The large chamber was dark. Large shelves, filing cabinets and boxes with papers were lined up, covering almost all viable space, with only narrow pathways between them. This was not an area intended to be viewed by students, this was simply a storage space for the brighter, neater library in the aboveground campus.

A small change in air pressure heralded the massive door being pushed open. In stepped a figure. The beam off a flashlight broke the darkness.

"So, now I am here..", a female voice said in Norwegian.

Pia was quite a nerd and a bibliophile, so naturally she quickly made the extensive school library her home. She had loved them, even as a child. Back in junior high, she had known much of the Dewey system by hearth even before she had become a library assistant as an extra class.
So naturally, she spent a lot of time among the shelves her on Shokushu as well.

One benefit of this were her good grades, another one, one she did not count on herself was getting to know the library staff. She was easy to get used to. She was quiet, mostly, always tidied up after herself, was a member of the Book club, and spent a lot of time searching for rarer volumes. Sometimes she even offered to help some of the staff with sorting and systematizing books.

It was this that led to one of them mentioning the storage room. She was even asked to help carry a few boxes down there. Of course Pia volunteered. She was inside for just a few minutes, but from what she saw, she just knew she had to come back. So she had jammed the lock with a barrette. She felt bad about the deception, but she knew there had to be something useful down here. Something that could aid her in her occult research, her quest for something to keep her safe from monsters and get her out of here.

So far so good..

Pia walked along the wall, one hand reaching out, until she felt the light switch with her fingers.
She flicked it.

As the light switch was flicked the light illuminated the room, and the fact that although Pia had been here earlier today something had changed. The room was still stacked with, mostly, unordered and disorganised books, but at the far end of the room was a single study desk with a book unlike any of the others in the room. This one was seemingly made from A4 sized paper, and it's cover bore no name or title.

The Darklight Grimore stirred as it felt a student break it's alarm wards. Invisible eyes appeared as the Darklight Grimore summoned some sight wards to see the student. As she stepped into the room it saw her properly, and it swept it's mind through its own pages, searching for her entry.

Pia Marie Hov.

With the information stored in its pages the Darklight Grimore realised that a visual display of magic would be much more likely to draw her in, despite her knowledge of this isles other ... inhabitants. The moment she stepped clear the door behind her slid shut, locking itself as it did so. The Darklight Grimore also cast another spell, this one designed so that no matter what Pia did, or where she looked, she would always find her gaze, her attention and her mind turning back to the single book on the desk. In fact a fairly comfortable looking chair, far more so than any of the ones in the library, had been pulled out of the table and was sitting invitingly. As if someone had been sitting there, but had left for some reason.

"Yikes!"
Pia literally jumped into the air as the door slid shut. She was loath to admit it, but she was rather nervous about being in the basement. There were stories.. ugly stories. Pia had refused to believe them at first, but after a few experiences.. there was limits to how much even her naivetè could could withstand.

"Silly me.. no use getting worked up..", she said aloud to reassure herself. No one was there, it must have been a draft.
Pia looked about her, and then her eyses lit up as she spotted the chair, the table and the book.

Apparently, this was not just storage after all. Someone used this place for studying as well. And what could it be that someone chose to read here, in a locked chamber well away from the students?
Something I might use, Pia guessed.

Slowly she started moving towards the table. Her white sneakers made little sound as they trod on the hard floor. Appart from them, she wore white above knees with blue stripes and the regular school uniform. Her hair was tied up in two buns, and she wore her glasses.

"So, what do we have here?", she said, leaning down to inspect the book.

As Pia leant down to inspect the Darklight Grimore it in turn was inspecting her. It had her history here, her records. But it didn't know her motivation in the here and now. It would have until she opened its pages to determine just what part of the book she would be interested in ... and what would draw her in the most.

By the time she settled into the chair to read it, or at least have a look at it's contents, the Darklight Grimore had made a guess as to her reason. In response to it's guess it decided to establish the credentials of Seraph, such as they were, by letting her read the entirety of the first chapter that detailed who Seraph was. The only thing it blurred was his true name, that was not information to let a student have access to.

