POV: GEITLAN DEMON

  With my head kept high as I walked down the hallway toward the main area of the crumbling castle. My hooves clacked on cracked burnt stone as lesser demons scurried past, trying to please their betters in the hope of surviving. I buried my growing anger for being called away from my work in the basement to put on another show for those fat frog-like demons feeding on the wisps falling like ash into their gaping maws. For being the only survivor, I am blamed for losing so many resources on ‘just’ a dredge.

  I licked my teeth as I recalled the scene when I revealed what I brought back for that dredge. I enjoyed watching one of those fat demons melt from the inside out from trying to eat the dark mist. The memory was nearly perfect before the other fat bastards slurped up the dead one. Thankfully, the fat bastards had enough survival instinct and spared my life so I could find a way to deal with the mist so their army could take over the lower layers. Despite that, they keep dragging me away from my workshop to ease their fears and egos.

  “Why can’t burn?”

  “Can’t come here?”

  “How it taste?”

  The same damn 3 word questions and I’m forced to take them seriously or they throw a tantrum. I breathe smoke out of my nose, imagining their faces as they look down on me with blank looks. Entering the main area, I see more of my peers all moving around the room, seemingly getting the same summons. I walked up to a ratfolk demon that I knew was weaker than me and looked down on it. “Vandi, what is going on?” I ask the rocky-skinned rat demon that only came up to my waist, knowing it would know the most outside of my fellow geitlan kind. ‘Those fat bastards have only made a handful of us, and of course, those that remain are more on par with my power. Thankfully, ratfolk demons are easy to push around.’ I think to myself as Vandi acts surprised and stutters. “Oh, Diostr, I didn’t even notice-”

  “Can we not play? Just answer the damn question.” I demand cutting off Vandi when it finally manages to get a sentence out. ‘These damn rats thinking they are so smart by pretending to be surprised and trying to appear lesser than they are is so damn irritating.’ I sigh as the rat continues to act for no damn reason.

  “Sorry Diostr, and I don’t know myself. All of us above the lesser have been summoned, but we haven’t been told why. Whenever one of us tries to see what is going on beyond the doors, we are stopped by one of the metal lacteras stationed outside.”

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  “But you do know why that is, don’t you?”

  “Fine. I don’t know what is going on, but I do know that the slab of metal, the one that the metal lacteras protect deeper in the castle, has been moved out to the center of the maws.” Vandi finally dropped the nervous mask, now sneering at being forced to divulge what it knew.

  I scratch my chin, wondering why that hunk of metal would be moved and why those lacteras would act differently from normal. They normally just protected the fat bastards, the maws, and that hunk of metal infused with pure fire and nothing more. I looked at the rat again to see if it was holding back on me, but I could see how it was also bothered that it didn’t know more about what was happening.

  “Now, why don’t you tell us what you’ve managed to do with that mist that you brought back? Everyone is curious if it is as dangerous as you make it seem.”

  “You're welcome to try to find out for yourself.”

  “Just jump into a maw’s mouth or tell me, you long goat, " the rat snaps back. I try my best not to attack the weakling, but then I might lose any information it or the rest of its kind might find.

  “I’ve managed to stop it from eating us, but beyond that, not much. It burns anything with fire inside of it, and recently found out that it twists everything else to make more of itself. The only good thing I’ve found out is that if the mist becomes too thin, it stops working, but I don’t think that will be very useful when we invade the 8th layer.” I grumble out, frustrated with how little I’ve managed to do with the mist. ‘It's the perfect weapon to use against my peers if anything happens but it’ll be useless against that damn dredge.’

  “That last part seems useful, though. We just bring some lacteras down there and pop whatever bubble, keeping the mist trapped inside.”

  “If it were that easy, I would have suggested that myself. Down there, I couldn’t find out what kept the mist around the dredge. There were dredges along the ceiling and tentacles under the sand, and both seem to feed the mist, letting it grow thicker, but beyond that, I don’t know more. The only thing that can interact with it is wind essence, but even that erodes over time. Concentrated fire works at destroying it, but the hole it makes is too small to be worth it.”

  “Damn, well I’m happy I won’t have to deal with it. Do you think that’s why they called all of us? So we can attack the dredge and continue with the invasion. From what I hear, the cult isn’t doing so well with dealing with dredges that they sometimes summon.”

  “Not my problem, and I doubt those fat pillars will make so much sense. They wouldn’t send their guards away, even if it was the only chance of destroying that dredge permanently.”

  The rat stares at me, and I just shake my head. “Honestly, the only real way to deal with the mist is by getting rid of the dredges feeding it, and the only demon I saw do the most damage to it was a stone lactera. It ate too much fire to be destroyed completely by it alone. We need to either suffocate or starve it, and lacteras are probably the best chance.”

  Vandi was going to say more before all the warmth in the castle was sucked leaving only the biting cold left in our bones.

  “Enough, come to me.” A voice echoed out from the maws. It couldn’t have been them though, the power in the voice was older than all of us, the fire essence that rippled out tasted of the oldest ash. The metal lacteras opened the doors leading beyond the castle to the maws who sat around the metal slab.

  The slab is melting into the shape of a large armored lactera, it has stolen the heat of the layer. The lava lakes that covered the land were dulling into rock.

  Vandi trembled as the lactera looked in our direction, I gulped as I felt my blood struggling to pump through my body.