How I became the Empress of Hell

1.25: My clan members are badass!

“Enemy warriors attacking on the left! Move to engage and focus fire on them! Healers; only heal someone if they drop below 50% health, otherwise you’ll run out of MP long before this is over!”

I flew forward as I drew my blade. I had been watching the fighting from a distance letting my demons do the fighting, so I was itching to spill some blood. As I focused solely on my speed, I darted from foe to foe, slicing and stabbing as I went. I was about to continue slaughtering them when a huge hand of ice surrounded me. At first I thought it was an enemy mage attacking me, until I heard the sound of arrows and spells hitting the thick ice surrounding me. Emelia stepped out of the frozen walls and moved close to me. She was in her ice form and I could feel the chill emanating from her body as she drew closer.

“They're focusing their attacks on you. I think they were trying to draw you out into the open so they could all attack you at once. I can have the other defense mages try and pro-”

“No. We would lose too many people trying to get me out. Have everyone regroup and heal up. You need everyone at their best for the final push on them once Aeryn gets here. I’m going to try and make it back, but if I don’t, you know the plan, OK?”

She sighed and nodded. I wanted to reach out and embrace her so badly, but I knew my skin would freeze from the contact. As she turned I thought she was moving to retreat back into her ice wall, but instead she reached out with each hand and placed them against the barrier. 

“Em what are you-”

She held up one hand and I waited to see what she was going to do. Finally after a moment she moved her hand to her sides and turned back towards me.

“I told the other mages to take over for me. Not to ruin your heroic sacrifice plan, but I did promise to spend the day with you and I intend to do just that. What kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn’t at least try and keep your ass alive. I have a plan to get you out of here alive, but it’s going to be… a little weird. Now… stand still, I don’t want to accidentally freeze something I’m not supposed to.”

I stood as still as possible and watched as she began to layer thick ice over each of the plates of my armor. I could feel the stinging cold through the heavy metal, but I ignored it and focused on her. When she was finished I looked down and held up one of my ice covered gauntlets.

“It will move just like the rest of your armor. It will slow your mobility down just a bit, but as far as I can tell it should have nearly quadrupled your defense. It just needs one final thing before we get to the ‘weird part.’”

She held her hands near my face and started to form a thick helmet around my head. It was large enough to not come into contact with my skin, and had slits in front of my mouth so I could breathe. Two holes appeared in front of my eyes and I watched in awe as crystals of ice poured from Emelia’s outstretched palm.

“OK, here’s where it gets weird. You know how I can go into my ice walls and such, right?”

I nodded but realized that the helmet wouldn’t show any movement, so I gave her a thumbs up. She placed her hand in front of my face against the helmet she had created. My eyes went wide as she started to merge with the thick ice, then I figured out what she was planning. She confirmed my suspicion as her voice sounded inside the helmet.

“I’m going to be with you the whole time so I can keep reinforcing the armor to protect you until I run out of MP. On 3 I’m going to drop the walls and I want you to run like hell. You ready?”

“Em… if this works… we need to have a serious talk about you being literally inside of my armor when I make it back.”

She laughed inside my helmet and started to count down. I closed my eyes and focused all my energy on my demonic speed. As soon as she finished counting I burst forward. Arrows, javelins, spells, and a whole assortment of things struck me as I moved, but I was barely taking any damage at all. I was about halfway there when Emelia spoke softly. She sounded out of breath and I knew what she was going to say before she even said it.

“Almost… out… of MP. Will see… you soon. Get here safe… K?” 

“You’ll be in my arms in a moment, babe.”

I activated my Stoneskin skill, raised my shield, and prayed they would be enough to get me the rest of the way there. The diamond hard layers of ice lasted only a few seconds as I was blasted by what felt like their entire army. My HP was dropping rapidly despite the miniscule amount of damage each attack was doing; I was so glad I had opted for a healing spell during my last leveling up session. As I drew closer to reaching the rest of the Demonspawn army, I was within a couple hundred feet when I realized that I wasn’t going to make it without some help. I was about to summon my demons for a last ditch effort of keeping myself alive when a huge tower of bone rose up from the ground behind me. 

Jade.

It seemed the Aeryn and the others made it just in the nick of time, and I flew forward behind the cover of the enormous mountain of bones. My body was so weak from being the overwhelming number of attacks I had sustained that I crashed hard into the ground with a heavy impact. Emelia rushed over to my side and knelt beside me with a look of concern on her face.

If the rest of the Demonspawn see the person they chose as their leader crumpled in defeat, they will very quickly lose morale. Get your ass up, Allexus! NOW!!

