'There had to be something!'
Damon ran back and forth, flipping drawers and trashing shelves.
"Give up," Aiwass yawned, curled up like an ebony little ball on the leather sofa. "There's no way you can fool her."
"It's your fault!" Damon grabbed his hair, freaking out. "If you weren't a chaos-addicted psycho, I wouldn't have to do a demo in front of Ophelia Valen! She has a passive lie detector, Aiwass! If I fail, she's gonna fry my brain from the inside!"
"You should be thanking me. Without me, you'd still be delivering stuff." The cat stretched a paw, claws sliding out. "Also, people say getting tortured by an SSS beauty is the dream of a lot of guys."
"Not my dream!"
Damon ran to the private armory.
The biometric panel scanned his retina and the glass door slid open with a hydraulic hiss.
[ACCESS GRANTED: USER ZERO]
The arsenal was a wet dream for any Hunter, but for Damon it was a museum of impossible crap.
He tried to lift a black claymore. His arms shook.
[ALERT: INSUFFICIENT STRENGTH STAT] [BONE FRACTURE RISK: 90%]
"Trash... everything is trash I can't use"
Then, in the back, almost hidden behind a legendary scythe, he saw something pathetic.
A worn leather handle and a blade with no shine.
He activated the [Legislator's Eye].
[ITEM: Duel Blade "Mute"]
[RANK: D-]
[EFFECT: Null edge. Grants the user +30 Visual Dexterity (Fake) for 30 seconds for posture correction.]
"A training sword?"
Aiwass showed up in the doorway, her eyes shining in the dark.
"That junk… Zero probably used it to humiliate newbies without killing them."
"It's perfect." Damon weighed it, and it was light, almost like a toy.
But then, Miller's voice came back: "It'll just be you, a wooden stick... I activated the Inhibitors."
"Shit. If I show up with metal, they'll accuse me of cheating before it even starts."
Damon stared at the blade like he could bully it into saving him.
He activated the [Legislator's Eye] one more time, hunting for an exit.
[PROPERTY DETECTED]
[Mana Signature: Null/Inert]
[Material: "Dead Steel" Alloy.]
Damon's eyes lit up.
BINGO!
"It's a 'dead' sword," he muttered. "No magic signature, and to Miller's sensors, this is as harmless as a spoon."
He looked at Aiwass.
"If they ask... it's a 'training weight shaped like a sword.' A deadweight to make me stronger, then Miller will think I'm flexing my physical strength and his ego will do the rest."
Aiwass snickered.
"Lying to the system to its face using its own rules... I like it."
***
The Guild training stadium was in a tomb-like silence.
In the VIP box, Ophelia Valen sat with her legs crossed, holding a glass of wine, she looked like an empress watching a crappy play.
Just her presence made the air feel thick, like gravity had gone up just to please her.
Down in the arena, Damon stood perfectly still.
Outside he looked like the living image of stoicism.
The Great Zero, arms crossed and his sword "Mute" sheathed, giving off an aura of dark mystery.
Inside [STATUS: CRITICAL PANIC. BLOOD PRESSURE: DANGEROUS]
'Don't look her in the eyes! If I look her in the eyes, she'll know I'm a fraud! I feel like she's scanning my soul!'
At his side, Aiwass in her human form decided the mood was way too tense, so she leaned forward in a deep stretch, making her combat suit creak and handing a lethal view to half the stands.
Ophelia raised one perfect eyebrow, judging the demon girl like she was judging a rival pet.
"Ready, boss?" Aiwass whispered, mocking him.
Before Damon could answer or pass out from Ophelia's gravity pressure, an "NPC" decided to steal the camera.
"Out of the way!" an arrogant voice shouted.
Bruno, a blond C-rank recruit with main character syndrome, jumped into the center of the arena.
He looked for Iris in the front row, and then, with even more ambition, looked up at the VIP box.
"Master Ophelia!" Bruno bellowed, drawing a sword that was way too shiny. "Witness the Burning Dragon technique! A show worthy of your presence!"
Damon held his breath. 'Please, keep showing off. Let this last forever.'
Bruno charged mana and fire wrapped around his blade, it looked impressive... for two seconds.
Then the air felt wrong.
[MANA ANOMALY DETECTED]
Bruno's sword started to vibrate with a high buzz, like a microwave about to blow up. The orange fire turned into a dirty, corrupted dark purple.
The newbie's eyes bulged out.
"Huh? Wait! I'm not doing th...!"
GLITCH!
There was no cut, and there was no detonation.
A shockwave of corrupted mana burst out of Bruno's sword.
The arena floor cracked, the monitoring panels blew up in showers of sparks, and the security door went flying like paper.
The nearby recruits got launched and Bruno ended up smashed against the wall, smoking, with his sword reduced to metal shards and his suit ripped to pieces.
Total silence.
From the VIP box, Ophelia Valen sighed. It was a soft sound, but it rang through the whole stadium.
She set her glass on the table like she was doing a ritual.
"How... unpleasant."
"I expected art, but you gave me noise and filth, this demonstration is over, so clean this mess before I lose my patience."
END OF EVENT!
Damon blinked, still with his arms crossed, still intact in the middle of the chaos, covered in dust but alive.
'WHAT?! IT'S OVER?! I GOT SAVED BY A BUG?!'
He just watched the scene with a neutral face, almost bored, like he'd predicted the ant was gonna explode.
The people around him traded nervous looks, falling hard for the misunderstanding.
Iris looked at him with a shine of total admiration.
'Zero is so prepared!' the captain thought, 'He knew it wasn't worth wasting time watching these insects and he didn't even bother drawing!'
Up in the VIP box, Ophelia hadn't left but her eyes were nailed on Damon.
She wasn't looking at the newbie disaster, she was looking at him and a predatory smile curled her lips.
A few feet away, Aiwass shook invisible dust off her uniform.
Nobody noticed, but a thin thread of black smoke faded between her fingers. She caught Damon's look and winked.
'Told you it'd be explosive, pet.'