The monster swallowed the werewolf whole and took off Quetzal’s head with a halberd arm. Automatically activating Clarity, I grabbed Destiny by the leg and flew out to the center of the drop. The demon’s fiery aura didn’t touch her, but the silver ranger had lost her arm up to the elbow — Despot seemed to have gained incredible speed outside the dungeon. It was a good thing the damage dealt to the limb hadn’t hit her full on…
I carried Destiny up a floor, poured a health potion into her mouth, already open in horror, and went back to Despot. Leaving Clarity, I faced him, ready to slow time again and escape:
“What the hell, Horns? You killed my friends!”
“Grogkhgr!” he answered, licking his lips. He ground his teeth, belched out flame and then suddenly rumbled in common: “I have a deal with you, mortal. Not with your friends. I have spent centuries in this hole with no way of crossing the threshold! The time of reckoning is here!”
“I forbid you from touching my allies! That’s an order!”
“I will not touch you, that is sufficient. You saved my life and I will save yours. The souls of the other mortals shall be my food! And only Great Prince Diablo can give me orders.”
With those words, he started galloping up the stairs. I opened my inventory to take out the heart and kill the treacherous demon, but I couldn’t see it anywhere. It seemed that when Despot left the instance, the heart returned to its resting place. That must be what made the demon so fast!
His words and the death of my allies threw me off my stride. A halberd arm was already raised above the fear-paralyzed elf girl, and it started to drop.
Chapter 26. Enemy Souls
A FRACTION OF A SECOND before the scythe-like demonic limb touched Destiny, I activated Clarity and surged upwards. The ability didn’t put the surrounding world on pause, just slowed it, so Despot’s halberd-arm continued its descent, just starting to slice through the elf girl’s cotton clothing. I couldn’t save her — another instant and the damage would land…
I had to spend the ace up my sleep, hoping the cast was instant:
Tactical Retreat activated!
The world blinked and I suddenly found myself at the top by the Pitfall, in the spot where the four of us had begun our descent. The crafters must have already gone to floor 22.
Destiny lay around five yards away, clutching the stump of her arm, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Despot was nowhere to be seen.
“Are you alright?” I asked, approaching the girl.
She opened her eyes wide, looking around mistrustfully and shaking with anger.
“No, I’m not alright! I couldn’t do anything!”
“Nobody could have, that demon is level 531!”
“I could have! Covered Withdrawal, Smokescreen, Somersault — there are plenty of ways for a ranger to make distance! But all my skills were disabled by the debuff! I’m the worst player of the day, remember?” she said bitterly, sobbing. “How did we even get here anyway?”
“I had to spend my best-player reward.”
“What? Your reward?” Destiny blinked in confusion. “For me?”
“Well… yeah.”
The girl’s jaw dropped. The information didn’t seem to compute, and she did what Destiny Windsor would never have let herself do in public: she burst into tears.
I didn’t know what to do, so I just held her. I felt the girl trembling, felt her tears dampening my shoulder. I glanced at the raid list. Quetzal and Hellfish’s portraits were covered with black skulls — both were in the game, but they were waiting in spirit form at the graveyard. There was still time. I looked back to Destiny, still not sure what to say.
“It’s alright, we made it. We’re safe, but we can’t stay here. Youlang and Inchito are somewhere nearby.”
The girl got a grip on herself, bit her lip.
“Why did your demon attack us?”
“I don’t know. I had no idea it would just stop following orders like that! You were lucky he went for you last! Hellfish and Quetzal have lives to spare, but you…”
“I thought I was a goner,” Destiny whispered.
The demon was nightmarish, sure, but I doubted a top player who had seen far worse beasts would have been frightened by the sight of him alone. Something else had put the fear into Destiny Windsor. An instant and the girl would have lost everything. She had told me about her deal with her father the night before. Like Uncle Nick said, some get thin soup and others get small diamonds. I didn’t know what it felt like to get too small a diamond, so I didn’t feel any sympathy. She thought she’d be at rock bottom if she got eliminated. But her idea of rock bottom was a kingdom in the clouds for billions of non-citizens. All the same, seeing the girl’s sobbing face, the horror in her eyes and the shake in her shoulders, I felt sorry for her for the first time. Sure, her problems might not seem real to me, she may have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but she was suffering as much as anyone in that moment.
Destiny slowly calmed down now that she knew there were no enemies or scary demons nearby. She stood up. Her usual mask of equanimity covered her beautiful face again.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Go get Quetzal and Hellfish.”
“You sure? Let me take you to the others first, I can go to the graveyard after.”
“I’m fine!” she repeated. “Go, I’ll get there on my own.”
“You won’t make it! Despot is slow, but he has a strange way of always showing up…”
“Scyth!” The princess mask fell from Destiny’s face. She grabbed me by the arm and wailed, pointing behind me and down.
Turning, I saw a familiar heap of bones on the opposite side of the Pitfall, with that flaming forge at its center. The damn demon had somehow gotten up already, and was now skittering up the stairs.
