The devil burst through our defenses and rushed straight towards our most vulnerable member.

This was the largest and most powerful devil that I’d seen yet, standing a solid five-feet tall. It was bulging with muscles, had long black claws, and twisted horns that looked like they could impale. This creature was far more threatening than its smaller imp counterparts.

“Crap,” I exclaimed as the devil charged straight for Bunny, its claws raised to strike the moment it was within range.

Bunny scrambled backwards, even while raising her new scepter. There was a flash of light, and suddenly, the devil came to a complete and utter stop. It was frozen in place, in the air, caught in mid-leap. Ghostly chains surrounded the creature, though I knew they wouldn’t last long, just long enough for Bunny to get out of the way.

My ‘Invocation of Spite’ was down and I was too far away to hit the bastard with my mace, so I threw my dagger as hard as I could. My aim was perfect, almost as though I had a lot of stats invested into dexterity. That was the benefit of having a talent in knives. A moment later, my dagger went right into the devil’s eye. It didn’t even react.

When the chains faded away and vanished a second later, the devil hit the ground and howled with pain. It tore my dagger from its eye and snarled, spitting flames as it desperately looked around for the source of its wound. It’s one remaining eye locked on me.

“Come to mama,” I said as I shifted position and waited for the beast to arrive.

The devil charged straight at me, running as fast as it could. It was fast, but I was expecting this. I stepped forward and swept one foot out to knock its own foot out from beneath it, then I followed this up with a kick to the back of the knee, making sure that it lost its balance and landed face first into the ground.

Ramirez immediately leapt on the fallen devil, using both hands to drive her spear deep into devil’s back, impaling it completely. I was immediately by the devil, hitting hit as hard as I could with my mace. It took a couple good hits, but the thing finally died.

“I hope we don’t run into any more like this one,” Ace commented with a wince. “That thing was tough.”

“Good thing I have this now,” Bunny said as she held up her new scepter.

“It probably would have killed you,” Olivia agreed.

“I don’t know how long it takes to recharge yet,” Bunny admitted, “so I’m being careful not to waste any uses.” Then she shook her head. “I don’t even know how many uses it has before it needs to recharge.”

“This isn’t a good time to play around with it either,” Turtle added.

Bunny snorted. “We don’t exactly have a safer place for that right now.”

Ramirez nodded at that, though she didn’t really join the conversation. Instead, she leaned on her spear while looking around at our surroundings, as though expecting more of those devils and imps to come charging in at any moment. Their numbers had been seriously thinned down, so that was becoming less likely with every encounter.

We took a few minutes to rest, then we moved on to look for our next group. It didn’t take long to find them since they seemed to have been at least somewhat connected to the beast we’d just killed. Ramirez had probably been wise to be on the lookout for them.

“Same thing as usual?” Bunny asked before sending one of her horned rabbits out to lure in our new targets.

Ramirez grinned in an almost predatory way before shadows seemed to spread up her body until she was hidden within them. She stepped back, getting near one of the black trees and blending in with its shadow so that she became even harder to see. Such was the power of her new class, a stalker.

When the new group of imps arrived, Ramirez leapt out at the largest one and impaled it with her spear, killing it with a single blow before it even realized she was there. She’d moved fast, faster than she had been able to before, and fast enough to indicate that she’d slotted at least two of her starting points into agility. Then she turned her attention to the next creature, no longer hidden since her ability would take awhile before she could use it again.

The fight didn’t last long. By this point, we’d become very good at luring the creatures to us and then ambushing them, and tearing them apart with little threat to ourselves. Of course, this was still dangerous, just not nearly as dangerous for us as being overwhelmed by numbers.

“We’re close,” I announced, closing my eyes and feeling the primal energies in the air. The infernal was close.

The faerie had warned me that I wouldn’t be powerful enough to kill his enemy, but I still had to see the thing for myself. I wasn’t about to take the faerie’s word for this, though the closer we got to the infernal, the more I believed it. That thing felt powerful.

As we moved closer to the source, the twisted black trees began to thin out and then vanish. The whole area became rock and dirt, though the ground seemed just as black and ruined as the trees had been. There were a couple more devils, but not enough to be a serious threat. No, that was just a little further away. That was the infernal itself.

It didn’t take long to reach our destination, a crater in the rocky ground. The was about fifty yards across and about fifteen yards deep. However, it wasn’t the crater that really drew our attention, but the thing in the middle of it.

