“Don’t worry about it,” Colin told it simply. The Demon seemed to stare at him inquisitively but said nothing as it waited for whatever may come next. When Colin turned away from the Demon, it quirked its head and listened close.

“Ready, Nox?” he asked.

The Goblin nodded his head, “move fast, DevilWalker. It may not be long before they send someone down here to find out why that woman is off her post.”

Colin nodded, then turned back to the Demon, “here’s the deal, Sparhak. I have made an arrangement with the Demons to get you out of here. I was told to escort you to an Inn and Tavern in another part of the city. To that end, I have given Nox here,” he gestured to the Goblin, “some instruction. If you try to escape, fight, or go against our plans in any way to get you there with us… he’s told me that he’s very willing to find out what your entrails look like. He has other ideas too, but that’s where he wanted to begin. Is that clear?”

“DevilWalker, you suggested the entrails part. I wanted to rip off his limbs, one by one, starting with his fingers and work my way up until he cooperates or I start with the legs next,” Nox grinned, not at all creepily or menacingly.

“Oh, my apologies, Nox. I like yours better anyway, let’s go with that. Then the entrails bit. Understood?” Colin asked, his attention snapping back to the Demon.

“Who are you people?” it asked, voice low and a little annoyed that it was being threatened by a Goblin and a human of all things. First, it had been captured by some of these filthy humans and their abominably simple tools. Then, it was trapped in a deviously intricate magic circle that it could not study. And now, after many weeks of the churches endless questions and tortures, it’s rescuers had to be, blah, them.

“I’m DevilWalker, and he’s Nox. That’s all you need to know for now, Sparhak. Just acknowledge that you understand so I can get to work,” Colin told it.

“I… understand,” it said slowly, just a little irate at being treated like nothing more than a stupid Squash Demon. It was not some beast minded moron or a simple slinger of spells, but an artisan of the highest crafts known to the Demon kind.

Colin nodded and headed towards the stairs. The notes from the map stated that no one was down on this level, including guards, but it’s impossible to know if whatever guard down there was just well hidden. He started down the stairs with this idea because why would an entire floor be unguarded.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and found a large rectangular room, much like he’d seen from the map. Just below the Demon’s cage on the floor above him, sat a substantial generator-like machine with a circular flat plane above the center of the contraption. Engraved into the plane was a glowing copy of the magic circle that marked the bottom of Sparhak’s cage.

Looking away from the machine, he took a quick look around the room. While there were several items in the room, only a few things caught his eyes. At the back end of the room was a thick metal door. Chains were pulled through rings in the metal door, acting as an excessive security lock. In the back corner to the left of the room, stood a five-foot-tall hooded microphone with an eye that tracked him as he entered. And last of the items that drew his gaze was a four-foot diameter mirror made of dark stone, black glass, and inscribed with dull gold runes.

He briefly considered looting the place for all it was worth, but his own self-discipline kept him from acting on it. The more that went missing, the greater the search for him later because someone would remember him, there was nothing for that.

So he ignored the rest of the room, though he could hear them calling his name, and stepped over to the generator.

Which was when he got a prompt that made him take a step back.

Warning! Your Perception skill has triggered a warning due to your Amulet of Poison Detection. The area you are approaching contains Aetheric Particles that are spewing out energies harmful to living things. Enter at your own risk.

Colin swallowed. He really didn’t have a choice here, but that description sounded awfully like magical radiation. A grimace spread over Colin’s face as he took a few breaths to prepare himself for what he was going to have to do. He only hoped that he wasn’t going to die to accomplish this.

Stepping in, Colin hurried over to the machine and was relieved that the only thing he felt so far was a slight tingling over his entire body. He worked his eyes over the device, there was no control panel, no on or off switch, and no apparent power source to disconnect. Looking inside the machine, he could see inside it and found that it was a wondrous device of innumerable moving parts. Energy pulsed and crackled, lights glowed and flowed around, and with no discernible patterns in the movements.

