The hellhound bounded down the hallway toward her, snarling with ravenous fury.

  “Freeze,” Ashtoreth commanded.

  For a moment, the hound couldn’t help but obey, its muscles relaxing as it slid to a halt in front her.

  She drove her new spear through its neck, then worked the point around, severing its vitals as it struggled.

  {You gain and absorb 1 [Hellhound Core]; Tier 1}

  “How close?” Ashtoreth asked the system.

  {You are 6% of the way toward advancement}

  “Wow,” she said. “That slowed down quick.”

  She grasped the hellhound’s heart, then tore it out and tucked it in the newly-tied heart satchel that hung around her neck. Then she began moving down the hallway at a brisk pace, searching for more potential enemies and allies.

  “You know,” Ashtoreth said. “These demons are fairly strong, considering they’re supposed to be fighting classless humans with nothing but a weapon and a race augment.”

  Dazel scoffed. “And that bothers you?”

  “Well I’d like to actually save some of the humans in this tutorial, so yes.”

  “Figures the archfiend starts caring about fairness as soon as the unfairness starts working against her.”

  Ashtoreth scowled. “I don’t get it,” she said. “What exactly do you have against archfiends?”

  Dazel let out a singular, disbelieving bark of laughter. “Seriously?” he asked. “You’re really asking me that?”

  “Obviously,” she said.

  “Look—” Dazel began.

  “Sec.”

  Two carnage demons had come into view as she turned another corner in the labyrinthine ruins. Both of them spotted her at once, then began bounding toward her.

  “Kill,” she commanded as they drew close.

  The demon in front turned to attack the one trailing behind it and they collided with one another, falling to the ground in a flurry of thrashing limbs.

  Ashtoreth charged forward as they did, then drove her spear through one of the largest of the top demon’s six eyes. She had to drive it in hard, gripping the spear with both hands and pushing with all her body weight to get it to burst through the creature’s eyehole and into its brain.

  {You gain and absorb 1 [Carnage Demon Core]; Tier 1}

  The demon on the bottom struggled to heave its fellow’s corpse off its body as Ashtoreth yanked her spear out. A moment later, she’d thrust the point of the weapon into its snarling mouth. Its claws scrabbled at the haft of the weapon, but it was a futile effort.

  A moment later it was dead.

  {You gain and absorb 1 [Carnage Demon Core]; Tier 1}

  “Progress?” Astoreth asked the system.

  {You are 34% of the way toward advancement}

  “A little more generous,” she said. “Thank you.”

  She checked her [Mana], found it was almost empty, and ate one of the carnage demons' hearts, earning her a buff:

  {You gain a [Devoured Flesh] buff: +3 DEX | +7 STR | +5 VIT | +4 DEF}

  She added the other heart to her growing collection, and Dazel took the opportunity to begin complaining.

  “Since you asked,” he said. “Archfiends go around Hell doing whatever they please.”

  Ashtoreth laughed. “I know, right? They act like they own the place.”

  “Exactly, they—hey!”

  “What?”

  Dazel grumbled. “They do own the place. Unfortunately.”

  “What do you mean, unfortunately? Hell, if you hadn’t noticed, is full of infernals. They don’t exactly fall in line when asked politely.”

  Dazel snorted. “Well I’m glad you appointed yourselves our eternal masters, O mighty one.”

  “Look,” Ashtoreth said. “You might not be able to see this from your place on the hierarchy, but Hell needs rulers who are strong.” She held out a hand as if grasping something. “Rulers with vision. Rulers who have the drive, the passion, the power to rein in all Hell’s disparate devils and demons and push us onward and downward—into a darker future for all infernals.”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “There it is,” the cat said, rolling his eyes.

  “There what is?” Ashtoreth asked.

  “The justifications, that’s what. You fiends can’t just take whatever you want and leave it at that—oh no, that would be too straightforwardly wicked. Instead, you’ve gotta lecture all us poor, wretched cretins about how it’s all for our own good while you do it. That’s the true evil.”

  They turned a corner and found three more hellhounds in the process of devouring a mangled heap of meat that didn’t even look human anymore. The hounds charged, but Ashtoreth had been more than a match for three of them even when unarmed and not using her [Command Infernal].

  Within a few moments the hounds were dead, and she checked her progress:

  {You are 53% of the way toward advancement}

  “Thank you,” she said to the system. To Dazel, she added: “We’re more than halfway.”

  “Cool, great, but if we could get back to my critical theory on archfiends again….”

  “Uh-huh,” Ashtoreth said, stowing two hearts and taking a bite out of a third before absorbing it with a squelch.

