A Demon's Core

I think I will summon one more hellhound eventually. Once the mana crystals I have set aside for that purpose regenerate enough mana to do so. That way there can be two pairs and no one has to be left out alone. It has only been a few days, but between the two males it is already clear that Noctis is favoring Fire. She is more energetic and responsive when interacting with him. She is also more harsh in reprimanding Spiky when he is too rough with Calla. Even biting him on the neck once when he knocked her over. Maybe it is just because Fire has been here longer. Or perhaps she is still punishing Spiky for challenging her.

Spiky, for his part, is not as interested in Calla as the other two are. He does still play with her, but he also spends about half of his time following Rose around, much to her dismay. Violet is happy about it though. She likes being with Rose, but she also likes playing with the hellhounds. Now sometimes she can do both. Rose does not allow Spiky into their bedroom though.

Rose and Violet are making great advances in training their mana control. Rose has vastly improved both her control and efficiency. She can now extract mana and refill the crystal without requiring direct contact and with little mana being wasted. She can only do it from a range of a few millimeters for now and it is slower than when she is actually touching the crystal but it is still incredible progress.

Violet has better control over how fast she absorbs the mana now instead of just taking it all in an instant and she is getting faster at refilling the crystal. She does not compare to Rose, of course, and I do not think she ever will in this regard. But she is improving and that is what matters. I am proud of them both for what they have accomplished.

I am sure Rose’s control over mana must be quite rare among imps. Rose herself said she had never heard of any imp capable of using magic. I wonder if she is anything like the mana sensitive humans. They seem to be a minority. Of the fourteen humans I have personally observed so far, only two appeared to be mana sensitive. Though I never saw them display any abilities other than being able to sense my borders.

I wonder what caused Rose to develop such power. It seems plausible that it could have resulted from being summoned here. Much like how Violet changed. From her explanation, other than her hair colour, she was a just regular imp like any other before coming here and her change was quite drastic. But that may not necessarily be the case for Rose. She was special even before being summoned. It is why her old ‘master’ took an interest in her.

Maybe she always had this potential but simply needed the right environment or catalyst for it to blossom into the power she now possesses. Maybe it was being summoned or the connection to me that triggered it. Or it could be the difference in mana. She did say the mana in the place she was before was bad. Such a curious little conundrum. I am going to enjoy seeing how she develops in the future.

They also managed to figure out that they can, in fact, pass mana between imps without needing the crystals as a go between. It was easy for Rose. As it turns out, it was not all that different to how she pushes her mana into others in order to heal them, just without taking the next step of actually healing. For Violet it is about as easy as refilling the mana crystal.

Taking mana from others was the next logical step in that line of experimentation. Rose was able take mana from Violet, but they also found that it is something that could be resisted. Taking mana from Violet was easy for Rose as long as she allowed it. But when Violet resisted her it became much more difficult, though it did not stop her completely. Violet, on the other hand was not able to take any mana from Rose directly even when she did not resist at all. Even Spiky became involved in their testing. Rose could give and take mana from the hellhound, though I do not think he even tried resisting at any point. Violet could only give him mana but not take it.

I should have them test this with me. I know I can take mana from them. I have done it before with Violet. But she did not try to resist at all at the time. It is important to test their limits...and mine.

Can you both come to my core. I want to test some things with mana. Violet perks up and looks towards the bedroom door.

“What kind of things? Will be fun?” She asks.

I want to see how well you can resist against me taking your mana. She stops in front of the door, her hand resting on the handle.

“But why would I resist? If you want some of my mana you can have it.” She says.

That is not the point. It is not your mana that I desire. I want to know what you are capable of.

Spiky is with the other hellhounds at the moment so it is just the two imps standing before my core.

“So what did you have in mind?” Rose asks.

I would like to start with Violet first. Please place your hand on my core. I am going to take some of your mana, but do not resist yet. I only take a little bit of mana from her. Enough to feel how easy it is so I can make a comparison to when she actually tries to stop me. It is about as easy as extracting mana from the crystals, which is in line with my expectations, remembering the last time I did this.

This time I want you to resist me as hard as you can. She nods and her whole body tenses up. When I take mana from her this time it feels the same. I do not notice any extra resistance.

Are you actually resisting? She looks shocked.

“Of course. I’m doing exactly as you told me to.” She retorts.

I can not feel any difference. She looks down, her hand falling away from my core, shoulders slumped. Dejected at her inability to put up even the slightest resistance against me. Rose puts a hand on her shoulder.

“No need to be disappointed. We are all still learning our capabilities here. Even Lord Magentam. And she’s far more powerful than I am.” She says to reassure Violet. Violet perks up and smiles.

Thank you Rose. Now Violet, this time I want you to try taking mana from me.

“Won’t that just end the same as it did with Rose. I couldn’t take anything from her, even when she tried to let me.” Violet protests.

Maybe, but we do not know that for certain. That is the whole reason for testing things. She sighs but places her hand hack on my core. To her surprise and mine, she has no trouble at all taking mana from my core. I can see her becoming giddy with excitement as my mana flows into her. Now I need to figure out how to make it stop.

As my mana slowly drains away I remember how it feels when I hold the mana in my hands to make the mana crystals. Emulating that, I try to grab at the stream of mana and it slows. Violet frowns and I feel the pull on the mana grow stronger. She is really trying hard. I am impressed. I tighten my grip on the mana until the flow stops completely. I can still feel Violet pulling at my mana, but nothing escapes my hold. Violet eventually stops pulling and removes her hand from the core.

