As Zoe was still reeling from her shock, everyone else was busy dealing with this whole messy revelation as well. “Wait, how did you all figure out she was a Demon?” Lily asked.


    The answer turned out to be rather—lame. “Lord Darius told us,” Millie grunted. “No idea how he figured it out, though. By the way he was talking he figured it out before he even arrived.”


    Lily turned to the old, hideously smug-looking man. “How did you figure it out?”


    “I guessed.”


    What?


    “What?” Lily looked incredulous. “How in the damned abyss did you guess?”


    Shrugging, Lord Darius started ticking some points off on his fingers. “So one of you is an Acolyte of Faith, and he detects a strong infernal presence that suddenly disappears. Then, a strange, blood-covered woman passes out in the same room as you, revealing herself from some form of invisibility in the process. Let’s see—she says she was a victim of an infernal cult, but she escaped—somehow.”


    Pausing, Lord Darius raised an eyebrow. “None of you thought anything of this? When you also found her in a barren, uninhabited wasteland full of infernal-aligned monsters?”


    At this point, Lily’s mouth was just hanging open. If anything, Andric looked frustrated—and the aforementioned acolyte of faith Sean had a ponderous look that was hard to read. As for Millie and Arthur though—the enchanter and archmage almost looked pleased.


    “Told you so,” Millie whispered as she elbowed Arthur in the side. Then she faced Lily. “I had no idea you were actually a Blodmane.”


    And with that, the tension that had been steadily draining skyrocketed to record levels. Arthur and Sean both groaned, Andric looked angry, and Lily—Lily looked like she had frozen stiff. Zoe could practically see the loading icon spinning above her head as the ice-mage failed to process the statement.


    Zoe didn’t have any idea what that actually meant—but all the different reactions told her it was some sort of big deal—and that means I should pay attention. She tried her best to note each and every one of their reactions—including Lord Darius, who seemed to be holding back a smirk—almost successfully.


    That confirms it, Zoe thought, this guy is an absolute troll. She’d have to watch out for any disasters he could wreak upon her without warning.


    “I don’t think we’d be able to stop him,” Lilith commented, “at least not anytime soon.”


    Yes, Zoe was well aware of that. She hadn’t even bothered to try using identify—there was no point to repeat the pain she remembered from failing to identify the cultist chief. By watching out, she meant being prepared for shit to go sideways because of him. Inevitability did not preclude the ability to handle things with grace.


    Arthur was the first one to try to speak—and Lord Darius leapt in the very instant he tried. Zoe’s eyes widened a bit. He was literally waiting for when he would try to explain something.


    “Arthur here revealed that little secret to us,” Lord Darius said, his tone far more serious than the faint sparkle in his eye. “I admit I found myself surprised, but I fail to see how such a revelation could change the dynamics of our arrangement.” He raked his gaze across each and every one of them as he said that.


    When his gaze settled on Arthur, the archmage did nothing to hide his own glare.


    “Well he looks pretty pissed,” Lilith remarked. “I wonder what that’s all about.”


    _____


    Arthur was pissed. He stuck close by Millie on their retreat back to the coast—if only because getting too close to anyone else would be worse. Lily was still all distraught-looking, Andric looked like he wanted to kill him, Sean looked oddly conflicted, and the other two were blighted Demons.


    The ‘healer’ they’d ‘rescued’ turned out to be a shape-shifting, status-obscuring Demon of disdain, which was pretty fucking fun. Worse than that though, their technically-Human sponsor proved once again to be a sadistic psychopath hell-bent on the advancement of Human suffering. Hell, at least the real Demon bothered to actually heal us.


    With that thought, the archmage snuck yet another glance at the Demon. The form she took was—quite pretty. Arthur didn’t normally think that way—but that aspect was exceptional enough in this case to warrant particular notice. It was to the point where he would have worried about it, had she been a Demon of joy.


    Disdain, though? Arthur could work with Disdain. The archmage smiled to himself—if Lord Darius is going to ruin my plans for Liliana, maybe I should get closer to this Demon after all.


    It had been far too long since he’d made meaningful progress in his research.


    _____


    Zoe was pretty sure that the archmage guy had been eyeing her for a while. That was annoying, but she was more focused on the unexpected quest reward.


    [ELEMENTAL AWAKENING CORE—BLOOD]


    She’d forgotten about the quest until she killed a ghoul and got notified about it. They were currently all trekking back towards the beach—but no one seemed like they were in a mood to talk.


    Well—that guy Arthur looked like he might be interested in talking to her about something. Zoe didn’t want to talk to him though. She wanted to congratulate herself for her lovely reward.


    The core was an asymmetric, flat-cut gem. It was—surprise—a deep, blood-red color. About the size of a walnut, it would have easily fit in a pocket. Fortunately, it instead went straight into her internal inventory. Zoe didn’t have any real pockets right now.


