bottledchaos
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An actress in our midst!, Ch18 – Breakthrough!
🕑 Added 2022-10-22 02:00:10 +0000 UTCThe library in the demon castle featured a plethora of books on all sorts of subjects. Magic, swordfighting, cooking, gardening… But oddly enough, the one subject conspicuously missing was history.
Cody must have searched through the whole library at this point but he still hadn’t found any books describing what the heck had happened to the demon realm to make it so barren and deadly. It was odd.
Or maybe, it was odd in the opposite sense. Who had written all these books if the demon lord was the only native around besides the demonic spirits? Him? No way. What had happened to all his peers? Why was he the only native around?
With that mystery still unsolved, Cody kept on searching, burying himself in books of all kinds. About magic, about artifacts, about the gems used to create said artifacts, as well as bows.
Frankly speaking, after getting a good look at the laser sniper bow up close before promptly getting KO’d by it, he wanted one for himself.
He still lacked the proper expertise when it came to magic and forging magical artifacts, but that was where Jessica came in. She would take the theory he’d dug up and make it into reality. All in all, they were a pretty good team.
He grabbed another book off the shelf and leafed through it, trying to find something relevant. This one described some of the gems and their use… again.
Just like in human libraries, there were a plethora of books describing exactly the same topic. Just using different words and whatnot. It had been a lot of repeated information to plow through. And it only brought back the question of who had written all of these?
Upon finding nothing of interest, Cody grunted to himself and went to put the book back. Before he did though, he noticed something odd. A little notebook shoved away into the corner of the bookcase.
Naturally, he grabbed it and inspected it. It seemed worn, the pages crooked and yellowing despite having the same preservation enchantment as the other books. It had no text on the cover other than the heading which read ‘Trish’s tech stuff’.
Shrugging his shoulders, Cody opened up the suspicious notebook and got to reading. At first, there didn’t seem to be anything interesting. Just some very crude descriptions of how magic and magical artifacts worked. Stuff Cody had already read about.
But then… Cody flipped the page and saw a drawing covering the entire page. It looked like concept art, what with several notes and arrows all over the place. As if this Trish planned on eventually creating it. And that would be all fine and dandy… If the concept art wasn’t depicting Pretty Flame’s Cinder Blade and Hecate’s demon sword.
On the next page, there were some notes on how both swords worked… as well as how they were created.
Cody’s eyes widened as he realized what he was looking at.
This was huge. Whoever this Trish was, they had apparently created both a demon weapon and a magical girl weapon. And according to the vague notes, the two were more similar to each other than Cody had thought.
His theory about the demon generals being a mirror to the magical girls might not have been total nonsense then…
He had never thought about it but… Where had the magical girls gotten their weapons and powers from? Sure, there could have been something magical back on Earth that they had discovered, but…
Cody continued leafing through the notebook. It didn’t take long for him to find exactly what he had expected. The concept art for the Blossom Wand, then the Thunderclap Bow, and finally the Ice Aegis. Each had similar notes next to them.
All of the magical girl's weapons were magical artifacts created with the same stuff the demon general’s weapons were made of. The difference was in the magic used to make them. Other than that, they were two sides of the same coin.
He pursed his lips.
With that in mind, would it be possible to create another one? To grant another person magical girl powers?
He continued turning the pages and eventually ran into another piece of concept art. Some kind of spear he didn’t recognize. The notes next to it were similar to the other weapons. The last note at the bottom caught his attention though.
‘Impossible’
What did that mean? Had Trish tried to create a fifth magical girl weapon and failed? What had happened? Why had it failed?
Cody realized he had been standing next to the bookshelf staring at the notebook and decided to sit down at the table instead. After that, the intense research began.
The notebook clearly wasn’t written with other people in mind. It felt more like personal notes. That made it kind of a pain for Cody to decipher and understand what was going on and how he could work with it.
From what he found out, Trish had concluded that only four magical girl weapons could ever exist. A fifth one, if it were to be created in theory, would be innately dangerous on a global level somehow.
Cody stopped at that as he considered the notes.
Innately dangerous… on a global level? As in… turn the entire demon realm into a wasteland kind of dangerous?
Was that why the demon lord hated the magical girls? Someone had successfully made the fifth weapon and destroyed his world?
Who was Trish? One of the magical girls? Some random demon researcher?
Cody felt out of his depth. He had finally found some answers to all the questions, but that only uncovered more questions.
Luckily, to save him from his own thoughts, someone else walked into the library and noticed him. It was the guy Jessica took a liking to. The one who wanted a voice changer for some reason. What was his name again…?
“Hey there,” Cody greeted him, trying to distract himself from his research.
“Hello… Um, leader wanted to talk to you. Something about the weapon she’s making,” he told him… in a very androgynous voice. It seemed like he was actively using Jessica’s gift.
“Sure.” Cody smiled behind his mask. “It just so happens that I also need to talk to her about something.”
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A/N: Mysteries abound! Now surely, Jessica won't try anything related to the "dangerous on a global level" thingie right? Hahaha! Now that would just be silly!
In other news, I fiiiinally began writing again! Yay! Still recovering, obviously, but it's much easier to just sit down and write. Now I just have to unlearn the whole 'not doing anything all day' routine.
