Chapter 91 – Industrialization

Once he accepted the ring expansion prompt, Kairon’s attention would need to be laser focused on the ritual and Hush.

So he took a few precious seconds to go over his plans for after all of that. For the sigil.

Each ring came with a pacted demon for his city. Thus far, that had given him Vorathrex and Sythara. They were invaluable allies.

For the second ring, he’d had a choice between a void demon, a brood demon, and a mixed brood and void demon—which seemed to stem from the 50 percent split on void and brood.

If he chose three different rings today, he could expect at least one demon from each, and perhaps some mixed to follow.

That was good.

But Kairon wasn’t ready to settle for good. He needed to exploit The Plane for all it was worth. To milk these demonic powers for as much as he could.

Flipping his claw upside down, he reviewed the page he’d saved from the demonic regulatory compendium. He was pretty sure he’d found a bit of a loophole where his sigil was concerned.

Kairon wanted to employ it on the aspected power readout. Turn 33% of one aspect into 133%. A number that if it worked how he theorized could only be matched by a very specific handful of individuals.

Glaring at the compendium, he knew exactly who those ought to be.

And when he considered footnote 2A on the page before him…

‘Pact draft pools for ring expansion rituals are a dynamic and growing selection. Criteria are discarded for expanded selection in descending order’

If this was going to work how he hoped, it relied heavily on the dynamic aspect of the draft pool.

Satisfied, he nodded to himself.

“Alright. I’m ready.” Facing his allies, Kairon slid the parchment into his cape and chose to begin the ritual to create the third ring of his city.

As soon as he selected it, there was a soft, gentle tremor. It felt like something was shyly reaching up from beneath the ground, feeling at the city foundation. Seemingly finding what it was searching for, the trembling stopped.

CREAK.

The entire city shuddered as what felt like thunder rumbled beneath it. Glowing, violent lines of demonic text took hold, stretching out in an enormous circle beyond the second ring of buildings. Sulfur and iron scented steam hissed, and the power of the plane took hold.

Just like that, the enormous stash of wealth that Kairon had accumulated—the results of weeks of scheming, plotting, planning, and blood—began to be carried out by the claws of the brood.

Meanwhile, Hush pointed forwards. “Remember… Feel the plane… Feel the air… Feel the emotion…”

To his utter delight, despite having the sigil floating in his head, Kairon still felt that connection. It did feel weighted and a bit more dull, but it was there, pulsing in his mindspace. The only theory as to why it worked now and not before that he could deduce was that he established a connection with the source power and his domain.

Or maybe something within himself was changing. Becoming more… demonic.

Putting all of that out of his mind for now, the city lord slowly breathed in, then out, placing the entirety of his focus back on the ritual itself.

Breathe in, then out. “I’m trying. I’ve done this before. It’s just… I’ve added a bit of weight this time around.”

Something Kairon had noticed in these last weeks without the sigil in his mind was that the larger the ritual, the more powerful the connection seemed to become. And of all the rituals he’d done so far, a ten thousand gold third ring expansion was on an entirely different level.

But this time, he wasn’t going to absorb some dark star and let it draw him into another flesh eating bargain. This time, he had his own wager in the game.

Over the last several days, as Kairon spent time with Hush, he started experimenting with source energy. A trick he’d found was that the golden power could be used for more than a simple shield against the whispers and emotions of the plane.

Calling back to his training over the last week, he pulled upon the power of source. He focused it intently in one place.

His eyes.

Kairon’s vision shifted. From color, to nothing, to gold. Everything took on a tinted, glowing hue.

“Okay. I’m doing it, Hush. I’m doing it!” In their practice, he hadn’t yet tried this on a ritual. Instead, he’d stuck to just watching as Hush called upon minor callings from the plane. Wrath upon a pebble or hunger upon a beetle.

Small things.

This would serve as the first large application of his theory in real observation. In retrospect, Kairon did contemplate for a moment if he should have tried this on a smaller ritual first.

But then again, what fun was that?

With his source powered vision, it was like the world opened up before him. He could see what he previously could not.

The cacophony of pure emotion called upon by the ritual before him reeked of so many feelings. It wasn’t of any singular one—hunger, rage, violence, or any other—but rather, of all of them. Every single one, mixed into some kind of articulately crafted concoction of demonic power.

It was just like the callings, only much, much larger in scale.

I… I get it now.

At its core of power, the plane wasn’t doing magic—at least not in the typical understanding of such. It wasn’t using some kind of runic language of power. The symbols themselves had no magic to them. They were a language. A language that when viewed like this looked less and less like words and more like… a recipe or a mixture.

