Chương 6: Chapter 5 - Leaderless

It was a good thing that Mishael was still able to beat me in a 1 v 1. I'm not sure what I would have done if he hadn't been able to. Throw a fight against the [Hero]? Yeet myself off the great central mountains? It was an interesting problem that I could count the number of things that had the power to kill me on a single hand… though that was just in Placeholder proper. There was an entire dimension full of beings that I could have gone to if I had deigned to remember their existence.

Excerpt from my journal As soon as I died, it was like a weight was lifted. Phew. I thought. I knew that despair form was rough, but I don't think I realized quite how bad it was. My thoughts felt clear once more, and I was ready to determine my next plan… after I saw how things shook out from Mishael utterly annihilating me in front of my army. [Scry] Hysteria. I ordered the scrying array.

I looked at the shapeshifted madness demon, who was fleeing in terror from the host of angels cutting down any demon too slow to escape.

I wonder how much of that is from them watching their leader get wrecked and how much is from that "morale" penalty. I asked as I looked at the System message that had just been sent. System: The Demon Lord has been slain! The realm will have relative peace for the next 50 years. Demon morale will be reduced for the duration I watched Mishael cut three demons in half with a single swing and whistled internally. And how much is just from Mishael himself.

I never bothered to learn what I was dealing with when I fought him, but it wasn't too late. I cast an [Appraise] on him. Status Name Mishael Level 25 Race Archangel HP 2493/3000 MP 0/1000 SP 4254/5000 Hmm. Stats are almost the same as Anger's, but he's got way more MP… which is bottomed out. I wonder if that [Judgment of the Light] used MP? It seemed like a decent guess since his sword was still flaming, and he was still flying, and I couldn't think of anything else he did that could have used up that resource.

Next, I used my skill to take a look at his weapon. Lightbringer The named weapon of the archangel. It deals extra damage to demons Materials Angelium Tier Masterwork Base Damage 25 sla V Damage Scaling 1 per 3 Enchant Holy Enchant Demon-bane Wow. A damage tier of 5? I attempted to shake my nonexistent head in amazement. No wonder he was cutting through my armor like butter. And that's before those enchants… That made me momentarily curious. Demons had demonite, which made the weapon infernal…

or I guess, black mithril could also do it… and caused anybody who used it to take fire damage continuously. I assumed that the "holy" enchant must have done something similar but with holy damage. As I watched the angels hunt down the rest of my army and slay them with no mercy, I continued pondering those two unique metals. So, I'm betting that angelium is in Heaven, demonite is in Hell. I started with the "no duh" statement.

Angelium is useless to me since I don't want a metal that burns me with holy damage, but I wonder if I can get my hands on some demonite? The reason I wanted some demonite was to get a replacement for Insurance. While my fists were still my best weapon, I was grudgingly coming to the conclusion that I needed something strong enough to take a hit from Mishael. Thus, my plans to get some demonite and make my own sword…

after I found a higher-level [Weaponsmith] who could finish it for me so that I wouldn't be stuck with a rinky-dink minor sword from only having 3 levels in that class. I belatedly wished that I had Thorgrala teach me more about [Weaponsmithing] back when I apprenticed under her, but I had to face the fact that she probably wasn't too much higher level than me. Armor had been her passion. She didn't make time for much else aside from her passion.

So, I was back to the conundrum of how to get a weapon that could stand up to an archangel. Except… do I even need to fight Mishael ever again? I asked myself. I was in a waiting game for Admin to get back, so I figured I could leave all the angel-fighting to him. I wonder how long it will be before- I was jarred out of my thoughts by loud cheering on the [Scry]. I turned my attention back to it and saw that not a single demon was left. Oof. I thought. I'm glad they respawn.

If not, Admin would probably be ticked when he got here, and all of his forces were dead.

"Host of Heaven, our work here is complete!" Mishael shouted.

"Return until we are needed once more!" And with that, all the angels vanished. Huh. I thought as I watched. I'd wondered how Admin planned to conquer all the world with angels always being there to meddle with it, but that explains at least a bit. The angels aren't always here. Is that just a limitation of their nature? Is there only so long they can stay? I continued thinking. Also, they didn't even show up until that group of [Paladins] asked for help… I realized something else. Power-wise, angels are stronger.

