The air outside Lazeth’s chapel felt heavier, as if the stone itself was holding its breath. Magnavex led the way in silence, her hooves clicking softly against the polished floor. We stopped before a small door, unadorned, yet cut so perfectly it looked like a slab of mountain had been coaxed into the shape of an entrance. Its surface was cool and seamless.
It was flanked by two statues, these grotesque beasts frozen mid-prowl. They stood hunched, all rippling muscle and rough-carved menace, with clawed hands large enough to crush my skull and jaws stretched wide in eternal roars. Horns curled from their heads like jagged branches, and spiked ridges lined their backs all the way to their thick, curling tails.
Their mouths were crammed with too many teeth.
demons I now know, the others from the corridor must have been too.
but these were somehow less unnerving, these don’t feel like they are watching me the way the other did.
Magnavex smiled “This was our previous Demonlord Colbran’s favorite place. Well… except for the arena.”
My shoulders hunched, breath shallow. My weight shifted to the balls of my feet without thinking ready to spring back or forward, I couldn’t tell which. My fingers curled, nails biting into my palms. Even now, with the squid behind me and the corridors cleared of tentacled threats, my eyes kept drifting back to her horns… her tail… the unnatural gleam of her red skin.
She’s a demon.
A predator in polite clothing.
She hadn’t hurt me. Not yet.
But that was probably because she thought I was someone else.
They kept calling me Lord. Kept treating me like I mattered. Like I was… him.
Cole.
The one they meant to resurrect.
So, I’d have to play the part. At least until I figured out how to survive this. Until I found a way out.
I straightened my back slightly. lifted my chin.
If they believed I was the Demonlord…
Then I’d have to act like one.
Even if I was faking every breath.
Magnavex stepped forward and gripped the handle.
Despite my earlier bravado, I stepped back instinctively, muscles tight, ready to bolt if anything lunged. What kind of place would a Demon Lord enjoy? I imagined a dark room where the air trembled with screaming, shapes writhing in the corners, and voices laughing low and cruel.
She opened the door.
I stepped in slowly; breath caught in my throat.
And… all my fear evaporated.
A library. Punctuate this somehow.
Not just a room with books. Not a study, not a shelf, not a priest’s dusty journal hidden in a drawer.
A real library.
I’d never seen one before.
Only heard of them in stories, stitched together from other people’s memories. I used to imagine a room maybe two lined from wall to ceiling with rows of books.
But this.
Shelves climbed far beyond where the ceiling should have been, fading into shadow as if the sky itself had swallowed them. Dozens of stories high. Books lined every inch.
Every inch.
Some old and cracked, others new and gleaming, leatherbound or traced with gold leaf, stitched in threads I couldn’t even name.
Besides my forest, this was probably the most beautiful place I had ever seen.
Books.
I forgot about Magnavex entirely. Forgot about demons and tentacles and Demonlords.
Endless books.
My fingers itched to reach for them, to pull one down, to start reading and never stop. To vanish into this place and never come back out.
I whispered without thinking, “I didn’t think anything like this existed.”
I darted forward, my footsteps light against the stone floor. I couldn’t help it. I ran past row after row of towering shelves, head tilted back, trying to see where the books ended, if they ever did. My fingers itched with the urge to touch every spine, to pull one out just to see what secrets it held.
I slowed near a branching hallway, still staring up, still grinning, when I realized Magnavex was standing right behind me.
“Come along, my Lord,” she said, her voice smooth and oddly pleasant. “I have just the spot in mind.”
Magnavex’s footsteps echoed softly, steady and assured. She moved like a shadow, her posture unbothered by the looming weight of the room. Not even the library’s vastness seemed to touch her.
I trailed behind, keeping my distance. How could I have been so foolish, running off alone? What if I’d stumbled into another demon, one that wanted to eat me?
Magnavex glanced back, catching the drag in my steps, and shook her head with a faint smile. “Colbran reacted the same way.” She turned forward again, guiding me into a narrower aisle where the air smelled of wax, ink, and old wood.
Colbran she said his name earlier I think, He must have been from this Earth, like Cole was, like I was supposed to be.
I kept looking in every direction down every row, but I couldn't see anyone else.
Nobody that I was told frequented libraries. No scribes. No scholars. No staff. Just us.
I edged a little closer to Magnavex. I didn’t trust her, but if she was going to eat me, she would have done it by now, probably.
We reached a fork in the path. To the left stood a small cluster of tables, grand and ornate, perched beneath an arched skylight of black glass. They looked like they belonged in a castle room, chairs with sweeping backs, gilded in metal, and desks carved with sigils I didn’t recognize.
To the right, further away, I spotted a plainer desk tucked against the wall, boxed in by ordinary shelves. From there, nothing could approach without coming straight down the aisle toward me.
“I would like to sit over there,” I said quickly, pointing toward the simpler desk.
Magnavex’s steps slowed. “Are you sure, my Lord? There are desks more suitable for you standing over there,” she said, gesturing toward the grand seating area.
“Yes. I’m sure,” I said, a little too fast.
She inclined her head. I felt a sense of disappointment come from her, as if I had made the wrong choice.
Without protest, she led me to the smaller table. It was a sturdy, polished thing, broad and square, with faint etchings running across the surface. The markings shimmered subtly, like they were resisting being read, shifting if I looked too long.
“Take a seat,” she urged, her voice soft. “I will arrange for something suitable for you to read.”
I sat down slowly.
She extended one hand and held a book in the other, one I hadn’t seen her pick up.
Then she stilled. Her expression sharpened focused.
Light rose from the floor around her feet, casting shifting hues across her form, soft reds, deep violets, faint golds. The glow framed her from below, turning the space around her into something quiet
A breeze followed, lifting the fabric around her legs in slow, deliberate ripples. Her sweater vest didn’t move. Her black hair, coiled into a tight, bun, remained perfectly still.
Her face was lit from beneath, and for a moment, I found myself staring distracted by how beautiful she looked.
…For a demon, that is.
Right when I was shaking my head to push out the thoughts.
A soft red glow flickered at her feet then burst outward like a ripple across still water.
Two perfect circles bloomed beneath her, one larger than the other with her at its center, the smaller circle grew to encompass the table and a few feet away, the other much wider, encircling her at a distance. As it spread, the edges left my view as the rows of books blocked my sight.
The space between them shimmered, a thin, glowing band alive with movement. Symbols appeared between the two circles. They twisted slowly in place, caught in the narrow ring of energy.
Runes I couldn’t read. Curved, sharp, some bending into themselves.
They moved, not spinning, but adjusting, like the magic was still thinking.
Then they pulsed.
Once.
And held.
It wasn’t loud. But it felt loud.
A ripple echoed through the floor.
From within the outer circle, shapes began to rise, not stepping forward so much as pulling themselves up from the floor. The surface shimmered like black water, rippling without a sound. Thin, pale figures climbed through, their limbs moving with eerie precision. Shadows clung to them like liquid, streaming down their bodies before hardening beneath their feet, fusing into the floor as they stood. One fixed its large violet eyes on me, blinking slowly beneath a high, hairless brow. It looked like it had never known sunlight… and now it was walking toward me.