Amdirlain’s PoV - Culerzic

Leaving behind the collapsing chamber, Amdirlain crouched amid a dank treeline overlooking a town in a brand new form. Sharp claws dug into the damp bark, and in the armoured ferret form of a Gilöglp, Amdirlain climbed onto the lowest branches. All the while ignoring the invoked memories of her first meeting with the Sisterhood’s knowledge Demon. Though grief and rage burned her mind, Amdirlain didn’t bottle them up but sought ways to channel their energy.

The town was a trade stop that dealt with alchemical materials harvested from a slime-filled forest. This town hadn’t been a place the Wizard had come to for prisoners but for buying materials, particularly volatile materials. She noted grimly that the town’s wards had the same elements seeking the Sisterhood sigil she’d seen in both locations she’d destroyed. With Resonance’s trained reach, she didn’t even have to go into the town to scour it from side to side.

Taking in the liquid songs of the captured slimes, Amdirlain considered their assorted elemental affinities. With each type, she compared their structures and broke down the components of their species' songs. While the forest wasn’t home to a wide range of slime variations, those present gave her the basis for more options. Slimes were Mana concentrated into a gelatin-like form with single or multiple affinities merged to determine their traits. The nuclei at their centre provided limited sentience whose only need was to consume.

Her version of Isa’s concealment song wrapped around her, and Amdirlain was aware of a momentary pain when Lingering Song drank from her health to handle the strain of masking the auras. The notification that came with it made it easy to focus on her progress.

[Lingering Song [Ad] (10->11)]

With the theme enfolding her auras, Amdirlain hid within the branches and composed adjustments to the slimes’ essences. When ready, she pulled one of her needles from Inventory and sunk it into the tree trunk. A final push with a hardened claw buried it completely.

She sang out her rage, the fury of her losses, in whispered tones that the forest’s noises drowned, and secured them tightly in the crystal. The melody of her aura twisted into a consuming drive keyed to unleash upon command. She set anchor points around the town's perimeter to create a Star of Solomon. Given the origins of Moloch’s name, the irony was as appealing as the double triangle formation was practical.

Once her trap was ready, with fire lanes set, Amdirlain created a keyed song of subtle arrogance and pride. The moment she dismissed the few prisoners present in town to their homes, her latest creation poked within the wards. Commanders throughout the town and beyond received alerts about multiple Sisterhood sigils.

The reaction was fast, but only part of the ten-strong Balor squad arrived in her firing lanes. Instead of lashing out, Amdirlain pushed individually at the wards. Silently triggering more detections to manipulate their reactions had the Balor drawing weapons and charging into town.

She triggered the needles' music once the entire squad entered the target areas. The rage and fury common to demons found fertile ground, and the blade of her Willpower within the song inserted the mental virus of her trap. The squad and scores of other demons had the slimes' mindset imposed, temporarily turning them into feeding machines that sought to consume everything.

The effect only lasted half an hour, but it was enough for those infected to flatten sections of town. Rather than set them off again, Amdirlain teleported the needles to her hand and took a moment to reapply Isa’s concealment before she disappeared.

Her arrival at the next target had her claws scratching across the petrified wood of a mangrove tree. Positioned across the river from the drying racks, Amdirlain remained outside the town’s wards. Hidden in a tree’s boughs, she stretched her focus to seek Mortal souls.

When she found no prisoners to release, Amdirlain started to lay out a net of songs, pausing briefly when a notification came up partway through her work.

[Silent Song [M] (11->12)]

Once the last was in place, she scanned the town for mortals again before setting them off.

[Combat Summary:

Least Barbatos x980

Lesser Barbatos x127

Barbatos x15

Lesser Dlirzin x190

Least Dretch: x2319

Lesser Dretch: x83

Least Succubi: x12

Least Pilfarin x234

Lesser Pilfarin x12

Least Schir x3231

Lesser Wenga x7

Total Experience gained: 8,978,954

Ostimë +4,489,477

Ontãlin +4,489,477

Servant’s Destruction: Useful]

Celestial energies rang across the plane and sent a wave of displacement up the river’s course, causing crystal residue to dissolve in its wake. Shifting location to the mangroves’ edge, Amdirlain slipped through the canopy. Once she’d found a damned whose song was bloated and foul, she pulled it into her flesh with Energy Drain. The Soul's former bindings contracted for a moment, and Amdirlain hopped clear before they lashed out desperately. A wild blow fell across a nearby Soul, and the vines started to wrestle for its possession. Not waiting to see the outcome, Amdirlain slipped away.

