~Third Day of School~
Meruin was heading home, supplies in hand. Or in cart, as the case may be. There was a whole cart load of things she needed to bring back, and Meruin was getting increasingly exhausted by having to haul the load over. At the very least, she was close to home now.
Inside her cart were objects that one would be hard pressed to find in huge quantities . . . or in possession of what some would call a little girl.
Raw animal livers, antlers, silver knives of various designs, wooden steaks, a marble goblet, various needles that were and were
not of medicinal use, Flintstones, raw brimstone, concentrated methane, natural oils, a pack of concentrated vanilla, three pounds of deer hearts, three liters of olive oil, and various other strange items.
At the moment, Meruin stopped in front of her dorm. Now was the hard part; hauling the entire thing up to her room. She considered using magic to simply create a platform to bring it up, but was worried that the mana expenditure - though minuscule - would skew her calculations for the ritual. She wanted to start as soon as possible, and she did not need the extra effort.
Lyssa was a tiny bit upset. Iravis may have very well just kicked her out of her dorm after this morning. Permanently.
Mostly because apparently Iravis didn’t like being cuddled while she was asleep. Tsk, really! She was hugging that pillow awfully tight, so maybe she got a little jealous and pulled a little closer.
Ah well. She had bigger concerns for now. Like that bet she made with that…Meruin girl last night while drunk. That girl had Evil Mad Scientist written all over her. Now, she loved mad scientists as much as the next guy, but something about her didn’t sit well with Lyssa. A little nagging feeling that she was gonna try something funny.
And she couldn’t have her bestie roommate Iravis fall victim to any…machinations of some evil scientist. Not at all!~ Hehe~
So, she’d have to do something about that. But how to go about it?...
And just as she was leaving the dorms to form her plan of attack over some delicious cake at Neoka (And conveniently skip classes again for the second day in a row), she found a very good answer!
Meruin had apparently been doing some fairly heavy shopping in the morning. Lyssa wasn’t about to let this chance pass.
“Hiiii Meruin!~” she cheerfully greeted the human upon walking up to her cart.
“Wow you’ve got a lot of stuff here.” She certainly had some…interesting stuff in there. She felt a little nauseous at recognizing bits of animals, but was mostly able to keep her composure and instead picked up an antler.
“You know, if I had horns shaped like this, It’d make me infinitely cuter.” She chuckled. She didn’t ask what Meruin was doing with all of it of course, no. Actively asking to help might seem a little suspicious. Just seeing her with all these…questionable things confirmed her suspicions of this girl being up to no good.
"Hello Iravis," stated Meruin in her same monotone,
"good morning. No, not really. Objectively speaking those antlers would ill suite someone who already has horned appendages."Having said that, Meruin turned to stare at the stares, her mind fixated on how to get her things up without having to use magic.
"Silly, I'm not Iravis." She replied with a giggle, replacing the antlers in the cart.
"It's me, Lyssa! And I do have horned appendages. They're not cute though." She harrumphed, pouting just a bit.
"So what ya doing?" She asked. If Meruin wasn't going to ask for her help, she might as well ask.
Meruin stared at Lyssa for a good few seconds, before realizing it was in fact, not Iravis. Hm, looks like she was a little too focused on the upcoming ritual. Also, her hair was eye-catchingly pink. That must have been a reason as well. Pink was just a lighter spectrum of red, therefore it could be concluded that seeing pink would remind of red and if red was already the predominant thought on the mind then the mind would then replace pink with red causing her to-
"Hm? Oh, you asked a question. Apologies," said Meruin after a solid half-minute of silence,
"I was lost in thought. I am currently figuring out a way to bring my things to my room. Without using magic, preferrably."Should she carry them up one by one? It would take time, but at the very least she would have no need to use magic, but how long would it take and would it be within acceptable time-parameters? Moreover, there was no guarantee that someone would not steal her things while she was bringing them up.
Bring them to her…room?! What the hell was this girl going to be doing up there? Some sort of…satanic ritual or something with all of these things? Well, uh, not like she could really say much about satanic rituals being you know, actually a demon, but – meh, whatever.
“Oh?” Well, she might have well as asked then, so she saw no harm in offering.
“That’s easy! I can help. At least a little. I am pretty strong, after all.” She chuckled.
“I was gonna go eat an unhealthy amount of cake, but if you want some help, I can.”A perfect opportunity to get in her home as well.
The small mage eyed Lyssa suspiciously. While she was normally not object to the demon-girls presence, some of these were very sensitive materials, and she did not strike her as particularly careful person.
"You . . . can help, if you wish," relented Meruin eventually.
