Hell.

  Hell.

  HELL.

  The hellfire leaked out of me in an endless wave. It was not one singular explosion, but a continuous tide that blanketed the area and smothered all the templars that had me surrounded. The one right next to me immediately collapsed into the ground and rolled as he roared out in pain, until he eventually took his own life. The other templars fared no better as the blast hit them, and they experienced the greatest pain of their meager lives yet. They ran and bumped into each other, and their screams echoed out in horror into the courtyard we were on and towards the greater manor.

  The bright summer day had become dyed in the color of blood.

  Amidst all this chaos, however, stood one man who managed to remain unaffected. Grust held out his shield and hovered protectively before the shepherd Licarl. Unfortunately for the both of them, there was way too much hellfire buffeting the area. The temperature rose with the concentration, its very light increased the pain of heat, and Licarl could not escape all the embers of its wrath.

  “A-AAAHH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! It hurts! It burns! WHAT THE FUCK!?”

  I had the urge to gloat, like anyone might in my position, but I drew my sword instead. I was sure that my actions had already spoken louder than words.

  Grust was clearly enraged and incensed by my action, but he remained calm and focused as he watched my every move. I did love a professional that took after my own heart, and they were also the most fucking troublesome.

  I leapt at him, but he managed to easily deflect my sword with his shield. Grust’s own blade flashed toward me in response, but my true evil eyes were revealed through tears of fire, and a malevolent aura exploded out of me to mix with the constant leakage of blood-red flames. Even then, Grust barely slowed, and his sword still made it to my chest. I felt a small pain in my ribs from the impact, but the blade did not manage to fully pierce through my armor.

  I readied myself for another clash, almost taunting, and then I circled around the man. Grust easily reacted to my attempted maneuver, and placed himself in between me and his master. His movement still allowed more embers through, however, and I smirked visibly when Licarl screamed louder.

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! Kill her! KILL HER! KILLL!!!!”

  Grust hesitated for a moment, for he did not wish to leave his master vulnerable. That moment was all I needed as I ran away from that battle, and into the mass of templars panicking around us. Some had almost managed to push through the pain and join the battle between me and their superior, but my aura had hammered into the resolve they had painstakingly tried to keep from shattering. Now my direct gaze had fallen upon them, and what semblance of a formation they still had scattered.

  The famed discipline of the templars broke.

  I roared my challenge, and chased after their fleeing backs. I kicked those who were moaning on the ground, and my greatsword carved through the bodies of those in my path. Many of them did not even wear their full armor, for they had only been sparring and training earlier. It was their decision to face me in that state, and for that they suffered!

  “AAAAAHHHHH!!! Get it off! GET IT OFF! Get me out of here!!” Licarl continued to shout, and my head snapped in his direction. Grust had picked up the shepherd upon his commands, and I sent a fireball their way in response. The powerful templar braced himself, but the spell never came for my fireball had entirely missed. I knew the hardened templar could react to that, so I had aimed for the building they were heading towards instead. A large area of the complex was set ablaze, and when Grust tried to push through the flames as I was sure he could’ve easily done himself, Licarl screamed for him to stop.

  “No! NO! Go around it! It’s on FIRE!!!”

  I grinned. The stupid count did not want to be burned after all.

  The torrent of hellfire I leaked had paused to create that attack, and it did not return. I was now running low on mana.

  It didn’t matter. The courtyard had already become the hellscape, and the templar forces were no longer in a state to resist me. The path was clear for me to hunt the feeble prey that I had wanted to gut and peel for so long.

  “Haell! HAELL! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?”

  I heard a sudden familiar shout, and I snapped my head towards the source to find Therick. The many other buildings of the manor had been set on fire during my rampage, and my friend had to dodge around a few isolated flames as he made his way to me.

  “Ah, good. You’re here,” I replied, holding back the bloodlust for a moment. “That templar is proving to be more competent than I hoped. Get the others, and kill that damned shepherd for me.”

  “What? No… You did this? Why are you doing this!? I thought we were going to leave safely! Why now! We were so close! Now we can no longer show our faces here again!”

  “Because the situation changed!” I snapped. “NOW GO!”

