Rey flinched inwardly when he mentioned the demons before anyone had even seen them. Kassandra noticed just like he knew she would. She affixed him with an intense searching gaze, and he did his best to pretend to see something very interesting.

  She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. "Be careful, everyone. I saw something moving in one of the windows."

  "Which one?" Kassandra asked.

  He searched his memory to remember which window the demons attacked from. He knew it was one of the lower windows but couldn't remember which one. The longer he hesitated, the more Kassandra leaned in, frowning, as if she was trying to read his mind through sheer will.

  He leaned away. "Some space, please. I'm trying to remember here."

  She straightened and folded her arms. "Yes, by all means, remember."

  He gulped and focused on the castle. It looked like it had been abandoned centuries ago. Many of its spires had fallen to decay and disrepair. Half of its roof had caved in, and a black, slimy surface covered its stone, which would take them way too long to clean. Something moved in one of the lower windows.

  "Aha!" Rey pointed to the pale shape. "There it is. Trying to play hide and seek with me. Heh! Clearly, it doesn't know I was the hide-and-seek champion growing up."

  Kassandra was finally looking at the castle, so Rey sighed lightly. The demons inside were these pale blobs that slithered out the window and plopped down on the ground with a squish.

  [Nerath - ??]

  Rey looked at his poor scythe and readied it to throw it at Gelatinous Maximus. It was like he somehow knew how to position his feet and hold the scythe as he got ready to swing it. He wasn't totally confident in his abilities, but he was sure that what he was doing was right. This was his Scythe Mastery skill in action.

  With a grunt, he hurled his scythe. It swung end on end, horizontally like a big, rusted buzzsaw, and lopped off the demon's head. The blob burst apart and showered the ground with its black blood.

  +1 Dexterity.

  His scythe clattered to the ground unceremoniously. With a sigh, Rey realized he didn't have a weapon anymore. He extended his hand outwards and concentrated really hard, but nothing happened. He tried once more; this time, he tried harder and even grunted.

  "What are you doing?" Kassandra asked.

  "Trying to get my scythe to fly back into my hand," he replied. "Who knows, maybe it has Mjolnir-like properties. You know, I read a story once where the heroine had chakrams that returned to her on command."

  She looked at him like he was an idiot. As the first one died, more blobs came out of the windows. Soon, there was a veritable army of them. All were sliding across the ground towards them at a snail's pace.

  [Nerath – E+1]

  Fucking hell! He cursed. Since he was a higher Rank than them, he hardly gained any experience from killing them. Zarius had designed the system in a way that only the strong thrived. To gain experience from a kill, you had to kill someone whose Rank and Tier were equal or higher than yours. So, for Rey to gain the full experience from a kill, he had to kill someone who was E+2 or higher. However, he still gained stats, thanks to Zalathar's meddling.

  It was an annoying part of the system, and he had tried to get Zalathar to do away with it, but he never listened, as it would cost too many Forever Shards. Of course, he also thought it was the best way to motivate someone to advance in Tiers, just like his brother.

  Rey had wanted to slap some sense into Zalathar, and that sentiment hadn't changed. But now, he wanted to slap him with the pointy end of his scythe.

  The Neraths slid forward inch by inch while the humans stood frozen, unsure whether to attack or make the jelly snails some breakfast.

  "Uh, I don't wish to intrude into your precious staring time, but unless you wish to eat them, now would be the time to attack," Rey said, shaking them out of their daze. "I think ranged attacks would be best. Ajay, why don't you evaporate the jellies off the face of Hell."

  He stiffened at the mention of his name.

  Man, we'll have to work on your self-confidence issues...again.

  The fidgety pyromancer stepped up, raised his hand, and was about to rain fire on them when the Italian bombshell stepped up beside him.

  "I'll help," Filomena stated, raising her hand.

  "Uh, I think it's best if you don't use your lightning," Kassandra said. "What if all that noise draws in more demons?"

  Great minds think alike. However, she did use her lightning last time, attracting some +2 rank demons, which should help me rank up. Did someone die in that assault?

  It was getting hard to remember since so many people were alive who had originally died. The butterfly effect would have a field day with this one if he let Filomena blast them with her lightning.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  "I guess." Filomena was disappointed.

  "But with how strong we are, I'm sure we can handle whatever demons come our way," Rey quickly added. Looks like his selfish side won this time. He clasped his hands together. "Please don't blast my scythe to splinters or burn it to ash."

  "I want to try something, too." Jerry stepped up, and his right arm had turned entirely to metal.

  Kassandra looked at him with a displeased expression. At first, he was disappointed, then he was happy, as that was what he wanted. He needed her to be mad at him because the more angry she was, the more she would stay away from him, so the greater her chance of survival.

  The trio took care of Neraths within minutes. Though, the thunderbolts nearly made Rey's ears bleed. He only hoped that something good would come off it. Thankfully, his scythe was unharmed. He picked it up and wiped the black blood off the shaft. Then he went to the open door of the castle without a care in the world, for he knew there were no demons left alive in the castle.

  The inside of the castle was marred with slime from the Neraths. An acrid smell permeated the air, but one thing it provided made all this disgusting stuff worth it—safety.

  Rey got nostalgic as he walked in. The high-rise ceiling and decaying wooden furniture reminded him of many happy and sad memories. They had spent months here before they were forced to move on to the Kingdom of Night.

