∼ Power ∼

Chapter - 011

The skittering of the small critter as it bounded from side to side rattled the small cage. Unenthusiastic, the impling just played with its food, making the terrified rat squeak and scamper about the limited space.

The demon no longer knew how long it had been since it had been thrown into this prison as the days melted together. From the relentless prodding and the painful experiments to continuously being forced into unconsciousness, the simmering resentment deep within the diminutive demon had grown to an unbridled hatred for the warlock.

A light snore drew the demon's attention towards the far corner of the messy and disorganized laboratory. There the man of the demon's ire lay, his robe disordered and a pen still wet with ink dangling in his limp arm. He laid on the pillowed window niche of the only real window of the basement that hadn't been barred off like all the others so that the warlock could conduct his experiments in privacy.

In a flare of anger upon seeing his mortal enemy, the impling directed its hatred towards the rat clawing at the cage bars. Yet, in the haze of anger, there was something else that became clear, almost lucent in the fog of its spiked mind. Something that had remained dormant until now, called forth by the hatred boiling inside.

Intrigued and in a state of near reverie, the impling's mind wandered, drawing on the power that so tantalized it just at the edge of its grasp. The more it sought after it, the hotter the sensation of power became within the pit of its stomach - the center of its being.

Mind alight and core bright, the demon summoned the power forth.

Marveling at the sudden sensation of prickling warmth streaming through what felt like veins, from both core and mind, through body and limb, it settled in its hand. The demon was awestruck as even the blue screens and leveling up did not rival the sheer sensation of raw power it felt in that moment. The awe didn't last long, however, as fear and panic suddenly took over.

The impling's hand erupted into a deep purple fire that quickly coalesced and launched itself like a bolt. Flinching and batting away the demonic fire fizzling out its hand, the demon instinctively curled into a ball in fear. The cage rattled as the bolt struck its thin bars and the pitiful rat, eliciting a popping and sizzling noise as the magic slowly fizzled out on its own.

It terrified the impling with just how much the bolt of magic it had conjured looked eerily like what the warlock had been shooting at the other human who had brought it here. Hesitantly, the impling uncurled itself and glanced towards where the bolt had struck. Blackened and slightly bent, the bars of the birdcage had definitely seen better days. But what truly shocked the small demon was the fact that the seemingly insurmountable walls of its prison actually showed damage. It - had bested it!

The impling wanted to hoot and holler in glorious triumph, but the snort and faint mutterings of a certain sleeping warlock had the impling choke on its celebration. It looked around warily, making sure that the brief racket it had made didn't draw any unwanted attention. Fortunately, the warlock still seemed fast asleep after a full day worth of magical work and scheming.

The other, much bigger demon, was nowhere to be seen, the demonic hound included. The impling never really understood where those two went as at times they were simply wandering the mansion and helping the warlock, and at other times they were just completely gone.

Careful steps brought the demon to the small hatch of its cage where the metal had seemingly both burnt and corroded. It also briefly glanced at the poor rat caught in between, only charred and putrid remains proving its existence, though it quickly ignored it. A single hesitant poke was all that was needed for the small hatch to suddenly swing open with a dulled creak. The lock was cracked and brittle from the demonic energy eating away at its frame.

A smile touching on its lips, the demon gave itself a silent cheer in the face of its unquestionable might, of which no prison could contain it. Yet another victory for the red conqueror. But of course, such was the folly of man - trying desperately to control a demonic overlord such as it. How... foolish.

The small pit-a-pat and grunts of excursions from the diminutive demon followed as it attempted to scale down the table without alerting the warlock to its stealthy esca- uh, tactical retreat.

Tiptoeing its way over the creaky boards and furry carpets within the large basement, it tried its best to avoid the various gimmicks, apparatus, and tools of all sorts of nefarious means. But rather than concerning itself about the oddity and alien instruments of its surroundings, the impling began fixating on the sleeping warlock over by the window niche.

It couldn't help but grin at the thought of the accursed man waking up and finding it gone.

But suddenly, the demon paused, a frown starting to crease its brow. A thought had struck the demon. Why was it settling for merely escaping? After all the warlock had done its illustrious self. A cruel smile replaced the frown as a fitting punishment crossed the impling's mind. With it, the mark of pride shone its accord and encouragement at the idea - ever egging on the diminutive demon in its rightful pursuit of vengeance.

It approached the sleeping warlock and clambered up onto the niche as silently as possible. Staring down at the man whose tousled hair and robes were in chaotic disarray as always, a malignant gleam streaked across the impling's eyes.

Oh, ít would show him the error of his ways.

Extending its small hand scant inches from the warlock's face, it called upon that same feeling from before, this time pouring in all the anger and hate it had towards this man into the demonic fire that roared in response. This time, with the power of pride fueling the demon's courage, it did not look away in fear of the purple flames engulfing its hand, nor when the eyes of the warlock sprung open. For it was already too late.

The bolt of demonic energy and hate expelled itself directly into the handsome face of the warlock. For a few scant moments, the fire let out a faint burnt and crunch as it impacted on his flesh. But beyond anything the impling had expected, the small fire that struck the warlock's face suddenly soared into an outright inferno as his entire head was engulfed by demonic flames.

