Toby looked at the familiar pretty ass from the other day while passing through the portal. Even though she was not his type . . . .

"Shhh, stop. You will get us into trouble." Gary whispered to him discretely and Toby swiftly focused his attention elsewhere. "Everyone is already grumpy as is, having to repeat the trip will cost them extra."

They were repeating the prematurely ended trip from the other day and the princess looked a bit pissed and the extra cost did not seem to be the cause.

Toby decided to ignore it and stepped through the portal, where yet another place welcomed him. It was clear the places the portals led to were ever changing due to the limited number of game, migration, dangerous predators and even politics. He could never know what place he would end up entering.

This time it was a desert climate with only sand as far as eye could see. Toby searched for any signs of habitation, but noticed he had been gawking for much too long and all the others had already walked quite a distance, leaving him alone near the portal.

Except for a guy next to him who was busy writing something down into what looked like a diary.

Suddenly, the guy stepped back through the portal and it began to flash, making Toby remember the last time it closed. He reacted without thinking, using his short-range teleportation to go back through the portal, making it just in time before it closed. On the other side, he looked at the guy and wanted to ask him what was he doing, but he lost consciousness the moment he opened his mouth.

"What is going on?" Toby shouted, opening his eyes in a small cell with only a single bed that was apparently his now.

"Toby Alton, an elf, only recently arriving in the city." A muscular man with short brown hair read from a paper in his hand. He wore ordinary civilian clothes, but in no way he had the vibes of an ordinary man. "Along with your accomplice you stepped out of the portal right before it malfunctioned and closed, the coordinates mysteriously vanishing from all records."

"How convenient."He drew closer to the bars and gave Toby a piercing look.

"The other one is useless, but I would really like to know how they got their hands on an elven traitor."

"What are you talking about? I have . ."

"Oh, Please! Spare me the innocence crap!" The man interrupted Toby. "There is no way you have accidentally exited the portal a split second before it closed."

"I can teleport." Toby said and moved himself outside of his cell. Looking at the face of the man, there were many expressions changing until a particularly serious one stayed there.

"I see, you are not a traitor." The man touched the hilt of his sword and his muscles tensed. "This is a vendetta of The Mistglaives already."

The next second the man's sword left its scabbard with incredible speed, missing Toby only thanks to his quick teleport back into the cell.

"Stop it you freak!" Toby shouted.

"When the elves attack our assets, we will naturally kill the vipers responsible." He grabbed bars of the cell and bent it before squeezing himself in, like the steel had been tofu.

Toby tried to outrun the man, but the space was not that big and even when he used the remaining bars as obstacles to teleport behind, the man broke them easily. It was clear holding back was not an option, because the man was clearly aiming for a kill.

"I . ."

" . . said . . "

" . .stop . ."

" .. it! "

With every word Toby blinked to another place and unleashed a cone of deadly azure shards, his movement so erratic that even the man with very high fitness could not do anything about it, only trying to dodge the rain of projectiles.

"Ugh . " He fell to the floor, his body covered in blood, dodging most of the shards not being enough to prevent serious damage.

"Now, we can finally speak like civilized people." Toby said and the door to the cells opened, a group of soldiers entering the scene.

"Fuck!" Toby and the soldiers said at the same time.

"It seems we have made too much noise." The man on the floor was the only one with a grin.

While the soldiers were unsheathing their weapons, Toby teleported quickly through them, hoping there was no one quick enough to cut him down.

There was not and he left them shouting behind him, as he rushed through the jail. He would not have been able to outrun them, but his ability of teleporting more than made up for his lack of fitness, unlees he had a bad luck and someone managed to accidentally hit him.

He thought about the things the man said, but quickly focused back on his escape. The soldiers were far from being slow and he could not afford any distractions. He faced some people that tried to stop him or simply interact with him, but he just skipped them by teleporting behind their backs.

At the end, he arrived in a big room with only windows. Looking outside, he understood he was inside of the giant citadel in the middle of Durkan, trapped in a room that led nowhere else.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Toby held his breath and looked outside, where deep down under him, there was a god knows what level of the city.

"It looks like it is all in." Toby suppressed his nausea and jumped through the window. Spreading his hands and feet, he felt the wind against his face. He had managed a wolf before, there was no reason not to manage something better suited for his predicament now.

Soon after an eagle was flying out of Durkan, watched by a group of soldiers and a man covered in blood, who spat blood mixed with saliva on the floor.

"The Mistglaives made their move, they broke the deal as expected." The man spoke and his gaze met with the eagle's who happened to turn its head at that moment. However, their eyes locked just for a second, their attention shifting to something much more spectacular that suddenly occured.

