Chapter 42

  Reinos’ soldiers stood guard around us at some distance, securing the conquered Camp One as well as keeping an eye on us while their general was off to finish the remnants of the enemy. Grashon, his grunts and my two archers, Vik and Sur, were looking at me and the intruding Fifth Ring demon, and I could see in their gazes that they were starting to sense something wasn’t right, even if they couldn’t see what I could.

  ‘So, what is it you’re doing here, Zeneth? And how the hell did you interfere with my duel? I was under the impression it wasn’t possible,’ I asked the lanky, shadowy Fifth Ring demon.

  ‘I didn’t interfere,’ he stated calmly.

  ‘Yes, you did. I noticed the psychic influence. Some sort of aura effect,’ I argued.

  ‘I didn’t interfere,’ he repeated himself. ‘What you noticed was an aura I use to block perception of me. When it comes to a duel, it is not interference.’

  That was hard to swallow; it had distracted me quite a bit, so in my book it was interference. Obviously, the Genius was reading a different book.

  ‘Alright. Setting that aside, what do you want with me?’ I asked.

  ‘To talk. For now,’ he said, and I couldn’t see a single muscle moving on his body. If he even had muscles at all; it was hard to tell with this blob of animated darkness who appeared as an ice-demon to everyone else but me. I thanked my psychic resistance skills for it.

  ‘Okay. Talk!’ I told him curtly.

  ‘Not here. In the city,’ he said.

  ‘In the city? Why is that? You want to snatch my helmet again so you can show everyone in there what I am?’

  ‘No. Your general and your captains know already, and soon everyone else will,’ he said, his sonorous voice devoid of any undertones.

  Well, that much was true: demons weren’t impervious to the good old rumour mill, and I imagined the annoying Fifth Ringer was right about the news spreading.

  ‘Why then? Is here not good enough for you?’ I demanded. ‘Or do you have a problem being surrounded by my soldiers?’

  ‘Your soldiers are of no concern. Bring them if you want. They do not possess the resistances you do.’ He explained. ‘There is a lake at the centre of Garoshek. I wish to go there.’

  ‘Why?’ I asked, exasperated already.

  ‘I want to bathe,’ he said.

  ‘What? Bathe? That’s it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Bathe. You mean go into the water and … bathe?’ I asked, just to confirm I hadn’t misheard him.

  I hadn’t seen a demon bathe ever since I’d arrived in this place. I didn’t even think they needed to bathe, really; I was quite sure demons didn’t sweat, and even after the grimiest marches and bloodiest fights I couldn’t recall any of them smelling bad. Not even the damned minotaurs.

  ‘Yes. Bathe. That’s it.’ Zeneth confirmed.

  ‘Is this guy for real?’ Burning Darkness butted into the weird conversation I was having. ‘Listen, Zeneth, or whatever your name is, you made a move on my guy here, failed, so you’re in no position to demand anything! I’ll cut you, I swear I’ll cut you!’

  Huh! My sword was getting angry it seemed. Zeneth’s head tilted to look down at Burning Darkness’ hilt sticking over my shoulder — or at least I thought that’s what he was looking at — but said nothing. So, the guy wanted to go and bathe in the city? Was this the next move in his plan? Was he trying to position himself for another attempt to distract me or to kill me or for something else? Maybe he wanted to drown me or something. Or maybe Garoshek was some sort of popular pre-invasion tourist destination demons visited for its great swimming pools? I had no way to tell. One thing I knew though: a demon with psychic skills and abilities like him had nothing to fear from my soldiers. If I was right, I was the only one capable of seeing through his psychic disguise — not counting my talking sword — and the only one able to resist whatever psychic trickery he could and would employ. And if that was true, did it really matter whether we’d talk here in Camp One or in the city? I didn’t think it did, and I wanted to know why this inky black weirdo was here and what he and his boss, Kralsen, wanted with the demon lord of the ring. Who happened to be a human.

  ‘Alright, Zeneth, the city it is.’ I said to him.

  ‘What? You’re going to go along with his demands?’ Burning Darkness protested immediately.

  ‘It doesn’t matter where we talk,’ I said to him. ‘If he tries anything we’ll cut him down, just as you promised him.’

  ‘Oh. Alright then.’ My bonded weapon conceded.

  In a puff of Hell Mana, I stored my sentry turret Grashon and my team had brought back to me, then addressed them.

  ‘Grash, you and your boys and girl are coming with us.’ I told them, and they all nodded. ‘Vik, Sur! Follow us from a distance and keep an eye on this fellow.’ I told the archers, pointing at Zeneth.

