Danny’s body was burning up, sweat was pooling around his feet, but his mind was completely focused on what he’d just done.
It wasn’t just him either. The other beings that had access to his mind had been watching curiously as well. Danny recalled what had happened, it had felt like he’d done something different with his mana. It was more than the specialised mana reinforcement that they’d discovered watching the victorious being. He had been actively further reinforcing his body throughout his heavy bag work, allowing his body to reach its superhuman performance. Something different had happened with that last punch though.
Danny realised that he had no bags left to try it out again. He had an idea, a bodily feeling of how he did it, but he knew he would have to be punching something to try it out again. He went outside and found a brick wall. It was a dividing wall between two lots, so he wouldn’t be breaking into anyone’s building if he put a hole in it.
He took off his gloves, or what remained of them. He started slowly, punching the wall rhythmically. As he got into a steady rhythm, his mana began to mobilise, reinforcing his body further. The wall began to shake a little with each punch.
Danny then allowed his mana to reinforce the key areas of his body further, channelling what he had learnt from watching the two beings fight. His punches began to hit harder. The skin on his knuckles was torn up by the rough bricks, but it didn’t hurt, he didn’t bleed either. The wall began to shake, dust coming loose.
Danny then focused on the feeling he had when he had thrown that last punch. He mobilised even more of his mana, channelling it from around his body and through his arm. As he threw the next punch he willed the mana to follow the movement of his arm, flowing from his feet, through his hips, up his torse, to his shoulder, then down his arm. The mana violently shot through him and exploded out of his fist as it made contact with the brick wall.
The bricks flew apart and the wall came crashing down.
Danny had just found a new way to use his mana. “A magical punch.” He muttered to himself.
He wasn’t sure what to do about the pile of rubble he had created, so he left it and retreated to safety of the gym. Now that he had exercised, he felt a bit more in control of his mind. He began cleaning up the mess he had made. Scraps of leather and piles of fluff or sand that had filled the bags lay around the gym. Danny wordlessly channelled his mana and created a wave of sand that gathered all of the rubbish up.
He had a feeling that if Retta had seen him wordlessly cast a spell just to clean up some mess, she’d be pretty grumpy. Danny spent a while cleaning up and getting everything into the bins outside. As his hands were busy with work, his mind wandered.
What was he going to do next? He needed to keep practising his spells, increasing his magical might, but what else? The demon business was likely only going to ramp up, so he would be busy with Smith, which would hopefully keep Aldous out of his hair. Tamm was his biggest concern, the woman knew about the zombies and had to be covering it up. But why? What did she know? How was she involved?
Danny needed answers to those questions. It was too important a variable to leave unanswered. The only option he felt like he had was to confront Tamm about it. He had no possible way to out subterfuge the woman that was in charge of spying on the entire city. A direct confrontation felt like the only way he might get some answers.
That also reminded him that he needed to work out what he was going to do about the Old Hag, who had access to his dreams. He groaned at the thought. Too much. Far too much was going on. He was completely out of his depth. How the hell were you supposed to deal with an ancient demon invading your dreams? Should he go to church? Would that help?
Taking it seriously, he realised he needed to try and understand what was happening with the demons more. There was an invasion on the way, an invasion of earth, one so serious that the hidden wizard society decided to make sure everyone knew about magic before it came. This wasn’t going to be a war fought in secret, there would be blood in the streets.
These demons now had their eye on his city, on him in particular. He had an opportunity to cut a deal with one of these demons now, potentially saving him a lot of grief down the line. The Old Hag’s deal sounded far too simplistic though. A straightforward trade of his mana for its knowledge and power. The demon was obviously hiding the fine print from him, but how the hell was he supposed to work out what it was?
Having finished cleaning up the gym, he went to the back store room to find any spare bags that were left. There weren’t enough to replace all the bags he had destroyed, but he hung them up anyway. It was an awkward job to do alone, but he managed. He’d have to call Mikey and apologise. That reminded him he still didn’t have a phone.
Danny jogged back to the academy, finding it pretty amusing that as his mana reinforced his legs a glow began to illuminate the darkness around him. Guess I’ll never be sneaking up on someone again.
