A sulfur haze drifting across hellish plains only being cut by jagged rocks. Minily stared out of her gas mask attempting to make out any details off in the distance. The haze wasn’t much of a problem with the enhanced perception though it did obscure smaller details.

  Her hands were bound in front of her connected to a magical chain flowing around Aggilla’s body. The three had been marching behind the incubus for nearly half a day already. All semblance of buildings or society had fallen away hours into their journey and the three were considering escaping. Minily pressed her hand to Aggilla’s back with a hand signal they had practiced in the swamp telling her to wait. She wanted to know where the demon spawn was taking them.

  Her eyes settled on a darker cloud in the distance. Smoke was rising through the haze filling the sky.

  “Whatcha guys cooking over there?” Minily casually asked the incubus.

  “No talking filth.”

  “You know how to treat a lady. What’s your name?”

  “You couldn’t even comprehend it. Stop talking.”

  “I can’t comprehend it or you can’t pronounce it?”

  The incubus stopped causing Laiko to smack into his back. Aggilla tumbled but stopped before hitting Laiko.

  Yellow skin tightened as the incubus’ face turned sour. He spun quickly around and started to scream several insults in some kind of demonic tongue. Spit flew from his mouth landing everywhere. When it landed on the rocks in the surrounding area it sizzled. He finished after two minutes looking satisfied and proud of himself. The three just stared at him silently.

  “So, uh, where are you taking us? I didn’t quite get that.”

  Laiko started laughing at Minily’s comment.

  “Laugh and mock all you want. This one,” he grabbed Laiko by the throat, “will serve out the rest of his life in the mines fueling our expansion. And you two will become incubators to create more lesser demons.”

  “That sounds like a pretty good time. You incubus, incubi? Whatever it is, are blessed from what we’ve seen. Although, I think I’d like one of the red ones more.” She flicked her eyes down in an obvious way to make the incubus notice.

  He just let out a guttural laugh. “You won’t think that when we get there. You’ll be used every second of every day. Us demons are ravenous. Our spawns take only a couple hours to be born.”

  When he finished making his threat, he opened his eyes and saw Minily pointing out in the distance to both Laiko and Aggilla.

  “What are you doing?!”

  “Oh, sorry. Were you saying something? We got distracted by the beautiful landscape here. That super jagged rock over there just looked sublime in the hellfire light.”

  The incubus seethed. His fingers bit into the pale-yellow skin on his wrists drawing blood. A hellfire lash formed and went to snap at Minily. It didn’t reach her. Instead, it sizzled against one of her shields.

  “Woah watch that temper there. Good thing I had this shield here.” She held up her hands, which were now free from her shield pushing the magical chains away. She started to back up distracting the incubus.

  Laiko took the queue and used Touch of Time on the magical cuffs binding his own hands. The mana unraveled from the bending of time, and he instantly formed spectral blades. In one swift motion, he sliced across the back of the incubus’ legs severing tendons.

  A horrid scream escaped the naked winged demon. He fell to his knees before falling forward into the sandy pathway. Before he could say anything else, a spectral blade stabbed through his pointed ear and into the ground on the other side of his head.

  Aggilla’s cuffs dissipated as the demon died. She quickly activated her skills to move the body off the pathway.

  “Minily, I thought you said we were waiting.” Laiko started covering the demon blood with surrounding sand.

  “That was before I knew they were planning to separate us. Besides I spotted our destination.”

  “Where? All I see is hellfire and those stupid rocks.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  She pointed off in the distance towards the smoke. Laiko’s eyes followed her finger as she lowered it to the left of the smoke column.

  “He said you were going to mine. That looks like a mine to me.”

  “What if that’s just cave or something?”

  “Yeah, Minily, if that were a mine, I think it would be more active.” Aggilla arrived back with at the group brushing her hands off on her clothes.

  “If it turns out to be nothing then we find another one of these guys to question, but I have a good feeling about that place.”

  “You could see the lost this whole time.” Laiko smacked his palm against his face. “Then why?!” He gestured to the spot where the incubus died.

  “This is a dangerous place. I was worried we’d have trouble navigating a more hostile environment. Besides, I knew Aggilla liked the view.”

  “I did not! You made me look!”

  Minily just laughed and started walking towards the mine in the distance. She summoned her crook. The lantern started to shine, and the haze thinned along their path.

