Chapter 11
I woke up, my eyes bleary, my stomach growling. I glanced at the clock on my NeuroHud, still showing the Alice Cooper’s shipboard time. Huh! I had slept five whole hours. Not bad, considering sleeping in a SAC and with the helmet on was always an uncomfortable affair. I hoped I wouldn’t have to sleep like this again, but it came down to whether I could trust the people — or demons — around me enough to sleep without it.
I clambered to my feet next to my old seat in the shuttle in which Flamey was snoozing, curled up on it quite comfortably, being a lot smaller than a SAC suit for which the seat was sized for. She was … snoring quietly. I looked around and found Tarashak sleeping as well, sprawled out on the floor panels, using a small container for a pillow. He opened his eyes the moment he heard the noise of me getting up, and it was impressive to see a two and a half metres tall, bulky demon rising and banging his horned head into the overheads of the passenger compartment. Even more impressive was the fact that the noise did not wake Flamey up.
Tarashak didn’t seem sleepy or tired, he didn’t look like he needed a coffee or to stretch his limbs, hell, he didn’t even look hungry. I, on the other hand, was feeling quite groggy and wanted to go back to sleep. And I was also hungry. And I needed a bathroom, the closest of which could have been lightyears away or in the next universe over for all I knew. Unfortunately, an older SAC’s waste management system — like mine — was so-so at best, the built in container rather small, and I was keen to avoid making use of it as often as possible. Hm. Doing my business in Hell was going to be quite the operation. I rummaged through my carry bag and grabbed my soap, towels, toothbrush and such. I did trust Flamey — she was my daughter after all — but this Tarashak fellow was not in the clear yet. Now, how to arrange a bathroom visit without having to worry about the guy doing something sneaky? Easy. I brought up the automated sentry turret’s menu and designated him as hostile. Then I turned to the demon general who was already eying me suspiciously.
‘Good morning. Look, I’ve got to go and take care of some business outside, alright? Don’t follow me. If you do, you’ll die. I’m serious, you’ll die. Stay in here, yeah? I’ll be back. Ten minutes tops.’
He just blinked his evil, yellow eyes at me as I walked out of the wreckage — perhaps it was too early even for him to start arguing. I glanced up at the sentry turret dutifully scanning the surroundings for targets, and I knew I was safe.
I scurried over to hide behind the nearest flaming pillar, and I began the process of ignoring warning messages while getting completely out of my SAC. Oh, the blessed sensation of freedom, the unusually hot air on my skin — which didn’t bother me in the slightest thanks to my demonic traits — my muscles doing their job without the aid of external synthfibers; yes, it was good to be out of the SAC and stretch my limbs. I got all the urgent businesses out of the way and out of sight, then sparingly using the water I had, I soaped, I washed, I toweled, and I felt like a new man. Then back into the SAC, and back to an increasingly impatient and irritated Tarashak the Smoldering Storm, demon archmage and general. I re-designated him as friendly on the sentry’s panel, and I was almost ready to listen to his complaints early in the morning. Or at 15:32 Alice Cooper shipboard time. Almost ready.
‘You, as the new demon lord of this ring, have responsibilities. We’re at war,’ he greeted me as soon as I arrived back into the wreckage.
‘U-huh, listen, we’ll get to that, but first: you do magic of some sort, right? And you work with fire, judging by your moniker, right?’
‘That is correct, demon lord,’ he said, saying the words “demon” and “lord” with the exact amount of sarcasm and disdain I had expected, and would have used in his situation myself.
‘Good stuff. So,’ I said, holding up a cup of clean, room-temperature water to him. ‘Are you able to heat this up for me a little?’
‘Why?’ He inquired.
‘This is why,’ I said, fishing out a sachet of instant coffee from a ration pack for him to see.
‘Why?’ He asked again.
‘You’ll see. Can you do it or not?’
‘How hot do you want that water?’ He sighed.
‘Just short of boiling.’
