Kael’s fingers hovered over the pages of the Demonomicon, its magics far more powerful than Kael imagined. He flipped the pages again, all had remained empty except one. His eyes traced the Infernal text, his new recipe had unlocked.

  Skara – A lesser demon from the realm of Xalgrymos. The more mana used to summon, the more powerful the summoned creature.

  Kael’s gaze flicked from the book to the orb resting at his side, dim and uncharged. His orb was barely glowing, its power barely replenished from his previous encounters. A brief thought went through his mind, to wait for the mana to recharge. But then, with a deep breath, Kael made his decision. A Skara, even a weak one, could serve him. He needed to test it. He needed to understand what he had just unlocked.

  He reached for the orb. He raised it slowly, closing his eyes and drawing in a deep breath, focusing all his will into the small, flickering light that seemed to struggle within the orb.

  The air grew heavy with the scent of sulfur and there was a growl, a roar that was primal and savage. A demon materialized before him.

  It was smaller than Kael had expected.

  Its red scales gleamed with a fiery sheen, its form humanoid but no larger than half the size of a regular human. In its clawed hands, it gripped a spine-shaped blade, its weapon as sharp and menacing as Kael remembered.

  Kael stared at the demon in front of him, his heart sinking a little. This Skara was nothing like the massive, fearsome creatures he had faced during the Ascension Trials or even in Xalgrymos’s domain. It was smaller, weaker.

  The Skara’s glowing eyes burned with a fierce light, and it let out a growl, as if it could read Kael’s disappointment.

  Kael’s mana was insufficient. He was warned after all, the more mana used, the stronger the Skara. Using what was left in his orb was his fault, not his new Skara. After all, he had a new companion in his square and that was what mattered.

  “Well,” Kael said. “You’re not exactly what I had in mind, are you?”

  The Skara’s growling continued as it swiped the air with its spine blade. Kael considered what to do next. His gaze softened, and a strange thought surfaced in his mind. Maybe I could give it a name.

  "Growler," Kael murmured, half to himself, as the creature snapped its jaws, eyes narrowing as it sized him up. It was a fitting name for a beast so small and angry, constantly growling.

  The Skara’s growl ceased for a moment, and Kael could swear it tilted its head, its eyes now fixed on him with a kind of recognition.

  Still, it didn’t feel right. Growler wasn’t fitting for a demon born of Xalgrymos’s power. A thought flickered in Kael’s mind. A name that would honor the former Master and demon god who had given him this gift.

  "Xal," Kael said.

  The Skara’s growl stopped, and it stood completely still, its head cocked to the side, as if it had heard the name and understood. The intensity in its eyes shifted, and it seemed, for the first time since it had been summoned, to calm.

  Would Xalgrymos be insulted by the name? Kael thought, I doubt it.

  Xal had calmed down but the growling and roaring must have disturbed the night’s silence. Skrindle appeared before Kael, his wings beating lazily in the air in a puff of smoke, annoyed.

  "What is this racket?” Skrindle asked, before his eyes settled on the Xal. “You summoned a demon?"

  Kael stood calmly, watching the demon with a strange sense of satisfaction. "Yes," he replied simply, his voice low but steady. "I summoned him."

  "How? How did you even manage that?" Skrindle asked. His voice grew shrill, surprised at his Master’s sudden development.

  Kael’s gaze flickered to the glowing orb beside him, then held up the Demonomicon. "I read the book. Teleported to the realm of the god of demons and got the recipe.”

  “Huh…” the ever-knowledgeable imp said, uncertainty creeping in his voice. “Wait, what’s this? Kael, you unlocked an achievement.”

  Kael raised an eyebrow. "Which one?" he asked, curious about Skrindle's reaction.

  "I—I don’t know!" Skrindle replied, flapping around in frustration. He hovered closer to the orb and Kael joined him. The orb glowed brightly, its light sharp and revealing, a message scrawled across its surface.

  Secret Achievement Unlocked: Deal with the Devil.

  Kael’s eyes remained fixed on the orb as the words flickered. Deal with the Devil dissolved into the light, only to be replaced by two new choices:

  Fire or Shadows?

  Skrindle, floating beside him, fluttered in place, his tiny face contorting with bafflement. "What is this now?"

  Kael’s brow furrowed, his green skin still warm from Xalgrymos’s domain. Fire, with its fierce heat, its consuming blaze, felt too chaotic, too destructive for what he sought. But shadows, subtle and secret, hidden unseen. That was more up his speed.

  "Shadows," Kael muttered, his voice like the soft rustle of dry leaves. As the words escaped his lips, a cold breeze whispered across the square, and the orb dimmed into a swirling mass of dark smoke. The shadows moved in the air, gathered like a beast roused from slumber.

