In the early morning, I woke up like an alarm clock, right on time.

The 12 dragons of the zodiac stood at attention.

All of them had the emblem of Tiamat, as did I.

I was in over my head, I couldn't understand anything, nothing. I was immersed in another world and tried to look good and show no weakness. But they were demons... They read me like an open book.

I had my squad, but I was part of the 60th legion, the weakest and the fallen, the craziest and the craziest, the craziest and the craziest, uncontrollable, and above all, it was the punishing legion of leaders who had failed, through bad luck or ignorance. Some were misunderstood geniuses and others were complete morons. But they all had one goal: to live and die for their mother, their goddess.

My mentor and master was Demodragon. I had the full powers given to me by my mother, but if I wanted to earn the respect and obedience of this monstrous army, I had to prove myself like any soldier: from the bottom up! It was up to me to climb the ladder. Then I might have something to say and they will listen to me without trying to sabotage my words and distort my orders.

It wasn't an army of chaos for nothing. And a hellish army too.

General HIRRAX, which means anger in draconian was a ruthless infernal dragon. She was frustrated and angry at everyone and anyone all the time.

She couldn't stand that other generals made fun of her for her failures.

She owed her life to Mother who loved her anyway as her rebellious daughter. Her failures and anger amused Mother, because she never gave up and she was always the first to raise her head to find a solution.

The gods and archangels knew her well and rejoiced to see her on the battlefield trying to attack when all her finds were in disarray.

They would spare her every time for fun, to see what other trick she would try in the next battles.

She was a warrior but far from cruel. A mother fanatic and a workaholic.

She was in hell, but I had to astraltralize and join the troops for an inspection. The first impression must always be the best.

Besides, I had no choice! I feared the demodragon snake spider more than anything else. It was my trauma!

I descended into the lava pit in the astral field and joined my 12 dragons at the edge of the crater where Mother was sleeping, engulfed in the infernal lava.

Trumpets sounded and my dragons straightened up and so did I.

I was the same size as them, well a little smaller (20 meters), the astral being a spiritual dimension and not a physical one.

A luminous aura radiated from me next to the others which radiated the dark.

Behind us were thousands of men, orcs, goblins, trolls and all sorts of chaotic creatures, even giant slimes.

The general arrived through a black crack, leading to a maze or an infernal castle carved out of the crater of the giant volcano.

The entire volcano was a fortress.

BLAM

BLAM

BLAM

BLAM.

General HIRRAX!

All shouted IRRR AAAX

IRRR AAAAX!

BLAM

BLAM

BLAM

...were taking every single one of his heavy and determined steps.

She stopped at each dragon and sniffed and inspected them.

"TODAY, I FEEL CHANGE! THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHOW THE OTHER LEGIONS THAT WE ARE THE BEST! WE CAN NO LONGER BEAR THEIR MOCKERY AND CONTEMPT. PROVE TO THEM THAT WE, TOO, ARE AS GOOD AS THE FIRST LEGIONS.

HOW MANY OF YOU REMEMBER THAT? MANY OF OUR COMRADES WERE UNJUSTLY DISGRACED. AND IT IS THANKS TO MOTHER THAT WE ARE STILL ALIVE.

IT IS PROOF THAT WE ARE STILL OF VALUE TO HER. LET'S SHOW THEM SHE WASN'T WRONG! THAT WE, AT LEAST, SHE LOVES US! "NOT LIKE THOSE MONSTERS FROM THE FIRST CIRCLES!"

I was confused... Love? Here?

Maybe through failure and second chances, this legion was different from the others,

Perhaps the least bad in terms of alignment, but certainly bad in military terms.

I was relieving myself of some of that pressure. Besides, Irrax, she was a beautiful red dragon. Very, very beautiful...

Lost in thought, I hadn't seen that she had reached my level.

I reached out and I was very, very scared...

She sniffed at me: "You're new here..."

With her evil eye, she inspected me...

A smile came up to her ears.

"But, but, what have we here...!"

Then she thought and spoke to my red ear

"Mama's boy! What are you doing here? You think you can do anything?"

I kept my head high like in the army, not responding to provocation.

The 12 dragons looked at me and gauged me to see if I was going to become the head of a Turk because I was different.

Irrax: "You feel the soul alive... But... you're alive!!!! You're not a demon...How did you get here? ANSWER!"

Without looking her in the eye, like a sergeant massacre, Demodragon trains me so I don't sully my mother's image with my incompetence.

"General, it is an honor and a joy to serve under you."

Irrax: "HMMPH" but obviously she was delighted with the compliment and her eyes spoke volumes.

She didn't care if I was a dragon, a hydra, a mama's boy... She was proud and stuck to the task at hand.

The 12 zodiacal dragons were relieved that there were no remarks, or criticism, but also disappointed that there was no pain in my person.

She then climbed on a rock above the troops and made a speech

"My friends, family, brothers and sisters, Our Mother and Goddess have just awakened from a long sleep. Events have just taken place. Something has changed and we are active again. You know that by being active we have the chance to rise up in our ranks and aspire to ascend and thus regain our freedom and leave this hell. Few can do it, but as long as we exist, we must persevere again and again and again."

A brief glance, unnoticed by the troops met my gaze which immediately lowered.

The dragons and troops were circling in circles and didn't know what to do.

Everything, everything,

They've tried everything to get back to where they started. for years, centuries of fighting with the forces of Tiamat's Earth and enemy deities.

After her speech, one look was enough for me to know that I had to follow her.

I was alone, terrified, and I sank into the dark corridor. We walked on legs through several rooms with warheaded arches and dimly lit.

There was a platform with rocks covered with glowing trails of cooled lava.

She lay down and invited me to sit in front of her.

"So your name is Ivan... Are you from upstairs, or does mother want to run away?"

Then she closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against my red head...

After a long silence, she laughed: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! They really stank of cabbage?????? ZAAAAR????????? troops. HEIN?????????"

I was shocked by the reverse image she was giving here. She seemed nice.

Then, taking her serious: "Don't kid yourself, black dragon Ivan! We are arch-demon!!!!! But I appreciate your initiative to start from the bottom up.

That's how you'll earn the respect of your troops. If they can trust you, they'll die for you because you're you and not because your mommy told them to.

Ah, you want to know if I'm as rough as Demodragon????

Yes, I'm worse, but I don't draw strength from slaughtering innocents. I'm weak because I don't eat souls, but that weakness is also my strength (and that's also why the gods have spared me many times in my successive defeats).

I felt that we were going to get along well... I had a war fanatic in front of me but I preferred that to a child devourer.