‘Fine,’ he consented to my request, rolling his eyes at me.
He stepped closer, hunching down to avoid his head and his horns getting caught in stuff hanging down from the top, reached out with his arm and pointed at the cup. I could see Hell Mana starting to trickle from his hand into it. Through the sensor in my gauntlet, I felt the temperature rising. The demon stopped the process right when I saw the first bubbles forming at the bottom of the cup, and I grinned at him.
‘Fine work, general, you’re good at this,’ I commented, then opened the sachet, poured the granules into it and sloshed it around until the smell of the cheap instant coffee filled the air.
‘Smells bitter. Some kind of poison?’ Tarashak asked.
I took a sip and sighed with pleasure. I opened a concentrated ration bar from the pack, took a bite, and took another sip of my first cup of coffee in Hell.
‘You can’t beat army rations; bland and blissful at the same time,’ I explained. ‘Uhm … you get used to them after a while.’
‘You’re … eating.’ He observed, quite accurately.
‘I am. Don’t you eat? Demons, I mean? I saw Flamey eat.’
‘We do.’ He nodded. ‘We, however, have more important things to do. As I said, we’re at war. Along with your titles, you have inherited a number of responsibilities as well. You would do well to fulfil them, human or not.’
To be honest, having made the decision to take over from Flamey, I had been pondering this whole demon lord business. Until now I had been busy with staying alive and getting a daughter, so I hadn’t had the time to look into the Ring Management System The Genius had made for me, which must have held a number of clues as to what my responsibilities were, as well as some of the tools to fulfil them. Tarashak wasn’t wrong; I had taken this on, and I had to at least try. Both for my own sake, and for Flamey’s. But how? I didn’t know the first thing about this place or what was going on in it.
I finished two ration bars along with my coffee, drank a little bit of extra water to stay reasonably hydrated, and I turned back to Tarashak.
‘So, you are, or were, a general in service of Flamey’s father, correct?’ I asked the demon, glancing at the still sleeping girl, cute as a demonic bunny. ‘Talk me through what happened out there with those minotaur bastards, the state of the war, and what you think we should do.’
‘Correct, I am a general. My levels and and skills with Hell Mana make me one of the strongest mages in the ranks, and I had accepted the General’s Bond with the former lord. I commanded one of his armies.' He explained. 'The invasion began fifty days ago. The enemy had taken full control of the gate between the Third Ring and ours, came through, then tore through our garrison there. Unfortunately, our lord was overconfident as usual, and ordered an all-out assault on the advancing enemy the moment we got word of it, without any reliable information about their numbers and without any long-term strategy in place.’
‘That is a foolish thing to do, usually.’ I nodded.
‘It was … a disaster,’ he agreed. ‘The enemy must have counted over a million. Maybe even two. An unending stream of the scum pouring through the gate, pitted against the hundred and fifty-thousand of the four armies accompanying our lord, one of those armies being mine. Overconfidence. We were crushed, and we … fled. Then, in a manner typical of his idiocy, Ugrathar simply ordered all his generals to fight the enemy any way they saw fit. We were chased from one end of the ring to the other, to here, while the minotaur king’s armies spread out and attacked all the other generals, pushing them back to fortified cities. Yesterday, before Ugrathar died, I had word from Riaret, Kralsen, Lagar and Sersavet; they were still holding, but unable to break out of the cities much less join forces. They are surrounded and outnumbered.' Tarashak paused to consider his own words. To me this was just a story, to him recent events that had led him here. 'I don’t know what the idiot-lord was trying to do by coming here, but capture was inevitable. Perhaps he wanted to lure the enemy in here to be left wandering these halls of cursed pillars, but I cannot be certain. In the end, it was the minotaur champion that chased the lord in here, and then finally the minotaur king showed himself to wrest control of the Ring from the heir who had inherited it. The rest, you know.’
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
‘Right. Sounds like your former lord wasn’t the brightest fellow around,’ I remarked.