“I see it, Hush! I see it! I wasn’t sure just watching you, but now seeing this, I finally see it! It’s all just a fancy mixture! A potion! A recipe…” Kairon’s mind reeled. It was all so obvious, yet… He’d just always assumed the symbols themselves were the key. That they had some hidden meaning. But the more time he’d spent with Hush, watching as he’d done his callings, the more he found that not to be true.

When you really, really felt for it, even the callings weren’t pure. Wrath didn’t just call upon rage. It called upon all the aspects. Each had their own role.

The more he watched the powers and emotions before him, in a way that only his glowing golden eyes could visualize, the more sure of that theory he became.

Rituals did the same thing on a much bigger playing board.

“The possibilities if I can learn to harness this…”

What Kairon was seeing was a lot. It was like trying to go from letters to entire books, skipping the things that made them like words, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. But the theory was there. It was right there.

All he needed to do was increase his comprehension, and turn theory into practice.

“Bark! Get me bark!”

With the brood busy, it fell to Hush and a few of the void imps to serve as his assistants. They hurriedly ran off, before making it back moments later with several of the flattened bark pieces they kept handy.

“Master…” One of the void imps was tugging at his cape. “Tower shaking…”

“Yes, yes. That’s part of the process.” Kairon spoke the words absently, doing his best to maintain focus.

“But. Master. Look!”

Whatever the little void imp was trying to point out, it could wait a few minutes. He needed to write this down while it was fresh.

Part in haze, and part in focus, Kairon began scrawling notes and symbols. “That part of the ritual is what I’d estimate maybe two thirds forge, with the rest split unevenly with brood, void, and pact. More brood… some void… and just a dab of pact. And there. Right there. Yes, yes I see…”

Time was slipping away, and Kairon meant to make use of every moment. He wasn’t spending body parts for this ritual. He was just spending seconds.

Scribbling as fast as he could, he notated every change he noticed. When stone shifted, or steam erupted, or symbols were written, glowed or erased. When he felt a presence, and when he didn’t.

Cause and effect. Variable and outcome.

He tried to take everything to those two components, and then feel at what the plane was using.

A tiny giggle escaped his lips. “Thank you, my demonic friend. You’ve unknowingly given me a front row seat to the secrets of your most fascinating source of power.”

Before Kairon knew it, it came to an end. Half a dozen pieces of bark littered the ground around him, each scrawled with notes. Each showing piece after piece of observation.

It made it quite clear that all of the ingredients of the plane’s recipes for rituals and its power came down to the variable aspects at play. Based on what he’d just witnessed, Kairon deduced that it was something like this:

Forge for creation. Pact for agreement and information. Void for unraveling the realm. Wrath for power or destruction. And brood for consumption and fuel.

Which left Universal. Once again, it seemed to be something The Plane entirely ignored—or maybe, couldn’t use…

He bent down, stacking the notated bark sheets neatly next to him. Straightening, he noticed that his little show had gathered quite the amount of attention.

Sythara, Bean, and Vorathrex were all staring at him.

“So… are you gonna tell us what that was about?” Bean smirked, putting his claws on his hips. “You looked pretty excited, master!”

“Yes,” commented Vorathrex. His expression wasn’t one of worry, but contemplation. “Fledgling, I find myself curious about what. Would you share?”

Sythara glanced at Vorathrex in surprise. “You? Curious?” Shaking her head, she went on. “Mmm… I think the child was trying to decipher the ritual.”

“Something like that.” Kairon waved dismissively. While he wanted to encourage Vorathrex’s growth in that train of thought, now wasn’t the time. “We’ll speak of it later.”

Vorathrex didn’t look satisfied, but Sythara again spoke up first. “Whatever it was, it’d better not disrupt our plans, child. The tier two brand has made progress. There is much I do not understand. Like I’m just grasping the surface of it all. But I think we might just scrape out a communion from this gambit of yours.” Sythara flicked her tentacles at him.

“Not to worry—this will not impede your work. As for the communion, that is more than adequate! Completion itself is all we need. Just get the thing finished, even if barely. From there, my alteration can handle the comprehension gap.”

“Master! Tower!” said Shiny. He and several of the brood imps had joined them mid-conversation. They too had become quite insistent about the tower, which really was odd.

“Yes, yes. I understand. It was shaking.” The city lord patted Shiny on the head.