"Just try and be careful with some of the materials. Particularly the marble goblet. That was difficult to find and very expensive."Meruin gave Lyssa the instructions to where her dorm room was, and said,
"Just leave the things in front of the door, I'll stay here and guard the rest. Unless you can bring everything upstairs in one trip? That would be most helpful."Well, she offered to help, so Meruin may as well make sure she helped in the most efficient way possible.
"Don't worry, It'll be fine." She replied with a confident grin.
"I'm not a walking disaster or anything." Well, actually she kind of was considering she could basically destroy anything just by touching it, but Meruin didn't need to know that.
"I can indeedy!~" Lyssa replied, grabbing the sides of the cart, and lifting it without much trouble at all.
"I'm stronger than my adorability suggests~" She gave Meruin a flity seeming wink, before starting upstairs to Meruin's dorm.
"According to my studies, most demons are born attractive in order to lure potential contractors and or victims," said Meruin matter-of-factly,
"but still posses incredible strength. It's no surprise."Once in front of her room, Meruin unlocked the door. She wondered if Jocelyn and Reina were here? Hopefully Reina recalled her request to keep her sexual activities outside her room. She would rather not have to clean up after her orgasms.
Lyssa simply giggled at Meruin’s response. Wow, way to kill a girls confidence in her appearance, saying that every one of her kind was equally cute. She said nothing though, and focused on bringing the cart upstairs to Meruins dorm. However, she did make sure to take careful note over the items she could see. She didn't know what all of them were, but she could at least quickly at a glance make an educated guess about the chemical and elemental make up of the objects.
If she wanted too, she could probably just dissolve everything. That'd solve everything quite quickly. If worst came to worst...she could do something she'd rather not, but where would the fun in that be, hmm? Nothing like a good hero thwarting the plan of a mad scientist through the use of her mind!~
"Want me to set this stuff inside anywhere?" She asked once in front of the room. It'd be a good idea to at least get a look at the place, if she could. She had already scored major points here, just finding the place though, so if not she'd leave and...well, sneaky ninja time later that night!~
"My room is the one on the far right," said Meruin, unloading the items from the cart. She was glad that Lyssa was strong enough to bring them up in one trip, and even more grateful that she hadn't broken anything. If she had, Meruin would have demanded payment. Her blood would have been nice; demon blood had some potent effects.
Taking out a silver key with a cat for a design base, Meruin unlocked her room. From Lyssa's angle, there wasn't much to see as the room was covered in darkness.
"Please bring them in here," she said, as she hefted some of the lighter objects inside,
"and please be careful where you step."Lyssa followed Meruin with a smile. She found the dark room a little suspicious, but no risk no reward, right? Besides, fun stuff could also happen in the dark, heh~
“Yep, I’m being careful. Don’t worry so much. Nothing is going to spontaneously combust or anything~” She giggled, making sure to take extra careful steps.
"I was asking you to be careful for your own sake," stated Meruin bluntly. As the two stepped into the room, it's contents became visible.
Seven small animals - a rabbit, a mouse, a dove, a new born ram, a cat, and a pair of lovebirds - nailed to the walls, their blood dripping into silver basins with a single red candle inside, at the foot of their corpses. At the very center of the room, connected to the basins with a fine line of red string, was an intricately drawn circle.
Hanging from the top of the room was what looked like a person swinging from a noose, gaunt face staring in horror at the circle below her.
Meruin turned to Lyssa.
"Please place the things next to the rabbit. I'll take it from there."As soon as she walked through the door, she understood what Meruin meant that it was for her own sake. Ye gods it looked like the scene out of some horror movie. She was fine with dead animals. That didn't bother her that much. What bothered her, was the sight of blood.
"U-uh, n-nice place." She squeaked out, and she attempted to put the cart next to the rabbit, but didn't make it very far.
She dropped the box, possibly damaging a few things in the process. She could feel herself getting sick simply from the sheer amount of blood and dead animals she was seeing here. The only reason she hadn’t when Shikio ripped that guy to shreds, was because she was too shocked to react properly.
She turned around, intending to find her way out of Meruin’s room, but failed miserably.
Instead, she kneeled over, and proceeded to vomit on the floor – conveniently covering a small part of that magic circle.
“U-ugh…S-sorry…” Her voice was incredibly shaky, cracking just a bit.
“Y-you should have…said something…” She shook her head.
“I can’t…blood just makes me sick…” In all seriousness, Lyssa probably should have mentioned her dislike for blood earlier, because as soon as she turned around, Meruin took a knife from her pocket and cut a vein on her wrist, splattering blood all over the rooms center circle.
