The bellowing roar of a pit fiend was not a new sound to Thozronnath, but the combination of Varekoth's anger and his fear aura skill had the former imp shaking in his metaphorical boots anyway. The report had not gone well. When his employer found out that Thoz had evolved successfully without any help from his boss, his expectations had been broken. Sure, theoretically Varekoth now had a more powerful subordinate, but he did not like the concept of Thoz being independent in any capacity. The little fucker needed to be punished.

Unfortunately, literally thousands of years of being physically and psychologically tormented at the hands of other devils meant that Thoz had a surprising resilience to the efforts of others trying to break him. Thankfully for Varekoth he didn’t have to resort to actually tormenting the creature. The Chainbreaker’s own sorcerer levels had been spent mostly specializing in pyromancy and it’s associated combat magics, but he had plenty of subordinates who could manipulate the mind or ensnare the senses.

Having been ironically chained up by a devil called “Chainbreaker” Thoz found himself bound in an empty room for what felt like several days. Apparently it took Varekoth a while to find someone to handle his least favorite wing devil. Soon enough though a Plague Devil that apparently had a surprising number of levels in wizard made his way into the holding cell and set to work. The infernal tongue that devils speak innately transmits magic very well, so after a surprisingly brief chant the torturer grasped the former imp’s head with enough force that Thoz was worried he would crack his skull.

The pain soon subsided however, only to be replaced with a ceaseless parade of horrors and nightmares. What followed was either the longest ten seconds ever conceived by a conscious mind, or the fastest centuries, it was hard to tell. Every time Thoz felt like his mind was adapting or becoming used to his new form of torment it would shift and change around him into a fresh hell. He was torn apart by carrion birds, eaten from the inside out by insects, assaulted with visions of his own soul-death, and shown things he wasn’t even aware of being afraid of. Trapped inside his own mind, the small devil was unable to even notice the trickle of ichor and blood pooling out of his eyes and ears.

Similarly, being cut off from his own body that entire time meant he wasn’t in a state to receive the messages the system was currently trying to deliver to him. Thoz’s body was left operating purely on autopilot, his mental resilience slowly increasing from the torrent of torment. Once Thoz was released from this hellscape he would find himself at a slightly higher level, though release was his only hope as he had approximately zero chance of escaping on his own.

Luckily for the devil in question, he wasn’t entirely on his own.

*

Zildoxoxi burbled into existence on the floor of a torture chamber, freshly summoned and within hell for the first time. If the puddle of ooze had happened to be anywhere even approaching sentient it might have been a bit confused by its current situation. That was not the case. Zild’s master was currently chained to the wall and screaming at somewhat random intervals, a concerning sight to any creature that didn’t have the IQ of a pile of shit.

Having been summoned on instinct by his master’s body trying to protect itself, Zild had received no orders whatsoever and thus shambled around the room rather pointlessly. Not needing to eat or sleep was a perk that the ooze seemed to share with his summoner even if they had different reasonings behind them. The arguably handicapped puddle spent several days in this room before it got lucky enough to accidentally slide under the door, at which point it was promptly stepped on.

The liquid body of an ooze based creature meant that this did absolutely nothing to Zild, and it just kept shambling along while it’s corrosive skill passively dissolved the foot of the creature stepping on it. The acid was more of a tingle than a burn at such a low level though.

It is at this point that I find it pertinent to explain how stupid an ooze actually is. Thozronnath may have started with a zero intelligence to mark him as dumb by sentient creature standards, but Zildoxoxi had a negative five, not even sentient. The blob was incapable of speech, advanced thought, or perceiving time. Zild was capable of exactly two things, shamble around, and do what he was told to the worst possible degree.

Ironically, that is how many devils would describe an Imp so Zild wasn’t exactly outclassed by everything in hell, just differently matched. This difference in ability would prove to be a boon though, as very few creatures expected the puddle they stepped in to dissolve their ankles and begin eating their face.

Devils were immortal while in hell, and choked the acid puddle up to a cruel new danger of the landscape, the creatures though were fair game. Rats, Hell spiders, the occasional lawyer, all of the worst beings in creation found themselves assaulted and dissolved by the most malicious puddle in existence. So much so, that Zild eventually leveled up, and several times too.

Much like his master had done at one point, Zild earned a surprising amount of XP on the outskirts of hell by merely hunting without rest, though hunting implies a level of intent the ooze could not muster. Nevertheless, the shamblings paid off and Zild eventually evolved into an absorption ooze.

A ooze’s evolution is far less violent than non-liquid creatures, Zildoxoxi actually just jiggled in place for a few minutes as it slowly changed colors, and that was that. New abilities and stat points in hand, it was actually less stupid now than when it started. Though that upgrade was like comparing a pile of shit to the flies swarming around it. So it just kept shambling as it had done previously though this time with a vague sense of intent.

Still unable to grasp the passage of time within a dreamscape, Thoz was right were he was left when Zild slid back under the door to his torture chamber and clambered over a few obstacles to reach his master. If the ooze could think, it might have been something like “Was this room always this messy?”.

