*One day ago, just south of the front line*
*Blade*
The Demon Adders were a group that lived and died by their information. In theory, they were a mercenary group- in practice, the kind of people who would work with them were not the kind of people they wanted to work with. In reality, the majority of their income came from various fronts- none of which realized that they were working for the Demon Adders. The human-passing halfs were quite capable individuals after all.
They had many bases throughout human controlled territory, and a few in demon controlled territory as well, but the base Blade was at now was just a little south of the front line in Francinea. It was underground, beneath the plains themselves, and Blade was sure that not a single person suspected its existence. After all, you cannot hide on plains right?
Having said all of that, the base was not a very comfortable or pleasant place. There were no fires allowed, smoke would immediately give away their position and fire consumed air to the point it became hard to breath in the deeper sections if a fire was burning. Even candles were kept to a minimum, but that was hardly an issue for most of the residents here. Blade himself did not need light, just found it more comfortable to use his eyes instead of using his demonic senses.
As he walked down the halls other people he met would step aside and bow out of respect- Blade was nigh-legendary, not that anyone outside of the Demon Adders knew that he existed, or that those events he had taken part in actually had anything to do with him. Personally, Blade did not feel he deserved the respect he was given. His success had far less to do with his personal skill, considerable as that was, and more to do with his inheritance.
If a noble from above had come down here and counted their numbers, they probably would have died of shock. In numbers and in variety there were more in this base than the nobles above estimated there were in the entirety of the Demon Adders. Most of them were the children of imps or gobs, but a few were from rarer breeds. There was a woman who clearly had Vinayakas heritage as her nose was instead a long trunk and another that was likely a child of the High Demons known as Wrathbringers, she had limbs in the same place Blade did, but they were human arms instead of spider legs. The trade off being that she could not retract them.
Blade stepped into the office of the man he had come to meet and, as always, was unnerved by this beings appearance. The commander of this garrison, like almost all of the commanders of every garrison, was a child of the Shayatin and they had a specific name for their kind- a Nephilim. He appeared like a man, but he wavered in Blade’s vision. Blade could hide in the shadows, but Nephilim were altogether different beings- they were not entirely part of this world. Physically, they were not actually much stronger than normal humans, maybe twice the strength of what man could achieve. Compared to Blade, they were weak- but they were hard to hit, they did not quite take damage like other beings. Instead, they achieved their high positions in the organisation due to their impressive intelligence and organisational skills- and their ability to convince other people to their will. Oh, and the fact that they were immortal. Even if you killed one, they would just come back at some point. If their parents were not almost entirely incorporeal humanity would have been wiped out by the Shayatin alone- though that did raise the question of how they actually had children…
“Commander Whisper,” Blade bowed slightly, code names were almost exclusively used by the Demon Adders- some even forgot their original names, Blade remembered though. “It is my pleasure to meet you.”
“The legendary Blade,” Whisper spoke, and Blade heard his voice in his ears and in his mind- a disconcerting effect. “I know what has brought you here, tell me, what is this ‘Hero’ like?”
Whisper was ancient, older than this iteration of the Demon Adders. The Demon Adders was roughly six hundred years old, reformed from an older organization that had been wiped out in the past. Whisper was, by most estimates, nearly twenty-three hundred years old. He had even met both Valencia and the Demon King- and had been promptly killed by both.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Bluntly?” Blade thought for a second, and could not really find a better way to say it. “Lucas is an arrogant ass- but a useful one. The breadth and depth of his knowledge is incredible, and while he is weak in conventional magic he is capable of killing by finesse.”
“There is something else, isn’t there?”
And this is why Blade hated Nephilim. They could not read minds, but they knew when you were not telling all you knew or lying. Their perception was annoyingly high.
“I think he would work with us openly if we gave him the chance.” Blade said those words knowing how dangerous they were, “I do not think he cares about what we are, just about what we can and will do, and how that helps him get back to his own world.”
“His allies would object at the very least.” Whisper noted, seemingly more out of curiosity in how Blade would respond than anything else.
“Lucas would almost undoubtedly run his desires right over them.” Blade chuckled at the thought, “he does not have a lot of patience and has the self confidence and pride to believe that he is right when everyone else thinks he is wrong. If he were not so intelligent, Lucas would be the world’s greatest fool.”
Both of them tensed, they heard running in the hallway behind him- though it was actually some distance away. A little later, the door burst open and the half blood shouted, “Demons attacked the camp, the Hero was kidnapped!”
The next moment, Blade and Whisper seemingly faded from the world, leaving the messenger standing in the doorway. Wind and shadow swept past the messenger and into the hall and separated in different directions. Blade was unsure what Whisper’s plan was, but he himself had been given the responsibility of keeping an eye on the Hero from the Leader herself. He moved with inhuman speed as he left the base and made his way to the human’s front line camp- which was in chaos, partly aflame.
Lucas’s room exited into a hallway with a window- and that window was broken. Perching on the wall for a moment, Blade saw a dead imp lying half in and half out of Lucas’s room and, to his horror, he noticed webbing around the window. A High Spider had been here.
To get here, the creature had almost undoubtedly travelled through the shadows- but High Spiders were not as adept as Blade was at that. No, it was not they were less adept, but that there massive size made it require far more energy than it took Blade- especially if they were carrying something in and out. That meant that Lucas was probably not far, but he would be getting further away every second. Outside of their shadows, their massive legs became less a hindrance and more of a boon- High Spiders could chase down horses.
However, they would have their own base that they came from and that base probably would not be moved for a couple of days- assuming they acted as they had in the past.
Blade slipped back out of the camp and made his way to the base to share what he knew and the decision was made to rescue him. Whisper in particular thought this was a great chance to gain Lucas’s favor and show off their potential- but Blade knew that many of the Demon Adders joining in the assault would die. Half blood children of imps were stronger than normal people, but they were weaker than their imp parents and when compared to the spiders… They were little more than fodder.
Blade himself was ashamed, because none of the High Demon’s progeny told the lesser demon half bloods that they probably would not be coming back. The simple fact was that people would not want to rush to their death- and that was exactly what was going on here. Their deaths would cover Blade’s retreat with Lucas.
They left the base and rushed north, led by trackers who had been given shreds of Lucas’s clothes. Humans would not have been able to cover such distances without mounts, and even with mounts they would have needed to stop and rest. All demons, and the children of them, required far less rest than humans. Blade himself slept roughly four hours in every seventy-two hour period, and even that was often broken up into chunks as small as fifteen minutes so that was nearly always awake and aware.
A little after noon, they found the demon’s base. Blade and Whisper slipped into the camp. When they found Lucas, Blade would rescue him and Whisper would return to signal the attack. The High Spiders were arrogant, they did not feel the need to defend against their own powers- and so they were able to move quickly and with ease and found Lucas almost comically tied up in front of…
By the Gods, a Widow! One of the leaders of the High Spiders- outwardly looking the same, the creature was hardly the same species! Her strength would be far above anything they could handle, far above what the entirety of their forces could handle if she fought them alone!
There was nothing for it then, he would have to grab Lucas and disappear into the shadows and simply hope that as many of his brethren survived as was possible.