Chapter 5 - Maruss

Even after the surprise attack, Zeno did not bother putting himself on guard. He could easily handle a two-on-one. Honestly, being outnumbered might be the only way to challenge himself on this island, though the victories would still be trivial.

Zeno's cloak deflected the pillar upward, drawing a surprised look from the interloper: a smartly dressed Mamodo standing next to a bulky human in equally smart clothing. The terms 'wealthy', 'business elite', and 'upper class' came to mind. Based on his spells (Medieval Clan) and appearance (Tall Humanoid), Zeno assumed it was either Maruss or Eshros.

"Relax," Zeno said, still sneering. "You can have your turn when I'm done. My goal is to test her strength, not burn her book."

Yet.

"Why do something like that with weakling like Tia?" asked either Maruss or Eshros. "She's weak. It's obvious. All she can do is defend." He extended a hand in front of him. "A true demon knows how to ATTACK!"

"Gigano Garanzu!"

A giant, swirling, drilling version of the previous spell manifested from the demon's outstretched palm.

As the slow-moving attack barreled forward, Zeno said, "Dufort, show this idiot what defense can do."

"Rashield. Zagurzem."

A stoppable attack collided with a breakable defense. The defense was far more stable, however.

"AAAHHH!"

Naturally, the lightning-enhanced, redirected, third-level spell did a great deal of damage when taken directly. It didn't seem his opponent had much in the way of natural defenses.

"Pitiful," Zeno said, appearing above the charred demon, his hand pointing downward. "Taste my lightning, trash."

In the Demon World, Zeno Bell had practiced with his power until he was able to alter aspects of it at will.

"Zaker."

For this attack, he maximized the amount of pain that would be delivered while minimizing the true damage.

When his spell ended, the Demon was twitching below him, too thoroughly shocked to move. The human a few mards away looked like he was about to make a mess on the ground.

"I'll be taking that," Zeno said, mantle snapping out and grabbing the book from the man's hands. "Here, Dufort."

The dark gray book flew through the air, the pages flapping in the wind before his own human partner grasped the cover.

"Wh-who-" came a pained voice from below him. "Who, are, y-you?"

"I don't introduce myself to weaklings," Zeno said. Then, he turned to Tia and executed a small bow. "Greetings, Tia. I am Zeno Bell of the Lightning Clan, prince of the Demon World."

It's not like being polite cost him anything. Even his pride did not suffer; Demon culture dictated certain customs when conversing with the opposite sex, and especially members of the same race. Besides, he wanted to watch the Medieval Mamodo squirm at the insult and the irony.

The pink-haired demon seemed stunned at his introduction. "Um... hi?"

Also, from the attitude of the Demon beneath him and the look on the shielder's face, these two have an unpleasant history together, and it would be remiss of him if he didn't exploit that.

"I'd like a moment of your time, if you don't mind."

She looked at him, then looked at the demon beneath his foot. "You beat Maruss..."

Not Eshros, then.

Zeno snorted dismissively. "And?"

"He... um..."

Not the most articulate demon, Zeno thought.

Her human spoke up for the first time. "What do you want?" she asked, cutting straight to the chase.

"A moment of Tia's time, like I said," Zeno shrugged. "There's something you might be interested to know."

"Okay?" Tia asked, sounding confused.

Zeno glanced down. "And I guess the trash can hear it, too. Who knows? Maybe he'll rethink his life choices."

The trash coughed inarticulately.

"First, I'd like to tell you about something known as the King's Privilege..."

Thirty seconds later, both Tia and Maruss were staring at him in wide-eyed shock, along with their humans.

"And that's not all."

Zeno then told them about Clear Note.

"So you see," Zeno finished, "I find myself in need of allies, and shield specialists are rare." He glanced at Maruss, then back to Tia. "You might even be the only one in this competition. If anyone has the ability to arrest the action of an almighty annihilation spell, it would obviously be you."

"You- you actually think Tia's strong?" came the voice of trash beneath him. "She's an utter weakling. Demons with spells like hers have no chance of winning this competition or beating that crazy demon!"

"Not true," said Zeno. "Dufort, would you explain to this simpleton how I would have approached this competition if I had her spells?"

"With proper movements and spell usage," Dufort said instantly, "you could easily outlast your opponents. With proper positioning and a lighter, you could destroy their books. Future defensive spells might redirect attacks, like Rashield, or have other strange properties. Barring that, all you would need is a single Saisu, properly timed and aimed, to take out any Mamodo's book, barring Clear's. With teleportation, physical strength, speed, sensing capabilities, and the ability to hide your presence, you could win most fights instantly through ambush. The rest you could endure until presented with an opportunity to burn the opponent's book."

The idiot beneath him looked shocked, and not just because he was still charred and twitching.

Even Tia looked surprised at the battle potential of her spells being competently described to her.

"Thank you, Dufort." Zeno's eyes went from trash to tentative teammate, once again met Tia's. "What do you say? Allies?"

