Kintas’ sword penetrated Gilliam’s hand without problem, sinking about halfway through the blade. This had Kintas smile with a satisfied grin as he had stopped the incoming attack.

Though this was not entirely true, this was one of the perfect possibilities for Gilliam.

Slightly curving his fingers against the blade he activated the ring to absorb the thing he was ‘holding’. His idea worked perfectly and it completely vanished.

This was the first time that Kintas was completely and utterly taken off guard, the broken sword was still in Gilliam’s other hand, but the blade was too long for a proper stab at this short distance. Though that was easily fixed. Swingting the blade towards Kintas’ side he activated the wide blade at the same time. Kintas jumped backwards to gain distance but it was too late.

The longer blade with its wider cutting surface effortlessly slid through Kintas’ gut, entering near his right hip and exciting through his left torso.

It was a miracle that Kintas was able to even stand for the few seconds he needed for the dome to properly mend his body. A single cough with a bit of blood came up but even that wound was handled right after.

Gilliam pumped his now healed ringed fist in the air with satisfaction. “Yes! Finally!”

He lost count of how many times Kintas had won that fight, but this was the first proper ‘victory’ that Gilliam had. And he was going to own that.

Kintas seemed to calm down, even to the point that he dismissed his body enhancements.

“You little shit, that was a good trick.” He smiled, still seeming to have had a good time behind his compliment to Gilliam. “Though, I do hope you plan to return it. Or we’re going to have a bad time.”

“Or what, you’re going to kill me with your bare hands?” Gilliam wanted to be a bit uppity and joke about his victory.

Though, thinking back to the things that Kintas had done to him so far, and the dry “Yes” he replied with was really all the motivation he needed.

Taking Kintas’ sword out of the ring, first now getting to hold it properly and it felt weird. It was so easy to move around, not just being lighter than the broken blade, it was more that it only needed a nudge to move around rather than being lifted properly.

“Stop fondling my sword.” Kintas joked for a brief moment. As Gilliam looked at him to wonder what kind of innuendo he was speaking about Kintas used that moment to take the sword from his hand with surprising fluidity.

As it was not like Gilliam intended to keep the sword away from him further, there was no resistance in the movement.

At this point Gilliam first noticed, and remembered, the crowd around the dome. Like last time there were lots of different facial expressions, most just being a different form of interest. There were plenty of happy and sad people, starting to hand over coins... Seems like there were a lot of bets going, not surprising but Gilliam felt oddly strange being the target of betting... Again.. He vaguely remembered something similar having happened in the training with Ghaos as well.

Kintas sheathed his sword after weirdly looking over it for a moment, almost like he wanted to make sure that Gilliam didn’t do something to it when it was in the ring. Shaking his head, Gilliam didn’t really pay it no mind. Someone as weirdly skilled as Kintas probably had some weird relationship with their swo* Come to think of it... Gilliam really needed to ask him about the communing thing. And now that he was checking his mental list he also realised that he forgot to check up with the girl that stabbed him yesterday.

Ugh, this is going to be one of those days, isn’t it...

His train of thought was interrupted as a strong arm slapped him on his back. “Come, I suppose you have some questions, it’s only fair that I keep my side of things, but I refuse to do so entirely sober!”

Gilliam wanted to comment, but at the same time... It really had been some time since he had a pint back home, and he hadn’t even tasted that much of the drink of this world. This sounded like a win/win.

“What about Savia and Petal?” Gilliam wasn't even sure where they were going, so double checking was probably a good thing.

Kintas rubbed his chin for a second. “I was going to suggest we leave the academy and go drink somewhere... But I imagine your friend could cause some problems... Then let’s go to my room!” Pointing in the direction of the very end of Wing 6 he starts pushing Gilliam that way.

Suddenly finding himself walking towards the point where the wing hallway meets the outer wall, noticing that Petal was following then, still having a smiling Savia in her hands it seemed that it was all good.

“Wait. Hold on-” Gilliam realised something as they were walking through the crowd that had formed around the dome. “-Is drinking even allowed?”

He didn’t know the laws of this world, or even the academy, so the first question was drinking age, but also on academy grounds?

“Not normally, no, but this is for medicinal reasons!” Kintas replied with a certain weird smile to him.

Gilliam decided to just look at him and wait for him to continue instead of asking what he meant. “My medical condition is that I’m sober.” There it was. Kintas was apparently one of those people.

