Chapter 16
“Grimory, co here!”
At Acitia’s call Grimory hurried over.
They were stuck in a vast underground storage room-locked in while chasing the demon’s trail.
The academy’s defense system had sealed the door and thrown a cube-shaped barrier around the storeroom; they couldn’t budge an inch.
“Look, there are plates.”
Two chipped dinner plates lay on the floor where Acitia pointed.
“Interesting.”
Grimory crouched and picked up a shard. A streak of sauce clung to the rim, proof of food.
She swiped the sauce with a finger and tasted it.
“Hey! Are you insane? What if it’s poison?”
“Poison slls different, and a little spoilage won’t give food poisoning.”
She rolled the flavor across her tongue-slightly sour, but familiar.
“Acitia, how many dishes does the cafeteria serve?”
“Right now, sixteen. Three are super popular and the one I want-”
“Skip your wish list. This tastes like one of the at sauces.”
Acitia propped her chin in her hand, thinking. She tilted her head, curiosity winning, then lifted a shard and sniffed.
“Slls like hamburger steak. Too pricey for , so I just stared at it through the cafeteria window every day.”
...Pathetic reason, yet probably true.
‘She’s like a puppy.’
Not an insult-just the literal truth. Loves food, sticks like glue, sharp senses.
‘When I ntioned the knight-captain she charged in like a loyal dog, then challenged Professor Henrik to a duel the instant he bad-mouthed him.’
But soone had eaten here.
A broken plate ant haste; the sauce ant soone had holed up in this storeroom.
“Grimory, should we just use the bell?”
“......”
Acitia tossed the shard aside.
Grimory pulled the little silver bell from her pocket.
“The demon’s trail ends at that door... and we’ve no way out.”
“Which ans the demon is in here with us.”
“......”
“......”
They looked at each other, the obvious finally landing.
The footprints stopped outside the door.
When the barrier slamd shut, Grimory had seen no fresh prints-so the demon hadn’t left.
If it was sharing the room, it was crouched sowhere, watching.
Think. If you were a demon, where would you hide?
Behind the stacked crates?
Inside a sack?
Or is there a hidden hatch?
“Grimory?”
“Shh. Be quiet a second.”
She shoved a lollipop into Acitia’s mouth-cheap peacekeeper.
Acitia sucked in silence and sat beside her, turning the bell over in her fingers while Grimory scanned the ceiling.
‘Where was the trail on the first floor?’
Ceiling.
But when we entered the basent?
Floor.
Ceiling...?
She started to look up-
Acitia hurled the bell at the floor and shoved her hard.
“What-?!”
Grimory tumbled onto a sack. A tallic shriek rang through the storeroom.
-CLANG!
“Grimory, find the door-now!” Acitia yelled.
Grimory scrambled up-and froze.
Four arms, huge wings, fangs flashing: a male-type demon.
A succubus.
An Incubus, the kind that feeds on nightmares.
Exactly the sketch from the field guide-crude, childish lines she’d barely glanced at.
[The picture is rough, but the features are accurate; you’ll know it when you see it.]
Henrik’s words echoed in her head.
Grimory’s mind flicked to the entry on incubi inside the field guide.
[Weaknesses: water, lightning, and the muscle between the shoulder blades where wing ets back.]
[Because the demon stone sits in the spine, strike from behind.]
[Though individual combat power is low, they fight through dreams and are highly intelligent-never drop your guard.]
[Once they form a pack they can force whole groups into sleep. If you find traces, eliminate them at once. Before they swarm they rank among the weakest of the low-tier demons; swift extermination is the only answer.]
The demon lunged at Acitia with talons out. She drew her sword and parried.
Clang! Clang!
With no ti to forge a spell-blade, she had to hold it off with steel alone.
“Bell!”
Grimory yanked two bells from her pouch and crushed them almost together. Henrik would feel the double pulse and co running, but until then the job was simple: survive.
“I... I’m...”
Grimory hesitated.
Would I only get in the way?
She had grown up in an orphanage; she had never once held a sword. Watching Acitia trade fierce blows with the demon, Grimory shrank back-one misstep and she’d ruin everything.
“Stop thinking-just stab!”
Whirr!
Acitia spun away from the demon in a dancer’s pirouette and slid to Grimory’s side.
Smack!
She slapped Grimory between the shoulder blades.
“Snap out of it. Thinking is your job, rember?”
“My... head?”
The demon shrieked at them.
“Yeladim to’avim! ”
Grimory flinched.
“Lama ata sham? Takhzor lekha!”
“...What did it say?”
Acitia jabbed her blade at the creature. “No idea, but I’ve got its asure. We can take it, Grimory.”
“Take... what?”
“Let’s bag this thing!”
This wasn’t the reckless confidence she’d shown before; it ca from weeks of drills, from her own sharp instincts.
