***The Infernal Plane of Lust***

***Amon***

As it turned out, I barely got two weeks for myself in my workshop during which I had to come up with weapons, armour, and items of convenience. My main concern was to address any of my weaknesses that I couldn’t get rid of with training new abilities on the fly. Luckily, having created my newest weapon already once previously and studied my predecessor’s work, much of the theory crafting had already been done and all that was left to do was to improve and avoid mistakes that had been made with the initial design.

So I was soon equipped with the second version of my staff and a leather armour set that was strategically reinforced with dragon bone, a material that was highly receptive to enchantments thanks to its hybrid properties between nanocarbon fibres and highly resistant ceramics. It was truly a blessing to have access to an entire warband’s treasure hoard thanks to a certain succubus’ intervention with the warband’s leader.

Sadly, the time in my workshop ended sooner than I liked when Ebandon got the warband another mission; this time from Khorne himself – which was a doubtful honour as I learned from Ex later on.

Maybe the insectoid demon wasn’t officially teaching us any longer, but I still visited him for a training session once a day. As it stood, Ex was the only opponent I knew who could give me a real challenge by now and who was easily available. Additionally, I still regarded Ex as a teacher, someone who had to be paid respect in the form of a social visit.

So I said nothing when he explained the new mission, stating that he was of the opinion that the only way to stay out from under a Demon Lord’s tail was to be as far away from him and his minions as possible.

I saw some logic in that, but I wasn’t sure whether I would want to live such an existence, trying to stay out of politics and away from those in power. Of course, I had no real interest in politics and social positioning myself. But the memories of the many souls within me told me that those without power inevitably found themselves at the whim of those in stations above them. If there was a choice, then I would rather be the one who made the rules, instead of the one who had to follow.

For that to happen I needed power first, and secondly, I needed to show everyone that I had it. If I wished that nobody would try to fuck with me or mine, then it had to be widely known that trying to do so was folly.

Not that I thought Ex’Zibril’s chosen path to be weak. The man was certainly capable of becoming a Demon Lord in his own right, but I couldn’t imagine him going up against someone like Khorne who had already conquered more than half of Lust.

My tutor had decided to go down the silent path, trying to avoid as much attention as possible in order to keep his freedom. Whereas my solution would require to show everyone that I was the peak of power on this plane.

So it came that I and my people found ourselves on yet another battlefield, this time in the presence of esteemed personages like Khorne, Ebandon, and the Great Three’s alliance battling us on the other side. All of them well-known legends who had power and a name for themselves.

Khorne, a well-known power prodigy on this plane, a newcomer who had conquered half of Lust before others started taking him seriously. His domain stretched from the fertile plains of Halguth to the chaotic border of Isromzin where Lust’s Planar stability fizzled out.

Mekedesh and his allies were the only real adversaries left. He controlled the swamps of Aralos with his iron claws. And although he had never shown the same ambition as Khorne, he was known to smite anyone who dared to enter his domain. Normally, nobody would have cared about a swamp, but the region was the source of an unending supply of natural gases and oils that were swept up from its depths together with the magically infused bones of creatures that had roamed the verdant lands around it. Incidentally, those bones were a prime material for armour and weapons. It stood without question that the bones which I had used for my own gear had their origin in Aralos.

Joining his side were the two lesser Lords, Sogman and Lady Vegth. The two of them controlled the Ilremath Forests and the fertile mountain valleys of Dragoth, the latter being the cradle of most of Lust’s production of exotic alchemical ingredients. Ilremath was known for its unceasing production of rare plants and ironwood, going so far as to supply Wrath’s airship shipyards with most of their needs. It was a treasure trove of naturally regrowing trade goods that even the economy of the other Planes hungered for.

Once Khorne controlled those three areas, he could be truly called Lust’s ruler and would be therefore capable of challenging Lust herself for the title of Planar Lord. Just like Isabella had warned me.

I was only glad for Isabella’s advice on finding out what such a battle would entail. After scouring my souls’ many memories and cataloguing any encounter with the gods, deities, and lesser gods of the mortal realms, I was certain that I wouldn’t want any part of that. Aside from immortals, beings whose power I was at least able to comprehend, those existences operated on an entirely different level. If it was true that a Planar Lord was comparable to that, then I would opt for a long vacation in the mortal realms as soon as Khorne got his wish.

And never mind the other’s insistent whispers that I could, maybe, reach those heights at some point.

Maybe I would haunt Betsy’s descendants, or pay the necromancer lady a little visit. She surely avoided calling on me as much as possible.

In the here and now, I had other problems. Like the gruesome and dirty work of this conflict, which once again fell to demons like me and my people, meaning that we found ourselves in the thick of things.

“They are trying to overrun our position!” I complained, my mana sense allowing me to notice another group of at least fifty demons storming up the hill that Ebandon had ordered us to hold at all costs. It was of no specific strategic value, but Ebandon’s warband had the task of holding the left flank of Khorne’s legion.

