When Hell Froze

by Forrest Minter

  When the day came, Benny was immediately caught up in a whirlwind of activity. The moment she finished breakfast, the demons escorted her to a large hall filled with tables and chairs. Azel sat at one of the tables, peering down at a map covered in small figurines.

  “Ah, Beneficence, welcome to the war room.” Azel said casually, not looking up from the map.

  Benny felt something was off for a moment before realizing that this was the first time he had referred to her by name. “Actually, I’d prefer you called me Benny. Everyone does.” She said, feeling strangely self-conscious about being called by her proper first name.

  “Indeed?” Azel asked, glancing up at her. “Very well… Benny.” He said her name as if chewing on a strange food he wasn’t quite sure about, but resumed poring over the map a moment later. “Do you have any thoughts about the distribution of my forces?” He asked, pointing at a black figurine. There were two sets on the map. One set was black, one was red. She assumed black represented demons.

  “I may have agreed not to try to stop you, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to help you.”

  Azel shrugged. “Perhaps suggestions to minimize human casualties then.”

  Benny thought about this, and decided to take it at face value. “If you have a group cornered, yell the word parlay and you might be able to talk them into surrendering.”

  “Indeed? I shall certainly instruct my troops to do just that.”

  Without any further discussion, he returned to his examination of the map. An hour later, trumpets sounded signalling the attack. Though Benny didn’t approve of the battle, part of her yearned to be on the field. It surprised her just how much she missed the thrill of battle after only a few days as a prisoner.

  Within an hour, messengers began filtering in, and each time one arrived, a piece was removed from the map. Some were simply returned to a box that seemed designed to hold them. Others were placed on a napkin with the word “prison” scrawled on it in nearly illegible handwriting. Given the fact that it was written in English, Benny wondered whether it was primarily labeled for her benefit. The pieces removed were mostly red, but some black pieces fell as well. Benny was gratified to see that her people had put up a fight.

  Four hours later, the last red piece fell, and Azel stood. Extending his arm to Benny, he gave her a small smile. “Shall we my lady?”

  Benny shook her head. “I think we’ve convinced them by now that we’re together. We don’t need to go arm in arm every time.”

  Azel frowned, but lowered his arm. “Very well, I shall respect your boundaries. That being said, if we do not maintain the appearance, at least to some extent, the soldiers will assume I have moved on.”

  Benny shrugged. “Give me back my sword then, and any demon that tries to mess with me will regret it.”

  Azel’s frown deepened. “I will think on it.”

  Without further conversation, he began walking, making a beckoning motion when she didn’t immediately follow. Begrudgingly, she did, staying several feet behind him. Soon, they emerged into the light, and Benny was blinded by the harsh glare of the midday sun. Once she got her bearings, she found they were standing in the village square, surrounded by a platoon of demons. In a large building next to where they emerged that looked like it had been the town hall, Benny could see the prisoners; bound and gagged. Surprisingly, they numbered over a hundred by her reckoning, though she didn’t have the opportunity to do a proper count. It was rare for demons to take prisoners in the first place, so Benny was surprised that so many had chosen to surrender.

  “And what would you recommend I do with them, now that I have them?” Azel asked Benny, gesturing at the prisoners. “If you are to be the peacemaker, I would hear your words about the best way to accomplish your goal.”

  “Let them go.” Benny said immediately.

  “Indeed? When they would make useful bargaining chips for a negotiation?” He countered smoothly.

  “The church has had no formal talks with you that I’m aware of. As far as they know, you’re here to commit genocide, or maybe enslave humanity. If you show them you’re capable of benevolence, that you’re not just here to wreck everything in sight, maybe they’ll be more willing to come to the table.”

  Azel scratched his chin, as if lost in thought, and then nodded. “A sound strategy.”

  He waved to the platoon leader, and began a low conversation that she couldn’t hear. Even with her limited knowledge of the demons, she could tell that the platoon leader looked unhappy. Despite this, when Azel finished talking, the platoon leader gave a demon salute, right hand reaching to clasp his own left shoulder.

  Azel returned to Benny’s side. “It is done. The prisoners will be released with a message that we wish to speak with the church leaders.”

  Benny nodded at him, surprised at how relieved she actually was. “Thank you.” She said simply, not wanting to show vulnerability to him.

  He nodded back to her, and stalked off to give a speech to the assembled soldiers. Her guards reformed around her as she waited.

  “You tryin make peace?” Noraz asked.

  Benny nodded. “Hopefully.”

  “I think it not work. Most demon want war. Azel maybe stop, but others not stop.”

  Benny shrugged. “If all that happens is Azel stops, that’ll be better for my people than nothing. Maybe it’ll help them focus more resources on the other lords.”

  Noraz poked Lorbin, who rarely spoke if he didn’t need to. “What you think?”

  Lorbin glared at Noraz, but replied “I think Azel want be Demon King. I think he let others fight humans, then attack when they weak. Surface territory not matter to us, so he abandon surface territory if it mean more power underground.”

