One month has passed since the beginning of the camping trip. One week after it began the City of Niska released an alert. The wave of monsters came soon after. Like it was warned the herd was made up of all kinds of monsters and the levels ranged, the first ones to appear were flying creatures and were also levels 1-3.
Most of the familiars were able to take care of them and the students were all equipped with bows and arrows that Grunt had showed them how to make.
Following them came weak land creatures. Rats, dogs, cats, felines, reptiles and anything else slowly came in waves slowly growing.
Grunt lead the students and each released the Familiars in waves as well from the weakest to strongest.
It should be said that the dragon meat was distributed to all the second year students and it had a significantly boosted and a number of the creatures evolved and the lowest level was 4 and the highest level at the moment for the second year was 8.
The owner, or owners, of this level were Univa and Xero due to having a huge piece of meat from the dragon that leveled up their familiars.
Xero had found a chance to go to Niska with Grunt and identified Ash as a Obsidian Scaled Imp (Unique variant). It hadn’t become anything new and instead just grew into the next phase but a unique variant that only he possesses. He was also level 8 which was caused by eating the meat.
Later in the fight Ash and Tyrus were released to fight level 7 monsters. In Ash’s hand was a long sword and he grinned as he flew cutting down monsters and landing before causing a bloodbath. Every so often Xero would have him use Imp Fire which grew more powerful thanks to all the evolutions and because the new channels that the new spell opened up tried to move air mana into the new channels. When the Blue Imp Flame Claws is perfected it would probably cause the Imp Fire to become Blue Imp Fire.
Another thing that worked innately was the Super Pounce. Because it was a Buff spell it didn’t affect the body and only boosted the body. Using it Ash quickly assaulted several larger creatures and brought their corpses against the wall and kept slaughtering.
For Tyrus he took to the air and would fire out fire spitballs which had a large range of explosion which reached 2 meters now. The dragon blood made the fire magic even more potent and explosive.
It also put into practice its newfound strength. With scales harder then reinforced iron the drake jumped into the incoming herd and ate and slaughtered coming out blooded with cuts and scars but most of the blood is from the enemies it killed.
After a while a powerful roar came from the herd and the monster retreated before several powerful monsters walked of the woods.
Grunt and Miss Gilbody took the front while the students retreated behind the walls. Grunts Living armor shined in the light and was made of pure gem as it coated his body, having been pounded since the start it developed diamond level defense. In the back Miss Gilbody stood with Merlin just in case.
She didn’t need to move though, once Grunt started it was at max 4 hits each creature, the highest level being only 25 didn’t match up to him in the least, especially when it is said that Grunt only knows physical boost spells and most are high leveled and he also has the Innate spells of the armor which are all defensive spells, none of which he actually needed to use.
When the several ‘boss’ were utterly destroyed the herd withdrew from this camp returning to the deeper parts of the forest.
The slaughtered monsters, afterward, were butchered and fed to the familiars or used as food for the people. The meat gained from the boss aided greatly in a number of people in developing a second Innate skill and evolve while those who had evolved already grew more. Ash in particular gained a boost to level 9 but no evolution or Innate skill was formed even when he was given pieces of the Boss monster meat.
The following attack came the following week and the last one had come this week.
At the moment Xero was watching the approaching flying beast. With pure white feathers it released snow behind it and it had three long tail feathers. The wing span was 30 meters and the body was 10 meters long.
On the back sat two adults and behind them were two children. It was unknown what their purpose was but Grunt explained who they were.
The people approaching are from an academy known as the Holy Institute. In this world a pantheon of gods exist. Due to this there exists a church for each and every one of them and it was also they who lead the exertion into the underworld that uncovered the magic for Familiar binding. That said just like all things, there are gods of Light and gods of Dark. Something like the Monster God is considered a dark god because humans and monsters never had a harmonious existence and even Demon Cults exist for Demon Gods. Until the crusade into hell, light and dark churches were at each others throat but once the light church's encountered the demons and the spawn pool they needed help to figure out and so an uneasy alliance was formed in the underworld.
