My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror - Chapter 281 (Patreon)

Their impromptu therapy session was interrupted by a knock on the door. Damien and Sylph both shot to their feet.

“I don’t detect anyone,” Damien said, his senses brushing over the area.

“Neither do I.” Sylph’s eyes narrowed and a blade sprouted from her forearm.

They approached the door and Damien opened it, his Ether at the ready. Staring back at them was Mark, looking more disheveled than ever.

His hair was long and ragged, and he sported several new scars on his neck and shoulders – many of which were only visible because his shirt was torn into shreds. He had a large, bone sword slung over his shoulder on a dark leather holster.

“Yo,” Mark said, raising a hand. “Kill anything interesting recently?”

“You’re… different,” Damien said, his guard lowering slightly. “I thought you were at Goldsilk, Mark. What happened?”

“Oh, I was,” Mark replied. “Whisp came and collected us a few days ago. I wasn’t really listening to what she was saying, though. Something about danger, but she’s always drunk. The biggest danger to her is the morning after.”

Damien snorted. “Fair enough. And nothing all that interesting, unfortunately. I did sneak into the Princess’ room in Kingsfront, though.”

Mark grunted. “Why would I care about that? Unless there was something interesting to fight in it…?”

“Unfortunately not,” Sylph said with a wry grin. “Just me and a few other students.”

“He fought you?”

“No, we just talked. We sparred later, though.”

“As I said,” Mark said, rolling his eyes. “Boring. Anyway, a whole bunch of people are on Blackmist, and Elania said we should probably get you. None of them would fight me until I played delivery boy, so here I am.”

“Which people?” Damien asked.

“Elania and some others.”

“We kind of already knew that.”

Mark just stared at him.

“Right. You forgot?”

“No. I just never bothered remembering.”

“Do you really just only remember people that are strong enough to fight?” Sylph asked, cocking her head to the side.

“No. Sometimes I remember people that might eventually get strong enough to fight,” Mark replied. “Are you coming or not?”

“Sure,” Damien said. “We might as well. Where is everyone?”

“The visitor dorms that they were using for the Forsad trip,” Mark said, turning and drawing the blade from his shoulder. He brought it down in a powerful slash, and it cut a thin strip of red light through the air.

Mark grabbed the line with his other hand, pulling a portal open. He stepped into it and it snapped shut behind him, vanishing.

“Good to see he hasn’t changed much. Why do you think everyone’s here?”

“No clue.” Sylph shrugged, allowing the blade to sink back into her arm. “Whisp is probably trying to angle for something. It’s probably easiest if we just ask them ourselves.”

Damien poked his head back into their room. “Hey, does anyone want to come with Sylph and me? It looks like a bunch of students are here for some reason.”

Venus and Xil emerged from their room after a few moments.

“Quinlan and Alina are practicing right now,” Xil said. “It’s probably best to not bother them. How did the whole thing with your friend and the Grays go?”

“Oh, right. Sorry,” Damien said, shaking his head. “Too many things happening at once. It went about as well as we could have hoped, I suppose. Nobody we care about is dead.”

“Reassuring,” Venus drawled. “I’m still holding out for some of that training, Sylph. Will you have time later today?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Sylph said. “And given where we’re going, there will probably be a good number of sparring opportunities anyway.”

“If you think that’s a good idea, then I don’t mind. Where are we going?” Xil asked.

“The visitor dorms,” Venus said before Damien or Sylph could answer her.

They all glanced at her and she shrugged.

“What? You were talking really loudly.”

“It’s not nice to eavesdrop,” Xil admonished.

“It’s fine, we really don’t care,” Damien said with a chuckle. “If we wanted to keep something quiet, I’d have Henry put up a sound barrier. Let’s get going before Mark shows back up, though. No point to keep people waiting, and I have to admit that I’m a little curious as to what’s going on.”

The others nodded nodded, and the four of them strode out of their room and down the mountain. They reached the visitor dorms a short while later. Unsurprisingly, the sounds of battle echoed out from within the pavilion as they walked into it.

A brilliant flash of light lit the room and Viv sailed through the air. Henry took over Damien’s mage armor, extending a tendril and snagging the girl before she could slam into the wall. He brought her over to them, setting Viv down on the ground.

“Thanks,” Viv said, wiping a trickle of blood from her nose. “Good to see you again, Damien. That’s some good reaction timing.”

“Send your compliments to the chef, not the waiter,” Henry said, sliding out of Damien’s shadow in his blobby form.

“Nice to see you as well,” Damien said. “And that was my companion, can’t take credit for it.”

“Thank you, then,” Viv said, doing a great job of not looking surprised as she inclined her head in appreciation. “And nice to see you too as well, Sylph. I don’t recognize your new friends.”

