Chapter 4

ELEGANT

IRA

All First Magic users were inherently tied to Te’Selin, the Realm of Fear.
Ira was no exception, for Te’Selin was the realm of demons. First Magic users like her— Selincasters— had a certain kinship to demon-kind. An understanding that they all drew power from the same source. The brothers were the same, for all highborn families in the Avalsari Empire were of the First Magic.
Ira and the boy sensed the presence of demons at the same time.
Ludwilg’s eyes widened. A quiet fear reverberated through his bones.
There were demons abound, making their way toward the estate.
“Did you feel that?” Ira asked, watching the boy as he stood up and looked around, not knowing where the source of his concern was.
“Stay close,” she smiled, cracking her neck and Clocking her cores.
She drew from Te’Selin, channeling magical energy into the conduit-cores in her body, allowing mana to flow into her muscles and bones. She immediately felt stronger, more agile, the world sharpening around her. Ludwilg’s eyes widened even more when he saw the arrow-like aedel markings glowing on her flesh.
Te’Selin was an infinite source of magical energy, but Clocking her cores required immense concentration, like walking on a tightrope. She would only be able to keep up reinforcement for around an hour or so, unlike Hiromi who could apparently maintain it for an entire day.
Something flew up from the ground. It stopped midair, silhouetting a moon for a moment, before crashing down into the balcony floor, destroying stone and concrete alike. When the dust cleared, a large, armored demon with three rotating faces stood upon a crater of its own making.
“Huh. Passion Demon,” Ira said. “Never fought one of you before.”
She narrowed her gaze and concentrated for a moment, mentally assessing the demon’s strength.
There was a curse placed upon the world, the result of a Fragment— an ancient artifact— that placed a mark on every living creature on the planet. This curse was called the Category Scale. It gave everything in the world a number based on their strength. And it allowed everyone in this world to know the strength of an individual if they looked hard enough. Like a sixth sense that everyone possessed.
This Category applied to demons as well.
After concentrating, Ira recognized the demon as a Category Three.
The same Category as her.
She licked her lips. An even fight, then.
“Let’s dance, boy.”

# # #

CHAPTER 4
DEMONS

Codex 04: Te’Selin
The Realm of Fear. The Source of the First Magic. An infinite dimension of raw energy where First Magic users draw their power and where Evertos Demons originate.

# # #

LARIEL SAVANT

“Lots’a demons but only a handful of visible summoners. You guys really pissed off the locals, huh?” Lariel said, leaning toward the security feed in the safe room.
Ludolf paced. He frantically kept dialing for his brother, hoping that he was safe. He sent guards to retrieve his sibling. Two of his household guards stood by the door, swords at their hips, but visibly nervous. Lariel didn’t expect much from private guards in a faraway, peaceful region like this.
“I can’t get to him,” he hissed, glancing at the security feed. “If we get rid of those guys, will the demons go away?”
“That’s not how it works, handsome,” Lariel smiled. “We’ll have to deal with them separately, demon and summoner. You tried calling the cops yet?”
Ludolf’s security guy shook his head.
“They probably cut the cables. Even cellular doesn’t work. Might even have a demon that disrupts radio waves or something,” Lariel said, crossing her arms. She turned toward the screen showing one of the streets leading up to the estate. A number of angry Thirds could be seen, their demons already jumping the fence.
“I wonder where my boss is,” she said, wondering about Hiromi. Despite being the cool, implacable leader, she loved doing her own thing a little too much.
“Ludwilg, pick up you little sh—” Ludolf wasn’t paying attention to her. He continued trying to ring his brother, not caring about the chaos in the estate. She placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to flinch.
“He’ll be fine,” she smiled.
He glared at her. “How can you be so calm?”
She shook her head. “Your estate is my playground now.”
Ludolf’s concern evaporated, replaced by confusion.
“What?”
A commotion in the hallway caught both of their attentions.
“I sympathize with the people outside. But violence shouldn’t be necessary. They’re here to kill you and your brother because they believe that a message needs to be sent. I won’t let that happen. I won’t let you die,” she said, pointing at his cute nose.
Ludolf’s confusion was replaced with anger. Lariel wagged her eyebrows.
An explosion rocked the hallway beyond the security doors. When the dust cleared, a pair of wolf-like demons with cleavers emerged, snarling and salivating. Instinct Demons.
Edelcroft’s guards readied their swords. Their hands were shaking. Lariel gave a boop to Ludolf’s nose again before she stepped past him and his guards. She stood in the hallway, raising her hands forward as the demon dogs charged.
As a Second Magic User— a Refiner— Lariel was not able to draw magical energy directly into her veins. Refinement drew from Tia’Alir, and its power could not be used to directly bolster her physical strength. Instead, she had to draw magic into conduits away from her body. The floor, the earth, sometimes even the air itself. In this case, it was a pair of spell circles she drew on the ceiling that led to the safe room.
The spell circles siphoned energy from Tia’Alir, collecting it, then condensing it, then transforming it into a spell.
An explosive spell.
“Devastation twenty—” she invoked. “—Harrowmine!”
The spell circles drawn on the ceiling appeared and suddenly glowed burning hot for an exact second. Then, in the next second they exploded, blasting fire and brimstone straight down on the demon’s heads. The beam of light blew the demons apart, as well as the three or four floors below them.
“Woo! That never gets old!” Lariel hollered.
And then she saw more demons emerged from the hallway, looking down at the hole her spell had made.
“Do you have more of those spells layered in the hall?” Ludolf asked.
But Lariel was already running.
“Follow me!”

