I woke up looking at the roof as per usual.

I hope Faron’s still safe...

Knowing him, he’s probably off miles away from here. I’ll have to ask Heltana about his whereabouts... *sigh*

I rubbed my eyes before getting out of bed. Today will be an interesting day indeed.

-

“So, you lost him again?”

Heltana immediately knew what I wanted as soon as I appeared on her doorstep.

“Yeah. I don’t even know where to start looking...”

Heltana began flipping through the book, before finding Faron’s page again. “At this point I should bookmark this page... Ah, here. He’s about 3 miles off west from here.”

Hm, that’s around where the giant snowman I built is.

I waved goodbye to Heltana, before teleporting to the snowman.

Woah, that’s a big snowman... As I had previously thought, it’s about 8 stories tall.

I looked around the area, before spotting a yellow glow emanating from over a hilltop. Yep, that’s probably him.

It still perplexed me that hell, of all places, had snowy regions. I felt the cold substance hit my skin before it evaporated.

No matter. I need to find Faron right now.

I ran over to the hill, looking down at the other side.

Well, that certainly isn’t a gigantic burning yellow wolf.

Before me was a small camp. The campfire, curiously, was glowing with a yellow color as opposed to orange.

“Well, howdy stranger!”

A voice called out from inside a tent. It was facing away from me, so I had no idea how they knew I was there.

I approached the camp curiously. “Hello, I'm on the lookout for a friend.”

“Heh, aren’t we all?” The voice called out. “It’s been a long time since I last saw my friend...”

I looked inside the tent. The woman sitting inside was covered in blankets, so I couldn’t make out much of their figure. “My my, are you walking outside in this weather with no clothes? Come inside, huddle around the fire.”

Huh? I didn’t feel cold. Must be the hellfire fueling me I suppose. “How cold is it outside right now?”

The woman threw a log into the campfire. “I think it’s around –20 degrees outside with even worse windchill...”

Jeez. It felt like room temperature to me.

I sat down on a log.

“So, who are you looking for?” She asked me.

“A huge... Yellow wolf. If you saw it, you’ll know what I mean.”

The lady chuckled. “Yes, I saw a wolf matching your description around here. It collapsed not far from this camp, and I went over to it to help. Then... Something strange happened. The wolf shrunk into a human form looking a lot like yourself.”

That’s definitely Faron. “Where is he now?”

The lady nodded at a pile of blankets beside me in the tent. “He looked cold, so I wrapped him in some blankets.”

I pulled one of the blankets off the pile. Sure enough, Faron was lying there.

I touched his forehead. He was incredibly cold...

I have no idea what this meant. I have to get him to Luca as fast as possible.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Miss. Unfortunately, I need to leave now. I hope we can meet again sometime in the future.”

I waved goodbye to her and teleported back to Luca’s castle with Faron.

-

“Luca, something is wrong with Faron... He’s really cold.”

Luca had invited me into his castle, and I laid Faron down on a sofa.

“Cold? That’s... That’s unusual. Us demons always keep a constant body heat, and if it ever changes it normally increases.” Luca flipped through a book of demon legend and history. “There is one story about a demon who once ventured so deep into hell his body froze to solid ice, but this demon was traveling for years on end. Not a simple day of travel...”

“Highly concerning. We should find somewhere his body can remain for now, where it’s nice and hot.”

I looked around Luca's castle for a suitable place to put Faron. “How about the fireplace?”

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Luca raised an eyebrow. “I mean, it will do... I suppose.”

“Excellent.” I grabbed Faron, and put his body softly upon the smoldering coal that was burning away inside Luca’s fireplace.

“If that doesn’t heat him up, I don’t know what will.”

Luca chuckled a little. “You’re definitely not wrong...”

“Well, if you need me, I'll be off discussing war plans with the faction leaders. Until next time!” I said, before teleporting off to the demon village.

“Hello again Olaf. Been a hot minute, hasn’t it?”

Olaf smiled at my appearance. “It has indeed been, Andras. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

I smiled a little less intensely. “War plans. If you would be so kind and meet me in my meeting room in 20 minutes, that would be much appreciated.”

Olaf nodded. “I suppose you’ll talk with the human leaders next then? See you at the meeting, Andras.”

I smiled. “We will.”

I teleported away.

Now, the new human leader. The three women of the former clans had a hard time deciding on who of them should rule, so a new figure stepped up in their place. The leader was a charismatic man who apparently had died in battle as a war general many generations ago. More or less the perfect leader.

“Hello Adrian. How are things going with the new unified empire of Hell?”

The scar-faced man turned to face me. “Hello Andras. Things are going better than expected, no civil wars or anything like that so far.”

“Good, Good.”

I paused briefly.

“You’re required to meet for a war meeting in 20 minutes. My castle.”

Adrian nodded at my words. “It’s been too long since I last saw Olaf. I’m looking forward to it already.”

I smiled, before teleporting to my castle.

Now, all I need to do is wait.

-

The meeting had assembled. Heltana, Luca and the two leaders were all sat around the meeting table.

“Thank you all for arriving on such short notice. Now, the meat of the matter.”

The meeting participants all leant forward in their seats a little, probably curious as to what my plan was.