‘An understatement.’ Tarashak nodded.
‘So, how do I, as the new Demon Lord of the Fourth Ring, come into this?’
‘Hm. First of all, you must stay alive, or in case you die, your title must pass to an heir. Or any native of this ring. That way, the control of the realm stays with us, city defenses will stand, the population will maintain a sense of unity, and the generals will be able to maintain their armies,’ he explained.
While he was speaking, I finally opened the Ring Management System, and my NeuroHUD was flooded with text.
Ring Management System (Fourth Ring)
Congratulations on becoming the ruling Demon Lord of the Fourth Ring! Lucky you!
[As the ruler of this realm, you are the power and authority that holds the Ring together. It is through your presence the Ring stands united. It is through your authority the ring prospers. It is through your power the Ring’s unbreakable defences keep everyone safe. You are the one who decides the direction the Ring will take; from a city’s right to exist to a smith establishing a smithy, everything that happens in the realm is in your purview. You are the force that will shape this Ring according to your vision of the future.]
Well, well, well, the welcome message of the Ring Menagement System — or RMS for short — already confirmed Tarashak’s words. It sure seemed like the ruling Demon Lord was indeed a if not the cornerstone of the Ring, just by existing. Must have been some magical rules and their automatic enforcement at play here, no doubt administered by The Genius.
And then came the menus, such as cities, populations, resources, economy, development, military and … dungeons! With hope welling up in my heart, I opened the “dungeons” menu and read the descriptions hurriedly, until I got to the relevant section:
[While it is possible to maintain an existing dungeon during the invasion of a ring, creating one is not.]
The death of hope was always a painful thing. And it seemed like dealing with the ongoing minotaur infestation wasn’t optional. With a sigh, I opened the military menu.
Fourth Ring Military
Generals: 0
Armies: 0
Garrisons: 0
Ongoing Campaigns: 0
Ongoing Invasions of Your Ring: 1
Ongoing Invasions of a Ring by Your Forces: 0
Available Ring Energy: 12,983,400
Please open menu points for more details.
Cost of adding new, custom menu points: 10,000 Ring Energy (RE).
I was a bit surprised about this after hearing Tarashak say other generals were still maintaining their armies. Then again, with the death of their lord, they were probably no longer counted as official armies of the Fourth Ring and of the new demon lord.
‘I don’t have any generals or armies,’ I said to him.
The guy looked conflicted all of a sudden, his eyes flicking left and right.
‘You do not.’ He nodded. ‘This is not a good situation. Without a Demon Lord to bind the generals, they can maintain an army, but they all act independently without any means to coordinate with each other at distances, and without the empowerments that come from serving a lord.’
‘Well, if that’s the case, how would you like to be the first demon general to … uhm … serve me?’ I asked.
He looked even more conflicted than before. I had a feeling he would have liked nothing more than to serve as a general once more … if I wasn’t human. And I was right.
‘Hm. Serving a human. A distasteful proposition.’
Distasteful, huh? Not like I would ever go out of my way to recruit an army of monstrous demons myself if I didn't have to. The nerve of this guy! Unfortunately, if I wanted to get my dungeon, I would probably need an army.
‘Well, the way I see it, you have two choices. No. Three choices,’ I said to him, and I made ready to draw my sidearm to shoot him if necessary. ‘First: you could try to kill me, then either serve Flamey as your lord, or take the title from her and become the ruling demon lord yourself.’
Tarashak shook his head.
‘From what I’ve seen, I may not be able to attempt such a thing and live,’ he said.
I relaxed my hand hovering over my sidearm.
‘Okay, that’s … wise,’ I said. ‘The second choice is for you to bail and hope you and the other generals will somehow manage to defend your kingdom against those millions of bullfaced bastards.’
‘That is also a doomed endeavor. Without ring-wide coordination, it is a matter of time before the remaining armies fall, and before you yourself will be hunted down for your title.’
