Over the next few days, the demons we encountered were much like the giant rat from before: weak plagiarists mimicking the form of helpless herbivores to catch unwary prey. Once they caught a glimpse of our army, however, they scattered on sight, dissolving back into the shiny, midnight sands at their feet.

  After about a week, their tactics changed. They began mimicking the local predators on our periphery, even going so far as to stalk us from the dunes they once used as hiding places. Without error, Lieutenant Arlena pointed out the fakes with imperious thrusts of her flags. Swells of crossbow bolts would fly at her first twitch, piercing their forms. With no Master to claim them, NAUGHT would delete their cores, all while reminding us of its impending doom.

  “How can you tell the difference between them?” Nora asked Lieutenant Arlena at one point.

  “Eyes,” she said, pointing to her own. “I can see the imperfections in their eyes. Demons never seem to get them right.”

  Nora let out a snort. “I guess eyes really are the windows to the soul.”

  Is that why he kept his eyes closed so much?

  But his eyes were… really…

  Fake, Rachel. Fake!

  No one has eyes that pretty. No one!

  The next afternoon, a demon, disguised as an oversized, nervous mutt with fennec fox ears and a mangy hide, let out a triumphant howl. It had managed to evade all but one of Arlena’s summoned bolt showers, slipping in and out of sight like smoke on the wind. It yipped sharply as it crept forward, wild-eyed and ravenous. Though it was pulling animus from the sands, the scrawny beast still looked unsatisfied.

  “That one’s bound to be trouble,” I shouted, drawing my sword. “He looks desperate enough to attack all by himself, too.”

  Maybe he was the local miniboss?

  Arlena sneered, exposing her previously hidden bucked teeth. “Save your sword arm, Chosen One. One of my knights will follow up on that one.”

  Even before she finished her reply, one mounted knight was already charging forward, his mount’s hooves churning the sand with ease. We watched as he rode him down, sparks flying from its core and—

  “Blessed horsehoes?!” I exclaimed as the tall but malnourished demon screeched.

  “Almost any tool can be a weapon,” Arlena said with a malicious grin. “It’s just up to us to figure out how to use it that way.”

  The knight, with sword drawn, plunged from the saddle and stabbed through the demon’s core with a downward strike. Its screams intensified, and I turned away with a shudder.

  Don’t let this be the one that breaks the bank.

  Once again, the voice of NAUGHT rang out in warning as it absorbed the demon’s core, letting us know that storage was still at 99% capacity. Nora caught my flinch in her soulful violet irises, then gave me the raised eyebrow I had been ignoring.

  All right, all right. I’ll try to talk to him about it.

  As if she had heard my thoughts, she nodded in approval.

  “You seem to be carrying a great weight,” Relias said to me in a tired voice as he settled beside the campfire. “In my experience, speaking one’s burdens aloud to a close companion often lightens them.”

  “Well, it’s just, I’m worried about NAUGHT.”

  He blinked his tired eyes twice, tilting his head. “I believed your troubles lay elsewhere… yet perhaps this is where they were always meant to lead. If it disturbs your spirit, then it is worth naming. Speak freely of your concerns regarding Naught.”

  “It sounds like a busy place, what with everything coming from and going to it,” I blurted, the words coming faster than I meant them to. “And we know it’s not working right. And then there’s Anhinga, who seems to have escaped it, maybe along with some others, and it’s not really under anyone’s control now…”

  Relias’s jaw tensed. “And so you believe that by casting the Demon King’s spirit into Naught, we risk compounding the harm already done.”

  For once, we’re finally on the same page!

  “Yes!” I nearly shouted. “That’s exactly why I think we should consider the possibility of—”

  “His eternal confinement in an alternative vessel,” he concluded.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  Same page, but different book.

  “Haaa…” I couldn’t help but sigh aloud.

  “Indeed, I, too, struggle with making such a prison strong enough to contain him. But I believe I am on the verge of a viable means by which our goal may be reached.”

  I stiffened. “You are?”

  “Yes…” he murmured, his voice trailing into thought. “I had hoped we might test the device before it was truly needed, but such opportunities are beyond our reach now. Our resources are too limited for a second attempt.” He turned to me. “Even so, Dear One, I am confident I can bind its power to your blade before you face the Demon King.”

  If I argue with him now, he’ll just continue to insist on his plan.

  I’m going to have to face reality, too. Not everything goes the way you want it, and it’s best to be prepared for the worst.

  I looked at the Will of Euphridia, which was propped up in its sheath on a nearby boulder. “Well, go ahead then, I guess.”

  Relias clasped his hands together. “Alas, not yet.”

  I blinked, but before I could ask why, he continued. “The Mistress’s stone plays a vital role in what I intend, and I believe we will require it first to pass through the barrier surrounding his keep.”

  Instinctively, I patted my cloak pocket where the said jewel was stored.