“Get away! Hide!” I shouted into the girl’s ear. She didn’t seem to hear me, just stared in terror at the rampaging monster. “I’ll hold him off!” I shouted. “Run!”
Pushing her away from the Pitfall, I took off and flew toward Despot. I landed next to the edge opposite the staircase, blocking the path up. If the creature hadn’t learned to jump or teleport, he would have to go through me. And I doubted he’d dare attack his ally.
Despot stopped midway to the surface. He waved a halberd arm and sparks fell from the air as it seemed to hit something. Stuck on the invisible obstacle, he pressed against it, but it didn’t give. The demon emitted a frustrated roar, loud enough to make my ears ring. Was he really unable to leave the Pitfall?
“What’s wrong, Horns, you stuck?” I said with a mocking grin. My smile was sincere; I felt a flood of relief. “Can’t get out?”
“Groghkhgr!” Despot boomed. “This is the border that separates the Inferno from your world, mortal! Summon me so that I might cross it! I will teach you how to create a Summoning Pentagram…”
“No, Horns, you don’t get to eat the mortals of the Cursed Chasm. There are plenty of your kind below, how about you try their souls? I’m planning to go through all the floors and get all the way to Abaddon. You can help me if…”
“Demons do not have souls, idiot!” Despot interrupted me. “And I do not touch my own! We may not get along at home, but here we bow to the will of the great princes — we protect the interests of the Underworld! Together! Do you really expect me to help mortals win the Demonic Games?”
Some ally Despot was. He would be no help for clearing instances, and my raid would now always be under threat. How could we even move from floor to floor? I still didn’t understand why he refused to carry out my orders…
Despot silently awaited my answer, his breath an audible growl, and then I looked at the ‘ally’ description:
Despot, level 531 demon
Event ally of Scyth.
Attention! Pets of the ‘ally’ class make their own decisions; they cannot be controlled.
The description yesterday had said that I could give him orders! Now that part was suddenly gone? It started to hit me. This wa
s the same thing that happened with the Aegis, the so-called ‘perfect’ shield that suddenly started cracking beneath Abaddon’s attacks the next day. Considering that the Cursed Chasm and the Pitfall were entirely artificial locations created anew for every iteration of the Games, the developers had full control over the mechanics.
Although… it could still be part of the damn gameplay — the demon could have somehow gotten his heart out of my inventory and stopped following orders. Whatever. Time to try something else.
“Despot, I order you to stay on floor ten…”
“Only Great Prince Diablo can give me orders!” the demon interrupted me, but I finished:
“…and wait for the mortals to come. Around a hundred souls will come here. They won’t go down if they see you. Hide in the shadows and wait. They’re undying, so even if you kill them all, they’ll come back. You’ll get to eat your fill!”
“I hear pathetic attempts to trick your ally in your words, mortal…”
“Allies stick together, but you’re one big problem. I wouldn’t wish an ally like you on my enemy! If I could, I’d give you to them. But since you don’t want to do things the easy way…” I sighed. My idea hadn’t worked, but I suddenly had another. “I’m going to have to kill you.”
Repeated echoes of ‘Groghhrr!’ rolled out from the demon — he was laughing.
“Delusional mortal! Not only are you weak, you are foolish. The contract between us does not let you do me harm!”
“Oh, so that means the heart is in you after all? Without it, you’d be invulnerable, but with the heart… I’ll take the risk. I’ll try to send you back to the Inferno, where it’s warm and you’ll be with all your demon buddies. I’m sure Diablo will accept your excuse for failing. He’ll forgive you…”
While speaking, I got close enough to make sure I wouldn’t spend too much spirit, then went into Clarity. Keeping my range at a couple of yards away, I dealt a strike, carefully watching the demon’s health bar — it didn’t move at all. We couldn’t deal damage to each other, but that wasn’t what I was looking for.
Another strike. Another. Copies of my fists took on a ghostly shape as if woven from the air, and flew into the demon’s side. I punched unhurriedly, methodically, tracking my progress. With each quickened Hammerfist, Despot shifted closer to the edge. With his heart back inside him, he was vulnerable again and shouldn’t survive the fall even if Abaddon ignored his relative.
When Despot’s rear was hanging over the edge, I left my quickened state. For the demon, only a second had passed. He must have felt the strikes and the speed with which I pushed him over the edge, because he shook his head in despair and roared something:
“…ally!”
Oh, now I was ‘ally,’ and not just ‘mortal.’ The demon was really coming along in socialization and effective communication.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you. What?”
“You have convinced me, ally!” The demon dropped to one knee. Breaking through the bones of his ribcage, he reached inside his chest and pulled out the anthracite crystal heart, crisscrossed with black veins. “I return to you my heart, and to myself — invulnerability to mortals! I pledge to obey your orders.”
“How did you get it back?” I asked, putting the crystal away in my inventory.
“You left me inside and took my heart. It is a part of my being, and we cannot be separated by any barrier. The sealed gates were such a barrier. When you disappeared, the heart returned to its place.”