The pink-haired Mamodo looked from Zeno to Maruss, then from Dufort to her own human, and finally back to Zeno again.

"Okay," she said. "But only if you burn Maruss's book. And shock him again, first."

"Tia..." came the voice of her human partner.

"Deal!" Zeno said, wearing an appreciatively evil grin.

"So you used to be friends?" Zeno asked with a neutral expression, summarizing the rambling, tear-filled sob story.

"Y-yes," Tia said across from him.

Dufort said nothing, looking out the window with a bored expression.

The human Megumi's gaze flitted from Tia to Zeno with worry.

The two pairs sat across from each other in the private booth of a restaurant, Zeno and Dufort facing Tia and Megumi.

Zeno would have to be careful here. Tia's human partner didn't look like she wanted anything to do with Zeno, and since spells were locked behind human heart power, he couldn't risk alienating the pop idol entirely. He quickly reviewed every action he had taken so far, trying to find a way to comment that would both match his established mannerisms and endear the human to him, or at least to his cause.

"This competition affects different demons differently," Zeno began, his tone neutral. "If Maruss went from happy and friendly to cruel and sadistic, like you say, then he was either the most easily tempted Mamodo in history, or he was good at hiding the fact that he was a psychopath. I can't imagine there weren't any warning signs back in the Demon World."

Tia flinched. "A psychopath?"

Zeno glanced at Dufort, who gave a nod of agreement, then said, "Someone who doesn't have emotions, but who's good at pretending."

"Like you?" the human Megumi asked, her eyes narrowed.

"No, I'm more of a sociopath," Zeno said with a grin. "I don't pretend that I have them."

Megumi scowled. "Tia," she said, looking at the shielder. "I think we should go."

Tia looked to her human partner, puzzled. "But he helped with Maruss, didn't he?"

"He didn't do it because he cared about you," Megumi said, shaking her head. "Or even because he thought it was the right thing to do. He did it so he could add our power to his. Maruss attacked you because he knew you were vulnerable. If he-" she jabbed a finger at Zeno "-attacks you, he'll do it because you're not useful to him anymore."

Tia's expression became very worried. She looked between her human and Zeno, clearly torn.

"Which I won't do until Clear Note is dealt with," Zeno shrugged. "Or you betray me."

"See?" Megumi pleaded. "He doesn't even deny it!"

Tia looked at her partners for a long moment, then turned to Zeno. "Are you really going to burn my book after we're done helping you?"

Zeno raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to battle you after we're done helping each other. Think of it this way: you're not helping me, you're helping the entire demon world. Unless you think Clear is just my problem."

He paused, letting that sink in. It was true, not manipulation. He could honor his allies with a true battle. The only problem with that was...

"But to be frank, Maruss was correct about your power level," Zeno said flatly, causing Tia to flinch again. "If I had your power, I'd still stand just as good a chance of winning. You, on the other hand, are going to need to get much stronger before you'll be able to stand a chance against me, let alone Clear. Which is where my partner comes in. Dufort?"

He wasn't sure if this was the best idea, but if Dufort could provide Ashron with advice on amplifying his abilities, Dufort should be able to do the same for Tia. Plus, he wanted to learn more about his partner's supposed 'power'.

After a bit of maneuvering in the cramped space, Dufort stood behind Tia, his fingers poised behind her head. "I'm about to stimulate some pressure points in your head, to help your demon powers grow over time. Please hold still."

A few seconds later, Dufort was sitting back in his seat, and Tia was rubbing the back of her head.

"Tia's powers are centered around her desire to protect," he said, speaking to Megumi directly. "Unfortunately, thanks to Maruss that power doesn't have many feelings to help foster it at the moment, except survival instincts."

Tia's human partner looked worried. "So... how is she supposed to get stronger?"

"In order to reach her full potential, she'll need to follow one of two paths. In the first, she desires to protect only herself, which will allow her to unlock the power of absolute defense – a perfect shield against all attacks. In the second, she'll have friends she wants to ward from danger, allowing her to unlock powers of the ultimate guardian. The second one would be best for our purposes, since it should grant her the powers of healing as well as shielding, but Zeno and Tia probably wouldn't make good friends, so that option won't be open to her unless we can recruit Mamodo more suited to the task."

As always, the analysis was offered with clinical detachment.

"In any case, she'll also need to train her body."

Dufort then went into a great deal of technical information about human athletes and the importance of breathing, which Zeno found fascinating – especially with how well the information applied to demons, despite being derived from humans – but it seemed to leave the other pair a bit lost.

"I'll send detailed instructions later," Dufort said at last, standing up and leaving payment on the table. "For now, I think it would be best if we took our leave. Zeno?"

Zeno frowned.

He should be the one who decided when they left.

...Then again, this might be tied to making Tia stronger, so he would wait until they were alone to ask Dufort about it.

