Rey wanted to stand there and enjoy a plan that had come together so nicely, even though he almost got electrocuted, sizzled, and got a few arrows stuck in his bum. Overall, he would give it a solid 6.9 out of 10. The score would've been if he could've done it without selling Filomena. Well, he's only human, after all. Next time, he'll do his best not to sell one of his friends.

  He ducked the sword that came for him, and he tried to swing his scythe, which was somehow missing. Well, it wasn't missing per se. It was taking a nap in his satchel.

  Rude.

  He reached for his dagger and was about to stab the demon when a glowing arrow found him in the eye, making his head burst apart. Gore and brains were washed all over Rey. Normally, he'd be mad, but at this point, he was basically a walking demon blood commercial.

  Demon blood—for when you want people to ask what died on you?

  Also, great for making it look like you were shot out of a camel's backside. Demon Rey added.

  He nodded his thanks to Kassi, but she had already moved on to the next demon. She was doing her best to be like Hawkeye, if Hawkeye was actually useful, so basically, she was a female Legolas. Shooting arrow after arrow and making the guards explode.

  Rey's newly bought demons were doing their best to perform their little insurrection by holding the guards with their chains. A couple was slashed open by the guards, but then there were more enslaved demons than there were guards. They didn't have to hold them for long, as Filomena was doing her best to fry the guards as if it were they who had the mistake of selling her.

  Ajay made a point of looking back at Rey every time he fried a guard. Rey smiled at him to keep things from getting awkward, but the Firenado was pissed for some reason. It couldn't have been related to Rey selling his girlfriend.

  Nah.

  Rey figured his friends had it covered, so he bent down and collected all the silver coins he had just paid for his army of voluntold workers. Along with his money, he also took the slaver's hefty purse, which was filled to bursting with silver coins and even a gold ingot. And of course, he wasn't going to leave all the thick gold necklaces and rings the dead slaver was wearing. He no longer had any use for them. Rey, however, could find several uses for them.

  Once his satchel was filled with these treasures, he finally took out his scythe and found he had no use for it anymore. All the demons gunning for them were dead.

  "Oh man, you took all the fun away," Rey protested.

  "Yes, you were totally not busy looting the dead," Kassi countered.

  Rey shrugged. "He had no use for all that money, while we still do."

  "Is there anything that you do that sets you apart from a demon?"

  "I still have my soul," he replied.

  She didn't say anything, or didn't have the time to, as Ajay returned looking mighty pleased with himself. He placed a hand on Rey's shoulder. "I'm sure that was fun for you."

  There was a different look in his eyes. If Rey didn't know any better, he would've thought this conversation was about to become very uncomfortable, but this was Ajay he was talking about. The man was more chill than a high-strung chihuahua.

  "Like I was telling my ex that you guys stole all the fun."

  "No, Rey, I was talking about selling Filomena."

  "Hey man, that was just an act. You know, I would never sell Filomena—Ah!"

  Ajay's grip tightened on his shoulder, and it got burning hot.

  "Ow! Ow! I was just pretending."

  Ajay leaned in. "Next time, don't even pretend to do that."

  "Message received." Rey squeaked.

  Ajay finally let go. Rey quickly patted his shoulder, which had gotten an involuntary hot message. Thankfully, his shirt and shoulder hadn't burned. His shirt was smoking, but that was about the extent of the damage. Ajay's calm expression returned as he left to check on his girlfriend, who was smiling at him.

  Not to self—do not sell your friends as long as they're humans.

  It's fair game after they turn. Demon Rey said. All those pesky feelings won't get in the way.

  "Someone's getting lucky tonight," Rey said, rolling his shoulder.

  "Also, don't even think about saying that you keep me for your own pleasures," Kassi seethed. "Next time you do, you will get an arrow through whatever you were going to pleasure me with."

  Rey's eyes fell. "I didn't mean that, Kassi…Kassandra. You know that. I couldn't even pretend to sell you."

  "But you were okay with selling Filomena?" She made a disgusted face and walked off.

  Why do I feel like that by the time we finally part ways, she's going to actively despise me?

  There was a part of him that said it was meant to be. After all, they'd been separated in his last life, so why wouldn't they be separated now? But this felt forced, as if someone was pulling the strings to make it so that she would never even look at him again.

  As long as she lived and didn't meet the end that she did. That was all that mattered. She wouldn't be with me, but she would be alive.

  He sighed and moved towards his army, who were probably expecting some good old-fashioned freedom for their efforts. Boy, did he have a fun surprise for them.