“So you’ll fight with me against Abaddon?”
“Against the general of Prince Belial himself?” Despot snorted flames. “Ally, I would fight that arrogant mutant of the Inferno without an order from you. I fought against Abaddon’s army in the Dominion Wars. But not here. A demon cannot harm another demon in the Games. Unlike you mortals, we have a shared goal.”
So the whole Pitfall was a kind of peaceful zone for demons? Well, that made sense.
“Shame,” I said, thinking for a moment and finding only one use for the boss: “Then your job is to guard the entrance to the Pitfall from my enemies and patrol the upper floors. You’ll eat your fill and me and my allies will have an easier time. Uhm… Incidentally, how do you tell friend from foe?”
“I can smell it. The souls of mortals hold all their secret thoughts. My task is clear. It will be done, ally.”
With those words, Despot darted back down the staircase.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“I sense an enemy soul!”
I flew after him and saw who he meant. Inchito couldn’t have known what hit him, only that something bony and fiery landed on him from above. A wave of a halberd arm and the light priest fell, his legs cut off. Despot gulped down the limbs while Inchito cast a spell, and a column of light lanced down on the demon, but dealt no damage; the golden streams of fire flowed off him like water. Ghogghrr-ing, Despot swiped at Inchito with an arm as he screamed, making him wail ever louder, touching him with the deadly demonic aura. Bones crunched in the demon’s mouth and the priest went back to respawn. At the graveyard…
The graveyard! Where Quetzal and Hellfish were!
I shot off back there and arrived just in time. My allies had already resurrected and were running away when Inchito appeared behind them and began to give chase. Marcus’s main raid was due to resurrect very soon after its hour stuck in Spirit Shackles, although they would no longer have their leader. My job was to carry my people to the Pitfall in time.
In Clarity, I flung myself toward Inchito, who was already preparing to hit them with a spell, a sparkling whirlwind of light spinning above his head. The first strike interrupted the cast, but the priest survived with 1% health, flaring up with some shield of light, and fell only after a second Hammerfist.
I dropped down before my sprinting allies, left Clarity. They both stopped suddenly and swore.
Hellfish, again in wolf form, growled in surprise, turned to Quetzal:
“I don’t even know what to do; thank this asshole or take his skin off. What do you think?”
“Something went wrong for him again,” the titan chuckled. Turning, he glanced at the graveyard. “Judging by what I see in the raid list, Destiny survived. Since she’s alive, that means the kid saved her. So the question is, could he have saved us too? Or did he just want to get rid of us?”
“I didn’t plan for any of that!” I said. “The demon rebelled and almost killed the elf girl. I had to spend my reward on her.”
“How the hell did it happen?” Hellfish said, frowning. “I’m not moving until you explain to me what you were up to!”
“I really didn’t expect him to aggro. The devs put a trick in the ally mechanics and I lost control of him. I had to show him who’s boss in the Pitfall.”
“And what now? Is he obeying you?” the werewolf growled.
“Mostly, but he can’t leave the Pitfall. So he won’t be any help to us here. Or against the bosses, for that matter — turns out he can’t hit his own… One sec!”
The figure of Inchito had appeared in the churchyard. I shot over there, cut him down another level and came back.
Quetzal went on as if nothing had happened:
“So the demon won’t help us farm the dungeons? Shame. Your pet turned out useless.”
“It is what it is. Come on, let me take you to the others and then I’ll come back. The Markers are about to revive, I need to be ready for them or they’ll get away. I doubt they’ll get to you — the demon should intercept them, — but we need to end them today so we can finally start clearing the Pitfall tomorrow.”
“I don’t really want to go where that demon is hanging around,” Quetzal said, shaking his head.
“A demon that might go crazy and out of control at any moment,” Hellfish added.
I started to get angry. Meister or Destiny were one thing, but listening to whining from these supposedly strong fighters, leaders? Gritting my teeth, I got a grip on myself and spoke as calmly as I could:
“Do I really have to talk you into it? Let’s just pretend I tried. Listen, I can’t protect you here — I can’t be in two places at once. Are you coming with me or not?”
“Fine,” the titan nodded, exchanging a glance with Hellfish. “Listen, Alex, we’re not trying to act up here. Things just get weirder and weirder around you. You’re sketchy. Plans go wrong, everything’s ass backwards and you don’t seem to give a damn, you always get away with it. It’s hard to know what to expect from you, and that’s…”
“Awkward,” the werewolf grumbled. “Sketchy. But there’s no other choice. Let’s go.”
Quetzal was too heavy, so I had to fly low and slow with the both of them, but it was still faster than walking. On the way there, we noticed Destiny sitting on the ground and drawing something in the dust. Hellfish turned into a huge wolf and ran along the ground while I picked the girl up. She was lucky that Inchito was delayed and Youlang was still wandering around somewhere below…
The Demonic Games (Disgardium Book #7): LitRPG Series Page 41
