Bronwynn and Mia, no longer distracted by food and drink, had just noticed my foul mood and were trying to ask me about it when my brand suddenly blazed with heat.

I knew immediately that it wasn’t a message from Glaustro. With him, the brand would heat up very gradually, only reaching the point of discomfort if I didn’t respond right away.

This was an instant escalation to levels of heat that were almost scalding, making me wince a little when I brushed my fingers over the brand. As always, the scramble of ideas, impressions, and visions instantly resolved itself into something like a coherent sentence within my mind.

Report to high command immediately.

The words ‘high command’ were accompanied by a barrage of images of the palatial complex at the very top of the city, because of course demons would claim it as their own headquarters the second they had the opportunity.

“Sorry, but it seems like I’ve been summoned.” I sighed out the words and accompanied them with a regretful smile, even if part of me was somewhat relieved that they couldn’t continue trying to figure out what was bothering me.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them or want them to know, but it was awkward to admit to deep-seated fears about depression and general lack of will to live.

Faced with basic survival needs, the promise of magical growth, and all the fascinating sights this new life of mine had to offer, I rarely had to worry about those things anymore. Back in my previous life, however, I had struggled with more than just the regular demands of survival. I didn’t know if the switch in bodies had fixed whatever was once wrong with my brain, or if the issue was purely emotional and had nothing to do with biological chemistry, but I did not want such concerns to resurface.

“Would you like us to come along?” Bronwynn immediately offered, Mia nodding along. “I’m sure Glaustro will tolerate us.”

Again, I felt oddly relieved when I could shake my head ‘no’ with a decent excuse. “It’s not Glaustro who wants to see me, I’m afraid. It’s high command. If I’m right, it probably has something to do with that giant golem the jinn summoned. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but the sandstorm outside is gone.”

I enjoyed watching the way they froze, then scrambled after me to confirm my claim was real.

It was.

The absence of the storm that typically raged over Lagyel’s surface was an easy thing to overlook. After all, we had just spent days marching under a spatial barrier, then fought a battle under the auspices of our mages, who did their best to protect us from all sand-shenanigans. The battle’s aftermath and our exploration of the city had also provided plenty of things to focus on other than the lack of infernal sand-bearing winds.

When we emerged from the tavern, though, we were served a rare treat: as far as the eye could see, the horizon was clear and peaceful. That, in concert with the twilight that ruled under the tree’s canopy, made the scenery almost dreamlike. All was quiet and cast in gloom, spared from darkness only by the gently glow of the gargantuan tree itself.

“You were right,” Bronwynn whispered. “The whole thing really wasn’t natural. They have golems capable of covering such a large distance, and decided to use them to make our lives miserable? But… why? As far as we could tell, the storms have been a thing for as long as the locals can remember. Way before we ever got involved with this world.”

“Control?” I suggested. “If the entire world is a hellhole worse than Torment, then the locals wouldn’t have any other choice but to depend on them. It’s an easy fix for the jinn if all they wanted to do was maintain their grasp on the world.”

Neither Mia nor Bronwynn offered a retort, so we just shared a quiet moment, awed by the vast stillness of the desert.

I still had somewhere to be, however.

“I should go,” I stated, feeling reluctant to part now that the previous mood and subject had been dropped. “The lieutenant general doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

They quickly assured me they would see me later. Then I left them behind to start my climb.

It was a hurried, if not entirely unpleasant affair. I did get to see more of the city, and this time I kept an eye out for any odd discrepancies between buildings and what they contained. I wasn’t sure why, but as far as I could tell, every demon-claimed building had an inside that didn’t match the outside.

The only reason I could think of was the greater pushback this world offered compared to Berlis. In Berlis, the demons seemed capable of acting with impunity. In contrast to that, the moment we set foot on Lagyel, we had been bound by those glowing chains.

Some of my chains broke almost instantly, but I still had a scant few tied around my soul. I was still aware of them.

They were still there.

Lurking, hidden, buried past the layer of the world you could perceive with your eyes and mana senses, but they were definitely real.

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As far as I could tell, they were weighing me down. They made it more difficult to drawn on mana, cast spells, or even perceive things magically. Not significantly so, perhaps. It was a low-percentage kind of thing. Honestly, the impact of the chains was so slight, I had almost forgotten about them.

What about demons, though? The memory of how Glaustro, Bronwynn, and the rest of our unit had staggered when the chains emerged was fresh in my mind. Besides, while more than half of my chains shattered in those first few moments, the same wasn’t true for the demons.

They were still under the fullest suppression Lagyel could achieve.

So, I could only imagine that the same rule governed any attempts to impose the Abyss onto the world. If that was true, then replacing the interior of a building instead of the entirety was probably much easier and less draining.

My musings ended well before I reached my destination, so I let my head go pleasantly empty as I walked, just enjoying the moment. When I finally did reach the entrance to the palace, I couldn’t shake off my feelings of awe, even if the two guards posted outside were glaring at me in a silent demand to move along or tell them what I wanted.

The complex was definitely not built with human-sized creatures in mind. The arc of the entrance stretched a good forty yards into the air, and the width of the passage was at least half that.

