Regardless of the outcome, Owin was excited to see what Suta would do. The familiar seemed focused. He muttered to himself and chittered regularly while hopping about. Tubeworms weren’t difficult to find on the seventh floor. Just about everywhere he went, he ran into a smoke spewing vent with a cluster of the weird creatures at the base.

They passed on two different mobs because they were too close together. With the way they spit lava, Owin wanted to give Suta a fair chance at fighting, and getting hit in the back of the head with molten rock didn’t feel fair.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Owin asked.

Suta lifted his fists.

The tubeworms were barely visible in the dark cloud of smoke. Their red bud-like heads opened and closed, sometimes letting out a belch of lava. The cluster was about ten worms from what Owin could see. Was it ten separate worms or was the whole bunch of them a single worm? He hadn’t figured that out, and he had a feeling Suta also didn’t know the answer.

Suta jabbed nothing a few times as he hopped between his feet. “Easy.”

“I hope so,” Owin whispered.

Suta looked back. “Easy.”

Owin nodded.

The familiar dove into the fight, immediately drawing the mob’s attention. The worm heads turned, opened, and launched lava at Suta. Luckily, the little demon was smart enough to dodge and use the opening to strike. Suta’s punch had enough power behind it to cause the water around him to ripple, but his fist smashed into the white flesh of the tubeworm with no visible damage.

Suta leapt over the cluster as more lava spewed from the cluster, landed, and threw a combination of punches that would have absolutely destroyed Owin only a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the seventh floor was on a different power level than anything they had fought before.

One of the tubeworms smacked into Suta. He flipped over, landed on his feet, and had to immediately leap again to dodge the incoming lava. Suta tried another series of attacks until the mobs forced him to dodge each time. Eventually, he made his way back to Owin, out of range of the worms.

The familiar didn’t look at Owin while he stood to the side. He stared at the ground and let his arms hang loose at his sides. “Weak.”

“Not weak.” Owin stood in front of Suta and opened his own index, letting it shine in front of his eyes. “Open your spells.”

Suta’s index appeared.

“What spells do you have that are less than Power 6 that could help you with punching?”

The familiar’s eyes flicked up to Owin’s as his index disappeared. “Boon from Vile Fiend.”

“If the boon was enough, you would’ve killed that mob.”

Suta’s index opened again. “Boon boosts spells.”

“Oh. It sounds like the Vile Fiend also wants you to use spells.”

“Summon?”

“What?”

Suta pointed at the ground beside them. “Summon.” Abyssal flames formed in a circle, lighting up the dark smoke cloud.

“You can summon demons?” Owin asked. He tried getting close enough to look into the Abyss, but multiple arms appeared before he could see inside.

Thalgodin, the multi-armed neural demon, climbed out. He was laughing before he even fully manifested. The tall demon took a deep breath, pulling black smoke in through his nose. “Now, this is freedom.”

Master Demon

Thalgodin - 100% Manifested

Summon of Suta

Level 65

Thalgodin stretched, extending his double sided axe. He left the swords sheathed at his hip and slowly looked at everything surrounding them. When he finally looked at Suta, he squatted in front of the small familiar.

“Suta. You summoned me,”

The familiar chittered.

“Hm.” Thalgodin looked past Suta at Owin. “This is your doing?”

“I’m just trying to help him use his spells. We split up from Myrsvai.”

Thalgodin placed a hand on Suta’s head. “This is a step forward, but you are as strong as I am, little one. It will be an honor to fight beside you once again when you fight with your true strength.”

Suta seemed to slump over again even as he lifted his fists.

“No.” Thalgodin gently pushed Suta’s fists back down. “You’re a magus.”

Suta shook his head.

“Myrsvai wants you to use magic. You can keep him safe through such means. Fists are powerful. Your magic is stronger.” Thalgodin looked at Owin. “Where is something to fight?”

Owin pointed at the cluster of tubeworms Suta had been fighting.

