I cracked my knuckles, the quiet forest echoing back the satisfying pop. This forest was mine, by the way. Aham.

Why did I want or need a forest?

Don’t know.

Mog and a couple of Gretchlings sat down for a breather as they just finished unloading tall crates from the cart nearby.

“What’s that?” I asked, then I noticed some strange sounds from them.

“Training dummies,” Mog said.

My eyes narrowed. Those noises sounded suspiciously like ugly wet snarls.

I shot an accusing finger towards the crate.

“Oi. Is that...”

“Chupacabra.”

“Oh hell no. Why do you even have—”

The woman’s voice in my head again, cutting me short.

Mog’s head tilted.

[Choose level 2 skill. Skill points available to allocate: 9.]

“Right in time.”

I crossed my arms.

What do you have for me this time, lady? Gimme options. I hope it’s something cool like, huh... flame Excalibur, or something like that. Wait. That Fireball thing was pretty co—

She cut me again.

[Summon imp. Fear aura. Life Drain. Corrupt—]

Oi. Are you playing with me?

[The system will choose Akuma’s Level 2 skill.]

She was most definitely not playing.

Wait! Let me think. They all sound evil as hell, though...

[Level 2 skill: Corrupt.]

“Naturally. You picked the worst-sounding one. Makes sense.”

I blinked multiple times as she didn’t answer, then I snapped.

“Of course it doesn’t! Why would even I need something like that?!”

Mog spoke.

“They help with Master’s training. Like live dummies—”

“I don’t mean the Chupapayas!”

“Chupacabras.”

“That’s what I said!”

Mog nodded.

“Would you like to begin the training now, Master?”

I sighed.

“Yeah, let’s do this.” I looked down at my hands. “But I don’t think I’m comfortable using this Corrupt thing. And outside of Dismiss, which sounds kind of useless to be honest, I only have Shield, which proved to be useless.”

Mog bounced to his feet.

“But Shield is not useless, Master.”

“I got barbecued despite using it, though.”

“That’s because Level 1 spell doesn’t stand a chance against Level 3 spell, no matter which.”

“Oh... So, Fireball is a Level 3 spell?”

Mog nodded.

“Difference too big.”

“Hm...”

I scratched my chin, thinking.

That means I’ll be able to pick Fireball when she comes back next time. Nice.

My hope was restored, alongside my opinion of this strange world.

“I give it three stars!” I said with a smile and a thumbs up.

Mog seemed confused again.

The food in the palace was pretty good, aside from the occasional weird stuff I couldn’t identify. But it was better than the insta ramen I used to live on. Probably healthier too.

“Speaking of palace,” I said as something came to mind. “Why do you even serve me, Mog?”

“Gretchlings live to serve Demon Lords, Master.”

“Yeah, I get that. I just don’t understand why. What’s a Demon Lord anyway?”

Mog’s eyes glittered suddenly, as if he was waiting to talk about that for a long time...

“Demon Lords are representatives of Hell on Asturias. They answer only to the Horned One Himself.”

“Horned who?”

“The Great Demon, the Devil, the King of Demons, Father of Corruption, He has many glorious names.”

 I swallowed. This whole thing was making me worry.

Now it made sense people around here didn’t seem very receptive of me, despite me being handsome as hell, pun intended.

I was literally Hell’s advocate!

“Hm. And by the way you’re speaking I assume there are other Demon Lords out there aside from me?”

Mog nodded.

“I hope I never meet the others. They sound scary.” I wiped my sweaty forehead. “But wait, wouldn’t they be my friends or something, since you know, we’re all hellish buddies and all?”

Mog shook his head, making me sweat even more.

“No...?”

“Demon Lords kill each other often, competing for the Horned One’s attention and favor.”

I yelped.

“This is awful! But... it just comes to show I really need to learn these skills, don’t I?”

Mog nodded.

“Alright.” I cracked my knuckles again and began to stretch. “Release the Chupapayas!”

“Chupacabras.”

“That’s what I said!”