Lyssa turned to see Meruin right as all the blood came pouring out. Only then did she notice that Lyssa had puked all over the floor.
Meruin frowned, looking slightly peeved.
"Lyssa, could you at least have held it in until you were outside of the room?"A few stray drops of blood splattered on Lyssa as Meruin continued to drain herself of blood - to a point where it was looking a little dangerous.
"No....I couldn't." There was no hesitation at all in her reply.
"And did...you have to do that?" The demon sounded like she was about to puke again, but she managed to keep from doing it for the moment. Instead, she stood up. She really could use some sort of drink at the moment, or rather something to wash her mouth out. More importantly, though.
"Uhm...are you alright?" She asked, voice still a bit shaky.
"You...why did you cut yourself?" It was then the demon noticed the few drops of blood on her, and thankfully most of it had gotten on her clothing. She fowned, trying to shove an unimportant thought out of her head and instead focus on Meruin.
Meruin ignored Lyssa for the better part of a minute, lifting her other, uncut hand as a request for silence. Meruin muttered a few words under her breath, and the circle beneath her came alive with a green glow.
The animals nailed animals began twitching horribly, and their corpses screeched as their trapped souls answered the call of Meruin's blood, following their own trail of crimson liquid down to the filled basin.
Each candle suddenly lit, and the strings on the floor were set on fire.
The hanged body on the ceiling began having spasms, arms flailing about and a hollow moan echoed from its dry lips.
Only afterwards did Meruin reply to Lyssa.
"It was neccessary for the ritual," said Meruin, her face pale white.
"Do not worry, I will be fine. It's what I bought the animal livers for." Taking a deep breath, Meruin turned to look at Lyssa.
"As you can see, I'm rather busy, so if you could please shut and lock the door behind you?" She did not ask her to leave, but at the same time, there was not really much of a choice in the matter, for Lyssa anyway.
Well, what happened next almost made the situation ten times worse for the demon. The twitching, groaning...flowing blood. It was definitely bringing back some memories that were better left buried. If she was being forced to actually fight something, Meruin could very well be on the recieving end of something not so pleasant.
Either way, she was fairly sure some freaky Pythones magic was going on here. A little bit of help in her quest.
The display almost caused her to puke again, and maybe have actually done it on Meruin if she had. She managed to still control it for now, though and focused on what she was here for.
"R-ritual?" She questioned, though she quickly shook her head.
"Uhm, yeah. Just let me rest for a second." She took that time to take another look around the room, taking a mental note of anything that might have been important. A bookshelf in the corner of the room. Looked like it had tons of odd...wards around it? She didn't entirely know. Some odd, very sharp tools on her bed, and box...labeled...corpse storage?!
She suddenly got the feeling she shouldn't linger here.
"Oh, I just realized, you could be of some use," stated Meruin suddenly.
"If you could take the silver knife there - any of the unserrated ones - and leave some of your blood as tribute, that would make things easier."It was a request, really.
Well, as much as she liked keeping her blood in her body where it belonged. The idea could possibly be used to her advantage just a little.
"My blood?" Lyssa groaned, though she gave Meruin a thoughtful look. Hmm...she needed to get as much information as she could from her that she could without trying to arouse suspicioun from Meruin, though she wasn't even sure if the girl was possible of being suspicious. Even so, however, she decided to go for it anyways.
"You...want my blood." She repeated, sounding a bit unsure.
"F-fine...buuut, you have to tell me what sort of magic you can do~" She gave Meruin as friendly of a grin she could manage.
"I'm an Alchimist myself." For all intents and purposes, she was simply appearing to be friendly, attempting to appear like talking was simply helping her recover from this probably somewhat traumatic event.
"Yes, your blood," said Meruin, trying to sound exasperated, but too tired to actually care,
"demon blood. Highly potent. Very useful if used correctly." And another question. Goodness, couldn't she just cut herself and get it over with? Sighing, Meruin covered her open wound with a bandage soaked in . . . some strong smelling liquid, like alcohol except sour.
"Huff, that's done, for now. The next steps will be more difficult . . ." muttered the small mage. Her attention returning to Lyssa, Meruin brandished a knife in what could probably pass as a threatening gesture - if only Meruin looked like she honestly didn't care what for what she was going to do with it.
"Ah, yes. My magic. I've got some measure of skill in Pythones and much more in Prestigae, but primarily, I am an Alchemy mage," she stated with no reservation. Not a lie. While she was most skilled as an Illusion Mage, she rarely saw the need to openly display her skills, and almost always used Alchemy in her daily life.
