After hundreds of brutally long years of manual labor toiling away in Hell, Thozronnath was finally getting used to his lot in life. His never ending, torturously long life. Most of the other devils did not pay attention to him at all. They would carry on important conversations as he crawled past with his back laden with sulfurous stones. Sometimes they would even walk straight through where he was working, crushing his bones beneath their feet in the process. All things considered Thoz was building up quite the tolerance for pain.

It was on one such day, like many others, when Thozronnath was struggling to break a particularly stubborn stone that he heard one of the strangest rumors in a long time.

A purple skinned legionary devil was leaning on their spear, it’s large fleshy tail swishing back and forth as they spoke to a winged devil circling idly above their head.

“Yeah, I know, Boss says now that the mortal finally learned magic we’ll have summoning contracts flooding in by the hundreds before the end of the year” The soldier lamented.

Thoz took a moment to glance up at the speaking duo, unnoticed. The thick leathery hides that both devils had marked them as members of the soldier caste. The purple legionary’s powerful musculature, prehensile tail, and cursed spear all were indicative of the average infantry. The winged devil on the other hand (claw?) was a member of the “air” force. Though Hell didn’t technically have breathable air. It’s limbs were thinner, more agile, it’s body light and lithe, and both of it’s shoulders extended into a large pair of wings just behind it’s thin arms. It’s tail ended in a sharp spike and it carried a light (and stereotypical) devilish pitchfork.

Both of these creatures were younger than Thoz, and both of them were technically still Lesser Devils. However, the fact that they weren’t imps meant that they both outranked him. Like many others with power and position they completely ignored the creature beneath them and continued speaking.

“Ugh, I hate mortals, If I have to sit through a summoning contract to some half wit flesh body I’d kill myself and take the penalty” the winged beast complained.

Thozronnath was not confident enough to stop working in the presence of his “betters” so he continued, step by painstaking step. Slowly getting further and further out of earshot of the two soldiers. As he continued he did catch a few more comments about how they would plan to weasel out of contracts, kill their contractors, or even avoid something called a “penance fee”. Unfortunately Thoz had not had a full conversation that didn’t involve him taking orders (or a beating) since he was born. So he had little to no idea what any of that meant. He just kept carrying his rocks.

His surprise came several weeks, or perhaps days, later. Time is hard to read in the perpetual hellscape. Especially when you can’t sleep and aren’t allowed rest of any other form.

Congratulations! His Lordship has granted you a contract. Your summoning will begin shortly. Physical manifestation currently under construction.

Information he barely understood flooded his mind, and nearly overwhelmed him. The sudden surprise caused him to drop all the stones he was carrying and fall to one knee.

“Okay. Okay. Thoz. Thoz is okay.” He began whimpering, his hands checking his body for injuries on an instinct rather than anything else.

“Contracts rumor was heard. Contracts ins hell now” the frightened devil assured himself. This wasn’t the message that he was finally dying, unfortunately. That release had denied him once again.

“Whats is summonings? Manifestations?” The imp continued to ponder aloud, sounding syllable by syllable the unfamiliar words and still managing to add extra sounds beyond what was necessary. A byproduct of the needle teeth that overcrowded his mouth.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Before he would have time to figure out what these strange words meant though, Thoz felt a tugging sensation at the back of his head. Or rather, his mind. His body was hurled into nothingness and his consciousness thrust into the void between dimensions as the physical manifestation was finalized. In moments he found himself aware of his form again.

The air around him was cold. No, that wasn’t quite right. It had just stopped being scaldingly hot. There was air. Real air, not sulfuric gas that burnt his insides. He blinked his eyes for a moment as his mind was suddenly assaulted by another similar message.

Physical manifestation completed. Congratulations! You are now a level 1 Imp. Remember to check your status for your specifications, and please comply with your summoner's requests to the best of your ability while trying to claim their soul.

This one wasn't too bad. Thoz knew what status meant. All the other devils were always lording status over him, making sure he knew he was worse than them.

He was about to check the aforementioned specifications when a thunderous crash echoed around him. He looked up just in time to see a foot. A foot roughly the size of a mountain, judging by the mountain it was currently crushing beneath itself. The entity it was connected to was so utterly massive that Thozronnath couldn’t see past their knees. It could barely make out the other leg in the distance.

The thunderous echo was the mountain beneath this creature collapsing into a landslide of mud and rock, cascading directly in Thoz’s direction. He heard a shrill scream and glanced to his left just in time to see a small pink flesh thing running away in abject terror. Thoz assumed this was his summoner.

Thankfully, being summoned had granted him a brief summary of the knowledge he needed to fulfill his contract. He now knew the basics of contracts, summoning, and summoners. If he had managed to check his status, he would have also realized the strange words floating around in his head came from the new language granted by his summoner. A dwarf. Thoz would not have a chance to use his new found fluency in dwarvish however as he quickly received another message.

Boulders began crashing around the imp and spraying soil and splinters in all directions as he urgently beat his wings in an attempt to escape.

Congratulations! Your summoner has been slain. The remaining duration of your contracted time is now your to do as you please. A penance fee of 5 souls has been deducted from your account for failing to produce a profit from your contracted obligations. New balance: -5 souls.

Several things occurred to thoz all at once. He didn’t know what a negative number was in the first place, so he was very confused by this new balance. He wasn’t familiar with the concept of banking, so the balance was foreign as well.

This profound confusion came to a head right as Thoz exclaimed “What the fuck?”

Coincidentally it was at that same moment that he was struck by a piece of flying debris.

You have suffered a minor injury. -2 HP.

That was the understatement of Thozronnaths life. A hunk of stone easily thirty centimeters across struck him just beneath one of his wings. The sudden impact and velocity carried him to the ground, and as he tumbled there was a loud crunching accompanied by the sound of tearing leather. Or in this case, tearing flesh.

Pain that he was all too familiar with washed over Thoz’s body, his prebuilt tolerance allowing him to avoid blacking out. As he stood up, he found himself completely devoid of his right arm. His shoulder in fact just ended in a broken joint that had been completely torn off. The devil’s thick yellow blood was spilling out of the wound in amounts that would be concerning to any non-immortal creature.

Thozronnath then tried to lift himself back off the ground, but found that his new change in balance, coupled with a freshly broken wing, was making it impossible to fly. Defeated and dejected, he resigned himself to physically running away from the cataclysm behind him. Only to look up at just the right moment to see a boulder much larger than the first careening right for him.

"Fuck."

The imp was then unceremoniously crushed beneath the nearly meter wide chunk of stone, and met with his final message for the day.

You have suffered a major injury. -3 HP. Congratulations! You have died.