"Sacrifices?" Doevm laughed. "Why would I need any of those?"

"It's what you dark mages do," Elero insisted, her downcast expression fading by the second. "Don't try to deny it. The War Mages have told the world about what your kind does. When they find out where you-"

"I haven't sacrificed anyone in centuries," Doevm sneered, interrupting her rant. "Dark magic is not evil like the War Monks say. It is simply the opposite of holy magic. One can do the most evil, vile things with holy magic and the most heroic acts with dark magic. It is all dependent on who wields it, or in the case of the War Mages and us so-called heretics, it is a matter of which group is better at covering up their atrocities or even stooping so low as to lie to the public via establis.h.i.+ng a false-righteous hypocritical religion that only serves to impede the..."

He took a breath and imagined cleaning another book. "My dark magic will be used to heal you." He held out a hand and a layer of black mana formed around it, like a black mist.

Elero took a step back, nearly falling over her own bed: "I said I'd help you already. Just get that away from me or turn it off!"

Doevm sighed and pulled his mana back into himself. "I guess not everyone is as malleable as Arthur regarding their beliefs. I cannot a.s.sign any blame to you though, since it's difficult to overturn the decade of lies that the War Monks fed you and everyone else in this country. I do not have the time to teach you right now, but you will learn the truth eventually." He stretched his hand forward, intending to help Elero up from the bed.

"I can get up on my own," Elero said as she scooted away. She tried to stand up, but her gears got caught in the bed sheets. She cursed, pulled her rapier out, and slashed at them before taking a few more steps away from Doevm. "Just tell me what you want from me."

"First, I want you to calm down," Doevm said, making his voice quieter by the second. "Take a few breaths. I am not going to ask for much. Within an hour, I am going to complete a spell. After I do so, mages will swarm this building and come looking for me. You just need to distract the magic academy's mages while I run. That is all. I will find you after everything is done and try my best to heal you, if I'm still alive."

"Fine," Elero said, practically leaning against the wall. Despite her words, she held out her rapier. Its tip shook like the rest of her body.

"Put that thing away," Doevm hissed. "You said you would do what I want. You made your choice. Now sit down." He put hand on his forehead. 'Maybe I should have gone to Frey or Thomas, but they don't need to know about my powers, and I don't have the time to find their rooms. If it's her, I gain a follower and I can keep my secret. She most likely a.s.sociates me with evil, just like how she thinks of her brother. It will be hard to regain her trust but I am out of options.'

Elero hesitated before putting the rapier back into her s.p.a.cial ring. "Good," Doevm said. "Now here is the plan. The entire Capital is currently at risk." He told her about the Black Market, what was stored there, and that the Resistance was currently heading down to its tenth floor. After, he filled her in on the connection between the Resistance and the creatures, what they were, and the new weapons known as "guns".

As he talked, he pictured cleaning the books, finding that he could act and "clean" at the same time. His world went from black and white to color. He sent a basic healing spell down his body, fixing the st.i.tched flesh and restoring some of the blood he had lost. "If we don't stop what is going on, there won't be a welcoming ceremony tomorrow. The entire Capital will be destroyed by creatures. The kingdom will fall."

"I don't understand," Elero said. "if the Resistance is serving the Black Market, then how come they are invading it?"

"The Resistance simply takes on the Black Market's missions and collect the rewards. They are not the Black Market, just affiliated with it. If their relations.h.i.+p were anything more than that, then this county would have been taken over already."

"Whoever owns the Black Market owns the country, and right now, the n.o.bles are in power. The king is but a figurehead. That is why the royal family has never fallen. They have never truly ruled. The king only acts in a strict manor because he is commanded to."

"but the Resistance is peaceful," Elero shook her head. "Just a dozen or so hours ago, they were doing a march. They didn't have these "guns" or creatures. They were simply people."

