Chapter 8: 8 - Hope

Saffra’s gaze snapped in the direction of the voice, like everyone’s did.

Lailah in particular had drawn two daggers and dropped into a combat position in the time it took Saffra to blink. She had suspected the woman had been faking her rank—she hadn’t seemed like a silver—but that confirmed it. The movement had been unnaturally fluid, showcasing the sort of grace she had only seen on high-rank adventurers.

There was a demon standing a half-dozen feet away. She wore plain black robes and held a gnarled staff of gray wood. Her hood was thrown back, revealing a seemingly young face wearing such a contemptuously bored expression, red eyes flat and uninterested, mouth downturned the slightest amount, that Saffra felt condescended to, somehow, just by being in her presence.

Despite her apparent youth, Saffra had the instant impression she was in the presence of someone—something—old and dangerous. Her gut instincts were usually right.

It was the woman she’d met earlier. The newcomer mage Lailah had invited. What was she doing here? It was such a confusing turn of events Saffra didn’t even feel relief.

Lailah slowly straightened out, clearly on edge. So was Dominic, hand on the hilt of his axe as he watched the development carefully.

Allen started squirming and trying to call something out through his gag. Dominic looked over and almost seemed like he was going to kick him, but he refrained, turning to eye the stranger instead.

What had her name been?

“Vivi, right?” Lailah asked. “Didn’t expect to run into you out here.”

“Invisibility is a tier seven spell,” Dominic said, his tone clipped.

Lailah shot a glare at her partner. “It wasn’t invisibility. Glamour, or something like that.”

The demon didn’t react. Saffra found herself captured by the utter lack of worry in her eyes. And the slight disdain leaking through, which probably spoke of complete and utter disdain, considering how little her face seemed to emote.

Saffra remembered being slightly unnerved in her conversation with the woman, even if she’d never felt worried. She’d known the demon was dangerous, but not dangerous in a bad way. Not like Lailah, despite being ten times as suspicious on the surface.

But [Invisibility]? It was indeed a tier seven spell, something only mages averaging level seven hundred could cast. Saffra would know. She was Institute-educated, if only briefly, now expelled.

Level seven hundred. Solidly into mithril rank. Which meant, if that were true, the demon could handle two low golds…probably. Mages weren’t great duelists. Especially not two-on-one. And that assumed her opponents were, in fact, low golds and not higher.

On top of that, it might not have been invisibility, and instead some other spell or skill. Lailah’s suggestion of a [Glamour] or [Illusion] wasn’t far-fetched.

The demon briefly ignored the two adults as her red eyes slid over to Saffra. “I apologize for the delay. I came and watched at the start, but nothing was happening, so I returned to town.”

She…came and watched? How? She hadn’t sensed anyone following them, and obviously Lailah and Dominic hadn’t. That definitely implied an invisibility or equally strong stealth spell.

And how had she known to return, if she’d gone back to town? [Farsight]? That was high-level magic too, though not as high as [Invisibility].

It probably ought to be disturbing, knowing someone had been spying on her, but Saffra was only now feeling the barest tinges of hope.

She stamped down on that feeling. A person couldn’t trust in one miracle. Was she really about to get a second in her lifetime? She didn’t dare let herself believe.

Still, at the demon’s words, the surge of repressed hope made her eyes start watering. She hunched forward, staring at the ground so she didn’t lose her composure entirely.

The demon grew agitated by that, for some reason. Her red eyes locked on Lailah, and Saffra swore she could feel the air thicken, like it was responding to the woman’s anger.

“Why?” she demanded.

The green-haired woman seemed to debate the pros and cons of trying to talk her way out of the situation. A few seconds passed, and she shrugged. Tossed her hair back and spun her daggers.

“Pays well. Nothing more, nothing less. Have to make ends meet, don’t I?” She sighed, as if exhausted by her own argument. “Let’s get this over with. You clearly don’t know who you’re up against.”

And despite the impression that this demon mage was competent, possibly even mithril rank, something cold gripped Saffra.

Because she wasn’t sure her savior would win. Had Saffra lured someone to her death? And worse, an apparently good person, willing to risk herself for a stranger? There had been no obligation to follow them into the forest. She had come out of a desire to help. Those sorts of people were rare. And Saffra might have gotten her killed.

Daggers drawn, Lailah dashed forward faster than Saffra could perceive, practically [Blinking] in front of the demon mage. Black metal blades scraped against a prismatic shield—but were repulsed, throwing Lailah back.

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At the same instant, a lazy flick of Vivi’s wrist had a blast of air slamming into Dominic, who had charged at the same instant, his axe raised. He went careening head-over-heels, throwing up clumps of dirt and grass, cracking a felled log in half as he tumbled. He staggered to his feet, seeming uninjured, but was clearly startled by the strength of the attack.

It made Vivi’s two opponents reevaluate her.

“Not a pushover, are you?” Lailah asked. “Damn. Was kind of hoping.” Her jaw worked left and right. Vivi didn’t seem eager to retaliate, but her expression was cold enough to freeze over the Ashen Hierophant’s lair. “Sure we can’t work something out? Cut you in, maybe?”

The demon’s head tilted slightly, and something stuck in Saffra’s throat despite all logic.

She wouldn’t, right?

But Saffra had faced more than one betrayal. Maybe the demon was considering the offer. While she had blocked their first coordinated attack, their speed had been incredible. Were these two even gold ranks? Or had they been faking from an even higher position than Saffra had assumed? Were they mithril themselves?

With that sort of realization, Saffra wouldn’t even blame the demon for accepting the offer. Better to come out with her own life. They were strangers; they owed each other nothing.

