Liam walked home, thumbing through his phone in the pitch black darkness. They had decided to postpone locating the perpetrator until tomorrow so they could all rest. The danger seemed to be mostly gone, considering the curse had already been lifted, but it didn't help Liam in terms of paranoia.

He hadn't really checked his phone since he got to London, mainly due to how preoccupied he had been with learning magecraft. Thankfully, his parents weren't the type to always bug him every hour of the day, so could go for a while without contacting them.

He swiped through all the relevant apps: social media, a few text conversations, and his emails. He noticed he had received a new email from El-Melloi and clicked it immediately.

'Well that's not ominous.' Liam thought to himself upon reading the text. He had scheduled for Liam to meet with a specialist in two days, but didn't specify anything else. He let out a sigh as he pocketed his phone.

Now that his attention was loose, he noticed just how dark the streets were. Even if Ben's house was in a more suburban section-there should still be street lights around. The only light came from the partial white moon which hung in the sky, giving form to a familiar figure in front of Liam.

They were dressed in dark blue infinitely close to black, cloth covering their face and hair. The darkness covered even their eyes-leading to an impression of something "monstrous." Something not human. Liam soon recognized it once it began charging after him.

"Collide and Resolve." He spoke faster than he had ever before, the words changing his mind from one of a human to a Magus.

His circuits opened, still sore from the previous ritual, but he forced them to work. Od converted to energy as he reinforced his legs and sprinted away.

Considering the fact that the person who cursed him wasn't a student, this meant that they were, at least, a fairly competent mage. One that Liam would stand no chance again. So he ran, crossing the road to his left, passing in between two houses.

A blade collided with the hard wall of the house to his right. It drove straight through it, getting stuck halfway.

Liam continued running, his reinforced legs carrying him over the fence to a backyard. Pumping as much extra energy he could into his legs, he leapt, clearing twenty meters and two more backyards in just a few seconds. The wind tore at his eardrums and obscured all sound. He glanced behind him to gauge his distance as a blade flew to his face.

He raised his arm just as last time. The blade sunk in and threw him off course, leading him to tumble to the earth.

'Breathe. I have to keep breathing.' Liam reminded himself as he stood up and continued in the same direction. His Od would last him a few more minutes-but his reinforcement faltered. His running slowed more as he swung around the back of the houses onto the main road.

The bridge which led to the Clock Tower laid in front of him. He had to reach El-Melloi, or Gray, or anyone who could defeat this thing.

Another blade pierced the ground where his foot once was, cracking the asphalt as gravel flew up from the impact. The blade in Liam's right arm began to wiggle. He ignored it, working his circuits harder and harder to reinforce his body more. While his legs got the bulk of the enhancement, he applied a light effect to his whole body.

He had no Magic Crest to pull spells from. He hadn't even begun to use any Thaumaturgical Foundations. The only thing he had was Reinforcement.

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Another knife flung toward him, this time slicing his left leg at his lower calf. He didn't even stumble this time. The enhancement kept his stamina up as he sprinted full speed down the bridge.

Liam continued for almost a full minute unimpeded. His instincts screamed out at him, begging him to turn around to see what the enemy was doing, but he resisted, completely focused on reaching the college town.

Then he heard a loud crunch.

The road beneath him shifted in a mere second. The asphalt cracked and broke into chunks as the earth seemingly moved, bringing the assailant directly next to Liam. He had shrunk the distance between the two of them by squeezing together the earth.

The enemy moved to attack, but Liam's reached first. He jumped and spun his leg over himself, bringing it down on the enemy. They jumped back and allowed the kick to collide with the ground. As they pulled a knife from their dark cloak, Liam yanked the one in his arm out and filled it with his Magical Energy, not caring if it broke.

They paused for a moment before reaching out with one arm. Odd lines glowed on the enemies forearm, coming together to form a shape akin to a key. Liam looked down to the blade he held as it wiggled slightly in his hand. Without thought, he leapt at the enemy, jabbing it forward to their chest.

It pierced their shoulder, causing them to stumble backwards. They obviously didn't expect such an outcome, and Liam planned to exploit that, pulling it back out to stab again. Then a car pulled up.

The headlights blinded the two for a moment. Liam lost his grip on the knife and winced as the light filled his eyes. The sound of breaking asphalt filled his ears again, followed by the sound of punctured flesh.

Once his eyes adjusted, he almost puked.

Gray stood over the figure with a scythe taller than her. It was a combination some sort of blue, gold, and brown material, while the silver blade was longer than her arm. It was stuck inside the assailants body, coming out the other end.

Her eyes had that same intensity he saw when they trained, though it was hard to see past her hood. She withdrew the scythe from the body smoothly before flinging the blood off with a flick of her weapon.

He vomited at that point.

- -

"And you didn't tell me about this why?"

Lord El-Melloi II had been resting his head in his hand since they arrived back at his flat. It seemed the more Liam explained, the worse of a migraine the Lord got.

They informed Liam on the drive back that Flat had called them and warned them about a possible attack. Apparently after he had left, the two boys performed another divination, and received an inconclusive answer. Rather to be safe than sorry.

"Well I figured you were super busy, being a famous teacher and all." Liam replied honestly. Another student was currently healing him with some sort of electrical device. If he wasn't in such a situation, he would've asked how it worked. "Plus, I didn't think it was actually a curse until we performed the ritual."

The room was silent for a few minutes. El-Melloi simply shook his head and took out a cigar quietly, cutting off the butt with a dagger and lighting it.

"Explain it to me." He said eventually, opening his eyes as smoke left his mouth. Liam gave a confused look to the teacher. "The ritual you performed." He clarified.

"...well, we decided to use Kabbalah as our foundation, since it's fairly structurally sound." Liam said, his head craned back against the couch cushion. "We utilized the Chokmah sefirot, manifesting it in my right eye."

El-Melloi nodded, taking a glance out of the window behind him. "Solid choice. However, choosing, the concept of simply 'manifesting wisdom' means that you don't get much control over what you do see."

Liam laughed quietly. Somehow, he still managed to find a way to lecture him on his magecraft.

'Well, better he lecture me on that then for not telling him.' He thought to himself, turning his head as the Lord rose from his seat.

"We should go inspect the body." El-Melloi announced. "Is he stable enough?" He asked, looking towards the student healing Liam.

He looked up from his device to the teacher and nodded. "You might feel very lightheaded at times, though. You should come back when you guys are done." He explained. With a wave of his hand the device shut down, allowing Liam to remove his own hand and start to get up.

The three of them exited the apartment from the back, entering a small grassy area with a tree in the center. The corpse was laid in front of it, while Gray stood over it with a lantern. Liam saw her muttering some words before making the sign of the cross and turning to them.

"It's... not human." She explained in a reserved tone, stepping out of the way so El-Melloi could approach it.

He crouched down and removed the cloth covering the creatures face.