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As Erza continued to back away, staring at the demon in terror, Zeth turned to look at his summoned help. “Disable him. Your priority should be knocking him out, but—”

“That is not part of our deal,” the demon said.

Zeth blinked. “What?”

“You offered payment in exchange for manual labor. We laid out those aspects of the deal. You cannot change it retroactively. And because you have not paid me yet, you also cannot force me to perform an action or else be unsummoned. Of course, if you would like to modify our preexisting deal, I would be open to such a thing.”

“Fine,” Zeth said with a frown. “What would it take for you to do what I ask?”

“Give me one thousand lives and I will kill this man and the monsters,” the demon said, staring Erza down. “At least, assuming you want this man dead.”

“One thousand?” Zeth demanded. “You’re fucking insane.”

Erza looked between the two of them, seeming horrified that Zeth was talking to a demon the way he was.

“There are plenty around to claim,” the demon continued, paying the man no mind. “Most would be mercy killings, considering the number of destroyed buildings in the area. I would simply be wandering around, taking the lives of those already dying beneath the rubble.”

“Listen, we can talk about it later,” Zeth said. He nodded toward Erza. “For now, attack that guy.”

“And kill him?”

“No, not right now. Just wound him, and I’ll decide later what—”

“As we already have a deal in place preventing me from unsummoning myself, I am given the ability to refuse orders outside the purview of that deal. As such, I refuse to do additional work without recompense. ”

Zeth sighed. “Fine. You can have another prisoner in exchange for your work right now. I really don’t have time for bargaining.”

“One thousand lives.”

“Absolutely fucking not, you moron. In what world would I—”

Before Zeth could finish speaking, he heard something from Erza, turning to look at him. He’d opened up his book, reciting a passage with shaky hands. “W-wings of speed, grant me flight, so I may sleep safe tonight!”

The moment the last word was uttered, a pair of wide white wings sprouted out from his back, spewing feathers everywhere, and began flapping to carry him into the air. Once he was out of reach, the wings began carrying him quickly across the field, far away from both them and the monsters.

“Ugh,” Zeth said, turning back to the demon. “Now he’s gone. Great. Just kill these monsters and I’ll give you extra payment, promise.”

“I do not work in exchange for promises. If I am no longer to kill that man, I can remove one life from my price.”

“One thousand—or any number near it—is a non-negotiable no.”

“Then what can you give me instead?”

Zeth rubbed his face in frustration. His heart was already pounding in his chest from the stress of the situation, and that damn aura of fear wasn’t doing anything to calm him down. Why did this have to happen now? Why did these monsters decide to stampede out here for no reason?

He frowned. Wait, why was this happening? It really didn’t make any sense at all. He turned to the demon. “Tell me what you know about these monsters and their stampede.”

The demon’s face twisted. After a moment, it responded, “These are monsters I found while waiting for you to call me in the forest. After drawing near to them, my aura of fear overtook their simple minds and caused them to flee in this direction. It seems the already terror-addled beasts saw the strange environment of the town and felt that it was threatening, and began destroying it.”

“Why did you go near the mannitors? I told you to stay still.”

“You told me to stay within earshot while in the forest, and to avoid being seen by humans. I could go wherever I wanted. And so I did.”

“So you did all of this shit on purpose. Perfect.” Zeth sighed, as though that would calm his running nerves, turning around to pace in a circle atop the fallen rubble. Faint crashes and monster roars filled his ears. “So, what, you wanted to force me into an unfavorable situation that I would absolutely require your help to fix, right? And then you could demand some inordinate price in order to do it.”

Perhaps he’d gotten too comfortable using demons, after all. After having them perform mundane labor for so long, he’d grown complacent. These things were monstrous beasts, barely kept in check by the limitations placed on them by his Skill. They didn’t just get their value out of a summoning by being shrewd negotiators—they took everything they could by tricking, threatening, and murdering whenever possible.

And this motherfucker standing in front of him was doing exactly that. He’d decided that he’d go and destroy Zeth’s town, kill as many people as he could, and overall make the worst situation possible just for the sake of maybe being able to scrape a little extra power out of Zeth. The demon was blatantly taking advantage of him. It pissed him off. It really pissed him off.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“The circumstances no longer matter,” the demon said in a smug voice. “It does not matter who or what caused this disaster. All that matters is that a disaster is currently in progress, and it needs to be solved. I am the key to solving it. And if you do not take my deal, I will simply refuse to do as you say. You have no power here. You have no chips to bargain with. I will give you the one allowance that, if you are truly that hung up on the lives that I take not being taken from this town, I can always go elsewhere to some far-off territory to claim my payment after saving you and your people.”

“One extra prisoner,” Zeth said, trying his hardest to control his voice. “You’re lucky I’m even offering that.”

The demon chuckled. “It seems you do not understand the position you’re in. You have to take my offer. There is no other choice. You, slug, are truly a worthless, pathetic, idiotic being if you believe you are in the position to—”

His voice was cut off by a fist colliding with his jaw. Caught entirely off-guard, the demon stumbled back and fell into the pile of bricks behind him.

Zeth stood looking down at him, knuckles aching like he’d just struck a steel statue. He took a step forward. “Don’t get up. That’s an order.”

He may not have been able to order the demon to fight for him because of the preexisting deal, but that deal did grant him the right to give orders regarding where the demon went.

