Hell, it looked pretty nice all things considered. A huge palace was visible not too far off with fantastic gardens all circling it, and pathways meandering all around. I stood gazing at the sight, it was not what I had expected, and words did not do it justice. I nodded at the palace and said, “Let’s make our way to the entrance and get this done.”

I was feeling nervous but I wanted to finish what I needed to do here and then get to Topland. It had been too long since I had seen Twink, and I wanted to know what was happening with the Old Bastards and the Jackass and his guild. We began to walk towards the palace, eventually arriving at the entrance. I looked over at Ama and gave her a smile, she looked nervous but determined.

Knocking on the huge doors we waited until a minor Demon dressed in the livery of the palace opened the doors. The doorkeeper stood aside and announced, “The master is waiting, follow me.” As we entered the palace I was struck by the many works of art on display. The whole palace seemed more like the Louvre museum, full of priceless works of art. We made our way along several passageways until we came to an open area.

This open area had a large desk situated in the middle and sitting behind the desk was a fairly nondescript Demon, he was average appearing with the exception of his eyes, they were cold and cunning. I observed as he looked up and then smiled at Ama and licked his lips. He was paying no attention to the rest of us, but rather focusing all his attention on my wife.

“I am so glad you have returned to me Ama,” he spoke with a slight drawl. He then reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a thin color made out of a gold like substance. “This is for you, and I guarantee that you will not leave me a second time.” He then began to walk over to Ama with the intent to fasten the collar around her neck.

I stood in front of her and spoke. “Hold up there, you are not putting anything on the neck of my wife, in fact if you try I am going to shove that so far up your ass it will clamp on your tonsils.” I watched his face turn to shock and rage, and then it became clear. He was very good at masking what he felt but I knew I had his number; he was unable to accept the fact he was not going to get what he wanted.

“And who are you worm to address a Prince of Hell, I think I will have you enslaved and tortured for the next ten thousand years,” the Prince sneered. ‘I am the ruler and the power here, and you are nothing. I will have you bound and delivered to the dungeons before this day is done. Hell is about to become your worst nightmare.”

I stared at him, he was a talker but let’s see if he had the stones to back up his talk. “Sure you will as you hide here in this office. That is my wife you were talking to and the only way you will have her is to kill me. I challenge you to a duel to the death, which I see is coming for you. O worm, come don’t delay I wish to step away from your corpse and take your place as the Prince of this realm. Stand forth or run and hide,” I spoke in a mocking voice, my hope was to enrage him to the point of loss of control.

“You dare to challenge me; I will gnaw on your marrow from your bones as you lie broken on the sand of the arena. I will drink your blood and use your skull as the cup.” The Princes face was red with fury and he was starting to shake, clearly my words were having an effect. He began to yell out more threats involving my private parts when I interrupted him.

I knew I needed him to go over the edge and to look at me with hatred.

If I could get the rational part of his brain overcome then I would have a chance. “Look,” I said pointing to Raphael, what did this foolish little fellow have that would have interested you Ama?” I asked with a polite look on my face. “I see nothing but a proud and vain fool. I would not think a woman like you would find someone like him of interest?”

Ama gave me a fast smile and nodded, then spoke, “I was young and foolish and listened to empty words that were really just hot air. Once I realized how lacking Raphael is I left. I am a strong woman and need a strong man beside me, not someone who finds achievements sitting behind a desk.” As Ama spoke I watched the Prince and saw that her words were hitting home, he was actually beginning to foam at the mouth as he tried to roar and curse.

I did not think that we would accomplish anymore by insulting the Prince, but I could not resist and asked him if he needed a nappy as he was starting to drool. Looking at me with a glint of insanity in his eyes he screamed out, “I accept this duel to the death as dictated by the laws of Hell. We will meet in half an hour at the arena. Summon all the greater and lesser nobles from the region, in fact, open the arena to all. It is time that my serfs see who their Lord really is.”

As the servant led us out I gave Raphael a wink and told him to say his goodbyes, it was not necessary but something about the guy really pissed me off. I looked at Ama and asked her if she was all right, she had been the one who had really twisted it in and I knew if I lost she would be paying the price for eternity, all my friends would.

