Page 71 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

He didn’t make Lilith an enemy. He didn’t provoke the witches. He didn’t develop the idea of copying the key to begin with. All he did was panic when an enemy unveiled a weapon that could trap him like it had once before. A modified weapon, in fact, one which would extract essence. One which claimed to be powerful enough to contain an actual devil. One that…

“Wait a damned second!”

“I wasn’t doing anything.” Bez adjusted his dick, which was hard again, and slapped against mine, using the greased lube to begin rubbing them together. “That’s just physics, Walter.”

“What? No. Not you.” I side-eyed him. “Although, you’re not fucking me right now. You’re not fucking me for a good minute or seven hundred minutes, in fact.”

He crinkled his forehead, mouthing the math as he counted on his fingers.

“It’s like half a day,” I answered. “A full day being 1440 minutes, just a fun fact. But also, a full day in the DiabolicOasis is actually only 1402 minutes, so that’s an interesting extrapolation to account for when traveling between worlds.”

Bez blinked several times slowly, utterly confused.

“I had an epiphany. Such an overused phrase, but also, I did reach actual clarity when it comes to our problem.”

“Yes?”

“We’re focused on the key, the idea that it might be a way for Lilith to escape into our world.”

Bez cast his gaze downward like a sad puppy.

“We’re under the assumption that the key copy works,” I continued. “And under the assumption that Corson found and removed the other copies.”

“Unlikely, he’s a damn moron,” Bez said with an arrogant attitude true to form and giving me the gift of my charmingly hostile boyfriend back.

“Exactly,” I said. “We should focus less on ensuring Lilith can’t find a way into our world and more on how to deal with herifshe finds her way into our world.”

“Dying seems the most obvious thing to plan for.”

“Okay, that’s an outcome, not a plan. You don’t plan for death.” I grimaced. “Well, I suppose you do if you’re given a head’s up. Which we’ve technically been given, but not really because we know it’ll happen. Just not when it’ll happen. Which sort of ties into what everyone knows about death. Everyone’s aware it’ll happen one day, someday, yet everyone’s baffled when it strikes. That opens a whole can of existential proverbial worms, which isn’t really what I was talking about, but it’s also an important—”

“Walter.” Bez snapped his fingers close to my face like pulling me from a daze. “You’re rambling. You had an epiphany. Now, deep breath, and exhale all the tangents before sharing your idea.”

“Right.” I followed his advice and let all the tiny thoughts brewing in my brain fizzle away so I could focus. “We’ve been focusing on trying to stop Lilith from entering our world. I mean, we’ve been hoping she’s dead but also paranoid she’s got some escape plan at the ready. We can’t prevent what we’re unaware of. However, we can plan for her arrival.”

“And how exactly do we do that?”

“We just need the Diabolic orb that can contain a devil.”

“First of all, I destroyed those orbs.”

“You broke it.” I shoulder-bumped him. “Broken things can be restored.”

“You are an expert at fixing broken things.”

“I can’t tell if that’s a jab and me or you.”

“Six of one, half a dozen of the other.”

“Anyway—”

“Second of all”—Bez dramatically cleared his throat—“we have no idea if such a device exists.”

“Yes, we do. The witches told us.”

“Just because some witch told us doesn’t make it true.”

“Why would he lie?” I asked. “He planned on using the flame key right then and there to bring in Lilith.”

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