Victor woke up first and began packing. Cawthorn quietly asked as the others slept. “My mage are we going to leave today?”

  “Yes. I thought about this carefully. If we are lost here for too long Forala will wind up at the necropolis. She’ll get lost. She might die or worse get transported here and die.” Victor nodded. “Once they get up I’ll let them know.”

  “Scary guild leader might enjoy it here.” Cawthorn noted.

  Victor quietly chuckled. “You’re probably right about that Cawthorn.”

  “I’m always right my mage.” Cawthorn turned his head with an air of smug superiority.

  The two went out and sought out Bokbek who was easily found near the entrance to Simian City. Victor approached him. “Good morning Bokbek.”

  Bokbek peeled back a banana and devoured it. “Good morning! Are you ready to hunt today?”

  “Sadly I must reject that offer. If we are permitted we need to reach the green portal atop that ziggurat. Are we permitted to ascend and use it?” Victor asked.

  “That is a question for King Jingle. I’d allow it but he is the final authority here.” Bokbek nodded with big ‘ask your mom’ energy.

  Victor went off to find Jingles who was talking with a small group and cheering them on. They walked away as Victor approached. “Good morning! How are you today?” Jingles picked up Victor and squeezed him close.

  “Unfortunately circumstances outside of the abyssal labyrinth necessitate we leave reasonably fast. I was hoping we could be supplied with a few days of food and access the green portal atop your ziggurat.” Victor asked.

  King Jingles put him down. “Well… We should ask Bokbek.”

  “Bokbek said he’d allow it but you’re the final authority on it.” Victor answered.

  “Bokbek said that?” King Jingles repeated. Victor nodded yes. “Well then of course Simian City will help you! Gather your group and we will stock packs for you to depart. I hope that your journey is safe and you return to us some day.” He nudged Victor with his massive elbow. “You really impressed everyone the other day when you stuck up for that demon. Apes are stronger fighting together, and everyone here believes that. Cooperation makes us stronger and one day I hope to see all of you again.” King Jingles tapped his staff becoming hypnotized tapping it again.

  “Thank you King Jingles. I appreciate the help more than I could ever explain.” Victor smiled.

  Jingles waved him away. “Go go, gather them and I will have those packs for you.” Victor walked off. “What a fine ape.”

  Victor approached the group who was gathering their things silently. Victor announced to them. “We don’t have time to level up here. Forala will come looking for us if we don’t get out of here in a reasonable amount of time so we should get going.”

  Serena looked at him in a bit of disbelief. “Are you sure? I’m level 17 now I’m guessing all of you except Gargrim are level 16. Gargrim what level are you?”

  “I’m level 25. Not nearly high enough level for this shit.” Gargrim noted.

  Jenora sighed currently in her human form. “I’m level 16, but if I change to my wolf form I’m much stronger. The only problem is I lose control when I am in my demon form.”

  Victor tilted his head. “Do you? Have you ever even tried to do that when you weren’t hungry?”

  “What? No! Turning into a demon is basically suicide. The fact I’m still here with you is insanity. No devil would play around with their demon form. It’s basically a different person.” Jenora protested.

  Emilie glared at Victor. “It’s not safe for her to transform. Leave it be.”

  “Absolutely not.” Serena glared at them. “We’re in the abyssal labyrinth if we just abandon tools which might save the group everyone here might die.”

  Gargrim put up his axe. “If she loses control, I’ll take her down. If I don’t have to kill Victor it won’t be hard. She might even be stronger than me in that form but it doesn’t matter. She is effectively a dumb animal.”

  Jenora turned red. “If you want to take me to the cages I can transform but it might be the last thing I ever do.” She smirked. “I guess that wouldn’t be so bad.”

  Emilie angrily insisted. “No! This is stupid. Stop.”

  Jenora shook her head and turned to look at Emilie taking a step toward her. “Do you care Emilie?” Emilie backed away behind Gargrim. “Let’s go. I’m assuming you’re going to feed me after I transform?”

  “I’ve got a basket of fish we smoked from yesterday. That should be plenty.” Serena noted. “We can always extend our stay 1 day if we need more food.”

  “Jingles is gathering us packs for our trip. He’s been really helpful. Apparently the entire city seemed to support me protecting Jenora.” Victor gave her thumbs up. “They didn’t like Gargrim though.”

  “I was making the most reasonable choice! She nearly killed a party member.” Gargrim insisted.

  “You also nearly killed a party member.” Victor glared.

  Jenora walked over to Victor. “The hell with it.” She extended her hand and Victor grabbed it squeezing hard. “Let’s go.” Brice, Serena, Victor, and Jenora departed toward the cage.

  Emilie turned to Gargrim. “She’s going to get stuck like that isn’t she?”

  “Lass, for an ex-girlfriend you’re far too worried. I don’t give a shit about that demon, you on the other hand are just hurt. You should go see her last movements.” Gargrim pushed her forward. “I’m just an old dwarf. I’ve loved and lost. Losing someone is the worst feeling in the world. I’ve never been the one to leave someone. They’ve always either died or left me. At the very least I’d never miss the last moments of someone I cared about.”

