Peter of Dwarven Stone (War of Contractia Book 4)

by Tj Dixon

  “Yes. Luna may have improved since last year, but she’s no match for my demons. She’ll be ready for my bat demon and attack quickly, but like with Gabriel here I don’t need anything even nearly as powerful to beat her.”

  “Don’t underestimate Luna. Unlike Gabriel she’s powerful enough to beat that slug you used in the last battle.” Ling warns me.

  “One sure, but four?” I smile.

  “No, four would be enough. Can you summon four of them quickly enough though?”

  “Of course I can.”

  “With Luna you should have enough.” Ling tells me and I blink.

  “I thought I needed more than that.” I say confused.

  “As long as you don’t care which one you get you’ve got enough. I happened to find out the name of a greater demon that got itself killed in the War of the Heavens.”

  “It sided with the Fallen Angels against the gods?” I ask in shock.

  “Yes. Arch Angel Gabriel killed him.”

  “How do you know this?” I ask suspiciously. This isn’t the sort of information you can easily come by.

  “I found out on our school trip. I read a book in the Ancient Library. It was dangerous because it was in one of the restricted sections. I figured it might come in handy though, so I took the risk.”

  “That was dangerous, but I’m glad you did. So if we try to summon this demon another powerful demon from the same hell should come in its place, but because it isn’t the named demon it should only require a lesser sacrifice.”

  “Exactly! I knew you wouldn’t forget what I taught you.”

  “I still think it would be worth getting two more sacrifices before attempting to summon it. There’s no telling what demon will answer our summons.” I say hesitantly.

  “Fine, two more, but anything more than that would be excessive. You don’t want to use all your slaves as sacrifices.”

  “True. I’d rather not sacrifice anyone.” I admit.

  “So are you changing your mind?” Ling asks knowingly.

  “No. I’ll do whatever I have to, as long it saves my life.”

  “Of course you will. That’s what it means to be human.” Ling smiles. I wonder about that, but her words comfort me like they always have.

  “Write down the name of this demon.” I tell Ling. She puts down her soup and picks up the notebook resting on my bed. She writes the name on the first page. I only ever write the names of demons on that page so it is the best place. She hands me the book and I read the name. It is the longest name I have ever seen. The longer a demon’s name the more powerful it is. “What rank was this demon?”

  “Maou.” Ling tells me and I blink.

  “A demon king?”

  “Why else would an arch angel bother personally killing it?”

  “They were fighting a desperate war. I’m sure every angel would have personally fought.”

  “The Arch Angels stayed with their gods as a last line of defence. They saved their powers and relied on lesser angels until the strongest of enemies arrived. The nine Maou and Arch Angel Azrael. Three of the Maou were killed and one of those three was the demon whose name is now in your notebook. Two arch angels and three ancient gods were also killed before they managed to throw Azrael and his followers from the heavens. After that the other Maou retreated.” Ling explains.

  “I knew most of that already, but I didn’t know all the details. That must have been a good book to have so much information.”

  “It was useful.” Ling nods. “I just wish I could have kept it, but taking it would have been too dangerous.”

  “Even looking at it was dangerous enough.”

  “It was worth the risk.” Ling shrugs.

  “Thank you. I doubt I can ever thank you enough.”

  “Free me and I’ll consider that thanks enough.” Ling smiles.

  “Once I have summoned the demon.” I tell her and she frowns.

  “You don’t trust me?” She asks.

  “Of course I trust you. Now trust me in return.” I tell her.

  “Fine.” She laughs. “You should get enough sleep tonight or you’ll be tired for your fight.”

  “I’ll get an early night, but I’ve only just eaten and it is less than an hour after lessons.”

  “How about a bit of fresh air to help you sleep tonight?” Ling suggests.

  “Sounds good.” I answer and put aside my empty soup bowl. Ling has finished hers now too.

  “I’ll just wash those first if that’s ok.”

  “Of course.” I nod and Ling quickly cleanses them with water magic. Then she puts them safely away under her bed.

  “Let’s leave through the window.” Ling says and opens the window before leading the way. I follow her with my own flight magic. She’s waiting just outside our window.

  “Let’s fly over the forest.” I suggest and lead the way. Ling quickly catches up and we fly side by side. The wind rushing past us really is refreshing. There were rumours about dangerous monsters in the forest at one point, but they died down at the start of this year.

