Like the last time, it didn’t take long for the sounds of battle to reach them. No more than a few minutes later, half a dozen distant rumbles shook the city. Damien and Sylph exchanged a glance.

“You think that’s her?” Sylph asked.

“Can’t hurt to check,” Damien said as they both rose to their feet and set off in the direction of the noise. The noise hadn’t been particularly close, but it was closer than some of the other fights going on around the city.

The sounds of explosions and carnage accompanied the two as more fights waxed and waned along the edges of the city. Flashes of brilliant light occasionally overtook the ever-present gray, but it always returned shortly after.

Damien slowed as he and Sylph drew up to a large section of ruined houses. The ground had been completely covered with scorched black stone. It was craggy and hazy, warping anything Damien tried to look at through it.

“Well, this looks like old lava,” Damien said, squinting through the houses to try and find any sign of other people. “I don’t see anyone, though.”

“Hold on,” Sylph said as her wind armor whipped to life around her. She took a step forward before Damien could stop her, but her foot never touched the superheated rock. A ripple swept out and she climbed into the air, darting through the sky as easily as if it were land.

She jogged over the area, scouting it out, before running back to float before Damien atop two disks of air.

“There’s a passageway underground in the middle of all the houses,” she reported. “And I can hear fighting going on beneath it. They must have just gotten here.”

“Let’s go, then,” Damien said. Sylph nodded and he teleported into the air, spinning as he fell to get a better look at the ground.

It wasn’t hard to spot the gaping hole in the center of one demolished house. A tongue of molten red light licked out from within it, further confirming their suspicions. Damien teleported again, appearing safely at the top of a section of ruined wall above the hole. Sylph ran over to join him and they both peered inside.

This passageway looked similar to the one that they’d been in previously. Every few seconds, the ground shuddered slightly and the light coming out of the room flared in intensity. There was no direct sight of Quinlan, or Cheese, though.

“We’ll just have to go in,” Damien said. “Be ready. We still don’t know exactly what Cheese can do.”

Sylph snorted. “I was about to say the same thing. It’s a good thing it doesn’t look like Quinlan threw that molten stone everywhere down here or you wouldn’t be able to go much farther.”

“Lucky me.”

They both hopped down. Damien prepared to cast Devour as they fell. The two landed lightly on the stone and they quickly straightened, prepared to defend themselves. No attacks came.

The room they stood in was drab and gray, with only a single large doorway before them. On the other side of the door was a huge, circular room. Quinlan and Cheese stood across from each other, so locked in their fight that neither seemed to notice the newcomers.

Magma coiled around Quinlan, whipping out and lashing at Cheese in a constant barrage. Every few seconds, she’d throw in an extra blast of molten rock. Whenever her magic touched the ground, it hissed and melted away as if nothing were in her way. The sheer speed and power of her attacks was terrifying.

They were also completely useless. Cheese vaulted over a pillar of lava, laughing hysterically as his bare hands touched the lava. If it hurt him, the boy certainly didn’t show it. He batted away another one of Quinlan’s strikes and ducked under a searing bolt of red energy that burned a hole through the wall behind him.

“Seven Planes,” Sylph muttered as they fought. Sweat trickled down her brow from the amount of heat radiating out of the room. “How is he doing that?”

“It’s Matter magic,” Henry said, popping out of Damien’s shadow. “I’ve always loved it. He’s changing the physical properties of the lava as soon as it gets close to him, making it as harmless as cold rock.”

“That doesn’t seem very reliable,” Sylph observed. “He’s relying on incredible reaction speed, then? What if he’s half a second too late?”

“Then he cooks alive,” Henry replied. “It’s a very bold way to fight. Makes it a lot of fun to watch. We should keep at it.”

“We do that and Cheese will win,” Damien said flatly. “We need that artifact, and we saw what happened the last time she fought him. Cheese is just going easy on her now, isn’t he?”

“Oh, almost certainly,” Henry said. “He could have gotten close to her half a dozen times by now, but he’s just hanging back and letting her wail on him. Crazy bugger is having fun. Why don’t you train like that?”

“Oh bug off,” Damien grumbled, starting toward the two and gathering Ether around himself. Before he could even step through the door, both Cheese and Quinlan faltered as they caught sight of him entering at the same time.