“Likewise,” Sylph said. “The girls are Xil and Venus. Damien picked them up from Mountain Hall, mostly on accident. They’re transferring here for a little while and staying in our room.”

Viv cocked an eyebrow. “In your room? If I recall correctly, the normal Blackmist housing is rather small, with just two beds per dorm.”

Xil’s face reddened, but Damien just laughed.

“I made them each separate rooms. It wasn’t too big of a deal.”

“Oh, you knew they were coming?”

“No. I just did it in a few minutes,” Damien replied with a frown. “Why?”

Viv stared at him for a few moments, then shook her head. “Never mind. It’s good to see you haven’t changed much.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Not that I mind seeing old friends again, but what brings you here?”

“My Dean sent me with Elania,” Viv replied. She glanced over her shoulder at the arena, where the dust was starting to settle. “We aren’t the only ones here, by the way. There are quite a few people.”

Aven emerged from the dust, Ether churning around her like an electric halo. It faded back into her body as she approached them, her face unreadable.

“I’m counting that as a loss,” Aven said.

“Naturally,” Viv replied, shaking some of the sand from her hair with a grimace. “You hit a lot harder than it looks like you should. What kind of Ether was that?”

“You’ll have to figure that out yourself,” Aven replied, a tiny flicker of a smile dancing over her face before she quenched it.

“Is this what Whisp has you doing?” Sylph asked. “Training transfer students?”

“More like entertaining myself,” Aven replied. “But something like that, yes. Not the job I thought I’d be doing after I graduated, but here I am.”

Damien scanned the rest of the pavilion. On the second floor, he quickly spotted Yui and Carson sitting at a table. Mark and Elania were sitting in the corner with a deck of cards between them. At the table behind them was Gaves and Bella, and Cheese was leaning against the railing a few feet away from them.

“Is there a reason there are so many people here?” Sylph nodded up at the second floor. “And why do we know all of them?”

“Because not everybody has arrived yet,” Aven replied. “More are on the way.”

“For what, exactly?” Damien asked, but he was starting to get a suspicion he already knew the answer.

“The ranking battles,” Aven replied. “Or rather, after them.”

“I see,” Damien said. “Something big is going to happen, isn’t it? How many more people are coming?”

“I’m not at privilege to share that yet, but there are a fair number coming.”

“I couldn’t possibly imagine what she’s aiming for,” Damien said dryly.

Henry, what do you think the chances are that Whisp is preparing some sort of excursion or army to attack the Corruption?

“Oh, nearly one hundred percent,” Henry said in his mind. “Not bad choices either, although I’m not sure about the princess. Sending her into a battlefield doesn’t seem like something the Queen is going to like much. Not without a lot of protection.”

Unless she’s here of her own violation, I get the feeling that the Queen already knows what Whisp is doing. Gaves and Bella are hardly enough to fight off a horde of monsters, much less the Corruption, so I get the feeling her real guard isn’t showing themselves.

“I could go hunting for them.”

We both know it’s my dad. No point wasting time looking for him, I’m sure he’ll show up soon enough. It’s not like it makes much of a difference either way. Just keep an extra eye on Sylph to make sure he doesn’t try to get to her. I don’t trust him.

“Already on it,” Henry promised.

“I see what you mean,” Aven said.

Damien blinked. “Huh? Sorry, what was that?”

“He does it sometimes,” Sylph said. “It’s not that you were completely uninteresting and just lost his attention.”

“Sylph, that just makes it sound like that was the case.”

“But it wasn’t.”

“I’m sure,” Aven said dryly. “I had asked if you’d come to spar with the rest of us. Whisp instructed me to determine where everyone stood in regard to one another.”

“For the event after the ranking battles?”

“Yes. Very astute.” Aven managed to sound completely sincere, but Damien just knew she was being sarcastic.

He rubbed the back of his head. Then he shrugged. “Eh. I just came because Mark told me there were some people here. I just wanted to see who it was. I’ve already been fighting a lot, so I don’t really feel the need to spar right now.”

“Perfect. I’ve been wanting to see – wait, what? You don’t want to spar?”

“Not particularly,” Damien replied. He nodded up to the second floor. “I’m going up there. Nice seeing you again, though.”

Aven stared at their group as they broke away and headed up to the second floor. Sylph nudged Damien in the side on the way.

“She was almost certainly the one that sent Mark after you. You think she’s trying to find out how strong you are now?”

Damien inclined his head slightly. “Could be. I think my dad might be in the area, so let’s avoid trusting anyone we don’t know right now.”

“I never trust people I don’t know.”

Yui raised a hand in greeting as they approached their table. Damien couldn’t help but notice that Gaves and Bella were facing the wrong way – their backs were to the princess, and they were both hunched over their table, talking in hushed, excited tones.