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The main doors were locked, but Retta had shown him a few of the other ways into the complex, a series of key padded doors around the block. He made his way up to his room and found a box sitting on his kitchen bench. There was a note on the lid.
‘New phone. All important numbers in contacts. - Tamm’
“Well, that’s not terrifying.”
Knowing full well that the phone was definitely tapped, he called his sister.
“Hey Belle, it’s Danny. Got a new phone now.”
“Nice, what happened to the last one?”
“Would you believe it got destroyed while fighting a demon?”
His sister paused. “A demon?”
“Yeah. Have you been filled in on what’s going on?” Danny decided he needed to make sure that his sister got as much information as he could provide. Trouble was coming and he needed to help his sister prepare for it.
“The Chancellor here, Herbert, has mentioned that something big is on the way but has been really hard to nail down on specifics. Is it related to demons? Demons are real? What’s going on Danny?”
“Okay, Belle, I need you to believe everything I’m about to say. I don’t know the full details but I feel like I have a pretty big inside scoop. Also, this call is definitely being monitored and by extension, you’re probably going to be monitored as well.” Danny had a snap realisation. “Hang on, you were probably being monitored anyway.”
“Sorry? By who? The government?” Belle sounded incredulous.
“Damn, where do I start? I mean, she probably somehow knows I’m on my way to confront her, so what’s it matter what I tell you?”
Danny then shared as much as he knew. He hid very little. He started with the situation in Madley, explaining that the city's founder, Aldous Madley, was a mad old wizard who ruled with an iron fist. He explained all of the key characters and the information that Retta had told him about the True WIzard’s Consortium, including his own inferences. He then explained a bit about the zombie situation and his apparent infection. He didn’t explain his connection to the beings beneath the city that had appeared after he had potentially died, he glossed over that last fact as well.
After explaining all of that, and his position within the city as a grunt for the tyrant, he let Belle sit with it.
“What the fuck, Danny.”
“...” Danny wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
After a long period of silence, Belle finally formulated an answer of some kind. “So, I just need to get strong enough to come over and kill all these assholes, right? Simple. Leave it to me, Danny.”
Danny couldn’t help but break into laughter, soon followed by his sister. “You need to look after yourself first, sis. It’s going to get pretty chaotic if this all plays out how I’m thinking.”
“Bah, we’ve survived worse.”
“Have we?”
“Might be a bit of a stretch,” Belle conceded. “But, we have survived some awful shit. So, we’ve got a fair bit more practice at this than most people.”
“When you put it like that, what am I even worried about?”
The conversation hit a lul and they both went silent for a while.
“Hey, Danny?”
“Yeah, Belle?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Belle.”
“Look after yourself, yeah?”
“Of course, I’ll do my best. Keep crushing it over there, yeah?”
“‘Course.”
Belle ended the call.
Danny took a deep breath and put the phone down. He had no doubt that his sister was going to be okay. She had soared since she’d escaped this cursed city, an invasion of demons wouldn’t hamper that. He refused to allow himself to believe it would.
It just meant that he needed to get his act together. He needed to get himself, and this city, in shape. He did not doubt that Tamm, and by proxy Aldous, knew his connection to his sister, and he wouldn’t put it past them to view it as something exploitable. Danny couldn’t allow that to happen.
That meant that he needed to get his head around Tamm and her agenda. The next course of action was simple in his mind. He picked up the phone and found Tamm’s contact. She picked up immediately.
“Hello, Danny.”
“I think we need to talk.”
“I think so too. I’ll send you an address.” She hung up.
“Well, she’s direct,” Danny said to himself.
Not a second later he got a text from Tamm. Creepily, he knew the address, in fact, he had been there not long ago. Danny didn’t run, instead he walked, taking his time. He wasn’t sure what to expect but he recognised that he would need to be in a good head space to handle this interaction. Tamm had clearly picked the location to try and rattle him.
As Danny walked back through the industrial sector he had been in not long ago, he focused on his breathing and cleared his head.
He rounded a familiar corner and found the tall European woman standing in an empty lot, right next to the wall he had broken with his mana-infused punch.