  Zeneth didn’t seem to mind, or if he did, he gave no sign of it.

  ‘Who is the ice-demon?’ Vikaret asked, taking her bow off her shoulder already.

  ‘I’ll know soon enough,’ I said. ‘Are we all ready?’

  The all nodded, and I informed Reinos about my movements as we began to walk out of Camp One and towards the city’s gate.

  ***

  Burning Darkness used the silent, ten-minute walk to the city walls to level up my bonded item set — I was a little surprised he could do it while on the move. I felt all the EXP moving around, and I heard the pops and clanks as the ferrocom plates of my SAC were magically repaired, dents and scuffs vanishing and evening out nicely. I was sure mechanics and repair crews would jump at the opportunity to gain the ability to use magic. Well, maybe one day. In the meantime, I decided to go through my updated stat sheet and my new skills while I had the time.

  Name: Calvin Jacob Hyde

  Race: Human. Sort of.

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

  Level: 17

  HP (Health Points): 168

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  HMP (Hell Mana Points): 162

  Strength: 50

  Constitution: 90

  Willpower: 40

  Soulstrength: 45

  Demonic Race Traits:

  - Live in Hell

  Makes breathing Hell’s toxic atmosphere possible

  - Demonic language

  Enables communication with all demonic races

  - Fire and heat resistance

  As the name suggests, duh!

  - Demonic constitution

  Tougher bones, denser muscles, hardened skin, the whole lot.

  - Demonic vision

  Enables seeing through Hell’s toxic and obscuring atmosphere

  - Demonic hearing

  If you have to ask, you’re an idiot

  - Hell Mana Affinity

  The ability to process and utilise Hell Mana

  - Demonic Help Button (DHB)

  An information source to compensate for lack of innate demonic knowledge and intuition

  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 4)

  Single injury, recovers 7-17 HP. Cost: 37 HMP

  - Cure of the Damned

  Removes curses, ailments or infections, recovers 3-6 HP per minute for seven minutes. Cost: 24 HMP/minute

  - Touch of Hell (Level 3)

  Cost: 75 HMP

  - Infernal Storm (Level 3)

  Cost: 250 HMP

  - Hell Lance (Level 2)

  Cost: 92 HMP

  - Master of the Hellfire Blade (Level 6)

  A skill associated with the swordfighthing style: Hellfire Blade.

  Upstairs Skills:

  - none

  Combined Skills:

  - Psychic Riposte (combined) (Level 10 + 2)

  - Psychic Remediation (combined) (Level 4)

  - Master of Nightmares (combined) (Level 1)

  - Dreamscape Architect (combined) (Level 1)

  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

  Cost: 1 HMP per access.

  - Wreathed in Flames

  Cost: 80 HMP per minute.

  - Will of the Infernal Tyrant (Level 5)

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

  Bonded item set:

  - Burning Darkness, sword of the Hellfire Lord (Unique Weapon) (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: 23

  Durability: 1150

  Strength: +153

  Physical defence: 1450

  Magical defence: 2150

  Damage per rifle round: 66 - 126 (67 - 128 per infused round)

  Damage per sidearm round: 20 - 49

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

  The first thing I noticed was that I had been given a new title: Hellfire General. It seemed when it came to members of the upper echelons killing each other, their titles would become spoils of war. I thought it was a bit superfluous in my case; as a demon lord I could already talk to my generals, and I didn’t need an entire army under my direct command. I had Reinos for that.

  My own stats were as I had expected; same as before, but low on Health Points due my shoulder injury, my HMP pool at less than half. My bonded item set’s stats had increased nicely with the new level, and all damage to it had been magically repaired. Nothing surprising or unexpected there, so I turned my attention to my new skills.

  Just as Psychic Riposte and Psychic Remediation had some synergy in working together to protect me from psychic attacks and influences, my two new skills seemed to have a similar connection and overlap in their functions as I read the descriptions Button was providing.

  [Master of Nightmares: this active skill has a targeted psychic aura effect. It allows access to the dreams and memories your target experiences while asleep, and through them the user of the skill may interact with the dreamer’s subconscious. The user’s mere presence will often turn the dream into a nightmare. At higher levels, the skill enables more complex interactions with the dreamer.]