"So, I've answered your question. Blood?" Meruin again brandished her knife, before looking at it and then back to Lyssa.
"Unless you'd rather do it yourself?"An…alchemist and Prestigae mage? She frowned, only for a fraction of a second. That meant Meruin could do some pretty crafty things. Well, this certainly helped at least, but she’d put the pieces of the puzzle together later.
“N-no.” Lyssa replied, holding out her arm.
“Get it over with, I’ll be fine. As uhm, long as I don’t look at it probably.”Meruin gave a small smile and nodded.
"How nice. Most Demons would be afraid of mages holding their blood on account of the possibility of eternal enslavement, so I suppose I should thank you for how easy you make it." To trust her, she meant, but she was sure that she did not need to know that.
Placing the blade against Lyssa wrist, Meruin cut it in one swift motion, such that the pain didn't even register until half a moment later. As the blood dripped out, Meruin conjured a silver wine goblet and collected it until it was filled.
Lifting the goblet to her lips, Meruin downed a small drop, and closed her eyes. She felt the mana in her body jolt slightly, and her eyes were open again, slightly wider and more energetic - though still dull and bored looking by comparison to other people.
"How unusual. A virgin demoness. I was certain that you had sex with Iravis already," said Meruin, almost sounding surprised.
"Well, it's a bonus for me, so I will not complain." Lyssa only offered a quiet yelp as her wrist was cut. She made sure to look in the opposite direction. It wouldn’t be good for her to get sick again and mess this up.
As blood left her body, she began to feel slightly lightheaded, and only offered a small giggle to Meruin when she commented on her sex life.
“Hehe, Iravis would burn me alive if I did something like that.” She frowned again, still not looking at her wrist, which was still obviously bleeding and would likely continue to for some time.
“U-uhm, can you bandage this?”"Really, you two looked quite close to me." Meruin left Lyssa for a moment to reach into a nearby cupboard. On the top shelf of the cupboard, a whole strew of bloody bandages were carelessly piled on top of each other. On the bottom half, neat roles of clean ones were aligned according to use.
Taking out a clean role, Meruin also swiped a bottle of alcohol.
"Please stretch out your hand over the sink," she said, head tilting towards said sink.
I'll clean the wound then bandage it." "Heh, we're just friends." She replied, watching Meruin walk over to a cupboard. This girl seriously liked blood a bit too much. She would make sure to avoid this house of horrors after she wa done with her business here.
Lyssa stumbled to her feet, keeping her bleeding wrist as far away from herself as possible. The demon moved towards the sink, having a little difficulty but managed to make it and placed her wrist over it.
"She actually may have just kicked me out this morning though, heh~" Though she didn't sound too concerned with it.
Simply nodding in response, Meruin poured the alcohol all over the open wound, then bandaged it. Alcohol generally tended to burn everything - good and bad - but really, that was the beauty of using magic. The small mage handed Lyssa a small vial filled with glowing blue liquid.
"Here, to speed up the healing process. Afterwards, you may leave if you wish," afterwards, Meruin proceeded to the center of the room, sat down with her legs crossed, and closed her eyes. The bodies on the wall and the body on the ceiling seemed to inhale and exhale in concert with her own.
“Ah, uhm, thanks Meruin.” She replied, seemingly unbothered by the burning from the alcohol.
Creepy. If she was in a horror video game, this is when all the bad stuff started happening. At least Meruin had bandaged her wrist well, and even given her something to speed up the healing process. Well, that was nice of her. She maybe even felt a bit bad that she was trying to undermine whatever it was she was doing.
But well, Iravis was her roommate, and she wouldn’t have Meruin tricking her in some manner. Still, she needed to get out of here and get some fresh air for now. She had some things to think about over cake anyways.
“I’ll be leaving then. And uh, if you are summoning Cthulhu, tell him he owes me money~” She giggled, making a small joke though it was unlikely Meruin would get it. After that, she left and headed for the city. She’d attend her afternoon classes later.
As Lyssa left, Meruin muttered,
"C'thulu's not very partial to summoning . . ." And the door shut by itself.
-Night of the Third Day-
After leaving Meruin’s room, the demon made her way to the city, focusing on the thoughts of pastries and other delicious things. She had spent most of the morning eating them, and thinking about what exactly Meruin would attempt to be doing. It was obviously something shady, but she wasn’t sure what.
What she was sure, is that there was no way Meruin could get the actual bow, if it even existed. There was no way she could leave the academy and just find it by chance. Something like that wasn’t possible.
The
obvious method when attempting to trick someone when giving them something valuable, was to make a replica or use some sort of fake something. If Meruin was an alchemist, then it would be easy for her to make a make-shift replica.
