“Fireworks aren’t the worst of it,” Tissa added, sighing.
“Fireworks?” I asked, raising my brows. “Who ordered them?”
“Ed. He’s always wanted to have a firework display, and now he has an excuse.”
“He’s paying for it himself,” Rita said, raising her head. “The clown musician and the stripper though, those were Malik and Hung’s idea.”
“Stripper?” My jaw, already on the floor, broke through the concrete and fell down to the floor below. “Why?”
“I think Hung wants to impress Tobias. Crag’s probably never seen anything like that in real life…” Tissa answered, giggling. “I mean, first Hung wanted Rita and I to strip, but after our response…”
“Which he deserved!” Rita said, still tapping away at her comm.
“Yeah, after we both slapped him at once, he changed his tune. So now we’re looking for talent.”
“By the way, Hung asked me to invite Gyula’s daughter Eniko,” Rita said, concerned. “I haven’t told her anything yet, I wanted to talk to you about it first. You don’t mind?”
“Eniko? The girl knows all about us anyway. Let her come. What’s that poster?”
Tissa unfolded the holographic poster and I saw in huge gleaming letters: Welcome, Toby!
After I read it, she rolled it back up and explained:
“By rights we should have put in Tomoshi’s names and ours too, all the new arrivals at the base, but…”
“It felt dumb writing it to ourselves,” Rita finished.
“Yeah, pretty much that. How’re things in the Inferno?” Tissa asked. “Got any achievements?”
“I’ll tell you all tonight,” I answered. “When’s the party starting, and where?”
“Ten o’clock. We’re meeting in Hung’s apartment,” Rita smiled. “It was his idea, and initiative must be punished. He’ll have to tidy up in the morning!”
Plenty of time before ten. Enough for the battle with Azmodan’s legion, and if we won, then for a vacation to Ruby City.
“Actually, it’s because he has the best speakers,” Tissa added. “You know how Hung loves his loud music.”
I didn’t know that, but nodded.
“Alright, I’ll get out of your hair. I have to head back to the demons. They promoted me.”
“How’s that?” Tissa asked in surprise.
“I’m serving in Belial’s army now. Glory to the Dominion!” I barked and went back to my rooms.
Judging by the interface block, ‘dawn’ was breaking in the Inferno – meaning the time the demons marked as morning. My troops were still sleeping.
Rising from my cot, I walked out of the tent and went to see Citri for orders. I had no idea what my squad and I were meant to do. Drills? Training? Or did everyone just look after themselves until the battle?
The centurion wasn’t asleep, but was no happier to see me for it. His eyes flashed balefully as he answered:
“The squad is yours, and you are its decanus. Prepare your fighters as you will. The battle is the day after tomorrow. The legion has its instigas. Your role is simple: just try not to die!”
Demons would never make it in Dis with strategy like this. No discipline, just total disorder, chaos. And Chaos…
* * *
The next two days flew by unnoticed. Everything here was new to me: the world itself, the NPCs within it, their hellish customs. It was fun to explore the world from the inside rather than from the fairytales of Dis and Flaygray and Nega’s war stories.
The Inferno, cut off from Dis but still abuzz with activity owing to its faster passage of time, had transformed over thousands of years into a mixture of the old, pre-demonic traditions of the citizens of Andara, and the fierce customs of a new society, corrupted by Chaos.
The place ran on a cult of power and stars, and the demons dreamed of one day returning to Disgardium and restoring Andara. They were bright dreams stained by the planned methods of capture. The demons believed that all who betrayed the Old Gods and submitted to the New had to be destroyed. And since, by their reckoning, all of Disgardium now bowed to the New Gods, the demonic legions were preparing to sweep through Latteria, Shad’Erung and Bakabba with flame and sword, cutting down everything in their path, sparing not even the women and children.
The princes remembered how strong were the New Gods, so they did all they could to make each legion stronger – not in number, but in stars. And… in science and technology!
That I learned from the fighters in my squad by pretending to be an ignorant country boy. I pushed them hard in training sessions, forced them to run in circles around the camp in full equipment. My group took full advantage of the legion’s usually empty obstacle course. Even Abducius groaned from the exertion, but one look at my face told him not to complain. Their suffering bore fruit. Chao could be used to gain strength quickly, but real exercise increased our stats too. Although not much – after two days of uninterrupted torture, Rupert the imp instiga had gained only a single point of stamina, but that was worth it. That was the first stat point he’d ever earned through training.
Crying and dying of fatigue, my demons gratefully seized any opportunity to take a breather and spoke in detail about life in the big cities. That was how I found out that in the absence of magic and with a deficit of chao, the cleverest demons successfully developed technology.
The Inferno had steam engines, widely used both in self-propelled cars and in factories to produce everything that was made by magic in Disgardium. After all, even resources in Dis transformed magically into items. The way Gyula had built the fort sprang to mind. In the Inferno, the demons had been forced to develop realistic manufacturing methods.
