Another demon falls to the ground, burnt to a crisp by mine and Mira's combined firepower. Others are flung off the castle or into the canal. Frozen imps occasionally fall from the sky and shatter upon hitting the ground. Lesser demons unlucky enough to be under them when it happens are crushed to death without warning.

Suffice to say, the battle against the demon horde is a one-sided slaughter in favor of the witches. Their numbers are many, but their resistance against magic is almost nothing. If it were a group of greater demons, we may be in trouble. But they are really all just cannon fodder.

Even Taurac has an easy time handling the lesser demons, while leaving the larger ones to us.

Their seemingly endless numbers dwindle to a mere trickle until eventually a wingless imp scampers away. The courtyard of dead trees is now littered with dead demons.

Thelia's mouth hangs open seeing the carnage that unfolded from the wholesale slaughter of her kin. To make her more traumatized, Belle has gone into alchemist witch mode, carving into dead demons to collect their organs and blood.

Mira pats the erinyes on the head and says, "Oh, yes. We have grown strong over the centuries. Now bark once if you promise to be a good girl, or twice if you would like to end up in a vial."

"A-Arf…" Thelia utters.

As we pass by the scores of dead demons, I feel my body rejuvenating even though I haven't taken a potion. More specifically, a tangible sensation of their magic signature gathers into me. I have to hold myself up with my staff to keep from falling after becoming lightheaded. The influx of extra mana is getting me more drunk than if I drank a bottle of wine.

"What's happened?" Mira asks, helping me towards a tree to lean on.

My head is beginning to spin. Closing my eyes helps a little, but it's like I'm swimming against a vortex inside my own mind.

"I think the soul stone inside me is absorbing all the magic from the demons we killed." I feel my butt hit the ground.

I can't see anything with my eyes closed, only my staff and Mira's hand brings me comfort.

"If excess mana is the issue, maybe you can throw spells around to discharge yourself," I hear Belle suggest.

Mira helps me raise my staff into the air.

I incant the words to invoke a fireball, "Igni vas o'rea!"

"Holy—!"

Belle and Mira express surprise as something roars off into the distance.

"What? What happened?" I ask, desperate to know what's going on.

When I open my eyes, I see a massive fireball on the scale of Belle's level of spellcasting, burst into a blinding explosion far above the castle. Something that destructive could have devastated the locale if I hadn't aimed into the sky.

"Uh… did I do that?" I ask the others.

Both of my companions nod in unison.

Belle puts a hand on my forehead and a finger to my jugular. It's a method of detecting signs of mana deficiency or overdose. It isn't effective 100% of the time because it takes the relative temperature between both places, and a number of factors can make an inaccurate diagnosis. For witches, the throat should be warmer than the forehead. This is due to magic having a thermal mass, like moisture in the air collecting heat and causing an increase in humidity.

"You're heating up, almost like a fever. There's definitely a surplus of magic inside you," Belle explains her assessment.

"On the bright side, my head isn't spinning anymore after casting a whole star into the sky," I remark dryly.

Mira taps her lips thoughtfully. "There's no telling how much you have stored inside you. One misplaced spell inside an enclosed space will blow us to smithereens."

She's right. I'm the biggest liability if we go in to fight. On the other hand, I'm just as big of an asset.

"I'll leave the fighting to the two of you and Taurac then. You can leave keeping an eye on Thelia to me. If she tries anything funny, I can blow both of us up." Thelia turns to me with a frightened look, the blood draining from her face enough to make her red skin tone take on a pale tint. I put a hand on her shoulder, bringing my staff up to her face and ask, "You won't misbehave, will you?"

"N-No…" she mutters.

Mira narrows her eyes on Thelia.

"Arf!" Thelia whimpers.

Before us are grand double doors of ornate designs detailing demons in a constant struggle against one another. This is all that stands in our way from getting to the main part of the castle. There doesn't appear to be any handle or lock with which to open.

Mira gives Thelia a hard shove forward.

"Lord Zertos forgive me…" she whispers.

"You no longer serve Zertos. We are your new masters now. Do I make myself clear?" Mira says.

It's cruel enough that we have her in chains and walking around naked. Now Mira sounds keen on bringing back the erinyes with us. We're beginning to seem like the demons instead.