Dufort left payment on the table for their half of the meal, which had been quite good – prepared human food was significantly better than Demon food, even royal demon food, which surprised him – and then stood to leave.

As soon as they were out of the restaurant, they headed to a nearby ally. Zatch wrapped Dufort in his mantle, and they teleported away.

"I call the shots," Zeno said when they reappeared in an isolated forest. "Did you forget that, Dufort?"

"If we had stayed any longer, Megumi would have started questioning you about your motives and character again. That would have impacted their battle effectiveness, as well as their willingness to be your pawns."

"And how do you know that?"

Dufort shrugged. "I understand human psychology better than you do. My answer-talker told me your continued presence would have antagonized Megumi, and my answer-talker also told me you wouldn't have understood why. In the future, I think I should handle human interactions while you handle demon interactions. That's the best arrangement, according to my ability, not to mention fair."

Zeno paused for a very long moment. It was sensible... but it was just one more way that Dufort was pulling the balance of power away from Zeno's control.

On the other hand, Zeno didn't really want to deal with humans in the first place. It had been annoying, trying to deal with Megumi just now, and he had a feeling she'd turn out to be one of the more sensible human partners they'd be encountering.

"Fine," Zeno said at last.

He did not reiterate the deal by saying something like "I handle demons, you handle humans", or "but I still call the shots". He'd done that a few times with Dufort recently – restating old points for emphasis – and every time Dufort said "You already said that. You're pretty stupid, huh?" or "You're pretty stupid, huh? Don't repeat yourself," or just "You're pretty stupid, huh?"

It had happened enough times that Zeno quickly established the habit of not repeating himself around Dufort.

Instead, he demanded, "Now explain why you had us leave."

"We've done the best we can with those two for the moment," Dufort said. "For now, we should leave them alone and let them think about the stakes. They'll be more receptive to us after they've had a night to think about the danger."

Zeno thought for a moment, then eventually nodded. "I see."

Sleeping on an issue helped to internalize it. Understanding something in the abstract, only by talking about it, often takes more than a few hours. The only real way to speed up the process was to experience the danger directly, but he wasn't about to confront Clear again, or arrange for his allies to encounter him. Not this early on, anyway.

"We should also send a demon their way," Dufort added, "if we find one that would make a good companion for Tia."

"That sounds idiotic," Zeno denied.

"The powers of demons are idiotic," Dufort replied smoothly and instantly, though his words had no emotions behind them. "Barring exceptional cases like you and Clear, who design your own spells, Demons unlock their potential in times of great emotional turmoil, or great self-discovery, or personal growth. I believe the term "self-actualization" works best here. The resulting abilities are closely tied to the emotions at the time of crisis. A shield specialist will naturally unlock her best spells from stressful situations that test her desire to protect. We could direct her down the path of self-protection-"

That's certainly the path Zeno would have taken if he'd been born with her powers.

"-but that would require constant sparring, and maybe some torture – both emotional and physical – and Megumi wouldn't let that pass. Not to mention she wouldn't be as useful to us if she had spells that were best at defending only herself. Furthermore, she'd become a much stronger competitor if she went down that path, and she might use the King's Privilege against you as revenge if she won that way."

Zeno paused. He hadn't thought that far ahead, but those were rather important and worrisome points. Especially the last one.

Come to think of it, his "allies" deciding to use the King's Privilege against him after all was said and done was an extremely worrisome point in general.

In order for any demon to be useful to him in this particular scenario, they'll have to survive a fight against Clear, which means becoming competent enough to be actual threats – maybe not on their own, but certainly if they banded together. If Zeno thrashes them, tortures them, or otherwise abuses them, they might turn on him in the end, they might win, and they might kill him for revenge afterward. Even if they deal with Clear first, and only burn Zeno's book to send him back to the Demon World, he still wouldn't be in the clear.

Demons hating him had no downsides up until this point, in his mind, because he'd been certain he would win this competition.

Now...

"So, a playmate for the little shield clan member?" Zeno asked. "I'll keep an eye out."

It's not like it ultimately cost him anything other than annoyance. And if he viewed the issue as a problem of troop morale, which was important for any army to have, rather than the foolish notion of "friendship", he was better able to tolerate the whole idea.

He wrapped his mantle around Dufort, and teleported Northward.

"By the way," Zeno said when he reappeared a few demards away from the next Mamodo. "That pressure-point stimulation you did. Was it real?"

If it was, it would be stupid not to ask Dufort to do it to his head. He needed every advantage against Clear.

"Define 'real'."

"Did it actually help her?"

"Roundaboutly," Dufort said in his typical bored tone. "It allowed me to learn how her powers worked at their most basic level, thus allowing me to direct her training, thus allowing her powers to 'grow over time' as I told her before doing it. In that sense, it helped her. If you're wondering whether it would help you in the same way, it wouldn't. Being your partner, I already have understanding over your powers. As for pressure-point stimulation itself being 'real'... have you ever heard of the Placebo Effect?"