"You say you have been defeated by a mere imp, slave??"
The fiendish voice thundered through the throne hall, and the cambion was thrown on the diamond-covered floor by invisible powers. The sharp edges cutted open his skin, and he screamed up in pain.
"No, master! It wasn't merely one imp..."
"Oh! Forgive me! So you have been defeated by... what did you say? Sixty imps? We are still talking about imps! And you lost an entire squad! Give me any reason not to rip your skin off your flesh right now!"
"The imps transformed into something else, something more powerful! I've seen the process, and I can hunt down the creature! I can find its weaknesses and destroy it!"
The nalfeshnee lifted himself from his throne, and with obvious effort, walked to the cambion. "I have a better idea. You give me your knowledge, I kill you, and use your knowledge to send out someone more... capable."
"No!"
It was the last thing the cambion screamed as its skin was torn off of his flesh.
The nalfeshnee closed his eyes, watching the memories of his dead inferior leave the body. There it was, the scene he was looking for.
A temple hall.
The seven cambions moved alongside the wall, hateful emotions coming up as they watched the signs that their Baatezu enemies had burned into the walls.
Finally, they reached the shimmering silver door.
"Remember," Chuanak whispered to his companions, "we are not out for a big battle. The mission is to kill the high priest and return to the Abyss. Don't get distracted by anything or anyone else."
The fiends nodded, but Chuanak knew better as to trust them. "If anyone endangers the mission, I will slay him without warning... and I will use Ghathach's dagger."
With that, he opened the door.
A large, empty room awaited them. They stepped through the door, taking a close look around. There was no door, no window, nothing. "Fine," Chuanak stated. "As we expected. They've hidden the room in a dimension slide. So..."
He touched the gemstone engraved in his platinum bracelet, and for a second, a green shimmer filled the room. Then, they were in a library. The entire group changed weapons, putting away their swords and taking their deadly miniature crossbows instead. They aimed at the imps that were everywhere at the ceiling, hanging on iron rods like bats. It would take no more than half a minute to get rid of these nuisances.
Or so, Chuanak thought.
"Herrrreth..." a creepy voice appeared. No, it was not one voice... all the imps said it at the same time.
Crossbow bolts fired through the air, but the imps reacted unexpectedly quick. No more than two of them were hit, and amazingly, they simply pulled out the bolts like it was nothing to them.
Then, they attacked. Chuanak knew of battle imps trained by the baatezu as suicide troops in the Blood War. But this - was ridiculous. The imps took on a formation, moved, fluidly moved into a new formation, and before Chuanak realized what formation it was, they had taken on a new formation already. They were so quick, so precise and so tactically perfect that the cambions didn't have the least chance of hitting them more than two or three times - and again, the imps were totally unaffected by any hit.
Chuanak quickly started reciting a spell as his companions died. He'd harm himself with the fireball, but the imps would be dead. A second later, the room was filled by fire as hot as hell itself - and Chuanak knew for sure. It burned his clothes, his hair, his skin, it even burned the feeling out of his body for a few moments.
Choking and coughing, he lay on the floor. The lone survivor. He took a look around. His entire body hurt, and he needed some time to recover. So he used the time to count the dead imps. Sixty-five.
An unusual number for the baatezu - he would've expected sixty-six or something. But who knew what reason the choice for this number had.
He pulled out his dagger, ready to continue his mission alone. He knew he couldn't return home without killing the high priest, and he knew running away wouldn't work either.
As he was about to touch the gemstone again, he noticed something. One of the imps was moving, or at least his right leg. "That's imposs..." Chuanak hesitated. "Improbable. And unwanted."
He moved to the imp, laid the dagger on the small creature's neck, and made a clear cut.
"Herrrreth is not happy with your deeds."
Chuanak freezed, then looked around. All of the imps had risen again. "That's impossible."
A moment later he was thrown on the floor, and tiny claws ripped pieces of flesh from his body. Chuanak prepared to die.
But just before he felt weak enough to give up, the imps stopped.
"You," the many voices said, "will be Herrrreth's messenger. Tell the multiverse I am here. Herrrreth is not imps anymore. Herrrreth is more than the sum of the single elements. And Herrrreth will bring change to the multiverse. Now, leave."
The nalfeshnee opened his eyes. "Herrrreth, hm? Now let's find out if this is just another baatezu stupidity, or some real menace."