But, Admin is way stronger than them. I remembered the level difference. Level 50 was no joke. So, if I had to guess at his plan, it's probably to just wreck all the angels solo, enslave the world, and then keep anyone from having enough… faith? I guess?... to call out to them for help again. I mentally frowned. At level 50, that would probably work. That also meant that if he ever figured out my actual goals, I would be in for a long string of respawns. Oh well. Burn that bridge when we get to it, and stuff.

I thought. I moved my [Scry] back over to my castle. I had one more thing that I was curious about before I started using the fast-forward button. Looks like we have a lot of imps already respawned, but not very many bigger monsters or demons. Respawn rate must be lower the higher level you are. I surmised. Oh yeah… The respawns… I did warn Gram about that, right? They aren't going to be blindsided if the named demons all respawn and then decide to go on their own raids, are they?

I [Scried] around for several hours and fast-forwarded through the middle of the night until I finally found what I was looking for. Gram's high command. They were arguing about whether or not to believe the content of the note I'd left them, and thankfully the more cautious heads prevailed. That was probably because it wasn't that much of a stretch for respawning demons to be a thing since they had dealt with a respawning [Demon Lord] for half a millennium.

The only problem was that they didn't know how long they had before the demons would be back. So, they sent off a team of [Scouts] to determine spawn times and when the next raid would be coming. I followed that group around with my [Scry] and went with anywhere from 10 to 100X speed as I followed along. I didn't have to wait that long to get my first surprise. They rode horses up until they got to the mountain pass that went into the ashlands, and then they dismounted.

That made me curious enough to put things back to 1X speed.

"I wish we could ride the whole way," one [Scout] complained.

"Don't we all," another grumbled as he fitted a cloth over his face.

"But the horses won't go, so we gotta just leave 'em behind." The others followed suit, left the horses with a pair of [Scouts] that stayed behind, and headed west. So that's why there was no heavy cavalry when we fought in the ashlands. I realized. Kinda hard to have cavalry without horses… Huh. From there, it was just a matter of fast-forwarding until they got within range of my castle… which they never actually did.

They stopped, climbed one of the mountains that encircled the place, and then set up a camp out of sight from the castle. I expected them to bust out something like that huge scrying mirror their [General] had, but they shocked me again by pulling out spyglasses first to take a mundane look at things from afar.

"Reporting in," one [Scout] spoke into an artifact.

"Respawn of lesser demons, designation imp, and designation hell hound, confirmed. Continuing with magical surveillance." The mirror they pulled out wasn't near the size that the [General] had, but I suppose they couldn't just hand those things out willy-nilly. After they got things dialed in, I got to see a picture of the inner courtyard of my castle.

"Confirming respawn of wrath demons. Demons of other types appeared to be back in lower numbers," the [Scout] continued.

"Acknowledged," came the reply.

"Wait there until you have confirmed the enemy's next movements." So, the wrath demons are just respawned now because they died first, right? I thought as I pulled my own [Scry] into the castle. Hmm. That means their respawn timer is at least a few weeks long, and the one for named demons is even longer. I mentally shrugged. Well, let's fast-forward through that, then.

With my capped level in [Temporus] and moderate level in [Spatial-Temporus], I was able to make some pretty fine adjustments with the temporal controls. I could jump forward by any increment of time I wanted. An hour, a day, a week, a month. Any option I wanted was available. I also found something else useful as I continued spamming days waiting for the important demons to respawn. Can't I just set a trigger to stop it when one of them respawns? System: Peak Temporus skill detected.

Activating Instantaneous Skip to Trigger System: Error. Trigger ill-defined. Please provide additional details Now we're in business! I mentally grinned. I figured Anger was the first to die, so I might as well set the trigger to him. Fast forward until Anger respawns. I commanded the interface. Time skipped ahead instantly, and I watched Anger stumble out of the portal.

