Demon of Dreadnaught

by Daniel Rogers

  For Kthn, the transportation was instant.

  Actually, the 2 demons and 1 half-demon didn't travel anywhere. They simply stopped existing in the physical world and occupied the same space in hell. She had finally returned to her home plane. Trapped for 20 years in the human body of "Katherine", was constant torture for the small Succubus Kthn. She knew she must hide quickly. The 6 was now very powerful, probably able to command a large dukedom. Demons were vindictive even for her tiny slight in the human world, holding the soul hostage, Kthn knew the 6 would take swift revenge on her, and those rusty claws it had would actually be able to tear her apart in hell. She tapped one of her fat translucent blue tentacles against her forehead. Examining the tall slender black form of her son, as she zoomed away in flight to a thick patch of blue-green grass where she would hide from the 6. It was no longer a freakish spider-like demon. The 6 was now massive. Each of its 6 arms were as long as a man and packed full of muscle. The 6 now had 3 heads on its shoulders all with roach-like eyes scurrying freely between the heads. It was the size of an elephant with tree-trunks for arms. It didn't even notice Kthn flee or the demonic form of Andrew just standing there in confusion. The 6 was more powerful than a 1000 demon kin now and its thoughts were of conquest and castle design. It melted four of its arms together to create giant dragon wings and flew off, leaving the small stature but big breasted mother to guide, or more likely abandon her half-demon son.

  The crosswind coming from the beating giant wings snapped Andrew from his stupor. He felt different. Fully processing the loss of his sister left him hollow, but also he just felt like he was "Less" than he used to be. He called out into the empty area around him. The land was uber alien. He was on a small plain, it had Purple ground and semi fluorescent blue-green grass. The sky was blackish with purple clouds. Without a sister anymore Andrew didn't know who to call for. He just shouted "Hello... Is anybody there" as if he walked into a store without a clerk behind the counter hoping to get someone to attend to him. His mother was hiding in the tall grass so near to him, but the 14-year-old had never in his life tried to call out to her. There was never any reality where she would help her son. This new one was no different. Kthn, her demon form was the size of a chihuahua, popped up and flew past Andrew on the way toward her own selfish endeavor. He called after her. Hearing the uncertainty in her helpless son's voice made her stop and turn back. She flitted back over to him and opened her third eye to examine his status. Her fat stubby tentacles bounced around as she regarded him. He addressed the little blue octopus thing, "Umm miss?"

  Kthn waited for the status information about Andrew to come into focus. She stared at the boy for an uncomfortable length. Her low level and negative -1 experience points meant her third eye could see only the most basic information clearly and focusing on the information took a while, like trying to see on a bright morning as soon as you wake up. She planned to use her son. Kthn intended to steal his exp and escape hell. Waiting, she regarded his new form with her large puppy dog eyes. He was just as tall and lanky as before, but now he was pitch black. He looked like a living shadow. Completely naked it was hard to see any definition or muscle, even up close the boy just looked like a black streak. "Where are we?" he asked cautiously. Kthn didn't feel like waiting for his status to focus, she just started in on the boy to steal his exp. This is Hell. You are trapped here. It's full of demons. Soon they will find us and try to kill us or torture us to feed on our pain. She told the boy the worst things she could to heighten his fear. "But..." she teased confidently "I am your mother, I will help you." She intended to make him dependent on her and then exploit that fear and dependency to draw out and feed on Andrew's negative sexual emotions. She was so narcissistic, she didn't even think of the lifetime of emotional abuse she put the twins through. Where she thought a mother's protection would reassure her son, it had the complete opposite effect. The little sexualized octopus creature in front of him scared Andrew more than any thoughts of hell or demons. His guard went up and his emotions completely shut down. He had learned long ago that his mother enjoyed making him miserable, and he had developed a subconscious guard against her abuse. No amount of cajoling, taunting, instigation, or harassment could draw out Andrew's emotions. His mother unknowingly cleared Andrew's mind of all fear and even sorrow. He was a black creature operating on his logic only. He made no response to her only watched her face turn sour then bring a tentacle up to her bulbous face and tap the center of her forehead and sigh. He brought an arm up, Saw just how black he was and mimicked his mother's move. It was such a deliberate motion, he logically reasoned that it must be significant. Without emotions clouding his judgement, Andrew was hyper aware. The center of his forehead was the location of his "Third eye" Suddenly he could "See" information. Information about everything his third eye looked at. He looked at his mother, turning away from him because she couldn't use him for anything now, and his third eye saw her status almost like words and numbers floating around whatever he looked. On his mother he saw:

  Name: Kthn

  Info: -*

  HP: 100/100

  Energy: 1/1

  level: 0

  Exp: -1

  Faction: Yours, Succubus

  Party:

  Status ailments: Dead

  Equipment: -*

  Quick Skill 1: Entice

  Skills Info: -*

  He could also see much more information about his mother was out of focus and that by "Looking" in a different direction with his third eye while remaining "Focused" on his mother he could see and know more about her. He "Looked" at her Info and like recalling information from a textbook he studied, he just knew so much detailed information about his mother. He could instantly remember that she was 300 years old, from the Scorbi kingdom. She was a Succubus demon. They get their demonic exp from "Sexual corruption." She was once pretty powerful, a level 140 demon who was powerful enough to manifest into the human world where she became trapped. He could somehow remember that her favorite food was spaghetti, she loved eating cum as well. He knew her birthday, her current emotional feeling toward him, Disgust, he even knew where her intended travel destination was, (she was quickly flying away from him toward a place called Tweever tower). The amount he could remember about Kthn was seemingly infinite. Because she was in his "Faction", He could focus his eye on some of the information that she knew, and get intimate details about things he'd never experienced or even heard of. By focusing on Tweever Tower, Andrew remembered it was a place where Sadist-kin tortured the souls of the world who were cast into hell for whatever reason. He couldn't "See" why his mother was going there though. Andrew was a gamer. He understood All of the information he saw in his third eye. He was in some kind of RPG world. He didn't know all the rules though. He didn't know how to focus on himself yet to see his own status. He only knew from video game RPGs that to get stronger, he had to fight. His mother was nowhere to be seen, he could see her relative location in his third eye, like estimating where one is on a mental map. She was far enough away that he felt safe again so he smiled and went to look for something to fight. Andrew ran in a random direction but thought to himself before he got winded, that he may get into a random battle by running around in the tall grass. He felt silly as the gentle grass crumpled beneath his shoe-less feet There was only one rock he had to skip over. Luckily there seemed to be no weather here. The temperature was completely neutral. The clouds didn't move, the grass didn't rustle from anything except hitting his shins as he made wild circles.

  Andrew felt so energetic. Much faster than he was on earth.

  His endurance seemed to be infinite. He made a point of hopping over the double fist-sized rock each time his wobbly circle got near it.

  His vigorous jogging was suddenly interrupted before Andrew could understand how absurd it looked for a naked black teen to be prancing around in hell grass, but the thing that startled him would show him how dangerous it was. He skipped over the rock for the 10th time, but it suddenly do
ubled in size and he tripped mid-air into a lanky black tumble. The strange grass made the landing bearable and Andrew avoided damage. The creature he thought was an innocent rock didn't hesitate. It doubled in size again, bearing jagged spear-like arms, all jagged and chipped grey stone. It lunged at Andrew in a clear attack. His Reaction speed was definitely increased. He used to meander about as a human. He never ran or did things quickly. But here in hell, the rock creature was moving at a ferocious pitch; however, Andrew could see its intended path clearly. The teen could easily roll out of the way of the heavy blow about to hit and probably crush him... He was just frozen in fear. His eyes went wide white, he held his breath in subconscious preparation to scream when the blow made contact. As the thing came inches away from contact, Andrew crossed his arms in front of his head, the way he had done when he was bullied in elementary school. The crushing blow came down where he was cowering. It crunched into the grass and purple dusty ground; landing with a crunch and grinding, then shooting rock chunks and grass in all directions. Somehow though, Andrew avoided the hit. He felt himself slide out of the way. Something happened automatically. Just a split second of soft grass brushing along his back and then the black boy was standing upright arms still weakly covering his face. He didn't do anything to recover, but he didn't waste a second now that he was. The half-demon teenager ran. He ran fast. His long legs propelled him like an antelope. Not simple running, but flying along the ground, quickly out of the grass and onto the dirt. The rock monster used its two spike arms as feet and ran, Its large heavy body grating along on the stiff pillar-like legs. It threw up dust and left pulverized pebbles behind with every fast step. It had no face, no front or back. Just an odd rock grinding after Andrew, still it felt ferocious. The teen looked around as he ran, he needed somewhere to hide. Fighting was a mistake. He tapped his third eye and followed the mental map he could see, toward his mother. His speed seemed to be putting distance between the boy and the rock. He had a ways to go before he got to Teewver tower, but at this speed, it would not take long. Except he heard a yell. Andrew didn't break stride, looked left and saw another rock creature chasing him. It was running a diagonal intercept. He could still push himself, run faster to avoid being caught by this second rock. He put his head down and angled his shoulders, prepared to increase speed when, out of the corner of his right eye, he saw the third rock. It was running to intercept him too. It was right on him and his right shoulder was clipped by the creature. Andrew was thrown off with such absolute brutality. His speed worked against him. He went scraping and rolling along the ground until his whole body was skinned. He was still a black shadow, full of scrape wounds, and bleeding. His blood was pitch black as well. He just lay on the ground moaning like a motorcyclist in a fresh accident. The three rocks all arrived and began smashing him to death. Every hit of stone broke the boy's bones. The sharp cracked edges of the rock-cut into his flesh and muscle like jagged axes. He felt every attack. It was a painful agony. They kept beating and crushing the boy. His skull split open pouring mashed brains from the fractures and pink jelly noodle-oozed out of the boy's eye socket when his skull was demolished when his legs were crushed the boy screamed a high pitch plea. It was the cry of an instant shocking pain. When they pulverized his collarbones ripping part of his arm off, Andrew's scream was a death pain sound. Lower, mixed with the gurgle of blood filling a throat that is collapsing. Death screams fade because body function is shutting down and take on the sound of a kind of inhuman tenor. Just the product of fleshy wet organic matter, with a large hole expelling noise and blood and viscera at the same time. He stopped seeing when blunt force popped his eyes and stopped feeling as his uncomprehending brain was smushed into sticky chunks flung about by the constant beating. With a dead body, and in a completely black void, somehow a hazy set of words came into focus. It was information just like he saw on his mother. It was status information... His

