Zach looked up into the sky as Taro handled the reins of the small wagon they’d bought from Jerri to make the journey west.

  Zach had taken to staring at the skies as they travelled through the countryside, it was peaceful, meditative really, especially while drinking from the large barrel of red wine he’d bought for himself before leaving Porus.

  “Oh yeah, you never explained the whole secret identity thing.” Zach said suddenly, feet resting on his barrel while he laid flat on his back.

  “Secret identity?” Taro asked from the front of the cart in the driver's seat, only turning his head slightly.

  “Yeah, like you put on that funny heroic voice whenever we’re talking to randoms.” Zach explained, sitting up and grabbing himself another swig of grape juice with his flagon.

  “Ah, it’s a long story.” Taro muttered, eyes returning to the road.

  “We got time, your wizard buddy said it was a three day trip right?” Zach said with a smirk.

  “Fine; Like you this isn’t my original body. I took over the body of Cedrick Yvonyson Sheepart when he was gravely ill. Well, a spiritual illness to be precise. His very soul had rotted from his body thanks to his mother selling his soul to a daemon. All of this ended up leaving room for my soul to replace his.” Taro explained drearily, it wasn’t a story he’d told before in full but if anyone else in the world had half the chance to understand, it might’ve been Zach.

  “Sheesh, alright.” Zach replied, earnestly unsure how to respond appropriately.

  Taro laughed softly.

  “It’s fine, when I died in Japan… God asked me what I wanted in this new world. Power, wealth, women, immortality, omniscience, she offered pretty much everything. But really I just wanted to be accepted. I didn't want to stand out again. So she put me in this body.” Taro explained with a weary smile. Zach took a swig of his wine, wishing he could get tipsy to kill the burning awkwardness.

  “Well, it seems like you stick out like a sore thumb nowadays. Hopefully it’s uh, different than last time.”

  “It wasn’t always like this. Being the gravely ill son of a noble family had some perks as I’m sure you can imagine. But eventually I got better and was made to enroll in the Rurono Knights Academy… That’s when my family announced I had been chosen by God. The day I reincarnated God gave me that accursed blade. I thought it was metaphorical when I came from the void but it turns out it was very much real and I was too feverish to realize.” Taro lamented.

  “You mean that white one I found in my chest?” Zach clarified.

  “The Demon Lord’s chest, and yes it’s called The Holy Sword of Reincarnation. At least that’s what the priests divined its true name to be. I always assumed it was because I reincarnated with it but well… clearly not.”

  “Huh… Well that sounds pretty fucked mate. But uh, what about the whole deep voice thing?”

  “If I am to be the hero I must act in a way appropriate for a hero. It helps maintain harmony with the people.”

  “I guess I get it, glad I don’t have any image to live up to.” Zach shrugged, offering Taro a drink from his flagon.

  “You couldn’t live up to the Demon Lord’s presence even if you tried, which you don’t. There’s a reason you had to change your face and go into hiding from the Devil Knights.” Taro sneered as he smacked the flagon away.

  “Hey watch your tone! I can change your face too!” Zach retorted, mostly joking though Taro’s words were still quite biting.

  “Please don’t, I like this face much more than my old one.”

  “Fine, fine.” Zach exclaimed before chugging the rest of his drink.

  “I must ask, why your attempt at transforming yourself has been so… half hearted?”

  “Eh she’s alright mate. This is basically like, 80% of the way to how I looked anyway.” Zach shrugged, his features were accurate enough just a different colour.

  And this body was more muscular. And taller. And more defined.

  “So your hair was that long back in Australia?”

  “Pretty much.” Zach shrugged, it had been down to his neck which was basically the same as it being down to his arse now.

  “Hmph, I see. That reminds me, did you play any of the new games from Square?” Taro asked hopefully. Zach let out a sigh of relief as the conversation moved to something more fun.

  The pair chatted casually about games as they passed the border of the Furinch Aristocracy to the Holy Kingdom of Rurono, a mostly peaceful tract of land marked by a couple of fence posts and a sign.

