The demon would die. Allowing it to run amok would have unpredictable, but horrible, consequences. That did not mean he had to do the deed. As much as Cal would have liked to personally confirm the kill and swipe the core for himself, he was a reasonable person.

  To his great chagrin, reasonable people did not single-mindedly charge an enemy stronghold and lay waste to all that stood in their path. That would make a mess of things and wasn't Plan A material. Plan B, on the other hand… well, options were important.

  "Show of hands," Cal said, traveling alongside his fellow students. It felt like they were making good time, but with the monotonous nature of the cave, it was difficult to tell how much ground they'd covered. "Who here trusts that guy?"

  Said guy was ahead of them, leading the way and politely ignoring the fact that Benny had erected his bracer's sound bubble around them.

  "Touching us would be political suicide followed by assisted suicide via one of the Hands," Lily replied, chewing on her cheek. "Provided anyone finds out about it."

  Cal deduced the 'us' was heavily weighted toward Rolland. Their current situation presented the perfect opportunity to remove a member of the royal family from the board.

  "He won't," Cal stated, having come to a conclusion. "Shirai profits the most from our instability. It's in their best interest to keep both contenders for the throne in play and competitive."

  He was not just referencing the Empire, but their dynamic with the Federation as well. The Free Cities benefited immensely from being the middlemen between both countries. It was a position they all vied against each other for, and they wouldn't willingly see it diminished.

  "Ancestors help us," Lily said with what he hoped was false dread. "He's learning."

  It was a surface-level analysis and ignored things like personal motivation, but it was an improvement over his usual. Mask would probably be proud.

  "Absolutes are dangerous waters," Rolland cautioned, his stare on Basem's back. "However, we are not to be taken lightly. While the four of us may fall short of the standards required to be a Finger, we're not a threat to be looked over."

  Out here, they didn't need to kill him. All they needed to do was exhaust or damage him enough to let the Waste finish the job. There were uncertainties involved, and so the question was if Basem was willing to stomach them.

  "His Highness speaks true. Taking up arms together will see us through this trial. I would prefer us to extricate ourselves, but our duty to country and man is clear."

  Amusingly, or perhaps worryingly, Cal hadn't needed to convince them to go along with the strange man promising them blood and money. Rolland was a given because of the F word, but Lily and Benny were a surprise.

  "Yeah, duty and honor," Cal said lamely, raising a fist weakly into the air. "Now, would any of you happen to know what we're in for? Demon-wise, as I don't think I've killed one before."

  This was a rare opportunity to talk about demons and not be given strange looks. He could ask away and it would be written off as him being prudent.

  "I'll trust your discretion on this, but know that should any be repeated, the speaker will be censured by the palace," Rolland said, shaking his head at the alarmed look Benny shot at him. "We have both felled them. The Empire conducts controlled summonings to grant its protectors experience against such threats."

  They what?

  How were these people still alive, let alone in charge of a country? If they were led by people like this, it was no wonder their kids were willing to get high off of demon cores.

  "I've heard whispers of that," Lily said, seemingly unbothered. "Shame I can't blackmail you with it."

  Knowing how it would sound coming from him, Cal stayed silent about her priorities being out of whack and chose to focus on common sense instead.

  "That sounds not safe?"

  He phrased it as a question to display ignorance, but it was a statement of fact. There was no such thing as a controlled summoning.

  "More than you might assume," Rolland replied readily. "Forgive me for not going over the sordid details, but an apt amount of precautions are set in place, and the demons called are of the weaker variety."

  Yeah, that didn't reassure him at all. It must have shown on his face because Rolland continued with his defense.

  "It's a more common practice than you might think. Our southern neighbors employ it liberally. Their attitude toward the accessibility of magic makes summonings a recurring problem. It's one of the main arguments my detractors wave around whenever I promote my personal views."

  Cal wanted to say there was no way that would be true, but found himself unable to rule it out. It was a bit hypocritical for him to take issue with it, as he'd let some finish for his own enjoyment before.

  "As far as what to expect." To Cal's relief, Rolland wasn't done. "They are simplistic fighters of limited intelligence. The difficulty in facing them amounts to the wounds they inflict and the tricks they play on your senses. It's hard to put into words, but there will be a feeling of wrongness from them."

  Calling their intelligence limited was broadly correct. They were somewhere between human and beast, with some special cases being closer to the former. Those ones were rare, and he'd never encountered one on this side of the fence.

  "I think I know what you mean," Lily muttered, her eyes straying to the lantern held by Basem. "It's faint, but I get it from that little guy."

  Cal had no idea how they even summoned that thing. It was by far the weakest demon he'd ever seen. The only reason he allowed it the title of demon was because it gave him the same odd tingle other demons did. If forced to describe it, Cal would compare it to the uncanny valley effect—simply seeing one evoked feelings of disgust.

  "I bet the effect is magnified with the bigger ones," Cal said in a deliberately uneasy tone. "I can see why that would throw someone off."

  The Federation field manual stated that anything above a 3 began to impact operative capabilities negatively. That could vary from missing a step to recoiling in horror. Both actions could prove fatal quickly.

