Ashtoreth fizzled into existence in the air above the bastion, looking out at the familiar hazy, red-tinged air of Hell.

  Unlike one of the system’s tutorials, the bastions were small slices of reality built specifically for the purpose of bringing war to other worlds. Everything was artificial, so that the whole thing resembled a mix between a military base and a city that had been built onto a massive platform of dark metal.

  Structures rose up into the distance, higher and higher until they converged at the center on a tower that rose more than a mile into the air and dominated the bastion’s skyline.

  “Gee,” Dazel said. “Where do you think the boss is?”

  Ashtoreth rose higher into the air to get a better vantage on the city-like base below her. To minimize interference and increase the rate at which they could mobilize, the rifts were spread evenly across the surface of the platform below, clearly visible by the deep red glow that emanated from large gaps in the structures.

  “I’m going to miss New York,” she said. “I barely got to check out any of the traffic.”

  “The traffic,” Dazel said in disbelief. “You’re going to miss the traffic.”

  “The only car I’ve even been in was a police car,” she said. “But I bet you I’d be a really good driver. Hitting the pedals, turning the wheel, pumping up the radio with the windows down….”

  “Yeah. I think that’s… pretty much what driving entails.”

  “I’ve pictured it a lot,” she told him.

  “I believe you.”

  “I’d love to drive a big rig,” she said. “Or a convertible. Or a backhoe. Really, I’d love to drive anything.”

  “First: you can fly faster than almost all human cars,” Dazel said. “Second, we’ve got company.”

  She looked below her to see that an armored figure was rising through the air toward her, catching up to her position now that she’d stopped at the level of the distant tower’s peak.

  “What do you know—that was fast.”

  “Are you showing your name to just anyone?” Dazel asked. “Or is this person just going to see a level 300 archfiend?”

  “Second one,” Ashtoreth said. “Naturally. We don’t need to let them know who’s betrayed them before they figure it out.”

  “Yeah,” said Dazel. “Good. I was just wondering because you’re, uh, you know.”

  “Pride clan.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Understandable.”

  The figure below them came into view. They were a winged devil.

  {Wing Commander Zeliax — Level 85 Boss}

  “Your Eminence!” he said as she approached. “I do not understand—how is this possible?”

  “Uh…” Ashtoreth said. She squinted at the devil. Did she need him for anything? “No, right?” she muttered.

  “Your Eminence?”

  “Thinking, sec,” she said. She could probably have this person bring her to the bastion’s commander—but what was the point? She could get there anyway, and intimidation was going to be her tactic of choice.

  “Harrowing news reaches us from our primary front, Your Eminence,” said Zeliax.

  “Yeah, there’s just no real point in duplicity here,” she said. “Sorry—gotta go fast.” She spun her scythe and conjured a volley of hellfire javelins.

  “Your Eminence?”

  Ashtoreth launched half of her javelins toward the devil, then launched the other half a moment later when she saw which way her opponent was dodging.

  They converged on the devil, incinerating her.

  “Someone has got to be watching from the ground,” said Dazel. “And they have no doubt surmised that someone higher up on the chain of command is upset.”

  “We’ll see if they just let me in or not,” Ashtoreth said, speeding off toward the tower.

  “So where do you want to start?” Dazel asked.

  “Start? What do you mean?”

  “Start farming up enemies,” he said. “You know. All those rifts have probably got entire armies waiting on standby.”

  “Yup.”

  Dazel, keeping pace with her in the air, glanced behind them as she passed the rifts and headed straight for the central tower. “And you need to kill a few of those armies, then funnel all the [Bloodfire] they make into a nova strong enough that your spellfire degrades the demiplane itself.” He paused, then added, “Right?”

  “Sort of,” she said. “But I’m not going to go around and pick up the armies myself. That’ll take awhile.”

  “Huh?” Dazel said. “I don’t get it. What’s our option, here?”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “I’m in charge of this place, aren’t I?”

  “Oh,” Dazel said. Then, more emphatically, as the full realization must have hit him, he added, “oh….”

  She could see some of the armies around the nearer rifts as she passed them. There were rows and rows of devils, cages the size of buildings filled with demons, and gigantic hulks lumbering out of passages as wide as an Earth city block.

  She ignored them all, speeding toward the central tower. The top of the structure was a platform that would hold some of the most elite members of the bastion’s legion. In the center of that platform was a second, smaller tower.

  “I see some things don’t change,” Dazel said, eying the second tower.

  A host of hundreds of flying demons moved toward her, but refrained from attacking; instead they surrounded her in the air and flew with her as she moved for the highest point on the tower.

  “They’re not attacking you?” he asked.

  “Nah,” she said. “I’m level 300. Now, they might think that’s an illusion, but either way they’re gonna pretend to assent while they get ready to attack me. I know how the game is played. Watch this.”

  She landed on the uppermost platform of the tower, where a small team of humanoid devils and fiends worked the various rune-lined apparatuses that helped them command the armies of the bastion and control the rifts.