  Emilie ran off. She arrived at the cage as Jenora locked in. Jenora looked her in the eyes then looked down at her hands and began to transform. Her second set of eyes became visible and her hair grew rapidly. Her hands turned to paws with sharp claws. Two tails sprouted out of her back. Within moments the massive fangs had formed and she towered over them, taller than Victor and several times as long. Jenora flopped out her tongue and panted at them wagging her tails. Serena started to throw fish at her which she caught and devoured mid air wagging her tails the entire time. Halfway through the basket of fish Jenora slowly started to turn back. Once more she woke up clutching her head. “Wait why am I conscious again?” She paused for a beat. “IT WORKED!” She pumped her fists with a giant smile looking to Victor. “You just have to carry around a ton of food and I can use that to help!”

  Victor scratched his head. “Well that might be true? It almost seems like your demon self is a different person, or a different hellhound. You don’t remember anything right?”

  “No I don’t I remember taking off my armor then waking up here. How long was it?” Jenora asked.

  Serena shrugged. “About 10 minutes? I have enough to change you back again. We should try it 1 more time. I want to try something.”

  Jenora scratched her head as Brice turned almost as red as her and turned away. “Oh grow up Brice. Victor doesn’t care.”

  “Well you’re good looking but I’m more fascinated with the transformation.” Victor scratched his chin. “Swordie! Can you describe what is going on here?”

  “Certainly! Devils can transform into demons. Most devils do not do this voluntarily as they can’t get back control of their body unless they are well fed and the demon is sated. A demon exists within every devil. They share a body and a mind but each devil and demon vie for control of the body. Devils almost always win control and as such demons are underdeveloped when they gain control. Your demon Jenora isn’t even a week old. Demons typically are considered devils that lost control of their shapeshifting power because that’s how devils have functioned for more than 20,000 years. I’m not familiar with any instance where a devil was able to return from being imprisoned in a demons body without the tier 10 remove curse spell specialized into the purification customization.” Swordie explained.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Jenora thought for a moment deeply pondering a question before asking. “What if I want to be on good terms with my inner demon?”

  “You’ll need to let it out more often, feed it, and if possible meet it in your subconscious and speak to it.” Swordie explained.

  Emilie protested. “Stop this Jenora! It’s not going to keep giving back control you have to stop.”

  Jenora smiled and nodded to Serena. She transformed again into the hellhound adorably slobbering and sniffing at the fish. Serena reached her hand into the cage handing her the fish. She licked it off her hand and then started licking her hand. Serena did it again and again until she finished and then rubbed her snout. The furious tail wagging followed by her changing back Serena laughed.

  Brice smiled getting wide adorable eyes. “Her inner hellhound is just a giant adorable puppy. I want to pet it.”

  Emilie turned red. “So she can just transform in and out!?”

  Jenora turned to her confused. “Can someone fill me in?”

  Victor explained. “Your inner hellhound is just upset it’s been in a cage its whole life. I’d be upset too. It voluntarily gave back control after being fed and pet. We’ll probably need to figure out how to do that in cities but for now I’m pretty confident that if we let it out to play and eat it’ll be happier and probably will give control of your body back to you when it feels happy for the day.”

  Jenora shook her head. “All of this could have been avoided if I let my inner hellhound out.” She shook her head and looked at Emilie. “I don’t suppose you’d reconsider in light of this.” Emilie backed away shaking her head no and ran back to the hut. “I guess not.”

  Brice brought her clothes to her. “Here you go.”

  “Thank you Brice.” She got dressed and they returned to the hut.

  Brice asked Victor. “So uh. With Emilie is she going to stay in the group after this? It’s not like Jenora has anywhere else to go that’s safe so obviously she’ll stay in the group. Without Emilie we’ll be a lot slower leveling up if we get hurt even once. Priests are invaluable for keeping momentum in a group.”

  Victor groaned. “I know! I’m hoping that she can agree to work together with her after but I have no idea if she’ll leave the group.”

  Jenora grimaced. “I really hope she stays. I feel terrible enough as it is.”

  Victor slapped her back plate. “I don’t know if she’ll get over it but you should! If it was anyone but me you’d have been right to be scared.”

  Serena shrugged. “I don’t hold much against demons or devils, elves on the other hand.”

  Brice backed away. “Eh! Anyway Jenora do you perceive anything when your demon from is active? I know you don’t remember anything but do you feel anything?”

  “Not really. It’s almost like I died and came back from the dead.” Jenora explained.

  “That really sucks. If it was me I’d want to see what was going on at least.” Victor tried thinking hard. “Swordie is there anything she can do while she’s in demon form?”

  Swordie couldn’t help further. “Only what I’ve already recommended. If her demon form allowed it she would be able to use the second set of eyes to see or even parts of the body but the demon would never do that. She could allow the demon to do the same as well but it would take incredible discipline to shift only parts of her body instead of it all.”

  “Do you want to try that Jenora?” Victor asked.

  Brice asked. “Can you turn over like a hand or an eye only?”

