{Vampiric Archfiend Ashtoreth — Level 48}
{The tutorial is now finished. An interactive point has been created on a cliffside overlooking a ruined bridge that once led into the center of the lake of fire. As you are a victorious participant, interacting with this point will grant you rewards based on your performance.}
{All remaining participants will be ejected into normal time and returned to their previous location in 23:51:31}
Ashtoreth read the message for the second time since she’d taken off to search the land below her. 24 hours. That was her time limit for manipulating the tutorial using the shard.
As she flew, she created flares by sending up plumes of her hellfire. Surely the humans would have seen the system’s message. If they were underground. they’d know to surface and look for her.
“I need about an hour to use the shard,” Ashtoreth said to the cat she cradled in the arm that wasn’t holding her scythe. “Do you need any time to repair it?”
“Mm?” Dazel said, blinking awake. “Huh?”
“Did you fall asleep? We’ve been in the air for less than five minutes.”
“It’s just, you’ve got to understand, Your Highness,” Dazel said blearily. “It’s this body. It’s naturally predisposed to certain things. Seagulls are made to squawk, pigs are made to roll in shit, and cats, it seems, are made to laze. It’s very easy to stop caring about everything except getting comfortable. I can’t wait to see how good it feels to stretch once I’ve spent a few hours just lying around.”
“The shard, Dazel. How long for you to repair it?”
“A couple seconds.”
She scowled. “Well that’s good, I suppose.”
“You suppose?”
“I don’t know… somehow I wanted you to have to do more toiling.”
“Those are just your fiendish instincts kicking in,” he said, yawning. “I’ve got my nature, you’ve got yours.”
She met a few shearbats and even a skygorger, but they were easy enough to deal with. She was flying with her scythe out because its [Might is Magic] upgrade made her move faster, and a single fireblast with her current stats generated a fireball large enough to fill an auditorium. The fire was so hot that even the elite skygorgers couldn’t survive it. They would live through the initial blast, then burn to death as her [Vampiric Flames] upgrade drained their stats to sustain the fire that burned all over their bodies.
She began her search with the small valley where she’d first lost them as Pluto attacked, then scanned the territory around it.
It wasn’t long before she saw a tall plume of Hunter’s black-streaked white fire rise into the air in response to one of her flares. She spotted the three of them through the trees on a hillside, then rushed down to land before them.
“You’re alive!” she said, beaming at all of them.
“No, you’re alive,” Kylie rasped, crossing her arms.
“You sound a little disappointed,” Ashtoreth said.
“I’m just saying it’s more surprising,” Kylie said. “We figured you’d been killed by the smaller, more annoying teenager. The one that inexplicably dressed like a magician.”
“While I did lose that fight, I managed to come back okay thanks the antithesis shard. And then I killed the dragon, and then I killed the citadel—the whole citadel! And then I finished my sister.”
“Yeah?” said Kylie. “That was your sister? I confess I detected a slight resemblance.”
“She said she was my sister,” Ashtoreth said. “Anyway, now we can continue arguing about my plan.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” said Kylie. “Hey, is there an explanation forthcoming on the magician thing? Because that sort of warrants explaining.”
“Listen,” Frost said. “It’s not that it isn’t an important conversation, but is there any reason we can’t talk about all of this later?” Frost asked.
“Huh?” Ashtoreth said. “You don’t want to talk about it now?”
“What point is there in talking about it?” Kylie rasped. “You already made it clear that we don’t have a choice.”
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“Well what else is there to do?” Ashtoreth asked.
“Ashtoreth should be searching for survivors,” Frost said. “And there’s a day left before everyone gets expelled, right? Including the demons?”
“Right,” Ashtoreth said.
Frost’s jaw was a hard line. “I don’t want to be up here talking,” he said. “I want you in the air like you promised you would be, and I want as few of the infernals to make it home as possible.”
“Sounds like the right course of action,” Hunter said, his voice quiet and firm.
Kylie looked from them to Ashtoreth. “Yeah, okay,” she said at last. “Let’s go make sure as many of the demons and devils get what they deserve as we can. But maybe just a quick explanation for the magician thing before we get started.”
“Oh,” Ashtoreth said, realization dawning on her. “You want revenge. Okay.”
