Chapter 169 - Let The Party Begin (Patreon)

Arielle was relieved to find Maus in his room, fast asleep. He was tucked under the blankets, snoring, and Elric's quick evaluation revealed that he had been knocked out with a simple sleeping dust, likely right after Gio took him.

After they woke him up, he couldn’t remember much about how he got to his room. Elric remarked that his mind wasn’t tampered with and the sleeping dust shouldn't leave any lasting effects, but he also altered his initial theory, concluding that Gio likely knocked Maus out before he took him, and that was why Maus couldn't remember getting there.

Arielle didn't know how Gio managed to do that without her noticing, but she had been pretty focused on the statue at the time, and Gio was likely experienced at subterfuge.

Maus was spooked when they explained what happened to him, and he asked, “But why would the archmage do that? Did I offend him in some way?”

Elric and Arielle shared a look.

“It’s because of me," Elric said. "Gio's antics were targeted at me and those closest to me, so Arielle by default. He just wanted to get you out of the way.”

“Oh…” Maus said and rubbed his shoulder, still looking fairly uncomfortable. 

"This isn't me excusing him," Elric continued. "What he did was unacceptable. You would be well within your rights to report this."

Arielle glanced at Elric again.

Would Maus reporting Gio be a good idea? Wouldn't Gio see it as an act of provocation, and he could decide to evade punishment by revealing Arielle's secret and the reason he needed to 'test' her?

Nevertheless, Elric seemed genuine in extending the offer, maybe because he was trying to be fair to Maus.

Maus seemed to think about it and then shook his head. “No. I don’t want to cause any trouble. He didn’t really hurt me.”

“Whether he hurt you or not, his unwarranted use of magic against you was an infraction,” Elric said. “And if it happens again, I want you to report it. If you can’t do it alone, I will accompany you and do it with you. Okay?”

“Um...sure.” Maus scratched the back of his head. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome, and again, I apologize for my part in this."

"No, it's not your fault. You don't have to apologize."

Elric's lips pressed together, but he didn't respond to that. Instead, he said, “I’ll have the Wesley family healer come check in on you. Make sure there are truly no lingering effects.”

"I don’t think that’s necessary,” Maus started. 

“I think it is.” Elric gave him a gentle smile, despite Maus’ protests. "Rest for now. I'll make sure he gets here."

"Oh, um, thank you." Maus gave a quick bow, and finally peeked at Arielle. "Are you okay?"

Ari nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay."

After that, Elric led Arielle back to her room where Montfort was waiting at her door with another man in white robes.

Montfort bowed. “The Lord wanted me to ensure that you were both all right, particularly Arielle.”

“We’re fine,” Elric said. “And I assume you’re the healer.”

The other man who had also bowed straightened and said, “Yes, my Lord.”

“Good. Go check on your other guest, Maus. Make sure he’s alright.”

The healer glanced at Montfort first before he finally nodded and moved past them to do just that.

Then Montfort added to Elric, “Lord Wesley would also like to know precisely what happened outside.”

“I thought Gio gave a rundown.”

“He said he would rather hear it from you.”

Elric sighed. “Tell him I’ll be there soon, after I finish getting Arielle settled in.”

“Yes, sir.” Montfort bowed again and retreated, while Elric opened the door and let Arielle inside her room.

Once there, he asked her again, “Are you okay?”

She nodded slowly, sitting on her bed.

She wasn’t physically harmed, but she did feel unsettled, especially given that last thing Gio had done to prevent her from breaking his spell. That had only ever happened once, with the hybrid, but this wasn't the same mechanism. The hybrid had made her cores feel shriveled and interrupted her connection to the essences. Here, she could still hold the essences; it was just that she could not move them.

Why?

Arielle’s specialty was that she had such a strong attachment to all earthen essences and that her cores were overdeveloped, meaning that she had fine motor control over the spirit orbs and could pretty much overpower most other people’s attachments to their own essences, even being capable of stealing their spells from them.

This was with humans and even other creatures who tended to have stronger bonds and attachments than humans. The only one she had struggled with was Leviathan, and that was because he used a preponderance of demonic orbs, which she did not have a core for yet, and he had also made it such that every time she’d broken one of his spells, the backlash hit her instead of him. Arielle didn't know how he did that, but it likely was part of his domain spell. In the end, though, she was able to defeat him regardless and break the bonds of his trap.

However, with that last spell Gio cast, she could not do that.

