Notes from the Demon King, page 349:

I don't know what elements are.

I don't know what elements are!

I've lived for over three centuries at this point, and I know a lot of things, but I don't know what elements are!

I think they are the flavors of mana that is tainted by the physical reality of existence.

This would make sense, as there's always more fire mana around a fire, but if that's the case why does it also come from people? All humans should have human mana, instead of some having fire mana and some having ice or metal or weapon mana or any of the endless other elements that exist and why do most people have more than one, fire and ice cant be in the same place at the same time so how can I have both mana types?! And even if we discount that, it doesn't explain the more abstract monotypes, like thought, dreams, space and void mana, (how can mana be tainted by nothing?) or anything else that can't be strictly defined in the physical world, where do those come from!? What exactly are elements in the context of mana and why do we as mortal beings have access to them. These are questions I ask myself, as a scholar of magic, every day.

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Chapter five

Hailey-

Hailey was falling, she didn’t know how long she had been falling or if she would ever stop. It felt like it had been anywhere between a second or an eternity, all while the weird buzzing her core grew increasingly more palpable, eventually rising to the point it hurt. It felt like her entire soul was being rattled and stretched.

Still, yet onward she fell and as she fell she thought.

She hadn’t helped at all during that ‘sparring match’ against the Demon King, sure she healed everyone after, but she wasn’t able to do anything at all as they had attacked.

Hailey knew objectively that it probably wouldn't have made a difference, but still she couldn't help feeling useless.

She tried her best to keep the Captain Comael’s words in mind, support is just as important a role as fighting, but it didn’t help. Hailey had been a bit of a nerd in her past life and the mentality that healers were the ‘bottoms’ of any party was something she just couldn't shake.

She wanted to do her best to help her friends, No, her family, and healing was something often needed, but she couldn't help thinking that if she could protect them they wouldn’t need healing at all.

If only she cou-

Her train of thought was suddenly cut off as the pain of the buzzing unexpectedly crescendoed into a peal of agony.

She felt as if something inside her was being ripped open and her vision went white.

When Hailey’s eyes opened again, odd as she didn't remember closing them, she was in a strange room. It if you could call it a room, it had a visible ceiling and walls but somehow simultaneously seemed to stretch on for miles.

The place could best described as a modern neighborhood in the suburbs, something she hadn't seen it a long time, but off…

Houses stood on both sides of a single street, each not quite the same as the last. Small changes that she wouldn’t normally notice. Like a single brick being slightly more red or a window moved slightly to the left. The differences grew infinitely more pronounced as the street continued on seemingly forever, with an equally infinite seeming number of homes.

Under her feet Hailey could feel the grass of the lawn she stood on, that ruled out this being a dream… So, where was she?

“Hello,”

The voice startled her. She looked left then right searching but finding nothing “H-Hello?”

“Hey, Hailey down here”

The elf looked down as told, spotting a small dog, a Yorkie mix of some sort, sitting at her feet.

“A talking dog?” Hailey had heard of mana beasts intelligent enough to speak, in fact they were said to be related to beast-kin like Giel, but this was the first time she had personally experienced anything like it.

“No kid, look closer.” The dog said with what Hailey assumed as an annoyed look.

Upon further inspection Hailey found details about the dog that she had somehow missed before. Crimson horns poked out of the fur on its forehead, and it’s eyes were red and yellow, lacking pupils.

“A demon dog…?”

“No… well actually yes, but I’m not just any demon dog. It’s me, remember we meet this morning.” The demon dog said rolling its eyes

“The Demon King?”

“A fragment of ‘em, or an extension, it's hard to tell from this end. Either way I guess the answer is yes. So, yes.”

“Wha- Why are you a dog!? Where are we? What's going on!?”

“Those are pretty much the same question, with pretty much the same answer.” The Demon King said shaking its head "I activated your core, which means you’re now on your way to becoming a first trial mage. Congrats!!” fireworks shot out of the dogs fur, popping into bright colorful sparks as confetti from nowhere rained down on Hailey, “To do that you need to complete your first trial. Which explains where we are. Your soul.”