  “Don’t use too much magic.” Ling warns.

  “A little flight magic isn’t an issue. Besides if I have to I can always take power from my slaves.”

  “Don’t forget that means kissing them. Do you want your first kiss to be with someone you’re going to kill?”

  “I told you before that I’ll do whatever it takes to survive. If I have to kiss all ten of them I’ll do it.” I answer her fiercely.

  “One would be enough.” Ling laughs. Then she frowns and comes to a floating stop. “That’s Rin down there. Do you recognise that girl she’s fighting?”

  “That’s Cherry I think. She has a twin, but her twin specialises in fire magic and her specialty is wind magic. She fought on Peter’s team in the tournament. The fight I remember is the one where she and Peter beat the Rainbow Twins. She used advanced magic to create an illusion of Peter. I’m glad I don’t have to fight her and Peter. I think I’d win, but…”

  “Of course you’d win. You beat me didn’t you?”

  “Yes, but if you’d gone for a quick win I’d have had a much harder time.” I admit.

  “Either way would have been hard. I was sure you’d go for a different demon. My attack would have easily killed the demon I thought you were going to summon. Then you’d have had to surrender, or die.” Ling says with a grin.

  “So why do you think they’re fighting? Training?”

  “Either that or they pissed each other off and decided to fight for real.” Ling laughs.

  “Either way it’s none of our business so we’d better get going again.” I tell her and fly past them.

  “You never know. You might have to fight Peter and Cherry, or whoever he picks.” Ling warns me.

  “He’s been gone all this time and nobody knows where he is. I’d be surprised if we saw him again.”

  “I’d love to see that boy get enslaved.” Ling says sounding serious.

  “It would be good to see that upstart boy enslaved and even better to enslave him, but he’s dangerous. If I don’t have to fight him I would be rather happy not to.”

  “I heard a rumour that Sor and Emi were given a royal pardon for leaving the academy. I even heard rumours Sor was considering fighting in the tournament.” Ling tells me and I gulp.

  “Isn’t it too late to join even if she was accepted back?” I ask nervously.

  “She did win the competition last year. She would probably be allowed to enter the royal tournament late. Especially if she has the queen’s support.”

  “I wouldn’t want that. They both said they weren’t entering, because there was nobody worth fighting.” I say shaking my head. That really would be bad.

  “Perhaps she took an interest in you.” Ling tells me and that really is a scary thought.

  “Because of the demons?”

  “Either that or what happened in Portalis.”

  “I apologised to her for that!”

&n
bsp; “She’s not exactly the most forgiving of people though.” Ling reminds me.

  “All I did was brush against her.”

  “Twice. You always were clumsy when it mattered the most.”

  “However you look at it she overreacted and I apologised more than enough for it.”

  “You did grovel a lot, but that only seemed to piss her off more.” Ling laughs.

  “I thought she seemed to accept my apologies.” I say confused.

  “That was just her getting you to stop.”

  “You didn’t say so at the time!” I protest.

  “If I had she’d have been pissed at me too, and that girl is not someone you want to have pissed at you.”

  “You always were much better than me at reading people. I’ll have to get you to reveal your secrets to me.”

  “First you need to win two more battles. Now’s not the time to get distracted.”

  “True.” I admit. For some reason I feel really tired now, even though it is still early. “Let’s head back and get some sleep.”

  “Ok.” Ling nods.

  “I wish we hadn’t been enemies.” I say sadly.

  “Me too. I wouldn’t have lost to anyone else, and you’d better remember your promise to free me.”

  “Don’t worry. I will.”

  “Demons can corrupt you if you use them too much, so you’d better not wait too long.”

  “Don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten, and I’m not going to wait too long. Not that any demon is going to corrupt me.”

  “Don’t underestimate demons. They have a reputation for a reason.” Ling warns me. She’s the one underestimating me though.

  Soon the trees are behind us and we arrive at our window. There are traps inside in case anyone tries to do anything stupid, like breaking in whilst we are gone, so we left the window open. We quickly jump back inside the room and close the window.

  The slaves react a little as the breeze stops when we close the window. They just seem to stiffen up as if they knew we were gone and now we are back. A couple of the slaves look very uncomfortable. I can guess why, but they’ll have to wait until the morning. If they can’t wait until then Ling will just have to punish them.

