The hellhound squealed as its flesh sizzled, the smell of it filling the hallway.

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

“How come you didn’t shoot it?” Ashtoreth asked Frost, moving forward toward the corpse. It was the first demon they’d fought together, though she’d done all the fighting: they’d turned a corner, it had charged, and she’d roasted it in short order.

“I… you lit it on fire.”

“My firebolt is slower than your bullets,” she said.

“He’s still addled because of the apocalypse,” said Dazel. “Honestly, I’m surprised he got this far, even. His reaction time is awful. Just… awful.”

“Hmm,” Ashtoreth said. She used her [Consume Heart] to tear the hound’s heart out, rolling the smoking carcass over to do so.

As the organ zoomed into her hand, Frost gave a start. “What the hell was that?”

“What?” Ashtoreth asked. “I eat hearts. I keep them in this nifty little bag I made.”

She tucked the heart away and patted the bag with a squish. Frost just looked at her with widening eyes.

“What?” she asked. “You don’t exactly look like you belong in the Christmas pageant either, Officer Vampire. Now come on, we should walk side by side so that when you do fire your weapon, you don’t hit me in the back.”

“It would be very unfortunate if that happened,” added Dazel.

“Say,” Ashtoreth asked. “How close are you to your second aspect?”

“Hm?” Frost asked. “I have it. I’m working on the third.”

“Really?” she asked. “Your first is [Armament], right?”

“Yes,” he said. “How did you know?”

She looked meaningfully down at the shotgun. “It was that or your gun is a magic weapon that regenerates ammo. Your starter weapon was that sword, I’m guessing.”

“It was,” he said. He looked down at the shotgun. “This suits me better. I guess you know a bit about guns and Christmas because you… used the internet?”

“Oh, no.” Ashtoreth said, letting out a little laugh. “Humans think of all sorts of things that infernals never have, but harnessing the power of explosions to kill people by excavating their skulls with projectiles launched out of metal tubes wasn’t one of them. Infernals probably invented those before we came up with cutlery.”

“Right.”

“I love guns!” she declared happily. “Have ever since I was a kid! My first gun was—oh! A big one!”

{Vivinsect — Level 8}

They had turned a corner to see a massive horned beetle filling the double-wide corridor and guarding a set of stairs that led up into a brighter, outdoor light. Its carapace glowed with red markings, and a red orb of light floated in the air just above its jagged horn.

Her firebolt struck it a moment later, and a moment after that she heard the roar of Frost’s shotgun. The beetle shuddered a little as each attack hit it—and then it began charging toward them as the light above its horn grew brighter and brighter.

Frost kept firing his shotgun….

Ashtoreth pushed Luftschloss, hurling it through the air toward the demon. They had just rounded a corner, and the counterforce immediately sent her back into the wall behind her, where she planted her feet and braced herself as the weapon sped through along the hallway.

The massive sword pierced the beetle’s armor and sunk three feet deep into the flesh beside its shoulder.

“Cease fire!” she cried, pulling on the sword to tug herself off of the wall and into the hallway, sprinting with unnatural speed as the beetle was momentarily tugged off-balance by the sword that was pulling its master toward it.

She reached the beetle just as the orb above its horn flared and sent a conical burst of frayed red energy toward her….

She leapt into the air, and at the same time she stopped pulling on her sword and began to push against it instead, the counterforce slowing her charge and pushing her up against the ceiling so that she avoided the attack spell as she slid to a halt, planted her knees, and continued pushing down on the blade, using the counterforce to keep herself pressed to the ceiling.

Her greatsword tore its way through the beetle’s body below her. The demon squealed as the blade ripped out of its bottom side to clatter against the ground below. Ashtoreth ceased pushing on it, kicking off the ceiling to turn in the air and then land on the beetle’s back, lean forward, and start spending all of her [Bloodfire] to pour hellfire into the gap in its armor while it thrashed beneath her.

Very soon it stopped moving.

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{You gain 1 [Vivinsect Core]; Tier 1}

She spent a while tearing its heart out through the wound that Luftschloss had made, then squeezed the cantaloupe-sized organ into her heart bag.

Frost came up to stand beside her, staring at the dead beetle. “You’ve been training to fight since you were a child,” he observed. “I mean, you told me that.”

“Uh-huh!”

“Do all of you? Infernals, I mean?”

“Not all,” said Ashtoreth. “But the invaders do.”

“I see,” he said. Then he added: “Look, since we’re on the same side, I should cast my buff spells on you, right?”

“Uh-huh! Let me have it!”

“Right,” Frost said. He raised a hand, gathering a silver light in his palm.

“Wait!” Dazel cried.