  The landscape of central Helvetia was mild, in summers like this the temperature rarely surpassed 25 celsius and winters rarely dropped below -4 celsius, the trees were a bright shade of luminous green that gently swayed in the breeze, small patches of flowers dotted the landscape in between fields of grain and pastures of cows.

  Zach had deduced that he was in a cottagecore hellscape, something the basement dwelling shut in loathed intrinsically.

  “Is this whole place fantasy European nonsense or is there a fantasy Japan somewhere?” Zach asked as they passed a windmill in the middle of a wheat farm, Zach scooping another flagon of drink. Taro let out a laugh as he grabbed the flagon from Zach.

  “Yeah, there’s a place called Solan. I’ve only been there once but it’s a lot like Edo period Japan.” Taro explained somewhat wistfully.

  “Miss home?” Zach asked as he swirled his expensive booze.

  “A little. Mostly the food.”

  “Hah! Cheers to that.” Zach said, raising his glass up. Taro looked back from his horse and grimaced.

  “I shouldn't be drinking and driving.”

  “Buzzkill.”

  …

  Douglous and Vivette stood outside the address that Zach had given them. After the incident at the Mauvais Tower, Zach and Taro had hurried off to the Soothsayer. Just before leaving Zach informed them that Dreaphs would have the books they were looking for and where to find him.

  Now, standing outside the cellar door after walking through an alleyway covered in various Zach shaped holes, they were starting to feel a bit worried.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea Lou? He just started attacking Zach out of nowhere!” Vivette hissed quietly as she grabbed Douglous’ shoulder, stopping him just before he knocked on the door.

  “Yeah but Zach said he was a ‘cool dude’. Besides, we need those books if we want the reward money.” Douglous shrugged, breaking free from Vivette’s grasp and knocking on the cellar door.

  Soon the man they’d only seen from afar emerged from the small doorway, towering over the two by a full head. His eyes were dull and sunken, blue hair covering his face and posture poor.

  “Hmm, perfect. I needed an elf.” Dreaphs grumbled as he glanced upwards then glaring at Vivette who quickly backed off. Douglous quickly put his hand out to greet the man.

  “Hi my name is Douglous Kerry, we’re just looking for a Traveler Tribe you might’ve bought some books from and-”

  “Ah yes, the books I hired them to steal. You can have them. I don't need them anymore.” Dreaphs said with a small smile, beckoning the two now quite confused adventurers into his abode.

  “Alright then…” Douglous shrugged as he followed Dreaphs.

  “What are you doing?! What if he’s going to kill us or something?!” Vivette pleaded as she followed just behind him.

  “I’m a Mythril ranked adventurer. I only attacked the homunculus because of his connection to the infinite. It’s a trait typical of Arch-Daemons.” Dreaphs explained as he entered his small room.

  It was cramped with all of the books, potions, weaponry and general amenities crammed into what was supposed to just be a small wine cellar.

  As Douglous and Vivette entered they saw Dreaphs was throwing the stolen books unceremoniously onto the ground by the pair of adventurers' feet.

  “W-what?! You?!” Vivette asked incredulously looking at the weary looking man as she grabbed the priceless books up from the dirty street.

  “Yes, Dreaphs Skoson if you must verify my identity.” Dreaphs explained, throwing his guild tag onto the floor with the books.

  “But… you had these books stolen?” Vivette scoffed, not being able to believe the callousness of this man.

  “I can’t remain here much longer anyway. Have my guild membership revoked, I don’t care.” Dreaphs explained apathetically. Douglous and Vivette looked at each other for a moment before returning their eyes to tired man quizzically.

  “We could probably get a 10 Adamance bounty on you right?” Douglous asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Eughh, that’s assuming you can capture me. I couldn’t recommend trying it. And if it’s money you're after I can offer you a full mythril bar, you’ll be able to sell it for 300,000 gold, easily.” Dreaphs replied with a sigh, playing with the small crystal on a string he pulled from his pocket.

  “W-what?! Are you trying to bribe us?” Vivette blurted out in shock.