In the very center of the crater, there was a creature…if it could be called that. It was humanoid in shape, with what appeared to be long claws and impressive horns that curved over its head, being reminiscent of the little devils that we’d been killing, except for much larger. This being was about twenty feet tall and seemed to be made of thick black smoke with glowing red veins.

“The primal,” I whispered. “An infernal.”

“Scary looking,” Bunny commented.

The primal was staring straight at us with a pair of glowing red eyes that sent chills down my spine. However, it made absolutely no effort to move towards us, not that I thought it would actually be able to do so. It was bound with glowing silvery chains which were very reminiscent of the ones created by Bunny’s new scepter.

“I think it’s a prisoner,” Turtle said, echoing my own thoughts.

I hesitated a moment before saying, “I’m going down for a closer look.”

“Bad idea,” Bunny warned me.

“Really bad idea,” Ace echoed.

“Probably,” I agreed. “But I’m going down anyway.”

With that, I quickly made my way down into the crater, being careful of the steep sides which would have been easy to slide down. When I reached the bottom, I looked back up at the others, who all remained back, watching me with worried expressions.

I slowly moved closer to the infernal, stopping when I got close enough to see the glowing silver circle that surrounded it, and which felt like a cage to work with the chains. There were additional symbols on the ground, all around the circle, both inside of it and out. I stopped before the circle, sensing that trying to cross it would be very bad for me.

“More primal magic,” I whispered.

I could feel the magic tickling along my skin, familiar yet different from any of the other primal types that I’d felt before. This power that fueled the circle and chains which imprisoned the infernal, was something new to me. Considering what Wolf had told me about infernals and celestials being at odds, I suspected that this was a celestial type power.

“MORTAL,” the infernal spoke to me, it’s voice deep and rumbling, filled with contempt and malice. I could feel its eyes locked on me, and I cold feel the hostile intent. I had absolutely no doubt that if this thing was able to, it would have torn me to shreds in a heartbeat. “YOU HAVE SLAIN MANY OF MY SPAWN.”

“Yes,” I responded, trying to remain calm and relaxed. I’d learned a long time ago, that you didn’t show weakness in front of predators, at least, not unless you were intentionally trying to get them to underestimate you. “I have.”

“THEY WERE WEAK,” the infernal said dismissively. “ONLY THE SMALLEST ECHOES OF MY POWER.”

“You are powerful,” I stated as a simple fact. “I can’t imagine how much power it would take to hold you here.”

“I HAVE BEEN BOUND HERE FOR A THOUSAND YEARS,” the infernal said. “CENTURIES BEFORE THE LABYRINTH ABSORBED THIS FOREST AND PLACED IT ATOP MY PRISON.”

That statement caught my attention, but I ignored the temptation to ask what it meant by saying the Labyrinth had absorbed the forest. I had the distinct feeling that the infernal wouldn’t answer anyway. It had an agenda of its own, and it was working towards it.

“YOU ARE SMALL AND WEAK,” the infernal told me, the contempt dripping from its voice. “YOU HAVE SLAIN MY SPAWN AND IT WILL TAKE ME DECADES…PERHAPS CENTURIES TO CREATE AS MANY AGAIN, BUT YOU HAVE NO REAL POWER. YOU POSE NO MORE THREAT TO ME THAN A FLEA.”

I scowled at that, annoyed by the insults but not bothering to argue. As much as I disliked to admit it, this infernal was right. Compared to that thing, I was small and weak. The faerie had been right when it said that I didn’t have the power to harm this thing.

“AND YOU HAVE NOT THE POWER TO FREE ME EITHER,” the infernal continued with a sneer. “HOWEVER, YOU DO HAVE THE POWER TO FEED ME.”

“Feed you?” I asked skeptically, not sure that I liked where this was going.

“FEED ME,” the infernal repeated. “SLAY ONE OF YOUR COMPANIONS AS YOU HAVE MY SPAWN, AND I SHALL REWARD YOU WITH A PORTION OF MY POWER. FEED ME AND I SHALL GRAND YOU A POWERFUL ABILITY, ONE THAT CAN DESTROY THOSE WHO STAND AGAINST YOU.”

I slowly turned and looked back at my team, thinking about the infernals offer almost in spite of myself. Bunny had the least defenses and would be easiest go kill, especially if her rabbits were deployed away from her. And Ramirez… I barely knew her.

“Crap,” I growled, feeling ashamed for even thinking that.

“FOR EACH ONE YOU FEED ME,” the infernal added, “I SHALL ADD EVEN MORE TO THE POWER I GRANT…”

I grimaced at the offer. The infernal was offering power…and a LOT of it. That was tempting, far more than I wanted to admit. But the price… The very thought was enough to make me feel sick to my stomach.

