Four days later, two days after Esperanza’s group reached the meeting point, Ani arrived there as well, along with her four warriors, none of them worse off after the escape. They waited together there until the last group also reached the meeting point half a day after that, and quietly set up an ambush in case any of them were tailed.
After a tense day of waiting – and a lot of legwork for Esperanza, Legisvula, Dali, and the scouts amongst Ani’s people – they decided that nobody had tailed any of the groups, and finally took the time to relax and rest up a bit. Esperanza’s group was well-rested, but Ani’s groups had been constantly on the run until then, so they needed some rest in order to recover their strength.
“How did it go for you, Miss Ani?” asked Esperanza once they settled down to rest and relax for a bit more. Once again, they were situated deep within a forest that’s feared as a monster breeding ground, but as most of the monsters were third tiers at best, those proved to be no challenge for the group. Certainly a lethal threat for the average demon, though.
“Eh, not too bad. They were pretty persistent at first, but after we killed one of their fourth tiers leading the pack, the rest didn’t dare to pursue as close as before,” noted Ani rather nonchalantly. A single low-end fourth tier combatant wouldn’t have posed any threat to her team, as any of her warriors could take them on one on one, while Ani herself had made short work of the enemy in question. “How about on your end, Exalted One?”
“Almost the same, actually,” said Esperanza with a nod. “One of their fourth tier Hijo de Puta got pretty close so we set up an ambush for them. After they’ve been taken care of, the rest didn’t dare to chase as closely, so it was easy enough to lose them,” she continued. “What about the others? Did they face any hard pursuit?”
“No, Ara’Wan told me that his group didn’t run into any dogged pursuit or fourth tiers,” replied Ani as she named her second in command, a younger warrior who was second only to herself amongst the group of ten. “Then again, they took the path that detoured quite a bit through difficult terrain, so no real surprise that they shook off their pursuers first.”
“So where do we go from here? Those demons are alerted now and are scouring the region for our presence. I’m willing to bet that any nearby base would be on high alert as well, after those strikes,” noted Esperanza as she spread the map of the region on the ground. “Should we head closer towards the frontlines? It would be riskier there, though. Their fourth tiers on the front would be able to respond faster.”
“I feel we should do the opposite instead and try to hit this supply center,” pointed out Ani as she placed a finger on a location deeper within the Demon Territories, roughly half a week away from their current location. “If they thought we are infiltrators from the Human Kingdom, then they would expect us to withdraw after the successful strikes, rather than go even deeper into their territory.”
“That supply center should be pretty big, no? Until now all we have struck at has been relay stations between places like these and the front lines,” said Esperanza with some thought as she pondered whether the group had the ability to take on such a large base or not. What she worried about wasn’t an issue of power – the demons didn’t leave too many fourth tiers guarding their inner regions – but whether they could keep up the facade of the attack being done by the humans or not.
“That sort of place would have many more people, no? Are you confident that we’d be able to get all of them?” asked Esperanza as she calculated the risks and benefits. If they were to accidentally reveal their true identity as people aligned with Oldies, it would bring a lot of trouble down their heads. In fact, the demons might be willing to pull some of their best from the frontlines just to hunt them down.
As such, to keep their identities hidden was a must, and if the base was too large for just the five of them who could pretend to be or were humans to take down, that meant they needed to make sure to leave no witnesses.
“About that, I’m actually thinking that we should start this one from the inside out,” replied Ani to her question. “You could infiltrate their base first the way you did in that first supply base, no?”
“I could, but if I run into anyone particularly familiar with the owner of the body I borrowed, I’m not sure I could keep up the charade for long,” replied Esperanza. “I could get some information on how they would act from their souls, but that’s not the most reliable, as some of them can be stubborn.”
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“Do you think you can keep it up long enough to find certain people? By the time you find them, it would be irrelevant if you keep the disguise up or not,” continued Ani. “Based on what I could tell out of how the demons assign security to their bases, there’s likely a fourth tier combatant in the supply center. If possible, I’d like you to sneak in, find that fourth tier, and kill them before we come in.”
“And then? I guess it would be safest for me to do this, since even if they manage to take me out I’d just use [Respawn], so I get your idea,” noted Esperanza with a nod. “Should I just go wild after that or do I try to lure them into an ambush instead?”
