The next day, the group was gathered in the canteen. “So you really think that they’ll let you stay at the back, snipin’ the whole time?” Ayesha asked sarcastically.
“Isn’t that what rangers do? Sit at the back and fire off ranged attacks all day?” Lex retorted.
“You saw what happened to the girl in the Sim. No way I’m getting within melee range of the demons!”
Meanwhile, Nox was thinking. To someone, actually. [What should we do?]
[ARK: We talked about it before. Just pretend nothing happened!]
[Don’t you require, like, charging or anything? What happens if I’m kicked from the academy?]
[ARK: Firstly, I’m constantly charging via you. Secondly, based on the teachers' reactions to your presence, they think pretty highly of you. I seriously doubt you would get expelled.]
“Nox? What do you think?”
“What?”
Clover sighed. “Ayesha and Lex are ranting on about Rangers and Swordsmen, and even I am nearing my limit. You were listening, right?”
“...Yes. I’d say, um, go Assault.”
“Oh, of course you’d say that!” Ayesha shook her head. “An Assault is a hybrid, therefore reducing…”
[ARK: You have to get better at multitasking your thoughts. If you did this with the teachers, they’d figure it out in a few minutes, no less.]
Just as Nox was talking- No, thinking, Mort stormed into the canteen. “Attention, everyone!” All the students in the canteen immediately stood up and faced him.
“It has come to my attention that a Crimstone Gem has been stolen from the Teacher’s Room. If anyone knows anything about this, then please come and tell me.” As he began to walk out of the room, he turned around once more. “If nothing turns up, an investigation will be launched tomorrow.” He left, storming out the way he came.
“Well, that was interesting.” Clover said. “Good thing we have nothing to do with it.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll be off now.” Lex stood up. “I’ll see you guys-”
Out of the blue, Ariel knocked into Lex, sending him backwards a few feet and onto the floor. “Oh, sorry Lex! Being so insignificant, I didn’t see you there.” He sneered. “I really wouldn’t want to be you, when Mort launches the investigation.” He chuckled.
“What do you mean!?” Lex stood up angrily. “I didn’t steal any crystal!”
“Heh, you may say that. But I wonder what Mort will say when he finds it.” Ariel slinked off with the rest of his gang.
Clover stood up. “Hey, Lex, we don’t believe him- Lex!”
Lex walked off through one of the hallways to, presumably, his room.
“I’ll go after him.” Nox jogged off. [No way Lex stole something that valuable. I mean, he’s an introvert, but he would never do something like that.]
[ARK: Based on Lexend’s reaction, there is a very low chance that he stole it. However, I’m afraid Ariel’s right. You may find it in his room.]
[So you’re saying-]
[ARK: I don’t need to run any complex calculations to know that the jerk that is Ariel snuck it into Lexend’s room. Surely you could tell?]
[Of course I could. I just couldn’t believe Ariel would go to such lengths to get us into trouble.]
----------------------------------------
Nox found Lex sitting on one of the benches outside their dorms. He sat down next to him. “You alright?”
“...Did you know, my parents put all their money into sending me here. Every last penny, and then some.” He looked at Nox. “It would kill them if I got expelled.”
“Listen to me. You aren’t getting expelled.” Nox sat up. “Bet you a hundred dollars that Ariel planted the gem in your room.”
Lex looked up. “...So what are we going to do?”
“First, we’ve got to find it. It’s definitely in your room somewhere.” Nox shook his head. “I’m still amazed Ariel would pull something as mean as this.”
Lex looked up. “Well, you don’t know him like everyone else does. Have you not heard of the Steelrite clan? They’re one of the wealthiest clans in the country. And uptight, too.” Lex perked up. “I’m from the clan Detlas, but you probably never heard of us.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Nox paused, before continuing. “Well, that doesn’t matter right now. Right now, we need to find the damn crystal.” He got up. “We’re going to your room, right now.”
“But-”
“Whether you like it or not, we’re finding the crystal.”
[ARK: That’s more like it. No point sitting around.]
[You have to be nice, alright? You can't just tell people to do this and that.]
The two of them walked to Lex’s room. Ariel may be rich and influential, but he wasn’t very bright. When he went into Lex’s room, he was… Surprised.
To be honest, Nox’s room was quite a mess. He had spread various textbooks around his own dorm, and, with no parents to judge him, he had no good sorting system. [Something you would like to change.] He thought to ARK.
But Lex’s room… Was different.