  “No, I want you.” Dreaphs said, turning around to face the pair properly, Vivette stepped back aghast.

  “Woah woah buddy hey, what are you pulling here?” Douglous said defensively, getting in between Dreaphs and Vivette. Dreaphs groaned.

  “Sorry, I just need a guide through the Elven Forest. You’re phenotypically similar enough for me to assume you’re a Wood Elf as opposed to a High Elf, correct?” Dreaphs asked bluntly, still fiddling with the crystal on a string.

  “I-I, yes. Yes I am a Wood Elf.” Vivette stuttered. The difference between a Wood Elf and High Elf were extremely slight to non-elves, this man knew his stuff.

  “Yeah look let’s get out of here Viv.” Douglous said, giving Dreaphs the stink eye.

  “Hold on, let's hear him out. Why are you going to the Elven Forest?” Vivette asked, taking a step to the side to get a better look of Dreaphs. Douglous kept glaring at Dreaphs as he spoke.

  “I’ve recently discovered a book called the Contingencies of Daemonica, it’s written in Arch-Daemon but I’ve translated enough of it to find out where Drackura is.” Dreaphs explained matter of factly, both Douglous and Vivette cocked their heads.

  “Who’s Drackura?”

  Dreaphs sighed.

  “He’s one of the Devil Knights, most importantly he’s the most prolific book collector in the Earthly Realm, Demon Realm and potentially all of Regaila… Assuming God doesn’t have her own library that is.” Dreaphs explained.

  “So you wanna steal his books too?” Vivette scoffed.

  “If I need to, he should have a copy of a certain book I’ve been looking for.”

  “And what does this have to do with the Elven Forest?” Vivette asked, slightly panicked, wondering what a Devil Knight was doing in her homeland.

  “I can’t say, all I know is his grand library is located there according to this book.” Dreaphs explained as he showed his copy of the Contingencies of Daemonica. It was a black leather bound book with glowing blood red sigils covering every inch of it, mana flowing through it like blood.

  “What do you want with Viv then?” Douglous asked seriously.

  “I just need a guide through the forest, I don’t expect you to join me in raiding Drackura’s library. It would take a human lifetime to understand the ways one Fae let alone a whole forest's worth. I simply don’t have the time for that nonsense.”

  “Alright, but I want to make it a guild contract.” Vivette declared suddenly, Douglous looked to his typically timid team member in a slight shock.

  “Woah, Viv I thought you’d wanna talk this out and I’d be the one jumping into it…. Y'know like we normally do.” Douglous remarked, earnestly surprised at his compatriots' sudden vigor.

  “I guess… I just trust that he’s being honest.” Vivette explained nervously, though she was hiding a genuine concern as she looked to the ground.

  Dreaphs scoffed, he didn’t care if she wanted a guild contract, a church binding or an imp seal, so long as she was willing to guide him through the forest he’d do it.

  “She’s worried about her homeland and thinks I can tell her more about what Drackura is doing there.” Dreaphs shrugged as he turned around and walked down the stairwell.

  “Ohhh, right yeah that makes sense…” Douglous remarked, a pang of guilt in his chest upon realizing he’d failed to make the connection.

  “S-so? You need our help, remember!” Vivette shouted down the stairwell, now growing annoyed at the dismissive man.

  “Just you. I’d rather not deal with the human, but if you need to take your boyfriend with you then so be it.” Dreaphs shouted back as he began rummaging through his crowded living space, books, swords, food and armour strewn around the small cramped and dark space with reckless abandon.

  Vivette crossed her arms in a huff, blushing intensely as she turned back around to the familiar lopsided smile of Douglous.

  “I’m sure Myrleguard is fine.” Douglous said reassuringly, having opted to ignore the boyfriend comment. On seeing Dougloul’s face Vivette relaxed and took a deep breath.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “I dunno, but this guy seems dangerous, but if he’s going after a Devil Knight that’s in my village then we have to help him right?” Vivette sighed as she hugged the books tightly against her chest.

