Children of Elisium
Chapter 7: Changes

Elisium’s classes ended at exactly four o’clock in the afternoon every weekday. But unlike the usual daily routine, something had changed in the class of Aquarius. The students and teachers assigned to the class were currently frozen at their spots as they looked at a certain brown-haired child in the room. Instead of staying seated after the end of the class, 373 had decided to leave the room with them to a place only God knew.

373 changed her habit of staying behind. The thought of meeting Michael Caelum alone in her classroom made her feel an odd sensation in her chest. She didn’t want to see him. She couldn’t explain why. All that she knew was that she didn’t want to meet with the amber-haired youth just to be disappointed with his secrets and his lies.

The little girl wove through familiar hallways that the children usually flocked. When she was certain that no one was following her, she appeared under one of the kitchen’s gigantic metal tables with a quick adicio spell and slyly took a few pieces of bread before disappearing once more. Her silhouette reappeared inside Leon’s cell. And although his eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging wide open, the surprise on the blonde boy’s face wasn’t as obvious as it was the first time they met.

Her eyes found traces of moisture on the floor that was glistening against the rough surface. Even without reading Leon’s mind, 373 could already guess at what had transpired.

The female clicked her tongue as a spell gather the water on the floor. The orb of water was no longer as unsteady as before and the blue sphere traveled quickly into Leon’s cupped palms. However, the boy’s bright eyes were elsewhere. His clear blue orbs were glued to the multiple pieces of bread she had stuffed in the plastic bag which was currently resting on top of a very thick book.

Drool was dripping from the corner of his lips. There was a glimmer in his eyes while his lips formed a small frown as he stared at the bread. “I can’t eat all of that.”

“It’s not for you-,” 373 began. But when she saw the downcast expression on Leon’s face, she tossed him most of the pieces of bread while keeping a single piece in the plastic bag. “Just make sure you don’t leave crumbs on the floor.”

She picked up the book she had brought with her and turned around. An Adicio spell was already on her mouth. Leon’s bright blue eyes widened again. “You’re not staying?” He asked.

“Maybe later.” 373 waved her free hand. The energy wrapped around her and the female could feel herself being drawn to the hallway with the hidden staircase. She didn’t use Adicio to directly transport herself to the hall – or rather, she couldn’t. The double-doors and the room itself had layers of seals that prevented people from entering it. And a spell could possibly trigger the formations and defensive enchantments in the room.

Her feet landed on the corridors that went towards the secret room. The moment she entered the huge wooden doors, she headed straight for the cross at the end of the hall, set the piece of bread down on the floor and opened thick book entitled ‘Clavicula Salomonis – Simplified Edition’. Her black eyes studied the drawings on the floor and compared them with the illustrations in the book. Every so often she would pace around the room while following the twist and turns that were engraved on the ground.

“I see that a copy of the Key of Solomon is in your possession… However, you could have just asked me, pueri,” Astaroth’s voice reverberated in the huge hall as 373 scampered here and there with the thick book in her hands. There wasn’t a single crease on the demon’s eyebrows and his face was oddly calm even as the little girl kept her back facing him.

“The book says to ‘never trust demons’,” the small girl replied, her eyes still fixated on the pages of her book. She was completely oblivious to the pair of golden eyes that never left her body.

“Are you planning on ignoring me, child?” The demon asked again.

Without missing a second, the little girl said, “Yes.”

373 took out a pencil and paper from her pockets, her hands automatically writing and sketching as she thought. Numerous ideas and possibilities flooded her mind as she created an illustration of sorts on the single piece of paper. But with a single melodious laugh, the steady stream of ideas halted. 373 glared at the demon who was looking at her with eyes of pity and humor. His perfectly chiseled face smiled at her as he said in a teasing tone, “Art is not your calling. Is it, child?”

The girl’s black orbs narrowed at the statue-esque figure. Like a child who knew no fear, she flicked her hair and repeated the words the adults always said to them when the class was being noisy.

“Be quiet and behave yourself, ” she chided. Her hands quickly crumpled the sheet she had used for her drawings and stuffed it back in her pockets. 373 studied a few pages inside the thick book she had brought before setting it beside a few objects and trinkets that were placed at the floor. She closed her eyes and concentrated on feeling the magical energies that flowed within the seals on the floor while visualizing how the seals were interwoven with each other. Each spell, enchantment and seal had it’s own ebb and flow of energy. If she wanted to break the seal on Astaroth’s soul, then she needed to replace the weakest part of the seal which would allow her to disrupt the seal’s energy flow.

