Aryan examined the four demons approaching him and other the fact that he found Water's companions strangely familiar, the extreme contrast in their appearances left him very perplexed.
Water, with his baby blue skin, ash colored hair that grew to his nape, bright blue eyes and tall lean figure, ordinarily stood out to Aryan who had not been exposed to so many demons and was ignorant of his own striking appearance. However, now that Aryan had seen the additional three demons, he realized how gravely mistaken he was to think Water's appearance out of the ordinary.
The demon that stood to the extreme on Water's right was tall. Far taller than the rest of them as Water, whom Aryan was sure he was taller than by only a few inches, only managed to reach the upper part of the guy's abdomen. His build was big with large muscles bulging beneath his tight customized body suit that was the academy's uniform.
He was covered from neck to toe as he donned large black boots, a thick jacket and black gloves in addition to the body suit so only his face was visible and even then, his face with its pale skin and ash eyes that resembled black smoke cradled by a thick mop of blue hair still struck Aryan as odd.
The one who stood in the middle was taller than Water by a head albeit still far shorter than his counterpart. His body suit was short sleeved so Aryan could see the sleek black lines that crawled up his forearm from each finger tip. From the subtle cracks that resembled scales on the lines, Aryan deduced the lines were probably supposed to be snakes.
The guy had even paler skin than the first, red lips curved in an unnatural smile and eyes concealed by a strip of thick black cloth tied firmly over them. His green hair was trimmed in a buzz cut and Aryan noticed the dark image of snake heads all over his neck- the heads of the snake tails he saw coiling about his forearm.
The last guy was a bit shorter than the second and was the same height as Aryan. His body suit was long sleeved but stopped above his calf leaving his legs exposed. Strangely, he wore nothing on his feet opting to walk barefoot. His skin tone was a normal shade, his eyes brown and hair black but atop his head, among his black locks, two horns twisted and curled on either sides of his head so their tips pointed out just above his small ears.
Aryan felt like he was staring at a circus show, every display completely different from the previous. This confused him though. He was sure if he saw demons as striking in appearance as the ones currently approaching him, he would never have forgotten yet, here he was staring at their unfamiliar faces as a questionable sense of familiarity settled over him.
"Water. You managed to find your way back here" Aryan called dully, the initial surprise in his eyes replaced by something else something that made Water fearful. He had to carry out his plan though, information was what he needed if he wanted to remain ahead of the despicable mixed race.
Water's smirk dropped and as if on cue, well it was a cue but anyway, the moment Water's smirk dropped, the three demons crowded round Aryan simply staring at him but not acting. For the entirety of the time Water spent with Aryan, he noticed that he never ate in the library, the apple from that one time a mere variable in his routine life. He simply came to the library, read till the 17th hour and left, not even checking a book out.
Well, except that time he was avoiding Water. There were a bunch of variables and times Aryan acted out of normal but they were what they were- variables. His activities made one thing clear to Water though. If he wanted to get something on Aryan, it had to be in the library and through a book.
For the three days that he was absent, he searched for black lilies, a type of flower known to cause paralysis in even the strongest of demons. Upon finding it, he had laced the edges of the pages of the books he felt Aryan hadn't read yet with the powder of the flower. Merely touching it once would be enough to get knocked out and Aryan had read multiple of the laced books.
Aryan watched as Water's lips curved into a smirk once more, his gaze following Water's and resting on the book he was holding.
'It seems he did something o the books' he thought just as his vision started to blur. On the outside, he simply blinked once before dusting the book so the rest of the whitish powder on its pages fell to the ground then he put it back on the shelf. He didn't turn around though. Just stood with his back to the demons staring at the unknown powder on the wooden floors, completely disregarding his gradually failing vision.
"This is a case of the elephant and the three rats isn't it?" Aryan's voice rung out suddenly startling the demons around him. The three crowding him glanced at one another before looking at Water who shrugged signaling he didn't understand Aryan either.
"What the hell are you talking about freak?" the light voice of the one with horns questioned while the one with green hair smirked wider. "If you're so scared you start speaking nonsense, I suggest begging" he taunted.
"Well in this case, there are four rats." Aryan continued ignoring them. An exasperated sigh left his lips.
"Oh the sadness of ignorance. I pity your insignificant souls for not even being aware of your ancestors" he spoke as if he was truly sad for them.
Water's face scrunched up in distaste, his immediate response being to strike at Aryan. The green haired demon beat him to it however, one of the black lines on his hands emerging like a long wiggly worm before the head shrunk from his neck and down his arm to project forward as he lunged at Aryan.
"Medes!" Both Water and the horned demon yelled at the same time. The blue haired demon simply shook his head at his friend's foolish behavior but made no effort to interfere.
They were all startled when, in the next second, Medes was thrown against one of the shelves so hard that he went through it. His eyes rolled back as he collided with a second shelf both shelves collapsing on him. The loud thud echoed in the library shocking the sloth librarian awake once more.
Aryan dusted his palms as he turned to look at the three demons remaining. His heterochronic eyes glittered under the light of the large library, gold half of his hair shining and black part fluttering as black current buzzed through it.
"The rats may be able to topple the elephant but in the end-" he paused as his eyes stared straight into Water's.
"-they're just rats"