  “Hmpth, I’m plenty strong too, maybe we ditch him and take on ol’ Drackura ourselves!” Douglous retorted semi-jokingly, though his smile narrowed slightly as he said it. Vivette shook her head.

  “It’s cute when you do that…” Vivette mumbled to herself as she couldn’t help but smile.

  “What?” Douglous asked, having not heard her properly.

  “Nothing, just talking to myself!” Vivette exclaimed quickly.

  …

  Taro and Zach stood at the edge of the Dungeon Border, the small fortress jutting out of the ground with a pair of golems and gargoyles leering at our heroic party as they tied their horses to a nearby fence post.

  “So what’s the deal with this line in the grass anyway?” Zach asked as he kicked a rock onto the other side of the invisible barrier, it went a shade darker once it crossed over.

  “That’s the Dungeon Portal, it’s basically a magical field, lets magical monsters like the Golam use whatever mana the Demon Army has.”

  “So like wireless charging?”

  “Eh?”

  “Yknow, they can charge without any magical batteries or whatever. Wirelessly.”

  “Yeah sure I guess.” Taro shrugged as he stepped over the threshold, the golems and gargoyles still leering at him silently. Zach followed, wondering if he would feel a burst of energy once he stepped over the precipice. There was nothing.

  “They probably took me off the white list…” Zach thought to himself with a small chuckle as he and Taro walked towards the two still golems that blocked the entrance.

  Once they were within striking distance the golems attacked Taro in unison, the gargoyles flying directly upwards for an air strike.

  Silently Taro got out his sword and sliced the two golems down in one strike, the gargoyles directed their strike to Zach by flying in from behind. Zach didn’t notice so both garygoles smashed their fists into his head, instantly breaking as they collided with the infinitely dense object that was Zach’s skull.

  “Sorry!” Zach shouted to the half destroyed gargoyle that tried limping toward Zach to attack again.

  “They’re monsters, they mass produce these things by the million in the Demon Realm.” Taro sighed as he crushed a gargoyle head with his boot.

  “Still…” Zach sighed, he was a bit of a spuss when it came to killing things, even something as innocuous as a spider he would try to let live when he could.

  The pair entered the dungeon entrance, a large gateway leading down a stone stairwell into the depths of the earth, filled with statues with varying degrees of magic flowing through them.

  “Pacifism is gonna get you or me killed. These are heartless monsters that are better off dead and buried." Taro explained as they entered the dungeon.

  “I dunno maybe we can try and work something else out?” Zach asked as Taro caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of his eye. Instantly he sliced the head off of a cupid statue that had tried to piss poison on both of them.

  “Alright alright point made, whatever you say goes now boss.” Zach replied sarcastically as he clasped his fingers together and put his hands at the back of his neck, deciding to follow just behind the well seasoned adventurer.

  Taro remained vigilant, eyes were glancing around the stone stairwell, cutting down any threats before they could emerge as they walked down the wide spiral staircase.

  Eventually they reached the true dungeon entrance which had entered lockdown, each door was closed and a platoon of drooling orcs were waiting, struggling to not to get into a big fight as they stood around with their weaponry.

  “DERE HE IS!” The orc general screamed at the top of his lungs, pointing his dull sword towards the two heroes. One of the orc’s looked forward and saw his squad mate in front of him, so immediately hit him on the head with his club.

  “WHAT WAS DAT FOR!?” The orc ahead shouted as he punched an unrelated orc to his right. Quickly every orc was fighting another orc, with only the most intelligent ones being able to identify the two strangers that had entered the dungeon.

  “Are you really going to claim these guys shouldn’t be killed?” Taro queried. Zach groaned as the 30 orcs clambered towards them, their hulking green bodies shambling towards them in a heap of muscle.

  “I mean… no but c’mon man I’m not a psycho! These are basically just green looking dudes!” Zach retorted. Taro rolled his eyes as he cut off the leader's head in one swipe without turning away from Zach.

  “Fine, make yourself useful and look for Yin.” Taro shouted as he started massacring the green boys that tried to fight him. Zach just stood back and took the attacks the stragglers tried to land on him, all of them being entirely ineffective at even moving him.

