First thing in the morning, I checked on Kevin. Bojack was still standing in the entrance to the cube-like Edward watching Bella sleep, and the former Dark Lord was curled up under the small opening I’d made in the cell for air and food drops, as far away as he could get from the waste hole.

“I take it you haven’t reconsidered.” Bojack said, hearing my footsteps.”

“Nope. How’s our boy?”

“Restless.” The demon made a noncommittal gesture. “A taivas spawned, and he called it down to him. It attacked the cell, but its claws weren’t strong enough to mar the diamonds.”

A wyvern? I rarely got those, but Kevin’s spawns were probably better than mine, or worse, depending on how you looked at it.

“You got it under control?” Knowing he could influence mobs was a little unsettling, but that was why Bojack had to stay nearby.

“Of course.”

“Good work, keep it up. I’ll see you in a few days.”

My vizier had done an admirable job. Surely other people were working to keep the fortress running, but I didn’t know any of them, so Zareth could have all the credit. His competence was uncanny, and when things settled down, I would have to find some way to reward him for his help. A troop of soldiers with wagon loads of supplies was already waiting at the lower gates when I arrived.

“My lord,” he said, bowing, “I have done as you asked.”

“I can see that. Where are the demons?”

“Still in the caverns, awaiting your order to march.” His expression became pained. “There was some, ah, bickering over the selection of the entities, but it has been sorted out.”

“That’s not surprising.” I had a feeling the demons would be at each other's throats until they’d settled into the new hierarchy. “Tell everyone to get on the road, I’ll meet them outside after I’ve saddled my ride.”

“As you wish.” Zareth didn’t ask any questions, a dark lord could get used to that kind of service. My next stop was the aery. The servants had already brought up breakfast for the wyverns, including the new addition, mostly organ meat mixed with fungus. Over the last couple of days, I’d been having them let me handle the meals.

Hand-feeding a small stable of monsters that size was time-consuming, but also oddly satisfying. It was nice to be able to think of these monsters as pets rather than mobs that needed to be killed and harvested, even if they were closer to the second than the first.

They still weren’t exactly friendly, but they tolerated my attention, even to the point of letting me scratch behind their ear holes. Noivern in particular responded to me better than the others, straining against his chains to greet me and even eating the offal out of my hands without trying to bite them off. The Tamer skill was up to level three.

I equipped Noivern with a harness and removed his manacle. When his wings flared out, it seemed like he might be making a break for it, but he was only stretching.

“That’s a good boy,” I said. “Good Noivern.”

His shark-like maw hung open in a yawn, revealing circular rows of blood-stained teeth with a few scraps of flesh trapped between their serrated edges.

“Your breath is not great, my man.”

Noivern made a trilling sound I would normally associate with small birds. It was kind of cute. If my armor was too heavy for him, I might have had to rethink this, but the wyverns were sturdy, and after a short charge across the aery he was able to lift off and take us in a lazy circle up and out of the silo into the open sky. I could tell he was having to work hard to get us out, but it was easier for him once we were over the mountain, and I used the reins to guide him down to where forces were gathering outside the main gate of the fortress.

We landed at the head of a column of shamblers. Berith and Asmodeus were already arguing.

Berith's eyes flared with blue-white essence as he unslung the massive ax from his back, letting it rest by his side. "I should lead the column," he growled, his whiskers twitching with annoyance. "My presence will let Nargul know that we are a force to be reckoned with."

Asmodeus narrowed his already narrow gaze, crossing his arms as he leaned against a convenient boulder. The gleam of his wavy Kris daggers seemed exaggerated in the pale light that penetrated the everpresent storm.

"Do you think Agares will be impressed by your lustrous mane?"

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

So I wasn’t the only one who noticed how pretty Berith was. The tiger demon sniffed angrily, his powerful body tense with barely contained rage. "Watch your forked tongue, before I decide to remove it from your mouth."

Asmodeus slowly rose to his full height, his neck extending far enough to make him taller than his rival, his gaze never leaving Berith's. "I watch everything, sweet Duke, no need to show such concern for me."

The nearby shamblers were getting agitated, picking up on the aggressive energy of the demons. Those in the forward line were starting to moan and jostle each other like they were at a rock concert.

I slid down off of Noivern, who took the opportunity to stretch his legs while I approached the demons. It was too early for this.

"Enough!" I shouted, silencing the demons. Even the shamblers stilled.

"Neither one of you is going to lead. Gaap is heading the army, so cede control of the mobs to him."