“What is it about that guy that really grits on me?” I wondered as we were led into a comfortable room. “Wait here, I will be back to take you to the arena in a few minutes.” The servant said with a bow. “He is pretty polite,” I stated.

Ama looked at me and then smiled, “Think of it as job security, if you defeat the Demon Prince you will be in charge. All of the servants and guests will be unfailingly polite to you as no one knows anything about you. Word of what has happened is spreading as we speak, and everyone will be very interested to see who and what you are If you defeat the master of this realm, they will all bow the knee before you.”

“I see, makes sense that you would not want to irritate the new boss. I hope that I am not as big a jerk as the Prince is when I win.” I was really thinking out loud but Ama answered me, “It is a buff that all Princes in Hell have, they use it to cause discord with all who come against them. Fortunately, your strategy did the same thing but on a much stronger scale. I have never seen him so crazed.”

“I want him crazy, so crazy he will not be rational for this duel. If I can keep him from subjectively fighting I have a chance. I think it may be my only chance, I could not see any of his buffs or abilities, and he is so far above my level that I cannot get a read on him at all.” Everyone was looking at me and then Raik spoke, “I have never really thought about it, but your level is not displayed, just what level are you Tor?”

I took a glance at my interface and saw that the character level was grayed out; opening the interface to the level tab I stopped and read what I saw. Fatal exception error, fatal system error, critical error. There were more but I understood the message. Something was wrong with my character and the Ingame server, probably the Vrp was messed up too. I suspected it might have something to do with the fact I was playing a non-playable class. Looking around at my friends I thought for a minute and then told them, “I think I am cursed, I have been stuck at level one for as long as I have been in the realm.”

I wondered how the NPC characters could accept levels and quests and all the other mechanics of gameplay yet still be alive. Heck, I wondered how the hell I have ended up in Hell; none of this had been mentioned in the forums. Still I would not want to change anything, except being tortured blinded and abandoned. That had sucked and payback was coming. Looking at the others I saw them nod and smile at me, cursed or not they would stand with me.

The servant returned, and looking at me introduced himself. “I am the major-domo for the Prince and if you are victorious I hope to fulfill the same role under you, sir. Now if you would follow me,” and with that he led us off. Directing me to stand in front of a door, he told me to go through the door when I heard the trumpets. He also stated that he would take the others to a viewing area and then began to lead them away, Ama grabbed me and gave me a kiss and whispered, “You will win for you and me.”

As I stood there I began to stretch and do some basic warm up moves, I was not sure how Judo would work out for me but it was all I had. After several minutes, I heard the trumpets sounding and then the door opened. I walked out into the arena, looking around I realized that the palace was in the shape of a rectangle with the arena placed in the middle.

There were thousands of Demons sitting in the stands that surrounded the open area. On the far side was Raphael the Demon Prince. Surrounding him were several bodies, clearly his idea of a warm up was not the same as mine. Once he saw me he let out a yell of rage and then spoke to the crowd his voice amplified somehow. “Here now is the puny mortal who has challenged me to the death duel. I will rend his flesh and send his soul back to the universe. I will claim all that is his in this realm and any other under the Laws of Hell.

The crowd began to chant his name over and over in a pulse-pounding mantra. I looked at him as he slowly began to walk towards me. Suddenly, I saw him rush at me, moving faster than any man could move. As he came up to me with his arm raised to strike I grabbed him and put him down with a body drop using Tai Otoshi. I knew he landed hard as his health bar shrunk by a couple of percents points.

Springing up Raphael screamed at me in Demonic and launched himself once again at me, this time, I reached out and grabbing him, I tossed him using an Ippon Seoinage movement. Once again he landed heavily and his health went down another 3 percent. As he climbed to his feet I rushed over towards him and used an Ouchi Gari movement, which put him on his back, once he was down I began to kick him in the head. Three times I kicked him then suddenly there was a Ding and Critical Hit flashed across my interface. He was down to 77 percent of his life bar, and was clearly having a moment of insanity, all I heard were growls coming from him.

