-----A yearish later ----

“Astrid! Wake up!” An overly cheerful feminine voice squeals out. “We are going to be late for the first day of school.”

“Murrrrrfpffbbb!” Astrid replies from her comfortable bed.

“Ewwwww, your strange rash is getting worse!” The voice says jokingly.

“Brittany!” Astrid screams as she sits up, quickly covering up her chest with her covers as she gives Brittany a death glare.

“I…. told… you she… wouldn’t like… jokessssss…” Viele says as he yawns at the foot of the bed.

“I’m joking Astrid.” Brittany giggles. “Well except the whole being late thing.” Brittany quickly jumps off the bed and starts to rummage around her book bag. “And did you hear that this year we have a new teacher for alchemy? Apparently, he’s a really famous alchemist! I wonder if he is cute.”

Astrid rolls her eyes as she gets out of bed, going to her dresser and opening it.

“You should wear that cute robe your hubby made you.” Brittany says teasingly as she suddenly pops up behind Astrid, causing Astrid to nearly jump.

“For the love of…” Astrid yelps out. “I told you to stop doing that!”

“Awwww, what happened to the fun Astrid?” Brittany pouts.

“I never liked it when you appeared shifted right behind me.” Astrid says as she pulls out the long silky robe from the dresser. The brown robe looks simple at first glance but upon closer inspection it has an intricate pattern of claws throughout the dress. She shakes her head slightly with a smile as she remembers when she picked it up from Blackclaw. The way he just waves off the claw pattern as an accident, even after being told from another worker there that they use that pattern to signify a woman of their beast clan.

“It does look cute, doesn’t it?” Astrid asks as she stares at the dress.

“Hella cute!” Brittany says as she bounces up behind Astrid again.

“How are you so preppy this early in the morning?”

“How are you not!” Brittany retorts as Santsa appears on her head, the shadowy fox yawning as it paws at Brittany’s hair.

“Quiet.” Santsa says, causing Brittany to look up.

“Oh! That is where you went Santsa! I didn’t want to leave you here for the first day of school.” Brittany exclaims as she reaches up and grabs Santsa, holding him in her arms as she goes to the door. “I will wait outside as you get dressed since I know you want your privacy.”

Astrid lets out a sigh as she hears the door close behind her, she takes off her sleeping clothes, looking her body up and down.

“It has definitely progressed… a lot over the last year.” Astrid says as she pokes at the tiny black scales. What was once just at the center of her chest, now progressed down to past her navel and wrapping around her back. Thankfully, it stopped below her collar bone, even though it is starting to spread out towards her arms slowly. “I’m really in the process of becoming a monster, aren’t I?”

“We… are all monsssssterssss… to sssssssomething… if not humanssssss… then to the insssects that ssssscuttle away from our ssssstepssssss.” Viele says as he shifts into his tree ent form.

“That… is slightly helpful… I think? Thank you Viele.” Astrid slips on some under clothes then puts on the robe, enjoying the silky feeling of it on her skin. “Let’s get this year started, shall we?”

--- Flemmington academy, walkway---

“Hey!” Astrid yelps as she feels two large fuzzy arms wrap around her. “I’m going to be late for my first class this year!” She pouts as she turns around, facing Shortclaw with his usual toothy smile. Quickly giving him a quick kiss before nuzzling against him.

“I can’t help it, I haven’t seen you in like ten hours.” Shortclaw says as he nuzzles back. “So, what is your first class again? Mine is the annual let’s see who was being lazy over the break class.”

“Oh… I think I only have Alchemy, arcanist construct class, and advanced military tactics classes this year.”

“That was what I was afraid of.” Shortclaw says with a frown. “I have advanced military tactics class too but unfortunately that is the only one I have with you this year.” Shortclaw frowns before nuzzling Astrid again affectionately.

“Hey, you two love birds. You are both going to be late for your classes again, and on the very first day of the year. Tisk tisk.” Amy says as she seems to appear from the shadows of the nearby building.

Both Astrid and Shortclaw jump away from each other, Astrid coughing slightly.

“I will see you this afternoon for advanced military tactics.” He says before turning away.