Assuming that was what she was even attempting to do. Whatever ritual she was doing was the unknown here. She doubted passing off a regular bow made with Alchemy would be enough to convince Iravis that it was the actual bow. Not to mention, learning what the bow was made of would be difficult and using anything other than that would probably not work.
So she had settled on one thing. She needed more information, so she was going to break into Meruin’s room while she was asleep. She was a little upset it probably looked like she was avoiding Iravis since she had spent most of the day doing other things then hanging out with the phoenix, but it'd pass.
Which was why she was currently outside the door to her dorm. This late at night, she was certain the others were asleep. With a little luck, she could find something that could help her. She'd have to be careful of her other roommates, if she had any, but she was confident in her sneaky ability. It wasn't the first time she had done such a thing, after all.
Meruin was completely zeroed in on the ritual. All of the mana she had managed to gather over the past few days was convalescing towards a single point of the center of the room. The best part was that no one could feel it unless they were inside the room itself - the spirits she had summoned made sure of that.
As an extra precaution to make sure her ritual was not disturbed, she had transmuted the door away. Now, where there was simply a blank, gray wall left behind.
There were three circles aligned in a triangle across the ceiling. As she began chanting, a single circle began lighting up. The body hanging on the ceiling shook slightly. A halo of light locked around its head, and a similar halo locked around Meruin's own.
"Haaaah," Meruin moaned, and her body tensed for a second.
It seemed the animals were taken down, to be replaced by diffirent sigils of Meruin's own making.
Lyssa opened the door to the dorm quietly. She wasn’t wearing her usual attire. Instead, she was wearing a black hoodie with some jeans and some well-worn sneakers. What she was doing with such shady looking clothing, was anyone’s guess.
She moved quietly, for someone like Lyssa who was usually rather loud and not so subtle at all, it’d be rather odd to see her sneaking about. She made her way to Meruin’s room, treading quietly across the floor and careful not to make any noise or alert anyone.
However, when she got there she was definitely surprised. The door had been removed, and replaced with a grey wall. Something to keep someone out? Just what sort of ritual could she be doing in there?
She pressed her ear against the stone wall, attempting to hear anything. She heard what sounded like a muffled moan, and Lyssa briefly wondered if she was just having….fun with a friend, but quickly dismissed the thought.
For now, though, she needed to get a good look in the room. She placed a fingertip on the wall, and activated her magic. She focused, and a small red-ring of magic flashed briefly on the wall. Good, it was made out of some fairly common elements and didn’t give her much trouble.
A small circular section of the wall crumbled, and the demon peered inside. She didn’t have much of a view, but it would do for now.
At this point, Meruin was kneeling on the ground, a long silver sacrificial dagger in hand. Taking a deep breath, the girl plunged it into her heart.
She convulsed for a few seconds before slumping.
An explosion of light erupted, and various green, blue and red wisps of light began dancing around the "corpse" of Meruin, entering and exiting the body at various intervals. A wave of vibrations passed through the room and could be fell through its walls.
Lyssa's eyes widened in shock when Meruin stabbed herself. What...she was thoroughly confused, but she wasn't a Pythones mage, so she couldn't tell what she was doing.
Still, she watched as the explosion of light erupted and began dancing around Meruin's body, a little put off by the vibrating walls but she didn't move. She took note of the various different sigils and open window as well. Perhaps another vantage point she could get to later, if she had too.
Then, the lights dimmed down, and the room went dark. From the darkness, as second person, too shrouded to see clearly, lifted the body of Meruin and laid it on the ground. Taking the knife from her hand, the person proceeded to carve up the body, dividing it into several pieces. Strands of smoke rose up from the open wounds, filling the room with a thickly sweet scent.
The following darkness was a bit unexpected. She couldn't clearly make anything out. She could make out vague shapes, like Meruin's body being moved. A person? No, more likely a spirit of sorts that she couldn't clearly see either. However, what she did know, is what she heard. The sound of a knife carving through flesh, and a thick, sweet scent came from the room.
Her imagination started going to places where it probably shouldn't.
Still, despite that and the darkness, she'd stay just a bit longer. If she couldn't get any more information in the next few seconds or so, she'd leave before she was discovered.
"The first sacrifice is complete." Candles placed around the room lit up, and the figure stepped away from the bloody remnants of meat on the floor, and away from Lyssa's field of vision. The fire from the candles changed from bright orange to a deep blue, and lept from their wicks to surround the "corpse"; circling around it, they slowly but surely approached the offering, and once they touched it, the body burst into flames instantly.