And that is why it is important to be thorough in testing everything. Unexpected things can happen and you never know when you will learn something new. But you will learn nothing if you do not even try. That was very impressive Violet. She beams as Rose congratulates her as well.

I wonder why she could take mana from me but not from Rose, they are likely wondering the same. My best guess is that it is related to the strengthened connection between me and Violet. That or something about my core’s composition just makes it easier for others to extract mana from it than from other living creatures. Maybe that is the reason for the humans wanting my core. An endlessly recharging mana battery. Kind of like the mana crystals, but more potent.

Now Rose, it is your turn.

Repeating the same tests with Rose I can actually feel the resistance when taking mana from her. It only slows me down a little, but I feel like that is still significant. When she tries taking it from me she pulls a lot harder on the mana than Violet did. But not hard enough to break my hold on it.

After that I repeat the tests again with both of them at the same time. Taking mana from them together is much the same as doing it individually. But resisting against both of them at the same time is actually more difficult. Though I still manage to hold onto my mana and not lose anything to their dual assault.

There is one more thing I would like to try. I want to know if I can take mana from you even when you are not touching my core. Please step back. The both take a few steps back.

I know I can give them mana at a distance, but if I can also take it that could open up some interesting possibilities. I reach out and touch them with my hands. Although I can not actually touch them so it is more like putting my hands through their bodies. I try to ignore how strange it looks. Taking mana from them like this is harder and I can actually feel the resistance from Violet this time, which she is happy to hear.

My conclusions from these tests are that the ability to take mana from others as well as resist those who are trying to take yours is tied to mana control. Having greater mana control makes it easier to take mana from others as well as resist have your own mana taken in turn. There may be other factors at play that I am not aware of, but this seems like a solid theory. And it has some dangerous implications.

Do you two think you can teach the others the things we tried here today? In particular, resisting having your mana stolen. Preferably as soon as possible.

“I think we could.” Violet says, looking to Rose for confirmation, who nods in return. “Is there a reason for the rush?” She asks. Rose’s eyes go wide and she gasps.

“If there are people who can forcibly take mana from others, they could use that ability as a weapon. Especially if they can do it without needing direct physical contact.” She explains.

It is hard to imagine that we could be the only ones in the world with such an ability. We need to be prepared for the possibility that it could be used against us.

“Oh...That sounds bad.” Violet says.

I explain my concerns to Lily and Calla and tell them that Rose and Violet will help them. Though I worry this might be a little to complicated for Calla to understand. She seems more interested in playing with Noctis and the other hellhounds. As for Noctis, I am now sure she is intelligent enough to understand my concerns. From what I have seen, she also has a strong grasp of mana control. I suspect she is at least equal to Rose. If her fire breath is the result of some kind of magic she may even far surpass Rose. At least for now.

I get a sense of acknowledgment and understanding back from Noctis. Hopefully she can help guide Calla. The two of them do seem to understand each other in a way I cannot comprehend.

Later, a perfect opportunity for another experiment I wish to conduct presents itself. There are humans coming up the stairs. Slowly winding their way back and forth in single file. I guess they brought someone mana sensitive to guide them. I warn everyone of the humans' arrival, though I let them know I have a plan to deal with them myself. But they should still be prepared just in case.

I make my way to the stairwell and wait at the top for them to get close. I am going to try to ‘give’ them some of my mana. I hope they enjoy it. There are six humans in total. I can not see them from where I stand due to the void so I have to rely on my ability to sense the locations of living things in my domain.

When they are almost at the top I gather a little bit of mana in my hands and I start to compress it. I am only using half as much mana as last time. I do not want to hit them too hard as I am not trying to kill them, just knock them back down the stairs. Not that I would feel too bad if I did end up killing some of them. It would just be a hassle to deal with the bodies.

The human in front stops moving, forcing the others to come to a halt behind them. Can they sense what I am doing? I wish I could see them, if only for a moment. I am sure the looks on their faces will be entertaining when I let this go.

I compress the mana as much as I can, then try to release the pressure only on one side to direct the blast down the stairs. It mostly works. There is still a weak shock wave that goes out in every other direction, making me feel fuzzy for a few seconds. But most of it goes down the stairs as intended.

Five of the humans are knocked back down to the landing and I gain mana from each one as they fall, but not enough to indicate that any of them had died. Good for them. Only the human in the lead managed to hold their ground. Do they have some kind of shield that can protect them from such a shock wave?

They hurry down the stairs, at least as much as they can while being careful not to leave my domain, presumably to check on their companions. I wait where I am for a while just in case the humans make another attempt to climb the stairs and I need to hit them again.

They do not, instead they are making their way back down. Noticeably slower than they were on their way up. Perhaps some of them were injured by the fall. I get another rush of mana as all six of them finally leave. I let everyone know that the humans are gone and get a feeling of amusement back from Noctis.

Overall, I think that went well. I was a little irked that one of them did manage to defend against my attack though. What can I do about that next time? Maybe I can just hit them harder. But that could be risky. I do not know how much force it would take to break whatever they utilized for defense. I also do not know how much force I can safely use before it becomes a danger to the building’s structural stability.

Only after they are gone do I realize I could have used this as an opportunity to find out whether I can take mana from the humans and what kind of resistance they can put up. But if it did not work and they got past me before I could hit them with the shock wave, they might have gotten closer to my imps than I am comfortable with. I am not yet ready to take that kind of risk if I do not have to. Ideally, I would like to keep them from reaching this floor altogether.