“But... it’s not even noon.” Gilliam managed to comment as they made it through the cheering crowd, not properly hearing what most people were saying. Though he did notice that everyone turned wary when Petal walked through.

Kintas sighed.

“Listen, I don’t plan on getting drunk, but I do feel like a drink. Better now?” His happy smile faded just for a moment as he had to admit his actual thoughts about things. It was clear that this was a man that enjoyed drinking so... He might take a drink or two at times without really being affected. At least that’s how Gilliam read him.

After navigating through the crowd and walking in the end-most ground floor entrance of Wing 6, it was not far to Kintas’ room. Which seemed to be at the very, very end of the hallway.

He opened and entered the door without any special ceremony, Gilliam was a bit surprised to find out that his room was identical to his own, save a few extra things that he had seemingly put in there as well as his personal effects.

From the cupboard he pulled out a deep green bottle and two wooden cups, nodding for the table in the corner.

Gilliam sat down, Petal entered the room, closing the door behind her she placed Savia in Gilliam’s hair before she sat down as well. Wanting to ask why she did that without asking, it was clear that the two of them were talking on the way to Kintas’ room. And given how much Savia likes being up there, it made sense.

He reached up to give her a small pet, which was met by her hugging one of his fingers in return. He caught himself smiling a bit when that happened, as she let go and got comfortable he changed focus to the drink and Kintas.

“So, you want to just begin, or?”

Kintas sighed as he filled both cups with what looked like a clear liquid with a hint of pink in it. It smelled sweet.

“First of all, I really didn’t think you’d actually land a solid hit... Good move, don’t get me wrong but... I didn’t expect to actually having to keep my word on that one.”

Plopping down on his own seat, Kintas took a solid drink from his cup. “But Moran would have my ass, heal it and have it again if I didn’t keep my word... so.. Here we are.”

Gilliam made a mental note that Morgan was either a nice person, or some weird sadistic individual...

Not deciding to say anything, mostly as he didn’t really know what to say, Gilliam ended up just waiting for Kintas to start.

“Well, in short. I used to be an Albionian Inquisitor.” Though Gilliam had no idea what this was, he could hear in Kintas’ voice that this was a surprisingly hard sentence to admit.

Kintas noticed Gilliam’s confused look. “Ah... You don’t know what an Inquisitor is... Well..”

He took another deep sip from the cup.

“The simplest explanation is that we are hunters of Arcane mages. Albion is a Theocracy, so the religion runs the country on the surface. Their magic comes from their god the Lord of Light and most of the people see Arcane magic as something to fear as it is magic not from God... Over time someone to hunt and either recruit or kill these mages were gathered and formed the Inquisitors.”

In the middle of Kintas' explanation, both of them took a sip of the drink, this had Gilliam coughing something fierce.

“Holyshit, what kind of drink is this?” It felt like it burned its way down his throat. It felt like this thing could probably degrease engines.

Kintas smiled very wide but didn’t comment on it. “Since mages are dangerous, as you are aware, the Inquisitors needed their own edge. Most of us have magic in some form of way from the Lord, but that was not enough as our magic is different than you might be used to. So the Inquisitor program was started... In short we are magically and alchemically experimented on, the survival odds are not good but the ones that do make it out turn into proper Inquisitors.”

Gilliam was horrified at hearing this but... He didn’t comment yet, and didn't want to trail the explanation into something else.

“Now, this also gives us a stupid long life, our bodies being weird and all. Though I’m certain I’m sterile, I am currently 87 years old... I don’t even think I told that to Morgan, she’s gonna slap me when she figures that one out. The Inquisitors have one mission in life; track down and find unregistered Arcane mages in Albion and either recruit them or kill them. Now... As you probably guessed; I did this for some time before I managed to get out of it.”

Kintas seemed to remember much more than just one bad memory as he explained this, completing his drink as he did before filling it up again.

“They keep you almost under a spell, not actually but they are very select in how they portray Arcane magic in their sermons, everyone is religious and we are blinded by.. Everything else. So I did my job for... a long time.. The last few years I managed to smuggle out a lot of them, sending them to Aloth or Haven but I got careless and had to escape Albion. I somehow ended up in a small village on the accounts of inheriting a house there from someone I helped many, many years ago.”

This was not a story he liked to explain, the alcohol seemed to be a crutch he needed, which sank half of his cup.

“In the end. Morgan wanted to go to the Academy, she brought me and due to circumstances I work here now.” He smiled at the end, though it felt a bit more forced and pained than before.

