Chapter 4 – Allies
Zeno munched on raw Yellowtail.
Thinking.
Planning.
Strategizing.
But not in a way he'd ever done before.
When it came to acquiring allies, he didn't even know where to begin.
Zeno's first thought had been to meet up with Ashron again. But Dufort, while eating his 'hotdog', had said a few things that gave him pause.
Dufort had claimed that Clear Note might have tremendous sensing capabilities. Or perhaps Clear would turn out to be the second-strongest sensor, just like he had the second-swiftest speed, the second-toughest skin, the second-highest strength, etc. Or he might possess a sensing ability similar to Ashron's – the 'scent tracking' of the beast clan.
The existence of Clear Note was already breaking all the rules, Dufort had said, so it wouldn't be surprising if he had unusual advantages.
Regardless, it was guaranteed that Clear could currently sense Zeno and Ashron. It was possible he could recognize a demon based only on their magical signatures, like Ashron and other beasts. Even if he couldn't, it was probable that he could tell Zeno and Ashron apart based on the fact that neither had left his range since encountering him.
Given that they were probably inside Clear's sensing range right now, it wouldn't be wise to open Clear's mind to the possibility that Zeno and Asheron were working together by meeting up in the same physical location.
Zeno had asked what they should do, then.
Dufort had taken out his phone and 'texted' – some form of instant, voiceless, remote communication – Ashron's human partner to essentially carry on as before (observe Clear, stay in range to mitigate damage, improve sensing capabilities).
There was only one new instruction: Reen was to text Dufort if Clear made any major movements, like relocating to a different area. Well, actually, there were far more new instructions than just that, but that one was the only order that had to do with Clear directly.
After asking Zeno for permission, and after Zeno begrudgingly gave it, Dufort also texted training instructions to Reen.
First, if Ashron could find any active volcanoes, it would help him to train near and eventually inside one. Unfortunately, there were no active volcanoes in Sweden or Norway, so Dufort instructed Reen to instruct Ashron to climb to the top of the tallest, most remote mountain he could find and focus on training his sensing range first. Caves would also, supposedly, be a good place for Ashron to meditate.
Once he'd developed a sensing range wide enough that he could go to the nearest active volcano while still sensing Clear, the dragon was to improve his flying speed in the open skies, increase his flying agility in forests and rocky crags, and practice his spells against lifeless terrain.
He was only to do this in remote locations, where no humans would be able to track him. He was also to fly as low as possible, even when training his flying speed, to avoid something called 'radar' – another human invention, this one capable of detecting objects that flew above a certain altitude.
Once Ashron was fast enough to reach Clear quickly from great distances away, he was to locate the hottest, most active volcano he could find and "do a cannonball".
Swimming in the magma/lava would apparently help him get stronger. Somehow.
Zeno had absolutely no idea if any of this would work, but it did make sense for a dragon to do most of those things. And even if it didn't work, it was a funny enough prank in its own right, and Ashron probably wouldn't die, so he'd gone ahead and given Dufort permission to tell it all to Reen. He was still opposed to the idea of helping future opponents get stronger – especially the one that would be the most difficult to fight after Clear's threat was ended – but he had set aside his pride for the sake of his duty as future Demon King. And viewing it as a prank had helped.
If Ashron actually got stronger as a result of the ridiculous training tips, Zeno would simply ask Dufort how he could get stronger himself, to best Ashron when the time came. It was probably the wisest thing to do in any case, and adopting Ashron as his rival might even provide proper motivation to push himself even further than he otherwise would have.
Now, Zeno was thinking about other potential allies. He mentally reviewed the list of demons who were participating in this battle, thinking about their strengths, planning who to add, and strategizing around their different abilities.
A few choices immediately came to mind.
Brago and Rodeaux of the Gravity clan were, as he had said to Ashron yesterday, relatively strong contenders. Rodeaux would make a good minion – perhaps even a good 'captain of the guard', as it were – but not Brago.
Brago was fiercely independent, according to the dossier he'd read in the Demon world. Brago could probably be convinced to help, but he would not be convinced to serve under Zeno's command.
