Although one of the Eight Demon Generals had fallen in battle, this was no great loss for Hell.
On the Blood War front in Avernus, Hell's Eight Demon Generals enjoyed immense renown. Rumor called them living legends who had fought on the front lines ever since Baator was founded. From the dawn of time to the present, they had survived untold wars of unimaginable madness-living fossils of the Blood War.
But those who knew the truth understood that the Eight Demon Generals were merely "titles." Over the endless ages of the Blood War, many of those titles had changed hands countless times. Whenever a general died, another archdevil soon took his name and continued fighting on the battlefields of the Blood War as one of the Eight Demon Generals.
Victory seemed to have come a little too easily.
Bael, the Archdevil of Avernus, merely sneered when he heard that one of the Eight Demon Generals had died.
A master of the Blood War, Bael watched his enemies fall into his grasp, step by step.
In fact, the moment the Chaos forces entered Knucklebone Fortress, Bael had ordered his loyal lieutenant, Devil Duke Baalzebul, to lead the devil kings' cavalry legions over the mountains and cut off the Chaos army's retreat.
Even the Chaos Knights' mounts could not cross the towering, precipitous mountains of Avernus. But devil cavalry, who ruthlessly obeyed military orders, had no fear of treacherous terrain, much less the elusive Devil Ghost Assassination Unit. The three Chaos armies that had advanced fastest were trapped on rugged mountain roads. Their retreat was cut off, an impenetrable iron defensive line of the Devil Army blocked their front, towering peaks rose on one side, and the River Styx roared past on the other.
The Chaos commanders knew none of this. Just