  [Dreamscape Architect: this active skill has a targeted psychic aura effect. Provided the user has access to his target’s subconscious via a dream experienced in a sleep-state, the skill enables the user to design and build the dream itself either from scratch or using existing dream fragments. In conjunction with the skill Master of Nightmares, this skill is a powerful tool to extract information from a target, manipulate memories, or perform other intrusive psychic operations.]

  I had to say, this was a rather powerful combo of skills. And unpleasant if you found yourself on the receiving end of it. I had a good idea why I had got them: with the help of my existing resistance skills I had managed to fend off Zeneth’s invasion of my dreams, or at least to turn it around and use it against him to a certain extent, which must have been a qualifying action in the eyes of the Genius, so he had given me the skills to do it again and to do it better. I’d need to test and get some practice in with these skills.

  From what I had gathered, psychic skills were rare. It seemed I had surpassed Flamey in terms of the number of skills I had, although the direction my skill set was taking was different. It was a direction I had not expected, but given what I was currently facing, I had no reason to complain. Hell, despite being a violent and inhospitable place for a human, was providing for my needs as it had been ever since I’d arrived. Hopefully it would be enough to resist whatever psychic nastiness Zeneth might still have in store for me, and to be able to find out what he wanted and why.

  ***

  Reinos had sent word to his captains inside the city and had the gate opened as our little procession approached. The wall in front of me was at least fifteen metres tall, the roughly hewn rocks making it up probably weighing a ton each. As the heavy gate creaked open, operated by some sort of pulley system — as I didn’t see demons pushing or pulling it directly — I saw the gateway arch, and I estimated the wall to be at least five metres thick. The crowd of soldiers — or perhaps just regular townsfolk — who waited for us on the other side of the wall were all low level, my demonic senses telling me only a few were over level 15 amongst them.

  The worried looking fire-demon who rushed forward from the crowd as we made our way through the archway felt to be around level 17. I also had a feeling the poor fellow had been pushed forward by his peers — they all looked worried and reluctant to approach. In fact, as we marched closer to them, they began to part before us to let us through with as much distance between them and us as possible. Their sole and probably unwilling representative — likely a captain in the reserves — came to a halt in front of us, looking left and right but finding no-one and nothing to support him.

  ‘Hello,’ I greeted him, trying to sound friendly and calm despite being quite on edge having the well-disguised Zeneth next to me.

  ‘You are … Hellfire Lord Hyde, I take it?’ the guy inquired, almost stuttering as he looked down at me.

  ‘I am.’

  ‘Uh … well, there is a rumour … you see, my lord, and …’ he began to say, and I knew immediately where this was going.

  I looked at Zeneth, scowling and glaring at him behind the visor of my helmet. Thanks a lot for fanning the flames for the rumour mill. Of course, the news had spread; some of the captains in Reinos’ army had seen me, and since they could all talk to each other, they all knew, including the captains who had been left behind in the city with the reserves. Well, I supposed I had to get this out of the way sooner or later, and luckily Reinos and parts of his army seemed to have accepted that it wasn’t a demon in charge this time around. Maybe this lot would, too. I disabled my helmet’s couplers and slowly removed it, revealing my face to our welcoming committee.

  ‘Well, the rumours are true,’ I told the demon in front of me, kind of enjoying the view of his widening eyes and shocked expression on his face. ‘Name and rank, soldier!’

  ‘My lord?’ the guy asked, not understanding.

  ‘Your name and your rank. You’re with the reserves, are you not? A captain, perhaps?’

  ‘Oh yes. I’m Isdakhan. Captain in the reserves, as you say, my lord.’

  ‘Great. Now, you know how this works, Captain Isdakhan; if any of you are unhappy about who and what I am, I will accept challenges after the battle is won. General Reinos is still out there, killing what’s left of the minotaur horde, so for the time being keep the gates closed, keep your sentries on the walls, and be prepared for anything! The general might even call on you before the battle is over. Is that understood?’

  ‘Yes, my lord!’ The guy almost snapped to attention.

  ‘Good. Now, I need one of your demons to guide us to the lake at the centre of the city. I have some business there.’

  ‘Right away, my lord,’ Isdakhan said, then bellowed to one of the low-level soldiers in the crowd to come forward, and we had our guide. I let the obviously frightened captain get back to his demons, and I made sure all of them had an unobstructed view of my glorious human face, a unique and probably worrying experience for the demons. Honestly, it was a weight off my shoulders — perhaps I should be thanking the dark demon next to me for exposing me. On second thought, no; I was still furious he had done that.

  Our guide, visibly trembling, led the way, and I followed him with my squad and Zeneth in tow.