  Basem's fist raised, and they took the signal to stop. The sound barrier went down, and the ominous silence of the cave returned. They had been going uphill for some time, and Cal's augmented vision told him there was nothing ahead.

  "We near," the man said, continuing forward at a slow pace. He pointed at the dirt, and Cal took note of the tracks. "I believe they once posted sentries here, but they were absent on my last visit."

  The lantern in Basem's hand swayed as the demon hurled itself at the glass with renewed vigor. Its yellow canines chomped at its cage in vain.

  "Someone's not happy," Cal idly commented as they followed the man with their weapons drawn.

  Basem let out what may have been a sound of amusement.

  "It doesn't experience happiness," Basem explained, a focused look on his face. "Not like you or me. Its singular purpose is to fulfill its contract so that it may be free to rampage."

  He was somewhat aware of how their contracts worked. They were short-term things, allowing the summoner to set one or two objectives. Generally, it was "destroy this" or "kill that." Using them as forms of navigation equipment was creative and disturbing. He hadn't known they could track things that effectively.

  "More like get stomped on," Lily said, her eyes darting to the creature for a second before shying away.

  No one replied to that, and they continued to travel uphill, the only sound coming from the creaking lantern. Eventually, an ethereal glow appeared in front of them. It was ghostly, making one suspect it was their brains playing tricks on them. It grew stronger as they neared, and as one, they came to a stop at what Cal realized was the edge of a cliff.

  Lights dotted the valley below them, illuminating a tower of blackened marble. The base was thick, large enough to fit the colosseum he'd recently visited. It had rings carved into the side, looping upward to the spire where a dim light flickered. Each time it blinked out of existence, it made him wonder if it would ever return.

  The tower was surrounded by a comparatively low wall, with a section of it reduced to rubble. Beyond that were crumpled heaps stretching in every direction. They appeared to be the remains of buildings, and none appeared remotely intact.

  This was—

  'Promiterra.'

  The name invaded his head, along with the knowledge that it was the Empire's capital. He flushed his system with magic, chasing away the foreign influence. He swept his spear behind him, and his eyes scanned the surroundings, searching for the intruder.

  "A more extreme reaction than most," Basem noted, not alarmed at Cal's display. "Fear not. That is an echo, nothing more."

  Cal didn't take that at face value and carefully glanced at what was below. Something brushed against him, and after prodding at it with his magic, he let his defenses down to confirm it.

  'Promiterra.'

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  The word floated into his brain again, and he let himself release a breath. It was a message from the past, and there was no one on the other end.

  Rolland fell to a knee, Benny mimicking the action. They placed their closed fist over their chests and bowed their heads.

  Their mouths moved, and yet Cal heard no words. He turned to their other companion to see a pale-faced Lily. She clumsily dropped to a knee, seeming to run through whatever ritual the others were doing.

  She was the first to rise, and her eyes remained glued to the tower.

  "Someone say a joke," she pleaded, her voice tinged with nervousness. "Because I don't want to think about the voice in my head—" she gestured toward the city, "—or what any of this implies."

  Cal realized this was akin to a religious experience for a true citizen of the Empire. No, wait. It was an actual religious experience. He factored that into his response.

  "I want to get this out of the way now." Cal stuck a finger out, pointing at the tower specifically. "If that thing goes down before I leave, it wasn't my fault."

  Basem laughed, only to have it shift into an awkward cough as unkind looks were sent Cal's way.

  It was a tough crowd.

  "You understand my previous reluctance, then?" Basem stated.

  They had backed off from the cliff's edge and were seated in the dirt. Crude lines had been drawn into the ground, depicting the tower and its surroundings.

  "Yeah," Cal nodded, seeing the issues the man had mentioned. "But couldn't we have talked about it on the way here?"

  There had been plenty of downtime that had been spent in silence. It annoyed him to have to stop so close to their goal.

  "Why yes, but I knew you Empire youths would require a period to recover. Your reaction is the exception."

  Cal looked at the others, seeing distant expressions on all of them. Any question toward them had to be repeated, and even Rolland's single-minded drive had waned. For the moment, at least.

  That left him as the responsible adult.

  "I'm a hick," Cal replied smoothly. "After gaping at Postremo Lux like an idiot, I've learned to take these things in stride. Besides, this is smaller than that."

  The tower was nothing to sneeze at, rising hundreds of meters up, but the rest of it was underwhelming.

  "It's a fragment," Rolland said, some clarity entering his eyes. "The capital was separated into districts, each governed by a god. This was Urel's. It should have been the first to fall."

  To be fair, it did look a little crooked.

  "A mystery for another time," Basem said, pointing at the dirt map again. "As I explained. There are four courtyards, with three of them intact. They are separated by warded passageways that lead to the two entrances. We'll call the further one north and the closer one south. One of the southern courtyards is destroyed, while the other houses the demon. The northern ones are occupied by their bestiaries."

