{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]

+3 VIT, +3 MAG

• You gain a spell slot for each tier, and when spending [Bloodfire] on an ability, you can spend up to 50% more [Bloodfire] to increase the ability's effect strength by an equal amount.

[Bloodfire Heartstalker]

+3 DEX, +2 MAG, +1 PSY

• You can expend a high amount of burning hellfire to teleport yourself to its location, and you gain true perception to a distance that is double that of your aura's radius.

[Bloodfire Warliege]

+2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 DEF

• You may create three fused armaments. When wielded, a fused armament grants you use of the advancements for two of your base armaments, provided it has the appropriate form.

"How come every time we do this, I wind up wanting all three."

"Is that a serious question?"

"No," she said, momentarily casting her eyes toward the ground. "[Bloodfire Warliege] it is, then."

"Hold on. Really?"

Ashtoreth furrowed her brow and looked down at him. "Really?"

"Yeah, really. You're not even going to consider the others?"

"...No? Not really? I should look at the race upgrades before I pick for good, just in case. Say, is 'inescapable' even a noun?"

"Three spells and a 50% amplify on everything you do, Ashtoreth."

"Uh-huh. But Dazel… the armaments are fused."

"You're not even going to go crazy about the teleporting? Everyone's crazy about teleporting."

"I was. Until I saw that I could fuse my armaments."

"And you don't want to double back at all to 'three spells and a 50% amplify on everything you do.'"

"It's pretty good!" she said, nodding. "Just a couple of spells would really give me a push. The amplify is great, too, but I'm not sure it's as good as what I'll get from fused armaments."

"What? Of course it is. Ashtoreth, 50% stronger [Mighty Strike]. 50% stronger [Hellfire Nova]. 50% stronger [Energy Drain], which will immediately pay for itself."

Ashtoreth felt her mouth become a thin line of disapproval. "Okay," she said. "Hold up. We might have a more intense disagreement here than I first thought."

"Apparently so," said Dazel. "Here, listen. You spent three advancements to smoothen out how quickly you can weapon swap. You spend… I don't know how many advancements making sure your boss-killing gun can be drawn with full ammo in an eighth of a second. Those all become less relevant if you fuse your weapons."

"True," she said. "But I'm main [Armament]. At the end of the day, the benefits of the fusions are still going to be better than a sphere of perception and teleportation or by juicy spellcasting."

"You haven't even thought about it," he said. "I just don't believe it can be that obvious."

"If you'd been paying attention to all my fights, you would," she said.

"Look. If you want to say that the teleportation isn't as good, you're the best judge. I won't fight it… even if I raise an eyebrow at it."

"Teleportation is really good, definitely," said Ashtoreth. "Great, really. It's a stupidly powerful move no matter whether you're on offense, defense, or retreating, and it requires no synergies or combos to be effective. Mine will have a pretty obvious counter in that if you handle the hellfire, you shut me down… but my hellfire is hard to handle. Anyone who has to fight me while putting out all my fires is going to have a bad time."

"Great," said Dazel. "Good. Okay. You are aware that none of that contained a single reason not to take it? I would accept, 'But the spells, Dazel.' Because spells are great."

"I was getting there," said Ashtoreth. "I'm not going to smack-talk the teleports, okay? I know they're good. But what can challenge the S-tier ability that requires no synergies?"

"Spells?"

"Abilities with synergies!" she declared. "I'm an [Armament] main. It's not about the sum total of all my advancements getting stretched across my weapons, it's about sharing those select few which were definitely not meant to be shared."

"Understood, boss. Question, though: what's your [Vitality] right now?"

"Uh. Almost ten thousand."

Dazel let out an appreciative sigh. "You have so much [Bloodfire] that you could just… burn into that 50% amplification."

"Okay, now I gotta explain," said Ashtoreth, weaving a claw through the air to glamour herself a tweed jacket with patches on the elbow. "School's in. [Armament] is a funny aspect. A real silly fellow."

"I'm aware."

"It seems to be mostly about martial combat, but requires conjuration to function. It gives physical stats to use the weapons with, and physical stats determine their hardness and firing power, but the fact that someone gets advancements that work well with what they already have means that it's actually an excellent spellsword aspect."

"Wow," Dazel said, actually sounding authentically interested for once. "I'm amazed."

"Uh. Really?"

"I mean, I've known you for a year," he said. "But I think I'm just now discovering how awful it feels to have you lecture me on things I already know. Honestly, boss—it's a whole new kind of agony."

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"Pfft," she said, waving a hand dismissively. "If it were that bad, I wouldn't be able to do it to you."

"What can I say? Some forms of pain aren't really pain."

Ashtoreth smiled. "Then have you considered renaming those ones? Anyway, to continue your listen—"

"—Please, no…"

"—Every aspect tends to have either a strong core ability, or one or more unique, strong upgrades. [Spellcasting] can multiply your mana pool and give you spell slots. [Might] has a base strength multiplier. [Drain], uh… well, it grants [Energy Drain]. Enough said."

"Can we just skip to the thing I missed?"

"We're there already," Ashtoreth said. "See, [Armament] has a habit of offering the powerful, unique abilities from other aspects—but only attached to specific weapons. You can have the [Mana] multiplication of [Spellcasting], and the [Strength] multiplier of the [Might] aspect's [Mighty] ability… but only as upgrades that are locked to certain weapons."

"And you thought that's what I missed?"

