“Do you see anything?” Glyn asks as he sits atop a tree.

  Anluan floats above, staring at a castle built into the nearby mountainside. Cloaked men stand in front of the castle, shuffling around as people in rags walk towards the front. The pair watch on as Xia Bai flies down from above, landing next to the tree near the pair.

  “No good. There’s no way inside from the front.” She reports.

  With a sigh, Glyn descends the tree with Anluan floating to the ground. “I can sense life signs moving about that castle. It’s filled to the brim with Morgan’s soldiers.”

  “Morgan doesn’t have any Pawns. She used her Pawn Pieces to amp up her current followers.”

  Glyn nods. “It’s unlikely their Pawns. The rules never stated we couldn’t have extra forces. For example, Fenwick hired outside mercenaries to supplement his forces.”

  “True. But to have so many Demons running around a place isn’t good for anyone.”

  “They're not Demons their Demonoids,” Glyn explains.

  “What’s the difference?”

  “Demonoids are weaker and can be killed a lot easier than a full-fledged Demon. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still a threat and extremely dangerous. Like the kill on sight kind of dangerous. But Demonoids have no minds or wills of their own. They only follow the orders of stronger Demons, however.” Glyn explains.

  “I imagine the Demonoids infested my hive and took us over for Morgan’s army,” Anluan explains.

  “Speaking of, are we sure he’s okay?”

  “He’s fine. The Piece inside of him purged the infestation and cleaned him out, mostly.”

  “Most part?”

  “There are some difficulties still. I had lost control of my own body for months. It’s been hard and embarrassing to relearn how to do things I used to do so easily.” Anluan explains, hiding his head in his cloak.

  Xia Bai eyes the insectoid wearing a large cloak similar to Morgan’s followers but with a splash of color around his hood. “Is infiltration out of the question?”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “They can sense those of their kind. If I got too close, they’ll notice I’m missing something and go on the attack.” He explains.

  Glyn nods. “Best we avoid fighting until it becomes necessary. Sadly, that means we’ll have to look for another, another entrance.” Glyn sighs.

  It had been days since his arrival on the island dubbed Dead End Island. The island itself was rather barren, with an enormous mountain in the middle of the landmass. A long time ago, a baron had made a castle dug into the side of the mountain for some unknown reason. Later, the castle was abandoned and served as a storehouse for the nearby village.

  When Morgan arrived, she parked her airship at the top of the mountain and took the castle as her own. Due to being dug into a mountain, the castle has only one main entrance and a secondary entrance nearby. Due to this, a stealth approach was nearly impossible as arches and mages stood at the ready to attack any approaching enemy.

  “It’s clever to build it, but I wonder what was going through his mind when he requested this thing?” Glyn asks.

  “Never try to probe the mind of a madman. Learned that the hard way.” Anluan says.

  Xia Bai sighs. “If you let me fly you both up there, we can be in and out easy.”

  “That’s a terrible plan. They can sense your movements with Isaac’s King Piece.”

  She pauses.

  “Not only that, but I’m sure they noticed you betrayed them by now. They’ll have entrances you can get into either guarded or barred so you can’t slit their throats in the night.”

  Anluan nods. “If you're spotted, the entire castle’s defenses can be on you in meet moments. Considering we’d need to take trips, we’d be leaving someone to fend for themselves until the others arrived. And that’s a death sentence. We should come up with a way for all of us to get inside at once.”

  “You see, Xia Bai.”

  She nods. “Fine. I guess that’s a good consideration. Then what are we going to do?”

  “We’ll have to look for another way inside again. We found the secondary entrance. There has to be something else like it somewhere. But for now, the sun’s going down. We’re returning to the village.”

  “Right.” The pair say in unison.

  “Are you sure it’s wise to bring her to our base?” Anluan asks.

  “It’s a little late to be asking that now. She already found it well on her own. So what if they can track her every move? She can resist the call of the Queen Piece inside of her. Everything comes in all fuzzy and makes it harder to track down. They’ll have an even harder time finding her with the two of us around, too.”

  “Let’s just get out of here already. Being near this thing is making my scales itch.” She flaps her wings and takes off into the air.

  Glyn sighs. “Well, let’s start bright and early again tomorrow.”

  “Of course Glyn. But for now, let’s move before the sun goes down and those monsters come out.”

  “You don’t have to tell me twice. Let’s move.”

  The pair rush away from the hilltop overlooking the entrance and made their way back to base. As they do, the gates to the castle open and dozens of red crazed eyes stare back.

  “Let the nightly hunt begin.” A voice says over a loudspeaker over the castle’s walls. “Just remember to bring back any that may make a good sacrifice to the Great One.”