text: [Themes: grimdark fantasy]
  
  There is no way in hell you're making any sort of deal with a fucking demon. As smart as you believe yourself to be, they are always one step ahead with some sort of trick. Especially if they're proposing the deal in the first place.
  
  And this Big Red seems particularly crafty, he's proposing something he knows is impossible so you'll eventually have to submit to him.
  
  You'd rather take your chances with the dero. At least you can warn Marzost about the situation and maybe you can come up with something.
  
  "Yeah, I don't think I'll be taking any sort of deal with you. I'll figure something out, I always do." You say.
  "I see. Well I am disappointed to not get first dibs on your soul. In any case I suppose I'll take my leave of you for now. Perhaps you'll be in a more accommodating mood at that time." Big Red replies.
  "Don't count on it."
  "I suppose we'll see. Oh I suppose I should tell you that imprisoning my fellow infernals will have to cease. The Infernal Realm takes a dim view of mortals chaining its citizens up like slaves."
  "You're joking. Don't you lot enslave each other all the fucking time?"
  "And that's just it, YOU my dear are NOT an infernal. To be enslaved by a mortal is so undignified, especially when you aren't even giving them a sporting chance to get out of it. You're just intending them to use them as an energy source. No, I'm afraid your actions must stop as of right now...unless..."
  "Unless what? I give you my soul?"
  "Well that would be nice, but I already know your answer to that. What I was going to suggest is an act of goodwill on your part. You see, I know a few of those infernals you currently have locked up in those crystals. I'd like to take them back with me."
  "Oh. Okay...well the crystals are over in that chest over there. Check through them to find your friends I guess."
  "I didn't say they were my friends. Just said I knew them. Also there are so many crystals to search through, so I'll just be taking ALL of them. I assume that's fine with you as you can just capture more."
  
  Big Red looks at you, though now he seems a little more menacing with his stare. Something about it causes a slight shiver in your body. There's definitely more to him than meets your eyes. You feel like it's better to just let him have the crystals as his bribe.
  
  "Okay, they're yours." You say.
  "That's a good compliant girl." Big Red replies.
  
  Big Red walks over and grabs the chest full of crystals under one arm then walks over to you. You defensively move back, though he puts up a hand as if to imply he means you no harm.
  
  "Don't worry. I'm not going to attack you. Just going to say that I might be lingering around so if you change your mind just call."
  
  Big Red then closes his eyes and sniffs the air near you before addressing you again.
  "Hmmm...damn your soul is almost making me forget that I'm a gentleman. I shall take my leave." He says and then disappears before your eyes.
  
  While it's very difficult to make you feel uncomfortable, Big Red certainly managed to accomplish it. You're just glad he was one of those demons that seemed to like toying with his potential victims because you got the impression he would have been a tougher fight than he let on.
  
  You're also certain that not making any sort of deal with him was the correct choice. Unfortunately he set you back quite a bit. You'll have to not only get more crystals from the dero, but you'll have recapture demons all over again.
  
  At this point, you're probably going to have to do this demon summoning business in the dero lair. It'll be more taxing and generally unpleasant, but it should cut down on the potential for a demon like Big Red to manage to sneak in.
  
  Marzost will probably be happy to accommodate you so that aspect shouldn't be a problem. Hopefully he keeps his drooling to a minimum and doesn't try to touch you again though.
  
  In a few days you go to meet with the dero and speak with Marzost about the situation. He's of course disappointed to hear that you lost progress, but as predicted he's more than willing to let you proceed with doing the demon capturing with dero supervision.
  
