Miho

The tower was on fire.

The support pillar in the centre of the skyscraper was still channelling a gout of flame, the metal no doubt having grown red hot since. The walls bordering it burned to the touch and what little paint remained was rapidly peeling off while the plaster cracked, and dry paper and other flammables left in the decrepit desks were spontaneously combusting into small wildfires all around us. The stairs were doable despite their vicinity to the pillar, but only for a floor or two before the heat started to deal significant damage.

The floors were falling apart too, but in a scripted fashion. The ceiling gave out in large chunks that created new ramps to the next floor and blockades crumbled to clear a path, ensuring that we didn’t have to comb the entire floor for the way up with the ghouls hot on our trail. Meanwhile things were falling apart and dropping from the ceiling all around us, littering the place further.

It was all quite dramatic, and I was none too fond of it. Especially as I was currently unable to fly.

Well, I could. But it was most inadvisable. My only two flying forms were the Vespa and the Serentile Harpy. The Vespa was apparently rather vulnerable to fire according to the experience of the others, that would’ve been nice to know a floor ago, and I had yet to eat a full harpy. All of this was not a good situation for me to learn the ropes navigating that body.

So I instead draped myself around Elise’s neck as she flew up, Alexa standing on her shoulder while using the tip of my tail to hold on. Elise wasn’t holding back much, floating as fast as she could without leaving Thomas behind.

It was pleasant to be in this form again, my Mandibran mind not making my thoughts slow and simple like the other ones. Not to mention, the smoke and chaos would no doubt send me in a panic with my arbitrarily more bestial intelligence. I already intended to grind my snake skills some more, and the situation lent itself well for it.

Three ghouls appeared as Elise flew up a hole in the ceiling to the 38th floor, and I intently glared at the one to the left. My mana diminished some and my head began to sway by itself as my Hypnotic Gaze did its thing, the ghoul stopping its charge and staring at me slack-jawed.

The fascination broke as Elise gored the first ghoul and obscured my sight with a huge splatter of blood, the lack of sight immediately allowing the ghoul to break the spell. It didn’t matter, I managed to split the encounter into two easier to digest ones.

Elise kicked the second ghoul in the side of his knee so hard that his leg broke, and struck at the third ghoul as he joined the fray. Alexa began to pelt the crippled ghoul with her Mana Bubble, while making some comments that were quite rude and uncalled for. She diminished his health a bit before Elise finished him off.

“Good job, everyone. Ben is just two floors behind us, and in no danger. Or so he says.” Thomas calmly said as he crawled out of the hole below us, and began to spin his silk into a makeshift rope for Ben to crawl up later.

“The ghouls?” Elise asked, looking around for the next hole up.

“I estimate they are on the 20-25th floor now, though I have too few points of reference to be confident about this.” Thomas said, equally not deigning to make eye contact as he walked to the most nearby wall to climb up on to reach the ceiling.

“Shit, they’re gaining on us.” Elise said in a flat tone, still looking for a way up.

“Not necessarily, only worst case scenario. And even then it’s slowly.” Thomas said. Elise was about to say something when he quickly added something to the statement. “Although it is indeed prudent to assume the worst.”

“You’re both so calm, so collected.” I said.

“Panic adds nothing beneficial to this situation.” Thomas shrugged.

“And I’m too fucking tired to waste energy like that.” Elise said just as flatly. Her eyes did look kind of hollow, now that she mentioned it.

“I’m just sitting on someone’s shoulder, watching everything happen.” Alexa said. “I was psyched before, but nothing is really happening.”

“Yet.” Elise darkly said, before pointing to a hole in the ceiling. “Over there.”

Thomas: Five-minute check in.

Darryl: Still fine.

Thomas: Same.

They were going about this so collected, and Thomas never even forgot to PM Darryl in all of this. I really felt out of my league here.

“But we’ll be fine, right? We can make it to the top before the ghouls catch up?” I asked.

“Yes.” Thomas said. “Whether we can reach the top in time and defeat the bosses on our way without being delayed for too long, though…”

“Oh.” I said. “Fuck.”