  "Calm your tits, friends." Rey waved his arms about, getting their attention. Slowly but surely, they did. His own friends eventually joined him.

  The big demon that Rey had gone to first stepped out of the crowd and walked up to Rey. He was a full head taller than him. His reddish skin made it seem that the demon had taken a long ass nap on the beach and gotten eternally sun-burnt. The whites of his eyes were yellow, and they seemed to glow.

  "We're not your friends," he growled.

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  "I own you." Rey reminded him. Then he put him and the rest of them in place by using his demon voice. He couldn't have them disobeying his commands. After all, he wasn't running a democracy here. It was a bad owner who couldn't have his orders obeyed. "YOU ARE WHATEVER I SAY YOU ARE!"

  He knew he would get a reaction, but he didn't expect this.

  All his newly acquired cannon fodder stepped several steps back. The one in front of him looked like he was about to piss himself. His hands shook, and he trembled all over.

  His friends weren't doing any better either. They stared wide-eyed, as if Rey had grown horns and applied for permanent citizenship in demonhood. Hell, Kassi looked at him like he was in fact a demon, as if he had just confirmed a long-standing suspicion. The star-crossed lovers held each other's hands so tightly that their knuckles had gone white.

  Rey couldn't help but remember the fun times when he would make high-ranking C-Tiers run home to their mommies with this voice. How did he acquire this demonic voice? Well, that was a funny story indeed.

  He smiled and spoke in his normal voice. "And I'm choosing to call you a friend. Not scum. Not motherfucker, which some of you probably are. Not even asshole or other such fancy adjectives, but friend." He placed a hand on the tall demon's shoulder, who flinched at Rey's touch. "Is that okay with you?"

  He didn't dare move, but his head nodded so fast, as if it were a bobble head statue. "Yes, whatever you say, man. I mean, whatever you say, sir."

  Rey clapped him on the arm. "That's more like it." The demon finally took a breath when Rey withdrew his hand. "Now, since we're friends, you wouldn't mind helping us with a little project, would you?. After which I will grant all those who survive their freedom."

  The demons exchanged nervous glances, but no one said anything. And none of them even looked like they wanted to say anything. Hell, most of them withdrew their gaze or looked at the ground when Rey's eyes washed over them. This was one of the downsides of using that voice. It made all these ultra-low-tier trash want to commit suicide. He could only imagine what the intended effect would've been if he had used it when he was at full power.

  He sighed. "What's your name, friend?" He asked the tall demon in front of him.

  "I-It's Xetoliaselam."

  "Yeah, I'm not saying that. You have a new name now, and it's Spartacus. Do you like it?"

  "I love it, sir." He said without hesitation.

  "Great. Okay, Spartacus, I'm making you sort of the union leader or supervisor of this group. Honestly, it really doesn't mean much save that you will be answering most of my questions on their behalf. For your sake, I hope you give the right answers, or next thing you know, they shank you in the butt in the showers, and I have to choose another Spartacus."

  He gulped. "I will do my best, sir."

  "That's like a good man. So, are you and your men okay with the terms that I have put forward?"

  “Y-Yes, sir.”

  "Great. Just what I wanted to hear. Find the key to your chains, free yourself, and report for duty, friends. Also, find any swords that they've dropped and get armed."

  "At once."

  He and just about every other demon practically fled to the deceased guards and started ripping their uniforms to shreds to find the keys to their chains. Some even decided that this was the best time to get in a quick bite to eat. In true demon fashion, they didn't care what sort of demon the guards were. To them, meat was meat. Rey chuckled at the display and turned to his still-shocked friends.

  "What? Is there something on my face?" He patted his face. Aside from the fresh demon blood and bits of brains, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

  Kassi turned to the star-crossed lovers. "Now, are you curious about that voice?"

  Filomena and Ajay glanced at her together and nodded in rhythm.

  "What voice?" Rey asked. "I don't have the cold, do I? Cough Syrup is practically impossible to find in Hell."

  "No, seriously, Rey, what was that demonic voice?" Ajay asked, looking at him like he had grown a sparkly horn and started farting cocaine.

  "I promise I'll tell you the truth someday, but we've got things to do today."

  "Where have I heard that before"? Kassi rolled her eyes.

  "I really don't want to start that argument again," he stated as calmly as he could, which some might call not calm at all, but that was all the calmness he could muster on the topic. For some reason, they kept staring at his mouth, as if they wanted to give him a big ol' smooch.