With the Soul held within her flesh, she set herself near another town from the Wizard’s memory and headed towards the stone gates. As she moved, black bracers of adamantine came into existence, gleaming with red runes.

[Crafting Summary (Category: Protection item) - experience by item grade:

Masterwork: 2,430 = 100 (base) + 400 (rare material) + 3,390 (enchantment rating: +678(success))

Total Experience gained: 3,890

Silent Song [M] (12->13)]

Unlike other places she’d seen that bothered with walls, these were barely two metres tall, and the roofs beyond were so low that her position close to the ground made them invisible. Everywhere she checked, the enchanted stonework showed deep abrasions from the plateau’s storms. A dry wind moving from behind her rasped across her obsidian fur and promised another sandstorm before long.

With her auras concealed, Amdirlain scampered along the lines of pack-laden Dretch towards the town's gate. Only the odd thug looked her way, and a spiteful stomp from one sent loose rocks towards her that the shield from her bracers stopped dead. A Spell that drove a black spike through its thigh prompted the rest to ignore her existence.

The goat-headed Schir at the gate looked her over and motioned her inside. Within the walls, the upper streets were nearly empty and Amdirlain didn't take the first ramp down that lead below. Instead, combining information from the memories and the guards' minds, she headed deeper into the twisted interior before using a shaft meant for smaller demons. It joined the first level at a shelf that consistently ran near the corridor’s ceiling, allowing her to wind unhindered towards her destination without touching the ground.

With the bracer’s magical protections creating a distortion visible to the smaller demons with Sense Mana, they kept clear of her path. Those that couldn’t sense it still eyed the runes warily and took their cues from others.

Pausing in the town’s main corridor, she took in the wards of her target and listened to their song for traps. Satisfied there wasn’t anything that would trip her up, she activated a Wall Walk Spell to blend in with the demons she disguised herself as, and made her way down to the door.

When her front paw touched the doorstep of ‘The Treasury’, the door swung open without protest. Packed in the foyer was a crowd of demons waiting to be served by the three tattered-looking hags beyond the counters’ grill. A Schir approaching from behind her prompted Amdirlain to scamper up the wall, and she took a spot beside a greenish-black Quasit on a shelf.

As Amdirlain shifted from wall to shelf, he looked her over, moving his wings uneasily, but kept his stinger-tipped tail clear. His features looked like a wizened old man, but from his bare scalp emerged a pair of backwards curving horns. With the Quasit only forty-five centimetres taller, her body was triple his length and out massed him significantly without even the bracers making it clear she had protection.

[Name: Palqarz

Species: Lesser Quasit

Class: Spy / Thief / Wizard

Level: 25 / 25 / 10

Health: 560

Defense: 45

Melee Attack Power: 35

Combat Skills: Claws [Ad] (2), Tail Strike [Ad] (4)

Details: Native to the Cavern of Skulls and on retainer to the local Treasury coven.]

“Caravans came in, racing the storm. Wrong time to come.”

“I can wait,” muttered Amdirlain, her voice like rasping rock.

“What flavour of knowledge do you trade in?”

Looking at it sideways, Amdirlain kept her tone curt. “Arcane and Planar Lore, including spells.”

The last word brightened Palqarz’s demeanour. “Oh nice, I don’t suppose I could get-”

“No,” snapped Amdirlain, having heard the desire for spells on the cheap from his thoughts.

“You didn’t even give me a chance,” protested Palqarz.

“You were about to ask for my name, to get in touch with me when you had the coin for spells. So, No,” grumbled Amdirlain. “Spending too long in a circle turned me off name-sharing. If you’ve any coin now, I’ll answer questions; if not, you can talk to someone else when you do.”

“Bloody circles. Twenty years I spent tied to my first Wizard after spawning. Served him from apprenticeship days, when coins were tight and things unpleasant. Things had been looking up, then the bastard got religion and imprisoned me.”

“Not a religion of a suitable power?”

“Nah, pointy-eared prick fell in love with a priestess of the Summer Court, wanted to redeem himself, the little flower fucker. He locked me in a circle for years while researching how to break our link without weakening himself,” grumbled Palqarz.

“No respect,” snickered Amdirlain.

“Mortal wizards are always looking to screw demons of our due. Wish we could just get their Soul in advance or say no deal.”