The fire reached an abnormal height, almos two meters tall, and shadows without bodies danced in the background to the tune of the crackling flame.
At the site of the bloody remnants on the floor, Lyssa lost it.
She threw up for the second time that day. She leaned against the wall, trying to stop herself from loosing her footing and completely missing everything that happened after the figure stepped out of her field of vision.
Alright, that was it. She had to leave. She wasn't sure she could watch any longer.
So the demon did just that, and left just as quietly as she came.
A yawn. The sun had been down for a while now, and Iravis felt the last vestiges of it's strength leave her body. The Phoenix was returning from one of her nightly talks with Ali, which of course had gone no where. When she entered the room, she found Lyssa sitting on the side of the bed, with heresy in her lap. The 'laptop'.
"The Sun sets on the world, and you arrive before the moon is high in the sky. Not galavanting with your companions?" Lyssa had decided against doing much today. After the house of horrors that was Meruin's room, she decided to go to classes like a good little adorable demon. So she had spent the day in class, doing her best not to fall asleep. Thankfully, the teachers let her record lessons with her laptop. Most of them, anyways. She did have a better time with watching them later.
She was, however, glad Iravis decided to show up just then. She had a few questions regarding the Bow Of Artemis.
"Hehe, I don't have to go hang out with a friend every night ya know." She replied with a grin.
"Don't want to tire them out, eheh~" She closed what she was doing on the laptop, and closed the device itself moments after and stood up, getting off of the bed, the bandage on her arm clearly visible. The medicine Meruin had given her definitely had helped healing it, but she was still keeping it there for now.
"So, so, I have a thing I wanna ask ya." Iravis noticed the bandage was still there from the previous night. These 'friends' of hers obviously played rough. Still though, they kept the hellion off the Phoenix's back and gave the Goddess a little time to herself. It wasn't that Iravis hated Lyssa, but morso that she just found it difficult to handle the bubbly personality on a constant basis.
"Knowledge and Widsom are two gifts that cost nothing to give." The firebird sat down in one of the desk chairs, giving a sly grin to the 'adorable little demon', a little relieved that the plan for the night wasn't going to be an attempt to teach the ancient woman how to use the blasted magical tablet.
"Alright, so. You know I'm an alchemist." She started.
"And you mentioned the Bow of Artemis the other night, right? I was wondering if you knew what it was made of?" It was more than just idly curiosity, though there was a lot of that too. A weapon supposedly used by some old god? She'd love to find out what it was made of. Not like, in a crazy mad scientist way or anything, of course.
"Like if it's made of anything special."Anything special? The Goddess closed her eyes, raking her memories for information.
Well it was made of ... It never appeared the same in any two different incarnations. Did she rotate between them? Now that she thought about it, the bows Artemis had used seemed to constantly change from being one rare material to another, updating her arsenal over time.
"A bowyer I am not, I only know that the arrows fly true." A few more moments later Iravis decided that Lyssa's question deserved a more fullfiling answer.
"If memory serves me well, as technology shifted her weapons did as well. More than one may be waiting to be found."Well that wasn't the answer she had been hoping for. That meant that a fake could be more easily passed off as the real thing. Troubling, since she was fairly certain that's what Meruin was doing.
"Aww, really? No special properties at all?" She sighed. It made sense, though. Why would something considered a goddess just use one weapon? If she was, a god, she'd use all the weapons she could get her mitts on.
"No unkown element waiting to be discovered or something? Something that could only be created with Alchemy?"Iravis smiled at the demon knowingly. It was always strange to the Goddess how mortals couldn't seem to wrap their minds around the idea that things lied beyond the powers of magic and science, concepts easy to wrap the mind around. Despite being a minor scholar herself, Iravis understood that things lied beyond the knowledge of books.
"Vulcan forged them, Demeter sprouted them from Rhea, and Zeus blessed them. Powers of Alchemy alone would not be able to forge one of them." Iravis didn't think it was neccessary to mention that every time the bow was fired, a little bit of the spirit of the huntress remained.
Well, that helped a bit. That meant Alchemy alone wouldn't be able to make one. That's probably what Meruin was using the Pythones magic for. Hmm...well, she wouldn't ask about that. There was something else that she thought of asking after Iravis' explanation.
"Hmm...would that mean I wouldn't be able to destroy a real one with my deconstruction alchemy?" Iravis looked at the ceiling. That confirmed her suspicions. In all the years she had lived, anytime someone asked something hypothetically including a specific person in a situation, it was because they were thinking about it.
If I asked you to marry me, would you do it? Just curious? If I asked you, would you stay by my side? Just wondering? After a few moments, the goddess made her decision.
