Upon hearing how the lich they were after had already summoned two more greater demons and realizing that they needed some additional firepower, Asher had immediately thought of Moxy as his first choice, devoting most of his brain power toward coming up with a way to convince her to join their cause. Now that they’d found her and she was on board…

  He realized he hadn’t actually given too much thought as to what actually came next.

  Thus, Asher quickly found himself sitting across from Moxy in a tiny diner-style restaurant that advertised staying open twenty-four-seven in Vildelph’s first ring. Samantha sat at his side, continuing to split her attention between shooting curious looks toward Moxy, concerned looks toward him, and uncertain looks toward the menu. This late in the evening, they were the sole customers of the restaurant, and the chef had already asked them to just give her a holler when they needed something.

  He had wanted to take Moxy aside and give her some more details as to what joining up with them truly meant, but the warrior demanded putting something in her stomach before anything else. Apparently, going head-to-head with the city’s prized warrior in what was little more than a semi-sanctioned death match worked up an appetite.

  “I’d recommend the steaks,” Moxy said, tossing down her own menu after barely a glance and grinning at them. “It’s about the only thing on the menu the damned cook can actually prepare half-well.”

  “Do you come here a lot?” Asher asked, deciding that was as good an order as anything and giving up on the far-too cluttered menu as well. “With how many shards you must be making from the fights, I sort of expected you to go somewhere…”

  “That wasn’t a total crap-shoot?” Moxy finished for him, shrugging her shoulders. “Eh, I’m not really picky when it comes to food. At the end of the day, it’s just fuel for the body.”

  We’ll see if the chefs over at the royal palace don’t have anything to say about that, Asher thought, glancing at Samantha as she finally gave up on the menu as well with a sigh. Because that was one other thing they needed to explain to Moxy on top of everything else. Asher was capable of teleporting them halfway across the kingdom on a whim, and thanks to their close relationship with the High Prince, they were currently based out of the palace over in the capital.

  Fairly normal stuff for any job offer, he was sure.

  After Moxy shouted at the chef to bring them three steaks, Asher subtly threw up a Spatial Lock around them, preventing sound from getting out and anything else from getting in. Despite the fact that they were completely alone in the restaurant besides the chef, he didn’t feel like taking any chances.

  “There’s that weird barrier skill of yours again,” Moxy said, causing him to jump as she picked up on what he’d done immediately. He’d nearly forgotten how she had some sort of skill that allowed her to detect the slightest of movements in the air around her, which meant his near-invisible barrier would stand out like a beacon to her as it messed with the room's airflow. “You always had the strangest skills I’d ever seen, that much I didn’t forget. Did you at least manage to finish up the discovery stage since we last saw one another? If you still haven’t unlocked all fifteen of your skills, I think there might not be any hope for you.”

  “Yes, I’m out of the Stage of Discovery,” he said, nodding toward Samantha. “Samantha is as well, actually.”

  “No kidding?” Moxy asked, giving Samantha a more appraising look and causing the hunter to shrink back slightly, no doubt the memory of how deranged Moxy looked during her prize fight still fresh in her mind. “Well, that’s at least one point in your favor. Stage of Honing, then?”

  “I’ve got three skills left to evolve that are all nearing level 20, and Samantha’s a bit further behind than that,” he explained. “Actually, what stage are you in? You never mentioned back in Loratta’s compound.”

  “About halfway through the Stage of Bleed at the moment,” Moxy said, her grin widening as she saw the surprised looks on their faces. “Yeah, yeah, feel free to be impressed. The underground fighting rings pay pretty well if you’re good, so shards haven’t really been much of an issue. Though like any other peasant, I don’t really stand a chance at making it into the Stage of Power. I mean, a million shards to evolve a skill into the third tier? And then doing that eighteen times? Yeah, I think I’ve come just about as far as I can at this point.”

  “So you know about the three new blended skills that are gained during the Stage of Bleed?” Asher asked, curious about what Moxy did and didn’t need to be filled in on. Once upon a time, she’d been the one to explain a lot of this basic stuff to him. But over the past few weeks, he’d come to learn quite a lot about this world that he was pretty certain wasn’t regarded as common knowledge.

  “Oh yeah. You guys would have seen one of mine during that fight,” she snorted, gesturing to the pelts covering her regular clothes. There were definitely a few missing from her usual coverings, which Asher quickly noted were the ones she’d raised to life during the recent battle. “The combination from my Life and Pelt elements, a skill called Weakened Reanimation. I can grant my pelts life again and have them carry out my orders, but only for a short period of time. Though doing so ruins the pelts once the skill ends, so it doesn’t come without cost.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “That’s still a pretty incredible skill,” Samantha said, chiming in for the first time. “Do you have your other two blended skills yet?