As we continued to fight I began to taunt him in the hopes that he would not recover from his rage. I knew that rage was a powerful weapon and could severely hamper the ability of a fighter to be able to think clearly. Suddenly Raphael spun around and grabbed my arm, he began to exert tremendous pressure on it slowly forcing me to the ground. I reached out and grabbed his neck with my left arm and jumped against his chest, wrapping my legs around his. I kicked my heels against the back of his knees catching him by surprise, and as his legs collapsed I dug my thumb under his chin.

As he flailed outwards his right hand connected with my head with enough force to throw me to the side several feet. We both stood up at the same time and prepared to attack again. I noticed that his life was down to 55 percent. Suddenly he began to change to his true demonic form. He now stood at least 8 feet tall with two ebony horns at least 24 centimeters long protruding from his forehead. His hands now ended in talons that were at least 10 centimeters long, and unfurling from his back were wings that as they opened must have stretched out 5 meters on each side.

His face was that of a beast with fangs jutting down from the top of his mouth and a split tongue that darted in and out. His eyes looked like a snakes and he stared at me unblinking. He had become one ugly motherfucker. With a growl he attacked, moving even faster than before. I dived to one side and tried to spin out of his reach but he caught me with one arm and then quickly wrapped both arms around me. He then shifted both hands around my neck and began to choke the life out of me.

Fortunately, my feet were firmly planted on the ground and I managed to thrust both hands up between his arms while spinning around. This managed to break the choke hold, but the razor sharp talons tore my throat leaving deep gashes. As I continued to spin I threw out a kick that managed to land right on Raphael's scrotum and Demonic form or not, no male can withstand a strong kick to the scrotum. As I jumped back I saw his life bar drop once again, and heard the Ding and saw Critical hit flash on my interface.

He was now down to 46 percent life while I was at 77 percent. The problem was Judo was not going to be effective against his Demonic form. I blinked the sweat out of my eyes, we had been fighting for several minutes now and the energy expenditure was huge, I would guess that I had burnt off several thousand calories so far and the fight was far from over. As I looked at Raphael stumbling to his feet I cast Shadows upon myself and then hunkered down. We were fighting in the sand and I knew I would leave footprints if I moved, my hope was that Raphael would not assume that I would remain motionless.

The Prince jumped back once he lifted his head up and saw that I had disappeared and then began to look rapidly all around. I was grateful he had been focused on getting up and not on me or Shadows would not have worked. I began to prepare myself for an attack as he slowly ambled closer, I knew with the 100 percent crit rate while in Shadows I would have only one chance at this.

Once he was within range with his back to me I activated the baseline player attack and jumped onto his back wrapping my legs around his waist as we went down. I put my right arm around his neck and my left arm went under his arm and then I grasped my left wrist with my right arm. As I began to squeeze his neck with all my strength I felt his throat being crushed. Raphael's wings were buffeting wildly about but I was in between them with my legs under them and was not receiving any damage.

After holding the attack for several minutes I became aware that my interface had announced multiple Critical hits and that there was two new windows which had opened. Seeing all this I was still not willing to let the Prince go, I would not assume he was actually dead until I had ripped his head off. Swiftly getting to me feet I shifted my grip and exerting all my power and strength I twisted and pulled, finally detaching Raphael's head from his body. Looking at the first window it announced ,

Realm first

A Human has defeated a Prince of Hell

By the Laws of Hell Tor keeps all that he has killed

All Hail Tor the new Prince of Hell and ruler of this dominion

The second window opened and displayed a series of XP points and levels and attributes only to have several error messages displayed along the bottom. Glancing over at my level it still showed me at level one with the whole thing grayed out. Suddenly Ama was beside me giving me a kiss and the crowd was chanting , Tor, Tor, Tor. The majordomo appeared in the centre of the arena and announced in a magically loud voice, “All of you, bend your knee to the new Prince.”

There was a sudden burning in my right cheek and then Ama spoke, “Tor you have received the mark of a Prince of Hell and then she suddenly bent her knee towards me also. Pulling her up I gave her a kiss and asked, “What is this mark?” Ama lifted her hand and stroked my cheek and then whispered, “it is the same as a tattoo, and it will be with you forever, it announces to all who can recognize it that you are a Prince of Hell.”