  The smoke spilled, dark and thick from the orb. The shadows moved of their own accord, taking shape.

  A form emerged, shifting, like a nightmare. Then it solidified into something more tangible. A horse, black as the night, its body wispy like smoke caught in the grip of the wind. Its mane rippled with the faintest flicker of mist, and its eyes gleamed with a dark glow.

  Skrindle’s voice, usually filled with mockery, was far more subdued. “What’s that?”

  Kael stepped forward, reached out, fingers brushing Shadow’s form. It felt solid yet untouchable, like grabbing smoke from a campfire. It leaned forward, its head dipping low in a gesture that seemed like respect.

  He hesitated momentarily before pulling himself onto Shadow’s back. It was fluid, as if he was meant to ride, Shadow designed to respond to his will.

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  Shadow began to move before Kael had even settled. Its hooves barely touched the ground before it was off. The speed was incredible, as he raced to the edges of his square.

  It wasn’t just speed, though. The horse’s body melted into the shadowed corners of the square, only to reappear in a different location. It was disorientating at first as Shadow teleported between shadows, a sudden jump and a burst of speed.

  But then, with a sudden, smooth motion, Shadow Mount came to a halt. Kael was back to where he started beside Arcane Anvil. Shadow and him made several laps of his square in a blink of the eye.

  Kael dismounted Shadow and it turned, its form flickering in the wind and just like that, it was gone. No sign of the mount to be seen.

  “This will come in handy,” Kael said, ready to summon Shadow when needed.

  “Indeed, Master. Very Impressive,” Skrindle said, his voice tinged with a reluctant respect. "You’ve got a good mount."

  Kael, however, remained silent for a moment, his mind churning over Skrindle’s reaction tonight.

  "You seemed more confused today, Skrindle," Kael said.

  Skrindle blinked, clearly thrown off guard by the question. His wings flitted nervously as he hovered in mid-air, glancing from Kael to the square. "What do you mean?" he asked, trying to play it off with his usual bravado. “I know all sorts of things about summons and creatures. I’m the guide, after all."

  "You didn’t know that was coming. You didn’t know about the secret achievement or summoning demons. About the Shadow… how could you not know?"

  Skrindle’s expression faltered. The imp’s usual playful mask slipped for just a moment, revealing something closer to uncertainty. A glimpse of vulnerability of the imp. He shifted in the air, his wings buzzing nervously.

  "Not all the information is available to me," Skrindle finally said, the words coming slowly, as though the admission weighed heavily on him. "Hell, not even all the guides know everything. It’s part of the deal, I suppose."

  He paused, his voice trailing off as though searching for the right way to explain it. "I can help you a lot, Kael, sure. But there’s a limit. We have limits. We weren’t meant to know everything."

  "So, there are things you don’t know," Kael murmured, more to himself than to Skrindle. "Because you’re not allowed to know."

  "Exactly! You think I wanted to not know about demons? About the secret summons? About things like… like Shadow horse thingy?" He paused, swallowing hard.

  Kael’s gaze lingered on the translucent imp. He thought over what Skrindle had said, the imp’s words rattling in his mind. It made sense, in a way. The guides were limited, kept in check.

  But by who? Or what?

  He needed to know which side Skrindle was on.

  “Tell me, Skrindle,” Kael said slowly, “What happens when a Master breaks the all-time kill record?"

  A smug smile grew on Skrindle’s face. “Ahh, one that I have the answers for. The Master who breaks the all-time kill record will gain glory. The other Masters will envy that achievement, whisper of it in hushed tones at the gatherings. They’ll see you as a force to be reckoned with, a legend in the making. Remember the reception you got from Play of the Week. Imagine that times a hundred. A thousand."

  Kael nodded, his gaze flicking to the shadows at the edge of the square. His fingers tightened around the orb, the faintest tinge of suspicion still gnawing at him.

  “Glory, huh?” Kael said absentmindedly. The imp had given Kael an answer with just enough truth to satisfy a momentary curiosity.

  Was Skrindle truly that ignorant of the other parts of the game? Or was he holding back?

  Kael thought back to the words Xalgrymos had whispered, the reward on breaking the record. A wish—a power would grant anything, shape the world, possibly even break the system. The god demon had spoken of it with such somber certainty that Kael knew it was the truth.

  Did Skrindle know something about it? Did the imp have knowledge of the wish?

  "You don’t seem convinced," Skrindle said, breaking Kael’s thoughts. "Look, Kael, I can only tell you what I know."

