There must have been approximately two hundred people living in this village, but there were relatively few dead bodies. This gave some hope that most of the local residents were able to escape. That's what we thought until we found a charred house with a mountain of human remains. Granid confirmed our fears by informing us that some “screams” were heard here, a kind of magical evidence that someone had died here, and many had died here, most likely the entire village.
"Terrible screams."
Granid spoke.
"It won't be long before their souls rest in peace. Their excruciating pain is too clear."
"Fuck!"
I swore.
The platoon members checked every house in search of other bodies or other objects that could be useful to us, but they did not even find rotten stew. All furniture, dishes, walls and courtyards were destroyed, the village was in disarray and in complete desolation, and all kinds of cattle roamed freely around the area and chewed grass. We also did not find anything useful on the bodies of the robbers we killed, only rubbish and fallen intestines.
"Did someone find something?"
I asked the platoon members, and everyone shook their heads.
"No way, sir."
They told me.
"Then we'll stop the search. There's no one alive here."
But we were going to wait out the night here and leave Princess Ilifreeta, but it looks like she will still have to be taken to Ran and used as a subject for negotiations. It will be interesting to see how the king will react when he learns that she is alive. Maybe we will be rewarded for her return, or maybe we will become suspects in a kidnapping case. In any case, we will have a lot of worries that we will have to deal with.
At that moment, Ripun suddenly ran up to me and grabbed my hand in absolute panic and shouted in my face:
"RUN! WE GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!"
Frightened, I pushed him away and almost shot him while aiming at him with my pistol.
“Stop! First, calm down and tell me what’s wrong? What happened?”
The dark-haired prophet ran his orange-red eyes this way and that, taking frequent breaths and exhalations as if he had just run a whole marathon, and not been sitting in a carriage all day. He was very frightened by something and it is important for me to know what exactly. Usually he didn't show any signs of panic the entire trip, he was always calm, silent and patient, but now something was wrong with him. It was like he saw a ghost.
"Now the army will be here!"
Having caught his breath, he said and I immediately understood what was happening.
If the royal army is here and they see that we are here in a destroyed village, they will obviously think that we are behind everything that happened and will most likely decide to attack us. At the moment, we no longer have enough ammunition for a prolonged battle with a superior enemy, and therefore this is a likely battle that we are guaranteed to lose.
"Attention everyone!"
I shouted to the entire area, attracting the attention of the entire platoon.
“We’ll leave the village now! Be ready in ten minutes! We’ll go into the forest to the east, we’ll walk. And you...”
I turned to the coachmen sitting on the carts.
"You will receive your payment and go back to Itsqueen."
Even though they were surprised by my sudden statement, at the same time I saw some relief in their eyes. All this time they were uncomfortable with us, which was quite understandable for us since they were fully aware that we were behind the tragedy in Itsqueen, but then Granid warned them by threateningly holding out his staff:
“If you dare to reveal to anyone what you saw here, then the curse of fecal eruptions will befall you for the rest of your life. If you do not want this fate, then shut up and live your life as you have always lived and will live.”
"We r-understood."
Ikaya was uttered by one of them, or rather the old man, who kidnapped Princess Ilifreeta.
"Sh-should we unload everything?"
"Certainly!"
I shouted to them and the coachmen, nodding as a sign of understanding, with fear on their faces, began to unload all our things.
When everything was ready, they climbed onto the carts and, hitting the reins, drove back to Itsqueen. This is the last time we saw each other. Furgur had to take Princess Ilifreeta in his arms, and the rest of the fighters had to put bags of food on their backs, and soon we were ready to hit the road.
"Is everyone ready?"
I shouted.
"Yes sir!"
The whole platoon shouted in unison, after which I examined this village for the last time and gave the order:
"I order everyone to follow me."
I said and we moved east, gathering in a column and holding our weapons at the ready.
Having set off and after some time leaving the village, I decided to find out from Ripun the details about what awaits us in the future, or rather what should have awaited us if we stayed here for a long time:
“Ripun, tell me what should have happened if we had stayed here?”
The Prophet gathered more air into his chest and finally decided to calmly tell everything:
“An army would come, a huge army, and immediately attack us.”
Furgur, carrying the princess in his arms, decided to clarify something:
"Prophet, did you see what banners they had?"
"They had no banners."
Ripun replied, causing Furgur to look down and think.
“Hmm~... there were no banners, or did you just not notice them?”
"No, it wasn't."
"Then what did they look like?"
I already asked.
"They looked exactly like the bandits you killed. They were angry that the village was not in their hands."
Ripun said with fear on his face, stepping over the roots of trees and trampling the grass under his feet, and then with no less fear he said the following.
