Eventually, Zoey found her way to the East Wing. Not because she had a terrible sense of direction or anything. It’s just that this school was fucking huge and had no maps or anything for her to find her way around. There was also the fact that several fights were happening literally all around the school at the same time.
Because of this, Zoey had to beat up several daemons on her journey to find the East Wing until she found someone capable of telling her where the fuck the East Wing was. She’d enjoy the battles more if they weren’t random encounters with one daemon at a time. It made her think of possibly leading and grouping up the daemons to fight them all at once like she used to in some internet games she used to play. While Zoey knew for a damn fact that she wasn’t invincible yet, her conscience hadn’t shattered to the point where she would actually do something like that right now. But then again, wasn’t she heading to the East Wing by herself to gain as much experience as she could?
Zoey told herself that doesn’t count. She was pretty damn confident that Abnormal Conditions would be enough to stop the daemon’s gas from affecting her. If it wasn’t, she’d just run away before she got overwhelmed and torn apart by daemons. And if that somehow wasn’t an option, then she’d be on time trial mode. Kill the gassy daemon before she lost her mind and started attacking magjistars who didn’t do anything wrong to her. If it got to that point, it would be pretty much game over for her career as a law-abiding magjistar.
Not that she really cared about being a magjistar all that much. If anything... she only cared about learning more skills and gaining experience to level those skills. But it was pretty fun to learn about this secret magical society just hidden from most of the people on the planet. It was like an adventure into another world, living alongside her normal one! Plus, Zoey didn’t want to go down the criminal route of being a magjistar. With her Box and the fact that she was steadily losing her mind the stronger she got, she knew that if she lived long enough, she could become the final boss of the entire world. God knew that she wouldn’t be able to help herself from going down the dark path if something ever happened to her family.
Maybe... After this mission, she’ll need to go on a shopping spree to buy her family magji tools for their own protection. No, definitely, she has to. While Zoey usually went down the evil route in video games or the murderhobo path, there was a difference between real life and video games. Getting her fists and body stained with the blood and sometimes organs of daemons didn’t bother her much. Now imagining doing that to a human made her pause. Deep down, she knew it was because it wouldn’t be hard to do it again if she could do it once.
Now she wasn’t like some dark knight that wouldn’t kill no matter what. If someone on the level of a certain historical figure that killed over 6 million people was in front of her, sure, she could bloody her gloves a bit more. But Zoey doubted anyone alive had a kill count that high and wasn’t imprisoned yet. Normal world or magji world combined. Probably...
“Hello?!” A daemon waved his hand in front of her face.
It was a small daemon. Blue-skinned, had bat-like wings while flying in front of her, and did not give off any killing intent whatsoever. Frankly, it was the last part that made Zoey confused, and it was the only reason he wasn’t a blue smear in the hallway right now. Well, that and Zoey didn’t think this daemon would be strong enough to raise any of her skills up if she killed it.
“Yes?” Zoey responded, brought out of her thinking.
“You’re the scary human headed to the East Wing, correct?” He asked.
“Yes?” Zoey wondered how he found that information. She only shared that with Joseph.
“And you’re lost, right?”
“Yes...”
“Follow me! I’ll take you to the East Wing.” He gratefully offered.
“Why?” Zoey blankly asked.
“You just said you were lost? Or did I mishear you?”
“No, not that. Why would you take me to the East Wing? I’m sure you know that my job is to take out all of the daemons in this school.”
“My boss told me, you were our best shot of getting out of this school alive! His magji shard told him that getting on your bad side in any shape or form would 100% lead to his death. So, he came to make a deal that would be worth it for both of you.”
“Let me meet with your boss.” Zoey didn’t like being led around by the minion of a boss if he had such a high opinion of her.
“Alright?!” The little imp-like daemon didn’t seem to expect that request but changed directions regardless.
