Chapter 9

  [Establishing the Hyde Dynasty. Complete.]

  The message popped up not ten seconds after Flamey — my new demon daughter — drank every drop of blood I had offered her.

  [Determining dynastic traits based on traits of the founder and of members. In progress. Please wait.]

  Okay, this sounded interesting: dynastic traits, just as Burning Darkness had predicted.

  [Allocation of dynastic traits to all members of the dynasty. Complete.]

  [Your heir is currently known as Flamey. Do you wish to permanently assign that name to your heir?]

  ‘Sure. Yes,’ I said.

  [Do you wish to share and assign your family and dynasty name with your heir, Flamey?’]

  ‘Uhm … yeah, why not.’

  Flamey Hyde. Sounded alright I supposed, and since I had just adopted her as my daughter and heir, this was a fairly standard thing to do, wasn’t it?

  [You, the dynasty founder, have a middle name. Do you wish to assign a middle name to your heir?]

  I glanced at Flamey, still holding the empty, blood-smeared cup, staring into nothing as if reading or listening to The Genius’ messages, just like I was. A middle name, huh? It couldn’t hurt, could it? But what name? Hm. She did look like an Elizabeth if I was honest. Why I thought that, I had no idea.

  [You have assigned the middle name “Elizabeth” to your heir. Your blood-bonded daughter and heir is now named: Flamey Elizabeth Hyde.]

  Flamey Elizabeth Hyde. Hm. Not bad if I do say so myself. It had a nice ring to it, or at least I thought so.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ I asked her while reattaching the armour piece to my arm, letting the SAC controls do their thing, re-coupling and re-arranging the synthfibers.

  Flamey snapped her head to me, the expression on her face indecipherable. She stared for long seconds, then she dropped the cup, and of all the things she could have done, she threw herself at me in what I could only interpret as an attempted hug.

  ‘Daddy!’ She squeaked as her long arms wrapped around my armoured figure as best they could.

  ‘Uh … daddy?’ I asked, rather shocked, patting her gently on her back. Was this normal demon behaviour?

  ‘Daddy,’ she stated, seriously this time.

  Well, I supposed I was her father now, and she was my responsibility. For some strange reason, I didn’t mind.

  Then another message popped up.

  [Flamey Elizabeth Hyde selects the option to physically conform to dynastic standards set by the dynasty founder.]

  What the hell? I didn’t recall setting any standards, but the messages kept coming.

  [Flamey Elizabeth Hyde has insufficient accumulated and unused EXP to use this option. As the head and founder of the dynasty, you have the option to share some of your accumulated and unused EXP with dynasty members.]

  [You have accumulated unused EXP. Do you wish to share some of it with Flamey Elizabeth Hyde?]

  Unused EXP? Oh, of course, I remembered. I had killed quite a few of the minotaurs, hadn’t I, during my daring rescue mission. I had even got messages informing me of some EXP gains from those kills, and I had completely ignored them at the time. EXP, huh? This was that mystical Hell energy, or … Ring Energy The Genius called a “reward” for killing another creature. It was the stuff that turned into levels and stats. Probably the same energy my soul could turn into Hell Mana. I was starting to get the picture: Ring Energy was an unrefined form, and the demons could utilise it for their growth in different ways. Okay, that kind of made sense. And I could use it, too, just like the locals. And apparently, I could share it with family members.

  I asked Button to show me the messages I had got for my kills.

  [You have defeated minotaur warrior, Level 22. You receive EXP]

  [You have defeated minotaur soldier, Level 23. You receive EXP]

  [You have defeated minotaur soldier, Level 20. You receive EXP]

  [You have defeated minotaur guard, Level 27. You receive EXP]

  And the messages went on until I could confirm I had dispached 17 enemy units, all in their twenties as far as their levels went. The one thing I did not see here was a notification of me killing the minotaur demon lord of the Third Ring. Shame, really, the big fellow would have had it coming. It also meant the bastard was still out there. But the messages didn’t end with just notifying me of my kills.

  [EXP requirement for Level 18 (Human, sort of) reached. Do you wish to level up?]