"Sharing wisdom is good, but not if the teacher knows it leads to disaster. Sometimes a trip in a desert is neccessary to making one more resilient to a lack of water." "Aww come on Iravis." She pouted, taking a seat on the bed.
"I'm not actually going to destroy one. It's not like I can just go out and find one, and even if I did I'm not that careless." She was honestly a bit confused as to why Iravis would withhold such information. Disaster? What sort of Disaster could that even bring?...well, unless someone had attempted it before and it ended badly. She couldn't figure out how it could possibly end badly, unless it involved some sort of divine wrath and smiting or something. Because that was definitely bad.
Iravis observed the demon. Really LOOKED at her.
This 'adorable little demon' isn't capable of scheming, is she? The previous conversation about an unusued bottle of wine had shaken the phoenix's faith in the world somewhat, but that had probably been a misunderstanding.
"The might of the gods and the power of sorcery tend to balance out. I am not omnipotent, but one who seeks an artifact of heaven would normally employ it to their own causes." Mortals rarely turned to faith or belief until they were desperate. She didn't realize she had likely made the mistake of every tragedy.
"Ehe, thank you!" She replied, almost abit too happy sounding. She wasn't entirely happy with the answer, but it would do. She would assume that someone well trained - much better than she was, would be able to do something like that. Which meant, that no, she could not do such a thing as destroy a real Bow of Artemis. Now all she had to do, was find out what sort of bow Meruin was making. What it was made of...if she could find it, then she was confident she could destroy a fake.
"So so, how about tomorrow morning we cut classes and I buy you a cake? Maybe even try something new?" "Further tribute to your resident Phoenix? I wonder what divine favor you'll request in return..." The red haired girl found herself yawning and heading towards the bathroom to get ready for the night, turning on the bath's warm water.
Feeling quite confident, Lyssa giggled but didn't reply to Iravis. Instead, she was feeling a bit tired herself. She might as well get ready for bed, too and get a pillow before Iravis hogged all of them. She'd take a bath in the morning before their little date~
After taking Iravis to the mall that morning for another 'tribute' Lyssa went off on her own again. She needed to find out what Meruin was making this replica out of. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to really go about that. Obviously Meruin had figured out a way to make one, but how? The only logical conclusion she could come too, brought a shudder to the demon.
it was in a
book.
Of sorts at least. She doubted the information would be floating around on the internet, as powerful as the internet was. She supposed she could also go ask the Director if he knew anything about it. She did want to eventually meet the guy, he seemed like fun, but she'd save that for later.
That meant she was gonna have to go to the vast library, and try not to die of boredom within the first five seconds of walking in. Ah, the things she did for her friends...this might acutally be even worse than that house of horrors that was Meruins room.
So the demon steeled herself, and walked into the Library.
And at that time of the day, the librarian was putting back into their place some books left out of their shelves by unruly students.
"Why can't they be more careful, geez." The
woman said with a sigh.
All eight of her long, spider like legs, moved across the floor, making a sound similar to the cane of an old man hitting the floor.
The woman's blue eyes seemed to be just two at a simple glance, but under her bangs were hidden another two sets of blue eyes, confirming the fact that she was actually an Arachne.
She then heard someone coming into the library, and she was quick to turn to whoever had arrived.
It never ended well, but it just might this time,
"Welcome! What are you looking for?" The arachne turned to Lyssa, steering her big-spider like body towards Lyssa's direction.
Well, whatever Lyssa was expecting from a library, it was not the Arachne in front of her. Most people might have been scared of her due to them finding spiders scary for some reason, but she could never understand that. She always had found spiders cute.
She had always wanted a giant fuzzy spider as a pet, too. She'd name him Maurice.
Seeing the Arachne definitely made this trip to the library less boring. She wasn't going to die of boredom in five seconds, that was certain at least.
"Oh hi!~" She cheerifly replied with her usual friendly grin.
"Are you the librarian?" For once, someone wasn't entirely terrified by her appearance.
This brought a smile to the woman's face.
"Yes! That's me! If you need any book, any book at all, I will get it for you in a flash!" And then, she turned forlorn again as she looked away from Lyssa.
"Nobody ever uses it because they are afraid of me. No one knows the perks of Ari-chan's great library system." Ouch.
Seeing the Arachne look so sad was almost enough to make Lyssa feel a tad bit angry. How could someone that looked so adorable be so feared? She might say Ari-chan was even more adorable then she was, if such a thing was possible.
"Whaa? Afraid? Of you? But you're so adorable." Lyssa replied.
"I don't know, don't ask me." she let her shoulders drop.