By the time Pia finished reading that chapter it should have gathered more information and would have a better idea exactly which part of the second chapter it would send her to next.

Pia started reading. At first she was hesitant, sometimes pausing to listen for sounds or to look around her for intruders.
Soon she was back in her favorite element however. The gloomy surroundings were forgotten. She curled up in the big, comfortable chair, her legs drawn up under her. Engrossed by the tale, she was devouring each word at a rapid pace.
Sometimes she would play with a loose strand of hair, or take of her glasses, and suck on the stem while staring thoughtfully at nothing. Except for this she would be reading.

The tale was quite epic, a tale of heaven and hell, angels and demons. From her earlier encounters, she knew there was powerful supernatural entities out there, some who matched the descriptions, more or less, of such beings. Pretty much all she had read about them had been from a human perspective. She was not so sure about this one.. could the author really be this being who claimed to be an angel.

The last part was particularly interesting. The poetic description of the encounter with the succubus was quite.. evocative. Pia was almost getting hot and bothered by a few parts.

At last she finished the chapter. Leaning back, she contemplated if she should simply steal the tome, or read it here. Here was best, she decided. If she stole it, someone would know. From her school bag, she fetched a notebook and a pencil. She had to use her time wisely. She flipped through to chapter 3. Spells.

Maybe something I can use? Some basic formula, some piece of practical information?

The Darklight Grimore let Pia read through a couple of the entries in the 2nd chapter. The entire chapter could take days, or even a week to read through, but since the Darklight Grimore could change the order of the entires as it liked it wouldn't take anywhere near that long to finish. It ended the 2nd chapter with a story about a succubus fight with Seraph, not the one who had made him fall obviously, that particular story was not stored in the Darklight Grimore's pages, but another much earlier one. Of course since a Succubus was a being of pleasure and pain and it sought to describe things as accurately as possible it still contained fairly ... erotic descriptions and scenes.

When she finished and started reading the start of the 3rd chapter she would find herself reading very dry, and very basic magic theory. Simple enough so that anyone could, if they had the talent, teach themselves magic from this. It slowly built on the basics, getting into more and more complex magic theory, but progressing at a rate so that a reader never felt out of depth.

Magic was Seraph's domain after all, and he had mastered it, and recorded exactly how in the Darklight Grimore.

Pia had never really considered herself a witch or sorceress. She had been studying the occult for a while, true, but she had never had any ambition to master magic powers, or was even sure that was possible.
Her academic focus had been demonology, and its twin, angeology. Those seemed the best course to gain an understanding of the creatures haunting the island.

But she had experienced first hand that supernatural powers existed, mainly by being the target of them. Furthermore, one creature had even told her the ones in power had planted devices to inhibit the supernatural powers of the students. Which told her that some mastery was possible.

Pia sucked at the end of her pencil, staring into the book.

This, this could actually work!

Pia wanted to flip ahead, try to find a powerful spell, something to repel or banish monsters, but that seemed a little ambitious..

First things first! Pia decided she wanted to know the absolute basics first. The book described something about how mana moved. Pia read on, sometimes jotting notes down in her little notebook.

The Darklight Grimore was the perfect textbook for the study of magic, no matter what level of proficiency you were at. Every aspect of magic, from the fact mana was, at it's core, the raw essence of a soul, to the various 'winds' of which it blew in that formed the separate domains of magic, such as fire, ice, light, shadow, every possible aspect was explained in precise immaculate detail. With such a book one could easily learn what was otherwise a very complicated and dangerous practice, a fact that was repeated time after time in the various texts. Mana could tear you apart, it could consume your soul and leave you either an emotionless husk, or a being so full of emotion and life your soul burst. But of course once someone had a mastery of magic ... anything became possible. The rules of the universe could be bent at your will, and eventually even ignored entirely.

