A scythe sprouted from her back, and Sylph dashed toward the tall monster.
It let out a groan and swung a huge hand at her. She hopped out of the way, then thrust her blade into the back of its knee.
It staggered, batting at her with its other hand. Her scythe flicked into the strike's path, blocking it with the flat edge. Sylph skidded away from the creature and dodged to the side as it tried to step on her.
Damien drew Ether into his hand, overloading a gravity sphere before tossing it at the Corrupted monster. The spell hit it in the side, detonating and nearly snapping the thin creature in two.
Acid sprayed and stone crackled. The creature righted itself once again, swiping at Sylph to keep her back as it mended itself. Sylph pressed toward the creature, her blade and the scythe on her back blurring as she unleashed strike after strike.
The monster backpedaled, blocking most of the attacks with one of its gangly limbs. The stone cracked as more and more acid started to leak out.
With a roar, the creature tore a chunk of a nearby house free and hurled it at Sylph.
She dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the masonry as it crashed into the ground and exploded, sending fragments of rock flying everywhere.
Damien blinked forward and slapped a hand against the ground.
A pillar of dirt shot out at an angle, catching the Corrupted monster on the chin and knocking its head back with a satisfying thud. It staggered and fell through the building behind it, sending up a large cloud of dust as the house collapsed around it.
Damien gritted his teeth. A wail filled the air, mixing in with the screams as the tall monster clambered upright, acid leaking from already sealing wounds. Sylph hopped over the ruined wall and dove at the creature, forcing it to keep its attention on her to avoid getting turned into gravel.
The monster spat a blob of acid at Sylph. She used her scythe like an extra limb, digging it into the stone and yanking herself out of the way of the attack. It sailed past her and burned through the wall of a nearby house.
A woman screamed from within it. The monster's eyeless gaze snapped toward her as the woman pushed a small child behind her, shielding the boy with her body.
"Damn it," Damien swore, forming a powerful gravity sphere in his hands. "We're fighting. Pay attention to us!"
Sylph was ahead of him. She leaped forward, jumping off the monster's thin knee and slamming her shadowy blade into its chest. Sylph shifted her grip on the hilt of the blade, using it like a circus bar to swing herself up onto its shoulders.
Her scythe plunged downward into its head, digging deep into the creature's skull. Damien tossed the gravity sphere toward the monster's pelvis, detonating the spell right before it connected.
The dark ball expanded outward and contracted, the gravity yanking the creature to its knees with a loud crash. It let out another wail. Sylph formed a new blade in her hands and reared back, bringing it down on the monster's neck and severing its head.
Acid bubbled at the monster's neck, but Sylph wasn't done. Her weapon rose and fell twice more, the powerful swings each taking off a limb. She jumped off its body before the acid could touch her.
As Sylph fell, she hurled her blade into the monster's back. It tumbled once in the air before embedding itself square in the creature, forcing it to stagger forward. Damien thrust his mental energy forward, slamming into the monster with all the force he could muster.
This time, wounded and disoriented, the Corrupted monster was unable to keep a hold of the Ether. Damien tore the strands of energy away from it.
He immediately felt the strain as the Ether fought against him, trying desperately to reattach to its host.
"Keep it still and kill it!" Damien yelled. The action almost made him lose concentration and drop the Ether, but he managed to keep his mental grip on it.
Sylph responded with trained efficiency. She bounded forward, jumping up and grabbing the hilt of her dark sword. She twisted it, forcing the blade deeper and widening the wound. The acid flowing from the monster's numerous wounds started to thicken and slow without the Ether to replenish it.
Her scythe rose and fell, hacking into the creature's neck and back.
Sweat poured down Damien's face, and he shook with exertion as a headache formed at a rapid pace. He gritted his teeth, dropping to his knees as he fought back with all his might.
The pressure abruptly vanished. Damien gasped, nearly falling on his face as the lines of Ether snapped back into place, giving up their attempts to attach to the monster's body. It crumbled apart, the remaining acid splashing and sizzling through the ground as Sylph jumped down.
The screams from the townsfolk around them showed no signs of stopping. Sylph stepped around the corpse of the monster and jogged over to Damien, helping him to his feet.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Damien said, rubbing his head. "That was a lot harder than I expected. The Ether felt like it actually wanted to attach to the Corruption."
"Well, at least we know we can kill it," Sylph said, glancing back at the mound of rock where the monster had stood. The screams were slowing down now, and several people had emerged from the surrounding houses and streets to cautiously take stock of the situation. "But why was it so bold?"
"That's the question, all right," Damien agreed with a small grimace.
They ignored the stunned stares of the people around them as they approached the monster's remains and examined them.
As far as Damien could tell, it was just a mound of rocks. Sylph nudged some of them to the side with the tip of her scythe, then shrugged as it retracted into her back with a squelch. "Rocks."
"And no answers," Damien said, pressing his lips together.
Henry abruptly got his attention with a quick jab of mental energy.
"Look sharp. I can sense someone coming. Don't give any information out that you don't have to."
Sylph caught the look on Damien's face before he could even say anything. A blade flickered into her hands, and she dropped into a fighting stance. "Where are they?"
A small mote of gray light appeared several feet away from them.
Damien's scalp prickled as it expanded outward, and Delph appeared before them, his cloak rippling in a nonexistent breeze.
The man's face was grim. Magical energy crackled in his hand, streaks of gray light rising up like wisps of smoke around him as he spun in a circle. His eyes landed on the pile of rubble.
For a moment, Delph didn't move. Damien could only see the profile of the professor's face, but he was able to catch the faintest flicker of surprise as it crossed Delph's features before the man's face returned to its normal emotionless state.
"What are you two doing here?" Delph asked, the magic at his hand fading away.
