Rey ducked a blow from a Vorclaw, the lion-looking demon that had welcomed them when they had first arrived in Hell. This one's fur was matted with a sickly green liquid that looked like goo, but Rey knew it to be their shit. Demons seemed to want to be extra gross. Like they wanted to see how far they could push themselves in outdoing each other in being absolutely gross.

  Rey would know he was one, after all.

  He quickly used Identify and was disappointed once again.

  [Vorclaw (Exiled) – E+1]

  He didn't even want to bother killing this one, but even though it was only Rank 1, it could still hurt him all the same. The comparison that Rey was like Unokir to him wouldn't be wrong. After all, Rey had two ranks on the thing.

  He dodged another swipe from his filthy paws and slashed at his belly with his scythe, disemboweling the lion demon. He almost felt sad, or would've if it weren't a nasty demon.

  [You killed a Vorclaw (Exiled) – E+1]

  Besides, he had no time to feel sad, for another one of its cousins attacked him.

  This one was a female, so it could be his wife, along with a couple of her children. They appeared to be young and slightly smaller than this Vorclaw. One of them must have been a male, as it had a little fuzz of a mane around its head.

  Rey wasn't surprised when he used Identify.

  [Vorclaw (Exiled) – E+1]

  [Vorclaw (Exiled) – E+1]

  [Vorclaw (Exiled) – E+1]

  Rey sighed, nonetheless. Keep your expectations low, and you'll never be disappointed, as Kratos had said.

  But then Kratos wasn't real. He was stuck in a video game, calling his son—Boy—all the time and throwing him face-first into danger, most of which Rey agreed with. After all, how else is a boy supposed to become a man?

  The Vorclaws roared. They were probably grieving the loss of their patriarch, and Rey was about to add to their sorrow. He wondered if they felt sad at seeing their dead loved ones. If so, it was truly unfortunate for them that they crossed paths with him, but he didn't care either way. No experience. No rewards. Just the quiet joy of unnecessary and yet lovely violence.

  A few dodges and slashes, and these demons had gone to see their papa in the nothingness that awaited them. So, maybe not the family reunion they had hoped for.

  [You killed 3 Vorclaw (Exiled) – E+1]

  [Dexterity +1]

  With his side of the cave clean of living demons, he looked to the girls, seeing if any of them needed any help. But they looked to have things under control.

  Kassandra's arrow flew and took out a demon whose name he didn't even remember, and couldn't even use Identify before she dispatched it. While Filomena was using her magical skills as if she had Mana to spare, which in her case was probably true.

  Why did I have to have such shitty Mana? Rey moaned for perhaps the thousandth time.

  "Everyone still has all appendages?" Rey asked.

  "We're okay, but how come it's these demons?" Kassandra said. "I thought you said we'd find more of the Nestoriels."

  Rey shrugged. "Maybe they're sharing this dank, horrid cave."

  "We're good. That's all that matters," Filomena declared. "Let's move in."

  "Awesome," Rey said. "Who cares about taking stock of the situation and the fact that the deeper we go, the harder it's going to be to see. All very unimportant things at the moment, right?"

  That gave the warrior woman on a rampage pause.

  "What are you suggesting?" She asked.

  "Simple, we make some torches," Rey said.

  He went to a dead Vorclaw and hacked off two legs. One of the girls made a disgusting sound. They weren't wrong. He was disgusted as well. He didn't want to be touching this shit covered, bleeding leg, but they had no choice. If they wanted to go in, then they needed some light, and this was the best source at the moment.

  He dropped his scythe on the ground and walked to the burning corpses of one of the demons that Filomena had blasted with her lightning bolts. Every time he saw her handiwork, it made him miss his old powers that much more.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  He took the severed legs to the low flames, and the fire caught on immediately.

  "Voila!" Rey exclaimed. "As it turns out, the shit on their legs, coupled with the fur, makes for excellent torches. Who could have guessed? Also, ignore the smell the best you can."

  The one downside of burning, shit covered legs was that the torches reeked, and that was saying something, since they were in Hell and just about everything stank. But this was worse, like someone had taken an explosive diarrhea dump after gorging themselves on Taco Bell.

  "Who wants the other?" Rey said, holding out one of the torches.

  The girls put a hand over their mouths and recoiled from the torch. They didn't want anything to do with his hard work. Some people could be so ungrateful.

  I didn't expect this from you, Kassi.

  "Oh, come on," Rey said. "We need to get going, and I can't hold both and fight at the same time." He tilted his head. "Then again, maybe I can just smack them with the torch."

  "Yes, and kill them with the smell," Kassandra supplied.

  "I know it's bad, but come on, you'll get used to it."

  "How are you used to it?" She shot back.

  "I had to dumpster dive for half a decade. When you've been homeless for so long, you get used to it."

  She scrounged up her face in what Rey figured was an extreme version of a frown. "You told me you were an Auditor."

