It was difficult to stay mad at Roger.

Actually, no - I was still rather disgruntled that he had led us into a spat with a town of crocodile demons just so that he could get his revenge for whatever slight had come before now. I may have given him the benefit of the doubt, but he was constantly stating that intent almost verbatim—while in the midst of beating the demons into pulp—so our role here was rather transparent.

Even less enthused was Ren. After battling a few crocs side-by-side with me, she had tired of the forced battle she had been dragged into, and instead went for the boring option of perching on an overturned wagon and sniping as many assailants as she could. No flare at all.

Wolf had taken her place, and we stood shoulder to shoulder against the onslaught of foes. With little skin in the game, he too was cool on the idea of surging off into battle, and was allowing the rabbit to take more of the brunt of frontline combat. With each of us having a retinue of a dozen or so hellhounds, the croco-demons had a difficult task of engaging us from the outset.

Those hardy enough to wade through the chomping maws of the dogs were quickly mushed to the ground beneath the bear - while any joining the fight from afar had their brains excavated by one of Ren’s high-powered shots. I played the middle, assisting them both by debilitating and wounding all that dared oppose us.

No real flare from me, either.

Although part of it was being hand-led into this current nightmare, I was also feeling a little out of sorts with not having access to my summons. Well, technically I had a lot of summons - so that was a rather strange complaint. Perhaps it was more of the restraint rather than the effect that had me grouchy.

Certainly, having a small army of demons made combat a lot easier. There was a whole town’s worth of crocs to chew through, but the dogs made it seem like nothing at all. If any received a wound, it would slink back past its brethren and the elf would heal it.

I chose to ignore the fact that she could do that, and the hellish pups didn’t seem to mind her divine energy running through them. Either something else our bond had muddied, or the System had stopped caring at some point. It must be getting desperate.

Cards flashed through the thick neck of the next demon as the hellhounds brought it to the ground. Chest exploded in the one behind them from Ren’s divine-infused shot. Whatever enemies remained wavered and then started to turn tail.

An odd thing, which I put a pin in for now. Weapons lowered as we watched the last handful run off into the gloom further ahead.

“Yeah, run, assholes!” Roger twisted the head of the croc he had been bludgeoning, their vertebrae grinding in his grasp. “This is my fuckin’ town now!”

He dropped the inert demon to the ground and licked his bloodied lips before turning his gaze back to us.

“I’m not entirely convinced this was anything more than you using us to settle a petty squabble,” I said, stretching out my right wrist.

“No, Boss. A convenience for me, sure - but this is the way we need to go.” His grimaced grin told me he might be bending the truth a little.

“I don’t want to use my control over you to get you back in line, Roger.” My tone cooled, and I flexed out my hands. “Best remember where you stand.”

“In hell, Boss.” He raised his mace up over his shoulder. “And I think you’ll find down here, your ‘control’ doesn’t mean shit.”

I maintained eye contact with him, the two pits of purple energy staring back at me. Was it my fault that he had become so wayward? He was acting like a demon would. It was only natural for him to be deceitful and bloodthirsty. Although we were bound, control was a one-way street - I was sure of it.

My eyebrow raised. “Say that again.”

“I’m just saying, your power in hell doesn’t hold so much sway… Boss.”

“How far are you willing to go to test that, knowing your death here would be absolute?” I stood stoic as purple electricity started to arc around my body.

He remained statuesque, second-guessing his attempts to undermine my leadership. In truth, I didn’t know what would happen if he died down here - whether the System would allow me to bring him back as part of my abilities, whether I’d need to form a new pact with a different demon, or my skill might just be broken for good.

I was willing to find out if he didn’t stand down.

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Even if what he was saying was true, a click of my fingers and Ren would put a radiant bullet through his forehead. Not that I wouldn’t relish the opportunity to get my own hands dirty.

“In saying that… I appreciate your help with this personal matter, Boss.” His impassive expression finally broke, and he gave me a brief bow.

“No problem. Forewarning is appreciated next time.”

Roger nodded eagerly and then looked around rather than uphold the eye contact.

I turned as I felt the press of the elf beside me, some hint of excitement in her eyes. “I was hoping for a little show there.” Her hand came out to gesture toward the mutilated bodies. “These guys gave experience, and they dropped loot, though. Dig in.”

Where was Tanya when I needed her?

In saying that, I considered how feasible it would be to purge more towns like this of their demons. Actually… considering they were System-created, it was interesting how they had enough personality to talk animatedly with us, and had the brains to retreat and survive. Much like Roger, in a way, who also didn’t come from another world like Players did.

Any further thoughts along this odd route were set aside as I caught the elf glaring at me - with even Wolf taking part in the looting process, I couldn’t avoid lending a hand.

