The last time Suta had used Nightmare Metamorphose, Myrsvai had been bleeding, missing his leg. Bastronum had done everything he could do to protect Myrsvai before the Husvrina Hero Company had killed him.

  When Suta had used the Power 6 spell, it had been on Myrsvai’s gauntlet. A gauntlet he had still been wearing. The pain of the gauntlet crushing, twisting, burning never left his mind. Losing a leg was nothing compared to the pain he had felt in that moment.

  His beloved familiar turned into a monster, and all Myrsvai could think about was his inevitable, painful death.

  Back then, he panicked. It was the end.

  Myrsvai smiled.

  It never was the end. Suta was more capable than anyone Myrsvai had ever known. How much of it could be contributed to him, he was unsure. The abyssal familiar was, and always would be, a hero.

  “I believe in you, Suta.”

  ***

  Owin had thought he was strong. After devouring the Vile Fiend, he thought he was unstoppable. How could he be so stupid?

  Suta threw Chaudius’s arm to the side and struck the cetanthro with a palm strike that nearly shattered his breastplate. The boss skidded back and reignited himself with luminous magic.

  Chaudius had the advantage in damage type, but it didn’t matter.

  Owin held Shade’s arm. “Do you see that?”

  “Is that a missing eye joke?”

  “All his martial arts training,” Owin said quietly.

  Chaudius stepped in close and swung, but Suta moved like he had always been so huge. His transformation wasn’t the least bit awkward. Suta’s spiked forearm deflected Chaudius’s swing, causing the cetanthro boss to present his face.

  Suta punched with a fist engulfed in abyssal flame. It appeared faster than Owin could follow. Chaudius bounced off the ground as he sailed across the arena, coming to a stop only when he crunched against the opposite wall.

  Suta stood to his full height, which rivaled Chorsay. The familiar let his arms hang, which let his hands drag on the tiled ground. He watched patiently until Chaudius finally made his way back to his feet. The boss was injured, but with a flash of light, his injuries immediately faded.

  The way Owin looked at fighting a mender was you had to kill them in a single hit, like he had done against Chaudius, or you had to fight until their mana was gone, like against Nikoletta. He could have killed her in a single hit, but a mender without mana is rarely a threat from what he had seen.

  “You burned away Chaudius’s mana,” Owin said.

  Vondaire spun a ghost kunai idly. “I did.”

  “How long did that take?”

  “Seconds. It was an unfortunate matchup for the fish. I’m certain other bosses will provide a challenge. To someone.”

  Chauidus lumbered back toward the center of the room. He repositioned his shield and flared luminous light on the end of his mace. When he was ready, he nodded.

  Suta lifted his arms and smashed his fists together. Abyssal flames formed, as if lit from a spark, and climbed over his hands and up his arms.

  ***

  With all the untamed demons dying so fast, Myrsvai actually found himself with a significant store of mana remaining. A Power 6 spell required no mana to maintain since the strength of the spell is entirely dependent on the item sacrificed.

  That meant Myrsvai was free to buff Suta. Based on the first exchange, Suta needed no help, but when the thought occurred to Myrsvai, he immediately received a connected thought. A reply.

  Buff.

  Myrsvai swirled abyssal fire around the head of his staff. He smiled, looking through his list of spells. What was one he hadn’t used in a long time?

  Catalyst of the Abyssal Lord. A dangerous Power 5 spell that would eat away at the rest of his mana, but it could build upon the existing boon from the Vile Fiend.

  Myrsvai took a deep breath. The stronger a magus became, the more focused every little thing became on control. He had to control himself, control his strength, control his portals, or everything could go wrong. A loss of control could mean the emergence of countless untamed demons.

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  There was a reason any spells that summoned more than a single demon at a time were illegal in Verdantallis. At least if he unleashed a horde of demons in the dungeon, they would be trapped on that floor.

  Suta dashed at Chaudius, who blocked with his tower shield and countered with a luminous blast. While the attack obviously hurt, a little luminous energy wasn’t going to stop Suta. He ignited himself with abyssal flames.

  As Chaudius swung his glowing mace, the flames and the light countered each other. The swing continued, but it was only a normal mace head, which was easy for Suta to stop. His hands were so massive, he wrapped his entire hand around the head of the mace and tore it from Chaudius’s grip. The weapon sailed across the arena and crashed in front of Myrsvai.

  Chaudius immediately repositioned, focusing his entire body behind the tower shield.

  “Here we go,” Mrysvai whispered. He tapped his staff on the ground and forced it against the tile.

  A portal swirled to life, starting small like a coin floating just in front of his eyes, before he pushed it away and tore it open with force. The portal grew until it was about six feet tall and swirling like a gateway between cities.

