SYSTEM: Your current Class is (Empowered Demonic Envoy of Ash’medai). This will last 37.5 seconds (15s + time dilation from Jett Crystals).
The initial few seconds of the transformation were too confusing to process, but now he could feel himself growing. It was weird to grow with the persistent Time Dilation though. He’d see how we was going to grow before it even happened. The Time Dilation was so intense with this much Jett in him that it was like the entire world was echoing before something happened, a series of vision and images that were ready to occur any second.
The world got much smaller until the Decayed were like mice and he was nearly as tall as the blimps in the air. His vision lit up with new skills so fast he didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t read their names, but he could feel how to use them.
He remembered what Zina had said, “Even a Rank 1 Empowered Envoy is far more powerful than the overwhelming majority of Classes at extremely high Ranks though, so there is still some upside here.”
He was almost Rank 30 between all his classes and missteps, and because of his ring, that translated directly to his Empowered Envoy of Ash’Medai temporary Class status.
For 30ish more seconds, he was a Rank 30 Empowered Envoy of the Hells, the equivalent of a Greater Lord of Hell with eons of war behind him.
He looked around the battlefield for Jellybean and his weird ball of dead shit/throne that he was been travelling around on, but couldn’t find him. Many of the Dogs were well off into the distance and he assumed Jellybean was probably at the front of that pack. It was a shame, he’d have to deal with that later. He had a more immediate problem.
He stormed across the valley towards the Dusk Dragon. He had to kill it now. The situation was out of control and it would be impossible if Gmol didn’t stop feeding it power.
The Decayed claws at his feet but they couldn’t hurt him. With his new massive size, he crushed them by the dozens under his steps. Death notification started raining in so fast he had to mentally halt his scrollspeed to almost non-existent.
As he got closer to the Dragon, he pulled a massive spear from his back and threw it as hard as he could towards the end of the valley where the Dragon was. It hurtled towards the Dragon with what seemed like an infinite level of force, but his throw was just far enough off that it clipped the Dragon’s leathery wing, flying straight through and into the cliff wall behind it. The cliff exploded in response, piles of Decayed pieces flying out of the crumbling walls. Their remnant Souls coalesced upon the Dusk Dragon, and it grew.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boyd found himself in a parlor of sorts. There were comfortable seats, there were bookshelves lined with books, there was a bar that was fully stocked. The gentle hum of relaxing music played in the background. The temperature was perfect, the air was perfect, everything was perfect. He was wearing a tuxedo which was odd because he’d never worn one before in his life. His shoes were shiny and polished, a fine patent leather. The bowtie was choking him so he tried to loosen it, but found it wouldn't budge. He stood up, trying to get his bearings. The table in front of him held a brown beverage that he thought was most likely whiskey from the smell. He hadn’t had a drink in a bit so he poured himself one. There wasn’t any Coca-Cola available so he just dumped a few extra ice cubes in and started drinking it. To his surprise, it didn’t burn at all. It tasted like honey and caramel, perfectly balanced.
The door opened and a man walked in. He was gorgeous. Boyd couldn’t help but stare. Everything about him was exceptional. He moved with elegance. His clothes were spotless. He had a moustache with not one single hair out of place. Boyd could tell he was muscular beneath his own tuxedo, but it wasn’t intimidating. His eyes were perfectly black with just a tiny speck of white at the edges. Boyd wanted to hear him speak. He wanted to be friends.
“Hello.”
His voice was as beautiful and majestic as he was.
“Hi.”
“You may call me Ash’medai. We have something we need to discuss.”
“I’ll talk about whatever you want if I can get another glass of this whiskey,” Boyd said.
Ash’medai grabbed the bottle and set it between them. “Let me pour myself a drink too then,” the demon said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SYSTEM: Your current Class is Empowered Demonic Envoy of Ash’medai. This will last 29.2 more seconds.
The Dusk Dragon had slipped out of his grip. It was like trying to hold a mixture of solids, liquids and gas at the same time. Sometimes it leaked through his hands. Sometimes he couldn’t even make contact. It reformed a distance away and covered him in its purple breath. The solution burned, but he knew it couldn’t really hurt him. His Life regenerated too quickly in this form.
He has summoned his mace from the Hells themselves, ripping it from the earth. He held the giant mace in two hands. The tip was aflame, a massive diamond shaped head of fire. He slammed it into the ground and activated his ability Ground Slam. The blastwave extended outwards for several hundred feet. Decayed fell by the hundreds, the fleshier ones melted, the bonier ones exploded. The Dusk Dragon leapt backwards but the blastwave hit knocked it against the nearby valley walls. More Decayed bodies flew out of the cliffs. More of them died. The Dusk Dragon grew.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ash’medai and Boyd set opposite one another sipping the fine whiskey and discussing the finer points of the battle.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
“This is such a waste of our power. You could do so much more entertaining things right now,” Ash’medai said.
“I have like 20 seconds left man, what can I really get done in 20 seconds?”
Ash’medai scoffed, “Well to be fair, I don’t think you can beat it in your current state regardless.”
“I can try,” Boyd said.
“Would you like to know it’s current power level? It’s quite impressive actually.”
“Pass.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SYSTEM: Your current Class is Empowered Demonic Envoy of Ash’medai. This will last 18.1 more seconds.
Boyd and the Dusk Dragon were destroying everything in the valley. Aircraft of all sorts fell from the sky burning. Boyd was doing everything he could to keep it occupied, but the insurgent interlopers kept getting too close. Every time something died, the Dusk Dragon got stronger. The collateral damage from his massive power was going to be the death of him. The tentacles on the Dust Dragon's back raged through the mountain sides, liberating that many more Souls to empower it. The dragon shot flaming bouts of steam and acid from its mouth. Its tail whipped back and forth slicing everything in its path.
