Icing the Cake [1]

"Are you daft, Rachel?"

"Oh, pipe down, Arthur. Did you forget who I am?"

"Hm? Who are you?" Cake is clueless as to what Arthur and I are talking about, and she just follows behind us.

"I forgot nothing. You're the one forgetting that it took you- even you- two months to get me to where I am now. How in hell are you going to get Cake to that level in less than two days?"

Arthur's drama annoys me, so I ignore it and keep walking. We pass by a lot of houses, but they are all empty.

I see some people ahead, and the others are following behind us. The town is massive, so the center is a ways off.

"Like I said, Arthur, you forget who I am- who Cake is."

"Oh? Then enlighten me, please."

"Cake is a demon. I am the Demon Lord. This is the Demon Realm. If I can't make her a First Mage before the exam- in the demon realm of all places- then I would have failed her."

Arthur seems to be on the verge of understanding and says, "But its been ten thousand years. Do you really think they would have left any resources behind?"

"Resources? I doubt they've left any of those behind; they don't matter."

"Then what, Rachel, what!?"

"The fact that this is the Demon Realm is all that matters. Here, any demon can properly tap in to their potential, even if they've turned it into a mortal-heaven utopia. How do you think I raised up my Subjugation Army in such short time?"

Arthur makes a grimace as if he is in serious pain.

"You do not need to know all the details. Razalith walked every inch of this realm, and knows things that no others- no, one other person- knows."

Arthur massages his temples and sighs in defeat, "Fine, fine. I'll watch and wait, then."

All the while we are talking, Cake is staring forward, unblinking, and wondering what the hell we are on about.

A short while after, we arrive at the center.

It is a large plaza, and there are quite a few stragglers here, conversing with a short blue-skinned servant.

"Half demon?" When I see this servant, I struggle to figure out what exactly he is. He looks like a demon, but for some reason I sense human and god traits in him.

"Greetings to you all," he shouts over to us and those that have arrived behind us, "I am Hector, servant of Sir Thornwel who is to be your examiner."

"The designated waiting areas are scattered throughout the castle town, but if you would be patient with me, I can teleport you all there instantly."

"Why not just tell us the coordinates and let us travel there ourselves?" Someone in the crowd, clearly displeased, poses the question.

"Yeah. Teleportation magic is clearly not your forte." Another person says, impatient and tired of standing around.

Hector gives a helpless smile and shrugs, "It does make a lot of sense to do it that way, but Sir Thornwel has decreed that I am to teleport you there myself."

Opposition rang out in the plaza, but they had no choice but to wait.

Hector, very slowly and carefully, says the incantation and casts the spell on them, group by group. We are a bit further back in line, so we must wait our turn.

"I wonder where Mister Silver is," Cake asks while looking around.

I am reminded of his existence, and look around for him as well. Arthur is focused on the slow movements of Hector, and is slowly growing annoyed. I suspect that the headache I caused him is contributing to this as well.

I do not see Silver, and Cake eventually stops looking.

When we reach Hector, he smiles at us and prepares the spell.

I listen closely to his words, noting that he is speaking an incantation that is subtly different from the others he has spoken.

Incantations are like recipes in which one states the ingredients required for the spell they are imagining. If they have enough mana, skillful control and sufficient knowledge, they can then cast the spell.

If you want to cast a spell that teleports someone, but it also simultaneously removes 10 gold pieces from their coin purse, then you must have the required incantation.

The good thing about it is that an incantation can be spoken entirely in your mind. Since all magic uses mental energy anyway, mentally voicing an incantation is a more direct way to cook up spells.

Hector doesn't seem to care if I hear the subtle difference in his incantation- or he perhaps does not have the discipline to speak it in his mind.

Listening to it, I hear that he is casting a spell that will take us a lot further than where the others have been taken. It is likely that he is taking us to a special area, or perhaps to the puppeteer, Sir Thornwel.

Smiling back at him, I wait for him to cast the spell. His greenish mana covers the three of us, and we vanish.

