My scream of pain was cut off as a huge black fist slammed into a red shield just in front of my solar plexus half a second before I was going to hit the ground, sending me rocketing down into the red stone and bouncing me off it like a damn red bouncy ball.

The only thing that saved me from death was the [Ruby Heart] Jaegan left behind. When the boulder struck me, I triggered the crystalline shield function on instinct and there’s no doubt in my mind it saved my life. The ruby shards of the shattered shield sped toward the face of the twenty-five foot tall [Nightfiend] looming over my prone body.

To my surprise, it spoke to me in a dialect of Abyssal I knew. “That was my favorite concubine you just killed. You won’t live to regret it, not that you smooth brained fools can even understand me.” He raised a foot to slam down on my whole body and end my existence before I started panicking.

“I understand you!” I wheezed and a bit of blood flitted down to rest on the grey leather of [Hydra’s Ward]. I may not have gotten blasted by the fist, but I was still down twenty percent of my health from just the boulder to the shoulder, which doesn’t even take into account my broken shoulder.

The [Nightfiend] pulled his foot back and let it fall to the ground with a resounding boom. “Tiny man speaks the true tongue? Preposterous.”

“It’s true!” I made to sit up and the monster stopped me with a look. “I was tutored in the true tongue as a child to ensure I would be able to serve ones as great as you!” I lied through my teeth.

Mom taught me Abyssal so I’d be able to use it for contracts with demon servants I summoned with [Ritual Magic]. I’d summoned my first [Imp] that way at six years old, though I didn’t bother binding the useless thing.

As the creature pondered my lie, I hurried to message my party. ‘Got ambushed by a [Nightfiend]. It’s not going well. Can I get some help over here?’

A few moments went by before a response came. ‘Same thing over here, the four of us are going all out on this thing and it’s shrugging off everything we’ve got access to.’ Ylsa’s usually calm voice came through frazzled. ‘I’m sorry, but you’re on your own, my liege.’

‘Don’t worry about me, I can take care of this big idiot. I’ll be over to help you as soon as I can.’ I cut off the connection as the fiend rubbed his chin while looking at me.

“If you were raised as a servant, why do you wear armor?” His voice made it feel like my whole body was shaking, sending bolts of pain through my broken shoulder.

“May I stand, oh great lord? It is the highest form of disrespect to speak to one so honorable and powerful as you while laying down on the job.”

Come on dummy, let me get up. Maybe I’ll be able to pop a potion while I get up too? If my math is right, a Rare [Healing Potion] should take care of my shoulder and the HP I’m down.

His chest rumbled as he laughed. “No. Worms like you should remain where you belong, far below my impressive stature.” His large black set of rams horns glinted in the light as he stared down at me with glittering red and black eyes. “You don’t look like the rest of the fiends here. What are you?”

Well, shit. That didn’t work. What am I going to do now? I can’t tell him I’m not a fiend, or he’ll kill me for sure. Come on memory, we need those lessons!

The monster drew black an ebony fist that began to crackle with purple energy as he poised to pound me out of existence. Obviously, I’d taken too long to answer for his liking.

In a panic, I blurted out the first kind of fiend I could remember. “I’m an [Archivist of the Abyss]!” Somehow, [Status Shield] took that as instructions to change my Status, which likely saved my life as I felt the enormous fiend scan it moments later.

[Archivist of the Abyss - Rank D Monster

Level: 46

Vulnerabilities: Radiant

Immunities: Fire, Psychic]

The [Nightfiend] blinked a few times before letting his fist fall to his side. He cocked his head at me instead. “A D-rank like you was able to do that to my army?” He waved back at the crater from my [Resonant Bolt] and I kept my lips shut as I nodded rapidly.

Score one for Grandpa on giving me[Status Shield], though I don’t think he ever saw me using it like that. I’m nearly certain it just saved my life.

For a moment, I wondered why he wasn’t asking why I did it before it dawned on me.

Fiends kill each other all the time, so he’s not mad I did it! He just wants to know how I did it!