    “I do kind of wonder what the deal with that archmage is,” Lilith said. “Maybe we should go ask him.”


    Don’t care, Zoe thought back. She didn’t want to talk to people under ordinary circumstances—so she definitely didn’t want to talk to someone who wanted to talk to her. Especially when that person is a wizard who has been eying me weirdly ever since everyone found out I’m technically some kind of Demon.


    “You know, that sounds like exactly the time you should figure things out by talking,” Lilith pointed out. And the imaginary nuisance did have a point—but Zoe still didn’t care.


    Okay so how do I use this awakening core thing? I want to bind it to vitality. That seemed like the extremely obvious thing to do. Zoe’s entire—everything was related to blood, and vitality was like the stat for that. It was so obvious Zoe almost worried she was missing something and then started over-thinking it. But—nope, I’m pretty sure this is literally the best thing to do here. Otherwise she’d be really stupid. Wait, am I being really stupid here?


    Laughter resonated throughout her mind. “By over-thinking things, yes. The correct path towards advancement is typically obvious, once revealed. The most certain way to screw up your advancement is to doubt yourself and over-think things.”


    Ah, that was good to know. Zoe would go ahead and bind the gem to vitality. Reaching her mind towards its place in her inventory, she prepared to start—then paused. Wait, is this going to be an intense thing like the evolution was?


    It wasn’t. Lilith assured her that the first four elemental awakenings were quick and painless. “The fifth is the one to be prepared for,” the apparition lectured to her while floating in the air ahead.


    Right then. Zoe extended her mental touch. She wasn’t sure how to go about it, not at first—but the gem responded to her touch. No—it wasn’t her touch—it was her intent. A spark of power sizzled where her mind, spirit, or whatever it might be brushed against it.


    You are eligible to awaken the element: Blood. Do you wish to proceed?


    Yes. A new message from the system arrived as Zoe confirmed that she wanted to continue.


    5 core stats are eligible for elemental awakening:


    Perception


    Power


    Acuity


    Durability


    Vitality


    Choose a core stat with which to awaken the element: Blood.


    Zoe selected Vitality.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    You have chosen to awaken Vitality with the element: Blood. Do you wish to proceed?


    Zoe nearly rolled her eyes at having to repeatedly confirm her choices here—but thinking about how important this probably was made her rethink that. It could be a lot worse for the system to commit to permanent changes without asking. Still, she went ahead and willed her answer to be yes.


    Your Vitality has awakened to Blood.


    Zoe blinked. There was a brief sensation of something rippling down towards and back out from her core—it was faint, and the vibrations dampened to silence before she’d fully registered them. Is that it?


    “Well yes, but—no, not really, to be honest. It’s finished, and we won’t have to do anything more than that,” Lilith explained. “But you’ll slowly notice some big changes to our skills the next time we use them.”


    That made Zoe want to immediately test everything out. But she was a mature, self-disciplined young woman. She was fully capable of controlling her impulses.


    The mad cackling of a would-be body snatcher echoed against the walls of her mind as she thought that. Zoe tried to push the mind-reading Demon she’d been saddled with away. There was nothing funny about that—but for some reason, the cruel phantom only laughed harder when she tried to protest.


    _____


    “I sense that you’d like to ask me something.”


    Zoe thought for a moment. “Yes, I do.” It was almost dawn, and she was standing at the front of the ship with Lord Darius beside her. The bow? Zoe knew that starboard was right and port was left, but she didn’t remember what was the front and the back. She could probably ask the man beside her—but that wasn’t to know right now. “Why are you helping me?”


    She thought it was a sensible question. For all his cruel trickery, the lord she’d since confirmed to be a wealthy Rank A alchemist had been a net benefit towards her. He certainly could have killed her for being a Demon. There was nothing she could do to stop him.


    Lilith was of the opinion that it was a combination of a power play with a larger ambition they had yet to understand. “Casually helping us at the same time he blatantly reveals our nature is a message,” the apparition claimed. “To him, we’re a piece on the board of a game far bigger than us—and he’s telling us to play along.” Just what that game might be—well, neither of them had any idea.


    There was another possibility, though. Maybe he just thinks dragging a Demon around is going to be funny. Lilith didn’t think that was very likely, but Zoe did. He seems like the type to do that—especially with how untouchable he seemed.


    Now though, as the small yacht skipped southward over the black waves and away from the frozen wastes—well, this might be just the time to find out. Glancing down at Zoe, the elderly alchemist let loose an undisguised smirk. “Because it’s probably going to be really funny.”


    Zoe blinked. Then she grinned. Ha! I told you so! She still didn’t trust this guy—but screwing around under the protection of a strong, wealthy, and influential sponsor sounded like a sweet deal.


