Much to Zoe’s frustration, she had to wait for reinforcements to arrive. At least, that’s how Basil put it. She suspected that he just meant the Lich.

At first, she had wondered why the cultist could possibly need any help when he had the paladin completely restrained by a colossal monster straight out of a Lovecraft story. It soon became clear, however, that the creature wasn’t a mere puppet. Zoe surmised that when Basil had to repeatedly coax it into remaining above the surface and not dragging them all back into the depths.

A little bit later, it flicked a bunch of water into the cultist’s face, drenching him from head to toe. Judging by the his impotent rage, that wasn’t something that the cultist had intended. Of course, all of this just made Zoe even more curious. What actually was the ‘kraken’ and why was it cooperating?

Unfortunately, Basil wasn’t particularly willing to engage in any conversation with her. Zoe suspected that he just didn’t want to raise his voice to be heard from how high up he was.

As for the paladin herself, she had finally stopped struggling. Zoe didn’t assume that she had completely given up, though. She wouldn’t put it past her to have simply wised up to the method Zoe herself had previously used of conserving her strength for the opportune moment.

By the time the Lich finally arrived, Zoe was dead-certain that over an hour had passed. She didn’t mind all that much—she had just practiced with her new {Water Meditation} technique, bringing it up to level two. Despite the progress, she was still far from adequately smoothing out the turbulence in her channels.

Basil, on the other hand, was looking pretty damn aggravated. So much so that Zoe expected him to immediately launch into a fiery tirade. He surprised her by simply shooting his comrade a dirty look. “What took so long?”

Striding up to the waterline and only sending Zoe a cursory glance, the Lich just tilted their head. “Was it really so long? Surely you don’t mean to hold a little tardiness against one of such old bones as these.”

Allowing the kraken to finally sink deeper into the harbor, Basil coaxed it into extending the paladin-holding tentacle out to the lich while simultaneously hopping off and stretching like a cat woken from a long slumber. “I think you’ve just forgotten how time works for most of us.”

The lich just shrugged. “Could be.” Unbothered by the cultist chieftain’s irritation, the robed figure bent down over the paladin. From Zoe’s position seated on some large rocks, it was hard to tell what sort of expressions were passing between them. Well I mean, the lich just has that creepy mask, so…

In any case, the paladin didn’t speak. Finally, the lich straightened up to glance over at Zoe. “Our little demon did not lie. She really is a Paladin of Lux. Immortal realm, no less.”

“Yes, we can all see that,” Basil grumbled, doing his best and failing to resist rolling his eyes. “What now? And please don’t just say we’re going to kill her. If you made me wait around babysitting just for that—”

“Enough.” Dismissing the whining cultist with a lazy gesture, the lich strode over to Zoe, who rose to her own feet to greet them. She didn’t give any consideration to trying to run or preparing to fight. She was pretty sure neither would go very well for her.

“I think I’m more interested in our little demon,” the lich drawled. “Forgive me, but what did you say your name was?”

Zoe swallowed. She was pretty sure that she hadn’t given her name when she introduced herself—well, she couldn’t see a reason not too give it. After all, she had already decided to reveal herself to Basil, although since then she had sort of procrastinated doing so.

“Zoe.”

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“That doesn’t sound like a particularly demonic name,” the lich mused.

Basil narrowed his eyes. “No, it certainly does not.” He frowned, scanning Zoe from head to toe. Zoe got the sense that he wasn’t just looking at her—he was probably using some kind of ability. Granted, she didn’t detect any magic or anything like that. It was more like a regular impression—something she picked up on based on body language.

“You also have a path. At only level thirty-five, no less.” He glanced over to the lich. “Have you ever heard of a Growth Mage before?”

“No.”

“Hmm.”

Zoe just remained silent. While she kind of wanted to speak up, she was at a loss for what to say. She was about to just blurt out how she knew Basil from their first encounter when the cultist chieftain continued. “You weren’t always a demon, were you? You ascended.”

