Chapter 12
Flamey wasn’t happy to be woken up but reminding her that she had some delicious Crunchymel bars to look forward to, solved that problem — she was up in the blink of an eye, fresh as an infernal daisy. For breakfast she devoured a ration bar, and then two small bites of her chocolate to wash the taste of it away. I gave her some water as well — as it turned out even fire demons needed some hydration occasionally — and she was good to go. It was time to pack up and put everything we could carry into my storage.
Ominous name aside, the Dimensional Storage of Unearthly Horrors was useful in the extreme. After a bit of experimentation, I managed to use this thing properly. First victim to land in the abandoned dimension was ammunition; over a thousand rounds for my assault rifle — on top of the eight mags I had on me — and four hundred and fifty rounds for my sidearm. Wouldn’t be too shabby normally, although with millions of minotaurs to slay, I was kind of dreading the future. I’d have to lean into magic spells and swordsmanship after all, and the sooner the better, considering the finite nature of ammunition.
Other than that, I packed up and stored the sentry turret along with all three ammo containers, four hundred rounds each. The thing was almost a cannon, really, and woe to any man or demon foolish enough to approach it with ill intent. I kept the reccie drone on hand, but anything that looked even remotely usable, like comm equipment, medical supplies, rations, water, or just wasn’t an integrated part of the shuttle, ended up in storage. Many of the boxes and containers I hadn’t even opened yet, so I had no idea what I had. In the end, I was satisfied and happy to leave the gutted wreckage behind; I had left nothing useful or movable there, it was now an empty husk.
‘Are you quite ready, or will you attempt to force this strange metal shelter into your storage, my lord?’ Tarashak groaned at me as I was giving the wreckage one last look before leaving it behind.
‘No, the thing stays here,’ I said.
‘Good,’ the demon sighed a sigh of relief, and Flamey clapped her hands, grinning at me, ready for the adventure she might have thought our trek out of this place would be. Well, I wasn’t as excited as her; Tarashak had assured me there’d be roving parties of demonic minotaurs looking for us in here, hell bent on dragging us before their king so he could claim the title of ruling Demon Lord of the Fourth Ring.
But the thing was — if I could believe my brand-new demon general — this whole, enormous building with its thousands of fiery stone pillars, had its own dark secret. It had been built a thousand years ago by Siltram the Dauntless Threat, the local demon lord who had re-conquered the place soon after the Fifth Ring’s attempt to invade the upstairs world had failed. Its purpose was to be a near impassable barrier for the forces of the Fifth, should they invade again. Apparently, we were right at the border, somewhere near some sort of gate to the Fifth. And the way this forest of burning pillars worked was: confusion.
‘I don’t know how you found your way back to your … “homebase” from the entrance before you became the ruler of this ring. Those who enter here, no matter from which side, should not be able to navigate it. The magic permeating the entire area should rob anyone and anything of any sense of direction.’ Tarashak shared his thoughts with me.
I had checked this in my Ring Management System, under the appropriate menu called “Invasion Countermeasures’, and sure enough, amongst other things, this huge and weird installation was listed. I remembered thinking that without my SAC’s mapping function I might not have found my way back here after the rescue mission. But … I had. Was it perhaps because I was human and said magic didn’t have an effect on me? Or was it that the reccie drone and mapping function combo was just that good? I wasn’t sure. But if Tarashak was right and there were enemy search parties in here, they sure as hell hadn’t found us yet. They had probably all got lost, and that suited me just fine.
‘I have a good mapping function that came with my armour. I can navigate using that,’ I told Tarashak.
[Come on, my man, do you really think that?]
Burning Darkness pushed forward a message with purple text right into the middle of my field of vision. Was it just me, or was he coming across as smug?
‘What do you mean you overly sharp rust bucket?’ I growled at the sword as quietly as I could.
[Seriously, have you not noticed that I am pushing back the magic effect of the place as we speak? That mapping function is clever, but it’s just a bonus, man!]
‘Really?’
[Really.]
