Chapter 2.

The spirit of the God of War had the strange sensation that his right hand was slightly given over to his control. It was as if he was trying to take command of the thousands of cells it consisted of, one by one. His ethereal tendrils slowly spread out, gradually filling the entire limb.

[Right-Hand Control skill elevated (2/100)]

"It worked. I think I'm starting to feel this body... although it's very strange that we keep getting these system messages since the host is already dead."

"What did you get? What system messages?" - The spirit of the Goddess of Lust asked intrigued.

"А? Didn't you see this?"

"What is it? Can you be more specific?"

"A message. A system message... looks like you and I are getting them separately. Since you didn't get one, it doesn't matter." - said the voice of the War System calmly. And then added mentally:

'If you didn't get it, then I can have this body all to myself. Why should I share it?

While one spirit was confused and didn't understand what was going on, while the other spirit was actively increasing his skill level, time in the whole world around them didn't stop. The demons, who had been scattered all over the iron cage by the shockwave, gradually began to come to their senses.

Many of them noticed that the strange vortex had disappeared, which meant that the danger had passed. As happens with monsters that lack intelligence, a switch went off in their brains. Fear was replaced by rage. They looked in the direction of the little demon who was responsible for everything that had happened. They were ready to tear him apart, but some instinct, or maybe the remnants of the horror they had experienced a few minutes ago, still restrained their general impulse.

"Hey, the spirit of the War God."

"What?" - he asked irritably. His work was in full swing and he didn't want to be distracted by nonsense.

"Those nasty tiny freaks don't seem to have a very positive attitude toward us..."

"So?"

"...What do you think will happen if this body actually dies?" - she asked worriedly. Her ethereal body was watching the crowd gathered around them. They were still only cowardly encouraging others to pounce on the body lying on the ground, afraid to touch it themselves. But how long did they have before the bravest of them would make the first move?

"What happens if this body dies? What a silly question... and you mean what happens to us then?"

This question stumped the spirits. What would happen to them if the body died? In any other situation, he would have just laughed it off, since the answer was obvious. He would have simply changed hosts.

But what now? His host is dead. The soul had dissipated and returned to the cosmic energy. However, they were not attached to this disembodied basis of any being, they were connected to the body for some inexplicable reason. If the body dies, is there any chance that the spirits will die as well? These thoughts consumed all his attention.

Suddenly there was increased shrieking and screaming in the crowd, and someone even fell. From the back of this group of demons, the largest of the red-skinned demons crawled forward, ruthlessly pushing everyone else aside. He was typical of his race, except he was a head taller than the others. His musculature was also striking. His red arms were cartoonishly massive as if swollen from taking steroids, especially when compared to his tiny legs.

He stepped forward and glanced proudly at the living corpse lying in the corner. The mutant demon pounded himself in the chest, turned to the bunch of creatures behind him, and roared at them. "I'm not afraid of anything, you cowards!" - even without words, his uncomplicated message to everyone else was clear.

The demons seemed to be impressed by this action. They all synchronously, as if agreeing in advance, took a slow step back. It was a critical moment for this mini-society, locked together in one common cell. The new leader appeared!

"Hey, what are you doing? We seem to be in huge trouble."

"Don't distract me. I have work to finish."

"What work... What's that? Did the finger twitch? " - the woman's voice almost screamed in surprise.

[Right-Hand Control skill elevated (10/100)]

"I can control a finger... I did it. Am I not the greatest in this backward universe?"

The mutant demon, tasting the feeling of superiority and receiving boundless respect for his courage, involuntarily shuddered when he saw the finger move. Shouldn't this demon be dead by now? Every fiber of his soul urged him to turn around and step back. There was no point in associating with something so strange and otherworldly, but as he turned around, he noticed a mob of demons waiting expectantly for his actions.

The new ringleader had no chance now to abandon his role, he had to prove his strength and secure his position. As he pounded the floor with his two huge hands, knocking small pieces of stone out of it and raising a cloud of dust into the air, he reminded himself that he was a great demon who could break and destroy anything. And nothing can frighten him.

"Looks like one of them is going to come to us...Any ideas? It's your job to rid the world of dangerous creatures... Holy shit, what the fuck are you doing?" - screamed the stunned spirit of the Goddess of Lust.

What had surprised her so much?

The spirit of the God of War, who had learned to control his first finger, suddenly released a tiny but rather sharp fingernail from the end of it. It was a special ability of all demons, regardless of their level.

He lifted his only unparalyzed finger, and using that fingernail, began sawing off the one next to it. The sound of living flesh being cut, and the thick blood pouring onto the floor, was shocking and confusing to the spirit of the Goddess of Lust. Why would anyone deprive oneself of a finger at all?

"Why-why? Are you going to kill us?"

"No. I'm going to save us..."

"What? How? How cutting off a part of our bodies can help us in any way."

"Listen carefully, silly spirit. When I was the System of the dragon Zilrod ... I think you must have heard of us, we inflicted such terror on countless worlds, we were worshipped as Gods, and I was also at the very top of the rankings in these days ... best time ever... What am I talking about? Oh, I remember. Once we invaded one of the demon worlds where they had been rampaging for thousands of years, and there we met one very strange one of them. A masochistic demon..."

"Who?" - the Lust System asked, but she fell silent next, unable to say anything as she noticed something completely impossible.

