Astrys stared at Zeth. “What?”

“I don’t know for sure. But my Skill doesn’t mention anything about a time limit on how long demons can stay. And the Class I have has a history of giving me Skills that are improved versions of Blood Mage Skills. So, if it doesn’t mention the limitation, there’s a good chance it simply doesn’t have it.”

Her normally dispassionate face broke, showing a mixture of shock, hope, and clear distrust. “...So, you’re saying you’ll allow me to stay?”

“You’ll die if you return, right? Seems like a mutually beneficial situation if you stick around. You get to avoid death, and I get a demon that won’t stab me in the back the moment they can.”

She nodded slowly, her face settling once again. “So you will be having me perform labor in exchange for my life. I understand.”

“I guess so,” he said. A moment of silence passed between them.

In the back of his mind, he knew it’d probably be better to try and establish a closer rapport with Astrys if he was going to be spending a large amount of time working with her, but quite frankly, he just didn’t want to. Perhaps it was his older experiences with her kind influencing his reasoning, or perhaps it was simply her fear aura forcing him to see her in a distasteful manner. Most likely, it was both.

But as far as he was concerned, the only healthy relationship he could ever have with a demon was one that was distant, impersonal, and strictly related to business. He had to always keep it in his mind that the only thing keeping this monster from slaughtering him alongside the entire town was that he personally wasn’t letting her. He couldn’t allow himself to feel sorry for her situation. Getting close to her would just open himself up to being manipulated.

“So,” he continued, “it’s still going to be some time before twenty-four hours pass and we know for sure whether this will be the case. Until then, I have some business to attend to elsewhere. You stay here.”

She nodded slowly. “May I ask something?”

“Go ahead.”

“What are your long-term plans? If I am to be chained to you, I believe it would be beneficial to at least know that.”

“We’ll see, I guess. Today was a pretty eventful day, so quite a bit is subject to change while we wait to see where the pieces fall. But generally? I plan to gather as much power as possible, and take down the people we were fighting tonight. As for what that means for you, we might be moving around as it’s necessary, but hopefully I can stay in this base for as long as possible. And there’s going to be a lot of fighting.”

“...I see.”

“Alright,” he said, “I’ll be going now.”

“Wait,” she said. “May I…ask something else?”

He looked at her.

“While you are gone, may I spend time outside of this place? Up on the surface?”

“Why would you want to do that?”

“I just liked the way your sky looks. It is quite the sight. Spending time in this realm may not be so bad, if I could do so underneath your stars.”

Zeth stared at her, trying to piece together her motivations. Once again, it may have been the aura of fear twisting her words so that they sounded as nefarious as possible, but all Zeth could think of when she asked that was the last demon he’d summoned, and how his decision to let that one up in the forest had caused the deaths of dozens of people. It didn’t matter whether she was telling the truth or lying; he’d be putting many at risk, including himself, leaving her out in the open like that.

“No. Stay down here. I’ll give you some additional standing orders before I leave, but you are not to leave this place while I’m gone.”

She looked down, obviously dejected. Once again, Zeth’s paranoid mind first went to the question ‘is she faking?’ before anything else. But after a moment, he realized he very well may have just shot down a completely innocent request. He added, “Uh, staying down here should remind you of home anyway, right?”

“I suppose so,” was all she said.

After he gave her a set of more thorough orders for contingencies in case of something like an intruder coming in, Zeth left the base. The whole time, he was second guessing himself and his actions. A part of him wanted to be kind and empathetic to the woman who was just trying to stave off her own death, and the other part wanted to keep his distance from the being that very well may have been trying to manipulate him into letting her slaughter countless innocents.

In the end, he erred on the side of pragmatism. Be strict, but not cruel was his motto here. Even if a part of him wanted to be kind, there was another part of him that saw the demon in front of him and wanted to punish her for the murderous deeds of the ones who came before her. So, ultimately, simply carrying a cold attitude with him was a bit of a compromise between the two.

Once he left, he thought about his Skills. With seven Skill Points, he technically had enough for Friend of the Unhallowed, which was a very solid choice with it being a profit Skill, but he wondered if he should hold off on purchasing it until after he had some of his more foundational abilities. Zeth had been constantly speeding toward the next big thing—first Demonic Covenant, then Otherworldly Excellence, and just now he’d spent most of his Points on Sanguine Renewal—and was still missing things like the Rites Skills, which all seemed supremely useful.

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So then, perhaps he should hold off on getting an ultimately unnecessary Skill like Friend of the Unhallowed until after he got some of these others? Speedy Rites would end up saving him quite a bit of time, which had consistently proven itself a bottleneck of his lately, so maybe it should be next.

Regardless, he knew for sure he was at least gonna hold off on getting something like Friend of the Unhallowed until after he knew for sure that Astrys was gonna stick around past twenty-four hours, so he didn’t have to make that decision until later.

For now, he had some business to attend to.

Zeth had finally killed Garon. The man was dead and gone, and with him, quite a bit of the pressure Zeth had been facing was gone, as well. Not pressures exerted on him by his enemies or by law enforcement, but rather the ones he put on himself. Garon was his most urgent problem, and had been for a while. And now that he was dead and Zeth had a better idea of what was going on, he finally had time to breathe.