  “Come on guys, you don’t have to do this, I’m not gonna hurt ya.” Zach explained sincerely, trying to emphasise his point with his hands.

  “Metal hands no hurty! WEAKKKK!” One of the orcs shouted, the rest of the orcs stopped for a moment to think about what was said before pointing and laughing at Zach.

  “WEAK!”

  “WEAKKKK!”

  Zach suddenly struggled to empathise with these drooling morons, though he couldn’t bring himself to crush their heads with his bare hands either.

  Luckily Taro came in and in one motion chopped all of their heads off.

  “Still feel bad?” Taro snapped, looking at Zach with a small battle frenzy in his eyes.

  “Not really, though still don’t want to kill myself.” Zach admitted.

  “Good enough. Now come on, you should be able to open the main door.” Taro said as he wiped off some of the blood and spores that had come from the orcs he’d cut open.

  “What about that door?” Zach asked, pointing to the smaller door to the left that had opened up.

  “Yeah that’s a red herring, probably a gold room to lure adventurers into then, MERAMERA. Fire trap, monsters or whatever else.” Taro explained as he walked to the large main door. There were several mechanical mechanisms that led to the two adjacent rooms.

  “Right.” Zach nodded as he looked at the huge door, around four times the size of a typical garage door.

  “This is a standard Dungeon door, they’re completely indestructible, usually takes a few days to force one open, especially after they activate lock down.” Taro explained as Zach kept looking at the door.

  “Alrighty.”

  “If we were lucky this would’ve been a lower tier of dungeon but of course, they knew we would come… So this is the absolute peak of the Demon Army’s design. If we had 10 Mythril Ranked adventurers we might be able to drill a small hole into it.”

  “Sure.”

  “Don’t worry I know what we can do, If we both start to work on the gears up there we should be able to open it in the next couple of-” Taro explained, being interrupted by Zach punching a giant hole through the front door with his fist with seemingly no effort.

  “Or I could just punch it.” Zach smirked as he looked back at Taro who just laughed incredulously.

  “You’re that strong huh?” Taro asked with a shocked laugh, being forced to confront the fact that Zach, the incompetent fool he is, had the body of the most powerful being outside of Heaven itself.

  “Guilty as charged.” Zach replied with a smirk as the pair walked through the opening in the doorway, with Zach immediately being smacked in the face by a pillar of rock bursting through the floor. Zach shook off the dirt and looked up to where Yin and Titania were at the center of the large portal room.

  “Howdy!” Zach exclaimed as he waltzed in behind Taro preparing for battle.

  “Oh you absolutely rotten boys! You ruined me and young Yin’s tea time!” Titania exclaimed playfully. Snapping her fingers she used her geomancy to form several more golems from the walls of the dungeon itself to surround Taro and Zach.

  “Subdue the false lord at all costs, rely on incompetence, ignore the hero.” The words of Nuhade’s battle tactics echoed throughout Titania’s mind, though really she was absolutely terrified.

  Yin jumped to the edge of the cage, dropping her tea as she clasped the bars.

  “CEDRICK!” Yin shouted from her floating gilded bird cage resting just above the long and thin dungeon portal. The dungeon was in lockdown to prevent any hero’s sneaking into the Demon Lord’s castle during an attack like this.

  Of course, it meant that there wasn’t any backup coming either.

  “Aw honey, I thought we were having a lovely ol’ time together.” Titania said in mock exasperation and offense, watching as Zach got grabbed by a stoney arm that emerged from the wall and started dragging him around the dome shaped room.

  Taro had his hands full with 10 different golems of varying sizes all attacking him in unison, being puppeted by Titania in a delicate dance.

  “The tea was nice but I’d like to leave now.” Yin whispered as Zach was dragged along the wall of the circular dungeon room, finishing a full rotation and a half of the room before being dropped, an impression of his unamused face chiselled into the walls of the building.

  The stone arm jumped out of the wall and morphed into a stone snake which curled around the Dungeon portal just below Titania.

