My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror - Chapter 274 (Patreon)

“Why?” Alina asked.

“They’ve got some sort of business,” Damien replied. “And I can’t remember the last time I saw Delph really surprised. The arrogant prick needs it, and it’ll be funny to watch.”

“I guess I’ll take your word for it,” Alina said. She shifted her feet and peered over Damien’s shoulder. “That’s a pretty small room.”

“It’s not the biggest, but it’s enough for us.” Damien’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Why is that a problem?”

Venus cleared her throat and glanced to the side. “Your dean said that, since you were the reason we were here, we were meant to stay in your room.”

Damien’s eye twitched. “Of course she did.”

“Apparently, there weren’t any more spots,” Xil provided helpfully.

“It’s a mountain,” Damien said flatly. “There’s always spots in a mountain.”

“Sorry to make more trouble for you.” Xil wrung her hands. “We can try to find a hotel or something in the area to stay in instead.”

“It’s fine,” Damien said, shaking his head. He paused an sent a questioning glance at Sylph. “So long as you don’t mind?”

“Doesn’t matter to me,” Sylph said with a shrug. “Just use destructive energy to make them a room or two.”

“That will take days!” Venus exclaimed. “Not that we aren’t worth the effort, but that’s too much. We can’t ask that of you.”

Damien just shook his head and walked back inside. “How do we want these arranged, Alina? Is Quinlan staying with us as well?”

“I don’t know. She can probably get a room for herself considering her status, but your dean seems a little… unhinged.”

“A room for you and Quinlan, then another for Venus and Xil,” Damien concluded, walking over to the hall that led into their makeshift kitchen. The girls followed him in, doing their best to not look around too much and failing miserably.

“Those are our beds,” Sylph provided.

“Whose is whose? They look the same,” Xil said.

“Don’t know. I forgot. You can’t have them, though.”

“Noted,” Alina said. “Don’t worry. We brought a bunch of stuff. Quinlan and Venus bought it for us at Mountain Hall before we left, so we’ve got soap, toiletries, all the stuff anyone would need when moving somewhere.”

“Toothbrushes?” Sylph asked.

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t we bring those?”

“No reason,” Sylph said, clearing her throat. “Damien, do you need help making the rooms?”

Darkness washed over Damien’s mage armor. Black metal plates formed over his chest and greaves wrapped around his limbs. The cape expanded behind him as eyes snapped open all over it.

“Don’t worry about it. Henry and I can take care of this,” Damien replied, extending his hands toward the wall. A dozen twisting pillars of destructive energy wound out of his hands, writhing like tentacles as they melted through the stone, sending dust flying everywhere.

Within the span of minutes, Damien had an entire room carved out. He directed the energy onward, forming another thin hall as he walked forward. Stone sheared away and dust coated his clothes as their visitors watched in stunned silence.

A short while later, Damien let the spells drop away and brushed the dust off his chest. He sent one more spark of Ether out, forming a portal in the hallway connecting the rooms. A powerful rush of air shot past all of them, nearly yanking Xil off her feet as all the dust was devoured by the yawning black disk. It closed, taking the wind with it.

Thanks for the help.

“Did you see them looking at my cool new Battle Manifestation? They love it. They love me. Tell them that I’ll be signing autographs later today.”

Tell them yourself.

“No. That takes half the fun out if it.” Henry retreated into the back of Damien’s mind with a cackle.

“Seven Planes,” Xil breathed. “You were holding back at Mountain Hall. Just how much Ether do you have? I could have worked for a week and not gotten that much done.”

“Eight,” Damien corrected instinctively. He winced. “Ah, never mind that.”

“Never mind?” Venus demanded, stepping forward and running a hand along the wall in shock. She studied her fingers. “There’s no dust left either. You’ve got to have… what, at least five times my Ether? You don’t even look tired.”

“I’ve had some special training.”

“What kind of training does that to someone?” Venus demanded. “You’re a demon!”

Xil put a hand on Venus’ shoulder. “He just made rooms for us, Venus.”

Venus blinked. She cleared her throat, her cheeks reddening slightly. “Uh, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to yell.”

“It’s fine,” Damien said. A thought struck him, and he let out a small chuckle. “Actually, I might be able to help train you all a little. No promises, though. It’ll depend on how other things I’m working on right now go.”

“You might want to get some kind of doors as well. Maybe curtains?” Sylph suggested. “Hm. Damien, could you make one more room, actually? Our beds are now in the main walkway of what is apparently an apartment. It might be nice to get out of the footpath.”