After the creation of the familiar seal magical academies became a centerpiece to recruit talents because the familiars affected the body of the master and as long as a small amount of magical or combat potential was found they could recruit it. So reinforcing the alliance of the churches they created an academy dedicated to training the next generation of priests and paladins of all the churches in one location and when the children graduate they could choose the god they wished to follow. Like this the Holy Institute was born and today is considered the second most powerful school behind Hellvine because it follows the complete opposite principles of any other Academy.
They never expel unless an incident that calls for it happens, if a student doesn’t possess magical potential they train the body in the first year and the familiar is given magical stones or items to improve its magical abilities which will later transfer to the master and cause a chain reaction improving his magical talent. This is only possible due to the resources and money gained by all the countless church of the main gods both from the Light and Dark. The are the most financially powerful magic academy but once graduated you will dedicate your entire life to the god you choose meaning the freedom of choice is restricted only to the god.
The large bird gets closer and soon it arrives and lands in front of the gates.
The big bird was proud as it stood and looked down at the humans.
Grunt whistled, “Damn they sent Madrid and her Ice Phoenix.” He grumbled.
Miss Gilbody frowns and raises her foot before stomping on his foot with the pointy heel.
“Ouch!” He yelps.
“Silence before they hear you.” She grumbled.
The four people jumped off and the Ice Phoenix glows before entering the hand of the second person. She was an extremely beautiful woman with long ice blue hair and pale skin. She wore a light blue robe and on her neck was a pendant that showed an ice phoenix.
The other adult was an older man with dark hair and was dressed in a grey robe and had pale skin. His face was emotionless and his black eyes seem to suck in light.
Beside the two were a boy and a girl. The girl was extremely beautiful without a fault, she had long white hair, yellow glowing eyes, had a slight tanned skin and wore white robes with yellow trim. The other boy was a pretty boy with long hair tied in a ponytail, the hair still reached his waist. He had a refined face that had hints of somewhat girly features but because he looked 11 or 12 years old he still had a slight charm of a boy. His hair was light red as were his eyes. His robe was pure white.
The four walk towards the gate and everyone inside was waiting. Grunt pushes open the palisade doors and walks out with the teachers.
The woman's eyes narrow as she sees Grunt and he starts to sweat a bit.
“Greetings students and representatives of the Holy Institute.” Grunt said.
“Grunt you animal, you have some balls appearing before me again.” She said coldly like ten thousand year old ice.
The entire area was silent frozen in an awkward silence that no one could seem to break.
Finally Miss Gilbody took the initiative and stepped forward, “I am sorry if Grunt insulted you but please speak of such in private, anyways I am Miss Gilbody, the main representative of Everlight Academy. May I know why you have come here?” Miss Gilbody asked respectfully.
“I am Madrid Gale, I am the representative of the Holy Institute and this is Cress Snide, a teacher of the institute like myself. Our Institute wants to have casual relations between our students so after discussing, our teachers and some students were spread from Niska to the other camps.” Madrid said.
Grunt snorted and grumbled, “Aren’t you just opening up the spaces you're all taking up in the town?”
The young boy chuckled but the girl frowned and stepped forward.
“How dare you speak to Miss Gales in such a tone!” She said in a pompous tone.
Grunt just crossed his arms and looked at her before looking at the two teachers.
“Don’t provoke this animal Silvia, any attack you send his way will only bounce off his fat.” Madrid said.
“Madrid, let’s enter and you can go talk about your lost first love with him personally, I wish to place my bed early.” Cress Snide said and circled everyone and with an expressionless face he walked into the camp.
“Don’t mind him, he is from the Church of the Serpent god and most of them are reserved like the snakes but he means well.” Madrid explained.
“Meh, at least he is honest.” Grunt grumbled and turned.
“Where are you going! I’m not done yet!” Silvia shouted.
“Get stronger then me first girly, when you do I’ll listen.” Grunt said.
His words made the girl bright red, “You infiel scum! Corrupt being that dares defile the heart of a beautiful woman like Miss Gales! I shall bring divine judgement upon you!” She shouted and she drew a white metal sword.
Grunt stopped in his step and looked back at the shining blade then looked at the girl, “If you want to have a remote chance of me reacting to your attack then summon your familiar.” He said.
