Virgil sat on the floor, surrounded books and scrolls he had stolen from the libraries of the Master Mages. Not for the first time, he kicked himself for killing those five great men. They could have answered his questions faster than any book.

  Of course, they’d have had to cooperate, and the one thing they’d all had in common was a fervent desire to be unhelpful.

  “If you let me out, I could help you find what you need.” Cyrian’s voice, that grating stone on stone, was not enough to Virgil look up from his work.

  This was not the first time the demon lord had made such a statement. Cyrian stood at the center of a ring. Runes scratched into a rug formed a spell to keep the demon confined, and thin bars of golden-white light shot up from the ground to mark the edges.

  Virgil had learned his lesson. Demons were not to be trusted.

  He had known that from the beginning. Everyone knew that. Only, he’d been so caught up in grief and rage and the certainty that a demon could not lie, that he’d allowed Cyrian to convince him that a few quick deaths would be enough to change the world.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  How powerfully naive that was. No one person was ever so important that their death would have such an impact.

  He’d not make the same mistake again. Somewhere in these books was the secret to keeping demons out of Grimora. He’d already cobbled together the angelic runes which made up Cyrian’s current prison. It wasn’t much — just enough to hold one demon, and it had to be regularly refreshed — but it was enough to tell Virgil that he was on the right track.

  The System had even offered him a skill based on the haphazard spell.

  Demon Trap

  A nifty trap to catch a demon! All you gotta do is lure them into place and convince them to stay still long enough for you to draw out all those tricky runes.

  He didn’t take it, although the temptation was there. In theory he could level up, spend all his skill points towards the Demon Trap skill, and the System would do all the work for him. A few upgrades down the road, he might even be able to trap a hundred demons.

  That wasn’t what he wanted. The more he fought against the demons, the more he found himself fighting against the System. Taking the skill wouldn’t help him understand the runes. In return for the illusion of progress, he would sacrifice true understanding.

  That trade wasn’t worth it. It might be more work this way, but he was going to do it.

  No matter how long it took.