The only critical piece of the machine he could see was a glass orb the size of Colin’s fist, hovering in a purple field of energy in the middle of the machine.

The sparking energy moving inside the machine and the purple energy around the item made him hesitate to reach in and just grab the thing.

You now have Aetheric Radiation Sickness level one. Symptoms: Minor nausea. You now have Aetheric Radiation Exposure. Your mana regeneration and mana pool size have been reduced by 50%.

“Well, at least if I die, I’ll come back,” Colin groaned. His fingers flexed and unflexed quickly, trying to psych himself up to reach inside a moving and active machine. Breathing fast as he positioned himself, Colin lined his arm up with the hole that allowed him to see the orb and backed away after finding a problem.

After throwing off the robe, exposing his bare defined torso, he placed himself at the opening again and prayed. He shoved his hand in and pressed it to the glass orb; a gritty texture met his palm after he pushed past what little resistance the purple haze gave.

Your Aetheric Radiation Sickness has increased to level two. Symptoms: Minor nausea, chills, small chance of vomiting.

He pulled the ball in his grasp and found that it did not want to leave its containment. He tried again and again, groaning and grunting to no avail. After several moments, Colin sighed and activated Kinetic Vigor. His body vibrated, and every physical part of him flexed in a boost of power. He pulled again, still to no avail.

Your Aetheric Radiation sickness has increased to level 3. Symptoms: Moderate nausea, chills, small chance of vomiting, Least Aetheric source.

Releasing the orb and taking a step away, Colin growled at the device that forced his hand. He’d been hoping to avoid this for one reason… it was going to be loud. Going into his back, Colin withdrew a drawstring pouch from his Dimensional Bag.

“You know,” Colin said, bouncing the pouch in his hand, talking to no one. “As dangerous as it is, thermite is really easy to make and weaponize. Especially with an additive of Nox’s.”

He placed the dangerous bag and its contents at the top of the machine, the flat plane projecting the magic into the cage above and holding the Demon captive. After Colin had told him what this would do, the Goblin practically laughed maniacally. From what he had told him, adding powdered solidified mana could increase the effects of some mixtures. Adding attuned solidified, then powder mana would do more depending on the element.

His response was clear and concise, “I’d suggest you get behind cover when you activate this,” Nox stated. “I’d rather not hear that you got pulled into a collapsed space.”

So Colin thought about it for only a moment before pointing at the bag and triggering the Ignition subskill. He then broke into a run towards the stairs, rounded the corner, and huddled into a ball.

The sound of the flames igniting the enhanced thermite was louder than Colin thought. There was a whooshing sound as Colin felt air shifting and moving in towards the device. He gave in to temptation and peeked around the corner, seeing a swirling point of black that was drawing in particles that pulled in the light around it.

Then something shuddered in the air, and an implosion that sounded like a fifteen car pile-up rocked the building around him. He uncurled himself and looked at the machine, squinting to avoid dust moving into his eyes. As the detritus cloud started to clear, he knew he needed whatever skill or ability Nox used to increase the power of his thermite.

The device looked like it was shattered into several pieces; the top third of the generator was in indistinguishable crumbles. Everything else below there was broken, sheared apart, and otherwise thrown across the room. The more interesting thing was that the glass orb that was now free of the purple haze now sat in the rubble.

Groaning to himself, Colin hurried over to the item and felt his stomach lurch at the movement. He heaved, his throat burning as his belly expelled its contents to the floor in front of him. Colin clutched at his middle as his insides twisted and another small part of his lunch left. This continued for a few seconds as he did his best to keep moving, and shaky step by painful step, he moved closer.

When he got to it, he examined it and got the prompt he expected.

????????????.