Which turned out to be a miserable process, with the hounds constantly getting in the way - and the demons seemingly only having gear that was suitable for the bear. A couple of Int gems I’d need to socket sometime, and some… gold coin, for whatever narrative sense that made, but otherwise I was underwhelmed.

[Max: Defeated the town, and then another town.]

[Tanya: Quick work! We’re on our way to a safe place.]

[Tanya: Will hunker down and await updates.]

[Max: Perfect, will keep you in the loop.]

I looked back over to Roger, who had defaulted into a more awkward state of avoiding me while we finished up with the corpses he caused us to make. I’d rather he be a comfortable ally than force him to prostrate himself before me - which is why I went with the unsaid threat rather than trying to control him. He was a demon, after all. Couldn’t blame him for forgetting his place.

“Did we lose any hounds?” Ren appeared back beside me, squinting to look over the mass of flaming demons.

“I can’t count higher than twelve, so…” I winced away from her scowl.

Wolf huffed, trying to push his way through them all. “There were two that fell. They turned into dark mist.”

“Aww.” The elf pouted. “At least they don’t leave a mangled body for me to sob over.”

“I suppose since they don’t drop loot, and they’re even less… real, even compared to System-created, they just cease to be, once dead.”

“Real,” she murmured, rolling her eyes.

She was enamored by them, but she understood my point of view well enough - despite the grump she was putting on. Perhaps even saw thing the same way as I did. The dogs were conjured tools for me to use. It was only by a quirk in the System that they came back here after I had created them.

At least, that was my best guess. It couldn’t be that I was plucking the hellhounds from a large natural pool, otherwise there would be a lot more of them here. More likely, the only ones that existed were ones I had drawn into being. And… sure, that made them all special in a way. I respected and cared for them even if they were even more temporary than normal System-created.

“Where to next, Roger?”

I pushed those thoughts away. Otherwise, Ren and I would start to sink under the weight of the undue affection from our horde of hounds once again.

“Just over this way, Boss.” He lifted an arm to point to the left side of the town where the road split. “There’s a little way to go, but I reckon your Imps would be that way.”

Not entirely a selfish ploy to have us get revenge on the township, then. I wondered if we had to be wary of the ones who had escaped. “Have you noticed, Ren, that Monsters down here seem to be a little… smarter?”

Her nose wrinkled up. “I suppose so, yeah. Normally System-created are pretty two-dimensional and easy to wrangle. Both the crocs and the buildings had enough sense to flee - which could be something simple, but… I’m not sure.”

“Strange feeling?”

“Always, trickster.” She raised an eyebrow at me before checking behind us.

The group of hounds parted so that the three of us could walk behind the large rabbit as he led us to the left road. I’d gotten some knack to expecting dire events to jump out at us on a regular basis. Now that we were kicking up dust in hell, it was only a matter of time before someone with a big stick came to find out what we were doing.

But then… that was the crux of it once more. All our troubles previously had been Players. There were none down here - or at least, I hoped not.

Was the demonic royalty we had agreed to usurp just a dungeon, or a set of static figures we could go punch with our usual aplomb? I had the odd feeling in my stomach that they weren’t - that things were different down here in this space, for some reason.

“You look like you’re chewing something distasteful there, Max.” Ren gave me a brief smile before she resumed scowling at the darkened houses along our route.

“There’s a feeling like… we’ve stepped into something worse than it appears.”

Wolf groaned. “Don’t say that.”

A struggle more than just pulping demons until we could go back to the normal world. But what exactly?

“Don’t think too hard,” Ren continued. “We haven’t seen enough to really know much. Whatever it is, though, we’ll bullshit through it together.”

“Of course.” I smiled and some of my inner turmoil cooled. The three of us were more than capable of surviving this - out of anyone. I shouldn’t be so dour and hard on myself.

I raised my hand toward the back of Roger, and he flinched, despite not being able to see me. There were the wiggling worms of connective magical power I was getting used to. No need for me to be sad about not having my summons, when I realized that not only could I use Transposition with my pact demon, but also my cannon, and any one of these hounds.

Not as convenient as a sudden bird, perhaps - but I could still work tricks without a full deck. Just had to lean into the improvisation a little more. I hadn’t even gone a little crazy in fighting the crocs. Next combat, I would add some flair back into the mix and have fun.

Ren vanished from beside me, replaced by a white dove that looked rather surprised to be in hell. The elf was now on one of the rooftops, a crouched position atop dark tiling. Rifle up, she put her eye to the scope - looking out at the distance ahead of us.

“Good news and bad news,” she said, rather flatly.