One thing Kaden deeply appreciated about Druids was that their Centurions had power—and used it. When he explained he’d wait his turn for the healing pool, Olidar had nearly choked. There wasn’t a healing pool. If they needed healing pools, the druids made them, something they said was Nature’s balance for them fighting Demons.

“You should know,” the pool attendant said, “This particular treatment isn’t standard. Most adventurers can’t afford it until level fifty. But you faced a level fifty, so it’s only right.”

Kaden sat in small, steaming pool surrounded by tall bladegrass, something Eve had insisted on, and Kaden didn’t begrudge her privacy as she shared a pool with Sara. “How did the city sweep go?”

“Did you know Vip can swim?” Eve asked. “It’s so cute! I just adore watching her. The sweep was easy. I was at the center of five Centurions. The demons came running, I hit them with [Life Transfusion] and one of the others obliterated them.”

Maybe Hated by Demons wasn’t such a bad title.

Sara had joined Eve in her pool, Kaden knew, but hadn’t spoken.

The steam made Kaden’s eyes itch, and oily colors played out across the surface of the water as Kaden relaxed. The pond was a natural healing potion, growing his health and mana, and functioned in a way that reminded Kaden of his Guardian of Life title.

The pool master had explained that old scars, wounds, and ‘negative energy’ would be drawn out by the additional treatment. Eve asked six times if it was done and six times been told she’d know when it was.

For now, Kaden stared at the reflection of stars through tree branches.

“Kaden Birch?” A man called from just outside his bladegrass wall. “I’m one of the chief [Tamers]. Olidar said you might want to talk.”

Something landed in the pool, a thin robe that absorbed the water.

Kaden slipped it on, because anyone who brought a robe cared if he wore one. “Come in.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want any of that on me. I forgot what it’s like to a have a body so impure.” A short pale man stepped in as the blade grass grew out and warped to make a space for him to sit. “Tanny Ren,” he said, offering his hand. “Beast Taming, that’s a [Taming] skill all right. How many taming slots do you have?”

“Three.”

“Ouch.” Tanny looked away. “That’s level one. Level two only requires taming one beast. Have you never used it?”

Kaden explained about how [Beast Master] skills worked differently. “I really thought—a friend—would wind up boosting something. She left.”

“Three. Hmmmm.” Tanny fell silent. “You can [Tame] and release, right?”

Kaden nodded. “I tamed a Winged Scorpion. It didn’t end well.”

“Stung you once? Or twice, before you let it go?”

The exact number of stings didn’t matter. “We parted ways. Have I mentioned how delicious scorpion steak is?”

“Tomorrow. When there aren’t Demons assaulting the Grove, come by the coral. We have half a dozen beasts of the sort you should use for training. Even if you can’t increase your skill level, you’ll know how it works. Tamers need to start building their herd!”

With [Beast Soul] coming, Kaden wanted it. Every beast he tamed would be one more which gave him abilities, and from [Beast Knowledge] he gathered that previous Beast Masters would tame ones that gave them abilities needed for a specific battle, then let them go.

“I want to build a herd. I own a zoo. It had people in it the last time I saw, but that could be fixed.”

Tanny nodded and offered Kaden his hand. “You’re coming to the feast? Olidar says it’s in your honor, but the signs still say ‘Late Summer Third Week Star Harvest.’”

Kaden wouldn’t. “We’ll see. I would prefer some quiet.”

“How did you not wind up here?” Tanny stood and motioned to the Blade Grass, which drew back like a curtain. “I swear, our recruiters are missing the mark. Beast skills, son of a ranger—”

“And a [Shadow Blade]. Dad spent years trying to work with me as a kid. Your recruiter woman spent days, and I’d bet you a gold piece I would have been a [Rogue] if the System hadn’t had other plans.” It didn’t hurt to say it anymore.

“I’ll ask Ravena. She should have gifted you—”

“No!” Kaden said. “I have nothing but respect for her. I’m grateful for the gift of time she gave. And that, really, is all.”

Kaden secretly suspected it would have resulted in a burned out skill slot just as all the [Rogue] skills had. And he didn’t think Ravena had forgotten his one—and only—foray into [Song Writing]. That skill was sworn off if not burned out. “Sara? Was there no other Grove?”

