Inside of a certain village, deep within the scorching bowels of Hell, there existed a fragile semblance of order that defied the chaotic essence of the realm, though it felt as unnatural as a flower blooming down here.
All because there was a certain creature who routinely issued orders to the lesser creatures under his dominion. He routinely gave tasks they could scarcely comprehend with their dim, instinct-driven minds, yet the vast chasm in power ensured no rebellion stirred.
For that reason, a ragged group of five imps found themselves dispatched on what passed for a scouting patrol, though in truth it amounted to little more than aimless wandering through the barren wastes, with strict instructions to slaughter any hapless human who dared cross their path.
For some reason, their boss was angry, but the imps were too stupid to grasp the nuances of such emotions, content instead to obey blindly as they always had, for humans were a rare delicacy in these forsaken parts.
As the five imps trudged through the wasteland, a faint, unsettling sound drifted from their right. It was a subtle clink of metal on stone, barely audible over the distant rumble of lava flows, drawing their eyes toward a shallow drop that led down to an obvious lake of bubbling magma.
The imps paused in unison, their ragged breaths halting as they tilted their heads like curious vermin, and after a tense second, another noise followed, sharper this time, a scrape that hinted at movement just beyond the edge, igniting a spark of interest in their otherwise frozen expressions. Their grins didn't change, frozen in perpetual sneers of jagged teeth, but one imp, more eager than the others quickly shuffled forward, its clawed feet kicking up puffs of ash as it approached the lip of the drop, while the rest hung back, their attention sharpening incrementally with each step their companion took.
He came to the small edge, peering down with a low hiss escaping his throat, and as soon as his gaze locked onto whatever lurked below, a massive black sword pierced his throat from below. The piercing kill shot was followed almost instantly by another sword swinging from the side that severed his head clean from his shoulders, reducing the imp to a swirling cloud of ash.
The other imps were stunned, their empty brains struggling to process the visceral horror of what they had just witnessed, and before they could react, another noise rose from behind them, compelling them to whirl around in disorganized panic.
There, they beheld a terrifying existence that instilled more raw terror than even their fearsome boss could evoke, a figure clad in heavy armor that made her seem like a monarch who descended from the darkest pits of this cursed place.
It didn't help that surrounding her were three more terrifying knights, identical in their imposing stature to the ones who had just slain their kin with effortless ease, their midnight-black plates of armor eating any possible light that came from the lave lakes. The imps began to shake violently, their instincts torn between fleeing in abject fear and prostrating themselves before this overwhelming force, as the two knights who had sprung the ambush leaped up from behind the ledge while the three in front of their mistress stepped forward in perfect synchronization, forming an impenetrable wall of steel.
The high ranking demon only said: "Fetch 'em", and the knights dashed forward in a coordinated assault, their black capes billowing like wings as they closed the distance in heartbeats, swords raised high and small shields attached to their arms positioned to deflect any desperate counter.
The remaining four imps, driven by sheer survival instinct amid their confusion tried to dodge the onslaught with frantic scrambles, two of them even attempting to dart between the knights' legs in a pitiful bid to slip past and escape, but before they could gain any ground, a single word sealed their fate.
[Cloutless]
As soon as the skill activation completed, a golden mark materialized on the floor from which chains erupted, each link lashing out and attaching to every imp, yanking them inward toward the center.
The imps collided in a tangled heap at the epicenter, where the chains detonated in a blinding explosion of fire that consumed them whole, their screams cut short as the knights descended upon the inferno without hesitation, their blades slashing through the flames in precise, overlapping arcs that slaughtered the disoriented demons.
[+19,500 XP]
[+4 Souls]
[+1 Imp Horns]
Enochia barely glanced at the floating notification, her expression already souring like she'd bitten into something rotten.
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She dismissed it with a flick of her wrist, not even registering the horn drop, her focus already drifting elsewhere.
In all honesty, she was getting less and less impressed by the EXP these low-tier scrubs were coughing up, and it pissed her off more than it should have, enough that her jaw clenched tight, a low growl rumbling in her throat.
She couldn't believe how utterly bullshit this whole thing was, especially with her own fucking summons staring her in the face like obedient little murder-puppets.
She pulled up one of the knight's status windows, eyes narrowing as the golden text bloomed in front of her.
