Chapter Fourteen

Well, after that whole finger-sucking thing is over, I asked the girl for help. The problem is, well...

"Umm..." The girl uttered as she averted her gaze from mine, "There's... nothing you can do about it."

...Pardon?

"I'm sorry, I think I misheard you. Can you repeat that, please?"

Somehow, a few beads of sweat appeared on the girl's forehead, and slowly, and clumsily, she muttered; "T-There's... nothing you can d-do about the s-spatial w-warp."

...

Well, isn't that just great?

With a small smile on my face, I opened my mouth; "So," I said in a calm, reasonable, and somehow chilly tone, the kind of tone that if done properly could drive people absolutely batshit scared. "You're telling me that I spared you, and let you pretty much molest my finger, and all of that was for nothing?"

"U-Uh..."

"W-Woof...?"

With a small smile on my face, I reached for my gun and brought it out. You know, the gun is looking mighty beautiful right now.

"W-Wait!" She immediately put her hands in front of her face, "L-Listen! I-I might not be able to disrupt the spell, b-but! I-I can help you use your magical energy!"

"Elaborate."

"R-Remember when I said Demon Hunters could fight d-demons physically? W-Well, I-I can teach you how to use that! T-Then, you can use normal weapons, or e-even your fists against d-demons!"

Well, why didn't you just say so? I holstered my gun and gave the girl a soft smile. Not sure why, but she's scared shitless for some reason.

"Ryu."

"...?"

"The name's Ryu."

"Oh, uh, my name is... Alura."

I nodded at her name, at least the name is somewhat normal, unlike Zero. Speaking of which, the next time I sleep, I should probably ask her about this weird voice in my head.

...

Umm, isn't this a bit awkward? None of us were muttering a word. Eve just looked at me like she usually does, while Alura kept averting her eyes.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" I said, "How do I activate this magic stuff?"

"Oh, right, um..." It seems she was still a bit nervous, "We need to go to a better place. Follow me, one of these rooms should do."

---

Umm...

"What is exactly going on...?"

After we entered one of the rooms, I noticed that it was a safe room, you know, like the one in the previous floor. It had a bed, bookshelves, a small kitchen, everything. Of course, it was originally messy, but Alura, perhaps with the newfound energy that she sucked out of me, managed to instantly clean it via her vines

Something of note, I now know how those vines work. Alura herself had a few vines on her back that seemed alive, and, when she wants to summon larger ones, she just plunges the small ones into the ground, and ta-da! They also somehow enlarge in size.

Something else of note, is that they are kind of intangible? When they want to appear from the ground, a small magical seal appears so that the ground itself wouldn't be damaged.

It was interesting, to say the least.

Still, that's not important, what is important is what the hell is she doing. Immediately after cleaning the room, she made a bathtub that was made out of vines, and then, she poured a huge amount of water from the kitchen sink. And, that's the part that worries me the most, she went into the freezer and brought a huge amount of ice, and threw it into the bathtub.

"Although I'm not that knowledgeable on how Demon Hunters exactly use their energy, but I don't think it's that different from normal demons." Alura said while pouring the ice into the bathtub, "Usually, we have a different kind of training, but this should be sufficient since you're a human."

After waiting for the water to get cold, she turned towards me.

"Jump into the water."

...?

"You mean, this ice water?"

"Yeah! You're going to learn some Mana Con- or, well, as you humans call it, Magical Energy Control. Usually, every demon has a set of different training, others are in waters much colder, while a few swim in hot lava. This is a series of some exercise to open up the blocked flows in your body. Sure, you might have already unlocked your latent potential, but most of your flows are locked."

...Suddenly, I don't really want to do that. I don't know what kind of magic these vines did, but the water is so cold I feel chills even when I'm a few feet away from it!

"You know, maybe I don't want to open up these flows or whatever. The gun has been mighty useful-"

"Get in the water."

"No."

This water could have some sort of magic for all I know, it shouldn't be this cold!

"Get in the water, or I will-"

"Or what?" I smirked, she cannot do anything to me. Sure, she's a bit dangerous, but with the Third Eye, my gun, and this environment? Good luck beating me. Or mating, I suppose.