    “He could literally just be lying to us, you know.” Lilith, ever the voice of negativity, did not sound too convinced. Zoe thought that was a bit silly though—either he killed her or he didn’t. There wasn’t much point in worrying about his long-term ambitions right now.


    That being said—she should still fish for a little more information here. But how to ask? Eh, screw it. “Care to elaborate?” she asked.


    “It would be my pleasure.” Removing both hands from the pockets of his royal-blue coat, Lord Darius leaned forward on the deck railing. “I’m a well-known Rank A. You can count the number of us in Norvask on two hands. Most of them are weaker. It’s been a long time since I reached that rank, and I’ve done, seen, and been a lot of things since then.”


    It sounded like he was having a deep, emotionally vulnerable moment here. Zoe was particularly interested in what he said about the number of Rank A people though. Less than ten in this ‘Norvask’ place they were going—that wasn’t many. She didn’t know how big of a place it was, but either way that was still exceedingly rare.


    “Yes, not many people hit Rank A. Those who do are almost always well-known by name in a region,” Lilith supplied. “And before you ask, I have no idea what Norvask is. From what we’ve heard though—and factoring in the direction we’re going and all that—I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a small, rich, coastal kingdom.”


    That sounded like a weirdly specific thing to be able to guess—Zoe supposed they would see if Lilith was right soon enough. It was nearly dawn, and Darius’s mana-powered yacht was clipping along far faster than Zoe thought it had any right to. There was something deeply insulting about high-speed ships in the same world as sword-wielding assholes in full-plate.


    _____


    Sure enough, the first visible buildings of Verdanport crept over the horizon just a half hour after the sun had properly risen. Zoe didn’t end up sleeping at all. She physiologically couldn’t, since becoming a Demon. Sure, she could meditate or something stupid like that—but she was a bit wound up from the events prior.


    Everyone else, aside from Lord Darius, had allegedly slept for at least a couple hours. They’d apparently entered Norvask almost exactly at sunrise. And it looked quite different than where they’d come from. While the air wasn’t exactly warm, it wasn’t exactly chilly either. Trees along the coast looked lively and green—it looked pretty much like a northern,  temperate coastal region back on Earth. Did we really travel that far?


    As for the city itself, Verdanport looked big. It was hard to grasp the true size, even though they were now approaching straight towards a dock area. The main port was situated within a medium-sized bay—well, Zoe thought it looked like a rather large bay, but Lord Darius called it medium while briefly pointing out some of the landmarks.


    One of those landmarks was a spindly tower spearing high, high above everything else nearby. While the tower looked quite thin, it probably wasn’t. The impression came from the combination of it being comparable to modern Earth high-rises, and everything else in the area being blocked off by the first row of buildings on the shore—none of which rose higher than four main stories.


    When Zoe asked what the ridiculous tower was, Arthur jumped in to inform her it was “the Tower.” Zoe thought he was being deliberately obtuse until everyone else confirmed everyone called it that. Well—Lord Darius explained it was formally “the Bronze Aerie,” and more formally “the Bronze Aerie of the Blossom Circle.” But even he admitted the former name was only used in official contexts and the latter name was just pretentious.


    He also let on that even the important people with business there called it the tower—and that those people included him. When Zoe asked if she could go there, the answer was “it depends on what you mean.” When she asked what exactly went on in it, she was told she could find that out herself if she bothered to go there.


    That would have been a lot more suspicious, had she not gotten the feeling he just didn’t want to bother explaining it at the moment.


    “Okay, it’s pretty obvious why it’s called the Bronze Aerie,” she continued as various dockworkers secured the ship. “But what’s the Blossom Circle?”


    All seven of them had formed a cluster on the port side of the ship at this point, and it looked like Lily was barely restrained herself from hopping across the gap even as the last ropes went down. She, along with Millie and Arthur, were the antsy-looking ones. Sean and Andric looked exhausted.


    “Technically, Archie is a part of it,” Lord Darius said. “Mind explaining it to Zoe?”


    “I do if you’re going to start using that stupid nickname too,” the archmage grumbled. “But fine. It’s just the traditional—well, historic really, name of the official council in Norvask.”


    Zoe perked up at that. “There’s a mage council?”


    Arthur’s brow crinkled. “Of course there is? But it’s nothing to write home about. It’s mainly just bureaucracy. A long time ago it was an actual council of a smaller number of powerful wizards who wanted a dedicated space to congregate for discussions without killing each other. It’s a lot more organized and boring now.”


    Multiple people chuckled at that, Zoe included. Leave it to Humans to turn a genuine wizard council into a lame professional association, Zoe thought. It was equal parts hilarious and depressing.


    “Actually, wait,” Arthur continued as they all disembarked. “Why does it make sense that it’s called the Bronze Aerie?”


