I stood still like a statue. It took everything I had not to blush, because no more than five meters away stood my lord, hell’s first devil, or as I call him, the devil. He was so cool! One day, I’d be just like him. That is if I didn’t die on this day.

Around him, and gliding down his magical barrier, were bodies of imps. They were either hideously malaligned, had exploded, morphed into something else entirely, or simply laid on the floor dead.

You’ll never make it, my thoughts told me, and I made sure to tell them to shut up. Truthfully two forces fought within me. One of them a fear for my life, the other an excitement over getting to stand face to face with the most awesome being in the whole of hell.

His skin was black like the deepest voids, the complete opposite of my hideous bone-white skin, and his eyes were two different colors, one red, the other one completely white. Maybe one day my eyes could also have two different colors but for now they were simply crimson red, like any other regular imp. He had the most amazing body, featuring four arms, two more than I had, and two legs everything carrying muscles so sharp I could cut myself on them. He really had the peak of bodies. The other devils could look envious with him. A crown of molten gold, perpetually heated by his magic, hung on his head, magic keeping its form.

It was said, by whom I have no clue, that with a snap of his fingers he made three thousand heads, all belonging to war giants of the fourth devil, explode. I was getting there. Currently, with head aching focus, I could make a pebble shiver. I swear it!

His eyes shot over to me, and everything ceased. He snapped his fingers and I found myself standing in front of him. My chest hurt. I wondered if he had to snap his fingers for his magic to work. Either way, I’d snap my fingers when casting magic.

A full grown, naked, human male walked like a dog towards the blood on the floor and began licking it. I instinctevely sneered, before my face returned to normal. I really hoped that the devil didn’t care, because if he did I had no chance of walking out. He already seemed rather annoyed. The human saw my expression, and he looked up, sneering at me. My body shivered in rage and if not for the devil's presence I would have broken his jaw.

“Come here,” he said, signaling with his fingers towards the human whose face turned into a smile immediately and he slowly made his way towards the devil. I saw terror still clear on his face, clear in his eyes, hiding in his smile. Woof, woof, he said, before the devil bare foot pressed his head towards the floor, harder, harder, and it cracked, blood shooting everywhere.

So cool!

“Arch-demon Baar, get me another dog, make it a child this time, preferably a girl.” As far as I knew, which was very little, it was impossible for hell and anything in hell to reach out to the overworld, but for some reason, some humans were stupid enough to contact hell, and with the right trickery, usually a succubus or two, it was possible to drag them down here or make them send somebody else down.

There was another way too, but even the devils feared it. In the very middle of hell a large hole was in the roof. All I knew was that it led to the overworld. However, at night, when the glow-vines dimmed, I’d hear roars that shook me coming from there. I completely understood why somebody as powerful as the devil feared that spot.

“First Devil Julius it will be handled immediately, but if I may, I think Imp’s are too weak to survive a teleportation to the over-”

White flames surrounded the arch-demon’s head. Their heat made even me, standing about twenty meters away, start sweating. His head quickly burned up, and his body toppled over. Two seconds passed and he stood up again.

“I apologize for my interruption, greatest devil.”

Even demons as powerful as Baar had to show respect to Julius. I almost couldn’t believe it. Baar killed imps just for looking at him, heck, he’d kill other arch-demons if they said his name wrong. He might be one of the most hateful creatures in the entire hell, yet he showed nothing but respect to Julius.

“You may help however,” the devil said. “I am able to breach the barriers between hell and the overworld for a fraction of a second, and in that time, it should be possible to send a demonic power to the overworld, yet no matter how I tweak the spell it won’t do what I desire.”

“First Devil Julius, it seems to me a creature with too little demonic energy would simply be squeezed to death between the barriers, whilst a strong one would be refuted all together. Perhaps however, keeping the same amount of demonic energy, but heightening its density, could do something.”

“I will attempt your theory. If it doesn’t work you will pay for wasting my time.”

“First devil Julius, could you give me the opportunity to attempt the spell?”

“Are you saying you have more faith in your abilities than mine?”

“No of course not, I would simply desire my fate to be in my hands. Can it be so?”

“No.”

I saw the arch-demons blue face turn entirely red. Despite standing directly behind the devil, I had no doubts Julius saw it, but he didn’t do anything. I guess if a bug was angry at me I too wouldn’t care. But, I could almost feel the arch-demons' anger and it shook the edges of my consciousness.

The devil snapped his fingers and blue runes formed around me. It was the same runes that had formed around the other imps. You’ll explode in 3, 2, 1. Stop. Unlike before however nothing happened.

Then the pain came.

It felt like something was pushing against my heart, making it smaller. The pain coursed through my making me scream, shaming myself in front of the devil. He was not pleased and snapped his fingers, drawing the air out of me, and forcing my jaw and nose shut. My body shook, and my consciousness grew blurry. I saw his eyes jerk downwards towards my chest, and his eyebrows furrowed, and I followed his sight to see what bothered him, there in the middle of the chest was a blue vein, the size of my forearm, which grew towards my shoulder.