Well, to be honest, I did remember the feeling of being completely lost when I had first looked around this place, but I had attributed that sensation to having just arrived in Hell. And I did remember the sensation lessening when I had picked Burning Darkness up and bonded with him.
‘Okay, I’ll bite. How?’
[Ha-hah! I’ll have you know, I was here when that asshole Siltram built this place, and I know how it works, so negating some of the effects is a piece of cake for me. Or a walk in the park. Or like taking candy from a toddler, take your pick. I have found quite a few idioms in your entertainment library.]
‘Okay, so you’re old. Also, how the hell are you accessing my entertainment library?’
[I’m only as old as I feel, and I feel young, my man. And there’s nothing you can hide from your trusty Item Set Manager. Except … your password for that folder labeled “erotica”. What even is that?’]
‘You don’t need to know that!’ I snapped at the nosy bugger and changed the topic immediately. ‘Okay, so you know what this place is about. Should I switch the effect off? I have an option for that in the menus.’
[No, don’t do that. You’ll be fine, just don’t let your demons wander off. Any bullfaced scum will get lost in these stupid halls for all eternity. And they’ll starve to death. Probably. If we bump into some, it will be by pure chance. If that happens — and it could happen — make sure none of them are left alive to follow us out.]
‘Copy that,’ I whispered to Burning Darkness as I fired up the reccie drone.
The archways that led out of this weird place were only an hour’s walk away, if we followed the path I had marked on the map. Which we would. Considering how ridiculously large the inside of this building was — for it was indeed a building with walls and roof and everything — I just didn’t think anything would or could happen.
Flamey jumped almost like a cat would as the poor little recon device lifted off and rose into the air. Luckily, she missed it. I gave her a stare, she hung her cute little demon head and begrudgingly let the idea of catching the drone go.
‘Right. Flamey!’ I called to the little, horned girl, thinking about “my demons” wandering off, and fished out a tracker from my carry bag. She waltzed over to me, smiling as always, looking at me expectantly. ‘Put this on!’ I told her. She scowled at the little gadget hanging on a ball chain. ‘This is so I can find you if we get separated.’ I explained.
‘Okay,’ she said, the grin returning to her face, and she let me put it around her neck.
‘Don’t lose it, alright?’
‘Okay.’ She nodded fervently.
‘Do I not get one?’ Tarashak complained, looking at me, his lipless mouth in a sneer.
‘I only had the one, sorry.’
‘Hm.’ Was all he said.
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I couldn’t think of anything else; we were as ready as we could be. I set the drone to fly thirty metres ahead of us to spot any trouble, and we were off.
***
I followed the route traced out in my mapping function while keeping an eye on the camera feed from the drone. Flamey trudged after me like a demonic puppy worried its owner would leave it behind, doing her best to keep up and to not get lost, all the while managing to keep that wide and warm smile on her face. I wasn’t sure if she was actually happy, or grinning was just her default setting. Well, at least she was cute. In a creepy way. Tarashak sure didn’t smile as he brought up the rear a couple of metres behind my demon daughter, save for the occasional sneer as he scanned the area around us, turning his head left and right. I wondered if he was unhappy he had to slow down behind two creatures with shorter legs and strides. But just like I had my rifle in hand, he had a small bubble of Hell Mana constantly covering his hands. We were ready for anything, or so I hoped.
Not ten minutes into our trek, they were upon us. Tarashak roared like a lion that stabbed its toe on something, and by the time I pivoted around all I could see was a storm of searing hot fire and several large figures crumbling to ashes. Flamey threw herself to the ground as I leveled my gun. My targeting system picked up more of them coming as the all-consuming flames the archmage had called forth dissipated. Red dot dead center on the next applicant, I pulled the trigger. My rifle spat out three rounds in a fraction of a second, and the armoured minotaur flinched as a hole appeared in its chest. The bull-faced beast dropped its gigantic axe and collapsed to the ground.
[You have defeated minotaur warrior, level 23. You receive EXP.]