"Leaders, meeting!" he bellowed immediately. As all the others, excluding Hysteria, slowly joined him in my throne room, I realized I had made a mistake. Anger was tied for the highest-level demon I had. That meant that he had the longest respawn time. Oh well. I mentally shrugged. I can at least get an upper bound. What day is it? [Get Date]. System: Current Date is June 7th, Year 1 Age of Darkness Wait. Age of what now? I asked as I stared at the prompt in confusion.

I hadn't cast that spell since I had opened the gate, and that much was obvious. Well… Assuming that the "age of darkness" started with year 0 when I opened the gate in the middle of last year, that would put the respawn timer at about a year. I thought. Pretty harsh by video game standards. But not anywhere near as bad as 50. I could have griped about my own respawn timer, but I decided not to. I remembered… no…

the false memories that were given to me as an NPC clearly showed that there were plots in many different games and anime where the demon lord would only respawn once every millennium or so. However, that meant I had to trust the memories implanted in me, which soured my attempt at having a positive outlook on things. Fortunately, I had a meeting to watch to take my mind off all that.

"Still no sign of him?" Anger growled to start things off.

"No! And as your leader, I-" a tiny demon, barely larger than an imp, started. The club that crushed him into dust was as quick as it was nonchalant.

"No," Spite finally replied.

"He's not here, or whatever."

"That doesn't make sense," Anger grumbled to himself.

"He wasn't down there, so where could he be?"

"And you're totally sure that he wasn't?" Spite asked.

"The imps could have missed or-""I checked myself!" Anger roared.

"He wasn't anywhere in Hell!" There was silence for a bit.

"So…" Tiredness yawned.

"What do we do, then?" Anger gave a frown… which slowly turned into a grin.

"I guess if the [Demon Lord's] not here, that would put me in charge, now wouldn't it?" There were gulps and a tinge of nervous laughter around the room.

"And so, my first order, we march!" he bellowed.

"No time to waste! This time the mortals will not stand against us!"

"But Anger," Avarice interjected with wide eyes.

"Hysteria has not finished respawning yet. Surely we should wait for-""Then I guess I'm in charge of the madness demons for now as well," Anger grinned.

"And this time, they will go first. I won't underestimate those pathetic mortals again." He spat as he finished. Well, frick. I thought as I watched the demons ready for war once more. I wasn't sure how the Placeholder army would do against them after being depleted so much the first time around… and I was even less optimistic because it seemed that, unlike most monsters, the demons were capable of learning. Is there anything I can do to stop this? I asked myself.

I could send a message to Anger directly and order him not to attack, but I didn't think my position on top… errr… bottom of the lowerarchy was secure enough to get away with that. The only reason that Anger, or any other demon for that matter, was willing to obey me was because I was stronger than them. Unfortunately, that didn't quite hold when I was dead. Or even freshly respawned, for that matter. And so, all I could do was watch as the demons marched out. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one watching.

I flipped back over to the [Scouts], who saw the procession and frantically called in the enemy movement. That meant that when it was time for round 2, just a bit more than a year after the first war, Placeholder was ready to defend the gates of Pumil once again. Just like before, the demon army was utterly incapable of breaching the walls. However, they learned from the last time around and dug a small tunnel underneath to let Trickery work his magic again. You could be reading stolen content.

Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Then, with the gate opened in the middle of the night, it would have been a slaughter… if the angels hadn't shown up again. Mishael and Co. destroyed Anger and the rest of the demon army down to the last monster. Though, the Mishael vs. Anger fight was a bit better than I expected it would be. By that, I mean that Anger actually landed some solid hits on the archangel and that Mishael was dropped to about three-quarters of his health by the time they were finished.

However, I noticed that Anger moved a bit slower than he did in our 1 on 1 fight. I just chalked that up to the "morale" penalty and determined I would have to see how he did in that same 1 v 1 when I was alive again… or not because it would mean fighting Mishael. Anyway, the demons were all slain, the world was saved once again, and the angels peaced out. I was all ready to fast forward another year for the next fight when I remembered something. [Scry] Hysteria. I ordered the array.

It locked onto the madness demon who was running awkwardly in the wilderness.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming!" he murmured.