  [EXP requirement for Level 19 (Human, sort of) reached. Do you wish to level up?]

  [Alternatively:]

  [EXP requirement for level 21 (Machine Armaments of the Hellfire Lord) reached. Do you wish to level up?]

  Interesting: while I didn’t see a counter or some other way to keep track of the EXP received, it seemed like The Genius was giving me a choice whether I wanted to use it to level myself or my SAC – or rather the item set as a whole. It also seemed like I had the EXP to spare and it wouldn’t be a problem to lend some to Flamey to do whatever this conforming business was. She had chosen to do this herself, and I had no reason to refuse her. I only hoped she knew what she was doing, because I sure did not.

  ‘Fine, give her some EXP,’ I said.

  Parting with the mystical energy was an entirely different sensation than Hell Mana leaving me. It was … almost pleasant, like a weight I didn’t even know was there lifting from my shoulders. I didn’t think it was stored in my soul. It was … somewhere else, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Plus, there was none of that blackish red smoke-like mist I had seen and associated with Hell Mana. Regardless, everything seemed fine for a few seconds; Flamey still fidgeting to hug me better, Tarashak lamenting the ridiculousness of the situation and the far reaching consequences of my actions, and me just trying to figure things out. All normal. Until Flamey let go of me and froze up. I raised an eyebrow at her, thinking she was making choices as The Genius was presenting them to her, but the next second she collapsed to the ground like a sack of synthetic protein powder, her eyes open, unblinking, staring at the dark, unseen ceiling above, her limbs sprawled out and trembling.

  ‘Flamey!’ I yelled.

  Even the demon general stopped groaning and complaining and rushed to us to see what was going on. And whatever was going on, was a disturbing thing to see. Out of nowhere a dim shimmer surrounded the demon girl, which made it difficult to see her properly, almost as if she was wrapped up in a sheet of translucent tyroplastic with some heat-haze trapped under it for extra obscuring effect. But even with that I could see her body was … morphing, for the lack of a better word. Her skin and flesh undulated, changing shape, her hair was changing colour.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  ‘What’s happening?’ I panicked, but before I could bring up the IFD panel and kneel beside her to run a diagnostic, Burning Darkness sent a message.

  [Don’t fret, my man, she’s chosen to conform to your form, there are some energies involved in the process, all normal. Talking about energies, can I use the leftover EXP to level up the set? It’s just enough. Please? Pretty please?]

  ‘Yeah whatever. Are you sure Flamey’s gonna be okay?’ I said, still panicking a little.

  [She will be, don’t get so worked up.]

  That calmed me down somewhat, but not enough to relax. I watched as the process took place in front of my eyes. It was one of the longest fifty seconds I had experienced in recent memory. When it was finally done, and the weird energy field surrounding her dissipated, a very different view greeted me, a very different creature. Well, it was recognisably Flamey, there was no doubt about that, but the change she had undergone was immense. The first thing that jumped at me, was her hair. Gone was her long, straight, black hair; now her curved horns were jutting out of a mane of blonde, slightly wavy hair that reached down almost to her waist. Very fashionable. Very princess-like. Once I had processed that initial shock and managed to take a better look at the rest of her, I was just shaking my head in disbelief; her blood-red, leathery skin had smoothed out and become a brighter and more subdued shade of red. Her limbs and her body had morphed to normal, human proportions and sizes. Had she been human, she’d be comparable to a twelve, maybe thirteen-year-old girl. Her cat-like eyes had remained the same, but she now had lips, transforming her from kinda cute and terrifying to actually cute and only somewhat terrifying. Huh! What a change!

  Flamey clambered to her feet, pulling the thermal blanket tightly around herself. What a relief!

  ‘Are you … okay?’ I asked her.

  ‘Yes, daddy, I’m fine,’ she replied, giving me a bright smile, exposing her almost normal teeth. They were still a bit sharper than human standard, and she kind of reminded me of vampires from antique book covers I’d seen on Earth as a kid.

