Chess by the Book

Perhaps in a bold confidence, Belphegor let us make the first move in this person sized chess game.

They say that the first few moves in chess decide the whole game, so we needed to make some good choices, or this could get bad.

“Uncle, are you going to be taking charge here?” I asked, still learning how to use these maturing processers in my head.

He folded his arms and started tapping his boot on the ground.

“That’s not a great idea,” he said.

“Why?” My head tilted.

I could just barely sense a hint of nervousness and embarrassment, but what was causing it?

“It seems that when our bodies changed in this altered reality, I became a real human.”

Oh dear. I wouldn’t have guessed that was the case. But didn’t he already use some of his bee powers already, like flying on his wings?

“Uncle, you had wings before. You can’t be human.”

He shook his head. “I still have some of my abilities, but my brain is severally limited by what a human can do.” He started to tug on his shoulder pads and bracers, showing they wouldn’t budge. “The strangest part is that I can’t actually remove any of these pieces, so I’m stuck with all this heavy armour too. It's very exhausting.”

Curse of binding...a dastardly enchantment that glues the armour to you...you can never take it off.

Mella hopped up on Indena’s head and looked at Uncle. “Elder of the Little One, were you slumbering with all that armour on?”

“I haven’t been able to sleep at all,” he said.

Oh, that’s right. Sleeping with armour on usually doesn’t give you a good night’s sleep.

Uncle may have been a magical construct made by dad, but even he needed to rest every now and again. We both did, so we could reset our systems and run maintenance on our bodies. It's not exactly sleep, but its close enough. If we don’t do that, it’s not much different from human not getting enough rest.

It was especially important for me to get rest since I was still growing, but that didn’t mean Uncle wouldn't need to catch a few winks here and there. Now that he’s a real human, the reason to sleep doubled.

“So the old man needs a nap,” Indena uttered.

We could use one of our potions on him if he needs a little jolt. Uncle was a heavy hitter on our team and we needed that kind of power.

“Give him a potion,” I suggested to Mella.

“Are you sure?” she had a skeptical look, but I nodded to give her permission.

She pulled out a small vial of green liquid, then hopped off Indena’s head to race off for Uncle.

“And don’t come back!” Indena shouted to her, bothered that Mella used her as a perch.

Mella brought the potion over to Uncle, and he took a drink from it. Glowing green patterns of light radiated down his body and sank into the floor.

Woooovw

A barrier of light quickly ran up from the ground, then Uncle appeared to be full of energy.

“How are you feeling?” Yamin asked.

“Much better,” He gave a two fingered salute.

I asked around to make sure everyone else wasn’t tired, especially directing my question to the men who were acting as our pawns, but none of the pawns replied. They were just standing there like breathing statues. Otherwise that, everyone else was good.

“I guess Yalda’s in charge now, no?” Marek said.

“Can you handle that, Shrimp?” Indena asked. “We’ve got your back.”

I think I could manage to do this, as long as everyone was supporting me. I’m not really a good chess player, but I’d figure out how to do it.

Actually, it’s an understatement to say I’m not very good at chess. A simple AI back home could easily beat me, but that’s something I probably shouldn’t tell the others…

Belephgore snapped his fingers. A giant machine with two analog clocks appeared hovering just over the outside of the chess board.

“There’s been an amendment to the rules. Each of our sides have exactly twenty minuets for our game. Each turn will use up part of those minuets. Once your time is completely used up, you lose.”

"No way!" Indena shouted. "Why’d this come up?"

"How long do you all intend to stand there doing nothing? I'm generous enough to let you go first, yet you bore me."

Did he intend to play by that same logic? Demons are known to cheat all the time.

“You better not think you can get around that time too, Mr. Belphegor.” I glared at him.

“I won’t need all that time to defeat you.”

I could see it from here, he was smiling. He's getting overconfident!

The clock was ticking. We had less than twenty minuets to win a chess game. That put so much pressure on me to make every single move the best it could be.

My head made a scan of the whole board, marking down each piece and attempting to write out every possible movement anyone could make. Factoring in the size of the board at 64 squares…32 pieces...we’re already beyond millions of possible outcomes within the first dozen moves.

Yikes. So many possibilities…

Well, a game never started with the players just standing there…

“Um…” I cleared my throat to start calling out. “Guy on D2, can you move up two spaces, please?”

"Wait!" Indena shouted. Everyone turned to her. "We sure this is the best move?"

"Yeah..." I answered weakly.

Marek nodded. "It's fine. I've watched people play chess before, and they usually start like this."

Indena wasn't fully convinced, but the doubt she had in her own intelligence made her feel like she didn't have a place to speak.

However, in this, it's way to early to tell how the game was going to go. So I wasn't prepared for major criticism on this turn.

I repeated my order again, and the pawn walked that way.

Pawns are able to move two spaces on their first move. After that they only get one.

The analog clock on our side stopped ticking, then the one on Belphegor’s side started up.

