The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 232: Syllabus

Chapter 232: Syllabus

By way of introduction, Kir said almost nothing about himself. But he did manage to fill five minutes talking about the course he would have taught if more students had signed up.

"Now, if all of you will be patient, my first policy is to go over the schedule for the semester." He picked up the stack of papers he’d brought with him. "Miss Lihros... or do you prefer Keiya?"

"Keiya is fine," the elf replied.

"Please hand these out for me. Just take one and pass it back. There should be one for everyone." Kir was giving up his copy for Encke, but he didn’t really need it. It was rather simple, actually.

"First and foremost, know that, depending on what we discover together, the syllabus might change. Tomorrow, I will begin formulating hypotheses on each of your unique circumstances. Afterward, I will discuss with each of you the potential factors of those circumstances and we will determine a methodology for research. Then afterward I will have each of you write up your own experiment proposals to submit to the Chancellor."

Keiya and Daisy’s eyes widened. The rest of the class just looked confused or, in the case of Bailey, hostile.

Daisy raised a hand. "Yes, Miss Recca?"

"Magic research proposals are fifth-year stuff."

"Rest assured I am working closely with the Chancellor on your behalves."

"But if it gets put into a book, who gets the royalties?" Daisy continued.

"I will bring it up with her. But I see no reason why each of you cannot receive a portion should the results be published."

The twins started whispering to each other again, and even Encke looked up, although that could have just been because a moment later one of them got up and brought her a copy of the syllabus.

Clearing his throat, Kir continued. "Now. Today’s class will be relatively short. I would like each of you to have a baseline of your present abilities, and for that, I will need you to display your particular skills to me so that I can have that baseline as well."

Keiya bit her lip, a look of excitement in her eyes. "Does that mean I get to make potions?"

Kir shook his head. "Sadly no. I’m going to have you all cast the most basic attack magic - a mana bolt - as strong as you can, as many times as you can. And for that," he gestured with both his arms, indicating everyone should rise. "We will go outside."

Some shuffling happened, except for Bailey, who wound up forcing Daisy to go around him.

"Feel free to join us when you are ready, Mr. Black." Kir hopped off the short stage and started up the stairs, placing Bailey’s knife on the edge of the desk. Three steps past Bailey, a bolt of magic stronger than the first hit Kir in the back. He paused from surprise more than anything else. Recovering quickly, he looked out the window; at a fall sky that should have been the tail end of summer. "A decent day," he said, and then left.

Outside, everyone formed a rough gaggle.

It was a short walk to the edge of the promontory and the cliff that fell for a hundred meters or so before meeting the clear edge of the lake.

One clap was all it took to summon their attention.

"Alright, class! For this activity, you can aim your spells anywhere out towards the water. Remember, this will be a basic mana bolt. Add nothing that would not otherwise come on its own."

The twins raised their hands at the same time.

"Yes, Briar?" Kir decided to just go alphabetically.

"Do you want us to work together or separate?" he asked.

"What happens when you work separately?"

"The magic doesn’t come out," Thorn answered for his brother.

"Together then. Remember, we’re maximizing your power output to the most mana you can hold in a single spell. If you start to feel headiness, nausea, or anything out of the ordinary, please stop casting and inform me, as that will be you approaching mana deprivation."

The class remained silent. Most of them would have already been told what to watch for in their basic magic courses.

"Now, do I have a volunteer?"

Daisy raised her hand.

"I’ll go," she said, stepping forward. "I can really aim anywhere?"

"Aim anywhere away from the school, towards the water," Kir reminded her, taking up a position towards her front.

Kir wished he had a clipboard or something to write on, but memorization would have to do for today.

Raising both hands, Daisy began a silent chant, concentrating mana above her head into a form that was like a bubble of black within a clear shell. A photonegative of what a regular mana bolt of enormous size would create.

At the last possible second, she brought the spell down and fired-

Right into Kir.

Kir felt the impact on his shields like a ton of bricks. Because of the properties of the spell it exerted pressure through its energy while the properties of its antimagic tore at the hexagonal lattice, eating through the layer in a moment...

But Kir was already prepared.

