Peals of Axel’s laughter filled the room.

  “Ah, the look on your face,” he chortled. “But now that we’ve sorted all that out, perhaps we can move on to the elephant in the room. Or should I say… the Demon.”

  I glanced over at Sarothiel, who was just standing with a small smile on his face.

  “I told him that you’d send him to another dimension,” I said. “He seemed happy with that and helped us out.”

  “Yes, I’m aware of your shady dealings,” Axel said. “I would have thought that the red notifications would have clued you in, but demons are for killing, not making deals with.”

  “Maybe you signed up to be a demon meatgrinder,” I said, “But I don’t recall any of the rest of us doing so.”

  Axel glowered at me. “I don’t suppose the way he helped you cheat your way past the sewer zombies had anything to do with it.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “If there was a way we were supposed to take out all those zombies, you should have said something. We haven’t cheated at all.”

  “Oh, this level has been all cheats,” Axel said dourly. “Healing the zombies, tearing apart my garden path. Turning off the zombies with Linwei’s phone app. Cheat, cheat, cheat.”

  “If no rules are posted, then it’s not cheating,” I repeated. “I was going to ask about the phone app, actually. Was it not supposed to be that easy?”

  “Linwei was supposed to destroy her phone when someone got near,” Axel griped. She didn’t see the invisible person, so that’s a flaw.”

  “Sloppy,” I said. “So, really, it was all your fault.”

  Is that any way to be asking favours?” he said, glaring at me. I shrugged.

  “You want to kill him, but you’ve got no monsters down here,” I said. “Sending him through the portal seems like your best bet.”

  “Ugh. Well, fine. If a random universe suits, I don’t have to do anything. Step up and get gone.”

  “So easily?” Sarothiel asked. He looked around, scanning the crowd. Most of the survivors had seen Sarothiel do… his thing, and the rest of the audience picked up on that. His smile looked about normal, but the crowd backed away. “I’d hoped to have more time to get to know you all, my friends.”

  Borys and Kyle edged a little closer, blocking off avenues of attack. Cloridan held back, the better to rush in if needed.

  “Yeah, well, all good things must end. Have fun in your new universe,” I said.

  “Ah, but parting will be such a…savoury sorrow,” he said. “I’m sure you won’t begrudge me a little snack before I leave? One for the road, as it were.”

  I shot him. It had about as much of an effect as I thought it would. In fact, I’m pretty sure he let me hit him, just to show off how ineffective it would be.

  That wasn’t the main point, though.

  The crowd of NPCs had just had their world shaken. To varying degrees, depending on who they were, but they’d all learned something so far that they’d be processing for a while. Unfortunately, they were all doing that right now, while staring confusedly at a demon that had just announced he was going to kill them.

  They couldn’t handle that right now. But they were Americans, if only fake ones. They knew what to do when someone got shot.

  They screamed and ran away. Not the bravest response, but it wasn’t like they were going to contribute.

  It took Sarothiel a moment to grasp the consequences of my action. At first, he was pleased to see his prey running away from him. Then he frowned as he realised what that meant.

  “I’m going to have to chase them down now,” he said, pouting. “That will be inefficient!”

  “Cry me a river,” I said. “You couldn’t just go quietly, could you?”

  “It’s not my fault!” Sarothiel whined. “I’m just so hungr—”

  His voice cut off as I cast [Improved Blind], engulfing his head in a bubble of darkness and silence. Kyle charged in, taking the opportunity for a hard strike. Sarothiel didn’t seem to notice it coming and failed to block or dodge. Kyle’s blade sliced deep into the thing’s torso.

  Borys swung round to flank while Cloridan dashed in for a backstab. Felicia and I hung back, shooing away the NPCs that came too close.

  “It’s such a shame to see a party fall out like this,” Axel’s projection said, smirking. “You were such good friends, and now—”

  He stopped as something strange happened around Sarothiel. To my [Sense Mana], it looked like he inhaled all the threads of mana that went into my spell. The bubble vanished, and Cloridan had to duck under a swipe of Sarothiel’s claws.

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  “Mhmn, tasty!” Sarothiel crowed. “Send me another!”

  The arm that had clawed at Clorian had twisted around behind the demon in a way that no arm could, so Sarothiel was still facing Kyle. The demon lunged forward, moving unnervingly fast for its size and attempting to climb over Kyle’s shield. The impact pushed him back, despite him bracing for it.

  Then Borys cut in, slashing at the demon’s legs. His blade cut deep, but the wound began closing immediately. Sarothiel’s head and arms twisted around to retaliate against Borys. That meant releasing his grip on the shield, though, and Kyle was able to push him off.

  Sarothiel stumbled forward, right into a two-handed blow from Borys that caved in the creature’s chest. Cloridan swept in and targeted one elbow and a knee with two precise strikes. Soratheil staggered and howled with pain, but his chest was already restoring itself.

  In that moment of distraction, Borys started hammering Sarothiel with hard, heavy blows. It looked like he was abandoning finesse for power, not caring where the blows landed. Some hit Sarothiel’s body, others were blocked by a raised arm, but all of them cut deep.

  And yet, they still healed.