“There was a sorceress among them. She killed us all, that is... she should have killed us.”
"Sorceress?"
I thought out loud.
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It was a strange thing. We would have been overtaken by a large army of robbers in which there was a sorceress who could kill us all. Were even Camellia, Granid and Incartia powerless against her alone? This is exactly what Camellia decided to clarify:
"I wonder what she looks like. Just... just could she really take on three mages?"
Swallowing his saliva and trembling slightly, Ripun answered:
"She killed you instantly. There's not even anything left of you, just black dust. She's so creepy. It seems like she was possessed by something, then you said so. I really don't understand what that could mean."
"Did you say she's possessed?"
Granid asked and Ripun nodded in response.
"What color are her eyes?"
“Eyes... her eyes were red and her hair shone like gold, but she was dressed all in black.”
"And dressed all in black? Hmm~... Possessed."
Granid said while we platoon soldiers were perplexed.
It seems that one of the natives even guessed something.
"This is not an army."
Furgur said in a gloomy voice.
"It's a cult."
"Cult? Um~... cult of what?"
I asked and Granid decided to tell us everything from the very beginning.
"The cult of worshipers of dark forces called demons. Beyond the boundaries of our world, in the kingdoms of darkness, vice, sin, pride and temptation, these creatures live, rejected by the Gods themselves. They live, feeding on the fears, passions and pain of the living and the dead. The Church gave a name to these creatures and now they are called demons."
Demons?
I was surprised, not believing my ears.
It is unlikely that any of us could believe in the existence of demons. They existed only in the Bible in the mouths of all kinds of shamans, priests and deeply religious people, becoming just a part of human culture for a very, very long time. They are always called creepy, thirsty for human emotions and universal evil, becoming a symbol of everything bad that humanity has done and could do. At least that's all I know about the word "demon" in our culture, but here on this planet they may be real.
It is quite possible that they may be a completely different type of intelligent being, which outwardly simply greatly frightens representatives of other races, including the human race. When people explored space and established contacts with alien civilizations, they repeatedly gave the name “demon” to any races that showed signs of aggression or simply looked ugly to people; this was quite normal.
Even intelligent alien species called people a similar word, but in their own languages because people for them were terrible and frightening monsters. Fortunately, these stereotypes were quickly broken when contacts were established, and with them some diplomatic relations. It's unlikely that this is possible, but what if the «demons» here are actually demons? This is, of course, a stupid question and first we need to see them, analyze them and draw appropriate conclusions, but for now we should keep their existence in mind.
Meanwhile, while we were walking through the forest, Granid continued to tell us about these same demons:
"People are afraid of them, afraid of their powers, that they can come for their souls, but other people worship them, serve them voluntarily, sacrifice themselves to them, their blood or their bodies. People who sacrificed their souls for them and handed them over to them possessions of their bodies are called obsessed. They are very strong and capable of crushing an entire army alone, and if a whole flock gathers among them, then the whole army will fall before them."
“This all certainly sounds interesting and scary,”
Fred spoke with skepticism.
“But it’s unlikely that these demons exist at all. You could confuse them with another type of living being and build around them the image of a dangerous enemy. While the possessed may just be people who have used some enhancing substances.”
Fred, as always, could not believe in fairy tales, however, I could not either, but simply admitted their reality, while the senior physician immediately rejected them and gave his own answer to this question.
"This is wrong."
Granid answered calmly.
“Demons live beyond the boundaries of our world and live in a constant search for gates through which they can leak onto the continent, into the mortal world. People, or rather their bright destructive emotions like pride, passion, love, hatred, anger, temptation, are these gates, that’s why Demons are also dangerous, they take advantage of human weaknesses to devour all the living and the dead. The Antigonish Inquisition or the warriors of the Order of the Holy Knights often dealt with the possessed, but not all lands are subject to them, and somewhere they are even crushed by demons, as in the gray sands of the western desert.
"Hell."
Furgur said gloomily.
"A huge desert of ash and an ocean of bones. I have never seen these lands, but according to rumors they are described as they are. They say that Western countries are preparing military campaigns to crush this stronghold of demons, but lose to them every time. From the desert Hel constantly There are demonic raids on the lands of the living, and the desert itself is constantly expanding, devouring entire countries. There are even rumors about a certain demon lord who allegedly directs these demons, but this may already be fiction."
Demon Lord? That is... Satan?
I asked myself questions.
“It is quite possible that this is why the Antigone Empire decided to expand.”
Itami suddenly suggested.
"Perhaps they are going to gather resources from all over the continent to defeat them once and for all?"
In response, Granid shook his head negatively.