But more of the Third Ring scum were coming into view from behind the pillars. In retrospect, I should have kept the drone as a rear-guard unit, in fact, I should have had three or four of them to keep all approaches covered. Ah, wishful thinking. Now we had at least twenty or more hostile units attacking from the rear.
[Hey, put that gun away! Use magic! Use me! Practice, man, damn it, practice!]
The purple-coloured message from Burning Darkness appeared in my field of vision, just as the minotaurs called a general assault, and Tarashak’s hands once again were covered in Hell Mana for another spell.
I put my rifle back into its slot and drew Burning Darkness as I rushed forward, trying to get ahead of the demon general without getting in the way of his spell. With a thought I also put up the Health Point counter as well as my SAC’s durability counter to a corner of my vision so I could keep track of it and bail if things were to get bad.
HP (Health Points): 230
Durability (Bonded Item Set): 980
Tarashak cast another of his firestorms just as I sprinted past him, the flames enveloping another two or three enemies, but that didn’t mean there weren’t more for me to engage. Even through my polarised visor, the brightness of his spell-spawned, magical fire nearly blinded me, and I barrelled straight into a mass of muscle and armour in the shape of a giant, humanoid tree-bull also running forward. Thanks to my SAC I was at least as heavy as the beast was, and the force of our collision knocked it back as much as it did me. I wasted no time: I slashed out with my sword, swinging widely, completely missing my very much mobile target. No big surprise to be honest, I had no idea how to wield a sword properly. My opponent, after dodging my strike, leaped forward with a roar and with a scarily sharp looking axe in hand. The weapon fell on me like a meteor entering atmosphere, sparking and crying as I used Burning Darkness to block it, gripping the blade with both hands.
[What are you doing? You suck at this!]
The sword complained, and since I was fighting for my life, I ignored him.
I pushed the axe away from me as much as I could, then taking advantage of my smaller size, I stepped in under a swing of the minotaur’s other arm and punched him in the gut with my gauntleted fist. The beast hunched forward, a gurgling sound and a lot of spittle leaving it monstrous mouth, my fist leaving a sizable dent in the armour he had. That must have hurt – the magic and synthfiber aided strength I could exert through my SAC was no joke. I had neither the space nor the time to lift my sword for another strike or a stab, so I did the next best thing I could think of: I drew my sidearm with my free hand, pressed it against the guy’s belly and pulled the trigger. Boom - boom - boom - boom. Four rounds tore into the freakish creature, sparks scattering as the small flechettes tore through its armour and into its flesh. It sunk to its knees, not dead yet, but close. Its head now almost level with mine, I quickly pressed the gun against its forehead and pulled the trigger one more time.
[You have defeated minotaur warrior, level 25. You recieve EXP.]
My SAC’s durability went down 20 points — the punch and the collision both a contributing factor, probably — but I got him! As soon as I had this cheerful thought, my victim’s best friend was on top of me, and before I could react in any way, the bastard kicked me in the chest. Not even a high kick, the almost three metres tall minotaur barely lifted its leg. I flew back anyway, landing on my back, my SAC’s durability losing 65 points. By a miracle that was the tight movement controls of SAC OS, I held onto both my handgun and my sword, but being on my back and a towering, horned monster stepping in to stomp on me, was enough to fling me into full survival mode. I aimed my handgun the best I could and kept pulling the trigger until the mag was empty, sending twelve rounds into the would-be killer of Sergeant Hyde. My brain was overwhelmed with the dark mist of panic and adrenalin; I couldn’t even tell whether the giant in front of me was dead or not, all I could see it was coming down on me, possibly just falling. I let go of my gun, gripped Burning Darkness with both hands and held him up in a last-ditch effort to prevent my fate. The minotaur fell on me, the blade going right through its chest like a plasma torch through a Crunchymel bar, and I found myself under a ton of bull.
