Marcel was frustratingly right. That wasn’t even the worst thing. Once Mila and Cire had gotten warmed up to him, they actually agreed with him, and now there were ten students that were ready to spill their blood for the force.

  He didn’t enjoy having what amounted to an overstrength line of people that he was now going to have to train. He wasn’t a trainer. Thankfully, Cire was up to the task.

  “So, you’re saying that none of them regularly trained before?” Ludere said. He was leading them in a group run on a loop around the compound.

  “You’re correct.”

  Leading them on a run wasn’t precisely correct. It was more like a quick, brisk walk, with ten people who needed to exercise more.

  “And these are the ones that you asked?”

  “These are the ones that showed up.”

  Cire moved a bit ahead, jogging past a curve. Ludere gave them a look. Most of the recruits looked like they were near death. They had only been jogging for one lap, which had felt like ten minutes.

  “They look like we’re going to run them into the ground.”

  “You’re absolutely correct. That is what we’re doing. Not everyone gets Athletics as a Skill. Some of us have to work for it.”

  She knew well that he had given her the Athletics Skill. “We’re setting the stage for their personal growth. We’ve got to break them down before we build them up.”

  “They just look so…”

  Cire flashed irritation. “They are the ones that showed up.”

  They stopped and began walking. Marcel wheezed. He’d decided that he wanted to be in front, and it looked like he had been holding on through stubborn force of Will. Ludere didn’t know if he should be relieved or mad at the man for starting this. But there was a method to Cire’s madness.

  Ahead of them, Mila was holding a selection of fine spears. Each one had a blunted tip to establish the rough weight of a spear, but keeping with the right design. It would get their training right, even if the weight was off. She handed a spear to Ludere and squared off.

  Cire began to speak. “The game here is to score a single hit on the opponent. Brown chalk dusts the spears, but you’ll know if you get hit. There will almost certainly be a bruise.”

  Ludere showed them several spear forms. He went over each one twice, then made sure the demonstration was understood.

  They were able to follow along as a basic level, but anything more than just following along looked like it would be too much. There were several gasps as his mastery was exactly the right amount to impress a novice onlooker.

  Several of them collapsed upon first being contacted in a drill, and had to walk it off. It wasn’t much, but it was honest work when they could be studying. Notably, Cire was the only person from the first class that was there. The rest, including the one that was missing, had opted out, or not returned to her with a reason.

  He wished that he could get the kind of support that growing up in their social class apparently provided. The network effect alone, of getting fifteen people to help him search for demons, that in itself felt like such a huge expenditure of favors.

  He was betting on his name carrying him through this. His name and reputation. They were insulated from the decisions of their government. He could understand sending a mass of faceless soldiers against an army.

  He didn't understand all the power behind it and he wasn't ready to start. But as he saw them work through their forms, he had a bit of hope. Someone knew what they were doing. It wasn't him. He just knew the spear, and how to work it. He knew how to work the people in front of him.

  It took them an hour to go through some basics, and by that time they had gotten a mole into every single class. Mila had explained what they were looking for, and it would keep their eyes open. She also explained that there would be rewards for people that stuck around and did what they were supposed to do. Everyone had heard about what Ludere could do.

  They were making a gamble on him actually giving them a big win. It was what he was doing with them. Their symbiotic relationship felt like he was being held down.

  Mila passed in front of him. She came up to his ear.

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  "You just work with them like you're one of them. They just think that they can out-train this. They've been overfed and pampered their entire lives. They don't know."

  "They don't know what?" Mila whispered.

  "That we exist. People like our families. People that could just be their servant, who can walk in and never be noticed."

  "It's terrifying how common it is. They're not even including us in their plans."

  "They're going to have to fight, if what you think is going to happen is going to happen. There will be ultimatums. There will be requirements."

  Ludere hated the kind of ultimatums he would have to put on people, if they signed up to kill demons with him. They would need to do terrible things.