“To sum up, I’m a highly trained, magically and alchemically mutated, religious fanatic that has spent a lifetime hunting and killing mages.”

Saying this sentence actually seemed to hurt him a bit, but it felt.. On purpose, somehow.

Gilliam couldn’t say anything, there were a lot of conflicted feelings at the moment. Kintas was clearly a victim of this and he was clearly passively mind controlled through teachings to do this. Gilliam was just glad that he had broken out of it and helped people before leaving. He halfway guessed that him working here to train mages could be some redemption thing. But it explained a few things, first why he was so good at what he did, but also that Gilliam knew surprisingly little about the world.

There was apparently an entire country religion controlled with trained murderers walking around...

To change the subject Gilliam decided to bring the focus to the swords.

“Your sword is weird, it moves so... well.. On its own?” Gilliam marvelled over it. He didn’t have much experience with swords and weapons in general, but it felt pretty neat.

“Oh yeah... Fun fact about the swords. They are made with arcane mages souls.” Kintas sat back in his chair with his cup, taking a sip. “Enjoy that thought for a moment. Also a state secret that would be denied and have me publicly dismembered or something.”

Gilliam was very uncomfortable at this thought.

“Don’t worry-” Kintas assured. “They aren’t sentient, but when you learn to communicate with your sword you will find out that it has feelings, preferences and the like. It’s not easy, they don’t talk. This isn’t something they teach you, I just found out one day.” He ran his fingers across the hilt of the sword as he mentioned this.

This had Gilliam call on his own sword as well, looking at the broken sword and teal runes.

“How... does that work?” he mused for himself.

“No idea-” Kintas shrugged in response. “I am not an Arcane mage, and I doubt any Arcane mages have really had their hands on an Inquisitor weapon with the ability to use it properly, you might be the first.” Finishing his second cup of alcohol he placed it on the table.

“Besides, there might be individual differences. My best explanation is to just connect to the sword and see what happens.” He smiled, in a weird way this.. Could make sense?

The rest of the chat was somewhat random and just two guys shittalking things. Kintas was surprisingly easy going even as a member of the faculty. He was not above talking shit about students and saying his personal opinions. He took an interest in Petal as a creature from another world and as a member of his future enemies, but as an information source, Gilliam had more relevant info anyway.

After a short while of more back and forth their little talk ended, Gilliam having only completed half of one cup, Kintas deciding to just pour the remaining back to the bottle. The strength of the drink could probably work as sanitizer so there was most likely no danger of anything like that being an issue.

“Oh, I just realised.. You mentioned that you were a different mage. How does your magic work?” Gilliam asked, very interested in this other kind of magic.

“Oh, it’s simple in concept. Your magic works by calling on magic runes that alter and produce magic. I ask my God through a small chant and if He deems me worthy, it happens.” He explained it like it was the simplest thing ever. “There is a bit more to it, but in general you create your own magic, we ask God to give it to us.” He smiled, it was clear that Kintas was religious, something Gilliam for some reason didn’t have him pegged down as.

The oddest part to Gilliam was that with this in mind, was that not proof of a god existing? He would have to look into this at a later time since now it was high time to get some food, though luckily very little Gilliam had still been drinking on an empty stomach.

Kintas headed elsewhere with a casual wave, and Gilliam headed for his Wing’s mess hall. He had a lot of things to think about. The Inquisitors were a dangerous bunch, he would have to keep them in mind if he ever goes to Albion. God or Gods apparently being real was a weird thought for him. And then there was the thing about his sword. He really liked it but the fact that it was made using a mage’s soul? It kind of made a bit of sense in a weird morbid way, it might make channelling energy easier somehow? He had no idea and though he was curious, parts of him also felt that he didn’t really want to know.

Come to think about something else, what happened to the guard that was supposed to follow him around? He was supposed to follow him everywhere but he just disappeared at some point as they entered the meeting yesterday.

So many questions.

Like several times before he was lost in thought, to the point that he didn’t even notice people trying to say things to him as he passed them in the hallway. This went on for a while until the point where he sort of came to in the middle of eating, Petal having her own plate and Savia even eating of his as normal. He had gotten himself to the mess hall, gotten food, sat down and started eating on full auto pilot. The brain is weird.

What brought him out of it was a familiar redheaded student who just sat down at his table.

“.... yes?” Gilliam managed to halfway ask after he snapped out of his deep train of thought.