  Everything clicked into place for Benny in that moment. It made far more sense to her than Azel’s stated desire for peace. Even so, from what she could see, helping Azel form a truce with the church was still preferable to the slow genocide humanity had been facing for the last century. Benny decided to support him as best she could. While she wasn’t sure what he would do as a king, he at least seemed open to the idea of peace.

  “Why doesn’t he just stop now? Why doesn’t he just pull back to the underground, and wait for his opening?”

  Noraz was the one who answered. “If he just sit in cave, other lords say he not doing job, and they all attack him together. If he doing something, but they just not agree, they probably not attack him. Least not all at once.”

  Benny nodded, and filed the information away for future reference. The silence stretched for several minutes until she decided to explore the town. A quick glance at Azel showed he was still preoccupied with organizing his soldiers. Benny sent Noraz to collect a town map, and with that they left the town square.

  “You want see church? It only other big building on map.” Noraz said, scanning the map.

  “Sure why not?” Benny replied distractedly.

  They made their way in silence, Benny making plans for the future. When the attack came, she reacted before her conscious mind was even aware that there was a threat. A pike extended from a window above, and missed as she dodged to the side. More soldiers boiled from the building, ten in all. Five with pikes, five with swords. Noraz and Lorbin moved to stand in front of Benny, who was still weaponless, and cursing.

  “Stop! The city has already been taken!” She called, hoping to avoid fighting fellow soldiers.

  “Shut up traitor!” One of them called in reply. “Even if it means death, we won’t surrender!”

  Refusing to listen to her continuing attempts at diplomacy, the squad of soldiers charged.

  Looking for something to use as a weapon, Benny spotted a puddle of mud in the yard of the building she stood in front of. Doing her best not to second-guess her decision, she dipped her finger into the mud, and began drawing. A few seconds later, she finished a speed sigil on her forehead, and activated it. Turning, she saw Noraz and Lorbin making a good accounting of themselv
es. In slow motion they batted away pikes while soldiers with swords moved to flank them. Sprinting, she charged the group of soldiers with swords.

  Before the first soldier could react, she disabled him with a palm strike to his throat. Looting the sword from his hands before he could collapse in agony, his body just now reacting to the pain in this slow motion space, she kicked him into his neighbor. The first man flailed at his throat, almost completely unaware of his surroundings through the pain. As a result, the second man fell in a tangle with the first as she turned to the third. Already, time was beginning to move at a more normal speed, and she made a mental note that mud was likely not a good conduit for her sigils. The third man’s blade was swinging toward her, and she batted it aside with her own looted blade. Before he could recover, she drove the pommel of her sword into his head, hoping for a disabling blow rather than a lethal one. She was grateful when he fell to the ground, unconscious. By now the second man had untangled himself, and was beginning to rise behind her. In front of her, the fourth and fifth soldiers began circling her warily. Time had nearly returned to flowing at normal speed, and seeing only one path to take, she turned on the man she had downed earlier.

  With a roundhouse kick to the head, she prevented him from standing, knocking him out cold like his compatriots. Meanwhile, the other two soldiers took this as an opportunity, charging her while her back was to them. As the fourth soldier reached her, she ducked low, simultaneously moving under the slash of his sword, and hooking her leg behind his. Losing his footing, the man fell badly, the momentum from the full speed sprint having sufficient force to break his arm with a crunching sound when he impacted the ground. The sharp cry of pain was enough to satisfy her that he wouldn’t be a threat for at least a few minutes.

  The fifth man was all that remained of the swordsmen. He had stopped his charge when Benny felled his compatriot, and was now edging toward her cautiously.

  “Look, stop, we don’t have to do this.” Benny growled at him. “I don’t want this fight. I’m trying to help the people here!”

  “Help?” He growled back at her. “By siding with the demons? We watched how you walked. You’re not a prisoner. Those demons were guarding you like you were some kind of commander! No, I won’t listen to anything that comes out of your mouth demon whore!”

  Somehow despite having heard the same insult a number of times, mostly from Jewel, this time it actually stung. With a war cry, the man launched himself at her, executing a series of very precise cuts that Benny recognized from her own training. Whoever this man was, he was an excellent swordsman; a cut above those she had already felled. Ducking, and weaving between his blows, it was almost all she could do to simply hold her ground. Trying furiously to come up with some kind of plan, she remembered her new powers. “Maybe I could use that here?” She thought to herself.

  Before she could second-guess the idea, she activated Mind Fog. He stumbled, his swing overbalancing him as his mind failed to produce the correct sequence of movements to combine into the next form. Moving into the momentary gap, Benny thrust her sword into his chest, piercing the heart as she had been trained to in a thousand drills over the years. Their eyes locked, and his fear-filled eyes widened as their gazes latched onto one another. A moment later his widened eyes slackened into the empty stare of death, and she realized what she had done.

  Kicking him off her blade, she shouted in outrage. “Why did you make me kill you!” She yelled at his corpse. It was her first time killing a human, and tears streamed down her face as she kicked his corpse several times in frustration. Lost in fury, she dipped her hand into his blood, and redrew the speed sigil on her forehead. Blood had always made a good medium for her powers, and from the perspective of the other remaining fighters, both demon and human, it seemed as if she simply tore through the pikemen in a whirlwind of motion.