Her soul? They were in her soul. THERE WAS A DEMON IN HER SOUL!? Hailey was on the edge of panicking, so this was what the Demon King had wanted with all of the-

“Calm down, calm down, Hailey. I’m not here to possess you or anything. I only do that with consent and at least dinner first. Let me finish.” the demon said in a soothing tone, waiting until Hailey calmed down, “To activate your core I injected a small bit of my mana, I sent a... clone, I guess you could call it, of my consciousness in here with it. This is pretty standard for awakening new mages so don’t worry. I’m a dog because, since i’m not trying to harm you, your soul is displaying me in a form that you feel is non-threatening.”

“B-but I thought my core was already active…? I can use spells.”

“You could use casts, spell is a word used to describe any type of structured magic, casts are- wait I'm getting ahead of myself. As for your core, you were born with it partially active. Think of it as if you were born with the arm of a 10-year-old rather than the arm of a newborn. You can still lift a lot more than a normal baby, but you still can't carry, say, a fifty-pound weight. You would have eventually activated your core yourself as you exercised it, I just injected some steroids.” The demon explained,

“If it had been active I wouldn’t have been able to get in here. Even I couldn't enter the soul of even the weakest mage. There are natural defenses. The only people who may be able to commit such an act would be those on a path specifically designed to do so, which I certainly do not follow, and then in most cases only with permission. On a related note, this is the only trial you should expect help on.”

Hailey took some to digest those words, “So all I have to do is complete this trial and you’re out of my soul?”

"I mean, if that’s what you want to take from it, sure.”

“Then… how do we start?”

“Not yet,” the Demon King huffed "I have a request and a question first”

‘What… are they?”

“The request is could you please imagine me as something more… suitable? As a shape shifter I can objectively tell you that being stuck in forms that lack opposable thumbs for long periods of time is never fun.”

“Oh, okay” Sandra tried to hold the dog in her mind focusing on it being a person of some sort, with a whoosh the dog blew away as if it has been made of dust, in its place was a short old man with a long white beard and a turtle shell on his back,

“Am I Master Roshi?” the new figure of the Demon King asked with a shocked look, "I dont know if I should be flattered that you already think of me as a teacher or horrified that you've somehow come to the conclusion that i’m a dirty old pervert. I mean if you were going to go with anime, I am a teacher trying to teach you to kill me. Seems like prime Kor-”

“And the question…” Hailey interrupted

“Oh, yes.” The Demon King suddenly looked serious "I need to ask you this away from the others,” he said looking Hailey in the eye with an intense gaze “what do you want?”

Hailey was taken aback at the sudden change in demeanor, so much so that she stumbled backward “W-what? What do I want? I want to become a mage.”

“Everybody wants that! But it's always a means to an end. Why do you want to be a mage?” The Demon King scoffed “I’ve watched you this morning. You’re nowhere near as enthusiastic as the others about the idea of power, and you don’t really have Sandra’s lust of adventure. So what do you want?” The Demon King practically looming over her despite his current height, the look in his eyes filled with earnest resolve.

Hailey could feel her self freezing up, her shyness and nerves manifesting as anxiety the question thrashed around in her mind. Yet despite or maybe because of those feelings she knew her answer already. All she had to do was say it.

“I-I want to be better. I want to be stronger so that I can help my friends. If I'm going to be support… I need to be the best support ever. I want to protect them!”

The Demon King grinned “that’s all I needed to hear. let’s get this trial out of the way”

Hailey felt a bit awkward about her next question ruining the mood, but she had to ask, “How…do we do that?”

‘Oh, uh, well, we have to… Sorry I forgot you were never taught this um, how best to explain.” The Demon King looked flustered, which was a novel expression on his current cartoony visage “The first trial is called the trial of gates because you are finding the right affinity gates to represent your magic, the soul space is usually visualized as someplace with a lot of openings. Often drawers, cabinets, gates obviously or, in your case, doors. Each one represents an affinity, and you have to open the right doors, usually two, that you have the key to. Check your pockets.”

Hailey did and found that she had a single house-key, it was white with a symbol carved into the top, a sun looking shape with a circular line wrapped around it,

“ a single affinity, that’s potentially a boon or a curse depending on what you have. And since you have already used magic, we know what it is.

“Holy magic.” Hailey answered the unasked question.