“Oh. Good idea,” Damien said. He walked back to the first room, then extended his hands. He didn’t ask for Henry’s help this time, and dug away a third room in just a few more minutes. When he finished, the strain of running out of Ether was finally starting to get to him.

“You still had more?” Venus asked, her mouth hanging wide open. “This is impossible. Are you hiding artifacts on yourself or something?”

“Nah. That’s a good idea, though,” Damien said. “We’ve got a bunch of points to spend at the pavilion, Sylph. We should see what we can get. Maybe tomorrow?”

“That works,” Sylph said, walking into the main hall. “One second.”

She grunted, then walked back through the hall, carrying the bed sideways with a single hand. She had to squeeze through the hall at an angle, but she made it look like the bed was made of sea foam.

Sylph plopped the bed down in the corner of the room and gave it an approving nod. “There. Now we’ve got a bed.”

Venus squinted at the bed. “Is that not made of wood?”

“It is,” Sylph said. “Why?”

“Were you using magic to carry it?”

“No. It’s just a very light bed.”

“It’s got a solid wood frame. You carried it with one hand.”

“These are statements,” Sylph observed.

“I give up,” Venus said. “I want to do that too. Please teach me. If I could do what you two could, I could beat Quinlan.”

“Damien is really busy, and I’m not sure how much my training would help you,” Sylph mused. “But I suppose it can’t hurt to try. I’ll see what I can do.”

“So long as it isn’t too much of a bother,” Xil said hurriedly. “We don’t want to intrude.”

Venus nodded. “Yeah, what Xil said. Sorry. I got caught a bit off guard. Has Blackmist really been holding back this much in the previous tournaments? You’ve underperformed in nearly everything until this year.”

Damien started to shake his head, but Sylph stopped him.

“Actually, I think they have been,” she said. “I mentioned this to Delph while Damien was in the – ah, gone. Apparently, Aven and Cheese haven’t participated in many of the major tournaments, and have sandbagged the ones they have competed in. Whisp has been trying to make Blackmist look incompetent on purpose.”

“Seriously?” Damien asked. “Why?”

“Not sure,” Sylph replied. “To be honest, I didn’t really care at the time. I had more important things to worry about.”

“I’ll ask Whisp at some point,” Damien said. “It doesn’t seem too pressing. Do you guys need anything else?”

“I think this is all we can ask for,” Alina said. “Thank you both. We’ll try not to intrude on your privacy too much. I’m sorry our arrival is going to cause trouble for you.”

Damien’s stomach rumbled. He scrunched his nose and shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll figure out a way to try to get privacy for all of us. Trust me, you lot are going to be the ones that needs it the most.”

“What? Why?” Venus asked.

“Because Henry likes to wander off while I sleep, and anyone in his direct path probably isn’t going to have a great time,” Damien said with an ominous chuckle. “I hope you’ve got some goats to sacrifice. Now, who’s hungry? I’m starving.”

“Depends. Are you paying?” Alina asked with a sheepish grin. “Quinlan hasn’t given me much spending money to work with yet.”

“Alina!” Venus said, glaring at her. “I’ll pay for your meal.”

Damien laughed. “Sounds good. Let’s go, then. I don’t want to wait any longer.”

Their growing group walked back out onto the plateau. Damien quickly glanced inside both Mark and the Grays’ rooms, but none of them looked to be back from their transfers yet, so they headed into Blackmist’s campus on their own.

A small part of Damien was convinced that there was no chance they’d be able to successfully make it to the restaurant and eat without running into some form of trouble. Perhaps he’d just spent too much time at Mountain Hall, or maybe he was just typically more unlucky when he was on his own.

Whatever the case might have been, they weren’t bothered while they ate. Damien and Sylph got pancakes and waffles respectively, which drew a few curious glances from everyone else, who elected to get more traditional dinner meals, but nobody was about to question them.

Venus even looked like she was about to change her order before Damien informed her that his diet had absolutely nothing to do with his training. She looked fairly relieved at that piece of information.

Once dinner was done, they wandered around Blackmist’s campus while Damien and Sylph pointed out the important buildings. What was meant to be a brief stop at the library turned into an hour long venture as Henry immediately darted into the romance section and refused to leave, causing Venus and Xil to both venture off to look around as well.

Damien didn’t bother going after them. He snagged a book on Light magic and leafed through it, more out of boredom than any desire to learn it. He did want to get started on figuring out some more Light spells in the near future, but the Void had his full concentration at the moment. Splitting his attention any further would have just been a waste of time.