She felt an irregularity. It appeared so suddenly that the small female almost had no time to react. The atmosphere in the room suddenly became stale. The air became harder to breathe in. 373 could feel unfettered power emanating from that single irregularity that had appeared in front of the wooden double-doors that should have sealed off the room from the rest of the world.

373 took the plastic bag with the piece of bread and hid behind human-shaped container that had multiple spikes lined inside the cover. The space was enough for her to crouch in and as soon as she went in the casket, the shadows stirred and lightly closed the metallic container while leaving a small gap where she could see a part of the room and Astaroth’s figure hanging securely from the cross.

The room became silent. 373 tried to breathe without making a sound. The gigantic door creaked as footsteps echoed in the room. The female hiding in the iron container strained her eyes as she peeked through the container’s gap. A woman with blue hair, an odd outfit and a white coat strode in the room with her lips pursed in a thin line. The visitor’s eyes scanned the room, her eyes falling on a single object that shouldn’t be in the room.

373 held her breath. Her heart pounded in her chest. Her eyes followed the visitor’s line of sight.

The thick book titled Clavicula Salomonis – Simplified Edition was lying haphazardly on the floor.

“‘Clavicula Salomonis’? What’s this doing here? Did Master come down here to check on the seals? Or did you manage to convince one of our researchers to break the seal without telling him that you were going to eat his soul?” Asha Claire asked, her high-pitched voice reverberating in the quiet hallway like the clatter of broken plates. The woman cleared her throat and stared at the book she hadn’t seen in a long time, her eyebrows shooting up and hiding behind her bangs.

It truly had been a long time since she had last visited this secret room that both she and Silas Fidi had constructed in Elisium. The last time Asha Claire had seen the demon she had trapped was some ten-odd years ago – Elisium had just been built and they had found a little girl who caught both hers and Silas Fidi’s attention.

The female child’s talent was unique. Her body, even more so. The child was born with miasma: the dark energy that was poison to anything alive and was the same energy the demons fed on. The amount of miasma flowing through her veins was quite small, almost unnoticeable. But it had sparked the curiosity in the master-disciple pair which made them want the little girl.

If they merged the child’s body with a demon’s, would she survive?

If they exchanged the girl’s blood with that of a demon’s, would the child gain eternal life?

Would it enable Asha Claire to live forever?

Starting from that day, the Great Apothecary’s successor had went through great pains to acquire the little child’s body from under her parent’s noses. With the use of her Talent, she planned a flawless accident that couldn’t be traced back to her or her Master. She waited for a couple of years before she executed her plan. The woman even made sure that the child’s injuries were severe enough to threaten the child’s life but could be cured by either her or the Great Apothecary.

But the child disappeared. And apparently, there was no way to track her. All that remained was a damnable demon that neither cowered at her presence nor acknowledge her existence. The demon never saw her as it’s captor. He had acted like a king on a throne and not a prisoner chained to the wall.

The female researcher had collected holy artifacts: a Cross from Calvary, the chains that were used in the Holy Crusades – all to torture the Duke of Hell and put him in unbearable pain. Yet the demon didn’t flinch. Even as he weakened, he continued to treat her like an insignificant spec of dust on the floor that he could choose to ignore or blow off if he wanted to.

Asha Claire stared up at the Duke of Hell. Astaroth closed his golden eyes, his figure becoming still and oddly reminiscent of a marble sculpture. She didn’t know why, but the Duke of Hell’s attitude always rubbed her the wrong way. The blue-haired woman’s expression darkened as she bit her lips and seethed. “You...”

“You always act like you don’t care, that all beings are beneath you,” Asha began as she walked towards Astaroth’s unmoving silhouette. The more she recalled the amount of effort she had wasted on capturing the girl and the demon, the redder her face became. Her steps were heavy like the hatred behind her voice. Her frustration was apparent. “But I own you. I trapped you. You have no right to look down on me!”