“And there’s the fifth fucking shoe, dropping right on cue.” Elise spat. “Even assuming we can beat those damned bosses somehow, the ghouls will pour in and eat us all alive halfway. Lovely.”

“We’ll try to avoid fighting the bosses if at all possible. The harpy queen and the worg are the only two with flight, and the harpy has quite the wingspan needing room to fly. I think we can avoid fighting all but the worg if we can break the floor they’re standing on.” Thomas said.

“Maybe we’re lucky and their own weight breaks all the floors as they fall!” Alexa said excitedly. “They’ll fall all the way to the bottom and die! That still counts as us killing them, right?”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Livia: It would, yes. But avoid them if possible, first.

“Urgh. Yes, mom. I won’t get more levels and views, if you so insist.”

“More views won’t help much if we don’t survive.” I said. “And by the way, how does Azriel factor into all of this?”

The others were silent for a moment.

“Oh fuck, I completely forgot about him.” Elise said.

“Me too. Yes, I can only assume that he is going to complicate matters some.” Thomas said. “And with his boots, we can’t just break the floor beneath him to resolve his presence.”

“Problems for later.” Elise said. “Let’s just keep going up for now.”

___       ___       ___       ___

Azriel

The large creature finally emerged from the pillar which it had been climbing, having taken a long time despite its remarkably fast pace. My halfwit companion Birdguy fortunately hadn’t given himself away during that time, and of course I remained undetectable for as long as I desired.

As the monster appeared, I saw that it was most certainly worth the wait. He had the outwards appearance of a ghoul, but his eyes were cunning and perceptive, his body was too large and honed, and the power wafting off his skin too hot and pressing to be a mere ghoul.

So, this was the demon that had been corrupting these ghouls. Well, not corrupting them, more that he had been further despoiling already sinful abominations. Semantics. It didn’t matter, I was going to cut him down for existing regardless.

The demon walked over to the worg and patted its head. The worg didn’t seem too pleased by it, and the demon’s words of ‘Who’s a good boy?’ were hollow and rehearsed. A shallow mimicry of a fiend pretending to be one of the Children of the Light. Sickening.

“Why’s the big guy doing that?” The Tanarruk whispered to the goblin.

“They say that’s the source of the boss’s powers. His god chose him because he’s got a dog with connections to some eldritch being or something. The two of them act like owner and pet for more power.” The goblin whispered back. “They’re clearly nuts, but it works.”

The tanarruk nodded knowingly. “I’s bigger than mine, thus I’s leader. He’s bigger than I is, so he leader. Even if crazy. And is nice strong dog, no little puppy. Is good pet.”

“Enough gossiping out of you two.” The demon said, turning away from the worg to look at the rest of them. “Let’s get to business.”

“About time.” The Harpy Queen whistled. “The sooner you stop spraying smoke into the air, the better. My nest is going to smell like a chainsmoker’s den for months now.”

“Then it’s a good thing that you won’t be sitting in your nest a lot. We’re going to be busy.”

The four lesser evils eagerly leaned in with toothy grins as the demon said this, anticipation dripping off of them.

“So, we’re finally going to do it then, huh?” The Harpy Queen whistled. “Form a horde and destroy West Creek Town? Take it for ourselves?”

“No. We’re going to take the whole crater. West Creek Town is just the beginning.” The demon said, the evil smiles around him growing wider. “The Skyfowl have grown complacent and the people weak. They are a crumbling nation, relying on their former glory and the mighty empire of the two floors below that are doing even worse than us. They can keep their people in order, barely, but their lands are ripe for the taking. We’ll spread out like a tide, absorbing the other factions of outcasts and villains, and take this whole damned country!”

I scoffed. These villains were fools. When a ghoul spread their curse like a plague, he had no living allies. He only had puppets to send in against the clerics and others with suitable powers to fight the undead, to be spent like kindling and consumed once they were no longer needed.

