The demons went their separate ways and brought the corpse with them, leaving only Sally, the horses, the human-like demon, and myself behind.

“Okay, so, I know earlier I made it sound like I’d be doing the dirty work by myself, but actually there’s a village just down the river that we can use as a sort of, uh, ‘reservoir’ for what I need.”

The demon adjusted his tie. “And what exactly do you intend to accomplish in reference to this 'reservoir?’”

“It depends. I need to call my boss to know exactly what the procedure will be, but for now it’d be helpful if you could go down and gather as many women as you can.”

“‘As many women as I can’? To what end?”

“Uh, I’ll tell you when we’re done.” It’s not like answering questions was a requirement in the contract.

“Very well, I suppose. Nevertheless, I do hope your intention is without malice.” GOD I hate this guy.

“Oh, I’m... uh, saving the world, and also reconciling the eternal feud between demons and humans... so I’d say it’s a pretty noble cause.”

“Your methodology is quite counter-intuitive.”

The demon made his way to the edge of a nearby cliff, preparing to take flight.

“Wait!” I shouted, “There’s one thing I wanted to ask before you left. Uh, this is just pure curiosity, but how do demons reproduce?”

“There is an annual ceremony of ‘mating’ - if you believe this term appropriate - in the depths of the Marude Volcano. The population, however, remains fixed; instead, the life cycle of two demons, selected through divination, are started anew. The original beings see their souls merged, then split, creating new life forms from the remnants of the old.”

“Oh thank god, I really was worried about the direction this was going. Does it have to be during that specific ceremony, or could you just, you know, do it anywhere with anyone?”

“It is impossible to achieve the necessary temperature for incubation at any other location.”

“Damn, that’s annoying. For, uh, reasons that are completely unrelated to your mission.”

The demon, though clearly confused, flew off in the direction of the village. All that was left was to summon Tchadd, somehow. Thinking back to our first encounter, he had mentioned that he would see me after I had gotten situated in the new world, and then showed up after I came to the hotel. It didn’t make sense that he’d be able to do this without constantly watching my every move to know when I had gotten there, so it should follow that he’d probably been watching me this entire time in case he needed to step in. If I was lucky, and I am, this might be easier than I assumed.

“Yo Tchadd, we need to talk.” I said quietly.

Suddenly, the sky went dark. A solar eclipse. From the sky descended Tchadd, who began to glow with an intensity matching the sun.

“What’s up?” His deep voice echoed throughout the mountains as though he were not addressing myself, but the world.

“I’ve got a few questions about this world saving business.” I tried to make eye contact, but his light was too powerful to comfortably gaze upon. “Okay, first off: At what point is a creature considered human? Like, what percent human does their heritage have to be?”

“96.875% is the objective criteria for being human.”

“Wow, really? I didn’t think that worked in, like, percentages.”

“God’s will.”

“...Okay then. Next question: If someone were 3.125% demon, would they still be immortal, or at least immortal enough to last until the water situation fixes itself? Just letting you know, it’d be really, really unlucky if the answer was no.”

“Oh, yeah, that counts. I’m not sure if that was this retrocausality thing you keep talking about with your companion over there, but if it is, then that’s pretty impressive for an employee of mine.”

“Sweet. Well, that’s all of the questions that I have for now, so thanks for the help.”

“You’re welcome.” The eclipse ended, and as sunlight returned, Tchadd disappeared.