World's First Demon Lord

Gadiel

May 14, 9:09 pm, Canberra, Australia

By the time Gadiel reached the newly built environmental science building, he was shivering. He wished he had put on something a little warmer over his simple tank top and jeans. Not to mention, the tank top was low-cut, showing off his "cleavage" to match the nipples poking out due to the cold.

He had run over to the river, then alongside it, past the bridge he and Medina had crossed earlier that day, and right along until he reached Hancock Library; the science library. The new building was a large, looming structure behind the library.

He looked up the new building, his breath condensing in front of him as he panted. The building was a monstrous, modern structure, with weird, jagged edges, floor length glass windows showing the entire interior of the building. Gadiel counted one, two, three, four...eight levels in total.

Slowly, he jogged around the building to find the entrance, until he finally found the large, glass double-doors leading inside. As he approached the door, he head that weird, arhythmic beeping noise that notified everyone on campus that a door was locked.

Right. Of course.

Gadiel fumbled as he took his wallet out of his pocket, then took out his student ID. He approached the door, then swiped his key.

The lock beeped a sad melody to denote that his key had failed. Gadiel expected this; he wasn't a science student or facility member, after all.

He bit his lip, and looked left and right surreptitiously. Before he could think himself out of it, he placed his hands on the glass door and closed his eyes.

Burn.

...

And nothing happened.

Gadiel sighed, dropping his arms. He had kind of expected this.

The last time he had conjured fire, he had been doing so to help Tarik. Their connection had never been stronger.

But right now, their connection was weak.

Was it because of their argument? Was that the reason why Gadiel could only barely feel that Tarik was still alive?

Or had Ai done something to Tarik, and made it harder for Gadiel to communicate with him?

Gadiel shook these thoughts away. They weren't helpful.

He needed to get into this building. But...

But now that he had time to stew on it, he started to realize that all of this could be a trap. Sure, Medina had cried her eyes out, but was that really her? Was that really-

No. Stop.

Gadiel chided himself. Being paranoid about all this wasn't going to help. Besides, if it turned out to be wrong information, what was the worst that would happen?

He'd get apprehended by some guards. Big deal.

...

Okay, it seemed that Gadiel was feeling a little panicked. Normally, he'd be freaking out at the thought of being caught and reprimanded by campus security.

But if it was between that, and finding Tarik...

In...and out...

In...

...and out...

He felt the cold air entering his lungs, and the difference in the hot, used air leaving his mouth. His heart pounded slowly, rhythmically in his chest, pumping blood through his veins. Blood traveled around his body, from his hot, beating chest, down to the tips of his toes and fingers.

He could feel another heart beating, just a beat slower than his. It felt like a shadow of a heart, beating to a different rhythm, in a different body, away, but still a part of Gadiel.

Tarik.

Somehow, Gadiel knew that Tarik was inside this building. Their connection was telling him so. Gadiel's eyes flew open, and he focused on the door in front of him.

Cold.

He felt something cold, colder than the air around him flow out of his hands. When he opened his eyes again, the door in front of him had frozen solid.

Gadiel focused on the ice in front of him. He stared hard at it, memorizing how it looked, how it felt, every minute little detail. He kept a hand on it, and stood back.

The cold. He knew that cold was simply an absence of heat. He knew that there wasn't technically an energy or force in this world called "cold."

But he could feel that this block of ice was made with his "cold." It had come from him.

And he could whatever he wanted with it.

He made a fist, and instantly, the ice shattered.

Along with the glass door.

An alarm started blaring, loud and annoying, but Gadiel didn't have time for that. He ran into the building, ignoring the constant ringing. He quickly found the stairwell, and made his way up.

Top floor. That's what Medina had said.

Gadiel made his way to the top floor of the building, and burst out of the door to the stairwell.

To a hallway, leading to a bunch of labs and offices.

Right. This was still a facility building after all. It wasn't like the entire seventh floor was dedicated to Ai's torture chamber or whatever. He started going through the doors and checking to see where Ai had hidden Tarik.

Wait.

Seventh floor?

Gadiel stopped what he was doing, and quickly went back out to the stairwell. Sure enough, there were no stairs leading up to an eighth floor.

But hadn't he counted eight floors when he was outside?

No..it was seven...wasn't it?