  She found the highest level among them, a red-haired archfiend whose armor bore sigil of the Wrath clan.

  {Archfiend Garrakar — Level 100 Boss}

  “I’m taking command of this bastion and all its legions,” Ashtoreth said. She dismissed her scythe, conjuring her sword and letting its blade rest on the ground behind her.

  Garrakar eyed the sword, then Ashtoreth. Her mouth became a contemptuous snarl. “I cannot even see your name!” she hissed. “You expect me to believe that—”

  She never got to finish her sentence. Ashtoreth launched her sword directly backward with a [Mighty Strike], letting the counterforce launch her toward the commander.

  It was a maneuver she’d performed before. Only now, because [Defense] was her highest stat, she was more than strong enough to withstand the speed at which she launched herself without sustaining any damaging.

  The other archfiend had no time to evade, and Ashtoreth struck her head-on. She slammed Garrakar to the ground, and the force of her motion dragged the infernal commander across several dozen meters of metal-plated flooring, crushing and grinding the small bones in her wings until they were like gravel.

  Ashtoreth held the commander there, pinning her by pressing straight downward with her racial flight ability as she formed her claws and tore the commander’s face and head apart. Garrakar screamed twice during the frenzy, then fell still.

  Ashtoreth stood and turned in one smooth motion. The rest of the command staff were staring at her. Some of them had even raised their weapons, ready to come to their commander’s aide, but they hadn’t had time to even begin attacking before it was over.

  She glanced at the next-highest level, a white-haired archdevil in gold-embroidered robes.

  {Archdevil Veelox — Level 96 Boss}

  “Are you the commander of this bastion, Veelox?” Asthoreth asked.

  Veelox opened his mouth. Closed it.

  Ashtoreth reached out a hand and Garrakar’s heart tore its way out of their body to fly through the air and into her palm.

  Veelox fell to one knee. “Only if that is your will, my master,” he said.

  She took a bite of the heart. “Fantastic!” she said through a mouthful. “Great, really great!”

  Then she held out her gauntleted hand and used [Hellfire Nova] to create a novaheart in the middle of the tower.

  A sphere of pure power appeared, its edges purple but its heart a bright, blinding white. It sizzled in the air as Ashtoreth began to channel [Bloodfire] into it, charging it with the power it would need to tear through the very magic that had created the demiplane they occupied.

  “Now,” Ashtoreth said, turning back to face Veelox. “I want you to command all of the strongest flyers to come to the top of this tower. I want tons of them, you understand? Tens of thousands of nice, powerful flyers. And I want them here within a minute.”

  Veelox blanched, his eyes reflecting the novaheart as he stared at it.

  “You got me, right Veelox?”

  He gulped. “Yes, my master. I—uh—I….”

  “Uh-huh?”

  “If I may ask, master. What… what is that?”

  “That?” Ashtoreth waved a hand. “Pfft. Don’t worry about that. It doesn’t matter.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Veelox echoed softly.

  “It doesn’t matter. The flyers, Veelox.” Her voice darkened a shade and she added, “Now.”

  “Master,” Veelox said, inclining his head and then rushing to confer with some of the others.

  Ashtoreth rose into the air and looked out over the city below her. Sure enough, little specks soon began to rise from the towers in all directions to move toward them. “Say!” she said. “Looking great so far, Veelox!”

  She landed back near the novaheart, then conjured her scythe so as to access her expanded [Bloodfire] pool and channel faster.

  “Your Eminence,” one of the other members of the command staff called out.

  Ashtoreth looked over to see them working at an apparatus with several crystals jutting out of it. Dazel had landed on the panel in front of him.

  “I—I’m not certain… your cat says—”

  “Do what he says,” she said.

  “Master,” said Veelox. “What else do you wish of us? This bastion and all its—”

  “Nah, nothing,” she said, focusing on the blazing novaheart. “Everything’s good.”

  “Are you certain?” Veelox asked nervously. “It’s just… I… forgive me, master.” He glanced at the novaheart, then seemed to hesitate a moment before saying, “—But that looks very significant.”

  “I told you not to worry about the orb.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “You do your job, I’ll do mine.”

  “...Of course. Forgive me.”

  “Flyers are getting here, boss,” said Dazel.

  “Great!” she said. She made a fist with her gauntlet, and the novaheart vanished as it was stored inside the jewel on the back of her palm, which began to blaze with an incredible light. “I’ll be right back,” she said. “The cat’s in charge while I’m gone.”

  She launched herself into the air and began to fly toward the oncoming army of enemy flyers.

  “She took the orb,” Veelox said as she was leaving, an edge of panic in his voice. “Why did she take the orb?”

  “Dude,” Dazel said as he began to burn a magic circle into the ground. “What is it with you and the orb?”

  “But—”

  “Chill about the orb, man. You just gotta trust.”

  Veelox looked from the cat to Ashtoreth, then made a noise that might have been a whimper. “Yes,” he said. “Trust….”