“There was, but this one had a Quest out,” Sara answered. “Plus I really want to see this Ravena. Given how attached you were—are—to Trella, I have to see this beauty who came between you.”

“She did not come between us.” Kaden was done with the bath, and plucked a white flower that grew beside the pool to summon the Bath Master.

He stomped through the Blade Grass. “Done already? I—you’re not done. Look at the water!”

Ribbons of black ink leaked up from Kaden’s skin, diffusing out into the pond. “What is this?”

“I told you. Back. Back in the water, all the way to the chin. You ‘ll know. We’re gong to make sure you recover.” He crossed his arms until Kaden sat back down, then made an ajustment to the enchantment. “You have Mana Dart? Let’s see one.”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Kaden drew a dart.

Since Trella’s death, they were opaque. Kaden focused on clarifying. On stilling his soul. And drew another dart. This was clearer, but nowhere near what he’d reached in Vichor. He focused on solidifying the dart, and produced a pea-sized sphere that shone. “It’s a been a hard few months.”

The Bath Master nodded. “Odd technique for solidifying Mana. That’s a [Mage] skill, not something other classes use. Still, whatever gets it moving. Cycle your Mana and let the pool draw out what it can.”

Kaden began to draw Mana through [Mana Dart]. Then he tried [Mana Spike], pouring mana into the mana spike, then dismissing it. The water went from clear to inky to solid black. The pool struggled, producing clear swirls that were immediately taken over by darkness.

But as minutes passed, under the criitical eye of the Bath Master, the water slowly changed to violet, then blue, and, over hours, clear. At last, the water receded to nothing. The healing pond flexed upward as grass grew in.

Kaden stood.

Lighter. Faster. Sad, but not drowning. He wrapped the wet robe around him, though it didn’t really stretch over his frame anymore. Twenty five attribute points had changed his body from the tall, thin man he’d been. He wasn’t a hulking giant like Mr. Dervish, but he wouldn’t call himself lean.

Kaden still had his plain tan clothing from ShadowVale, though the vest no longer fit. His white armor was being cleaned of the ichor spilled by Asmodeus’s eye. The notifications had worried him.

Asmodeus will remember you.

No idea what it meant for a demon lord to remember him, but Kaden didn’t expect it to be good. “You have shoes?”

“And lose our contact with the earth?” The Bath Master shook his head. “Your female friends had no issue adopting our style, even the snake lady.”

“Cosmic Horror, not snakes.” Kaden took a deep breath. Took a step, and found each one easier. “Thank you.”

“You’re the one who looked a Demon Lord in the eye at twenty three. Even if it was that dumb-ass Darmando. He got killed three hundred years ago by a team of level forty archers. When he shows up in a couple centuries, he’ll be stupid then, too.”

That Kaden believed. He thought of his tree space and the grass surged green under his bare feet. It brushed him, almost pulling him along. But it stopped at split in the path, as though the grass couldn’t decide which way it wanted to go.

Kaden summoned Trinity. “Girl, any idea which way?”

Trinity sniffed at the fork. All three heads looked right, even though the blind head couldn’t possibly see.

But when Kaden stepped right, he winced, even through [Fortress of Stone]. Behind him, the grass was soft, but going the ‘wrong’ direction was like walking through stickers. Kaden didn’t walk through stickers. He strolled, embracing the pain. If Trinity said right, it was right.

Twenty feet ahead, he recognized the tree space.

It was definitely a tree space.

Something tickled deep inside him, a feeling he knew. [Master of the House] was designed for use in his Holding, but a fragment of it went with him everywhere, and even here, in a Grove, far from home, it said something was wrong. Kaden summoned Vip. “Go get help. It’s an emergency.”

*So very fast.*

While he waited, he drew Rembrance, not taking his eyes off the space ahead. The itch that said something was off only grew deeper as moments passed. Again and again, the need to look away grew, but Kaden was the son of a [Shadow Blade]. The lover of one. He’d been fooled by illusions too many times.

This one shifted side to side, begging Kaden to focus on one or the other. Instead, he let the his awareness relax, open, present. There was no question this was a trap, the question was what? And why?

“Kaden?” Eve called.

“I was hoping Sara was with you. [Gaze of the Ancients] reveals illusions, right?” Kaden focused with every moment. “There’s something wrong here.”