“No it… Wait.” A new thought seemed to distract Shiny from the tower. “Time to choose? Time to choose… New ring?”

“Indeed, it is.”

“Choose brood! Must grow, master.”

“I know, I know. But we discussed this. I already told you that we would not be making another brood ring. Not yet. Which is exactly why I promised the tier two brand Sythara’s working on will be a brood one. Remember?”

Kairon could tell from the furrow of the imp’s brow that he did indeed recall their chat. It was just last night, after all. But he seemed quite… distressed. Kneeling down, Kairon put his lips to Shiny’s ear. “Something just occurred to me. If I were running, oh I don’t know, some kind of… sustenance based operation. I might worry less about growing my base of employees—you have plenty after all with more to follow each day—and more about growing my market. And I have to tell you, Shiny, customers will always pay more than an employee for your goods.”

Shiny thought about that. “Brood is one, master. So all brood employee… Of mine?”

“I mean they’re really my employees, but as middle management, they’re sort of your employees too.”

He could tell by the glint in the little imp’s pupils he was recalling some kind of memory. Likely something that went on in the brood rookery Kairon wasn’t privy to. Something rather… broodful.

“Which mean…” Shiny spun around, staring at the freshly carved ring. “Oh… Yes… Yes I see. Master, I understand. Make new. More more. Lots more. Not brood! But pact! Forge! Void! Oh! Even wrath! Charge them most! Hah! Haha!” Snickering to himself, Shiny shook his head. “Yes… Price increase. I think we do that. Oh… And master? New imp mean… New wants. New desires… New products.”

Patting the little guy on the head, Kairon smiled. “Remind me to have a sit down with you soon. I think there might be a partnership we can form.”

Shiny’s eyes widened. “Oh? Just let know! Anytime!”

“But for now, it’s time for me to see to one last little detail.” Kairon turned his attention to the waiting third ring choice. He’d mostly made his decision on the matter already.

The first district would be of Forge. Since the first day, problem after problem could have been solved with tools. His warriors had been fighting with claw, ichor, and salvage. His city had been operating on only what The Plane allowed. No safety grating, no true furniture, no carts for transportation. All problems that a forge district could fix.

Like the ichor, it was a force multiplier. Unlike the ichor, it was also a city multiplier. Every facet could be touched by it now that his city was on its feet.

Besides, he was terribly interested in what could be done with those gemstones in the crater and whatever else was beneath his city. Something a forge district would be best for.

All in all, forge was going to be the most influential of the new districts in his city.

Next, Kairon decided the second district would be Pact. From the knowledge he’d gained on that first day, Pact seemed to be a combination of diplomacy and intelligence gathering—which included demonic bargains and pacts, of course. Contracts and the like.

Kairon had resisted the urge to sink his claws into his namesake of contracts long enough. Yet, he also wanted a Pact district because as more and more pieces joined the board of this world, the city desperately needed an intelligence network. With more information, he could do far, far more to influence this world. Besides, with Boney on his first diplomatic mission, having Pact’s support for agreements could be invaluable.

Which left this third choice. After careful contemplation, he opted for Wrath. Wrath only had three building slots in the tiny first ring, and far more battle was on the horizon in their future. Facing it with just three Wrath building slots was an enormous limitation. Something this would fix.

And judging by the size of the rings this ritual had finished carving into the city, they were going to have a lot of new building area. Perhaps double per ring. Meaning 12 or so building slots each!

In conclusion, he hoped this combination for his third ring would give his city the tools it needed to succeed in the upcoming challenges in this realm. Many of which were undoubtedly going to require more blood to be spilled.

Looking inwards, Kairon confirmed the golden sigil was floating aimlessly. For what came next, he was going to weaponize it.

Satisfied, he grabbed his staff and strode out of the tower and into the citadel district.

“Huh. Did these stairs get longer?” he mused aloud. Not caring at the moment, he kept his attention ahead, walking forward as brisk as he could manage.

Behind him, the imps and demons were quite confused.

“Where going?” asked Shiny.

“Master!?” called Bean.

“Child?”

Not answering their questions, he kept walking. Past the citadel district, the wrath, and out onto the freshly branded scripture of the ritual.

Then, he let his frozen foot make direct contact with the ritual scripture itself. Best to be quick about this.

“Here goes.”

Kairon made his selections on the floating prompt awaiting him.

That, like last time, was a lot. More than a lot, really.

Kairon had three new building projects—of which the workshop and whispering tethers seemed of particular interest—that he was more than itching to try out.

Not to mention the whispering hall and smeltery.