# # #

IRA

The Passion Demon resembled a three-meter tall armored man. Its helm had three faces. One of anger. One of fear. One of sadness. It was an elegantly-assembled machine of metal and magic. Wielding a rapier in one hand, it advanced steadily. Every footstep shook the floor, a reminder of its weight and strength.
Ira could almost sense its intention. She wasn’t the target. The kid was.
She clapped her hands together to create a spark, leaning back, she pointed her palms at the advancing creature. Magical energy, drawn from Te’Selin, coalesced before her hands. The energy ignited like fuel, transforming into fire.
With a yell, she released it, sending a blast of brimstone toward the Passion. She struck the creature directly, bathing it in a ball of fire that destroyed the surrounding area.
When the flames died out, Ira shook her arms to dissipate the remaining flames.
For a moment there was silence, then came the clack-clack-clack of the demon’s footsteps.
“Oh well. I tried,” she shrugged, hopping in place and shaking her arms. “Let’s actually dance.”

# # #

HIROMI HAYASHIBARA

Reinforcements had arrived. Too late, for Hiromi had already dealt with the attackers.
Hiromi rested her hand on an Edelcroft guard’s throat, mending his injury with Siana. A medic rushed into the scene a moment later, kneeling in the sands.
“I did what I could, please heal the rest,” she instructed the newly-arrived guards as they approached. Their eyes were wide with panic and fear.
There had been a total of eight summoners and eighteen demons. It was a small blessing that none of the attackers had access to an animus. She did not want to deal with the complication of dealing with those halo-wearing creatures.
She had warned the attackers to step away from the estate. To stand down and go home. They did not listen. She had no choice but to fight.
One girl versus twenty six.
She stood now at the center of the aftermath of that battle. Witch Heart was never drawn. On the sands, the attackers moaned and groaned from broken bones, but none of them were dead. Their summons had been destroyed, but contracted demons never died permanently. They would re-manifest in a few days or so.
It had not been much of a fight. Hiromi would not remember the battle in the days to come.
“Where did he go?” she asked, stepping on the throat of one of the least injured attackers. He looked up, fear in his eyes, mouth watering from the pressure of her foot. “Your hooded leader. In the chaos of battle, he had slipped away.”
She tried to chase after him, but the others went to his defense. He used the opportunity to summon a black cloak— perhaps the Armament Form of a demon, to suddenly slip away into the shadows.
The man she stepped on tried to speak, but his words only came out as a croak. She eased the pressure on his throat.
“Who— are you—” he said.
“A passing Watcher. What are you people doing, attacking this estate?” she asked. “Are you with Gleichheit? Where did your leader go?”
She probably should only be asking one question at a time. That was the advice that Alisa and Myriad had given her. But Hiromi, although outwardly calm, was high on emotions and adrenalin.
The man smiled. Did he enjoy getting stepped on?
“Edelcroft— sucked— the town— dry— deserves to die. Both of them do,” the man said.
Hiromi hissed and lifted her foot off the man’s neck. He gasped for air, and then curled into a ball when he remembered that his ribs were still broken.
She looked around, gazing at both the unconscious and barely conscious bodies of the attackers. They sported bruises and broken bones, courtesy of her efforts. More Edelcroft guards funneled into the street, most looking out of their depth. She heard the faint sound of fighting within the estate itself.
“It should never have come to this,” Hiromi whispered.
“That’s easy for you to say,” came the furious, desperate voice of a young woman on the ground. “Rich princess from a rich country, telling us what we shouldn’t do—”
Hiromi looked down at the woman, her eyes widening a fraction. She was frail and thin, her skin marked and scarred. Hiromi took a step back and looked around, examining the people she had dispatched. They were dressed in the clothing of workers— simple shirts, slacks, and shorts, all worn and tired.
Yet here she was, standing in a dress that probably cost more than their neighborhoods.
She let out a slow, steady breath. No. She wouldn’t let herself be distracted by these thoughts, not now.
She had to focus on the mission.

