text: He's strong, he's clever, and you taught him. He'll be fine. You'll see him again soon.
  
  You look over at the pile of demonology tomes and know what you'll probably need to do, but before you step one foot in hell, you're going to see what the hell the dero are up to.
  
  And you're going in with a force this time. You call for Gikil and Drunni.
  
  "So we're wiping out the rock eaters?" Gikil asks.
  "Not necessarily, but the possibility exists. I want you to gather the best warriors and because we're going in heavy." You say.
  "Never saw the point of being allies with the filthy grubs in the first place." Drunni remarks.
  "Their help kept YOU off the front lines didn't it Drunni?"
  
  Drunni scowls but says nothing more. You ask Gikil about dero personnel elsewhere, but he mentions that there's none of consequence. Battles with the undead have taken their toll and most platoons that remain are tied up at strategic outposts where the undead is the worst. He goes on to say they wouldn't even know if you wiped out the entire dero settlement before it was too late.
  
  "Did you want to wipe out the dero on the surface?" Gikil asks.
  "No, if it is as you say, we can do that later if need be. As I said, it might not be necessary but what is definitely going to change is our previous agreement. Prepare the invasion force."
  
  Takes only a couple days for Gikil to assemble a suitable and sizable force. It is fortunate that you still have enough people to redirect from the undead problem.
  
  As for you, you spent most of those two days meditating and focusing your mind so you can cast magic if you need to down in the dero lair. Your thoughts of Francis are hard to block out completely, which is ironic considering your mental link with him is gone.
  
  You really hope he's all right.
  
  Of course he is. You can't afford to worry about him right now, you have more pressing matters, and such distraction is beneath you anyway.
  
  You immediately set off with your force to the dero community fully prepared to destroy their supposedly superior gates off their smug little hinges, but surprisingly when you get down there, the gates are open, with a few dero standing around near them.
  
  When they catch sight of you, one of them shouts something in their awful language to those on the other side of the gate and soon you see Marzost walk out to meet you
  
  "Ah, you're finally here and with a good number of your people too, good. Might need them. Come on in." Marzost says.
  "Wait, you're letting us in?" you ask.
  "Well yeah. I mean much like the first time we met, I KNEW we'd eventually meet and make a deal with each other. I also knew that deal probably would be renegotiated at some point which might involve you...well doing what you're doing now. Coming in heavy. I assure you though, not necessary. The time to let you fully into our community is at hand."
  
  You give Marzost a suspicious look.
  
  "You seem a little too eager for us to enter." You say.
  "Hm, well if that seems like the case, well that's because quite honestly, we don't have anymore choice. We need your help and not just for breeding purposes, we need YOUR help specifically."
  
  You step back, slightly concerned on what he might be implying.
  
  "Marzost, if you believe I'm personally going to become some dero brood sow, you are sadly mistaken." You say.
  "No, not that! I mean I'm to understand that you are the most skilled in the ways of magic of your people, which is fairly potent correct? Well, for our plan to work, we need your magic skills." Marzost replies.
  "What plan?"
  "The plan to leave this doomed world."
  "Leave?"
  "As I said, I can explain everything if you come inside where I can show you what I'm talking about and if you're concerned about an ambush, don't be, we're in no position to do so."
  
  Marzost turns around waving his hand for you to follow, you tell your people to do so, but to keep on guard.
  
  Passing through the gates and the outpost, you notice significantly less dero manning it. You know they haven't all been going to the surface either, so you're starting to wonder what's going on.
  
  When you get through the outpost completely, the strong scent of burning flesh is in the air along with multiple fires. Looks like the dero have been having to deal with their own undead problem.
  
  You look to your left and see a large circular stone archway. Or it would be a circular archway if the top portion of it wasn't broken off and lying on the ground not far in front of it.
  
  You haven't seen many of them for centuries, but it's a transporting gate. Explains how the dero got here like they did in the first place. Probably goes to a much larger area with them, but won't be teleporting anything in that condition though.
  
  "Can't get any reinforces anymore eh?" you say walking along side Marzost.
  "Wasn't getting any to begin with. As I said, most of our kind is content on committing mass suicide. Still, we had dealings with them for resources and to leave things open in case others changed their minds." Marzost says.
  "So what happened?"
  
