"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!" said Ashtoreth. "That does sound strong."

For the last half hours, the four of them had sat round the living room and discussed Ashtoreth's potential aspects while Kylie's tunes played on her battery-powered stereo. The conversation was being dominated almost entirely by Dazel, who had been relentlessly petitioning for [Spellcasting].

They were tired. All of them were mostly slumped in their seats, heads leaning back on the cushions. Dazel was in Ashtoreth's lap. It had been a long day, but also a long week. She understood the desire for a little rest.

Hunter was absent. He'd told them he intended to spend the night with his family; Kylie suspected he'd finally found Sadie.

"Look," said Dazel, pointing with his tail. "Just look at those stats."

Ashtoreth had written her relevant data on the wall—her stats when she was wielding Luftschloss, along with some additional, utilitarian notes.

Ashtoreth is Stronk!

Level: 447

[Dexterity]: 7,576

[Strength]: 10,401

[Vitality]: 10,150

[Magic]: 7,612

[Psyche]: 4,595

[Defense]: 14,203

[Bloodfire]: 264,035 / 264,035

Stats per level: {+15 DEX | +15 STR | +19 VIT | +15 MAG | +8 PSY | +10 DEF}

Ashtoreth looked at the data and sighed appreciatively. It wasn't even a good representation of how strong she really was—soon enough she'd add her [Strength] to her [Magic] with one of her fused armaments.

"Say," she began, "you think when I get my S rank class upgrade, the system will just be like, 'Hit the tilde key to access the debug menu,' and I can just despawn all my enemies before we go home and call it day? That feels like a reasonable next step in my power progression."

"Nah," said Dazel. "If you want to be that overpowered, you've got to choose the right aspect."

She gave him a wry look. "Which is [Spellcasting]?"

"Definitely," Dazel said. "Imagine what you could get done with a half [Magic], half [Defense] [Bloodfire Boon] that was getting doubled along with your [Devoured Flesh] and [Power Tap] buffs," he said. "That's just one spell, boss."

"It does sound nice," she said. "Look, I'm not ruling out spellcasting—but we've got to try and fill the list of potential aspects with good options, not just pick one."

"I still think you should angle for [Sacred]," said Frost.

Dazel let out a groan of frustration.

"But let's not go over the whole conversation again," said Frost, looking down at the cat with clear exhaustion.

As much as Dazel was against it, Frost had made a good argument in its favor. If it were at all even possible for Ashtoreth to take [Sacred], it would obviously be incredibly strong against Hell, but also potentially provide additional resistance against sacred damage.

As far as Ashtoreth knew, the vulnerability to sacred was one of the only things that creatures across the cosmos could count on to reliably harm an archfiend. There was a certain appeal in the idea that if Heaven attacked again, they might rely on the weakness that anyone would—only to find out that it was, in fact, her highest resistance.

But it was unclear to her whether she could even be offered the aspect, let alone if it was likely. Her hellfire was still profane in nature—shouldn't that disqualify her? And there was also no real reason to assume that Heaven didn't know about [Archfiend of Humanity] and the potential it offered.

"I still think it was good idea," Ashtoreth said. "Plus, I mean—it's [Sacred]. Me, running around with [Sacred]? That would be nuts."

"Yeah, sure, your dad would totally freak," Dazel said dismissively.

"[Minion]," Kylie said. She was resting her head against the back of the couch with her eyes closed. "Just sayin.'"

It had been her only suggestion. Despite her seeming disinterest, it was a suggestion that showed she had at least put some thought into it—Ashtoreth's [Hellfire Elemental] was a fairly powerful advancement just by itself. Sure, they were fragile against the right kinds of damage… but the fact was that they were also living, reclaimable packets of healing, mana, dispels, and [Energy Drain]—and they gained power from her aura, which they were permanently affected by on account of the fact that they were made of hellfire.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Staying ahead of their enemies in the days to come would involve travelling the cosmos, not only to grow in power but also to disrupt the plans of their enemies. Conjuring an army of hellfire elementals to spread chaos amongst their enemies before feeding them to her [Hellfire Nova] had a certain attractiveness to it.

Ashtoreth and Frost had both been willing to consider [Protection], but she was surprised to find that Dazel didn't even consider that one to be a good decision.

"How about a debuff clear?" Dazel said. "Momentary invulnerability? Actually, scratch both of those."

"Really?" she asked. "They sounded nice."

"How about a debuff to enhance your [Energy Drain]? One that makes it undispellable."

"Sounds like just what I need," she said. "But so has all of this. Dazel… you're kind of just making up abilities."

"That's because that's what spellcasting is!" he said, groaning again as he rose into the air and pressed himself against the ceiling. "You just make stuff up! It's more expensive and takes longer to do because it's custom, but it's still custom."

"Sounds pretty good," she said, smiling. "But."

Dazel groaned and began to roll around on the ceiling as if he were in pain.

