“I am so, so sorry,” Narvari said as soon as she entered Trixan’s office. “Something came up on my way here–”

“Was it Pheera?” Trixan cut her off.

Narvari sat in shock. “What?”

“You were speaking to Pheera, weren’t you?” Trixan finally looked up from her book. Her green eyes were stern, like a mother scolding her child.

Narvari gulped. Was Trixan spying on her? “How did you know that?”

“I didn’t. But now I do.” This woman was crafty. “My dear, training time is sacred. You should honor it.”

Narvari nodded apologetically. “I know. I know. I’m sorry.” Her father was very strict about training too and would always urge Narvari to honor it.

Trixan said, “Well, at least you will focus now.”

“What does that even mean?”

“My dear, you seemed distracted lately and I could tell something was bothering you. It was about Pheera, wasn’t it?”

“How did you even know that?”

Trixan smiled. “You wouldn’t stop asking me about how she was doing. Is everything okay between you two?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “I think so. I should never have asked her about her family.”

Trixan sighed. “I thought as much. I guess this is partly my fault. I should have warned you.”

“Yanvirrak did. What did her family do to her anyway?”

“That’s hardly your business, Narvari Shar,” Trixan said sharply. She didn’t raise her voice, but the sharpness in those words stabbed Narvari’s skin like a dagger. “Let’s begin our class.”

Narvari nodded in dejection. “Yes, ma’am.”

Trixan’s eyes softened. “Take this advice from me, my dear. Stay away from the Zoleris Family, okay?”

“Are you telling me to stay away from Pheera?” She gripped the armrest of the chair.

“No. I’m telling you to stay away from the Zoleris Family for your own good. That’s exactly what Pheera did.”

Pheera was staying away from her own family? But why? Was Zemeron also doing the same? She’d seen the relationship between Pheera and Zemeron. They were very close and Zemeron was incredibly protective of his little sister. What could have pushed the siblings away from their family? Whatever it was, it was clear that Pheera was sensitive about it. It was best not to bring up the Zoleris Family again in their future conversation.

“Let’s get started then.” Trixan walked towards the large TV on the wall. Narvari wheeled her closer. “We’re doing something different today,” said Trixan. “We’re going to learn about demons. After all, that’s why you’re training in the first place.”

Trixan scribbled Demonology on the screen. “Last time I told you where demons came from. Do you remember?”

Narvari nodded. “The Lower Domain. Bezvar.”

“Good.” Trixan nodded. “Demons follow a strict code of hierarchy based on their order. Basically the higher a demon’s order, the more powerful they are.” Trixan wrote out a string of odd numbers in a vertical line, beginning from the number one at the bottom to the number fifteen at the top. “The order of demons begins from first-order to fifteenth-order, where first-order demons are the weakest,” she said. “To give you an idea, wraith demons are first-order demons and they are controlled by a wraith lord who is a third-order demon.”

Narvari’s eyes widened. Those wraith demons were supposed to be the weakest kinds of demons? Then what kind of insanely powerful demons were fifteenth-order demons?

Trixan continued. “All demons, based on their order, are categorized into three groups.” Trixan drew a curly bracket between the numbers one and five. She wrote lesser demons next to the bracket. “The first group made up of the least powerful demons are the lesser demons. These demons are first-order, third-order, and fifth-order.”

“Then the second group must be greater demons?”

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Trixan smiled, nodding. “That’s right, my dear.” She drew another curly bracket between seven and nine and wrote greater demons. “Greater demons are seventh-order and ninth-order.”

She drew a third curly bracket between the numbers eleven and fifteen.

“Can you guess what the third group of demons is?”

“Um… greatest demons?”

Trixan chuckled. “Close enough. The third and most powerful group of demons are the royal demons.”

“Royal demons? Like they are of royal blood?”

“Exactly like that, my dear. This group is a whole monster on its own. I will delve into it shortly.”

“Can I ask a question?”

“Of course, my dear.”

“Does the order of savaz correspond to the order of demon they can vanquish?”

“Basically, yes. But if vanquishers depended on only their savaz to vanquish demons, we would be in big trouble.”

“Why?”

“Well, because the maximum order of savaz is tenth-order.”

Narvari paused. “While the maximum order of a demon is fifteenth-order,” Narvari mused. A tenth-order savaz couldn’t possibly vanquish a fifteenth-order demon. Slowly, she understood what Trixan meant.

“Exactly, my dear. Luckily, we have other tricks up our sleeves.”

