Virgil clutched at his head. The Whispers of the Malphas surged, so the voices spoke more intensely and less intelligibly than ever.

  James rushed to his side.

  “Stay away from him!” Inara warned.

  “Virgil, what’s happening? What can I do?” He tried to activate Vital Pulse, but it had no effect. Whatever was happening, it had nothing to do with the scholar’s health pool.

  “Nothing!” Virgil groaned. “There’s nothing you can do, nothing anyone can do. I remember — oh god, I remember everything.”

  “What is it?” James asked. “What happened to you?” He didn’t want to admit that he was shaken by what he’d seen. The Virgil on the big screen had been ruthless in the pursuit of his goal. He’d wanted to save the world, but the weight of that responsibility and the loneliness of the effort had turned him into a madman.

  A genius, but a mad one nonetheless.

  Party Member Virgil has gained the Insanity debuff!

  “You wouldn’t understand,” Virgil moaned. “You’re just like the others, you’ll call me crazy.”

  “I won’t,” James promised, and he meant it. More than anything else, he just wanted his friend to be okay. Was there a skill that could undo Insanity? Not in his list, but— “Desiree, can you learn anything that can cure insanity?”

  “What? No, I don’t think so!”

  “Well, check!”

  James pulled Virgil into a tight hug. “It’s gonna be okay, man, just tell me what happened. Did you create the summoning circles? Is that how the Demon King’s got started?”

  Virgil shook his head against James’s shoulder. “It’s so much bigger than that, James. The summoning circles don’t strengthen the Demon King, they limit him. If Demons can only be summoned through the circles, and if the circles are interconnected, only one summoning can take place at a time. If you destroy the circles, you take away that limitation and they can come through anywhere, anytime.”

  “Then why did the previous Hero think he needed to destroy the circles?”

  “I dunno James, because he was fucking wrong?!” Virgil pulled away, and there was such furious disdain in his eyes that James recoiled. Rage shifted to embarrassment, then apology, then back again. The scholar’s mind was turning on itself. He didn’t know what he was feeling anymore. He didn’t know what was real anymore.

  “The point is,” Virgil said through gritted teeth, “the circles aren’t the problem, it’s the System. The entire System is corrupt, and as long as it exists in this world, it will be far too easy for demons to pass through.”

  Desiree looked like she wanted to disagree, but James silenced her with a glance.

  “So how do we dismantle the System?”

  Virgil looked at the Hero with such pure hope that James’s heart broke. “You’d help me?”

  James smiled. “Sure, man. We’re friends. I trust you.”

  The scholar’s eyes welled with tears. “You shouldn’t. I’ve done— terrible things.” Black lines flared to life beneath his skin. Hellfire burned in his veins.

  James clasped Virgil’s hand between his. “I know. I saw it. It’s okay.”

  But Virgil only shook his head. His voice deepened, like his throat was filling up with gravel. “That was only the beginning. I never did discover how to break the System. It took years just to establish the circles, and by then, the whole world turned against me.”

  He screamed again. His head began to rattle and bulge. Horns broke through the skin, black and bloody, and twisted together to form an evil crown.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “All they ever saw were the people I killed,” Virgil cried out, his voice raw and anguished. “But how many do you think I saved? How many deaths didn’t happen because I forced the demons to funnel through specific doorways?”

  Despair turned to anger, and Virgil’s body continued to morph. Hellfire blazed from the corners of his eyes like wicked eyeliner — very cool under any other circumstance and intensely alarming in this one.

  “Well, you know what?” The creature that used to be Virgil spat. “Fuck them. And fuck you.”

  Virgil has left the party.

  Thick black letters came into being above Virgil’s head: The First Demon King.

  “Whoaaa, awesome!”

  Inara scoffed. “I knew we should have killed him.”

  James ignored them. He had to ignore them, because if he thought too hard about their callousness, he wouldn’t be able to look at them the same.

  Your party has entered combat!

  Enemy turn!