Berith growled in response. I looked at him, my gaze traveling down to the ax head resting on the ground. “And put that up. This is getting ridiculous. Both of you are going to enter the city with me, and we aren’t taking the army with us. Isn’t there more honor in being the one to kill an enemy general than just standing at the head of the column?”

“Of course, my lord,” Asmodeus said softly, “I was about to make the same point.”

“You were triggering him,” I raised my hands, feeling like I was dealing with children instead of ageless entities from another dimension, “quit it.”

Berith put up his ax, turning from us and crossing his arms as if he was lost in contemplation of the horizon instead of just sulking. Asmodeus gave a slight nod, he had heard me.

"Very well," Berith conceded, his voice edged with frustration, still facing away. “Gaap will head the column, as the aychar of the sixth seat should.”

The ape in question was conferring with the human officers, and when I told him the news, he was happy to ride a varghest to the front of our forces, a flag bearing the red eye of Dargoth attached to his saddle. Most of Bael’s garrison had come out to play, including examples of every creature of Bedlam I’d encountered so far. The vast majority were shamblers, but we had an entire squad of trolls pulling a couple of catapults, a smattering of chimeras, wyverns, and Endermen, and a cavalry unit composed of what appeared to be heavily armored skeletons riding varghests.

“What are those?” I said, pointing out the riders.

Gaap giggled. “Hollow Knights. The first I have ever had under my command. Very obedient, skilled warriors. You will find them useful should Agares send his men to meet us on the field.”

“This isn’t going to be that kind of battle,” I said. But it was nice to know that we had cavalry if it did come to that. I’d never had one of them spawn around me, so they must have been very rare. Though Kevin’s spawns were more varied than mine, presumably, more and more of that sort of thing would start appearing the longer I played the role of the Dark Lord.

“You have the helm, Gaap, get everyone moving.”

Zerath would send another convoy of supplies a day after we left Mount Doom, but we had enough to make it to Nargul without the army having to cannibalize itself. This wasn’t meant to turn into an extended siege, and based on the information my vizier had presented, we were still going to be outnumbered by the defenders by a wide margin. Flying was cool though.

Noivern and I went ahead of the army. Being active during the day supposedly weakened the wyverns, even with the cloud cover protecting them from the sun, but once my mount started soaring, it could keep up aloft for hours with little effort. Finding Nargul was as simple as following the train tracks Kevin had laid between Mount Doom and the city, but I had another stop to make first. Noivern responded to tugs on its harness to get us going in the right direction, and soon, we were within sight of Sentinel Bleak.

Most of the landmarks in Dargoth had names that could have come out of a hat full of Disney bad-guy adjectives, but at least they were easy to remember. Sentinel Bleak was a pair of towers in the middle of nowhere that marked the start of the road to Mount Doom. Bojack and I had bypassed it on our way into Dargoth, but as long as I was out and about, it was probably a good idea to make sure any garrison we came across recognized my authority.

There was a platform near the top of the eastern tower where a wyvern could land, and an attendant rushed out to meet me as soon as Noivern touched down. To avoid any confusion, I spoke first.

“Tell whoever’s in charge here that the Dark Lord has arrived.”

The attendant dropped to his knees. He was wearing a light tunic and a tabard emblazoned with the red eye of Dargoth, not a bad look overall. Kevin had liked keeping everyone in uniform.

“As you wish, my lord. May I have your mount tended to as well?”

“Give him some water,” I said, “but I will feed him myself.”

The man rushed off, and a girl dressed in the heavy leather gear of a wyvern groom rushed over with a platter of somewhat rancid-looking meat. She offered it to me with her head bowed, and I dismissed her before giving Noivern his meal by hand. His eyes seemed more expressive than the other wyverns. He didn’t have eyebrows, but the skin over his brow ridges shifted as a sign of his eagerness.

The groom brought a bucket of water, and my wyvern sucked it up like a hose.

“Another,” I said.

It was only a few minutes before a man in stormtrooper armor with his helmet off appeared to give me a smart salute.

“Captain Ashley,” he introduced himself, “at your service.” Was Ashley a guy's name in Dargoth? Maybe it was a surname. Didn’t matter. He was a handsome man, square-jawed, with light brown skin and a high and tight haircut that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a marine.

“Nice to meet you,” I said, tossing the last few tidbits from the platter for Noivern to catch. “We have a division approaching on the road, and they’re going to be resting here when night falls. I want you to give me a summary of everything you have here, food, weapons, men. We’re going to need it.”

He saluted again. “As the Dark Lord wills.”

Well, that was easy.