"Do not start, don't start, wait for me!" I wonder how they'll deal with a single straggler that respawned a week after the others? I asked as I decided to just watch him for a bit. Without Trickery there, I assumed his chances of breaching Pumil's western gate were practically zero. He would be pelted by arrows from atop the wall until he was dead. Or, maybe the heavy cavalry would run him down.

Either way, I would have bet up to a million gold on the madness demon I was watching not being able to kill a single soul before he got sent back to Hell. … So, of course, he had to find a way to make me lose that internal bet.

"Which way, which way, which way?" he muttered as he came to split where the Pumil/Gram river split off north and south.

"Was the river to our left or to our right?" He debated with himself for quite some time and eventually convinced himself that he remembered correctly… which is how he ended up wandering into Gram instead of Pumil. It… should be fine. I tried to reassure myself. He's just one demon. He was just one demon. But as I watched him go into that first town, I realized that he played the part of unkillable monstrosity from a horror film a bit too well.

He started his attack off by shuffling into town and muttering to himself. When the [Guards] noticed him and called for him to stop, he just continued shuffling toward them and mumbling. As they grew increasingly apprehensive, he put the icing on the cake by letting out the freakin' creepiest giggle I had ever heard. That [Guards] had enough at that point, and they stabbed him with spears. He staggered back with the attack as if they had actually hurt him… and then burst apart into his scythe form.

It was a jump scare even to me, and I was a frickin' disembodied spirit that was supposedly on the same side as that monster. From there, I got to be reminded of exactly how terrifying a level 25 monster is. He killed whoever he wanted in the town, as long as they weren't one of the few smart enough and fast enough to escape. The ones who fought died quickly… which meant they had it much better than those who tried to bunker down. The ones that barricaded themselves in, he toyed with.

He acted as if the barricades could stop him, just so he could make ominous noises at all times of the night, tear part of the way in just to scare them, and drive them all insane with his aura. Yeah, I was a bit late on the uptake in figuring out that he had an aura, but it made sense when people started freaking out more when he was in the vicinity… even if they didn't know he was in the vicinity. In other words, Hysteria had been given his paradise.

An entire town of people to torture and drive insane, with no one to stop him. Or, at least, that would have been the case if I was just a bystander. While others had escaped and would bring word of the monster, I beat them to the punch by weeks. I impersonated the System, or at least impersonated it as closely as possible, and then sent off all the details I could as "revelations" to a couple of different [Priests].

I sent the name of the town, the fact that a level 25 demon had taken it over and that they should send [Paladins] after it. I figure the [Paladins] would be sufficient for the job since they would just have to call down the angels again, and it would just take a quarter of Mishael's attention to take down Hysteria. The church, and Gram's government, must have thought that was sufficient as well because they sent a party of [Paladins]… and that was it.

Which is why it was a disaster when they called for Heaven's aid against the monster and Heaven didn't answer. 10 [Paladins] was enough to take me down with [Cures], but the problem there was that Hysteria had way more HP than I did. Their [Cures] did solid chunks to Hysteria's health pool, but by then, he had gotten up close and shredded through 2 of the party. It turned out Hysteria could move pretty dang fast when he wanted to. A perk of being level 25 and all.

They fought back and would have been slaughtered to a man if not for a lucky break. Hysteria ran out of MP. With his shapeshifting worn off, his attack pattern changed. He pulled out two jagged-looking demonite daggers and attacked the [Paladins] by essentially launching himself into someone, taking them to the ground, and stabbing them repeatedly. It was surprisingly effective.

However, the paladium armor they wore must have taken its toll on the demon because as he was ruthlessly stabbing the last member of the party… he turned into dust. The influx of levels allowed that final member of the party to live and report back on what happened. The news shocked the world's leaders because the way it was stated was essentially, "Heaven will not always answer us." Which, I thought was honestly a bit uncharitable. I had my own assumptions about the matter. Calling the angels has a cooldown.

I thought as I mentally scrutinized the difference between the two instances. Or, it has a minimum threshold of demons before they can respond. Either way, that's useful information to know. At that point in time, it was useful primarily so that I knew what not to do. In other words, I needed to make sure the demon army stuck together as much as possible so they would all get destroyed together and not leave behind stragglers like Hysteria.