  ‘I … I want to … get dressed,’ she said, looking down at herself.

  ‘Uhm … okay,’ I said, trying to recall if I’d seen any spare uniforms or coveralls in any of the crates in the shuttle.

  Flamey held out her arms, black and red Hell Mana swirled, and just as her Crunchymel bar had disappeared before, a set of folded clothes appeared in her hands out of nowhere. Of course. Storage. She’d have her stuff there, obviously, because why wouldn’t she? She turned around and walked to the other side of the wreckage to get dressed, and I deemed this a good opportunity to bring my status screen up on my NeuroHUD to have a look at any changes.

  ***

  Name: Calvin Jacob Hyde

  Race: Human. Sort of.

  Titles: Hellfire Lord of the Fourth Ring / Hellfire Champion of the Fourth Ring / Weirdness Incarnate (LOL)

  Level: 17

  HP (Health Points): 230

  HMP (Hell Mana Points): 37

  Strength: 50

  Constitution: 90

  Willpower: 40

  Soulstrength: 45

  Demonic Race Traits:

  - Live in Hell

  - Demonic language

  - Fire and heat resistance

  - Demonic constitution

  - Demonic vision

  - Demonic hearing

  - Hell Mana Affinity

  - Demonic Help Button (DHB)

  Human Race Traits

  - Access to class system (being physically present upstairs is required)

  - Access to upstairs skills and spells (being physically present upstairs is required)

  - Upstairs Mana Affinity

  Demonic Skills:

  - Hades Heal (Level 1)

  Single injury, recovers 6-12 HP. Cost: 39 HMP

  - Cure of the Damned

  Removes curses, ailments or infections, recovers 1-3 HP per minute for seven minutes. Cost: 25 HMP/minute

  - Touch of Hell

  Cost: 80 HMP

  - Infernal Storm

  Cost: 300 HMP

  - Hell Lance

  Cost: 100 HMP

  Upstairs Skills:

  - none

  Dynastic traits and derived skills (Hyde Dynasty):

  - Access and authority to control aspects and functions of the Fourth Ring of Hell, as determined by the rules set by the Genius Loci of this realm.

  - Dimensional Storage of Unearthly Horrors

  This trait-derived skill gives you access to a high-capacity storage facility located in an abandoned dimension. Cost: 1 HMP per access.

  - Wreathed in Flames

  This trait-derived skill, when activated, will protect your body against any and all physical damage by using and supercharging the Hell Mana stored in your soul, until it runs out. Supercharged Hell Mana will appear as a burning fire around your entire body. Cost: 80 HMP per minute.

  - Will of the Infernal Tyrant

  This trait-derived skill, when activated, places an untraceable psychic pressure on demons, compelling them to acknowledge you as the one in charge in any situation.

  Bonded item set: Machine Armaments of the Hellfire Lord

  - Burning Darkness, sword of the Hellfire Lord (Unique Weapon) (Item Set Manager, self-appointed)

  - UTR Corporation, Army designation Mark 7 Survival and Combat Suit (SAC), Medic variant (Unique Armour)

  - JTEC S80 Assault Rifle, Automatic, 8.3 mm AP flechette, caseless (Unique weapon) (Hellfire Attributed Hell Mana infusion of ammunition during the firing process. Optional. + 7 to damage per rifle round. Cost: 1 HMP per round.)

  - JTEC TR50 Semi Automatic pistol, 5 mm flechette, caseless (Unique weapon)

  - MediCorp Amy designation Integrated Field Diagnostic Suite (IFD) (Unique accessory)

  Level: 21

  Durabiliy: 950

  Strength: +115

  Physical defence: 1320

  Magical defence: 2030

  Damage per rifle round: 52 - 105 (59 - 112 infused)

  Damage per sidearm round: 11 - 32

  IFD efficiency: 20 (Increasing IFD efficiency allows for more accurate guiding of healing skills or spells, thus increasing healing speed and quality.)

