My Demon Professors Are All Gorgeous Girls
Chapter 109: Trial Seven — Echoes of the Past

Chapter 109: Trial Seven — Echoes of the Past

Arcadia’s wards glowed with renewed vigor after the Siege of Cinders, yet in the corridors of the Academy, a new tension simmered. Students spoke in hushed tones of disappearing runes and half–erased murals. Professors discovered gaps in the history tomes. Even Valmira’s Codex trembled as if quivering at some unseen touch. I felt it most strongly in the Memory Ward’s gentle pulse—which now faltered like a wounded heart.

At dawn, I summoned Seraphina, Yuria, Valmira, Astraea, and Zephira to the Hall of Echoes—an ancient wing lined with reflective obsidian panels intended to preserve the Academy’s past. The doors swung open with a whisper, revealing long-forgotten murals that depicted Lilith’s earliest days as a demon queen. Yet parts of the murals were fading, the scenes blotting out as ash devoured flame.

Nilthria’s voice echoed through the hall: "The Trial Seven beckons. Echoes of the Past shall seek to rewrite your memories. To pass, you must reclaim lost truths before they vanish forever."

Signs of the Unraveling

We moved through the hall’s length, frost-lanterns in one hand, Codex in the other. The first sign appeared at Lilith’s mural: figures of young demon lords smiling beside her, but their faces blurred—names forgotten. Valmira traced her finger along the caption. "These were her classmates—now erased."

Yuria ran a fingertip through the felled ash on the floor. "Fading fast," she muttered.

Seraphina knelt before a rune-inscribed pillar. "The ward here is weakening; the inscription flickers."

Zephira’s blade traced the pillar’s base. "Echoes eat away at the foundation. If we don’t act, our history will unravel."

I placed my hand on the Memory Ward’s vessel, feeling its pulse stutter. "Then we retrieve what’s lost. Together."

The First Echo: Lilith’s Locus

At the hall’s far end lay a sealed chamber: the Locus of Lilith’s Origin—where her initial sigil was carved into pure obsidian. The seal crackled with distortion. As we approached, a wisp of smoke drifted through the seal’s cracks, coalescing into Lilith’s younger self: her laughter bright, her silver hair unmarked by horns, her crimson eyes wide with wonder.

"Remember me," she mouttered, voice tinged with confusion. "I was joy... promise... spark."

But as we watched, her form flickered, features blurring, smile melting into ash. The mural behind her began to fade.

Valmira stepped forward, quill in hand. "She sings the first echo—a call to forget the beginning."

I drew a deep breath. "We will remember."

Seraphina began the Invocation of Remembrance:

By frost we recall,Flame’s first step enthralled.

Yuria added lightning:

By thunder we bind,The spark she left behind.

Astraea touched the seal with star-ice:

By ice we preserve,The truth she did serve.

Zephira struck her blade into the ash:

By steel we defend,The past to no end.

I placed my staff upon the vessel:

By memory’s embrace,No echo shall erase.

The Memory Ward’s pulse surged, and Lilith’s young form solidified, smile bright once more. The mural behind glowed anew in vibrant colors. The seal’s distortion healed as runes reetched themselves. We watched until the echoes dispersed, leaving only the preserved record of her origin.

The Second Echo: The Council’s Betrayal

Venturing deeper into the Hall of Echoes, we found another chamber where the Demon Council had once sealed a pact with the Frostbound Houses. In the murals, demon lords and frost dukes clasped hands—with Lilith presiding. Here, inked words of alliance scrawled beneath had begun to peel away, as though truth itself was unmaking.

From the chipped stone floor rose phantom shapes: demonic figures turning on each other, frostbound nobles striking at their supposed allies. The mural split in half, one side rewriting itself into betrayal.

Seraphina gritted her teeth. "They would have us believe the alliance was a lie."

Yuria slammed her fist into the floor, cracking ash into cinders. "Not if we remember the truth."

Valmira opened the Codex to the original treaty text. "We have the record," she said. "We must reaffirm its words."

We formed the circle once more, chanting the Unity Verse and reading aloud the Demon–Frostbound Alliance in its entirety. As each word rang out, the phantom visions faltered. Frost and flame runes traced themselves around the mural, sealing the true pact. The mural’s halves reunited in vibrant harmony. The phantoms dissolved in a shower of sparks and ice.

The Third Echo: The Forgotten Ward

At the hall’s center lay a pedestal carved with runes of sacrifice and forging. Its inscription had begun to vanish, and beneath it bubbles of dark ash seeped up like oil. This was where Lilith had bound her First Flame—her greatest sacrifice—but now even the granite block threatened to become oblivion.

We approached, frost-breath misting the air. The pedestal’s ash roiled into a shape: a gigantic seal of living embers, its edges unraveling.

Astraea knelt and pressed Eclipse’s hilt to the ash. "We cannot lose the First Flame’s mark."

Zephira sheathed her blade and drew a warding circle around the pedestal. "We must reinfuse her sacrifice."

Valmira uncapped her quill. "I will copy every rune from the Codex’s margins."

Seraphina wove a braid of frost around Yuria’s wrist. "Your lightning will reignite the Ashen seal."

Yuria nodded, eyes alight with determination. "Then let me spark it."

I raised my staff, summoning the essence of Lilith’s ember that I had once relinquished. "By fire and memory, we restore your flame."

With each incantation, the pedestal’s runes flared, the ash burned away, and the seal reformed—this time stronger, wards layered in frost, lightning, star-ice, steel, and gold flame. The First Flame’s mark shone once more.

Aftermath: The Hall of Truth Restored

As the final echo dissolved, the Hall of Echoes felt whole. Murals glowed with pristine hues, runes shone in perfect clarity, and the relics of the past pulsed with renewed life. We stood together, breathless, dusting ash from our robes.

Valmira recorded in the Codex:

Trial Seven: Echoes of the PastOutcome: Lost memories reclaimed through joint remembrance. The Academy’s history restored and warded against oblivion.

Seraphina placed her staff against the central mural. "May no echo ever steal our truth again."

Yuria flexed her gauntlets. "And may our lightning see through any lie."

Astraea nodded. "And may our ice hold fast against erasure."

Zephira sheathed her blade. "And may our steel guard every secret."

I touched the Memory Ward’s vessel. "By choice, unity, sacrifice, and memory, we seal this hall forever. Let our past live on in every future."

Epilogue: Embers of Legacy

That evening, the Academy’s candles burned bright in every hall. Students and professors gathered in the courtyard to sing the Song of Echoes—a hymn recounting each trial’s lesson and vowing never to forget. The Memory Ward’s gentle glow watched over them, its embers pulsing in time with their chant.

I stood with Seraphina, Yuria, Valmira, Astraea, and Zephira beneath the Origin Halo’s serene light. Around us, the Academy thrummed with life, secure in its history.

Seraphina whispered, "We have honored our past."

Yuria grinned. "Now we write our future."

Valmira closed the Codex. "And we will remember every spark that brought us here."

Astraea lifted Eclipse. "Let that memory guide our blade."

Zephira nodded. "And our resolve."

I raised my staff high. "By our choices, by our unity, by our sacrifices, and by our memories, we stand as guardians of Arcadia’s legacy—embers rekindled for all time."

Under the Halo’s silent watch, our echoes lived on, a promise that the Academy’s truth would never fade.