Ignoring keeping his attention on the item, Colin picked up the softball-sized orb and slid it into his Dimensional bag. If it was the critical component of that machine, it would most likely come in handy eventually. His gut had started to subside with a sensation of needles prickling over his arms, and a cold shiver following after it. He spat out the taste of stomach acid and what tasted like blood out of his mouth. Then moved towards the stairs, doing his best to avoid looking at anything else in the room that would tempt him to stay longer.

But it was already too late.

He’d taken one step on the stairs when he saw a woman in a sleeveless robe and golden sash, standing above him on the steps. She was pulling both of her axes free from her sash, and they started to glow a pure, peaceful gold light. She bent low, leaned forward, and shoved off towards him. In the seconds before she collided with him, Colin saw glassy-eyed rage and clenched teeth.

She was definitely trained to do these sorts of things with how accurate her attacks’ timing was. Both blades were swung at the apex of her leap, one ax collided with his currently bare chest, and the other narrowly missed his neck by a scant few inches.

You have taken 103 points of damage and now have 197/300 health remaining. You are wracked by pain from the enemy’s Aligned Strike and are stunned for three seconds for being their opposed alignment.

Colin spasmed and fell to his knees. His every nerve was being fried by lightning, and the ax in his ribs wasn’t helping much. The agony was incapacitating and was making it hard to move, let alone think. So he watched helplessly for the first two seconds as the unnamed woman released the weapon in his ribs and continued just past him. Rolling to a landing and going to her feet just as the stun time ended.

Colin jerked his Mythic Xiphos free from his sash and activated Kinetic Vigor, followed immediately by Aligned Strike. He swung to block her next glowing swing with his red-black glowing sword, and both met in a shower of silver sparks. The moved hurt like hell, and his health points reflected that.

You have taken 6 points of damage and now have 191/300 health remaining. You have taken 21 points of damage and now have 170/300 health remaining.

Wrenching the ax free from his ribs hurt like a bitch, but his trained mind embraced the pain and moved him into his next action. Drawing his arm back, he empowered the ax with an Aligned Strike and threw it at the woman. The whirling weapon became a blur of hellish light as it flew, a little awkwardly, towards her.

She charged her own Aligned Strike, angled her weapon, and swung at the spinning blade. The clash of opposing magicks canceled each other out in a burst of silver sparks, and the clash of opposing metals knocked the weapon into the air. Her eyes followed the spinning ax, and she deftly caught the ax by the handle, as if it had been returned to her.

Then she raised her returned weapon and prepared to throw it back when she discovered something alarming.

The Imposter Chaplain was gone.

“Shit shit shit shit,” she cursed as she ran up the stairs. This wasn’t the first time her attention had wavered during a fight and had caused something to happen because of it.

But when she reached the top of the stairs, she found the man she was looking for stepping through the open door of the Demon’s cell. The Demon himself was gone; only a portal of swirling darkness remained on the floor, like a pit to some endless abyss. He staggered inside the room and vomited something dark as he fell into the hole. Vanishing from her sight.

The only feeling she had after the portal closed was a sensation of regret and cold anger. Not just at the trespasser that escaped, but at herself for letting him escape, and somehow with the Demon in tow. Her mind in high gear from adrenaline and just unadulterated rage, she sprinted up the stairs and reported to the High Priest.

If she was lucky, the church could capture the man, and she could initiate a trial by arms. Giving her a means to work within her church’s rules in a fair fight to murder him. Maybe then the anger at his deceit would subside.

---

When Colin came out of the portal, he immediately fell to his face and groaned. The pain in his gut had worsened, and he’d vomited a bit of blood just before he fell into Nox’s escape hole. This was part of the plan that Nox had suggested since his portals worked was uniquely than other types of magical transportation.

It was actually rather fascinating. The way it was explained to him, most portals needed to use an element of dimensional magic to work. But dimensional magic was a bit weird since it bent space, sort of, to create a door from one place to another. This type of portal was flawed in the fact that it still made a tunnel to the destination.

