Waking up today was actually sort of underwhelming. I dreamt of spending an entire day in my dragon form, but then I had to wake up looking at the stupid ceiling. “God damnit.”
I rubbed my eyes and... Wait, I don’t have to dress when I wake up in demon form! Jesus Christ, life has never been better. I take back what I said about underwhelming, this is great.
I walked down into the foyer. I took a moment to admire the dimension of hell through the creation cube, but I didn’t touch it. I had more pressing matters to attend to.
Opening the doors to my castle, I was greeted by Luca. “Good morning Andras. Slept well tonight?”
“Yeah, I feel refreshed. When is the meeting with the demons again?”
“Actually, that can wait. There is a report of two countries from the living realm will wage war today. There will be an influx of new souls arriving in hell.”
“We should go topside. It’s not often you get to spectate a huge war like this.”
“You can take my body, and I'll go there in demon form. If things get too hairy, I can always just return here.”
“I don’t like the plan, but you’re the boss.”
Damn right I am.
Feeling satisfied with the number of words we’d just exchanged; I summoned a portal.
-
Ahh, the stink of the living world. Always so intoxicating.
Wait, what did I just think? I’ve never thought of the living world as smelling bad. I took another sniff of the air.
Oh, wait, never mind. That smell is shit. I was totally right in calling it intoxicating. Yuck.
I took a step back and saw I was standing in a huge pile of dung.
Annoyed, I expelled hellfire into the manure incinerating it instantly.
Luca stepped out right behind me, in my human body. “It’s strange piloting a human body again after so long.”
“Do me a favor, and keep it safe, okay?”
“You can trust me, Andras.”
Ah, a literal demon whose entire gimmick is lying, is telling me I can trust him. Of course!
I shrugged off the thought. “So, where is this war taking place then?”
“Other side of town. I’ll walk and attempt to blend in, you just... do whatever, I guess. People won’t react super positively to seeing a literal demon stroll around town though, so keep some distance.”
Fair enough. I waved Luca goodbye and took to the skies.
‘Ragnar, can you hear me?’
YES.
‘Okay, great. I might need you and Egnis if things get hairy. Just stay at the mountain protecting the eggs for the meantime.’
OF COURSE. YOUR WILL IS MY COMMAND.
Now then. I should try to find out where this war is raging on.
I squinted toward the other end of the city and spotted a somewhat big gathering of guards standing on top of a stone wall. That must be it.
I shot forward and landed outside the gates while making as little noise as possible. It worked, and I had a good look at the gate as well as the road from my hiding spot.
-
For a while, nothing much happened. There was some rustling in the leaves behind me, but not much else.
Then I heard footsteps.
There were many of them, almost like an entire army was marching toward the city gates.
After about ten seconds, I spotted the approaching party. They were led by... A cowboy? I was a little confused.
The cowboy turned to say something to one of the other people there, before putting his hands on his waist.
There were revolvers holstered on his hips, which I recognized immediately.
How was there a cowboy in the year 900? More importantly, how did he have gu-
My thoughts were cut off by the sound of the guns going off. The man shot 8 times, followed swiftly by 8 thuds.
The cowboy then rushed over to the gates, kicking them open. Right behind him, the raiding party followed.
As the action was now happening inside the city, I flew up into the sky to get a better view of the situation.
Inside the city there was just absolute carnage. There were massive wolves running around biting limbs off people, and I spotted Luca flying up toward me.
“This situation escalated out of control really quickly.”
“It would appear so.” I followed the cowboy with my eyes. Out of everything I've seen so far, he was definitely the most suspicious.
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The caped fellow entered a building. Eh, it wasn’t worth my time investigating.
“Luca, mind keeping an eye on him? If you need me, I'll be up on Pillan.”
“You didn’t even need to ask. This guy seems... important, somehow. Don’t worry, I'll keep an eye on him.”
With that, Luca fell to the ground, and I began flying toward Pillan.
-
Turns out, when the dragons travel dimensions, the eggs do too. Ragnar and Egnis might be under my control now, but their parental instincts to keep their young safe still remained.
This isn’t to say I have full control over their actions, they would be kind of useless at that point. They had their own free will, but now reported to me. It was basically the same as me and my boss back in 2023.
I looked down at the defenseless eggs which were kept safe and secure within a energy shield I made for them. To be honest, the dragons’ pure and unforgiving love for the little ones has rubbed off on me, and I felt as if it was part of my destiny on this earth to give them the best life they could have.
It also made me think about the possibility of getting a partner myself. Perhaps I might find someone in the future. For the time being, I was content being on my own though.
My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Egnis flying away from the mountain.
“HE’S PROBABLY HUNGRY. US DRAGONS NEED A LOT OF FOOD AFTER ALL.”
Ah, that makes sense. “Hey, Ragnar? What was life for you two before I came into the picture?”
I’d always wanted to ask them that question but never found the time to do so.
“I WOULD SPEND MOST DAYS WATCHING OVER OUR EGGS WHILE EGNIS GATHERED FOOD. IN THE RARE SITUATION WE HAD VISITORS, I WOULD DRIVE THEM OFF.”
“OUR SPECIES ARE EXTREMELY TERRITORIAL BY NATURE. WE CAN ONLY LAY EGGS ONCE A MILLENIA, YOU SEE.”
Oh, that explains why Egnis attacked me immediately when I approached their nest.
Following this thought, Luca landed beside me on the mountain.
“Andras, I have followed the mysterious man to a small settlement in the middle of the woods. It seems he and another woman are planning on moving to the town we originally arrived at, and that would mean they’re going to walk up this mountain.”