I blink, and when my eyes open again I am standing in a courtyard with Arthur and Cake by my side. There is a small palace, a large garden decked with trees, bushes and a fountain, and I see the towers and walls of the castle surrounding us.

We are within the College.

I hear hectic clanging coming from the direction of the small palace, and see that a suit of armor is running full tilt toward us.

It arrives and scrapes to a halt, saying, "I've decided to give you a bit of special treatment. As of today, all potential Prime Alumni present this year will be granted actual Prime Alumni abodes as waiting areas. Do enjoy."

I squint at the armor, but ignore it and begin walking toward the palace.

Arthur and Cake follow, with Cake exclaiming in surprise and delight.

"What a lovely bush! Look at that tree! What kind of grass is that, Rachel?"

Once we are inside, Cake marvels at the polished porcelain floor and the golden lined ivory stairs at either side of the room.

She runs up one side, then runs across and come back down on the other side, giggling all the way.

My eyes scan the room, and I sense a number of sensory spells. With a single thought, my mental energy conjures a spell that commandeers the sensory spells and allows me to control what they see.

I turn to Arthur and say, "We'll be back. Come on Cake."

"Where are we going, Rachel?" Cake obediently comes to me, and this gives me pause.

Though she is young, it would be weird for Cake to warm up to me this quick without sufficient reason. Perhaps some aspect of Razalith is shining through in me that I have not picked up on.

I see Cake staring me in the eyes, so I clear my throat and say, "We're going to the Nest. I need to see where your capabilities lie."

I see Arthur giving me a worried look, and I shake my head.

"Just get back here before the exam starts."

"That's the plan." I cast a teleportation spell on Cake and myself, and we vanish from the palace.

We arrive in a dark space, underground.

"Wah! Rachel, it's so dark!"

"Scared of the dark, Cake?"

"No! I love it!"

Laughing at her enthusiasm regarding the dark, I snap my fingers and cause numerous torches to blaze with violet flames.

The space is illuminated just enough to reveal a giant nest, like a bird's but made of broken crystals. In it, a giant stone egg rests, looking ancient and majestic.

"Greetings, Nephew, Niece- whatever you are in there. This is Cake, and she requires an aptitude test."

I put a hand on Cakes shoulder and use the other to point to the egg.

"Now Cake, I want you to go over there and stand just before that giant egg."

"Okay."

She obeys and stands before the egg, awaiting whatever comes next.

The egg begins to emit a very low purring sound, and the ground within the space quakes.

"Getting bigger in there, aren't you?" I feel the intensity of the quaking and measure it against the ones in Razalith's memories. The being in the egg is substantially larger, and exhibits greater signs of life.

I walk around the space while Cake waits, and I see a dead magic circle that is still intact.

It seems that they found the magic circle that was linked to this one, but destroyed it when they found they couldn't activate it. They tried to stop others from coming here, but I possess Razalith's memories; I don't need the magic circle in order to come here.

"Whoa! Rachel, I'm floating!"

The time has come, so I focus on Cake and the egg.

Cake is bathed in black mana, a sign of her demonic lineage. Black mana came through the reincarnation with me, but once I put it in my magic well it lost that black color.

Her black mana revolves around her, slowly taking a white color.

"White? So she'll excel in sorcery. Good."

"Niece or Nephew, what grade is her bloodline?"

The egg shimmered and purred again, then it began to glow brighter and brighter. It flashes a number of colors: black, yellow, purple, gold, silver, then finally red.

"A pureblood demon. Perfect. Now, one last thing..."

I look to Cake and see that she is happily floating in the air, twisting about. I say a few words in my head, then prepare myself.

"Cake."

"Eh? What is it, Rachel?"

"Forgive me, but this is going to hurt."

"Niece or Nephew, prepare to rewrite her truth."

The egg purs louder than before, and a black-gold mixture of lights shines on its surface.

Cake immediately falls asleep; her soul slowly opens itself so that I may enter.