Before arriving here, Zeno had heard of Brago, himself, Ashron, and one other Mamodo being called the 'four prodigies' by the other contestants. Children by the standards of their clans, and yet fully capable of handling battles with adults.
But even if Zeno did want to speak with Brago, Zeno had no idea how to locate him. In fact, that was his biggest current problem: he had no idea how to locate any specific demon. If they were not in his immediate sensing range, he would only be able to locate them if some other demon happened to encounter them, survive said encounter, and proceed to tell him where that encounter occurred.
Which was extremely unlikely.
"If you're thinking about the 'ally' problem," Dufort said after finished his 'hotdog', "I may be able to identify and locate a few demons if I can access the internet."
Zeno frowned as his human partner interrupted his thinking.
An idiot might have been fooled by that statement into thinking that Dufort could read minds, but Zeno saw it for what it was: cold reading. Dufort had made a general, likely true statement that was phrased in such a way to imply the speaker had secret knowledge. It was a psychological tactic used to produce the illusion of omniscience.
Zeno knew better than to fall for such a trick. Of course Zeno was thinking about the 'ally' problem.
"What's the 'internet'?" he asked, focusing on the relevant part of Dufort's statement.
"World-wide information hub," Dufort answered. "If a demon battle occurred in public, you can probably find it on YouTube. If an extrovert received a spell book, they might post about it on social media, bragging to their friends. If a Mamodo goes on a rampage, the news media will cover it, assuming it occurred in at least a second-world country. Once I connect to the internet, I can search for any of these occurrences."
Once again, Zeno was shocked at the ingenuity of humans. But then he thought about it for a few seconds, and he realized it probably wasn't as impressive as it sounded. "How long does it take for the 'internet' to get its information?" he asked.
If it took days for information to reach the hub...
"Almost no time," Dufort answered. "Video and audio can take a while, but pictures, words, and everything else are essentially instant, like texting."
"Impossible," Zeno said flatly.
"Take us to a public library and I'll prove it," Dufort shrugged. "Preferably a large one, where strangers like us won't draw attention."
Zeno swallowed the last of the Yellowtail and nodded.
He was still in charge of where they went and what they did, not Dufort.
But this he had to see.
An hour later, Zeno was still staring in shock at the screen. He had seen no less than seven competitors – and many of their approximate locations – in the past thirty minutes. He couldn't read the human language on the screen (which, apparently, was only one of many, and it wasn't even Dufort's native language), but Dufort had no problem translating for his benefit.
And there were plenty of images to accompany the words.
So far, Zeno had seen...
1. Kanchome, the weak, idiot shapeshifter with an equally idiotic partner named 'Fulgore', a famous playboy celebrity.
2. Tia, a pure-humanoid (like himself) whose spells focused on shielding and whose partner was also a celebrity, this one a pop idol named 'Megumi'.
3. Reycom, another pure-humanoid – with ice spells, not shields – whose partner 'Hosokawa' was in the process of acquiring a massive criminal record.
4. Robnos, a mechano-humanoid with a penchant for making sculptures, and with a human partner named 'Ruku' who had decided the internet was a good place to sell said sculptures.
5. Brago, whose human partner 'Sherry' was a 'French' aristocrat and thus "suffers from a paparazzi problem", as Dufort put it.
6. Penny, a pure-humanoid water spellcaster who had fallen in love with social media and who, somehow, simultaneously had the common sense to keep her location and her partner's identity a secret. (Though Dufort claimed he could work out where she was based on her surroundings in all her selfies.)
7. And Elzador, the fourth of the 'four prodigies' and kin to Ashron, human partner unknown. The green-scaled dragon had been spotted in the 'Rocky Mountains' of 'America'.
There was only a single picture of Elzador, and many humans were claiming it to be a fabricated hoax since there haven't been any repeat sightings. Dufort claimed that Elzador probably learned to be more careful about drawing attention to himself from this first incident. Dufort also claimed his 'answer talker' could not locate this member of the dragon clan based only on that first picture, since that first picture implied Elzador was "in transit".
"Still think the internet is 'impossible'?" his human partner asked, sounding slightly amused.