“The mark of the primal devil!” The arch-demon spat, completely baffled. “I strongly encourage you to kill him First Devil Julius. You must have awakened his far-far ancestry, but as you know, the primal devil will take over his body as he always does when his lineage is provoked. Kill him!”

“No,” Julius said.

Once again he snapped his finger and runes of much more edgy and pointy shape formed around me. This time there were many more of them, and they were bright making my eyes hurt. I felt murderous intent shoot out from the arch-demon, and a second after I felt something which cannot be labelled with the same word come out from the devil. I passed out.

***

Two eyes, both of them moonlike, stared into mine. Instinctevely, I shrieked, jerked back and tried to slash them with my dirty nails, but nothing of that happened. It wasn’t that my body was frozen but that I had no body. My body wasn’t where I and the eyes were. A laugh boomed radiating hurt throughout my being.

“What are you doing freak!” I screamed, and the laugh only grew louder, and as a few moments passed, a creature slowly formed, and I found myself staring at a devil that was two meters taller than the first devil, yet kept the same shape proportionally. A large smile pointed towards me, a tooth to the right side of the mouth missing. I noticed that three of his arms were missing.

“I had to sacrifice half my arms for that shabby spell to work.”

“Where am I?”

“That’s not important, what is impo-”

The space was split in half. Now half of it was white void whilst the other was the palace room where the first devil stood. In the background I saw the arch-demon Baar’s body completely enveloped in white flames. The devil’s pupils sharpened, and I felt something pass between the two creatures.

“I do not permit you to speak to him, primal devil. I the first devil of hell have warned you.” The two last words shook me into stillness. I had not heard much of the primal devil, but what I had heard was it took the entirety of heaven to kill him. Which was the second thing. He was dead, but clearly not.

“Who?” the primal devil said. I couldn’t believe it. The first devil didn’t snap his fingers. His eyes widened and black sparks appeared in the air between them. The sparks emanate danger. The first devil turned his sight towards me and a glare full of hate from him was more than enough for my heart to volunteer to give up.

“Come back to me at once,” he said and everything stopped again. “This is enough.”

***

I woke up again but this time it felt like I hung over a fire, except the fire was above me. My skin burned, and I screeched. As I opened my eyes to spot the source of this, I saw a space and distance the like of which I’d never encountered ever before. I saw white rocks as large as mountains floating in the sky, and through one of them, I saw a yellow object, and the second I focused on it, my eyes itched like heaven.

I shut my eyes, but my body continued to burn. I opened them up, but it hurt. It stuck me not to look at whatever that object was, which I will now refer to as, dot of pain. Instead I looked at whatever I was laying on, I found a ground I’d never experienced ever before.

It was wet, but there was no water, and there were green blades sticking out towards me which were strangely comfortable. I didn’t have time to appreciate whatever this was as to cover away from the dot of pain. I found a shadow created by a large plant. It reached upwards, and it had many different branches each filled with green leaves. A strange plant indeed, but it did a good job of providing cover.

I took a breath of air, and looked around to see just where I’d arrived. This was clearly not home. Had I really reached the overworld? My contemplation was cut short as an arrow flew into the corner formed by my neck and shoulder.

I started running again. Between the dot of pain, and the casual arrows flying towards me, I was completely focused on the ground filled with stuff. In hell, it was just bare rock most of the time, but here there were sticks and wet leaves, and strange snake objects appearing out of the ground with the same color of those plants reaching towards the sky. One of them even almost made me trip.

Thankfully however, I saw something I was used to. Rock. It was sticking out of the ground in the same way the hole stuck out of the roof in hell. It led downwards into darkness illuminated lightly by small glow-vines. It was an entryway to the great cave system. I swallowed, and jumped in, happy to escape whatever it was that had chased me, and the dot of pain too.

Fear overtook me, even the first devil feared to go in here, so I made sure not to go too deep, in case I stumbled on anything, but luckily it was pretty desolate. Whatever it was that had shot arrows at me didn’t enter, nor the dot of pain enter.

I pushed myself up against the wall, taking a long breath. This was all very scary. I knew he would send me to the overworld, but I had never thought to ask what my task was. Now in that strange dream, which surely had not been a dream, he told me to go back to hell, which I assume he meant through the caves. However, that would almost certainly lead to my death. What other choice did I have?

Finally giving attention to the second thing that plagued my sight. A large blue window in the top right corner showing some sort of green bar, that when I look closer at, grows and becomes a larger blue window showing text that I could read despite never learning how to do so. It was strange, without a doubt.