Emboldened, I slowly sat up and brushed off my armor. “I found a Spell and wanted to test it out. They just happened to be where I chose to do that.” When he nodded, I made to slowly stand up and he actually stepped back to give me space.

I forgot something really important about fiends, and demons in particular. They may speak Abyssal, but their first language is power and I’ve demonstrated it.

Cracking my neck, I worked on brushing the red dust off my armor before turning to look up at the enormous demon. “The destruction of lightning is just gorgeous, isn’t it?” I focused on [Arcane Armor] and [Sun Armor], triggering both at once as I sent lightning cascading over my body to hide what I was doing.

“Bah,” the [Nightfiend] snorted, “raw void energy is my path to power.” His hands briefly clasped into fists and the moment he did that same purple and black energy, void energy, sprang into existence before fading as soon as his fists opened up.

I clapped a fist to my chest, never taking my eyes off of the [Nightfiend]’s horns, which were slowly accumulating some sort of energy between them. “I was not so lucky as to be granted access to the void by the Abyss. Instead, I was limited to the pitiful power of the elemental nodes.”

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Sorry Elemental Monarchs! I’m trying to save my ass here. I’ll make it up to you later. I threw the mental message into the universe and hoped they’d somehow receive it. Dominus? Can you assist me with that? I know you can’t interfere directly right now, but that shouldn’t count, right? I felt a tickle in the back of my head akin to a giggle and immediately put it out of my mind. I had a demon to distract and/or kill.

Looking around, I found the hordes farther away from me were running away from the pair of us, not toward, and an evil smile came across my face. I rubbed my chin, where a beard would be on anyone with more dwarven blood than me. “Would you care for another demonstration on,” I let out an evil chuckle, “your fellows’ armies instead?”

The demon general looked down on me and his abyssal gaze warped into a similar evil grin to my own. “That would be…informative.”

As the massive demon led me toward his eastern neighbor, I informed my party of what I was planning on doing through the Party Chat. Ylsa wasn’t exactly happy with it, but with how powerful the [Nightfiends] ended up being, she didn’t resist too harshly. Raiju chimed in to let me know she’d helped take down another one of the generals that had jumped them by ripping out its throat as Ylsa tied up its glowing fists. A couple of Uncommon [Healing Potions] were enough to get them back to full health, at least according to the interface.

With the knowledge that my Party was doing alright, I followed the [Nightfiend], who I learned was referred to as Quadrus by his fellows. He was the fourth most powerful [Nightfiend] around and his name would change if that status did the same. When he stopped walking, I looked down and saw a thin brown line snaking from the center of the floor toward the wall.

“Test it out on those.” His voice grated on my ears. “The fewer of them left, the better. For testing purposes, of course.” His evil grin was in full view as the energy between his horns continued to grow. At this point, it was about the size of a ripe cantaloupe and it kept growing, even as I watched it.

“Milord, before I go, I have to ask, what is that collection of energy growing between your horns? It’s mesmerizing.” I faked awe as he turned to look down at me.

“My lunch.” He reached a hand up and pulled the glowing purple and black orb out before opening his mouth and throwing it in and crunching down. The pulse of energy was almost enough to knock me down, even contained within his mouth. “Pure void energy from the battles between my servants. Far better than just eating them, if you ask me. How can they fight if I eat them?!” He howled with laughter before stretching a hand out to point at a particularly dense pocket of demons in the middle of his rival’s army around half a mile away. “Aim there if you can, Tertius’ favorite [Incubus] is in there and I’d love to see her face when he gets blown back to the Abyss.”

It’s strange, but he hasn’t even poked a finger over that line on the ground. Is he tied to this wedge of the floor? It would make sense, that way you’d have to be on a border to fight a pair of them together, instead of them ganging up on Climbers. Might be good if I pretend I can’t either, but keep it in mind so I can escape later.