Eve’s quiet gasp accompanied her hand on his shoulder. “Back away. Sara! Tsivi! Olidar—”

[Split Second] activated, drawing more mana than it ever had before, as illusions dropped. On both sides of the path lay dead druid women, their hearts torn out. But what had caused the skill to activate was the [Demon’s Daughter] hurtling toward Eve with outstretched claws.

Kaden had never used the skill to step into danger, but there wasn’t a chance he was stepping aside. Remembrance would move too slowly, so he banished it. He burned more and more mana to extend the moment by a fraction of a second, to grasp her outstretched claw—

The moment ended and reality snapped into full speed. The Daughter’s lunge knocked him back straight into Eve, who went flying, while Kaden wound up pinned as she drove that ruinous grasp toward his chest.

Her claws ripped through Kaden’s skin like butter as he fought her. A purple tint welled out from the claws, and without [Fortress of Stone] he would have blacked out. Chunks of rib bone flew out as the Daughter grasped. “Death for me! Death for you! Death! Death is our Father’s decree!”

She leaned in on Kaden, pressing with both hands as purple mana arced from her finger tipes to infuse the wound, causing the skin to blacken.

Eve’s whip removed the daughter’s head, but the body continued to work, because the body was just a disguise for the actual demon.

Kaden summoned the Levicon blade in his free hand, and cut, slashing the exposed navel, then thrust his hand through the gaping wound to tear out the core.

The Daughter went limp as he threw it off and rose, grasping his chest. In the gaping wound, his heart beat, a hair’s breadth from being lacerated.

I can make you powerful, the Daughter spoke.

I can make you rich.

I can appear as anyone, even this lover you so desparately—

Kaden slashed the core with the Levicon blade and held it as purple blood oozed away.

You have helped defeat a Demon Champion: Demon’s Daughter.

You have helped maintain the integrity of this plane.

You have received a Mark: Feared By Demons

You have gained a title: Planes Hunter

[Planes Hunter]

You unravelled the trap of one who crosses planes. By doing so, you have turned the tables and become innately aware of your prey. Demons will be marked in your vision.

“Hold still,” Eve said, her normally cold tone artificially cheery. “I’m trying to heal what she did.”

[Life Transfusion] activated. The edges of the wound glowed purple, and it didn’t close. “That’s not good.”

“Mana reinforced wounds,” Eve said through gritted teeth. “They were both laying in wait for you. One of them split as soon as you ripped the core from the other.”

Both. Kaden summoned Remembrance as Sara came sprinting down the path.

“I got help.”

The earth opened up as Olidar formed from actual dirt which took on the color of skin and a moment later, he stood there, cursing. “Gods damnit. Let me see the wound.”

“There was a second one,” Eve said. “She didn’t attack. She was waiting to see how her sister fared.”

Olidar looked to the other druids. “Search everywhere. This happened in our grove to our guests on our watch. Don’t let it happen again or you’ll be rejoining nature sooner than you expected.”

Kaden groaned as Eve attempted to force the wound closed. “I don’t think she can hide from me. I got title. Planes Hunter. Demons are marked in my presence. I don’t know it works, I don’t know how well it works.”

“I’ll be staying in your TreeSpace,” Sara said. “Eve, I think it’s best if you do, too. Until the second Daughter is dealt with.”

A moment later, a portal opened, and a woman stepped out. A druid with jet black hair tied back tightly, a weasel perched on her shoulder. Her chest was wrapped in mana beads, not in the constellations Vichor favored but in rows without patterns. She looked at the bodies. “More dead? Oh, this is nasty.”

“Ravena, this is our guest—”

Kaden’s heart skipped a beat even as his stomach dropped.

“Kaden Birch!” She shouted. “You finally got a class. We tried gifting you skills, they never took, and now you’re some kind of [Beast Master]? Where’s that mousy Room Sister of yours?”

“Trella’s not—she got killed. There’s a nasty spell some Centurions are working to unravel before they resurrect her.” He tried to smile. And felt so foolish.

“That’s her?” Eve asked. “This is the woman who inspired you to sing? I expected more.”

Ravena looked to Kaden, then back to Eve. “He’s singing again? That’s wonderful. I did so enjoy it.”

At this moment, Kaden deeply considered murdering Eve. Then having her resurrected and murdered again.