James was getting tired, while the Demon King seemed to be growing more energized with every spell. Though in all honesty, the Demon King’s energy was growing more and more unhinged.

  James recalled the status effect Virgil had gained right before everything changed.

  Insanity.

  What was that like? Did Virgil go insane because the System inflicted a status effect, or did he gain the status effect because he’d gone insane? It was terrifying to think someone could use a skill or something to cause insanity. What would it feel like to abruptly lose his mind?

  James danced away from another burst of hellfire. The damn flames targeted him, and he had to let them get just close enough before he dodged, or they’d only follow.

  It was too much, both physically and mentally. If he kept up the one-on-one battle, he was definitely going to lose.

  James glanced at Inara. She was leaping like a gymnast with her scythe, cutting down the demons like so much wheat.

  She was incredible. He could only see snapshots of her fight between the moments of his own, and everything he did see, he wanted to commit to memory. Like if he ever made it out of this alive, he would learn how to draw and build an anime around her.

  A goofy grin split his face. He could introduce Grimora to anime.

  James yanked his foot out of a Black Script lasso just before it could close around his ankle. Insanity wasn’t contagious, was it?!

  He flung a couple fireballs just to keep the Demon King on his toes, but James knew that if something was going to change, it had to start with him. They were too evenly matched otherwise, and he would lose.

  And if he lost, he died. No pressure.

  Bit by bit, James started to angle the fight. He dodged more to the left than the right, and when he attacked, he did it in a way that pushed his enemy in the same direction, so that inch by inch, he began to rejoin the party.

  As they got closer, though, James recognized Inara’s dilemma. She could hold her own against the demons, but they onslaught was never ending, and she was running out of stamina.

  James lobbed a fireball. The Demon King flinched away, which allowed the attack to burst against a magma demon.

  The magma aspect of the infernal creature, though, made it immune to the magical damage.

  James winced. Shoulda seen that coming. It was enough to make him wish for a Waterball spell, or…or bubblebeam, or something. He’d played enough Pokémon to know that water was the answer against a creature like that.

  He leaped over a lance of Hellfire like a child leaping over a jump rope. Only he didn’t go quite high enough, and the flames lanced across his toes midair.

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  Threads of black fire lanced up his veins. For an instant, James was transported to a time when, young and not entirely in control of his lanky body, he’d accidentally kicked a puppy. The poor thing had stumbled, bleary-eyed into his path, and James hadn’t noticed it until too late. The puppy had whimpered and looked at him with sad, pleading eyes as if to say — why? What did I do?

  Then James was jolted back to the present by a splash of water in his face; in his trance, he’d lost control of the Water Dance spell. Another lance of black fire sizzled beside his head, so James decided to be grateful, at least, that his unexpected swim had thrown off the Demon King’s aim as well.

  Which gave him an idea. The water could be used to protect, and if he could put Desiree in a safe place, it would free Inara for more of the fight.

  Water Dance lurched back into place, and James sprinted to the girls.

  “Inara, behind me!” he called out.

  Without hesitation, she whirled from the demons and set her sights on the Demon King.

  James’s heart swelled. Never in a million years would he have expected to command such loyalty. He was the luckiest man in the universe to receive it from her.

  “Protect Desiree!” she yelled as they passed each other. Her scythe gleamed with reflected light, and James could have sworn he heard a shink noise as she readied the blade.

  “On it!”

  Desiree was curled into a tight ball with her hands pressed tight against her face. James scooped her up before the demons could touch her and ran her back out to the water.

  “You’ve still got your ring, don’t you?” he asked quietly. Even without the System, he’d realized, magical items continued to work. He didn’t want to dunk her underwater if he could help it, but it would be good to have the option available.

  The girl nodded.

  “Okay, good. You probably won’t need it, I just want you to stay right here and don’t move, okay?”

  No response, but James didn’t have time to press for more. He reached for his skill. Water Dance resisted at first; the water wanted to play with him, to dance around, to harden and soften; so he turned this into a game. Like capture the flag — protect the girl.

  Something clicked into place, and James knew he didn’t have to worry. That, apparently, was what it felt like to cast a spell and know it worked.

  Still, he spent one last second eyeing the scene. Desiree was still curled up in her ball — peeking out a little, now — but she was kept steady on the surface of the water, twenty feet away from the shore. The magma demons were enraged at the escape of their quarry, but every time they so much as dipped a toe in the water, steam hissed up and eroded their skin.

  James allowed himself a satisfied smirk. That should do.

  “Alright,” he said, turning around, “let’s finish this.”

  James dove underwater.. Once he was close enough, he launched himself out of the water like a dolphin and landed in a crouch on land.

  Hellfire whipped out and slashed across his face.

  Pain lanced through his cheek, and with it came dozens of shameful memories, moments when he had said the wrong thing, or the hurtful thing, or the careless thing. Moments that had kept him awake years after their passing came rushing to the surface.

  Another blast of hellfire quickly followed. James, still in a daze, tried to twist away, but the bolt slammed merciless into his shoulder.

  He remembered swinging his fist against the wall in a fit of uncontrolled rage. He remembered forgetting to test a breaker and signing off on the paperwork anyway.

  Shame twisted in his gut and burned as hot as the black flames that stoked it.

  The Demon King approached, a sneer upon his face. “Pathetic. You never deserved the title of Hero.” Then insanity and jealousy twisted the man’s features into a demonic scowl. “If anyone does, it’s me!”

  The First Demon King lunged for James as if to wrench the Class from his soul.

  James yelped and stumbled back. But if he went too far, he would run straight into the waiting arms of the magma demons. There was nowhere to run.

  He hesitated too long. The Demon King’s claws were raking towards his neck as quickly as that truck had swerved towards him in the parking lot. James faced the familiar specter of death and found himself paralyzed.