A fiery arm twice my height crawled out of the portal, closely followed by the demon’s calamitous visage. It was a thing of ember and horn, of horrible fumes and burning wind, a thing completely out of the realm of man.

It had no face between its horns, no eyes to spew hate or features to judge its fury, though that was made clear enough by how it moved. It shook and twisted wildly as it emerged, dark flames sputtering and twisting as it tore itself free from where it came. The air shimmered with the heat of a furnace around it, driving the chill of the morning from the tunnels.

Despite his claims of ownership and all his talk of necessary blood, the last man wasted no time in actually watching what he had just created and instead sprinted out the back of the room with the speed of a roadrunner. And as the demon emerged between us and him, none of us wasted breath in suggesting we follow.

Nor could we even think of doing so.

We faltered as it swept out of the portal and into the room proper, stuck in place as our worst projections materialised in front of our eyes. I could see now that it was in actuality a great wyrm in shape, almost too large to fit inside the room. It differed from the likes of Silst only in its eyeless stump of a head and the crackling flames running over its scales. Two wings trailed behind it, burned black and dragged uselessly behind its bulk.

It roared, and we couldn’t help but cover our ears in pain.

What the hell had he summoned? This was nothing at all alike to the demon we saw in the capital! How was it possible something so horrible could even exist?

While I struggled with a striking fear that suddenly engulfed me, Fredrick stood up once more, sword held high and gleaming with light. Though in the face of the new monster before him, I couldn’t help but feel like it was but dun.

“Begone! The Star protects this land!”

It roared again in response, and even Fredrick’s sword began to shake, though I couldn’t tell if it were from fear or the force of the monster’s voice.

…and why the hell did Fredrick think he had a snowball’s chance in hell of taking it on! He was a tenth of the size! I wasn’t even sure his shield would be able to take the flames themselves, let alone any sort of magical attack from the thing! No, we’d be better off retreating and letting the army deal with something like this, it wasn’t a threat for a pack of wily young adults!

“Fred-” I began to cry, only to be cut off by the sound of the monster simply moving.

There was a sparkle of light as the demon’s claw connected with the sword, and I covered my face with my arm as a massive burst of heat washed over me. It shook my very bones with another roar, but this time it was awash with pain and not malevolence. A single claw tip clattered to the floor where it sat burning.

He hurt it? Maybe he’d even…

I reconsidered immediately upon looking at Fredrick, finding that his mask now lay in pieces around him. He lay on the floor still, his hair and eyebrows singed and a large gash ran from his right shoulder down to the elbow, though I wasn’t sure what had made it considering the size of the demon’s claws. Breale had instead taken his place, though in my fear I could only watch.

This was out of our league… No, this was our death! Could we even make it out alive?

“Saphry! Use your magic!”

I stared at her in confusion.

Was she insane? My magic? I launched snowballs and sheets of ice! That thing was a living furnace! Even just standing in the room was almost too much to bear. To draw it’s attention… wouldn’t that just be suicide?

There was another flash of light as Breale met the demon’s claws, and a cry of pain as she was thrown away with another torn claw. She, however, did not have the luxury of a magic mask to block the heat, and embers followed her through the air.

“Breale!” I cried.

The demon turned again to the unmoving Fredrick, snapping its head too and fro like only a lizard could. It opened its mouth over my friend, an endless whirlwind of fire swirling within. Images of Feanin flew through my mind, of the hunter-noble laying on the floor in the jaws of an Orthung.

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Without thinking, I jumped to my feet.

“SPATAL!”

Trails of blue magic shot out after it, the spell cast too hastily to leave it airtight. More than that, the snowball was almost half as large as I was, and even faster than the one that I’d used against Izavelo. There was hardly half a second in which the demon could react before it slammed into its chest, and about as much as much time for me to respond to the aftermath.

A massive wave of steam and water exploded from the point of impact. I was blown off my feet immediately, and pain shot through my left arm. As water began to fall from the tunnel roof like rain, I could hear the beast roaring in a pain much deeper than it had been before.

My vision grew blurred at the edges, and a slowness fogged my mind.

I watched groggily as the tunnel cleared, as the demon beat a hasty retreat down the tunnels from which we’d come, curls of smoke close on its tail. Its fires were dimmer, and I could just make out a deep gorge cut into its left flank, but it was gone and out of the tunnel before I could fully register what had happened.

Did… did I do that?

I lay there for a minute thinking about what had just happened and wondering who was still alive in this room. Freshly burned corpses littered the floors around me, and I couldn’t see either of the twins in the murk.

“Saphry?”

A frail voice pierced the new silence, and as I looked over I could find its owner in Hosi. Stumbling to my feet, I limped over to the one armed bandit. My left arm hung at my side, and for some reason I found myself laughing deliriously at that fact.

