image [https://imgur.com/6WMXAa0.jpg]

My face cringed with confusion and disdain at the demon lord’s suggestion to turn our final battle into a meager game of chess. It was such a weird thing for him to plan out, as if he was more interested in finding a playmate than actually dueling me for the fate of the world.

But as he wished, so would it be in this world of his control. He’d already set the stage with this giant checkerboard field and our current positions on it. I had no doubt the demon lord would also twist the rules of the game, making it more exciting than trivial, for better or worse.

Accessories fell over us, distinguishing what roll we'd each be playing. Marek gained a crown, casting him as our king. A tiara fell over me, indicating I was the queen. Indena now wore a large hat and decorative smock, symbolizing she was our bishop. Uncle had already been dressed for his role as the knight.

As for Samael, even he joined our ranks, but his position was all he got to indicate his role as our rook.

Mella wasn’t anywhere to be seen at first, but a slight shifting under Indena’s big hat didn’t fool me. She was hidden under there, peeking out and giving me a wink.

Indena took full notice, but refrained from speaking up in case the witch had a plan. Unlike her willingness to cooperate, her face was visibly aggravated by Mella’s position. I had to question if those two would ever get along, and maybe this proved there was some hope.

Opposite of us stood Belphegor’s ranks, all lined up to mirror the positions of our own. Demons, all of the variety we’d faced up to now, were given the same ranks as chess pieces. Night hags were pawns, and the larger dire hags were the rooks.

Nephilim were the knights. A more properly shaped human variant took the positions of bishop. The bishop to the right of Belphegor was dressed oddly compared to its counterpart. He was in a robe with a paper mask that had a silly face on it. Clearly he wasn’t confident enough to show his already silhouetted face.

“Hey, we don’t have a full team,” I announced. “Are you trying to cheat us?”

“Is that so?” Belphegor frowned, looking very tired in the face. “How ill your imagination must be to blame me for that shortcoming.”

Blaming us for debuffs in his own twisted game made me so mad. But this was his world, and the rules were going to be stacked against us. Did I really think a demon lord was going to play any other way here? Of course not.

“We won’t survive this game if we don’t have a proper team…” Marek cautioned me, “especially if we are the pieces, no?”

That really was an issue. Dang it all! Even with the chess simulation programs in my head, I wasn’t sure I could properly adjust things in such a way that we could win this. No chess game was ever meant to be played with such a handicap. A crew of six, technically five if I neglected Mella in her cat form, was not enough.

“If only we had an army,” Indena commented.

“Sure could use some bees right about now,” I said, remembering my father’s constructs.

As if triggering reality, a curious display of lights sparked upwards in front of us where eight pawns would have been spread out. Orbs of light accreted together, eventually condensing down into the shape of eight thin bee constructs, drones to be precise. No longer was our front exposed, as a line of warriors, weak as they may be, had it covered.

“Woah!” I cheered.

“And so, the Princess of the Bees calls her subjects,” Uncle spoke.

The demon lord smirked with satisfaction as he witnessed my mere words craft magical creations to rise. “Maybe this will be a fair game after all.”

If he wanted a rival, he now had one.

Matching his side meant we’d need a few more warriors. One more bishop, which I decided to call upon a honey bee construct for. One more knight, which came as the ever so valiant wasp construct. And finally, as our second rook and powerhouse, the mighty hornet assault bee, or a H.A.B for short.

The H.A.B rose from the floor, showcasing its immense size and commanding presence, I shivered with fear. I hadn’t forgotten the one that tried to kill me last year, but that fear didn’t debilitate me. Rather, it invigorated me to realize its full potential. That thing was a beast, and it could steamroll anything in its path. I was proud to be its leader.

“There!” I announced. “My bees are better than your demons, Belphegor! We’ll win this!”

I heard a light chortle leave the demon lord's mouth. “We’ll see about that.”