Hesitantly, Zoe nodded. “Yes.”

“Hmm, that’s odd,” the lich added in, “a demonic ascension before stage two? Isn’t that quite unusual?”

The cultist shrugged. “No, not really. Plenty of people have made rank C cores even below level thirty-three.” He rubbed his chin. “No, what’s puzzling is the quality. I would be shocked if hers was below rank B.”

Rank A, Zoe thought smugly—even though it was the cultist’s own work, not hers.

“And there’s the corruption, of course.” He squinted at Zoe—no, practically leered at her. “They normally don’t react so well to it.”

“Yes, you would know,” the lich remarked dryly. “Usually you just end up killing them. And that’s still better than when they live.”

Wordlessly, the cultist chieftain strode forward and placed his palm on Zoe’s chest. She looked down, eyes narrowed, magic at the ready. But she didn’t feel anything like when the paladin had tried to rip out her core. Still, haven’t you ever heard of personal space?

Pulling back, Basil glanced back at the lich. Then he looked back at Zoe. “You didn’t do this yourself, did you.”

Zoe hesitated, then shook her head. “No.”

Basil nodded and the lich tilted its head. “But why would a master invest so heavily in such an unproven apprentice? No one else researching the corruption would do such a thing.”

Basil furrowed his brow. “I don’t know. And whoever it was did a good job. Only my Rank A cores have reacted this well, and my attempts have been far more… conservative than this. The amount used here is ridiculously excessive. I’m amazed she can even talk.”

Wait, what? Now Zoe was confused. He’s the one who made my demon core—so how—oh. She quickly remembered the disastrous arena fight at the pirate camp. I already had a little bit of latent, contained corruption, but it only transformed me once I ate the other corrupted guy.

“And that’s not to mention that all of my prototypes were on a far smaller scale than a human model,” Basil was continuing. “Only the core I made for my own ascension would be capable of something like this.”

The lich chuckled. It was a weird sound. Zoe would have expected it to be creepy, but really it was just silly sounding. “Yes, the core that you invested everything in, only for some unawakened girl you tried to sacrifice to steal it from you and get away.”

Basil’s visage darkened with such intensity that a shiver of fear stabbed through Zoe’s gut. Maybe I shouldn’t tell him just yet… Although, it was seemingly increasingly likely that the other two would figure it out on their own through the course of the current conversation.

“I wonder what happened to her,” the lich mused. “It will be interesting when you inevitably run into her later.”

Basil shook his head. “I won’t. She was killed by another paladin before she could even reach the overworld. My core is probably in their goddamn treasury by now.” He turned to glare at the paladin resting on the ground. Zoe realized that she wasn’t even restrained anymore. Guess she doesn’t want to take the lich head on either.

“Hey you! I want my core back.”

The paladin just snorted in response. The other two turned back to face Zoe. “Okay, but we can just ask her,” the lich said, finally coming to the obvious strategy. “She’s literally right here. You. Who is your master?”

Zoe swallowed. “Uh, I don’t have one. I didn’t become a demon voluntarily.”

The lich tilted their head. “And you escaped?”

Zoe nodded. “Yes.”

The lich and the cultist shared a glance. “You know… I think you might be wrong about that girl who stole your core,” the lich hedged. “Maybe she gave the paladin the slip too.” The lich chuckled. “Was her name also Zoe, by any chance?”

Basil stared at Zoe intently. Then he shook his head. “It’s not possible. Even with a rank A core, she had only just awakened, and I left her alone in the same room as a stage two paladin. She’s dead.” He glanced back at Zoe. “And that’s good for her, because trust me, I would do far, far worse to her if I ever found her alive.”

Zoe narrowed her eyes. Despite the grandiosity of his words, she felt that the cultist was deadly serious.

“And besides,” Basil continued, shooting her a final look, “it’s been less than a month.” He scoffed. “Even with a rank A core…”

“No one goes from awakening to breaking through stage one in a single month.”