He espied monstrous shadows contorting in madness, demoniacal laughter jeering his way without remorse. It jolted his nerves thunderously, voltage traveling all the way down to their endings, prompting eyes to widen and focus.
There it is! Griffon spoke triumphantly. Took it long enough! Give 'em hell!
The creeping chaos lurked across the tiles, scattering across the walls, snaking through the air. It was in multitudes yet still one. V swerved in all directions, muscles tensed like spring, ready to unleash and commandeer his companion slathered on his body in black ink.
With great strength, he recanted from committing anything so brash. A lack of discipline sickened himself to the halvened core, for its rise would surely drive a stake into what should be 'optimal' ploys.
"Not yet... Where is it truly?" V could feel the Demon's existence invade in and out of reality, traversing through a myriad of mediums with taunting ease. How troubling.
He mirthlessly coiled his fingers around his cane with a tighter grip. Evil and malediction were a timeless concept, and Demons were their effigy. Sadistic beings that knew naught but a primordial clause manifested upon them since even before time's beginning.
Rude! Griffon hollored, but didn't deny it.
V still didn't spring into action.
He waited, waited, waited...
Until he finally spotted the Demon, its form shape-shifting and rigid, sloshes of a viscous liquid ebony in color moving about. Within it then peered out a millionfold eyes through holes that would trigger trypophobia.
"Foul..." V murmured. "Griffon, ascend."
"Finally!" Griffon bellowed out, gliding out of its tattooed form and spreading his wings as if to encompass the entire space.
"Careful about the Arts Units," V warned."Don't cause too much damage.
"If ya' gotta pay a pretty penny for killing this thing, then I'd say it's worth it!"
The Demon continued to gyrate in place even when the streaks of lightning broke through.
A malformed visage carved itself on its face, as it split into lines running through the ground, Griffon's lightning hitting a desk and searing it.
"Ah, damn it!" Griffon yelled.
V chased after the slithers quickly, brandishing his cane and infusing it with his energy in order to embolden its potency.
Magic was his realm of artistry, and Demonic Energy his paint. With his cane as the brush, he swiped it across the canvas in front of him. The Demon just so happened to be in the center of it.
"Unfortunate for you, little one." V struck downward.
It pierced into where he believed its main body to be, or the centerpoint of its body, as its peering crimson eyes still hadn't receded. Color him surprised when the dark portion comprising its body automatically deformed, creating empty space for his cane to stab into.
A slob of liquid shot up, its face leering his way.
"...Fair play," V whispered in contempt.
"Move it!"
Griffon came from behind as V jumped back. Fortunately, the Demon didn't strike, as his Familiar spun and dive-bombed the location, lightning flying off his body to form a drill.
It dug into the ground, Griffon rebounding amidst the smoke kicked up by the pulverized debris, and making his way back to V.
"Did I get 'em?" Griffon asked, warily swerving around the room.
"No," V said.
The Arts Units around them... began to spark.
V's knuckles became pale around his cane, a hand drifting over his mouth as he plunged himself into further contemplation. The concentration of Demonic Energy rose to a disgusting degree, grating his survival instincts.
"That does not look good," Griffon paled, if his black-furred skin could even be pale.
"Barrier, quick," V commanded, his own Demonic Energy flaring.
He spun his cane in front of himself and formed multiple Summoned Canes, all surrounding him. Griffon himself didn't say another word, spreading his wings and creating what was essentially an electromagnetic barrier purple with his lightning.
The Arts Units once touched by the Demonic Energy rose into the air, pointed V's way.
"A smart one," V dully remarked.
An oppressive assault was laid upon them without mercy. Fire, ice, force, and all the like were within the salvos executed by the Arts Unit, giving the two no respite as they continually amped up their crumbling defenses by the second.
"Geh!" Griffon spat.
Openings... Openings... V scoured for them with a dutiful eye.
Ten canes in total, concentric in front of him, each shattering with each batter. He only had about six left.
Five, with another shatter, and soon three when the unrelenting assault came into double-time.
Anything... V remained calm in spite of his Familiar now spit-firing profanities faster than heavy ordnance.
Two canes.
One cane...
Then—
"There it is." A dubious half-smile, but a smile nonetheless, found its way on his lips.
With a swing of his actual cane, V swatted away an Arts attack infused by the Demon's Demonic Energy. His eyes caught the Demon taunting them with its swaying body, mouths upon mouths aligning it along with its multitude of crimson orbs, just as he...
Felt grave danger.
His heart beat harder in his chest, as if about to burst.
"Hold on, V! Hold your damn horses!" Griffon bellowed out. "Get back!"
"Yes...?" V wasn't one to be bothered by trifling things, but the screech of his companion halted him down to an agonizing grind.
"We've gotta get outta here, that thing is way above our paygrade!" the avian spouted, panic lacing its bird tongue.
V was forced to back away as the Arts Unit ruptured the ground beneath his feet, malignant spikes tinged with Demonic Energy that would've impaled him if he didn't retreat.
"What a loathsome fellow you are," V spoke, eyes turning to see the Demon laughing from its multiple mouths in perverted glee.
A slew of bolts jagged their way from behind V, attempting to hit the Demon. However, a barrier was erected in front of it, no doubt a combination of both Arts and Demonic Energy.
"I see." V was about to give another command to Griffon, this time to destroy the Arts Units the Demon was manipulating, but was cut off.
Griffon grabbed with his talons the shoulder of V, forcibly dragging him back.
Where he once stood, again, exploded with unidentified Arts, V blinking almost owlishly.
