"So, do we kill him now or let him think he has a chance?" Rey asked and stunned the room to silence. The only sound that could be heard was the footsteps of Ajay, who had returned with Rey's dried clothes. "Ah, my savior returns."

  He took his clothes and put them on. They were in less than pristine condition. Although most of the blood had washed off, a substantial amount had dried before washing, leaving large patches with a brownish color. That was not a problem, but the front of his shirt had four slashes, so he was giving hipster vibes from the last decade. But beggars couldn't be choosers.

  "What did I miss?" Ajay asked.

  "Phil went full demon and tried to kill me, so we're locking him up and going to kill him." Rey gave him the short version of it.

  "You've got to be joking. He's joking, right?" Ajay asked the group, and when no one said anything, understanding dawned on him. "Oh…"

  "He only attacked you because you goaded him into it," Gloria hissed.

  "Is that really important?" Rey asked. "I would think the fact that he gave in and decided to act on his demon needs would be more important."

  No one said anything for a long moment. Finally, Kassandra spoke. "He's right. Phil is a liability to us all now."

  "Of course, you would take his side," Gloria hissed.

  "What is that supposed to mean?" Kassandra shot back, wearing a very Kassi-like scowl, which was halfway between a glare and straight-up murder.

  Gloria scoffed. "You know exactly what I mean."

  "Hotties, please," Rey got in the middle before it turned ugly. "Now, as much as I want to see two women fight over me, I think it's best we stay focused on the topic of axing Phil. I say a quick beheading is the best way. He won't even feel a thing."

  "How can you say that so casually?" Maria said, the Karen-est person in Hell, probably. "He is a person."

  "Correction—was. He was a person. He is nothing more than a demon now. Remember, he ate his soul to become a demon. Need I go over the specifics of how a person becomes a demon again?"

  Sergei and Jerry returned, and Rey's favorite mouse-themed biker had a bruise forming on the right side of his head. It was going to get nice and purple, and Rey, for one, thought it would do wonders for his complexion.

  "Is our demon friend good and comfortable?" Rey asked.

  "Sergei knocked the fucker out after he tried to take a chunk out of me more than once," Jerry supplied.

  "That's great," Rey exclaimed. "Now, we can do the chop, chop. He won't even know he's gone. It's like he went to sleep and never woke up. That's a better death than any demon deserves."

  "But he hasn't done anything that would make him a full-fledged demon," Gloria said. "What I'm trying to say is that he hasn't been a demon for that long. Maybe we can bring him back. Revert him to his old self."

  Did you not see him try to eat me as if I were Butter Chicken? Or does my life not matter? Rey wanted to shout, but Tia spoke up before he got a chance.

  Tia barked a laugh. "He's not a wild dog that you can fix. He's a demon, for god's sake. He just showed his true colors, and you want to house-train him so he doesn't go around attacking people."

  "Wow," Rey couldn't help but stare. "I'm so surprised that you're on my side that I'm more touched by the sentiment than when the succubus touched me."

  Ajay coughed. "So, what should we do? Are we killing him or not?"

  "Since we still haven't decided on a leader to decide these types of menial tasks for us, let's put it to a vote. All in favor of killing demon Phil, raise your hand."

  Five hands went up—Rey, Kassandra, Tia, Jerry, and Ajay.

  Rey was most surprised when Sergei didn't put his hand up. He would think the Moscow Mule would've loved to take out the mad dad, but his hand stayed down.

  Et tu, Sergei? Rey exclaimed on the inside. You wound me. Wound me, I tell you?

  It was worse than when Brutus killed Julius Ceaser, and in revenge, they had to make a salad dressing in Caesar's name. Now, Rey would do the same, and he was sure Sergei wouldn't like the taste of it because it would be made from demon blood.

  Filomena looked at Ajay in a similar manner, and their IT Support guy looked down as if he had done something bad. Rey thought that his adventures with him had something to do with this. He had put Latoria out of her misery and killed a few more people who had turned into demons. If only they all had a similar experience with demons, they would have realized what this place really was—a dark, horrid pit of evil. You couldn't give evil a slight chance, or these demons would shove their cocks so far up your ass that it would tickle your tonsils.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "So, we're at an impasse," Kassandra said.

  Rey sighed. "You know, you five should spend the night with Phil in his room, and then we'll try this again tomorrow, and if your hands still stay down, then I'll present myself as a meal to our resident evil."

  The group disappointed him again as no one understood the reference, save for his sex demon conqueror. He cracked a hint of a smile, and Rey grinned at him.

  Oh, I missed you, buddy.

  After that, the group dispersed, and Ajay followed after a miffed Italian who looked like he had broken all her spaghetti in half, which Rey knew was a cardinal sin for Italians. Rey was deathly tired, so he found an empty room on the top floor that had a bed with no mattress.

  He shrugged, as a wooden bed was still better than the stone floor.

  *********

  He awoke with a yawn, and he couldn't tell for how long he had slept, but it was enough to make him feel quite rested. His stomach growled louder than a hippo's fart, and did they fart loud enough to make you want to grab your noise-canceling headphones. And an oxygen mask because the stink was worse than a demon's shit. He could verify that firsthand.

  He grabbed his scythe and walked out of his mostly dark room to a mostly dark hallway. There was some light at the end of the hallway, filtering through a doorway that led to the balcony that had become their lookout.