The sudden explosion buffeted the small demo. As it attempted to retreat in shock, it stumbled as there all of a sudden no longer any leverage under its feet, falling down from the window niche to land on its ass with a thump. From down there, it could only stare up in horror at the screaming man with a flaming head who rose to his feet, clawing at his melting face.

Flesh scorched and decaying at the same time, bone revealed itself where patches of skin and muscle had burnt away. The once handsome and dangerous man was no longer - what remained as his body fell to the ground was but a blackened skull, hair gone and leaving nothing but charred bits of flesh peeling itself off the bone.

Two empty sockets with barely anything remaining inside stared into the distance with a skeletal jaw fixed in the rictus of a silent scream, the sound of his shrill voice as he died still echoing in the demon's eardrums. The impling simply stared at its small and dainty little red hands with a mixture of horror and awe.

Little did the demon know though. It hadn't in fact been the demon's own magical might that had produced such a terrifying result, but rather the warlock's own demonic energy being ignited by the impling's magic. It had been like pouring oil on a fire. That of course didn't stop the power-drunk demon from letting out a warcry of victory that turned into a peal of maniacal laughter.

Who was this puny human in the face of the mighty red? It had once again proven the folly of trying to oppose one such as itself. Tsk, humans...

A growl suddenly drained away every ounce of bravado. That guttural sound was all too familiar to a certain creature that the impling had feared ever since being imprisoned here. From the only exit to the upstairs, the clawed paws of the resident demon hound scraped against the wooden floorboards.

First, it was terror that clutched at the demon's heart. But as the demon hound came stumbling out of the short hallway leading to the stairs, it became quickly apparent that something was wrong with it. It leaned against the wall and as it passed the corner it no longer had any leverage to keep it standing, making it fall over with a pitiful whine.

It was miserable as the hound kicked and wailed at the air like some disease was eating it up from the inside. It lasted but a few moments and then the hound magically dissolved into a puff of smoldering blackened ash and embers. The only thing that remained was a black stain of soot upon the floor.

Relief washing over the small impling, it finally noticed the readily awaiting notifications at the edge of its mind. Accidently focusing on them made the sudden avalanche of blue screens invading its mind no less startling to the naturally skittish creature's frayed nerves.

[LVL: 26 - Human "Warlock" has been slain]

[You receive 277 points of experience for the kill]

[Due to excessive attribute gain and stat increase, physical change and adjustments have been slowed considerably to allow your body to handle the strain of the change.]

Congratulations! You have accrued enough experience to gain a level!

LVL: 3 ⇒ 6

As an Impling "Minor Demon", you receive one point in Intelligence and one additional unallocated attributes point per level.

As a Warlock "Apprentice", you receive one point in Intelligence and one additional unallocated attribute point per level.

∼[Cognitive comprehension inadequate]∼

∼[Assigning free attribute points to relevant attributes]∼

You have been awarded two attribute points in Strength

You have been awarded one attribute point in Dexterity

You have been awarded one attribute point in Vitality

You have been awarded two attribute points in Intelligence

A rush of pure bliss accompanied the blue screens as they usually did. But the bliss wasn't alone, and the refreshing and powerful feeling of its mind and body strengthening was all of a sudden warring with pain.

The pain wasn't incapacitating but felt nonetheless horrible to the small demon. Like its muscles were stretching to rip themselves apart and its mind-expanding beyond the confines of its head, which was in some sense - exactly what was happening.

It was a constant surge of pleasure and pain as it stumbled along, trying to not keel over. But the longer it went on, the more tolerable it became. Either that, or the effects were lessening. But what remained in the wake of the confusingly warring sensations was raw power in the impling's limbs and clarity of mind that it had previously not even thought possible.

It was able to reflect on some of the things it had done, cursing its own stupidity and burying some particularly embarrassing memories once recalled. Even the blue screens made a whole lot more sense now. They weren't here to mock or reward the demon. Though, it still hated the red ones with a vengeance. But, it could now understand they were messages, quantifying the things happening to and around the red little creature.

The contents of the prompts still remained a bit of a mystery as it had little to no reference to know the true meaning of them, other than stuff like the attributes representing various qualities of themselves. Such as, Strength was its physical prowess, and it very much liked that one in particular.

Coming out of its new and wandering thoughts, the impling came to its senses. It had to get out of here. It had no idea when someone or something else would be coming here, and it was probably prudent to get out of dodge before something did. The demon was about to run for the exit, but then it remembered the other imp.

Whether or not it was still upstairs or heading down here after all the commotion, the demon had no clue, and didn't wish to find out firsthand. So it tried to find another exit, which could only be the only other room in the basement, a dark hall opposing the stairs.

The impling was sneaking along, walking slowly because it was trying to keep quiet as much as it was worried that it might stumble upon the bigger imp. The slight creak of old wooden floorboards was the only thing that heralded the impling's presence, yet when impling the entered further into other room, more of a narrow hall, it let out an involuntary and rather undignifying yelp as a raspy and weak voice met it.