"What if I got a [Warp] aspect?" Ashtoreth asked. "The chance that I'll be ranging out from the Earth to pre-empt our enemies and stay ahead of the level curve is high. With [Warp], I won't get outmaneuvered hopping worlds."

Dazel sighed. "It's good," he said. "You're right; it's good. [Warp]. But spells, Ashtoreth. If only you could feel their power. I don't get it—aren't you an archfiend?"

"Depends on the outcome of my answer, now," she said. "If being an archfiend has a good outcome, then yes. Otherwise—"

Dazel groaned. "My point, boss, is that you love hierarchies. Why can't you just put [Spellcasting] at the top of the hierarchy? It's the natural, inevitable conclusion of your entire build. Throwing all this spellpower around in the form of open flames…."

"I dunno," she said. "Hoods don't go so well with my hair."

"What."

"Witch hats are nicer, but you can't get fancy with brim posing because you've gotta cut holes for your horns and so the hat doesn't rotate."

Dazel took a deep breath as he floated down into her lap. "Okay," he said. "I can see that I'm being trolled, but I don't even care at this point. "Just… superpositional temporary duplication. I can probably even let your two halves conjure separate weapons before selection."

"Hmm," Ashtoreth said, reaching up to stroke her chin. "Yes. Perhaps."

Dazel glared at her. "To explain what that means," he said acidly. "The spell will momentarily duplicate you by dividing your power in a sophisticated way that leaves you with your old maneuverability but not your old firepower. After a few moments, you have to pick which of your halves will reclaim all your power and become the real you—the other one disappears."

"Poor other Ashtoreth."

"They're both you, boss. You don't have to kill your twin."

Ashtoreth's stomach lurched suddenly downward. She felt a wounded, almost confused expression come over her face.

In her mind's ear, she heard a distant tune…

"—Small attacks would be fine," Dazel was saying. "But a strong attack like a [Mighty Blow] or a shot from your cannon would definitely cause you to converge on whichever duplicate released it and end the spell. But that still leaves you with the option of setting up two such attacks before your opponent—"

"You okay, Sunshine?" Kylie asked suddenly.

"Mm?" Ashtoreth said, raising her head.

"You look like you went to space for a second," Kylie said. "And hated it."

"I'd like space, though…." she murmured.

"Uh—Ashtoreth?" Kylie asked, voice now filled with unconcealed concern.

Dazel floated into the air before her, then frowned at her face. "What did I—oh." His voice fell. "Oh. Hey, boss, I'm sorry. I didn't think."

"I know," she said, staring past him. "It's okay."

"What did he say?" Kylie asked.

You don't have to kill your twin.

"It doesn't matter," she said. She pressed her head into the back of the chair. "Just another reason to wish I knew how to hurt my father. Maybe the best reason. At least for me."

The room was quiet for a moment. "Do you want to talk about it?" Frost asked.

No.

"Ngh," Ashtoreth said. "I don't know. I just wish… I don't know." When nobody responded for a few seconds, she went on. "I was having fun trolling Dazel," she said. "And then he barely said anything… and it ruined the whole moment." She closed her eyes, feeling the weight of week's exhaustion on her like a sudden wave. "And it should have, I suppose." Then she opened her eyes and smiled. "But I don't want to throw myself a pity party. Maybe it's time for bed."

"Hold on," Frost said as she moved to stand. "Are you sure, Ashtoreth? You don't want to talk about it at all?

She looked at him, then looked away and shrugged. "Nothing makes a difference," she said. "What happened, happened."

"All right," Frost said softly. "Just as long as you know that you don't have to try and keep things happy and upbeat when you're sad. A neither of us would judge you for anything you did growing up."

Ashtoreth sighed. "Thanks. But I don't even think there's anything to say." She stood.

Frost nodded, seeming troubled. "Maybe I should warn you, too, then."

"About what?"

"I'm fairly certain Matthews intends to give you a thorough interview about your father. There was some talk this afternoon about how all the information we passed around contained almost nothing about our principal adversary—your father."

Ashtoreth sighed. Perfectly understandable, of course. "Yeah, that figures."

"I didn't think anything of it earlier," he said. "But if he's a touchy subject for you…."

Ashtoreth sighed again, her wings going a little limp as she hung her head. "I still have to tell everything they want to know," she said.

"Probably for the best," Frost said sympathetically.

She groaned. "All right. Fine. But if I've got to talk to strangers about it, I'm talking to my friends first. Who wants a story?"

"Not me," said Kylie. "Not unless you actually want to tell it."

Ashtoreth smiled. It sounded negative… but Kylie was actually being supportive. "I do," she said simply. "There's only one thing that haunts me, really… and this story isn't that. But maybe it'll go some ways toward explaining things."

"You sure about this?" Dazel asked, nuzzling her chest. "I mean, your dad…"

"Yeah," said Ashtoreth, looking up at her human companions. "About my dad…"

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