“Wait!” Cheese yelled, skidding to a stop and hopping a foot back. “Don’t interfere.”

“What are you doing here?” Quinlan asked, frowning through her grimace. Blood dripped from her forehead and her arm hung limp at her side. The lava around her tilted as if it were an inquisitive snake. “It’s not safe!”

“Forget that,” Cheese snapped before Damien could answer. “I don’t want my fight interrupted. I do not need help. Please leave.”

Sylph glanced between Quinlan and Cheese, then raised her eyebrow while Damien failed to hold back a laugh. Cheese’s eyes widened slightly.

“Oh, you’re with her? That’s fine, then. I suppose I could fight all three of you at once. That could be fun,” Cheese mused. “Do you think it matters that we’re from the same college? You wouldn’t tell Derrod, would you?”

“Don’t!” Quinlan said quickly. “He’ll take you apart if you fight as you are. I’m barely holding him off myself.”

She gave Damien a pointed look, flicking her gaze to Henry. It didn’t take a genius to understand she was implying the only way he’d stand up to Cheese was with Henry’s help, which wasn’t something he wanted to do quite yet.

“I can’t give you the artifact either,” Cheese continued, ignoring all of them as he rubbed his chin. “But maybe if you took it from me when I wasn’t watching, that would give me an excuse? That’s a good idea, right?”

“No,” all three of them chorused.

Cheese’s face fell. “Damn. So how are we supposed to fight?”

“We aren’t actually here to fight you if we can avoid it,” Damien hedged. “We kind of came for an artifact that Aven told us would be here. She said Quinlan would have it.”

“What?” Quinlan asked. “I haven’t gotten anything I can give you, I’m sorry. I’m just trying to get the one Cheese has, and I can’t give it up under any circumstance.”

“Well, Aven told me she’d give me a fully paid trip to every bakery in the kingdom if I got this,” Cheese said, crossing his arms. “So I’m not giving it to you. I need it more.”

“Does it strike you how ridiculous this is?” Sylph asked Damien in a low whisper. He gave her a one-shouldered shrug in response.

“Better than the alternative, I guess. I have to say that I like Cheese a lot more than Aven right now. He’s yet to try to kill us.”

“I could,” Cheese offered. “Would you like me to?”

“No thank you, maybe another time,” Damien said. “But I do really need the artifact. Not the one you’re trying to keep from us, but something that gathers energy. Aven told us that we could get it from Quinlan.”

“Oh,” Cheese said, wiping his nose with the back of his sleeve and digging around in his pants. He pulled out a shimmering white stone. “I was supposed to give this to someone who managed to survive fighting me for five minutes straight. How long has it been?”

“More than five minutes,” Quinlan said slowly. “But–”

Cheese tossed her the rock and she caught it out of reflex, staring at it with complete befuddlement.

“I don’t need this.”

“Well, Aven told me to give it to you,” Cheese said. “I don’t want it either. It was poking my bum.”

Quinlan gagged and threw the rock to Damien, who caught it with telekinesis and tucked it into his pack, trying to pretend like he knew what was going on.

“Uh, thanks. I think.”

“Sure, sure,” Cheese said. “Can we get back to the fun part now? I’ve almost been melted five times already! Five!”

“You’re completely insane,” Quinlan said, raising her good hand. The lava around her twitched, but then faltered and collapsed back to the ground. “Shit. I’m out of Ether.”

“Seriously?” Cheese asked. “Come on. I can wait while you recover some more, then? Man, I wish I didn’t break your arm last time. I didn’t think you’d be so squishy. This fight would have been more fun if you moved around more.”

“Gee, sorry,” Quinlan said sarcastically. “I’m sorry for not being better at killing you.”

“You should be,” Cheese said with a sage nod. He glanced at Sylph and his eyes brightened. “Do you want to try instead? Aven told me you were super fast. I’m fast too, you know.”

“I – uh, can I say no?” Sylph asked.

“Aven told me I had to listen when people said no if they were part of Blackmist,” Cheese said, crestfallen. “But that wasn’t you saying no, was it? That was just you asking if you could say no.”

“No.”

“Ah. Damn. What about you, Damien?”

