Chapter 215: Bait

"So, this Archdemon has at least three Demonic Arts, and also Ace-level Teleportation Magic from the student he’s posing as. Do you know if he’s got any other abilities?" Inquired Isla hesitantly."<No, I never saw him fight or anything. I didn’t even know that he’s an Archdemon until after the Boss killed me, I thought he was human before that>," Invidia shook his head in response.

"Did he give you any abilities besides being able to use Negative Energy Generation?" I asked him.

"<No, not that I know of, anyway. Oh, wait, are you talking about this new Skill, Pilfer? I got that after you bestowed this form upon me, Boss>."

Come on, man, there’s a reason I didn’t say the name out loud, I didn’t want to reveal it. Well, I guess it’s on me for bringing it up. I suppose I might as well ask.

"Huh, really? What does it do?" I responded curiously.

Does it work similarly to my Steal Skill? The name kinda suggests as much, but it could be something different.

"<May I demonstrate it, Boss? I’ve got an instinctive understanding of how to use it, but it’s a bit hard to put into words, I think it’ll be easier to show than tell>."

"Sure, go ahead."

"<Cool, thanks, Boss>," He replied, before glancing at Ciel and raising his hand towards her, chanting, "<Pilfer>."

"Hm? Weird, something doesn’t feel right...," She muttered, looking a bit unsettled.

"<Now...Explosion Sphere>," He chanted with a smile, my eyes widening as a dark red orb of energy appeared over his right hand, swirling around with an ominous glow.

"Is...is that one of my Spells?" Uttered Ciel shakily, her eyes widening as she sat up tensely.

"<Yeah, it sure is. Go on, try to cast the Spell yourself>."

"N-No, don’t tell me...[Explosion Sphere]. [Explosion Sphere]!" Exclaimed Ciel, a look of dismay appearing in her eyes as nothing happened, a slight chuckle ringing out.

"<Ohh, this feels good! I’ve always wonder what it must be like to cast such powerful, destructive Magic! Man, I wish I could blow something up right now>!" Invidia laughed gleefully.

"Uh, please don’t," Frowned Charlotte dryly.

"Grr, give it back...!" Growled Ciel, a dark, murderous look in her eyes as she stared at her Spell in Invidia’s hands, getting out of her seat.

Yikes, her bloodlust is palpable...

"Hey, uh, maybe you should hurry up and give her Spell back," I remarked, as a red glow appeared around Ciel’s hands.

"<Oh, don’t worry, Boss. I didn’t steal it, I just borrowed it. For five minutes, I can borrow a target’s ability, be it a Spell, Skill or any other Magic-based power, and during that time, they can’t use the ability I borrowed. They’ll get it back after five minutes, though, and I won’t be able to use Pilfer again for ten minutes>," He informed me.

"I better get it back...or else...," Muttered Ciel venomously.

Temporary or not, the power to steal someone’s ability and prevent them from using it is seriously useful.

And a pretty fitting power for the Apostle of Envy.

"By the way, how did you know where Kai was when you attacked him earlier?" Suddenly inquired Aria.

Huh, that’s a great question, I didn’t even think of that.

"<Uh, let me think...okay, the kid teleported me near that area with all those swanky hotels, he then placed his hand on my arm and told me to focus and think about the Boss.

He then teleported me to the area where I attacked the Boss, he pointed the Boss out to me after teleporting, and then left.

Oh, he didn’t take his hand off me until after pointing out the Boss, so I think he was only able to track you while touching me, Boss, and while I pictured you>."

In other words, that’s a fourth Demonic Art, some kind of tracking ability.

"Hm, I see, so the Archdemon can locate a target by visualizing them. And if he doesn’t know what the target looks like, he can get someone who does to visualize them and track them that way," I concluded with a grimace.

"Wait, how do you know he can do it himself? It sounds like he can definitely track a target visualized by someone else while touching them, but I don’t think that automatically implies that he can track targets that he visualizes too," Pointed out Isla.

"True, but think about it...all the Aces he targeted to hypnotize, how do you think he tracked each of them down? He likely found pictures of them online, used those to visualize them, and then tracked them down one by one.

And the Teleporter student he tranformed into just so happened to have Magic that was the perfect complement to that ability.

Actually, that’s probably why he targeted that guy, instead of any of the other students on the raid," I realized, before my eyes widened slightly as a thought occurred to me.

"If that’s the case, then...if he sees the footage of you using Subjugate, he might consider you a threat and teleport right to you," Remarked Aria, voicing the exact thought that had crossed my mind.

A tense silence fell over the room as everyone processed that bit of information...at any given moment, an Archdemon could show up and try to kill me.

"Well...RIP," Sighed Rex, breaking the silence.

"Hey, come on, man, don’t go killing me off so easily," I huffed indignantly.

"No, this is good...yeah, I think we can work with this," Muttered Charlotte, a gleam in her eyes.

"Uh, what exactly have you got in mind there, Chairwoman?" Responded Isla nervously.

"All this time, the HUC and I have been trying to think of ways to draw the Archdemon out, some way to get him into the open and eliminate him.

However, as you can imagine, we couldn’t come up with anything worthwhile. But now...we’ve got bait," Smiled Charlotte, as she narrowed her gaze at me.

Huh? I beg your unbelievable pardon?