Ashtoreth suppressed a laugh at his expense. "The second thing to remind you of is that [Armament] tends to give me upgrades that reapply my ill-purposed stats to the weapon in question."

"Uh-huh," Dazel said.

"[Might is Magic II] adds my [Strength] to my [Magic]. [Proximate Telekinesis II] effectively adds my [Magic] to my [Strength] when I'm wielding Luftschloss, and [Mighty Wielder] gives me a boost on top of that."

"Oh," Dazel said suddenly.

"You get it?" Ashtoreth said, smiling.

"Unfortunately, yes. Ashtoreth, having both buffs on at once isn't going to scale them off each other in an infinite loop. They'll both only calculate their bonus once."

Ashtoreth laughed. "I know that," she said.

"Oh," he said. "I guess I don't get it then."

"Are you sure you don't get it? Or maybe you're just underestimating it."

"What's to get? You'll have high, hybrid stats."

"And two weapons that are also guns," she said enthusiastically. "But seriously, Dazel: right now I constantly switch between [Strength] and [Magic] styles in battle, fighting at full stats but diminished advancements in each. And I would say I've done a bit to argue for that style's efficacy, if I do say so myself."

"Uh-huh. You're a star, kid."

"Well what if this star builds a Wanderschloss?" she asked. "With a sword scythe out, my [Strength] and [Magic] will both double at the same time! I'll have my sword out for counterforce shenanigans, but I'll also have the high [Magic] that grants me my mobility. My on-hit [Energy Drain] and hellfire damage, but with their effects doubled on account of my boosted [Magic]. Why would spending 50% more [Bloodfire] to make my abilities stronger be valued higher than just… making my abilities almost 100% stronger at no added cost while also increasing my resource pool?"

"Okay, that sound pretty nice, but—"

"—Luftstein or Rammschloss will be benefiting from two separate upgraded penetration talents while also applying all my melee damage bonuses to my cannon rounds, which will be enhanced by my increased [Strength] with the sword out."

Dazel seemed to pause a moment to consider. "Okay, fair enough, that's a pretty big buff to your boss killer."

"—Rammlust or Wanderstein will regenerate its own ammunition from my tripled [Bloodfire Pool] while I work random deadly cannon shots into my normal routine of spells. The [Draining Rounds] will be especially good with my boosted [Magic], especially if I drain whatever stat someone uses to close distance." She grinned. "With a weapon like that, I'm going to run out of kite string!"

"All right. You're right."

"Yes!" Ashtoreth said, practically cheering. "I knew it. Say, is it me, or are germans really good at making words that mash together well?"

"Portmanteaus?"

"Sure," she said. "I dunno what I'm gonna name these fused weapons, though. Maybe I should come up with new names…."

Dazel sighed. "For the record, boss, I still want to say that this was a closer decision than you think."

"Uh-huh."

"The spells I'd have made for you… they'd have been artistry." His voice had a distant, longing quality. "Not twee and pretty things, but hungry spells, spells made to exploit your endless well of resources, spells made to feel like they're anything but fair."

"You'll have to tell me about them sometime."

"I will. And when I do, maybe you won't think this was such an easy choice anymore. But for now, it's clear that you know you're going to have an unbeatable-seeming set of engagement options that you have a good plan for how to use. You're the fighter. It's your call."

"Great!" she said. "I'm glad we're on the same page. And if you'll recall, last time we did this, the conversation went your way."

"Oh, I remember."

"Imma take a peek at my racial upgrades, now

"Of course," said Dazel. "The one you want will be listed first—it always is—but let me know what the vampire upgrade is. I'm curious."

"Sure," she said, bringing up the race upgrade.

{Choose a Race Upgrade}

{You will add the listed stat bonuses to your current race. Your current race's tier will increase one step.}

{You may forgo upgrading your race to gain 21 levels and be offered two new options and [Archfiend of Pride] the next time you get an opportunity to upgrade.}

She was pleased to see her birthright, the power of the undisputed masters of Hell, in its rightful first place.

[Archfiend of Pride]

+1 DEX, +1 STR, +1 VIT, +1 MAG, +1 PSY, +1 DEF

You gain an extra three advancements per tier which can only advance your racial advancement path. You are no longer limited in how many racial advancements you may choose.

You are immune to psychic attacks made by all other infernals who are not themselves Archfiends of Pride.

Your [Command Profane] now has its effect scale off your highest stat instead of your [Psyche] when targeting other infernals.

Below it was the consolation prize of archfiend race upgrades, the one that everyone was able to take.

[Archfiend of Sin]

+1 DEX, +1 STR, +1 VIT, +1 MAG, +1 PSY, +1 DEF

When you gain this race upgrade, you will choose a stat. That stat gains a permanent, undispellable bonus of +7 per level. This bonus is retroactive.

To be fair to [Archfiend of Sin], there were quite a few ways to build where anything that helped you stack more points onto one absurdly high stat—usually [Defense] or [Psyche]—was worthwhile no matter how much it cost.

But in Ashtoreth's eyes, it wasn't even as valuable as the free advancements granted by [Archfiend of Pride].

But her thoughts were interrupted as she saw the last of them fell still, staring at it.

"What's wrong?" Dazel asked as she stared for a few seconds. "Ashtoreth? What is it?"

"I don't know," she said quietly, still staring at the third option. "It's… something I didn't think existed. Something I didn't think… could exist."

She looked at the final option.

[Archfiend of Humanity]

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.