"I smell defiance and pride. I like you." The demon sniffed the air, crimson eyes settling upon me, accompanied by a wicked smile.

  That toothy smile sent the reptilian part of my brain to go nuts. Everything told me to flee as fast as I could. This was not a magical effect; Jenny would have detected that. It was just the instinctive reaction Infernals gave to every other species, barring a few.

  "Why are you here?" I nearly got out, "and leading goblins no less."

  "What are two talking about?" Xyn demanded, probably pissed at being excluded from the conversation.

  The demon sniffed, eyes boring a hole into Xyn. He grinned, showing teeth, clapping his hands a single time, making no effort to hide his wicked talons.

  "You are not human either; you have a little death in you... you smell like a Vetala."

  The moment he uttered those words, Xyn froze, eyes widening, mouth agape. I understood why; I knew what a Vetala was, one of the vampire bloodlines. How could she have been born, since they were only animated corpses?

  "Why are you here?!" I demanded, setting aside the unusual circumstances of my companion's birth.

  "Oh, come on, little Clerk, you know my people." The demon snapped his fingers; a gout of flame emerged. He played with the flicker of hellfire.

  "I know your people, Multiversal Vikings, if I remember correctly. You invade worlds for blood, glory, and slaves. Like all this carnage was a vacation." I gestured to the bloodshed surrounding us.

  "Vikings?" The demon and Xyn said in unison.

  I waved the words away, scraping my fingers through my hair. Wondering how I should explain that, or should I just start blasting. "You have probably met them at some point..." I paused until an idea formed. "You guys are probably the Etins." The realisation made sense.

  Infernals were a weird extra-dimensional race. Similar to the void dwellers, they could assume different physical forms when manifesting. So, it's entirely possible they visited Earth in various forms. Shaking my head, I banished those thoughts to a future lore dump for my pals. I returned to the battle at hand.

  "I think we are done talking." The demon declared. "Know well, mortals, that you shall die at the hands of Korvax the Butcher."

  "The butcher? A bit on the nose, don't you think?" Xyn spoke up.

  "You think so?" The demon stopped mid-attack, pondered for a few seconds, eyes unfocused, before shrugging. "The survivors will give me a new name." He discarded the diss just as he waved his hand and sparked a massive gout of flame.

  Sending the hellfire directly at us, I leapt in front of my companions and pushed my barrier forward with every ounce of will I had at my disposal. The flames collided with the shield, engulfing our vision with a wall of fire. Barely able to defend, I pumped pure system energy into the field, strengthening it beyond its natural limits.

  "Jeremy, distract him!" I commanded through gritted teeth.

  My feline companion nodded, vanishing from Xyn's shoulder in a moment. Feral screeching followed a moment later, along with the guttural roar of a pissed-off demon. Foul, infernal language poured from his mouth like poison, each syllable seemingly a profane slight against the gods. I wasn't fluent in Infernalis, but I knew enough to get by, and that Korvax was very articulate for such a brute.

  Eventually the flames let up, and the demon came back into view across scorched land. Jeremy had already teleported away from a profoundly pissed-off demon. Not giving him a moment more, I leapt into action, Xyn following close behind. Sending her a quick message outlining the most hastily drawn-up plan I could think of. I returned to the demon, hitting him with an Inspect just to see what would happen.

  [Systemless entity detected]

  [Measuring infernal energy level]

  [Calculating system level]

  A series of notifications told me exactly what I had expected. Demons were not of this universe, and thus my system would have to lean back on its sensory measuring systems to calculate the power of my foe. Allowing it to run, I readied myself for a very foolish battle with a demonic entity.

  "I suppose it is time to end this." The demon raised its palm, clutching the air as hellfire sprouted from nothingness.

  "Oh, crap." I said as the demon did what every wizard from Dungeons and Dragons does best.

  The demon casually tossed the ball of infernal destruction. I raised my barrier to full power, projecting it around me and everyone within range. Bracing for impact, I prepared myself for quite a blow. And the demon did not disappoint. The fireball collided with such explosive force and deadly heat that I felt myself cooking from the inside as the blast washed over my defences. Holding true, I kept the barrier up, weathering the storm of destruction as my vision turned red.

  "I can phase through the fire!" Xyn yelled in my ear.

  "Not through hellfire, it's magical and too risky!" I yelled back over the torrent of flames.

  "Better keep up that barrier, or we are all dead."

  "What do you think im doing!" I screamed through gritted teeth, my knees buckling under the pressure.