Thalgodin turned Suta to face the worms. “Use Abyssal Blast.”

Suta shook his head.

“If Myrsvai stood in front of you when you used that spell, he would be unharmed. When bound, your spells are nearly harmless to one another.”

Suta stared at the worms and grabbed his left arm, which he let hang.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Thalgodin stood to his full height and stretched out his arms and his wings. “Hit me with the spell. Demons are weak to abyssal, but not to our master’s spells.”

Suta looked over his shoulder at Owin, who nodded.

This was all new information for Owin, but there was no reason Thalgodin would lie. What would the demon gain from being murdered?

Suta pointed his finger at Thalgodin. Owin tensed. Suta shook his head and let his arm fall back down. “No magic.”

“You used magic to summon me, and that’s something only a powerful familiar can do. Do you want to topple Elysium with me?”

Suta nodded.

Did he? Owin had never heard Suta or Myrsvai say much of anything about Elysium. Was there a way to topple it? If there was, Owin would try to join. There would be a lot of cathkabel to eat.

“Either send me back to the Abyss or use your magic.” Thalgodin stared straight at Suta and used one of his many arms to point at his chest. “Hit me.”

Suta lifted his arm again, pointing with one clawed finger. Abyssal fire spun at the end of his claw before condensing into a single small violet ball. Suta closed his eyes and released the Abyssal Blast. The spell shot through the water and hit Thalgodin directly in the chest. The demon laughed a deep, echoing laugh as the abyssal fire turned into violet lightning that spread across his torso and shot down his arms. Suta opened his eyes to see the grinning demon.

“Now, the creature.” Thalgodin pointed one of his arms at the tubeworm cluster.

Suta looked back at Owin again.

“You can do it.” Owin stepped beside Suta and pulled his Arcane Blast wand from his belt. “I’ll do it at the same time.”

Suta formed the spell on the tip of his finger again.

“Arcane Blast,” Owin said. The purple spell swirled into existence at the end of the wand. Suta launched his spell at the same time.

Arcane Blast was a good spell, but it wasn’t strong enough to kill the tubeworms in one shot. Not on the seventh floor. His wands weren’t going to be more than just a little useful now, other than Magma Mine, which always felt strong.

Suta’s spell punched a hole straight through, spraying abyssal fire and worm blood into the water behind the cluster.

***

50 Experience

Myrsvai gently smacked Shade in the head with his staff. “It worked.”

The skeleton grabbed his skull. “My concussion worked? Wait, you need a brain for a concussion. What do I have?”

“I just received experience and he drained some of my mana.”

Shade pulled his head off, shook it, and slammed it back down on his spine. “This is exciting stuff. Does that mean we can go find Owin? Not that you’re not entertaining, but as soon as you started talking about the ethics of the hero lifestyle, I stopped listening.”

“I could tell.”

“And you kept going?”

Myrsvai smiled. “It kept you quiet.”

Shade nodded slowly and readjusted his scarf. “I understand. Where’s a worm? If Suta can kill one, I can kill one too.”

“I don’t believe you can, Shade.”

“If Owin would hurry up and find more bones . . .” He continued grumbling as he stumbled through the black smoke. They were only a few feet from the boundary wall, using it to guide them deeper into the seventh floor. It didn’t appear any safer than the path they had been following earlier, but without a consistent, easy way to see what was ahead, having the guiding wall was beneficial.

“Can’t you see in the smoke?” Myrsvai asked.

“I can’t see anything. I don’t have eyes and Owin wouldn’t let me pluck the eyes from anything to see if they fit.” Shade stuck his own fingers in his eye sockets. “Imagine some silver cathkabel eyes popping out of here.”

“They wouldn’t do anything.”

“Making me more attractive is ‘doing something,’ but I understand what you’re saying. They wouldn’t help my vision, but it’s not like cathkabel can actually see specters.” The skeleton wobbled as he nearly tripped over a rock.

“Wait, repeat that.”