  ***

  Hm. The changes were there, just as I had suspected. Mostly to my bonded item set, since Burning Darkness had requisition the leftover EXP after giving some of it to Flamey. It seemed it had been enough for him to get the set from level 20 to 21, and he had distributed the gains to its shared stats, but … what the hell was that about the damned sword becoming “item set manager”? I freely admitted that he probably knew more than I did about how to magically handle and level an item set, but he was taking liberties, wasn’t he? But I was too tired to start an argument over it. Besides, the increases didn’t look too bad. And now I also had evidence of what had caused my non-tracer rifle rounds to leave those trails of fire, and it seemed there was more to it than just looking cool.

  Increases to added strength and resistances were good, probably, that 17 points of damage my SAC had suffered when barreling into the minotaur king all sorted out. It was a shame there was no EXP left to level myself up, my human body and stats remaining as they had been.

  My Hades Heal skill or spell had received its first level, becoming a little more efficient, and a whole Hell Mana point cheaper. Okay, progress was progress, however small, no complaints, the skill was useful.

  And would you look at that! Now that I had a dynasty of my own, I had dynastic traits. And they looked useful. I had a good idea how that had happened: Flamey. She had become the second member and heir of the dynasty, and The Genius had deemed it appropriate to share some of her traits and skills with me. It must have been how this whole blood-bonded adoption process and dynasty building worked. I was almost sure Flamey had got something from me as well in terms of skills and traits, but I’d have to confirm it with her once she got dressed. Well, regardless of the details, I was rather pleased to see that I had inherited Flamey’s storage skill, or spell, or trait — the words seemed to be interchangeable for all intents and purposes — having just witnessed its extreme usefulness. That Wreathed in Flames trait was also useful, should I find myself facing a much stronger enemy combatant. Kind of like a get out of jail card in old games. Now, Will of the Infernal Tyrant sounded ominous, but the description made it clear it could be quite useful when dealing with demons. I’d have to see how efficient it was though.

  All in all, I didn’t have a reason to complain. Except for the fatigue and tiredness pressing down on me like a descending spaceship. Then for being in Hell, completely cut off from my own people, and not knowing what would happen next. In fact, I had quite a lot to complain about. And quite a lot to do as well: I was yet to have a look at the Ring Management System The Genius had so graciously presented me with, I had talk to Flamey about her own stats, and I had to talk to Tarashak into giving up his outdated notion of humans making bad demon lords and get him to help me to get myself a dungeon. I sighed. I was tired.

  Flamey returned, fully dressed, and I just caught the second my thermal blanket disappeared into her magic storage. In front of me stood a young girl, all cleaned up, her new and fashionable blond hair held together in a wavy ponytail, her black one-piece dress and cape lending her a distinctly evil, early-teen priestess of the damned look. Her smile, on the other hand, was warm and happy, and it was aimed at me. Then, after a second the smile turned into a yawn. Which was infectious, and I yawned, too.

  ‘Alright sweetheart, I think it’s time to rest and sleep,’ I said to her, and she nodded fervently. I turned to the demon general. ‘Tarashak, are you staying or are you going?’

  He looked around, and with a sigh he said,

  ‘I am staying. For now.’

  ‘Good stuff. Flamey and I are going to get a little shuteye, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘I do not mind. I am rather tired myself,’ he said, looking around again. ‘Are we going to be safe, sleeping? The minotaurs may accidentally stumble upon us.’

  I grinned at the demon, and I opened the automated sentry turret’s control panel on my NeuroHUD. I aimed the sensors on both him and Flamey, designated them as friendlies, and re-activated the 360 degrees scanning pattern. If anyone or anything dared to approach, they’d have to contend with a full drum of large calibre armour piercing rounds fired at a rate of 400 per minute. I wouldn’t want to face that for sure, and if the minotaur king was foolish enough to do so, he’d learn very quickly the same lesson the Corian rebels had to learn: “do not go against the automated sentry turret, you’ll lose.”

  ‘Not a problem, general,’ I said, and enjoyed the demon’s confused expression as he stared at the turret on top of the shuttle, whirring and rotating, scanning the area for enemies. ‘It’s time for that nap before we all collapse where we stand.'