On each cupboard and each drawer, there was a label. Nox quickly skimmed through some of them. “Books, Textbooks… Label Maker?”
“Yeah. You’d be surprised how often you use them.”
“...But I don’t have one.”
Lex looked at him and opened his mouth, before deciding to close it again and walked to a different part of the room. “If Ariel did hide it here, it would be easy to search. I have all my sh- stuff sorted out.
Nox looked around. “Well, there isn’t anything to do but to start looking!”
----------------------------------------
“Well, did you find what you were looking for?”
The group was working together in another class - Sigils, Nox remembered. Actually, now that he had ARK, he didn’t have any trouble answering any questions or remembering facts. ARK, as an AI, could remember it ten times better than he ever could.
[ARK: And I already know everything you need to know.]
[Yes, but I need to learn some of it myself, y’know? What if something happens?]
[ARK: Like what? You die? Because that’s the only way you’d be rid of me.]
[Shut up.]
“No, we didn’t. But we’re getting close. There’s only so many places where Ariel could have hid the damn thing.”
“Quiet! You think that you can draw sigils whilst talking?” Their teacher commanded.
[ARK: Why don’t you just solo it? With me, you can control the EM-Gloves better than anyone here. Well, except for those who’ve already had training.]
Their current task was to create a lesser sigil - signatures of soul essence which had special properties on the items they were marked on. Their teacher, for example, had a 10kg weight that only felt like it weighed 1kg. The group wasn’t having much luck, partly because the gloves they used for manipulating the essence were extremely bulky. Only when Nox did it, and with ARK’s guidance, did they make any progress.
“We’ve checked through all the drawers Lex created, and we found nothing.” Nox explained. “We also checked his clothes, and nothing was shoved beneath there. So it must be somewhere more devious.”
[ARK: My bet it’s in the air-vent above the room.]
Nox stopped abruptly. [Wait, there's an- Why didn’t you tell us?]
[ARK: What would be the fun in that?]
“Nox? Why d’ya stop?” Ayesha asked.
“No reason.” Nox continued drawing the sigils on the plastic cubes they were given. Suddenly, the cube suddenly glowed a light shade of red.
“Ah, would you look at that! One success. At least this year’s freshmen aren’t completely made of imbeciles.” The teacher commented. From under her desk, she pulled out another plastic cube, and placed it on Nox's group’s desk. “Now do it again. But make the glow brighter.”
The group sighed in union and leaned against the desk.
----------------------------------------
The Demon Lord sat back into his chair. The burning, broken temple that was his throne room was flayed around him. Some may call it ugly. Personally, he thought it was quite dashing. “Have you found the traitor yet?”
From one of the felled pillars, one of his servants appeared from the shadows. “No, sir. Our trackers seemed to have lost him somewhere in Heresy.”
“Such a high-level target, lost?” Asmodeus shook his head. “Not that he would have made any real difference.” He got up from his black throne of brimstone. As intimidating as it looked, it was more uncomfortable than he would have liked to admit. But sitting in what the humans called a ‘gaming chair’ was not a good look for someone as powerful as him. Besides, it would probably burn up because of the amount of soul essence flowing out of him. “Tell me. How is everything going? The war, specifically.”
The servant picked up a small map from the massive-war table in front of the throne. On the main map, the armies and cities seemed to move, as if the entire world was just a board game. “Well, um, the war is going fine…”
“Don’t worry. I won’t smite you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
The servant seemed to relax, ever so slightly. “Thank you, my lord. Ahem, we are… losing ground in the country known as America, and the severe cold, despite our best efforts, in the country Russia is slowing down our advance. However, we nearly have all of Australia under our control.”
Asmodeus nodded. “I see.” He got up from his throne and pointed at a smaller ‘country’ on the map. “What about here?”
“Oh, there?” The servant waddled over. “Well, the area is highly fortified, but our generals say we’ll have one of the three main strongholds in a few months. Stronghold… Uhm… Stronghold Turnes, specifically.”
“I see.” With a bit of essence, he highlighted a certain location. “Destroy it.”
“What? But that… School is much deeper in, sir!”
“War Academies are the places where humans create their soldiers. Destroy that academy, and the area will lose their constant supply of soldiers. Find a way.”
“Yes, s-sir!” The servant hesitated. “A-After Stronghold Turnes falls, we will destroy the academy. I cannot fathom any other way to get to the academy.”
“Hm. Very well, then.
On the map, the location glowing in red had a small label on it:
‘HEMOTECH ACADEMY’.