Aster let her sword and shield fall to the ground, grateful to be free of the burden. Without perception skills, she just had to listen to her body to get an idea of where her soul stood. There was no being exact. But in her experience, finding one's limits was not hard. She just had to be mindful about how hard and fast she pushed against them.

With someone like Soleil monitoring the group, she could know precisely how much more she could push herself before her maximum capacity started to be reduced by strain. Aster knew she would be fine in a few minutes.

The others were likely too low level to come out of this without needing a few days to recover.

Now would be a good time to check in with everyone.

Fia gave her a questioning look. She was limping from one rotted plant to another, sinking her knife into their most vulnerable points. “What just happened? Did we win?” If this was just a respite from the fighting, Fia looked like she intended to take advantage of it.

Not a terrible idea, but Aster was sure the entire hill full of plants falling over like their strings had been cut signaled the end of it.

Metis looked up from bandaging up a dozen or so shallow cuts that trailed the length of their arms. “Something that should not have.”

Fia stopped what she was doing. She looked exhausted, but Aster got the impression that the calico rogue was attempting to numb herself. It was not an unexpected reaction, all things considered.

It was the haunted look that Metis wore that worried Aster. Both would likely need very different kinds of attention.

As for Maeve and Aliza? Aster had a feeling that Soleil would be the deciding factor in if they were going to be okay.

Aliza was on her feet though. That was a good sign. She had hesitantly offered to help Maeve undo her plate armor. As far as apologetic gestures went, it was a good start in that it did not involve speaking.

Which was just as well. Maeve’s expression was… unreadable. Aster would leave them be for a little while.

Fia wandered over to fret over Metis.

When Aster closed the distance, the expressions they both adopted were expectant. They had been on the receiving end of her check ins before.

What they had been through was nothing like the Sprout School prepared them for. Aster iwould need to be delicate.

"Are all requests going to be this…" Fia couldn't decide on a word.

"Soul crushing?" Metis supplied.

“No.” Aster shook her head.

Fia remained flatly unconvinced.

“But,” Aster amended. “There is always a risk that you are going to step into some malevolent plot that Mana is weaving.”

“Is She going to be okay?” Metis did not sound hopeful.

She.

Metis had looked. Of course they had looked. When your healer is sprouting wings and projecting enough force to knock someone powerful as Malady to the ground, a natural reaction is to try and figure out what is going on.

It was times like these that Aster preferred not to know everything. Her party was hurting. If the fight was over, she knew where her focus needed to be.

“She.” Aster imbued the pronoun with the weight of a name. “Is not my concern right now. I’m focused on the ones I actually think I can help.”

Metis closed their eyes. “I’ll be fine.”

Fine. Not okay.

The two of them were hesitant to open up, which was to be expected. How many skill uses had each of them burned through. How many times were they exposed to a memory worse than what they were dealing with? What had Metis [Identified] when Soliel set the inside of herself on fire?

If they weren’t ready to talk, Aster could not force them. She could only leave the door open and invite them to open up when and if they were ready.

Aster reached for a familiar and reassuring tone. “You two did good today. Really, even unsuspecting Silver Ranks might have struggled to deal with this.”

That got Fia to stop and re-examine all of this as an achievement. She liked to spend a lot of time being in awe of the accomplishments of others over drinks. But what she really loved was to boast.

Metis rolled their eyes but said nothing. Inflating Fia’s ego might be annoying but necessary. “I was half expecting Maeve to turn into a Paladin on the spot.”

Aster shook her head. “I don’t think she’s ready for that. Getting [Awakening] skills this early is rare. Normally only Silver Ranks or Knight Captains pursue them. Even then, it’s a choice most turn away from.”

Metis winced.

Aster tried not to read into that.. She could only speculate on what she had heard at this point. Even if she knew more, Aster would hold back until metis felt like opening up.

“We’re here for you. You know that, right?” Fia offered her fellow rogue a hand.

“I know.” Metis did not squeak. Sometimes they just got really quiet.

“Shall I check on the others?” Aster offered them an out.

“No– I… may have [Identified] her.”