“We aren’t finished with the last batch!” Uphir called back while he pushed an enemy off the fortification of dirt that I had hastily erected with force magic. He followed up by drawing his bow and sending an arrow into a demon’s throat who stood at the base of the hill, screaming and ordering more of his peers to attempt the steep climb. Normally, such a wound wouldn’t have fazed a demon much, but Uphir’s projectile exploded a moment later, robbing the new group of their commander.

Our position was nothing more than a steep incline with a wall that I had carved out, ensuring that anyone who wished to get to us without wings or the leaping power of a lizardthing would have to do some legwork. Kitia had added to my brilliant idea by covering the incline with a layer of her frost magic.

Now our enemies had to charge up a sixty-degree embankment of half-melted ice and mud, which resulted in several pileups more often than not once they tried their luck.

It allowed us to easily hold the position against groups with ten times our numbers. The only downside being that we couldn’t attack or retreat, and had to rely on Khorne’s legion to keep large scale artillery spells at bay with countermagic. Falling back would also be a shameful thing to do because other groups from Ebandon’s warband did their best to hold the line further to our left and right.

“I think they decided to get this hill by covering us in bodies!” Jebril whined and erected another barrier against the steady income of the more mundane variant of magical artillery spells while she shoved a second barrier towards the closest enemies. The poor fools encountering an invisible wall to their faces resulted in them being pushed back and losing their footing. The first three fell and slid down the hill, howling in impotent frustration while they collided with others who quickly shared their misery.

I couldn’t help but giggle in glee while sending a fireball towards the base of the hill where the pile-up came to a halt. It would be blocked or dispelled by some caster more likely than not, but it couldn’t hurt to try. Unlike Uphir’s enchanted arrows, a fireball spell was too flashy not to be noticed.

A few metres further down the line to my right, some demons made it up to our improvised fortification, only to encounter Shax wielding his tree-trunk of a flagpole. The huge demon roared and smacked a smaller demon on the head with his unreasonably sized weapon while he reached into another enemy’s face. Claws slid through eyeballs and a thumb pushed into the howling demon’s mouth. Bones cracked when Shax made a fist and quite literally ripped his enemy’s face off.

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Then Shax gave a mighty kick to what was by now a mutilated corpse, sending the body back down the hill and over the heads of his rightfully impressed and staring comrades. More than one of them suspiciously chose to slip at that moment, sliding back down the hill.

I think something inside the group that had so recently managed to climb to the top broke when Shax grabbed their leader and staked him with his pole. Through the ass, and out through the mouth, and then he proceeded to wave the body like a trophy while he howled his triumph.

Those of the group who remained quickly lost their feelings of euphoria about having reached the top of the hill. They turned tails and slid back down the incline out of their own free will, going so far as to play the role of being thrown. Apparently, they were afraid of their comrades accusing them of fleeing the field of combat but were more concerned with the mad demon who had just staked their leader like a shish kebab.

Philomena did a similar job to my left, although she was much less vocal about her gruesome work.

She had chosen a huge axe as her weapon and was wielding it like a butcher whenever someone came close. None managed to make it off the section of ice and onto our fortification. Anyone who came within range quickly lost a limb or was faced with complete evisceration.

Those few who managed to overcome her guard were quickly faced with the conundrum of her two spiked tails that could move too quickly for the untrained eye to see. So she was in essence wielding three weapons and not one, totally overpowering anyone who dared to face her.

Philomena’s part of the hill was so drenched in coagulated blood that her enemies were mostly no longer hampered by Kitia’s ice, but by the slick substance that had replaced it in the form of a gooey film.

“Another flight of enemies!”

Kitia’s call directed my attention towards the sky, where a group of flying demons had broken through our legion’s lines to harass the ground troops.

I cursed inwardly and spread my wings, quickly rising to meet them before they could bother my minions who did a well enough job against those who came at us from the ground. Out of my group, only Shax and Philomena had wings aside from myself, but their unparalleled melee-abilities were far too useful on the ground to have them waste their time chasing mobile flying enemies in an attempt to pin them down.

Uphir and Kitia had learned the levitation spell from Jebril, but like the djinn, they weren’t much more than slowly floating targets while they were airborne. Sadly, Isabella hadn’t joined us this time, saying that there were too many high profile demons around for her to saunter across a battlefield. I could have used her, for I knew that her ability to fly outmatched my own, but I had to make do with the situation.

It wasn’t like I didn’t welcome the chance to truly test myself.

So, as the only one in our group who could fly and who had ranged abilities, the task of keeping the sky clean fell to me.

Soaring higher, I confidently approached my enemies and summoned my weapon to my hand. The projected ethereal blade sprung into existence at its end, spelling doom for anyone who touched it. Relying utterly on my magical protections, I barrelled right into their formation, hoping that the reckless attack would draw their entire attention and keep them away from my minions who were taking care of the ground.

The insane charge took the first two totally by surprise, allowing my blade to reap its first two victims. One lost his head and the other was cleaved in two when my weapon went through flesh and bone as if it wasn’t there. Having learned a lesson from the assassin’s enchanted dagger, my soul weapon not only devoured their souls for me to take but also destroyed their soul wells as well.

