Plummeting to the ground at an ever-increasing speed is a unique sensation. Most people are familiar with the sensation of falling in some way, very few have ever fallen over a truly long distance.

The wind rushing past your ears, the feeling of pressure against your chest as weightlessness is ripped away. It was almost enough to be distractingly pleasant, especially with such a minor risk of actual injury or impact.

Thozronnath had to make a concerted effort to refocus himself on the sinking succubus.

Her wild spiraling descent was thankfully much slower than Thozronnath’s own controlled acceleration, and he was gaining on her rather rapidly. The unfortunate part was that the ground was rising up underneath them in a very similar fashion. Thoz needed to kill some of that momentum.

He contacted Prisaela through his [Telepathy] and warned the flailing fiend to “brace yourself” as he drew closer and closer.

The seconds felt like minutes as he raced towards her from the side, and they were barely a few dozen feet off the ground when Thoz slammed into Prisaela at full speed. The impact injured them both rather slightly, but dramatically lowered their downward momentum.

Lowered is the keyword here. They did not stop fully, and instead of splattering on the ground, the duo was sent tumbling rather forcefully through the canopy of trees. Branches and leaves scratching and snapped as the foliage provided a rather rough cushioning as it deposited them unceremoniously in the dirt and underbrush.

They were alive. Dirty, bruised and slightly bleeding, but alive.

“No more flying until you learn how to land,” Thoz grumbled as he hoisted himself off the ground and brushed the dirt from his pale skin. Without any further instruction or communication, the devil set off in the direction he had seen the road, leaving his minions to fall in line behind him. The air of frustration and disappointment was obvious to all of them, save for maybe Zild.

It was strange, knowing that a failure like that hadn’t made Thozronnath ‘angry’ per say, but that instead he was saddened and disappointed. It was almost worse than being angry. Prisaela decided she definitely didn’t like it, though she couldn’t grasp why she didn’t.

She had always thought that Thozronnath was just a vehicle for her continued existence. There was no real reason she had to make him happy, just appeased enough for him to allow her to keep living.

Yet, there was some feeling growing over the past few months as a group, even extending more and more to some of the rookie sins. She couldn’t explain it, but it was almost like Prisaela had begun to see her comrades as more than just useful tools.

For a moment she wondered if the other monsters were being affected in a similar way. Her curiosity was put to rest almost immediately as a powerful stabbing itch assaulted her mind.

It wasn’t physical pain, it was almost as if her own mind was hurting. It was brief, over before it truly began, but the moment was enough to derail her previous train of thought. A thought that she couldn’t quite remember now. Something about the others? Herself? She knew she’d forgotten something, and it felt important, but one cannot remember what it is they have forgotten.

Thankfully the flying fiasco had led them back within sightline of the road, this time Thoz elected to stay much closer during their travels and only detour if absolutely necessary. As a result, their following days of travel led to them frequently encountering travelers.

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This was both a blessing and a curse.

A blessing in that by hunting the humans and taking their belognings the group not only profited, but managed to keep Kaggant fed without struggling against a constant uphill battle.

A curse by means of the time required increasing their travel by several days. At the rate they were traveling, when they finally reached their destination of Krora they’d be completely spent on supplies and subsisting entirely on banditry. Not that any of them minded of course, the humans were arrogant and often carrying more than they strictly needed and meagerly protected. It was like they were asking to be robbed, slaughtered, and eaten.

In this way the gaggle of calamity fell into something of a small routine. Travel in monotony, struggling to make small talk, hunt some humans for food, rest, repeat.

That was, until Uzdaax got it into his head to learn magic.

“All I’m saying is, if I could pick up a skill to do magic things would be a lot easier” The ghost complained.

“Can’t you already do magic though? What do you need another skill for?” Prisaela questioned in response, utterly befuddled by the apparition’s rambling on.

“No, no see I have skills related to being a ghost that seem magical but I can’t do any actual magic. I can’t levitate things with my mind or summon objects from across the room” He explained, appearing briefly to demonstrate with a wave of his hand only to be burnt by the sun in turn.

“Why do I get the feeling this has something to do with getting out of more work?” Thoz sighed, exasperated already by Uzdaax unwavering desire to to do nothing.

“Exactly Master! Think about it, if I could raise the corpses of our fallen enemies as undead thralls, what need would you have for me to do any menial tasks. I could automate all my duties and still fulfill your need of me. A complete win-win scenario.” Uzdaax exclaimed, a sudden liveliness injected into his undead voice.

“And who’s on the line when one of your creations fails me?” Thoz wondered aloud, prompting a tense but brief silence to fall over the group.

“Fine. You have my permission to observe anyone’s skills as long as you don’t get in the way, and if you do any practicing it’s on your own time. I don’t want this daydream of yours causing me problems before you even get the skill” He finally admitted, allowing a hint of trust into his spiritual companion, hoping the feeling would be reciprocated one day.

If the connection he had felt with Zild during their battle had been anything to go by, his minions held more secrets and power than he knew. It would be best to have them on his good side for as long as possible. Plus Thoz had to admit, they were beginning to grow on him.

It was nice to sleep with both eyes closed for a change.

And so the last few days of their travel passed uneventfully. Occasional run ins with mortals provided them plenty of sustenance and coin, and their nights slowly became more and more active as Uzdaax begged for skill demonstrations. At first he just wanted to see Thozronnath’s skills, but eventually Prisaela’s [Natural Illusionist] caught his eye as well. Not even Zild’s [Fluid Replication] escape questioning. It seemed the onlyone with skills that Uz deemed completely irrelevant was Kaggant. This pleased Kaggant.

Once the city of Krora was well within sight, it was time for the group to halt and formulate a plan.

Since only a a few of their group, namely Thoz, Prisaela, and Uzdaax could actually infiltrate the city without being noticed, it was decided that Kaggant and Zild would wait a few miles outside of town for the time being.

“You’re allowed to hunt animals for food, or eat plants or whatever, but we only kill humans while traveling or when we’re sure no one is going to miss them. We don’t want undue attention” Thoz repeated to the duo several times during the planning phase.

This left the other three to assume their disguises, or disappear in Uz’s case, and attempt to enter the city. By some gracious miracle of bureaucracy the identification cards they’d been issued in Rovale were enough for the gate guards here. Somethings consistent across international borders, but they were encouraged to get local ID if they were staying long.

The city of Krora itself was a hodgepodge of various constructions, a strange amalgum of what looked like nearly a dozen different individual settlements all packed into one space. There were flat sandstone buildings with open archways instead of doors, and slits where one expected windows. Tall multistory constructions with bases of stone and wooden tops that hung over the streets littered the eastern side. To the north everything was layered with an off-white proto-concrete that made their buildings look molded rather than built.

Now it’s worth noting here the the country of Daskaora is a self-appointing system of bureaucrats. A literal boys club of government. Krora, as one of its larger cities was no exception. The various powerful families that had been appointed to local positions were the cause of this wild municipality. Their own estates slowly expanding and influencing the area around them in a particular style as a means to display wealth and compete with each other.

Of course, each of them were also prominent business owners as well. Some as a result of their appointments, others in order to get appointed in the first place.

It was almost as corrupt as Rovale. Just a different breed of corruption.

It was the perfect place for a devil to hide in plain sight.

It would be Thozronnath’s new hunting ground, he would find Varekoth, and only one of them would leave this city alive.