The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (52 page)

“
Hellfire is a
somewhat difficult concept for magic, as there is not currently a
single rune to define it. It is a combination of Darkness, Flame, and
Soul. These runes together and in the proper order form the
foundation of hellfire. When you add on the Blast rune at the end, it
becomes a Hellfire Blast spell. The chant is also a bit longer.
Spirits of the pit, fires from the world beyond, fuel my wrath and
sever the living.” As I spoke, in smaller letters I had the
chant written on the paper as well.

Levy studied it for a
couple minutes, mouthing the words while staring at the rune. “Okay..
I think I got it.”

“
Not yet, there’s
one other thing. This won’t be as severe to you most likely,
since you’re a demon, but special schools of magic like
Infernal require one last step.” I laid the piece of paper down
in front of me as I began my explanation.

“
When I was learning
earth magic, I had to learn to understand the stone. When I was
learning nature magic, I had to understand the world around me.
Likewise, to use infernal magic, I had to come to understand Hell
itself. Before you can cast an infernal spell, think carefully. What
is Hell? What are demons? If you can answer those questions, the
magic will come naturally to you.”

Though saying all of this
to a demon may seem ridiculous, Levy nodded patiently, taking in
every bit of information I was willing to give him. “Okay, I’ll
give it a try.” When he turned around, he aimed his hand at one
of the stone fences around the houses of the nearby street. “Spirits
of the pit, fires from the world beyond, fuel my wrath and sever the
living.”

Black and red flame rose
up from Levy’s shoulder, traveling along his arm to form a
small orb in front of his hand. At the spell’s completion, the
orb launched out, impacting the fence and creating a large scorch
mark. Even after the spell ended, the black flames clung to the fence
for several long moments before finally dissipating. Happy that it
worked, Levy fired another two blasts in rapid succession at the same
spot, until a small hole was formed in the stone fence.

So that’s the
power of Hellfire…
Since I had been
holding back my demon magic, I had never gotten the chance to use
most of my infernal spells. However, with Levy’s limited mana
pool, after the third shot he was breathing heavily. “Alright,
rest here for a bit until your magic recovers. Otherwise you’ll
just pass out and lessons will end here for the day.”

He nodded to my
suggestion, sitting down as his mana slowly restored itself. Just
recovering from being so depleted, his Mana Pool and Mana Recovery
levels each went up by two. Once his breathing had evened out, I
began the explanation for the next step. “Okay, your progress
is great so far. I think we can safely move on to the next spell,
Hellfire Aura.”

Figuring that he had until
my explanation was over to finish recovering magic, I manifested
another piece of paper. “After explaining the spell, I’m
going to demonstrate it for you.” A runed circle, more
complicated than the one I used for enchanting, appeared on the now
blank piece of paper in front of me. “Study this carefully.
Getting the pattern wrong could cause the spell to fail, or even
worse to backfire.”

He began moving to pick up
the paper, but I stopped him with a motion of my hand. “Sorry,
but anything I manifest by my magic can’t be directly used by
anyone else. You’ll have to look at it where it is.” He
nodded to me as I stood up, stepping by and closing my eyes. Though I
went through all of this explanation about runes and diagrams, there
appeared to be an auto-assist feature that helped foreigners perform
their known spells. All I personally needed at this point was the
chant and the spell’s name.

“
Spirits of the pit,
fires from the world beyond, become the shield that holds your fury.”
Starting from my feet, I could feel a heat rising. When I opened my
eyes, my legs were already shrouded in black and red flames. Those
flames kept traveling up my body, covering my torso, arms, and
finally my head. Holding out my hand, I opened my palm and noticed
that the aura formed claw-like shapes from my fingers. I’m sure
that if I saw myself from an outside perspective there would be other
changes as well.

Levy was watching with
wide-eyed amazement as the spell activated. Surprisingly, its mana
drain was actually higher than my natural recovery, though not by
much. I’d have to keep the spell on for nearly a half hour to
deplete my reserves. After several minutes of studying the diagram,
and with it his Magical Knowledge rising two more levels, Levy backed
away from the paper and began his own chant.

When Levy finished, I saw
the change from an outside perspective. Though, it likely was
different between a beginner casting it and me, since my spell was
technically Advanced rank. Starting from his feet, he was covered in
the same black and red aura as I was. When it reached his tail, the
tail seemed to become longer. When it reached his horns or wings,
they seemed to grow slightly as well. By the time it was finished, he
looked like a splendid demon, really quite menacing.

“
Did it.. did it
work?” He asked hesitantly, looking over himself while his
levels continued to rise again.

“
It did. Go ahead
and cancel the spell.” I did so at the same time I said it, and
when Levy cancelled the spell a message appeared in front of me.

“
I feel strange..”
I could hear Levy say from in front of me, wobbling slightly side to
side before falling to the floor.

