She lifted her hand and rapped her knuckles on the door.

“Enter,” the familiar authoritative voice called out from beyond it.

Jessica grabbed the door handle to open it and let herself in.

Ah, how nostalgic. The last time she had been called to Salem’s office, it was to sus out why she’d pepper sprayed that loser Forneus. Good times.

As she entered, the general’s permanent scowl fixed itself on her. Jessica briefly wondered whether Salem’s diet consisted purely of extra sour lemons or something.

“So, you’re here,” that damn woman bit out.

“So, I’m here. What’s this about? Am I being accused of something again?”

Jessica didn’t think it was possible, but Salem’s scowl deepened at that.

“No. You have been selected as my candidate for the upcoming demon general trials. I’m going to brief you about it.”

“Oh yeah, that thing. The demon king said something about it a while back.” Jessica nodded to herself, continuing to fake nonchalance.

Salem grunted before standing up, probably trying to tower over Jessica to intimidate her. “Before that though, I’ve been planning an attack. The Sweet Lemons concert three days from now.” She walked around her desk and stopped right in front of Jessica. “We’re going to go there.” She leaned in closer. “Just the two of us. You and me.”

Huh…

Jessica had known there would be another attack soon. But she hadn’t expected this. It looked like Salem wanted to observe her in action closely.

Hmm…

“Err… As much as I appreciate it, ma’am, we’re at least ten years apart. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind going on a late-night date to a concert with you, but… uh, it won’t work long-term.” Jessica shook her head.

Salem, for her part, flinched back, momentarily stunned. But it only took her a second to recover and continue to scowl. “Leave your dumb teenage fantasies in check. This is a final test for you to see if you are worthy of the general position.”

“Sure.” Jessica smirked. She didn’t get to catch the woman off guard very often.

Salem turned around and made her way to the desk as she continued, “Since you are still just a minion, all the rules will still apply. No talking, no weapon. If you can impress me while adhering to everything, I’ll allow you to go through the trial.”

The ‘just a minion’ scoffed. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say.”

“As for the trial–” The general reached her desk and turned to face Jessica again. “-- It will begin on Sunday and will last a full week. You and Hecate’s candidate will travel through the harsh demon realm together to reach the ancient resting grounds of the demon spirits.”

Jessica couldn’t help but roll her eyes. So much dramatization. Although, traveling with the other candidate was perfect. So many opportunities to sabotage them! Was ‘accidentally’ pushing them into a lava lake too much? Eh, probably… She didn’t want to kill them, after all. Or rather, maybe she could try to convince them to switch sides instead? Having another general in on the coup would make things easier… Hmm…

“The demonic spirits who recruited you will await you there with their main bodies. They will tell you what to do next.”

With that, Salem sat down again, giving Jessica one last scowl.

Jessica stood there for a second before asking, “What, that’s it…? Just… go to some graveyard?”

The general scoffed. “Keep underestimating the trials and you’ll fail. This isn’t a game… But you’ll see what I’m talking about at the trial. If you convince me I should let you go, that is.”

Jessica frowned at that. She didn’t know what to expect with Salem hyping up the trial like this.

“Riiight… So, anything else?”

Salem lifted her head up and locked eyes with Jessica’s mask again. A moment of tense silence passed as the general’s eyes seemed to scrutinize Jessica.

When the general finally spoke, her voice was eerily mild, almost friendly. “Yes. Good luck. Make sure to pass. We really need more generals now than ever.” Her voice intensified again. “So prepare yourself!”

That took the girl off guard. What the heck was that supposed to mean? And hold on, had Salem just wished her good luck? What? Was she dreaming? Was the end of the world coming? What in the–

“Dismissed.”

With that, Salem returned to tending to whatever paperwork was in front of her. Jessica briefly wondered if she would have to turn into a bureaucrat after she became a general as well.

“Right. Well, see ya, then,” she then said, before turning around and exiting the general’s office.

Once outside, she let out a hum combined with a sigh.

What could possibly be so grand about this trial? It was just some spirits. Nomed was a spirit too and he was nothing more than a whimp at best.

“You’re still being quite nonchalant about this, aren’t you?”

Speaking of whom…

Jessica shrugged as she walked away from the general’s office. “Eh. What exactly should I do? Ya’ll keep being way too vague about it. Woo, spooky boomer ghosts are gonna judge me! Like, the hell am I supposed to say to that?”

“Boomer ghosts… Well, fair enough, I guess. You’ll see at the trials.”

Jessica rolled her eyes and really focused on that annoyed feeling to make sure Nomed felt it as well. “Or, you know, you could actually tell me what the big deal is and stop being all secretive and shit. You’re gonna tell me at the trial anyway, aren’t you?”

“I can’t really–”

“Or what? Are you a little kid? Do you think hiding everything will make me more impressed once you do finally decide to dump all that info on me?”

“Well–”

“Newsflash! Info dumps are terrible and I’ll probably end up forgetting most of it anyway. It’s like introducing ten new characters in a story all at once! I’m only gonna remember like three at best! You need to space out information like that!”

“Alright fine! I’ll tell you a little bit,” the spirit in Jessica’s head said, giving the impression of throwing his hands up in the air, before sighing.

Jessica grinned on the inside. Good thing she was friends with Nicole, the avid reader and harsh critic of books.

“Well?”

“Right… so… There is more to the demon army than you think. The real goal actually isn’t to take over the human world or whatever you might be thinking.”

Jessica’s eyebrow rose. She already suspected that world domination might not have been the whole story… But having it confirmed still felt a little odd.

“The demon army is actually trying to prevent a disaster. Both the demon realm and the human world could be destroyed if we fail.”

Jessica stopped in her tracks at that, her mind processing the bombshell.

…

“What…?” she whispered.

“That’s all I’ll tell you for now. You’ll learn the rest of the truth at the trial,” the spirit finished, sounding uncharacteristically serious.

Jessica clenched her fists.

Both worlds would be destroyed? Why? By what? Or whom?

And hold on, the demon army was trying to prevent it? So they weren’t the bad guys, after all? Or was Nomed just bullshiting her? Blowing it all out of proportion? Trying to confuse her?

No, but… It would explain so much. All the dumb arbitrary rules that only hindered the demons in their world-domination efforts. Why the generals took turns launching their own attacks instead of going together and defeating the magical girls in one fell swoop. Even the places they attacked… An amusement park? A shopping mall? A concert? If they wanted to take over the world, why not attack a military base or the white house?

They weren’t actually trying to beat the magical girls. They were… what? Just pretending? What was the purpose of all this nonsense?

And how did the magical girls play into this? Did they know about this? Were they the bad guys? No way, right…?

Jessica sighed as she finally made it back to her little office.

Maybe trying to be a double agent might not have been the brightest idea.

What the hell had she gotten herself into?