  "Don't worry Mistress, I will have some of our best warriors to standby when you perform your work." Marzost says.
  "Glad to hear it, but I'll want to have some of my own people here as well."
  "Of course. I'm sure we'll get back on track fairly quickly. I would like to propose something though."
  "Oh? And before you do Marzost, I want you to think very carefully about if this proposal would involve something unseemly."
  "Heh, no nothing like that. I was merely going to suggest that you stay here rather than going back to your fortress."
  "So it IS something unseemly."
  "No, not at all. I know this is going to be more taxing on you, but we have even less time than we did before. You're going to need to take intervals to rest and then get back to it immediately. I just meant it would all go quicker if you stayed here. You obviously don't need to stay in the actual Dero settlement; you could stay in the svelk outpost above us."
  "Hm, something to consider I suppose. Since you're so full of ideas, I might as well ask your opinion on Big Red's statement that when we open this portal, we won't be able to close it and we'll just be prolonging the inevitable."
  "Oh that. Well, he's a demon, so I would guess he was just lying in order to try to get you to agree to sign a contract for your soul."
  "Yeah, that was my guess too, still though he could be telling the truth so is there something we can potentially do to prevent it?"
  "I mean you're the powerful sorceress, I would imagine if you wouldn't be able to do it, nothing we could do would help either."
  "Don't you lot have sort of weird technology or something that could do something? You lot are supposed to be great inventors and all."
  "Heh, well I suppose it couldn't hurt to try to look into something like that, but it's not like we've got a lot of the big brains here to research shit like that anymore or even the time. I can't promise we'll solve that potential issue before we open up the portal. I suppose that if this Big Red is telling the truth, we'll just have to resolve it later. At the very least, getting off this world will buy us more time."
  "True. One problem at a time I guess."
  "So what about the other thing I mentioned?"
  "What thing?"
  "You staying here."
  "Oh right. Your proposal."
  
  Marzost looks at you expectantly.
  
  > stay at your fortress
  As much of a pain in the ass it'll be to travel back and forth, you're reluctant to actually stay close to the dero, especially with Marzost around probably gawking at you the whole time.
  
  You need to stay on top of the day-to-day operation of things too, since you can't trust Gikil or especially Drunni to actually be competent enough.
  
  You turn down Marzost's proposal. He looks disappointed, but says that you should still keep it in mind.
  
  In the meantime, you're here now so you get started with the long process of summoning and capturing demons.
  
  Two months pass...
  
  You're exhausted.
  
  The process has been going a lot slower than you hoped. You've only managed to capture three of the damn things and summoned a lot more that had to be put down.
  
  One of the main problems besides the magic nullifying rocks all over the place making this process harder is apparently you're actively getting "pull back" from the other side. Several of the demons you've summoned have mentioned about how they all know what you've been doing and steps have been made to prevent it.
  
  While none have mentioned his name specifically, you can guess that Big Red has had something to do with all this.
  
  You're also wasting a lot of time with travel. Granted you've teleporting yourself makes it quicker, but it just drains you even more from your task. Not to mention you can't just teleport in and out of the dero community. The magic nullifying rocks prevent that, so you still partly have to travel the traditional way. By the time you're even there, you're already tired and when you're attempting to go home, you barely have the energy.
  
  The dero have been giving you shit. Well specifically the dero females. Almost anytime you stumble into one of those mini-shebeasts they are full of insults and disrespect. More than a few times, Marzost has had to step in to prevent something more violent from happening.
  
  The only bright spot is that your own people have been behaving themselves for the most part. Undead are of course always a problem and the continent turning more to shit, but order has at least been maintained.
  
  Unfortunately that doesn't ensure complete safety, especially when you're running yourself ragged.
  
  One night after a long grueling day of summoning, you're making your way back to your fortress. You don't have the standard escort with you since a particularly vicious demon that ran amok killed them all. Even the dero struggled to bring it down and you were mildly wounded in the struggle.
  
  Marzost insisted that you stay if only long enough to get some rest and heal up, but you were in such a foul mood that you immediately snapped at him and left without even gathering up other svelk at the outpost to accompany you.
  
  As you travel alone angry, tired and wounded, you mind doesn't focus on your surroundings like it should and you soon find yourself ambushed by a group of wraiths roaming around. Reports of more powerful undead becoming more frequent wasn't unknown, but tonight was definitely not the night you wanted to stumble on them.
  
  Under normal circumstances you probably could have handled the group by yourself. Or even if you were in your present fatigued condition, if you had others with you, you probably could at least sacrifice them as a distraction while you got away.
  
  But there will be no such tactic this time.
  
  You do fairly well against the horrors, but all it takes is one to sneak up and lay those ghostly hands upon you and you instantly feel your life drain. If you felt weak before, you really feel that way as you see your hands age before your eyes and it doesn't take long before another wraith is on you and you soon become a withered corpse with everything drained out of it.
  
  If you could, you'd go back in time and kick your own ass.
  
  Wasn't so much the how you died that was undignified, but why you did because of your own bad planning.
  
  Of course the how or even the why you died doesn't matter at all anymore because you're dead. And the afterlife you went to was even more unforgiving of your poor life choices.