Oh, unholy shity!
“Message, Lilith! Drop what you’re
doing and get down here. Share sight with me as soon as you can!”
This was enough to be considered an emergency, and she didn’t
hesitate to agree. In under ten seconds I felt the same irritation on
my eye as before, Lilith sharing my vision and seeing both the pop up
and Levy’s condition.

Just a moment later she
appeared next to Levy, cradling him in her arms. “The evolution
is being held back forcefully! You’ve got to hurry up and pick
one!” Given the current situation, Lilith was quite frantic as
well. The problem was that I didn’t know any magic specific
demon races!

“
Okay, fine, sorry
if this goes wrong.” With no other option clearly visible, I
chose the Bonded Acolyte as the desired evolution. Immediately,
Levy’s body was bathed in another Hellfire Aura, except I
didn’t think this one was from any spell. First, Levy shifted
into the obvious appearance of a woman, with paler skin that almost
looked human. Then, her size rapidly increased until she was about
four and a half feet tall. All in all, she looked like a teenage
human girl, but with pitch black eyes, a tail flicking back and forth
behind her, and a black rune etched into her forehead.

Lilith blinked at the
change, but since Levy had stopped struggling and settled down, it
was clear she wasn’t in any pain. “Is… she a
Reborn?” Given the change in size, all of Levy’s former
clothes were shredded, leaving her naked in Lilith’s embrace.

Lilith looked over to me
wide eyed as she saw the messages appearing through the shared sight.
“..Bonded Acolyte? And… master? Tell me you didn’t
know about that…”

“
I swear to you I
had no idea what that race was. I didn’t know any other
options, so I just picked it.” I sighed, looking down. From the
corner of my eyes I saw Lilith nod.

“
No, I believe you.
I didn’t tell you what to choose, so there was no way of
knowing. Typically, the next evolution for the magic path would be a
Scroll Fiend, but you haven’t met any yet so there was no way
for you to know that. Just.. promise me you won’t take
advantage of that bond?”

“
I won’t. I’ll
even let her stay here in Hell so that there is no risk of something
happening because of it. I take it.. you’re related?”
Lilith nodded slightly, looking down to Levy.

“
I guess you could
call her my daughter. Demons aren’t born through sex like other
races. When we gain enough power, we can crystallize some of our own
essence, which later develops into an imp. Family doesn’t have
the same meaning to us as other races, but they are still a part of
us. Perhaps more so than with others.”

“
I see, I’m
sorry that this happened. I just thought she was learning really fast
and would evolve on her own. I never expected to have to choose what
she turned into.”

“
I know. If there
was a warning like that in the message you received when you took her
as a student, I would have warned you in advance. But still, I can’t
help but feel proud of her, you know? I mean, just looking at the
growth she achieved. Some of her abilities are even close to your
level. Can you imagine if a foreigner trained a large group at once?”

“
Thinking about it
objectively, I don’t think it would work out that well. I’m
pretty sure that if I took on two students at once, their growth rate
would be half of Levy’s.”

“
Ahh, yes. That
would make sense too. So, a classroom wouldn’t train that much
faster than with a normal instructor. I wonder what her next
evolution will be? You know that we don’t just get one, right?”

“
Yeah, I talked
about that last night with another demon. Levy should at least have
one more form, according to what I heard.”

“
Exactly. But when
that time comes, hopefully you won’t be needed to dictate the
evolution. We might not be able to bring you back here in time before
the damage becomes irreversible.”

“
I understand. I’ll
stop teaching her immediately. With her increase in skills, she
should be able to learn any of the spells I know simply by reading
about them in a book, so there is really nothing left to teach
anyways.”

I mentally confirmed it,
and the message disappeared. Lilith nodded again, smiling a bit.
“Thank you. A Bonded Acolyte huh?” She suddenly started
laughing. “Even I’ve never heard of such a ridiculous
thing.”

“
It’s alright.
From what the message said, it seems to be entirely a one sided
relationship.” I smirked to her, and she looked at me,
confused. “She can hear my voice, know my condition and
location, and appear before me at will. However, if you remember it
didn’t really say that she had to listen to anything I said,
did it? I think the ‘master’ relationship is meant to be
one of trust, not a forced pact.”

Lilith blinked, and then
grinned, finally letting out a heavy laugh. “I see! Yes, that
would seem to be the case. Well, if it’s just that then it’s
fine. You should know, there is really only one law to be upheld
within Hell. Never remove a person’s ability to decide
something for themselves. Even if it was you, a forced pact like that
would have become a difficult situation. But if she can still make
all of her own decisions, then there is no problem.”

I nodded to her. “When
she wakes up, let’s test it. You tell her to absolutely not do
whatever I tell her, and then I tell her to do something like hop on
one foot or clap her hands. Naturally, you as the Demon Queen have
the greater authority between us. So as long as she doesn’t do
what I say it’ll be alright.”