Thelia drags her palm against a sharp fang in her mouth. Deep, crimson blood pools on her hand, which she smears it against the door, staining the etchings that decorate it. The blood begins to spread, covering the entire surface of the door until it is completely red.

The doors shudder open, grinding along the stonework floor. We're stricken by a gust of cold wind. Odd, since air normally gushes into a room, not the other way around.

As soon as we step inside, the doors close immediately. The hall is much larger than it appeared outside. Just like Demos' house of madness, it stretches on into the darkness. Empty and without furniture, the air is somehow fresh.

I call out, "Hello!"

Hello… hello… ello… lo…

Only the sound of our echoing footsteps respond.

"I'm rather disappointed," Mira suddenly says. "I expected corpses to hang from the ceiling, giant demons with bloodied clubs, or I don't know— a trap!"

Belle glares at her. "Why do you have to jinx us like that? Can't we just chance upon Zertos, kill him, and go our merry way back to defeating Edith?"

My mind wanders back to the tower with the enormous bathhouse. "I'm in no rush. If anything, I could go for a hot bath."

We walk for what feels like an eternity. In fact, we have been walking straight for so long, we should have come to the other end of the castle a while ago. 

"Why don't we ask the demon?" Belle asks, at which point we all turn to Thelia.

"I-I-I am not sure. Yes, these halls and chambers are distorted in dimensions, but we should have come across other pathways by now… I think?" Thelia stutters. Her fear of reprisal prevents her from speaking to us with a clear head.

Something answers our frustration as we find the only door since coming inside here along the left wall, framed by two torches on either side of it.

We open it, but don't step inside. The four of us eye the entrance suspiciously.

"That's definitely a trap, isn't it?" I ask the group, to which they respond with a nod.

Belle tosses an empty vial through the door. It shatters as it hits ground.

Nothing happens.

"We should send the demon in first," Belle suggests.

"And possibly lose our only tour guide? She wants a chance to escape. I think not," Mira declares, shutting the suggestion down before giving it a thought.

"You just want to keep the erinyes…" she mumbles.

"I don't know anything about it, I swear!" Thelia exclaims before anyone can threaten her for an answer.

It's an unassuming entrance like any other. But for a door to just appear the moment we ask for one is suspect at best. Just like Mira said, this place is strange for there not to be some sort of welcoming party, or any attempts to dissuade us from proceeding further. Especially since we were attacked by so many demons.

Taurac grunts and says, "Will go first. Owe witches my life."

I'm hesitant about letting Taurac go through a potentially trapped door after already losing him once. However, we're stuck here unless we swallow our fear and take the plunge. As much as I hate to admit it, Taurac is the only one we can afford to lose here.

"Be careful," I tell him.

The minotaur ducks in order to get his horns through the door. He takes a few brave steps into the room, heavy footfalls of his hooves clop loudly from the empty wing. By the time he stops in his track, there is a good thirty feet between us.

"I guess it wasn't a trap?" Belle wonders aloud.

"I'm beginning to despise these towers…" Mira remarks.

I follow after them, keeping Thelia in front of me so I can keep an eye on her. Just as we get through the door, a light shoots up from beneath our feet— a magic circle forms below us.

"It was a trap!" I manage to push Mira and Belle off before the circle takes effect.

The next I blink, I find myself under the same red sky and scorching black sun. I'm stripped naked with nothing but a chain on my neck that leads into the ground, on a stage of an outdoor amphitheater. On the half-circle seating area before me, sits demons of all kinds that holler and applaud.

It's like the trial of Vessyra all over again, but with demons instead of demi-humans.

"Mmmph! Mmmnnn— mmrrrph!"

To my left, Thelia is also chained up but being gangraped by a group of wingless imps. She's plugged up in every hole, but that doesn't stop the demons from using her hands and hair to jerk themselves off. A line has formed awaiting their turn to have their way with her.

Two succubus demons come into my field of view, grinning with wicked intent.

"Welcome to the entertainment venue," a pale blue-skinned succubus wearing nothing but a sash says.

The other one, a lighter in red than Thelia with short, purple hair, kneels down and presses a finger to the tip of my penis. "You're our main event today."