When I finally managed to tell the guards that high command had requested my presence, I was ushered inside, where I quickly learned that the inside of the palace complex was built to a similar scale. The hallways, doors, and the few rooms that were left open were all sized for giants.

The walls bore massive engravings, all of them depicting creatures I couldn’t recognize. The figures had several sets of arms, jaws bristling with teeth, and three eyes on their foreheads. They seemed to be bald, men and women both, and bore stunted wings on their backs. Their shape was vaguely humanoid, but it was hard to argue that with confidence when their backs were bent and their limbs were awkwardly proportioned in comparison to their torsos or even the size of their heads. Surely they didn’t need limbs that long.

I couldn’t exactly pause and study the engravings, however. One of the guards was assigned as my personal escort, and he seemed intent on getting me to my destination as quickly as possible.

When we reached the correct room, I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out why Crewe had chosen it. It was just another room in a long string of rooms on a stretch of corridor. The only thing marking it as different were the two guards out front. My guide briefly whispered with them, and then they pushed the massive double doors open, waving at me to proceed.

Because of the doors’ size, my entrance was anything but subtle. Every eye in the room turned to take me in, and I had to work extra hard to keep my face carefully neutral and my emotions tempered.

To my utter shock, I succeeded.

“Ah, the mortal I told you about arrives!” Crewe exclaimed in his odd voice, though I detected some delight in his tone. “That is as good a sign as any that our meeting has dragged on for too long. You are dismissed. We will convene tomorrow to expand on our plans for the rest of this invasion.”

The many officers and high-ranking demons bowed, streaming past me with occasional glances in my direction as I fought to remain indifferent to their scrutiny. When the doors closed again, only Crewe, Graighast, and Glaustro remained.

“I owe you my thanks again, soldier.” The lieutenant general smiled at me in what I imagined was meant to be a reassuring or friendly manner, but the expression did things, bad things, to my stomach. “Had it not been for you, that battle could have ended… differently.”

“It is my honor to help, sir.” I bowed immediately, that familiar cocktail of fear and delight shooting up my spine.

As good as it felt to be praised by a powerful demon, I did not want to slip into anything remotely resembling arrogance. That way lay getting splattered.

Crewe laughed again, multiplying the dread and squashing the good feeling. “No need to be so humble! I realize that I made it look easy, destroying that thing, but that was partly thanks to my lovelies. They were stunning, were they not? The dread wyrms are my favorite discovery on this world. Invading would have been worth it for them alone. Such unique creatures…”

The lieutenant general trailed off, and I got treated to the sight of the nightmare creature before me looking downright starry-eyed.

I kept my face blank and my mouth shut. There were many words I would use to describe the ‘dread wyrms’, but ‘lovely’ was not one of them.

Glancing at the brothers, I saw Glaustro was watching me carefully. He gave the barest hint of a nod. I didn’t dare return it, but it was nice to remember that I wasn’t alone in Crewe’s overwhelming presence.

Then the silence stretched on long enough that my stupid instincts forced me to fill it.

“The wyrms were indeed a terrifying sight, sir,” I stammered to Crewe. “I am sure none of our enemies will lay their eyes on them without experiencing true fear.”

Again, no lying. Big bad demons can tell when you lie.

To my relief, the lieutenant general beamed at my words, or tried to. That horrible fanged grin was supposed to be his version of beaming happily, right?

“Precisely so! They shall accompany me as we conquer worlds uncountable. I do wonder how difficult it will be to transform them into imps, but no cost will be too great to accomplish such a thing. Now, onto the subject I summoned you for. Your intelligence helped us prepare for this battle, which let us wrap it up with ease. As such, you must be suitably rewarded.”

He looked me up and down in that intense manner of his, eyes lingering ever so briefly on my sword. He temporarily had no mouth, so I couldn’t tell for sure, but I thought he looked smugly amused. I could just guess he had something prepared, and his next words confirmed it.

“I will present you with two choices. You can either accept five thousand souls right now, to be used as you please, or… you can choose to have me help upgrade your sword once.”

I didn’t expect Crewe to be one for dramatic pauses, but there we were.

His offer sent a jolt of anticipation and disbelief shooting through me. Five thousand souls… that’s not a low number. Not at all.

On the other hand…

No matter what my recent tendency to take stupid risks might suggest, I wasn’t stupid, or incapable of basic math. The pattern had established itself. I could safely assume that upgrading my sword from basic to greater would cost ten thousand souls. Besides, there was a sneaky undertone to Crewe’s voice when he offered the second choice.

In the end, it really wasn’t a tough decision to make. Cold hard currency, versus something I would not be able to afford for a long time? Something which had already helped save my life even when it wasn’t on basic rank, let alone greater?

“I would like to have my sword upgraded please, sir.”

I tacked on the ‘sir’ just quickly enough for it not to sound unnatural, but my eagerness must have shown on my face. Crewe grinned like a cat that just got several canaries and the cream. A whole whipped cream company, in fact.

“Very well then, soldier. You shall have what your heart desires.”