Hosi lay slumped against the wall, one armed but not bleeding. Small burns scoured her face, and her face was a mix of equal parts confusion, pain, and fear. A thin longsword lay over her lap, its handle tightly clutched in her one remaining hand.

Dazed and foggy, I stumbled over and sat beside her, just out of range in case she randomly decided to stab at me.

“You have to kill it.” She hissed, barely turning her head. The pain was obvious in her voice. “I didn’t… I didn’t realise you had magic but… but you have the correct element.”

“Didn’t you want to burn the… burn the shidy earlier?” I slurred. “Why’d you… uh, care now?”

I tried to think of a reason why the same person I’d listened to in the aqueduct would suddenly want to stop this now, but the connections didn’t match up for me. Or rather, it found it impossible to think about anything too clearly at all.

“Mana drunk?” She closed her eyes for a few seconds before extending her hand towards me. “Touch my hand. I’ll take some of the extra.”

“Huh? You can… do that? I woulda thought that’d be kinda-”

“Just… take my hand.”

Opediently, I reached over and took her hand. It was slightly cold to the touch.

“Falvlirin”

Immediately, it felt as though a weight was raised off of me, as though a ray of sunlight now shone through the fog. It wasn’t immediately, but I did feel the feeling of drunkenness begin to slough off me like irradiated flesh. My left arm gained feeling again, and minor cuts began to knit themselves shut all over me. Hosi sat back again as if a keg of beer had just kicked in, and her arm fell to her side.

I blinked.

“Wait, were you a part of the guard? A double agent? Why were you down here? [Christ], that was such a stupid thing to do! How come you guys were so unprepared? Oh God, that thing’s going to… we need to get back up.”

Countless thoughts raced through my head now that the fear and mental fog was gone, each one more confusing and strange than the last.

That must’ve been what Hosi was doing each night, meeting with the acolytes to gain information about the plot. But why was she the one doing that? Because she was foreign? And why had the guard waited so long to conduct the raid, and been apparently so unprepared for an ambush? Even following that line of thought Hosi was suspicious.

Still, that really wasn’t the biggest threat right now. Hosi was armless and presumably mana-drunk for the foreseeable future, and there was a horrific demon racing up to the city as we spoke. Good lord, it was probably halfway to Andril already and… shit, the twins!

I shot to my feet and looked around, only to see Fredrick crouched over Breale’s form with an unknown vial by the wall. He looked to be somewhat burned, lacerated, and probably concussed, but if he was walking it probably wasn’t life threatening.

Breale, on the other hand, looked all but dead. Her body was covered in cuts and burns, and though none of it looked exceptionally horrible the sheer quantity had me thinking the worst.

“She’s alive.” He said once he noticed me looking. “But I’ll need to stay by her.”

“The demon-”

“I can’t leave her.” Fredrick didn’t turn his head, but I saw his grip tighten. “You have to go.”

I stared at him for a second, images of that demon racing through my mind. Of that frightening fire and the feeling of intense heat on my face.

“Me? What do you think I-”

“You have to.”

Fear bleached my face white. My magic was effective against it, that was true, but Fredrick was Fredrick! It was bad enough that I wouldn’t have Breale, but how could I face that thing without even him?

“I… the kingdom…”

Fredrick put the vial to Breale’s lips and poured, but he didn’t turn to look towards me. With his other hand, he unlatched the sheath on his belt and tossed it towards me, a dim light shining out of the leather.

Another look at his face told me all about how far I would get with this, and I suddenly felt a wave of shame wash over me for even trying.

It was pure cowardice to try to push this away any more. Fredrick certainly didn’t have the magic or even the shielding to fight against that thing, and it was headed right towards the rest of our friends. Towards the speech with all its attendants, even. The number of casualties would be unforgivable if it managed to make it to that venue without the alarm raised. Even setting Andril and the duke’s household aside, I didn’t want to live to see the fallout if all the heirs and nobles from the academy happened to die to it…

I scooped up the scabbard and looped the belt around my waist. It was lighter than I expected, though I still wasn’t quite sure if I’d be able to wield it correctly. Certainly not well, but it was better than my dagger.

“Make sure Hosi survives too, okay? I’ll have more than a few questions for her later.”

Fredrick grunted, and I took off back down the tunnel where the monster had gone.

As I ran, I pulled the potion of speed Gideon had given me out of my pack and downed it without a second thought. Despite my ribbing, I did still inherently trust the alchemist with something like this, though I definitely would’ve preferred at least a little testing beforehand. Now, though? Now was the time for risks.

I still didn’t think it was enough, not for something as terrifying as that. There was no speed that could outrun fate, and no sword that could stop its wielder from burning to a crisp, but it was all I was going to get. Other than divine intervention, that is.

And just in case, I made two small prayers as I ran. You could never be too careful.