Sen had to give it to the elves. Unlike the manlings, they kept their lairs clean.Their flying city was a treat for the eyes, with shiny white stone and marble statues which Sen thought would look great on his hoard. He promised himself to return for groceries after recovering his princesses.Gargoyles with forks patrolled the city's ramparts, unable to see Sen nor the cattle-riding knight. She too had turned transparent, although the dragon could smell her just fine. “The invisibility will trick lesser fiends, but neither Maure nor his elite guard,” Kia the knight whispered. “I wonder why the city is so lightly defended, though. It’s usually so full of demons our spies can’t even approach it.”“I can smell many fiends nearby,” Sen said, humming and looking for his meal. The flight had made him hungry, and he had gotten used to demon flesh. He flew toward the source of the scent, some kind of flying port, with a great metal bird nesting in the middle.…That was a big, big metal bird

As it turned out, Charlene had been right. Kyle did end up in Hell after all.It was a horrible place, but not for the reasons Kyle had expected.Hell was a fiery, brimstone cave, like the religions of Earth foretold; but they had moved away from burning souls and into new, more inventive forms of punishment. On one side, Kyle noticed row after row of captive humans bound to chairs in front of a large mirror, forced to watch some kind of horribly acted, medieval reality TV show. On the other side, other damned souls fashioned tiny, hand-held mirrors reminding the adventurer of mobile phones’ screens, while being whipped by imps.Kyle would have loved nothing more than free those poor souls from their eternal torment, had he not been surrounded by insectoid fiends. Three dozen of the creatures looking like thinner, moth-like cousins of Malfy pointed sharp, poisoned spears at him.One figure, however, differed from the others and looked at Kyle with pupilless blue eyes. A hybrid creatur

For the first time in his thousand year long life, Sen realized dragons could feel pain.The elf rose out of the dust, but he was no longer an elf. The walking cattle had transformed into a white and golden humanoid moth, with jet black wings and a mouthless face. A red wing grew below his left arm, replacing the cloth, and the sword now shone like the sun. With a swirling movement, he cast Sen’s saliva off of him, sparkles on his skin.“A true Matador’s pride is unbreakable!” the bug buzzed, with the demons’ cheers becoming deafening.His eyes set on the crimson wing, and his fiery breath turned to hot air.Faster than Sen’s eyes could follow, the moth dashed at him and sliced the dragon’s chest. The emperor’s world briefly turned white from the pain, and he collapsed on his back with a loud sound, blowing off dust all over the arena.Massive damage!You have lost half your HP!He… he was being matched? By an elf?They eat grass!“You are no emperor, Sen! Thou art a beast, fit only t

Sen ignored her, as one of the hounds he poked to death collapsed into smoke, leaving behind a pile of gold. The dragon immediately pulverized a second one with a fireball, eager for more treasure. “Minion!” he called to Manling Kyle, who had managed to fend off his own opponent with his scythe. “Quick, grab my gold!”“Your Majesty, I think we should listen to Kia!”“Minion, a true Emperor does not run!” Sen replied as he finished off the last of the fairy hounds with a stomp, and a cloud’s shadow began to cover the area. “What should I fear?”Manling Kyle raised a finger at the skies, Sen following it.The giant metal bird flew high above the arena, casting it in its immense shadow. Strange, spear-shaped iron talons pointed at them, while the left wing let out some smoke. “Sen!” The voice of the moth elf came from the iron bird, the dragon noticing him through the beast’s window eye. “You have slighted Brandon Maure long enough!”Sweet, the moth had come back to die. “I will slight y

Chocolatine rolled her eyes. Damning souls and working for a lich was fine, but cannibalism wasn’t? What was the logic behind that? “I will give you a homeless inquisitor if I find one, but they are getting rarer. Or a gnoll. Do you imps eat gnolls?”The imp nodded with energy, Chocolatine making a mental note to ask Jules for leftovers. She put the sugar, baking powder, and some of the strawberries Rolo gave her last week into her basket, then moved to the pens outside her ranch to milk her cow, Raisin, harvesting three bottles. She took a second to oversee the pigs’ pen; unlike that prickly imp, they gladly accepted demon meat, growing fatter and gaining tiny horns. With further animal husbandry, she would create a new breed of demon pigs who could sustain the village.People thought her odd, but that was because she cared. As a priestess of Isengrim, it was her role to maintain the balance of nature, and a village full of carnivorous monsters presented unique problems she had to so