  Zach fell to the and rolled his neck and stretched his arms.

  “I’m finding that being indestructible makes this a lot less tense!” Zach shouted at Taro who was on the other side of the room, currently fighting for his life against a gigantic golem.

  “Kill the goblin hag already please!” Taro shouted back, annoyed as he dodged and weaved through Titania’s attacks.

  “I’ll have you know, I’m the youngest of the Devil Knights!” Titania retorted defensively, genuinely annoyed. She started focusing all of her energy on Taro as he struggled to dodge the barrage of stone and gems she had at her command.

  “I was never going to be able to do anything to our lord’s body anyway, may as well kill the pipsqueak instead~” Titania grinned as she stretched her short arms out, fingers moving the earth itself as if it was putty in her hands.

  “Sorry yeah on it!” Zach shouted as he ran towards the center of the room, punching through the magical barriers that Titania had erected earlier without much issue.

  He jumped onto the stoney platform that Titania stood on without much trouble, except that Yin screamed like she was about to be attacked as Zach approached.

  “For fucks sake, I’m here to rescue you!” Zach exclaimed frustrated as Titania turned around, summoning another sandstone serpent to send him back to the ground and crush him.

  “W-who is that?!” Yin screamed, horrified.

  “Nasty man, you won’t like him.” Titania added cheekily.

  The battle continued, Zach trying and failing to return to the platform while Titania primarily focused her attention on trying to kill Taro while Yin was helpless to do anything but sit and watch.

  Hitop watched the battle from a stray shadow, analysing how Zach acted.

  “He’s not trained in any form of combat, yet he’s moving with utter confidence that nothing can hurt him. He’s taken a good few punches in that body and he’s lost any trepidation that comes from avoiding pain.” Hitop noted silently.

  Zach lept onto Titania’s platform and was launched towards the roof of the domed room, exactly where Hitop was hiding.

  Moving his shadowy figure to the side just before Zach smashed into the wall beside him. Hitop quickly produced a magical syringe and stabbed it into Zach’s neck, piercing it and drawing blood.

  “OW FOR FUCKS SAKE!” Zach screamed as he clasped the side of his neck where the syringe had been, feeling the first bit of physical pain since he arrived in this world, it was like a massive mosquito bite, itchy and irritating more than painful.

  The sandstone serpent charged towards him as he was stuck in the ceiling, just as Zach was whipping his hand up to scratch the side of his neck.

  The motion of his hand snapping up to clasp his neck resulted in Zach turning the sandstone serpent into a pile of dust. It also dislodged Zach from the hole in the wall he’d made, dropping him back to the ground just next to Taro.

  “You suck at dodging.” Taro panted as he danced between the bullets of stone and spikes being summoned where he had been standing but moments prior.

  “I’m just a fuckin guy here mate, besides she’s only got like one good hit on me tops.” Zach replied annoyedly as he rubbed the side of his neck where the pain was quickly dissipating.

  All the while the two men talked, Zach was being pelted with stones from a Titania who was growing more and more frustrated.

  Hitop examined the few drops of blood he’d managed to collect from Zach.

  They were flowing, purple and spitting up drops as the raw magical energy imbued into them tried to escape.

  “Yes this will do nicely.” Hitop cackled silently to himself as he disappeared into the void, leaving his fellow Devil Knight to face this threat alone.

  “It’d be a lot easier for both of us if you just laid down and died!” Titania screamed, while the dungeon portal was still active she had all the MP the Demon Lord’s Castle could provide and could use her magic as recklessly as possible.

  “You could just give us the girl and we call it a day?” Zach offered hopefully.

  “Nah!” Titania sneered as she summoned more sandstone snakes from the ever depleting supply of wall.

  “BREAK THE PORTAL!” Taro shouted, he only had enough energy to dodge Titania’s onslaught and that was depleting fast.

  Titania paused and gulped, if the portal closed she was doomed. She quickly erected a solid wall by raising the floor and using all of the remaining parts of golems to protect the Dungeon Portal.

