People were definitely starting to take note of Glaustro. This time, when we arrived at the headquarters, we were admitted with minimal fuss. He asked Mia and Bronwynn to wait at the entrance, and then we just strolled inside, heading towards Crewe’s war room.
No need to call in favors or depend on his brother’s standing. Glaustro was allowed to visit the lieutenant general based solely on his own merit.
I enjoyed the way some of the demons we passed in the hallways eyed Glaustro. They were looks filled with a certain caution, the kind that comes when someone is afraid of a particularly nasty comment or act from the past rebounding in their face. Glaustro must have noticed too, because his countenance took on a vaguely smug note, even breaking the façade of calm he had forced onto his features when we entered the building.
We were asked to wait in front of the door to Crewe’s home away from home, but we didn’t wait long. Within ten minutes, the door opened to let out a group of weary, sand-covered demons who had definitely seen better days.
The group’s leader was missing an arm. The demoness behind him looked like something had tried to shatter half of her body. The final member of their trio was missing an eye, limped something fierce, and had only bits left on his back where his wings had been torn off.
All three glared resentfully at our immaculate outfits. I was never going to let Glaustro tease me about my tendency to spam cleansing cantrips ever again.
“Raleigh!” Glaustro boomed, his smile as malicious as it was fake. “Good to see you. Rough day?”
The lead demon opened his mouth to reply, then glanced back and thought better of it. He did grit his teeth and try to shove roughly past Glaustro, only to stumble weakly backwards when my commander failed to give even an inch.
The trio skulked off after that, looking resentful and beaten. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to admire the sight of them limping away for too long before Crewe’s voice echoed from within.
“Enter.”
We did.
Everything inside looked almost exactly as it had before. Crewe was still creepy, the room was still spherical, and his weapon was still trying to corrode away everything within a certain distance.
The only real change was in the massive globe floating in the center.
Before, most of the globe wasn’t even visible through the swirling storms that enveloped it. Now, much more of the map was uncovered, and entire patches of it were blessedly free of sandy hell twisters.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: it was ironic that a world worse than the literal Abyss layer of Torment existed.
“I see you have returned. Victoriously too, if your little altercation with Raleigh is any hint,” Crewe mused, turning to examine us. I really would have preferred he didn’t, considering the unpleasant effect of his solid red, glowing eyes when they passed over me. “And such progress, too, from your unit’s mortal! Remarkable, truly. Wings are an invaluable thing to have. My own have served me well.”
Black tendrils unfurled from his back, six in total, forming swiftly into pitch black wings that spanned almost the entire room. They vanished back into tendrils a moment later before fading away completely, but his message had been sent.
What that message was exactly, I couldn’t tell, but I filed it away nonetheless.
“Yes, sir. We were successful in the task you set for us. The golem was tracked down and eliminated, opening up more of Lagyel to our influence,” Glaustro reported conscientiously, then motioned for me to act.
I withdrew the soul, then stepped forward and presented it to Crewe.
I almost lost my breath at the sight of it. Superior souls were visions of incredible beauty. An ascendant soul blew that out of the water, exceeding everything I had seen before. It looked like an entire functional galaxy was trapped within its confines, marred only by the distortion that would typically be taken up by the features of the soul’s owner.
The golem, being a construct, had only a weird collection of squiggles in place. I couldn’t figure them out in that brief moment, but they almost reminded me of a rune. They were definitely significant somehow, judging by the way Crewe’s face lit up when he took the soul in his hand and observed them.
“Ahhhh, excellent work. Truly, excellent work! Some of the teams returned on the brink of death, though victorious. Some failed me utterly. Some never even reported back at all. I expect we’ll see those again when they appear back in the Abyss. Tell me, Glaustro, what were your losses like on this mission?”
If possible, Glaustro stood even straighter, a keen gleam in his eyes. “My unit took no further losses, sir. We are still missing the members who perished before our invasion of Faun’s Cradle, but this latest mission claimed no lives.”
Crewe paused, actually taking his eyes off the soul to spear Glaustro with his gaze. When my commander didn’t so much as twitch under his scrutiny, Crewe laughed.
“Excellent! Truly, you are an exceptional sergeant. To have been allowed to waste away as a mere soldier for so long… Well, no matter. You are here now, and you are under my command. Be sure that you will flourish here. Report everything that happened.”
Glaustro did. He hid nothing, though I was convinced there was absolutely no need for him to recount my disastrous attempt to perform aerial scouting under the storm’s influence. It did get Crewe to chuckle, though, so maybe that could be counted as a win.
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“Hmmm… the fact that the golem was located at a confluence spot lines up with the other reports I have received, yet few of the sights were as verdant or as convenient as this one you’re reporting. You did use the spatial assistance orb I provided, correct?”
“Yes, sir,” Glaustro replied immediately, looking ready to salute.
“Good. That means the tracker it left behind will allow us to teleport back there. Especially with the storm in that area dispersed, I am looking forward to what our new scouts turn up.” Crewe smiled. “They’ve been remarkably more helpful than their predecessors.”
A cold shiver raced up my spine. I had little doubt that all of the previous scouts had been purged. The lieutenant general had not looked happy to find out about the slumbering golems from my intelligence, considering he had an entire division dedicated to the task of providing valuable info on local worlds.
I only hoped, for their sake and not mine, that he merely contented himself with sending them on an express line back to the Abyss. Something told me that Crewe reserved a slightly worse fate for those who truly displeased him.