Zeno said nothing, only kept staring.
"If nothing like this exists in the Demon world," Dufort said casually, "you should consider inventing it. Or arranging for it to be invented, if you don't have time to do it yourself as King. By the way, I'm curious. Does the Lightning clan only focus on power-generation, or are you familiar with technology as well?"
Zeno paused, his mind shifting gears from strategy to society.
"No profession is restricted to any one clan," he stated. "There are specialists, not monopolies. Technology does not play as great a role back home as it does here – for the most part, if it can be accomplished with demon magic, it doesn't need to be accomplished with tools. Also for the most part, we leave technology up to the Robot Clans. But I'm beginning to think we should change that. You humans have almost managed to impress me."
"If you aren't impressed yet," Dufort said, "wait until you see our weapons."
A few minutes later...
"I take it back," Zeno said, looking at the aftermath of the 'Nuclear' explosion with an approving gaze. "I am thoroughly impressed."
"So," Dufort began as they exited the library, "where do we go now?"
"Japan," Zeno stated. Three Mamodo were currently living there, that he knew about: Tia, Reycom, and Penny.
Dufort had claimed that this was an extreme coincidence, and that his 'answer talker' ability told him something unusual was going on – not in a pending, plotting, or disastrous sort of way, but in a 'let's put a quarter of the contestants on the same island' sort of way. Dufort again said something about "whoever designed this competition", a remark which Zeno was beginning to realize was more than just a passing turn of phrase.
Zeno could see the logic in it. By random chance, there would be AT MOST one Mamodo in Japan, MAYBE two. But THREE was breaking his suspension of disbelief, and Dufort's as well. And that was just the demons they knew about; there were probably more.
Either Japan was the luckiest/unluckiest location on the planet, or some intelligence was in charge of the competition, and had decided that Japan was a 'place of interest'.
So it naturally made sense to go there.
Zeno wouldn't quite be able to fit the whole country in his sensing radius, but he could fit the country's width in his radius, then traverse the length, thus scanning the whole island.
'There are a lot of demons here' was Zeno's first thought as he stepped off the 'plane' and into the 'terminal'.
He had, of course, sensed the demons earlier when flying overhead, but waiting until this exact moment to mentally articulate those words seemed more dramatically fitting.
Zeno had a thing for showmanship.
His education had not been restricted to physical conditioning only. Lessons on demon culture and entertainment were often his favorite ways to wind down after difficult training sessions. They were the only times he could ever come close to relaxing, so he had savored the moments when he could.
For practical purposes, Zeno had learned from these lessons how to compose inspirational speeches, make grand gestures, and intimidate opponents on the battlefield. But privately, it meant a quieter appreciation for language, the arts, and moments of beauty.
"Pasupoto o kudasai," came the voice of a human, ruining the moment.
Zeno had learned some time ago that the only humans he could instinctively understand were partners of Demons, or humans that spoke Dufort's native language. Dufort typically spoke something called 'English', not Demrish – the language of the Demons. It was a small consolation that English was the most common language on Earth, though it was unfortunately not the language of Japan.
"Here," said Dufort, handing over two 'passports' – something humans used to identify each other when traveling to foreign lands. Dufort had somehow acquired one for him, even though Zeno wasn't human, had no human records, and was only a young child by their standards, not an adolescent.
Strangely enough, even when Dufort spoke other languages aloud, like this 'Japanese', Zeno could understand him as easily as if he were speaking his native 'English'.
I wonder if I can use this to learn new languages quickly, Zeno mused. Not that there are REALLY any advantages to learning more human languages.
After a few not-so-quick 'security' checks, the two of them were free to roam as they pleased. They had arrived on the southern tip of Japan, and the plan was to move north over the next few days, intercepting any Mamodo they met along the way.
"How many do you sense?" Dufort asked casually.
"Four."
"And their locations?"
"One is five demards that way," Zeno said, pointing South. "Another is six demards in the same direction, about one demard away from the first." He adjusted the direction of his finger to point North-East. "The third is two hundred and ten demards that way," he adjusted one last time to North-North-East, "and the fourth is four hundred demards that way."