Ashtoreth screamed as a steady, vibrating pain shot through her entire body, echoing up to the tips of her ears and digging into the roots of her teeth, scraping against the inside of her eyes and searing the underside of her skin….

A moment later the pain was gone.

“Oh,” said Frost. “Shit. I didn’t meant to do that.”

Ashtoreth stood from where she’d fallen to her knees and rounded on him. “Your buff spell was bless? You took the [Sacred] aspect second, didn’t you?”

“We’re in Hell,” he said. “It seemed like a good idea!”

“Really?” Ashtoreth asked. “And why was that, pray tell?”

“I—I figured demons are—” He blanched. “Right. Sorry. I suppose I should have realized that wouldn’t have gone well.”

Ashtoreth deflated a little, groaning. “Sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. You were just trying to help.”

“No,” said Frost. “Look, I’m the one who should be sorry. I should have realized.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “Unless you did it on purpose to test and see if you could momentarily disable me if need be, in which case—you could have just asked.”

Mentally, she made a note to the system that she didn’t want to accept his buff spells anymore. It wouldn’t keep him from casting them on her, but he’d at least have to to go through her defenses, first.

“Uh….”

“Come on,” she said. “I see light at the top of that stairway—it might lead outside.”

“Right,” he said, falling in step behind her.

Soon they emerged onto a stone landing and had a chance to take in the world outside the ruined labyrinth.

The lava lake that they’d seen before stretched out to their right, the terrain rising up steeply around it on all sides. The fortress made of tall, curving towers of black iron floated high above the center of the lake, one distantly visible bridge extending away from it until it was obscured by an omnipresent haze.

A forest began to their left, one made of unnaturally black trees whose bark shone like they were made of obsidian and whose leaves were red as blood. The roots of the trees jutted out above the ground, creating a tangle of thin, grasping limbs.

A dull, reddish light was cast over everything, giving it all a dusky glow. A bright red moon shone through the haze in the air like an angry eye glowering down at them. It was the only feature of the sky that was visible: the haze was everywhere, making it seem as if they were inside some impossibly vast, dimly-lit cavern.

Almost as soon as they stepped outside, they heard a loud smash behind them and the ground shuddered. Ashtoreth spun to see that a horizontal black metal door had slammed shut over the opening to the stairway.

They heard the a distant, blaring sound. Ashtoreth turned to find the sound’s source, and saw a horseman blowing a horn from where his mount stood on a hilltop overlooking the red forest. They was too far away to identify, and the haze made them a silhouette. Other shadows moved at their feet, and Ashtoreth only realized what they were when she heard the baying of dogs join the sound of the horn.

“I’m thinking that’s a boss,” she said.

“And that’s bad?” Frost asked.

Ashtoreth let out a small, single-note laugh. “Let me solo him.”

“Not a chance,” said Frost.

“Uh, look,” said Dazel. “You probably should just let her solo him.”

“I know I said we weren’t friends,” said Frost. “But I’m not letting you fight alone.”

Dazel let out a derisive laugh. “Look—you want to help! I get it.” He paused, then added: “Actually, I don’t, but that’s beside the point. Just let her solo him.”

Ashtoreth’s eyes were on the oncoming hounds. “Just stay safe. You can join me once you’ve got your class.”

“You’re just a kid,” said Frost. “I won’t—”

“Ugh, just stop,” Dazel said. He moved out in front of Frost, then sat and crossed his forepaws. “She’s a better fighter, and you don’t have a class yet. So hang back. Hide and wait for a fight you can contribute to.”

Frost looked down at him coolly. “And that’s what you do, is it?”

“I skip the second part. But yes.”

Frost looked out into the forest as the sound of the hounds grew closer. “You’re gonna fight all that alone? With your… gigantic sword?”

“Listen,” Ashtoreth said, stepping forward. “Maybe it seems ridiculous to you, but I’ve been training for combat since before I could walk. And I’ve fused dozens of different combat arts into my own personal, highly effective style that combines martial and magical combat while striking a perfect balance between creative improvisation and well-honed technique. You may know jiu-jitsu—”

“I don’t.”

“—But my style is something deeper,” Ashtoreth said, her eyes focused on the forest. “Something more.” She planted her greatsword in the ground, then moved out to stand in front of it and looked back at Frost. “Your language is too limited to fully describe the arts that I bring into battle,” she said. “But I can try.”

“Uh… O-kay,” Frost said, eying her like she was mad.

She reached down and scooped Dazel up off the ground.

“Hey!” he protested. “What are you doing?”

She looked from the cat to Frost. Then she answered both Frost’s curious glance and Dazel’s outright question.

“‘Weaboo fightan magick’,” she said. “That’s what I’m doing.”

The she leapt toward the huntsman and pushed against Luftschloss, catapulting herself and Dazel high, high into the air on an arc toward their foe.