“Did he break the Pact without weakening himself?” asked Amdirlain, more to keep him distracted than curiosity, as she rummaged his mind for the town’s layout. Despite its location, the town was far smaller than the mangrove’s locale—merely a servicing point for alchemists and those hunting Lurkers for their glands.

“What will you pay me?”

Amdirlain had already caught the lie in his mind but ground her teeth together. “The likelihood your story is even true is low. Binding you in a circle wouldn’t have kept the Pact Bond from corrupting his Soul. Thus, you on the Material Plane would have worsened his situation. Pass.”

“But-”

“I deal in knowledge, not lies; proof or shut up,” growled Amdirlain, her sharp teeth drinking the light.

Palqarz kept his mouth shut, and Amdirlain waited until the hags at the counters had cleared the foyer. A simple Jump Spell took her from the shelf to the counter’s outer edge, and the closest Hag looked her over. The red specks of light gleaming from the black mist in her eyes' sockets were an eerie reminder of Usd’ghi. Though the cracked greyish-black skin was similar, she seemed to be in her youth, and her tattered dress was crafted from plaited sinew.

“Soul.”

Before the Hag had set the jar on the counter, Amdirlain was already taking in the song of its enchantments. Their process to strip the emotions away from the Soul was exactly what she’d been after, however, the other details made her bare her teeth.

“One without the imprint enchantment,” hissed Amdirlain.

“I don’t know what you mean,” grumbled the Hag, but she was quick to raise a hand when Amdirlain turned to leave. “Fine.”

She retrieved another canister from beneath the counter, the affronted Hag setting it down with a sharp click. Though she knew it was already clean, Amdirlain considered the bile-green barrier that sealed the opening as if she was carefully examining it.

“It will cost you now.”

The Hag scowled and gave a gapped tooth grimace. “You’ll get your coins.”

“I want to see you compress the Soul for transport,” declared Amdirlain.

At Amdirlain’s words, the hag looked suspicious. Her forehead furrowed and turned cracks in her dry skin into chasms. “Why?”

“I deal in arcane knowledge, and it's an interesting concept. Not looking to compete in your trade,” grumbled Amdirlain. “I could trade it somewhere else, and you must compress it at some point.”

“Fine.”

With her acceptance, Amdirlain stuck her paw inside the seal and let the corrupted Soul come forth. At its curdled blackness, the Hag whistled appreciatively. “So much corruption would have been among the damned if you hadn’t claimed it. You've let this one get muddy. Don't examine them inside the Abyss in the future; bring them straight to us.”

Setting irregular discs into the container’s slot one after another, they came out moulted black, then various hues of red, and finally green. “It would have been among the damned for sure.”

The Hag’s whispered words weren’t a Spell but set off the enchantments in the container. Listening intently, Amdirlain caught the effect on the Soul. Even as she memorised it, she could tell how the pressure of influence manipulated the Soul’s form.

Collecting her coins, Amdirlain made her way out of the store and explored the town’s layers, setting seeds in place as she went. The process of exploration and setting charges in place took her a day to complete her preparations. The town held dozens of alchemist workshops processing glands and other materials she had never seen before, into battle elixirs.

When she was sure no prisoners were present, Amdirlain simply exited into the still-raging storm. The shock waves that erupted rumbled the ground beneath her feet. Sealed doorways to the surface burst open, shattered by fierce winds and hot gouts of magma that flooded the tunnels. Amdirlain ignored the combat summary of the small town and teleported away.

This time, her target was the hills where they’d hunted drakes, and she accepted the stab of grief at seeing their jagged ridgelines. Setting up a new chamber far beneath a gully, Amdirlain sealed it from seeping water and shifted to Anar form. With a basic hidey-hole secured, she sent Ebusuku and Isa the same message.

“Still alive and kicking. Not anywhere dangerous now, but please give me some time before we meet.”

The acknowledgements she received contained equal parts worry and relief. Holding the guilt for their concern away, Amdirlain focused on her project. Replicating the training chamber didn’t take long, and when the excavation was complete, Amdirlain tested her new limits.

The circle to contain the celestial energy sprang into existence when she was done. Instead of depending on thousands of runes, she set the effect into a single True Song needle embedded into the chamber’s midpoint.

“Are you giving me things I technically qualify for because you’re worried about me as well, Gideon?”

The words echoed back to her and carried an edge of grief she’d ignored when speaking aloud. She didn’t expect a response but used Analysis on the needle‌.