  “It’s the philosophy that really adds insult to injury,” said Dazel. “It’s not enough for you to be up there in your castle, living off the backs of us filth—you’ve gotta act like you’re doing us a favor.”

  Ashtoreth felt herself getting mildly annoyed—but only mildly. He was such a curious little creature, this demon. She knew they mustn’t all feel as he did—none of the demons at the palace had ever talked like this.

  She only laughed. “Who is it, again, who keeps you safe from the shining armadas of the celestials?”

  “Hey,” said the cat. “No one asked me if I wanted to be press-ganged into a might-based hierarchy that claims to be necessary for the purpose of defense!”

  Ashtoreth, who had begun to move back into the depths of the labyrinth, spared a glance over her shoulder. “But why would we?”

  Dazel let out an exasperated sigh. “See? You don’t even get it. This is why sometimes I think maybe I’d actually like a heavenly purge to come in and harrow us all into nonexistence.”

  Ashtoreth snorted. “You don’t really mean that.”

  “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,” said Dazel. “What I know is that I’m up on the higher layers in the Pit of Sorrow, nary a morsel of unworthy flesh to eat for myself. And you and your kind are down in the Courts of the the Paradise Citadel, living it up like it’s the third frame of a Bosch triptych.”

  “Well it’s not like you can’t move down in life,” said Ashtoreth. “You’ve just got to put in the hard work. Keep doing well when you get summoned, accrue essence and knowledge, gather power and prove yourself worthy. That’s the deal.”

  Dazel made a noise of disgust. “That’s just the dream you use to keep us complacent,” said the cat. “Keep us all toiling away, dreaming of something better. Meanwhile you archfiends are propped up by billions just for being born right.”

  “Not just. You have to admit we’re a little more suited to—”

  But the cat was well and truly ranting, now. “Dining every hour on the flesh of the unworthy….”

  “—Everyone eats the flesh of the unworthy!” Ashtoreth protested. “It’s just that ‘unworthy’ is a much bigger pool of candidates when you’re an archfiend.”

  “—Bathing every night in the blood of the inferior….”

  “Well I can’t help what comes out of the faucet when I turn the tap! Blood for bathing, water for rinsing.”

  “—Sleeping in sheets of the finest gossamer while some poor sod you yanked out of his lovely, aromatic burrow in the Fields of Rot has to rub your feet….”

  “So now I’m the bad guy because I gave a demon an opportunity?”

  “Opportunity for what?”

  “For earning power,” she explained. “Power and prestige. An opportunity to move down in the world!”

  “You lot are the reason he’s so down in the world in the first place,” Dazel said.

  “Honestly,” said Ashtoreth. “You seem like a nice fellow and all—”

  “What.”

  “—But I’m really having trouble understanding what bothers you so—”

  She turned a corner and froze. Dazel trotted up beside her, looked in the same direction, and froze as well.

  Ahead of them was a large, trapezoidal door, beyond which was a cavernous chamber. On the other side of the door, a bridge extended out over a pit.

  Crouched in the middle of the bridge was a massive creature. It looked to be twenty feet in height even crouched down, and it resembled a carnage demon in shape. It was freakishly huge, covered all over in building, many-veined muscles that pressed taut against its skin.

  Its six eyes were looking directly at them from under a pair of massive, bovine horns. It snorted as they came into view.

  “Don’t mind us,” Ashtoreth muttered under her breath as she began to back slowly around the corner. “Just two more infernals, hangin’ out in these ruins….”

  The creature opened its mouth, roaring so loudly that the stones around them shook, dust falling in clouds from the ceiling.

  Ashtoreth turned and bolted, bounding down the hall as fast as she could manage. After a few seconds, however, it became clear that the demon wasn’t chasing them—unsurprising, given that it couldn’t have fit through the door.

  She stopped, then turned and kept an eye on the corridor behind her just in case.

  “That was a boss, right? Definitely a boss.”

  “For sure,” said Ashtoreth. “Probably guarding the way out of here, too. We’ll have to get it, and soon.”

  Dazel made a sound of protest. “Soon?” he said. “You need a class to fight that thing. And allies.”

  “I’ve got an ally,” she said.

  “That was a joke, right? Tell me you’re joking.”

  “You’re supposed to be helping me out, you know.”

  “Yeah, with my superior knowledge. So take the advice of a much older infernal and don’t. Just… don’t.”

  Ashtoreth grinned. “I guess that explains a lot.”

  “What does?”

  “You don’t know much about archfiends,” she said. “As this example shows.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.

  “It means, O ye of little faith, that I’m killing that boss.”

  Nearby, two more carnage demons that had been stalking the halls rounded a corner, saw her, and howled. They began to charge.

  Ashtoreth grinned at them. “And soon, from the looks of things.”