“See you then!” Astrid says with a smile before turning to Amy and giving her a dirty look.

“Hey, I was trying to help!” Amy says with a smile. “Now get on with it, I heard through the grape vine our new alchemy teacher is not kind to late students. Especially on the first day.”

“Yes yes, I know.” Astrid says as she heads towards the building hosting the alchemy class. When she reaches the class room, she slowly pushes the door open, peaking her head in as she does. She notices that the teacher is already talking and writing stuff on the chalk board, so she does her best to sneak in. The moment she takes a step inside the room she freezes.

“A late student I see.” The teacher says as he continues to write down some words on the board. “It’s improper for a student of this fine academy to be late, especially on the first day of class.” The elderly man turns around, the man looks plain. He could have been easily mistaken for any other older human if not for two things, his shoulder length white hair, and his deep blue eyes that seem like they could steal your soul.

“I… I…” Astrid stammers as the whole class turns around. As the class does, she glances over to the left and she sees the familiar face of Elizabeth grinning at her. Her clique of girls surrounding her.

“For an eighteen-year-old lady to not even be able to get to your classes in time, shameful.” Elizabeth giggles out as she covers her mouth.

“I don’t need the quips of another during my lectures.” The man says as he stares daggers at both women. “Now get to a seat with your tree ent, so that I may continue with my lecture.”

Astrid quickly shuffles over to an empty seat near the back, and as far away from Elizabeth as she could possibly get. She then scans the room for any of her friends, unable to find any.

“Now, as I said earlier, my name is Viktor Noack. But you may call me Sir Viktor, or Alchemist Viktor.” Viktor says as he points again at the chalk board. “Do you understand Ms…. Late student?” He asks as he looks over to Astrid.

“My name is Astrid.”

“The question was a yes or no, Ms. Late student.” Viktor snaps back as he turns his head back to the chalk board and starts to write down more stuff.

Astrid raises an eye brow as she hears a smothered giggle coming from the area Elizabeth is sitting at.

“You should just kill them.” A dark thought goes through her mind as she sits there, causing an extensive headache as it does.

“Not again.” Astrid thinks as she closes her eyes quickly covering her face and rubbing her temples with her hands. Over the last year, the dark thoughts have been getting more and more frequent, and more and more aggressive.

“Massssster… are you… ok?” Viele asks as he watches Astrid clench her teeth.

“Yes Viele, I am fine.” Astrid says as the headache quickly slips away, opening her eyes again to see Viele motioning towards the front of the class. As she shifts her attention to the front of the class she notices the teacher staring at her with his piercing blue eyes again.

“First, you come to my class late on the very first day then you decide to take yourself a nap?” Viktor says with disgust in his voice. “I always heard elves where an aloof race, but this is on the cusp of being insolent.”

“Mr. Viktor…”

“It’s Sir Viktor.” Viktor says with an air of authority. “You will respect me as a teacher, or you will leave this class and I will fail you right here and now.”

Astrid’s legs bunch up as she instinctively gets to the point that she wants to attack the man. As she gets ready to launch forward she catches herself. “Was I really about to attack him?” She thinks as she releases the tension in her legs and sits back. “I’m sorry Sir Viktor, I didn’t mean to, I’ve had a splitting headache lately.”

Viktor stands there for a few moments. “As the principled man I am, I will forgive you for this transgression this one time. But if it starts happening again I will have to talk to Blaze about this.”

“Thank you for understanding… Sir Viktor.” Astrid says, her body shuddering slightly in protest as she tries to calm herself down.

“Good. Now that the disruption is out of the way. Class, tell me again why alchemy is highly important even to a highly decorated mage?”

Elizabeth raises her hand as Viktor looks around, Viktor points at her and she stands up. “Alchemy is useful due to several reasons. One, it gives people with little to no ability to manipulate mana the ability to restore most injuries and heal most diseases. Two, if a mage ends up low on mana and on the verge of mana exhaustion they may use different alchemy creations to help keep them in the fight till the mana exhaustion is lessened. Oh, and also, alchemy creations work in mana starved areas. Then lastly, alchemy is used in the construction of artifacts and mana constructs.”