Analysis

[True Song Crystal-Needle

Creators: Roher and Isa

Expected Life Span: ~7,200,000,000 years

Note: You’re not burying your rage and grief, but don’t let them bury you.]

“At least you can't continually nag,” muttered Amdirlain.

It took her hours to bring the first song to completion. When she finally stabilised the four-part harmony, a spike of True Song crystal the length of her arm lay nearby. Retrieving it from the floor, she turned it over and took in the smoothed material and the energy within it.

[Crafting Summary (Category: Basic utility item) - experience by item grade:

Masterwork: 800 = 100 (base) + 700 (exotic)

Total Experience gained: 800

Ostimë +400

Ontãlin +400

Singing [M] (18 -> 19)]

“At least being able to sing aloud will help that Skill. With those towns, it's still roughly 500 of these to hit the next level in both classes. Do I use them as repeater stations or individual sources?”

With a dissatisfied grunt, Amdirlain stored the crystal and started again. One spike after another formed on the floor, with no clear reduction in the time required. Their complexity pushed her ability to maintain the four parts by herself, making shortening the time impossible for now. Amdirlain though, took some satisfaction in that she could complete them solo.

[Crafting Summary (Category: Basic utility item) - experience by item grade:

Masterwork: 800 each (x7) = 100 (base) + 700 (exotic)

Total Experience gained: 5,600

Ostimë +2,800

Ontãlin +2,800

Multi-voice [M] (30->31)]

Analysis

[True Song Crystal - Spike

Creator: Amdirlain

Expected Life Span: ~2,600,000 years]

“Barely passable as masterwork if I compare it to the needles,” noted Amdirlain.

With nearly a day already spent creating the eight spikes, Amdirlain didn’t want to waste them on experimentation.

“I’d like to speak, if you have time. Can you bring a crystal used to propagate the purification fields?”

Amdirlain heard the quickening melody, and it gave her enough warning not to lash out. Isa appeared and threw her arms around Amdirlain with no hesitation. Even as she returned the hug, Amdirlain memorised the structure and limits of the concealments Isa had in place for visiting. The one she’d created from memory was different, but then, it needed to handle her unique presence.

“You feel gross; more achievements?” asked Isa, without flinching away.

.

Amdirlain exhaled sharply. “Sorry, my concealment of the auras faded.”

“Oh, when did you get that working?” Isa asked, and she stopped Amdirlain before she could answer. “Tell me later, how did you end up with this aura?”

“I set off a battle, and prisoners died.”

“I’m sure there is more to that story. You feel like I’ve walked into a morgue,” stated Isa, and she leant back enough to let her tap Amdirlain’s nose. “One with violent zombies lying in wait to eat my face.”

“Rawr!”

Isa blew a raspberry and leant forward, pretending to nip her. “Hilarious you are! I was worried about you—we were all worried. Don’t ever again go radio silent that long again. Get out if you’re someplace so dangerous that you can’t even exchange messages with Ternòx.”

“It wasn’t the place, it was how I intended to hide and what I planned to do. I didn’t want to risk a distraction at the wrong moment getting me killed,” corrected Amdirlain.

“You spend far too much time in your head, Amdirlain. Alright, fess up. What did you get up to with the information I sent you?”

“I encountered natural portals inside the city. I had an idea to amplify their nexus points into gates. Though it took a bunch of preparation work; I spent a month stressing Resonance to force it to increase. Whenever I needed a break, I’d compose songs and later scried the battlefield on Hades,” Amdirlain stated, and she stepped away from Isa to pace.

Isa’s expression twisted in disgust. “You sat in the middle of a demonic city to stress it? That’s not stressing it, more like bathing in sulphuric acid when you want a skin peel.”

“Senior Master Rank 21,” offered Amdirlain.

“You figure how you got there no longer counts?” snapped Isa in exasperation, and she stepped close to rest her hands on Amdirlain’s shoulders. “Please stop doing this to yourself; pushing luck uphill is my thing.”

“At no point was I counting on luck,” countered Amdirlain. “I took it methodically and tried various sound-mixing visualisations. When I found one that worked, I’d push out until I got white noise and slowly isolated all the elements.”

“Then why did we need to shy away from contacting you?”

“I used the background of the arena’s wards to blend my concealments in and listened. The local wards had planar and other detections. I didn’t want to risk tripping anything. Once Resonance reached Senior Master rank, it was easier to explore the city. That was when I set linked songs to amplify the portals, weaken buildings, and free prisoners.”