Sliding up the chains that held the imp turned wing devil in place, Zild activated its new absorption skill and waited patiently for the effect to take hold.

And then waited patiently for the effect to take hold some more.

And then waited even more patiently for the effect to take hold.

Congratulations! Effect absorbed! Absorption proficiency +1.

*

Thozronnath gasped to consciousness and almost began drowning in the ooze currently surrounding his head. His garbled screams were apparently enough of an order that Zild climbed off of him with little resistance.

As the small devil looked around what used to be his torture chamber, only one thought could come to his mind.

“Fuck.”

The chains had rusted out of the wall and were now only barely attached to Thoz’s body at all; the building itself had long since started to collapse as well. Judging by the erosion and level of dust on everything, the entire building had been abandoned for quite some time with Thoz just sort of left there. It was entirely on brand for a devil to leave a self torturing torture victim tied up when they abandoned a prison, but it posed one worrisome question. Where was Varekoth?

Pit fiends didn’t get defeated often, and it was even more rare for them to get promoted to Arch-Devil. If something like that had happened to The Chainbreaker surely he would have kept his stronghold, or at least surrendered it to his new boss if defeated. That clearly wasn’t the case though, and that was worrisome. Well, at least partially, right now Thoz had better things to deal with.

A quick application of the shapeshift skill got him out of his bonds for the first time in quite a while, and allowed him to begin exploring the ruin. The system finally updated him on Zild’s existence now that he was conscious, which was a notable plus. Having a minion to listen to orders, even a retarted one, was a dream for all devils.

As he wandered around the former base, Thoz found no sign of any activity, just rubble and dust. He managed to pick up a partially rusted infernal spear in case he needed to defend himself, but it was unlikely to survive extended use.

Several facts became increasingly clear as he explored. First, hell was not nearly as active as it was when he was put into that torture chamber, in fact Thoz had not seen a single devil other than himself. Second, if the giant swirling mass of tentacles in the distance was in fact what he thought it was, the divine gate hadn’t stopped the war so much as redirected it. Finally, the ominously glowing portal that stood where Varekoth’s throne used to be was currently trying to pull him in.

That last one was dangerous.

“FUCK!” Thoz screamed, wings beating at full power as he tried to escape the seemingly magnetic pull of the portal, to no avail.

He reached out with the spear in an attempt to wedge it into the ground for leverage, only to have it snap off in his grasp.

“FUUUCKSSS!” he wailed again, his imp-lisp creeping back into his voice as he panicked.

Scrambling around and reaching for anything in his grasp, he found a handful of ooze as Zildoxoxi tried to help his master. The momentary hesitation at thinking his new minion would be able to save him was Thoz’s downfall though. Grasping an oozy tentacle as his wings halted for a mere moment, he fell backwards into the portal with a sigh.

“Fuck.”

Much like his former physical summonings, his soul and essence were twisted and reconstructed, formed and reformed, built and destroyed, over and over. This time though, he could feel it, and it hurt more than anything else he had experienced so far. Every nerve was on fire, every sense overwhelmed.

Full manifestation complete! Congratulations! Soul-Death Enabled!

Blinking in the light of the sun as Thoz once more found himself on the mortal plane, this time completely mortal, he had the one thought that his mind always seemed to default to.

“Fuck.”

Stats:

General Stats Classes Level Name: Thozronnath Strength: 1 Wing Devil 5 Species: Wing Devil (Lesser Devil) Dexterity: 4 Imp 20 (Max) Sex: M Resilience: 4 Age: 13528 Intelligence: 3 Affiliation(s): Hell Wisdom: 4 HP: 30/30 (+0.4/sec) Charisma: 3 MP: 25/25 (+0.3/sec)

Skill

Level

Progenitor of Sin

2

Invisibility

2

Stealth

2

Subterfuge

2

Silver Vulnerability

1 (Max)

Fire Immunity

1 (Max)

Shapeshifter

2

Eyes of Hell

1 (Max)

Sting

2

Poison Immunity

1 (Max)

Magic Resistance

1

Telepathy

1

Zild Stats:

General Stats Classes Level Name: Zildoxoxi the sin of gluttony Strength: 3 Absorption Ooze 1 Species: Absorption Ooze (Lesser Ooze) Dexterity: -2 Ooze 20 (Max) Sex: N/A Resilience: 5 Age: 9859 Intelligence: -3 Affiliation(s): Thozronnath Wisdom: -2 HP: 35/35 (+0.5/sec) Charisma: -2 MP: 10/10 (+0.01/sec)

Skill

Level

Acid Resistance

1 (Max)

Cold Resistance

1 (Max)

Fire Resistance

1 (Max)

Ooze Sight

1 (Max)

Liquid Form

1 (Max)

Corrosive

3

Natural Disguise

1

Stealth

1

Natural Weapons

2

Blind Immunity

1 (Max)

Deafen Immunity

1 (Max)

Charm Immunity

1 (Max)

Fear Immunity

1 (Max)

Fatigue Immunity

1 (Max)

Prone Immunity

1 (Max)

Poison Immunity

1 (Max)

Absorption

2

Fluid Replication

1