“I need not the help of the filthy spawn that uses Demon arts to empower itself! I shall kill you with my own power!” She shouted.
His brow raised and after a moment he began to laugh until he fell on the ground. “Oh this is grand! I can’t believe I lived to see the day I met a justice lover who even disregarded the familiars because familiar binding was developed from demon magic!”
He was rolling around but everyone was frozen and the girl’s eyes were filled with rage.
“If that is what you wish, behold my holy spirit that I have cultivated from the grand holy being the heavens granted me!” She shouted.
Her familiar seal shined and behind her a beautiful naked girl appeared with pink feathered wings and many ribbons wrapping her body. She had the size of a 12 year old and her hair was blonde while her eyes were blindfolded by the ribbons. “Bring divine judgement to this infiel!” She shouted.
The angels feathers fluttered and she held her left arm up and her feathers gathered and formed a bow in her hand. She pulled the empty air but soon a white light formed the bowstring and arrow.
Everyone became wide eyed as they saw the reckless girl aim at Grunt who never once stopped laughing.
“Silvia! Stop this instant!” Madrid shouted but the girl ignored her.
“Fire!” She shouted and the arrow flew like lightning. The target was also ruthless, because Grunt was on the ground rolling, she had aimed in between his legs.
Just as suddenly as the arrow was fired a large flash happened and a loud explosion followed.
The flash blinded everyone but when their eyes readjusted they saw Grunt cheerfully sitting while laughing. Everyone was wondering where the arrow went but when a sudden gasp came from someone it was followed by a shout. “OH GOD! LOOK AT THE ANGEL!”
Following that shout, all eyes targeted the angel and what they found was the angel's body without the head still in the position but the next second it slumped down and fell before it became particles of light and retreated into the girl’s familiar seal.
“Girly, rule number one of this camp, teachers are the law and I’m the executioner, you are a little brat who evolved a cherub into a level 23 Angel of the Holy Ribbons without learning its true attributes and attack methods. You can’t even bring out 20% of its power and you blindly believe in whatever ‘justice’ you put your mind to. You don’t even know the story between me and Madrid and you already put me in the bad seat. This is called Blind Justice brat, it will lead to your own self destruction.” Grunt said and got up before dusting himself off and turning. “Learn how to properly wield your familiar first… no first learn to recognize familiars as a partner first, with your mentality at the moment I can only pity that poor angel.”
The area was silent as he walked into the camp.
“Let us go inside.” Miss Gilbody said and the boy and woman nodded and she pushed the girl that was in a daze.
They entered and Miss Gilbody dispersed the students to their duties.
Xero watched them and walked up the main path, he was curious about his trainers past or at least a part of it. Grunt was open about his things he was asked but if he didn’t want to talk about it he would say it.
Xero found his tent which was bigger than the ones students get but then again, all the teachers tents were.
“Grunt! You here?” Xero said poking his head in.
“Oh boy, come in.” Grunt said.
Xero walked in and found the tent of the old bear well furnished. A table and some stools, a large bed with several hids making the mattress and a blanket covering it.
Xero saw Grunt drinking alcohol and looked at him curiously before sitting at the table.
“Want some?” He asked shaking the gorde of alcohol.
“I’m too young.” Xero said frowning but the bearman just laughed.
“I was already drinking by your age.” He said.
“Hey, what is your story with that Madrid woman?” Xero suddenly asked.
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Grunt filled his mouth and drank it deeply, “Haa~! Me and Madrid heh? Well I already assumed someone would come. Let's see here.” He said and drank some small sips as he remembered his past. “If I’m not mistaken, me and Madrid studied in the same academy, truthfully I was once part of the Holy Institute, I had a passion for the God of Earth and the Warrior god of Honor. I found those the greatest. One reason being that my greatest affinity was earth and my familiar was living armor.” He said.
Xero was shocked to hear that he was part of the Holy Institute. It was hard to imagine Grunt as a holy man but as a paladin the image it gave was unique knowing him today.