The demon’s eyelids cracked by just a fraction, giving Asha Claire a glimpse of the golden orbs that lay behind them. Although the seals on the floor and the enchanted artifacts kept him chained to the room, he had not lost his cold and royal demeanor. The demon’s chin was tilted upward, almost like he had pride to spare. Even when Asha Claire kicked the book across the floor, Astaroth’s expression remained uncaring and passive. The Duke of Hell maintained his silence. His lips didn’t move by even a millimeter. His chin was tilted upward while his eyes continued to look down, just like a monarch looking at a commoner.

“You’re always looking down on me! But I’m the future Great Apothecary! I’m the legitimate successor of Silas Fidi! You don’t have the right to look down on me!” Asha Claire stomped her foot on the floor. Every time she brought her foot down, the place she stepped on formed cracks that scattered through the rest of the wide room.

She screeched. “Gah! I don’t even know why I came down here in the first place! Why did I come here? Think. Think!”

Her long thin fingers found the contours of her face. She massaged the sides of her wide forehead as she continued to pace around the room.

“Calm down. Calm down.” She chanted. “I’m here to check on the demon’s state. The bug upstairs that’s planning on stealing from Master hasn’t discovered this place. The seal is intact and no matter how many souls it feeds on, the demon won’t be able to escape.”

“Ah… The bug,” Asha Claire muttered. All traces of anger disappeared from her face and she became a stoic unfeeling creature as her eyes studied an artifact in the room. She walked towards the Iron Maiden – the metallic human-shaped casket that was lined with spikes and lightly tapped its exterior. The casket let out a hollow ding. Her lips rose up.

“Maybe I should use this monolithic antique on it once I figure out who it is?”

Her long fingers caressed the surface of the iron torture device. She imagined putting an actual human being inside the Iron Maiden before slowly pushing down on the spiked cover. Her eyes glimmered as she got caught up in her fantasy, her smile growing bigger. After a moment, the light in her eyes died and the smile disappeared. She harrumphed. “Damn. Cleaning after the bloody mess would be too troublesome. Master wouldn’t like it. Might as well not.”

Asha Claire was too absorbed in her own thoughts that she did not notice the usually stoic demon stare at the metallic artifact with raised eyebrows. The moment she had snapped out from her trance, Astaroth’s gaze was aimed at the double-doors that served as the only exit of the room. Asha Claire’s puckered lips formed a sneer that showed a row of big teeth. She tapped the Iron Maiden with her foot and strode towards the doors before kicking them open with a bang.

“Give up. I’ve already re-written the spells behind the Doors of Destiny,” the female researcher muttered and shook her head, sending her blue hair swishing left and right. “They’re nothing but double doors with restrictive seals that won’t allow anyone other than me and Master to enter this room.”

“Besides, what is destiny when I can change it with my power? All the rules in the world can be changed by those who hold unquestionable strength. ” Asha Claire smirked. “I’ll become immortal. I’ll become the most powerful Magno Deorum and make you bow down to me! You better look forward to it!”

The woman opened her mouth and a shrill laugh escaped her lips and echoed in the hall. She left the room and slammed the double-doors shut. Her gaze looked forward and never once glanced at the place that she left. Asha Claire was the same as her master in that respect : their eyes were transfixed on their respective goals and where they were going. Everything else, even the past, was insignificant. What mattered most to them was the future.

However, unknown to the woman who just left the room, the Iron Maiden wasn’t empty. As soon as the secret chamber had become free from Asha Claire’s stifling presence, a small female child opened the metallic torture device with one hand while carrying a piece of bread in the other. 373’s eye brows were knitted together as her lips were pressed in a frown. The sound of clanging metal and high pitched screaming were still reverberating in her ears. Unfortunately for her, the sounds weren’t muffled by the container. She helplessly made her way to her book which lied discarded on the floor while her ears slightly throbbed in pain.

373 looked up, her eyes glancing at the demon from across the room. Astaroth’s eyes were staring right back at her and there was a mysterious glimmer in his golden orbs. Unlike the cold shoulder he had shown earlier, his face was full of life. His lips quirked and moved in a mesmerizing manner as he spoke with mirth.

“And that is how you ignore people, child,” He said. The little girl in front of him couldn’t help but release a long breath.

“She’s crazy,” 373 said. Black orbs studied the gigantic doors and the single dusty foot mark on its surface. Then, she shot the demon a glare before saying, “You’re crazy.”