  The bastard demon was flinging fireballs like nobody's business. Just sending them one after the other to smash against my force field. Launching them repeatedly, intent on crushing me with sheer numbers. We couldn't keep this up, or more precisely, I couldn't keep up the barrier. Something needed to be done, and that's when I saw Jeremy casually chilling on his new pal's shoulder.

  "Jer! Distract it again!" I commanded, and oddly without a fuss, the little cat vanished.

  What followed was an abrupt cessation of fireballs before the roar of a very displeased demon. He was not happy, and he vocalised his unhappiness with stomping, cursing and general aggression towards the world.

  "Filthy void beast!" The demon cursed as the smoke faded and the truth was revealed.

  We found a very pissed-off demon, face all clawed up and Jeremy nowhere in sight. This was it, the distraction we needed. Hands shaking from my previous exertions, blocking so many hellfire blasts was difficult. But with my higher stamina, reserve of system points and my raised force attribute, I should be able to sustain combat for a while.

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  "My turn." I said in challenge, raising both hands.

  Firing off as many force blasts as possible. They collided with the demon over and over. I could see the effects landing blows that dented the skin. However, the demon just took the attacks with a victorious grin. Oh, how I wanted to wipe that smug expression off his face. And I did, oh I did. Withdrawing from the foolish strategy of blasting everything within reach, I aimed for that devilish smile and hit the bastard with a force strike. Instead of doing absolutely nothing, it knocked him back, his nose contorted, his face flushed redder than normal, and a trickle of blood streamed down his chin.

  [Calculating complete...]

  [Race: Infernal, Level 52.]

  "Oh, shit."

  "I am going to eat your soul!" the infernal roared.

  "It's still in doubt if I have one!" I screamed back, trying to mask the absolute terror.

  Actually, wait a second. I don't need to be afraid. I took on a level forty vampire, so I can take on some punkass demon. And that's when he unfurled his wings, flew across in a flash, and lifted me into the air by my neck.

  "You will die slowly!"

  "Fu... you." I tried to curse.

  "Just die, servant."

  His grip wrapped around my neck, squeezed, the level fifty strength forcing its way through my barrier threatening to collapse under the immense weight. Having no desire to die, I hit him with a force blast to the face, but this time he was expecting it. Taking the hit like a tank before head-butting me. Returning the favour as the brutal impact smashed through my barrier and practically indented my head, nearly crushing my nose into paste. Enraged, I grabbed him by the neck and blasted his scaly flesh with everything I had. His durability must be insane, as again he barely flinched.

  "Is that all you offer?" And just as he said that, a dagger flew up and slammed into his eye.

  He roared in pain, almost letting me go, but kept a firm grip. With his free hand, he removed the blade and threw it down, glaring at the screaming figure below. It was a good try, but not enough to take this bastard down. And that was when Jeremy made his return, appearing above the demon's head and reaching down to pluck what remained of its eyeball. A gout of fire blasted the feline before he clawed out a good chunk. Hellfire engulfed my best friend, and I watched helplessly.

  "Jeremy!"

  As the fire dissipated, I thankfully saw no burnt corpse; he vanished before the fire could reach him. I would have let out a sigh of relief, but I was still high in the air, and my throat was getting sore. Trying to rack my brain for a solution as the demon eye slowly regenerated, I tried to come up with a useful skill. All my powers only countered system users, and this demon wasn't integrated. With an insane idea coming to the forefront, I placed a hand over his wrist and mentally requested Jenny do something equally stupid. As the demon's eye returned to pristine, I felt the transfer of energy and my system points diminishing by three quarters.

  [System integration commencing.]

  "What in the Infernum is that?!" the demon hissed, eyes locked on something only he could see.

  "Welcome to the system, baby!"

  "What have you done to me?! What is that?" The demon screamed.

  "That is the system, baby!" Not wasting anytime I blinded the bastard with a flurry of messages.

  His grip loosened enough for a simple force blast to push me out of it. Then I was floating down to the ground gracefully without a care in the world. Deciding that this was the best chance I had, I mentally sent a few commands to the demon system. Several poorly written pieces of code. His system would be the buggiest, worst - setup program in the multiverse. Oh, definitely going to integrate this one. I chose from the list of options Jenny sent me. I felt terrible embarrassment about the ancient code.

  "What are all these messages? It keeps saying Error!" The demon desperately tried to swipe away what was not physically there.

  "Don't worry, dude, ill fix that up. Just file a ticket with IT; our wait times are seven years."

