How I became the Empress of Hell

“Enemy warriors attacking on the left! Move to engage and focus fire on them! Healers; only heal someone if they drop below 50% health, otherwise you’ll run out of MP long before this is over!”

I flew forward as I drew my blade. I had been watching the fighting from a distance letting my demons do the fighting, so I was itching to spill some blood. As I focused solely on my speed, I darted from foe to foe, slicing and stabbing as I went. I was about to continue slaughtering them when a huge hand of ice surrounded me. At first I thought it was an enemy mage attacking me, until I heard the sound of arrows and spells hitting the thick ice surrounding me. Emelia stepped out of the frozen walls and moved close to me. She was in her ice form and I could feel the chill emanating from her body as she drew closer.

“They're focusing their attacks on you. I think they were trying to draw you out into the open so they could all attack you at once. I can have the other defense mages try and pro-”

“No. We would lose too many people trying to get me out. Have everyone regroup and heal up. You need everyone at their best for the final push on them once Aeryn gets here. I’m going to try and make it back, but if I don’t, you know the plan, OK?”

She sighed and nodded. I wanted to reach out and embrace her so badly, but I knew my skin would freeze from the contact. As she turned I thought she was moving to retreat back into her ice wall, but instead she reached out with each hand and placed them against the barrier. 

“Em what are you-”

She held up one hand and I waited to see what she was going to do. Finally after a moment she moved her hand to her sides and turned back towards me.

“I told the other mages to take over for me. Not to ruin your heroic sacrifice plan, but I did promise to spend the day with you and I intend to do just that. What kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn’t at least try and keep your ass alive. I have a plan to get you out of here alive, but it’s going to be… a little weird. Now… stand still, I don’t want to accidentally freeze something I’m not supposed to.”

I stood as still as possible and watched as she began to layer thick ice over each of the plates of my armor. I could feel the stinging cold through the heavy metal, but I ignored it and focused on her. When she was finished I looked down and held up one of my ice covered gauntlets.

“It will move just like the rest of your armor. It will slow your mobility down just a bit, but as far as I can tell it should have nearly quadrupled your defense. It just needs one final thing before we get to the ‘weird part.’”

She held her hands near my face and started to form a thick helmet around my head. It was large enough to not come into contact with my skin, and had slits in front of my mouth so I could breathe. Two holes appeared in front of my eyes and I watched in awe as crystals of ice poured from Emelia’s outstretched palm.

“OK, here’s where it gets weird. You know how I can go into my ice walls and such, right?”

I nodded but realized that the helmet wouldn’t show any movement, so I gave her a thumbs up. She placed her hand in front of my face against the helmet she had created. My eyes went wide as she started to merge with the thick ice, then I figured out what she was planning. She confirmed my suspicion as her voice sounded inside the helmet.

“I’m going to be with you the whole time so I can keep reinforcing the armor to protect you until I run out of MP. On 3 I’m going to drop the walls and I want you to run like hell. You ready?”

“Em… if this works… we need to have a serious talk about you being literally inside of my armor when I make it back.”

She laughed inside my helmet and started to count down. I closed my eyes and focused all my energy on my demonic speed. As soon as she finished counting I burst forward. Arrows, javelins, spells, and a whole assortment of things struck me as I moved, but I was barely taking any damage at all. I was about halfway there when Emelia spoke softly. She sounded out of breath and I knew what she was going to say before she even said it.

“Almost… out… of MP. Will see… you soon. Get here safe… K?” 

“You’ll be in my arms in a moment, babe.”

I activated my Stoneskin skill, raised my shield, and prayed they would be enough to get me the rest of the way there. The diamond hard layers of ice lasted only a few seconds as I was blasted by what felt like their entire army. My HP was dropping rapidly despite the miniscule amount of damage each attack was doing; I was so glad I had opted for a healing spell during my last leveling up session. As I drew closer to reaching the rest of the Demonspawn army, I was within a couple hundred feet when I realized that I wasn’t going to make it without some help. I was about to summon my demons for a last ditch effort of keeping myself alive when a huge tower of bone rose up from the ground behind me. 

Jade.