“I won’t kill you,” the demon said flatly. “But I will enjoy this.”

Another contemptuous wave of Vivi’s staff resulted in a deafening boom that had Dominic crashing through trees and foliage, disappearing into the forest.

It wasn’t anything comparable to the previous blast of air. One second the man was standing there, the next, a hole had been punched through the forest, Dominic a sudden projectile.

What?

What had that spell even been?

How had she cast it so fast?

The weakness of mages was the build-up required for their more powerful spells. Hence why they weren’t effective duelists.

And yet—?

Lailah looked at the destruction caused by her teammate pulverizing a trail through the forest, her face going pale. Facing Vivi, her eyes sharpened.

“Guess I have to take this seriously.”

Saffra wasn’t sure how much more her heart could take. Her appraisal of the situation had changed too many times back and forth. The resolve in Lailah’s voice, despite seeing that ridiculous spell, once more created terror in Saffra. She still thought she had a chance.

While Lailah was wearing a silver badge, she obviously wasn’t one…nor a gold, at this point. Mithril? Even upper mithril? Higher? Surely not. Orichalcums were adventurers known through the kingdom, second only to the extremely rare Titled.

Could Saffra really expect a random adventurer to win against two mithrils? No matter who they were?

Saffra couldn’t even perceive what happened. One moment Lailah’s figure flickered, the next she was lying in a freshly born crater a dozen feet forward, crushed down by some enormous force. There had been…some sort of exchange, she intuited, if a brief one. She just hadn’t been able to see it.

“You aren’t the weakest,” Vivi said, in what was maybe a compliment despite the condescension in her voice. “The spell resisted for a second. That disgusts me more. You’re strong enough to do what you want. Why this?”

Lailah laughed, but it wasn’t pleasant. Her facade had dropped. “Don’t look down on me, you bitch.” She struggled onto her knees and forearms, resisting the force. “What…the hell are you?” She grimaced, buckling and flattening out. “Where did you even come from?” she groaned.

The demon’s eyes were cold. Her staff dropped, dispelling the force. Lailah didn’t waste the opportunity. She was on her feet and in front of the demon in an instant, and she—

A cracking like a whip, and an explosion of air.

Lailah was gone. She’d been sent tearing through the forest like her partner earlier. Slammed into by some enormous kinetic force.

The warrior of the party returned a moment later. Dominic, bloodied and bruised, yet as grim-faced as always. Lightning crackled around his raised axe as he bore down on the demon with some skill, obviously one of his stronger ones. Each step seemed to cross twice the distance it should. The ground shook as he charged.

Saffra was even worried for a second. He didn’t have the same speed as Lailah, but he was far more durable. Maybe he would—?

Once more, he was swatted away as if by the hand of a vengeful god.

This…wasn’t even a fight, Saffra realized.

These had to be mithril-ranks. How were they being toyed with?

“Now you’re running?” Vivi asked, red eyes snapping in a seemingly random direction as she watched something deep in the forest that Saffra couldn’t see. “Have some shame.”

Something happened. Saffra couldn’t describe what. She didn’t have the magical foundation to describe what her senses told her. The demon was just gone. But not with the signature of an [Invisibility] spell, or with overwhelming physical speed.

…Spatial warping? A guess based on contextual evidence, not an understanding of what had happened on a magical level.

More than anything she’d seen so far, that stunned her.

[Blink]?

Teleportation spells, even the weakest and shortest range ones, were higher-tier than [Invisibility]. Ninth, she believed?

This woman. She was at least orichalcum-rank.

And she’d cast it without Saffra hearing an invocation or seeing a spell-circle summoned. Within a second.

…Emphasis on ‘at least’.

Just what was this monster?

Could even her best instructors at the Institute cast super high-tier magic this fluidly? Could the headmaster, or one of the archmages? The Institute featured some of the world’s best mages, orichalcum rank and above, even if they weren’t adventurers and had never passed the qualification exams.

The demon popped back into existence a moment later. Her staff was pointed at a floating Lailah. With a jerk of her wrist and a slam downward, the woman impacted the forest floor and spawned another small crater.

Then another spell, cast without invocation or circle, and roots erupted from the ground and wrapped around the rogue, holding her in place.

Pop. The demon was gone. She reappeared with a second prisoner in tow. Dominic received the same treatment.

Vivi gazed down at them for a moment. She nodded in satisfaction. Then turned to Saffra.

Saffra felt herself stiffen. Even if this woman was her savior, what she had seen had invoked an instinctual terror. The sort an ant felt when a bear came stomping through the forest, his path of destruction headed straight for her. This creature could kill her by accident, a tertiary side-effect of her laziest movements.

She crouched down next to Saffra.

“My apologies,” she said softly. “I should have trusted your instincts.”

A vague gesture had the cloth stuffed in Saffra’s mouth cut in half and thrown aside. The same with her other bindings. She spat the taste out of her mouth, scooting instinctively away from the demon.

The demon raised her hands, signaling she wasn’t a threat, and Saffra instantly felt like dirt.

She did the mature thing and burst into tears.

She really hated herself for that. But the events of the past ten minutes—had it even been that long?—were too overwhelming. The horror, the hope, the relief in rapid succession.

The concern on the demon’s face added another layer: hilarity. Why would she care that Saffra was crying? It was way too humanizing of an expression for someone who had torn through a pair of mithril ranks like paper.

She wiped the tears away, trying to control herself, but ultimately failed. The demon reached out again, the movement unsure, but Saffra scooted away a second time, shaking her head.

The demon hesitated, then gave up, and instead went to free Allen.

Saffra tucked her head between her knees and berated herself until she wasn’t bawling like a child anymore.