At a brief moment he also realised he needed to spend more time with Savia and Petal, they had been alone for quite some time and he was just acting as if nothing had happened...

Rotia fake-cleared her throat before she started talking.

“So... The students want to thank you, though most of them are afraid to talk to you for some... arm-related reasons. Most of us are still glad that Garend was taken down a notch.”

Her tone hinted that this might have been somewhat personal for her as well.

“Though I didn’t do it for any of you, you are welcome.” Gilliam replied honestly. He’s glad that his actions helped people but at the same time, this was purely for revenge for Savia. And even still he was wondering if he should have killed him.

“There is something else...” She seemed hesitant and a bit weird. Gilliam couldn’t place this body language properly. “Who is the pale woman you were with yesterday?”

Gilliam narrowed his eyes for a brief moment before returning to normal. That made sense. Rotia did seem to like him, with the wanting a date and whatnot. Gilliam never considered himself that handsome, more average than anything but... He had saved people multiple times, he had power and a lot of things were going his way... He supposed that he would become attractive through those things. He hadn’t thought about it before now but in a world where he assumed that nobles and the linking of families through marriage was still a thing... he would become a target. Now, he would never assume to actually know a young girl’s heart but... Odd jealousy was not hard to guess.

Though, with his ‘skill’ in taking hints, he might be lightyears off for all he knew, but it felt plausible if nothing else.

“You mean Angela? She’s a friend, what about her?” He wasn’t lying, he hardly knew her like everyone in this world. She’s definitely the person he has spent the most time with so far but that was mainly due to travel and necessity.

Like even his own companion and familiar; he knew surprisingly little about people....

Making a mental note to spend at least a solid day with everyone important could be a good idea.

Rotia seemed slightly more at ease as he introduced Angela as a friend. It could have been funny if he had pretended there was more to it, but that could have been more mean than intended.

Gilliam really didn’t want this drama, he just wanted to go test things and learn more that might help him against the demon invasion.

Luckily this situation fixed itself, Angela came walking with her own plate of food and sat down. Before she even got to ask anything, Retia got up and left, bringing the rest of her food with her. She looked oddly flustered.

Gilliam decided to just ignore the whole situation.

“So, who was that?” Angela asked casually.

“Some girl that has a crush on me.” Gilliam said without hesitation, but he kept it a little low in volume, just in case. He didn’t want to make anything large out of it for her sake either.

“Oh... Isn’t she a bit...” Angela clearly hinted to something with a hesitating voice.

“Young for me? Oh absolutely. She’s like 14 or something, that’s a no-go. But, to change the subject, what’s up?” Gilliam didn’t want this weird subject to continue, so changing the topic was the best way to go.

“Well, I have heard that you and Kintas had a spar today. Sadly I didn’t get to see it as I was talking to a friend that I’ll introduce you to later.” She smiled, though it sounded good that she was going to introduce him to others there was... something about that smile.

“Yes... We did.. But I can’t say I like that smile of yours, who are you going to introduce me to?” Gilliam was suspicious of her. There was clearly something weird about this person.

“Oh, it’s not that bad, he’s just a bit... unique. But, I also think we need to consider a few things. If we will be fighting together in the near future I think we need to get some training done.” She had a good point but... he had been training all day so far.. This breakfast was technically his break.

Inhaling to comment this to her, she stopped him before he got a single word out. “I mean train together. I haven’t even seen you cast much in the sense of magic, and I missed the fight with Kintas. Some sparring between us could be good but I think we should learn more about each other's strengths and weaknesses.”

Gilliam let out a long and drawn out sigh.

“No.. you’re right... I just hoped for some downtime where I could.. Relax.. It started fun when I came to the academy, I learned, I got to know people a little. Then the fucking demon invasion happened.”

Not even considering that he had a demon at the table he was too focused on how this day had progressed. It started so nice, so calm, then Kintas had to go and kill him a gazillion times before breakfast...

His calm life was being blocked by a demon invasion where they wanted to invade and take over their world... Good times...

Angela chuckled. “You were sleeping for two days. You got your rest.” Her grin was... slap-worthy. Had Gilliam believed he even had a chance to lay a hand on her, he might have fake slapped her but she could most likely easily whoop his ass.

“Fiiiiine.” He fake-whine agreed, clearly in jest as she did have a good point.

He really did want to get better, but at the same time he wanted to relax and just chill. Though it’s true he slept for two days, in his mind he had been in chaos since the second gate tried to open.