  Virgil twisted his wrists. “Summon and Bind: Infernal Pact.”

  A black hole opened up in front of Virgil— no, James had to stop thinking of him as Virgil. The return of his memories had come with so much more.

  He would grieve him later, but for now James did not fight his friend, the scholar, Virgil. He fought instead The First Demon King, which the dungeon had twisted him into.

  Out of that black hole stretched a gnarled, clawed hand. Magma flowed through the cracks of its skin, and runes flashed across the creature’s chest.

  With some surprise, James recognized those runes. He couldn’t identify them individually, but the shape of them was similar to the Black Script spell Virgil had used against the Librarian.

  The demon clawed its way out of the pit, but fortunately for all of them, it did not have time to attack.

  Your turn!

  James tossed his axe in his hand like a pitcher winding up.

  “Battle Axe!” He swung the Bloodhound Axe with all his strength, and the blade dug deep into the demon’s flesh. The metal glowed black with infernal energy, and bloodlust coursed down the handle and into James’s arm.

  The demon shrieked in pain. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard. James winced.

  HP -2!

  Now that was bullshit. It wasn’t much, but anything that allowed you to do something on an enemy turn was worthwhile.

  Even worse, flinching from the noise caused James to lose his rhythm, and the next swing of his axe went wide. The energy of the skill dissipated.

  Desiree’s turn!

  Desiree’s staff glowed with golden light, and then a beam of holy energy shot from the staff to the demon’s chest.

  The creature shrieked, and James could see it chipping away at Desiree’s health, but the girl held strong and the laser stayed on target, knocking the demon’s health down to the last few points.

  Inara’s turn!

  Inara saw her chance and took it. She ran at the demon as quickly as she could, grateful that for once, they were fighting a boss in a small area. She was able to get in with her scythe, swipe it across the demon’s middle, and duck back to safety behind James.

  Critical hit!

  Defeated Summoned Demon lvl 21! EXP +6,000!

  The demon dissolved into ash, but Virgil wasn’t bothered. If anything, he looked amused.

  “This is the great Hero that Grimora has to offer?” The First Demon King scoffed. “Pathetic. I’ve come to realize how insidious the System is. It’s bad enough that its existence weakens the veil between our realm and others. What’s truly unforgivable is how reliant people become on it as a crutch. Nobody learns magic the way they were meant to, anymore! Where is the artistry, the craft, the study? Before the System, you had to love magic in order to use it.”

  James eyed the Demon King warily. His turn was almost over. Was he really wasting it just so he could get on a soapbox?

  The Demon King snarled. “Back to the Basics.”

  AoE skill Back to the Basics has been triggered! For the next 30 minutes, all System assistance will be disabled.

  James barely had enough time to read the notification before it fizzled out of existence. Along with it went the battle haze, and James was able to move freely even though it wasn’t his turn.

  In fact… Whose turn was it? The First Demon King’s health bar and name disappeared, as did the health bars of James’s party members. When he tried to pull up his status sheet, nothing happened.

  And suddenly the axe, which had been so comfortable in his hands just moments ago, was heavy as Mjolnir in his grip. James dropped the weapon and danced away so it wouldn’t land on his toes.

  “What the—?”

  “What’s happening?” Desiree yelped.

  The Demon King laughed a deep, gloating laugh. “Let’s see how well you do without the System propping you up. As for me, I know my spells inside and out. If anything, skills limited what I can do.” His fingers traced spells in the air, and he began to chant in a language that burned his throat. Smoke trailed from his lips; it must have hurt, but he didn’t show any hint of pain.

  Two more pitch black holes opened up in the ground. They almost looked like they opened up into outer space, if there were no stars or planets or any signs of life. One clawed hand appeared after another, and two more demons joined the fight.

  “Sanctified Bolt! Sanctified Bolt!” Desiree shouted the name of her skill, but nothing happened. She let out a choked gasp as it finally sank in.

  They had no skills.

  They had no stats.

  They had no System.