There we go, piqued her curiousity, thought Lilitu to himself. He smiled

He looked at the mess he left on the face of the mountain. It wasn't as noticeable as he thought, since anti-matter had the tendency to disintegrate what matter it would touch. Still, it did leave a mark that could be seen if one looked hard enough, and knew where to look. It was also clearly seen on a warm and clear day, and he shuddered to think what the authorities would do.

Then again, it seemed as if the authorities in this island often looked the other way, when it came to matters which involved one or more of the other 'sentient population' of this island.

He was amused by the thought that the girl had gone beside him to help him stand up. She had that natural instinct to help, a pit-fall which he could exploit to her disadvantage. Ahh...disadvantage. In the mind of the demon, it played on a play of words that was both nice to the ears and delightfully sounding.

" Thanks for the help, but I can manage." he said, managing to stand up. He did, however, held on to the girl's hand, kind of making a play for affection and brushing his hand against her hand gently. " Now, would you want to learn?"

He then made her stand in the middle of the circle. " Are you really sure you want to open the gates?" he said. " Like I earlier said, once you opened it...cannot be undone."

Nell gave the old man a speculative look, like she was searching his words for a double meaning. The why he asked that question made her suddenly wary. She narrowed her eyes at him. "Is there some reason I should be worried about opening the gates? Will it attract more adversaries? Is that the price? Opening oneself up to that much magic makes you a target?"

" Well, it changes you, for sure." he said. " Having so much power under your control can have an adverse effect on someone who can't control it."

He snapped his fingers, and a blue flame materialized out of nowhere. He stepped into the circle, and it seemed like the blue flame became bigger, and burned with more intensity than he could imagine. " It's like drugs." he spoke. " The more you have, the more you can't control it, and it consumes you to the point that you think nothing and no one can harm you."

He snapped his fingers again, and the blue flame died down. He walked to and forth, pacing himself, really giving a lecture to the girl. It was almost funny, as if he was trying to protect her from other 'hunters' who could be prowling the campus and looking for a free meal. In truth, he was only trying his best to keep the girl all to himself. Having others hunting for the same meal, the same scent only serves to complicate things, and he was already having so much problems. He didn't need to have this on top of those other problems, like the lack of power of his spells, for one. That dismal anti-matter performance was an indication.

" Mana is like a network, a channel of energy being tapped into by beings both sentient, human, and otherwise," he began without pause. " Once you connect into the network, others know you're using it. It opens you to a world unseen where beings with...malevolent designs...could think of exploiting it and use it to track you down."

" I repeat my question...you will have power beyond anything you've ever done so far...but are you willing to fall down that deep into the rabbit hole?"

Nell listens to the old man thoughtfully. She didn't like idea of becoming addicted to magic but it was a necessary risk. As far as the other thing went. "They'll find me anyway." She replied coolly. "The monsters here have the full support of the school administration so they have access to my class records and can follow me easily. So, that really makes know difference. At least with the mana I'll be able to fight them off when they do find me. So, let's do this."