Speaking of Hysteria, since his death lagged so far behind the others, he got left again when the rest of the demons respawned and headed off for their third try at world conquest. I was hoping it would end the same as the last time, but that was the problem with having immortal monsters capable of learning. They didn't make the same mistakes. First, they must have chatted with Hysteria down in Hell while he was still respawning and figured out that there were much easier targets than Pumil's giant wall.

That meant western Gram got hit harder than the last time as the demon army rolled through it. Second, Anger, who was still in charge of the madness demons, sent them all off on their own in a suicide charge into the army that the residents of Placeholder had managed to reposition after losing a town or two. Given the monsters charging their lines and the lack of understanding of how the heavenly reinforcements worked, I could hardly blame them for calling in the big guns immediately.

Mishael appeared in the heavenly light along with the rest, the demons were slain… and then, to my surprise, Mishael gave a stern talking-to to the [Paladins] that had called him down.

"The enemy didn't number even a quarter of their full strength," he chided.

"Why did you call for the whole host of Heaven?" he asked.

"We… uhh…" the lead [Paladin] stammered and then looked down at his feet.

"We didn't know that there was any other option?"

"Creator, preserve this world," Mishael sighed. He beckoned the [Paladin] in and then dropped to a whisper. So, of course, I brought the [Scry] in closer so I could still hear.

"I will have your oath that you will not say a word of this to anyone aside from your most trusted leaders, and then only after they have sworn similar oaths," Mishael stated.

"O-o-of course," he stammered.

"I solemnly swear by Gram's-""A system-bound oath," Mishael interrupted.

"And hurry. Every moment we tarry is a moment the enemy can take advantage of." The stammering man eventually made his way through an entire system-bound oath that Mishael found acceptable.

"Good," he nodded.

"You must understand that the information I am about to tell you would prove disastrous should it fall into the hands of the enemy. It must be safeguarded at all costs." Well, ya didn't do that great of a job of that. I mentally snorted.

"In this world, the forces of Heaven have been severely limited in how much we can interfere," Mishael continued.

"Every minute we spend in this realm strains us and said strain requires time in Heaven to recuperate. The strain is increased even more should we take damage or, Heaven-forbid, be slain in combat." The [Paladin's] eyes widened.

"The longer you spend here, the longer you must stay away?"

"Precisely," Mishael nodded.

"Now, give that information only to your leaders." He stated as he started flying up into the sky.

"We will travel westward and hope the cowards didn't remain too far behind their sacrificial lambs." The archangel flew westward, and the other angels followed suit. They stood a good chance of finding all the demons, it wasn't exactly like searching for hay in a needle stack, but I realized I had an opportunity there. [Advanced Message] Mishael. I cast. Alias, unknown. No reply. If you are looking for demons, you'll need to turn more to the north. I'd say about… 10 degrees?

I watched Mishael's eyes widen near-imperceptibly. Then, I noticed the slightest frown as he continued in his current course. [Advanced Message] Mishael. Alias, unknown. No reply. I cast again. I'm serious. The others are dozens of miles away from where you're at, and your current heading will take you past them.

"If you wish for me to believe you," Mishael finally answered, barely loud enough to be heard over the rushing wind.

"Then reveal your name." I cast again. Tut tut tut. I scolded him as I finally devised the persona I would be imitating. Don't you know it is rude to ask the name of a being like me? He scowled.

"Then I will remain on my current course. I do not trust the plots of the Fey." Suit yourseee-elf! I shot back in a slightly sing-song mental voice… which didn't matter at all because the spell didn't transmit sound, and I couldn't even be sure that it sent across my stretching of the final word. I remained quiet and watched the archangel's discomfort as he flew for nearly an hour. Then, I finally broke through the silence once again with another [Advanced Message].

You would have reached them by now if you had gone the correct way. I told him. Should you be wasting time like this? I know that you can't stay for too long. Buuut, if you go northeast right now, you should get there in just 10 minutes or so.

"All, halt!" Mishael called out. All of the angels stopped as the archangel pinched his brow.

"Legions 1 and 2, with me!" Mishael bellowed.

