“Dear Almighty,” Ashtoreth said, hands clasped before her. “Please make sure I get a [Sacred] aspect in my upcoming advancements so that I can destroy infernals and protect myself from angels.”
From where he hovered beside her, Dazel groaned. “That’s not how that works, boss.”
Ashtoreth briefly opened her eyes to shoot him a sidelong glare, th...
2025-06-19 03:05:08 +0000 UTC View PostIt was over.
Ashtoreth had done the math.
For one thing, Hunter was on standby to rescue her if anything went wrong.
For another, Morax Tol, who had clearly not done the math, was utterly outmatched despite his higher levels.
He was a spellcaster. Still a dragon, of course, and still theoretically a terrifying, many-limbed beast armed with jaws, tail, wings and ...
2025-06-19 03:03:43 +0000 UTC View PostAshtoreth filled the air in front of them with hellfire, her own flames negating those of the dragon and giving them a small pocket of space within which they could stand unharmed.
Frost’s minigun whirred as he landed beside her, producing a stream of pale blue shots that he focused on Morax Tol’s head, where they cut into the oncoming stream of white fire to collide harmlessly with h...
2025-06-17 07:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostMorax Tol hissed, then lunged toward her to unleash a flurry of incredibly fast blows.
Apparently she’d offended him.
Ashtoreth threw herself backward, avoiding the claws that came at her from both sides. She and Morax Tol both knew that while he might not be able to deal a physical blow strong enough to kill her outright, the fight would be over as soon as he got a hold of her or...
2025-06-16 06:07:16 +0000 UTC View PostGet up here, she said to Dazel. This might be it.
Wind rushed by her as she sped through the air to meet the white comet. She conjured as many hellfire javelins as she could, launching each of them into the comet’s trajectory with the hope that her flames would degrade the spell.
Then, once she was close enough, she launched her sword using a [Mighty Stri...
2025-06-14 07:19:19 +0000 UTC View PostThe scene flashed before Ashtoreth’s eyes in the half-second that she spent flying through the air: a meteor golem standing before a member
The scene flashed before Ashtoreth’s eyes in the half-second that she spent flying through the air: a meteor golem standing before a member of Alpha Team, both arms coming down to crush the armored soldier on the ground in front of it.
She s...
2025-06-12 05:44:40 +0000 UTC View PostPhysically, Wanderschloss wasn’t a compromise between the massive greatsword and the scythe whose advancements it was combining. As much as Ashtoreth liked the idea of exotic, fancy weaponry, she didn’t have time to learn how to use some bizarre fusion of the two weapons’ physical forms.
Instead, Wanderschloss took the same form as her greatsword had, but with a fe...
2025-06-12 05:19:59 +0000 UTC View PostAshtoreth knew that before the invasion, humans had relied on machines to wage war. She’d always loved the raw, industrial look of tanks and planes and gun emplacements.
But she’d underestimated just how much materiel the humans could put forward.
The day of their campaign had arrived, and she was standing atop the dark metal exterior of one of their captured bastions. ...
2025-06-10 06:17:32 +0000 UTC View PostThe forces of Hell had long since been whittled down to the point where Ashtoreth was no longer needed in hunting them out. She simply didn’t do as good a job as the teams of humans using divinations spells did, and it was a better use of time to have her train and prepare herself for the fight ahead.
She normally went to bed and woke up late, and had told the humans that sleeping throu...
2025-06-09 05:19:44 +0000 UTC View Post“Look, boss…”
Ashtoreth waited, watching. From where he sat atop her knees, Dazel’s eyes almost seemed like two glowing points of light in the dark.
“I’m tired,” he said. “I spoke without thinking. I really didn’t mean anything by it.”
“You’re right about the first two things,” she said acidly. “Dazel—this has gone on long enough.”
A flick...
2025-06-09 05:17:56 +0000 UTC View Post“In the eyes of Hell," Matthews said, "we will be launching an attack against Fallen Harana with the intent of seizing its monarchy, sealing it off, and then liquidating its infernal population for cores while we plunder its coffers for all the resources we can take. And in the eyes of Hell, this attack must fail.”
“They don’t know about the Eldunari post, do they?” Ashtoreth as...
2025-06-08 05:37:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe weeks that followed were filled with training, crafting, questioning, and preparations.
Ashtoreth was publicly acknowledged and supported by the various world leaders and still-functioning media, even if this was just to assuage people’s worries after they’d gotten a message declaring an archfiend the Monarch of Earth.
In a bit of gamesmanship that she had to admire, most me...
2025-06-08 05:34:41 +0000 UTC View PostAshtoreth sat in her chair, practically sprawling, and stared at the ceiling. She wove a claw through the air to conjure the glamour of a long-stemmed wooden pipe packed with a flavorful medley of skingrasses, lit it, then took a puff and blew a smoke ring.
“The King of Hell is untouchable,” she said. “And you don’t need to spend your entire life hearing that he’s beyond the pow...
2025-06-05 05:53:55 +0000 UTC View Post“Okay, I’ve got another one,” Dazel said.
Ashtorteh yawned. “Hit me with it.”
“A buff flare,” he said. “A nice, juicy buff flare. I could probably give you a few seconds of double stats from all your buffs. Counting your [Power Tap], we’re talking… absurd stats. You could break twenty-thousand in any stat you want, easily.”
“Wow!” sai...
2025-06-05 05:38:58 +0000 UTC View PostHours later, Ashtoreth appeared in a grassy field with a burst of light, then began to stretch.
“That’s it,” she said, watching as she was awarded an avalanche of low-level cores from the bastion she’d just destroyed. “Time to call it.”
“Good call, boss,” Dazel said, yawning. “I was getting real sick of your constant overworking. It’s not easy, being the familiar...