I willed my body to move and I slowly rose to my feet. I shook my head at Emelia’s offer to help me up and used the last of my MP to quickly cast a healing spell on myself. After taking a deep breath I rose into the air slightly.

“Alright everyone, while the enemy is focusing on the spider army attacking them, we’re going to go all out offensive. Keep the same groups as before and move out! Long range focus on taking down high levels and large threats, melee focus on keeping the mages and archers safe while taking out anyone who gets too close, healers only heal someone if they drop below 50% health, defense mages make sure to block area of effect attacks as much as possible. Attack ferociously and give no quarter! You are Demonspawn! Show them just how brutal and bloodthirsty you can be!”

I pointed towards the enemy with my sword and bared my fangs. Demonspawn surged forward below my feet and raised their weapons as they charged towards the enemy. Had I not been ready to fall over from exhaustion I would have been leading them from the front lines, so I hung back and watched as my army rushed ahead. As the last of the army moved ahead,  I landed a little harder than I would have liked and let out the tremendous sigh I had been holding in. A large shadow loomed over me and I looked up in surprise at a massive golem made from bone. The front split open and Jade emerged from within.

“Decided to take on the whole angel army did ya? You definitely look like you’ve seen better days… gimme a sec and you’ll be good as new. Nurse Jade is making a house call just for you.”

I would have laughed if I wasn’t ready to collapse, instead I gave Jade a weak smile and nodded slowly. She spread her arms out wide and dark red lines appeared along her body. The lines of blood flowed downwards and formed a small circle around her. The circle glowed brighter and began to move towards me. I watched as it flowed up and over my armor and onto my bare skin. It felt like someone had connected me to a car battery as my body suddenly felt alive with an overabundance of energy. The wave passed down my body and the exhaustion I had felt began to ebb away. As my skin absorbed the rest of the bright red liquid, I stood up, stretched out my limbs, and spread my wings.

Jade finished casting the spell and I moved swiftly as she started to stumble. She had less than 5% of her HP remaining and she gasped for air.

“Shit… I overdid it a bit. Your ass was hurt worse than I thought. I’ll be OK in a minute… Don’t go wasting all that effort by getting killed; now go slaughter every last one of them!”

I grinned with my fangs bared and hurled myself into the air. Whatever Jade had cast on me had me feeling supercharged, and I rocketed toward the enemy. As I landed I collided with a level 28 Angelspawn, hitting him in the chest and face with my boots. I felt his skull crunch under my heel and the other enemies backed away from me slowly. Their friend had just been killed by a ferocious looking winged demon, and they all wore looks of terror. 

Whether he was brave or just plain stupid, one of the Angelspawn decided he could take me on. A level 33, rogue type based on his light armor and katana. He moved at fast speeds that would have been nearly impossible to track for any normal Demonspawn. Sadly for him I was so, much more than that. I sheathed my sword and watched as the Angelspawn zipped back and forth around me. As he moved in for an attack I moved to intercept him at a high speed, and it made it seem like he was standing still. I came to a stop and had him held aloft by his neck. I held him up in the air for all around me to see, and crushed his throat with a powerful squeeze of my hand. 

“Is that the best you can do? You’re all pathetic!”

I tossed his body at a nearby group of enemies and drew my sword. I held my free hand out and began casting my summoning spells. I could tell that the surrounding Angelspawn had no idea what to expect, and many turned to flee the other direction. I slammed my hand onto the ground and my demon warriors rose up in front of me, swords and shields at the ready. 

‘Slaughter them all.”           

My demons threw themselves at the enemy, cutting them down like weeds. I quickly cast the rest of my summoning spells and barked orders at my demon army. We made short work of everything in our path, but the enemy army never seemed to run out of soldiers. As we climbed up to the crest of a large hill, my eyes went wide at the sheer number of enemies that remained. A blur of motion caused me and my demons to move to a defensive stance until I saw that it was Aeryn. Shortly behind him came Bray, Scythe, and Judas all riding atop a giant spider. Emelia and Jade came from behind carried forward by a moving carpet of bones and ice. As my clan moved towards me we embraced each other briefly before looking back over the battlefield.

“There’s so many angels and Angelspawn left and so few of us. Even with your spiders, Aeryn, we just don’t have the numbers. We need to find some way of evening the odds…”

I turned towards Jade and Emelia as I recalled a particularly devastating spell that had been shown during the gameplay trailer. 

“Do you guys remember when they first showed the trailer for the game that planet-sized meteor spell one of the mages cast? How did they do that? Is there any mages powerful enough to cast something on such a massive scale like that?”

Jade shook her head and looked about to say something when Emelia placed her hand on her arm.

“That scene was actually the reason I decided to play a mage. I did extensive re

“Best. Date. Ever.”