  The demons returned soon after, and Spartacus reported for duty, saving him a whole lot of troublesome conversations. About a third of them had swords and daggers that they had stolen from the guards. While the rest were armed with the chains they had been tied with. It wasn't a bad idea. If all else failed, they'd turn the battlefield into a very aggressive whipping competition.

  "You guys get brownie points for being so creative," Rey said.

  Spartacus wasn't sure what brownie points meant or what creative meant, for that matter.

  "Err, thank you? What are your orders, sir?"

  "Firstly, this is Kassandra, Ajay, and Filomena; you're to take any orders from them as if they've fallen from my lips. Understood?" The demon nodded at that. Right then, Aearbon appeared beside Rey. "Hey buddy, I was wondering where you went."

  "I had to take care of some trash along the way," the Tigerman said.

  "Must've been some trash," Rey replied. Then turned to the demons. "Anyways, this is Aearbon…Well, disobey him at your own peril. Good. Your work here is simple, I need you to do the same thing that you did here. Hold off as many guards as you can while my friends and I send them to the abyss."

  "We can do that."

  The demons, humans, and one Tigerman rolled out. This time, Rey was the first one to score a kill. One slash with his trusty scythe, and the demon's head came off.

  [+1 Dexterity]

  [You killed a Demon (Exiled) – E+9]

  It was a hulking guard of some other slaver. The rest of the slavers' market had mostly stayed as it was, as they cleaned up Kasmid's crew. They must not have liked him very much, or maybe it was a common occurrence. From what he remembered, it wasn't.

  He shrugged and did his dirty work. A lot of them were around Rank 8 or 9, which was great for everyone. He glanced over at Aearbon, and he was still Rank 9, the same as him. So naturally, Rey made it a one-sided race to see who could reach Rank 10 first, and he aimed to win.

  So, he stopped wasting his time with Rank 8s. Half his vision was occupied with notifications of their ranks. Any demon lower than a Rank 9 would be tossed to the trio that needs them. Any Rank 9 would be Get Over Here'd, and promptly sliced and diced.

  Their demon army was doing pretty well. A lot of the demon slavers met their end. If it carried on like this, the city's slave economy would come crashing down, and Rey couldn't be happier for it. After all, sowing chaos just made his inner demon so happy.

  Is it because I was so influenced by that cum stain of a Sovereign? Rey paused mid-slash. The demon blinked at him and tried to run.

  Rey used Gravitational Attraction, bringing him right back. "Don't you run away while I'm mid-introspection. You will get slashed either way."

  The demon guard cowered. "Please, I haven't done anything to you."

  "Are you Rank 9 or not?"

  The demon nodded twice and then quickly shook his head. "No."

  "You know, asking was just a courtesy."

  Rey cut off his head.

  [You killed a Demon (Exiled) – E+9]

  And that did the trick.

  [You have gained one rank. You are now at E Tier Rank 10.]

  [You gain 1 Talent Point, 1 Free Stat Point, and +1 to all Stats.]

  "Fina-fucking-ly!" Rey thrust his hands into the air. "Take that Aearbon. Guess who reached Rank 10 first?"

  He turned around to see that Aearbon was nowhere to be found. A few moments later, he appeared right behind him, making him jump and scream a rather high-pitched scream that he would deny until his dying day, and that included demon days as well.

  "What the hell, man?" Rey barked. "Nearly gave me a heart attack."

  "You didn't beat me to Rank 10," he stated. "I reached Rank 10 a long time ago. Haven't you noticed that I've been absent from the killing field to give the rest of you enough prey? In simpler terms, you didn't beat me."

  Rey's eyes widened. "Were you competing with your Darsahn? That's not going to look very favorably for you in your year-end review."

  Aearbon smiled. He opened his mouth to reply, but a shrill scream reverberated through the air, louder than all the others. It was enough to give one goosebumps. Of course, that totally didn't happen with Rey.

  He shared a frown with his direct report, who looked around trying to find the source. Given that he was multiple heads taller than anyone here, Rey figured that he would be the best one for the job.

  "There." Aearbon pointed. "It's a demon."

  "Is it the one who did the screaming or caused the screaming?"

  Rey got his answer pretty soon when he heard another equivalent scream. Then more screams sounded from the direction that Aearbon had pointed in. Demons, free and enslaved, ran as if the Maker himself were coming for them. After all, who else would these beings of pure malevolence be so afraid of?

  "What the hell is going on?" Rey asked no one in particular. He saw Spartacus pissing his loincloth not too far from him. He let him empty his bladder and then yanked him over. "Now, Spartacus, why are you sullying the name of your namesake?"

  "T-That is—"

  "Terrors!" someone shouted, and everyone broke and ran.