That led their society down the same path of progress as my own world.
It occurred to me more than once that I was wasting time. I could cut down the whole legion, nail Sargatanas to a wall and demand that he open me a portal to the Ruby City. What was stopping me? Nothing. But what then? Belial himself would give me a far too warm welcome, and there was no escaping that he was a former Old God. It was still too soon for me to go up against an entity like that.
I had enough time to take a different path. It wasn’t long until the battle – just a few hours of real time. Once I got to the capital of the Dominion, then I could decide what to do next.
By the end of the day, my platoon was so tired that they couldn’t even think of sitting by the fire. They all wanted to just get to their cots and sleep through till morning.
While they slept, I went back to reality. During my third night as a soldier of the Thirteenth Legion, I was told that Tobias was just about to arrive, and ran up to the roof to meet him.
The stars flickered in the wind. The sky seemed deep, layered, alive – unlike the Inferno. Despot would have loved it. He would have stopped and stared like a statue.
One star stood out from the rest, burning brighter, then split into two; the lights of the flyer coming in. Hovering above the roof, it descended fluidly, blasting me with hot air. The hatch opened with a light hiss and Toby climbed out, waving and running over to me in a baseball cap. He had a huge backpack over his shoulders.
We hugged, exchanged greetings. Willy hid the flyer beneath a holographic camouflage tarp and came to join us.
“This place is awesome, Alex!” Tobias said, looking around the roof. His eyes burned. “You going to show me around?”
“I can’t, Toby, I have to get back to the demons… Feel free to explore though.”
“I’ll show him around,” Willy volunteered. “Then help him pick an apartment and get settled in.”
“Hey, how’s it going with the demons?” Tobias shouted to my retreating back.
“Just fine,” I shrugged, turning around. “Today we’re fighting Azmodan’s Sixth Legion. Glory to the Dominion!”
“What?” he said in confusion, but I didn’t answer. Mentally, I was already fighting bloodthirsty enemies alongside my platoon.
He who lives
with cripples learns how to limp, Uncle Nick used to say.
He was right.
Chapter 18. Fire Beneath The Enemy’s Feet
THE SKY FLASHED BLUE with the first signal. The camp froze for an instant, then broke into commotion. Everyone dropped what they were doing and ran in the same direction.
My platoon waited for the signal outside the barracks. In anticipation of the battle, Karakapanka the rakshasa trembled, thrashing everyone nearby with his tail.
“Well, it’s started…” Rupert groaned, staring miserably at the sky. “Maybe we can move to the rear? No future for us otherwise, and that way we can earn some experience.”
The imp feared the coming battle. It wasn’t even his decision to join the legion – he wanted to get married, but his dad refused to give him his share in the family business. Serve the glory of the Dominion, then you’ll get your share and money for the wedding, his loving father had said. Rupert doubted that his bride would wait for him, but there was no other option – whoever he decided to marry, the condition was the same.
“Coward!” our ashmaker barked, drenching the imp with disgust.
“He’s right,” Lerra shook her head. “Even if our whole squad attacks a single one of Azmodan’s veterans, we’ll all be disincarnated. What do you say, Decanus Hakkar?”
“I say we figure it out as we go. We won’t go right into the thick of things, don’t worry,” I answered. I wouldn’t want to lose my troops in the very first battle. “But! Cower as much as you want before we enter the portal, but as soon as we’re on the other side, I want you thinking of nothing but how to defeat the enemy!”
“Yes sir!” the platoon answered.
“Alright, follow me!”
We ran after the rest. We few scraps of fresh meat dissolved in the crowd among the seasoned veterans.
“Thirteenth Legion!” Legatus Philotanus roared. “Glory to the Dominion!”
“Glory to the Dominion!” the answer came, thundering so loud that goosebumps ran along my skin.
Excitement and a sense of unity with my comrades flooded me, but the voice of pure reason made me shake the feeling off: Wake up, Alex! That’s not why you’re here! But while the aims of the Thirteenth Legion matched my own, I let my lust for battle rise to the surface and take hold. Plus, now that I knew Lerra and the horned boys a little better and got attached to my platoon in the last two days, the fate of the new recruits meant something to me.
A little over eight thousand demons stood around the perimeter, cohort to cohort. The centurions stood in conference alongside the prefects and the legion’s legatus. After finishing, they turned to us.
Prefect Sargatanas walked out into the center. He waved his arms, drawing a huge pentagram in the air. The portal opened.
Legatus Philotanus drove the centurions and optios toward it, who gave out kicks and blows to the decani (Citri shouted at me to get moving), and then we passed on the bosses’ enthusiasm to those beneath us in the ranks.
My platoon was one of the first to pass through the portal. Demons pressed in from behind us, pushing us forward and away from the safe rear. It was hard to make anything out at first – I was more focused on not stumbling and finding myself beneath hundreds of hooves, – and when the press weakened, I saw that the portal had thrown us out into a huge elongated canyon whose walls rose more than a hundred feet into the air.
