Ashtoreth yanked her spear out of the twitching corpse of the second carnage demon.

{You gain and absorb 1 [Carnage Demon Core]; Tier 1}

{You are 75% of the way toward advancement}

“I still don’t get why you hate the hierarchy so much,” she said, tearing out their hearts. “I mean, I suppose I understand being unhappy that you’re weak,” she said. “But why hate the whole system? The system works.”

“Well at least it’s got your stamp of approval, master.”

“Look,” Ashtoreth said. “If you want to do what’s right, you need two things: you need to know what’s right, and you need to have the capacity to do. Power is the ultimate precondition for moral action, because it’s the necessary precondition for any action. Therefore it’s always moral to seek more power. And that’s the gospel truth.”

Dazel just sighed.

“So of course the archfiends rule Hell from its lowermost darknesses, and do whatever they please.”

He sighed again.

“Anyway,” she continued. “I don’t see why you’re so upset about being summoned. We’re both going to get stronger, and then get even stronger, and then do that forever. It’s going to be nice.”

Dazel scoffed. “It’s never nice where your kind are concerned. Oh, it always seems promising, you always want to think you can come out on top, with archfiend levels of power in the mix—but nobody gets to ride along with you forever.”

“My kind?” Ashtoreth said, laughing incredulously. He was such a curious little demon: so bold. The things her sisters might have done to him for saying just that one sentence, let alone the rest of his rant. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m not anything like the rest of my kind.”

“You threatened to torture me within minutes of meeting.”

“For a good reason!” she said. “We’ve got to save the humans!”

Their conversation was interrupted yet again as she rounded a corner and found two more carnage demons. She grinned, rushing forward.

“Kill,” she commanded.

The first carnage demon turned on the second, tackling it before it could reach her… and Ashtoreth descended with her spear, stabbing it in every spot she could get a shot at. She didn’t kill either demon before her command wore off a moment later… so she just spent [Blood] to command it again, driving her spear into its victim’s neck.

{You gain and absorb 1 [Hellhound Core]; Tier 1}

Her second command wore off… in time for the demon to turn to her and have her spearpoint driven through one of its six beady eyes.

{You gain and absorb 1 [Hellhound Core]; Tier 1}

She fished a heart out of her bulging heart-sack, consumed it with a squish, then ripped out two more for her collection.

“Progress, please!”

{You are 96% of the way toward advancement}

“Cheer up,” Ashtoreth said. “We’ve just got to kill one more thing to get my second aspect.”

“Nah,” Dazel said. “I’d rather complain.”

She rushed through the corridors ahead of her, searching excitedly for another monster.

True to his word, Dazel complained the whole time.

“Things were going good for me, you hear?” he said. “My last summoner was an elf from the inner realms. He was your typical master for a while—cruel guy, insecure, sheltering himself from the realization that the research he’d devoted his life to was mostly worthless by pretending more and more he was outcast for his genius, you know. But then one day he summoned a Ph’neel’ith and it ate his sanity. Much nicer fellow, after that.”

He sighed wistfully. “My days were filled with books of lore and my nights were filled with leisure. I got to go outside and bask in the light of a white moon… stretch out in the fireplace and get all sooty, breathe in the hot ash and sample the flavors of fresh-cut firewood…”

He grumbled. “Then the poor old fella’s son figured out our con, killed him for his inheritance, and sent me straight back to Hell. But you know? It still wasn’t that bad. I found a nice, cosy crevice in the Pit of Sorrow, then got drafted into helping with the invasion of Earth. So I studied up, learned the culture—you know.”

“Oh believe me,” Ashtoreth said, rounding another corner to find the corridor beyond disappointingly empty. “I know.”

Dazel shrugged and shook his head. “I thought things would be easy. Was hoping I’d get summoned by some hapless edgelord who chose a demon-summoning class because he thought it would do the impossible and make him dark and sexy, you know?”

He sighed, carrying on in a mournful tone. “I’d pick up a little power for myself, maybe. But ultimately I’d watch the human sucker get himself offed because his dumb ass chose a scythe for a weapon, or something equally stupid. And after that? I’d mosey on back to my crevice and look busy with something whenever the devils came by.”

Ashtoreth frowned, trying to understand. “But what about… I don’t know, anything? Don’t you have ambitions? Dreams?”

“Dreams?” he asked. “Yeah, I got dreams. I just told them to you. The dream is that I leave, and then nothing bad happens to me for as long as feasibly possible.”

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“But wait—if you want nothing bad to happen to you, then what you really want is power! And in that case, I’m the best thing that’s happened ever to you!” She spread her arms as if presenting the whole world around him. “Come on, cheer up! When we’re done with my quest, you’ll be more powerful than you could possibly—doggy!”

She’d cut off to remark with glee upon the hellhound that had appeared at the end of the corridor. It lunged toward her, and in short order it was writhing on the ground, pinned by her spear, blood pooling around it.

{You gain and absorb 1 [Hellhound Core]; Tier 1}

{Congratulations! You’ve absorbed enough power to choose your second Class Aspect!}

“Ding!” said Ashtoreth.

“Great,” said Dazel. “Congratulations. Say: how long do you take with system choices again? What I’m really asking is: how much time do I have time for a nap?”