[You have defeated minotaur warrior, level 25. You receive EXP]
Well, I was alive, and the creature was not, so there was that. It was too early to celebrate though: a whole queue of the demonic creatures were waiting to have their turn. Well, not waiting, rushing forward, bellowing their war-cries and brandishing their weapons ranging from axes to maces to weird looking, serrated swords. Damn, I had to get out from under all this dead meat, and it also crossed my mind that should I manage that somehow, I should probably run. But that wasn’t an option now, was it? Rifle? Not enough time or room to draw it; I had four or five seconds at best until the approaching batch of minotaurs reached my currently immobile self. I could sense Hell Mana gathering somewhere behind me again — Tarashak was certainly not giving up, readying another spell, and I decided in that split second that I should follow his example. I had magic after all. It took me another second to connect to my soul — if that was the right way to describe it. I had to hurry; another three seconds before I would have to find out how many demonic creatures it would take to flatten and crack the ferrocom plating of a SAC. Hell Mana gathered in my hands, I reached out and pointed at the enemy as much as I could from under the dead bastard, and I desperately willed this thing to work. And just the moment before the enemy reached me, I yelled,
‘Infernal Storm!’
Hell Mana moved with the speed of light, and a mere three or four metres in front of me a whirlwind of bright orange fire erupted from thin air, engulfing the front ranks of the attacking force. Three minotaurs, carried forward by their momentum, burst out of the storm like living torches, blazing brightly and roaring in pain, their objectives forgotten in favour of trying to quench the flames by falling to the ground and rolling around. Seeing the bulky, almost three metres tall creatures do that, was something of an experience. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to admire my handiwork — 300 HMP well spent — as the burning ones were not dead yet, and more were on the way as the firestorm subsided. I needed to work on this and level the skill, if I wanted to turn anyone into ashes in a second like Tarashak did.
My magically enhanced SAC turned out to be powerful enough to enable me to roll the giant, dead critter off me. I sprung to my feet, pulled Burning Darkness from its chest, and I stabbed the downed and burning minotaurs in their necks, dispatching them, while Tarashak’s much stronger and hotter storm of hellfire caught the next wave of attackers, absolutely nullifying their existence.
[You have defeated minotaur scout, level 26. You receive EXP.]
[You have defeated minotaur soldier, level 23. You receive EXP.]
[You have defeated minotaur soldier, level 23. You receive EXP.]
[Skill: Infernal Storm has reached level 1.]
Oh? A level for the skill? Ah, whatever, I had more important things to do: enemies to look for and defeat, and to stay alive.
‘And that’s why you don’t send worthless footsoldiers against an archmage, you scum!’ Tarashak bellowed as he unleashed yet another storm of burning vengeance. It was impressive to say the least.
‘How the hell did these guys manage to corner you and that damned ex-lord of yours, eh?’ I yelled to him.
‘Ah. Sheer numbers,’ he yelled back over the roaring flames of his spell.
Oh yeah, that. I figured even his HMP would run out at some point, so all the enemy needed was enough bodies to throw at him. I scanned the area in front of me, readying myself for the next wave. I could get a Hell Lance spell in, but I didn’t have enough juice for another storm. And I didn’t need it; the enemy had stopped coming.
‘Is this it? Did we get them all?’ I asked.
‘No. More are hiding behind the pillars over there. I can sense them.’ The demon general pointed at a pillar some twenty metres away.
I recalled the drone and directed it to take a peek behind that pillar from as high as I could safely fly it.
‘There they are. Five of them.’ I relayed to the demon what I saw on the camera feed, then I flew the drone around a few more pillars to make sure that was all of them. And thank the gods, real and imagined, it was all of them.
‘Well then, would the Hellfire Lord do the honour,’ Tarashak said to me, and I could swear this was the first time I saw his lipless mouth in a genuine — albeit vicious and mocking — smile.
‘Damn,’ I said, and I readjusted my grip on Burning Darkness.
[Oh, this is going to be fun!]
The sword messaged me, and I could just hear him squealing with excitement in his dark little proto-soul. I put him away and got my rifle in hand. I wasn’t ready to face five of the bastards with a weapon I didn’t know how to use.
[Party pooper!]
