Alastor drew the Rune of Change into the torso of the male corpse before him, and envisioned the intent of transforming the corpse into gold.
The part around the Rune turned to gold, but the rest of the body exploded into fleshy chunks that landed against the metal wall in front of Alastor, who had moved away right after inscribing the Rune.
'Failure. Was my intent not clear enough, or was the location of the Rune off?'
Alastor took a fresh corpse and inscribed the Rune of Change on it's forehead, before moving away again.
This time, the body turned gold without a hitch.
'I see. So just above the glabella. But what about live humans with wills to resist?'
He grabbed a struggling man and propped him up, before drawing the Rune into his skull.
The man stopped struggling when his brain turned gold.
'So the forehead is the best spot to inscribe it.'
'I'm surprised his dying will didn't cause it to malfunctio-'
The gold corpse exploded.
'There it is.'
Alastor sighed as he pulled up the next corpse.
'Perfect forced transfiguration will only be accessible once I increase my mastery over the Rune.'
Alastor could use it to some extent, but he knew if the will of a regular person could interfere with the Rune to such extent, using it on an actual trained person would cause it to be unpredictable.
And Alastor firmly believed that if something is not perfectly controllable, it was not battle ready.
'Next experiment, Chimeric forms.'
........................................
By the time Alastor finished up in the warehouse, it was rather late at night. As he walked back to the Academy, he spun his spear lazily.
Although the time by which they were supposed to return was close, even if Alastor pushed it a bit, they would let him enter.
Perks of being the first ranked examinee.
As he approached the Academy, his surroundings got quieter, unnaturally so.
He turned to see a sillhouette standing against the moonlight on a building.
'They're already here.'
'The other demon spy.'
Alastor's lips changed into a smile that seemed both gentle and malicious, as the silhouette jumped down to reveal a person he had only seen once before.
It was one of the second years that had been working under Dana in the scheme.
He got right to the point without wasting any time.
"I don't know how you figured it out, but in exchange for telling me the method to escape the inspection, I shall grant you the endless power of the Nine Hells."
Alastor looked at him with pity.
'He thinks he's tricking some fool who doesn't know about the Nine Hells. It's almost pitiful.'
Alastor yawned, it had been quite a long day after all, and replied calmly, "You're a demon of Wrath, either a strong Baron or newly made Viscount. You possessed this body about 2 weeks ago. You're one of the mind specialized races, however, after observing you for a while, I would say you're a flayer. Wrath and mind together, quite a strange little demon you are."
"You have no authority in the Nine Hells to give me power, since you yourself are little more than a slave."
Having almost all of it's information unveiled, the demon's bravado reduced significantly, but true to it's Sin, it raged quickly.
"You! How do you know of such matters!"
"Either hand over the method to survive this investigation as you promised, or just die here!"
Alastor made a show of thinking, before asking confidently, "Sure, I'll tell you the method. Come closer."
The demon hesitated, but prepared it's mind to attack Alastor psychically.
Alastor told him in all seriousness, "The method to escape being found out as a demon is....."
"Just kill yourself, and pray to the Lake of Samsara to reincarnate you with your memories intact as something other than a demon."
The demon fell still for a moment, before veins began writhing all over it's host body, Wrath consuming it.
"You bastard!!!"
It's fist swung at Alastor's face, as its mind sprung towards Alastor's to invade him mentally.
As it's fist was blocked, the demon felt it's psychic attack land and rejoiced internally, 'You're done for!'
It felt it's mind connect with Alastor's, but just as it tried to enter-
'What is this?"
He spoke and thought at the same time.
An insurmountable wall. A barrier of forbidden knowedge. Something it should never have seen. Something it could not comprehend.
What was it doing again?
Not only was the barrier capable of withstanding it's attack, it's own mind was rattled as it snapped back into it's self, shaken by the backlash of a failed invasion.
It's host body trembled like it's mind, and it felt itself be pierced through the heart and lifted off the ground.
Alastor looked at the pathetic creature on the end of his spear and threw it against a wall.
'Not enough.'
"Hey, go ahead and transform. I'll wait for you to return to your original form."
Honestly, Alastor was curious as well, since demons of Wrath tended to be bulky and burly, but demons with mental powers were physically fragile.
The body began twisting in on itself, imploding, as a huge muscled arm was formed.
Slowly, the hulking demon transformed entirely, it's body covered in rippling muscles, a lower half like a centipedes, but it's upper half looking somewhat humanoid. On the crown of it's head, small tentacles writhed and glowed.
'Fool! You should have ended me when I was weaker!' It's voice could be heard mentally to any creature that wasn't asleep within a mile, but fortunately, they all were.
Alastor blocked the demon's punch with his spear, actually being forced back a bit.
The demon of wrath punched with pure anger and hate behind it's strikes, as Alastor smoothly deflected them.
'Stop dodging, you ant!!' This time, only Alastor heard it mentally, but the walls in his mind remained unshaken, courtesy of the Great Transmigration Mantra.
Alastor spun his spear over his hand, and it's tip cut into the demon's right eye, it's lower centi-pede like body scuttling back as it's raised half clutched at it's ruined eye.
He tried the mana vibration method on the demon, but the demon was fast enough to infuse it's entire body with demonic essence.
Demons had practically no loss when covering their body in demonic essence, since in the end, they are demonic essence.
And since demonic essence was a stronger energy than mana, the mana was ruthlessly subdued and expelled, creating thin clouds that Alastor absorbed back into himself.
'It's tainted with it's demonic essence.'
'Interesting.'
Alastor dodged another wild blow, before positioning his spear such that it's butt was jammed against the ground, and the blade at the approaching fist.
The demon howled as it pierced it's own fist, but none of the humans in the extreme surroundings heard it, having been put to sleep by the demon itself before it arrived.
Alastor slowly whittled the demon down, bit by bloody bit, until a partly skeleton demon stood before him.
The demon gasped and shuddered, it's demonic essence leaking from it's wounds.
Alastor kicked it in the face.
As he pointed his spear at the demon, the demon shuddered and swelled up.
The dying demon shouted, "I'll take you with me as well!"
Alastor looked at it's swelling body with no change in his eyes.
'It's not enough to hurt me significantly. How pathetic.'
Then, from far away, an arrow that was burning orange, slammed into the demon's head.
The swelling stopped, as the demon was near-instantly incinerated.
Just before it's consciousness as a mental being was disintergated, it felt a hint of demonic essence coming from Alastor, who was smiling madly at it.
'He....was a demon too.'
The demon's final thoughts were of indignation and Wrath.
Alastor looked out, but as he expected, he could not see his friend from this far.
He could only assume Karna could.
He mouthed a word of thanks, before continuing to walk to the Academy.
'To think he didn't even put up a barrier of any kind before meeting me, what a buffoon.'
He saw Karna waiting outside the dorm buildings, and after a quick nod of acknowledgement, they wordlessly went to their respective rooms, both tired for different reasons.