The female guard took a step toward Noah, her eyes cautious as she readied her halberd. But, before she could move, Moxie moved between them. The vines twisting from her robes rose up around her like the heads of a hydra.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Moxie said softly. “We still need someone alive to operate the lift.”

The guard at Noah’s feet stared up at him, jaw clenched and fury burning in his eyes. “Killing me would be stealing from Lord Belkus. You wouldn’t dare.”

Noah tilted his head to the side. Ironically, his guidelines as to what a demon would do were pretty much asking himself what Father would do in his situation. Straight up killing a random guard probably wouldn’t be earning him many points in his favor, but Father wasn’t the type to back down without an ulterior motive.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Noah asked. “You aren’t important. I’d imagine one more sacrifice would more than cover the cost of removing an insect from the heel of my shoe. The only thing keeping you alive right now is that I’m too lazy to go back into the Wastes right now.”

“Who are you?” the female guard asked. She’d stopped before Moxie, her wings slightly parted in preparation to either fight or flee. Judging by the way she was carrying herself, it looked like she was at least a little bit more competent than the male demon. “I don’t know of any demons with your abilities. Was your arrival announced? If it was, reveal your identities and we can put a stop this.”

The male demon lurched, trying to sweep Noah’s legs out from him. Instead of trying to dodge, Noah let the demon’s blow connect. As soon as it did, he sent a wave of vibration from Natural Disaster into the demon’s body, canceling out the momentum and causing the guard to convulse.

Noah drew on Natural Disaster once more, causing a powerful gust of wind to gather directly beneath the guard as he reached down. His dusty uniform fluttered around him as his hand wrapped around the demon’s neck and he lifted him into the air with the aid of the wind centered around them.

As far as anybody else could likely tell, there was just a breeze rushing by and Noah was just lifting the demon under his own strength.

“I don’t have to announce when I arrive,” Noah said. “My presence is warning enough. I do not have to inconvenience myself for the likes of you.”

He threw the guard to the ground at his feet, releasing Natural Disaster so he didn’t have to keep drawing energy from it and risk somebody noticing that he wasn’t tossing people around under his own strength.

The demon scrambled to his feet and backed up until he stood beside his fellow guard. His hands twitched at his sides and his gaze flicked to the shattered weapon lying beside Noah.

“I’m getting impatient,” Noah said quietly. He tapped his foot on the ground. “Make a decision. Minor inconvenience or not, it’ll be the same to me in the end — and that’s assuming your Lord even notices when you go missing.”

A second of terse silence passed. The guard’s jaw set. An instant before he could speak, any words he’d had planned were silenced as the winged demon held her hand up in front of him.

“Your sacrifice is sufficient,” she said, inclining her head just enough to acknowledge him but without getting too respectful. Her wings folded back in and she moved to the side, nodding up to the platform.

Noah bared his teeth in a flat smile. “Very clever. It was a pleasure meeting you both.”

Lee scooped the haft of the guard’s weapon off the ground and examined it with a critical eye.

“I left my axe behind. Can I take this?” Lee asked.

“Feel free,” the female guard said, cutting the other one off before he could respond. “We have no need of a broken halberd.”

They stood to the side as Noah’s group walked past them and up to the platform. Instead of using the ropes, Noah wrapped his arms around Lee and Moxie and used a blast of wind magic to simulate a leap.

The magic launched them up onto the platform and they landed with a synchronized thud. All the demons that had already gathered on it either averted their gaze or stared at them with terror in their eyes.

“When does this start moving?” Noah asked. “You’ve all been standing around for a while now, haven’t we?”Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I — it needs to be filled before the lift is operated, Sir,” a short furry demon said, hiding behind a larger one that Noah presumed to be its father. Judging from their ratty leather clothing, he suspected neither of them were particularly wealthy.

“Is that so?” Noah glanced back down at the guards. They noticed him looking and both winced. After exchanging a glance, the winged one strode over to a large metal box hanging from a thick chain at the turtle’s side and started fiddling with it.

A few moments later, the lift shuddered. Chains clattered and rang as they started to hoist the platform into the air.

“Ah. Lucky us,” Noah said. He turned away from the edge of the lift and let the corner of his lips pull up in a smile. “It seems we got to leave early.”

None of the demons responded. A few of them gave him shaky nods, but the rest just focused their gazes anywhere but him. He took the brief silence to stare up the turtle’s side as the lift clunked away toward the city at its top.