"We're headed northeast. Legions 3 and 4, travel southwest! Legions 5 and 6, continue traveling west! Travel for up to half an hour. If you find nothing, return to Heaven. If you encounter the enemy, send up a signal, and the other legions will come to your aid!" He pounded a fist into his chest three times.

"For the light!"

"For the light!" the angels shouted in reply. Clever. I thought as I watched his breakup of the heavenly army. If I were telling the truth, Mishael would immediately confront the demons. However, if I was lying or otherwise trying to deceive him, he covered the two most likely options that he could think a fairy would try to give him.

The first was that they were in the exact opposite direction of what I stated, and the second was that they were simply in the direction the angels were already headed and that it was all an elaborate ruse to get them to stop. Of course, my messages to him could also have been an even trickier attempt to split up his forces like he just did, but I guess neither he nor I were thinking about playing four-dimensional chess like that.

"I better not regret this," Mishael muttered. Don't worry! I replied via [Advanced Message]. Your trust in me will soon be rewarded! The archangel snorted and traveled in silence. Just like I told him, they soon discovered sight of the demon army… hunkering down in a forest to make it difficult to be seen from the sky. Mishael didn't hesitate. He launched a ball of white light into the sky and immediately dove down to engage the enemy.

Even at a third strength, it was still a one-sided rout in favor of the angels, and it turned into a slaughter when the other angels showed up at the tail end.

"Host of Heaven, our work here is complete!" Mishael shouted after their victory was secured.

"Return until we are needed once more!" The other angels vanished, but Mishael stayed behind.

"I suppose you told me the truth, and while I know better than to offer a fairy anything, even thanks…" he trailed off.

"I am grateful for your assistance." He stated finally.

"The demons would have remained unchecked without you, as even this length of time was a stretch." He looked like he was also about to leave, but I cut him off with another [Advanced Message]. I don't suppose I could ask you for a favor in return? I sent. His eyes narrowed as he saw the text.

"I make no promises, but I will at least listen to your request." There's still another demon out there. I messaged. He's lagging behind the others, but he's almost as strong as the wrath demon you fought. He nodded gravely.

"Very well. Where is he?" Faaaar west. I messaged as I looked over at my other [Scry]. In fact, he's still in the ashlands.

"It had to be those accursed wastes," he muttered. His eyes were unfocused, and I realized he was checking his status.

"I will have to make haste. Correct my course as I go." I didn't reply, but I whistled internally as I realized that Mishael's earlier flying speed had been a slow pace to let the other angels keep up. He reached the edge of the ashlands in short order, and, to my surprise, he took a deep calming breath. Everything alright? I asked over [Advanced Message].

"Being an angel does not make me immune to blight," he replied.

"And the more damage and status conditions I return with, the longer it will be before I can come back to this realm. I am merely steeling myself for the last stretch." I nodded along… at least as much as I could mentally. Then, I had an epiphany. Why don't you just find some heavenhounds to heal you up before you go back? I suggested. Assuming that monsters will still spawn around you. He cocked his head.

"What manner of beast are they?" Like hell hounds, but with healing breath? I mirrored his confusion. How are you not aware of them? They even have Heaven in the name!

"I am not aware of all the monsters that can appear in this world," he said with a soft shake of his head.

"I may be commander of the host of Heaven, but we received precious little information about this world over the past 5 centuries." That was odd, and I was about to ask him about it, but he cut me off before I could send the next cast.

"Now, I've delayed long enough," he stated.

"Guide me to the final demon." He took off at the same shocking speed, and I struggled to reconcile the locations of the two [Scries]. Though, part of that was because everything in the ashlands looked the same. The end result was me having to tell him to stop and change directions several times, and even turn around completely at one point. I'm pretty sure he thought I was just yanking his chain at that point, but we thankfully ran into Hysteria right after.

"An angel!" Hysteria shrieked.

"Not out here, not out here, not out here!" He barely ducked under Mishael's first swing, but that was the last of his defensive maneuvering as he suddenly burst into his scythe form. I was actually kind of curious how the archangel would handle so many weapons at once, but it turned out that the answer was "easily." His sword apparently dealt enough damage or had some other BS trait to it that I still didn't understand, that he lopped off Hysteria's scythes as they swung at him.