“I’m trying to be sexy, Myrsvai.”

“Not that, Shade. What about the cathkabel?”

The skeleton spun on one foot to face Myrsvai and cocked his head. “The cathkabel thing? I thought you were the expert. The scholar, the genius, the . . . I was going to say chef, but it didn’t seem right.”

Myrsvai used his staff to guide Shade forward. “I know a lot of things, but you always seem to know something I don’t. Use this opportunity to teach me.”

“It’s like a blur. Imagine your eyes, which I don’t have, are really squinted. Almost closed, but not all the way so everything is blurry. It’s like that, I think. It has been a few centuries, at least, since I was last able to squint.” The skeleton’s eye sockets narrowed. “This doesn’t do anything except make it look like I need the toilet.”

Myrsvai released an Abyssal Barrage, killing a tubeworm cluster. He guided Shade directly past the mob without drawing any attention. If Shade tried to fight the worms, he would die and Myrsvai would be on his own. He could find Suta with their connection, but it would take some time. And unlike Owin and Shade, Myrsvai couldn’t immediately summon Suta if something happened.

If they were close and Suta was uninjured, the cooldown was shorter. At this distance, and not knowing Suta’s health, the cooldown would be at least a few minutes, if not an hour or more.

“Cathkabel can’t properly see specters?”

“That’s what I said. If they looked at me, they would think ‘Wow, that is a blurry rectangle.’ They might think other things too, but I have to assume something similar would cross their minds. They always know a specter is there, of course. Nothing else makes a small part of your vision blurry. It does help when they try to stab me.”

“Is it just cathkabel?”

Shade shrugged. “Suta can see me and the Vile Fiend could see me fine, so I assume demons don’t have any issues. Well, issues with that. They clearly have some other issues, but I’m not one to judge out loud.”

Myrsvai continued guiding the skeleton along the boundary wall. He killed any tubeworms they had to pass, but made no effort to explore. Shade’s information bounced around in his head as he tried to think of ways to use that information. Would armor made from specter remains have the same benefit? Owin had earned the animosity of the cathkabel, and each of his actions only seemed to increase their hatred of the little goblin. They would make more moves to stop his advance anytime he was in a cathkabel area, and if he fought a mender that was able to summon a cathkabel, there could be some serious trouble.

“You know so much more than you ever let on,” Myrsvai said.

Shade casually pointed up. “Lots going on in this skull. Memories have a way of reforming, even when they have been completely obliterated. If we can get another bone, I might even start to remember my own name. Was it Geoffrey?”

“Where did you get that name?”

“I made it up.” Shade walked to Myrsvai’s other side and put his arm over his shoulder, letting his gloved hand hang by Myrsvai’s face. “Look at us. A couple of geniuses out on an adventure to inspire the youth of today.”

“Suta is far from a youth, and Owin is likely older than both of us combined.”

“Inspiring the youth. Who would’ve thought? Not me. I wouldn’t have thought.”

Myrsvai sighed. “Maybe we can find the wandering boss or chest guardian before Owin. Keep up.”

Shade forced his wrist into an impossible position and tapped Myrsvai’s cheek with his gloved fingers. “Keep up? I’m attached to you.”

“I’m trying not to kill you, but you’re making it difficult.”

“Kill, kill, kill. That’s all you heroes think about. Do you know what I think about?”

“Yes, Shade. You think out loud. You’re constantly talking.”

The skeleton tapped Myrsvai’s cheek again.

Something tapped nearby, like a creature skittering away.

“Shh,” Myrsvai said. He turned, looking into the smoke.

Shade whipped his head around, nearly turning it in a full circle. “I don’t see anything.”

Hydrothermal vents rumbled all around them, releasing smoke and heat. The air he breathed in reeked of sulfur.

Something skittered again.

“Be ready, Shade.”

“Ready? What am I going to do?” Shade continued poking Myrsvai’s cheek even as he rotated his head back and forth.