  He gulped, but Moonwash appeared behind him, and unlike my whimpering ally, she immediately complied. Magic of different elements flew from my girlfriend, and I used the distraction to charge right for the hapless shepherd. Grust tried to stop me, but he was rooted on the spot else Moonwash’s barrage made it to Licarl. He huddled even closer to Licarl, and I did not manage to make my way around him, but Moonwash and Granuel’s projectiles killed the whimpering noble anyway.

  “No…” Grust whispered, and his stance buckled. “Why? WHY!?”

  “Do you really have to ask?” I scoffed violently, even though I knew I shouldn’t. The death of my foulest enemy here had just filled me with the desire to banter.

  “It was for your own good! For everyone’s good!”

  Grust flung himself at me, and we reached an impasse. He was a great defender, and I could tell that it would take a while to peel away all his layers with magic. The confluence of wrath could push him back, but it was way too telegraphed and would be blocked by his shield. It was a fight that promised to be difficult and grueling.

  If I were alone.

  But I was not.

  I had the power of friendship on my side. The Harvesters assembled for their final mission. We surrounded the lone templar, and he could only be pummeled to death now that he was vastly outnumbered. Even Therick joined in, for he had finally found his courage, and the last of our enemies here fell under the sheer avalanche of our might.

  ~~~

  “W-what do we do now?” Therick asked fearfully upon the dawn of our victory. Cruel red light illuminated his face and mine, and smoke flowed around our faces as if to try and suffocate us. The sounds of battle had ceased, but the screams of life and death had only just begun.

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  I breathed it all in, and beheld the destruction I had wrought. An entire manor burned around me, and its leaders and protectors lay dead beneath my hooves. Guards streamed in through the gates, and the many people who lived here evacuated from their homes. I saw little children, elderly people, and those who had been wounded among the many victims. I was sure some of them were kind and pleasant people, for I had interacted with the staff around the manor for the past few months.

  I would not say that they deserved this.

  But this was war, and I would only ever respond in kind.

  “I’ll make a distraction.” I held out my hand, and Angerly handed me the tonic I wanted. I removed my helmet and shook my head for a moment as my hair was finally allowed to breathe. I uncorked the bottle, and poured the liquid solution over my face. The pale makeup was washed away as easily as tears may flow, and red skin was revealed underneath. I repeated the same process for my entire body by pouring the solution down every gap of my armor, until I was sure that all the paint I loathed had been removed.

  The acid burned, but it was a good burn.

  I am a demon, and all shall see.

  “W-wait!” Therick pleaded. “Maybe we can still save this–”

  “We can’t.” My wings unfurled to their full size behind my back, and I luxuriated in a bone-popping stretch for just a moment.

  The moment passed, and I took flight.

  I flew above the burning manor, and saw how the library might eventually be caught up in the blaze. If I had one regret, then it would be that I had only read or otherwise saved a little over half the books stored within. It was a selfish and hypocritical wish, but I hoped those books would survive this. Maybe someday, we could come back for it.

  Those nostalgic feelings quickly faded away as the ever-present wrath reasserted itself in my mind. I maneuvered through the air and regarded the guards, templars, soldiers, adventurers, and other do-gooders who had come to the manor’s aid. Some of them had already begun to peel off from the main clump to pursue and question my friends.

  I could not have that.

  I formed wrath mana into a massive ball above me, and with a metaphysical heave, I threw it all upon the gathered group below.

  “L-look out!” I heard one shout.

  “What is that!?” Someone stared at it with wide eyes and did not move.

  “Get out of the way!”

  The projectile impacted the ground, and broke apart into a dangerous dark mist of energy.

  Around half of them managed to react on time, but the other half were too late. They were enveloped by the blast, and I heard their screams from all the way up here as flesh fell and blood rotted off. I estimated that few would actually die from the attack, but it had done its purpose.

  My friends had long been forgotten.

  A few projectiles were immediately shot my way in retaliation, so I flew higher to mess with their aim. My magic lashed out to interfere with some of them, but in truth, few of the spells even came close to hitting because mages were generally quite inaccurate. The arrows that flew toward me were a bigger problem, but my armor could take them, and it was not impossible to react with my sword at this distance.

  Another ball of wrath fell from the sky.

  My many enemies scattered this time, and I moved on towards the nearest clump of their same factions. So much of the city’s military might had gathered here just for me, and I made sure that they had eyes for little else. If I just slaughtered everyone here then I for sure would be remembered, and everything else forgotten!

  …But that was not how I wanted to do things. I did not attack the civilians fleeing from the manor. I continued my battle with various militants of the city as I listened to some of what they had to say. My ears were good enough to pick up on their louder shouts and conversations.

  “Halt!”

  “Stop!”

  “You idiot! As if anyone ever will!”

  “That has never worked!”

  “But what if it does!”

  “Some can and do repent! Do not lose hope!”

  “Oh angels, save us!”

  “Is that some kind of monster!?”

  “But it’s wearing armor!”

  “I think it’s a harpy!”

  “It’s Haell! It’s Haell Zharignan! You know! The hero!”

  “Idiot! How could that be!? That’s clearly some stupid new species!”

  “But I heard that she betrayed the count and killed everyone here!”

  “No way!”

  Information was still sparse, they were still confused, and after one more long exchange of projectiles where I almost lost a wing, I decided to cut our meeting short. I had spread enough chaos among them.