"But enough being so sad. What book were you looking for?"She put both of her arms forward, both of them looking black and the tips of her finger looking extremely sharp.
Lyssa frowned, but said nothing else. She almost wanted to hug the spider lady, but well, that might be a bit much. She supposed she'd get onto why she was here then.
"Uhm, I acutally don't know what I'm looking for." She replied.
"I'm looking for anything about the Bow of Artemis, though. Maybe something about how one can be made." "The bow of Artemis, huh? Let me think..." Suddenly, she finally realized what kind of book might hold what the girl needed.
"Ah, yes!"She extended her hand to the side and pulled something. It seemed to be invisible, but if one were to look closely they would be able to see a fine thread that went on and on until it was lost out of sight.
"Oh, and I am Arianne, by the way." She smiled at Lyssa again.
She let go of the thread then and extended her hand to the side. A book landed on her open hand after that.
She opened it and started reading through it.
"Hm, let's see here.... Yes, this is it!" She closed the book then with a loud thud and handed it over to Lyssa, having to bend over some since Lyssa was so much smaller than herself.
"Here, this is the book of Hephaestus. He was the one to forge the bow, and boy, was it a harsh and arduous task to do so. I hope this helps." Lyssa was surprised again since coming to the library. Seriously, were libraries always this much fun and had she been missing out this entire time? Curse those eggheads for not telling her of such wonders before!
“I’m Lyssa!~” She replied with a grin.
“Nice to meet ya.”She watched as the Arachne went about her work, tugging on some small thread she didn't see. Soon after, a book landed on her hand, and she started skimming through it. And if Arianne was right, this was just what she was looking for.
Success! Take that evil mad scientist Meruin!~
With this, she could definitely foil Meruin's plans. Hopefully, this was the same book she learned how to make the replica from. Before grabbing the book though, she perhaps got a little too excited.
"Ahaha, yes yes! This helps a lot!" She reached up, wrapping Arianne in a bref, but tight hug before taking the book.
"Really, thank you!" She was going to have to keep this book from Iravis after their discussion last night, but maybe she could attempt to read it in one sitting here at the library, she was good at memorizing stuff, so it was possible.
"If you don't mind, can I read it here?"A slight blush appeared in the Arachne's face when Lyssa leaned over to hug her. It was... an odd feeling. One she had never experienced before. Most people were afraid of her, after all.
"I-It's nothing, just doing my job." The librarian said, a bit flustered.
Afterwards, Lyssa asked if she could stay to read. Another notion that Arianne most certainly liked.
"Of course! The library is a place to widen your knowledge! Stay for as long as you like! I kind of live here too, so don't worry about closing hours." Hearing this, made Lyssa only more motivated. So she found a seat, and spent the rest of the day doing something she had never seriously done before in her life.
Read a book.
Two nights later, and Meruin had finally completed the ritual. She took a moment to inspect the outcome.
The sleek silver bow in her hand was the fruit of three sleepless days and nights, filled with her blood, mana, and bits of her magic circuits. Three days and three nights of modifying her own personality, cutting out bits of herself as sacrifice, and nearly dying more times than she cared to count.
Looking at the bow in her hand, however, Meruin would gladly admit that it was very, very worth it.
When Iravis had first mentioned her condition, she had considered carefully on how to fulfill it. Admittedly, she did not think it would be so difficult when she had first accepted it, and very nearly came close to failing - closer than she had ever had come to before.
She had agonized over how to obtain the Bow of Artemis for Iravis, and quickly came to the conclusion that finding the bow - the
actual bow - would be impossible. Not only were there several in existance according to the book she received from the Director, but the original one that belonged to the goddess herself had long become lost to the pages of history, with nothing but speculation as to where it was now.
And that was when it hit Meruin, the solution to how to obtain the Bow.
She frowned. It was really just a theory at this point, but a weapon with that much significance to the World, moreover, a weapon that bore the name of a goddess . . .
A smile slowly crept into Meruins little face. A delighted, excited smirk of a smile that expressed nothing but satisfaction.
Yes, that could work.
Why look for the bow, when you could summon it?
Iravis was sure to know a fake from the genuine article, given her apparent age, and since there was no way for Meruin to actually create a forgery good enough to fool her, why bother?
No, she would get Nature herself to forge the bow for her. A forgery made from the original source was a forgery only so long as an original remained, and if the original could not be differentiated from the fake . . . then there was no need for either to
be a fake.
And with that idea in mind, Meruin began drawing up plans and processes, spent countless hours going over every detail until finally, she managed to summon that which she held in her hands now.
"It's perfect."