Stepping up to within five feet of the district dividing line, I stretched out my good arm with Jaegan’s staff in hand as I muttered arcane nonsense to obfuscate what I was actually doing. After half a minute of fake Spellcasting, I triggered [Resonant Bolt] and let it actually start charging up while I continued chanting. Another thirty seconds later and I held a construct of energy on the tip of the staff worth half my Mana pool worth of energy, if I hadn’t provided ninety percent of what was gathered from the area around me. As is, it had only cost five percent of my own Mana, a far cry from the last time I’d tried it. With an unnecessary grunt, I hurled the Spell into the mass of demons surrounding a statuesque [Incubus].

The results exceeded my every expectation.

To be clear, I’d been expecting something similar to what had happened to Quadrus’ concubine, to have the lightning gather up and then detonate all at once, and it did that. What I didn’t expect was the increase in the blast radius. The moment I threw the bolt, I knew it was different. It was more. It streaked toward the nearest [Imp] in the group and shot through it without pausing even a moment before passing all throughout the group in a clockwise pattern. The bolt blew through its fifteenth target without even pausing until it hit its twenty-fifth target, the [Incubus] of the hour, as it were.

The moment the bolt struck him, he began to glow like the noonday sun at the height of Summer in the desert. My eyes ran with tears as I watched him go from a nearly blinding bar of light to the resulting explosion. If my first time using [Resonant Bolt] was to be compared to a [Fireball], then this time was more like [Meteor Swarm]. It was bigger, badder, and the pressure wave from it knocked me and Quadrus onto our asses as the ground merely ten feet in front of us was erased from existence.

When I was finally able to open my eyes again, I looked out at what I’d done and was actually a bit frightened. “Dom–Abyss guide me.” I quickly caught myself before glancing over at Quadrus, who was giggling like a maniacal child.

Is that even weaker than [Dominus’ Fury]? I felt a pinch in the back of my head and knew I was treading a fine line. I mean, it’s pretty damn impressive, though it took over thirty seconds to gather and then had to arc through twenty-four targets before landing on the epicenter…while [Dominus’ Fury] is instant godly retribution, so it’s obviously stronger and more versatile.

Damn it. I’m going to have to talk to Grandpa about registering, aren’t I? Shit.

“Archivist, you’re going to need a real name, because we’re going to be working together for the foreseeable future.” The [Nightfiend]’s giggling turned into cackling as the barrier line before us began to dissolve. The huge figure stretched out a tentative finger over the line and absolutely lost his shit when nothing stopped him from doing so. He threw his head back and roared loud enough for me to try and use my bad arm to block my ears.

Seeing my chance, I pulled a vial of Rare [Healing Potion] from my bandolier and gulped it down quickly before slotting it back a second later. As I fought back the grimace as my shoulder and collarbone were being rebuilt, I observed the results of my Spell with more than a bit of awe.

The previous detonation had been respectable, over one hundred and fifty feet across, but this was on another level. My blast exposed the grey Tower stone fifty feet below the red dirt of the Fourth Floor for almost half a mile in all directions from the point of detonation. Just the blast wave had thrown me back nearly fifty feet, and while it only sent the general back ten feet, he was a being nearly thirty times my mass, if only five times my height.

If I’m ever going to use this in combat at that level again, I’m going to have to make sure to do it from the nearest hillside, not on the actual battlefield. Grandpa had the same thing happen with his [Thousand Rays of Destruction], so hopefully he can help me with [Resonant Bolt]. Yet another reason to go to Sunhome and leave this backwater behind me. This tiny ‘berg took a friend from me and I’m never going to forgive it for that.

For a second, Jaegan’s staff seemed to twitch in my grip before I tightened my grip on it.

Keep it together, Quadrus can’t know how shaken up I am. Can’t have him see me shaking at my own Spell.

I got to my feet gingerly, as the potion working on my body still wasn’t quite done and I really didn’t want my shoulder to heal poorly. It’d happened once in training as a child and the pain of having a bone rebroken to be rehealed was something I’d never willingly experience again.

“I’ll leave my name up to you, milord. I’m just glad you like the result of my efforts.” I gave him another half-bow without breaking eye contact.

The demon stared at me with the most intense look for almost a minute before nodding to himself. “Your new name is Conflux.”

Part of me was surprised, but in the end, he wasn’t wrong. I was my mother’s son.

“Sounds good, call me Conflux.”