  I think it will be a relief for them when they die. Even though I’m not torturing them with proper methods nobody would want to live like they are. If they knew they were going to die though, they’d probably end their lives now, but that wouldn’t be good for me. Their suffering would be pointless if they ended their lives before I get to sacrifice them.

  I take my uniform off and get into my pyjamas. I lie down on top of the covers and stare up at the roof. It feels comfortable but I can’t help questioning my resolve. Can I really kill them? Is this really the right thing to do?

  “Of course it is.” Ling answers me firmly and I realise I must have said it aloud. Why did I even need to ask anyway? She’s right. They would do the same to me and even if they are too stupid to do so given the chance then so what?

  “Yes, of course it is.” I say shaking my head at my own stupidity. What does it matter if I kill a few of my former classmates? They don’t mean anything to me.

  “Sleep well.” Ling says and as she says it I drift into sweet dreams.

  I wake to the smell of sweet tea. A cup is sitting on my bedside table. I take it and slowly sip until I am fully awake. Then I look at Ling and smile.

  “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure.” Ling smiles back.

  “Take care of the slaves whilst I’m gone. No need to be gentle with them.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of being gentle with them. You’d better get dressed first though.” Ling reminds me and I nod.

  “Of course.” I say and get up. I take off my pyjamas, wash and then put on my uniform.

  “Now give Luna hell.”

  “I’ll send her there.” I smile.

  “Don’t forget you need her as a sacrifice.” Ling reminds me.

  “Oh, I do, don’t I? Oh well, she can go to hell when I sacrifice her after the fight.”

  “After this fight or the next one?”

  “This one of course.” I tell Ling and she smiles as if proud of something. Proud of me I suppose. I wonder why though?

  “You’d better save your power by walking to the arena.” Ling tells me just as I was preparing to port.

  “Of course.” I nod and cancel my port. I open the door and leave Ling to play with the slaves. I wish I could stay and torment them, but that’s Ling’s job. Why did I give her such a fun job when she’s my slave too? I forget. Maybe I should have her give that job back to me, or maybe we should both play with them.

  I meet Luna in the corridor just before I reach the arena. She glares at me so I glare back. Then we proceed to the arena in silence. Soon she’ll be my slave. Then I can have lots of fun with her and teach her some manners. Except she’s going to die today, so it would be a bit late to learn manners now. Ok, I’ll just have fun with her.

  “I’m not going to lose to you.” Luna says as we enter the ‘room’ with the arena in.

  “I should be the one saying that, fool.” I laugh at her silly words.

  “Don’t expect any mercy when I win.” Luna warns me.

  “There’s no way you’ll win.” I tell her. She can’t seriously believe she has a chance of beating me, can she? If so, she’s deluded. The arena is filled with girls eagerly waiting to see me beat the life out of her. There’s no way I’m going to disappoint them. I suppose I shouldn’t kill her, but I can beat her to within an inch of death.

  I enter the centre of the arena and realise I have already passed the spectators. That was quick. Do I feel a little different to normal? Something seems odd, but it isn’t important. I have a fight to win and I’m not going to disappoint my fans who came all this way to see me. Wait they live here, so they didn’t need to come far at all. Well, whatever…

  I vaguely hear the words of the judge and the commentator, but I don’t bother listening. I’ve heard it all before. Then I am standing in a dark stone tunnel. The walls attack me but I melt them and throw them back. Then I summon a minor demon. It isn’t the one I intended to, but it doesn’t really matter.

  The bug demon standing by my feet melts the stone all around us with acid until I see Luna standing just at the edge of my sight. There must have been quite a lot of stone but it is all gone now. I port to Luna and easily block her attempts to port. Luna looks at me as if she can’t understand what is going on. Silly girl.

  I go to grab her throat but seeing the gem hanging there attached to a stone ring I remember I am not meant to kill her. I grab the gem and applying a little magic to my hands I easily break it off from the stone ring. Luna attempts to attack me with summoned stone as I do so but the demon melts her stone easily. Then we are ported back into the arena.

  I vaguely hear them announce that I won. Well of course I won. Are they stupid? Well of course they’re stupid, but I suppose it is cute in an annoying sort of way. I tune them out and grab Luna’s wrist. Then I port with her back to my room.