2025-06-04 07:05:30 +0000 UTC View Post[Archfiend of Humanity]
+1 DEX, +1 STR, +1 VIT, +1 MAG, +1 PSY, +1 DEF
You become [Human] in addition to your current race. Instead of gaining your next level, you will be allowed to choose a fourth aspect to add to your class.
You lose all vulnerability to sacred damage and effects.
Any effect w...
2025-06-03 04:53:18 +0000 UTC View Post{Choose a Class Upgrade}
{You will add the listed stat bonuses to your current class. Your current class’s tier will increase one step.}
{You may forgo upgrading your class to gain 32 levels and be offered a different set of options the next time you get an opportunity to upgrade.}
[Bloodfire Spellgorger] 2025-06-02 19:26:28 +0000 UTC View Post
The monarchy menu was more complicated than anything else the system had ever put to her, far more so than any readout of her stats or abilities.
It began with a simple statement.
{You are the Monarch of Earth}
• You count Earth as your only native realm
• Any native of Earth who kills you will become Monarch of Earth 2025-06-02 02:29:33 +0000 UTC View Post
{You cannot consume any more of your held cores. Their power is too low to advance you.}
{DING! You gain 95 levels. You are now level 447.}
{You gain 1140 DEX, 1140 STR, 1710 VIT, 1330 MAG, 665 PSY, 665 DEF}
{Reaching level 360 has granted you advancement. Choose one of your progression paths other than [Hellfire].} 2025-06-01 07:50:54 +0000 UTC View Post
I did it, Ashtoreth thought.
For a few seconds, she just stared up at the arena around her as the red ether that had once been War drifted through the air around her, fading. Slowly, a smile came over her face.
“I did it,” she whispered.
Earth was saved, for now.
It had taken more than a year, but at long last she was standing in the place that she’d been ...
2025-05-29 05:35:41 +0000 UTC View PostAshtoreth watched the horse screech and burn below her as her elemental darted toward it.
That was the thing about hellfire: it was costly in terms of [Mana], but burns were some of the most difficult injuries to regenerate from, so comprehensively did they destroy flesh.
The Horsemen’s horses didn’t do sacred damage, either, instead simply functioning as physic...
2025-05-13 05:01:25 +0000 UTC View PostDazel leapt into the air and soared away from her as soon as the fight began.
War’s horse bounded into the air at an angle.
Ashtoreth ran perpendicular to war, conjuring her cannon into her hands a moment before she saw his own assault rifle coalesce in his hands. She raised her weapon, and he began to move, running in a line and doubtless ready to leap into the air the moment he ...
2025-05-07 10:26:48 +0000 UTC View PostWar’s first duel was about as interesting as Ashtoreth had expected it would be. Pretty much all of the humans were using guns, and in the first few moments of battle it became clear that the human didn’t have the stats to pierce War’s armor and defensive spells with their weapon. After that, it was over: they dodged War’s colossal sword as it sped through the air to explode at their lo...
2025-05-07 08:46:32 +0000 UTC View Post“Well that was kind of embarrassing, if you ask me,” said Ashtoreth. “That poor Russian fellow didn’t even get a chance to show us what he’s got.”
She’d tried to glamour everyone some popcorn and foam hands since they were in the stands, but Frost had been adamant that her usual performativity was unsuited to a human deathmatch, and so she’d held off on the glamors.
...
2025-05-05 06:38:46 +0000 UTC View PostAshtoreth rose into the air, scanning the seats that rose around the arena. They were almost completely empty, except for some scattered groups of a few people each.
She tried to find War. She wanted to fix him with an intense stare before she was warped away.
But she didn’t find him quickly enough. The world darkened, rushing away from her before she was standing once again in th...
2025-05-05 06:03:24 +0000 UTC View PostHer [Bloodfire] began to drain immediately as she leapt into the air. Famine’s horse moved away from him at an odd angle, apparently intent on performing the pincer maneuver that all their horses were so fond of.
Famine raised his scales with one hand and held the other up, palm-out. Just as it had with his warp-blocking spell, a smokey ripple of energy emanated outward...
2025-05-05 05:18:45 +0000 UTC View Post“You know what I think would have been more fair?” Ashtoreth said. “If, in consideration of how badly the System robbed us when it cut us off before the demiplane exploded, it made War and Famine fight each other.”
“That would have been nice,” Dazel said. “But alas. It was not to be.”
The clock was ticking down. With only minutes until the fight would begin, there wa...
2025-05-05 04:46:39 +0000 UTC View Post{DING! You gain 7 levels. You are now level 352}
{You gain 84 DEX, 84 STR, 126 VIT, 98 MAG, 49 PSY, 49 DEF}
{Reaching level 350 has granted you advancement. Choose one of your progression paths other than [Hellfire].}
Ashtoreth leaned her head back and sighed. “This is brutal,” she said. “You’re absolutely killing me, ...
2025-05-01 08:24:13 +0000 UTC View Post“Quiet!” Ashtoreth said suddenly, freezing and spinning toward the large doorway that seemed to lead deeper into the hotel.
“What—”
“Shhh!” she hissed.
She’d been dancing in the lobby for the past minute or so, doing little more than trying to dissolve her thoughts and clear her head for the battles she knew were to come.
But then she’d heard s...
2025-05-01 07:48:51 +0000 UTC View PostAshtoreth stared at the system text, for a moment uncomprehending.
Then, comprehending, she swore.
“Heaven above!” she wailed. “The cores!”
She brought up a list of her current cores to see that her suspicion was correct: while the bastion had only seconds left before its spatial fabric would implode, that was an eternity when outside normal time. A few second...
2025-05-01 07:29:14 +0000 UTC View Post