Seeing as they were a part of the demon's body, I'm sure that had to be painful. Either way, the madness demon was soon disarmed, dusted, and sent back to respawn in Hell.

"Now, where are these-" Mishael broke up in a coughing fit for a few moments.

"-heavenhounds you spoke of?" I zoomed my [Scry] out to find some of the pups and eventually located some to the north of Mishael's position. He gave them a quizzical look when he finally located them but followed it up quickly.

"Greetings, friendly beasts," he stated.

"Would you perhaps be willing to heal my blight before I ascend back to Heaven?" The friendly monsters barked and then bathed the angel in their light breath. Mishael nodded when they seemed to be finished.

"My thanks to you, but now I must depart." Without a further word, Mishael was gone, and the [Scry] was left at the spot where he vanished. Hmm. I thought idly as I examined that final interaction. I had already come to the conclusion that demons aren't really people, at least in the way that I think of people, but could the same hold true for angels as well? It was kind of a strange thought, but I had my very first piece of evidence pointing toward that fact after his healing session with the heavenhounds…

He didn't pet a single one of the dogs. And they were all good boys. That was half a joke, but part of me continued pondering it. If angels are just the opposite of demons, then it's also possible that they are primarily the embodiment of a single trait as well. I hypothesized. But then again, Mishael's name isn't something like "Duty" or "Temperance." There were a few holes in my theory, but at the same time, I had only really talked to a single angel…

and he was the commander who might have just been unique anyway. Either way, there was something that just felt like it was… missing when I talked with demons or with angels. I couldn't figure it out because they both had intelligence, personality, and emotions. What could even be missing if they have all of that? I asked myself. It was a tough question, so I eventually just gave up. I still had a bit of a mess on my hands, and I had another tough question to ask myself.

How much responsibility do I want to take for the demons wreaking havoc on Placeholder? I asked. I'd already gone pretty far. I'd sabotaged our first attack and led our enemy directly to our unsuspecting army on the second, but I had to ask myself if I was ready to keep that up for the next 50-ish years before I respawned. I'm planning on taking down the entire OmniverseEngine. Would people dying to that be any different than dying to demons? I asked. I debated it for a bit and then decided the answer was yes.

If I succeed, I'm assuming it will be like we never existed. I thought. However, when demons kill people, they torture them first. So… yeah. A non-existing void is better than torture and death. However, I had to also be realistic. I couldn't easily keep the demons in check when they could just respawn every year and go on a rampage. Unless I can stop their rampage at the source... I had an epiphany. The mountain pass. Duh!

We just need to have Placeholder create their defenses there, and then they wouldn't have a choice! It would be like the black gate [1]!... But backward! It was time to spam some more [Advanced Messages]. I only hoped that the dwarves were ready to move because they only had about a year before the next wave came in…

I'm not exactly sure why I was shocked when the dwarves had a wall blocking off the mountain pass ready within the year… and were starting on a second-layer wall further back. They had created their giant "bulwark of Pumil" in record time, after all. Anyway, it was a perfect setup. It blocked the only known exit from the ashlands, and it faced inward into it so the demons would be stuck breathing in the ash that even they didn't like that much.

It was a pretty big shock to the demons too, and Anger responded the only way he knew how to. By throwing demons at the wall to pretty much die. Once again, the people of Placeholder called for the angels, and once again, they answered… but no Mishael this time. That was actually pretty dire because it turned out that Anger was more than a match for most of the angels that came at him. Fortunately, angels aren't the only beings designed to kill demons. The newest [Hero] of Placeholder was revealed.

An elven [Duelist] named Shalia Zinphyra. She challenged Anger to a duel. It was epic. It was legendary. It was… something that I didn't even get to see because she used some type of skill to pop him into a pocket dimension for a 1 v 1. I just had to use my imagination for what happened when the skill ended, and she was the only one who came out. She staggered a bit from the levels and challenged the next demon. Hysteria.