“During my… fifth year, our year went on a trip like we did here but it was just fifth years, Me and Madrid were in the same year and my Living armor was still weak back then and nothing like today. We had unexpectedly run into an invading party of demons and all hell broke loose. At the time the teachers were fighting the leaders and so the strongest students were fighting the other secondary leaders and leading the other students. I wasn’t always strong like this, that day I felt terror and used my magic to protect several people until I heard Madrid's shout. When I spotted her, her Pheasant at the time had been killed and she was about to be as well but I charged and cast my Innate Spell that summoned forth a shield that rebound an attack. Soon after the teachers killed the leader and soon the situation turned in our favor but from that point Madrid fell for me hard!” He said and sighed.
Xero was holding back his laugh as he heard the story of the bear man.
“So? You were afraid of fighting before?” Xero asked.
“Why do you think! I admired the Warrior god of Honor brat!” He shouted as he blushed. “Anyway, when we returned to the Institute she became quite active in her pursuit of me lasting a full two years. I had told her countless times that I wasn’t interested, during the two years she took up ice magic and created her Ice Pheasant. She suddenly came once saying, “Why do you ignore me so much! I show you my love and only receives a cold shoulder!” Ah man just remembering her like that gives me headaches.” He said rubbing his head.
“So? What was your reply?” Xero asked.
Grunt looked at Xero and sat back against the table, “I’m not interested because you’re not my type, I like strong woman, not magically strong but physically strong, I’m a bearman so I like my woman almost as strong as me.” He replied.
Xero was slack jawed by this. He never expected this man to turn down a beauty that could bring down cities because it wasn’t his type. Who cares if she isn’t his type to have a beauty like giving him her all. “What happened after that?” Xero asked.
“She crushed me so thoroughly that I couldn’t face her but she would seek me out and using the Warrior god of Honor’s own code since I wanted to join their church she made me duel her every time for a month until I accepted her as my woman. She crushed me each and every time and so I did the only thing I could, since I had lost my honor as a bearman and as a man I simply gave up on the institute and left. I transferred to Everlight for the final two years and during these two years I asked Gilbody and the previous PE teacher to pound me and my familiar with both physical and magical resistance. It was total hell but after graduating I spent a good 5 years continuing the same routine until I could develop a strong armor.” He said and drank the last of his alcohol.
Xero was taking all this in and the tent went silent.
“So what did you think of my past?” he asked.
“Weren’t you a spineless wuss?” Xero asked.
He almost fell out of his chair and slammed his fist on the table, “BRAT! Don’t you dare call me spineless!” He shouted.
“But weren’t you? I mean come on, you simply ran away from your problems.” Xero said.
“Well you try having a woman beat you senseless everyday, I bet that even after that month she would have beaten me senseless and then thrown me in bed just to have a night.” he said.
“Oh is that so?” A frigid voice called. The temperature of the tent fell drastically and the two looked at the entrance were Madrid’s head was inside.
“Damn it woman! Call first before entering!” Grunt shouted.
“You're not a woman and I wouldn’t care if you were one.” she said.
“Then leave.” He said.
“You really want me to pound you into the ground don’t you?” She said.
Grunt rolled his eyes, “Not like I haven’t heard that one before.” He said and stood up before going to a cabinet and storing the gorge and taking another one and removing the cork and drinking more alcohol. “If you are just going to insult me then leave. If you want me to apologize to that girl then forget it.” He said and sat down.
She looked at him coldly, “You still haven’t paid the debt to the Institute, you as a student can’t leave without paying yet you ran away.” She said.
“I have paid, or did you make sure to take the money before it reached the coffers of the institutes to make sure I remained in debt?” He said.
Xero looked between them and felt really out of place here but to him, it looked like a fight between newlyweds.
Madrid walked in completely and walked over, “You still have a debt, you didn’t adhere to the code of the God of Honor, you lost all the fights.” She said.
“Oh not this again, give it up woman, how many times did I say I am not interested, I don’t fucking care about the damned code, because of you I don’t even have honor left so what do I care about continuing?” He blurted out.
“It does not matter, at the time…”
Bang!