Aster offered them a sympathetic smile. “Did you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t know if I should. But… She. Soleil might need help.”

Again that emphasis on the pronoun. Aster knelt down next to Metis and Fia. “I didn’t want to push. But if there’s something I missed. I’ll do what I can.”

“So. [Identify] gives me surface level details on a Soul.”

Aster nodded. She already knew that Metis had an end goal of raising the skill to be able to identify hostile Skill uses upon selecting the skill book. But she seemed focused on the soul for some reason. Which was concerning. “What did you see?”

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Metis swallowed. “At first. Nothing. The skill burned me when I only spent a pinch of mana. Normally that only happens when I look at something high level.”

Fia squeezed Metis’s hand, inviting Metis to rest their head on her shoulder.

Metis continued. “So I used my last Focus potion. And It took me twenty points of Focus to identify not one, but two status screens.”

Fia’s ears and tail stood on end. “Two?”

Aster grimaced. “I thought she just dug through her memories for a [Transformation] of some kind.”

Metis shook their head.

“She [Identified] as a level 80 Calamitous Herald. At least when I looked. The Soul Level was ticking down. The other screen that mana showed me said Soleil… briefly. Near the end of my skill’s duration it came up blank.”

“Was Soleil’s covenant still Calamitous Herald?” Fia asked, receiving a nod in confirmation. “I don’t like the idea of there being a high level soul sharing a body with Soleil.”

“Knights call working with mana a Demon’s bargain.” Aster added. “I think I am starting to see why.”

Metis shivered.

“Yeah.” Aster confirmed, satisfied with the reaction the cats were having. Forming pacts with friendly demons was scary enough. Aster could only hope Soleil knew what she was doing. “The problem is, we don’t see much of Calamity out here in the Eastern Groves. I have no idea what a pact with her might entail.”

No one seemed to have an idea there. At least not one they wanted to share.

Aliza chose that moment to cautiously approach the trio. “Is it alright if I join your group? At least until we get back to a village.”

A freshly unarmored Maeve followed her at a respectful distance. “It’s fine with me.”

Fia was quick to agree. “The more the merrier! You might have to forage for your own snacks though. Some of Malady’s attacks seemed targeted at our bags containing food supplies.”

Metis sighed before turning to addressing the others. “You’ll have to excuse Fia. For the longest time her only concern was where her next meal would come from.”

“Hey!” Fia protested.

“I do not see that being a problem. Prioritizing one’s self is a natural concern.” Aliza purred, reaching over to pet Pyre. “Only then can we care for others.”

“I’m no stranger to lean years.” Maeve agreed. “You’re not moments finished with Malady and you’re already bringing up Calamity?” The party guardian gave the group a curious look. “If we’re talking big picture stuff, I will admit that my knowledge is rudimentary outside of the Northern territory concerns.”

Aster looked to Metis and offered her own sigh. This was going to have to be a dense explanation if they had to explain everything. If Malady was dead or neutralized, there were going to be consequences. The standing procedure was to flee or mitigate damage done by Greater Demons by foiling their plans. Engaging them directly was reckless no matter your level.

Mana knew too much. You were never walking into favorable circumstances.

Despite being baited or pressured into a trap, Aster still wasn’t sure which, she was willing to let it go with everyone coming out of this in one piece.

Well, with at least one exception.

“Metis.” Aster started. “You’re up to date. Right?” They had been the most studious Sprout that Aster had seen in a while. None of this would be new to them, which meant there were other things they could be doing.

“I am.” They looked expectantly back at Aster before rising to their feet. “Ah. You’re going to want me to confirm Soleil and Malady’s status, aren’t you?””

“Please.” Aster handed Metis her last potion, just in case. “Keep to the tree line. If she’s… not Soliel, it could be dangerous.”

Fia looked like she wanted to fight against that idea. “You… We. We don’t know that.” It was Metis’s turn to give Fia’s hand a reassuring squeeze.

Aster could not restrain herself from narrowing her eyes. But she let the comment go.

Maeve on the other hand, suddenly looked distant.

It was time she give the party a primer on the state of things. Like it or not, they would likely be asked to report to some sort of delegation of representatives about what happened here. The least she could do would be to give them an idea of where those representatives were coming from.