With a thunderous sound, a giant purplish-black circle appeared in front of the citadel and from it, a giant, clawed leg emerged, followed by a body of a creature several meters high, it was a creature that more than anything else resembled a demon from the depths of hell.

The next second, the creature spoke with thunderous voice.

"I, Archibald Cygnus claim thee to return as my rightful prize." With his words, he placed his red, clawed hand on the ground and a huge pentagram appeared, enveloping the whole city only to vanish a second later along with it.

Where the giant city stood, there was only a huge hole in the ground.

* * * *

"Emperor." A knight dressed in splendid attire bowed and presented a little book to an old man, the clothes of whom shone with colors of gold and red.

"Ah, you have the item I have requested." The old man who still moved with the vitality of a youngster noted the presence of his knight and took the small book from him.

"Leave us." The emperor said and made himself comfortable in his chair while opening the book, it was nothing else than a paired diary seized during the investigation of the Durkan incident.

"What a fool."After reading for a while, his light smile vanished and he threw the item on the table nearby, where it stayed opened on the last page. The change of attitude of king Valrin of Durkan would have made him laugh if not for the seriousness of the matter.

. . .

O: "Archibald, I have agreed to your terms and paid up front, but the conduit of the elves is still alive!"

I: "The chase was a bonus anyway, do not blame me for your negligence! I do not care about the measly souls you have amassed. Give me the coordinates, or I will tear your soul apart!"

O: "We are finished, I do not fear your threats, barking from another plane is all you can do to me."

I : "We will see.A contract is a contract."

O : "You will see my ass, you abomination."

O :"Lord Archibald would you please accept the coordinates?"

. . ..

. . .

The last question had been clearly written only after Archibald had used some form of a persuasion.

Naturally the said king had not been inside the vanished city when the incident happened and waited for the emperor's judgement in his dungeon. As for the people of Durkan, the emperor gave a silent prayer for their souls.

"Sadly, a prayer will not kill any demons." The emperor sighed and pulled a piece of parchment from a drawer and began to write.

Tertius Decimus Trudou Allenheim, my friend. I have . . ..

* * * *

"And now my children, let us feast on some souls!"

A thunderous roar rang in the ears of one particular eagle flying high in the red sky. Toby was high and could see that instead of a distant forest he had aimed for, there was only a hellscape around the city now.

"H-He teleported an entire city?!?" Toby was stunned and immediately decided to put as much distance between himself and that Archibald as he could, but all thoughts of leaving the city had abandoned him when he saw a sea of red dots swooping down from the surrounding skies.

"We are surrounded!" Toby panicked and turned back to the place from where he had been fleeing, entering the window with the dumbstruck soldiers. Two of the soldiers were less shaken than the rest and began to argue about the situation.

"What the hell is that fuck?"

"From a fucking hell it is! Look, the sky is fucked too!"

"So we are! Fuck!"

As their intellectual investigation of the situation continued, Toby looked at the man from before, to find out his intentions, but after a tense moment, he simply extended his hand.

"Slavoj, Durkan intelligence officer." To his surprise, the man introduced himself instead of trying to kill him.

"Toby Alton, a . .an elf." They introduced properly.

"Shall the game begin?" The thunderous voice of the demon-like creature drew their attention and when they looked outside, they saw that in front of the demon stood someone, or something that looked like an oversized knight, wearing black, full body armor with blue luster, a thick aura of death and cold seeping out of it.

"Sure, do not cheat like the last time." The creature said with deep, raspy voice and both figures disappeared in an instant.

"Come quickly." Slavoj hastily shook Toby out of his stupor and took the lead. It was not surprising as he had to know much more about what was actually happening and how to survive. "We need to find a portal mage, can you transform into a bigger flyer than an eagle?"

"It should be possible." Toby knew he could make the eagle bigger if nothing else worked out. "Are we going to defend the place?"

"Defend this place?" Slavoj chuckled. "The only option is to get out of here quickly, the city is lost, we can at most flee with our lives. The first option is to teleport away, the worse second option is to hide until an opportunity presents itself."

Toby followed Slavoj who seemed like knowing what he was doing, he tried to sort out his thoughts in his mind, but right at that moment, he felt an incredibly cold feeling in his side and reached out instinctively with his hand, only to grip one of the soldiers who walked right beside him.

"Got you." The soldier whispered into his ear and Toby realized it was all a setup, he was too naive! It dawned on him the moment he looked at all the other faces, his fingers digging into the dagger-wielding hand with futility.

He felt his consciousness slipping away, his body slowly giving up.

Death awaited him.

No, he refused to give up!

Domn it, he was Toby Alton! A horny teen from a shithole town, always ready to save small animals and receive the awe of the elderly!