Grunt slammed his gorge on the table and suddenly stood up and glared down at her, “When you learn new lines come find me.” He said and left his tent.
She was frozen in place and Xero felt really tense and quietly stood, “Um I’ll… excuse myself.” He said and left leaving her alone.
It was unknown how much time it took for her to snap out of it before she sat down and looked at the gorge. “That idiot.” She said and took a drink and her white cheeks turned red instantly. “Damn it, Fire Dragon Blood wine.” She muttered and put the cork on and let her head drop on the table.
Outside Xero looked around but Grunt had vanished but an extremely loud explosion from 1 km into the woods showed that the bearman had run extremely far and was venting. Since it would be dangerous to approach Xero just sighed and returned to his tent and summoned ash. The currently Level 10 Obsidian Scaled Imp was quite muscular. He had leveled up greatly due to all the higher leveled meat he was eating. Now his body was like a large body builder and his restraints were changed greatly. Xero worked really hard to keep up.
With all these level ups Ash had begun to gain intelligence so pulling out a sword Xero and Ash found in an open space and began to work on their sword form. With the Restraints holding them to their limits the two kept doing the same form. Ash was now properly learning his form and on his back were dozens of weights and the tail kept pulling the weights up to strengthen the tail.
For over two hours the two swing the sword until Xero was covered in sweat.
“Impressive!” A voice said.
The two froze and looked at the source and find the red headed boy from the Institute.
“You have a demon familiar, I never saw another one with such a humanoid form like yours.” He said.
“Oh, yeah, well he is a bit strange.” Xero said, “I’m Xero Null and this is Ash.” Xero said.
“I’m Ernest Wais Nelmoon and this…” he said and his familiar seal flashed before a figure that looked around 2 appeared. “... is Night Gale.” he said.
The familiar was completely human with light blue skin, black scalia and Yellow eyes with slit pupil. His hair was black and he wore a black robe that covered only one side of his chest. On his back were large black wings and on his lower back was a long sleek back tail. On his forehead were small white horns and above his head was a black halo.
Xero was stunned to see the contrast between demon and angel and was completely confused about what he was seeing.
“Confusing isn’t it, Night is a Dark Cherub.” Ernest explained.
“Don’t compare me to those little babies!” The familiar sudden shouted.
Xero almost jumped out of his skin when Night talked. “How?” Xero was completely shocked.
“Don’t worry don’t worry, it’s just because Night is level 35.” Xero’s jaw dropped. A common third year student was at max level 30. The ones present from Everlight were all level 17 to level 21 due to all the monster food they obtained.
“Like I said, don’t compare me. Huh?” He muttered and looked at Ash and moved forward “This Imp?” he muttered.
When he got within 5 meters Ash tensed up and sniffed the air and showed his fangs before growling. His eyes fixed on Night and the white inside the blue iris shrank as Ash became more tense.
Night still approached and looked at him, gave a sniff then rubbed his finger on the imp who was extremely tense. After a moment he balled up his fist and suddenly pushed Ash’s gut and pushed him into the ground making a crater and lifted his hand.
“Night! What are you doing?!” Ernest shouted.
Night ignored him and lifted his fist and licked the black blood left on his fist.
“I knew I recognized this guy!” He suddenly exclaimed.
“Huh!” The two boys suddenly shouted.
Night remembered the two and scratched the back of his head, “Sorry about this, I suddenly had a feeling of nostalgia seeing this guy and needed to make sure.” He said and laughed.
“Night! Explain now?!” Ernest ordered with the seal.
“Jeez, don't need the seal to force it. Fine, I was born in the same spawning pool as this guy, I remembered him because when I first developed intelligence my first instinct was to eat something strong. The closest thing was this idiot. He was a failure of the spawn pool. Blind as a bat and easy food but by the time I gained sentience this guy already had a 10 cm demon core that is a delicacy, first come first serve so I would let the other idiots eat the ash body and I would take the core and crush and eat it. His soul would develop a new one just as strong but I was already growing and soon left. Whenever I died and respawned as an imp, I would wait and kill him a few times to strengthen up before leaving.” He explained casually.
The two boys were shocked to get some past information on the demons and to think that their familiars were from the same spawning pool and knew each other.