It seemed the Aeryn and the others made it just in the nick of time, and I flew forward behind the cover of the enormous mountain of bones. My body was so weak from being the overwhelming number of attacks I had sustained that I crashed hard into the ground with a heavy impact. Emelia rushed over to my side and knelt beside me with a look of concern on her face.

If the rest of the Demonspawn see the person they chose as their leader crumpled in defeat, they will very quickly lose morale. Get your ass up, Allexus! NOW!!

I willed my body to move and I slowly rose to my feet. I shook my head at Emelia’s offer to help me up and used the last of my MP to quickly cast a healing spell on myself. After taking a deep breath I rose into the air slightly.

“Alright everyone, while the enemy is focusing on the spider army attacking them, we’re going to go all out offensive. Keep the same groups as before and move out! Long range focus on taking down high levels and large threats, melee focus on keeping the mages and archers safe while taking out anyone who gets too close, healers only heal someone if they drop below 50% health, defense mages make sure to block area of effect attacks as much as possible. Attack ferociously and give no quarter! You are Demonspawn! Show them just how brutal and bloodthirsty you can be!”

I pointed towards the enemy with my sword and bared my fangs. Demonspawn surged forward below my feet and raised their weapons as they charged towards the enemy. Had I not been ready to fall over from exhaustion I would have been leading them from the front lines, so I hung back and watched as my army rushed ahead. As the last of the army moved ahead,  I landed a little harder than I would have liked and let out the tremendous sigh I had been holding in. A large shadow loomed over me and I looked up in surprise at a massive golem made from bone. The front split open and Jade emerged from within.

“Decided to take on the whole angel army did ya? You definitely look like you’ve seen better days… gimme a sec and you’ll be good as new. Nurse Jade is making a house call just for you.”

I would have laughed if I wasn’t ready to collapse, instead I gave Jade a weak smile and nodded slowly. She spread her arms out wide and dark red lines appeared along her body. The lines of blood flowed downwards and formed a small circle around her. The circle glowed brighter and began to move towards me. I watched as it flowed up and over my armor and onto my bare skin. It felt like someone had connected me to a car battery as my body suddenly felt alive with an overabundance of energy. The wave passed down my body and the exhaustion I had felt began to ebb away. As my skin absorbed the rest of the bright red liquid, I stood up, stretched out my limbs, and spread my wings.

Jade finished casting the spell and I moved swiftly as she started to stumble. She had less than 5% of her HP remaining and she gasped for air.

“Shit… I overdid it a bit. Your ass was hurt worse than I thought. I’ll be OK in a minute… Don’t go wasting all that effort by getting killed; now go slaughter every last one of them!”

I grinned with my fangs bared and hurled myself into the air. Whatever Jade had cast on me had me feeling supercharged, and I rocketed toward the enemy. As I landed I collided with a level 28 Angelspawn, hitting him in the chest and face with my boots. I felt his skull crunch under my heel and the other enemies backed away from me slowly. Their friend had just been killed by a ferocious looking winged demon, and they all wore looks of terror. 

Whether he was brave or just plain stupid, one of the Angelspawn decided he could take me on. A level 33, rogue type based on his light armor and katana. He moved at fast speeds that would have been nearly impossible to track for any normal Demonspawn. Sadly for him I was so, so much more than that. I sheathed my sword and watched as the Angelspawn zipped back and forth around me. As he moved in for an attack I moved to intercept him at a high speed, and it made it seem like he was standing still. I came to a stop and had him held aloft by his neck. I held him up in the air for all around me to see, and crushed his throat with a powerful squeeze of my hand. 

“Is that the best you can do? You’re all pathetic!”

I tossed his body at a nearby group of enemies and drew my sword. I held my free hand out and began casting my summoning spells. I could tell that the surrounding Angelspawn had no idea what to expect, and many turned to flee the other direction. I slammed my hand onto the ground and my demon warriors rose up in front of me, swords and shields at the ready. 

‘Slaughter them all.”           

 My demons threw themselves at the enemy, cutting them down like weeds. I quickly cast the rest of my summoning spells and barked orders at my demon army. We made short work of everything in our path, but the enemy army never seemed to run out of soldiers. As we climbed up to the crest of a large hill, my eyes went wide at the sheer number of enemies that remained. A blur of motion caused me and my demons to move to a defensive stance until I saw that it was Aeryn. Shortly behind him came Bray, Scythe, and Judas all riding atop a giant spider. Emelia and Jade came from behind carried forward by a moving carpet of bones and ice. As my clan moved towards me we embraced each other briefly before looking back over the battlefield.