“Did the songs you used not free them?” asked Isa,

“No, I got five thousand free, but over a thousand died. I must have missed an area, or they’d brought in more. Their deaths gave me an achievement called 'Lady of Butchery', a delightful addition to ‘Angel Killer’, don’t you think?”

“That wasn’t everything, was it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Please, I spent long enough in Hell. Your acting is great, but my ability to detect lies or partial truths is also pretty great. My Perception Skill evolved, and it rocks,” Isa retorted and poked out her tongue. “Why else did you not want to be contacted?”

“I didn’t want more reassurance that things would be okay. I just needed to be, as you said, alone in my head for a while.”

Swallowing back a curse, Isa nodded. “That’s not what I’d call it. Sarah’s been beside herself with concern. Can I ask you something?”

Amdirlain shrugged. “You can always ask. If I answer is the question.”

“Do you remember if Orhêthurin did something to Sarah’s Soul?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“At parts of her harmonic, lines disappear; there are gaps in bars, or pauses you could drive a truck through. It's like the masking Orhêthurin used to wrap around her presence, but obviously, Sarah’s not doing that herself.”

“I know they were involved long before Mori was born,” replied Amdirlain cautiously.

Isa fixed her with a suspicious look. “Sarah’s been working to get free from her Mantle, despite the risk.”

“What?” asked Amdirlain softly.

“I learned she’s told her Erakkö priesthood that she has an older oath to uphold. So the first priest worthy of holding the Mantle, she’ll step aside for,” stated Isa. “I thought the Erakkö would be upset, but their take is that she’s giving up power to remain true to her word. Appeals to her follower’s whole mindset that the rule of law is more important than any individual.”

“I hope she’s careful,” murmured Amdirlain. “I knew she was unhappy with being unable to help, but I didn’t expect her to take such a risk.”

“I said the same thing,” huffed Isa. “She responded that she knows where she’ll end up if it goes wrong, and she’s learnt the trick to not needing food. From what she tells me, that whole goop in the stomach is easier for her psionics talents. Hey, whoever gets the job can send someone on a trial, right?”

Amdirlain stared at her in disbelief. “Isa.”

“Alright, but only partly joking. I think she wants to be in here with you, but not sure if it's so she can help you hunt demons or be here to help you work through your grief,” Isa replied, her tone turning serious. “You can vent with me, and I’ll listen, but I’m not good at grief. I was terrible both times you died.”

“You let yourself feel it; that’s not terrible, it's hard,” whispered Amdirlain.

“Amdirlain, were you keeping busy to distract yourself?”

Amdirlain tossed her head in denial. “No, I was working through the pain by sharing it with Moloch’s minions. I sang my rage into abyssal coins, and the demons approved of the scent.”

“Not a good sign of the road you were travelling,” noted Isa, and she gently wiped away tears that started. “Have you cried?”

“Yes,” croaked Amdirlain.

Isa bit her lip. “I don’t know if it will be okay. Things are ashy now, but a phoenix rises from the ashes. While it's pretty dark, that’s simply because dawn’s not yet arrived. Hope and practical planning are your things, right? Luck’s mine, and taking control is Sarah’s go-to.”

“He could be anywhere,” Amdirlain said.

“Yeah, we both know finding him would be impossible if he intended to stay away. I’ve spent more time travelling on different planes than either of you. I know how vast this realm is and how needle in the haystack things can get. You know what we did with scouting?”

“Only the tales you’ve told me,” replied Amdirlain. "Were you keeping secrets about your role?”

Amdirlain snorted at the irony of her asking that question, and Isa gave her an affronted look.

“No, but I wanted to remind you. You don’t go randomly kicking over rocks. The work was based on locations we knew our enemies needed to use, gates, portals, and routes between planes. Now Torm has two bottlenecks he needs to approach to make his message to Livia come true. I would bet you he’ll see Livia as your control point,” Isa stated. “This presents him with a problem, since Livia’s on Vehtë, and she’s not even going to visit Duskstone.”

“He'll need to get access to a Mortal that can summon him,” murmured Amdirlain.

Isa nodded. “Yeah, and he doesn’t have access to a deity that can give him answers or a priesthood to help anymore,”

Gnawing her bottom lip, Amdirlain considered options. "He might find contacts in The Exchange."

“He’s not been there, according to his T—his PTB. Sure, he knows it exists because of you, but he’s a newbie with no information about the merchants there, and Ebusuku isn’t. Not only does she have a residence there, but she knows a bunch of the information brokers.”

