Demon continent Alsace in the year 307 in the 10-month Asmodum on the 26th day after the shattering of the empire.

They had split up after all, after inscribing the armor with so many sacred texts of the Larrua that they felt safe and she had enough confidence that they could not be converted, at least as safe as she could be at the moment enough to stab the enemies in the back at several places, she could only hope that the measures they had taken would really help and that the Larrua had not cut their own flesh in this way. But this would still become apparent and she would do her utmost to prevent it.

She was not yet close to a solution on how to free Diva from her prison, but an idea of a plan took shape in her head, a risky one.

The followers of Meinoume had to convert Diva somehow or kill her, and for that, they had to go into the prison to get to her. Because this also protected Diva from outside influences.

So it was assumed that the priests of Meinoume or he himself knew a way to free Diva and to ensure their cooperation, he took her people hostage so far as her theory.

In addition, with each new follower or slave, his power grew by the power of the follower or enslaved. At least that was the story the Cikarti had always told.

The idea was that she would let it come to that if it was a must, even if she wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea and it should only be the last resort, but never the first option, which was why she was still going through everything she had seen in the city's library.

She wasn't sure if the priests or Meinoume himself didn't have another way to convert Diva without freeing her from her prison, and she didn't want to risk looking into the mind of a fanatic or an enslaved one to Meinoume. At least in none who had been under the influence of Meinoume for a longer time, with the Larrua of the city it was a little different since these were freshly converted and Meinoume did not yet have so much influence over their minds as with older followers, thus these had not yet deformed, and it was a little too risky for her to fight in the mind of an enslaved of Meinoume especially if he should decide to do so since this would be a fight which she would probably lose.

Such minds were not safe and one could easily get lost in them or become a captive of such a mind.

But every demon child learns about the eternally hungry and how he always strives to satisfy his hunger and how he did so.

She just hadn't thought that he was targeting other races of Alsace as well, which came through the stories the Cikarti told or recounted in acting performances.

So she could assume that the priests, but also Meinoume himself were targeting other races, as he was trying to control the Larrua and the Titan that created them, so she had to consider that he was trying to do the same with other races or had already succeeded. There must be races, which voluntarily or involuntarily were in the service of the eternally hungry.

"Enemies ahead!" she announced loudly enough for the Larrua soldiers around her to hear.

When they had separated from each other, they had agreed that they would try to free the converted Larrua, the Larrua who belonged to the Larrua of the city, from the influence of Meinoume, if this was possible for her.

This was basically only possible for her since no other squad of soldiers had a priest of the Diva with them and therefore could not free the converted Larrua from the influence of Meinoume.

But this was exactly her task, which she had to fulfill at the request of Panos, and she could understand his logic. He wanted to save his people and at the same time deprive the enemy of manpower.

Something that was easy for her, even if she had been wondering for some time how long she would be able to do that, she was sure that Meinoume noticed when one of his victims was freed.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Only with a nod or a hand signal did the soldiers let her know that they had understood.

Since both parties consisted of Larrua, both had the same abilities and so they had to be especially quiet in order not to be heard by the enemy Larrua. She had taken care of the smell with a spell, which she knew from scouts or hunters of the empire. This spell was also surprisingly easy for her, since she had never used it herself, but had only seen it used and knew it from the memories of many scouts and hunters.

The enemies were Larrua, but they didn't seem to be aware of their nature, they didn't seem to be able to do anything with sounds and they didn't seem to pay attention to their sense of smell, at least not to the extent that the free Larrua did.

Nevertheless, when they had made contact with the enemy, they had the misfortune that the natural instincts of a Larrua under the influence of the Meinoume had been so strong that he had given an alarm, making the fight unnecessarily difficult.

In addition, they tried not to kill the Larrua, while the opponents did not have this restriction. They were interested in them and wanted to take them to a priest so that they could be converted, but it didn't matter if they lived long after that, since their souls belonged to Meinoume after he had converted one.

They were only a few meters away from the bend in the corridor, behind which the enemy Larrua were coming towards them.

With quick hand signals, she gave the soldiers to understand how they were going to proceed, which caused them to line up against the wall to her left to be out of sight of the enemies for longer.

A light pat on her shoulder let her know that the soldiers had lined up behind her on the wall and that they were ready to intervene if she could not free the Larrua from Meinoume's influence in time.

She checked her domain again to make sure she hadn't missed any enemy troops before concentrating all her senses on freeing the Larrua all at once.

She had already seen that the troops were not accompanied by a priest and thus were not protected from her own spiritual attacks.

And also the troop strength did not make her any difficulties she had gotten used to the spirits of the Larrua fast and had been able to fall back on already existing experience if it was a question of diving into the spirit of several persons at the same time.

This time, too, she felt no resistance from Meinoume as she entered the spirits of the Larrua, only his shackles, and molds, which he had laced around the spirit of the Larrua in question.

Five steps until they rounded the corner.

Cautiously, she looked around, trying to find the anchors that were anchored in the depths of the spirits and to which the shackles of the Meinoume were attached.

Four steps until they came around the corner.

In some she had already found them, in others they were anchored even deeper and she had to penetrate even deeper into their spirits without triggering the self-defense mechanism of the person's spirit, on which Meinoume seemed to rely since he had connected his shackles to them in order to be informed about intruders or free thoughts and to be able to react to them.

Three steps until they rounded the corner.

It was too risky for her to cut this connection and put a false mind on the cut end, fearing that he might overhear and she would not have the time to make a copy of the affected mind. So she would remove this with all the other anchors, shackles, and molds once she had everything accounted for.

Two steps until they rounded the corner.

Further and further her own mind spread into that of the afflicted to find every shackle and anchor, while other parts of her mind took care to encompass the forms surrounding the spirits and prepare to remove them with a jerk. While other parts of her mind were already working on weakening everything to the point where she could remove it in one go.

One step until they came around the corner.

She encompassed everything and checked it again to make sure she hadn't missed anything. She took a moment to make sure she hadn't made a mistake, and then she pulled and sprung the shackles, anchors, and forms that held the spirits of the Larrua captive.

The Larrua, who had just been hostile, stumbled around the corner into the middle of the T-junction, where they lay dazed.

The soldiers behind her had moved into position and were now taking up positions at the two unsecured passageway entrances to allow their freed comrades to briefly catch themselves.

In her domain, she could already see the next squad.

"Hurry ..." She clapped her hands to get the attention, but also to goad the soldiers still lying on the ground.

"We don't have all day, and your clan needs you." Dazed, the soldiers rose. She could still see the confusion on their faces, but they didn't have time for that now.

"You, instruct them as we continue on our way." With that, she walked into the corridor the soldiers had come from and toward the next squad to free them from Meinoume's clutches as well.

One squad at a time.