“What do you want to do when things happen?” Gilliam asked towards Petal, who seemed to not be properly part of this conversation, being somewhere else mentally.

“I... W-what?” She snapped back to this world, seeming to be elsewhere for a moment.

“Yes, we’re going to fight your people, what do you want to do with all of this? I will not force you to fight anyone, though you are bound to me I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to. At least not without good reason.”

Gilliam always did see her as his strange companion... All things considered as this group was weird from before.He really wanted her to become her own, have hobbies, wishes, goals.

She replied in demonic, Gilliam picked up on it slightly, like someone changed wording of a slight accent change. He was oddly happy that he managed to notice it!

“I don’t feel comfortable being alone in a world of humans...”

Gilliam couldn’t blame her, the last time she was left alone for a while, the shitstain of a humanbeing had attacked her, sending her into a weird frenzy.

Deciding to reply in demonic he properly turned to face her.

“I will not abandon you. No matter what you decide to do. But I do want you to be your own person, make your own decisions. I know you are bound to me but unless I absolutely have to, I will not force you to do anything. However we do need to know what you want to do with this coming up.”

He was referring to the training and upcoming life or death fights. He was mentally prepared for if she wanted to join fighting, if she wanted to go into hiding somewhere or a plethora of other options.

“I... I want to fight... I was always weak, I was always picked on. This is why I was named Petal.-” She looked somewhat depressed, not to the point of tears but absolutely bad memories in her mind at the moment. “-There aren't many of us that dislike what we do to the other races, invade, steal, eat, kill... Our way of life, brutish, violent, wondering if I will be able to eat or get beaten...”

There was a slight determination in her eyes, her oddly illuminated eyes. “-I want to bring peace to my people. Not to the war and power hungry of them, but to the others like me, who think there can be peace...”

This was a very good sentiment, and Gilliam absolutely didn’t dislike the idea of letting the ones that are redeemable, be redeemed.

“That is a wonderful goal. If you want to fight, I can help you lea*... No.. I can help find someone that can help you learn...” He realised mid sentence that he was no teacher, but there were others here that are!

“We can get you trained, find out if there is some cool way to trigger your growth in a good way, and you can join us in fighting to protect this world. I will absolutely stand for helping your people if possible.” Gilliam ended up smiling honestly at her, which she seemed to return.

“Besides, I don’t see your name as a weakness. To me it’s just a cute name fitting you nicely.”

He didn’t realise just how hard that little compliment hit until she blushed and looked into the table, her blue and purple skin reddening, or rather deepening in hue was an interesting sight. He thought about it for a moment and realised that it might be one of the few if not first proper compliments she might have gotten.

Looking at Angela he continued the talk in V’idan. “Petal will help us fight. We don’t know what kind of style or skill she might have, so... we might need to test the waters or get some help there.”

“Oh, that’s great!” Angela added, seeming to honestly enjoy that Petal was properly on their side. “We can do some light sparring and see where that takes us.” She directed this at Petal who was still looking at the table.

It was strangely adorable as she sat there trying her best to hide her face without showing that she was hiding her face, giving a small nod to Angela’s suggestion.

Gilliam wondered about a lot of things, the things he had seen in the Fractured Lands... the concept of modesty or being embarrassed. Was this just Petal being unique in that? Or had something happened when he was gone?

“Savia will also fight!” The tiny voice from the table between Gilliam and his plates confirmed out of nowhere. This caused Angela and Gilliam to chuckle a bit.

“Of course you will!” Gilliam confirmed as he picked her up. “We might need to find out just how you’ll fight, but first let’s get you healed, ok?”

His chuckling faded into a more calm smile, barely tugging on his lips. He placed her back in his hair for the time being.

But this was a good point, she would definitely try her best but.. If she tried to fly into the face of a demon, even if she bit them well they were used to such harsh abuse that they could just swat her to the side or eat her...

This was not happening, she needed something as well.. somehow.

“Why don’t we start with some sparring? Both of you are here and we can see how it goes from there?” He spoke to, and about, Angela and Petal.

“If we use the healing dome thing, then you can go nuts without actually hurting each other.”

“I’m game.” Angela confirmed as she pumped both her fists in the air in front of her.

Petal just nodded, still looking at the table with an odd smile on her.

“Ok, let’s head out and see how it goes.” Gilliam took command, for once it was not his turn to have a go in the dome! He was also keen on finding out what both Angela and Petal were capable of.

The group set off back towards the Light field and the healing dome.