Infernal Academia

Chapter 40 - An Outsider's Guide to Demonic Energies

There was a storm approaching; Cobalt could practically taste the ozone in the air.  Seated on a bench in the Brimstone Nature Park, he looked up from the papers on his lap and frowned at the dark clouds forming overhead.  The weather had been so nice up until recently, he thought he would have been able to do some of his test marking outside, but judging by the ominous rumbling overhead, it wouldn't be long until rain began to fall.

But he couldn't head back to the school.  For one thing, it was too far, and the downpour would definitely begin before he even made it halfway back, and his students' half-graded exams would be ruined.  For another thing, he was still chewing on what Karazelle had said to him just a couple of nights ago, and for the time being, he was having a hard time relaxing around his students.  Not to mention that the issue of the Hellhound was still weighing heavily on his mind...

Which left one option available to him.  One he wasn't dying about.

With a heavy sigh, Cobalt gathered up his things and hurriedly made his way around the edge of the lake, just as he felt the first few drops of rain against his skin.  Sidling past the waterfall, he punched the all-too-familiar code to Alison Titch's front doors and shoved it open.  As he made his way down the tunnel to the human's laboratory, the sound of falling water gave way to the electric hum of floodlamps, permeated by exerted grunting from deeper within.

Stepping into the main laboratory, Cobalt found himself staring right at Alison as she knelt in the middle of the floor, aggressively banging her head to the music pumping through her headphones.  Several empty bottles of vodka lay scattered about, and as he approached, he saw that the human was frantically scrawling equations on the floor in chalk.

"Nine... eight... thirty-six... carry the two... add to the power of eight... ninety... four... sixty-six... divide by three... multiply by the difference of... add... and... SIX HUNDRED AND SIXTY FUCKING SIX, BABY!  WOO!" she suddenly howled, triumphantly pumping her fists into the air as she leaped to her feet.

Cobalt recoiled at the human's sudden outburst, already regretting his decision to come here.  Before he could silently bow out, however, Alison whipped her head around and gave him a surprised grin.

"Ah, bluebell!  Didn't see you there!" laughed the scientist, giving him a friendly wave.

Tossing her headphones onto her desk, she set about gathering up the bottles.  Now that Cobalt could see them properly, he grimly realised that some of them were full of urine.

"Just been working on a couple theories... So what's brought you down here today?  You usually don't come unannounced."

"I was just taking shelter from the rain, and I realised that I haven't checked in on you since the Sulfur Bloods incident, so..."

Placing the urine-filled bottles into a medical fridge, she planted her hands on her hips and grinned.

"Awesome!  I was thinking of calling you in anyway!  Need you to run some stuff by me!"

She darted off for a moment, too fast for Cobalt to follow, before she returned with a large whiteboard on wheels.  Tossing a marker to the Incubus, Alison grabbed her office chair and sat down, eyes sparkling.

"Magic!  How does it work?" she asked simply, clasping her hands.

Cobalt stood there, eyebrows raised as he gingerly gripped the marker.

"... you know I'm not an Applied Demonics teacher, right?  I'm not qualified to teach this kind of stuff."

"I don't need you to tell me the deep nitty-gritty; just go over the layman's shit with me!  I need a basic understanding before I can begin the serious research!"