They were too stupid to see it. Misled by this demon’s words, and his promises that things were different this time. I would’ve left them to experience this betrayal for themselves, if they wouldn’t reap countless innocent lives before turning on each other.

“Right. Much fighting good!” The Tanarruk said.

“Remember our deal, though!” The goblin postured. “When we absorb the other goblin tribes, I’m their leader! You support my ascension to top chief!”

The demon glared down at the tiny green gremlin, scorn and disgust on his face. “I wouldn’t know about that. You get what you deserve, what you earn. If you can subjugate the other tribes, then by all means. I’ll support you wholeheartedly. But a chief who just lost a third of his tribe merely entering a tower shouldn’t be throwing around demands.”

The goblin scowled in indignation and fury but curled in on itself submissively as the demon towered over him. The harpy rasped out a laugh and the worg grinned widely.

“Ha! Shows that you’s and you cowardly sneakies are weak!” The tanarruk bellowed a laugh. “Me lose few to none! We’s strong!”

“You haven’t even fought, you idiot!” The goblin hissed. “Your men would’ve died just as easily to those bombs that came out of nowhere, and you’ve slain precisely zero of these pesky adventurers! None! Zero! Even you should be able to count that far! Meanwhile my men killed two, one of which had the power to throw around massive fireballs and strange mustard jelly!”

“And ten of your tribesmen died for each of them.” The harpy whistled before the angered tanarruk could say something. “Despite your numbers, range and oh so boasted stealth skills. Those numbers don’t quite impress, whether you can count that far or not.”

“Enough.” The demon barked as the bickering was about to continue. The others grew silent, albeit reluctantly. “We’re not here to posture and complain, but to discuss how we’ll start our conquest.”

“Yes. About that.” The harpy queen whistled. “While I don’t think we need their numbers, our plans included Oiger and his fanatics. Yet I cannot help but notice a distinct lack of preaching.”

“I… Do not know where their envoy is.” The demon reluctantly said. “Araman was supposed to have arrived by now, but we’ve only seen a few of his cultists running around lost and alone. The squirrels got those few before we did.”

I smiled. I knew where their env-

My smile turned into a grimace when I remembered that filthy kill-stealer. I shook my head clear; I shouldn’t let anger cloud my mind right now.

“Ha! Killed by squirrels?” The tanarruk laughed. “Why we even need weaklings like that? Them gone is good thing, I say!”

“They served a purpose that none of us can do ourselves.” The goblin spat to the side. “Mingle with the town-dwellers. Get info. Sow dissent. Open locked doors from the inside. It would’ve been… easier, if they were here.”

“They’ve been preaching that the end is drawing near more loudly and frequently.” The harpy whistled. “There isn’t a kernel of truth in their madness, I hope? An invasion at the end of the world would be most poorly timed.”

“Nonsense.” The demon dismissed her. “They have been preaching that the end is nigh for centuries now, and rarely have they been right.”

I frowned and made a mental note of that titbit of information. Araman’s shield was more powerful than expected, such an increase of power would make sense when their foul demigod was stirring awake. If this was true, it was of utmost importance that I looked further into the cult.

These guys on the other hand no longer served a purpose. The demon brought them back to the logistics of the invasion, turning them from a bickering gossip group to a war council. And I had no interest in their marching plans. There would be no marching when their leaders were dead, after all.

I weighed my odds. I would have to take one of them out of the fight before they even knew I was here, if I wanted to win. The demon was the best choice, but something told me I wasn’t going to take him out in one strike without gathering power and giving away my position. And the worg was in a poor position to pounce on.

The goblin didn’t strike me as someone dangerous, not in a direct fight at least. The tanarruk was my preferred option, there was no honour lost in stabbing a demon in the back. Thinned blood or not, morally he was the preferred choice.

But my eyes trained themselves on the harpy. Flight and skirmishing could be a nuisance in this fight, where the others were close combat one and all.

The five villains stopped talking and looked over to the stairways as a group of figures appeared, and in that moment I drew my blade and slashed.