Ashtoreth frowned. “Keep an eye out while I choose, all right?”

He sighed. “Yes, my master.”

She scowled, but brought up her choices nonetheless:

{Choose an Aspect}

{Once made, this choice cannot be undone. Your aspect will either grant you a new ability, or significantly upgrade one of your existing racial abilities.}

{When you’ve chosen 3 aspects, you will be given a class and gain the power to level up. Your 3 aspects will become your ability progression paths.}

[Armament]

Primary stats: DEX, STR

[Armament] focuses on creating versatile personalized weaponry that interacts with your existing abilities.

Choosing this aspect will grant you a [Conjure Weapon] ability for your choice of close-range, long-range, or spellcasting weapon. You will also get to choose one upgrade for that weapon.

[Blood]

Primary stats: VIT

[Blood] focuses on manipulating vital fluids, both physically and metaphysically, allowing you to control blood telekinetically as well as harvest its latent magical power in a variety of ways.

Choosing this aspect will grant you the [Blood Control] ability, and move your [Drain Blood] ability into the [Blood] progression path when you gain your class.

[Companion]

Primary stats: MAG, PSY, DEF

[Companion] focuses on bolstering your ability to fight alongside an intelligent, willing ally.

Choosing this aspect will grant you the [Battle Bond] ability, granting you and your companion immunity to one another’s attacks and allowing you to share resistances.

Choosing this aspect will also upgrade your [Summon Demonic Familiar] ability, and move it into the [Companion] progression path when you gain a class.

[Domination]

Primary stats: PSY

[Domination] focuses on exercising varying amounts of control over another creature’s mind. This can be to control them, paralyze them, trick them, or merely extract information from their minds.

Choosing this aspect will grant you the [Mental Domination] ability, and move your [Command Profane] ability into the [Domination] progression path when you gain your class.

She read the list over and knew what she’d take immediately. She’d wanted [Companion], it was true… but Dazel had done a lot to discourage that particular dream. [Armament], however, had been the only other aspect on her wishlist.

She wasn’t going to bother going over the other options.

{Choose [Armament] as your second aspect?}

“Heck yeah!” Ashtoreth chirped.

{You gained the [Armament] aspect}

{Choose: close-range, long-range, or spellcasting for your [Conjure Weapon] ability.}

“Close-range, please!”

{Concentrate on the form you would like your close-range weapon to take and form it in the space before you. This form will be difficult to change once chosen.}

Ashtoreth sighed and smiled. Things were really going her way.

In the air before her, a translucent image of a colossal greatsword appeared. It was a wide, flat hunk of steel that was longer than she was tall and five times her body weight. It had a single edge which wrapped around both ends of the sword.

It would have been perfectly symmetrical, were there not a cavity cut through the solid piece of steel near its base, leaving a long, leather-wrapped bar along the sword’s spine that served as its grip.

“That’s it,” she said. “That’s my baby.”

{Name your weapon}

“Luftschloss.”

{Choose an upgrade to gain, then choose to retain or replace all other options}

Upgrade [Conjure Luftschloss] with [Luftschloss: Counterforce Telekinesis]:

You can telekinetically push or pull against Luftschloss. Any force you apply to the blade is applied to you as well, in an equal and opposite reaction.

The maximum force you are able to apply to the blade depends on your STR, MAG, and PSY stats.

Upgrade [Conjure Luftschloss] with [Luftschloss: Proximate Telekinesis]:

You can telekinetically move Luftschloss in any direction while it is close to your body (within three meters). This telekinesis does not apply any counterforce.

The maximum force you are able to apply to the blade depends on your MAG and PSY stats.

Upgrade [Conjure Luftschloss] with [Luftschloss: Mighty Wielder]:

While Luftschloss is conjured, you gain a 25% bonus to your STR.

Ashtoreth read all these over. She considered the boss she’d seen on the bridge in the cavern.

Then she chose [Counterforce Telekinesis] and retained both [Proximate Telekinesis] and [Mighty Wielder]. Both abilities would eventually help her wield the massive weight of the sword.

[Proximate Telekinesis] would help her swing it around better than a raw strength boost would.

{You have gained a new ability: [Conjure Luftschloss]}

“Thanks!” she said to the system.

It cost a huge amount of mana to conjure the weapon, almost two-thirds her total. But after a second of concentrating her mana into the shape of the sword, it appeared in her hands.

Its tip crashed down to the stone floor of the corridor before her.

Ashtoreth grinned down at it. “Hail to the king, baby.” She didn’t know why, but something about giant swords always felt a little masculine to her.

“Wha?” Dazel said, starting from where he’d lain down a few feet away. He blinked, looked around. “How long was I out?”

Ashtoreth frowned down at him. “Thirty seconds? You were supposed to be on lookout.”

Dazel made a disappointed noise. “You’re supposed to agonize over every possible decision.”

“The choice was obvious. I knew what I wanted pretty much right away.”

“That just means you agonize over every possible decision, then reveal that you’ve already made up your mind.” He shot an amused look at the gigantic sword. “Okay, size queen—where to now?”

Ashtoreth laughed. “We’re gonna go fight that boss.”

Dazel’s eyes widened. “What?!”