  “I would not take what is yours without your blessing,” he said softly, the pain in his eyes evident.

  “No, uh… That’s not why I…” I pulled it out and offered it to him. “I was just thinking you might need to study it again.”

  He shook his head. “I have already gleaned from it all that I can, finding it sufficient to serve our Purpose once it is drained of the Mistress’s energy.”

  “Uh… well, alright then,” I replied, stuffing it back into my cloak. “Hey… Are you… Doing alright?”

  He was a delicate-looking fellow to begin with, and this particular leg of our journey seemed to be taxing him. He often went to bed early, and on more than one occasion, I had caught him murmuring desperate prayers while riding. While he maintained a calm fa?ade in front of others, it was clear the act was wearing him down.

  He glanced about, assuring himself once again that no one else was within earshot. “No. I am struggling with… everything. This… is not me. I am supposed to lead others, but I feel lost. I do not… understand what I am witnessing. It is distracting me from my Purpose.”

  “If you want to talk, I’ll listen,” I offered, scooting a little closer. “It doesn’t have to be about anything in particular, either.”

  “I said I needed to change,” he murmured, looking down. “But I did not expect it to be so difficult.” He shook his head, frustration seething into his voice. “The world is shifting faster than I can follow. Demons… operating within the confines of the scientific method, of all things! And yet the ones we face here behave like little more than beasts.” He exhaled sharply. “There is no longer any consistency in their actions. No pattern I can rely on. I cannot account for their behavior—not anymore.”

  “Nothing’s ever as simple as we wish it to be,” I said, only agreeing with half of his argument.

  “It was easier when they just rushed forward like mindless hordes,” he said bitterly. “Our response was just and swift. But now…”

  There was a lengthy pause.

  “I’m sure he has been encouraging this aberrant behavior!”

  From inside his crimson cage?

  Well. Maybe. He had been able to phone a friend in the past.

  But if the defeated locals were truly allied with him, wouldn’t they have gone back to his Sanctum when banished, like Amos did, instead of NAUGHT?

  I reached out to pat his hand reassuringly, not having anything of substance to add to the conversation.

  Relias lowered his head, resting it against my shoulder. “Forgive my outburst,” he murmured. “But know this: I will not waver in my duty. I will see to his end, whatever the cost to me may be.”

  Let’s hope it doesn’t come to all that.

  “So, you never even mentioned the voice of NAUGHT?” Nora asked after I gave her a full report the next day.

  “He’s having enough problems dealing with the things he can see,” I replied, folding my arms to initiate my defense.

  “I’d say you’d have to stop coddling him at some point, but maybe you’re right on about this one.”

  I nodded in a bit of relief, nudging Aurum around another cliffside turn. “I mean, I don’t even know if NAUGHT’s voice is considered confidential information or not! Speaking of which, did Clare respond yet?”

  Nora sighed. “Nothing. Maybe too much animus around here?”

  “Maybe,” I agreed. “The fact that it settles into the sands is…”

  “Unsettling?” she finished for me.

  I was about to issue a ridiculous rebuke for that one, but the sight of what lay in the distance ahead drained me to the core.

  The Tower of Olethros spiraled into the sky, dark, defiant, and carved in such a way as to disturb the very soul of any who beheld it. Its spires did not so much reach for the heavens as rend them with their piercing tips, with one in the middle not unlike a rude gesture to those on high. The tower’s stone was both bleached and blackened, as though it had been torn and scorched straight from the wide, craggy promontory beneath it.

  Far below its precarious foundation lay a valley thick with shadow. A narrow trail zigzagged up from the floor of the shallow canyon, then coiled around the tower to meet its elevated entrance: a giant serpent’s head with jaws agape, its two curved fangs poised above the threshold.

  A blood-red glow enveloped the entire expanse, pulsing with the desperate efforts of the sea of demons that anchored the barrier in place from the canyon. Now and then, a wave of black animus would surge up from the valley and crash against it. Some of it was absorbed into the tower, the rest shredded into tatters that spilled down the cliffs and into the sands before us.

  “We… have to go through all that?” Nora squeaked.

  “So it would seem,” I said with a nervous swallow.

  Nora took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “Well, this is what he gets for forgetting to put up a ‘No Solicitors’ sign.”

  Post-Chapter Omake 1:

  Nora: You sketched the tower in your journal, but you didn't add the crimson barrier.

  Rae: I didn't have colored pencils. What should I have done, open a vein?

  Nora: Creative, but ew. Wait. You seriously considered that?

  Rae: Yeah, but I didn't want to have to explain myself to Relias about the aftermath.

  Post-Chapter Omake 2:

  "O": You should have drawn the horns larger.

  Rae: They are in perfect proportion to the rest of the tower.

  "O": Do you know what they say about demons with large horns?

  Rae: That they have vaulted ceilings?

  "O": You're not wrong, but that was not the reaction I was looking for.

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