“Two weeks?” Both Richard and Rebekah asked at the same time. Even I was confused by what I was seeing… the time was supposed to go up, not down. What was happening?

  “I don’t know.” I confessed. I started scrolling through any and all updates in my log, back to when I saw the message ‘You have Died’. There was nothing before or after it, outside of a congratulations message for defeating the demon wave boss. Two weeks wasn’t a lot of time, especially with the ever increasing difficulty.

  We would be ready in terms of recovery and preparedness, but the levels came slower and slower now. The newcomers hadn’t put much of a dent in the demons and their gains were minimal. The EXP split between Marcus’ group and ours meant me and Jessica merely got one level, the others about one and a half. It wasn’t a huge power increase outside of that extra skill for us. “Gather everyone.” I told Richard.

  Rebekah got up as well, “I’ll speak to Marcus.” She said before following Richard out, leaving Jessica and I alone.

  “What do you think?” She had only been listening, but I knew if she didn’t have a plan, she at least had an opinion on it.

  “Not good.” She said, “Seems like we are now at the part of the cycle where they try and kill us.” Which sounded ridiculous—they were always trying, but clearly now more than before. It seemed the difficulty ebb and flowed.

  There was something that had always bothered me but I decidedly ignored—the luxury of the abode was almost too good. Which brought me to my first suspicion, “Is it meant to have us run?” The sky still remained red, and it seemed that only after defeating the demon waves could we make any meaningful progress towards that.

  “Mike, are you okay?” She asked instead of giving an answer to my question, which caught me off guard.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” I said. That thin veil seemed to remain, a fog that floated through my thoughts numbing everything. “Let’s wait for everyone.” Which got a nod from Jessica. Brainstorming it would be better done once everyone was here. Fortunately, that didn’t take long, just a few minutes and eventually the room was full.

  I looked around at my friends… really looked. Not a one wasn’t ragged from head to toe. Tired faces, uncertain faces, fearful faces, not a smile amongst the lot. It was clear no one was expecting a surprise birthday party announcement so it was best to get it out. “I have some bad news.” I said, “The next demon wave is only two weeks away.”

  “You mean months?” It was one of the newcomers, a face with a name I didn’t know. “Two weeks is too short…” He groaned.

  “336 hours.” I said. “That’s two weeks. It’s happening.” It was pointless to trail off on a tangent of whether this was real or not. “I just want to talk about it so everyone is on the same page.”

  “Do you know why—?”

  “What are we gonna do—?” The new group almost stirred into a panic immediately, talking over each other and agitating everyone. Emotions were already high.

  “Let’s stay calm and talk one at a time.” Lucas raised his voice before someone lost their cool. I could see Marcus was ready to start throwing punches, which was worrying me more by the day. The smallest things agitated him to no end, and it seemed to be getting worse and not better.

  “I don’t know why it’s happening.” I said. “I’ll let everyone know my first thought: This is to remove us from the abode—whether that’s to force us to battle demons in the open, or to whittle us away under the sky… I don’t know.” I looked at Jessica, hoping she might have a theory.

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  “We can’t leave the abode. It isn’t safe.” Marcus said. Various voices mumbled up until the room was almost boiling with agreement. I could even see the desire in a few of my own party members eyes. When had they all grown so attached?

  Was the abode such a sweet allure that it was a trap? The red sky suggested not, but it was also possible to be a trap but also your only lifeline. It wasn’t at the point where we needed to abandon ship… but if it did get to that point, would they leave when it was needed? A moment’s hesitation could be your last.

  “As long as the abode is safe then I agree with that.” It was Jessica that spoke up. And it seemed that she had accepted the reality of the situation as well. There could possibly come a time staying in the abode would not be safe.

  “Why would it not be safe?” Marcus asked, but I could hear the venom bubbling up in his voice. “This is the safest place we could be. The red sky, have you forgotten?” He was on the verge of shouting by the end, and before another word could leave his lips I spoke up.

  “Calm down.” I said it to Marcus, but it was also for me. Anger, it had actually pierced that little veil when he raised his voice. If my face looked anything like my thoughts, the deadpan expression must have made him realize he nearly crossed a line he shouldn’t.

  Still, I didn’t actually want to fight with Marcus. “We just want to find a solution.” I trailed off, “Jessica is suggesting more waves at an increasing rate. If the next is 1 week? 1 day? Every morning? Once in the morning and once at night?” I rattled off scenarios to prove my point.

  “You can’t know that though.” It was Lidya who said it. Slightly surprising it came from her, but others were surely thinking it.

  “Right.” I said. “But I need to know that when clear evidence is presented to us, people will act on it logically.” I looked at everyone, lingering a bit longer on the few I knew would struggle with leaving the abode.

  “Is it not possible that as the waves increase in speed we are closer to the end? One big finale to finish it?” It was the one counter-part to my scenario that I hoped no one would bring up. It was a common trope in games. Only in real life there was a glaring issue.

  “That is true,” I said. “But if you’re wrong you have basically committed suicide.” If you couldn’t know for sure that was happening, it was basically suicide to gamble on it.

  “The red sky is also suicide.” Another new face spoke up.

  “True, but it isn’t instant.” I said. “Potions, heals—these work to delay that end. The walls would only hold up for hours, maybe only minutes with hundreds of demons battering against them. I don’t know for sure which of the two fates would be worse, but I know the one I would prefer.”

  “I understand now why you said that.” Marcus looked at me, then turned to Jessica. “I’m sorry for raising my voice.” I trailed off earlier to give him a way out of the situation without hurting his pride. It seemed my choice was correct.

  “It’s alright.” Jessica said, “Everyone is high-strung right now. I just hope everyone remembers we are in this together.” She was eerily calm, but I suspected it was more so that she had exhausted her emotional bank already today.

  “Accepting the thought that leaving the abode at some point is inevitable, what is the point of that?” Lucas asked, “Sorry, what would the ‘goal’ of that be… say if it were a quest?” He worded it slightly better, but it got the conversation moving in a good direction.

  “We would be forced to endure the red sky.” Glenn said, “If doing that kills us, and our goal is to survive then it’s only logical our goal would be to stop the red sky by proxy.” No one could argue with his logic.

  “Well, we know the red sky is a result of that portal-like thing.” Maria said. There was also the eye to think about, too.

  “What about the demonic eye?” Thomas asked what I was thinking without missing a beat.

  “Do you guys remember what we saw when we were thinking of doing the raid?” Bruce suddenly asked.

  “You’re talking about the demonic city?” Anna was finally thinking of something other than shiny equipment.

  “Are the eye and city connected?” Alan asked. Thoughts continued to flow together as each person added a piece to the puzzle.

  “Maybe.” I said, “but is the portal and the eye connected?” It was the more pressing question. “Logically the demonic eye and demonic city should be connected. But if all three are connected, then I would assume the city holds the answer to removing this bloody sky.”

  “How do you figure?” Richard asked.

  “Well, I can’t think of a single way to stop the portal otherwise. If it isn’t the demonic city then aren’t we doomed?” It was a startling truth.

  “We would essentially be raiding a fortress.” Jessica said.

  This was becoming a headache, “Yeah… and we don’t exactly have an army.”