However, time was moving and Kairon needed to act. After all, he had an exploit he was set on trying, and it was now or never.

Staring at the blinking notification, he willed his sigil to move.

With a slurp, it slid from within him, spilling onto the ritual and splashing over the menu.

As planned, he changed the single line of text in regards to the ring district density. Specifically, the percentage of forge. The district he felt his city needed the most. To enter a new age. And what better way than for an exploit of demonic forgery to do so?

Hurriedly, Kairon selected “Y”.

The golden sigil solidified, hardening into the menu text itself.

It worked! Thirty-three percent forge had become one hundred thirty-three percent.

Stepping back, Kairon hobbled back towards the tower as quickly as he could manage. In the corner of his vision, that same line of text remained.

As he walked, the city lord kept his head mostly down. It wasn’t until he reached the steps that he saw some oddities with the corner of his eye.

“Wait. Did the tower actually… Grow?”

A quick glance made it seem as if it did. There were several new, smaller towers on either side of the original citadel one. Great windows with a faint purple light were visible, with what appeared to be new rooms.

“Oh. So that’s what you were trying to tell me.”

Kairon wanted to explore just what had changed in the tower, when another notification hit his vision.

He rushed his way up the larger steps and into the tower’s entryway. Now that he came in from the outside, it became clear that even the inside had changed. The interior of the tower’s entryway had become grander, with arching stonework and newly embossed architecture.

Kairon admired the new changes as he made his way inside, finally collapsing on his butt with a sigh of relief. “Whew! Quite the walk! When one leg’s frozen, that’s really a long trek.”

Ranks of lined up warriors, dozens of brood, and several demons all stared at him incredulously.

“Just what were you doing now?” asked Sythara.

“Oh nothing! Just a little experiment.”

“Oh? Is that why this place has changed as it has?” she asked.

“Yeah, I noticed that. The tower’s bigger on the outside, and it looks like it grew some new buildings. We’ll go check everything out here in a minute.”

“It’s grown inside too.” Sythara pointed at freshly made sets of stairs and doorways.

“It—” began Kairon, only to stop speaking as something did finally change with the pact notification. The message began to wobble. “Oh! Yes, here we go! Time to see how this pans out. It’s moving.”

“What do you mean it’s moving, child?”

He waved a claw tiredly. “Not the tower. I mean the pact notification from the plane is moving around. Doing its thing. Just give me a moment.”

Whatever she said back Kairon hardly heard. He was far more interested in the notification that popped into existence.

Kairon pumped his fist in the air. “Success! The draft pool is officially expanding!” His fang tooth grin had grown, that familiar scent of demonic blood in the water growing.

“It’s what?!” Sythara placed her hand on his cheek, the changes in the tower seemingly all but forgotten at his proclamation. “Child. What did you just say?”

“I said it’s expanding the search. I pumped a lot of forge juice into the query, and now it needs to find a target worth the squeeze, so to speak.”

“What do you mean by that? The only way it could expand the draft pool is if it’s trying to find a candidate with more aspect than… No. Child. This… This… Alteration. You used it, didn’t you? The same one we planned for my research comprehension on the tier two brand?”

“Don’t worry—it’s only temporary. Once the ritual completes, I will have my alteration power back. We should have enough of those sigils left to power it for our tier two brand strategy. More once Boney succeeds.”

Assuming he did, that was. But Kairon was confident.

“Child. That is not what worries me. You don’t understand. If this ring ritual of yours works like I believe, and you’ve used the alteration as you’ve described to me…” Suddenly Sythara’s face grew a shade more pale than it’d been before.

“Listen. I understand the concerns, and agree to their validity. But, I spoke with Nod. I ensured all imps were accounted for and prepared far away from the new ring. Which is why we are all here, together!”

The compliance imp was nearby, still monitoring the imps just outside the tower that were collecting from the finished ritual.

“No, not that either. Child. I do not care about the little ones.”

An incredulous yelp of anger came from Nod in the background. Sythara, however, paid it no mind. “Do you understand? Just. What number did you make? And of what aspect?”

“Forge! And I put oh… A hundred and thirty-three percent.”

Sythara audibly groaned.

Vorathrex and Bean had joined them, their expressions comically in contrast. Vorathrex with something between consideration and terror, and Bean with a goofy, childlike grin.

“Did you hear that?” she asked them.

“Yep!” Bean gave his master a cheery smile. “I don’t really know what it means, but it sounds fun, master!”