⚔️ ⚔️ ⚔️

They resembled crazed, ugly coyotes, but stood on two legs like people, foaming through their mouths. When the cage creaked open, I was afraid it would bite me and give me rabies, but I soon found out it was much worse—the Chupacabras were magic casters!

“Shield!” I said as I cowered behind the disappointingly small force shield that appeared in front of me.

Some sort of red fume smashed against it, but just like with the Fireball, I wasn’t completely safe.

I wasn’t set on fire or anything like that this time. Instead, my head was getting lighter by the second.

“What... is going on?”

“The Chupacabras have Level 3 blood-sucking magic, Master! Use Corruption on it!”

“I don’t wanna. That sounds... awful...”

My legs began to give in as the world around me turned into a blur.

I fell on my knees.

Mog lunged forwards.

“Snowball!”

The cold ball hissed and cracked in the air as it flew towards the creature.

It let out a last snarl of surprise before the Snowball hit its torso, freezing the Chupacabra from head to toe.

I shook my head to clear it.

“Thanks, Mog. That was close.”

Mog nodded, but he seemed uncomfortable this time as if he had something to say.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Mog is just wondering why Master won’t use Corruption. It’s a good skill.”

“I told you guys we need to stop with the evil stuff.” I heaved myself back to my feet. “What kind of skill is even that anyways?”

“It attacks the cells of the body directly, making them wither over time. Corruption is a demonic curse.”

My jaw dropped.

“This is awful! Not even the Chupapaya deserves that!”

“Chupa—”

“That’s what I said!”

And as I said that the ground trembled beneath my feet.

“What’s that? An earthquake?”

A thunderous ruckus echoed across the woods, getting louder and louder by the second.

“No.” Mog turned to face me. “It’s an army, Master.”

“An army?”

A voice rang out in the distance, coming from the same direction as the noises, as silhouettes appeared on the horizon.

“For the king! Down with the Hell spawn!”

“Oi. Is he talking about me?”

Horses and footmen. The guy at the head of the army rode his horse at full speed, a long sword raised to the sky. But as I squeezed my eyes, I realized it wasn’t just any dude, it was the big dude in shiny armor from the other day.

He came to finish the job!

I looked around and saw only a handful of Gretchlings with me, and we didn’t even bring Dingus this time.

“This is it,” I said. “I’m going to surrender peacefully. You guys don’t need to go down with me.”

The Gretchlings looked shocked at that.

“Mog thinks Master is still lightheaded from the blood-sucking spell. Don’t worry, Master.” He turned to face the incoming army. “We are going to buy time.”

“Oi. You don’t mean buying time like in a heroic sacrifice kind of way, do you?”

Mog shook his head.

“Gretchlings are not heroic.”

“Oh. That’s... honest.”

“But heroic sacrifice is not necessary.”

 The other Gretchlings scurried towards the cages.

“That’s dangerous!” I said. “You can’t let the Chupapayas out!”

“Chupacabras may be wild and dangerous, but they are Hellborn like us, and with a preference for human blood.”

“Oh.”

The cages creaked open in unison, then the hairless creature crept out of the shadows.

But there was more. The Gretchlings stood in line, preparing something else as they pointed open palms to the ground in front of them.

“Summon Hell Gatekeeper!”

The earth burned with red pentagrams, as humanoid figures began to materialize on top of them. Black swords and large square shield. The slender creatures were red skinned like demons, and by the name of that spell they might’ve been just that.

“That’s amazing, Mog!”

Mog puffed up his chest proudly.

“Level 4 spell,” he said.

“Hm. Now what?”

The Gretchlings looked at each other, their confidence suddenly gone.

“Now we run, Master!”

“Eh?!”

“Human army is too big. Minions won’t last long.”

“Say no more!” I said, running away immediately.

My not-so-heroic servants right after me.

⚔️ ⚔️ ⚔️

Thanks for reading Chapter III: Chupa What?!

If you're enjoying the story, please share it with friends and leave a like/score. Any engagement, however small, helps massively with the algorithm and getting this story discovered.

📃 New chapters every Thursday - follow to stay updated.

📚 Check out my other stories while you wait. Cheers!