Doevm handed her a note, the one he had found at the first floor of the Black Market: "This note details the Resistance purchasing supplies from the Black Market: elixirs and weapons made by Kilot and the Virility household. I doubt that the suppliers even know who their products are going to. It was all preparation for the attack tonight."

Elero's hands shook at the note. She held her head and leaned back against the bed as her world spun. "Ok," Elero said. "But why not just tell me how I can help instead of all of this other stuff?"

"Because I need you to understand," Doevm said. "That you are involved in this. You can help take down the Resistance. If you should fail me, it won't just be your legs that are at risk. After a coup, the first to go are usually the n.o.ble families that had been supporting the current government. Your family is on that list of targets. It is in your best interest to help me."

"What is so valuable that it requires so much effort and human lives?" Elero had to sit down, her eyes tearing up again. "This is horrible. The n.o.bles own the Black Market, the Resistance is using such violent measures, the king doesn't rule, everything is covered in a veil of lies. I-I don't even know how to react to all of this. What is on the tenth floor, an ancient spell, a miracle, or maybe a weapon?"

"A crystal," Doevm said. "And it isn't an ordinary one. It is clear, like gla.s.s. I never got the chance to realize why it was so valuable until a year ago, when I found something that even the G.o.ds fear. I won't tell you everything but know that humans turn into creatures when their gla.s.s-like necklace shatters."

"My current theory is that the bigger the gla.s.s-like material, the more one's power is amplified. That crystal, which is stored on the tenth floor, is as big as this room. That is why I am so certain that the Resistance does not have it. I want to keep it that way."

"So what's the plan?" Elero asked. "How are we supposed to go take on an entire army of freaks, guns, and men? Just the two of us?"

"Not we," Doevm said. "You are not going near that place. In fact, you are going to run the opposite direction while misleading the mages. I am just going to dig a hole with the skeletal arm, walk in, and beat them."

"That's it?" Elero asked, raising an eyebrow. "just you? G.o.ddess, are you the only thing that can help?"

"No," Doevm laughed. "I never fight alone. I'll get the kingdom's troops to back me by order of the king. I think I'll even get Alexander Finlish to help as well."

"How?" Elero asked. "I thought you were just a little crazy, but you're completely nuts. Stop this madness now. That note is probably something you faked to convince me otherwise. You are clearly in a state of distress because of that cursed magic. Just look what happened to you in front of my doorway. You almost bleed to death. Just turn yourself in and maybe the War Monks can fix you."

"Magic does not corrupt the mind," Doevm said. "Power does. Even the pursuit of it has driven many insane, me included at one point in time. Now, however, my mind is clearing up. I can see what I must do."

"Your mind is just to fogged up to realize the truth of my words. Remember what you stand to gain out of all of this, your legs. Just sit back and get ready to play your role in all of this." Doevm said as he sat down and shut his eyes.

"And now, I need to prepare my attack. I need to focus." He reached deep inside of himself, peering at his mana. Most of it had come back with time, but not all. 'I think I have just enough. I won't be able to do any other spells after this one, at least not for a while.'

Just before he dove into deep concentration, he condensed his soulmana and applied it to his voice. "When the time comes, distract the mages for me. Nod if you understand."

Elero nodded, her eyes widening a bit.

'Wait, soul magic does work on her? If that is the case, why did she say that she learned how to fight by herself earlier? I'll think about it later. I can come to a steady conclusion after she does the rest of what I have asked, when there is additional proof that my soulmagic worked on her.' He looked at the rows and rows of bookshelves inside of his head. In the hour that he had already spent cleaning, he wasn't even done with a quarter.

He glanced over to the biggest book of them all, where the memory of Hopi went. It took up the majority of the s.p.a.ce, and his rag was so small. 'I'll just leave that for later,' Doevm thought. 'There is no way I can clean that right now and stay calm.' He looked to all the other, smaller books. 'Time to get to work.' He raised his rag and pulled another book from the shelf. Meanwhile, Elero was still sitting on the bed, staring at the note in her hands hoping that its contents would change, or that this was some sort of nightmare.

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