Vorathrex sighed. “Fledgling. This strategy of yours… I understand the logic. You want a more powerful forge ally to help build weapons for our warriors and tools for…” he waved at Shiny, “the little ones. But if you made an aspect over a hundred percent… What does that mean? I do not know much on this topic.”

Kairon nearly dismissed the notification in the excitement, before catching on the final word.

Entities.

“Huh. That is… interesting.”

It tickled at his brain. Before he could figure out why, Sythara got his attention.

“Child! This worries me. I do not like this feeling I am getting… It is ominous, child. Ominous. The Plane can not be happy about what you are doing.”

“Sythara, I hardly think that the plane is going to cheat us out of giving us a worthy reward for our third ring. Vorathrex came from our first, and you our second. And you’ve both been incredibly helpful to our growth.”

Vorathrex turned, gesturing quickly at Kairon. “I have learned to trust your judgement on these things, fledgling. But I find myself strangely uncomfortable with not knowing your… tactics. Explain. What is going to occur?”

“I have used my alteration to artificially inflate how much forge aspected energy the plane believes is in our newest ring expansion. As a result, I believe the plane is going to give our city a forge candidate of extreme resonance. One that we can use to help jumpstart our smeltery and crafting!”

“Child.” Sythara was practically clawing at her own face as she spoke. “That is all well and good, but do you even really understand what it means if your corruption for any aspect is over a hundred percent?”

“I assume it means The Board, Sythara.”

She barked out a laugh. “So you knew. Gah. Yes of course you did. It’s probably why you did this, you foolish child.”

Vorathrex frowned. “Please. Can one of you explain this to me. I am still lost.”

She sighed. “You see, pit dweller, of all the demons in existence, only those on The Board have reached such a corruption threshold in any single aspect. And the child here is trying to make a pact with one of them!”

Vorathrex gaped.

Kairon, however, just grinned. “Sounds great, doesn’t it! Though I’m expecting something a touch more… restricted. A subpact, according to the compendium.”

“Subpact?” asked Vorathrex, still partially in disbelief.

“Basically a sliver of one of these Board members really,” explained Kairon, rubbing his claws together. “Mind you, a sliver of forge incarnate would still be quite the sliver, don’t you think?”

Right on cue, a new notification appeared in front of him.

“A match! We’ve got him! The Creator he’s called. Sythara, I did it! Oh, this is going to be good…”

“The Creator?” Sythara wrapped her tendrils around her protectively.

Vorathrex made a sound like something between a squeak and a moan.

Kairon’s claws stopped rubbing. That wasn’t something he’d exactly expected. He thought this creator might be like him—itching to find out who would call upon him.

Apparently not.

“Ah. It seems we’ve hit a bit of a snafu.”

Behind him, Vorathrex let out a heavy breath.

“We got lucky, fledgling,” rumbled the giant. “Based on what you have said, if The Creator did not accept this, there is none who can. We may have missed out on a reward for the nest, but I think this is for the best.”

Sythara began to visibly calm, seemingly coming to the same conclusion. “Yes, child. The pit demon is correct.” She actually looked a bit impressed that he’d comprehended the explanation.

“It’s still going.”

“What is?” asked Vorathrex.

“Our pact search.”

“How? If you are right,” began Vorathrex, “and only The Creator has that much forge attunement, then what is The Plane going to do here?”

“Well…” Kairon fished the parchment back out of his cape and roved over the text with his claw, finding the bit he was after. “Hmm. Two things are relevant here. First, the plane has to find us a match. Second, there is only one piece of absolute criteria for the target of our pact.”

“Which is?” asked Vorathrex.

“Which is that a pactee’s primary aspect meets or exceeds the ring ritual threshold. Meaning it has to be over whatever weighted threshold there is. I don’t know if that’s the one hundred thirty-three percent I gave, or some kind of weighted average, but…”

“But the creator already rejected your foolishness!” snapped Sythara. She also gave Vorathrex a dirty look. “And you! What’s gotten into you?! You’re normally the sensible one.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her.

Sythara coughed awkwardly. “For a pit demon, that is,” she rushed to add.

Vorathrex shrugged. “I am just thinking. That is all.”

“Yes. That is all,” said Sythara. The look she gave him made it clear what she thought about his thinking.

“And you!” Sythara spun about, pointing a finger at Kairon. “Child! You have wasted this opportunity for an interesting new subject for my research!”

“Just how have I done that, my demoness? I told you the query is still working.”

“Gah! The only demon that is eligible for this inflated forge aspect has rejected you. So this is all a moot point!”