Lighthearted male laughter rang inside the room. Astaroth’s lips quirked up into a smile that would have made any grown woman swoon. “Then, do not become like us when you grow older.”

Golden eyes studied the brown-haired female who was studying the runes on the floor like nothing had happened. He seemed to be considering something in the silence of the room. With a meaningful breath, the demon spoke. Although the words he spoke, weren’t words one would expect from a demon.

“Shall I give you a piece of advice, pueri? The scales may tip in favor of those who have strength, but strength will always be relative,” Astaroth began, his voice mellow and his words cryptic. “Strength is not absolute. Strength is not permanent. However, to become strong is a choice. And a choice, once made, is permanent – irreversible.”

“Fate is something that cannot be controlled. But choices still ultimately shape your destiny.” The demon’s eyes closed – like a man recalling a distant past. When he opened his eyes, the female child could see a tempest swirling in their depths.

“Choose to become strong,” he said. “Choose your own destiny.”

The little girl stared at him curiously. Then, she replied with a nod and quietly said, ‘okay’.

It had been four days since Michael Caelum had seen 373.

With the date of 373’s transfer getting closer by the day, the youth was getting more and more desperate to replace 373 and get her out of Elisium. But the little girl was nowhere to be found. He had tried waiting for her at her classroom. He had tried looking for her in the library but she wasn’t there. He couldn’t replace her in the places the other children frequented. He couldn’t replace her in the student’s bedrooms. He was running out of ideas. He had even tried waiting outside the girl’s washroom. Just how in the world was he supposed to replace her?

A heavy slap on the back shook Michael from his thoughts and throttled him back to Earth. Jeorge Marcus Grin was flashing to him a suggestive smile. “Oh, nice meeting you again, Caelum! You looking for someone? Is it a girl?”

Michael opened his mouth to reply. But before he could say anything, Bob gave a hearty chuckle and wiggled his eyebrows. “Oh… Oh! Is it a tryst!? A secret rendezvous with a secret lover?!”

“Not really-”

“Oh ho ho ho,” Bob interjected. “Don’t be shy. The Great Apothecary doesn’t really care about in-office romances. There are a lot of them here who managed to get hooked up with their co-workers. A lot of them broke up within in a few months though – oh, but don’t let that discourage you! Do you want to know a secret? Let me tell you a secret. It may help you in the future.”

Michael didn’t really want to know. He was more concerned about replaceing Aria more than anything else. But his senior continued chattering on without giving Michael any space to retreat, his mouth firing off in maximum speed. “If your woman is hiding from you, let me give you advice on how to replace her.

You see, I used to have a girlfriend once – the type that plays hard to get. She used to love playing hide and seek. If I didn’t replace her, she’d get all angry and pissed and say I didn’t love her. But if I did replace her, she would reward me with a bit of special service… You know- the kind that men and women do when they’re in love? Or maybe not? Er…,” Bob’s face flushed several shades of red as he cleared his throat. “You probably know about the birds, the bees, and what happens at night. Although it doesn’t always happen at night. It can also happen during noon! Anyway -!”

The older male paused for effect and folded his arms in front of his chest. His expression became serious – like he was a soldier returning to his homeland after fighting in the front lines of a bloody battlefield.

“In order to make sure I’d replace her, I’d use a tracking spell,” he stated with gusto.

Michael blinked a few times as the words sunk in. “A… tracking spell.”

“Yup! Ingenious, isn’t it? Persequor usually works. People would call it cheating, but she also cheated since every time we played the game she would use a concealment spell of some sort or erase her energy traces with a spell to make it hard for me. But since I stalked her before in order to figure out what she liked in order to increase my chances of getting a yes -,” Jeorge Marcus coughed, “-don’t tell anyone that I stalked someone, okay?”

“Moving on… Since I researched her patterns, I knew the places she usually went to and I could trace her using her spell’s energy residues and the different disturbances in the energy in the environment,” the researcher said proudly. “You should try it on your little lover. Understand her. Stalk her a bit. If you know where she’s last been to and identify the spell she used, you can track her based on the energy traces of her spell rather than her own energy signature. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Michael nodded slowly. Bob flashed Michael a thumbs up sign. The bulky man ran off after the he realized he was late for a meeting. As the senior researcher’s muscular figure disappeared into one of Elisium’s hallways, Michael Caelum stood in the corridor in a daze and found himself heading towards Aria’s empty classroom.