We can handle this.
That was Acitia’s verdict.
A week ago I couldn’t have, she admitted to herself.
She rembered the sand-filled weights Henrik had strapped to her limbs. Once they ca off, her speed had exploded-and her stamina with it. She was still breathing easy after trading a dozen blows.
I can do this.
“Huu...”
Grimory drew a long breath, then shouted, “Acitia! Switch with !”
“Switch? You serious?”
“Yes! Two minutes-I’ll buy you two minutes! You’ll know what to do with them!”
“Two? Ha-deal!”
Tap-tap-tap!
Acitia ducked a claw and sprinted straight for her.
Slap!
They slapped palms; Acitia dropped back while Grimory stepped forward, dagger in hand.
Flip the script. I don’t have to fence-I just have to do what I do best.
She focused on the dagger’s tip; a wobbling sphere of water blood into being. Basic water magic-Water Boom. Lob a glob of water at the enemy.
Sploosh!
The demon yelped and dodged.
“Lama atokhef oti? ”
“Because you’re a demon, that’s why!”
Sploosh! Sploosh!
She kept flinging watery blobs, driving it backward.
“Not bad, bookworm...”
From the rear, Acitia set her feet and pressed both hands to her sword. Two minutes-exactly the ti she needed to forge a spell-blade. If she could finish it, the fight would turn.
“All right, let’s do this properly.”
Layer after layer, she fed mana into the steel; the blade began to glow.
“Acitia! Skip the fire-use lightning!”
Just then Grimory, watching Acitia forge her spell-blade, shouted across to her.
“Lightning? That its weak spot?”
Acitia flashed a grin.
“Exactamundo!”
Durability boost.
Lightning imbue.
Elental discharge.
Sword-energy imbue.
Sword-energy boost.
Slashing boost.
Six layers, total.
Incredibly, she shaved twenty full seconds off her personal record; the blade was done in a minute forty.
So this is what training buys you...
Even she couldn’t hide her surprise.
[A Demonic Swordsman is only as good as her stamina.]
Henrik hadn’t been joking.
With a body that could finally keep up, the spell-blade felt rock-steady in her hands.
“Grimory!”
At her yell, Grimory gave a sharp nod.
Scrrape-!
Acitia coiled her legs and sprang, charging the demon head-on.
Fwoosh-!
Grimory joined in, whipping a water tether around the creature’s limbs.
Knew it-this was the plan all along!
Acitia’s grin widened.
Grimory had been aiming for an elental reaction; water and lightning were made for each other, and the demon was about to eat a bolt it wouldn’t walk off.
“Lech mifne-get lost!”
The demon thrashed, wings flapping, but Acitia rode the gust like a feather in a storm.
Henrik’s old training weights had been heavier than any gale this thing could whip up.
KRRRZZZZZZZZZZT-!
The lightning-wrapped blade sheared through flesh and bone alike, splitting the demon clean in two.
Mana sparked like fireworks where the elents t.
“Hatsel oti-help!”
Howling, the demon convulsed inside a cage of white fire.
Crack-crack-crack...
Its body crackled, charring to ash from the inside out.
POP!
The core shattered under the assault, unable to take the strain.
“Ha... haha...”
Clatter.
The demon collapsed into a heap of cinders, and Acitia’s sword slipped from numb fingers. She dropped to her knees, forehead beaded with sweat.
“Acitia!”
Grimory sprinted over, clutching her hat with one hand, daggers abandoned sowhere behind her.
“Are you hurt? Anything broken?”
“Nah, I’m fine... just tapped. Absolute limit. Can’t move another step.”
She waved off the fuss and flopped flat on her back.
“Whew... we actually did it.”
“Yeah,” Grimory agreed, breathing hard. “We really did.”
“Bet the jerks who ignored us are chewing their tongues now.”
“If this goes public, sure.”
“Think we’ll end up in the papers like the professors?”
“Please no. Fa’s a pain in the butt.”
They traded exhausted chatter while Grimory climbed to her feet and surveyed the ruin.
The storage room was a disaster-charred demon corpse, broken crates, shattered core glittering on the floor.
The core looked useless now.
Sorry, Dean, but we bagged your demon-cut us so slack.
With a wry smile she started tidying, gathering splinters and torn sacks.
Rice spilled from a ripped sack-so this had been the academy’s grain store.
She picked up a broken plate.
Huh, even demons appreciate decent tableware.
Then her hand froze.
The shard bore the academy crest, sa as the cafeteria dishes-except she already had an identical shard in her pouch.
Two plates.
Two.
A chill crawled up her spine.
Field Guide’s final warning rang in her head:
[They’re intelligent. Never drop your guard.]
THUD.
Sothing massive landed behind her.
A shadow swallowed her own.
“Two of them...”
She turned slowly.
Another demon-sa species-stood smiling.
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