Chapter 13: Fight against drugs

One day when wandering the campus, Lucas came across Kyle who exuded demonic energy despite being human. This indicated two possibilities. Either a demon has casted a spell to him that lingers, or that he has taken in the demon dust. Both being cause for concern. Lucas decided to pull Kyle from the crowd and took him to a more inconspicuous place.

Once they reached the location, Lucas said to Kyle "I noticed that you exude demonic energy from your body. Care to explain it?" Kyle said "I slept with a succubus last night. so you must be seeing that."

Lucas said "I can tell when succubus has drained lifeforce of a person and/or casted some sort of charm spell on a person. I don't believe a noble man like yourself would take a risk of being controlled by a demon. Especially since you come from the famous Marx family."

Kyle then shrugged and said "I don't know what to tell you. Now if you excuse me, I…" Lucas stopped what Kyle was doing and said "You having demonic energy on you can also mean that you have taken the substance known as demon dust. Granted, usually the users have shown to act aggressively when they haven't gotten some for a while and you don't show any signs of that either."

Kyle says "What are you going on about demon? You accuse me, a Marx, of being a user of this substance?" Lucas says "I am inclined to believe that you are one. Your family name won't protect you."

Kyle says "You don't have any proof that I'm using that thing. What can you actually do?" Lucas smiles and says "Glad you asked. Say, how well did you pay attention when I talked about the mimic race?" Kyle is taken back and asks "What are you getting at?"

Lucas says "I can simply mimic your being and get the memories that you hold." Kyle says "You can't do that! That has to be illegal." Lucas just says "Then show me the law that I would be breaking. Freedom of privacy? Causing mental trauma? Identity theft? Tempering of another person's mind? Or perhaps even some form of assault? But in the end, who am I hurting when I delve deep in your memories like they were my own? Pray tell, who can prove that I did any of that? Illusion mages are allowed to go through people's memories if the situation demands it and they get the approval of the city. I have been granted the freedom of conducting my own investigation by our dear old principal."

Kyle tries to run away, but Lucas becomes a wall that blocks Kyle's escape. He then exuded a tentacle that had a face that looked like Kyle's. Lucas says while using a voice similar to Kyle's "Now what secrets do you hold now, Mr. Marx?"

Lucas then mimicked the memories of Kyle Marx and saw what was the cause of his demonic energy. As he suspected, Lucas saw that Kyle had used demon dust that was provided by one of his servants. When he looked further back, he saw that Kyle made a connection with a person called Hollow. Lucas also saw that Hollow gave the instructions to Kyle, but Kyle just handed it to his servant and didn't bother reading a single part of it. This meant that the next lead was to confront the said servant.

Then Lucas turned back to his human form and said to Kyle "Thanks for the information. I will proceed to report this matter to the principal, who will then be in charge of taking action further out. In the meantime, wait for the principal's call and come when you are being called." Lucas then left Kyle who was terrified of what happened next. Kyle decided to go home as fast as possible in order to get protection from his father.

Lucas of course knew what Kyle would do, since Lucas briefly became him. Lucas decided to contact the servant that knew where to get demon dust before Kyle could act. He went where the servant usually was while mimicking Kyle. He went and arrogantly told the servant "Go and get me the stuff again. The situation demands that I get some more as fast as possible." The servant said "As you wish my lord" and proceeded to go and fetch some.

Lucas then tailed the servant, who went to the slums of the city and went inside a building that had a secret code. Lucas mimicked the skills of a monster osynlig to make himself invisible and to hide his presence. He also mimicked the skill of monster åhörare to eavesdrop the conversation between the servant and the supplier.

After the deal was made, the servant went out of the building and Lucas waited for them to leave. Then he went and mimicked someone else and said the password to the person overlooking the door. He got in and went to talk to the supplier.

The supplier asked "So are you looking to get strong?" Lucas said "Oh, I'm already strong enough." Then he started mimicking the supplier and said in their voice "I'm just looking for the source."

The supplier noticed that someone they didn't want was there, shouted for the guard to get in and quickly threw a dagger at Lucas. Lucas deflected it easily and said "I'm disappointed. I expected more of your little ring." Lucas got the information he wanted and quickly apprehended the two.