  Jenora shook her head. “I will try later. For now I just want to calm down. I’m still shook up about Emilie.”

  The group approached Gargrim speaking to Emilie who backed up immediately as they approached. “We’re going to be leaving shortly we just have to go to King Jingles to pickup our packs and we move on to the next realm whatever it may be.”

  Gargrim agreed. “I’d like to get back to Kival. I’m really tired of this place. The company also varies wildly in quality.”

  “At least on that we can agree Gargrim.” Victor nodded. “Let’s go.”

  The group proceeded to the city square at the base of the Ziggurat. The beat of the drums became louder as they approached. The thunderous roar of the drums increased in volume and speed until they walked up to the square to see King Jingles and Bokbek flanked by at least 80 other apes many playing on drums. The group approached King Jingles who put his hand up stopping the drums. “CITIZENS OF SIMIAN CITY! WE BID FAREWELL TO OUR NEW CITIZENS TODAY! ONE DAY THEY SHALL RETURN! LET US BID THEM A GRAND FAREWELL!” The sounds of the apes echoed through the city and the valley.

  Bokbek handed each of them a pack. “These have 1 week worth of supplies. Provided you ration them carefully and don’t die to another creature you should be fine.” He stopped at Jenora. “Even you.”

  The cheers continued for a long time as many apes beat their chests. Victor raised his fists in the air and followed suit beating his chest at them. Serena briefly face palmed but couldn’t hide her laughter clearly enjoying watching him. Gargrim joined him in beating his chest, but his beard covered his chest so he beat his beard. Cawthorn cawed loudly aggressively. “CAW CAW HAH! WE ARE THE GREATEST IN THE UNIVERSE!” The group indulged in the farewell except for Emilie and Jenora.

  After the entire city quieted down at the direction of King Jingles he began to speak. “Ascend these yellow steps and travel onward to your future!”

  The group started ascending to the top. Serena turned to Victor. “So aren’t you going to say anything about where we’re going?”

  “Don’t give him ideas!” Swordie insisted.

  “No. If I do something will go wrong and you’ll be upset.” Victor smiled leading the way to the top.

  “Wow this is a level of self control I’ve never been more proud.” Swordie’s pride was overwhelming.

  Serena blinked also impressed. “Yeah same here.” She kissed Victor quickly as they stepped onto the top of the ziggurat.

  “Do we have a list of where we can go?” Victor asked.

  Swordie perked up. “All 1923 realms I’m aware of are possible targets when ascending. Most realms have between 1 and 100 levels.”

  “Does Verdan have multiple levels?” Victor asked.

  “That realm have only 1 level. The levels of a realm are linked through red portals that descend but not ascend.” Swordie explained.

  “Is there any way to make specific choices at all?” Victor asked.

  “Not with the level of magic this party currently possesses.” Swordie noted.

  Victor sighed. “Are we ready ladies and gentlemen?” They all agreed despite the tension in the group. They stepped forward into the green portal which began pulsing slowly at first and then more rapidly. “Onward to the unknown.”

  The group disappeared reappearing to a red sky on top of a mountain. The wet hot jungle they just left replaced with a dry sulfurous heat as smoke filled their noses. The dark grey clouds blotted out the sky as red lightning leapt across them in the distance followed by a blast of thunder. The group could see a few towers and keeps dotting the barren landscape in the distance. The green had completely disappeared replaced by brown and red. Jenora fell to her knees. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  Victor asked cautiously stepping toward the cliff of the mountaintop they stood on. “Where are we?”

  Jenora barely mouthed. “Home. We’ve been transported to the barren plains of Hell.”

  Emilie angrily stepped up to the ledge. “How do we get out of here?”

  Swordie noted. “The only ways out are to create your own portal or find another portal, preferably a green one.”

  Emilie quickly asked. “How do we find one of those?”

  “It’ll be heavily guarded as most devils will wish to escape this place.” Swordie noted. “Cawthorn’s Eagle Eye skill may be useful in locating it.”

  “Are we safe on top of this mountain?” Victor turned to Jenora.

  “No. There are so many monsters here that will search for any life to take advantage of.” Jenora stared into the distance.

  Gargrim cracked his neck then his fists. “Well we’ve got two options. Die, or kill our way to the portal. Cawthorn can find it and we can make it there or this can be our end. Ladies and gentlemen I’d like to travel home one day so dying here isn’t on my list.”

  Brice turned to Victor. “May I instruct Cawthorn?”

  “Cawthorn would you mind?” Victor asked.

  “SMARTEST MAGES IN HELL GIVE ME INSTRUCTION!” Cawthorn demanded.

  “Fly around those towers and castles starting with the largest one. Search for any archdevils. They’ll be larger than the rest and they’ll have wings. If you find any let us know. The hierarchy of hell practically dictates they’ll have control. If you find an archdevil they may have control of a green portal.” Brice received a salute from Cawthorn who took off into the distance.

  “Is only this part of hell in the abyssal labyrinth?” Victor asked.

  “No there are others but the portal has to be relatively close as there is a range limit on arrivals. In one of those towers or keeps the portal awaits.” Swordie grimly foreshadowed.