How I became the Empress of Hell

4.19: Judgment

“Areandra, how’s your HP and MP?”“After the uh… … I’m back up to full MP, but my health is pretty low. You?”

“My regeneration sapped a bit of my MP, but otherwise I’m pretty close to full. Any significant changes to your skills I need to know about?”

I saw a wide, almost malicious grin spread across the former fallen angel’s face. Former being the opportune word there.

“Brina, what is your class now, anyways?”

“Corrupted Nephilim. And… Brina? Usually I only let Nat get away with calling me that. But I suppose for my new girlfriend I can make an exception.”

She briefly reached down and grabbed my hand, squeezing it gently. I felt a flurry of emotions pouring off of her, and as she released her grip on me I focused all my mental attention on returning her affections. She looked at her skill list excitedly again before looking back up at me. The Cheshire-cat that stretched across made me wonder just how OP I had made my... Nephilim.

“Definitely some changes. Wanna see?”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes as I motioned with my free hand for her to proceed.

“Of I want to see. Half the fun of my corruption ability is seeing what my Corrupted can do.”

Seeing the squadron of angels with their gleaming armor flying at top speed towards us made my heart rate spike, but to no one’s surprise, fear was the thing on my mind. My demonic instincts flared and I felt my bloodlust like a tangible force. I watched as Areandra held out one of her hands in front of her, fingers outstretched and palm facing down. A large pulse of arcane energy swelled in her hand, and after a few seconds I stared with eyes as wide as dinner plates at the enormous weapon that had been summoned.

“Areandra… is that an anti-material rifle?”

It was less a rifle, and more like a semi-portable cannon. Well over seven feet long and with a muzzle break that would give a howitzer penis envy. From what little I could tell about how the beast functioned, it looked like a standard bolt action rifle shooting gamers absolutely insist is better than their magazine fed counterparts. As I looked down the jagged runes carved along its barrel, I knew that whoever was at the firing end of that thing was in for a very bad day.

“It’s a replica of my baby in Bullet Battalion. With some magical alterations, obviously.”

“Why doesn’t it have a scope? Wait… pretend I didn’t ask that. Enchantments, right?”

Instead of answering, Areandra merely nodded and assumed a firing stance with the massive weapon. I watched in complete amazement as she held the magical gun that likely weighed over 100 lbs in a simple two-handed grip. One hand holding tightly onto a hand grip at the end of the stock, while the other teased the grip and trigger with feather light touches. I watched as the beautiful woman seemed to lovingly stroke the arcane weapon before she lowered her eye to the sight on the rifle and took aim at the closest enemy who was less than 500 feet away. She pulled the bolt up and back, and I felt another surge of magic before she smoothly slid the bolt forward and down into position.

“Incendiary rounds first.”

My skin tingled as I felt another swell of arcane power, and with a tremendous explosive blast that forced my demonic hearing to immediately adapt lest it blow out my eardrums, she fired a single shot. Instead of a bullet, I saw a crimson bolt of pure magic fly at insane speeds towards the oncoming enemies. My eyes somehow went even wider when I saw the lead angel suddenly become completely enveloped by a bloom of fire. Flaming angel bits showered his comrades, but they didn’t slow in the slightest.

“Hmmm. Not bad. Should I try my new World-Tier?”

Instead of waiting for my response, I felt a swell of magic as Areandra pulled the bolt back. Unlike the typical lengthy build up, this felt just like when Em or I used Spoken Word to instantcast our World-Tiers. The magic only seemed to build even more as she slammed it home. As she fired, my eyebrow raised as it seemed the noise from this shot was far, far less. It only confused me further when the only visible effect was a black bolt of magical energy striking the closest enemy in the chest. Apparently Areandra was just as confused as I was, as she lifted her head and tilted it to the side.

“Huh… That was anticlima—”

The single largest explosion I had ever seen in this game detonated with the force of a 10-megaton bomb, and without thinking I spread my wings, grabbed Areandra, and blasted off the ground hard enough to leave a small crater. I flew as fast as I was able, attempting to outrun the shockwave that I knew was coming. I saw the blurred shapes of what I assumed were other angels and Angelspawn all around and below me, but I paid them no heed as we rocketed across the open wasteland. After flying for another half a minute, I slowed my pace until we came to a gliding stop. As our feet touched down, I spun on my heel and held both hands out.

“Areandra… get behind me! [Summon Arcane Heavy Armor], [Summon Arcane Tower Shield]!”

I shook my head slowly as I watched an actual mushroom cloud rising into the air, and braced myself for the superheated wave of destruction that was sure to follow. Tearing through everything like wheat before a thresher, I moved my large shield in front of me and did my best to hide behind it as wave of destructive pressure and sound washed over us. My boots dug deep into the ground as the force of the blast pushed at me relentlessly. Our visibility was reduced to almost nothing as a cloud of dust, dirt, and other debris buffeted and pelted us like a violent storm.

And just as quickly as it had started, suddenly everything around us went deathly silent. Even the pressure from the explosion seemed to dissipate. I looked towards the epicenter and sighed deeply.

“Well… as powerful as that was… I feel like gonna be a problem.”

Areandra shifted so she could see over my shoulder, and both of us saw a familiar figure leading a ridiculous number of archangels over the massive scorched crater that was all that was left of the squadron that had been flying towards us. A low growl built up in my throat as I saw the sneering face of Adelaine staring back at me across the large distance that was rapidly shrinking.

“Allie… maybe we should…. Allie?”

I could barely hear her over the sound of my blood pulsing in my ears. I felt Allexus’s demonic presence swell and gently push aside my more human sensibilities.

“I’ll fucking kill her.”

“Allie… Allexus. We need to go. Even with my new abilities, the two of us aren’t enough to take on that many enemies. I know you want to settle the score with that bitch, but is it worth being stuck at level 1 for a day?”

I let out a growling sigh and turned towards the Corrupted Nephilim.

“You’re right. There’s too many of them… and they have ‘home-field’ advantage. But… fuuuuuuck… I wanna beat that smug look of superiority off her stupid fucking face.”

Areandra merely gave me a concerned look before glancing back at the oncoming enemies.

“I know… babe. I want to hurt her just as badly for what she did to Gehenna and the rest of our clan. But now isn’t the time for that. We are who-the-fuck-knows-where against who-the-fuck-knows-how many angels. If we want to stand even a fraction of a chance, we need the others with us. I know you’re a powerhouse in your own right, Allie, but you the two of us aren’t durable enough to take on that many angels at once.”

I groaned in frustration before nodding my head and spreading my wings. I turned to look at the beautiful woman as she gently grabbed my hand and gave me a reassuring smile. I narrowed my eyes a bit as I gave voice to the question to what we were both thinking.

“Any clue how to get back to our realm?”

“Nope. But since we’re out of that prison dimension, we should have access to the messaging system. Gehenna or Nialla should be able to help… but we should probably move sooner rather than later.”

“Agreed. I’ll send them both a message while we fly while you keep an eye out. My enhanced vision’s got nothing on yours.”

I saw a faint blush bloom in her cheeks as Areandra nodded her head slowly. We both spread our wings and took off, flying as fast as we could away from the pursuing angels. I sent the message while keeping an eye on the gorgeous half-demon woman flying just in front of me. I marveled at her strange wings with the typical bone structure more common to a dragon, and wondered if her feathers were still soft and downy as before; they certainly had a more sinister edge to them, looking more like feathery blades than a bird’s typical plumage.

After confirming that my messages had sent, I closed my menu and flew a bit faster to catch up to my new… girlfriend.