In an increasingly familiar pitch-black space, power thrums from two sources, both so overwhelming that the observer's breaths come only with great effort. It's as if a great weight were pressing in from all sides, with even greater pressure coming from the direction of the two sources.
One of the sources speaks, the bass tones booming throughout the space despite being spoken at room volume. "Mistress, I bring a report that might interest you.'
"Oh? Speak," the sultry woman's voice commands in reply.
"Our spies report that ■■■■-■■■■■■■■ has been introduced. They report that it appeared as if out of nowhere. I request permission to investigate myself, and …" the voice's tone darkened, as if accompanied by an unseen wicked grin, "If I may, help it along a bit."
The woman laughed reflexively, pure, unadulterated delight saturating her voice. "Of course! How wondrous, I'm sure this made your day, my General! Go play with the humans and watch them as they fall."
"With pleasure, Mistress,"
And everything faded.
----
[+1 Chaos Energy, +300 XP]
Alesha stared at the ceiling, drenched in cold sweat, gasping for breath.
She remembered having similar dreams before, ones that she could not recall, but for some reason, this one remained as if etched in her memory. The feelings that lingered… they confused her. She was both terrified and thrilled, both unnerved and in awe. It was as if she had brushed against some incomprehensible being and barely survived.
Why had it given her XP, though?
She had a sneaking suspicion that the dream was somehow more than just a simple dream. Was that the case for all of them?
Expecting Rogork to pipe in at this point, Alesha was surprised when it remained silent. Wasn't this when it would pipe in with either some helpful information or an unhelpful taunt?
Instead, the System remained unusually silent. Well, whatever. She had other things to worry about.
Roughly an hour later, Alesha stood in line behind Seth, the shorter boy seeming unperturbed by the anxiety which seemed to be plaguing his classmates. Over the past week, she had gotten to know him a little better. He was an unusual boy. He seemed shy and weak, but had a hidden strength to him, a resolve to discover everything that could be discovered and learn all that could be learned. He'd been extremely thorough in helping Alesha figure out the limits of what she could do. And once she'd gotten used to his dry, formal manner of speech, Alesha found that the boy wasn't bad company at all.
Now, he was standing casually in line, ignoring the nervous whispers of his fellow classmates. The two of them (Alesha and Seth) were waiting, along with a few dozen other pairs of Summoner and Demon, for their turn for the Second Task. Seth had been given full marks for the First Task, exam preparation, since he'd not only worked with his demon to prepare her, but also roped in others as well. Apparently, receiving help from students of higher grades was not only not considered cheating, but rewarded. Alesha supposed this was because, farther along in the Summoners' lives, foolish pride and refusal to ask for help could easily end in disaster. Especially when it involved summoning demons.
It wasn't much longer before their turn came. After being called, Seth led Alesha up a short set of a few steps and into a spacious room, closing the door behind them. Inside, they found themselves on a room-wide stone platform, with a fairly deep cubic depression in front of them. On the other side was an identical stone platform. Atop that platform was a desk, at which 3 figures in hooded black robes, faces hidden within the cowls, sat proudly. The depression was well-lit with several bright torches, but nowhere else was. This led to the figures at the desk being lit from below.
Alesha shivered. At this school, the bright atmosphere, lack of creepy architecture and generally normal inhabitants often led her to forget that it was called "Arkshire Academy for Dark Wizards." It didn't help that, in passing, students and teachers alike simply truncated the "Dark Wizards" portion, simply referring to it as "Arkshire Academy."
Seeing the spooky sight of the exam evaluators dressed in cultish robes, being lit from below with flickering light, reminded her of who she was dealing with. Sure, they said that "dark magic" wasn't necessarily bad (that was the school's whole premise), but these were people who used arts like demon summoning, necromancy, dark potions, poisons, and more as if there was nothing wrong with it.
Perhaps this was just her bias, having come from a world without magic, where fantasy stories always depicted them as being evil.
Then again, demons were undeniably evil, and dealing with them was certain to be dangerous at best. Death wasn't something that should be messed with lightly. And poison wasn't something the "righteous" would typically resort to… death by poison would be a terrible way to go.
Alesha gulped, then a poke from Seth brought her attention back to what was about to happen. While she'd been zoned out, the instructors had apparently been explaining the process of the Second Task. "Alesha, do you understand the Task?" he whispered, aware by now of her absentminded tendencies.
"No, I zoned out again, sorry," she whispered back.
He sighed. "Well, there's no time to explain it again. Just climb down and remember what I'd told you before," he remarked quietly as he clicked a collar onto her neck.
Alesha grimaced and nodded. Her blasted distractible brain had to go and get sidetracked with philosophical questions yet again, leading her to miss out on any last-minute extra information. It was probably useful information, too.
Taking a deep breath and breathing out, Alesha approached a ladder on the right-hand side of the platform, and climbed into the cubic depression.