  Name: Andrew

  Info: -*

  HP: 500/100.000

  Energy: 920/1.000

  level: 8/97

  Exp: 23.700/210.500

  Faction: Yours

  Party:

  Status ailments: Fainted, broken bone, bleeding, fear, hopeless, exp drain

  Equipment: -*

  Quick Skill 1: possession

  Quick Skill 2: demonic push

  Skills Info: -*

  He saw his hp, energy, level, and experience were rapidly going down. Somehow the rock monsters beating not only hurt his HP, but they were also absorbing his experience and this was dropping his level. After just a few seconds His experience dropped to 11.400 and his level was only 6. Quick skill 2 disappeared! This caught his attention and he focused on quick skill 1. Possession. He remembered now that he could leave his physical demonic body to possess soulless objects. Depending on his level. He focused on the words “Quick Skill” and he was able then to remember that quick skills work automatically. Unlike other skills, which require combinations of motions, incantations, status effects, and physical conditions, quick skills activate instantly whenever the user wants them. Depending on cool-down timing. Andrew didn't have time to get more information, his exp was almost gone. He desired to use possession, and suddenly he could feel again. He still couldn't see, but he felt a kind of deep vibration in his body and a sort of rocking motion. His equilibrium was off. He fell over with a heavy thump on the ground. He was probably permanently blind, but at least he wasn't being hit by the rocks anymore. He looked at his stats. He was down to level 1 with 5000/5000 HP. His quick skills were charge and possession. Focusing on possession made him remember that the length of time he had to wait before he could use the skill again was... EIGHT MONTHS!

  Name: Andrew

  Info: -*

  HP: 5.000/5.000

  Energy: 1/0

  level: 1

  Exp: 3.146

  Faction: Yours

  Party: Limpy

  Status ailments: blind, silence

  Equipment: -*

  Quick Skill 1: possession - cooldown 350632.511

  Quick Skill 2: charge roll

  Skills Info: -*

  Andrew couldn't catch his breath.

  He started to panic, he couldn't see, couldn't breathe, couldn't focus. His fear wasn't painful the way he was used to when he would have an anxiety attack on earth. He didn't have the pain in his chest or labored breathing that stole his ability to think. There was no rush of fear or any sensation at all. It was just his mind trapped in infinite silent darkness until a voice broke his paranoia. Someone gave a command to follow. It was a high-pitched, smug and impish voice. Andrew saw a shifting in the distance of his darkness, like an off-color haze that just barely stood out against the all-encompassing darkness. His mind moved toward the haze and his completely numb body seemed to move forward in step with his mind. Andrew called out to the haze, "Hello!" He heard the voice squeal in surprise. "Who said that! Where are you?! I'll kill you!" Andrew walked in silence, his exp went up by 1 point. Andrew considered trying out his "Charge" skill but he was in no mood to lose another fight, and just explored his status while idling to wherever the fog was leading him. Focusing on his own info, Andrew remembered that he was a creature called a "Cambion” - half Possessor Demon and half-human he was able to remember the full breakdown of traits that he possessed. It surprised him to find out that humans were unique among the different creatures because they had no level cap. They could get infinitely strong with enough experience; however, humans had short maximum life spans and a permanent slow exp gain status ailment. In contrast, demons lived for eternity but they only gain experience by absorbing negative emotions. Remembering more about the different creatures of the world called DREADNAUGHT, where he was, Andrew worked out the kind of power balance achieved by the pros and cons of each race. Demons cannot exist on the physical plane outside of hell unless they are bound to a physical object, location, or person, for example, a summoned demon can only stay inside the summoning circle, or a FAMILIAR type d
emon can only inhabit the body of a dead animal owned and controlled by a witch. When Andrew was being chased by the rocks, he didn't realize how fast and just how far he ran. Now slowly marching to wherever the haze was leading him seemed to be taking forever. Andrew focused his third eye on keyword after keyword, remembering so much about the world of Dreadnaught, creatures in it, skills, he could use, and other esoterica about his new life in this new world. When Andrew focused on his party he noted that he could see all of the equipment his party-mate owned, the list of items, armor, weapons, and equipment that Limpy his party-mate carried was vast although his description said, "Limpy the Male Imp. Bound to the powerful Incubus Sntn as a guard of the outer edges of Sntn's territory. A gendered Imp is rarely grown. The imps are native to hell and with some ancient folklore; however, since demonic dominion of hell occurred the imp is exclusively grown by demon overlords and are used as hell slaves." A quick count showed the imp owned well over 100 items. Andrew imagined a tiny green man thing with a wrinkled beak-like nose and pointy ears carrying a giant rucksack that towered two or three times as high as the creature, leaning precariously left and right with each stubby step. Andrew was desperate to "See" something, anything during the long march.