"What!? You fought a Daemon?" Elvira asked, eyes wide with disbelief.
It had been twelve hours since the other Nephirid woke up, and they had all returned to the city.
Ben had explained everything, just as he had planned.
He told them it was all an illusion brought on by the lingering effects of the seal. A shared hallucination.
All of them believed him, except Kaela.
She hadn't bought the story completely… but with the sealed ground destroyed and no way to confirm anything, she had nothing to press him with. So Ben wasn't worried.
What mattered more now was something else. The seal in his soul. The one that still protected Apophis.
"Yes," Ben said calmly, "but thankfully she was still sealed. I used the opportunity to absorb her power."
He raised his palm. Dark aether swirled upward from his skin
"See this?" he said with a small grin. "This is just a fraction of what I took from her."
Elvira's eyes lit up the moment the dark aether appeared. Her curiosity as a mage instantly flared.
Before Ben could say another word, she snapped her fingers and conjured three magic circles midair, each etched with glowing runes that shifted and spun like planetary rings.
Another four smaller circles appeared around his palm, hovering just above the dark Aether.
She leaned in, eyes narrowing as the circles began pulsing softly.
"This… this aether is different," she murmured, voice shifting into full analysis mode.
Ben raised an eyebrow. "Different how?"
But she was already gone, mentally, anyway. Her hands flicked in practiced motions, adjusting the sigils' rotation. She muttered under her breath, speed increasing.
"Stabilized polarity skewed along an inverse entropy vector… but the internal mana harmonics aren't degrading. That shouldn't be possible. Not unless… wait, there's something else imprinted here."
She leaned closer, speaking faster now.
"And this flow structure, Ben, this is like recursive phase compression, but backwards. How did she even bind it?
Unless she used a unique substrate with non-elemental origin layering, no, wait, that wouldn't explain the polarity collapse across the outer ring, "
Ben stared at her. Then looked down at his own hand. Then back at her.
"Right," he muttered flatly. "Magical gibberish. Got it."
Elvira didn't hear him. She had already pulled out a notebook and started sketching out a complicated diagram midair, ink forming from raw mana.
Ben sighed."Dammit… I should've started with the soul first."
But now that Elvira was , there was no stopping her. He let the aether dissipate and lowered his hand.
"…I'm going to get something to eat," he muttered. "You enjoy whatever… magic jazz that was."
Elvira didn't even glance up.
With a flick of her wrist, she summoned a crystal vial lined with silver runes and held it out toward him.
"Wait! Before that." Her eyes gleamed. "Put some of that dark aether into this. I need a sample from the secondary weave cluster."
Ben stared at the container. Then stared at her. Then slowly raised his hand again with an exaggerated sigh.
As he began pouring dark aether into the vial, he asked,
"How about your survey? Found anything?"
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that."
She snapped her fingers, and several objects floated into the air in front of him. They looked eerily similar to the ones he had found outside the city walls.
"So they really are planning something with this city…" Ben muttered. "Any idea what?"
Elvira's tone shifted, more focused now.
"Yes. I've been playing around with the formula. If I'm right, these devices are designed to sacrifice civilians, extracting their energy."
Ben's eyes widened in shock, his pulse spiking as anger surged in his chest.
"How dare they try something like that! But… I don't get it. Wouldn't their energy be too weak to unseal a Daemon?"
"Unseal?" Elvira blinked. "Oh… you're right."
She frowned. "Now that we know a Daemon was sealed here, they may not need to summon one from the same dimension aether flows from. Releasing one that's already trapped might cost far less."
"We can't be sure of that. Maybe both are true. The Daemon they want to summon might not be the one I encountered."
Seeing the chance, Ben took a breath and began explaining everything, Apophis, the sealed ground, the Knight, the soul tether, all of it.
Elvira listened in silence, her gaze narrowing with each word. And when he finished, Her expression twisted in disbelief.
"You what!?" Elvira shouted, eyes blazing. "You consumed a Daemon!? That's beyond foolish!"
Ben winced slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well it turn out okay…"
But Elvira wasn't listening.
"Do you have any idea what you've done? You didn't just absorb some stray energy, you fused with an ancient, malevolent entity that practically a legend!"
She jabbed a finger toward his chest. "That kind of soul isn't something you can take down easily! What if it win and you got taken over? "
"I didn't lose," Ben muttered.
"Good! Because if you lose control, if that thing ever asserts itself fully, you won't be you anymore! You'll be a walking catastrophe with your face and name, and no one strong enough to stop you in time."
She stopped pacing, turned sharply, and glared at him. "Did you even consider the blowback? Did you forget our soul is connected?"
Ben crossed his arms. "It's not like I had time to write up a risk report. She was there. I have the opportunity. I took it."
"You didn't take it," Elvira said coldly. "You gamble your life for it!"
Ben's jaw tightened at that, but he said nothing.
Elvira's voice softened, just slightly.
"Ben… you're stronger now, yes. I can feel it. But even recklessness have it's limit. She's ancient creature beyond our understanding, we never know what kind of method she have."
Her eyes narrowed again.
"Now that she's sealed inside you. You should know she could do something to your soul right?"