  People were usually okay with the idea of doing terrible things in the abstract, but in reality? Most of these kids would just piss their pants.

  Who was he kidding? None of these children would hold a candle to a succubi.

  Ludere looked around. Something was off, and he could… he could smell it. Was it one of his armpits? He hadn't broken a sweat yet, despite the humidity. He looked around, but it wasn't one of the girls. They always smelled fresh, invariably.

  He looked around.

  "Mother…"

  Ludere scanned the courtyard. He found himself doing that unconsciously, but this time he really took his time. The smell was coming from somewhere, obviously.

  This time he had a strong scent. He wished that he could mark the time, but there was nothing. The angle of the sun? It was the afternoon of the second day after the new loop started, and he had finished class for the day and trained them for an hour. That would be enough.

  Now, where was it?

  The sprawling campus was far larger than it needed to be for the amount of students that attended. There were many pre-cataclysm walls that looked fairly uniform. Each of the walls divided the academy into its various subsections.

  The movement was on the walls above.

  Ludere jumped. Two stories up, he activated his Will to begin flying at the wall. He could see the demon there. It was just standing, looking at him. that was fine. He could take one demon.

  What was one demon against one man who had defeated countless demons and stopped a demonic incursion?

  "What are you doing here? You're not welcome here."

  As he got closer. It became clear what it was. It was a succubus. The demon had taken a human form. It looked like a classmate of his that was nondescript enough to be anyone.

  "You mistake my presence, human."

  Ludere stopped just outside of the succubus's potential range.

  "Oh? Enlighten me. I've never gotten one of your kind to actually speak."

  "We know of your exploits."

  There has been a pride of being known by the demons or something. He wasn't exactly proud, but it was something he would write back home about. His parents would probably be very confused as to why he had influence over demons, but it was a thing.

  "So, why? What is this for?"

  "We're taking back what is ours." The smile across the androgynous demon's face gleamed. They rode a single wheel down the line between genders and sometimes put a foot down on both sides. Ludere had never had feelings for another man, but in that moment, he understood the appeal.

  There was nothing subtle about the demon, either. He wracked his brain, thinking about where the demon could have come from, and looked around for other friends. He could sense at least two more, somewhere. This one stretched some wings it had, and he realized with a start, of the fifteen that it followed him to that practice yard, only four had stuck around to watch this.

  It was infuriating. They could only do so much with four people. But it was better that he found out now.

  People didn't know what they were facing until they actually faced it. Ludere had faced them before. He'd had one of them in his brain. This one didn't know that. He was going to hold that set of loaded dice close.

  A pressure built up slowly around him. It wasn't his Willpower. He could feel the succubus trying something.

  "Didn't your parents tell you not to reach into someone else's mind without being invited?"

  "Impossible. Yield to me."

  The argument felt like it had a spiritual way to it. He was not ready. But he was not going to turn over. His spirit was too strong.

  "I think not. Tell me what you're doing here before I…"

  He was cut off by the sounds of screaming below him.

  This was not how it went in the last loop. This was not something that happened. How was it happening now?

  "Ludere!" Mila's voice was frantic. If he turned now, he would lose it. How had he lost his concentration so quickly? It was sickening, how much the demons had invaded his mind. He just wanted to help them on their holy quest to reclaim. What did they want to reclaim?

  The assault was so incongruous that he could barely stand it. They were encroaching on his world. They were the ones that were the problem. Not him. Why would he even think that? How could he be thinking that at all, unless…?

  He shook it off and dove at the succubi. Why would they think that this could ever work?

  Because they hadn't gone through what he'd been through. This might have even been one of the ones that he'd fought and killed before. And if so, how did it get to him without touching him? Didn't it need to touch him to get to his soul?

  This was all beginning to be very confusing, and he wished he could find a way out of this much faster than he was. That was already probably a doomed loop.

  If all his friends died and he didn't, then he didn't know what he would do. The cat might be able to send him back. Somebody would have to.

  He couldn't save everyone. He could try.