CH8: The Prince Sirius Stolas

Siegfried charged and swung his demon war mace at the fiend like he had hellspawn. The knight had grown stronger from battle and gained levels. He was faster than the average hellspawn, could hit harder, and his armor was just as good if not better.

The fiend's ax met the swing and the demon held it there and pushed. Siegfried shook and pushed before his knees buckled as a red blade extended from the swing. The stone ground that withstood the trampling of countless creatures cracked when Siegfried's knee smashed into it. The shaft of the mace in Siegfried's hand bent, and the ball at the end of the demon war mace slid off, and its metallic ring on the stone floor was obscured from the force from the slice ripping through the concrete.

The demon raised its ax to finish Siegfried off.

It screamed in pain as Jinxara pierced the fiend's Achilles tendon. I wrapped a harness of chains around her and reeled her back while wrapping the fiend in chains from the shadows in the room. A second set of chains grabbed Siegfried and yanked him out of the fight.

A red aura gathered around the demon, and it struck. Broken green links fell on the ground, ringing as the demonic power holding them together vanished. The fight had only begun, and the fiend had already broken my chains.

Jinxara appeared beside me with her safety harness on. Demonic blood pooled around the fiend's leg where a soul fire enhanced dagger had sliced cleanly through.

"You are not the average warlock. But you know you can't fight hell. Who is your patron? I demand to know what fiend dares to interfere with a lord's conquest."

Words escaped me without a filter. "You don't make demands of me fiend. It's fitting you chose to fight me here in the catacombs, what better place to leave your corpse?" I just couldn't shut up, why couldn't I keep my mouth closed?

"You can do it, John, I believe in you," Siegfried said.

Why wasn't it the busty elf saying that? Regardless, I stepped closer to the fiend, even though I knew it was a bad idea. I blocked Jinxara from sight to give her room to maneuver.

"Thanks man I appreciate it."

We should be running, the mine had many narrow tunnels. The fiend was an 11ft tall behemoth that barely made it under the door. Why was I choosing to fight it where the fiend had room to maneuver?

I stepped out of the way before the fiend swung his ax. A slash opened on the floor and the fiend glared.

"You, a warlock, dares to make a fool of me to look down on a fiend. I will rip out your entrails and use them as a condom to fuck that elf."

Chains emerged from the shadows and the fiend batted them away with ease as he closed the distance.

I stepped forward and released my spirit sense. I gave orders to Jinxara through the chain linking us.

The demon's head lurched to the side, as he pointed his ear to the path he had just come from.

"My men, you are killing them. I think I understand. You wield the power of envy. Have you started becoming a demon little mortal? Yes, that explains why you're so full of yourself and gather demonic power. Clever you managed to store it for your transformation. Your patron wouldn't have permitted your ascension, you're going rogue."

I took in all the demonic power I could handle. Jinxara's presence wasn't enough, I was leaking more demonic power than I could store. I did have one advantage.

This fiend hadn't caught on that I had spirit sense.

It wasn't green but wasn't a veteran of a hundred worlds either.

I threw a probing strike as the demon slashed.

. I couldn't fully devote my attention to clearing out the demons in the catacombs. Jinxara picked up the slack she had escaped when the fiend lost sight of her

Sparks of demonic power added to my halo as we battled. I ducked a horizontal blow and the demon stopped. "Your demon minion is gone. Has she abandoned you?"

I took another step forward, decreasing the time I had to react. He slashed and I had to move just as his ax came down to avoid instant death. My body barely kept up, and I felt my grace reserves dip as I tried to use them to bolster my physical abilities.

My attempts were amateurish, I treated the power like it was demonic, and it reacted poorly. Still it gave me the edge I needed.

"What are you waiting for? Use your warlock spells and summon the herald of your demon patron. I want a real fight not this pathetic dance." I took another step forward, and he closed the distance between us.

More demonic power entered my halos until my second ring entered the late stage of the hellspawn tier. Expensive techniques were always so much trouble.

My chains unfortunately were all about high growth potential but low initial attributes. Hell chains were incredibly durable and useful in multiple situations. My chains formed a harness around me from the shadows to move me away from the next attack.

He turned his head to my new position and grinned. "You're all alone now, little warlock, what will you do with your allies gone and no patron to rely upon. All you have are chains that can't hope to bind me. Look at my weapons and see what true power is all about."

My chain jabbed his ax of greed and updated its storage potential. Something I had taken for granted when I was much further in my journey was back early.

Another chain hit his ax of wrath and nothing happened. There were still limitations that I couldn't ignore. My chains of envy could copy the properties of an object's abilities twice a day and only store two at a time, with the properties of a greed enchantment that limit the had increased from 2 to 4. I was still limited to 2 copy attempts a day. Now, I had green, which gave my weapon the power to hold two more properties, and silver alloy, which gave my chains bonus damage against undead.

The demon swung his ax and a chain ripped through his elbow.