Being right inside their formation, I used the chance to summon an entire set of enchanted blades, turning myself into a magical meatgrinder once I took hold of the weapons with my force magic.

The runes on my body flared when their leader chose to meet me in combat, his weapon surprisingly withstanding contact with mine.

He was a huge demon. Powerful, and with six wings and burning horns. A truly frightening figure.

Yet I could only smile when he pushed me back while his minions did their best to deal with the summoned weapons that were encircling us and acting with what seemed like a will of their own. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. That would have been too convenient. Though, my training had finally reached a stage at which I could wield multiple weapons while being in a serious battle without too much effort.

We traded blows, holding back nothing. He was the one on the advance and pushing me back without either of us trying to speak. There was no point in even trying. He fought for one side, and I for the other. There was nothing more to say. No right or wrong, just the question of who would prove to be the superior fighter!

And I liked it!

My opponent snarled when he realized that, while I allowed him to push me back, there was no way of getting through my defences easily. Thanks to Ex’s training, I fell into a meditative trance of action and reaction. Where my opponent’s glaive struck, my weapon blocked. When it retreated, I struck, and when his magic formed, I interfered with his spells.

Meanwhile, his minions fell to the dozens of blades that were guided separately like little homing devices. There was no need to kill. Crippling their wings was enough to take them out of the fight. Once on the ground, my minions would take care of them.

Where a minion was skilled enough to block one of my implements, I simply had several weapons gang up on him until he was overwhelmed.

My opponent’s eyes flicked from left to right, scanning the battlefield. He must have realized that he was losing because he suddenly doubled his efforts. Each second he failed to take me down, another of his men fell and soon enough he would be the only one who was facing me. Once that happened, he would be the one on the defence.

Roaring, he aimed his glaive at me and I caught the collecting point of potent magical energy just in time. Closing my eyes, I incanted the spell matrix and teleported, just as a ray of brilliant, white energy blasted through the space where my body had been just moments ago.

It went on to strike into Khorne’s legion somewhere in the distance, but I couldn’t be less concerned with that.

Appearing above my enemy, I struck down with my staff. Completely ignoring the fact that he had expertly blocked the attack once again, I came in close with an expression of glee on my face as I placed my palm on his plate armour's chest piece. The incantation was already on my lips and the spell matrix ready to go in my hand.

“Disrupt Permixtio!”

His plate armour flared with countermagic, perfectly matching the spell matrix in my palm. Glyph for glyph, equation for equation, my spell was countered flawlessly and rendered useless. It was the most surprising defensive artefact I had ever seen. If it hadn't been for Ex's preparatory work, I would have been overwhelmed and clueless on how to deal with such a thing on the fly.

My enemy grinned, readying his weapon for a counterblow right up until my matrix fell apart, revealing an entirely different purpose.

The blue mana in my palm turned red and flowed right through the automatically erected barrier into my enemy’s chest as if his highly enchanted armour had been nothing more than a thin sheet of paper!

His grin turned into a grimace and he coughed, spurting out a misty cloud of blood as his insides were torn apart.

An explosion of red energy blasted out of my opponent’s back, accompanied by fleshy organs and his spinal cord, sending him tumbling towards the ground where he impacted like a descending meteor, only to explode in a gigantic accumulation of red, chaotic power which sent the surrounding soldiers flying like puppets.

See? I told you that Chaos Magic is fun! None of those fools thinks to prepare for the unthinkable.

“Shut up.” I quickly regained my reasoning and reminded myself that I shouldn’t be too trusting of the other’s motives. Just because it was more talkative nowadays and had decided to share some spells with me didn’t mean that I would regard him as some ephemeral brother of sorts.

Maybe I would learn some more of the spells he offered, mainly because they were powerful. But I would examine my own stability and sanity every step of the way, seeing to it that I wouldn’t follow in the footsteps of my progenitor. I had no desire to end up as an insane madman who took his own life in an attempt to ascend into some inglorious afterlife.

“Titan!”

My attention was drawn away from the crater that had been created by my enemy’s final downfall. The shout had come from our own battle-line, and I looked down, following pointing fingers into the distance where an enormous humanoid figure was slowly lumbering towards the field of battle, accompanied by swarms of flying demons that thought to protect their living siege engine.

“Titan! They have a Titan!”

My heart fell as I recognized what the huge figure meant, darkly recollecting the story my minions had told me on the outskirts of Baaar so long ago. Demons who somehow unlocked titanic evolutions, allowing them to grow in size and power far beyond their lesser kin.

And one of these was headed right for our line, towering above his peers like a skyscraper. The footprints he left behind probably large enough to flatten the entire hill that I and my minions had chosen as our improvised fort.

And then came the ethereal voice from our legion commander, giving us an entirely unreasonable command.

“Left Flank, Ebandon’s troops. Hold that Titan back. I don’t care how you do it, but you have to keep it still for one minute.”