Toby morphed his hand into that of a lion and digged his claws into the hand of his adversary. The man jerked his dagger out of Toby's side, trying to get away, causing Toby to almost faint, but his instinctual usage of life energy took over and turned the man into a husk of a corpse, repairing all the damage using his life. It was obvious the contact with the man's blood helped the process significantly.

What followed was a pandemonium of moving people and shrill screams, as Toby madly teleported back and forth in the room, releasing spells like a lunatic. After a brief moment, he noticed there was a red body frame moving among them as well, something that could be nothing else than one of the red dots he had seen flying at the edge of the city.

One of the fastest invaders was already among them!

Partially thanks to Toby's luck, only three figures remained standing after a while, Toby, Slavoj and the creature that could best be described as a demon. A thing with large, muscular body, pronounced claws on its hands and feet, its skin having a typicall red color. The only odd feature was that it had no horns.

Toby hesitated at first, but then decided to make a bet and morphed, mimicking the appearance of the demon. It surprised Slavoj so much, his head was flying away in a spray of blood the next second, thanks to the true demon's actions, resulting in the situation where two same demons were staring at each other, while the last drops of blood and gore were falling down to the floor.

Toby was the first to move.

He bent his waist and vomited on the floor, the mess around them being too much for his stomach.

He kept vomiting happily, until a heavy hand landed on his shoulder, freezing him in place with fright and a thunderous voice said with a laugh.

"It will pass, just wait a bit. . ."

"What the hell?! A compassionate demon?" Toby wondered what this was supposed to mean, ignoring the mystery he understood what the demon was saying.

" . .I have seen a similar reaction after transforming into a human, they are just disgusting. It will pass." The demon patted him on his shoulder and continued in a more serious tone.

"I have taken their souls for myself, if you want to join forces, the souls are mine!" He said threateningly.

"I do not want any." Toby squeezed out, still feeling a little dizzy.

"O-ok then, fine. . . alright." The demon was dumbfounded, not expecting him to agree right away.

"Fine, lead the way." Toby was happy to avoid the fight and gestured with his hand, but the demon did not seem to be inclined to move.

"No, I will watch our backs, go first." The demon insisted.

"Just go first, I need to catch my breath for a second." Toby smiled in response, but the demon stood still.

"Damn, it seems we both chose the path of deception. A duel it is." The demon sneered and jumped at Toby, the demon's claws about to skew his chest. He managed to get away only thanks to his recent intensive training in teleportation.

A giant azure spike erupted from the ground and pierced through the demon, killing him instantly. Still, Toby did not like how close the timing was.

"What is with those guys? I thought they would be friendlies!" Toby shook his head while looking at his demon hands.

Although his first meeting had not ended with a handshake, he decided to keep the demon form and try some luck using it. Even if they were brutal, they should not fight using free for all tactic, this one had to be too greedy for souls, whatever they meant for their race.

" Slavoj said to look for some kind of a mage dealing with portals." Toby had no clue where to begin, the only place that came into his mind was the kind of place he used to work at. "Right, they had to keep around those guys for the portals!"

He decided to find a similar facility to his workplace

"The fastest way would be flight." He carefully looked out of a window he was passing by and had to reconsider his idea. Outside was an absolute chaos, the air was swarming with demons of various kinds. The worst problem was, that there appeared to be some really powerful ones that hovered in the air using magic to kill, not even bother to move from their vantage points.

"Damn, I cannot count on dodging the attacks of those." Toby bit his lower lip, it was clear that flying was not an option at this point, when the cavalry had already arrived. Yes, he was a demon now, but he noticed an occasional friendly fire and did not want to test his luck. Not to mention that high level demons could have a way to sniff out an impostor. He quickly left the room, to put some distance between himself and the rooms on the perimeter. He decided to explore the section he found himself in, it seemed to be some kind of a prison, not a bad spot considering most of the prisoners would likely be inclined to help him with his plan.

"I need someone who will not hinder me and has some knowledge of this insane tower." Toby needed to find a ventilation shaft or a lift, something that would help him reach the ground floor. He had even considered teleporting all the way using a window, but he feared the long distance teleports, he was too dizzy to guarantee his own safety after a long distance teleportation. That period of weakness could be his undoing considering his surroundings.

Passing several rooms, he entered a large room that looked more like a prison with several cells along a wide corridor. Upon spoting a few guards, he immediately teleported closer to them and explored their guts with his claws. He was able to tore their standard armor with ease and was mesmerized with the sharpness of his claws.

"Fascinating." He looked at his clawed hand briefly, blood still trickling down to the floor from it.

Wait! Something felt wrong!

"Could it be. . .?" Toby looked at the gore on the floor and that was it.

Nothing.