“Wow, to think….you two had such a history.” Ernest said a little perplexed.
“Yeah, but this guy sure grew big, since he is blind he must have modeled himself from humans since he never saw hell. Hey kid how big is his core?” The demon angel asked.
“How big? Um… I summoned him with 12 cm.” Xero said.
“I asked how big it is, not how big it was.” He said and sighed. “Forget it.” He said and turned and hand flashed and his hand pierced Ash’s body. A huge hole appeared and in the angels hand a large red pearl appeared. “Oh damn! 15 cm, this guy died so much that it made him a lesser noble demon! Ah damn this looks as tasty as it used to be.” He said.
“Night! Don’t do anything to it!” Ernest said.
“I know.” he said and looked at the body that had disintegrated and was returning to the seal. Even the pearl was pulling towards Xero.
“Hey Ernest, why don’t we help the kid out? This thing has millions of deaths of stored energy not even counting all the mana he must have absorbed as a familiar.” Night said.
“What's he talking about?” Xero asked extremely worried.
“Night! Don’t even think about it, he isn’t ready to handle this amount of raw energy. It could even corrupt him.” Ernest said.
“WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT?!” Xero shouted.
“It's a rapid growth technique demons possess. Only higher demons or humans with demon familiars know of it. Normally when a demon dies the best outcome for the demon is if the core is crushed or if it is at least cracked. This way the power stored inside is released. We can’t release all of it as familiars unless we die a lot of times which is tiresome. The best extreme growth is caused when we store several cm of core and crush it. We instantly reach the later phase.” Night said with a savage glint.
Xero wasn’t understanding and looked at the boy.
“Demon cores undergo several phases. First is the growth stage which is found in imps mostly. The core grows to a max of 20 cm before its compresses itself and they it enters the layer phase when it makes condensed layers similar to how a pearl would form. Afterwards is the Gem stage where it compresses again and forms layers of raw mineral jewels.” he explained. “But you only possess strength of at most level 6 and if he crushed the core of your imp now it would most definitely jump instantly into the layer phase and could cause corruption when the energy bursts out. It would undergo evolution unlike any other when this is used. My teacher did that to me and I was in bed for a week after that but I did it with strength of a level 10 and Night was level 15 but his core at the time was only 13 cm and I started with it being 10 cm but the power it stored is extremely powerful and it felt like my body was ripped apart.” He said.
“Yeah but when you woke up you gained incredible magical talent which you lacked severely before just like this kid and all your capabilities jumped to a minimum of level 15.” Night said and his grip grew firmer on the red pearl that was beginning to pull harder.
“Night, don’t make me order you because when I do I will also be forced to punish you.” He said extremely coldly.
“Heh, I just want to help another demon release the power it has.” He said and put his other hand on top and held it by the sides with both hands.
“That's it! Let go of that that demon core and let it return to it’s seal!” Ernest said.
Night froze upon hearing the order and suddenly grinned showing pearly white teeth. “As you command.” He said and suddenly pressed extremely hard. Cracks instantly appeared on the core and before anyone could react it suddenly blew up and he then threw the red dust and shards into the air. It all forms a vortex and was sucked into the seal.
“Why did you do that?!” Ernest shouted at the grinning demon angel.
“You said, “Let go and return to the seal, you never said let it go ‘intact’.” He replied and watched.
As the last grain of the demon core was sucked into the familiar seal, it suddenly began to glow a bloody red. An array of glowing red tattoos began to leave it and crawl up Xero’s body.
“W-what’s happening?!” He asked desperately.
BANG!
Instantly the area was suddenly smashed by a shockwave. Ernest who was a step away was throw away spitting out blood and smashed into the ground. Night who was several steps away was hit as well and spread his wings and let the shockwave to throw him into the air several dozen meters away. The nearby tents had protective magic but even then they all shook violently.
“ARAAHHHHH!” Xero shouted in pain as his body was rapidly covered in glowing red tattoos.
BANG!
A second shock wave came and made a crater under Xero and shook the tents again and at this time all the teachers suddenly rushed out.
