"That’s not how this works. The demons are always going to invade. It’s in their nature.
That’s why it’s our nature to kill them.
Given this fortress has been abandoned for centuries, there should be so buildup here.
Or the protective seal on the gate should have been restored much more recently, after an invasion.
Instead, nothing’s happened and the portal is practically nonexistent."
There were a few possible causes that ca to mind in August’s head, none of them pleasant. Most of them made little sense given the ti period.
He had yet to confirm the precise date that he had been transported to, but the fact that this was Jafeila’s first assignnt as Champion told him that the invasion of Gharrick Pass was imminent.
So that ant many of his theories were out by default.
He resorted to voicing his thoughts aloud to Jafeila.
"Demonic energy builds up in portals the sa way that magical energy builds up in the stones.
Demons then use it to expand the portal or invade. They clearly haven’t done either, as this portal is one of the smallest I’ve seen, and they haven’t invaded, because the seal was intact."
"That ans..."
"I don’t know."
"Oh. I thought you knew everything." Jafeila bit her lip. She didn’t an it as a jab, but it sounded like one anyway.
He sighed. "I can speculate, but knowing sothing is different to guessing. Sothing or soone has likely bled the demonic energy off.
Maybe a major invasion took place nearby and used this portal’s energy."
He shrugged. ’Too many possibilities. Too little evidence.’
The portal was inactive and tiny. August turned and made to re-enter the fortress. A squeak of surprise caused him to stop.
Jafeila blushed as he looked at her. "Um, shouldn’t we get rid of these demons?" she asked, fiddling with her sword hilt.
"A few demons won’t cause any problems."
"But... but..." she mumbled. Her ears flattened against her head, and her tail ran against the ground, picking up dust.
Sobody was going to need to give her tail a proper clean after today.
It was filthy, and her black fur had lost its sheen.
"Fine. You can have your fun," he said. She perked up and spun around.
Before she leaped away, he grabbed her by the shoulder. "But we have sothing important to do first, Champion."
"Eh?"
"Did you forget the most important part of being a Champion?" August pointed at himself, then at her. "There’s one last step, then you’ll be a true Champion."
A mont passed. Then two.
Jafeila stared at August in visible confusion. Then her eyes widened. "Wait, you an—" she cut herself off and gulped. "You’re going to grant a gem?"
August blinked. "No. Not yet."
"Aww."
"In ti," he said. Her tail perked back up. "There are four stages to being a Champion. You should rember this."
"Enhancent, monogem, duogem, trigem. I know. But I hoped you would skip straight to monogem," she muttered.
"Impossible. A gem won’t take unless a Champion has enough experience with the power of a binding stone.
To get that experience, I must enhance you first. Trust , this is a significant step." He smiled at her.
"I know, I know. We get enhanced during training." She scowled at him.
August’s eyes glead softly. Jafeila had gone from nervous and adorable to pouty and adorable, all because he had disappointed her.
She was so openly emotional now, compared to the Jafeila he knew.
Maybe he enjoyed this too much, but this felt like being able to pig out on a buffet after a lifeti of only ever eating food a single plate at a ti.
"Like I said, trust . Now, what type of enhancent do you prefer?"
"Type?"
"The typical ones are strength, speed, or endurance. They’re self-explanatory. Or you can mix and match.
More advanced stuff includes focusing enhancents on particular facets of your body, like your legs, or enhanced senses."
August paused, noticing that Jafeila was staring at him with very wide eyes.
"You can also increase the magical side of things, but I don’t think you know any sorcery, so best to stick to physically enhancing your body with the binding stone."
"This is permanent?" she asked.
"More or less. Your training enhancents are to prevent you from dying when you fight demons, not to help you slay them.
If they gave you a full enhancent straight away, you’d probably get a little overconfident and not train properly.
But you’re a full-fledged Champion now. I need you to be a one-woman army, Jafeila."
She mouthed her na after he said it. He realized that was the first ti he had spoken her na aloud after the initial greetings.
"So? Strength, speed, or endurance?" he asked.
"Wait, now I can only pick those three?" she squeaked. Her ears flattened. "I was thinking about what I’d mix and match, too."
"You can change your enhancent at any ti until you get your first gem. I recomnd you change it up regularly until you know what suits you best," August explained.
"So stick with the basics at first."
"Oh. Then speed. I wanna chop up those demons into ten pieces before they can even blink.
Like in the stories of the trigem Champion Tarako, and her Nine-Tail Slash." Jafeila grinned at August and bounced up and down on the spot.
He grimaced at the ntion of the fictional trigem Champion. Or at least, every mystic fox he had ever t insisted that she was fictional, despite the statues and countless stories talking about the nine-tailed fox Tarako and her centuries of exploits.
Speed was a predictable choice by Jafeila. It had been her enhancent in his tiline. He was hardly surprised that she chose it this ti.
Sohow, her predictability comforted him.
"Stand still and don’t move. This will only take a mont," he said. "It might feel a little funny, but you can’t move from that spot. Also, don’t try to resist in any way."
"I trained for this. I’m ready, August," Jafeila breathed out, her voice husky.
The pair fell silent.
Not even a wind blew past them, as there was no wind in this world.
The faint sound of the keep rebuilding itself could be heard from the other side of the gate. As could the distant grunting of the demons farther down the valley.
August gave Jafeila one last look. She stood still, her muscles tensed and eyes closed.
Both her ears and tail stood bolt upright. Her fingers tapped against her leggings.
She seed ready, so August decided to proceed. He dove into his newly activated binding stone, exploring his ntal world.
There wasn’t much to see. In his old tiline, he had connected himself to countless binding stones over his life.
Here, he only had the one. His ntal world only contained the one stone, the tether to his own mind, and the leylines directly connected to that stone.
Plus that strange tether that August still couldn’t detect, but that he knew was there.
Shrugging off that odd feeling, he concentrated on his existing binding stone.
He plucked a spare bit of magic from it and left his ntal world.
Ti resud. Jafeila continued to tap her leg.
Her magical presence hovered in front of him, faint but still there. Ordinary people barely existed with regard to magical detection.
August suspected the only reason he could detect Jafeila so quickly was because she had trained as a Champion.
That process had increased the magic within her body.
Most ordinary humans and beastkin were practically invisible to August when it ca to magical detection, unless he cast a dedicated ritual to detect them with his magic or used the binding stone to detect them.
Now that he had found her magical presence, August connected his own essence to hers.
The mont he made the connection, he felt her mind push back against him.
He ntally grasped the magic of binding stone, just in case he needed it to force the connection.
Then she stopped resisting him. Her body relaxed, and a sigh escaped her lips.
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