“Rain check?” Damien suggested. “I might be about to explode right now, so I’d rather get that dealt with before doing anything else.”

“Oh, exploding. That’s fun,” Cheese said. “I tend to prefer punching things, but I like watching Aven blow them up. Quinlan, when are you going to be healed? Now?”

“Uh… definitely not,” Quinlan said, slowly backing away from Cheese. He followed after her, not a care in the world. “I’ll need at least a day and time to treat my arm if you want me to be able to do anything. Shit. I need that blasted artifact.”

“Well, I’ll wait,” Cheese said, rubbing his chin. “You’re more fun than the other guys here. Freddy was so disappointing. I broke him on accident.”

“You mean Teddy?” Damien asked. “And what exactly do you mean by broke him?”

“Teddy, Freddy, same thing,” Cheese said dismissively. “His name wasn’t worth remembering. He didn’t dodge fast enough, and he likes fighting close range. Look at Quinlan! She’s a ranged fighter, but she didn’t let me punch her chest. Isn’t that smart? If Teddy were smart, I wouldn’t have broken him.”

The back of Damien’s neck prickled. Cheese’s voice rang with amusement when he spoke, but there was something cold deep beneath his eyes.

“He tried to rip my heart out,” Quinlan reported, slumping against the wall and breathing heavily. “Or at least, that’s what he told me he was trying to do. For the first few minutes, he told me what he was going to do right before he did it.”

“It makes things more challenging,” Cheese said defensively. “Is a day over yet?”

“No,” Quinlan said. “It is not.”

“Oh. Well, I’ll just follow you around until you’re ready. It’s not like you can go anywhere if you want the artifact,” Cheese said with a cheerful grin. “Do you have any food?”

“You’re trying to kill me and you’re asking for food?”

“Yes.”

Quinlan glanced at Damien and Sylph, then let out an explosive sigh. “Oh, Planes take me. I don’t care anymore. If it means I get another shot at the artifact, I won’t complain.”

She dug around in her bag with her good hand and pulled out a small wheel of cheese. She bit back a pained laugh and turned her gaze to Cheese, holding out his namesake.

“Ooh, I love that!” Cheese said, prancing forward and plucking it from her hand. “How did you know?”

“Just a guess,” Quinlan said, shaking her head. Sylph walked up to her and supported the older girl, lowering her to the ground and helping her wrap her injured arm and treat the injuries riddling her body.

“So,” Cheese said, taking a bite out of the cheese and walking up to Damien. “Come here often?”

“What? No. Who comes to Forsad often? This is the first time for all of us.”

“Ah,” Cheese said, nodding. “Makes sense. I don’t really concern myself with that stuff. I just like fighting.”

“Why did you even ask it, then?”

“Aven told me it was polite to ask,” Cheese replied with a shrug. “No reason not to be polite.”

“That’s fair enough,” Damien admitted. “You’re… very interesting.”

“Thank you! You’re quite boring yourself, but you’d be more fun if we fought,” Cheese said, still chewing. “I’ve heard you’re fun to fight against.”

“Aven?”

“Nah, it was Fr – ah, Teddy. I asked him who I should go have fun with after I was done with him and he said you were okay.”

“Good to know,” Damien said, shaking his head slowly. He hated the thought, but Cheese was actually somewhat entertaining. In a strange, crazed kind of way.

“I’d be happy to fight you some other–”

Damien didn’t get to finish his sentence. An enormous force picked him up and threw him across the room. He barely managed to cross his arms before him before he slammed into the wall.

A brilliant flash followed the shockwave, followed by a world ending explosion. The sound tore through the ground, vibrating it almost as much as the blast had. The city of Forsad let out a pained screech as what sounded like hundreds of buildings crashed down above them.

Damien groaned, pushing himself upright and trying to squint through his light-scarred eyes.

“What in the Eight Planes was that?” he asked, his words muted and distant to his own ears.

Henry formed beside him, helping Damien to his feet with a tentacle. His blobby face was cold and devoid of amusement. He staggered over to the edge of the room and looked out of the hole. The gray skies of Forsad had been completely tinted a sickly green. Damien’s blood went cold as he realized he knew the answer to his own question before Henry even spoke.

“The Corruption.”