“ARAAH!!” Xero’s shout become even more desperate as the tattoos glow brighter.
“What is this?!” Miss Gilbody asked.
“This is the demon empowerment!” Cress Snide said coldly. “Quickly, place high level barrier spells, someone crushed the demon core of the boys familiar and the backlash of the energy is being released and reabsorbed.” He said and pulled a wand. His familiar seal shined and behind him a massive white scaled serpent appeared.
“Restricto!” He said.
“SHHHH!” The snake hissed and its eyes shined a green light.
Ten pillars of twisting snakes appeared and from them a green barrier appeared.
Miss Gilbody summoned Merlin and she cast five high level barrier just in time for a third shockwave to smash into them.
It withstood the impact but the wind pressure that followed blew a cloud of dust up. Each successive shockwave did the same.
Countless shockwaves smash out from the glowing boy and eventually it stopped and he fell to his knees, his eyes were open and glazed over. He saw a red light come out of his seal and it was the complete demon pearl.
It was 15 cm like before and he looked up. It slowly began to grow to a full 20 cm before it stopped.
The dense mana that was released into the surroundings were sucked back into Xero’s body that felt excruciating pain. Then it was released from the tattoos, with it the mana pumped through every mana channel and all snags were instantly destroyed. The pain he felt was like being buried in lava but not dying. One after another the obstructions in his mana channels were destroyed and soon the mana flowed completely free through his body and exited and entered the demon core. After a while the 20 cm core suddenly compressed to half a centimeter and slowly a red light began to cover it and formed a shiny layer making it look like a red pearl made of surface blood that you normally see when you get small scratches.
After this Xero felt extremely weak, he felt all his energy was sucked out of him.
As he watched through hazy eyes the core began to shine a black light that quickly expanded and took the form of a child. It started as a featureless doll but slowly fingers formed, then body curves, a pair of wings appeared on the back and soon a small tail with a heart shaped barb. Black hair began to appear and drop down to the shoulders and small white horns appeared at the edge of the hair line and were as big as an adult thumb. Big white eyes opened up and two large blue eyes with a pure white slit pupil looked at him. The nose formed a delicate shape and a small mouth parted cutely to show a short row of small white fangs.
The black light slowly dulled and a completely naked girl with dark blue skin showed with back wings and tail exposed.
She looked at Xero and she looked back at him grinning.
“Master~! My beautiful master! I was finally able to build a form fitting of master! Kya~! Now I can do some many things with you! Kya~!” She suddenly said with a cute high pitched voice.
Xero who was weak just looked at her.
“Who…” he muttered.
“Who am I? Of course, I’m Ash!” She said grinning as she bent over and looked at him closely.
In Xero’s head an image of the little girl that looked around 12 years old appeared followed by the previous form that looked like a 20 year old male body builder. The contrast was to different.
“B-but… Ash…is… a… boy.” He said and his vision darkened as he fell unconscious finally exhausting any remaining mental power.
All around the others watched the little girl. “Master~!” She shouted and began to shake him.
“AHAHAHAH!! THIS! THIS IS RICH!! THAT MACHO BECAME A LITTLE GIRL!” Night’s sudden voice woke everyone up and they looked at him flying and rolling around in the air.
All the teachers were here and didn’t understand what was going on.
“This boy! He has a demon as well!” Silvia suddenly muttered and frowned.
“Madrid?! Quickly administer healing magic to recover his body and a spell to aide him in regenerating mana. I shall call some others who know purification magic to come and see if the boy was corrupted by demon magic.” Cress Snide ordered.
“Yes!” Madrid said seriously and summoned her familiar and quickly cast a spell.
“Get away!” Ash suddenly said but Grunt appeared grabbed her.
“Shut it shrimp!” He said and tossed her up punched her head causing it to be crushed and her body returned to the familiar seal. With all the power released there was no reaction from the seal and everyone was left in a daze.
The one most affected was Univa who watched this from the side. She had been close enough to get a front row to this and saw the Imp become… something.
“I… he… he evolved again.” She muttered.
Taking a big hit she returned to her tent and lay down in a daze while the camp was in chaos because of the event.