It was so high up that the only things Noah could make out were black scales. He knew the city was there, but it wasn’t anywhere near visible yet. The lift started to accelerate and wind howled by as the air pressed down on Noah’s back, trying to squish him into the metal.

Minutes crawled by as the platform rumbled higher and higher. Nobody said a word. The peaks of the towering stone and metal city buildings soon came into view. Noah couldn’t even see some of their peaks through the swirling energy far above.

They were made of a fascinating mixture of metal supports and stone walls. Many of the buildings seemed to have gone for height over width and almost resembled spikes jutting out of the back of the turtle’s shell.

Sparks rang off a huge pulley system at the edge of the city and the platform slowed, releasing the pressure that had been bearing down on everyone. It rattled to a halt, sliding into place in a much larger stone platform.

Several demons released tense breaths as two guards unhooked thick chains ringing off the platform, allowing them access to the city proper. Everyone on the platform promptly vacated it as quickly as possible, vanishing into the large crowd that milled about the lifts. Many of them stood in lines leading up to other lift platforms in a row off to both sides.

Noah’s group followed after the others. Fortunately, no guards gave them any bother this time around and they were able to enter the city without any hassle. As tempting as it was to crane his neck back and look like a lost tourist, Noah kept his eyes straight ahead as they pushed through the crowd.

They stepped beneath a large archway and onto the main road, continuing along it until they drew up to a small nook between two towering buildings. Noah headed into it, Lee and Moxie following after him.

“Not bad,” Noah said as they came to a stop. He’d fully expected it to be freezing up on the turtle’s back, even with Combustion, but he was surprised to find that it was actually rather warm, albeit breezy. “I’d say that went pretty well.”

“You’re a very convincing… well, you,” Moxie said. “And we’ve definitely had some exposure therapy.”

Lee chewed on the end of the stick that she’d taken from the guard. “I love this stuff.”

“Wood?” Noah asked. “You’re getting worse. At least you were mostly eating edible things before.”

“No. It’s dry sinew,” Lee said, still gnawing at the spear haft. “Wood is hard to get in the Damned Plains. It’s basically really stiff beef jerky. Want to try some?”

Noah sent it a suspicious look. “No. I think I’ll be fine. We just killed a bunch of stuff so I’m not going to starve to death anytime soon.”

He paused, then a grimace passed over his lips. “Shit. We just left all our money with the guards, didn’t we?”

“Gold still works,” Lee said. “It’s just a little less common. A lot of demons bring it back after they leave the Mortal Plane, but not normal ones. It’s pretty much exclusive to the stronger classes.”

“Well, I suppose that works out, doesn’t it? I don’t have that much on me anyway. Moxie?”

“Around one hundred,” Moxie said after digging through her bag for a moment. “I wouldn’t mind finding a proper meal… but we really need to figure out what our actual plan is from here on out. We can’t just wander around the city getting into shit until we stumble into someone that can find Wizen.”

“Agreed. There’s no point finding Wizen until we have a way to actually fight him,” Noah said. “Which means we need either allies or power, and ideally both.”

“Allies?” Lee’s nose scrunched and she pulled the chewed-up polearm shaft out of her mouth. “Here?”

“You turned out pretty well.”

“I’m unique.”

“That you are,” Noah agreed. “But I’m sure we’ll be able to find some demons that we can convince to fight for us one way or another — and that leads to the next thing. We aren’t getting anywhere as ourselves. I can bluff my way past some guards, but if we want to get stronger, we need Runes. Especially you. If there’s anywhere we can find a way to fix your Rank 4, it’s here.”

“That’s true.” A flicker of worry and reluctance passed over Lee’s face, but she nodded. “And sooner would be better. Do you mean we’re going to pretend to be some strong demon?”

Noah scratched the back of his neck. “That could work, but I don’t know anywhere near enough about anyone in particular to emulate them. I think we need to leave things a little more open ended. Do you know if the entirety of the Damned Plains has been explored?”

“I don’t think it has. Most of it is completely uninhabitable, and it’s huge. I’ve heard its way bigger than the mortal world, but I don’t know enough to say for sure,” Lee said with a shake of her head. “We’d have to find someone that knows more about it for good answers.”

“Then we’ve got a start. I think I’ve got a plan that should fit our plans perfectly if we pull it off correctly.”

“Care to share?” Moxie asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Back where I’m from, there’s a pretty famous story about a beggar that pretends to be a prince.” A grin split Noah’s face. “He went by the name Aladdin, and I think he had the right idea.”