She hoped everyone here liked proper nouns.

“I’m going to assume you both know at least a little about Calamity and Malady as two of the four primary Greater Demons responsible for keeping us trapped where we are.”

A round of nodding heads. Good. That was a start. Aliza nodded as Metis departed before giving the remaining members of the party the fundamentals of the factional interests currently present in the Valley.

That they had any Greater Demons on their side at all was a blessing. Grove Tender Verda kept the Central and Eastern Groves stable on top of being willing to offer redemptions that humans unwilling to go through demonic transformation would not find elsewhere. Goodwill being an accepted currency no matter where one went offered a degree of freedom that the North and South would take away under certain circumstances.

The Everqueen ruled in place of the empty Northern Thrones. She funneled so many knights into the crucible of battle that the North produced a respectable number of [Awakened] Champions. It was worth noting that she helped build the very first fortress for humanity to weather the threats of the new world. Haven may not be the nicest place to live anymore, but it being the first place one could live in relative peace after the world ended earned it the right to even have long lines of noble families in the first place.

Aster supposed they were allowed to be insufferable about it.

The Western chain of mountains was the home to a young and loose Alliance of Demons reclaiming a number of scattered ruins. Foremost among them was a pair of Forge Demons in Mynah and Brigid responsible for producing inhuman amounts of Magitech. Nadir might as well be a second Ursula at this point, even if the Shadow Demons always kept their own dubious council heedless of what anyone else wanted or needed. Oh, she supposed Veilura relocated from the East to the West after becoming a Greater Demon. Something about wanting to settle down and raise a kid.

Aster tried not to think about how that was turning out and quietly prayed to Verda that Soleil was okay.

What else was there to say? They were Demons. Each one was more traumatized and changed than the one before them. No one could really paint them with a broad brush beyond keeping track of the ones most active in interacting with the other factions.

And the South, well. The less said about the Southern Order’s purity culture the better. Too many monsters pretending to be humans for Aster’s taste. She wasn’t entirely sure of the names of any of their Greater Demons. All she knew was that they were bound and coerced in a number of ways into serving humanity. The South guarded their knowledge fiercely, but shared their Alchemical creations freely enough. Provided of course one was willing to trade in coins or Goodwill. (That they of course would always convert into valuable gems, coins, or metals at the earliest opportunity.)

If there was ever a shortage in anything, the Southern Order and its many merchants could be counted on to make up the difference for the right price. A price most were willing to pay. Gems, gold, and silver had the most value in Enchanting and Alchemy. So long as the Order had the most Enchanters and Alchemists, why not funnel them resources? Where else would anyone spend material wealth of the old world?

One could do a lap through the four major towns in just under a week if one was in a hurry and had access to a mount of some kind. So trade between the four was not exactly difficult.

This also meant that it was relatively easy for just four Greater Demons to keep them isolated from the outside world. Expeditions outside the stabilized zones that the four factions worked tirelessly to keep more purified than corrupted were costly. But sometimes a place like this well defended valley would be discovered and it would be deemed worth reclaiming.

The Eastern Grove was honestly overdue for a confrontation with Malady.

“Um. Girls?”

Everyone turned toward Metis.

A one armed Soleil stepped into the hill’s clearing, dragging Malady’s rotten body behind her. The Greater Rot demon’s chest had been emptied out.

Hope hobbled into view just seconds later, its core glowing an ominously sickly yellow.

“Hey.” Soleil said, her voice somehow sounding more fragile than anyone else here. “Can we go home now?”

Before anyone could reply, Soleil released her hold on Malady’s viscous corpse. Pulling her hand free, about half the party responded in surprise and discomfort. Starting at the elbow, Soleil’s one remaining arm had grown a couple dozen small red drake scales. She absentmindedly flicked the last of the rot from her fingers, revealing that each of them now ended in sharpened red claws.

Maeve was the only one to approach the now transformed Soleil. The two pulled each other into a tight hug. Aster could make out whispered apologies before turning away. The scene felt all at once felt too private and delicate for Aster to feel comfortable intruding upon.