  “One of them, which I think I’ll keep a secret for now,” Moxy laughed.

  At that point, the chef finally came out with their food, and Asher dropped his Spatial Lock long enough for their steaks to be placed in front of them. The chef didn’t even say a word, merely grunting an acknowledgment at Moxy before vanishing once more into the kitchen.

  “So this whole demon-hunting gig,” Moxy began, cutting off a piece of her steak and popping it into her mouth. “You got me so excited with that nifty memory skill of yours that I accepted without really asking any questions, but I do have a few. Primarily, what the hell was that skill you were going on about during your fight with the greater demon? You mentioned how your attacks don’t heal, and how the demon would be dead for good once you finished it off. I might not be the most book-smart person in the world, but even I know demons just reform down in the nine hells if they’re killed up here on the material realm.”

  “Guess we’re jumping straight into the heart of the matter,” Asher said, sighing as he wondered where to even begin. “You know how I mentioned The Council of Death was after my head specifically?”

  “I did think it was weird that a bunch of millennia-old liches were so interested in you, regardless of your funky skills,” Moxy admitted, pointing a fork toward him as she took another bite of her steak. “So it’s something to do with the skill that keeps stuff from healing? Why didn’t you use that one against me during our fights?” Before he could answer, she blinked, chuckling as she came to the answer herself. “You were still in the Stage of Discovery. You didn’t have the skill at that point.”

  “Got it in one. I ended up unlocking the skill during my fight with Loratta,” he confirmed. “It was how I managed to take her out despite her own Slime Body skill. And the skill itself isn’t why the liches want me, but the element it comes from.” Taking a deep breath, Asher decided to just go for it. Keeping his greatest secret would be all but impossible if he wanted to bring Moxy into the thick of things to fight with them, so they might as well get this out of the way early. “I have the Eternity element. I stole it from The Council of Death without realizing how big of a deal it was, and now they want it back.”

  “Eternity?” Moxy asked, raising an eyebrow. “…Pretty sure that element doesn’t exist. And what do you mean, ‘they want it back?’ You can’t take an element back from someone after they absorb it, everyone knows that.”

  “The liches can,” Asher said, causing Moxy to pause with her fork halfway to her mouth as her eyes widened. He didn’t blame her for being shocked. For the people of this world, a person’s elements were a part of themselves, becoming a piece of their very own soul. To learn that some people had devised a method of ripping those parts out of people…

  “It’s a bit of a long story, but the short version is that the liches were experimenting with creating a brand-new element for some reason, they managed to succeed, and I just so happened to find it and absorb it before they realized,” he explained. “As it’s quite literally one of a kind, now they want it back. So far, it seems like they’ll stop at nothing to do so.”

  “It’s why they destroyed nearly a dozen villages with a small army of demons, on top of sacking a few caravans while hunting Asher down,” Samantha added, her knuckles turning white around her own fork as she stared at Moxy. “We don’t know about the other thirteen liches, but at least one of them seems to be based out of the Noala Kingdom. That’s the one who specializes in demon summoning, and that’s the one we’re going to kill first.”

  “I’d say going after an actual lich of all things is little more than a fool’s errand, what with how they’re supposedly immortal and all that… But if your skill that prevents things from coming back works as you say, you guys actually have a chance at making it happen,” Moxy said, leaning back in her chair in contemplation. “Eternity, huh? What else can you do with that element?”

  “For one thing, I don’t really die,” Asher said, chuckling at Moxy’s second surprised look of the night. “Not that I can’t die, mind you, but so long as my body’s intact, I’ll come back even through death. I’ve died something like five or six times now at least, though it’s not really something I think I’ll ever get used to. Other than that, I can place a permanent mark on stuff to track it, and I can permanently borrow other skills from artifacts, but only a few at a time.”

  “Well damn, those are some impressive skills,” she admitted gruffly. “Any idea what the passive is?”

  “Not a clue. I figure it’ll come to light sooner or later on its own,” he shrugged. “We’re not completely on our own in this fight, either. We’re loosely working with the High Prince as well. He can’t provide us with immediate support, but at the moment we’re staying at the royal palace in the capital, and he’s able to give us stuff like information and access to certain connections.”

  “Wait, back up a step there,” Moxy said, raising a hand. “Having a never-before-seen element is one thing, but you expect me to believe you’re working with the realms’ blasted High Prince of all people? And the royal capital? That’s hundreds of miles away! It would have taken you over a week to get out here even if you joined up with one of the faster caravans!”

  Asher and Samantha shared an entertained look, and Samantha nodded at him, as if to say, it’s all you. Chuckling, Asher grinned at their newest team member and held out his hand.

  “Eternity isn’t my only interesting element. Want to see something cool?”

  Discord