Chapter 10

And he dreamt... oh he dreamt about great spires twisting, flying, swimming. Ever running always unmoving, for the sky with no height. With great strides and legs on the legless structure of infinite nothingness. Its unknowable secrets writhing in madness and planting eggs from which great phantasm were born, after which they fed on the brain of their host becoming one. Mindless worms or slugs or... Combined with the will of sentient, minds of sentient. The primitive, bestial, animalistic nature of man is elevated by uncaring, indifferent cosmic hunger, knowledge, and understanding.

After pure truth came murky lie which brought peace to those dreadful nightmares of indifference and hope.

As peaceful dreams returned to Bael he saw great trees. Their roots traveling between stars even beyond light, beyond dark to great infinite nothingness. When he thought that nightmares were about to come back he felt warmth. Birds singing, bees busing. He felt grass under his feet, he smelled flowers in the air. And then... Blood. Its stench so strong that one could choke on it. And before his eyes, he saw a great figure. Its wooden exterior glowing with runs of unknown origin. Its accessories were made from bones and in its hand human, elf, and orc head were resting with crows pecking on their eyes. But Bael realized that they are somewhat imaginary, he got feeling as if it was not decided yet. And then Bael felt as he was pulled back to the darkness.

Bael opened his eyes surprised and a little confused. He remembered little of the dream he had. When he started to thought about his dream some more he cathed a glimpse of his hand. When Bael looked at his hands he saw they were fully regenerated. His skin became ashen grey and his claws four centimeters (1,57inch) long were pith black with obsidian feel. When Bael moved with his hand to look closely at his claws he saw as they elongated double of their length.

When he looked at his chest he saw that slits are still present. But as he looked down he felt a chill go down his spine when he saw his legs. His legs were scaly and his scales were black for two rows of glowing infernal runes running from sides of thighs to knees and then from knee to feet only one line. At which end he found that his feet also changed. He had hooves. When Bael stood up his feet felt weird. Standing on hooves was an unfamiliar feeling to him. Then Bael felt something foreign. When he looked back Bael saw a tail. Which was black and in its end was forked with three thin obsidian-like blades.

When he was looking at his tail he also saw that he had no wings. Bael wasn't sure if he was happy or sad. 'Well, I already have hooves and tail. So what is it with lack of wings?' Bael thought as he touched his head and there was something bony. Bael snaped the fingers and a mirror appeared before him. Bael saw he had goat horns. And his eyes were transformed and were glowing with blood-red color.

As Bael was looking in the mirror at himself he saw some creatures behind him. Bael was surprised and even jumped backed. Bael was prepared to fight as he was looking at them warily. And yet they were simply staring at him unmovingly but sometimes twitching. "Who are you? Wait? Are you by any chance imps?" after Bael spoke imps started to cheer with guttering sounds. When they opened their mouths Bael saw rows of needle-like teeth tightly stuck to each other.

Imps were about one meter (39,37inch) long. Their scaly skin was a combination of sickly green and ebony black, others were somewhat reddish color. With talon-like feet with black claws and stinger tails. Their head was adorned with two gazel-like horns, knife-like ears, and fore eyes. Their mouths took about one-third of the width of their head, and from the edges, two slits continued on either side. If they fully opened their mouths people would get horrified. Surprisingly they also had no wings.

There were about seventeen of them jumping and probably dancing. They circled Bael but showed no hostility, quite opposite. They looked genuinely ecstatic. 'Interesting, they are like children. Terrifying, demonic probably murderous children. Not sure if children are good words. Well, we will see.'

When Bael was thinking about those imps one of them came closer holding something with film-like consistency and looked like an old rag. Bael looked at him questioningly as imp offered him it. Bael was intrigued so he took it for a closer inspection. When he looked inside it Bael saw it was missing something inside as if it was only part of something. Then an image of some teen showed in his mind, then name... Patric.

If his memory was correct then the name of one who died at that abandoned building was Patric. He was at the crime scene. "How did you get here? Why here? There was a normal pentagram... unless it has something with that moment when I had drunk that blood? Maybe. Wait! I'm in a hell of my creation. This may not be the whole soul, just part more like a shell or something. What use it could have?" Bael spoke as he was inspecting and pulling at it. "Maybe its use would be to create demons, devils or to feed them." Bael didn't know what to do with it so he snapped the fingers and table with box adorned with glowing runs and put it inside for now.

Bael thought about his plans for the future. So he made Stone tablet and decide on three categories of his plans.

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Long term goals:

-Go Home

Continuing goals:

-More layer for hell

-evolve demons

-learn spells

Possible goals:

-Conquer the world

-Travel the world in secret

-Destroy the world

-Drag world to the hell and made it layer (if possible, who know? let me dream, ok?)

-be worshiped

-do deals

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When Bael double-checked his plan he remembered he probably no longer need to worry about corruption. So he has even forgotten about imps still standing around him, now them being silent didn't help. So Bael opened his grimoire and looked at one which all infernal beings should know. --Hellfire-.

From what Bael read then hellfire should be hell's equivalent of fire. It should also be more potent and corrosive even especially on the victim's mind. When he tried to cast it Bael saw his black veins showed up on his hands and a very dark red flame sprout from his palm. Hellfire gave very little light and warmth. It was as if flame consumed warmth from the vicinity and yet it was scorching hot at in same time.

And so Bael made multiple figurens. Some bare and some with metal armor. Then he stood before them and started throwing fireballs of hellfire, then streams of fire, and finally even tornados of hellfire. Oh, he had fun, even imps started to cheer. Wooden figurines burned in a matter of seconds, and armored ones didn't fare much better, not even molten metal remained.

Then he came up with idea that maybe he should test imps destructive power. So he made mo figurines and commanded them to attack. Bael half thought that they would even ignore his order but they followed. they ripped chunks of wood and metal with their bare hand and claws. Some were stabbing with their sting tails, others were biting and tearing madly.

Bael was presently surprised at the deadlines and ferocity of imps. They would prove useful if he needs someone to be get rid of. But he still made some tests of obedience. Bael ordered them to jump, sit, stand even make pushups. Which they obeyed to letter. When he got satisfied with the results he thought about making another layer. One which would be welcoming to guests, if he ever got one. Some gorgeous place with forests lakes or oceans. So he left with his imps for Vrozis so he could chose proper placement for some kind of travel points between it and future layer.