On the other hand, Shadow Magic Portals created its own tunnel through a sub-shadow dimension, exiting in another shadow a distance away. Bypassing all the security and allowing them to escape unhindered. Nox had told him that the one weakness in his portals was that where he traveled had to be a location that he was familiar with to create a stable portal, and he’d never been in that church.

Colin mumbled under his breath as he worked to get back to his feet. The churning and twisting pain he was feeling in his gut had lessened over the last few seconds, and he managed the feat with shaky slowness. Everywhere was aching, especially the chest wound that was still weeping and slowly closed as his natural healing kicked in.

He was where they’d discussed, in an infrequently used broom cupboard in the basement of the Brass Balls Inn and Tavern. Shelve of both kegs and bottles of alcohol covered every inch of the space and made it look more cramped than before. He found Noxat the door looking out and making sure the coast was clear for them to leave.

It took a few moments, as Nox was facing another direction before he hurried over and helped him to his feet.

“Damn, DevilWalker. What happened?” Nox asked, his voice low.

Colin grinned, “what do you want to know first? The chest wound or why I am not wearing a shirt?” Colin asked as a shiver ran up his spine.

“The vomit,” he stated, looking over Colin’s body.

“Oh, that. Well, the device that powered the Demon’s cage apparently emitted Aetheric Radiation. Got to level three.” Colin explained. “I hope that is a scale of one to five because this is not pleasant,” Colin groaned, holding back a bit of a gag.

Nox shook his head, “no, that is out of ten. We need to get you to a place where I can fix this. An effect of level three is that you are now a source for the Aethic Radiation. Your condition will only get worse,” Nox told him.

“How worse?” Colin groaned as he found that he’d gotten a little strength back and managed to stand on his own. “And where’s the Demon?”

“In my shadow,” Nox told Colin. “He stupidly tried to make a run for it. So I ripped off one of his sets of arms and tossed him in there.” He then saw Colin’s look of concern and shook his head, “it’ll be fine. All he needs to do is go home, and he’ll be fine.”

“You sure? I don’t want them to bitch about this if he won’t be,” he told him, opening his Dimensional bag and shoving his arm in down to the elbow. He retrieved the shirt he’d been wearing earlier today and slid it on, trying not to move his gut too much.

“Absolutely, and to answer your first question, the sickness will start to affect other things. At level four, you get migraines. Five, there is a chance for any magic you use to backfire. At ten, you die in a calamitous explosion,” Nox told him. He then reached into his clothes and produced a bottle of sludge-y brown potion and drank a swallow of it before Colin could say, ‘ew.’

Colin saw Nox’s skin writhe and squirm before his eyes, changing color from dusky-green to sandy brown. Every bit of flesh shifted from what Colin had been identifying as ‘Goblinoid’ to a race he’d only seen once before.

The Clothes fit a little differently with the new height change, but the Gnome that wore Nox’s signature outfit was looking over his current form with disgust, “eww, Gnome. It’s a travesty that I can’t just walk around as I am DevilWalker; it’s much better for… anything. Come on, let’s go.” The little man patted the back of his thigh and started walking, with Colin only a step behind.

“So, is Rielle trying to find out who is taking this Demon off our hands?” Colin asked, checking on her part of the plan.

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen her yet. DevilWalker, I only beat you here by two minutes at the most,” Nox chided.

“Fair enough,” Colin said, shaking his own head.

The two rounded a shelf, and they walked up a set of wooden stairs that creaked as they walked. The smells of cooked meat, bread, fresh and old burnt tobacco, and a lot of whiskey reached his nose before he made it a third of the way up the steps. They paused at the top, and Gnome Nox stepped ahead and checked to make sure they could make a clean walkout.

After a minute, he waved at him, and they walked out of the storeroom and over to the customer side of the bar.

“Oh, guys! There you are,” Rielle called, standing up from a table she was occupying with a lanky looking man in a baggy coat, tunic, and pants. The hood from the coat was pulled up, hiding most of his features unless you actively looked under it. The face was human but looked like it had been molded from clay by someone who knew the theory of how humans should look.