“Hell, no,” I growled in response, standing straighter as I did so. I might be a bit of a bastard at times, but I wasn’t about to betray my own companions like that. “No deal.”

I started to turn to walk away, but the infernal continued speaking. “THE LABYRINTH IS ENORMOUS. EVERY WORLD IT INFECTS MAKES IT GROW STRONGER. EVERYTHING IT ABSORBS GIVES IT MORE SIZE AND DEPTH. NEARLY ANYTHING CAN BE FOUND IN THE LABYRINTH IF YOU KNOW BUT WHERE TO LOOK.”

Those words struck to the heard of my curiosity and I was more than a little tempted to stop and listen…to ask questions. This primal seemed to know more about the Labyrinth than anyone on Earth, and this was my to learn more. However, I also realized that this was another temptation, just like that offer of power. I had no doubt that this knowledge would come with additional strings, ones that might not be any less twisted than what he’d already asked or me.

“SOMEWHERE INSIDE THE LABYRINTH IS THE KEY TO MY CHAINS,” the infernal continued speaking to my back as I walked away. “IF YOU FIND THIS KEY… IF YOU FREE ME FROM THESE BINDINGS…I SHALL GRANT YOU ALL THE POWER THAT YOU DESIRE, ENOUGH TO CRUSH YOUR ENEMIES WITH EASE AND TO CONQUESR YOUR WORLD. THIS IS THE BARGAIN I OFFER, YOUNG INVOKER.”

A chill ran down my spine at those words, but I didn’t stop. I didn’t respond. And I didn’t look back. Instead, I took a deep breath, braced myself against the temptation, and continued marking away from that thing.

“What did that thing say?” Bunny asked once I was out of the crater. “I couldn’t make out any of it.”

“It offered me a deal,” I answered grimly. “It offered to give me some powerful ability, but…” I paused at that and shook my head. “The price was way too high.”

“Too bad,” Ace added with a shrug. “But maybe you’ll get something good from that faerie.”

“I hope so,” I responded with a faint smile.

After this, we began moving away from the crater and back the way we’d come. We encountered a couple more groups of infernal spawn, but we were able to take them out pretty easily by this point. Eventually, we reached the spot where the black and twisted trees were left behind and only the healthy trees remained around us.

At this point, the sphere appeared ahead of us once again, coming out from behind a tree and just hovering in the open before moving away and vanishing once again. This time, I had a feeling that it would be the last time we saw it.

Then, a popup suddenly appeared in front of me.

YOU HAVE MADE A BARGAIN WITH AN UNIDENTIFIED WISP, WHO HAS GRANTED YOU ONE USE OF HIS POWER FOR EVERY INFERNAL SPAWN THAT YOU HAVE SLAIN

TEMPORARY NEW ABILITY ACQUIRED: INVOCATION OF THE WISP (43 USES REMAIN)

I read through the message three times before closing it with a muttered curse.

“What’s wrong?” Bunny asked me.

“I just got the ability from that faerie,” I explained. “And it looks like he ended up tricking me after all.”

“What do you mean?” Ramirez asked.

I let out a sigh. “The deal was that he’d give me a portion of his power for every one of those spawn I killed. Well, he gave me an ability, but it says that I can only use it forty-three times.”

“What?” Ace blurted out. “But we must have killed a few hundred of those things.”

“Yes,” I agreed, glaring into the woods where I’d last seen that faerie floating away. “WE killed a few hundred of them, but it looks like he’s only giving me credit for the ones I killed personally.”

“What?” Ace repeated.

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Turtle pointed out, looking offended on my behalf. “Not at all.”

Ramirez shook her head. “So, we kill a couple hundred monsters for him, but he uses a technicality to only pay for a fraction of them.”

“Is there any chance we can shake more power out of him?” Olivia asked, glaring into the trees.

Bunny snorted. “I don’t think we’d even be able to see him again, unless he lets us. And somehow, I doubt he will.”

“He’s probably laughing his ass off,” Ace grumbled.

I nodded at that. “Wolf warned me that faeries liked to be tricky.” I glared into the woods and said, “I will definitely remember that the next time I run into one.”

“Well, it sucks that you got scammed,” Ace said as he grinned at me. “But, what does your new ability actually do?”

“That is the question,” I mused as I considered the ability, ‘Invocation of the Wisp’. There was no explanation for the ability, but as with my other one, I had an instinctive sense for how it worked. “That is the question indeed.”