Kozabokget sat in the middle of a pentagram drawn on the ground. Although she really didn’t want to be here, there was nothing she could do—at least, nothing she could do if she didn’t want to be eaten. She glanced at Vur, who was sitting off to the side. He was staring at her, and every so often, he would take a bite out of the red bear paw that was resting on his lap. As one of the few sealed evils that could weaken the seal and observe the tower, she knew exactly how terrifying the Hellfire Devil Bear was, but when it tried to fight Vur, it was like a baby krill trying to fight a blue whale: pointless.

Kozabokget turned her head towards Grimmy. The cursed dragon was busy drawing patterns on the ground. She had seen the pact-forming rituals a few times. Once all the patterns were carved out, the dragons would fill the grooves with their own blood. The pentagram she was sitting on had a circle surrounding it. A line extended from the middle of the circle to another circle with a pentagram in it. In the middle of that formation, Ramon was sitting with his tail swishing back and forth, his body moving as he shifted his weight from paw to paw.

“Grimmoldesser,” Kozabokget said, causing Grimmy to lift his head. “I have a question for you.”

“What?”

“You broke the Soul Devourer’s seal and took it away several centuries ago,” the white goat said, speaking neither fast nor slow. “By any chance…”—Kozabokget gestured towards Vur with her hoof—“is he the Soul Devourer?”

Gren’s eyes widened, and she stopped carving on the ground to glare at Grimmy. “You released the Soul Devourer? Of all the sealed evils, why did you release the most dangerous one!?” She slapped her tail on the ground. “I was planning on having a thorough talk with you about all the empty rooms I saw on my way here. I was going to do it after we finished Ramon’s pact-forming ritual, but I don’t think I can wait any longer after hearing about this. Is this how your father and I raised you? Why can’t I understand anything that goes on in that head of yours?”

“Probably because I’m smarter than you two,” Grimmy said. He cleared his throat upon seeing his mom take a step closer to him. There seemed to be black flames flickering within her eyes. “Let’s finish the ritual first and talk later. Look at how excited Ramon is. It wouldn’t be right to keep him waiting.”

Gren glared at Ramon. A low growl escaped from her throat, and the baby dragon stiffened. He wanted to cry at the unfairness of the world. All he did was sit in the center of a circle and keep quiet, so how come it seemed like his grandma wanted to eat him? “I don’t mind, Grandma Gren,” Ramon said in a small voice. “You can talk to Papa first.”

This time, Grimmy stared at Ramon, causing tears to spring into the holy dragon’s eyes. He lowered his head and glanced around the room. No one seemed to care about him except for the white goat sitting across from him. From the look on her face, he could tell she was almost feeling the same way as him.

Gren sat on her haunches and crossed her front legs. Her tail thumped against the ground repeatedly, and she kept her gaze trained on Grimmy. He whistled and bent his head down, continuing to carve patterns on the ground. When he reached the area Gren was sitting at, he simply walked around her, ignoring her gaze, and carved some more.

Gren’s face cramped, and she took in a deep breath through her nostrils. “Grim-mol-desser! You tell me what happened to the Soul Devourer right now, or I swear on everything that is unholy that I will beat your heinie clean of its scales! I did it once before, and I’ll show you that I can do it again!”

Grimmy froze before letting out a sigh. He turned around and sat down, hiding his butt from his mom’s view. “So, I unsealed the Soul Devourer, beat it up a bit, and performed a few experiments. In the end, I split its soul, and a tiny portion, just a tiny portion, was put inside of Vur while he was unconscious.”

“I knew it,” Kozabokget mumbled. Without the Soul Devourer’s ability, how else could Vur suppress the Trickster and the Hellfire Devil Bear so badly?

“What’s the Soul Devourer?” Leila asked.

“It’s as straightforward as it sounds,” Grimmy said. “It was a thing that devoured souls to get stronger. Do you remember that time Vur was unconscious for a decade after awakening? I put a portion of the Soul Devourer inside of him then.”

Leila stared at Grimmy. “I’ve been meaning to ask….” She glanced at Gren. “Why are some of the names of the sealed evils so simple while others are actual names?”

Gren snorted, and Grimmy chuckled. “Well, some sealed evils can’t speak, so we name them ourselves,” Grimmy said. He gestured towards Kozabokget. “Some evils, like our goat over here, can speak and already had names before we sealed them. One of our ancestors was very practical. He named things as they were. The Trickster was tricky, so it became the Trickster. The Soul Devourer devoured souls, so it became the Soul Devourer.”

Gren frowned at Vur before turning towards Grimmy. “You said you put a tiny portion of the Soul Devourer inside of Vur. What happened to the rest of it?”

Grimmy shrugged. “Not sure.”

“Not sure? What do you mean you’re not sure?” Gren asked.

“I don’t know what happened to it,” Grimmy said and shrugged again.

“How do you not know!?”

Grimmy snorted. “I know you know I’m a genius, but that doesn’t mean I can explain everything,” he said. “That’s why I have to perform experiments, to verify my guesses.”

Gren’s expression darkened. “And what’s your guess as to where the rest of the Soul Devourer went?”

Grimmy scratched his head. “Well, I think it died. I split off a tiny portion to give to Vur, and the rest of it withered and disappeared. I’m guessing I gave the most important part of the soul to Vur, and the rest of the soul couldn’t maintain itself. Of course, if I’m wrong, then the Soul Devourer will reappear in a few hundred years.” He placed a paw on Gren’s shoulder. “You don’t have to worry about it. By that time, Ramon and Gloria will have grown enough to subdue evils. It’ll be their responsibility.”

Gren didn’t say a word. She simply raised her paw and smacked Grimmy’s snout.