If Kaden kept his eyes closed, the pitch black of the bone sarcophagus was just another place to nap. And he truly was tired of Sevin’s rants about the final rest of Mortis. Laying under a mound of collapsed rock wasn’t sleep, and neither had anything else been, so when Danae unveiled a coffin made of rib bones and plated with silver, Kaden hadn’t hesitated to lay down.

  It had a very nice blanket and he was currently drowsing as the Tomb Champions rocked him back and forth, carrying it on their shoulders. The Solar Dragon was currently in his soul, protesting, and Kaden was beginning to think this was the sort of beast he’d need to let loose and appreciate. Perhaps have a friendship with but not carry.

  Dragons did not make good pets.

  Deep in his soul, Vip agreed.

  Eve has bled into me, with her love for that dog. We must plan for what comes. Your army of beasts will benefit you, and that demon can be tortured to reveal what it knows. The [Necromancer], gifted as he is, was not present and may not pass through the Forgotten Place. Still, he has helped you restore the demon, and for that I won’t plot his demise.

  “Have you plotted my demise?” Kaden asked.

  I can’t see how that’s relevant to what we’re doing. I’m eternal. The number of mortals I’ve planned a painful, slow demise for is literally incomprehensible to you.

  What wasn’t incomprehensible was a yes or no. “Me. Focus on me. Kaden Birch. If you were planning my demise—”

  I’d open a new pocket dimension to plan it and name it so I can’t lose track. ‘Kaden Birch [Beast Master]’ and then add a number in case I need to revise. In your case, 23.’

  “Why would it be twenty three?” Kaden’s nap was done. “You’ve plotted against me twenty two times?”

  Age, weight, and number of demise-plots are just a number. Please focus on what lets you thread the needle of Fate. You are level thirty one. When you enter Ghastos’s domain, it will slightly adjust. That’s the other reason I saved you. Your Class is a relic from a much older System.

  “So I’ve heard.” Kaden really wanted to go back to sleep.

  You have heard from those who don’t know. I was still a single goddess, not a twin in that age. People couldn’t grasp that for there to be warmth and cheer and happy healing there must also be…me. But your class is built for a different era.

  The Dean of the Vivomancer’s college had said something similar. That [Beast Master] scaled too quickly for the modern system. That level fifty had been the most anyone could reasonably reach, seventy five near unheard of, and Centurions, minor gods. “I’ve always been a boss killer.”

  So Ghastos’s power will be unleashed in line with your level, but not in line with your ability. And your Beasts will give you an advantage. But what will happen within the domain I cannot say. You would be wise to listen to me.

  Because she was a kind, loving goddess.

  Because I need you to recover Eve. I am not kind, I will not be insulted with ‘loving.’ But I am loyal to those loyal to me. Why have the undead carrying you stopped?

  He’d raise the issue of her answering thoughts instead of words when it was more reasonable. For now, he focused on listening for any clue as to the danger. Sevin’s idea had been brilliant, the Necromancers regularly made spectacles of imprisoning their enemies and parading them through the streets of Omnor.

  They’d been kinder and gentler before Oberix’s plot, out to convince Omnor that Mortis was a god of inevitability. Now they were out to convince Omnor that they could be feared or respected, but never, ever duped.

  “Fine. Crack it open, see for yourself,” Danae called.

  Do you want to live?

  There was no question in his mind. “Yes.”

  Your consent makes this easier.

  Before Kaden could move, his stomach wretched. Blood gushed from his mouth as his health rocketed downward. The slightest tick upward was rewarded with more blood. The edges of his chest, where the metal breastplate embedded itself gushed.

  Kaden would have screamed but there was no air. There was only darkness and blood, and his body wasn’t moving. Probably on account of all the blood loss.

  The top of the sarcophogas fell off, revealing the towering visage of a Demon Lord. He looked down in the pool of blood and began to laugh He dropped something in the sarcophogus. “Excellent. Excellent. You have been most useful. We need not war any longer.”

  “It wouldn’t be a war.” Danae spoke with sweetness as she put the lid back on the coffin. “TC-118, the one on the right? [Paladin] skeleton. Bones imbued with Holy power. Move along, Limey, or it won’t be a war. It will be a massacre.”

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  “I like you.” Limey lumbered away.

  Kaden’s health ticked up thirty points. And another thirty. Each minute was a thousand years long. Then the coffin cracked, shattered, and fell to pieces. Blood gushed across the street of Omnor.

  The crowds held back for a breath, then surged onward. Only the Tomb Champions surrounding him kept Kaden from getting stepped on. A surge of power in his soul, and the dragon hatchling perched on his chest, shaking blood droplets from his claws.

  A broken demon seed sat on Kaden’s chest, the one he’d shattered. Never look a gift demon seed in the mouth was probably a saying somewhere, so he put it in Inventory.

  “Brilliant work, my boy.” Danae clapped Sevin on the back as Seven helped Kaden up. “What was that?”

  “Not my work,” Sevin said. “There isn’t enough blood in the human body, I’ve drained several [Mage Hunters] who tried to kill me when I was young. There’s not nearly enough blood. Kaden?”

  “I have a few tricks up my sleeve. I’m also light-headed from blood loss.” Kaden stretched. “Skully, up.”

  His monster picked him up and set Kaden on his shoulders. Blood dripped from Kaden, painting Skully’s bones, but Skully didn’t seem to mind. He ignored the solar dragon as it scaled his rib bones to perch atop Kaden. He knew this street. He remembered enough Omnor to direct Skully to lumber toward a red-roofed pagoda, where Kaden waved through the second-story window at Mrs. Anderson, the [Hotelier] who had sheltered them.

  Then he turned and headed toward the exit.