  “There has to be a limit to that regeneration, doesn’t there?” I said.

  “Who knows?” Axel replied. “Demons don’t have to conform with the logic of our world. That’s why we don’t. Deal. With. Demons.”

  Kyle slammed his shield into the creature's back. It seemed like he was trying to catch its attention, striking over his shield at the demon’s head.

  Cloridan came in as well, with lots of fast strikes. “Just keep hitting it!” he yelled, “I think we can overwhelm its regen!”

  Sarothiel tried to say something, but Borys’ sword smashed into the demon’s jaw, preventing whatever comment he wanted to make. I swear, he seemed more upset about that than anything that had happened so far.

  Sarothiel let out an inhuman gurgle, which turned into a roar as soon as his jaw healed enough to shape the sound. The fighters flinched. Only for a moment, but it was enough for Sarothiel to slip out of their encirclement. Dropping to the floor and running on all fours, he dashed right at Felicia.

  I don’t know if he was targeting the healer, or if it was just because Felicia was the closest non-combatant. I did know that I couldn’t let him get to her.

  [Phantasmal Object]

  I made a wall and he smashed right into it. It didn’t do him any harm, of course, but it killed his momentum. That gave Cloridan a chance to catch up, and he did do harm, plunging his daggers into the creature’s back.

  Then Kyle was there, trying to grind it into the ground with his shield. Felicia, sensibly, ran as fast as she could. Not to the walls, but in an arc, trying to put the fighters between her and Sarothiel.

  Sarothiel threw Kyle off. Literally threw him about two meters away, shield and all. That opened him up for Borys to come in with a few more of those powerful slashes.

  “Do you think it needs to eat to power its regeneration?” Axel asked.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I’ve been watching it for a while, and it's been doing a lot of eating but not a lot of growing. There must be some reason it eats all the time.”

  I watched Cloridan come in, slashing and stabbing. His daggers sunk deep into the demon’s flesh, and I thought that the wounds might be healing slower.

  I shrugged. “It’s not like we were planning on letting him eat anybody.”

  “What? Where’s your sense of scientific curiosity?”

  Borys got a good strike in on Sarothiel’s head, smashing him into Kyle’s shield. Sarothiel was off balance enough that Kyle could push him over. It took him almost a second to get up again.

  In that second, Cloridan pulled out a WWII carbine and emptied it into the demon. Sarothiel jerked spasmodically from the repeated impacts.

  “I need… you all… die…” Sarothiel burbled. Air was hissing out of his lungs, and blood was pouring out of his mouth, but he was still healing.

  Borys was on him again, chopping frenziedly with his sword, all finesse forgotten. A wild swing managed to cut off one of Sarothiel’s arms, but Borys’ attack left him open.

  Despite everything that had been done to him, Sarothiel was still swift, sure and strong. His remaining arm lashed out and grabbed Borys by the neck.

  “No!” I shouted. There wasn’t any room to get a [Phantasmal Object] between them. Borys’s armour included a neckpiece that I wasn’t sure of the name of. It crumpled under Sarothiel’s grip, but it held together enough to keep Sarothiel from snapping Borys’ neck.

  “Eat you…” Sarothiel crooned. Borys was trying to beat him off with his sword while his other hand, while his other hand tried to break the demon’s grip.

  I wanted to help, but there was nothing, realistically, that I could do. There were others closer, though. Cloridan slammed his daggers into the creature’s back, and Kyle attempted to sever Sarothiel’s remaining arm. Kyle wasn’t as strong as Borys, however, and all he accomplished was to hack the arm raw and bloody.

  Borys gasped and dropped his sword. Sarothiel drew himself close, mouth open as if to take a bite of his prey.

  Then Cloridan jumped up onto the thing’s back. He put his daggers in front of the demon’s throat and pulled them back with all his strength.

  He almost got the head off. With a bubbling howl, Sarothiel released Borys, who fell to his knees.

  “Felicia!” I called out, but she was already moving forward.

  “Hmph. I’m surprised she’s got any mana left after healing so many of my lovely virus infections.” Axel said.

  “Your virus was weak,” I replied absently, still focused on the fight.

  Sarothiel had twisted his head around to bite at Cloridan. His good arm had twisted around as well, and his severed arm had half regrown. It had a claw on the end; it was just short. It was perfectly adequate for clawing at Cloridan in close quarters.

  “I know you’re upset right now, so I won’t hold what you just said against you,” Axel huffed. He sounded offended.

  Kyle had started laying into the creature's back with his sword. It was damaging the demon, but not enough. With his shorter weapons, Cloridan was doing a better job at fending off the demon’s teeth and claws, but he was taking damage as well.

  “Out of the way,” Borys rasped. He’d been healed, but he hadn’t stopped to wait for the job to be finished. Sarothiel ignored him as he stepped past Kyle, desperate to start eating his current prey.

  Borys had a moment, and he took it. His sword swung in a quick, bright arc. Sarothiel’s head, still weakened from Cloridan’s strike, went flying. The body dropped away from Cloridan. Bleeding from a dozen claw wounds, Cloridan plunged his daggers into Sarothiels unmoving body, right where his heart should be.