Rielle walked closer, her eyebrows scrunching together as she looked at Colin, “Walker, are you okay?” she then took a step closer and whispered, “did something get you?”

“Yeah, I’ll tell you later. Let’s just get this done in a hurry so we can do something about it,” Colin told her, whispering. The news about the break-in at the Church of Anaheim was going to be known soon, and it was best if people had no reason to suspect him.

“A-alright, then allow me to introduce you to our…” she looked back at the man and seemed to lose her words. “What did you say he was called again?”

“I’m the contact,” the man said, his voice a low and gritty rasp. “I take it that you are DevilWalker?” he asked, looking directly at Colin. “You can call me Astaroth.”

He nodded and grumbled under his breath, “it took you long enough. I’ve been here every day since you got that quest. Finally, I can get this over with.” He returned to his usual talking voice and said, “alright, follow me to my room.”

Colin nodded and followed a couple paces behind him with Rielle and Gnome Nox at his rear. For her part, she was staring at the Gnome in Nox’s clothing while the man nodded at one of the barmen, who tossed him a silver key. They continued down a hall past the bar and followed it to its end, where it unlocked it with the key and stepped inside.

After everyone was inside, he glared at Colin. “So, where is he?”

“Nox,” Colin stated, and he grinned with the same sharp Goblin teeth he knew.

The shadows in the room moved, condensed, and engulfed the wall behind the Dusk Alchemist. With a thump, the Demon materialized from the darkness. It fell to the floor and started clamoring to get to his feet and away from Nox. Colin nodded; Nox had indeed removed a set of its arm’s, just the set of arms on his right side. Making him lopsided and off-balanced as it tried to get up and away.

Freezing only when it found it’s back to the Contact’s legs. His head moved up slowly and as its gaze met Astaroths. The Demon swallowed and moved closer to Colin and the company in an attempt to get a little distance from him.

“Good, the soul looks intact, and no permanent harm has been done. I’ll say that you completed your quest, and your first favor has been completed. Sparhak, come along. Let’s go home and discuss why you didn’t follow protocol and were captured by mortals,” Astaroth said, causing something in Colin’s soul to unbind a little.

“Before I go,” Astaroth said, turning and lifting his hand to the wall behind him. Reality cracked, and the wall opened like a vertical mouth in the wall with pieces of splintered wood acting like teeth. A curtain of red and black wavered into existence, and heat seemed to flow out towards him. “I give you this,” she said, reaching into his clothes and tossing something to Colin.

He caught it and looked at it. The item was a one-inch diameter gold coin with a deep, blood-red ruby fitted into the center.

A token of Demonic Favor. Uses 1/1.

When no other information came, he looked up at Astaroth. “What is this?”

“A sign of favor. It can be used for a lot of stuff, like deep enchanting or summoning, or exchanged to a lower-ranked demon to make it enforce your will. Come Sparhak, we’re leaving,” he said, gesturing to the malicious hole.

“Not much for conversation, are you?” Nox asked, his humor apparent.

The lanky thing rubbed at its brow with one hand, “Look, unless you have anything else, I’ve been on this plane of existence too long. I’m sure my workload back home is through the roof, and that’s not to mention the, ugh, paperwork,” it groaned, the noise out of place coming from its odd face.

“So if you don’t mind, I’m going to take him and go,” Astaroth said, taking a single step forward and grabbing the top of Sparhak’s head. He stepped away, and Sparhak was dragged along easily as he moved towards the portal to Hell.

“I actually have one more question,” Colin said, making the Demon pause. “Why was this my favor?”

He turned his head to look Colin in the face. He took a few seconds to either gather his thoughts or find out if he was seriously asked this question. When he spoke a moment later, the words carried weight, power, and more profound meaning than a moment ago. It was like what Colin suspected talking to a Demon really sounded like. “In all the Legions, in all the circles, in all the territories of Hell, there are no Demon’s that are exactly the same. Even the basest Squash Demon may have a skill that separates it from all the rest. This brainless piece of scum owes a client of his a unique skill and was captured by the Church of Anaheim.”