  The trio stopped on a ridge much closer to the mine. Laying down peeking their heads over the terrain, the three scouted the mine. From the outside, it looked like a simple cave with nothing going on. On the inside, magical braziers holding hellfire hung from the roof at intervals of about ten feet revealing a tunnel that turned sharply downward after the first few lights. No demons were in sight.

  Minily signaled to move into the cave. All three stayed low and quiet once again as they made their way into the cave mouth and started following the tunnel downward. Flickering hellfire light bounced off the walls in all directions. The heat of the area started to rise the deeper they went. All three were dripping sweat onto the cave floor. Then as if someone could change the weather at the snap of a finger, the haze cleared and there was a slight chill to the air.

  Minily had them all stop, and they pressed up against the inside wall of the spiral tunnel. She removed her mask and took a deep breath. The air was clean.

  “We must be getting close. If the lost are down here, then the demons probably need them to be able to breathe. This is some kind of environmental field.”

  The other two nodded and took off their masks.

  “Wow, I almost forgot what fresh air felt like!” Aggilla took several deep breaths.

  “We shouldn’t keep our masks too far though just in case we have to flee.”

  “Laiko, you really can’t just enjoy things for a second, can you?”

  “I’m just being pragmatic, Minily.”

  “Alright. Let’s go silent again and follow the inside wall. We don’t split up no matter what.”

  Following the tunnel, the trio found several larger caverns that were clearly former mining locations. Veins that ran dry and were abandoned. It wasn’t for another two hours that they heard the clanking of pickaxes. Their pace slowed and they stayed close together against the wall. Right before a large opening in the wall, they stopped as voices flowed out.

  “We’re on track to hit our quota for the expansion. Letting the thralls have an hour of independence a day seems to rest their body more than keeping them under indefinitely.”

  “The Spine won’t like that.”

  “As long as we are achieving quota they won’t care how it’s getting done.”

  Minily quickly poked her head around the corner to get a peek at the two talking. She signaled to Laiko and Aggilla that it was only two enemies. When she peeked, she saw they were demonkin, but a different kind. They were clothed unlike the others, but they were only wearing odd robes. Their skin was pure white, and their eyes didn’t have pupils. The horns were quite different between the two. One had their horns flowing from their head down their back like it was hair while the others were shorter and curved around their head before extending off the back. She also noticed that there were nearly fifty men of different races chipping away at the strange ore on the wall.

  Laiko switched places with Minily and prepared two spectral blades from his mana. A headache started to form behind his eyes, but it felt unnatural. He shook it off and turned the corner. One of the white demons saw him, but he threw the dagger that hit the demon in the throat. The other turned and Laiko’s headache grew more intense. He activated his skill and teleported to the dagger in the demon’s throat before turning to his left instantly slicing his remaining blade across the mid-section of the still alive demon.

  “How did you break the spell?” The demon blubbered as blood poured from its stomach.

  Laiko didn’t even bother answering and stabbed down into the demon’s throat. Instantly his pounding headache dissipated and he breathed. Behind him the entire line of workers fell over and dropped their pickaxes.

  “We probably should have asked that one some questions.” Minily kicked the demon’s corpse lightly.

  “They were using some kind of mind magic. I had a splitting headache.”

  “That’s—that’s how they control us.” An older human man lifted his head barely to speak. “Do you have water?”

  Aggilla rushed over with Minily’s spatial waterskin. The man rolled onto his back and started to down the cold water.

  “Real water. I can’t believe it. Thank you. Thank you.”

  “What do you mean real water?”

  “These fiends don’t have much water here. For all meals we get this thick juice from what they call sulfur fruits. It has just enough water in it to sustain us. Not pleasant though.”

  The other men started to stir and Aggilla passed the waterskin along. Minily started to purchase some fresh food from the nexus for them. When they saw the food, they started to cry.

  “What happened here? How did you all end up here?” She asked as she handed another man a skewer of meat.

  “For some they were kidnapped from the other side of a portal while they were alone. Others, like my people, were coerced into coming here through elaborate traps. We believe it depends on your class. They create lessor demons using us and those lesser demons sometimes have our skills. We don’t know how it works. We have no idea how long we have been here. Until recently they kept us as thralls under that horrid spell every moment of every day. We only have flashes of memories, you see. Now we get an hour where our brains aren’t on fire.”

  “We’re sorry this has happened to you. This is Laiko and Aggilla. You can think of them as my assistants. I’m Minily and I specialize in bringing people home. Let’s get you free.”

  “There’s so many others. We will help.”

  “How many others?”

  “Thousands by now. We must help them. Please.”