The Darklight Grimore let Pia read all the basic theory, all the ground work one would need to cast a spell and use magic. Meanwhile it continued to feed more and more information to Seraph, who had teleported into the room behind Pia and was currently concealed by a light reflection spell. He was carefully considering just when to reveal himself, and how much he should let the student read. Since other students with magical talent already existed at this school, a fact that reminded him to visit the witch Kanoe again sometime, he knew he would not be breaking any rules by letting her learn some basic magic.

Seraph's arrival went unnoticed by Pia, except for a small stir, perhaps because of a slight change in pressure. He did not need to fear discovery, however. The spell that covered him saw to that. Even without it, he might have been able to enter unnoticed, as Pia was quite absorbed in the text.

The part about different types of mana fascinated her. Did mana come in a limited amount of aspects, or was it a potentially infinite number of types?
She briefly wondered what kind of mana she would most likely be successful with. Ice, on account of her homeland? Water, maybe, she was a good swimmer.. Light? Love? Did mana come in emotional flavors as well as elemental ones?

This was idle musings, but what really caught her mind was how mana moved.
Apparently mana tends to flow from one spot, and towards another. Things that either attract mana towards it, known as a positive polarity, and things that repel mana away from it, known as a negative polarity.

There were even a few simple exercises..
"Well, I don't know if it wise drawing a lot of mana towards me, I mean, I don't even know what to do with it.. Negative polarity, on the other hand.."

Pia figured that a negative polarity would be safer. And perhaps making a negative polarity would work as an impromptu counter spell? One could hope.

Pia sat up, formed one hand into a gesture like she had seen in the book, and closed her eyes, trying to force mana away with her mind.

Seraph watched as Pia tried to create a Negative polarity. In fact she even succeeded in doing so. In his mana sight he 'saw' the colourless darkness that indicated a negative polarity form inside Pia, and saw the general mana in the air being pushed away. However no matter how good the Darklight Grimore was as a teacher some things could not be taught by a book, and some warnings were only understood if they were experienced.

Pia could create the negative polarity, but she couldn't really control it. It's strength fluctuated and warped, constantly changing in power. Because of mana's nature every soul needed some mana as it's own fuel. Without it you would grow both hungry and thirsty, but you didn't feel like eating or drinking. Your body would start to shiver, and shake as your soul craved the mana it needed. And so it was with Pia.

Seraph could see the hunger and thirst spread through her body, could see her start to shake and shiver as her soul screamed at her to give it some mana. And he choose that moment to reveal himself. His form shimmered into existence behind her, and he walked forward. His wings illuminated the room, and after a couple of steps his mana bubble swept over Pia. Her fluctuating negative polarity was overwhelmed in a moment, and her body was flooded with far more potent mana than it was used to.

I assume there is a reason you were studying my journal ... perhaps you would be interested in sharing it with me before I jump to the wrong conclusion? In referring to the Darklight Grimore as his journal Seraph revealed that he was the writer, a fact that was reinforced by the description in the first chapter of the journal matching his own appearance exactly.

Is it working? Oh my.. It is working!

Pia could feel the field of negative mystical force inside her. She could feel it grow and expand. But keeping hold of it, that was another matter. It was like she was wrestling with something slippery and twitchy, something that flexed and shifted as she sought to control it with her mind.

And what was this effect it had on her? She felt hungry, needy, in want.. want of.. anything. Unknown to Pia, her very being protested the loss of her natural mana, and sought to replace it with someting.

Suddenly, the spell was interrupted, and mana came flooding in. The effect was truly undescribable, Pia had never experienced anything quite like it. For a moment her whole body felt electric.

Adding to the shock was the sudden presence of another being. It was enough to make Pia jump and yell out, and fall of the chair.

She got to her feet as quickly as she could. Affixing her glasses, lost in the fall, she tried to focus on the person before her.