"Hmph!" She grumbled and sent me an annoyed glare. Just as she was about to speak up, she was cut off by Eve.

"Woof!"

She happily went near the water and smelled it.

"Woof!"

"...There isn't any threatening magic in there?"

"Woof!"

I can't believe I'm understanding Eve fully now, but if what she said is true, then that at least relieves a few of my worries.

"There, happy? Just get in the water now.

"...Yeah, well... Ugh, fine."

If Eve said it's fine, it's probably fine, hopefully. I doubt she'd go to such extent to betray me, since, well, I'm surrounded by her and Alura.

"Take off your clothes."

What? Lady, are you crazy or what? You are a monst-

"Do it."

It seemed like she read my mind, damn it.

Fine.

---

"Woof~"

"Shut up, Eve."

After I took off my clothes, I slowly dipped my entire body inside the water.

...Oh god.

Oh shit, it's so god-damn cold! I'm not a fucking temperature or something expert, but shit, this is way colder than it has any right to be!

"Good job. Now, tell me, what do you feel?" Alura said softly, although her eyes were still fixated on my crotch.

"I-I feel like... my sperms are fucking dying, and my testicles are going to go up inside my body any minute now!"

"No, you idiot! The Mana! Since you've unlocked your latent potential, you should feel the Mana in the water."

All I feel is the approaching hand of death. What the hell are you talking about, lady?

"Ugh, just, focus. I know it may seem hard, just try to feel the surrounding mana!"

Fine, I don't have any other option.

I closed my eyes and mouth and slowly inhaled from my nose. It's hard to focus if that wasn't obvious already, but I still tried.

...

...

...Hmm?

That's odd... I can't see anything since I closed my eyes, and yet, I could see something. Tiny specks of dust, they were so vivid, and they were light blue in color.

Although they were a bit surprising to see, I didn't do anything. I just kept my focus.

Slowly, very slowly, those specks started coming towards me and started spiraling around me. A few tried to touch me, but most of them immediately ricocheted back, as if my body was pushing them away.

Those that didn't, however, somehow managed to phase through my skin. That freaked me out a bit, but I couldn't feel anything strange within my body, so I kept my focus. The water wasn't bothering me as much as before.

...

...

How long has it been? Those specks of light just kept on spiraling around, occasionally trying to enter my body, but none were successful.

I feel like I've been here for quite a while now.

I let out another breath and slowly opened my eyes. Those specks were incredibly strange, but what was even stranger was the fact that the water has started to calm me down. It wasn't uncomfortable, rather, it felt nice.

I turned my gaze towards Alura. She didn't even seem to register the fact that I opened my eyes, instead, her gaze was still at my crotch, and she was deviously licking her lips.

I turned my attention towards Eve, and sure enough, she was staring at it, drooling coming out of her tongue as she panted.

"Oi."

No one reacted.

"HEY!"

"H-Huh?"

"A-Awoo?"

Great, now I don't feel comfortable being naked anymore. Shit, I had a feeling that they might just bounce at me any second now and mate with me.

Well, I guess they are monsters true to the bone. I do recall hearing in the game that it was in their instinct to mate with the first human they are attracted to.

"Would appreciate it if you stopped staring at my crotch like it's some kind of a cake."

With a cough, Alura turned her gaze towards me, a small blush on her face. "Ehm, so, did you feel it?"

"I... think? There were some small blue particles floating around me."

"Good. That is what we call Mana. I'm surprised you managed to sense them that quickly, us demons take at least five sessions before we could truly sense them. Now..." She clapped, "It's time for the exercises."

Oh, right. She did say we were gonna do some exercises. Though, It would be a bit awkward to do it in the water, wouldn't it?

Alura started moving near me, and then, she... struck a weird pose.

"Try to replicate this exercise."

Exercise? This doesn't look like exercise at all. it barely even resembles Yoga. You just look like a weirdo doing this!

"Do it."

Hah...

Fine.

Fucking making me jump into cold water and then making me do weird poses that only characters in a Bizarre anime will do... damn it.