Chapter 246: Today is the day

I looked over the lists of tasks I made for myself, checking one more time that everything was ready. The troops had the equipment, the training and with each passing day—more and more impatience for seeing the mortal realm. The generals shared it. The necessity to deal with the organisational troubles like supplying everyone with everything necessary grew insufferable long ago. Oh, the Master of Sin left people who could deal with it in his absence, but often they were unable to decide on things without his word.

I really longed to leave Hell, and the fact that today I won’t felt like a spear in my chest. Damn it! I hated to keep hiding in fear, but there was a reason, a good reason for it.

I took a deep breath and reminded myself that in just one more day, even less—just enough time for my fighters to attack and create the distraction I needed—I will follow them towards the sun. Meanwhile, there was one person I needed to talk with.

There was a feeling in me that lately he had been even less honest with me than before. Maybe it was my paranoia speaking, but as people said—it’s not paranoia if they ARE after your head.

I pulled the magic mirror out of my chest and wiped its surface before staring at my reflection. The same face I once assumed when I took a form of a human, except that I could see my own teeth and skull through the greenish skin.

In a few moments, this ugliness changed with an image of a very different face. This one was as human as they got, though the owner of it wasn’t very human. He smiled at me, at though it looked sincerely enough, I couldn’t dismiss the feeling that there was malice glittering in these dark eyes.

I wanted to tear them out. Eventually… But for now, I bared my teeth back.

“Hello, Devourer! I was expecting your call. Today is the day, is it?” God of Rogues said nonchalantly.

“Yep, exactly. Today is the day… And you are still saying that you can’t invite any more gods to Hell?” I asked, though I knew the answer already.

Just like I expected, God of Rogues shook his head. I began to think that he wasn’t entirely honest about this, though there wasn’t anything I could say about his excuses. “No. Thanks to me, they distrust anyone, which won’t let them unite against you so easily, and isn’t that enough, don’t you think?”

I snorted. They will be united in Heaven, and I could only do the best I could to weaken them until it will be the time to go there. “Fine. Then… hide while you can. I will kill the rest.”

Did I imagine the strange, unnatural stillness on the god’s face for a moment? Another suspicious thing.

“Of course…” God of Rogues said slowly. “In the exchange of not telling them about you.”

“Yes. If you do…” I narrowed my eyes. “I will kill you, even if it will take me eleven more rebirths in the mortal realm. Don’t doubt it. You, gods, shouldn’t have touched me in the first place.”

“I suppose you can say so. The others won’t accept their faults, but we did attack first.” God of Rogues’ smile turned apologetic, but it didn’t soften me. “It’s too late for apologies, but I still want to add something to our… deal… since we’re at it. When your generals come up, I will give one of them my mirror so you could talk with them no matter where you are. Which one I should pick? Maybe the Master of Sin—he looks the smartest.”

This sounded terribly like God of Rogues knew something. I also didn’t believe in the generosity of his intents. I knew that he could track me by my mirror and intended to throw it out as soon as I get to the surface… this was just adding a similar tracker to someone else. In fact, it wouldn’t be a surprise to me if he had them on my demons already. Good thing they weren’t planning on being stealthy.

As for myself, I only had this mirror and the Goddess of Wizards’ book, and Pest had plenty of time to crack their enchantments. What a useful parasite he was with enough EXP as insensitive and a magic contract to force him to follow my orders.

“Better give it to Enforcers. They will need my orders the most,” I said, to not give the lying god any confirmation of whatever was in his head.

I really wanted to see him face to face and to read his thoughts. To see what was on his treacherous mind. One did not trust a traitor.

After this brief conversation was over, I left the modest palace of Dis. My troops already gathered in groups. A thousand of demons, some of them smart enough to lead, most are just brutes. Cunning brutes, at best. But all powerful and eager to see the promised heaven.

Wendigo, with her endless desire to please and to be on top, stood the closest to the front with her squad. Next to her were Enforcers who lead their squad together, and after them were all the others I found in the last weeks.

When I appeared, they all grew so quiet I could hear the wind whirling strands of flamesand over the narrow streets of Dis. Everyone waited for my word. I didn’t want to disappoint.

“My warriors!” I declared, spreading my wings. “Today is the day! The day when you will see the sky you can’t remember anymore! Go forth! Spread havoc and my name! See a god—kill a god! No more of our miserable existence!”

And it didn’t matter that the actual process of teleporting everyone would take hours and drain Pest so hard he’ll threaten to lose consciousness. The demons of my army roared, ready to do everything I said. The gods were lucky neither of them was here now—they’d tear them apart where they stood!