Before the game truly started, there was one more rule that we were given. This game wouldn’t last forever. Both sides were given exactly twenty minutes of time to spend on our turns. Two giant hour glasses appeared in the sky to show us our time. It seemed like we had a lot to work with, but Marek was quick to warn how hard it was to consider every possible move we could make, even from the very beginning, and do it all within the specified amount of time.

“Don’t worry,” I pointed to my head. “I can simulate millions of different moves in under a second. We can just pick the best one from that.”

“That makes it all the more harder, no? A million is quite a lot to sort through.”

It definitely was. There were 20 possible moves right off the bat, but after that…the number grew exponentially with every turn. That wasn’t even considering what Belphegor would do to muck it up. My fluster was growing just as high at that realization.

“Don’t lose focus,” Uncle said. “A leader has to read the situation and make quick calls. Even if they don’t pan out, you keep going. Hesitation means death. Understood?”

He was so serious, but a lot of lives were at stake, including our own.

“Got it.”

“I know you can do this.” Uncle gave me a thumbs up.

“Yeah!” I psyched myself up by slapping my cheeks for hype. “I can do this!”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The demon lord saw fit to no longer delay our game. He straightened his hand and raised it high into the air, preparing to signal the start.

The whole field was full of silent suspense as we waited…

“Begin!” He swung his hand down, ordering a night hag pawn forward two squares.

“Let’s do this!” I threw out my open hand and commanded a drone to mirror his own night hags movement. “Go get em’!”

The drone quickly pressed forward, lowering his little arms out of their idle position and activating blow torches at the ends of them. Those burning streams of fire immediately slashed down on the night hag in front of it.

“What?” Marek squinted in confusion. “I thought pawns could only attack diagonally.”

“This ain't a regular board game, Blue Boy…” Indena said, arms folded. “We’re playing demon chess now. Anything goes.”

The night hag didn’t simply sit there and let the bee assault it, rather, it jumped forward one more square and climbed on board the drones back.

The drones summoned a stinger of pure hard light energy out of its back end, then swung it around to deal with the little bugger trying to catch a ride.

The feisty little night hag grew claws of bone and shadow that collided with the hard light, sending sparks out. The drone was just a tad stronger, forcing the demon off it. Their fight continued.

While that battle progressed, the next move needed to be made. Both the demon's forces and our own moved pawns upwards toward the front lines. Across the board from A3 to H6 drone stingers clashed with the claws of night hags. Where once the hags had an advantage against organic beings, manipulating them to fall asleep, bee constructs were immune to their sleeping curse.

However, our drones were at the greater disadvantage, seeing as they didn’t have stardust weapons to deal a dire enough blow to these minor dark creatures, only just barely holding them back from passing by. The drone wall wouldn’t last forever.

Speaking of dire, the demon lord ordered his most hulking units forward… The dire hags. Those knuckle dragging monsters easily pressed forward and destroyed the left and right most drones, even hitting any adjacent to the paths they trudged forward through… Clearly a foul move by any normal accounts, but this was demon chess we were playing.

“Samael, H.A.B!” I called out to my rooks. “Both of you move up and kill those big ugly grannies!”

Upon my orders, Samael uncoiled from his large tile and flew forward across the board at very hasty speeds, leaving a trail of sparkling light in his wake. Across from him, his H.A.B counterpart rocketed true and used its giant body to slam through all the enemies.

Both of them were effective in taking on the hags, but only Samael was able to clear out his aisle and wound the dire hag, leaving an opening.

We had to get to Yamin, and that meant we needed to get by the pawns. That was our chance to do it.

“Alright everyone, we’ve breached their lines!” Uncle shouted. “Yalda, give the orders and we’ll move up!”

“Affirmative!” I nodded, activating my combat mode and gathering my allies for an assault forward.

The demon lord attempted to throw his next batch of forces forward, sending nephilim knights into battle. They attacked Samael, using all their might to keep him from getting any further. That was when Uncle led the charge with me close behind.