“Hm… That’s a mixed bag not a lot of combat spells… It’s good for your role, though. We just have to find the door that represents it.” He paused “Fair warning, If you open the wrong door… Well, it wouldn't be a trail if I told you would it.” he chuckled, and with that ominous statement began walking away.

Hailey found out what happened when she picked the wrong door with the first door she tried. The key had turned the lock, and she was sure that she had somehow completed the trial with the first house she attempted, but as soon as she opened it she found herself pulled in. As if something had grabbed her and yanked her into the house she was sucked through the door against her will.

On the other side, Hailey found herself standing on a wooden platform, a mile over an endless sea of fire, she turned back to exit but the door wasn’t behind her.

“It’s over there” the Demon King, who was suddenly beside her, pointed to the other side of the inferno, leading Hailey’s eyes to a door hovering open just above the flames, the only conceivable way to get to it a series of jumps each with various required maneuvers and skill.

Hailey tried to look down her skinny chicken legs before remembering that she couldn't see her feet because her oversized bust was in the way, and cursed. Fucking elf anatomy.

This was not going to be fun.

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Hailey readied herself for the next jump, putting all her might into the leap. She landed the six-foot jump just barely. Her stomach thwacking against the side of the platform, knocking the breath out of her as she scrambled up and stood.

This platform wasn't large enough for a running start, so her next jump wound have to be from a standstill. With a grunt of effort she launched herself at her new target, a lower platform about five feet away and a yard wide.

She landed in an attempted roll, but the force still hurt like a bitch.

Hailey’s shoulder throbbed from the impact, and she could feel splinters from the planks sticking into her skin but, anything was better than ending up in the fiery hellscape bellow. And after all the jumps she had made she was practically used to it by now.

She was just a few platforms away from the door. She just had to keep going.

In front of her was a gauntlet leading to her escape from this oven.

She pushed off the ground grabbing a rope that floated tide to nothing and swung until her foot touched the wood of the platform. Letting go of the tether and stumbling, Hailey nearly fell backwards. With a bit of flailing she managed to right herself. Once both feet were firmly planted as she took in deep breaths to recover from the near fall. A second passed, and she began to smell burning which meant it was time to move on.

With as much of a running start as she could get Hailey jumped towards the wooden wall that served as her next jump. Latching herself on to the vertical surface, she shimmied to get in position before pushing off against it. Slamming into the next wall painfully and repeating the process, finally landing on a flat surface once more.

Hailey wanted to take a break, just a few long minutes to catch her breath in full, but as soon as she had the thought, she could feel heat begin radiating from the floor where she stood as the edges of the platform began igniting.

“Okay, Okay I get it! Don't stop!” She yelled at the trial before jumping to the next platform as quickly as elvenly possible. Just as her previous perch went up in flames

Using the momentum of the last jump Hailey leaped, landing on her hands and knee’s on a different platform. This one with a long thin board and only pathway to the next and last platforms. The elf forced one foot in front of the other, one at a time, and teetered across the gap. She sucked in breath as a misstep nearly caused her to fall but recovered enough to make it to the final jump.

This was it. All she had to do was make it from here into the door. With a deep breath and a running start Hailey flew towards the egress. She reached, grabbing out the door frame and pulling herself through in one motion. She felt herself be spit out of where ever she had just been and on to the lawn of the house she had entered from.

With a sigh of relief laid back on the grass of her soul space.

One down she looked out across the endless array of houses and groaned infinity to go…

“Sooo, how did you enjoy the fire gate?” The voice of the Demon King worsening her mood

“Where were you during that?” Hailey snapped, forgetting her shyness in the moment

“Out here mostly. This is your trial not mine.”

“B-but you said you would help me!”

“What was I supposed to do? Jump for you?”

“Maybe! I don’t know what you can do” She huffed before remembering who she was talking to “There has to be a better way to do this…”

“There is. You just never asked.”

Hailey gaped at the old man “What do you mean I never asked!? I could have died!!!”

“No you couldn’t. You can’t die in a trail. It’s like a video game except you can feel it. if you die all that will happen is youll be kicked out and have to weight a while before you can try ascending again. Usually a month. Sure you’d have experienced death by being burned alive falling endlessly though a flame filled void, but as Mama Demon King always said ‘that just called buildin’ character’” The Demon King explained, mimicking the voice of an old woman for the last part.