“The only demon,” Kairon said. Then it hit him.

The only demon.

His eyes went from the parchment in his claw to the line of text still floating in the corner of his vision.

Querying Other Entities. Entities. Not demons.

And the page in front of him said pactee. Not demon. Nowhere—not in the criteria, not in the footnotes, not in the compendium—did it say the pact had to be with a demon.

“Oh… I… I see,” Kairon said slowly, wheels turning in his mind. “Only criteria one is absolute. A pactee’s primary aspect must meet or exceed the threshold. That’s it. That’s the whole rule.” The city lord looked up, a naughty grin on his face. “Sythara. The pact doesn’t have to be with a demon!”

Right as the realization slammed home, the final notifications appeared.

Kairon cocked his head sideways.

“Oh my.” Unlike last time, there was no choice. He thought he might still get other options. Not that he would have chosen them anyway.

It seemed both he and The Plane had the same idea in mind.

That said, Kairon had absolutely no idea what an Infernal Industrializer was. But judging by the sounds of it, and the fact it belonged to The Creator, he surmised it must be quite the tool.

And soon, it would be his tool.

Although there was one clear risk. This tool he got was The Creator’s. The same Board member that had just rejected his subpact offering.

He couldn’t be happy about this.

Then again, he was on another Plane of existence. That had to make any counteractions difficult at best.

Something Kairon would need to think more about.

Meanwhile, the others hadn’t noticed his change in attitude. Sythara, for her part, let out a scoff. “That is fine. Nothing like that is likely to exist. Although…” She paused, considering. “The plane is a big place… I… I don’t know.”

It was at this point that Bean decided he was being ignored too much. “Hey! I don’t really understand all of this, but I did hear mention of this big bad creator. Are you saying we aren’t gonna get to meet him?”

“No. The Creator rejected the child’s gambit,” said Sythara.

Bean deflated at that. “Oh man…”

Their bickering even got the attention of both Shiny and Nod—each of whom had now joined the growing gathering of the city elites.

“Master… Does this creator make more brood?” asked Shiny.

“No. Sound like nightmare… More like litigation creator.” Nod let out a little huff.

Shiny wasn’t so convinced. “If creator big… Maybe big customer too? Master! Get him back! Call him! Tell we give special deal! But…” Shiny hesitated. “Limited time only.”

Sythara looked horrified. “No it doesn’t—gah!” Sythara threw her hands up. “This is pointless. The subpact was rejected. So now, the child has lost the chance to gain a new ally for the third ring.”

“Actually… Not quite.” Kairon gave a tiny, naughty little smile. “It’s a bit more…” He sucked in a breath, smacking his lips. “Complicated.”

“What?” hissed Sythara.

“Fledgling?” Vorathrex was looking much less certain now.

In the back of the tower, a high pitched giggle echoed off the walls. Scampering forward, Hush’s cloaked form climbed atop Vorathrex’s back, pointing one trembling finger in the distance.

“It’s comingggg,” said Hush.

“What? What’s coming? Fledgling?” Vorathrex tried to swat the void imp from his shoulder.

Sythara on the other hand put both her palms on Kairon’s shoulder, squeezing hard. “What does he mean? Child? What does he mean!?”

“It seems that The Creator himself is not the only entity to which enough forge aspected corruption has accumulated. Another was found.”

“Another?” asked Sythara.

“Mhm. Something called The Creator’s Infernal Industrializer.”

Sythara just gaped at him, sapphire eyes going entirely dim for a moment. “What the fuck is that?!”

And, for the third time since coming to this world, a beam of energy erupted from the demonic city itself, stretching from city to sky.

BOOM.

The column was as thick as the citadel itself, an orange line stretching from the forge district and blasting an enormous hole in the clouds above.

Brood imps fell to their knees, wrath imps crouched on instinct to hold their balance, void imps prostrated themselves and revelled in the feeling, and Kairon shifted his view immediately to Sovereign Eye.

Below, he saw his city. The newly made third ring, enormous in size compared to the first two. Each of them holding twelve building slots, for a total of thirty-six new plots.

That was great.

What was of slightly more concern—or excitement from Kairon’s perspective—was the enormous eruption of energy that had swallowed three entire building slots. That space made up an entire quarter of the new forge district. Beneath it, a structure was rising.

And it was taking up all three spaces simultaneously.

Kairon whistled softly.

“In regards to just who, or more accurately what this Infernal Industrializer is… Well, I dare say we’re about to find out.”