  It wasn’t a void nexus or a true abyssal portal. This was cloudy, holding the magenta colors of Myrsvai’s flames, as it connected with the Vile Fiend’s Plains of Awakening. Locating a suitable spot for the portal, and placing it in the correct realm had taken most of Myrsvai’s focus. Placing the portal somewhere accessible to all demons made it easier for them to interfere, to try to break through.

  With this portal, only the Vile Fiend’s powers flowed. Strands of stark white energy whipped from the portal, lashing at Suta. Instead of hurting, each strike left a glowing mark that caused the water to shudder.

  Myrsvai closed his eyes and rested his forehead on his staff. As long as he stayed focused, the portal would remain stable. He could feel Suta, could feel the power growing within the familiar, and he could see the entire fight through the familiar’s eyes.

  Time to end it.

  Shard Heroes, Suta thought.

  ***

  “I underestimated him,” Vondaire said. His knife was gone. All of his attention was on the fight before them. “He’s no normal magus.”

  Suta roared like a beast. The entire arena quaked as he smashed his fists together. Tiles cracked all around the familiar as he shifted into his fighting stance.

  Sloswen had been silent, watching the fight with interest. As soon as Myrsvai opened the portal, the god shifted uncomfortably. All of his tattoos moved, shifting across his arms and underneath his tunic. Owin had only ever noticed the snake, but clouds drifted and lines waved. What was a god thinking during a fight?

  “I might be nearly immune to abyssal damage, but, uh, I wouldn’t survive this. It might kill me for real,” Shade said.

  Suta took a step forward and jabbed, striking the center of Chaudius’s tower shield. A shockwave passed through the water, briefly obscuring Owin’s view. Chaudius took a step back, and as the bubbles cleared, Owin spotted a hole the size of Suta’s fist in the middle of the tower shield.

  Chaudius tossed it to the side. The fish’s eyes glowed yellow as luminous energy rippled down his arms, gathering in his fists. A small shift of his feet squared Chaudius with Suta, who remained in a fighting stance.

  “He’s lost,” Owin said.

  “The fish lost a long time ago,” Vondaire said. “He never stood a chance.”

  Suta waited patiently, standing completely still. Owin felt like he needed to hold his breath as he waited for either of them to move.

  Finally, Chaudius lunged forward with a feint before shifting and swinging a golden fist for Suta’s head. The familiar side stepped and punched, not even bothering to block or deflect the fish’s attack. It was so fast that Owin only saw Suta shift, then Chaudius was gone.

  The cetanthro boss was limp in a crater, embedded so far into the arena wall that the shimmering boundary wall was visible.

  “And there it is,” Vondaire said.

  Sloswen snapped, revealing them all.

  Suta turned, fists raised, then immediately let his arms drop. He cocked his head as his eyes locked onto Owin.

  Owin waved.

  Shade stepped in front of Owin and waved both of his arms.

  Myrsvai closed the portal, stumbled back, and steadied himself. He flashed twice, then fell onto his bottom.

  “A double level up?” Vondaire asked. “What did he just do?”

  Suta sprinted over, moving too fast to follow, and barreled into Owin. The familiar’s overly long arms wrapped around Owin and pulled him right off the ground.

  “Twin,” Suta said, his voice deep, rumbling, and horrifying.

  “You did it,” Owin said, straining as he was nearly crushed.

  Sloswen presented the shard to Myrsvai, who had climbed back to his feet. “Your first shard. With your strategy, I do not believe Chaudius would have survived with a shard activated.” He snapped and Chaudius appeared, perfectly healthy with his shield and armor fully intact, directly beside Sloswen.

  Myrsvai nodded to the fish.

  Sloswen transferred the shard to Myrsvai, then gestured to the new exit door near Owin. “I bid you all a safe travel to your next destination. I have spoken more than is acceptable among our council. If you acquire all seven, I will speak with you again. For now, farewell.”

  The god vanished, leaving Chaudius standing awkwardly for a moment before the cetanthro simply turned and returned to his table and chair that had reappeared with the exit door. He carefully set his mace and shield aside, shed his armor, and sat in the wooden chair with an exhaustion Owin couldn’t understand.

  “That was quick,” Shade said. “I think he wants to get rid of us. Why would he want to do that?”

  “I can’t imagine why,” Vondaire said.

  Myrsvai joined them around the same time that Suta’s transformation started to fade. The familiar shrunk quickly, leaving no sign that he had just been a massive creature. By the time Myrsvai joined them, Suta stood with his arm over Owin’s shoulder.

  “Lord Sloswen let you watch?” Myrsvai asked.

  “Yeah. Vondaire watched me fight too,” Owin said.

  Vondaire stifled a yawn. “It was less impressive.”

  “Less impressive is still impressive,” Shade said. “Just less so.”

  Vondaire gestured to the exit. “Let us be on our way before we find a way to piss off the gods.”

  “It wouldn’t be my first time,” Owin said as he guided Suta toward the exit.

  “I get that sense.”