Suddenly the blood flowing from her half-severed finger stopped pouring to the ground, it seemed to hang in the air. The ethereal tendrils of the War God spirit held it in place, keeping it from spilling over the floor. Gradually the amount of this red substance grew larger and larger, and under the pressure of the ether, it began to thicken, to clump together into a single solid substance. This lump of blood clung to the severed part and restored the finger to its original state.

"How's that? You cut your finger off to get it back? Are you an idiot?"

"Shut up, you stupid spirit."

The Spirit of the God of War, without explaining why, simply repeated the process. The almost crystallized clot of blood once again fell to the stone floor and spread into a shallow red puddle.

The demons surrounding them were watching the most infernal show in the world. The mad demon, lying on the cold ground, continued to deprive himself of the finger, over and over again. Even demons accustomed to every level of bloody violence, and horrible torture, were scared to death this time.

Even their new leader swallowed his profusely flowing saliva. All his courage evaporated again, and he froze in place. His mouth opened wide at the scene he'd never experienced before, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't close it back.

The Spirit of the God of War was repeating this operation without stopping, already for the tenth time in a row. And finally, it happened.

[Blood Explosion (1st level) skill gained]

"ahahahaha... I knew it would work... hey, silly spirit. I didn't finish telling you the story. This masochistic demon, as his name implies, had a hell of love for mutilating himself. Eventually, it turned out, it opened him up to one of his possible evolutionary paths. Let's just say the skill I got is one of the weakest I've seen him have."

"What skill? You got the skill?" - The voice of the Lust System was perplexed.

"Ah, yeah. Every time I forget you can't see it...don't worry, you'll figure it out soon."

The mutant demon, who couldn't even take a step, and whose short legs were shaking uncontrollably, watched closely what was going on. But noticing that the little crazy imp had stopped doing his utter madness and was once again frozen, back to being an unmoving piece of meat, he was able to relax a little. This gave him some courage again.

Time slowly dragged on. The smell of blood in the dark iron cage, the eerie silence, and the irritation of feeling weak filled the bodies of the wretched cowardly demons with a sense of hatred, restoring them once again to their lost self-control. The mood of the intellectually weak creatures changed with startling speed.

One small step. Then another. The new ringleader was checking to see if anything would happen if he came any closer. But everything remained as before, the little demon everyone now hated did not move at all. The mutant demon had grown so bold that he came right up to him and roared at him furiously, baring his long shrill tongue and gritting his sharp teeth.

[Right Hand Control Skill (20/100)]

It was to increase the level of this skill that the spirit had thrown all his energies into. It wasn't enough for him to possess only the [Blood Explosion] skill for what he set out to do.

"So every ten levels gives you control over a new finger. Interesting."

"Hey, I don't know what you're doing there...but hurry up. He's getting close." - The spirit of the Goddess of Lust almost shrieked in fear.

Suddenly the spirits felt their body rise into the air. A heavy, muscular arm squeezed their neck, cutting off the flow of air. The mutant demon, seeing that no resistance came from his opponent, felt the power of his own. His mighty arm gripped the frail neck of his red-skinned counterpart more and more tightly. There was a crunching sound of cervical vertebrae, signaling a serious problem.

But this turned out to be only the beginning. The mutant imp wanted a beautiful and overwhelming victory. He didn't care that his opponent already hung in the air like a cracked puppet that didn't even move. The main thing was to show all the other demons that he was the true leader here.

He released the sharp, slightly scuffed fingernails from his fingers, a testament to how often he used them, and with a deafening shriek delivered a swift and precise blow to the demon's body, where the spirits were lodged. The fingernails pierced the skin and reached to his heart, piercing its shell.

" Oh, my God. He has damaged the heart...I am restraining the organ from total destruction with my etheric body, but I won't last long... if you had a plan, you great and terrible spirit of the God of War, then act immediately," she cried out frightened. Her ethereal tendrils closed the holes in the dying heart, keeping it running. But her powers were not infinite.

"I am ready."

The demon's body still hung in the air, held firmly by the leader. The Spirit of War raised a new still whole finger on his right hand, which he had just learned to control, and pointed it at their common enemy. The finger was aimed at the face of the mutant Imp, who, with a satisfied grin, was already rejoicing in his triumphant and unqualified victory. He had just demonstrated to all those worthless demons his incredible power, now no one would dare challenge him!

"Blood blast," said the spirit, and his finger burst right down the middle. He collected the blood in that spot beforehand, and then abruptly ordered it to explode at just the right angle and pressure. This caused the finger to traverse, like a bloody arrow, the distance between the hand and the mutant Imp's head in a split second.

The War God Spirit was once one of the most famous and talented. Even if he was only a System and only helped his dragon to crush his enemies, it did not mean that he did not have the necessary experience in the killing. War was his religion, and he was the best at it. And now he was proving it once again.

The finger struck the leader's eye at breakneck speed, and the sharp fingernail made a hole deep in his brain. The mutant demon didn't even have time to realize what had happened. He was still staring at the little demon with a smirk frozen on his lips when his consciousness gradually began to drift away into the darkness.

In a second, the screams, shrieks, and growls of the maddened mob of demons echoed far across the underground monster vault. So much so that even on the first level it was audible. And monsters of all kinds, like a crowd in the stadium stands, echoed these piteous cries. The entire coliseum dungeon plunged into a chaotic sonic frenzy.