  In addition to summoning demons, this group had taken to capturing beasts. If Basem knew their purpose, he wasn't forthcoming about it. He insisted that they were thieves of no repute. It wasn't all bad, as he did provide the supposed location of where Ferguson was being held. That is, if they were still keeping him alive. Cal knew common thieves wouldn't be able to hold up out here, but if they needed to summon a demon to defeat Ferguson, he was feeling good about it.

  "The beast we encountered must have been freed during Ferguson's romp," Cal openly speculated, receiving a nod of acceptance from Basem. "Why is this place not being swarmed, then?"

  He would expect any human habitation to be relentlessly besieged by beasts, and yet they hadn't encountered any on the way here.

  "It's the light of The Mother," Rolland said, inclining his head toward the edge of the cliff. "It keeps them at bay."

  Oh, the light that kept turning on and off. Cal was certain that wasn't precarious at all.

  "Okay," Cal said, bringing them back on track. "Either entrance we pick is going to cause a ton of noise and alert them to our approach. That will give them a chance to destroy whatever it is you came for. The thing you won't tell us about despite it actively hurting the odds of us recovering it for you?"

  The pointed look he sent toward the Shirai delegate was met with a smile. He hadn't expected that to work, and continued without missing a beat.

  "They haven't packed up and left after Ferguson ran through, which means they're reluctant to do so," Cal dictated, sticking his finger in the ground. "If you begin an assault but hold back enough to make them think they can win, then that should be a good enough distraction for the rest of us to move in. I say you approach from the west and break up the passageway dividing the northwestern and southwestern courtyards. You can use the fight with the demon to destroy as many enclosures as possible, freeing the beasts held inside. The rest of us will enter from the eastern side and access the tower from the southern door. From there, we'll subdue any guards and get a better idea of the tower's internal layout."

  Cal needed chaos. Ideally, they would go in, find Ferguson, and then be forced to split up. That way he could find out if the jackasses here were the same ones behind the Grand Demon Summoning.

  "How did you describe yourself?" Basem said with a hint of amusement in his tone. "Oh, yes. A hick."

  In response, Cal swept a palm over the dirt, rubbing away the drawing.

  "There are too many uncertainties to have a foolproof plan," Cal replied defensively. "It's better to keep things simple and trust that we can each tackle whatever issues that pop up. Or are you worried about taking on the beasts and the demon at the same time?"

  The best way to motivate those at the pinnacle was to tell them they couldn't do something. People tended to be stubborn up here, and Cal was hoping to use that to his advantage.

  Strangely, the expected angry look was missing, and in its place was an appraising one.

  "You miss my meaning, young friend. I think it's a fine enough plan. However, we'll need a signal for when you reach the ninth level. Remember not to touch anything and spare those present. I shall judge them myself."

  He was pretty sure both parties understood that Cal's side was going to do everything in their power to find out what Basem was up to. Cal had been half expecting a covenant to be forced on them. That none had been brought up made him even more suspicious. It was starting to smell like this might be a trap, but it was almost too convoluted to be one. If it was, they still had the relic. Failing that, there was always Plan B.

  "I'll blow out the wall," Cal responded to Basem's question. "Is that signal enough?"

  The answer had to be yes, because if it wasn't, that just meant he needed to do a bigger explosion.

  A strained sound came from his side.

  "Why are you like this?" Lily said, joining the conversation. "You can't—well, maybe you can. But that's our heritage right there. Stop being so eager to destroy it."

  It wasn't that he wanted to see how the tower would look on its side; he was just resolved to that happening with or without his intervention. The sooner Lily came to terms with it, the better.

  "Fine, fine, I'll make a small hole, and then we can shoot out fire from that," Cal conceded with a roll of his eyes. "Also, I don't want to hear any more back talk from 'Little Miss I Blew Out the Electric Grid.'"

  The double standards were killing him. He went through the trouble of making sure no one was using it whenever he destroyed infrastructure—cultists, obviously, not counting toward that number.

  "A point of clarification," Basem leaned toward Rolland, his eyes on Cal. "Our young friend is being humorous, correct? If not, I'd like to request the tower be felled on its eastern side."

  Hah. As if Cal knew enough to determine which side it would fall on.

  "I told you I wouldn't bring it down." It had immense historical significance. He wouldn't tear it down for shits and giggles. "Just be prepared to run if you have to."

  Basem stood, walking back to the edge. Cal followed him and saw the man squinting at the tower oddly.

  "Are you okay?" he asked after seeing no sign of Basem relenting.

  Cal took in the tower again, only getting that same message from before.

  "I've committed it to memory," Basem announced, his face returning to normal. "A replica will be commissioned on my return."

  He wanted to assume that would be a downsized one, but it was someone from Shirai talking.

  "I take it you agree with the plan then," Cal said, looking back at the trio still seated. "Any objections? Going once…"

  He didn't need to finish, as one by one they rose, determination radiating from their postures.

  Huh, he was really expecting more, or any, pushback. He wasn't sure how to feel about everyone just going along with whatever he threw out there, but there was no turning back now.

  "Cool," he said mostly to himself. "I call dibs on any nice-looking loot."