‘Yeah, I thought that might be the case,’ I agreed. ‘Which leaves us with the last choice: Tarashak, become my general, and help me secure this realm. Like it or not, human or not, I am the ruling demon lord now, I am the power and authority that will shape this place according to my vision of the future. And oh boy, I have a vision for the future.’
‘Does this vision involve making a dungeon and vanishing into the surface world first chance you get?’ he asked, sneering at me.
‘Well, yeah, eventually,’ I admitted. ‘Look, I am here and I intend to stay alive, which I believe is a goal we share. I want that dungeon, and it looks like the only way I’ll get it is fighting this invasion and securing your little corner of Hell. I don’t know about our chances of success, but if we don’t even try, then we might as well just surrender and die with shame. I’m not willing to do that. I have a daughter to raise, an entire ring to exploit, and then my own people to reconnect with eventually. That’s my offer, take it or leave it.’
Tarashak mulled this over, thinking hard, which gave me enough time to finish my coffee and to light a cigarette. Hmmm.
‘Very well, Hellfire Lord.’ Tarashak made his decision and bowed to me. ‘I will serve as one of your generals. Let us establish the bond.’
‘Okay, that’s great. Good decision,’ I said, then I whispered. ‘Button, how do I do this bond thing with the general?’
***
I reached out to Tarashak. The demon had to bend down slightly to clasp my hand into his, and an exchange of Hell Mana, and probably a little bit of that Ring Energy stuff as well, took place. I was happy the process didn’t involve one or both parties drinking the blood of the other — I don’t think I’d have been keen to sample the blackish fluid that passed for blood with demons. In short order the bond between us as lord and his general began to form, and even tough I could feel it happening, I couldn't really compare it to anything I had felt before.
[A Bond with your general is established. You can now monitor and aid your general in his duties via the relevant menus of the Ring Management System.]
I got the notification, and I brought up said menus.
Fourth Ring Military
Generals: 1
Armies: 1
Garrisons: 0
Ongoing Campaigns: 0
Ongoing Invasions of Your Ring: 1
Ongoing Invasions of a Ring by Your Forces: 0
Available Ring Energy: 12,983,400
Please open menu points for more details.
Cost of adding new, custom menu points: 10,000 Ring Energy (RE).
I opened the Armies menu.
Armies: 1
The Great War Mages of Tarashak the Smoldering Storm
Personnel: 113
Composition:
- Mages: 35
- Warriors: 68
- Other: 10
‘You still have an army,’ I commented.
Well, it was more like a company rather than an army, consisting of three or four platoons, but a hundred or so demons were better than no demons at all.
‘I sent all who were still alive to hide and bide their time, before we were captured. As long as I am alive, they will wait for me,’ Tarashak explained. ‘As I am now bonded to you, your power allows me to sense them at greater distances, and I can instruct them properly even from here, and they can fulfil their tasks more efficiently.’
‘Well, that’s a start. Do you think we can re-group with them, and then discuss what to do? You know, form a plan and a strategy?’
‘We can, and that is exactly what we should do,’ he agreed.
‘Hm. Listen, I saw two others with you and Flamey. The ones the minotaur king sliced in half. Were they generals, too?’
‘They were. Graunthal the Whispering Blade and Eksareth the Burning Rage.’
‘What of their troops? Any left, do you think?’
‘Hard to say. If any half-decent captains are still alive, there is a chance they have kept the soldiers from disbanding and fleeing, and they could be in hiding and waiting. If not, those troops have likely dispersed, or been killed, or both.’
‘Okay,’ I acknowledged the information. ‘For now then the plan is to find your people, re-group, possibly round up stragglers, form a cohesive unit if we can, and start making plans to deal with the giant assholes invading the place. Did I miss anything?’
‘No, Hellfire Lord. It is a sound plan. For now.’
‘Alright. Let me wake Flamey, then let’s pack up and get going,’ I said, then I got to it.