“There’s so many angels and Angelspawn left and so few of us. Even with your spiders, Aeryn, we just don’t have the numbers. We need to find some way of evening the odds…”

I turned towards Jade and Emelia as I recalled a particularly devastating spell that had been shown during the gameplay trailer. 

“Do you guys remember when they first showed the trailer for the game that planet-sized meteor spell one of the mages cast? How did they do that? Is there any mages powerful enough to cast something on such a massive scale like that?”

Jade shook her head and looked about to say something when Emelia placed her hand on her arm.

“That scene was actually the reason I decided to play a mage. I did extensive research on just how they would have been able to cast a spell of that magnitude, and realized you’d have to be near level 100 to even attempt something like that. The only way we could do it now is if everyone with Arcane abilities channeled all of their MP into a high level mage. Even then it would take time to channel that amount of MP safely to unleash something like that. So… it is doable, it’s just not practical.”

I closed my eyes briefly and ran everything through my head. I opened my eyes and sighed.

“If we don’t do something drastic we’re going to lose. We need to order a retreat and have everyone with Arcane ability group up. Em… I’m pretty sure you’re the highest level mage we have…do you have a spell that would work at that magnitude?”

“Uhhh… I think I might be able to come up with something… but everyone else would have to cover all of us the whole time.”

“We’ll keep them off of you, you let me and Bray worry about that.”

After coming up with a plan on the best way for the Demonkin army to retreat and regroup, we went our separate ways. Aeryn, Judas, and Scythe were assigned the task of gathering up as many Demonkin as they could and helping them fall back. Jade and Emelia moved to the spot they planned to use for casting the “super-spell,” and Bray and  I were responsible for providing a distraction for the rest of the army.

---

“Allie, I have an insane idea I wanna try; are you able to carry me into the air and still be able to fly?”

“I… actually have no idea. If I can stop a huge angel’s attack with just my hand, I would think I could lift you. Why, what’d you have in mind?”

“Let’s keep it as a surprise for now. As long as I don’t kill myself in the process this is going to be… epic.”

I spread my wings and lifted off the ground just a bit before reaching down and lifting the enormous warrior. He was heavier than I had imagined, but I was able to lift him just enough to keep myself airborne. I flew straight up and I could feel the muscles of my wings, arms, and back beginning to tire. Bray pointed over to a spot above the battlefield and told me to fly higher.

“OK. Allie, are most of the Demonspawn out of the way below us?”

“Y-yes.”

“K… drop me.”

“Wh-what? Are you f-fucking crazy?!”

“Yep. But you have to trust me. Now drop me!”

I slowly released my grasp on him and watched as he plummeted back to the ground. As the huge warrior fell he raised his huge axe over his head. The devastation from his attack was like a bomb had gone off. Everything surrounding him had been pulverized and a shockwave tore through the ground, knocking everyone within 250 feet back. Bray slowly stood up inside the large crater he had made and appeared to be dusting himself off. I folded my wings and dove straight down. Just before I hit the ground I spread my wings and landed softly beside the “half-human wrecking ball.”

“Bray! Holy shit, that was fucking insane!!”

He laughed weakly and fell to one knee. Most of the heavy armor on his body had cracked and was shattered in several places. His HP had to be down in the single digits, and I quickly cast several healing spells on him. I used up the last of my MP, but he was still barely above 50% health. He lifted his large axe off the ground and we both watched in dismay as it broke apart in his hands. 

“Well… shit.”

I was about to respond when an arrow flew at him from above. I snatched it out of midair and drew my sword and shield. Instead of moving to attack I turned to the massive warrior and pushed the weapons into his arms. I spoke quickly before he had a chance to respond, as time was of the essence. 

“I know these aren’t exactly your speciality, but they’re better than nothing. Fight your way back to the rally point and don’t get killed. Tell Em and the others I’ll be there shortly. Now go!”