His stardust blade clashed with the shadow sword of the first nephilim, relieving Samael of some pressure. I also joined in and struck my spear forward, clashing spears with the second nephilim!

“Copy cat!” I called him out, but he didn’t respond to my allegations with words.

Instead, he responded by swinging more aggressively and jabbing with purpose. Our spears were evenly matched in skill, but stardust always triumphed over darkness!

“Yah!” I uttered as I flew upwards and swung down with titanic force onto the demon's spear, cutting it in half, leaving the tall minion of shadow defenseless. “You’re done for!”

I stabbed forward into the nephilim’s heart, skewering its chest and also striking the very wounded dire hag behind it like a barbeque kabab. The nephilim erupted into flame and turned to ash, but the dire hag was only greatly agitated by my attack.

While I dealt with my foe, Uncle swung left and right and used his might to overwhelm the sword nephilim, who moved with all the grace of an inflatable tube man.

Indena came up to reinforce him, sending forth a wave of light that caught the nephilim off guard, allowing Uncle the perfect chance to strike one decisive cut across its torso, sending it to the shadow realm it was spawned from!

Back to my battle with the dire hag, this giant old shadow crone was a match for me indeed. Even stronger than the ones back in the city. She used her force to overwhelm my much more frail frame.

Pound for pound, I was too little to do enough damage, even in this older form.

“Samael!” I leapt up into the air and mounted up on his back. “Forward!”

“Ha ha!” laughed the demon lord in our heads. “Let’s mix things up a little then…”

He snapped his fingers, allowing a chariot to spawn on the board, one raced around by a giant rooster!

"Aaaacaddoo!" echoed the rooster's voice.

“Sacrebleu… This is one hell of a chess game, no?” Marek uttered as he punched out a stray night hag crawling up behind us.

“I have no idea who’s turn it is anymore.” Indena commented, noticing the hourglass timers in the air still going down for both sides. “They’re just shouting orders at us. So just do whatever you want, I guess.”

There were some restrictions, like we had to keep within the bounds of whatever movements our respective pieces could make. So as the queen, I could move pretty much as far as I wanted in any direction, but Marek could only move any one square around himself. But otherwise, anything was fair game. And as with me jumping onto Samael, there was room for some strange things.

As my dragon friend Samael flew forward with me on his back, I slid my spear forward and struck the oncoming chicken drawn dire hag chariot! The hag was hurt badly, but swung just as hard to hit Samael.

*CRASH!*

Samael let out a loud rawer and landed on the ground. That heavy hit did some real damage. It looked like he was bleeding.

I immediately jumped off him and primed Lesser Heal, worried for my pets safety.

“Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man! I’ll heal you up as fast as I can!”

His wound closed up, but he was still in a bad way. He probably wouldn’t be able to fight.

Uncle took up our cause though and quickly came in for a clutch victory over the dire hag and chariot. However, Marek had to catch the chicken before it rampaged across our side of the field.

“Time to make some chicken nuggets!” Indena jumped forward, creating a stardust aura around her right arm. The stardust broke through the dream reality and allowed elemental fire to burst out and she struck the chicken hard with a heavy flame jet punch!

That rooster was cooked after that hit. I couldn’t wait for a taste of it after we won.

“It worked!” Indena cheered, getting dizzy and falling backwards. “But dang did it take a lot out of me…”

Now we had two tired warriors… Samael and Indena. I hoped Mella had those stamina potions ready, because we were about to need them.

As some of our current major threats disappeared, especially after I ordered our extra knight and bishop to join the fray, it seemed like we were about to have a clear path forward toward capturing Yamin! Were we winning this?

“Good work, everyone!” said Uncle.

“Couldn’t have done it better myself, you guys!” also said Uncle…

Wait a minute…

I turned back to the group to see not one, but two Uncle’s! Count em’; Two Uncle’s!

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