  “On it!.” Zach as he punched through the thick layers upon layers of stone, practically digging through it with his fist.

  “W-w-wait what the hell are you doing?!” Titania shouted, panicking.

  “Gonna punch the big thing till it breaks.” Zach shouted back casually as he neared the dungeon portal. Titania quickly made a calculation in her head.

  “I’m going to die without the Dungeon Portal’s magic…” Titania thought and with a scowl she continued using all of her magic into pushing Zach away, Taro using the opportunity to try and close the distance.

  “It’s been fun sweetie you don’t let the nasty boys do anything m’kay?” Titania winked playfully as she collapsed the stone platform she had been standing on and used her authority as a Devil Knight to open the portal a smidge to let her squeeze through.

  “Hey hey!” Zach shouted as he continued to be buried under more and more solid stone.

  Taro leapt through the air and sliced at where Titania had been, but a moment too late as she’d already disappeared through the Dungeon Portal and shut it down. Taro scowled as he slashed the portal in half, breaking the Demon Armie’s connection to this part of the Earthly Realm.

  “You alright?” Zach asked casually as he dug himself out of the layers of stone that had been heaped upon him..

  “Just… get… Yin… please…” Taro panted, the colour of the dungeon changing around them slightly as demonic magic faded.

  “Yeah quicklyYYY!” Yin screamed as her cage began to fall, Zach jumped up, missed completely and the moment before hit the ground he cast a spell, imagining a car airbag cushioning her fall.

  A magical construct with a transparent sparkly blue appearance burst from the ground like a giant airbag, launching a bunch of rocks and Taro away but managing to cushion Yin’s fall for the most part.

  “Nice-” Zach exclaimed, passing out before even reaching the ground, landing limply in the corner.

  “OH MY GOD HE’S DEAD!” Yin screamed as she saw Zach's limp body lay at an awkward angle in a pile of rubble.

  “He’s fine.” Taro said dismissively as he rubbed his head, slicing open Yin’s cage.

  “Huh?”

  “It’s a long story, but he’s a demon who doesn’t know how to use Demonic magic.” Taro explained as he helped Yin out of her cage.

  “Wait but-”

  “Like I said, long story.” Taro sighed, rubbing his forehead to try and prevent the oncoming headache as he walked over

  “Alright then…” Yin muttered.

  …

  In a dungeon in the desert the sands blew as another day turned to night.

  Thorn scratched the end of a new day into her sandy cell wall with a claw. The beastkin princess was used to these types of hostage situations but waiting for her useless husband to arrive was grating.

  Her rations of gruel were thrown carelessly into her cell by a Dogheaded statue. Letting out an angry hiss she grabbed her meager portions.

  She needed to keep her strength up if she wanted to escape this sandy hellhole.

  “Wanna talk yet or cat got ya tongue still?” Killophobe asked as he emerged from behind a wall, his gelatinous form plopping into a vaguely humanoid shape with an annoying smug face plastered on top of it.

  “Will talking make you go away faster?” Thorn asked, her usual scowl looking extra scowly tonight.

  “Probably not.” Killophobe said, pulsating the area where his shoulders are to simulate a shrug.

  “Don’t you demons have anything better to do than harass me?” Thorn hissed in between bites of her gruel.

  “We’ve got it on good authority that your awfully betrothed will be arriving to rescue you soon enough.” Killophobe explained as he slunk back, his form shifting yet again into a grotesque imitation of Cedrick.

  “Cedy’s coming?” Thorn asked, suddenly dropping her scowl and softening up for a moment.

  “And I didn’t ASK to be betrothed by the way.” Thorn hissed, her scowl returning in full force as Killophobe let out a belly laugh, morphing into one large head that quivered as it chortled.

  “Keep telling yourself that toots.” Killophobe shrugged as he slithered back to the portal, Thorn looked to her tally marks on the wall.

  “I’m going to punch him for every day he’s made me wait.” Thorn declared, adding an extra tally mark for getting her hopes up too early.

  Click Hereeeeee