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The houses were silent. Not a single thing moved.
They had caught up to the demon in a burned-out town in the northern fields of the elven lands, which had been destroyed during the Invasion. Destroyed houses and ruined streets made traversal difficult, though the two rogues didn’t seem to be having any trouble.
Aina could only guess why the demon had gone to this specific town. Perhaps it knew that it was being followed, and decided to fight where there would be no interruptions. Perhaps it was mocking them, taking them to a place that demons had utterly destroyed.
Hopefully it was just passing through. A small part of her knew that wish was too good to be fulfilled.
The soft sound of grass waving in the wind was the only thing that greeted them as they stepped into the town square.
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The castle was loud.The royal family had thrown a party to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the end of the invasion, and the 16th birthday of the spoiled brat.
Naturally, they had invited just about every royal and noble on the continent, including one of the Heroes that had fought the demon king, now a famous dwarven artist.
Fuyuko was of course ecstatic to see Rio again, though she didn’t have many chances to interact with him with how much she was being ordered around. The other servants were just as busy, taking and delivering orders to the goblins in the kitchens, serving refreshments to guests, and other servant duties.
Rio, for his part, was quite polite to the servants, and his expressions whenever another partygoer treated them poorly made clear that he disapproved, but otherwise he was quite passive.
Fuyuko vowed to herself that she would talk to him before the party ended.
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The forest was quiet.
Kaede was a simple druid, traversing the woods in her daily trek towards a nearby town, her fenrir familiar at her side.
Kaede had found Conan when he was only a puppy, having been orphaned by an adventurer. She had thought him a simple wolf, but as he grew– quite quickly she might add– it became clear that he was more. More giant wolves appeared all over the continent’s forests, eventually being given the name of fenrir by adventurers.
Conan didn’t act like a monster, more like a friendly kitten that could tear anything smaller than it to shreds at a moment's notice. Considering Conan was the size of a carriage only a week after he was rescued, the list of things smaller than him was growing quickly.
But no matter how threatening he got, Kaede didn’t care. Conan was still that tiny wolf pup at heart, and they loved each other. He would protect her from monsters, and she would protect him from adventurers.
Conan perked up suddenly and growled softly. He had heard something.
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Aina watched the mage cast a tracking spell. The soft sound of wind rustling through leaves was the only sound to hear.
Tracking spells were reliant on distance. The closer the target, the easier the spell. But they are also quite inefficient mana-wise. A tracking spell on a target one kingdom over could force a high ranking mage unconscious, and one on a target a continent away could be lethal to cast.
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It was for this reason that they didn’t cast a tracking spell on the demon before. But now that they were in the same village as it was, casting a tracking spell to find it would be fine.
“That way.” The mage said, having finished the spell and now pointing down the empty street.
Aina calmed her nerves.
They walked in sync, and the sound of wind rustling through leaves was the only sound to hear.
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Fuyuko started towards Rio. The sound of small talk filled her ears.
She could hear one of the guests chatting with the hosts as she passed them.
“–much for the orc?” the guest asked.
“It was quite expensive. Elf-trained.” the host answered.
“Well I’m looking to buy it. My son has a thing for them.”
“For orcs?”
“Apparently yours caught his–”
Fuyuko paid no attention. The sound of her own thoughts distracted her.Why was only Rio here? Where was Saho? Why had he retired from adventuring?
Out of the corner of her eye, the orc servant walked towards the host, the guards assigned to it trailing behind.
She kept walking, for the sound of small talk had filled her ears.
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Kaede advanced into the underbrush with Conan. The quiet sounds of the forest covered any noises.
As they gently pushed branches and small plants out of the way, Kaede strained her ears for any sound of whatever had alerted Conan.
Conan stalked forward, almost disappearing in the shadows that the trees casted across the forest floor. The already soft sound of his enormous paws became quieter and the dull white glow of his eyes dimmed. What they were hunting was directly in front of them.
Kaede pushed a branch so that she could get a better look–
A small white rabbit stared back at them.
Nothing moved, the quiet sounds of the forest covering any noises.
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It was waiting for them in the ruins of a library.
It stood, back to them, surrounded by skeletal corpses of a party of adventurers and a group of skaven, weapons still at each other’s throats even in death.
The demon itself didn’t appear threatening, not like the ones that haunted Aina’s memories, merely like a wandering trader, wrapped in a fading blue robe that covered its head, holding a gnarled staff, and wearing an enormous pack that must have contained everything that a traveller would ever need. It wasn’t particularly tall, standing about equal to a horse’s shoulder. The small amount of skin that was exposed to view was aged and tan, and revealed that– at the very least– it appeared either human or elven, rather than the nightmarish black coat of the demon that felled the beastkin capital.
Snap.
Aina winced as the sound of a piece of wood being snapped under one of the paladin’s boots shattered the silence that hung in the air.
The demon turned slowly.
Its front was just as inconspicuous as its back, with a simple yellow sash serving as a belt and a number of handmade necklaces bearing small stones and shells. Its eyes were obscured by a shadow too dark to be real in the middle of the day, but the lower half of its face was exposed.
Like its arms, its skin was tan and wrinkled, a thin layer of grey stubble covering its chin.
It looked like an old man, no more dangerous than any one of the villagers that it had brainwashed.
When it saw them, it smiled like an elder greeting a grandchild they haven’t seen in years.
In sync, both paladins charged, warhammers glowing gold with holy power.
Aina saw the demons hands elongate, fingers turning to talons as its jaw unhinged.
She gave a prayer to any god that could hear her.
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An agonized scream pierced the conversations in the room.
The guest who was talking to the host clutched their face, red pouring from where their eye should have been, but was no longer. Above them, the orc gripped a blood-stained shard of glass to the throat of the host, teeth bared in a snarl. The guards that were assigned to the orc had lagged behind while moving through the guests, and now were frozen in shock, weapons not even drawn.
For a long moment, nothing happened. No sound was made.
One of the guards grabbed at their sword.
The shard of glass moved, and the host’s neck split like wood against the blade of an axe.
One of the guests, an accomplished cleric, threw two holy bolts in succession.
The glowing missiles crossed the room in the time it took for the host's blood to touch the floor.
The first light pierced the eye of an orc.
The second light pierced the eye of a god.
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