  The others started a 'discussion' about whether or not they should stay in this demon-infested castle, but they would grow to love it. He was tired of having to fight the King of Hell, get blown to smithereens, get reattached, go through the apocalypse, and the death of his grandmother again. He needed a moment to sit down and take a breather.

  He found a dry spot by the stairs, plopped down on the ground, placed his scythe by the wall, and shut his eyes. For now, he wanted to do nothing but go to sleep. Though, he doubted he would be able to with the constant echoes of everyone's worried voices.

  "How do we know it's safe?" Filomena wondered out loud.

  "It's probably fine," Jerry countered. "He doesn't seem to be too worried about it."

  Rey knew he was pointing at him and could feel everyone's eyes locked on him. He pretended he didn't hear and acted like he was already asleep. If he had some peace and quiet, he really would've fallen asleep. He was exhausted, more mentally than physically.

  "Why don't we split up and check the castle out," Kassandra said. "It seems like a good place to lay our heads down, even if we've walked into a jelly-encased castle."

  Rey snorted lightly. Almost exactly how I would've described it.

  "Makes sense to me," Phil spoke up.

  "Same here," Gloria added.

  Rey almost woke up from his fake nap to explore the castle with Gloria. He knew of some quiet corners that needed some deep cleaning. After all, he had spent long hours working on his build with…

  Oh no, don't even think about it.

  He heard the footfalls as the others ventured into the castle to look for demons that were not there. A few slowly walked past him to head upstairs. But one pair of feet came and stopped beside him, and he knew whose they were before she even spoke.

  "Go away," Rey said. "You're disturbing my fake sleep."

  Kassandra didn't go away and stayed rooted to her spot. She yawned. Rey cracked an eye open to find her stretching. "Is the seat taken?" she asked, motioning to the dry spot beside his. "You know what? I don't think it's taken."

  She sat next to Rey. Her shoulder brushed against his. He instinctively shuffled to the side and got dangerously close to the slimy floor.

  "I don't bite…much," Kassandra chuckled lightly. "What were you doing since you clearly weren't sleeping?"

  "Shouldn't you be searching the castle?" He countered.

  "I will, but something tells me it's empty. Do you want to know how I know?"

  "You can tell the future."

  "No, it's because of you. You've been fidgety from the start, but now you're just sitting down as if all of a sudden, everything is safe and calm," Kassandra said. "Something is up with you."

  "Have you considered, maybe I'm just deathly tired."

  She was quiet for a long moment, and Rey almost shut his eyes again, even if he would not find sleep with her sitting so close to him.

  "Which element did you pick?" Kassandra finally asked.

  "Why do you care?" he asked.

  "I'm just making conversation. I understand you don't want to work with me, but there's no harm in making conversation right."

  There's no harm in that. She won't dissolve in acid if I just talk to her about Elements. Maybe I can help her figure out something that will prevent her from her gruesome fate.

  He nodded slightly. "Yes, totally no harm in conversing. As for the Element or Elements, I haven't picked any. I can't seem to figure out what to pick. You?"

  "Me neither," Kassandra replied. "There are so many of them, and I don't want to waste my Talent points. I'm not even sure if we'll get more than this initial five."

  "We will," Rey replied.

  She stared at him intently. "How do you know?"

  "Because I got six, which means you get one Talent point every time you rank up."

  Realization dawned on her. "That's right. You started at the plus-two rank. If I wasn't terrified, I might've called out the scary demon out on his bullshit too."

  "I also had two spare stat points, where you probably only had one."

  Kassandra nodded. "Okay, now, I'm jealous. What did you put them into?"

  "Dexterity. I will get faster, and my scythe's attacks will get stronger with Dexterity."

  "Ah, as will my daggers. Do you think I should put them into Dexterity as well?" She asked.

  "If you want to continue using them as your main weapon," he replied. "Though, I recommend getting a weapon that gives you some range, as daggers are too close and personal. There are lots of demons that you don't want to get close to."

  She squinted her eyes. "You know, it's when you talk like this that I think you know more than you're letting on."

  I do know more than I'm letting on.

  "Do you not remember the demons on earth?" Rey said. "The horns, the fangs, and the claws. It's only natural for these demons to be worse."

  She nodded. "What about my Element? Any insight into that, O' great Master?"

  He snorted. "Depends on what type of skills you wish to have. In this game I used to play, one of my buddies played as a Holy archer. His arrows used to smite demons or purify their souls. Of course, I doubt it's possible here, but you never know."

  "Smite demons through holy arrows…"

  Last time, she hadn't picked this. She had stuck to her daggers, which ended up being her downfall. Rey could practically see the gears turning in her head. He had planted the seed and now to water it.

  "Of course, you would need a bow," Rey began, but Kassandra quickly cut him off.

  "And Holy magic in a system designed by a demon," she scoffed. "Good luck finding the Holy Element."

  The Holy Archer wasn't a friend but one of Rey's worst enemies. He had almost smote Rey and purified his soul more than a few times, which meant winking his demon self out of existence. He survived by running away and hiding from him until one time he got a cheap shot in. Later, he stumbled upon an Element that was eerily similar to the Holy element but was only available to humans.

  He had failed to save his grandmother but would not fail Kassandra. This time would be different. This time, he would turn her into the perfect demon killer.

  This time, he would turn her into an angel.