A Bored Lich

"There's two boys and a girl with him," Jersin explained.

Doevm froze. 'I thought father and I had slaughtered everyone who knew about the map. How did that demon find out about it? No matter, he'll just fall before me. I've fought armies thousands of times, and this will be no different. All I need is magic. It'll be a boring win.'

"I need details," the demon insisted. "This place is full of people my age. Taking the heads of every brat I see will take all day."

Jersin let out a pained groan: "My observation spell won't last much longer. The first boy is huge. He's got long brown hair tied into a man bun. He uses a mace and a shield. The other boy is Lord Virility's kid. He's got blonde hair, chubby, and looks like a fresh corpse. Lastly is a girl with jet-black hair, deformities all along her legs, and twin rapiers." He paused. "What were they doing in Mage's Shadow? I've never seen them before."

'They must have come for me,' Doevm thought with an expression that was both a smile and a frown. 'It's been two weeks. That means Thomas should have shown side-effects of the resurrection process. If that happened, then Frey would have explained to Thomas and Elero who and what I really am. He wouldn't have been able to keep them together otherwise. They still came anyway, all three of them. Those fools.'

The world went blurry with tears, and he cursed under his breath. 'Those fools! Those friends of mine rushed into a battlefield over a pathetic whelp like me! There's an army between us, don't they realize that? I can raise an army of my own but I need to regain my mana first. That takes time that I don't have.'

The demon laughed: "So they're heading up here from this "Mage's Shadow" place? Interesting. That's extremely interesting! Finally things are going my way, and the best part is that there's no hero to stop me!" His shrill cackle pierced through the sounds of battle.

"Can you please let me go now?" The laughter stopped. A snap rang out, immediately followed by a wet slap. Olpi and Menla crouched down, unable to look any more. Their faces were painted with matching shades of green. They swallowed the vomit down, and waited as a single pair of footsteps faded.

Since the pain had gone down, Doevm pulled himself just enough to peak his head around the rubble. He, Menla, and Olpi had been hiding in the corner of a small classroom - the left side of which was just scorched dirt from the Reach. The right side of the classroom, where a cracked, crystalline board had tipped over an instructor's study desk, had nothing but torn notes.

There were few among the dead without blackened skin to distort their facial features, but Instructor Jersin was not among them. Doevm's attention was drawn to the brown robe lying in a pool of fresh blood splatter, vaguely humanoid shaped. It was as if Jersin had been beaten via bludgeon into a paste.

"The demon didn't even use a spell," Menla kept whispering even though the demon was out of sight. "He didn't even move yet instructor Jersin just...exploded. I'm not complaining. Jersin deserved it, but can all demons do that?"

She lowered her head so that Olpi couldn't see the sadistic smile that had crept onto her lips, nor the red that had flashed in her eyes. Since Doevm was on the ground, he could see her expression clear as day, and she could see his expression. She could see his smile, much wider than her own. He lay in the middle of a battlefield smiling. 'I'm out of magic,' he thought. I lost a leg. That demon is going to kill my friends if I don't stop him. If I don't give my all, I'll lose everything. This is it. A fight like this is what I reincarnated for.'

As the hate-filled dwarf stared at Doevm's inhumane expression, filled with raw, malicious intent, the root of her demonic influence shuttered and crumbled. She fell to the ground, trembling. Doevm raised a hand, grabbed the rubble, and propped himself up. "Are you alright?"

Menla nodded again and again and again. "Yeah I'm fine. I'm perfectly fine. Why wouldn't I be fine? Ok let's go get the Demis."

Doevm and Olpi exchanged a look. "Menla," Olpi said. "The demon is gone. We should plan before we rush in. Take deep breaths, remember?" Menla nodded and did as she was told.

Doevm turned to Olpi: "The demon did not use magic or physical means to kill instructor Jersin, is that right? There's only one demon that can do something like that." He didn't bother whispering. If that demon had heard the three, they would have been dead already.

"You didn't even see him," Menla practically shouted.

Doevm slowly turned towards her: "Calm down." He added a bit of soulmana to quell the distraction. "That may be true but I know more than most, child. There is only one demon that can kill people without magic or life essence, and that's the Demon King."

"So that was him?" Olpi gasped. "But he looked to be about your age. What's he doing here?"

"Well he mentioned a map," Menla said, having completely recovered from her previous shock.

Doevm waved a hand at her: "Not important. The hero has his unique ability of pulling energy. The demon king has his: pushing energy. For a mage, the Demon King is the worst possible opponent, but it's still possible to defeat him." Olpi and Menla were quietly listening, yet Doevm knew he was pushing it. A typical student shouldn't know the things he spoke of. "I need both of you with me. I need help. I want to gather the Demis and fight the Demons."

Olpi sighed and shook her head. "Cerlius, we can't fight an army at our level. Just because your room was broken into doesn't mean you have something to prove to yourself."

Doevm cocked his head to the side. "My room? Oh yes, there was a break-in at the academy."

It was Olpi's turn to cock her head to the side. "Aren't you planning to fight because you couldn't before? I'd be mad if someone broke into my room, assuming I had one."

Doevm grabbed the sides of his head and sighed: "No, I need both of you to listen to me."

"I'm trying to say that we need to run," Olpi said. "But you won't listen to me either."

"I remember," Doevm blurted out. "My name is-"

Demonic screeches drowned out his name, and three winged shadows emerged from the mist. Red, armed, and oozing bloodlust, the trio of demons rushed in with a thunderous warcry.