_____

Stat Page

Current Species: Imp

Active Title: Blind Sheep

Total Power Level: 13

Level = 0

Level Up = 0/10 Xp

Unallocated stat points: 0

Strength: 1

Agility: 1

Intellect: 10

Magical Aptitude: -3

Stamina 3:

Toughness: 1

Vitality: 2

Skills: Primal Adaptation,

_____

Magical Aptitude of -3. You’re not even pathetic, you’re below it, I heard the voice inside my head say before I had a chance to realize what I was looking at. I had so many questions. Like what was the power level? Was my intelligence really that high? And what was the skill Primal Adaptation?

_____

Primal Adaptation

Due to traces of the primal devils blood, the body gains an exceptionally high chance to adapt and mutate when under incredible stress. These changes vary from improvement to new limbs and organs.

_____

Adaptation? I thought. Does this mean I have a chance to get a new leg if I run too much? I don’t want a new leg. The first devil doesn’t have a leg. I can’t run too much, that's for sure.

I realized then that the vein originating from the center of my chest had wrapped around my shoulder. It really didn’t look like it belonged to me. It looked like somebody snatched it from the primal devil and wrapped it around me as a cosmetic, but when I placed my hand on it, I felt something, but it wasn’t pulsing as much as trickling.

Before I had a chance to marvel more at whatever it was I was seeing, another window popped up, one that hadn't popped up before when I was getting shot at which might have said something but I wasn’t sure what.

_____

Urgent Quest

Blood lust aimed at you has been detected. Escape or kill its source.

Failure will lead to death.

Success will lead to 50 XP.

_____

My head jerked towards the entrance to the cave system and down further down but I didn’t spot anything. I couldn’t figure out where the bloodlust came from when an ant fell down on my head and started biting. It was huge and panic flooded me.

I screamed as it tried to wrap its large mandibles around my neck. It succeeded in doing so and the only thing which stopped them from clamping shut were my hands which had gripped each one of the mandibles and was pulling them apart.

I stared into large black eyes, each the size of a human hand, which featured no emotion at all. This couldn’t have been what scared the devil of. Perhaps this part of the dungeon was filled with much weaker creatures, but I wondered why an ant was alone.

We had ant’s in hell too, except when they swarmed they were killed through suffocation unlike this ant. Why was this ant alone? It wasn’t ordinary for an ant to be alone, perhaps it had split apart from its colony.

I kept pulling apart its mandibles with my life on the line. Its feet, which were thin but sharp and spiky, shot into my body repeatedly as my legs wrapped around its body trying to pin it up against the floor.

After a quick moment we were in a draw, with its mandibles around my neck. My arms were quickly growing tired, and the pull inwards from the mandibles only grew stronger. My arms grew so exhausted that they shook violently. I didn’t want to die. Not to a fucking ant.

How could I ever look the devil in the eyes again. I prayed for my only way out, for an adaptation to pop up, for that skill to be used, but it didn’t do anything. My hands gave up.

The mandibles clomped down.

I looked down to see blood pouring out. I’d die. But I couldn’t die. I’d be refuting the devil's orders directly if I died. It would be way too shameful for me to begin to process.

The ant jerked its head to the side, taking a large chunk of my neck with it. Only half my neck was left, and my head slowly followed gravity as it leaned down until it slammed against the ground. My blue blood sprayed out.

You’re no better than an ant. I heard the voice say. Anxiety filled me like it had never done before. In that moment, where I should have died, and everything should have been over, that feeling of panic hammered against my body, and froze it. One thought dominated every other thought. Not like this.

The blood poured out and my thoughts became slower. If ants could look happy, this one wasn’t even smiling. My death ment jack shit to it. Who do you think you are? You're a worthless ant. Complete shit.

The ant gobbled down that chunk of my neck. My sight became a bit blurry. I tried to breathe, but I couldn’t. I spit out blood instead. The ant came closer ready to take the other piece of my neck off and end me.

I saw it through an angle I hadn’t seen before. From the side I could see that the neck connecting its torso and head was incredibly thin, almost ten times thinner than my own. I barely had any energy to move my body with but a direct hit there was more than enough to kill it.

The ant reached a bit closer towards my neck. I saw its mandibles open up. This was it, my last moment being alive. Adrenaline surged and my eyes narrowed down on its thin neck, it filled my entire mind. I simply had to break it, make it snap.

How? How? How? The question rattled my brain like nothing had ever done before. My body was too weak to move, but I just had to make it snap. If I just concentrated hard enough just like the first devil does, I could make it explode.

Concentrate, focus, see it explode. I strained everything inside of me to reach out and make it explode. It felt like minutes of straining and focus. I spent the time usually attributed to seeing your entire life flash past you, focusing on some ants' necks. This had to work.

Its mandibles were right around my neck now. Any moment now they would snap shut and everything would turn dark, but its neck hadn’t started vibrating let alone explode. My eyes widened.

It felt as if molten lava floated around freely inside of my head. It hurt like hell, but I kept on

pushing, I kept on making the lava warmer, making the pain increase. I felt like I knew when its mandibles would snap shut. Somehow I just instinctively knew it, and the moment before that happened, I pushed so hard it felt that my own head would explode.

The excessive straining made both my eyes plop out.