“You have that blessing from the Deities of Yore that would affect the unbelievers that laid eyes upon you, no, Exalted One? I imagine if you make use of that you could cause a large-scale panic within the center, at which point we’d strike as well and finish them off,” said Ani, referring to the side effect of Esperanza’s [Far Down the Deep End]. One thing Esperanza had learned in the time she spent in Agus-Bas was that those who believed in Oldies all had negative sanity like her, so they were mostly unaffected by it.
On the other hand, those who believed in the new gods would feel the full brunt of its effects.
“A pretty good idea,” admitted Esperanza. The side effect of the skill would likely only affect those with particularly weak souls, but that wasn’t too uncommon amongst physically inclined warriors, so using the skill’s side effect would likely drive a sizable chunk of the defenders into chaos. Esperanza mostly reined in the skill’s side effect out of habit, but it was easy enough for her to unleash it or even amplify it. “Yeah, that should likely cause a lot of panic there. Might even make them forget about running away for a while, assuming I can get the fourth tier fast enough.”
“In that case, should we make the preparations? With luck, we might be able to get some more reports from the frontlines on that supply center, since they would usually pass through there, unless it’s an urgent message,” said Ani with a satisfied nod. “I’m not certain how much our actions have impacted the demons fighting against the humans, but there should be some disturbance at the very least.”
“I honestly feel a little like a terrorista here, with all this sneaking around and hitting places secretly, but then again, we’re aiming to bring the world’s end to begin with, so I guess it’s part of the parcel,” admitted Esperanza with a wistful sigh. “Then again, not like we have anywhere near enough power to achieve our goals the direct way.”
“It’s why we’re doing what we can to make our enemies fight and destroy each other as much as possible, Exalted One,” replied Ani in a reassuring manner. “They are as yet unaware of our presence, so they wouldn’t think of a third party attempting to take advantage of their usual wars. It is our main and probably only advantage, so we have to make the most of it.”
“I know,” said Esperanza with a shake of her head. “Still doesn’t change much about the feeling I get, but I’ll get over it,” she sighed with emotion. “I wish you all had a world where children like them would not be forced to fight or experience such tragedies, but it’s been made all too clear to me that it’s clearly not the case with this world. If changing that meant ending this world that has gone rotten, then so be it.”
“We will stand by your side, Exalted One,” reassured Ani with a slight bow of her head.
Esperanza herself just looked at the progenies, the children who had been forced to mature ahead of their time, who had to fight and kill and go through tragedies no children should ever experience, all due to the current state of the world they lived in. In many ways, those children were a major part of her motivation to set things right, as well as one of the reasons she chose to go along with Oldies.
While she at times doubted even her own thoughts – that negative Sanity score still worried her every now and then – she felt certain on this matter. It was something she wanted to do, and if that turned out to be because she had long gone insane – or corrupted or whatever eldritch gods might have done to a soul – then so be it.
“We will prepare for it, Exalted One,” said Ani meaningfully as she gave a gesture of reassurance to Esperanza. The older woman seemed to understand that despite her role – or at least what they thought of her as – as the messenger of the Deities of Yore, Esperanza had her own thoughts and worries, turmoils she had to deal with.
Ani was a good bit older than she looked, due to her racial makeup, and she understood that young people – it was hard to deny that Esperanza herself was likely not much older than the children she cared for – often had their own worries. As such, she knew to give them room to work those worries out rather than push them too hard.
Deities knew that they had enough worries as it was, between the heavy task the Deities of Yore had laid on their shoulders, as well as the hardships they had to go through. As someone who considered herself both the leader and caretaker of the [Progenies of Yore], Esperanza must be under even greater pressure than the rest.
“For now, we should rest, Exalted One,” said Ani gently. Most of the group were already either sleeping or were on night watch duties. Ani had insisted on having her people perform that duty for the group when they were together, so the others could get a full night’s rest instead. After all, they were older and more used to such work compared to the youngsters. “The road ahead of us is long, and we will need proper rest to go through it.”
“I will, gracias,” replied Esperanza with a slight smile. She too understood that the older warrior woman said many of the words she said partly out of consideration for her. Ani was right, though, in that they still had a long way to go in their path, and that fretting about it would not change that in the least. She could use the rest as well, as they would have to be on the road again the next day.
As she laid down on her back, with a bedroll made from woven dried seaweed as her mattress, she closed her eyes as she tried to clear her head of her thoughts. There would be more time for thoughts tomorrow.
The fight for the fate of Ephemera had just started, after all.