“You do flyovers to find anyone who’s left,” said Frost. “And while I hate the deception, you should hide your demonic features so that—”
“Uh.” Ashtoreth raised a finger. “Hold on—”
“—Fiendish features,” he said, annoyance clear in his voice, “so that any humans who spots you in the air will at least trust you enough to reveal themselves. And look, this might sound silly to you, but maybe make a siren along with some blue and red lights with your glamours. People will recognize the sound of a police car or an ambulance, it’s basically universal.”
Ashtoreth grinned. “I get to be a police fiend?” she said.
“What a horrifying concept,” Dazel said. “I mean, the infernal slavers are bad enough, but actual cops?”
“Sure, Ashtoreth,” Frost said loudly. “If it gets you in the air with lights and sirens, I’m officially making you a police fiend.”
“Oh-my-gosh!” she cried, immediately forming a claw and weaving it through the air to put herself in a black and purple police uniform, complete with an octagonal hat. “Time for some first response!”
“Okay, Ashtoreth,” said Frost. “I don’t care if you enjoy yourself, but take the job seriously and approach any humans with tact.”
“Am I on mute, or something?” Kylie asked. “Look—the ultimate enemy who was one step above the literal dragon… was a kid who pulled weapons of a sparkly top hat. That wasn’t… noticeable to anyone else?”
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” Ashtoreth asked Frost. “I could carry you, and it might help—”
“No, Ashtoreth,” said Frost. His expression darkened. “Look, I don’t know if you can understand this… but I need to be out there, right now.”
She shrugged. “All right. You know you’ll still be in danger, though.”
“We’ll be fine,” Hunter said coolly.
“We fought another hive queen, remember?” Frost said. “Kylie’s [Energy Drain] practically immobilized it and lowered its [Defense] so much that my shots burned its guts out.”
“They’re still underground because we didn’t want to draw attention,” said Hunter. “But Kylie raised some of the bugs, too.”
“Great!” said Ashtoreth. She felt better about leaving them knowing that Kylie had gotten some of her army back. They could sweep through the forest with disposable minions, Frost’s heals, and Hunter’s ability to teleport them away if things got tough.
“Get going,” said Frost. “There’s no need to waste any more time here. And do you know where the interaction point is? The one the system was talking about?”
“Mm,” said Dazel, shifting in her arm. “It’ll be on the cliff where that big bridge was.”
“Stick Dazel there,” said Frost. “He can inform anyone who finds it while we’re away.”
“Great idea!” Ashtoreth said.
“What? Why,” Dazel whined. “I’d rather go with you, boss.”
“But would you be useful if you go with me?” Ashtoreth asked.
“I don’t want you to argue about this, Dazel,” Frost said.
“Okay, hold on,” Dazel said, raising his head to look at Frost. “Does that ever actually avert arguments in your personal life? Because I feel like it shouldn’t.”
“Just go. You could save a life if someone stumbles upon you and you show them how to take cover from the remaining demons, or even just convince them to wait for us.”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t be useful,” Dazel said. “I said I didn’t want to.”
“Do it, Dazel.”
“Yes, fine, okay,” he said, rising out of her arm and flapping his wings to hover in the air. “I’ll go.”
“I’ll get searching,” Ashtoreth said. “I also had a great idea to use a megaphone.” She wove a claw through the air and formed one using her glamour.
“You can amplify your voice without a megaphone,” said Dazel. “They’re glamours. You don’t need to create the mechanism that makes the sound—you can just make the sound.”
“This will seem more natural,” she said. “It will put the humans at ease.”
Frost shut his eyes momentarily and seemed to mutter a prayer. “Just… approach any people you find with tact, okay? Be a little less… exuberant. Be consoling if you need to be.”
“No need to worry, Sir Frost!” Ashtoreth said. “If we had the lame stats that some RPG systems use, I’d have maxed charisma!”
She rose into the air, conjuring a set of flashing blue and red lights to hover just behind her shoulders and looking forward to the process of scouring the remainder of the tutorial for surviving humans.
Then she spent more than a dozen hours scouring the land below her for more survivors.
She found none.
Community Goal: 2000 Followers!
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