“Good Elizabeth!” Viktor happily says with a smile. “Everything she said is correct, but I would like to add one more thing.” He then pulls out a small flask of clear liquid, he then drinks a sip. Then standing there for a moment he suddenly opens his mouth and Viktor’s teeth suddenly starts to grow. After a few moments his teeth shrink back down. “Due to alchemy we found out that humans are highly susceptible to change and are able to use alchemy to change themselves. There are actually many countries outside this continent that use potions like this for their soldiers, turning them into powerful warriors temporarily.”

A random boy raises his hand.

“Yes?” Viktor asks as he points at the boy.

“But isn’t that like turning someone into a demon? Isn’t that illegal?” The boy asks before putting his arm back down.

Viktor laughs slightly as he stops up the potion and puts it into a robe pocket. “No, this is two different things, alchemy uses different plants and metals to cause a temporary metamorphosis. When it comes to a demon, their very being becomes a different creature due to massive amounts of mana changing them.” He then pauses for a moment. “one way to explain it is alchemy lets you temporarily grow wings, the using a large amount of mana to do it will probably turn you into a bat creature.”

“Wait, you can grow wings?” The boy asks, his eyes wide open in surprise.

“You can, but trust me, don’t do it. You will be in a lot of pain, especially when they decay off. Usually when the military uses alchemy on their soldiers they just become bigger, faster, and stronger. One time I watched one of these soldiers fight barehanded against an alpha stone gorilla and win.” Viktor says as he walks back and forth in front of his chalkboard as he listened to the various students gasp in surprise.

“Parlor tricks, this man is a fake, a charlotte.” Dark thoughts rattle through Astrid’s head, causing her to clench her teeth in pain.

“Leave me be.” She thinks back as she shakes her head and continues to listen to the teacher.

“The main thing you need to know about alchemy though, is that it’s more than just mixing plants and metals together. It is just like magic, you can have the stuff you need there but if you don’t utilize it just right, it will either back fire or do nothing at all.” Viktor suddenly stops moving, glancing over at Astrid. He then looks away and starts walking around again. “Now class, question. What is the most crafted thing in alchemy? Class?”

There is some murmur around the class before a dwarven girl raises her hand. “Restorative potions?”

Viktor shakes his head. “Restorative potions are created a lot, but the most created thing is Transmuted silver. It’s used in almost everything now a days.” He then raises his hands and points at the various glowing stones embedded into the buildings stone walls. “All these are actually connected together using Transmuted silver.” He then puts at his chest. “This robe, and most mid to high end armor have it integrated into the very weave of the clothing. It is the only way you can properly feed mana through most clothing since it is easier to feed mana through metal fibers than silk or cotton. Then there are is also city walls, almost all have them reinforced with it. But what uses the most Transmuted silver is the transportation matrixes the northern continents use”

The class murmurs.

“Oh, I forgot that it is not well known on this continent! Recently several of the northern continents have developed teleportation gate technology. When I was visiting I got to see one of them.” He then grins and pulls out a piece of paper with a fancy drawing of a round object on a big square base. “This is a drawing I made of the gate I seen. In real life it is roughly thirty feet tall due to the number of runes needed. It also is made of so much Transmuted silver that it takes a team of alchemists several years to create enough for one. But, with the gates, people are able to transfer over large distances to its’ sister gate in mere seconds.” Viktor continues to walk around, holding up the picture of the gate. The entire class is either murmuring or looking at the picture, excited. After a few minutes he stops and puts the photo away. “Now do you know why alchemy class is so important?”

The class just nods their heads in agreement as Viktor scans over the class. Stopping again at Astrid as she just stares, unaffected. Viktor frowns slight as he looks away from her before clapping his hands together.

“Okay class, then let’s get started on some basics for the rest of the class. Since we don’t have too much longer till you all will have to be going to your second class. He then starts pulling out various herbs in pots and glass containers full of various rocks and sands. He then starts explaining the name and purpose of each object until the bell rings, indicating that the morning class was ending.