  Marzost points to one of the burning piles.
  
  "You're looking at what happened. Undead started suddenly coming through the arch. Hordes of them. Before we destroyed the archway, we even went through to the other side to see if anyone was left alive. There were, but the dero civilization such as it was is completely in chaos. Any stable pockets are a lost cause. The insane fools are prepping themselves, saying it's time and dero all over are going to make this last march to the surface to die."
  
  Ahead you see a small settlement made up of stone buildings. You see a few armored figures moving in and out of the buildings. Marzost points to the settlement.
  
  "This place you see? THIS is the last example of dero civilization on this world."
  
  Marzost then points to another smaller stone archway with several metal machine near it to the far right of the large cavern.
  
  "And THAT is where we going to restart our civilization. On a new one." Marzost says.
  "You're saying that leads to another world?" you ask.
  "Well, not exactly, but I'm convinced we have built it correctly according to ancient schematics. What's lacking is a proper power source."
  "Magic? I thought you rock eaters generally shunned it."
  "Not entirely, we do embed runes in items and structures as you know which do tap into a magic source. Just works differently than waving your hands around. Combined with our advances in technology and we can create wondrous things."
  "Hm, so wondrous that you need svelk help."
  "Yes, there's that svelk arrogance I was so looking forward to. I shall have to disappoint you in getting any enjoyment out of me humbling myself any more than I already am. The truth is, we are not getting any further with this project without your help, we need it if we're going to survive."
  "You keep saying that, but what about MY people? You claim this archway will take us off this world to a new one. Well how's that helping us? Are we all coming with you?"
  "Of course. I mean assuming you can gather all your people from the continent; you can take as many as you want."
  "I'm supposed to just instantly uproot everyone?"
  "You're their leader aren't you? Besides, weren't you lot mostly nomads for centuries? Shouldn't really be an issue right? This world is doomed. You know it is. All right thinking living beings know it is. Why stay and face certain death?"
  "That's not a certainty yet."
  "Isn't it? The dero rock isn't even keeping the undead out anymore. Necromantic magic is getting stronger everyday. Hell, I've had people feeling like their very life energy is getting sapped from them at times. Death is the only thing this world has to look forward to and I know you don't want to be around here for that to happen. You wouldn't be down here even entertaining my plan if you didn't think it had merit."
  
  Marzost is speaking some truth here, but once again you feel like he's holding something back like when you first made the original agreement. And you imagine what that was now is that he and his band of stunted outcasts were busily building this archway to leave the world all along. Probably would have left without telling you shit if they didn't need your help with it.
  
  The concept of travelling to a different world isn't a new one, but very few have actually been close to attempting it. Even the most powerful svelk mages of old generally ignored the idea as the government never wanted to put funding into staging an entire invasion of a brand new world, when they had to focus on keeping the empire they had on this one together. (Along with spending money on more immediate gratification for the nobles)
  
  There were tales of success, but again these are very old stories and they usually ended up very badly such as the mage in question never being seen again or going batshit crazier than a dero at best. (Might be why the dero are fine with the risks)
  
  While you've been spending a lot of time going over various magic tomes, you still haven't come across much about the subject, but then you haven't gone through the demonology related tomes either. With maybe one or two exceptions, whenever the rare svelk mage did further research into this type of magic, in nearly every case, infernal assistance was involved in some way.
  
  "We can go to the dero hall and talk about this in more detail." Marzost says.
  "I'm not going alone with you anywhere, now we can go over there away from the others if you want to speak a little more privately, but I want my army to be able to SEE me." You reply.
  "Very well Mistress."
  
  The pair of you walk a distance away from any large groups to a quieter section of the large cavern. You of course still have at least visual range of your own people.
  
  Marzost mentions that his people are still trying to collapse a few tunnels that the undead dug out leading straight into the community. He says nearly all the corpses they put down were svelk so he's assuming it was some old svelk burial ground.
  
