Velvet got ready to run, the door already in her sights.

“Don’t move.” Hyde ordered. “That’s not an animal, that’s a demon that knows he is in someone else's territory.”

Velvet stopped, but, unlike her, a group of mages rushed to the entrance, Vibora included.

Clank. Another chain broke, the rest of the demon falling down. Some mages used magic, against it, a rain of colorful shapes hitting in its direction.

The demon made a strange noise, unlike the ones normal crocodiles made, dashing towards the exit.

The exit wasn’t wide enough to accommodate both him and the running mages, who were unable to stop its charge.

Screams of mages getting crushed against the walls rang out, together with the wet splashing sounds of the meat being scrapped against the stone.

“Where is Udulluay?” Velvet asked. “He knows everything that’s happening, right?”

“Yes, but I told you already, he is a devil, not a guardian.”

Of course, why would he rush to save the people that eat his kind? She thought, but didn’t voice her opinions, not wanting to add members to Udulluay’s ignore when in trouble list.

Luckily for them, Udulluay didn’t stall for more than a few seconds, appearing from the walls and flying towards the escaping demon.

A loud bang was heard, the walls vibrating and a few pieces of the ceiling falling on the top of Velvet’s head. A rapid succession of bangs followed, each one closer to where she was.

She got even more away from the exit, almost touching the wall to the side, just before Udulluay dragged the demon back inside the room by its tail.

Once he got it inside enough, he tossed the demon against the opposite wall, another rumble sounding, and more pieces of the ceiling falling on their heads.

The demon sneered and growled, saying something in a language Velvet didn’t understand. What she felt, instead, was blood dripping from her ears.

A curse? Covering her ears she got down, kneeling behind a table. Udulluay slammed the demon’s long maw against the floor, grabbing it with his claws and forcefully shutting it up.

The sound of broken bones followed, the demon’s mouth snapping effortlessly under Udulluay’s grip.

He opened his wings, and some feathers fell on the demon’s skin, melting into its body. It struggled with force, turning its body around, the sound of bones breaking due to Udulluay’s grip not wavering.

A tearing noise sounded, half the demon’s long mouth being ripped off by its own movements.

Udulluay suddenly flew away, before a wave of snakes grabbed him from behind. Velvet recognized those snakes. They were Vibora’s.

Steps came from the exit, slow and uneven, as if whatever was coming out wasn’t whole, or as if it was too whole. A broken, bloody hand reached out and grabbed the wall, pulling itself out.

The mages that were inside the path to the exit where the demon entered had been mangled beyond recognition, their meat, bones and organs mixing in an amorphous, glistening lump. And they were coming back.

Necromancy. The magic that controlled the dead.

A cacophony of gurgling noises came from its numerous mouths, their vocal chords being used like strings. Broken and damaged heads dangled from the monster’s sides, and one in particular caught Velvet’s attention. One with long black hair tainted by blood from where the snakes were growing.

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Velvet pulled a sheet of paper after seeing it. Surely Udulluay wouldn’t punish her for using magic in these circumstances, right? Then she plucked at the bracelet made of balls she was carrying, dropping the drops of Bomber Frog’s blood that were contained on top of them.

Combining them and applying magic, ten paper figurines bloomed, with frog-like legs. She was going to send them to the monster, but her sight got dark, with a recognizable figure appearing further away.

“The chained man…” She flinched, realizing what happened. She was dreaming! Since Vibora was using her magic, the other corpses should also be able to.

“The dream charms…” Before trying to shout Andras name, she wanted to use one of the charms, the one that was used to stop a dream and wake up.

But not only did she not find the charms, her magic didn’t do anything in that place.

Resigned to use Andras name, her sights blurred again, and she found herself in the gathering’s room.

“How?”

“I used the dream charms for you.” Hyde said. He had come out from the hat, and skittered back inside once Velvet opened her eyes.

“Say my name first.” She wasn’t being fooled again.

“Velvet.”

“Okay, did anyone else wake up?”

“No, but those three weren’t affected. They are powerful.” He referred to the two figures that brought the cage with the demon at first, and another one. They were pushing the monster away, trying to salvage the auction goods.

Velvet scoffed at their actions, but at least they were distracting the monster, while Udulluay dealt with the demon.

So Velvet went on making two chaining charms. She could use the dream charms to awake someone else, but nothing could guarantee that the mage she used them on was useful or strong. She preferred to save them for herself, giving them to Hyde.

Velvet sent her paper figurines to the monster’s back; even when its body had eyes all around, more than half of them had been damaged before death and reanimation, making them blind.

The figurines jumped over the tables like frogs… or very big fleas.

Velvet took a glimpse at Udulluay, wanting to know how he was going, and the results were good. But she didn’t know if killing the demon would stop the necromancy spell immediately, so having to take it out was probably a must.

Boom!

She activated the figurine that was closer to the monster, blowing it up. Dust and debris got caught in the explosion, making her unable to see the effects.

One of the surviving mages used a wind spell, pushing the dust away. Once the air was clear again, Velvet cursed.

A wall made of roots had covered the monster. Now it was burning, but the explosion had barely damaged the monster, only one of its mangled heads burned.

“The dead don’t generate magic. As long as we manage to make it use all the magic it has stored, it will become a pile of moving meat and bones.” One of the standing mages said to Velvet.

“How many mages are inside it?” She asked, waiting for the root wall to fully crumble.

“Fifteen.”

Fifteen… Vibora is one, another can make people fall asleep, and one is from the Lust Paradigm. A sudden crunch came from behind her, and Velvet jumped away, rolling in the ground, before one of the chains that were holding the demon previously slammed where she was.

A headless figure got up slowly. Velvet recognized the deceased auction holder, who also had been reanimated.

The chain started receding, going back to the headless man.

Clack.

Suddenly it stopped, tensing up. Velvet had grabbed the end, refusing to let it go, even when she was slowly being dragged with it.

A few paper figurines jumped from her clothes to the top of the chain, hopping in rapid succession over it, towards the headless man.

Devoid of head, and thus, eyes and brain, he simply used more magic to call the chain back.

Boom!

The first figurine to jump onto him exploded, making Velvet tumble backwards when the force calling the chain stopped. The headless body fell down, still burning, like a marionette whose strings got cut.

She raised a finger to the other three mages, and then pointed at herself. She then made a zero, and pointed at them.

One of them laughed. “The big guy costs fifteen.”

“Oh, then it’s two to zero, my bad.”