"Cleaning up your problem, apparently," Sylph said, lowering her weapon. "You showed up after it was already dead."
"Considering I only received reports that a strange rock-acid monster was stumbling through this village's streets a few minutes ago, I'd say I got here pretty damn fast," Delph replied. "I'm much more interested in how the two of you got here."
"We were wandering around for the summer, training," Damien said, shrugging. "We heard a commotion here and came to help. It was a coincidence."
Delph cocked an eyebrow. "I see. Can you describe the creature you coincidentally killed?"
"A lanky humanoid about two stories tall," Sylph said. "No eyes and had the ability to regenerate and spit blobs of corrosive acid."
"And it was slain by two Year Ones," Delph said. "Fascinating."
Henry rose up within Damien, watching Delph closely and waiting for any signs of aggression. Sylph cocked her head to the side. "Is something wrong, Professor? We just happened to be passing by and looking for something to train against."
"No," Delph said. "Nothing's wrong. The reports indicated that this monster would have been significantly out of your abilities. How did you manage to defeat it?"
"It was constantly drawing power from a bunch of Ether lines connected to it," Damien said, choosing his words carefully. "We realized that it was constantly regenerating no matter what we did, so Sylph kept it distracted while I pushed the Ether away so it couldn't heal anymore."
"Hm," Delph said, giving him a small nod. "Clever solution. You thought that up on the spur of the moment?"
Damien nodded. He'd had a lot of practice lying in the past few years, and he was desperately hoping that it would hold up now against Delph's intense scrutiny. After a few moments, the older man's eyes softened and he shook his head.
Delph shrugged and yawned, covering his mouth with the back of his hand. "In the end, all I can say is good job. It looks like you managed to keep the monster's attacks somewhat contained. You likely saved a lot of lives. Did you happen to notice anything before the monster appeared? It seems to be a new type. I don't recognize it from the frontlines."
"We weren't here when it appeared," Sylph said. "We only came after we heard noise. I don't think we can help you there."
Delph's brow furrowed, and he let out a weary sigh. "Wonderful.
Paperwork. My favorite. At least it looks like my lessons stuck at least a little bit. Congratulations on not dying in your first unsupervised fight."
"What about the monster horde on campus?" Damien asked.
Delph cleared his throat. "Anyways. Were the two of you planning on staying the night?"
"No," Damien said. "We only dropped by. We're training through the summer break, traveling around and looking for monsters to fight and such.
We'll probably be on our way right now, unless you need us to stay."
Delph examined Damien for a moment. Then he shrugged, waving his hand dismissively. "I won't keep you here. There should be more than enough witnesses of the monster and the fight to give me what I need from here on out. Where are you planning on heading?"
"Just wandering around the kingdom," Sylph said, shrugging. "We didn't have a particular direction in mind."
"That works," Delph said. "If you want a challenge, head toward some of the border towns. Just make sure you don't bite off more than you can chew. The monsters occasionally slip past the front lines, and no matter how lucky you were today, one mistake is all it takes to end a promising talent for good."
Damien and Sylph both gave him a nod. They bid the professor farewell and headed off as quickly as they could without looking suspicious, slipping through the nameless village's streets and quickly fading from view.
As soon as they had departed, Delph wrapped his cloak around him. He shrank down into a small ball of gray light and vanished, not speaking to a single villager.
The mote of gray light expanded outward as Delph formed in a dark room.
Faint light trickled through a hole in the ceiling above him, illuminating thick metal shackles along the floor. The stench of rotting flesh and… wrongness hung low in the air.
"This is it," Havel said. The cloak unfurled around his shoulders, rippling around him.
"Disturbing," Delph said, kneeling beside the shackles. "They were lying to me."
"Were they?" Havel asked. "Seemed honest enough. The two of them are pretty accident prone, after all."
"I think that's a symptom rather than the problem," Delph said after several moments. "That's fine. It doesn't surprise me all that much. We were already aware that both of them were unique cases."
"We'll have time enough for that soon," Havel said. "Let's stay on track for now. Can you detect the magic?"
"Yes," Delph said, his mouth curling downward. "Clear as day. But— where did it go? Don't tell me that monster outside was…" "It wasn't," Havel confirmed. "I'm certain. It had traces of something I don't recognize, but it wasn't what was kept down here, and it wasn't what I detected."
"Did it escape?" Delph asked. "That would be bad. Very bad."
"I didn't detect any traces of it outside," Havel said, rippling. "Pretty sure it never left this room."
"Impossible," Delph said. "A creature of such strength should not have been able to be brought down without a fight. You know that more than I."
"Even if it was chained and heavily weakened? All things can die, Delph. Even—" "Be silent," Delph snapped. "You never know who's listening, Havel."
"You're paranoid, Delph. Whatever."
"There was nobody in this town with the strength to fight a Devourer Beast, much less what was held by these chains," Delph said, nudging one of them with the tip of his boot. "The only people of relevance who passed through the area other than me are Damien and Sylph."
Havel didn't respond to that. Delph let out a small hum. He reached up and removed the scratched chest plate from his body, setting it down on the ground and pulling his shirt back. A small black stone shimmered on the left side of his chest.
Delph grabbed one of the chain links and brought it closer to himself.
The stone let out faint purple sparks as it grew near the chain. The professor dropped the chain to the ground and rose to his feet.
He grabbed his chest plate and clasped it back on. "You were right, Havel. That's the Void all right. But how and why did Damien and Sylph know about it? I know for a fact that their detection skills aren't advanced enough to locate something as well hidden as this."
"That's your problem, boss," Havel said. "Unless you really want me to step in."
"Eight Planes, absolutely not. I'm not anywhere near that desperate."
"You don't have to sound that offended."
"Stop blathering and figure out where they went—and take extra precaution with your presence. I'm quite curious to see exactly just what training those two are going through."