# # #

IRA

Ira rolled across the ground dodging the Passion Demon’s thrusting rapier. The tip of the rapier crashed into a concrete wall, shattering it utterly. She slid across the floor, spun and landed on her feet, stopping just beyond the demon’s reach.
And then she charged.
“Hyah!” she sent a series of punches and kicks into its upper torso, each impact strong enough to destroy a concrete wall.
The demon barely budged. It swung its arm in a lazy swing. Rapiers were not designed for swinging and so Ira ducked beneath it. When it came back for a second swing, she caught the blade, hand straining against the steel. If her entire body wasn’t reinforced, her hands would have been cut apart.
Using the arm as leverage, she hopped into the air and lifted her foot. She then delivered a wide, overhead kick into the creature’s neck. She felt the bending of demonic steel for a heartbeat, before the entire creature’s body was flung sideways through the air.
It slammed into a wall, destroying it.
Ira landed on the ground, winded.
“Whoa—”
She turned and saw Ludwilg, staring at her and the hole she had made.
“Cool, right?” She had to keep him calm. Some demons were drawn to fear. She wasn’t sure if this one was, but the others attacking the estate could be. She had to play the role of a superhero for now. “Go find somewhere safe while I deal with this villain.”
The kid made a face. Okay, maybe that was too much.
Ludwilg pointed. The Passion emerged from the broken wall. The armor around its abdomen and neck was broken, but it was still very much alive.
Ira turned to face it.
It lifted its foot— a slight movement— and then it was upon her. Her eyes widened. It crossed the twenty-or-so meter distance in the blink of an eye!
The Passion pulled back its arm and thrust its rapier forward, but its aim was off.
No.
It wasn’t.
It was targeting Ludwilg.
Ira pumped all of her magical energy in her legs, and, in a sudden flash of movement— a clumsy shukuchi— she stood before Ludwilg.
The sword met her open palm. Demonic metal met magically reinforced flesh. Ira’s reinforcement was not enough. The metal pierced through. She bit back a scream, but the pain was too much.
The demon took the momentary distraction as an opportunity to kick Ira in the chest, sending her flying into Ludwilg. The both of them flew off the rooftop into the beach below.
She cursed, grabbing Ludwilg and holding him close. She spun in the air, her back toward the approaching earth.

# # #

LARIEL SAVANT

They sprinted outside of the estate, arriving at the beach, where they saw Nikita guarding a group of terrified servants. She held her white, oversized, bow easily to the side. Arna, her eagle familiar, was feasting on the entrails of a dog demon. That was probably why half of the servants looked terrified. The redhead saw Lariel and smiled.
“Having trouble?” she asked.
“Girl, you think!?” Lariel said, skidding to a halt as Ludolf and the guards jogged past her. She turned and pointed at the approaching array of demons in the hallway.
Nikita calmly faced the approaching demons, straightening her bow arm. She pulled back the string, manifesting a pure white arrow out of thin air.
When she loosed, a sound like thunder followed. The arrow slammed into the first demon, perforating it and the others behind it.
“I wish I had a power that didn’t take twenty years to cast,” Lariel said, bending down to catch her breath.
Nikita smiled and was about to speak when something crashed into the earth beside her. The redhead turned, readying her bow.
When the dust cleared, the something was revealed to be Ira, battered, and injured, holding a boy tightly in her arms.
Before anyone could wonder what was going on, a massive armored monster crashed into the ground not far from them.
Nikita loosed a trio of arrows in rapid succession toward it. Two of them were intercepted by the creature. The third bounced off.
Ira was barely moving.
Lariel held her breath. For a moment she thought that the creature was an animus. But it wasn’t. The armor it wore was shiny, folded and cut with precision. But the flesh within was rotted and black like tar. Its armor was a pale imitation of animus gold.
It lifted its arm, revealing a rapier. And then it crossed the dozen or so meters between itself and Ira, thrusting forward.
Lariel didn’t hesitate, didn’t think. She pointed her palm at Ira and performed a Shortening.
“CONTEGO!”
The Second Magic shield manifested in a heartbeat, a desperate bid to protect her friend. The invisible barrier was strong enough to survive attacks that could destroy small buildings. But in its shortened form, it was only a fraction of its strength. Still, Lariel prayed that it would be enough.
It wasn’t.
The rapier struck the invisible barrier and shattered it like glass, sending a blast of air and sand in every direction. Only Ira and the kid remained in place, shielded partially by the spell.
The creature pulled back its arm to thrust again.
Lariel, in desperation began to utter the full invocation of the spell, her words clear but quick.
“Array together, in-coalesce-infirm—”
The creature struck before Lariel could finish her incantation. She tried to cast the spell anyway. She wasn’t fast enough.
The sword thrust forward and a blast of air and magical energy exploded forth, bathing the beach in dust, sand, and debris.
Lariel held her breath, heart beating fast, waiting to see if Ira had somehow miraculously gotten away.
When the smoke cleared, the creature remained standing in place, outstretched arm straining and shaking. Standing before it was Hiromi, casually standing in place like a runway model, the tip of her sheathed sword stretched forward to meet the demon’s own blade. She was as still as stone.
Her white eyes were ethereal in the dark. Her pale skin and dark hair made her look like a ghost. She stared up at the demon and said,
“Please.”