Eva waited for a moment, but Devon didn’t elaborate any further. With a sage nod of her head, she said, “I might know what she means. When I tried to use my blood magic on them, it barely reacted. Explosions didn’t explode so much as they fizzled and controlling it felt sluggish.”
At least, that was true as far as she could remember. She had really only tried the one time in Hell. The same time that she had her foot bitten off. That it didn’t work as well as even her own diluted human blood was about all she really recalled.
“No problems keeping them contained?”
“Not with these.” He thumbed his tentacle over his shoulder back towards the hellhound-enigma. “That thing was a little trouble at first, but I think we got it under control.”
“Good. I don’t want to stop by one day only to find everyone eaten and the prison overrun with enigmas.”
Devon snorted but didn’t get a chance to respond. Loud clicks of high heels against the stone floor echoed up the hallway. Catherine—wearing tight-fitting pants and an almost translucent shirt, which were the first clothes that Eva had really seen her wear since she took up residence at the prison—stopped just to the side of Devon. Not behind him nor in front of him. Though, Eva did note Devon stiffening his back, glancing at the succubus out of the corner of his narrowed eyes.
While he instantly snapped to a guarded stance, Catherine barely took notice of him. She didn’t so much as glance in his direction, just stopping at his side with a hand on her hip.
“Hello, Eva. I’ve been trying to teach the demonoid one to speak,” she said with a sad shake of her head. “I had hoped that we might be able to acquire first hand information directly from an enigma. With a proper mouth and vocal cords, it should be able to speak. However, it might not have the brain capacity to vocalize any coherent thoughts.”
“You’ve only had it for a few days. Were you expecting instant results? Learning a new language takes months of dedicated study.”
“For a human,” Catherine scoffed. “Demons have innate skills with language. I can speak to you as easily as I can speak to someone on the opposite side of this planet. The enigma clearly consumed demons. A hellhound and another demon with wings. While a number of demons possess wings, I concur with your initial suggestion that it ate a succubus. But while it took on physical traits, it did not utter a single intelligent word during my attempts. Neither does it appear to possess any graceful traits common to succubi.”
Humming in thought, Eva moved around the two. Approaching the enigma’s cell, she could hear noise. Not the high-pitched whine into a cannon explosion, but the screech of twisting metal. It stopped the moment Eva moved in front of the cell door. The creature within, which had been right up near the bars, flipped over its own back in an attempt to scramble back behind the bed frame.
Except for one little problem. The bed frame had been crushed and thrown to one corner of the room. Likely what the noise had been as soon as they left. The more recent noise had come from the broken bar on the cell door. Another inch was missing from the top. Teeth marks lined the top.
As soon as Devon saw it, he started scowling.
But Eva wasn’t too concerned. Devon and Catherine would figure out how to properly keep it contained. She focused on the creature’s back. Its wings, specifically. With it having further damaged the bed frame, it couldn’t even hide properly. However, Eva couldn’t tell the difference between the enigma’s wings and Catherine’s wings. Both were almost identical to the wings of a bat. Leathery and with a little claw poking out right at the midpoint.
The only real difference was the angle. Catherine’s wings perched behind her back with the clawed tip pointed high above her head. When spread, the ends pointed outwards almost perfectly perpendicular to the rest of her body. The enigma’s wings, if it were standing upright, would have been pointing down towards the ground.
“A lot of demons have bat-like wings, don’t they? Is it possible it ate something else?”
“Demon-like wings, Eva,” Catherine said with an air of haughtiness. “Bats have demon-like wings. In fact, there is a theory that bats are actually demons—or were once upon a time—that simply found their way to earth and bred out of control.”
“But they don’t have black blood, do they?”
“Once upon a time,” Catherine repeated slowly, as if speaking to a child. “They’ve had their demon blood bred out of them. Probably. It isn’t an area I have studied much. Incidentally, I’ve never seen a bat in Hell, though I do admit that I haven’t explored much beyond my own domain.”
“Anyway, back to my point, is it possible it ate something that had demon-like wings? Something without much intelligence and without the grace of a succubus?”
“Possible, yes,” Catherine eventually admitted. “But I am still leaning towards a succubus. The way its chest bulges, the shape of the hips… Physically, it is a very appealing being. Though obviously lacking anything more functional than form.”
Eva took a moment to stare at the enigma. She just wasn’t seeing whatever Catherine thought was appealing about it.
“Well maybe it didn’t eat the brain of whatever succubus fell into its mouth. Is that even how these things work?”
“That is what we hope to find out with our experiments. If we had a demon to feed it, things would be different.”
Devon stepped up, grumbling under his breath. “There are a dozen demons around the school. I’m sure one wouldn’t be missed.”
Catherine just made a thoughtful hum.
A hum that had Eva sighing. “Just leave Saija alone,” she said. “Vektul and Srey as well. I guess Neuro and Sebastian too.”
“What did you do? Befriend the whole lot of them?”
“I wouldn’t say I’m ‘friends’ with any of them. Some of them are participating in the event. Wouldn’t want them going missing. Others are useful.”
Catherine shook her head. “Probably not a good idea anyway. We would have to kidnap them alive. I’m not sure on the exact details of their contracts, but they are required to assist each other in times of danger in some manner or other. Something that would turn out poorly for us if we acted against them. For now,” she paused, turning to the side, “Eva, I wish to speak with you regarding a hypothetical ritual I’ve come up with.”
As she spoke, Devon rolled his eyes. “Idiotic ritual more like. You’ll have no part of it,” he said, locking eyes with Eva. A moment later, he glanced to the side with a scoff. “Though speaking of rituals, I believe I have a date for your next treatment. Bring three demons the day after New Year’s. Otherwise Catherine will fill in, along with Arachne and the carnivean.”
Piece said, Devon stalked off down the hallway until he reached the exit. He didn’t so much as throw a glance over his shoulder as he walked out the door.
“I take it he didn’t like the prospect of the ritual circle,” Eva said, leaning against the wall next to the enigma’s cell as she turned to face Catherine.
“He glanced at it for a mere second,” Catherine said with a sigh. A second later, she lost her perfect posture to take on a slouch. Her voice dropped a few octaves. “‘Too complex,'” she snapped, mimicking Devon’s voice. “‘Anyone who tries to put together something so foolish will blow themselves up. Either you made a mistake in designing it or you will make a mistake in drawing it out.'”
Returning to her proper posture with her head held high, Catherine continued. “Of course, I didn’t tell him that a Power designed it. I presented it as a hypothetical that I had been thinking about on my own. He never heard your name in the same sentence until just now.”
All of a sudden, Eva was glad she had brought Catherine in on the project. Not only had she found those errors on the first night, but she had also taken steps to completely leave her out of the mess while speaking with Devon. Which was much better than Eva’s original plan of just having her not ask him at all. Of course, it wound up with the same effect. Devon didn’t look like he was planning on helping Catherine look over it. Still, the thought counted.