  He wanted to point out that this was only looking out towards one side of the castle, but he would get to that fight later on. There was a little stone ladder in one of these rooms, which rose to a watchtower high above the roof that let them see all around for miles. It didn't come as a surprise to Rey that no one had found it yet.

  It's like I've got to do everything. Next, they'll be asking me to be their leader, and I'll have to accept to guide them in doing the right thing. He paused mid-step. If I'm the leader, I could make them do anything. I wonder how much I could get away with.

  Someone moved in the balcony. It was a woman's form. He knew that form. He could tell who it was before her face came into the light, and the worst thing was that the fucking stairs were almost right next to the balcony. So, he couldn't even avoid her even if he wanted to, unless he made a mad dash for the stairs and jumped down the three stories.

  He had picked a room on this floor, as hardly anyone came up here, but it seemed that this, too, like all his decisions, had come to bite him in the ass.

  Please don't notice me. Please don't notice me.

  "Hey, you're awake," Kassandra said.

  Damn it!

  "Yes, and famished," Rey said. "Going to get some food before Jerry wolfs down all the demon meat, and I've got to go hunt some more."

  He quickly moved for the stairs, hoping she wouldn't say anything, but he knew her better than that. In fact, he knew her better than anyone.

  "You know, I won't self-destruct if you just talk to me," Kassandra said, making him pause.

  "No, I suppose not," Rey said.

  Though it will bring us closer again, and that will surely kill you.

  She smiled, and the way the light caught those damned dimples stirred things in him that nothing had done since her passing. No succubus even came close to the way she could make him forget his name with just a smile.

  He looked away, for if he had looked at her a little longer, he would've turned into Ajay.

  Outside, the eerie forest stood still. The wind didn't move its branches. No leaves grew on those trees, which made it easier to spot any movement. There were some demons, but with the bulk of them having been drawn to the dungeon, it would take a day or two for the forest to refill, or so Rey figured. Still, there was the distant shriek and howling.

  Kassandra flinched at a particular blood-curdling scream that sounded like a woman being ripped apart limb from limb.

  "You get used to them," Rey said.

  "How do you know?"

  He shrugged. "That's what people say, don't they?"

  "You were right," Kassandra said after a long pause. "About, you know, wanting to do away with Phil."

  "Yes, I know," Rey said. "If only one more person saw it our way. We would be free of the demon haunting this castle."

  "Is he really going to bring us harm in the future?" She asked. "Let this Unokir into the castle?"

  "Oh yes, he is," Rey said. "He's going to do more than that. He's going to eat his dearest friend and help turn her into a demon so they can make hot demon babies."

  "Really?"

  "Oh yes, they're going to name them Luke, Hailey, Alex, and Manny."

  She almost believed him until Rey gave himself up and started laughing.

  She rolled her eyes. "Of course, you're joking. When are you not?"

  "Not about turning Gloria into a demon," Rey said seriously. "And he'll get to eat Sergei's soul as well."

  Kassandra's eyes widened. "So, he doesn't make it, huh?"

  "It's because of him the rest of us make it out," Rey said. "I'll always respect Mr. Olympia for his sacrifice."

  "Why do you always talk about the future like it's the past?" Kassandra caught on to it pretty fast.

  "Do I?" he feigned ignorance. "I haven't noticed."

  "You do. You talk about the future as if you've lived it. When you were goading Phil to attack, it was like you knew what it was to be a demon. Like you had somehow gone through the transformation yourself."

  "Again, I just see the future, Kassi," he replied casually, though on the inside, he wanted to find any excuse just to run away.

  She went on. "I mean, how else could one explain knowing all these intimate details about the future? Even the fact that you call me Kassi, while no one else does. Why would they? We've only known each other for not more than a day or two. You say you can see the future. I think there's more to it. There is more to you than meets the eye. What is it you're hiding, Rey?"

  Oh, fuck! She is way too smart. Imagine if she were in the dungeon with me.

  If she were in the dungeon with him. He would have told her everything. She wouldn't have believed him or thought him off his honkers, but it would've felt good to tell someone the truth. Maybe he would take her hunting next time, and they would run into a dungeon.

  No, the fuck, you ain't. Snapped his sensible side.

  "Rey?" Kassandra searched his face for an answer, but he was preoccupied with something else.

  "Do you see what I'm seeing?" He pointed to a humanoid shape sauntering out of the trees and waving at them.

  Rey's heart started to hammer in his chest. It started slowly, but soon it was thundering.

  "No, no, no, this is too soon. He shouldn't be here right now." He backed up a step, ready to dash down the stairs to meet the challenge, but the only thing that gave him pause was that this man didn't look like Unokir.

  He wore a drab, brown leather coat that looked like a homeless man had stolen from a billionaire and washed it with mud. His face was a mess, and his eyes kept circling on his face. This demon gave a very cuckold vibe.

  "What the hell is he doing here?" Rey barked.

  Kassandra was up beside him and shivering. He put an arm around her instinctively, and gave her a comforting squeeze. "Don't worry, he's not here to kill us."

  She looked up at him with uncertainty. "You sure?"

  He wasn't, but still he nodded. He didn't know why the Chaos Sovereign was here. This hadn't happened in the future or the past. This cum stain of a demon hadn't shown himself until Rey had achieved the D-Tier.

  Zalathar had come, and it could only mean bad news.