Darkness. A rare comfort, but only given by my own effort in keeping my eyes closed.
We had decided to take a rest after killing the three demon princes. While my shoulder wound had some odd ache that persisted within it, we had all healed up in no time at all. Something about the crate load of healing potions and similar consumables we had farmed out made the process simple enough - even if detestable to my tongue and stomach.
Despite the taste of much worse as of late, the near-alcoholic tang of the bottled relief still didn’t sit well with me.
I opened my eyes. Sleep was trying to draw me into its clutches, but we didn’t have the time or safety for something like that. Somehow, we had been able to persist without a proper nap for… possibly days now. Our very beings stretched thin, making do with what we had as the corpse of our intent slid near to the finish line. How foolish we were to think destroying hell with our own hands would be an easy task.
Not to say that it was difficult… taken in the small chunks that we had been delivered. The fighting had been tough, but not too deadly. We excelled in combat - had done so for quite a while once the System had fed us too much power and didn’t have the heart to walk anything back. The severity came from the near constant stress of constantly being in hostile land, the very atmosphere itself trying to grate away at our sense of self.
Now I sat here on the warm ground, cross-legged. Three silver crowns arranged just in front of me. A golden glow to the STAR on my left wrist, eager to give me a new nugget of power. It barely registered these days. Was I more of a magician or a demon now? I had mostly been the former up until the last two or three days. Now I… didn’t feel like Max anymore.
I felt… untethered.
[Max: Checking in.]
[Tanya: Day four out here.]
[Tanya: We’ve now met up with Leyla’s group as well.]
[Tanya: Set up a temporary base awaiting your return.]
[Tanya: No word from Eternal Wardens at all.]
[Tanya: Trying to get information from Candlekeep.]
[Tanya: How are you all holding up?]
I turned my gaze away from the windows to look at my Party. Wolf was a bloodied ball of sharp bone-needles, having a deserved nap. The only one of us capable of falling in and out of sleep at the drop of a hat. He hadn’t eaten a single demon since we arrived, which I assumed was the only reason he still had his stoic wit.
Ren was crouched down just off to the side of him, doing some maintenance on her rifle. Given that it was a magical item, I didn’t think it was actually necessary - but since Tanya had shown her how; it had become an action of comfort. Something normal amongst all this insanity. Although her eyes were as bright as usual, they were becoming more deep set and tired. We were starting to run on fumes.
I, of all of us, knew this. Didn’t even need to mention it to the others, but I was occasionally plagued by the feeling like my internal organs wanted to liquify. Usually a handful of seconds of panicked pain that I was able to hide away. We already had enough worries.
And the cause? Nothing remotely demonic or worth a status icon. I was just pushing myself too far. Without sleep or rest, my body ached every time I sunk too much health into Bloodletting, or shifted in and out of Demon Form. It was survivable, but the body required rest to get over the trauma the constant conflict put us through.
I just wanted to get out of here. Would push myself to the limit to be free of this overheated prison. Any amusement or delight once found in killing all demons or grasping at strength we weren’t previously allowed had gone.
[Max: Things are just peachy.]
[Tanya: Bullshit. Don’t push us away, Max.]
I allowed myself a long sigh of stale, hellish air. It was odd. Technically, we’d now spent more time without Tanya and Quinn than with them. Given that for them it was four days since we parted, and for us it must be nearly three weeks - there was a difference in mentality where they probably still worried for us, yet we had become numb to their existence.
[Max: It’s been almost three weeks here.]
[Max: We are alive and in good health.]
[Max: Changed in some ways. The mental toll of the violence.]
[Max: Residual corruption from hell itself.]
[Max: But… we are getting close to coming home. I promise.]
[Tanya: Don’t make a promise you don’t know you can keep, asshole.]
[Max: It is a promise I will keep.]
[Tanya: Good. When you get here, you do what you need to rest, okay?]
[Tanya: Your safety and health is the most important thing.]
[Max: Thanks, Tanya. Give my regards to the others.]
I wiped away the silent tears from my face. It was interesting how any sort of human connection would just open the floodgates now. Wasn’t even sad or had any guiding emotion to have them fall so freely - it was just like I had something untoward in them and they were watering as a response to eject the foreign object. Clearly I was repressing a lot.
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Turned my head to see Ren walk over, and she sat herself down beside me.
“Hoping something will happen if you keep staring at these crowns, trickster?” She leaned over so her head could rest on my shoulder.
“No. I’m pretty tired of things happening, actually.” I leaned my head against hers. “I wish for a life after this, where nothing really happens at all. Just rest and maybe a show here or there.”
She sighed. “We both know that’s never going to happen. We’re deathforged, remember? Destined to fight against the odds and get dirty solving the issues plaguing existence.”
“I hate that I know you’re right.” Still, something a little less traumatic than spending time in hell would be appreciated.