“To fight demons, no resources or people are needed, because they are useless against demons. People and their weapons are absolutely powerless against them. Demons are woven from the same flesh as angels. No matter how embarrassing it is to admit, but once they were near the Gods, but fell, were expelled from the divine domains or punished. You can even call them godless angels, but the church prohibits calling demons that way, keep this in mind. These demons can only be defeated by special spells known only to the Antigonians, but even so they are not. They can crush them no matter what army the Antigonians lead."
"Does the Antigone Empire border on Hel?"
I asked Granid and he again shook his head.
“As far as I know, Hel is much further to the west. Demons mainly dominate there, and with them the church. They rarely appear in lands other than the west. In any case, I have not heard of them appearing here or anywhere else "
"Then what are the cultists doing here?"
Zaden, who had been silent until then, asked.
We were all worried about this question. We knew that there are certain demons on this planet and they pose a huge threat to all its inhabitants, although we cannot yet imagine exactly which one, but still, information about them may be useful to us someday. Perhaps if they turn out to be ordinary intelligent life forms, then we can come into contact with them and agree on something. For example, they can help us get out of this planet, since they are made of the same thing as these unknown angels, but before that we need to check whether they are really the ones who are so afraid and whether they even exist.
At this time, Princess Niana decided to answer Zaden’s question, also listening to all this with fear on her face.
"Perhaps they want to come to Hippolyta's aid."
"What?"
We all asked her almost in unison.
"Wait."
Suddenly Alza remembered something.”
“The lady said that Queen Femila entered into a contract with a certain demon. Maybe under this contract the demons decided to undertake to protect Hippolyta in exchange for something?”
"For what?"
I asked and Princess Niana answered with drops of tears in her eyes.
"For my mother's life."
Hearing her words, we all fell silent, without stopping our movement in the forest. It is unlikely that demons will comply with any kind of agreement, and it is unclear what Queen Femila was counting on when concluding a contract with a demon. Maybe this contract is just a rumor or even a fictitious reason for the invasion of Hippolyta, we don’t know for sure, and therefore it’s too early to draw any conclusions.
"Enough."
I said, returning all my attention to Ripun.
"Do you have anything else to add?"
"Uh~… Da."
The orange-eyed one nodded."
“That sorceress cast spells without words, like dear Camellia.”
Hearing his words, Camellia suddenly became interested:
"What spell did she use?"
"Lightning. She flashed them from her palms."
"Didn't she have any scars on her that looked like roots?"
"N... no."
The prophet tried to remember, blinking a little and shaking his head.”
“No, definitely not. Why did she have to have scars?”
"If she can use a lightning spell without words, then she knows the nature of lightning, how it is formed and its effects."
The white-haired sorceress answered.
“To do this, you need to experience the element on yourself, as all magicians do, testing water, fire or air on yourself. If she can use lightning, then thunder has struck her. Or...”
Camellia suddenly fell silent, but the old wizard decided to finish for her:
"Or she's much older than she looks."
“What does her age have to do with it if we are talking about knowledge of the nature of lightning?”
Fred was interested and Granid answered him.
“To understand the essence of magic, you either need to have an unprecedented mind or time to study all the elements of nature. If she recreates lightning without spells, it means that she either fully understood the essence of the element of lightning or experienced it on herself.”
To understand magic, it turns out you need to know physics.
I understood something of their words and began to think.
We have been on this planet for more than a month and are still not very familiar with the nature of these places. There are a lot of fantastic things here, all kinds of creatures and phenomena that, according to some criteria, existed in the fantasies of earthlings and resulted in works of art, but here they are for some reason real. Demons, magicians, kingdoms, monsters, goblins... Strange... it feels as if some person, possessing unrealistic resources, realized all his fantasies here..., created for himself the world of his dreams.
While we continued to go east, night had already fallen. Tomorrow we'll head south and hit the road to Run, but for now we've decided to set up camp in the middle of this forest. The guys still hold out and maintain proper discipline, which cannot be said about the natives, who liked to quarrel among themselves from time to time.
And now, lying on my sleeping bag, I saw Camellia leading Lecite away, holding his hand. It was not difficult to guess why. I decided not to disturb them, but then I noticed a strange look from Princess Ilifreeta directed in their direction. She seemed unable to sleep while the fire was burning nearby, however, I was the same.
"Where did they go?"
asked the princess.
"Most likely to make children."
I answered with a chuckle and turned away, leaving the native princess perplexed by my words.
When we return to the 127th Army, we will carry with us a baggage of useful data that will help us survive and get off this planet. I hope everything will be fine with us, and we will never meet these cultists.