Lucas put them to sleep with a powder that professor Stronof gave him. Then he went and got the city guard to investigate the place, which took a little persuasion, but eventually guards followed him to the place and they found demon dust in the building. The city guards then took the supplier and their guard for further questioning. Lucas did not tell the city guards about what he learned from the supplier and decided to go handle it himself.

He then went to professor Stronof in pretense of thanking him for the powder. Lucas said "Hey Michael. Thanks for the powder you gave me. I got to use it on two suspects and they went out just like that."

Michael said "I'm glad to hear it worked. You know when I heard that you were on to get to the bottom of this, I knew that I had to help you as best I can." Lucas then said "I'm glad for the help. I really am." Then a moment of silence fills the room.

Then Lucas asks "Why did you do it?" Michael says "To get my name out." Lucas replied "I have a feeling that's not it." Michael then says "So you can tell even that." The room went silent again for a while.

Then Michael says "I know that trying to hide anything from you is meaningless, so I'll just spill it out. I wanted to show the hubris of humans to the wider audience." Lucas says "I don't follow. How does that have to do with spreading illegal substances?" Michael says "I wanted to show that most of the human strength is borrowed from something else. The reason why the 500 year war ended in humanity's favor wasn't because of the so-called human effort. It was only because humans borrowed the power of the gods that they were able to drive demons close to extinction."

Lucas then says "And you wanted to spread the awareness of that by making people realize that people are willing to borrow power by consuming demonic substances." Michael says "Precisely. Humans have gotten so arrogant that we even think that other non demon races weren't part of the reason why the holy side won."

Lucas then asked "Do you think what you did was smart?" Michael says "I don't in the grand scheme of things, but I feel like it must be done this way." Lucas then asks "If you promise to me that you won't do this again, will you uphold your promise?" Michael says "You are going to trust me if I say yes?" Lucas answers "I feel like you aren't a bad man. That is why I'm giving you the opportunity to leave your past behind."

Michael then asked "What will you do if I refuse?" To which Lucas said "I will make sure you pay the appropriate price."

Michael thinks for a moment and then says "What will you say to Ms. Tyrp?" Lucas answers "I'm just going to say that I handled one of the main suspects by my own means." Michael then asked "And she will let it be like that?" To which Lucas answered "I can make her promise to not take action if she asked for more information. Which is likely to happen, but still, I make sure you can stay as a teacher in this academy."

Michael thinks for a while longer and then says "If you would be so kind as to do this for me, I promise to uphold my end of the deal." Lucas says "Thanks." Then while Lucas is starting to leave, Michael says "I may not know much about the current state of things, but I can tell you what I know about the underground structure of the organization that handles demon dust."

Lucas then waves his hand as he leaves. In his mind, Lucas thinks "I may be letting him go too lightly, but people do stupid things under their beliefs."

When Lucas went and informed Lucy about the matter and how he handled it, she wasn't really pleased about it and asked "Do you have any idea how many deaths can be connected to the demon dust for the past year?" Lucas says "About a few hundred at tops." Lucy says "1227 deaths that have been connected to someone using demon dust. And you let that person be?" Lucas says "I have swept away much higher numbers under the rug before. Little over a thousand deaths don't phase me."

Lucy facepalms and says "You can't make that call. And I'm sure the main reason why you can say that is because you think that those deaths were necessary for either the greater good or Sylvia's plan. Or both."

Lucas says "You know me well." Lucy sighs and says "These deaths weren't done for the greater good and by the gods did they not belong in to Sylvia's plan."

Lucas says "I think that it is saddening that those people had to die, but I'm willing to give him a chance to make things better." Lucy says "So it's "he". Anyways, do what you will. Just remember that you owe me a favor." Lucas says "I keep that in mind."

Then after Lucas had left, Lucy muttered to herself "Now all I need to deal with is the Marx problem. Gods, this is going to give me a headache."

While Kyle couldn't feign ignorance to the claim that he had used demon dust to boost his abilities, he got out of the whole criminal case thanks to his father's words.

And so did the regular academy life continue with less of a drug problem. Well, while the source was now settled, there were still those who had lost their suppliers now that the academy had taken action.

The mages tower aided the academy with handling the people who were suffering and those that will suffer from the after effects of demon dust. This helping hand was given because the second mages tower wanted to get good recognition.