Now that there were probably-totally no more secrets between the remaining divers, they were free to devastate the fourth floor.

Once the sleepless divers “woke up,” Hue rubbed his hands together and summoned what he claimed was his riskiest, highest-cost demon contact. A tornado of shadows whipped itself up, whirling and growing until it grew so strong that the other divers ran to the wall and braced themselves.

A shadow-black Lucifer, tall as a mountain, with the grand wings and horns of the greatest gargoyle, remained when the tornado cleared. The ceiling was tremendously high, yet he had to stoop to fit underneath it.

Hue, unfazed, whipped out a contract and scanned the terms once again. “I have you for six hours total, and those hours have yet to be depleted.”

“And I have your immortal soul,” said a voice as low as abyss, as wild as tempest.

“Yeah, of course!” Hue said eagerly.

Nyx watched this exchange while patting themself on the back for having convenient, tiny, low-fuss, eternal-contract servants.

This towering demon archlord was contract-bound to do no harm to Hue or any of his fellow party members. While on Gaia and when dealing with Gaia, he had agreed to the restrictions of Gaia’s rules. In exchange? Nyx didn’t know, but probably something bullheaded and Faustian on Hue’s end.

The archlord turned his mighty head and spotted Nyx. “...Wait, don’t I know you?” he boomed.

“Indeed you do,” said Nyx, making an effort to come off as cool and proud. “I am Lord Nyx of Nightfall Castle, and you are the venerable Lord Stoker. I possess the stolen goods of the Printchy Chambels Auction House—which, in fact, were stolen by demons from the rightful owners of Earth.”

“Ah, okay, cool,” said Lord Stoker.

“Wait, you’re not gonna report me or swear vengeance for your lost property or something?”

“If I do, I won’t tell you,” he said, turning away.

“Oh, right.”

With that, they all went further into Farander Dungeon. Hue, Lark, and Ethel followed many many steps behind while Nyx, Ragnorre, and Lord Stoker did their jobs as the resident big dogs (of vastly varying sizes).

***

“I definitely feel like we just cheated three kinds of ways.”

Nyx, dizzy and with flickering lights strobing across their vision, sat marveling at the final slime village. At how quickly it had been decimated, slimes clawed out from its huts to be either instantly shredded or eaten like oysters. How dying bodies dropped like debris out of a shadow lightning hurricane, ready for Nyx to drag their souls out. What had been even more shocking than the quick-n-easy destruction was the cooperation.

And the fact that it was all for a mutual good. Farander would be safe from crawling slimes for a good long time—maybe even two years. They’d better be thankful for all the good these traitors had done for them, Nyx thought with a touch of bitterness.

And the fact that it was a bit of a psychological triumph—Nyx’s chance to defeat what had once stayed undefeated.

Again, though, too bad it all felt like a cheat code.

Maybe that was okay, though. As long as by the end of it Nyx could claim enough souls to finally have the strength and fortitude to successfully punch Urrich in the snout.

“I guess that’s true,” said Ethel, who’d been sitting with them. “Being on this planet at all is something of a cheat code too, though.”

“Fair enough.”

“Have you learned anything new about chthons yet?”

“You mean him?” Nyx pointed a lazy thumb at Lord Stoker, who was chatting with Hue somewhere in the cavernous distance. “Ah, no, he’s an archlord, Ethel. Even for stronger demons, the two worlds rarely mix.”

Ethel looked intellectually disgusted.

Nyx squinted. “I don’t follow?” they said.

“Don’t you remember what happened when we left that trap that...that the crow demon girl and the floating metal ball put us in?”

“Remember the what? Why?”

“Because it’s like Ragnorre’s powers,” said Ethel. “Like distortion, but a whole ‘nother level, you know? And oddly video-game flavored. Moving things instantaneously as if according to outside equations rather than physical law.”

Nyx smacked the side of their head. “Ugh! Right, right.” They were starting to remember how those tentacles out of space had shifted Nightfall Castle’s parts back into shape.

“But maybe she doesn’t know anything,” said Ethel. “Given that chthons like toying with people so much...”

But Nyx’s mind wasn’t on that track yet.

“Chthons,” they said sleepily. “Earth. Chthons...Earth. Chthons...Earth...!?!?”