  Toward the FarPortal, where Sevin chose the destination. He hugged Danae, then patted each of her [Tomb Champions.] “Take only lives. Leave only flesh. Kill only the deserving.”

  “Such an inspiration,” Danae said. “Serta has taken to hunting the Blight. Next time, you have to see her work! And you, Skully. Don’t be shy, come back, I’ll give you all the bones you want. Kaden? Kill them all and let Mortis sort it out.”

  Kaden dropped from Skully, catching the dragon as he landed, and offered her an awkward hug/pat. “Thanks for helping me murder a demon’s daughter and steal her power.”

  “That’s what friends are for! One day, you’ll wring power from some monster’s corpse on behalf of a young Adventurer. Maybe even worse, if you’re lucky.” She waved them to the FarPortal.

  Kaden stepped through, and into burning sand. Skully stood beside him. A solar dragon perched on his shoulders, drinking in the fierce sun. With only a thought, Trinity joined them. The FarPortal flared again, and this time, Sevin stepped through. He’d swapped his black robes for brown robes and a brown cloth wrap that made him look like a [Monk]. “Sorry. I got hot thinking about getting hot. Sara insists the sun is good for me, but I was born in the dark, raised in the dark, and when I crawl through the tunnel of death to Mortis, it will be dark. I’m getting sunburned on my soul.”

  “Garm would melt here.” Kaden studied the endless desert and chose a direction, then drew Desmona’s core. If Sevin was right, this would be the key. “Drink up, we may be here a while.”

  Skully lay down, letting sand drift over him, and Kaden gently placed Desmona’s core in the center of his ribs, then willed Trinity to follow him as they retreated.

  “I brought candy,” Sevin said. “And dice. And water. I know, you like to inflict status effects to gain resistances. But what—and hear me out—if you drank something to help replace that blood of yours?”

  Listen to the necromancer. It was the price of your survival, but also fun.

  Kaden drew the figure of Nurav from Inventory. “Eve is [High Priestess] of Nurav. The goddess kept me alive through the cave in, and it was her who filled the sarcophogas with my blood.”

  Not just your blood. Some of it was yours, but most of it came from enemies you’ve made bleed. I don’t waste your blood. Eve may one day need it.

  “That makes a lot more sense.” Sevin went back to drinking before he spoke. “I serve the god of Death. I build weapons from the corpses of my enemies. I will offer her the blood, if she wants it. Water?”

  “Please.” Kaden drank deep—and then again. He had a Water Stone, but it didn’t make cold water like Trella could. Hours passed. Trinity slept in the sand, only her armored head able to stay awake and watch.

  Skully’s changing emotions told Kaden before he could see anything. He nudged Sevin, keeping quiet. When Naski had reformed, the process had been gradual. Desmona reformed with startling speed, stretching whole limbs and perfect skin, and standing in seconds, dressed in a heavy brown tunic, with billowing brown hair.

  “Hello.” Kaden stepped out from behind the dune.

  Then the shock hit. Because Desmona…was a Desmond. His face was harsher, his cheeks more angular, his chin sharper, but the face was familiar. “Thank the gods! I displeased one and was teleported into this wasteland. Any idea where a man could find a portal? And a beer?”

  Sevin joined Kaden. “Greetings. The FarPortal is that way.”

  Trinity also joined Kaden.

  So did the solar dragon.

  “You know, I’m getting the impression I’m not welcome,” Desmond said. “I don’t like being mugged and you’re really not going to like what I’ve got in my pockets, so how about you stand aside and you don’t have a bad day?”

  Skully chose that moment to rise, towering over Desmond. “Meat.”

  “You chose this.” Desmond said. “A man can’t even appear in a wasteland without getting—”

  Kaden flexed the soul binding, willing Desmond to face him. “I know what and who you are, Desmona. I was there when a lovely, sexy, powerful [Shadow Blade] ripped your core out of your body. I had you reconstituted. I wasn’t expecting…that.”

  “Ah.” Desmond took it all in stride. “Well, sorry to disappoint. I enjoy smashing meat-bits together in either shape. I can’t deliver demonic treasures. I don’t have a Lord of Hell to fulfill bargains, and other than being an excellent tap dancer, I don’t bring much to the table when planning wars.”

  “We think you do.” Sevin didn’t lace his words with menace. “I hope we can do this quickly and quietly. You are a demon. We want something demons can provide.”

  Desmond gave a dramatic sigh. “Have you considered going to Omnor? There’s a demon lord there, not half bad, he’ll drag you to the hells of course, but—and here’s the important bit—he has power. I don’t.”

  Kaden drew the cracked demon seed from Inventory. “He’s the one I provoked to get a daughter to attack me. So my [Skulliton] could grind her up for goo, for Sevin to use to regenerate you.”

  “Well, that’s out.” Desmond clapped his hands. “Share? I haven’t eaten in ages.”

  When Kaden tossed him the core, he caught it and looked it over. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Oh, shit. This—this not good.”

  “I got Hunted by Demons. It’s fine,” Kaden said.

  “No! She owed me five gold. Does Tanja look like she’s going to be paying me back now? She doesn’t.” He held up the core and spoke in a high pitched voice. “Piss off, Desmond. I’m dead. Also I don’t have your five gold.”

  Anger surged in Kaden, and he poured will into the bond. “Tell me where to find Ghastos’s temple. The Forgotten Place has moved.”

  The demon sighed. And flopped over. “Fun bit of info for you. When a human gives their little girl to a Demon Lord to be made into a daughter, the first hundred years aren’t physical torture. No, it’s existing bathed in their will. In a few thousand years, you’ll begin to aproximate one. Until then, I’m going to nap.”