Chapter 26: 26 – Training montage!

Jessica huffed as she climbed to the top before wiping sweat off of her forehead and looking into the distance. She then pulled out a map from her bag and splayed it in front of her.

She hummed to herself and continued studying the map while she waited for the others.

Her two most loyal minions soon made it up and stood to the side as they caught their breath.

“Alright, we’re here. This is the place,” Jessica announced as she pointed down at the valley.

The place was surrounded by ashen hills on all sides, was relatively flat, and didn’t contain as much lava as some other places.

“Right… so… This is our site then?” Cody asked as he glanced down.

The other minion muttered something to himself in that, now usual, androgynous voice.

“Yup! This is it! Perfect, don’t you think?” she said while folding the map back again.

Cody hummed. “Don’t you think it’s a little too obvious? It’s all out in the open. If anyone comes near, they’ll see the portal right away.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk! Obviously, we won’t be building it out in the open! That part is just for practicing magic and sparring!” She pointed into the distance. “There’s this neat cavern inside that hill over there where we’ll hide the portal. Nobody will ever find it!”

“Hmm…? I don’t see a cavern there,” Cody said, squinting his eyes at the indicated hill.

“Exactly! It’s perfect. You can’t see even if you’re looking for it.” Jessica grinned. “Anyway, that’s not the only reason why we’re here!” Jessica stabbed a finger in his direction. “We all need to get stronger! Our rebel army only has three people right now! What if we’re discovered early and have to fight the demons? Your sorry ass would just be taken hostage, Cody!”

Cody heaved a sigh. “You know I’m more of a research guy. Not that great at fighting.”

“That won’t do! Take an example from Max here!” Jessica nodded to the other minion. “He not only made a demon general weapon of his own, he even made one for you! He already qualifies as a demon general many times over!”

“I don’t wanna be a general…” Max mumbled and looked to the side.

To nobody’s surprise, once they had told Max about their true intentions, the emotional, quiet, and passive guy had no qualms about helping the magical girls rather than the demons. Although Jessica still wasn’t quite sure whether that was because he truly wanted to help the light side, or whether he just couldn’t be bothered deciding.

“Well, anyway. The point is, we all need to, at the very least, learn to use our wings!” Jessica exclaimed and spread her arms while a pair of demonic wings sprouted from her back.

Cute, tiny wings.

Jessica frowned.

It was possible to manipulate the size somehow, but she couldn’t for the love of her figure out how.

In the meantime, Max sprouted his wings as well. Unlike hers, his were massive. Each one was larger than the rest of his body. Because, of course, he had figured it out a long time ago already.

“You mean… you need to learn how to use your wings,” Cody said with a smirk, materializing his own set of wings. They were a fair bit smaller than Max’s but still bigger than Jessica’s.

“Shaddap! Anyway, if the worst comes to pass, we need to be ready!” she declared as she raised her open hand to the sky.

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After a few seconds of concentration, precise magic use, and a bit of straining later, the familiar piece of crap spear materialized out of thin air in her hand.

“And also! I better prepare for whatever that trial thing is. I can’t afford to fail it!”

In the meantime, Max lifted his hand forward, and with a flash, a black sword instantly appeared in his hand. Because, of course, unlike Jessica, he could do it instantly. Dammit.

Jessica had to wonder whether he had even needed her help with making the voice-changing tool. He was a goddamn prodigy when it came to magic. He would have already been a demon general himself if he wasn’t so passive.

“Alright, let’s get down then,” Jessica said with a nod and began carefully climbing down, using the spear as a cane.

Max and Cody, of course, spread out their wings and floated down instead. Those jerks.

Once Jessica finally got down, she shot a glare at Cody’s smirking face to shut him up before he said anything.

“So anyway… where is that cavern? I still can’t see it,” Cody said while glancing at the surroundings.

“Follow me and be impressed!” Jessica waved them over and began walking. It didn’t take long till they arrived at a place with a lot of cracks and holes in the rocks. They all seemed to be surface-level at first, but Jessica stooped by one of them and pointed at it.

“This…? This doesn’t really look like…”

Without saying anything, she stepped forward and squeezed through the crevice, disappearing into the darkness. Max followed right after.

“Huh…” Cody was surprised to see two people fitting in there and went inside as well. As soon as he entered, he realized that there actually was a decently-sized cave connected to the hole. Now that Jessica lit up her finger with magic, he could clearly see it.

“Well, damn. You’re right. I doubt anyone will find this even if they are looking for it.”

“Right?” Jessica grinned. “The best part is that we can make the portal behind that corner over there, and even people who enter the hole won’t see it at first!”

Cody nodded, already thinking about how to set the working portal up.

“Anyway! That’s for later! For now, let’s spar!” she declared while pointing a finger at Max. “Me and Cody against Max! And don’t you dare go easy on us again!”

Max sighed but nodded.

They made their way back outside onto the flat ground and began.

It went pretty much as usual. Cody got slapped aside early into the match and didn’t even try to keep going. And the rest of it was Jessica trying – and failing – to find any kind of attack to catch Max off guard or make him put any sort of effort into it until she completely exhausted herself and gave up.

On one hand, it was perfect as training for Jessica. On the other hand… It got either really boring or really frustrating for everyone involved.

They really needed to recruit more people into their conspiracy.