“W-why didn’t you tell me that!!!”

“Because if you knew you wouldn't have taken the challenge as seriously, I wanted to see if you had it in you before I lowered the stakes. Mortal terror always has a way of showing the core of a person” he paused for a moment as if seeing something “For example, Giel spent like ten minutes curled up in a ball with his tail between his legs in his first gate. To be fair, it was the fear gate and fear magic can make a person see some crazy stuff. It’s like the worst high.”

Hailey wanted to strangle the Demon King, and actually tried. Stopping only because the demon just wouldn't die, not even trying to avoid or escape as her hands closed around his skinny old neck “As much as I admire the effort and all. Killing me here isnt going to work. I’m not undergoing a trial, so you could say I'm not quite real.” He chuckled

.

Hailey sighed. Focusing for a second she forced the Demon King into the form of a donkey.

“Wha- Hey! How dare you.”

“If you’re going to act asshole then you might as well be an ass” Hailey sniped “Now, how do I find my door?”

“If I told you that it would ruin the trial.” The king said with a superior look, a weird expression on a equine.

"I could turn you into something worse than a donkey” Hailey warned “I’m already visualizing a magikarp”

“O-okay, okay! I’ll give you a hint.” The Demon King said placatingly “It has something to do with the key. It’s not just there for show.” it flinched at the look Hailey gave it "I really can't tell you more. If I did you could automatically fail. Magic doesn't like cheaters.”

Hailey Growled channeling her inner Ali but when no more was forth coming she relented.

She felt her face growing hot as her normal demeanor reasserted itself, had she really just acted like that? To the Demon King of all people.

Pushing those thoughts away for the moment, Hailey reached into her pocket and pulled out the key.

She tried several tests, each falling and leading her to an incorrect door.

She tried pointing the key in a random direction leading her to the water gate, where she had to swim through tunnels filled with ice-cold water and only the occasional air pocket.

She tried spinning it like you would a bottle, it ended up pointed at the dream gate, where she had to fight to remain conscious while walking a straight pathway with strange images assaulting her mind.

She tried throwing it, getting her to the lust gate, which she... didn't want to think about. All those tentacles…

The door gate, which was just confusing. Door magic sounded stupid anyway.

The blade gate, in which each step inflicted another small cut, and the paper gate which was the same but worse.

Just had to be followed by the fruit gate which, you guessed it, included lemon juice.

And so on, for what felt like hours but was, according to the Demon King, only minutes real-time.

It was with in the last gate she tried, the glass gate, that she figured out how the key worked. The idea came to her as she was looking through a magnifying lens that was the only way to tell if a one of the choices of paths was clear or if it was covered in near invisible tiny needles of broken glass that seemed to ignore her shoes.

Then the thought hit her.

The key, it had a hole at the top. It was where you would normally attach it to a key ring or lanyard. What if…

As soon as she finished the challenge she tried it. Peering though the eyelet with one eye, she simultaneously wanted to grin and slap herself, It felt so obvious now.

Her vision through the key was odd, for the most part everything was the same the sky, or ceiling, was blue the grass was green the only thing that had changed where the houses. The homes had been drained of color. Monochrome where they had before been painted and hued they stood in stark contrast to the rest of her soulscape. More confounding were the doors themselves, They were all either completely black or completely white. Alternating in what was clearly a pattern of some sort.

Five would be black, four would be white, then two would be black and one would be white, then six would be black and two would be white, forever in a pattern that seemed ever-changing.

She still didn’t know what it meant per se, but it was progress.

“So, you finally figured it out?” The Demon King said with more than a hint of snark "I was wondering how long it would take you.”

“N-not quite… I still need to figure out what every thing being grayscale means.”

Hailey began pacing, searching for some other discrepancy between the buildings “Is... one of them just going to glow or something?”

"I don't know. This part is different for everyone, all I know is its most likely a puzzle. Look closer and don't rely on your expectations. The trail of gates is all about experimenting.” The Demon King advised.

Hailey nodded, taking a seat as she pondered the problem. She needed to take some time to think on this, and she really just plain needed a break.