He’d thought long and hard before making his "bet" with the class. In particular, he’d thought long and hard about how to counter Daisy the Destroyer.

The solution he’d arrived at was simple and brutish. As the frontward hexes of his shield dissipated, he shifted those around the edges to intercept the orb, generating new shielding behind them faster and faster until he was at a stalemate with it.

In a contest of magic, most mages would have their spells try to push each other aside - if they interacted at all. Antimagic, however, could easily cut through most spells, but there was a catch. A spell of equal or superior mana would be lessened by the antimagic but not outright destroyed. By brute-forcing a large mana flow, Kir could shut down her spells by letting them do what they did best.

Thus, after a few seconds more, Kir watched the orb shrink into nothingness as his shields restored themselves faster and faster.

Once the spell was gone, between him and Daisy he saw a thin wisp - only visible in manasight - as it finished flowing back along the path of the spell and into her chest.

"Good try, Miss Daisy," Kir said. "I believe you destroyed twenty-one sections of my shielding before your spell waned. Out of seventy-two. Was that your maximum holding capacity for the spell?"

"Yes," she said, looking annoyed, despite the color returning to her face. One thing Kir noticed about Daisy was that she didn’t seem to have a magic aura close to herself, so it was impossible to say how much power she really had - yet another reason why anti-magic mages were feared only slightly less than blood mages.

And speaking of blood mages, Bailey was leaning in the doorway, having watched the exchange from a distance.

"Is that all you have or can you keep going? I did say to cast as many as you could."

"I can go longer than you can," she said.

"So you intend to continue firing at me?" Kir put his hands behind his back.

"You’re not teaching. Anytime, anyplace, you said."

Kir chuckled. "Then I suppose your lesson will come at the end."

A moment later, she hit him with the same spell.

Kir’s shield blocked it, but this time instead of rebuilding the very center of the lattice, he left a single hex open and reached out with his hand and his mana.

Into her spell, he poured his mana, and along the path of her spell, he felt for the briefest instant the edge of a phenomenon he’d become quite familiar with as a result of his interactions with Mimzy.

A siphon.

And because anti-magic siphoned mana from the spells it encountered, another vulnerability for the anti-magic mage was mana that wanted to be absorbed. Spells for compulsion, altering sensations, or commanding the body. It was how Stella, possessing Kir’s body, had fought and won against her.

But Kir was not Stella. He had grown to dislike those spells that altered the mind. That took away a person’s agency.

Altering the spell he was using to sense the siphon, Kir wove a strand of his senses along a thin line until, after what felt like minutes, it worked its way all the way through.

And at the end of that siphon was her store of mana. And at its core was the slight, almost imperceptible weakness of an outward flow. Her source.

The place in her soul where mana could enter the world was shrinking.

Conventional wisdom thought of mana like a gas, and, like any uncompressed environment, mana flowed into the void of her vessel in response to negative pressure generated in it. If the body and soul were like a bag, then the aperture would be her source, and spells were like little pinpricks allowing the contents to spill out...

Only what spilled out of her was recursive. It looped back onto itself, sealing the "holes" left by her spellcasting, and with it just a little more of her source...

In that moment Kir understood.

It wasn’t just an inherent property of her magic that was taking her ability to create mana away.

It was the very act of casting spells.

And he had no idea how to stop it.

All this, he realized in the barest moment before the cascade of his own mana caught up to him, filling the space inside her faster than her spells would have drawn on alone.

He came out of his mental space to find Daisy looking more than slightly tipsy. Kir did a quick check of his shield. It was still intact, but she’d managed to take out half the lattice.

"Did you... You all see that?" she giggled. "I almost got him this time..." She was suffering from mild mana poisoning. Then she started to tilt-

In a flash, Kir sprinted forward and caught her, laying her down gently. "Okay, down you go. Just rest it out," he said, puffing a bit of air out of his lips.

"Heheh... I almost got you..." Daisy fainted.

"Finally she’s out," Kiryu said. "Hate that anti-magic shit."

"You know once I figure it out I’m going to help her, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just keep her away from me. I’m fifty percent magic or something."

"What’s the other half?"

"Cigarette cravings."