“Unholy Abyss, a special mission from our new demon lord!” I said excitedly.

I had just been sent back and found myself where I was first summoned. The Ripe Maiden Suprise, I was only gone for a short time, but it was enough for my friends to disperse. Bunch of drunks, but they were celebrating so I couldn’t judge.

They were pretty drunk the last I saw them. Celebrating the death of an accursed master would do that. I wasn’t really celebrating, our old master wasn’t that bad. He would always let me stick around and run errands for him.

I will admit, he tended to be a bit lax with his commands and there were several times I could have exploited a loophole.

Instead, I chose to do the work and make myself useful. A lot of demons hated wizards and I couldn’t blame them. I on the other hand rarely got tortured, simply because there was very little need to. I generally was happy to follow orders.

With a new master and this one a powerful demon lord, I was overjoyed at the idea. Excitedly I scanned the bar, noting a few patrons I recalled from before. Looks like they still had enough tokens for the Denubian Choco-Coffee TM.

The tokens the courts used had a crappy exchange rate, only procuring stuff from the planes of men was lucrative. Perhaps our new master would let me have some spoils of war. I could only dream.

“Etragos.” I called out to my friend.

I couldn’t see him at first glance, too many passed-out demons scattered around the room. I figured he could be one of them so went to inspect the lot. They were all in a sorry state.

They were mostly fiends of all sizes and shapes. We all had odd appearances, fiends being the oddest, multiple limbs, green splotchy skin and sometimes insect-like wings.

Well, it made my friends easier to identify. You couldn’t pick me out of a crowd of imps, we look too alike. Perhaps I should get something to make me stand out, like a hat or a bow tie.

That was a ridiculous idea, how would clothes hold up in the abyss and it was not like I could shapeshift clothes. Only the higher orders could do that.

Eventually, I found Etragos, passed out against a side wall, clutching an empty mug. No sign of the others, did they head off on another bar crawl? By Lilith did I screw up, have they already been summoned by the master?

I shook my head, no that was impossible, I just arrived. They are probably nearby somewhere, if I wake Etragos he should know.

I approached the prone demon, but he didn’t stir from my approach. I knelt down and carefully poked him in the shoulder. “Etty wake up.” I prodded, to no effect.

Undeterred I continued, poking, pinching and shaking. The only result was a few mumbles and a reference to buying him dinner first. Not sure what that meant, but Etty was an old fiend. I was barely a century, he has lived, what eight hundred abyssal years.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I sat down next to him, pondering my next move. I glanced at the bar, getting an idea. Our tab was already run up pretty high, might as well add. Hopefully, our new master will pay us, but I doubted it. At least we could hide out on the material planes for a while.

Purchasing the hot beverage, I passed it across Etty’s nose, he woke immediately and reached out for the Denubian Choco-Coffee TM.

“Thanks Jelly, my tab was too high to continue the bender.” He called me by my nickname. Only fair since we did the same.

Rising from his prone position he carefully drank while clutching his head with his free claw. “Ugh, I think we went to hard. But the best way to deal with a hangover is. To keep drinking.” We both finished in unison. “Exactly my dear student.” He added happily.

“Etty I have big news.” I said excitedly.

“What news?” He asked in between sips.

“I just returned from a summons by our new demon lord.” He spat his drink, such a waste.

“You were summoned? When? How?” He listed off questions.

“Just moments ago, he sent me back with a special mission, to inform the others that he will be summoning us soon.”

“Summoning us soon, that is pretty quick.” He said, puzzled.

“Yes, he was in this castle that is about to be attacked by vampires.” I excitedly recounted the event.

“Vampires, I haven’t killed them in a while. He wouldn’t happen to be on Nysegard would he?”

I thought back to the summoning and saw no indication that the world was Nysegard. But then again I don’t know much about the material planes.

“I don’t know if it was Nysegard, we were in some sort of dungeon.” The moment I said that Etty got an odd look.

He smiled mischievously, leering at me. The look made me feel very uncomfortable.

“Dungeon huh, he didn’t do weird stuff to you. Remember don’t take the candy and avoid basements.” He warned, but the cheeky grin made me think he was not serious.

“Etty our new lord will summon us soon. I need to find the others.” I pleaded, very short on time at least I think I was.

“Relax, we will just wake them up and explain the situation.” He looked around probably expecting to find them. Confusion was the first expression to arrive. “Were are they?” He asked rhetorically.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you. They aren’t here!” I said, my nerves on edge.

“By lilith were did they go?” He directed his question to the bartender, who shrugged. “They must have left to continue the bender. Let’s go find them.” He tried standing and fell almost immediately. “Maybe after I rest a bit.”

I sighed, the master will not like his demons being a bunch of hungover miscreants. I knew we should have stopped drinking the moment we found that link. Now the master will summon drunk demons who will have no clue what is going on.

This new job is going to suck if I can’t whip these idiots into shape. Less our new master decides some other form of pain infliction is necessary. I gulped, the idea scaring the horns off me.

“We need to find them!” I pleaded, worried to a high abyss about what may happen.

“Calm down its going to be fine Jelly.” He tried to reassure as he finally stood up, albeit shakily.

“How will it be alright if the new master summons passed out demons. Do you think he will be gracious, understanding and merciful?” We both shook our heads in the negative, that was very unlikely.

Demon lords were not known for being any of those things. Working in a demon army was only slightly worse than being a demon slave to a wizard.

At least your accursed master couldn’t torture you for eternity, they generally didn’t live long. Demon lords could not only drop you in a dungeon for centuries on end but could destroy you permanently.

I gulped at that idea, trying to think up any strategy that could ensure our continued pain-free life. But to be honest I rather doubted it.