Colin waited for a second for him to continue but spoke up when he didn’t seem inclined to, “why does that matter?”

It’s face split, an angry charred crack ran down the veneer of its head. “When hell makes a deal, we follow through, or all of hell is liable for the breach of contract. It means we had to try and save this useless shitlicker or risk owing the client more than originally contracted. Anything he asked for, we’d have to fulfill it, or the very foundations of hell would rend and crack. Eventually leading to all of Demonkind having to flee hell and all come here.”

Astaroth paused in its speech, then thought for a moment, “also, if we went personally, the church’s alarms would have gone off, and a war would have started. Better for them and us if it was avoided.”

Colin nodded, “alright.”

Then without another word, it tossed Sparhak through the hole before walking through himself.

The rent closed with a hiss of steam and crackling of splintered wood.

Seconds passed in silence, before it was broke by Rielle, “Who are you and why are you wearing Nox’s clothes?” she asked, Gnome Nox.

---

To avoid the crowds, Nox shadow portalled them to their room, and he immediately began treatment for the Aetheric Radiation Sickness and Aetheric Radiation Exposure. Mostly, it took a series of potions that he had Rielle go and get ingredients for when the shops opened the next morning. Until then, he kept his health up and gave him a series of comfort potions meant to abate the symptoms until morning. All low-level and not even worth asking Colin to owe him for it later.

A full day had passed when the treatment was over, and Colin had drunk seven different potions. The last one was to regenerate his spleen that had somehow animated and burst free from his torso. The only thing Nox had to say about that was something about chaotic energies and helically wrapped axis’. He lost Colin rather quickly.

After that whole nightmare was done and he was rested, He sat down with Rielle and Nox for a talk.

“So, now that all that is done and I do not have a deadline hanging over my head, it’s time for training,” he announced to them both.

“How so?” Rielle asked.

Colin drew his Mythic Xiphos and looked at the weapon, “If I had time to grow my skills and gain more levels. I might have breezed through that church, or the Dungeon, or any number of things that have been causing me issues since coming to this world.” He looked at what he could see of his reflection and grimaced at how weak he felt to the world around him. Lowering his sword, he spoke directly to them, “So, I’m putting my nose to the grindstone and training.”

“Anything in particular that you want to work on?” Nox asked.

“Everything. My Personal Blades and Short Blades skills, Enchanting, all my magic skills, stealth, assassination, Everything,” Colin reiterated. “Oh, and I want to work in getting my Knowledge skills leveled as well.”

“Well, you’re going to be busy,” Rielle commented, nodding sagely.

“Yeah, but so are you. You need to level up too so we can do some awesome stuff together,” Colin told her, grinning. “That’s why I hope you’ll keep training with Nox and get as strong as possible. Even if it’s in your own way.”

“Oh, trust me. I have a lot of suggestions for your training,” Nox told her. “And yours too, DevilWalker. For example, did you know that if you train your weapons skills in a Training Yard, the skills will level up faster. Still not as fast as if you were doing nothing but fighting, but faster than anywhere else,” Nox said, shrugging. But I’ll give suggestions as you tell me your plan.”

Nodding, Colin put the blade away and looked to his two companions. Nox, who’d been with him since the Dungeon under Willows Cross and had helped him survive in a world he didn’t know well. Though very new to his cause, Rielle has been proven to be useful already and was giving a certain energy he was missing.

That thought made him miss McKenna more. His heart was in pain at the idea that his wife may not even know that he was actually here. More like, she somehow knew what happened, and he was in the game. Colin grinned and cringed at the same time for the idea of when they’d reunited. He knew two things for a certain, that she’d try to kick his ass, and that she’d probably succeed.