This is bad.

  Yep.

  Jay's mind felt dull, emotionless, as he plodded onwards. His chain was nearly broken, and he assumed the others' were as well, given their expressionless faces. "This should be the caster," Jay said.

  Neither of the two responded, seeming to ignore him. Jay knew they had heard. He would have wanted to put on at least a semblance of speed to get up the stairs they were on, but he simply couldn't care. There was nothing telling him to go faster. Taking his time was fine. The stairs seemed infinite, but he didn't care. Looking up, he saw the doors to the topmost room visible. They walked over to it, opening the door.

  They entered a relatively well-lit room, magical lights everywhere. He felt a foreign power controlling the area and pushed back, creating a bubble of space for them. There was a desk in the center of the room, with a demon sitting on the other side of it. He had horns and red skin, with completely black eyes. The demon seemed to be waiting for them to sit. The three of them sat, lacking both confidence in their own skills and trustingness, but also lacking distrust. The demon spoke up, looking at their blank faces. "Is my black mist affecting you? That's my Fluffy, good boy!"

  Jay and the rest of the group ignored him. "Turn off the mist," Jay said, getting straight to the point.

  "And why should I do that? I get lots of energy from Fluffy!"

  Jay thought for a moment. Really, why should he do it? Then he alighted on the answer. "Because it's attacking my chain."

  The demon shrugged. "That isn't my problem."

  Jay stared at him expressionlessly. That didn't warrant a response, though he did hear Amon speak in his mind. If that isn't your problem, your life isn't my problem! Say it! Say it!

  Jay didn't crack a smile. He didn't do that anymore. Happy, he meant. That wasn't something he did anymore. The demon spoke again. "Let's make a deal. Tell me how time works, and I'll release the mist."

  "Why do you want to know?", Jay asked, not curious, but knowing he needed the answer for later.

  "Us demons... we don't understand time. It's a concept we cannot comprehend. So I want to learn. Then I can monopolize time magic among us demons. It seems quite useful."

  Jay nodded. "Sure."

  Millie didn't seem to care, and neither did Xera, but they didn't care about anything right now. There was no reason to. The demon smiled, snapping his fingers. "I released the mist."

  Jay didn't feel any different, and he checked his chains. The mist was still there. Coming back, he raised an eyebrow. "It's still there."

  "It's no longer under my control, which I released it from."

  Jay shrugged. "What do you want to eradicate the mist from existence and never bring it back, or anything similar to it?"

  The demon thought for a second, probably thinking of a loophole. When he didn't find one, the demon answered. "I want a demonstration of each of the four energies."

  Jay nodded. The demon hadn't asked about Mana, which was a point in the favor of 'Mana is artificial', the column started by Diamond. "Agreed. I can do both of those things here."

  "So, time first," the demon said, wringing his hands.

  Jay gathered his thoughts for a second. More memories streamed in, but he didn't care. They were just information he could use to help tell the demon what time was. "Time is eternal. It has lasted since forever, and will last till forever. Without it, nothing happens. There will be no energy, nothing will move, nothing will talk, nothing will truly exist. It is... sort of an activator for every form of energy. Beings which don't have the concept of time are simply living without thinking much about time. Time affects everything and everyone. Very few people can bend time. Those that can must be incredibly careful or they will kill themselves. They cannot stop time indefinitely. They cannot reverse time-it does not deign to go back. Fastforwarding time is much easier, but it has a lot of side effects as well."

  He stopped to take a breath, the demon leaning forward, intently listening. "Go on."

  "Time does not have units of its own. Some species separate time into years, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, and sometimes even smaller measurements and larger measurements. They do not always use these terms or the same amounts of time. Time is hard to comprehend, and harder to wield."

  "True. That coincides with what I've heard of time in this world."

  "That also concludes my explanation, as there are infinite smaller details you can look at. I will not go through all fo them."

  The demon nodded. "Since your goods are the real deal, I will remove the black mist now."