“Hell is already more or less united, so we can move directly onto phase 2 of my plan. Olaf, you and your demons will all move to the living realm. You will, as discreetly as possible, perform demon binds on large political powers and thus gain control of their militaries.”

Olaf nodded. “We can do that. There aren’t that many large factions in the living realm after all.”

“Excellent. Now, Adrian. I need you and your men to move out, preferably in small groups, and ask for shelter in the different kingdoms. Of course, being controlled by a demon, they will let you in. From there you will try to influence those who will listen to join our cause, and kill the ones who refuse. We need to keep it discrete though, so mark their corpses with my symbol upon their passing. We don’t want souls going to heaven and revealing our plans.”

Adrian nodded. “I’ll prepare my soldiers immediately. How will we get our weaponry? We don’t have steel to forge armor out of.”

I nodded to Luca. “That’s where Luca comes in. He will assist in gearing your men up with the finest weaponry available alongside armor.”

Luca nodded. “Of course.”

I looked at Heltana, the only person yet to receive orders. “Heltana, I need you to keep an extra careful eye on the different souls entering hell. If any of them seem too unwilling to join our cause, well... Banish them. We don’t have time to deal with inside saboteurs.”

Heltana nodded. “I’ll see to it.”

I smiled. Things are coming together very nicely indeed.

“Upon finishing your different assignments, I want you all to report back to me. The only exception is Heltana. Just continue keeping an eye on the souls entering hell for now.”

“With that, you are all dismissed. Good luck, gentlemen and gentlewoman.”

The four all got up from their seats and began walking toward the exit.

Now. I need to figure out what’s going on with Faron.

-

I teleported over to Luca’s castle. To my surprise, Faron was standing outside the stove, heating his hands.

“You’re conscious again!”

Faron turned around with shattering teeth. “G-G-God... I'm so c-cold...”

I embraced him. Yep, he was freezing cold. “What the heck did you even do out there?”

He looked at me with puppy eyes. “T-t-took a b-b-bath...”

I facepalmed. Of course... I forgot to tell him about our weakness to water... I’m so stupid...

“There, there... You’re damn lucky to be alive.”

Faron nodded and returned his attention to the flames. “A-A-Any idea for h-h-heating up f-f-faster?”

I thought for a moment. “If you summon some of your power, it might help heat you up.”

Faron nodded again and started clenching his hand together drawing yellow flames from the floor.

“T-t-that helps...”

I smirked a little. “If it gets too bad, you could always just climb up on the coal mound again. I suppose it isn’t the most comfortable, but it’ll do.”

Faron looked at me with an annoyed look. “F-f-fuck you man.”

I snickered a little. “Well, when you’ve warmed up a little, come see me in my castle.”

I teleported away to my castle again.

Now that I was a sort-of warlord, I thought it would be fitting to add a little something to the main room of my castle. I snapped my fingers and summoned a solid-gold throne. Perfect.

I’m not a narcissist though. I refuse to crown myself king of the demon realm.

With that said, or thought I suppose, I sat down on the throne.

It’s uncomfortable as hell.

Eh, it was worth a shot. I snapped my fingers again and replaced the throne with a sofa.

Much better.

Hmm. I feel like something is missing. Like a vital part of the puzzle piece hasn’t been addressed yet...

Ah. I remember now. Alex.

Where is she even?

Hmm... I guess she might have gone to her and Faron's castle... but at the same time she-

I was caught off-guard by a pair of hands wrapping around my head. I was blinded.

“Guess who it is...”

Heh.

-

Alex and I sat down in the meeting room. I wasn’t planning on having a meeting with her, but it was the most secluded place in the castle where we could talk in private.

Oh, I might have forgotten to mention. There are servants moving around inside the castles every so often, but they mostly use secret doors and prefer not to make themselves known. Anyway, this room was the only place they are not allowed.

“So, you might be wondering where Faron is? Well, there is a simple answer to that. He’s warming up at Luca’s castle. Apparently, he fell into a lake while on his run, and if you didn’t know, us demons have only one weakness, which happens to be water.”

Alex looked concerned at the news I had just dropped. “Well, is he okay?”

“He can talk, and all-in-all, he’s himself. The only thing me and Luca noted that was unusual is that his body is extremely cold. This is extremely rare for demons, and it means he was at a near-death experience in relation to water damage.”

Alex looked worried. “I would like to be with him... Could you take me to him?”

I nodded, naturally. “Take my hand.”

-

“Faron! How are you?”

Faron looked up from the blanket fortress he had made himself. “I'm f-f-fine...”

“I’ll leave you two to it. If you need me, just come knocking.” I said, before teleporting to my courtyard.

Now every loose end is tied. I let out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, one of the souls in my chest began vibrating violently as if it was in great distress. It was the soul of Ragnar.

I immediately took to the skies, and flew up to the two dragon perches where Egis and Ragnar should be.

To my great relief, they were both still there. “Oh thank god. I thought something might have happene-”

Ragnar looked to me. “SHUSH! CAN YOU HEAR THAT?”

I shut up. Low and behold, a cracking sound filled the air. Is that...?

I looked to the tiny perch where the eggs were in their nest.

Oh my god.

They are hatching.