a long time since I've encountered demons, a long time since I've tasted their blood." 

Its voice was snake like: croaky and full of venom. It wasn't quite as chilling as Satan's rasp but it was still haunting enough to lock my bones in place, even though I could feel Dev shake to the side of me. 

My throat felt constricted but I finally found my voice. "Who...what are you?"

"We, my little demon," it started, with that cold laugh again. "Are the guardians."

I expected it to say more but it didn't. There was a long pause where I couldn't help but hear our fast breaths of panic and fear. 

"Guardians of what?" 

"Oh I think you know, young one. It must be your purpose for coming here, after all." 

I bristled slightly at being called young, but I forget my anger almost instantly as I thought about what he was saying. We came here to learn about that book, but how could they be guardians of something they didn't have?

"If you're talking about Il Libro Dei Demoni," I started, cautiously choosing my next words. "Then how can you be guardians of something someone else has?" 

It was the monk's turn to be angry now. Its eyes flashed dangerously and that sneer cracked painfully into a murderous scowl. "We are only allowed to protect the books for two millenniums, fool, before it is passed to others." 

He didn't sound like he agreed with that decision. 

"Why?" I asked, trying and failing to keep the fear out of my voice. 

The sneer reappeared. "Do you know what The Demon Book does, my foolish demon?"

"It gives the user the power to kill demons," but as I said it I felt unsure. The Oracle had hinted that the book contained more information then I'd originally thought, but at the same time she was the one who had got us into this mess in the first place. 

"That is one purpose the book has, but it is not the only one as Satan would have you believe." 

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. I wasn't expecting him to say that. 

Dev suddenly spoke up from beside me. "What do you mean by that?" 

I'd almost forgotten he was there. The monk let out another cackle of ghostly, chilling laughter. 

"The king of evil knows his workers have little loyalty towards such a cruel leader. Therefore he fuels the desire to secure the book through fear, hiding the real reason why he wants it so much." 

I waited with bated breath for the information I'd been longing to have for such a long time. 

"As you both should know," he continued without a prompt from us. "Satan is trapped in Mount Lucifer by the power of God, and is therefore physically limited from his goal of spreading evil. When he can escape his prison, he will become the Antichrist and Armageddon will begin." 

"Yes we know that," I said, getting impatient as I waited for the monk to get to the point. 

The sneer on its face suddenly became even more prominent. "Well, what you don't know is that Il Libro Dei Demoni holds the key to unlocking the power Satan needs to escape his chains. If Lucifer gets his hands on that book, the world will come to an end." 

After those words there was a moment of piercing silence, which was as loud to me as the most violent of thundering storms. How could I have not worked it out before? Why had I been so stupid? No wonder Satan had been so threatening to us after those demons had died: he wanted the book. And any event hinting to its whereabouts would have him on high alert. 

Dev broke the deafening silence that had surrounded us. "Roman, what are we going to do?" 

"Do!" The monk suddenly barked, a full grin etched into its translucent skin. "What you are going to do is die! We have not feasted for such a long time, and we are starved to the bone." 

The three monks stepped forwards once again and a loud, creaking groan was released as they all raised their right arm from underneath their cloaks. Clenched between each of their bony fists were the handles of giant knives the length of my arm, glinting wildly in the firelight from the flame in my palm. 

"Demon Cleavers," the head monk said evilly, letting out another cackle. "One touch of this blade will leave you in agony."

I gulped and Dev and I both took a step back. "Um...thanks for sharing with us, but we better be off now." 

I then tried to shift but I found myself unable to, as if somehow the crypt was magically sealed. We took a few more steps back but then I heard that creaking sound again and Dev let out a string of curses. More monks were getting out of their tombs around us with those massive knives in hand, stopping us from retreating any further. 

Soon we were surrounded. 

We turned back around to the head monk who's black, oily tongue was licking his scarred lips excitedly.

"My brothers, it is time to feast!"