Michael could sense the different spells that had been used in the room. Most of the spells were basic – simple spells that he could make out just by spreading his senses inside the empty classroom. Although the remaining energy signatures in the room were fading, the young male could easily pick out the poorly cast spells from the stable and perfectly casted ones. But none of them caught Michael’s attention. The young male walked toward a seat at the back of the room – to Aria’s seat – and his lips quirked as he tried to sense the spells the little girl had cast.

There were none. Or rather, Michael Caelum couldn’t sense anything. Her desk and her chair were wiped clean of her energy signature. There were no traces of her energy, no clues that she had been in the room. His heart started hammering in his chest as he felt his body grow cold. Did they take her away? Was she in Elisium’s research facility at this very moment?

Jeorge Marcus’s voice echoed in Michael’s head and the young male took a deep breath to calm himself. As soon as he could feel his pulse slowing down, Michael cast persequor and focused on the energies that swirled around him. The energy signatures within the room became more distinct. The concentration of energy in the room felt denser. Color burst forth from the dark room. Each wisp of color was a spell. Beneath the kaleidoscopic sight, a faint almost indiscernible glimmer stretched from Aria’s seat and continued past classroom’s door. The traces of the spell were faint, but it was a spell Michael couldn’t quite identify. It was a complex concealment spell that no one in the Aquarius class could cast or should even know about.

… All except the little girl who loved reading complicated books.

The red-haired male breathed a sigh of relief. The bitter feeling of helplessness in his gut slowly faded away. With resolute steps, he left the room and followed the traces of her spell. He concentrated on keeping himself hidden from the watchful gazes of Elisium’s researchers while his head thought about Aria, about what he was supposed to do once he found her.

Michael’s thoughts wandered to the concealment spell Aria had used. He knew that the female was a cautious person and that it was very likely for her to cover her tracks if she knew she was being followed. And as much as Michael didn’t want to admit it, a concealment spell was something he should have expected the little girl to know. But the more he thought about the small female, the more he thought about how much he knew the little girl, the hotter his face became. He turned and stopped at a corner. The youth covered his face with his two hands.

Michael Caelum felt like a stalker. He felt like he was stalking the female eight-year-old child. It wasn’t a welcome fact, but the male couldn’t help but feel he was going down that direction.

The red-head ran his hands over his hair and shoved the thought to the darkest and deepest corner of his mind. He continued tracking her through her concealment spell, and found himself face to face to Elisium’s library he had visited beforehand. The energy signature of her spell led him towards the numerous rows of bookshelves that cast tall eerie shadows over the room. Numerous children from the different zodiac classes were also visiting the common area in the library - for what reason, Michael didn’t know.

But Aria’s traces didn’t stop at the common areas of the library that was available to the children of Elisium. Michael’s feet stopped at a entryway that led to a restricted section of the library. In front of him, a golden chain with an ‘Authorized People Only’ sign hung between two metallic poles. An old wrinkled man guarded the entrance. The antique male nodded at the Michael and let him in without much ado, and unfastened the golden chain with a spell and a wave of his hand.

Michael’s gaze found the familiar titles of the books the brown-haired girl had read behind the cover of her workbooks. He also found fresh traces of her concealment spell. This time, he could make out the characteristics of her spell. As he studied the spell, the corner of Michael’s lips twitched. The spell was ‘Celare’, an intermediate concealment spell that used the laws of light refraction to hide a person or an object from sight.

However, Aria’s celare was different from the spell Michael knew. It was a modified version – a version which lessened the stress on the caster’s body and modified the spell’s energy flow, making it harder to trace than the original spell. He couldn’t help but feel astounded as he admire Aria’s handiwork.

“...Genius,” Michael whispered. He was jealous of her skill. But at the same time, it only made him want to replace her sooner. He moved faster and weaved through the bookcases and display racks as his heart thumped in his chest. The young researcher found himself at a far corner of the restricted section that was concealed by rows and rows of towering shelves.

This was where 373’s tracks were the freshest. The trail of Aria’s spell stopped behind a bookshelf. And at the foot of the shelf Michael Caelum could make out the glittering outline of a little child who was sitting on the floor with a book in her hands.