  The execution of the pikemen took less than ten seconds; and from the perspective of the demons, her body seemed to vibrate slightly as she knelt, panting, over the final corpse. The effects of the speed rune took a full minute to wear off, and in that time, her bodyguards were terrified by the shimmering, vibrating blood goddess before them. Her hair, as it often did, had absorbed the blood of battle. Benny was unaware that it was actually emitting a soft red glow as her Demon Lord power absorbed the blood to fuel her progression. Combined with the slight vibration caused by the speed sigil, and the fact that her hair was already blood red to begin with, she had the appearance of a deity with hair made of blood.

  Benny knew none of this. Though she was paralyzed by the emotional trauma of killing her first human; it was only later, she realized she had been so lost in her frenzy that she had chosen killing blows when she could easily have subdued the men nonlethally.

  Chapter 8

  Noraz and Lorbin, not counting a few shallow gashes, proved to be largely unharmed in the aftermath of the battle. Benny was grateful for this, once she had returned to her senses enough to notice. The pikeman who had stuck his pike down at her from the window had not emerged to participate in the fight, and she counted this as a threat still on the loose. A thorough search of the building turned up nothing, confirming that he had fled.

  When she finally had a moment to slow down, after a patrolling squad of soldiers had been alerted to what had happened, Benny noticed a flashing icon in the corner of her vision. The moment she focused on it, words popped into being, seeming to hover in front of her.

  Blood Points gained: 320

  Blood points will henceforth be abbreviated as BP. This setting may be changed at will. There is no time limit on expenditure of BP.

  Benny wasn’t sure how she felt about this, knowing that it had come at the cost of human lives. It seemed to her as if she had betrayed them, even though they had been the ones to attack her. After a moment’s hesitation, she decided to honor their deaths by making use of her newfound points. Ordering her guards to stand watch, she found a chair in the dining room of the house they had been searching. Scrolling through her devil menu, she decided to make her manipulation power more effective in the hope that next time she could prevent a fight from happening in the first place.

  +Manipulation Level 1

  -Mind Fog 1: cloud an individual's mind, making them unable to focus, and more susceptible to mental influence.

  Upgrade Cost: 500

  -Suggestion 1: The first step on the path to true control. You may speak an idea, and have that idea lodge in the individual’s mind. How they act on this is entirely up to them, and susceptible to the time limit of mental effects.

  Upgrade Cost: 300

  -Seduction 1: Make yourself more alluring to another individual, even if they would not normally “swing your way.” Be warned that if you overuse this power, the victim may lose all self-control.

  Upgrade Cost: 300

  -Mental Resistance 1: Become less susceptible to anything which might cloud one’s mind, be it drugs or magical effects. With enough points in this, you might never get drunk again.

  Upgrade Cost: 400

  -Duration 1: Extends the duration of your manipulation powers. Actual amount is determined on a case by case basis, but is percent based. Might also combo with other powers such as select sigil effects.

  Upgrade Cost: 400

  -Magnitude 1: Manipulation powers become stronger by 3%. Might combo with other powers such as select sigil effects. Be warned, you may cause undesirable results if you are imprudent with the amount of force you manifest.

  Upgrade Cost: 400

  -Next Level: To access further powers, or evolve pre-existing powers to a higher form, one must increase the base level of Manipulation. This will also increase the base magnitude and duration of all powers, as well as their level cap. Current cap for powers is 3. Increase level to increase this cap.

  Upgrade Cost: 1000

  With only two choices available given her point budget, it was immediately clear what she should choose. While she could understand the value of seduction as
a power, she wasn’t particularly interested in it. The thought of acting as a magical seductress disturbed her on a fundamental level. That only left Suggestion, which was perfectly suited to talking down the next group of soldiers they might encounter. Feeling slightly uncomfortable at the nature of her new power, she mentally accepted the change.

  Suggestion has leveled up to level 2. As a result, it has gained new traits.

  -Suggestion 2: A step on the path to true mind control. You may speak an idea, and have that idea lodge in the individual’s mind. They will now also feel a mild compulsion to act on the idea. How they act on this is entirely up to them, and susceptible to the time limit of mental effects. Be warned that the character of the person in question may result in an undesirable outcome.

  Benny shrugged at the disclaimer. She could only guess at who was even writing the prompts, but they sounded somewhat paranoid to her. Having no one around to test it on; except Noraz and Lorbin who were bound to obey her orders regardless, she closed out her menu.

  “Let’s go find someone to deal with the bodies.” Benny told her demon guards.

  With a nod they followed her out of the building.

  Chapter 9

  A week passed as Benny settled into life in Azel’s newly conquered town. From signs along the roads, she had gleaned that the town’s name was Sattler. She didn’t remember seeing the name before, making it difficult for her to determine exactly where Sattler was located, but there was nothing to be done about that. Azel had decided to hedge his bets by not allowing her to see any maps larger than the local area.