He nodded and ran up and out of the crater. I toned out the sounds of swords crashing against each other and focused on my speed and strength. I let my bloodthirsty demon instincts take over as I rushed towards the closest enemy. After snapping the archer’s neck who had shot at Bray earlier, I scanned the enemies around me, searching for one carrying the right type of weapon. I reacted quickly to any who drew too close to me before I finally found one carrying a weapon similar to the one Braylon had broken. I used my [Stoneskin] ability and rushed at the Angelspawn I had been seeking.

Most of the Angelspawn were still reeling from Bray’s earth-shattering attack, but I still had to fight my way through far more enemies than I would have liked. The enemy carrying the massive axe rushed me from the side, intent on cleaving me in half. I dodged his clumsy blow easily and clamped down on his bicep. I grinned wickedly at him as I ripped his arm off his body, drinking in the look of pure terror on his face while a shower of Angelspawn blood coated my face and armor. After I grabbed the handle of the weapon, I pulled off the hand that was still clutching it tightly and handed it back to its owner.

“I just needed the axe… you can have that back though.”

I had to restrain myself from bursting into laughter at the look of shock and confusion painted on the warrior’s face. My hand burned through my armor from the contact with the holy weapon, but I ignored it as I spread my wings and launched myself into the air. I dodged a few spells and arrows as I took off before flying quickly over to the rally point. Bray had made it back safely and was sitting in a basic set of worn plate mail. I walked over to him and gave him a huge grin.

“I have a present for you, Wrecking Ball Bray.”

“If it’s a hug covered in Angelspawn blood I think I’ll pass.”

I held out the huge Axe that had turned from a polished white and steel color to a dull grey and obsidian color. Bray’s eyes went wide and he jumped to his feet.

“Seriously? Where did you get this? This thing is awesome!”

He swapped my sword and shield for the new axe and gave it a few swings.

“Eh… I disarmed an Angelspawn and used my [Corrupting Touch] on his axe as I flew over here. Heh… disarmed…”

I giggled at my own joke and Bray cocked one of his eyebrows in confusion.

“You’d had to have been there… How’s the spell coming?”

“See for yourself… I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

I drew closer to the huge circle of Demonspawn and watched in amazement; sparks of bluish white energy flickered in the area as lines of dark purple energy flowed towards Emelia. She was sitting back on her haunches with her arms outstretched. Her eyes had rolled back into the back of her head and she appeared deep in concentration. I used what little MP I had to summon my demon mages and priestesses and quietly ordered them to channel their MP into the small ice mage. More and more sparks of energy filled the air as each of the Demonspawn finished channeling the last of their MP into her.

When she had absorbed the last bit of Arcane energy, Emelia stood up slowly. Each step she took left a frozen footprint, and the ice started spreading out along the ground. The air around her literally thrummed with arcane power. The Demonspawn spread out and allowed her to pass as she walked towards the enemy. Several projectiles flew at her, but as they drew closer it was as if they had hit an invisible wall and instantly iced over before falling to the ground. She turned towards me, her eyes two blazing white orbs of magical energy, and spoke barely above a whisper.

“Get everyone back. I don’t want to hurt them.”

I ordered everyone to fall back further and watched Emelia walk slowly towards the advancing army. When the majority of them were within 100 feet she bent down and touched a single finger to the ground. A thick sheet of ice covered the ground and spread out from the spot she had touched like a massive tidal wave of ice. Everything that it touched was instantly frozen solid and it kept going until over half of the Angelspawn army had turned into living ice statues. At first I thought that was the entirety of the spell, and I was amazed at the sheer power of the tiny ice mage I had fallen for. She stepped forward suddenly and slammed her other hand onto the ground. Everything that had been coated in ice shattered instantly and the shards of ice rose slowly into the air. She stood up and flicked her wrist towards the rest of the attackers. Thousands upon thousands of razor sharp ice shards flew at the remaining Angelspawn, and we all watched as they were torn to shreds.

“Ho...ly… shit.”

The energy that swirled around Emelia faded and I watched exhaustion and pain wrack through her body. I summoned every ounce of speed I could and rushed forward as her legs began to buckle. I caught her just before she could hit the ground and lifted her into my arms. I cradled her against my chest and walked slowly back towards the cheering Demonspawn.

“I did good?”

“Babe… There are no words for how amazing that was. Just rest now. K?”

She snuggled up against my neck and whispered softly into my ear.

“Best. Date. Ever.”