It was easy to forget, but daemons had thoughts and feelings just like any other human. Zoey often forgot because ten times out of ten, they were trying to kill her and eat her heart. She ignored their words and only looked at their actions. Taking their actions as who they were, not their words. Their words were only ways to gain an advantage, distract her, or gloat. A small seed of doubt planted itself into Zoey’s heart. Zoey’s watched enough anime to know how naïve this sounded, but could it be that all daemons weren’t bad? Could it be that she was just unlucky and only met violent and cruel daemons so far?
‘I killed them without a shred of hesitation, too...’ Zoey frowned. Her hesitation over killing humans just got weaker the more she thought about it, and she didn’t like it one bit.
“Do you have hobbies? Things you like and dislike?” Zoey asked.
“I like flying around! I like my boss! I like making friends! I don’t like fighting. I don’t like being hungry, and oh! I don’t like magjistars who try to kill me when I haven’t even done anything wrong!”
“What’s your name?” Zoey asked, slightly embarrassed she didn’t ask this in her questions before.
“Boss calls me Little Imp,” He answered with so much pride. Zoey felt a little guilty that her first instinct was to laugh.
“My name is Zoey.” Zoey’s frown intensified as she was brought down South Wing.
Daemons lined up like proper soldiers. Each one stared at her with fear, confusion, or outright hostility. A few daemons wore proper human clothing, but a majority didn’t. Those few that did seem to be the leaders as the others looked to them, for example. Each leader looked at her like she was hiding some terrible secret.
“I’ve brought Zoey, the scary human boss!” Little Imp led her through a room.
It used to be this school’s counselor’s office, but now it was simply the office for a... strong? Weak daemon? Zoey couldn’t get a read on his strength. At least, she didn’t think he could kill her with ease. But there was an itchy feeling in the back of her brain that warned her not to underestimate him. Not that she was going to in the first place. For all she knows, this could’ve been a giant trap that she just willingly walked into. Of course, that excited her as well as upset her because of how easily she was manipulated into coming here. Damn, suicidal fighting urges...
“Hello, Zoey. You can call me Prometheus. I mean you nor anyone you care about harm now or anytime in the future. As of right now, my only goal is to escape this school building alive with as many of my men as possible. A task I found 100% impossible without your help.”
“What makes me so special?” Zoey didn’t believe a word out of this sharply dressed, handsome, seductive-voiced daemon for a second.
“Frankly, I wish I knew the answer to that myself.” He sighed. “Trust me, I've used my ability more in the past several hours than I ever needed to. And you, my dear, are the only option for me in escaping this school alive.” He took a drink of a darkly-colored brown liquid. “Perhaps it’s the fact that you didn’t kill my friend on sight. Maybe it’s because you pissed off some powerful figures in the OM. Or maybe it could be some secret of yours that I have no possible way of figuring out.”
“What’s in it for me to help you? As far as I know, the only things daemons care about is getting stronger and eating the hearts of humans.” Zoey realized that her knowledge of daemons was entirely biased and completely lacking, but that wasn’t something she could have fixed.
“You’d be right if the world worked the way the OM makes it out to be. But sadly, my dear, my kind is a bit more complicated than that. Even if a majority of us go out of our way to prove that particular stereotype right.” He took another drink. “Anyway, am I correct in assuming that you wish to become the most powerful being in the world or something along those lines?”
“I don’t think I do.” Zoey had a feeling that her potential was infinite as long as the Box was with her but did she really want to become that strong? Her urges were already hard enough to deal with. If she got that powerful, she wouldn’t have anywhere to satisfy those urges without changing the world around her. And not particularly for good...
“I see...” He picked up his glass but didn’t take a drink. “I’m willing to offer you as much magji knowledge as I can get my hands on as long as we keep an equal and beneficial partner relationship after this.”
“...” Zoey didn’t say anything as she tried her fucking hardest to keep her face stoic and in control. The stoicism nearly shattered as excitement rushed through her blood.
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Can he see the future?
Close but no. I'll reveal more details about it in the future.
Daemons are dangerous because they kill humans to get stronger but don't mages do the same thing?
mages don't do it out of laziness or some innate desire. It's their job. A daemon could do whatever they want theoretically.
I'm starting to understand why there's the TAG "youkai" in the story