"I could hardly even detect it," he grimly said.
"Let's get outta here!" Griffon warned.
V spoke, "Hold on—"
But couldn't complete his sentence nor suggestion.
The Demon shifted its form once more, growing in size. This time, it took the shape of an orb with rings surrounding it, black wings sprouting with even more eyes upon its body. Serpentine shadows still protruded, merged with the ground and very room itself.
"Our prospects are looking quite grim." V huffed near-raggedly, feeling its sheer malice.
"I've been telling you! Did you change your mind now?!"
"...I have. Watch my back."
"I hear ya', V!"
V pivoted and turned to the door. It was sealed shut.
Scoffing, he bolted in its direction with Demonic Energy fueling his Magics, flicking his cane in a flourish, as he super-charged the armament enough to stab the obstruction through. Nevertheless, it was simply a small aperture on its wood.
He attempted to cut his way down to undo the lock compartments, but his cane barely budged when reaching metal.
"Come on, come on, open ya' stupid door!" Griffon trailed behind him and lightning rolled off from his wings.
V dashed out of the way in perfect sync with his Familiar flapping his wings, those twin black canvases painted with unrelenting fury. They were expressed in arcs of electricity now pulverizing those doors, with searing marks lacerating the poor wooden floor.
"Haha! Never fails!"
"Never fails indeed," V said, abiding by his Familiar's words even if he had recounted all times Griffon's lightning has failed.
Taking a step forward—
He dodged to the side, his hand nicked by an unseen slash. Faint trails of blood splattered out from it, but V maneuvered elegantly enough to avoid the other ones coming at him.
"Nope!" Griffon flew behind V, taking an Arts blast with a half-formed barrier. "Agh! Keep going!"
V turned fully right, ready to bolt down the corridor, but realized how much it had changed.
The hallways were putrescent with dirt-brown rust laden across sheen. What were once hardwood walls with marbling at some parts had morphed into decaying metal that clamored with each step he unleashed in an effort to run.
"Pocket dimension? Are ya' kidding me?! Since when?!" Griffon followed along, ducking down as an explosion nearly caught it.
"An outwardly transformative one to boot," V unamusedly added on, continuing his sprint.
Out from where they had just come, a mass of tendrils lurched out, and before long, the wings of the Demon. A burst its power set alit the disgusting corridors, the temperatures rapidly increasing.
Run, far, far away, V told himself.
He could feel the heat of flames chasing him and Griffon.
It reminded him of a time where those selfsame cackling fires laughed at him, mocked him.
Laughed at him as he stared down a burning wreckage. Mocked him for his weakness, as he ran away from home. Those memories and flames would always chase him no matter how old he became, or wherever he went.
His failures given form.
His weakness.
V's face lost its composure, turning into an angered scowl just as he—
Bumped into somebody...?
"Ow?!" a female voice said.
He recoiled from the force as he dumbfoundedly saw who exactly he had collided into.
"Ah..." V couldn't find the right words.
Regaining her balance, and thankfully having not been knocked over—as per Terran physiology being quite robust—Lemuen turned up, looking directly at him.
Specifically: Fiammetta, Mostima, and Lemuen. His heart began beating palpitations that, if heard or felt, would be a dead giveaway to his unbridled panic stirring in abdomen. Their countenances ranged from a raised brow, to a tilted head, and a look of surprise—respectively.
V briskly stared behind, noticing how the hallways had returned to normal, and how Griffon had quickly (bless his vigilance) receded back into his tattoos.
"Huh? V?" Fiammetta asked with her hands on her hips, stepping forward. "What are you doing here? Aren't you a part of the 'Going-Home Club'?"
"I..." V cleared his throat, attempting to hide his haggardness. "I'd expect the same absence from you three, considering the..." His gaze drifted to a grandfather clock he scanned in the hallway, before clamping his lips shut.
"Considering the time?" Mostima completed for V. "What do you mean? It's still during the period for some club activities. Did you hit your head?"
Barely five minutes had passed since the end of the school day.
What...? I've spent hours waiting in that room, I'm certain of it...
Realization struck him.
Pocket dimension. Time dilation.
How long had that Demon perpetuated the time dilation without him coming to notice the change in reality's cycles? At the very least, that meant the damages wouldn't be seen due to the nature of its pocket dimension. The same could not be said for the Arts Unit.
"...Did I hit my head? I wonder that too, Mostima," V mumbled, gaze barely able to avert themselves from the three.
"Better get it checked if that's the case," Fiammetta chimed in, none the wiser.
His heart continued beating incessantly, eyes scouring through the hallway for any disturbances. There was nothing unnatural, and the presence of that Demon had completely vanished.
"V," Lemuen called, for once.
"...Lemuen, yes?" V remained calm, as calm as he can be, and it just so-happened he was the greatest amongst many others in keeping a stoic face (he would like to tell himself). "I heard you have an upcoming shooting competition—"
"That's besides the point. You look terribly pale. Do you need to go to the nurse's office?" Lemuen inquired calmly.
Too calmly, for some inexplicable reason V could hardly grasp in his inwardly tumultuous state.
Mostima and Fiammetta waited for his response alongside her, the former shuffling for a piece of wrapped candy in her pocket; nonchalantly handing one to the latter who refused.
"I don't need to visit the nurse's office, no," V answered. "I'm quite fine."
"Then I hope you can spare some time and answer a question I have," Lemuen stated firmly. "In private," she added.
"..."
He should've just gone to the nurse's office.