  "Since I know you to be a woman whose practicality is only exceeded by her beauty, I'll get to the point. The stone archway we designed doesn't work because the natural magic crystals known as Trelite, we ONCE had to power such things are unavailable. " Marzost says.
  "What, like you can't get to them?" you ask.
  "Like there none in existence anymore. Last time a dero set eyes on one was during the time of the first collapse. Used them all up just trying to save our civilization and even that didn't go as planned, but enough about history, we tried other types of magic crystals, but the results have not been promising. The magic power just isn't there to open up a portal to a new world. At least not long enough to send through many people and even then the portal can't be controlled enough to attune it to some place livable."
  "So what is it that you want us or ME to do exactly?"
  "Well...and this isn't ideal...but the svelk have had dealings with infernals..."
  
  You shake your head and chuckle.
  
  "Hold on, don't dismiss this before I explain." Marzost says.
  "I'm not dismissing so much as I'm just laughing at how I was trying to avoid gaining infernal assistance against the undead and now this new option has presented itself and I'll still need to call upon fucking demons." You remark.
  "If we could trap a number of demons into some of these lesser crystals, say maybe fifty..."
  "Fucking fifty?"
  "...then we would certainly be able to have the power to open up a stable archway to a new world for us to escape to."
  "There's no guarantee that this will work and I'll be taking ALL the risk not just summoning one demon, but at least fifty of the fuckers and trying to imprison them. I'm going to have to pull soldiers away from fighting undead just to put down any demons that try to escape"
  "You can have completely assistance from us, if you do the rituals down here. Besides, it will be more efficient to do so."
  "The surrounding dero rock is going to make summoning even more difficult."
  "True...but I suppose you could do it in the cavern clearing outside the main gates. It's where the concentration is the weakest."
  "Maybe, but this plan of yours still seems to involve me doing all the heavy lifting and I'm still not quite convinced that we can't reverse the tide."
  "Mistress, with all due respect, you KNOW that this world IS dying. Nothing can stop that now. The only thing that can be done is to flee as soon as possible and start over. I know this is asking a lot and from you especially, but I also know you reputation to not just survive, but also to thrive against impossible odds is well deserved. I KNOW you can save us all!"
  
  Marzost's hand briefly touches your own as he leans in closer towards you.
  
  "That's two." You whisper to yourself.
  
  > proceed with your plan
  You've had enough of this lovesick fool's overfamiliarity with you especially when you have not given nor desired any from him. You can barely contain your disgust.
  
  While his plan has merit, you hardly see any reason to keep involving the dero in it. The gate has already been prepared, it just needs a power source which Marzost has already told you what is required. You're fairly certain you and even the likes of Drunni can figure out the rest.
  
  No, you'll go through with the original plan you had. You already have the undead to deal with, there's no reason to have another element that's been draining your resources for years (in the form of your females) Besides, they're a lot weaker now, you're within their walls and even the forces they do have are currently divided, some are on the surface, some are still fighting undead in tunnels. There's never been a better time to strike.
  
  You slowly move your hand away and address Marzost.
  
  "Yes, your plan has much merit Marzost. I suppose we can continue our alliance, but I need to go talk to my two advisors first. Let them know what's going on and smooth out their potential whining. You understand." You say.
  "Of course Mistress. I shall wait right here." Marzost says.
  
  You turn to walk back to your army, making a mental note of what to strike first and how much energy is going to be required to cast a protective barrier over your army. It's going to take a lot due to all the magic nullifying rock everywhere.
  
  Your thoughts are suddenly interrupted when portion of your head is blown off. You actually see out of your remaining eye that wasn't destroyed by the gunshot part of your brain splatter a short distance in front of you before you collapse to the ground.
  
  Marzost might have been a lovesick fool, but he wasn't stupid.
  
  You're "Mistress", you make important decisions all yourself, you don't need to smooth anything over or discuss anything with so-called advisors. Marzost knew that and correctly assumed you were going to order an attack. Your back was turned, there was never a better time to strike.
  
  The sounds of shouting are distant in your dying ears, and while there's a very good chance the svelk will win even without magic assistance, you won't be around to see the victory.
  
  You also don't get to see any peace in the afterlife either because where you go is not a pleasant place.