“I would be happy to leave a report of our findings with anyone you are planning to send out, sir,” Glaustro offered. “The parasites were mildly worrying with their ability to summon large numbers of mana-resistant wildlife.”
Crewe did not seem particularly concerned as he waved Glaustro off. “If you feel so inclined, Sergeant, then by all means do so. However, I believe there is something else we need to discuss. Namely, your rewards.”
Despite the near disaster of my last reward sessions with the demon, I couldn’t help but perk up at his words. After all, his enhancements to my sword were invaluable. I even suspected they were the primary reason my contribution to the golem’s demise went as smoothly as it did.
“In keeping with my policy concerning these golems, you, Sergeant Glaustro, will personally be awarded ten thousand souls for its discovery and destruction. Each member of your unit will receive a thousand souls bonus per golem killed. And finally…”
He turned to me. “As the person who claimed and submitted the soul to me, you are entitled to five thousand souls yourself, son of Lethaniel.”
I experienced an odd mix of emotions at his appellation. A shot of happiness, to be so publicly associated with my mother. A twinge of annoyance, to have my accomplishments linked so closely to hers, too.
Then again… that wasn’t false, was it? I owed a lot to my sword. Maybe everything, in fact. And I had it thanks to her.
There was also more than a little excitement burning within my chest to find out I was going to receive a total of six thousand souls. Sure, it was half the amount I would have gotten for the ascendant soul, but that was an item Crewe had personally claimed before even dispatching us. Besides, six thousand souls was the kind of wealth that even a demon might envy, what with their tendency not to hang onto their earnings.
“I am honored, sir,” I remembered to say, bowing towards Crewe with a decent bit of sincerity. It wasn’t like I’d have gotten to keep the ascendant soul even if he didn’t claim it. That was definitely something I would get stabbed in an alley for.
Justifications complete in the privacy of my mind, I let any lingering frustration wash away in favor of happiness.
“Of course, of course. Now, you are dismissed. As per your application beforehand, you have three days to rest up before you need to head out again, Sergeant. I want as many of these golems as possible eliminated quickly, before the jinn catch on. A unified response from them could prove… inconvenient, and I am losing hunting teams faster than I’d like.”
As Glaustro and I headed out the door, leaving it open for the lieutenant general’s next set of visitors, it was easy enough to read between the lines. Crewe was worried about what would happen if the jinn threw caution to the wind and summoned all their golems.
Honestly, I had no idea why they hadn’t done that already. If I was the one coordinating their war efforts, I’d have tried to stamp out the demons at the beginning, at all costs, before they had an opportunity to establish themselves.
Demons, after all, could be compared to an infection or an illness. If you stamped it out quickly and efficiently, then little harm would be done. But if you allowed them to fester, grow, and spread? Then even the most advanced treatment would do little to delay your untimely demise.
The jinn had already failed at this. The Abyss had many settlements under its sway, and each one had turned into a potential invasion point. Until each and every one was reclaimed, the Legion of Torment could always make a comeback, even if the current on-world troops were almost entirely eradicated.
Still, I had no business contemplating the course of the war and our enemies’ strategies. I was still a foot soldier, and even Glaustro was far from qualified to whisper suggestions in Crewe’s ear.
Overall, the longer the golems stayed out of the fight, the better. If we could eradicate them all before the final push, we might even claim Lagyel with minimal effort, at least compared to the slugfest their presence on the battlefield would cause.
For all that Crewe pretended like he didn’t care overmuch, just facing one golem had pressed him. So, what about three? Four? Could he still claim victory in such a clash?
I wasn’t one to doubt the creepy shadow demon serving as my evil overlord on this campaign, but I would still be reluctant to bet on him if the chips came down in that particular scenario.
—
If I was happy with my earnings, then the rest of our unit was all but rearing to charge out into the city on a spending spree the instant they heard about Crewe’s generous rewards. After all, however large a demon’s average pay, a thousand souls was nothing to scoff at. In fact, it was quite a prize for just a few days of enduring the sandstorm and wandering through some caves. The lobby of our hotel-like barracks was buzzing with excitement as demons planned how to put their rewards to good use.
Glaustro didn’t choose to reveal my individual bounty to the rank and file, which I was thankful for. While it would likely whip them into an even greater frenzy to discover and slay more golems, it could very easily result in some not-so-nice encounters for me, too.
By the time Glaustro dismissed us, everyone was in a good mood. Especially me. Thinking about everything I could do with all my fresh souls made me quite gleeful indeed.
So, it was somewhat unfortunate that a hand closed around the collar of my shirt and yanked me back before I could give into the giddy feelings dancing through my chest.
“Um… is something wrong?” I asked Glaustro awkwardly.
My commander had used his superior height and reach to pull me entirely off my feet. I was only dangling a few inches off the ground, but the fact that he could do that at all was mildly alarming.
“Where, exactly, are you going?” Glaustro asked calmly. His patient tone didn’t fool me. I caught the dangerous glint in his eye right away.
“Uh…” I trailed off, suddenly convinced I shouldn’t answer his question.
“Because I know you were definitely not headed straight for the Absorption Station. Not after everything we already discussed and the risks you took so. Very. Recently.”
I gave him my most sincere and disarming smile. “Of course not.”
He stared at me, tilted his head, nodded, and looked back at Mia as he finally dropped me.
“Mia. Sit.”
I had all but a moment’s warning as the cat girl’s eyes gleamed with glee. Then she pounced, and I was trapped under a bit too much cat to have a hope of wiggling away from.