I nodded at Luca. “Excellent. Maybe we can get some answers as to who he is. I have the same feeling you have, like he plays a bigger role in this universe than what he lets on.”
“Ragnar. I would like you to give him a little spook. If you could wait on my signal to ambush him, that would be great. Don’t actually do anything though. I want him alive.”
“OF COURSE.”
I tapped into Egnis’ soul, telling him to stay away from Pillan for a few days. His soul chimed happily in agreement.
-
We sat around, not really doing much of anything. Luca told me he had to check up on some stuff In Hell, and I dismissed him.
This would have been a great opportunity to test out flying in my true form, but I'd have to return to Hell to draw all the power required for the transformation.
I let out a bored sigh and began playing tic-tac-toe with Ragnar. It was quite difficult what with her claws being so big, but we made it work.
We’d been waiting for at least a day by now, just playing tic-tac-toe over and over again. It had gotten to the point where I had to melt the rock where we had played so we could play again, because the peak was riddled with hashtags.
After coming to a tie 30 matches in a row, I got tired of tic-tac-toe. “Ugh, can’t this cowboy dude just arri-
Just as the words left my mouth, a little cat walked up on the mountain peak. Ragnar flew off the mountain, and I used demonic speed to hide behind some rocks.
And there he was. A cowboy, in the flesh. Something was off about him though, he had wolf-like ears, long fur and a snout.
I didn’t want to spook him too hard, so I remained out of sight. I ordered Ragnar to come up and spook the dude, which she did.
After making a thunderous entrance, the cowboy hid behind a rock. Wise decision.
“WEREWOLF. I KNOW YOU’RE HIDING. COME OUT, AND I’LL SPARE YOUR LIFE.”
The man stood in place for a few seconds before emerging from behind the rocks.
“AH, THERE YOU ARE, WOLF. TELL ME, WHY DID YOU APPROACH MY NEST?”
The man spoke up, but the immense winds Ragnar had summoned made it impossible to hear his words.
I told Ragnar to clear the skies, which she did.
“I’LL ACCEPT YOUR APOLOGY. YOU MAY CONTINUE, WOLF.”
The so-called werewolf was quick to move and rushed over to the other end of the mountain, out of sight.
‘What was that you said about werewolf?’ I asked Ragnar's soul.
EXACTLY WHAT YOU THINK IT MEANS. THAT STRANGE MAN IS A WEREWOLF.
Hm, curious. There was also one other thing that was off about the man. Following him was a tiny knife, floating in the air. It was brimming with demonic energy from what I could tell.
“This will be an interesting afternoon indeed.”
-
After the... enlightening encounter, I returned to the city of Avyllon to assess the casualties, and more importantly gather the blood for the summon dorm ritual.
There were definitely a lot of bodies on the floor. Most of them probably went to hell, which is always nice. New inhabitants only meant my power would grow.
After finding two bodies, I began performing summon dorm. Being sufficiently experienced with the ritual, I managed to perform it on my own and stepped through the hellfire.
Ah, home sweet home. Just as well-smelling as I left it.
To my surprise, Luca was standing just outside my castle. I opened the front door and greeted him.
“So, apparently, the new souls that arrived today have been causing ruckus with our loyal demon subordinates. We, or more specifically you, should go remind them who’s in charge down here.”
“Indeed I shall, my friend.”
Without any more words exchanged, I teleported to the Demon village.
This place looked no different from the human cities just outside their walls, and the people were more or less exactly the same.
It turns out that down here, Humans can willingly exchange their souls for a small increase in power and permanent access to the cobblestone roads in the sky. Why was there a wall between humans and demons, you may ask? Well, there are stories of half human half demon hybrids, which were looked down upon greatly by both parties.
So, to summarize, the two factions had nothing against each other, and practically considered each other equals. The reason the walls were put up was to make it harder for any... rouge elements to conceive demi-demon offspring.
Anyway, as I was saying. The demons were apparently being harassed by the newcomers, which I would not let slide.
I asked the Demon mayor about it, and he told me all about the situation. They were raising pitchforks and torches threatening to bust down the walls to the peaceful town.
He directed me toward the city entrance, and sure enough, there was a mob of angry humans standing right outside the portcullises of the city.
“Allright guys, calm down. We can come to an agreement.”
“You’re just one of them!” one of the men yelled out. “Why should we trust you?”
“If you guys don’t calm down, I will create a lava pool in the middle of nowhere where you can spend the rest of eternity in.”
That shut them up. “Allright, good. Maybe we can come to an agreement.”
-
I’d seated the leader of the human mob and the demon mayor in my castle meeting room.
“Now, what exactly seems to be the problem here?”
The human was the first to speak up. “The demons have been exploiting their powers to wreak havoc on our farmland, and even stealing cattle on some occasions!”
I turned to face the demon mayor. “Are these claims true?”
“Regrettably, yes. We had an issue where a newly appointed demon used his powers for evil. They have been taken care of and they have been revoked their demonic powers. It won’t happen again.”
“Ah, I see. I take it you were unaware that this was a one-time event, human representative?”
The human was still angry but nodded.
“Then I propose we get to writing a contract where we re-confirm your two empire’s agreements.”
The two men nodded and leant in closer to watch what I wrote on the papers.
-
When the agreement was complete and both parties were satisfied, I gave the two papers my seal of approval in the form of a small amount of energy infused into the papers.
With that, the two men departed leaving me alone in the room. Immediately following their departure, Luca entered the room.
“What is it Luca?”
“I have an idea.”