  ~~~

  But not enough chaos in general.

  I flew higher for a long moment, enough to make the forces on the ground think that I was fleeing. I descended back down before I could attract the attention of something more dangerous, and then I considered my options as I flew above the clean and opulent buildings of Licarl City. Belfegors crawled above them, determined to keep even the roofs clean.

  I should just destroy it all.

  My hearts pumped faster, and I could feel the hellfire come back to me.

  Just like how I burned down the manor, I could burn everything else.

  This was the upper district anyway, and only the most vile of assholes lived here.

  The world would be a better place without them!

  Before I knew it, my arm was already outstretched, and mana flowed generously out of the limb. I stopped forming my spell once I came to my senses, and lowered my hand. I had already killed innocent people today, and I would kill more, but I did not want to make a habit of it. I needed to do this in a way that minimized casualties.

  “Oh. A park. That could work.”

  I made a particularly large fireball, and shot it towards an empty patch of grass. The hellfire quickly spread through the grass, and then a little bit slower through the trees. I worried about how far the blaze might travel, but most people should be able to get out of the way on time, especially since most of them had already left to hide or see what was going on with the trail of smoke rising from where the manor should be. The massive damage to the city’s infrastructure was just something I was willing to accept.

  I flew away in search of another target.

  The next one I chose to destroy was the local mall, just like those damned terrorists did once upon a time. I reasoned that most people should be able to flee on time from the building’s size, and I didn’t know if one fireball would even be enough to burn the whole building down. Additionally, there should be greater security inside, so they should have an even higher chance of surviving what I was about to unleash upon them.

  The fireball fell.

  I flapped my wings, and continued to fly.

  The next structure I chose to attack was someone’s home. It was the house of a rich shepherd who was a noble in her own right, and this time I opened with a big and flashy fireball that missed the structure entirely to land on an empty patch of street. The belfegor cleaning its roof immediately startled and swung back into the mansion, after which people began to stream out of the building.

  My next fireball didn’t miss, and the home they cherished burned down.

  I hardened my heart upon their cries, and allowed the wrath to flow deeper through me.

  I repeated the same process on a few more homes, but none of them ever became truly cataclysmic because the defenders of the city were quick to react, and their mages easily doused the flames. Everything I targeted was in the wealthier districts after all, and I was happy that they took the threat as seriously as I assumed they would. I even attracted a constant set of followers below me who kept on sending projectiles up my way, but I only flew higher in response and began a bombardment of my own. I didn’t get to use it often, but I managed to take out a couple of them with my arrows wreathed in either wrath or hellfire.

  Finally, I saw a familiar red flare rise into the sky from outside the walls. Angerly must’ve shot it very inaccurately with a bow that was more a ballistae, but all it needed to do was go up. Moonwash’s alchemical creation would take care of the rest, causing light and smoke to illuminate the sky.

  I flew in the general direction of my friends, before anyone else could make it their way.

  I flew away from the past, and towards the future.