Rey got a look from his friends that said he had just taken a vital stick out of the Jenga stack that was their mind, and it was teetering dangerously towards collapse. Or he added a stick in a tough spot, because he didn't know how to play the game properly. In any case, they were confused.

  "I'll explain when the time comes, my minions," Rey said. "But don't ask me for a banana. You won't like the bananas that grow in Hell."

  Filomena looked at Kassandra. "Has he lost his mind?"

  "Verily," Rey cried.

  Of course, he had. He had lived through countless horrors of Hell, partnered with one of the strongest Sovereigns to take down the ruler of Hell, only to fail, find out that his partner had lied to him, and then, as a reward, he was sent back in time to change the past and do everything from the start.

  Why? How?

  He certainly didn't have the answer to that, but he knew one thing. Things would be different this time. Instead of going after Zarius, he would go after his twin and get his revenge for his grandmother. There was no one he loved more than her and their dear patron, who probably had such a short penis that he needed to compensate for it by becoming the ruler of Hell, orchestrated her death.

  Rey chuckled at their expressions. "Yes, this is the person you have chosen to lead you. But don't worry, I usually keep my crazy locked tightly in a bottle, but sometimes this genie comes out to play. Like when I'm going through Mana Fatigue."

  Ajay helped him to a chair he had set up for himself and Sergei when they were on watch. He had just placed his butt on the chair when the castle shook as if an earthquake had rocked the whole place. The walls shook so hard that they looked like they would break and bury them under the castle. Everyone fell to the ground, and Rey was no different, which made his headache even worse.

  There was a noise of someone roaring outside, and another shockwave followed. The castle shook violently, and some scampered to stand under a doorway as if that would save them. Rey stayed rooted to his chair, holding his head with both hands, hoping this would subside before a vein popped in his head.

  He sat and groaned, wanting to rip his hair out. This was the worst time to have Mana Fatigue. His head felt like it was about to burst. He saw five of everything, so he shut his eyes and just groaned in pain.

  Kassandra put a hand on his shoulder. "It's fine. It'll pass. You'll be okay."

  "Of course, I'll be okay. I'm not dying to some fucking Mana Fatigue," He lashed out. He didn't want to, but the pain was just driving him up the wall. He apologized immediately. "Sorry, it's the pain."

  "I understand."

  After a few more quakes, the castle's shaking subsided, and another sort of noise began—one of pain. Demons started shrieking. It would have been horrific to Rey if he hadn't become accustomed to such sounds over the past five years.

  "W-What's going on?" Maria whimpered.

  "The monster that tried to take down our castle failed and is now taking his anger out on the host of demons outside," Kassandra said.

  He was impressed, even though he shouldn't have been. He knew she was smart enough to figure this out. Hell, she had figured out all sorts of different things, like what each sub-menu in Talents did, how to tell the time of day, and even the nature of souls returning. If Rey weren't playing the role of the all-knowing Seer, she would've been the de facto leader of this group.

  "Why did you have to provoke him?" Tia snapped.

  "Leave him alone," Kassandra shot back. "If anything, this proves he was right, that Unokir can't come in here unless we throw open the doors for him."

  Good one, Kass.

  "Yes, but he still didn't have to do whatever he did to that demon," Tia retorted. "By the way, didn't you see this coming?"

  "I did," Rey dribbled out. The pain was subsiding gradually. Not enough that he would brave standing up, but enough that he could talk, without snapping at everyone. "How do you think I got everyone in here on time? If I hadn't seen this, we would've still been out there and probably dead by now."

  "Now what?" Filomena asked.

  "Now, we hunker down and wait for our next enemy to show up."

  "There is another one of these demons coming?" She asked, wide-eyed.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "Oh yes, and it's worse than the one outside because it can make us do detrimental things. It will lead you to make decisions that will ultimately result in your own downfall. But you must fight it. Believe me, you will do anything to stave it or curb it, but you will fail in the end."

  He had them now. Everyone's face was now on the horrified spectrum. Some, more horrified like Maria, and others like Sergei, were not at all. But he hardly showed any expression at all.

  "What demon is this?" Maria asked.

  "Hunger," Kassandra answered, stealing all his thunder.

  Rey crossed his arms and pouted. "Did you have to ruin that? I was going to drag this out even more."

  She shrugged. "Everyone is scared enough already."

  Rey huffed. "Yes, I do mean hunger, or rather starvation. We have meat for several days, but we have no way to preserve it. It's going to go bad eventually. Ajay, work with Jerry and dry as much meat as we have. We're going to need it."

  "And when we run out?" Ajay asked.

  Then one of us will have to make a tough choice.

  "You leave that to me."