  Jay looked in his head and watched the mist flow off his chain, condensing in the demon's palm. He felt the chain suddenly start knitting itself back together. "I'll fix that for you, sir!," The demon said, waving a hand at them. Jay felt his chain heal completely.

  Gasping, he fell to the floor. The reintroduction of emotions was hard to deal with, his mind overloading in a single moment before he got himself under control once again. "Thank you for that. It's nice to have emotions again," Jay said, slowly standing.

  "Yes. It was a pleasure. Now, can you demonstrate the energies?"

  Jay nodded, grabbing the energies inside of himself. As seen in his memories, he pulled strands of each out. His Will threatened to escape, only held in place by his mind. His Voice ebbed and flowed as his emotions shifted. His Note seemed to create music as it moved. His Dominion stayed certain, unmoving, just as his control over himself was.

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  "These are the four energies you asked about." Jay pointed to them, telling the demon what each one was. "Will. Voice. Note. Dominion."

  The demon nodded, examining them. Then he nodded. "That's enough. I can see their natures through examining them."

  Jay nodded, pulling the energies back. Then he had Amon release a thin strand of his soul, and released a wisp of Mana. The demon raised an eyebrow, interested. Jay smiled. "In the interest of good faith, these are two other energies I have access to. Keep in mind, most people only have access to one of the energies, and I believe I'm the only one who can use this." He pointed to his soul.

  The demon nodded, staring at them, intent. "Is this... a piece of your soul?," He asked, pointing at the strand Jay had out. Surprised, Jay nodded.

  "How'd you know?"

  "I can feel what makes you in the strand. It's impossible to tell, unless you're both skilled, have certain abilities, and have the chance to examine a piece of this."

  The demon turned to the wisp of Mana. "This... seems artificial. It has the powers of all the energies you released, but... it's far weaker than all of them. It seems to be based on the concept of change, but it's far too stunted for that purpose... there may be a real energy of change, but this isn't it."

  Jay nodded, intrigued. "So, we need to leave now," he said, turning to Millie and Xera. Both of them had their hands on their heads, probably trying to deal with their recently reclaimed emotions. "Please don't attack our people anymore."

  The demon nodded. "I was just doing it because the king told me to. Most of our kind doesn't like you, but I don't care. We envy the magic you have, but we have magic of our own, so why should we? Can I run around in this world with you for a little while?"

  Jay shrugged. "You seem nice enough. However, if you backstab us, there are scarier people waiting."

  The demon smiled. "So that's a deal."

  "Yep!," Jay said, smiling.

  He held out a hand, which the demon tentatively grasped. "What am I supposed to do?," the demon asked.

  Jay shook his hand up and down. The demon's hand acted like a limp noodle, flailing up and down. "You're supposed to shake it. It's a custom of ours to seal deals."

  The demon looked at his hand, confused. "What does shaking someone's hand accomplish?"

  Jay shrugged. "I don't know. It's really dumb, just like most customs we have."

  The demon nodded. "We also have customs like that. Every time we eat vegetables, it's a custom to sharpen them to points. But why? I don't know."

  Jay nodded. "We're on a mission here, by the way. We need to remove all of the people from an organization who are currently in this area. My country is at war with them. They may have demons with them. Are you okay with killing your own people?"

  The demon shrugged. "We war all the time. And what's a demon?"

  "We generally consider species that look like yours 'demons' or 'devils'."

  "Huh. We call ourselves Zarlans. So that's why they've been calling me demon all this time. I learned your kind is called 'human', is that right?"

  "Yes," Jay said, nodding. "So, what's your name?"

  "Ah!," the Zarlan said. "So I see names are constant among us. I am Striaster. Some of your people know me as the 'business demon' because I thought demon sounded cool, and wanted to make a spinoff of it."

  "Huh. Cool! My name's Jay. That's Millie, and this is Xera," Jay said, pointing at Millie and Xera, in turn.

  "So, let's go take out these organization people and have fun while doing it! What say you?"