Once everyone finished at the library and Henry made Damien check out half a dozen books, they all returned to the mountain.

“Are you really allowed to be carrying those around?” Alina asked, squinting at the spine of one of the novels in the pile. “There are some pretty graphic scenes on that, especially considering you haven’t even opened it yet.”

“Don’t ask me. Henry’s the one that wants it,” Damien said wearily. “Why would Blackmist even carry this kind of thing?”

“Because knowledge is power,” Henry said from his shadow, making Xil and Alina jump. Venus just glanced down at the companion and shook her head, muttering under her breath about wishing her companion had a personality. “Also, the librarians have great tastes. Have you ever read A Tale of Thrusting? It’s probably the greatest thing to come out of this generation of writers.”

“That’s enough from you,” Damien said, banishing Henry from his shadow. Alina sent a curious glance at the stack of books.

“No,” Damien said. “You’re not allowed to read these. I will not be the reason that Quinlan’s sister starts reading smut.”

“I’ll just ask her to get the book for me. She never says no.”

Damien started whistling. “If I can’t hear you, then it isn’t my problem.”

The others laughed. They made it up to their room, and Damien paused outside their door. He craned his neck to look back at Mark and the Grays’ rooms as his senses brushed across something.

“I thought they weren’t back yet,” Venus said.

Damien set the stack of books down on the ground, ignoring Henry’s squawk of protest. There was a trace of Ether in Nolan’s room that he’d missed the first time they’d passed it. He walked over to it, pushing their expensive curtain out of the way.

“Damien?” Sylph asked.

A letter rested on Nolan’s bed, the tiny runes covering it leaking faint amounts of Ether. Damien picked the letter up, a frown crossing his features as he turned it over.

“It’s addressed to me.”

“That’s odd,” Sylph said. “Did he get back to Blackmist before us?”

Damien scanned the runes, then raised his eyebrows. He formed a thin blade of destructive energy at his fingertip and cut a thin line across one of the runes, causing the light emitting from them to fade away. Once it was out, he slit open the top of the letter and pulled a folded slip out. He flipped it open, scanning its contents.

Damien,

I’m hoping you’ll find this fairly soon. I would have asked my friend to put it in your room, but I already promised I wouldn’t go into it without prior permission in Year One. If you’re reading this, I’ll assume the runes went off and the explosion caught your attention. It was just a loud noise, so nothing was damaged. I hope.

I’m in a little trouble. My parents found out I was dating Loretta, and they didn’t approve. I didn’t think they’d take it as badly as they did, but apparently losing Yui’s courtship in addition to not dating a noble was… bad. Honestly, I’d thought they wouldn’t care since I stepped down from succession, but it appears my father believed I was just bluffing.

I’ve been summoned back to my estate, but I fear for Loretta. I’m worried my parents may try to arrange for her removal. I’m sorry to come to you again, but I don’t know who else to ask. I have no good way to contact the teachers, not that most of them would help even if they knew. Going against the Grays is normally a death sentence, but Loretta doesn’t deserve any of this. Can you try to get her to safety? I know you leave Blackmist a lot. If she’s gone, my father will probably forget about her soon enough.

I will remain at my estate and do my best to placate him. I’ll pay you back for this, I promise.

Sorry,

Nolan

Damien lowered the note and folded it back up, sliding it into a pocket.

“What’s wrong?” Sylph asked.

“Loretta’s in trouble and I think Nolan is stuck in his family home,” Damien replied.

Sylph’s features instantly froze over and she nodded. “Let’s go.”

“What’s going on?” Xil asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Damien replied. “We’ll be back soon enough. Just settle into the room and try to make yourselves at home. Sylph and I won’t take long.”

“The Grays are a huge noble house,” Venus said with a worried frown. “Getting on their bad side is really dangerous, Damien. Are you sure you’ll be okay? We could help.”

“I appreciate the offer, Venus, but there’s no need. They’re only a noble house, and we aren’t alone anyway.”

His shadow stretched out and Henry rose from it, his skin smooth and gaunt. The girls all flinched back and Sylph’s eyes widened slightly as the Void creature arrived in his Full Manifestation. Light twisted around his emancipated features as two leathery black wings snapped open on Henry’s back.

“The two things I hate most in life,” Henry growled, swiping his claw-like fingers through the air. Thin black lines trailed behind them, melding together to form a watery portal. “People who annoy me and people who get in the way of my reading sessions. Whisp will know where the girl lives, and I haven’t had a good meal in a while. Let’s fix that.”