This time she had touched the orbs, seen them, but they felt too secured, held by something she could not understand. She knew that whatever spell Gio had used was likely baked into the domain. She would have to look at the entire spell structure again and analyze each section to find it, and even then she might not be able to accurately translate the mode of action without help. 

However, the cementing effect hadn't applied to the domain itself. Breaking the domain had still been as simple as she expected, so maybe it was only a spell he could use within the domain, because he’d changed the rules of reality somehow.

But what if that wasn't the case? What if he could use it outside the domain as well?

Well, in that case she might be in serious trouble.

“Vittoria was right,” Arielle said as she turned to Elric, who was leaning by the wall near the door. “I need to get stronger.”

Elric didn't deny it. He nodded. "She mentioned that she had started teaching you combat training."

"A little. She's supposed to continue when she returns from her mission. But also she said it's difficult because of my insistence on not getting a [Hidden Ability] marker, as most of the useful spells she knows are [Master Tier] and above."

"I thought you were going to work on leveling faster, so you could reach adept."

"I have been." Arielle had incorporated most of the spells that she'd learned in her spell books into her Grimoire, along with a few spells that she had created. She’d left out some of her self-made spells that would look suspicious, and she had tried to space out the incorporation so that one would not question where she got that much essence from, aside from her EPUQ allowance.

Even with all that, she was still quite a bit away from the adept tier. ***

"It's just not enough," she concluded. "Gio pointed out that my ability not matching my leveling makes me look suspicious. And Vittoria says that my not having a [Hidden Ability] marker looks even more suspicious."

Elric's face tightened at the mention of Gio's name, but he nodded thoughtfully.

"So you want to risk it and get the marker?"

"Shouldn't I?"

"Frankly, I don't know. I thought not having it would divert suspicion from you and would prevent them from looking too deeply into your abilities. It does offer protection that way, and it's why you've managed not to get called in for a reevaluation or any other tests given the rumors about you. However, with your abilities, it might reach a point where not having it harms rather than helps, as Vittoria said."

"So what do I do now?"

He ran his hand over his face. "I don't know. Give me some time to think about it. But I do know that Vittoria was right in that we need to teach you how to defend yourself, just in case Gio goes back on his word. If he comes after you again despite everything, then you will have to fight back with everything you have."

Arielle swallowed. 

Suddenly, her position came into sharp focus–a girl dancing on a tightrope of lies with a roaring furnace beneath her. This entire time, she was largely shielded from the reality of just what her abnormal development meant for her, and what the consequences of her being caught would be. It wasn't that she'd intentionally ignored it, but she had been occupied with other things and had just never thought about that aspect before.

But now, facing the enormity of the threat, recalling everything, from what the dean had told her to her vision in her test, the cold hand reaching into her and yanking out her cores...

She couldn't afford to be complacent anymore. She had to protect herself and Elric. And Vittoria. And Maus. And everyone else she cared about.

“I'll start lessons in earnest when Vittoria returns," Arielle said.

"That's good."

"But also," she added. "About the other things Vittoria mentioned. That she wanted me to be the new high ascendant."

Elric immediately reacted in alarm, glancing around her and casting a muting spell. "Try not to say that out loud, Arielle. Especially in a place like this."

Ari nodded. There were no listening spells in the room, but it was still a good habit to maintain.

“Do you think she’s right? That I should become...that?”

“No,” he said. "I don’t think you should be anything other than what you want to be.”

"I don't know what I want to be."

"You'll figure it out. That's what growing up is about after all."

Relieved, Arielle smiled slightly, and he gave her a soft smile in return as he walked over and patted her hair. “We’ll talk about it more later once the ball is over. For now, let me go explain everything to Lord Wesley. And I’m sure the Teale family has arrived too. Their carriage just flew across your window.” 

“Oh." Ari spun around to a sadly clear sky, proving she had missed it.

Elric chuckled at her pout when she turned back. “I’ll be back before you have to do your procession."

Arielle nodded, but the nerves in her belly compounded when Elric left. 

The thought of the procession made her even more anxious. Vittoria had described it as her standing at the top of a grand staircase, being introduced to the crowd of people below, and then walking down the stairs to meet her companion, Maus, while everyone just stared.

That would by far be the most nerve-wracking part of this night.

Arielle took the time to rest, but her mind kept turning, analyzing what she could remember about Gio's dimensional spell. She used Vittoria's light spell to create a rendering of Gio’s spell, or at least the parts of it she could remember, though there were still gaps from the places she hadn’t paid attention to in her haste to escape. The orbs had shifted constantly, also making things far more complicated. 

