Danny took a second to weigh everything up. He had been approached by a demon in his dream, the demon had repeatedly tried to manipulate him emotionally, and the demon wanted something from him. Said demon was now trying to broker some sort of deal where Danny would trade his mana for the demon’s knowledge and power. At least that’s what it looked like on the surface.

What did he know for certain? He had something the demon wanted, something that the demon claimed a lot of parties wanted, enough to destroy the city for it. He knew that the demon had repeatedly tried to manipulate him, and probably still was. Pulling on all the pop culture references he had access to, demons weren’t to be trusted. No matter what it was saying about perspective and conceptions, Danny felt demons to be evil and he trusted his gut intuition.

Now, did he have any possible way of playing this situation to his advantage? Could he possibly game the many millennia-old demon into giving him something without losing anything? Danny knew the answer.

“Can you give me some time to think it over?”

The demon looked at him, pausing for a moment before answering. “Of course, I will return in a week to hear your answer.”

The white space surrounding the two of them began to swirl, becoming misty. Danny then found himself on the floor of the shower, blood running down the side of his head. He was face down and his body had covered the drain. The level of water was slowly rising, threatening to drown his unconscious body. He sprang up, coughing up the water that had entered his mouth.

“The demon almost drowned me. Was that on purpose?” He wondered out loud. “Bloody Madley, bloody Tamm, now the bloody Hag. When does it end?” Danny thumped himself for the jinx earlier. He just had to ask when things would chill out.

He pulled himself out of the shower and got dressed. He had a promise to keep. He worked his way toward Henrietta’s office but found it empty. Thankfully the receptionist’s desk in the foyer of the academy was still manned. Danny was able to ask them to call Retta for him and she got them to relay the directions to her apartment.

As should be expected of the Chancellor, she was in a penthouse suite. When he knocked, she answered, inviting him into a rather modestly decorated abode. She led him to a large, but sparsely furnished living room.

“It’s a bit late for coffee, do you do tea?” She asked.

“Yeah, I’ll have whatever's going.”

As Retta was preparing the tea, Danny tried to recall their last interaction. It had only been earlier today but it felt like it had been weeks at least. She had given him a right dressing down about his talent and proficiency with mana.

“So,” Retta started, handing him a mug and sitting across from him. “I imagine a lot has happened in the last few hours.”

“What gives you that impression?” Danny was curious.

“Because things are always happening with you, Danny,” Retta chuckled.

Danny filled the woman in on the details of the last few hours but stopped himself before talking about Tamm. He silently made a phone gesture at Retta, she raised an eyebrow but took her phone out of her pocket. “What’s wrong?”

Danny walked over and took the phone from her hand. He then walked over to the kitchen and put the device in the fridge. He had no idea if it would have any effect but his paranoia was growing.

“What the hell?”

“Tamm has a team of hackers, I know she’s definitely monitoring us.”

Retta rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I could have told you that. It’s not much of a secret. I guess you just become used to living in a state of constant surveillance once you’ve been here long enough.”

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“I’m pretty sure that Tamm is involved with the zombies.”

That made Retta’s eyes pop. “That’s pretty big. I thought you said that Madley didn’t know?”

Danny nodded. “I don’t think he does.”

The realisation dawned on Retta. “Oh, OH. Things are getting more complicated then.”

Danny then filled the woman in on what had happened with Tamm, and then his dream meeting with the Old Hag.

“You met a demon? In your dream? That has to be bad for you, Danny.”

Danny brushed the concern aside. No time for such worries. “Probably, but it does tell me that there’s more to this zombie business. I’m thinking that the ‘little girl’ the Hag mentioned might have been Tamm. She referred to me as a product or creation-”

“-The zombies could be failed products? And you’re a successful one? Danny, if what you’re saying is true, that is a big deal. If what happened to you could be replicated… The entire world would kill to learn how.”

“I think it’s more than just our world who would kill. The demons want in on whatever this is.”

The statement left both of them in silence, feeling its weight. The gravity of the ideas they were suggesting was massive. The politics of the city, no matter how twisted, could not compare to the politics of inter-realm war.

“I don’t know what to say, Danny. This is beyond anything I could even begin to try and resolve or understand.” Retta looked genuinely lost.

Danny didn’t need to reply, they both knew he felt the same way. He was more than in over his head, and he didn’t even have the choice to pull out. Whatever had happened to him was central to whatever machinations were happening within the city.

Suddenly Danny felt a change within one of his newer senses. It was the beings beneath the city. Two of them had finally crossed paths. All of the other beings tuned in and began paying attention to the interaction. Danny tuned out the room he was in and began to focus on these beings as well. It was an unconscious process, something within him guided him.

It was the first time any of these beings of violence had crossed paths. Their hunger and malice grew and they rapidly closed the distance between each other. Danny’s mind flitted between the minds of the two beings, a torrent of desire and carnage filling his own mind.

The two creatures, once human, but now something different, collided. Energy exploded out from the two of them. Energy that Danny recognised to be a familiar mana. It was uncontrolled, poorly directed, but powerful. The beings had no conscious manipulation of their immense power, it came out in response to their desire to destroy the other being before them.

The two beings tore into each other with reckless abandon, their already apparent lack of self-preservation further amplified by whatever primitive force was calling for their fight. Mana exploded with each clash, giving Danny new insight into how mana could be wielded.

There was no spell craft, no fancy manipulation, just raw usage. It was wildly inefficient but Danny felt it doing things that were almost incomprehensible to him. He, and every other being, watched with bated breath as the conflict continued. One of the beings managed to start using its mana to reinforce certain parts of its body.

The act was a revelation to Danny. His whole body was constantly reinforced by his mana, making him stronger and more resilient. What the other being was doing was then increasing this through conscious will. It wanted stronger hands, stronger arms, to rip apart its opponent. So what did the mana do? It made his arms and hands stronger, giving it an advantage over the other being who did not have the same ability.

As Danny realised what had happened, the sentiment was shared among the neural network that connected all of these beings. Finally, it made it to the being on the receiving end of the assault. It responded in kind, empowering itself further. It was too late though, it was now severely at a disadvantage, and everyone knew it.

The dominant being continued to tear away at the other, weakening it. As the body of the losing being was torn apart, so was its mana. The effects were compounding and soon a clear victor emerged. What happened next shocked Danny, but delighted every other being watching. The victor began to consume the fallen being.

As it did so its power grew. The amount of mana that the victor had grew as it consumed more of the loser. When it was done it now stood leagues above the rest of them. The triumphant being roared, relishing its victory and increased power.

Danny reeled. He had thought that he, along with the other beings, already had an insane amount of mana at their disposal. This changed things though, the victor had almost double the mana of the rest of them now. He knew that it would only grow as it consumed more of the other beings.

The desire to hunt each other made more sense to Danny now. It was about growth. If one being could consume the rest, how powerful would it be?