"Damn, It has to be the transformation!" He had almost no experience with transformations, it looked like physiology of what he transformed into influenced his personality. Thinking about it, it was logical. Somehow, he had managed to keep the same rational thinking, but the instincts of the demonic creatures certainly had an effect on him.

"Different brains, different instincts. It is not very surprising." Was it possible that he would be unable to reconstruct the rational part of his brain, if he transformed into an ant and such,turning into a retarded person afterwards? After all, personality and even thoughts should be very physical, even electrical impulses of brains having some carriers possessing mass. After transforming into an ant, there would be not enough brain matter to encode the information of his original brain into, possibly resulting in a disaster. In the end, information had to be carried by something right? Or was everything fine because of some magical voodoo?

Toby shook his head to get rid of the wild train of thoughts and focused on the prisoners, who looked quite scared, all of them distancing from the bars. There was around ten cells, six of them occupied.

He skipped two of the inhabitants right away, they looked too wasted, he had no use for homeless people.

"You, you, you and you! Tell me your name, what you do and why are you here."Toby surprised himself with his own thundering voice. One of them looked like he was about to say something smart, but quickly shut his mouth after looking at Toby.

To call Toby intimidating was an understatement.

"Now! You start!" He decided to give the introduction some order and pointed his finger at a guy in a fancy, deep blue business suit.

To his surprise, the man was too stressed out to say anything and just shivered in the corner of his cell for ten seconds, before Toby ran out of patience.

"Fine! You next!" Toby was tired of waiting and chose another object of his attention.

"Maria, clerk , employment fraud."

"Lara, security, unauthorized use of force, "

"Selim, cook, poisoning a guest, but I did not do it. I swear!"

"No one cares Selim." Toby snorted. "Now, which one of you knows the layout of the city and this building?"

After a few similar encounters, Toby ended up with additional three poeple joining his group. He had simply freed the rest and left them to their devices, as they did not dare to follow him, at least openly.

The first person was Lara, a security guard, she was of medium height with black, long hair and eyes of the same color. She was not tanned, which was odd given her job. Perhaps she worked inside a lot. She seemed to have some combat training and had a general idea of layouts of buildings in the city. She was the only one who dared to walk directly behind him and looked restless, her eyes scanning him and her surroundings constantly.

Second person was Wilson, he was an engineer and his job was road construction. He seemed to be part-asian, with his height not taller than Lara. He wore ordinary clothes and seemed scared. Toby would have not chosen him, if not for his expertise.

Qin was the name of the last man, subway maintenance worker. Up to now, Toby had had no idea that there were subways, but apparently there was something of that sort in the city. Qin was na ordinary middle-aged white male, the tallest of the three, with long blond hair and blue eyes. He looked like a playboy, but definitely did not behave like one, which was odd. Maybe it had something to do with working alone most of the time. He walked at the end of their line and kept to himself.

"What are you lot doing here demon?" Lara asked Toby directly, Wilson looking at her as if she was mad.

"That is not concerning humans, you will live if you cooperate." What the hell should have Toby told them? That he had no idea whatsoever? He considered telling them, he was just posing as a demon, but that might give him away later, if they met another demons and he needed to scrap his human company or use their souls as a bribe to other demons. . . damn, he had to be really careful about his personality changes while in this body. "We need to get to the ground floor and then to the nearest place organizing boost events. I need mages proficient in portal magic."

"I am afraid it is too dangerous to use an elevator, where are . ."

"Do you know where it is?" Toby interrupted Wilson, who nervously pushed his glasses further up his nose with both hands.

Was he retarded? Why did he do it with both hands? He would be the first soul to dispose of when, , ,agh, whatever.

"Eh, based on my experience the elevator should be in this direction." Wilson said.

"What direction?" Toby grunted, unable to notice Wilson's pointing finger, as his hand was still vertical, alongside his body.

"That direction."

"Aaaaaah!" Lara took Wilson's finger and pulled on it, making him point out the direction for all of them to see.

Toby watched Lara's action and his eyes began to drift lower, following the curves of her body.

"What am I doing!" Toby shouted in his mind. "Are those the traits the demons are into?!"

This time, it was hard to tell, as Toby's original preference was similar.

He focused again and began following the directions of Wilson. Although his guts were questionable, his expertise was quite valuable and the four of them soon arrived to a door that led to an elevator shaft.

"Can you force the door open?" Lara asked Toby, but Wilson naively pushed a button on the wall in front of them and to everybody's surprise, Wilson excepted, the door opened with an elevator waiting for them. Wilson entered it without hesitation, his dull stare interrupted only by a quick look on his watch, probably out of habit.

He looked like he was going to work as usual and they could not help but laugh about the awkward situation.

"This will do as well." Toby said and entered the elevator along with the others. They pushed a button and the elevator began to descend.