I wondered how she had enough in her to challenge those 2 level 25s back to back, but then I remembered that she was wearing the Hero's Regalia. They probably couldn't even damage her. With them defeated, it turned into a rout, and the angels massacred their way through Hell's forces. My work was done. With the knowledge of angels and the new [Hero] in play, I figured Placeholder should be able to handle itself without my intervention. Skip to the next big war between the demons and Placeholder…

or to when Admin shows up. I lazily ordered the obelisk. It obliged by spitting me out onto the hard floor around the tutorial obelisk.

"Huh?" I asked, looking up at the obelisk in confusion.

"Wait…Does that mean there wasn't another war? What the frick happened?"

1 year after Hell's last defeat…

"Leaders, meeting!" Anger bellowed immediately after he walked out of the portal to Hell. The others showed up quickly, and Hysteria came out of the portal behind him.

"What is it now?" Spite asked with his usual attitude.

"We're marching again," Anger growled.

"Get everyone ready."

"No!" Hysteria shouted from his side.

"No?" Anger asked as he turned to look at the traitor.

"No, no, no!" Hysteria shouted, poking his finger into the larger demon's chest.

"I'm the crazy one, but this is crazy! You're crazy! Too crazy to lead! Crazy!" Anger understood a challenge when he heard one. He pulled out his club as Hysteria transformed into his other form. All things told, there was a reason that Anger didn't like fighting Hysteria. The fights were too close for comfort. So, that's why he immediately activated all of his skills and roughly bashed Hysteria to the ground with a [Power Strike]. After that, there was no more planning.

Only a knock-down drag-out brawl as Hysteria scythed through Anger, and Anger repeatedly bashed the madness demon with his club. Fortunately, Anger's HP held out longer, and he stood victorious while Hysteria was sent back to Hell.

"And that's why I'm the leader!" Anger bellowed as he turned on the other named demons who had just stood and watched.

"I'm the strongest of us all! Don't any of you ever forget it!" The others cowed away from him at that… except for Trickery. Who was oddly still. No. Anger's eyes widened. The knife stabbed into his back and bottomed out his already critical HP.

"You'll… pay for this… Trickery," Anger swore to the now-visible demon behind him before he faded into dust.

Trickery stood in a standoff with the remaining demons.

"You've totally done it now," Spite sighed. Trickery was well aware. He had blown two of his most important cooldowns to take down Anger, and he was in no position to claim leadership. Should he try, the others would kill him… but the question among them was who would waste what resources, and how weak would that leave them? The strongest remaining was likely Avarice, and everyone looked at him to see if he would make the first move. If he did, he would likely be ganged up on…

by a group of demons who would all be trying to hold back their most important abilities to come out on top. All told, that left them in a complete standoff, shiftily looking at the others to see who would start the mess and die first. This was why demons remained in their lowerarchy, as awful as it was. Fortunately, Trickery did not have his name for nothing.

"A proposal," he said with a slight grin.

"None of us claim second. We command our own 'til the lord returns."

"You would dare take the place of second in command from me?" Avarice asked in threat.

"No, no," Trickery said slightly.

"Restoring your rightful place. In command of greed." It was just a simple reframing, but that was important for egos like Avarice.

"Hmm, when you put it like that…" Avarice started, and his greedy smile showed he was catching on.

"I will never accept this!" a shrill voice shouted.

"I deserve to lead and-" Self-Importance was quickly cut down by Avarice with the use of a few of his skills.

"Oh, dear me," Avarice stated.

"It would seem I am too weak to go for second-in-command now." The others muttered similar things, and the tension went out of the room… externally. Trickery was sure the others were still looking for opportunities just like him. Unfortunately, it would seem they would have to be stuck with a mutually beneficial arrangement. The thought disgusted him, but there was no other choice. He couldn't let Anger keep leading him to death every year, and the brute's stupid raids were going nowhere.

Which is why he was willing to risk the ire of a demon stronger than him. Grudges among immortals were terrible things, but Trickery was ready to take that bet. It only matters if he finds me. Trickery thought with glee. And with an entire continent out there to evade the lumbering brute, that would be as easily said as done. Enough of Anger and Hysteria's fun. Trickery grinned. There are more elegant ways to cause suffering. The forces of Hell split up… and Placeholder wouldn't be the same again.

[1] Black Gate – The name of the imposing gate leading into Mordor in the Lord of the Rings