"Are you sure?"
At Emilia's question, Place brought out a small orb from his pocket and displayed it.
"You can confirm it."
He, Emilia, and Agne were standing huddled on the side of the road, talking in low voices and checking around for any eavesdroppers.
It had been two days since the Custode had talked with Place, and he wasn't telling anyone about it.
Instead, he had taken it upon himself to find out any way the demons could intrude, had found one, and had taken actions to confirm his thoughts.
Emilia took the orb from him and examined it.
Her face scrunched up as soon as she touched, but she still felt it carefully.
She let out a slow sigh.
"Well?" Agne asked, his eyes darting about.
"He's right." Emilia admitted.
"I know he is, he always is," Agne lowered his voice even further. "What kind? How long? Details!"
"I don't know what kind, but it's quite potent, a Tier 4 perhaps." Emilia pressed the orb against her face as she tried to feel the energy within the orb even better.
"It's also not faint, I don't have enough experience, but it's at least twelve hours old, and at most... a day perhaps."
Place looked at the orange stained sky.
"So from last night to sometime before sunrise is the most probable time." Place organised his thoughts.
"The problem is how. How did he get into contact with demons? Is there one infiltrated? Unlikely, but always a chance. Did he find a cursed artifact? A ritual circle? And the biggest question."
"Is he being forced? Or is on their side?"
Agne asked the last questions for Place, grimacing and shifting as he did so.
"I don't like this.' He stated plainly. "I don't know much about this guy."
"I investigated." Place swept his eyes around as he brought out a small book.
He flipped it open and displayed a page to his friends.
"Wait a moment..." Emilia remarked as she recognized the photo. "Isn't this the guy that Malia sent flying?"
"Him?" Agne remarked at the same time.
"Kolid Maters." Place stated. "Are you familiar with that surname?"
"Maters... I've heard about them." Agne nodded along with Emilia's sentence.
"Just in case, I'll give you a short recap."
Place snapped the book shut and began speaking the recently investigated facts.
"About two years ago, the Maters were accused of abusing their employees, and blackmailing them to stay quiet, along with smuggling forbidden materials and bribing officials to look the other way."
"All of this was discovered by a high-ranking official's surprise inspection, and the Maters had no way to deal with the fallout. Many of the members were sent to prison, their noble status was stripped, and they were deprived of almost all of their wealth."
"Kolid was found to have no relation to any of his families crimes, so he was not punished, but I believe that all of that had quite a profound affect on him, leading to all his animosity and giving him quite a good motive."
"So there is a good chance he is cooperating with the demons, instead of being forced."
"But why?" Agne asked. "Everybody knows that working with demons never ends well, they cheat, they backstab, and even if everything goes well, there is no guarantee that he'll get what he wants!"
"It is clear that Kolid is not particularly smart." Emilia stated. "He picks fights over the slightest perceived slight, he bosses around his equals, and is generally nothing but a hindrance. Those are not the actions of someone who wants to put in any effort, or has any plans for his future."
"There is a chance that his emotions are being subtly influenced," Place pointed out. "Or he could have stumbled into it, and decided to just destroy everything."
"All of this is beside the point, we have much more urgent things at hand."
Emilia ended that discussion, and changed the subject.
"The question is, what are we going to do?"
"First of all, we need to stalk him, but with utmost carefulness, we don't know the specifics, and if get found out, it won't be pretty, so take these."
Place out a few things and held them out.
"Emergency flares, protection amulets and blessed bombs."
"Anti-demon." Agne took them and examined them. "Specially built for them."
"Meet me at the crossroad at 12, and stick to the shadows."
"Will do."
***
The time passed quickly, and Place couldn't help but feel nervous.
He leaned against a tree as he stared at Kolid's dorm building from afar.
Agne and Emilia were behind him, covering his back.
He stiffened as Kolid emerged, large robes disguising his figure, and looking around.
"Target moving." Place muttered, his voice slightly muffled by the fabric covering his face, and he heard shuffling behind him as they turned around.
Place waited until Kolid was far enough, then moved.
His dark clothing hid him well in the shadows as he darted from cover to cover, always pausing as Kolid kept looking around.
"There's more demonic energy." Emilia informed him. "A lot of it."
Kolid walked to a training ground, and Place frowned as he watched him enter.
"Is he going to draw a circle?" Agne's muffled voice sounded from his left.
"That's not good," Emilia muttered. "But if so, that gives us enough time to trip the silent alarms wards."
Place let out a hum of agreement, and continued watching.
Kolid gave a final glance around, then reached into his clothing and brought out a silver disc with purple and black energy wafting off of it.
"Flares." Place suddenly spoke, recognizing what that.
"Fire the flares!" He brought out his own and shot it out.
The flare shot into the sky, then exploded, sending out a heavy wave of magic.
Two more followed as Agne and Emilia di the same.
Kolid had been spooked by the sudden light and following magic.
With a frightened expression, he threw the disc out, and it started to glow.
"A formation disc." Place stated as he removed his dark clothing and summoned his Anti-demon equipment.
"This is bad."
A portal formed above the formation disc, and demons started to emerge from it.
"Very bad."