A deal with a demon

A Void Portal—a rift in reality, one look at each made you feel like you were on the verge of falling into an endless abyss. It appeared soundlessly, with almost no effort from Zemin at all.

This time it wasn't square, but a rectangle. Zemin took care to not place it too close to Adia, but it still covered Argon's body.

Almost all of it. A severed hand of the demon fell to the ground next to Adia, who staggered back with a look of shock. Then her body lost balance, and she fell. The motion was echoed by the fall of her partner, who wasn't held upright anymore.

It was a signal that the Angor's hold ended. Zemin stumbled, but stayed steady on his feet. A gust of wind rustled Zemin's hair and gently pushed him toward the opened portal.

<Gained 1 58 units of energy. The surrounding air is also being transformed into Expected gain unit day.>

[Energy reserve: 189 units.]

"What is this?" Jagger asked, looking around. "Zemin, is this your work? I felt—"

"I will explain everything later, Sergeant!" Zemin pointed at the dog demons that were now turning tail. "We should kill these demons first! They are witnesses! Adia, you check on your partner!"

Jagger raised his rifle and shot, not even aiming. The bullet exploded in the head of the nearest dog demon.

"Without their master, they are just mutts."

Zemin nodded and dashed after them—which spurred the dogs running faster. They charged in different directions, and with how many there were, there was no way for him to catch them all.

He did his best, though. Now that the cat was out of the bag, Zemin could open more Void Portals to annihilate the beasts, although he made sure to not make them too big. At the same time, his sword struck those close enough.

And those that ran too far from him were shot down by Jagger.

In minutes, the only dog demons left were a pair of stragglers that were getting farther and farther away from Jagger and Adia. Zemin chased them, almost flying after them with telekinesis—when Jagger's shout from behind gave him a pause.

"There's no way—Angor!"

"What?" Zemin turned around, peering behind the trees. His line of sight was partially obstructed by shrubbery, but he could see that Jagger's rifle was now aimed at Adia—who was sitting on the ground and grabbing her throat.

"Yes. That's right. Me."

Zemin spun around again. The dog demons that he chased got several meters farther away, and now stared at him with smug grins. The gnarled voice definitely came from them.

"You survived!" Zemin gasped. "These dogs… They aren't just your hands. You can transport your consciousness into them?"

"How smart for cattle," the dogs said in unison. "Remember than hand you so thoughtlessly left lying behind? It's now choking the life out of that morsel of a human girl. You seemed to have a connection of some sort with her—how would you like to have it severed? Or you can give up the chase and let me go now."

Zemin made a step forward without thinking, and Angor's dogs immediately stood on alert.

"Ah! Not another step. Do it, and the girl is dead—even your Exemplar nanny won't stop me from tearing out her throat."

He forced himself to breathe steadily and calmly.

"You are bluffing, demon. Sergeant will easily destroy just some hand. The way it is, it can't even show him a rude gesture."

At least Zemin wanted to believe his own words. But with the power Angor showed just moments earlier… Not to mention, Zemin never heard about demons being able to do things like splitting their own bodies in parts!

'System, is Angor lying?'

<Can't make a full analysis because of lack data. Results preliminary analysis: there's high probability that Angor's remote control body parts is limited by distance.>

"Are you so sure, pup? I give you twenty seconds to think it through—this is how much the girl will live while my hand presses down on the arteries in her neck."

Gritting his teeth, Zemin reached out for his walkie-talkie and turned it on. Angor watched without protests.

"Zemin speaking! Sergeant, is Adia alright?"

The answer came only a second later. "Zemin, Angor is still alive. His hand—it's choking her. I'm trying to tear it off, but the miasma here blocks most of my efforts. Get back here and help me quickly!"

Angor chuckled.

"Go on. Tell him what's going on. I'd love to do it myself. Despite all the dogmas human Soldiers are taught, Loann is thirsty for revenge—I wonder if he's thirsty enough to doom people of his own kind."

Zemin turned the walkie-talkie off. He clenched the sword in his other hand and glared at the demon before closing his eyes.

The demon was riling them all up, and masterfully so. Zemin had to remember it and detach himself from the situation, like he was trained to do.

The effort of will worked.

When Zemin made a decision, it was entirely calculated.

"I don't know what connects you with Sergeant Jagger specifically, demon, but I won't let you torment him further. You won't be able to control that hand if you get further away, do you? So go. But I will follow you… And if you harm Adia, I will send every piece left of you into the Void."

The dogs lowered their heads in… disappointment?

"I'm sure you will be punished for this decision—instead of your delicious sergeant! Although… maybe you will grow into something interesting, too. Very well, I agree to your terms."

Zemin watched as the dogs stood up and turned, arrogantly holding their heads and tails high. Keeping his sword at the ready, he followed him, turning on the walkie-talkie.

"Zemin talking. My apologies—I was caught up… How's Adia? Please, tell me when you take the hand off it. It's very important… Very important."