  Even though Rey said that, he wasn't very confident in his ability to save them all, especially if there was a demon inside with them. That was another problem they had to deal with immediately. A rogue demon running around here on the inside would be disastrous for them. He couldn't let history—or future, in this case repeat itself.

  "Sergei, you man this door at all times," Rey ordered. "You eat, shit, and sleep here. As a matter of fact, consider this door your lover, and you do not let anyone close to your lover. Do you hear me?"

  Sergei gave his characteristic nod and took up a position by the door. "It will not open when I watch the door."

  "Good." Rey turned to Jerry. "Seal the balcony door. No one should be able to open it, but leave the watchtower open. We'll need it to scout out the enemy."

  "Okay," Jerry replied, who was already halfway up the stairs. He disappeared up the stairs, and with Ajay with him, Rey was sure that even the biker who had taken many bumps to the head couldn't mess this up. This left everyone else. They wouldn't sit idly by either.

  "Everyone, this is no time to be sitting on our asses," he said. "Get up and scour every inch of this castle. I want whoever attacked the doctor before me within the hour. Is that understood?"

  "You got it, boss," Kassandra said, a little amused.

  With that, they all dispersed, aside from Filomena, who was looking after the doctor. Despite Mana fatigue, Rey didn't let his guard down. He couldn't, with a demon running loose in the castle. They had a lot of rooms to cover and lots of places to check. The worst-case scenario could be that the demon somehow poisoned their water.

  Rey started. A tremor went up his spine. Losing their water supply would be the worst. They could still survive without food, but not without water. He rushed down the corridor to the well room. He made it down in time to see Tia coming out of the room with the well.

  "Everything okay in there?" Rey called.

  She swerved her head around. "Sure, looks like it, but someone cut the rope, and the bucket's fallen in."

  Rey breathed out a sigh of relief. "That's it."

  She frowned. "Yes. Are you concerned?"

  Rey walked to the well and used Gravitational Attraction on the bucket, and it flew right back into his hand. He looked at the cut rope. It was a nice, clean cut made with a sharp knife or blade.

  So, it's a demon with blades or sharp claws.

  "What are you looking at?" Tia asked.

  "I swear, if there's an invisible prankster in here, I'm swinging blindly," Rey said.

  She scoffed. "Why would a demon go through all that trouble just to create such stupid pranks?"

  "My thoughts exactly…"

  Rey's head had started pounding again as the one person whom he had not even seen crack a smile before actually chuckled as she shook her head and walked out the door. If he didn't know any better, he would've placed her responsible for this. But his head was pounding, and there was a demon on their doorstep who wanted nothing more than to make a meal of them.

  Then the human-skin-wearing demon started his attack once more. Rey dropped to the ground as the castle shook once more. It took him various moments to stop the world from spinning, and even longer for Unokir to stop bashing on the castle. Rey wasn't particularly worried about him breaking through, but he had other worries on his mind.

  He left the well and found himself in the hall, and Sergei was the only one there with Filomena and the unconscious doctor. Rey plopped down on the first step and could hear the frantic steps of everyone running around upstairs. He hoped they would find something, or it could get messier than a toddler at a spaghetti convention real fast.

  The doctor moaned lightly, then flinched in pain. Filomena helped her sit up.

  "Ah!" she cried. "My head."

  "Careful, doctor," Filomena said. "You were attacked. Did you see who did this?"

  She winced as she touched the back of her head. "Give me a moment."

  She must have activated a healing skill of hers because her face visibly relaxed, and finally, she let out a contented sigh.

  "Okay, I'm better now," Bahar said. "No, I didn't see who attacked me. I heard footsteps behind me. Before I could turn, someone smashed something in the back of my head, and I was out."

  Rey glanced at Filomena. "Just our luck, eh?"

  "Why? What's happened?" Bahar asked.

  "Unokir is here," Filomena said and then filled her in on the details. "So, that's why we think there might be a demon in the castle."

  "But then why simply attack me and not just kill me outright?" Bahar wondered.

  "I've been wondering the same thing, doc," Rey said. "And I just found out that this same person had cut the rope of our bucket and tossed it into the well. I got it out, of course, by sacrificing the couple of points of Mana that I had regained, and fell back into Mana Fatigue once more."

  Kassandra and a few others came back. Jerry and Ajay were still working on sealing the castle or drying their meat.

  "Anything?" Rey asked, hoping against hope.

  Kassandra shook her head. "Nothing. There's no one on the upper levels."

  "So, what do we do now?" Filomena asked.

  "Now, we wait for our invisible prankster to strike again, but next time we'll be ready," Rey said. "Next time, we'll get him or her or it, and pull out its innards and make it sing."

  The others gave him weird glances, which were part confusion, part revulsion, and part 'Oh God, he's lost it...again.'