Azmodan’s Sixth Legion was already in formation at the opposite end of the canyon.
“Aiaiai!” the enemy trilled in greeting, their weapons rattling and armor clanking. The ululations rolled over us, echoing off the walls and multiplying. “The Sixth Legion of Prince Azmodan welcomes the enemy!”
“Aiaiaiai!” our side answered. “The Thirteenth Legion of Prince Belial welcomes the enemy!”
The legati advanced. Ours, the demon Philotanus with five orange stars, galloped ahead on a fiery buffalo. The enemy legatus Agvares, with eight stars, sat astride a two-horned lizard that would have looked like a T-rex if not for the flames flickering along its length.
Meeting in the center of the canyon, the legati walked up to each other and shook with both hands at once, crossing them. Another demonic custom I’d have to remember.
“May the battle commence!” the legati both rumbled at once. “We wish you fire beneath your enemy’s feet, legionaries!”
“Fire!” the armies roared.
The leaders returned to their legions.
“First Instiga of Prince Azmodan’s Sixth Legion!” Legatus Agvares announced. “Infernal Horhor!”
A gigantic figure separated from the enemy ranks, shaking the earth. The demons of my platoon shivered. Rupert the imp, the smallest in our group, jumped up and down in frustration and chirped quietly:
“What’s happening?”
While Odell the devil described to the poor imp in detail the fearsome force we were about to face, I focused on the overgrown infernal. Six orange stars. Not counting Legatus Agvares, this was probably the strongest demon I’d seen. Yikes… Their instiga was stronger than our legatus!
Horhor the infernal moved to stand in the center of the gorge and beckoned mockingly, his venomous green flicker strengthening.
“First Instiga of Prince Belial’s Thirteenth Legion!” Legatus Philotanus boomed through the canyon. “Shuziber the imp!”
An imp was the legion’s first instiga?! That was a surprise… On the other hand, compared with our Rupert, the cohort’s second instiga, he was like a mammoth next to an elephant. He was a large imp, with three orange stars. In his right hand he held a chaos-iron pike so long that it could have impaled a dinosaur, and in his left flickered a fireball so powerful that its white heat blinded the eye.
“Aiaiai!” our legion trilled in greeting to Shuziber.
At any moment, the sky would light up blue a second time, signaling the start of the battle.
Looking from side to side, I came to the conclusion that we new recruits were just dirt at the feet of the more powerful warriors. Simply put, our task was simple – not to die to the first sneeze pointed our way, and if we saw any chao drop nearby, then grab it if we could.
Little Motif started rushing ahead to try and see what was happening, and I had to hold him back and remind him:
“We’re staying out of trouble! Are you sick of living?”
I span my head, looked at the other decani of the ‘fresh meat.’ They were dragging their feet too, looking around constantly in search of a place to sit out the battle. All the newcomers were trying to stay in the back rows, out of the first strike; that way they could grapple only with weakened enemies later.
Split by the field, the two hordes lined up opposite each other. To give them their due, our enemies behaved the more honorably. They stood far away from us, around three hundred paces off. I couldn’t see their stars or profiles from that distance, so it was impossible to judge the enemy’s strength. At that distance, the enemy legion looked like a rustling forest, and the protruding horns in the first row looked like the bristly branches of wild trees. The bigger and more winding the horns, the stronger the demon, I knew that much.
Waves of dark blue rolled across the sky, then it flashed sky blue, illuminating the entire canyon.
“We’re doomed,” Motif whispered, and the skinny demon’s despair passed to the rest.
Our imp instiga unhurriedly approached the enemy. He was at least half his foe’s size and strength, but I hoped that, as in my case, the number of stars didn’t always mean everything. The imp Shuziber might have an ace up his sleeve.
Taking a step back, he held his pike before him, squeaked: “For Belial!” and flung himself at the infernal. The fireball in his hand glowed even brighter, grew larger. A ring of light ran down the enemy’s body as if scanning his torso. He seemed in no rush to attack or defend, just stood immobile, waiting for our instiga to reach him.
With each step the imp ran slower and slower, until he finally stopped and threw his fireball. The infernal didn’t so mu
ch as twitch. A green ring ran down his body and the fireball exploded without touching him. I only realized what happened next after the fact: the infernal suddenly moved, and an instant later our instiga was already twitching, impaled on the spear like a butterfly on an entomologist’s needle.
Horhor lifted the imp up on his pike, shook it to make him slide down to the middle of the haft, froze… The green flame around the infernal seemed to come alive – it flickered, ran down his body, concentrated in his hands in an emerald beam… and fired into the imp. Shuziber twisted, screamed and tried to pull himself off the spear, but in vain. The infernal burned him, methodically scorching first his legs, then his arms, then his head. Within half a minute, our instiga collapsed into ash.
Enemy of the Inferno (Disgardium Book #8): LitRPG Series Page 33