    Oh, that was simple. “Because it’s a really high place and it’s covered in bronze?” Zoe didn’t really understand the question. Much like the other statelier buildings she could see, the colossal tower was fully decked out in the matte green verdigris signature to copper roofing. “Like, all the verdigris is super iconic.”


    They were already halfway down a bustling main street by this point, but everyone stopped to look at her. Even Lord Darius looked interested. Zoe tilted her head. “What?”


    “They have bronze roofing in Hell?” Arthur looked genuinely interested. He also should think about being a little more quiet, judging by the looks everyone else gave him. “Yeah yeah, sorry, we don’t talk about Zoe’s, uh, condition,” he whispered in an extremely non-subtle way. “But like, do they?”


    Zoe was still dressed up like a ragged, duct-taped mummy, but she’d shifted back to a fully Human appearance with lesser disguise. Lord Darius insisted they keep her identity a secret—much to Sean’s visible discomfort. Screw him though. Zoe wasn’t going to listen to the opinion of a paladin-recruit.


    But Arthur’s question raised an interesting point. They all thought she was summoned. That might sort of be the case—depending on what actually happened with Zoe mysteriously waking up in a sarcophagus in this world after a medically-induced coma. But she was pretty sure Earth wasn’t hell—even if it felt like it sometimes. She’d become a Demon after she woke up, and that was by stealing a core someone else created.


    She wasn’t going to let any of that on right now, though. Giving the few people who were in the know a misleading idea seemed smart. “Yes,” she confirmed. “We do. We’re also quite fond of terra-cotta roofings, as well as tile floorings with matte finishes.” She tapped a finger to her chin. “Though hardwood has been undergoing a bit of a resurgence as of late.”


    Everyone stared even harder. Zoe blinked innocently, not giving away even the slightest indication of how much she was screwing with them. “What?”


    “Well that’s quite enlightening,” Lord Darius mused. “I suppose we should be getting on though. I suspect many of you are tired, but there is still much to be done.”


    Multiple sighs could be heard as they resumed their trek deeper into the city. It was really quite large and lively—Zoe was honestly expecting a shitty, dirt-paved, colorless town with a gloomy castle. On the contrary, Verdanport was much closer to feeling like modern-day Italy. Just, with horse-drawn wagons and stuff.


    One of those wagons screeched to a stop right in front of them, quite nearly bowling Lily over before Andric yanked the noble heiress out of the way. “Darius!” The round-faced driver exclaimed, heedless of the injury he quite nearly caused. “I meant to catch your arrival.”


    “You nearly did,” their Rank A leader drawled. “And nearly flattened one of my students as well,” he noted a second later.


    “Ah, sorry, sorry. Everything’s just been so hectic, you see? What with the whole city in an uproar after High Templar Alexander left and someone in the temple leaked the news.”


    Wait, what? High Templar… could that be the paladin who interrupted the cult ritual? Zoe couldn’t remember if she’d ever heard his name. He certainly seemed strong enough to have a title like ‘high Templar’—and the timing was fairly conspicuous.


    For his part, Lord Darius only frowned. “No, I can’t say I have. When was this? I departed post haste this prior evening.”


    “Oh, so you haven’t heard.” Bending down, the round, balding man—Zoe still had no idea who he was—leaned in as if to whisper. “Rumor is, when Brother Alexander returned from some solo mission, he went straight to the council and revealed that a large infernal cult had taken root in the frozen wastes—and that he’d failed to stop them from summoning a higher Demon!”


    The man’s already-pasty complexion went ever whiter as an excited tremor ran through his reedy voice. “And get this—it turns out Prelate Cassia had been detecting ripples of elder magic building up in the north for the past two weeks! So when Alexander comes in and reports about the cult and the higher Demon, the council went and mobilized the entire Inquisition!”


    Leaning back on the wagon, the man rubbed his neck. “Well, least that’s what I heard. They even sent Alexander flying way off overseas to that big ‘ol desert cathedral to report to the Pope there. The Pope!”


    Zoe was getting increasingly distressed as he continued speaking. Looking around, she saw she wasn’t alone. Everyone aside from Lord Darius had a grave expression of some kind—and they were all clearly trying not to keep glancing directly at her.


    “So yeah… whole church and now the whole city is all stirred up. What with the Inquisitors starting to move out in full force and all.” A chuckle, and the man shook his head. “Can’t say I suspect we’ll have much of a problem, though. I happen to know they finished activating the last wardstone about an hour and a half ago. So none of you youngins need to worry—if any Demon tries to enter Verdanport now, someone in the Inquisition will know. They’ll just have to find it.”


    Laughing, he gave them all a friendly wink. “Then you just have to make sure it doesn’t get to you before they find it.”