And we weren’t killing our way through all of this miserable place. Roger had rightfully been a little worried that we might roll up to his own village and chew through his family - but I assured him I wouldn’t. I'd seen enough demons to not want to meet his many wives and children. That kind of familiarity might break my dissociation in ways I could never recover from.
We only went through enough bad guys as needed, now on our way to the palace or castle. Wherever the demon king resided, probably sitting on a throne of spikes and skulls. Everything a shade of red or black. I was tired of that palette.
“What did the System grant you now?” I asked the elf, more to get out of my own head than anything.
“I can empower one of my shots to have a chain effect every so often.”
“Like a chain lightning?”
She nodded, grinding her matted hair between my shoulder and face. “Yeah, but can be any element that I can cast with my other skills.”
“So… radiant would be pretty nice, huh?”
“Wouldn’t it?” She moved away to look me in the face, her soft smile something that tugged at my heartstrings in seeing how completely spent she was.
Despite Tanya’s offer of all the rest we needed, I doubted that the Lady in Red and whatever had silenced the Eternal Wardens cared to give us a month or two to decompress and get back to our normal state of being.
“I’ll check mine in a second.” I put my arm around her. “Still working up the courage to inhale these three crowns.”
“You think you’ll get another demonic power or something? It’s hard to imagine you can get any more destructive than you already are.”
I shrugged, for lack of a more concise response. In truth, I wasn’t too sure how the System even decided to give me more demonic skills. While some of them were something I took myself by exerting my control over Domains and the like, others had just been freely given - perhaps at crown thresholds? Then again, I doubted that a Player was meant to do any of the bullshit that we were currently doing.
System had to run a little improv to keep me from tearing it in half.
“If anything… I’m worried that I will become too powerful to really exist.”
Despite not looking directly at her, I could almost hear Ren’s eyes roll. “We’re not even level twenty yet, right? There’s actual people beyond the exclusion zone that have full stats and the best gear and shit. You’re worried because you can grow horns and do some very niche skills.”
“Well… when you put it like that.”
“You’ve always been a few steps ahead of everyone else, trickster. You can go invisible, summon cannons, and pretend to die. Not to mention your area stun, potential insta-kill debuff swap, and insane power boosting with that Legendary item… if it wasn’t for the Guardian skills, I’d just shoot things really good.”
it was my turn to roll my eyes. “You’re being a little modest there, too. But in saying that… I wonder if the demon king is a Guardian?”
Her fingers stretched out and relaxed a few times. “Hmm. We’ll know if we get closer, right?”
I nodded slowly. While we knew very little about these entities given power over the System, if I created this world, then the leader of hell would be a prime position to fill with one of these near-gods. But, like Ren said, we wouldn’t really know for sure until we got close enough.
“Hey, Boss?”
We turned to look over at my rabbit demon. Almost looking as beat up and worn down as the rest of us now, he gave me a brief bow as he stepped closer.
“Got some intel for you, about the remaining princes.”
“If they’re on their way, then just wave these corpses at them and tell them to give us an hour or something.” I gestured to the bodies of the three we had just slain.
“Nah. They’re actually standing with the king. They intend to help rebuff your attack and get a huge amount of the land you’ve taken as a reward.”
I pulled a face. “And how do you know this, Roger?”
“Demonic bird told me.” He maintained a neutral expression.
Ren stretched her legs out and exhaled. “Won’t be any land to divide up, because Max isn’t going to lose.”
“After checking my calendar, it looks like I don’t have the time for anything but winning.” I smiled at them both.
“Not to piss on your parade, Boss, but the king is quite powerful.” He crossed his furred arms and looked over at the dead princes. “Like, I’ve seen you deal with these chumps no problem, but the head honcho himself is… a shit too big to flush.”
Demonic plumbing aside, I wondered what that actually meant System-wise. Was he a level twenty boss? An elite or other designation we hadn’t come across yet? Somewhere along the way, we’d become unclipped from the usual cardboard cut-outs the world generally presented us with. While the demons here in hell weren’t smart by any stretch of the word, they felt more real and natural than anything on the surface.
And that wasn’t just me having an affinity for the bastards.
“Regardless.” I waved the giant rabbit away. “It doesn’t change our trajectory. We march on the capital and kick whoever is on the throne off of it. So simple, it can’t go wrong.”
“Assuming that after we do this, a way out of here comes available to us,” Ren said.
I looked at Roger, but all he could offer was a shrug.
To come this far and not have a way to escape… I wasn’t sure what we’d do. Surely, with enough power, we could tear a hole through reality. We had found a couple of Teleport scrolls, but they hadn’t worked. Something about the demonic nature of this place, perhaps. Agonising.
“Well, pick your abilities already.” Ren pressed on my shoulder as she pushed herself up to her feet. “I’m hungry for a conclusion to all this.”
With a long sigh, I reached forward and plucked the first crown from the ground.