  That seemed to confuse and piss him off simultaneously. He roared, his eyes still unfocused, but his hands were free and clutching hellfire. The tainted flames of black fire were itching to torch this whole place. That's hellfire for you, scary-looking demon flames. Do not want to get burned by those.

  Trying to come up with a strategy to kill or rout this demon. I hit him simply with everything we had. Sending a message to Xyn to attack with everything at her disposal. A second later her dagger flew, slicing every appendage he had. The demon bled with every throw, and it threw the dagger again. Meanwhile, I kept up the heat, spammed notifications, and put a heavy metal band on repeat in his head. Using a slight push from a minor force blast, I kept myself levitating. We were above, floating in the air, no fists, just mind to mind. A battle of wills and mental power. My annoyance powers against his attempts to summon demon powers to repel it. And to my absolute surprise, it worked.

  [Unstable energies detected, system integration losing integrity!]

  Getting that notification told me one thing I hadn't expected. Demon magic can affect the system. It was powerful enough to degrade system-empowered constructs. I could see the log. I mean, my integration wasn't perfect, and this one was crap. But it should have enough juice to endure whatever this demon had in store. And yet the system was deteriorating. I could see it with my system-enhanced eyes. The bright glow surrounding the blackened tar-like aura was fading rapidly.

  "Get this curse off me!" the demon roared. A dagger flew past us and buried in his eye. He barely noticed.

  With a disgusting squelch, his eye popped out, still stuck to the dagger that zoomed by. And in no seconds flat, the demon's eye was visibly regrowing piece by piece. An idea hit me like a truck, and I quickly dumped a lot of system points into this next command. In sending the system package across, it did its work with a flurry of logs.

  [Integrating skill list... complete!]

  "Find me his regen skill!" I spoke aloud as if that would make it faster.

  [Infernal Regeneration. Description: Your demonic form has been touched by the Infernum. Its power flows through you, intent on keeping you alive. Effects: Health restores 25 per second.]

  "By the system gods, that is overpowered!" I marvelled at the Wolverine-level regen, "but not for long." I cast Skill Lock and locked away that ability.

  It was quite a sight watching his eye, still half healing, just pause. Something strangled off whatever infernal magic was repairing the damage, and now he was basically a regular dude. At least until the skill lock ends. Now it was time to hit him with everything we had.

  "What is happening? My eye!"

  "Dont worry, dude, you will be too dead to care." I said a bit cockily, considering I was pretty low on system energy.

  "You dare, and I will burn your soul to cinders."

  "Really loving the generic villain dialogue, keep it up."

  I sent a few probing Force strikes to see how much damage I could do. They collided with the demon's flesh, tearing chunks with each hit. He barely grunted, but none of the wounds even tried to heal. With a timer already set for when his healing would come back online. It was time to go all out and hope that was enough. I allowed myself to fall to the ground, aimed up with my palms and started blasting. Specifically aiming for his wings, since he couldn't regenerate them. My accuracy has improved significantly since I stopped bouncing around with my improvised levitation. I really need to make a solid one and then onward to sustained flight. I took a hit to my stamina as I launched as many as I could. Even my system points were running dry, considering I was augmenting my attacks. Strike after strike, I took chunks of demon flesh off his wings. Every hit buffeted the flying demon. He started slowly descending, shifting from side to side as one wing went down and then the other. After expending a massive amount of power and Xyn throwing her dagger countless times, he finally fell to the ground with a thud.

  "Keep up the pressure!" I commanded anyone within range.

  And we kept up the pressure. Never let him have a single moment's peace. I must have thrown a hundred Force strikes at that demon. Riddled his body with wounds that I am amazed he is still alive. Bloodied and battered, the demon roared a mighty roar of pain and rage. Raising his blood-soaked appendages, he unleashed a massive gout of flame. It spread out in a wave of destruction. I quickly grabbed Xyn by the waist, blasting off and into the sky. She struggled a bit, but a glare from me told her this was not a damsel in distress moment. This was a, we are going to die; get with the program.

  I kept us in the air for a full five minutes, watching the mass of roiling flame dance beneath us. The fire consumed the demon. Smoke was rising from the burning grass and dirt. The fire burned without restraint, but slowly it died down, as if all the energy that drove it was fading away. Scorched land remained, with blackened and unrecognizable goblin and Skav corpses, except for the faint shimmer of system energy that lingered on the Skav corpses. However, the demon had vanished without a trace.

  "Where did he go?" Xyn asked.

  "No idea. I can't even track him. He must have bolted far away." I answered, with a growing worry that I might have unleashed a true anomaly upon this world.

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