“D7, move up 2.”

One of the night hags stepped forwards and stopped right in front of our pawn.

Okay…so far we’ve pretty much started this like any other game.

"Mella..." Marek ran to the edge of his square, getting Mella’s attention. "Tell Yalda to try and gain control of the middle." He whispered, keeping quiet about our strategy.

"Very well."

Mella relayed the message to me. I gave him a thumbs up. If we controlled mid, we'd easily be able to protect Yamin and Marek from being captured. Good call.

“Uncle, can you move to C3?” I asked. That was as close as he could get to the middle space.

“Are you sure that’s what you want me to do?”

“Yeah." I nodded.

He was in B1. As the knight, he could step over the pawns. And I think having him up there would be a good defense.

Belphegor moved the Nephilim knight on G8 to F6, almost mirroring our actions.

I moved my F2 pawn to F3.

Everything was going pretty much like my head was calculating, but then something happened…

The pawn on D4 was looking antsy, bobbing up and down on the edge of his square. His sword kept hitting against his shield as he stared down the night hag pawn in D5, who taunted him with mean faces and crude gestures.

“Disrespecting me, eh?” our pawn growled. “Fine, take this!”

The pawn lowered his shield and swung down his sword at the night hag, but the hag dodged and jumped over to his square. Then the two of them started wrestling until the night hag scratched at our pawns back.

“Gah!” The man yelled as he collapsed.

The night hag proceeded to flip over the man and dip his hand deep into his chest, much like he was reaching into a pool of water.

It’s hand lifted out and claimed something blue and glowing, likely part of the man’s spirit. He tossed it all the way to Belphegor, who began to eat it like an apple.

“No!” I shouted in frustration. “That’s cheating! Give that man his spirit back!”

“I seem to recall your pawn struck first,” Belphegor responded. “Either way, what's done is done.”

Dang it, he was right. It was our guy that broke the rules. And even though he was the attacker, he still couldn’t defeat the night hag. Usually in chess whoever attacks gets the square.

That told me two things. First was that everyone on this board had a mind of his or her own. If they wanted to do something, they’d do it. And second was that just because someone had the advantage, it didn’t mean that they were going to win a fight.

“Eh!” Indena announced in anger. “You’re only allowing it because your guy won the fight!”

The demon lord sighed.

"Pawns may only attack diagonally. visualize it as them having their shields up, unable to be hit from the front. Your pawn lowered his shield to attack, opening him up to a counter attack. Does that make sense?"

"No." Indena willfully ignored his logic.

It only made sense if I didn't think of this as normal chess. And that might have been exactly what the demon was going for. Otherwise, why not just set up a nice table with a normal game?

Once again, the demon lord sighed, this time accompanying it with a facepalm and pinch of his temple. He pointed to the night hag who won the fight.

“Sacrifice yourself.”

The night hag looked offended, pointing at himself and beginning to cry.

“Do it.”

The night hag started crying, then he walked out of his square and headed my way. It took him a minute to cross the few dozen meters, but once he was here, he kneeled down.

His watery eyes pleaded for me to spare him. But he had just happily stolen the spirit of a man with zero remorse of his actions. I had no mercy for him.

My spear blade slashed across his head, causing him to become dust in the wind. A glowing orb of red fire bounced around my square after that.

“Now we’re even.” Belphegor declared. “But hence forth, anything of that sort goes.”

I guess it was good that he was fair to some degree…but this chess game was going to be an absolute mess in no time at all if this kept up.

Speaking of mess…that fire orb flew out of my square and landed in Marek’s hands. He panicked while juggling it.

“Throw it to me!” Indena shouted.

“Gahh!!” Marek grunted as he chucked the hot ball.

Indena overestimated her abilities in that tiny body, barely catching it, immediately regretting her decision.

“Oh crud!” Indena was now juggling the fire. “I forgot I don’t have fire magic anymore!”

She threw it to Uncle now.

But even he was having a hard time holding that thing without burning his hands.

All the while, Yamin had quietly been watching the flame juggle from hand to hand. She was mesmerized, like when she’d look at the stars.

She gracefully walked over to Uncle, twisting her hand around to grab the fire. While holding it, her book opened up and absorbed the hot orb.

“What did you just do?” Uncle asked her.

“I don’t know…” she couldn’t take her eyes away from the book. “But look, this page is filling out…”

She started scratching at the blank page, peeling away layers of paper. Her scratching turned quick and aggressive, making flakes fall all over the floor.

Her desperation prompted Uncle to grab her hand. “Stop that,” he ordered. “What do you think you're doing?”

Her innocent, curious eyes gazed at him, suddenly realizing her strange ways.

“I'm sorry...I couldn’t help it. I needed to see what was here.”

Uncle could clearly tell that she wasn’t acting right, much like the rest of us could. Whatever about that book was causing this, it was completely out of character. Moreover, I didn't like seeing her act so desperate.