Fenn listened quietly to the conversation, bored eyes surveying the smaller beings arrayed before him. He himself had no questions he wished to voice. Those relating to the mission itself would become evident in due time. An honest answer could not be expected to come from the lead Watcher for the rest.

Aye, he was convinced the many-eyed specter heading the expedition would deny any sort of vulnerability regardless of its existence. What fool would willingly entrust this motley group with any information that could be used to harm its kind? 

The answer it gave to the Imp did not disappoint in this regard. It still managed to irk him. He and the Imp had been sent to face an army of angels and cut off its head. He could not speak for the rest of those gathered here, but if that first mission was not a test meant to gauge their usefulness, he knew not what to make of it.

There was a reason for their presence that seemed more reasonable Fenn’s mind. It was no secret that those tasked with finding the location of another Seal of the Apocalypse had run into the snake that had destroyed the first one. The Watcher could not protect what had already been removed. If the enemy had come across the same information they had, preventing this Seal from sharing in the fate of the first one fell to them. The spindly thing had failed to acknowledge the possibility, choosing to make light of them instead. 

It irritated him enough to make him entertain the idea of turning on Panoptos the moment they took their first step out of the Citadel.

Regrettably, fantasizing was as far as that went. Small acts of rebellion were tolerated as long as they failed to bear fruit, but the moment he succeeded in wounding a central agent of the Council, as long as the Imp’s aims aligned with theirs, he would be going against their agreement.

Instead, he focused on the task at hand, following the group into the World Tree. A brief spell of nausea struck the demon as it passed through the realms. His nose and ears twitched at the smells and sounds of a new world.  His eyes blinked, looking out into the distance, to the large stalactites that lined the ceiling of the enormous cavern they were in and the dizzying shape of what he could only identify as the horizon illuminated by the light coming from the numerous cliffs and ravines running through the floor, but did not think terribly about the implications. As long as he could exist in a realm, the specifics mattered little to the warrior, and he quickly regained his bearings.

A sound like cracking rock drew Fenn’s attention, and he craned his neck upwards just as the lead Watcher revealed the presence of enemies. The dog tensed as he caught sight of the beasts on the ceiling. True to their lead’s predictions, metallic ridges and carapaces lined the beasts’ figures as though they were machines. The sounds they made as they detached from the roof were loud and obnoxious.

Fenn began drawing forward, a bass growl reverberating in his chest. The portal must have dropped them into these things’ territory, as he could not imagine hungry predators attacking so many unknown prey so readily, or belting out roars to warn—

His musings were interrupted by the sudden sight of the imp setting herself a flame and, without a shred of hesitation, sent a plume of fire into the midst of the creatures. 

A bark of harsh laughter escaped him, and the hound propelled itself forward with eager eyes even as Lily’s lips formed his name. Good. There was no need to think for such a thing. If the way was blocked, the obstacle need only be removed. If a presence offended, nothing more was needed to let the blood flow.

Fenn ploughed through the explosion’s shockwave as though it was merely a light breeze and lunged towards the nearest beast with an outstretched claw. He had a mind to pin one of them and see what kinds of entrails would spill from a mechanical beast.