With those caveats, she couldn’t isolate the aspect of the spell that caused her spell-breaking to fail at least not in time for the sun to set.

There was a knock on her door that had her clearing the image and hopping to her feet to go answer it.

“Lady Wesley.” Arielle was taken aback by the woman’s appearance at her doorway. She was wearing a beautiful violet gown, matching gems glittering around her neck, her hair tucked back in a bun.

"Hello," the lady greeted. "I hope you've had a restful afternoon and my husband hasn't pestered you too much."

Arielle thought about it and said, "It has been a tolerable amount."

The side of the lady's lip twitched. "May I come in?"

"Yes," Arielle responded, stepping aside, and Lady Wesley gracefully drifted into the space.

"It's a shame the rest of your family could not make it," she said.

"Yes," Ari responded. Her family had initially turned down the invitation, simply because they didn't want to go to what they called a 'stuffy affair with snotty people and small portion sizes'. But then they had reconsidered it after Arielle was unable to make it home for the break, just for a chance to see her again.

Vittoria, however, thought their going might not be the wisest idea. Not only was it considered rude to accept an invitation that late, but there was also not enough time to teach them the rules of high ascendant society, and anything they did wrong would fall on Arielle.

Not to mention, Arielle would already be a spectacle, and her heritage would already be called into question. They didn't want anyone seeing her resemblance to her family–slight as it might be–and speculating.

"I thought perhaps you would need some help with the procession," Lady Wesley said. "You seem unused to things like this, and I would like to offer my assistance."

“Oh.” Vittoria had already taught her, but there was no harm in learning from the lady too. "Thank you, my Lady. I would appreciate it."

"Good," Lady Wesley said. "We’ll practice quickly and then I will have someone assist you with getting dressed. Once we're done, the ball will likely be starting, and we cannot be late."

***

Leviathan stared at the vast expanse of red soil turned white, the charred remains of his former home, and the body of his brother among them. 

The cackling behind him was both maddening and sobering.

The overlord, Gyrx, son of Prince Tholius who was second son of the Demon King, came up and wrapped a thorny, blood-colored, hand around Leviathan's shoulder.

"You mean to tell me that you were telling the truth?" he said. "One of your brothers truly died in captivity to a human, and two more were killed by a random dragon attack, while your father was being hunted across the realm by another human."

"Yes," he bit out. "And these were not ordinary humans, as you know. You faced one of them yourself.”

"Of course, but I was able to handle her, wasn’t I?" he chuckled. "You hybrids are so pathetic."

Leviathan bit back the insults on his tongue. It was a familiar humiliation, one that he had faced most of his life as a human hybrid. 

He couldn't afford to insult the Gyrx now, not after he had prostrated himself in front of his father and sworn an oath of undying subservience to him.

The second son of the Demon King had made a mockery of him that night, laughed at his plight, made merry at his pain, but in the end he was the only one who agreed to help him.

Between the dragon and the mages, their plan was in shambles. 

Most of his brothers were dead. So were many of their allies, both human, demon, and hybrid. 

Their access to the human world had been largely closed, and even if it was open, he would need a lot more power to launch an attack.

He had thought it hopeless, even as his heart burned with the need for revenge.

And then a hooded creature visited him in a vision.  

He seemed familiar, although Leviathan could not quite recall how they had met. He could not recall how he'd ended up in the vision either.

The creature had only told him to be ready on this very day.

"There will be a party," he'd said in a voice that sounded like nothing. "I hope you know how to dance."

He had not explained further, and with those cryptic words, he had disappeared.

Leviathan had set out making the plans. He’d thrown himself at the mercy of his enemy, sold his soul for a chance of revenge. 

Today, for the first time in a long time, he had hope. Prince Tholius did not appreciate what Mordius had planned to do, in support of the third prince, but he hated humans even more than he hated hybrids. 

This type of carnage against demon nobility could not be accepted. It could not be excused.

Gyrx finally made a sound in his throat as he straightened. He stared far off and then smiled.

"I think someone is searching for me," he said. "I might as well go meet her."

Leviathan knew who he was referring to, and he nodded.

Then he glanced back behind them at the thousand-demon army that lay in wait.

"Let the party begin," he murmured.

AN: Hi all! Over the weekend, I will be laying out the new rules for the leveling, there by tweaking and adding some details to the previous chapters. The astericks (***) refers to one of the things that will be added to previous chapters once the new system is unveiled.