Astrid quickly stands up and leaves the class, getting about a hundred feet out of the building before she hears someone calling for her. She turns around to see someone she didn’t want to see.

“Awwwww, looks like the elf is trying to run away, what’s wrong little elf. We don’t have classes at all together for a year and it seemed like I would never ever see you around school.” Elizabeth says with a laugh, her group of friends following behind her start to laugh with her. Their familiars just kind of laze around as the group stops.

“What the fuck do you want Elizabeth? I am not in the mood for your shit today.” Astrid growls out as she takes an offensive posture.

“Ohhohohoho! The elf has forgotten her place, am I going to have to put you down a peg or two?” Elizabeth says with a grin.

“I guess not having classes with her for a year made her forget that elves don’t belong with humans. That she should go back to her hut in her forest with the rest of the tree fuckers.” One of Elizabeth’s friends says with a giant grin on her face.

“No, remember the rumor? Her parents killed themselves last year, that is why she was missing from her beginning classes last year.” Elizabeth just laughs as she looks at Astrid, waiting for a reaction.

Astrid clinches her fists angrily.

“Kill them…” The voice says. “The dirty humans don’t deserve to live… embrace me… kill them…”

“Die.” Astrid whispers to herself as she starts to extend her mana around her. As soon as she does the mana round her starts to react violently and Astrid starts to shake uncontrollably. She then starts to scream as she crumbles to the ground, her body shaking as the mana around her reacts violently. Suddenly, a white light starts to glow from her wrists as she starts to shake more violently.

“It looks like she is having a spell backlash!” Elizabeth laughs out loud, the group behind her step back, fear visible on their faces. They know that Elizabeth wouldn’t get in trouble due to her family, but most of them were from lesser families and had no protection. They slowly start backing away faster after they see Viele transforming into his Guardian form.

“You… hurt… massster…” He hisses out as his enlarged doglike face shifts, making it look like he is speaking. The various snakes composing his body slithering angrily, not even caring to mimic the original beast properly. Several snake heads then burst out of Viele’s guardian form’s back, hissing angrily as they do. “The price… for hurting… masssssster… death!” Viele growls out as he barrels forward, the snakes coming from his back hissing menacingly as Viele charges.

“Blast them with the biggest fireball you got!” Elizabeth yells as her familiar shambles up beside her. The giant lizard opens its’ mouth and a few symbols appear in front of it as a large ball of fire forms inside its’ mouth. Suddenly it gets shot forward, starting off at a few inches in diameter, it quickly expands as it flies towards Viele, quickly becoming several feet in diameter.

Viele continues his charge, as the ball approaches he lets out a roar and roots erupt from the stone walkway, stones and dirt fly everywhere as several layers erupt from the ground. As soon as the flame ball slams into the first wall chaos erupts. First came the blinding light, followed by a deafening boom. Then came the shockwave, dirt and stone fly everywhere, leaving a giant dust cloud.

After a few minutes, the dust finally settled. Where the fireball hit the walls is only a small crater. No children or familiars found in the area. Scattered around the area though, is several teachers, all with various students and familiars in their arms.

“Okay, which one of you did this? You know non-sanctioned duels are against the rules!” The teacher Maria Brink says as she shakes her head. “You are lucky your teachers could feel the mana fluctuations and came running before the explosion, or some of you may be injured, maybe even dead right now.” She then pauses to realize that most of the students are unconscious. “Crap, looks like I need to wait to gripe at them after they get checked out in medical.”

“I think I may know who’s involved.“ Viktor says as he rolls two students and a few familiars around in a ball of green and white jell. He then points at Amy who is currently holding Astrid and Viele, Viele now in his normal form as a bundle of snakes. “I seen her get her familiar to attack another student. Then the student went and defended herself. After that is when the explosion happened.”

“If you seen all this why didn’t you stop the fight?” Amy asks, annoyed as Viele starts to nibble on her as he sleeps.

“Because I am new here, I wasn’t sure about the rules on fighting, so I stepped in as soon as I seen it get out of control. The same as various other teachers did I might say.” Viktor says as he looks around the area, taking mental notes on all the teachers.

