I followed my plan. Releasing grenades one after another without slowing down, I watched Ward's reaction. He clearly didn't understand where I was and where the fake was, and yet, in both cases he would have failed. 3 seconds before the collision... Ward takes a pose ready to dodge, but this is unlikely to help him. I got as close as possible and started firing grenades directly at the general. He jumps at me, great! What ? He took another leap to the side. I ran past, this was clearly not part of my plans. I am many times faster than him, but he crushes me with his reaction and many years of experience.

It's worth trying a similar plan. This one should work by now. I made a U-turn and ran again towards Ward. Most likely, he has already realized that I want to repeat the same trick, but he is mistaken... The collision plays out its performance again. I fire a grenade at Ward, he makes two jumps to the side, but a moment before his second landing I fire at his feet...

*Boom*

Ward flew to the side with his legs torn off, spraying his black blood everywhere. The explosions behind me stopped. Ward lay almost motionless under a huge red rock, slowly leaking precious liquid. A person would have lost consciousness from such loss of blood, but the inhabitants of hell have much higher endurance. I walked closer to him. His eyes had already recovered and he could see me clearly.

- Over the entire period of my existence, I made two mistakes: the first - when I went to kill you, the second - when I fell for your trick...

- You drove yourself into the latter, but blame your master for the former.

- I will never insult my master! Many hundreds of cycles ago he saved...

- I do not care.

-... Do you think you will be able to defeat Lord Alzur? You are a complete idiot for deciding to cross the path of one of the First.

- I need his death and even if the same outcome awaits me, I will still take the risk.

- Madman...

Further dialogue makes no sense, so I shot him in the head. And so, the sub-boss lies at my feet dead, or not quite? Charon said that clots of internal energy of demons and devils after "death" are sent to the Crucible of Souls, where they restore their strength to their maximum with which they died, after which they are resurrected at the place of death. Considering his strength, he will obviously not be resurrected soon, this is only to my advantage. Although, even if he is resurrected, he most likely will not cause me any special problems. During the entire fight with him, I only lost half my body once just because of the element of surprise. Although the name of his ability is not very good, it is incredibly powerful. "Killer Queen" at level 100, I would say...

- As far as I can see, the battle is already over...

- Yes, and as you can see, I came out the winner.

- Only you have spoiled the landscape here too much...

Kagor came out of the cave and leisurely chatted with me and examined the battlefield.

- Kagor, can you hem my suit?

- Of course, I easily dealt with the sleeve then, but I think it's not too much of a problem here either.

- By the way, what should we do with that commander-in-chief? Will he just lie here?

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

- Drink his blood, and throw the rest away.

- Why exactly blood?

- All demons and devils do this. They are saturated with the power of defeated opponents and become stronger due to this.

- Why then doesn't anyone drink the blood of monsters?

- Everyone considers this a low act. You're worthless if you drink the blood of weak opponents or something like that...

And in the end they paid for their ignorance. The local creatures have abilities that probably cannot be found in any devil.

- Give me your suit here and go to your "glass."

- An insightful joke...

Having taken off my clothes and given them to Kagor, I went towards Ward. Having stripped him naked and feeling like a person of the wrong orientation, I began to cut his arteries, veins and areas around the bloody organs, such as the heart, liver and kidneys.

The blood didn't really stand out. Blood, like blood. Even as a child, when I got a little wound, when I fell or cut myself with a knife and licked the wound, the taste was the same as it is now. When I had drunk everything I could, Ward began to look like a chewed dog toy. I would prefer to burn the body with a flamethrower... which I don't have... Although, if you remember, the demons from Ward's squad converted their ZF into attack energy, maybe I can do the same trick by creating fire? Surprisingly, it worked the first time. Fire is very easy to imagine. Releasing fire from my right hand, I covered the general's entire body in flames. I never understood the meaning of burial. Why spend so much effort and money on a funeral when you can simply burn the body and keep the ashes. It seems that the person has died, but at the same time, he is always with you, it's very nice.

When I returned to Kagor, he was still sewing my suit.

- You shredded your clothes badly. So the web of that Arachne that you killed a couple of cycles ago came in handy.

- I have a couple of questions, can you answer them?

- Ask.

- Who are you?

- Funny joke, I am Kagor - an artisan from the red mountains.

- That's not what I mean. I couldn't understand all this time, are you a demon, or a devil, why did that general look like a man, and not like those gargoyles next to him, why are you even sitting in these mountains?

- I will answer in order. I am the devil, my ability is called "Multi-Armed Master". I can create anything from almost anything. Regarding Ward's and my appearance, we look like people, and not like the "gargoyles" you called only because devils despise the face of demons. We see people as a more beautiful race, therefore, when we reach a sufficient level of strength, we create for ourselves the appearance of a person with whom we continue to live. Demons don't care about appearances, they only care about battles, they live by them, on a subconscious level they want to become devils, and that's why they are eager to fight. In families of devils, children are born the same way as in the "world of Aral", but demons are a different story. They are created artificially by the energy of the core and live no more than 150 cycles, after which they die and their residual energy becomes material for the core to create new demons. The core of a devil cannot be taken away, which is why demons want to become devils. About me... When I finally became a devil, received my skill and was free to go wherever I wanted, I went to the local police, where I met Efrena, my wife. After about a thousand cycles of our relationship, our son, Ramir, was born. At that moment the third revolution had just begun. We call revolutions the period when devils dissatisfied with the rule of our King unite and go into rebellion against the crown. Such revolutions paint very bloody pictures. We escaped from the polis and wandered through different territories under the control of different First Ones. One day, we were found by rebel devils who thought that we were here to stop their revolution, and they killed my wife and son and almost killed me, but the King's soldiers arrived in time and saved me from death... But at that moment I wanted to die , I then lost the meaning of my existence. Having nothing else dear to me, I went on a journey. Wandered into the territory now controlled by Alzur. But then his father, Rebar, ruled here. Rebar gave me this cave as a place to live and work, provided me with tools, for which I am grateful to him. After some time, the fourth revolution began. I still firmly remembered what the revolutionaries had done to my life. And in order to take revenge on them, I created the best weapons I could for the army of Rebar and the King. And after the end of hostilities, I lived a quiet, peaceful, unremarkable life, until your arrival.

Wow story, I even feel sorry for him. I wonder how his fate will change if I kill Alzur?

- Thank you for sharing your story with me...

- There is nothing to thank me for. There is nothing special in my story, I just wanted to share my experiences with someone for a long time. And by the way, as soon as you defeat Alzur, I will leave.

- What ?