And because of that, he finally had some time to fully recognize his situation.

Zeth’s dad was dead. He’d been dead for quite a long time now. But it only fully hit him now—now that there was nothing to do about it, and he was just forced to sit with it. Garon was dead, the Wicked thralls were all either captured or dead…His dad was avenged. The killers were gone. But his dad wasn’t coming back.

And Zeth hadn’t even been able to attend his funeral.

So, with the pressing matters dealt with, Zeth felt like it was finally time he go and pay his respects.

Late in the night, he entered his family’s home and went over to Sophie’s door, knocking softly on it. Maybe it was rude to wake her up, but he felt like he had to do this now.

She opened it, looking at him with a groggy expression. “Zeth?”

“Hey,” he said. “...Do you mind showing me to dad’s grave?”

Zeth had never been to visit his father’s body before. Sophie had, though, so she showed him where it was.

The graveyard was on the outskirts of town, close to their house, so it wasn’t a long walk to get there. As they walked, Zeth looked out for wisps of smoke coming up from the other side of town, but didn’t see any. Seemed like they’d gotten the fire under control.

Part of him felt worried about walking around like nothing was going on right after he’d killed the mayor of this place, but as far as he knew, there was nothing anyone could do to trace it back to him, so he was safe for now.

Eventually, they arrived at the graveyard, and Sophie pointed out the burial site. It was off in the corner of the flat plain, a humble tombstone sitting atop the dirt that simply read “Dannel Valerian” and nothing else.

Zeth stared down at it, feeling a wave of emotion crash upon the shores of his mind. For once, the anger he’d felt all this time about his father’s murder was gone. Its wishes had been fulfilled. Now, all Zeth was left with was a somber emptiness. Knowledge that, no matter what he did, or who he killed, nothing would ever be the same again.

But he didn’t regret taking his revenge. He knew that if Garon were alive right now, he’d feel far, far worse. His father had been killed, but the people who killed him at least got fucked over, too. Zeth ensured that they knew they made a big mistake coming after his family.

He looked over at Sophie, who had plopped down on the ground and begun tracing lines in the dirt with her finger. “How are you feeling?”

“A little tired,” she said.

“Yeah, uh, I’m sorry for dragging out here. But I meant more…in general. About dad, and about everything that’s been happening.”

She scooted over a couple inches and leaned to the side, resting her head against his leg. “I’m glad you came back. From the cave.”

“Of course,” he said. “I wouldn’t ever leave you behind.”

She sniffled. Zeth suspected, in the dark night, that tears were falling down her cheeks. “Why did dad leave me behind?”

Zeth felt shards of glass stabbing his chest from the inside. “He didn’t, kiddo. He just…Someone took him. They did a horrible, horrible thing. And now…And now he’s gone. Too early. But you know he didn’t want to leave you. You know he’d give anything to be back, if he could. But, well, that’s just not possible.”

“Why did it happen?” she asked in a choked-up voice. “Will…Will you leave like him? Or mom?”

Zeth bit the inside of his mouth so hard he tasted blood. “I don’t know. People and monsters aren’t too different, in some cases. And sometimes, there comes a person who’s a lot more like a monster than anyone else. They want power, or wealth, or they just want to hurt someone. And so they do it. And it’s never fair, or good, or reasonable. But they take things from people. Sometimes they take their lives. And this time…This time, they took dad. He shouldn’t have been taken. But they did it anyway.”

Sophie was silent, simply clinging to the side of Zeth’s leg, like she was afraid he’d leave, too.

“He loved you very, very much,” he said.

“Then he’ll come back.”

“...What?”

“You came back. Mom said you were dead. Everyone did. But you came back. Dad loves me, so he’ll come back too.”

Zeth looked down at her. “Sophie, I don’t think that’s healthy to think about. You can’t reverse death. It’s not possible.”

She stayed silent.

Eventually, they went back home.

Zeth walked Sophie back to her bedroom, but once she was in bed, he left the house, planning to walk back to his base. He’d spent quite a few nights away from home by now, and at this point, he almost felt more comfortable sleeping down in the dark stone rooms than in his own bed. At least then, if someone came to attack him, they’d be charging into a defended bunker, rather than a plain house full of his own family members.

So he crept through the fields, staying silent in the night, and followed his usual path into the forest and toward the hole leading down into his base.

As he moved, though, Zeth felt a shiver run up his spine. The feeling…it was almost like he was being watched. Like a pair of eyes was boring into his back. He glanced around himself as he moved, looking out for any monsters lurking in the shadows—or, worse, the familiar shine of a guard’s armor—but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

It must’ve been a residual effect of Astrys’s fear aura—his mind continuing to play tricks on him out of instinct. He’d been around her for quite a while now, and her aura had been far and away the strongest out of all the demons he’d interacted with, so it made sense. Perhaps it would be best to purchase Friend of the Unhallowed straight away if it turned out Astrys would be sticking around.

Still, figuring it’d be best to operate with an abundance of caution, he decided to stay up a bit later tonight, just in case someone tried to come into his base while he slept. He’d just work on some rituals while Astrys searched the area for any strange monsters or would-be intruders.

Besides, it couldn’t hurt to work on an extra Level before he went to sleep tonight.