  "I was, but I was also homeless for five years." Just not on Earth. He left that part out. "Now, will someone take this torch. We're wasting time, people, or do you want to see a pregnant Ajay?"

  Filomena stepped forward and took the second torch, while cupping a hand over her mouth and nose.

  "And don't worry about it running out, we can always make more," Rey said.

  He retrieved his scythe, and they moved inwards through the tunnels. The tunnels were like any other tunnel. Nothing spectacularly different about it. However, the walls of the tunnels were widening as they walked in, which didn't bode well for them. He prayed that the tunnel wouldn't split in multiple directions, but lately his prayers hadn't been working. Maybe prayers didn't work for those who had already been damned to Hell. Technically, it wasn't the real Hell, but maybe it was all the same to the big man upstairs.

  Rey had taken up the rear while Filomena was leading them at a brisk pace. For once, he agreed with her, as the Nestoriel was in its nest, and the impregnation of Ajay would start soon.

  Now, as much as he would like to see a pregnant Ajay, he also knew that there would be no saving his friend if he got pregnant. The eggs would burst in his belly, and the baby Nestoriels would burst open his belly and then feast on their dead incubator.

  Of course, he wasn't going to tell all this to Filomena, or she would go even crazier and dive headlong into danger. Well, even more headlong.

  They didn't have to dive for danger, as long as the danger found them, and it wasn't pretty. Well, aside from Kassandra and the succubuses, there was nothing pretty in Hell.

  The demons they had the displeasure of encountering now were the Nestoriels, but these weren't fully grown. They looked like they were still adolescents. For one, they weren't the size of a full-grown bear, but more like half their size. This meant that they still had lots of growing up to do.

  They had the burnt-looking carapace, the feelers, and jagged teeth. The only difference between these and the one that kidnapped Princess Ajay was that they had only two tails. Rey didn't know if that meant they were males or the other two tails just hadn't dropped yet.

  [Nestoriel (Exiled) – E+1]

  [Nestoriel (Exiled) – E+1]

  "Looks like the residents of this dear cave have finally come out to play," Rey cooed. He wagged the torch in their faces. "Here, boy. Catch the burning stick."

  As it turned out, the kids were not so happy with playing with this burning shit stick. He still chucked it at one of them. It shrieked and skittered away, but Rey didn't let it get away. He wanted to play with the wolf-sized cockroach.

  He activated Gravitational Attraction, and the thing came flying towards him. He side-stepped and cut off its head with one swipe of his scythe.

  By the Sovereigns of Heaven and Hell, I'm beginning to like this thing.

  Though he could see that it could be a problem to swing in tight quarters, that was what his trusty dagger was for.

  The cave lit up with lightning, and the Nestoriel went flying into the wall, but aside from being shell-shocked, the thing looked okay.

  "Remember, Filomena, these demons are immune to your lightning and fire," Rey said. "So, jab it with the pointy end of that sharp metal stick in your hand."

  "Shut up."

  Rey motioned to Kassandra. "Someone doesn't seem too happy right now."

  She snorted a little, but shook her head. "Shh."

  He sealed his lips and let Filomena work through her anger, and boy, was she angry. The Sicilian spiced latte lunged for the cockroach demon and hacked it to bits. It was quite a feat, given the shit nature of her sword.

  She was huffing by the time she was through with it. She had her hands on her knees and was huffing away.

  Rey wasn't claustrophobic or had a fear that the walls were growing closer, or what if the rocks above them fell and they were trapped in here, forever, with no one coming to save them. Thankfully, Rey didn't have those thoughts at all. Not even once.

  He drew a deep breath, picked up his torch, which was still burning brightly, while Kassandra went to check on Filomena.

  "You okay, Filomena?" She asked.

  Filomena nodded. "I'm fine. We need to keep moving or Ajay will—"

  "Nothing's going to happen to him," Kassandra interjected, as she put an arm around her. "We'll save him. Won't we, Rey?"

  "Well…" He trailed off. "This is not where he's supposed to die, but the future is forever changing, so who knows what could happen?"

  Kassandra gave him a hard look. "Not helping."

  "What? I'm just being honest," he shot back. "If I'm truly honest, he should be safe, unless we run into a Lu—"

  He was very rudely interrupted by a roar that reverberated through the caves. It was like a non-stop echo that continued on and on. He was sure that his ears would soon start bleeding.

  He dashed to Filomena and raised her arm. "Shoot a lightning bolt."

  She frowned at him, first, then nodded. He let go of her arm, just in time, as she launched a lightning bolt. The thunder was even louder than the roars. It reverberated through him. The roars were silenced, and as the echoes of the thunder died down, everything became too quiet. The only sound was that of the flickering of the flames on his makeshift torch.

  Then they stepped out of the darkness into the light, and Rey nearly dropped his torch.

  It was a whole bunch of Nestoriels, and they did not look happy. After all, who would be when they found out that their unwanted guests had just killed their kids?

  But that is life in Hell—infiltrating a demon's home and murdering their kids is a-okay.