Boyd didn’t know how, but he understood how to kill it. He would never be able to beat it face to face, the creature would just melt through his blows. Instead, he jumped as high as he could, hundreds of feet in the air, and cast a spell called Meteorite, transforming into a flaming ball, then rapidly flying into the creatures back. He landed with a fiery explosion, taking a large chunk out of the creature’s flesh. It started to congeal and reform almost immediately as he regained his footing.
Boyd’s returned to form and used his massive flaming mace to strike down on the creature’s spine. He felt it crack. The creature slumped to the ground. Boyd jumped to its head to finish the job but was swatted away by the Dusk Dragon’s claw. It rolled onto its stomach and Boyd saw the indentations he had made slowly turn from solid to liquid to gas and then back to liquid and back to solid. It had completely healed the wound and was now preparing to breathe the purple acidic fire on him him again. He dodged two swipes from its respective claws and leapt out of the way of its maw. He clubbed it on the side of the head twice, dismantling one of its horns. The Dragon’s tail caught him from behind and sent him flailing forward.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“You are channeling a dramatic excess of my energy. I don’t know how you did this, but I’d like you to stop.”
“It’s a ring. It lets me use any class I could access. It will only last about fifteen more seconds.”
Ash’medai set down next to the fireplace. He pulled a nearby poker from its stand and started moving the wood around the fireplace.
“Hmm. I can tolerate a bit longer of this. I might prefer to turn this little font of power off though. I would need a favor in return for keeping it open. You can’t have this much for free.”
“The Ring said I don’t have to do anything. No negative effects.”
Ash’medai cleared his throat incredulously, “And you believe a simple magic ring is stronger than a leader of the Hells? If you would like to test this theory, you can. You may simply leave. Just say the word.” Ash’medai smiled at him.
“What do I need to do then?”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SYSTEM: Your current Class is Empowered Demonic Envoy of Ash’medai. This will last 11.6 more seconds.
In the air, between the metal Blimps he saw a nuclear-esque explosion. The blast mushroomed into the sky and down below. The blimps themselves were caught ablaze. Salia’s VMR looked tiny from this height. She was too close when she fired and the blast knocked her out of the sky as well. He didn’t see her land.
One of the blimps was heading towards them. He tried to bat it towards the Dusk Dragon with his mace, but it crashed well beyond his target, likely destroying several thousand more Decayed. He understood the consequence of this. The Dusk Dragon grew larger yet again. It was now much bigger than him. The tentacles flung out of its back, shredding his skin like razor wire. They embedded in his flesh, digging into his muscles. His Aura of Demonic Flame burned the creature. He pumped as much Mana as he could into the ability, trying to escape the Dusk Dragon’s grasp. He could smell the Dragon’s tentacles burning, but more came. Many more.
He had to finish the fight soon. The Dusk Dragon was gaining Ranks too quickly. Every mistake he made was punished increasingly more.
He was running out of options.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“I’ll do it. If that’s what you need, I’ll do it.”
Ash’Medai smiled, “You understand what you are committing to, correct? These bargains must be entered into with a full understanding of what they mean or they will not hold.”
They’d been arguing the semantics of the deal for what felt like hours. Boyd was no lawyer, but he’d bought half his possessions at garage sales and thrift shops. He couldn’t argue, but he could damn well dicker, “I’m signing a deal with the Devil. I get it. Let’s move this along. Gimme a pen. Deal’s a deal.”
“We don’t sign with pens here.” Ash’medai took a metal poker out of the fireplace. “I will need you to remove your shirt and then hold very still.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SYSTEM: Your current Class is Empowered Demonic Envoy of Ash’medai. This will last 4.1 more seconds.
His chest burned.
That was half of the deal.
Power surged through him.
That was the other half of the deal.
He found the skill he was looking for. He didn’t really trust the demon. This was his last resort. One final chance to save his life.
The Dusk Dragon now had thousands of Ranks. He had no idea how powerful it was. He knew he was lucky to still be alive.
SYSTEM: Skill: Apocalypse Bomb. A spell that causes a localized Apocalypse. The level of apocalyptic destruction cannot accurately be predicted, but is dependent on the amount of Mana used to cast the spell. Results may vary. WARNING: This spell may result in the utter destruction of the user, their family, their planet, etc… The Hells are not responsible for unfortunate outcomes associated with Apocalypse Bombs.
He didn’t have too much Mana left, but it was enough to give him pause. If he undershot it, then the Dragon would live and he would die. If he overshot it, everything would die, including him.
Fuck this place.
He pumped the entirety of his remaining Mana into the Apocalypse Bomb. A buzzing blue orb appeared in his hands, and he waited until he could throw it. The Jett was wearing off, but he could still see different occurrences. He jumped in the air backwards and threw the bomb at the Dragon’s feet. Anticipating an explosion, he covered his eyes, ears and face as he could, but that wasn’t what occurred. Instead, everything within several hundred meters of the bomb explosion site was simply gone. The ground, the valley walls, most of the Dusk Dragon, thousands of Decayed, and more. It hadn’t even made a sound, or perhaps, it was so loud he was now deaf. He couldn’t tell.
The Dusk Dragon was dead.
Notifications rained down the edge of his vision, even through his massively diminished scroll speed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“So we’re good.” Boyd asked.
“We’re good, as you would say. In fact I would say I am great now,” Ash’medai said. “But that is only now. And soon, I will be in touch.”
The parlor began melting into the ground. As the illusion faded away, Boyd got a glimpse of The Hells at the edges of his vision.
He’d made a terrible mistake.