“What are you—?!” The demon began to demand, but was cut off by Zeth’s boot kicking into his face. Once again, it was like hitting pure stone, and didn’t actually seem to hurt the demon much, but he also looked extremely displeased about being stomped on by a human.

“What the fuck now?!” Zeth shouted down at him, lifting up his foot and slamming it back down into the demon’s nose. “What the fuck do you have to say now?! No, I’m not taking your dumbass deal because I—” he kicked him, “don’t—” again, “want—” again, “to!”

The demon, unable to stand because of Zeth’s commands, raised up his hands to protect his dirtied face. “You dare place your boots upon the face of a being superior to your entire species?! You slug! Y-you…”

“Get out of here,” Zeth spat, breathing heavily. “I’ll figure this shit out myself. You sure as hell aren’t getting anything for fucking me over.”

“A-are you serious? You won’t take my deal? All I want are the lives of others, not the ones that are useful to you! You won’t even see them die—I will travel far off and kill all the children in some village that has nothing to do with you. Nobody will know which summoner was responsible for it. There is no logical reason for you to refuse my—”

“Shut up, go back to base, and get the fuck back to work,” Zeth said. “Now.”

After another moment of hesitation, the demon got to his feet, brushed himself off, and left, moving so fast Zeth could barely track him with his eyes.

He drew several long breaths, feeling the weight on his chest lessen as the demon left his presence and the aura of fear stopped clouding his mind. He’d noticed in his time dealing with them that the demons’ fear didn’t just increase fear—though that was certainly its primary function—but it also made almost all negative emotional responses more intense. It was probably due to some way fear enhanced the way the mind perceived things that Zeth was far too uneducated to theorize about, but whatever reason there was behind it, he’d found that his anger grew to new heights when he was around those bastards. Though, maybe part of that was because demons truly were just uniquely insufferable.

A roar from behind him drew Zeth’s attention. He whipped around to see a mannitor charging at him, frenzied look on its face. Behind it, he thought he could see someone’s figure, hefting a weapon as they stood over the corpse of another of the monsters. But he didn’t have time to analyze things. This one was headed straight for him.

He gripped the cloth that held the Hellfire Ritual tightly in his hand. With his demon useless and gone, he had far less protection while out in the open than he’d first assumed. That meant he needed to get out of here as soon as possible.

But he’d come here to kill off these monsters—monsters that, ultimately, it seemed he’d been responsible for bringing. And if he had one Hellfire Ritual, that was at least one of them that he’d be capable of killing. No way he was running off before doing at least that much.

Besides, the demon had seemed pretty confident that he’d be helpless against these things without that fucker’s help. Zeth at least wanted to prove him wrong.

So he held his ground and prepared for a fight.

***

Rosalie stood on the edge of the carnage in town, gazing at the corpse of the mannitor she’d just killed. Alfon stood next to her, eyes closed in calm meditation.

Calm was the last emotion running through her own heart, though. The death and destruction that’d been caused here…It was horrific. It was all she could do to keep herself from breaking down in tears right there in the barren streets. But she resisted. Allowing the weight of the lives lost to hit her could come later. Right now, this town needed a hero.

These monsters, right after that disgusting Blood Mage broke those people out of prison? They were clearly trying to find allies, building some sort of cabal to take over town. It was sickening. And worrying—Rosalie wasn’t so egotistical to think she’d be able to defeat such a force on her own. She’d already failed to catch the Blood Mage once. And now she was surrounded by more death she’d failed to prevent. This town truly needed a hero. But she was no such thing.

A shrieking roar came from far off, and she turned to see a monster charging away in the distance.

“Looks like one of the last is over to the north,” she said to Alfon, who couldn’t open his eyes to see or else break his meditation. “I think that’s where Erza had headed off to, though, so he should be able to handle it. Come, let’s try to lift up some of this rubble. There may be survivors buried beneath the fallen buildings.”

Rosalie watched for a moment, waiting for Erza to run in wearing that ridiculous armor of his, but he didn’t arrive. The monster continued in its warpath toward…

She blinked. Was that a person? It wasn’t Erza; it was someone in a hood, standing right in front of it. Why weren’t they running away?! They needed to get to safety!

“Come with me!” she shouted back at Alfon, taking off in a sprint after the monster. There was no way she’d make it all the way over there in time, but maybe if that person could survive for long enough…

“What is wrong?” Alfon asked calmly as he jogged after Rosalie.

“There’s someone over there; they’re being attacked by the mannitor. We need to—”

As she spoke, she watched as the person gripped something in their hand—was that a piece of cloth?—and pulled a small bottle from their belt. They uncorked it and poured it out over the cloth, a suspicious red liquid leaking out. Once they’d emptied it out, they stashed the bottle back into their belt, and took a fighting stance.

She slowed to a stop, calling for Alfon to wait, as well. Pouring out a bottle of red liquid…Blood? But there was no way that was the Blood Mage—Blood Mages weren’t able to move their ritual circles around. The simple fact that they’d been walking around with that cloth disproved the theory. But then, who were they? And what were they doing?

She watched intently as the person took a stance against the monster. Beyond her questions about whether this person was the same Blood Mage she was looking for, a single word came to her mind.

She saw it in the way they stood—the way they stared down the charging monster without a hint of fear or uncertainty in their body. The way their entire presence seemed to communicate victory.

A single word. Hero. This was a hero.