“Like elema,” Narvari blurted. Now, this all made sense. Elema was the second form of sacred energy more powerful than sacros. Was that what Azmel had used to fight the wraith lord? That silver fluid had actually inflicted injuries on the wraith lord, something their savaz couldn’t do.

“That’s right, my dear.”

“So you’re saying that a vanquisher might use other means like elema to vanquish a demon even if their savaz is weaker than the demon.”

Trixan nodded. “You’re getting this better than I thought.”

“Yes,” Narvari grinned. “I’m super smart.”

“Yes,” Trixan smiled. “And super humble too.”

Narvari chuckled. “What are the royal demons like?”

“Yes, the royal demons.”

Trixan flipped the screen to the left and a new page appeared. A large triangle divided into four segments appeared on the screen. At the summit of the triangle were the words Demon King. This was followed by the word Septos, then Magna Trez, and finally, Lowbloods, at the base of the triangle.

While Narvari was wondering what all these words meant, Trixan continued her lecture. Royal demons were literally demon royalty having the blood of the Demon King flowing within them. There were three types of royal demons based on the purity of their royal bloodline. The closer their bloodline was to the Demon King, the more powerful they were.

At the bottom of the pyramid were the lowbloods.

Lowbloods were the eleventh-order demons. Although they were several times more powerful than greater demons, they were still the weakest of the royal demons.

The second group of royals was the highbloods. Highbloods were thirteenth-order demons created by the Septos. There were only thirteen of them in all and together they were known as the Magna Trez.

The third and most powerful group of royal demons were the purebloods.

“The Demon King and the Septos are the purebloods,” said Trixan.

“And what’s the Septos?”

“The seven demon princes of Bezvaros, the Demon King.”

“Wait, Bezvaros?” Narvari’s eyes widened. “As in the Vessels of Bezvaros? That Bezvaros?”

“Indeed, my dear. The Vessels serve Bezvaros, King of Bezvar. He’s the most powerful demon in existence. He and the Septos are all fifteenth-order demons.”

“Jesus.” Narvari clenched her jaws.

She couldn’t simply begin to fathom how powerful these royal demons were. The only demons she had ever met were supposed to be at the bottom of the food chain. Yet, vanquishing them had not been easy at all. And now they were talking about fifteenth-order demons? Wow.

“How many demons are there, anyway?”

“Millions of species with unique characteristics and abilities.”

Millions of species? What in the Bezvar is this?

“I recommend you read more about demons in the library,” said Trixan.

Even if Trixan didn’t say it, Narvari had already made up her mind to read about it.

“How often do vanquishers run into royal demons?” Narvari asked.

“The Order has not had to deal with the highbloods and purebloods in a long time,” said Trixan. “There’s still a lot we don’t know about them. But we do run into lowbloods from time to time. As long as you train hard, you will become strong enough to face royal demons someday. You have nothing to worry about, my dear.”

“Being a vanquisher sounds like a very dangerous job.”

“Having second thoughts?”

“Not in the least,” said Narvari with a shrug. “Just wondering how much I will be paid.”

Trixan chuckled. “Don’t worry. Even if you are only a junior vanquisher, you will be comfortable financially.”

“Which means I’ll earn more money as a senior vanquisher?” Narvari rubbed her chin.

“Well, yes. Senior vanquishers go on more dangerous missions, after all.”

Trixan explained that junior vanquishers were class five and four vanquishers while senior vanquishers were class three, two, and one. The class of a vanquisher was based on the order of a demon they could vanquish.

Class five vanquishers could vanquish first-order and third-order demons. Class four vanquishers could vanquish fifth-order demons. Class three vanquishers could vanquish seventh-order demons. Class two vanquishers could vanquish ninth-order demons, while class one vanquishers could vanquish eleventh-order and thirteenth-order demons. A special class of vanquishers had the power to face fifteenth-order vanquishers. Vanquishers were paid based on their class since more dangerous missions earned higher commissions.

“My dear, why do your eyes look like gold coins right now?”

Narvari laughed heartily. “I was just thinking about all the money I will earn soon.”

“Really? You can barely wield your sacros for a minute.”

Ouch. Narvari’s eyes twitched. “Well, not for long. In two weeks, I’m going to wield my sacros for a full thirty minutes.”

Trixan didn’t look shocked or amused by Narvari’s declaration. She simply smiled, as if cheering Narvari on.

For the next two hours, Narvari listened to Trixan’s lecture on Demonology and the Theory of Vanquishing. Narvari could not wait to start vanquishing demons for real.