"I don't like to talk during fights. What gives you the confidence to jaw?"

"My power, nothing can hold me. I can cut through anything." The demon howled.

He swung his ax and another chain speared him through the knee.

Flames of hellfire erupted around him as he swung his weapon and spun. "Take this, the attack that even other fiends fear."

A tornado of flames emerged and the scrolls and books caught fire. Heat filled the library but I protected myself. My party was forced to flee further into the mine as the heat rose. The ground around the fiend melted as the spiral of the hellish winds took shape.

In the void of annihilation, I had protected myself with my grace. This wasn't any different.

Chains speared the demon through both elbows and his knees before pulling him off his feet. The demon opened his mouth before barbed chains shot into it.

"You shouldn't have talked about Lirael like that, she's mine." I held a hand at my ear as the fire tornado traveled into a far wall, burning Jesus knew how many valuable scrolls and tomes. It was a waste and I hated it but the weak couldn't protect everything. "What was that? I can't hear you talking during the fight with my thick chains down your throat. Come on you can talk, succubi talk all the time with bigger dicks in their mouths. You're a fiend, you can't be weaker than them." I said.

My chains wrapped around his weapons and lifted them over the demon. At the shoulders they swung, taking the demon's arms. I lifted them again and turned, taking the demon's legs to the knees. I grabbed each limb with my chains and tossed them into the blaze, filling the room with smoke.

I coughed before ripping off my shirt to cover my face. The demon bled out but I wouldn't let him die easily. I lifted him by the barbed chains in his mouth and tossed him on the burning shelves as the flame tornado ran out of steam and vanished.

"That was a cruel boss."

"You failed so I had to improvise." I sent her out to kill more demons and raise my demonic power. To power my wrath technique I needed at least three rings.

"We need to get out of here.

…

A tall demon with bird-like features twirled in front of the mirror. Sirius Stolas was dashing in his raven black feathers or white feathered owl form. He settled on the form of the proud papa raven and let the servants polish his beak until it shined. They oiled his feathers, and one carried a golden urn for him to spit in.

Demonic power tightened within his flesh as he shifted forms to fill out his plumage and prepare for his daughter's birthday party. She was reaching that age when children wanted to escape their parents' immediate supervision and strike out independently.

He was more than fine with giving her some freedom so long as it was within his territory and surrounded by demon worlds his other sons and daughters owned. She didn't want a tamed world; that was too cruel to the inhabitants. She wanted a world just recently taken, and he had hired just the demon lord for the job.

His dear Ara would join the demon lord planet side and see the final conquest done. He didn't like the idea of his darling daughter slumming it with a mere demon lord, a quaint title for a debtor to his household. Wier was a demon with the power of a lord but none of the dignity, experience, or majesty his rank requires. That left him to be used as a blunt instrument to extend the borders of their lands and little more. He would never rise beyond a mere debtor. It is likely Wier would continue conquering worlds until a hero managed to slay him. There was never a shortage of aspiring greater demons dreaming of becoming a lord.

By sending his daughter, he could put the fool at ease and give him the false belief that he had the Stolas house's favor.

"Husband the party isn't for another 3 months."

"I know, but I'm so happy for her. This will be her first rule. Isn't it exciting, dear?" Stolas waved his hand, and the bedroom peeled back, revealing a blue world with purple clouds of demonic power moving across the horizon. Soon, this will be another profitable world in our principality, and we will raise our legions from it. It's marvelous that our daughter will get into the family business."

"You're right. She is already talking about how she wants her castle to look just like ours and couldn't wait to have the natives build statues of us," Mab said.

His wife was the daughter of a marquis, who married into his family. She was a demoness of good stock. All their children had been born princes with powers unfathomable to mortal minds.

He scanned the world once just in time to feel the death of a fiend. His good mood crashed and burned and his shiny black feathers drooped.

"Is something wrong love?"

"No, what could go wrong, everything is perfect as I foresaw," Sirius said.

He would have that bastard Wier's balls in a vice if he screwed up his daughter's birthday party with his incompetence.

They returned to their bedroom in his castle within his domain. Worlds of all shapes and sizes littered the sky, and hundreds of worlds filled with citizens ruled by his children filled his vision. He had already picked out a spot for his daughter's world.

Ara was quite the astronomer, she would know if there was a new planet in the sky or if there wasn't.

His wife waited quietly, most likely already knowing that something was troubling him and that he needed time to process it.

A knock on the door alerted him.

"Amelia has come to see you." He looked down at the cocky red imp grinning up at him.

Jak was an imp that could blend in with the serving staff of any court. With his team and hellhound they ran successful assassination jobs on uppity Earls, Dukes, and his fellow princes. With the right weapons, even a prince could be killed. Stolas had made many artifacts to kill his kind.

"I need your team to prepare for a job in the field. You must blend in with a lord's army and secure kills for me."

"Right, I'll get it done," Jack said.

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