“Uh huh…” Well we will be getting these students to the infirmary.” Amy says as a few teachers grab the students out of the gel and carry them to the infirmary.

--- Later, at the infirmary ---

“Lass, you need to stop giving me a heart attack.” Blaze says as Astrid opens her eyes.

“Wait… what happened?” Astrid asks as she sits up, her brain feeling like it’s going to split.

“From what I heard you and Elizabeth got into a fight, then decided to make a giant hole in the expensive walkway.” Blaze says as he narrows his eyes. “I already had a talk with Elizabeth and her father. Her father has already donated the money to have the walkway fixed, so don’t worry about that.” Blaze then pauses and takes a deep breath.

“But?”

“But, Jasmine inspected the… progression of your… changes… while you were unconscious.” Blaze says, his voice laced with sadness. “The transformation has aggressively advanced…”

Astrid’s eyes widen as she looks down into her robe. She nearly bursts out into tears as she notices that the scales now go down to her legs, even covering her sensitive areas.

“Noooooo!” Astrid cries out.

“Not just the scales…” Blaze says as he lifts a small mirror. Astrid looks into it and notices her eyes are no longer green, they are red, and the pupils are now slanted like a lizard’s.

“Oh god, am I going to have to leave the school? There is no way, they will find out just by looking at me.” Astrid starts to burst out in tears.

“Calm down lass, we already have a plan. We will have to move you out of normal classes, and we already have the eye issue resolved.

“Huh?”

“Oh, Amy created a choker that changes your eyes to different colors, since it’s only the eyes it just runs off the ambient mana in the area.” Blaze says as he hands over a small wood box to Astrid.

Astrid opens the box and lifts a small strip of cloth and leather with a pink heart shaped stone in the center, and on each end is a small clasp.

“Remember, it was Amy who made it lass, not me.” Blaze says as he looks at the choker.

Astrid slowly slips on the choker and freezes for a moment as she feels the heart shaped stone start to pull minute amount of mana from around it.

“Do you feel any discomfort?” Blaze asks before he bring the mirror back up.

“No.” Astrid says as she looks into the mirror, her eyes now back to normal.

“And sorry about the… scales… anything we have that can hide those takes too much mana for long term use.” Blaze says sadly.

“I remember.” Astrid asks as she looks down. “So… was anyone hurt?”

Blaze smiles and pats Astrid’s head. “Not anything to worry about lass, the teachers showed up just in time. Other than the blast knocking people unconscious they are just fine.”

“I’m so sorry about all this.” Astrid says as she starts to sniffle.

“Ahhh, don’t be like that lass, just promise me that you will stay out of the infirmary from now on.” Blaze says with a smile as he stands up and heads for the door. “And go ahead and rest for the day, your assigned teacher will meet you tomorrow.”

“Yes sir.”

--- That afternoon ---

“So, the upper management of the school is definitely involved with the demon. If they weren’t, they would have removed her immediately instead of just removing her from normal classes.” Viktor says to himself as he sits in the chair in his office. Going through various pieces of paperwork given to him by Blaze, about the incident. Then going through his notes. “Especially after the ruckus that impudent man made over his precious daughter being attacked.” He then pulls out another sheet of paper, this one blank, and starts to write on it. “To think, even a race like the elves which have an actual mana core, can turn into a demon.” He then shudders as he scribbles down some more notes. “And that mana, it wasn’t nature mana like I expected. No, it was definitely something I have never seen before.” He says as he starts to nearly giggle like a school girl.

Suddenly, a small black blob appears infront of Viktor. "Master... you requested me?" The blob says as it floats a foot off the table.

"This needs to be fast, the other teachers will detect you soon and may come ask questions." Viktor then hands the sheet of paper to the blob, as soon as the paper touches the blob it gets pulled into it. "The two most promising ones to be the Devil are Blaze, and Amy. All information that is needed is listed in the paper you currently have. For now I need the scouts to monitor them. If anyone gets found out by either of them, I will make sure I kill them myselfs if they live."

"Yes master." The blob says as it vibrates slightly an disappears.

"Finally, we can get this started." Viktor says with a grin.