Mazrar recoalesced in his safe-ware-house, lingering pain mirroring the stab from the moledragon's tail.

"We can't die die up there but it still hurts like aether." He dryly commented, leaning on a box marked "envy bombs"

"You said it." Rorthrezol agreed, circling his arm with a hand on where it had been severed.

Thoguzod dropped a minute later, covered in cracks and scrapes but barely showing it. "I lived, gits" he boasted, raising his hammer high.

"And our mage friend?" Mazrar asked with a faint shudder

"He stayed. Said somethin' about good mana. I got bored" Thoguzod answered, scratching the side of his head. "We did good, let's tell the small boss"

"That's 'im all right. Got his head in the blue clouds" Rorthrezol laughed calmly, making a spinning gesture near his forehead. Even as they all laughed about their absent ally, A twinge of worry ran through Mazrar's side. The imp mage was creepy from his casting to his chuckling, but none of his allies could deny how useful he was.

The imp trio gathered themselves and trooped out of their safehouse, blended into the wall of bleached-red rock. Thoguzod's arms flexed on the stone slab that served as a door, Mazrar and Rorthrezol ducking their heads to slip out the 3-foot hole in the wall. After all 3 imps were out it slid back into place with a scraping thud, leaving sulfur dust wooshing past the imps as they overlooked their town.

"Race you to ol' zir's!"

"No fair, you've got wings!" Shouted Rorthrezol, but Thoguzod was already off, shortness of his legs barely a hinderance as he threw himself over a rocky ledge. he sailed through the air, scraping his upper arm on the cobbles below and breaking into a laugh.

Mazrar however had him beat, wings giving him a clear advantage as he sailed down the hill, bunnyhopped off branches of bloodwood, and landed like a superhero in front of the dark metal door. He braced himself, grip on the knob tight, and pushed it open with considerable force.

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"Who's- oh, it's your four." Sighed a tall, dark-scaled demon, horns curling back around his head. A smaller, still darkscaled imp seemed to be meditating off to the side, waving a greeting to Mazrar.

"Zir and Zyl! buddies! didja miss your numba one agent?" Mazrar gestured outwards in a display of mock welcoming. Zirzemoth sighed, leaning forward.

"Back to delay another payment?" He ordered, eyes narrowing- until they saw the spear of crimson and black in mazrar's hands.

The cocky imp flourished, exaggerated gesture towards a polished black hexagon of a gem on his boss's desk "Nope! This boy's back to pay it all off. I got your mana riight here. Check your kill crysta."

Zirzemoth turned his ashy-coloured eyes towards the gem, sitting on a stand of thin gold struts. creatures flashed past- a mole, a talpid, another mole; and with them, identifiers. a quick-changing one of name of the imp who had felled the beast, and a merely pulsing one indicating that imp's crew. And of course, all signs pointed to mazrar and company's victory

"Tell me how you idiots did this." Zirzemoth demanded. His outer shell of command was slipping, revealing the first hint of fear in his voice as the kill feed rose up the ranks, ending on the moledragon's ugly face. Mazrar began to explain something, when Zirzemoth cut him off. "Correction, tell me why you idiots did this."

"We found a cool dungeon lady. Offered us those bound weapons you dangled infront of our faces for weeks. So, we helped her bump off a ton of mol-"

"That mole dungeon was his personal project." Zirzemoth hissed. "Rargrareg is going to kill you with his own four hands."

"Woah woah woah, 's not like we started it!" Mazar protested, arms raised innocently. "Miss dungeon boss told us to. And she's pretty persuasive."

"It'll cost me my rank, but you've brought in enough souls for me to go solo. As you four are officially unemployed, I suggest you start running..." Zirzemoth advised with odd sanity.

"You wanna come with us?" Mazrar offered sarcastically. "The new boss is cool, plus i'd hate to see one like you get chewed up down here"

"I'll consider it. Julgas and Jorzmor are fairly lax about treatment, but this will work in my favor if I break contract with them first." Zirzemoth explained, evil gleam flashing in his eye. "And it means I get to keep my contract with you."

Mazrar sighed as he realized what this meant. "You'll be getting the souls i catch and a share of the mana I harvest." He droned. "Hope Scarlet treats ya better than you treated me."

"You're coming with me to J and J's. and then, you're going to let her summon you and bring me along with you. Got it?" Zirzemoth ordered, wicked grin plastering itself on his crocodilian head.

Mazrar sighed. "Really screwed the gehena on this one, but I got it."