─────────────────────────────
STATUS:
Name: Knight
Level: 40
Grade: 4
HP: 1,000 / 1,000
MANA: 0 / 0
STR: 10
AGI: 10
VIT: 20
FAI: 0
LCK: 0
DEF: 10
─────────────────────────────
"I mean, these guys are higher level than me," she muttered under her breath, circling one of them slowly, "But they're so much weaker… They were decent, sure, and they've got equipment, which is refreshing as hell. Their swords make them unable to crit or get buffed, but they deal 220 damage flat every swing. That'll chew through trash mobs no problem."
She turned around to glance at the village in the distance, the ramshackle huts and flickering fires clearly visible through the haze, and caught the tail end of a few imps scrambling deeper inside, their scrawny forms vanishing into the main building.
This was exactly what she wanted, to lure them out into the open, away from whatever defenses or traps they might have rigged up in their little shithole settlement, and, ehm, fuck them up proper.
She took a few steps back toward her knights, leaning in close to one and admiring just how utterly badass they looked up close.
She knocked on one of their chestplates a few times and smiled, even though she was pissed.
Then a tick hit her, that familiar eye-twitch of frustration bubbling up from somewhere deep.
The thing that most pissed her off was Cervain… that fucker was now stronger than her, which was fucking BS!
He was tough and utterly unfair to fight for his level. She honestly didn’t think she had ever seen anything to this level of power for such a low level.
“I'm glad he's with me, don't get me wrong. But having a summon who could beat me feels really, really bad. And by the way, it's not even close. I took a look at his level thirty skill, and with his signature ability, his kit is beyond fucking broken. He could solo bosses I'd need a full raid for back home."
She was also equally happy though, because—WOH WOH WOH THEY DIDN'T WASTE TIME AT ALL, DID THEY!
Her head snapped up as movement caught her eye—five, HOLY SHIT, FIVE SPIRITS OF WRATH floating at really, really fast speeds toward them with more than a dozen imps scrambling behind in a chaotic horde.
Her heart began to race, pounding against her ribs like it wanted out, and she giggled, really, really excited about what was gonna happen.
She cracked her knuckles, the sound lost in the approaching roar.
"Alright, boys," she said to her knights. "Round two. Don't hold back."
The knights shifted forward in perfect sync, planting their feet and raising those small, angular shields in front of them.
'Ohhh right,' she thought, a quick spark of realization cutting through the adrenaline haze, 'I forgot to mention this. They've got those cute little shields, and it reduces incoming damage by seventy-five percent if they block it right.'
The Spirits slammed into the line with all the subtlety of falling meteors, molten arms crashing down with enough raw force that sent sparks flying. The knights braced, shields absorbing the hits with deep thuds, but they held and didn't budge an inch.
Enochia leaped up, boots kicking off one knight's shoulder for leverage, soaring just high enough to be fully above them all.
[Cloutless]
Behind the Spirits, that familiar golden mark burned itself into the ash-strewn ground. Chains erupted from it, each one lashing out, wrapping around molten torsos and yanking hard.
The Spirits were dragged backward into the center, colliding in a tangled mess of flailing arms, right before the mark detonated in an explosion of fire.
[450 DMG dealt × 5]
'Holy fuck,' she thought as she landed, watching the flames lick across their charred forms, 'I forgot how badly this hurts them. I've been relying on my chains which suck before level one hundred, but shit, I forgot my other skills were this strong.'
The Spirits staggered, chunks of molten flesh sloughing off like cooling wax.
"Ok guys, fall back—like right now," she barked.
The knights dashed backward in unison, clearing the line of fire without a second's hesitation.
She thrust both hands forward.
[Chains of Nebuchadnezzar]
Four thick chains erupted from her palms in a whip-crack roar, coiling in the air before slamming down onto the dazed Spirits. The impacts crushed in chests, shattered arms, and pulverized whatever passed for spines in those fiery hulks, killing them a lot faster than before.
[110 DMG dealt × 15]
The Spirits didn't even get a chance to scream properly before they burst into swirling ash, notifications pinging in her vision almost as an afterthought.
[+39,500 XP]
[+7 Souls]
[+3 Eye of The Spirit]
[+1 Spiritfire]
[LEVEL UP!]
+2 Stat Points
+10 Souls
[LEVEL UP!]
+2 Stat Points
+10 Souls
She barely registered them, eyes already flicking to the dozen-plus imps still charging in a frantic wave behind where the Spirits had been. Her heart was still hammering, but now it was pure thrill, the kind that made her fingers tingle and her lips curl into a sharp, satisfied smile.
"Alright, trash mobs," she muttered, chains retracting with a metallic slither as she moved her arm. "Your turn."