He went back inside, checking more places as he second-guessed himself.

He had counted...seven floors. Right?

Or was it eight?

Why had he thought there were eight floors?

Wait...no...

Something was wrong.

Gadiel stopped looking through rooms, and looked up at the ceiling. He frowned.

Why did he think there was an eighth floor? Was it some kind of distraction illusion that Ai had made?

Then again, he hadn't been able to find Tarik on this floor at all. Gadiel was getting frustrated. The alarm was still blaring below him; he could feel it rumbling under his feet. It felt like he was running out of time.

What would Tarik do?

...

Screw it. Screw thinking about things.

There was only one way to find out if there was an eighth floor or not, and Gadiel was going to find out.

He took a deep breath, held it for a couple seconds while he envisioned what he wanted, then exhaled.

And created an ice cube around himself.

But he wasn't done. As soon as the cube was created, he put his hands on the floor, and created a rapidly rising pillar under him.

Before he could even think through the consequences of his actions, Gadiel crashed into the ceiling. A bead of sweat dropped from his brow, as he grit his teeth to force the cube hold on impact. Cracks formed in the ice around him, but Gadiel could tell that he had not yet been able to get through the ceiling.

It was strange. He had always felt a weird connection with his ice, but he had never really paid much attention to it. Now, he realized that he could somewhat 'feel' the world around him with his ice. He knew that if he forced the pillar upwards even more, with more force, it would only crush his ice cube and him along with it.

Gadiel grit his teeth, and closed his eyes. Beads of sweat formed and dropped from his brow as he changed the shape of the cube into a cone, the point resting against the ceiling.

This time, Gadiel forced the pillar to spin as it rammed upwards. Immediately, Gadiel felt some give. It was strange, dizzying sensation; he was being spun around while he felt his ice piercing the ceiling above.

He increased the speed and force of the makeshift ice drill, piercing into the ceiling faster. He could feel himself start to get sick, but he forced himself to hold on. He kept his eyes closed, sweat dripping, stomach convulsing as he held it together.

For Tarik.

He was doing this for Tarik.

If it was for him, this was just a small thing.

Just a little more.

A little more.

C-CRACK!

Gadiel felt the ice around him start to crack under the pressure even more. He sent another wave of ice under it to keep it from breaking, keeping up the spinning. Cold was starting to seep into his arms, deep into his bones. He could feel it freezing his fingers, making it harder for him to move them.

He just needed a little more.

And if that wasn't enough, then a little more.

It was a trick Gadiel used in his workouts; he knew he couldn't do five hundred reps with dumbbells, but he could do ten. And another ten. And another, until soon, he had somehow managed a thousand.

This was just like that.

Just a little more, and he could see Tarik.

Just a little…

C-CRACK!

A network of cracks lined around the cone. Gadiel was at his limit. He knew he couldn't hold on much longer.

But he didn't need much longer.

He just needed a little more.

CR-CR...CROOOONNCCCH!!!

He felt the cone pierce through the ceiling at the same time it shattered into a million pieces. Still spinning, Gadiel was sent flying through the hole he had created, the force of the rising pillar throwing him up.

He hit the ceiling above, and for a moment, was able to see everything.

There was an eighth floor; entirely dedicated to...a chair.

A scary, futuristic looking chair, with Tarik tied down to it, wearing a helmet that covered his eyes and had wires that reached up to the ceiling and behind sticking into it. Both the chair and the helmet glowed green, looking ominous as Gadiel fell to the floor.

He felt sick. His head was spinning, and he wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and close his eyes. For five minutes at least.

Instead, he swallowed back the bile coming up, and forced himself on all fours. Using the wall, he managed to get up, and look over to Tarik.

He was about fifty meters away. Compared to before, they were close. Physically. Which meant that the connection Gadiel felt with him was stronger. Now that he had searched for it, he could feel Tarik's heart beating, still just out of sync with his own.

"Tarik," he murmured, taking a step towards him. Then another.

And then he stopped.

Because a small, mischievous smile suddenly appeared above the chair, grinning evilly down at Gadiel. He grit his teeth in anger.

"So glad you could make it, Moon," she said sarcastically. "Very clever of you to use my own puppet against me. I'll make sure to destroy all my toys once I'm done with them from now on."

Ai.