"I..uh.. I am sorry, sir! I.. uh..", Pia had no idea what to do or say. She curtsied, hoping that would be seen as humble and polite.
"I was..I was just curious. I did not know I was disturbing anyone.. I am terribly sorry if I did anything wrong, sir!"

Seraph tilted his head for a moment as the student, Pia Marie Hov (a name helpfully supplied by the Darklight Grimore), curtsied. Why do I get the feeling that you have no true idea what you just did. If I hadn't broke the polarity you could have killed your soul and left your body nothing but a mindless husk. Or didn't you notice your body telling you something was very wrong? Seraph's voice was one of controlled anger, something that generally came out when he saw someone try magic without truely understanding it, or without having someone watching over them to interfere if something went wrong. Obviously he had been, but she hadn't known that.

Seraph continued to advance towards her, only stopping when he was standing right in front of her. Two of his wings were wrapped tightly around him, giving him te appearance of one wreathed in light, while the other two slowly flapped behind him in some unseen breeze. He looked down at her with a slight shimmer of anger in his eyes. Of course while he did this a small part of his attention was on manipulating the mana within his own personal 'bubble'. He focused it on pia, caused it to ripple and flow across her body, and after her recent mana starvation her body welcomed whatever mana it could. A fact that would slowly cause more and more arousal in the blonde haired student.

This should be quite entertaining.

Pia did not need glasses to realize what she had standing before her. A being with multiple wings, wrapped in light, one that appeared before her as she was studying a book reputedly written by an angel.

Oh-uh! I am in trouble now, am I not?

Pia also knew better than to assume that just because the being was an angel, it would be a kind cherub bestowing wishes. No, this being looked positively angry.

"I..I.. the book said it was a beginners technique. Honestly, I did not even.. Oh my! I did not.. expect it to even.. work."

The rush of mana was beginning to have its effect on the unprepared girl. She could feel the power enter her, causing her pupils to grown, making her hearth beat harder, moving down her spine and nestling in her lower body, making it feel like it was warm and glowing. She was weak in the knees from surprise before, now she almost fell over. Suddenly she found herself gripping the table for support.

"I.. err.. hope I did not disturb you, your.. uh.." How do you address an angel? "Your lordship?"
Her voice was quivering as she sought to regain control of her body.

Yes it is a beginners technique. And as such for magic it is fairly safe. But only for magic, in any other field of study with associated risks such a danger would be considered too great a risk. Although I will admit I am getting amazed at just how many students here have the ability to cast magic, and if you must call me something use Seraph. I have no formal title, nor do I really see the point in one.

Seraph's statement was quite true, all the way up until he told her to call him Seraph. There was another student who he had conditioned to refer to him as master, but that was a special case. For now ... Seraph let the anger in his face fade, and curiosity took it's place. Have you ever tried casting magic before ... you don't mind if I call you Pia do you?

Of course as he talked Seraph continued to manipulate the mana around Pia, focusing it towards her breasts and crotch. It would be quite entertaining to watch her attempt to hold what could potentially be a quite complex discussion with the pleasure slowly building up in her body.

Pia tried to back away slowly, putting a few steps between herself and the angel. It was a taks harder than it seemed, the rush of mana having made her knees weak and wobbly.

"Pia i-is alright, sir..err.. Seraph."
Another influx of mana, this time centered around her chest. Suddenly her nipples were hard against her bra, it almost felt like her breasts were about to burst through her clothes. Without thinking, she covered her bosom with her hands, subconciously trying to shield herself from the power.

"To answer your..mmm.. question..I.. Ah.. have studied a little.. I have made a few experiments, but it has mostly been theory."
Making a clear sentence was hard. Now her lower body was all tingly from mana. She felt herself aroused for no reason, and it felt like something invisible was playing with her. Again acting instinctively, she moved one hand down to grip her skirt and push it down.

"..mostly the.. the Keys". Her voice went up a pitch. The keys she refered to were the Keys of Solomon, a few related works of occultism, angeology and demonology.