  “And that is all you know, Skrindle?” Kael asked. “I’ve been collecting skills, achievements, recipes, the skill trees and crafting. They all had rewards. But breaking the all-time kill record gets me glory, envy from the other Masters... but no real reward?"

  He paused, letting the silence stretch between them, then pressed further, his words sharp. "That doesn’t seem right. It doesn’t add up, Skrindle."

  Skrindle recoiled slightly, his tiny wings beating faster. He darted closer, his voice dropping to a near whisper, as if the very words could betray him if spoken aloud. He leaned in, his eyes flicking left and right as if checking for spies.

  "I’ve seen it," Skrindle whispered. "I saw it happen once. A Master broke the record.” He paused, his voice tight with fear, as though the memory alone weighed heavily on him. "He got a wish. I don’t know anything more. Not a damn thing.”

  Skrindle looked away, the discomfort in his face more than obvious.

  "Do you mean to tell me," Kael asked, "that you’ve seen a Master receive this wish, but you don’t know what it is?”

  “I told you. I saw it happen. A Master broke the record, and the wish was granted. But it wasn’t something anyone could understand,” Skrindle answered. “I don’t understand it. But I know it changed everything.”

  Kael was silent for a moment, his eyes narrowing as he processed what the imp had just said. A wish. The kind of wish that changed everything.

  There were too many unanswered questions that pressed at the edges of his mind, and now, standing before Skrindle, he sought the truth, or whatever the imp could offer.

  "Who is setting the rules?" Kael asked, his voice low but insistent. "Who created the squares? How did Masters come to be? And why are we given power over Outside Races but confined to these walls?"

  Kael's gaze bore into Skrindle, his eyes unwavering as the questions kept coming. He had to know.

  Skrindle, who had always been full of sardonic quips and half-answers, was silent now. The imp hovered before him, wings trembling, his usually smug demeanor faltering under the weight of Kael's onslaught. His eyes darted nervously, and Kael could see the flicker of fear in his face.

  "Master, please," Skrindle said, his voice barely above a whisper. “The overseer would not be happy. I can’t—"

  He stopped, his words choking in his throat as he glanced around, as if expecting someone to appear out of the shadows and reprimand him for saying too much.

  "Please," Skrindle begged, his voice growing softer, almost pleading. "I... I don’t know the answer to these questions. Grand Overseer Zibbit will not like these questions, Master."

  Kael’s brow furrowed as he watched the imp, seeing something in Skrindle that he hadn’t noticed before. A genuine fear. Skrindle was afraid, truly afraid, in a way that went beyond the normal fears of a guide.

  "I won’t ask anymore."

  "Thank you, Master."

  Without another word, Skrindle vanished, disappearing into the ether as quickly as he had appeared. Kael stood in the stillness of his square, his eyes drifting to the quiet corners where his companions moved, each wrapped up in their own little worlds, unaware of the thoughts swirling within him.

  Gerry, ever the eager one, was somewhere in the distance, squatting with the squelching weight of Jello in his arms. The slime, still a strange and wobbly creature in its own right, jiggled with each dip and rise.

  Then there was Three Arms. The golem was casually juggling Xal’s spiny sword with two other daggers while Xal was growling at him, trying to get his sword back.

  In another corner of the square, Mush and his other ice slimes were playing another new game of shooting each other with icicles. It was both playful and vicious as shards of ice flew fast, shattering on the ground.

  And above it all, Blue floated in the sky. It drifted high above the square, drawing in the moon’s light to fuel his glow.

  As Kael watched his companions, his thoughts wandered to Lira, her red skin, her two horns curling into the air. He felt the bond between them but knew she too had her burdens. Her wins. Her losses. The knowledge he gained about the wish, about the kill record, was too great of a burden. If that time would ever come, if Kael ever faced the possibility of having such a power, then he would share its knowledge.

  For now, though, Kael kept the knowledge to himself. He watched his companions, felt the weight of their laughter and joy, and allowed himself a rare moment of peace amidst the chaos.

  The worries he faced of the future, of the wish, of understanding this world, of the squares that trapped him.

  That would wait.

  ******

  Square: Unknown

  Master: Kael

  Difficulty: Bronze

  Conclave: None

  Treasure: 1692 Gold

  Residents: 4 Ice Slimes Lvl 1

  6 Green Slimes Lvl 1

  2 Green Slimes Lvl 2

  1 Green Slime Lvl 3

  24 Will-o-wisp Lvl 1

  1 Steel Golem (Strength Specialization) Lvl 3

  1 Steel Golem (Complexity Specialization) Lvl 3

  1 Skara Lvl 1

  Mount: Shadow Mount

  Kills: 12