Amdirlain raised an eyebrow and studied her intently. “I’ve almost slipped a few times and said names I shouldn’t in the Abyss. You two been planning things while I was radio silent?”

“I don’t do planning well. It's more Sarah, Ebusuku, and your scary commando solars doing the planning,” corrected Isa.

“There is the risk that he’ll team up with someone and come after me,” muttered Amdirlain.

“Then why haven’t you changed your name if you think that’s likely? Are you hoping he comes after you directly?” asked Isa before she shook her head. “I don’t think he’ll want to share you with anyone. I bet if he is still levelling as quickly as before, he is pushing hard. You had told him about the Royal Fallen, and it’s possible to resist True Song’s effects if you’re stronger than the force in it.”

“I'm not running from him. His message to Livia could be several things, but it screams possessiveness, and I don't think he'd want to share. He was marking his territory, playing with his prey, misleading us, or something else,” replied Amdirlain.

Isa nodded reluctantly. “So he'll need to get stronger to 'claim' you both. Do you think he'd use some of the world’s Sage found or elemental locations to grind experience‌?”

“We used the magma elementals, but he’s been on Cemna and some other worlds. He’s trained in physical combat, but Torm's not much of a Wizard yet. He can Plane Shift but not open a Gate,” observed Amdirlain.

“Yep, he’d need to use existing gates to access any of Sage’s worlds. We put traps on them to see if it nets us anything, but more likely, he’s playing on the planes.”

“I’m more than a few steps behind now, aren’t I?”

“We’ve got your back. You just had to deal with different things,” reassured Isa. “What have you done besides blowing up a city and pushing Resonance and True Song?”

“I evolved True Song Composition and destroyed two other towns,” admitted Amdirlain, and she raised a finger as Isa started to interject. “I scanned the town completely before setting off bombs. The plan is to hurt Moloch, but I’m done blowing up towns. I’m looking to take away his resources.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“I worked out songs to put souls into a grey purgatory state where they were unaware of the pain the Abyss inflicts. It stopped Soul fragments and energy from being extracted,” explained Amdirlain. “That’s why I needed to examine the repeater crystal you and Roher designed. I wanted to design a song that would provide a temporary relay based on them.”

A crystal rod the length of a gladius appeared in Isa’s hand. “I noticed the lack of a circle in your new training pit. I take it you anchored the song in a needle?”

Amdirlain nodded and didn’t take the rod from Isa but listened to its song. “How’s Erwarth’s singing coming along?”

“She’s improving. Why?”

“I can get experience from creating, and while I could set temporary songs, a heap of those would be useful. The Lómë can’t spare much of your time yet, and they can’t come here. I thought once she’s experienced enough to handle the Lómë side-”

Isa interrupted with a laugh. “She comes here and sings crystal into existence with you, and then you two split the pot?”

“Split, my arse. I’ll keep the lot, seeing as I’ve got a Plane to deal with here. The Lómë have the limited scope of securing their settlements, and you already have that well in hand,” declared Amdirlain.

“There are spare crystal sections now that you and Erwarth could gain practice repairing,” suggested Isa. “The Lómë just had to stabilise their side while I injected energy. That would help her practice and speed things along for the pair of you. If you returned the ones you repaired, it would also help us secure the settlements faster and allow us to combine efforts with you.”

Amdirlain blinked and gave a wide grin. “Sounds good.”

“Do you plan just to sit still and train True Song?” asked Isa, and she gave an eye roll at Amdirlain's wary expression. “That’s what I figured.”

“I think Roher has underestimated Moloch’s threat,” cautioned Amdirlain.

“Why?”

“He was in the air over the city and cast the place into shadow. He was showering it with spells or Power effects laced with Destruction Mana. Thousands of effects being dropped at a time,” explained Amdirlain, and she projected the image into Isa’s mind.

Isa grimaced. “Then you need more strength before picking fights with him.”

“I’m not planning to fight him at all. I plan to make Moloch bleed profits and stop him from gaining new soldiers.”

“Amdirlain, he has a whole Plane under his nominal control,” protested Isa as she waved her hands in frustration. “Even the loss of that city won’t hurt him for long.”

“That is why I’m planning to stop entire regions from generating demons,” announced Amdirlain, and Isa hissed in shock.

“You’re a crazy girl,” declared Isa.

“What’s a little craziness between friends?”

Isa's only reply was to give an exaggerated sigh.