He nearly missed a step on the way to Yui. Bella had emotion in her voice. He didn’t think he’d ever heard her speak in anything other than a bored monotone.

“Damien, Sylph!” Yui said cheerfully. “I know it’s only been a few days, but hello again. We decided to follow after you.”

“More like we were told to,” Carson said, scrunching his nose. “Can you believe I got an order as well? I’ve never heard a damn thing from the Dean, but the moment I start dating Yui, a handwritten note shows up in my door voluntelling me to head over to Blackmist with her. Granted, I would have tried to go anyway, but seriously. I’m starting to feel like I was irrelevant before.”

“You were,” Yui said, patting him on the shoulder. “And you’re probably going to wish that you were again pretty soon. I’m worth it, though.”

“Depends how many times we get ordered around.”

They both laughed, but Yui’s face turned serious.

“I figure I should let both of you know–”

“My dad is here?” Damien guessed.

“Yes, actually,” Yui said, blinking in surprise. “How’d you know?”

“Just a lucky guess. Is something happening?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know the specifics. Just that it’ll be after your ranking is all hashed out,” Yui said. “At first I thought we were going to participate somehow, but that isn’t the case. We’re just going to be training up until whatever the event is. I couldn’t pry it out of anyone. But that aside, your friends – are they...”

Damien glanced over his shoulder at Venus and Xil.

“Ah, right. They’re students from Mountain Hall.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you–” Xil paused, searching for a name.

“Yui,” the princess finished.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Yui,” Xil said, inclining her head slightly. Venus’ eyes narrowed and she studied the princess for a moment.

They have absolutely no idea who she is, huh?

“Venus looks like she might suspect something,” Henry said. “But yeah, Xil looks clueless.”

“They’re the ones I met at Mountain Hall when looking for Quinlan,” Damien added.

“Oh, I remember now!” Yui said, a grin crossing her face. “Xil is the one that tried to attack you?”

Xil reddened and glanced away. “I – yeah. That was me.”

“Don’t worry,” Yui said. “Just about everyone has tried to fight Damien at least once. Not many of us have had much luck at it, though.”

Gaves cleared his throat loudly, but didn’t turn around.

Elania and Mark paused their card game as more people started to gather around Yui’s table. She grinned as she spotted Damien and Sylph, waving energetically to them.

“It almost feels like the intermurals again,” Sylph said, giving Elania a polite nod. “Just with everybody we know.”

“You could make it feel even more like the intermurals by sparring with me,” Aven said, approaching from behind them.

Mark raised a hand, not moving from his table with Elania.

“No,” Aven said. “I’ve already sparred you six times today. I’m bored.”

“What about me?” Cheese asked.

“Absolutely not. You ruin my puppets every single time we fight.”

Cheese harrumphed and returned to staring down at the arena. Aven let out a heavy sigh.

“I’m dying of boredom here, Vale. You put up a pretty good fight against one of my puppets in the intermurals. Fight me.”

Damien and Sylph exchanged a glance.

“Why him specifically?” Sylph asked.

“Because I’ve beaten everyone else in this room. I am completely and utterly bored,” Aven said, rubbing her forehead. “Whisp assigned me to you little brats, but Mark is the only one that actually wants to fight. I want some variety here.”

“Hey, I offered to fight,” Yui said, crossing her arms.

Aven scoffed. “Yeah, except fighting you is a death sentence. No thanks.”

“Why?” Xil asked, frowning. “Is she stronger than Damien or something?”

“Probably not,” Aven replied. “But I’m not trying to get executed by the Queen.”

“The Queen?” Xil’s eyes widened. “What does she have to do with any of this?”

“Moving on,” Yui said quickly before Aven could respond. “If Damien doesn’t want to fight you, what about Sylph?”

Aven studied Sylph. “Mostly because I’ve already fought Damien, and he beat my puppet. That kind of irks me. I want a rematch.”

Do you think she’s playing at something?

“No clue. You won’t let me look for your dad,” Henry replied with a grumble. “Does it matter? If we really try, there aren’t many mages that can pose us a threat. Might as well have some fun.”

“I want a shot before Damien goes,” Sylph said, stepping forward. “If you fight him first, there might not be enough left of you for me to take on after.”

Aven’s eyes narrowed. “That’s bold. I know about how strong he is from Forsad, and that’s nowhere near enough to give me a real challenge.”

Sylph just cocked an eyebrow.

“What she says goes,” Damien said. “You want to fight me, let Sylph have fun first.”

Aven shrugged. “Fine. I was going to get around to her after you anyway, so swapping the order up doesn’t make a difference. Let’s get to it, then.”