  "I think I like your train of thought," Jay said, smiling at the demon.

  Millie and Xera finally finished looking through their emotions, once again conscious and aware of the world around them. Jay turned to them. "So Striaster here's going to be going with us to take out the Metallics in the area. He's a pretty fun Zarlan, and I think this'll be a great partnership!"

  Millie poked him in the chest. "Explain."

  "Gladly."

  Astaroth, named after a great demon of old, stared at the scrying glass he had. All the cults were simply gone? Destroyed by a group of three people? And now that defect Striaster had joined them as well? The demons and their servants, who called themselves part of the Metallic Council, apparently, would have to get ready to meet them. He, himself, would go into battle, which he hadn't done for the past century. No threat had warranted it. He stretched his body, shaping himself into his usual form. A winged black body emerged, twin horns poking out of the head. Only the eyes had a different color, a deep purple that almost seemed to pull people in to its depths.

  Striding out of his room, he casually grabbed a couple human prisoners with his mind, tearing off chunks of them as he went. Their screams pacified his soul. He chowed down on the torn flesh. Humans tasted pretty good. Probably his favorite food, as of now. He reached his destination. Two guards stood in front of the cell. He didn't know why they hadn't allowed demons to guard the cells-it would be far more efficient. The guards looked at the humans floating behind him, slowly dying. They ignored the pleads, not seeming to care. The eighth chain was easy enough to break, after all. Demons usually kept it whole, but there were no qualms about ripping it apart in humans.

  He pushed the guards aside, opening the door. Inside sat a man. The one known as the human 'king' of this country. "I feel like torturing you for information, so I'm here," Astaroth, barely managing to stop his cackle. The human king looked up, unblemished. He healed relatively quickly, at least. "I just want you to know-this Gemstone Council, whatever it is, isn't coming for you. They don't know about the doppleganger, or any of the elaborate traps we've set."

  The king suddenly smiled widely. "You don't know their capabilities. All I need to say is a single word, and I'll be out of here, but I don't want to bother him. So you have me for a bit longer."

  Astaroth internally fumed. This man was supposed to be angry and scared, to help generate more energy for them! Instead, he acted like he didn't feel pain, and ignored all of Astaroth's torture. And when Astaroth tried any inventive attacks, they didn't do much, either. Astaroth quickly formed claws because they were usually intimidating to humans, though the king didn't seem to care. "Here's news for you," Astaroth said, smiling cruelly. "You'll be executed today, in a couple hours. Let's see if the Gemstones come for you before then, old man."

  Turning his back, Astaroth walked away to the sound of the king's laughter, angrier than he had been before. He ripped another piece off the humans floating behind him, eating it. It was particularly tasty and Astaroth noticed it had been the heart. One of the screams suddenly stopped and Astaroth's mind filled with more rage. He walked through walls, taking the most direct path to one of the members of the so-called Metallic Council. If he could remember correctly, this one was called Lightsilver. His victim turned, bowing to his glory. "What may I do for you?"

  "The king said that the... Gemstone Council is coming to get him. He will be executed at noon today."

  "Of course. We don't have any use for him anymore, anyways."

  "Organize it. I will be there. We will see whether these... Gemstone Councilors will come to rescue him. I can watch the hopelessness in his eyes as he dies. Please create a particularly inventive way of death. Something interesting, if you will. Something that doesn't damage his flesh, because I've found it's tastier than normal human flesh."

  "Definitely."

  Astaroth noticed the rest of the screams behind him had stopped. He frowned. The humans hadn't come through the walls with him. They weren't even installed with ethereality charms? This society really was backwards. The demons would educate it, and then take over. Then they would have no need of their own, previous leadership and they could lounge in peace, and eat. Except Striaster, of course. He only ate vegetables, for some incomprehensible reason. And was interested in business. Astaroth shook his head. Striaster was weird and would die in the new world order they would bring. All would bend their knee before Astaroth.