Zeno could, if he focused, use the magnetic field of the planet to determine direction.
Dufort took a moment to look at the sun, determining direction in his own way, then said, "There should be around eight to ten Demons on the whole island, unless the northern half is more populated than probability would suggest."
Zeno had no idea how Dufort was calculating that total, but he decided not to comment until it was either proven true or false.
"Outside of the most powerful competitors like Ashron," Dufort continued, "are you able to predict the identity of opponents based only on what you sense of them?"
"No," Zeno answered. Then, before Dufort could suggest anything, "Which is why we'll be going to whoever's closest."
"You want to walk, teleport, or take public transport?" Dufort asked.
"Teleport," Zeno said at once. "No need to drag this out longer than we have to."
"Wait," Dufort said just as he was about to extend his mantle. "Let's not draw attention to ourselves. We need to put some distance between us and any public cameras or onlookers. Remember that most humans have devices which let them post information to the hub instantly. We don't want any human weapons turned on us, do we?"
Zeno glanced around, regarding the many curious gazes they were attracting as potential threats for the first time since his arrival.
How annoying, he thought. Based on what Dufort has said so far, all this technology is a relatively recent development in the course of human history. Just my luck that MY competition is the first one where Demons have to deal with this.
"How long will it take to reach a private location?" Zeno asked.
"Not long."
Fifteen minutes later, Dufort declared it 'safe' to teleport. Zeno wrapped his partner in white cloth, disappearing from one place and reappearing in front of-
"Megumi!" came the panicked voice of the pink-haired shield specialist.
The pop idol, who already had her book in her hand, frantically opened it and said "Saisu!" The shielder crossed her arms, sending a slash of energy at Zeno.
Sensing the power behind the spell, Zeno chuckled and held out a hand.
Dufort spoke no spell.
The attack collided with his open palm like a ball on the playground being blocked by a child. He didn't need to absorb or deflect it to prevent it from doing any damage. Zeno's muscles and skin were more than enough, and the intimidation effect would be greater.
The eyes of his opponents widened when the pitiful attack did no damage.
"Dufort, show them a real attack spell."
"Zaker."
He wasn't planning on burning their book (yet), but he did plan to have some fun before he made his decision about this particular pair.
And perhaps he'd have fun with every pair, now that he thought about it.
"Seoshi!"
A transparent shield appeared around his opponents – not particularly surprising, considering how much he had telegraphed that attack. What was surprising was the shield's ability to actually block his attack. He knew her spells had a common theme of defense, but he didn't think her weakest shield would be that strong.
He looked at the pair, evaluating them.
They were panting heavily, possibly due to firing two spells in rapid succession. It was only a few weeks into the competition, so the weaker teams wouldn't have much stamina yet.
"Well done and well met," Zeno greeted the girls with a grin. "But can you handle a stronger attack spell?"
He raised his hand, again telegraphing his attack in a way that he would never do in a serious fight. But Dufort didn't cast immediately, causing Zeno to glance back at his partner in annoyance.
Dufort was appraising the shielder with narrowed eyes.
"No," said the pink-haired demon, drawing his attention back to her. She seemed to be on the verge of tears. "No! NO! I won't let you hurt me!"
"Tia!" her partner suddenly exclaimed. "We have a new spell!"
"Cast it!"
"Ma Seshield!"
It was only then that Dufort said, "Zakerga."
And again, their attack was blocked, this time by a glowing, flat disk.
Hmm.
It turned out they could handle a stronger attack spell.
Dufort hadn't put much power into the Zakerga, but it was still impressive that they could block it this early on.
Zeno evaluated the pair once more.
From a team-building perspective, having a shield specialist would be a great boon. Defense was important, and she wouldn't be able to deal much damage in the case of a betrayal.
"Not bad," Zeno allowed. "Not bad at all. How about-"
"Back left shoulder," came the voice of Dufort.
Zeno instantly amassed his cloak there.
"Garon!"
A heavy, solid object collided with his mantle, and a quick glance showed it to be a metal, spike-covered pillar.
"Hey, new guy," came an unfamiliar voice. "Tia's mine."