23rd March, 1636, Far West Island Chain, 6:00 A.M.

Captain Elred gripped his spear hard as he felt the winds brush against his ears. Anxiety and tension dominated his mind. His left hand was tightly gripping his mount’s large, bony frills. A land dragon. The ultimate tool of war. Able to tear through enemy fortifications and defences without breaking so much as a sweat. Right now, he was riding one, speeding through the dimly lit forest.

Behind and ahead him were other land dragons, and their riders. Hundreds of them. All seem to have been blessed by the Gods themselves. Each one had managed to survive the carnage and crawl back alive. Being blessed with luck, each one had resolved to fight back and defeat the demons. Their resolve was reflected in their expressions, the way they tightly gripped their spears. The way their faces concealed the pain from their hastily bandaged wounds, the bandages now coming undone.

Trees and foliage parted with cracking sound ahead him as the large horde rushed forward, at the very front of the group. Mages, Earth Mages to be precise. In the span of night, they had suddenly become an extremely valuable asset. Most had perished trying to fend off the demon’s attacks. More were dying, still harbouring the false hope that they had a chance at anything.

Elred knew. Everything was pointless against these demons. Their peculiar magic, their unpredictability, their power. He considered himself really lucky to have escaped. He had seen them: those large flying fish-like demons with a spinning flower, those flying spear. Shapes that defied the mind, speed and magic that defied the very limits of imagination. Abominations that would make even the demons of popular folklore, cower in fear. His ears were still ringing from the first time he experienced their magic. Loud, earth-shattering explosions, as if the very ground itself erupted, followed by screams of pain and of repentance, begging for forgiveness. And not just one explosion, but a never-ending barrage of them.

He could still hear the explosions happen, both in his mind and in reality. They hadn’t stopped at all, ever since he ran away to safety. Rather, they seemed to have increased, both in power and in quantity. He could hear multiple explosions in the distance, against the backdrop of the dim blue sky. In between the explosions, the rumble of the flying demons could be heard. Maybe they weren’t entirely satiated it seemed, Elred thought.

Elred hadn’t thought much about it until now, now that he had some time to himself. Ever since the sudden attack began, his mind had been occupied with fighting, or running if he couldn’t fight, and live to fight another day. He remembered being in his chambers at night, reading something important. Then next thing he knew, the headquarters were on fire, the ships burst in flames all of a sudden, the wyvern base exploded. And he found himself running to the one place he believed to be safe amidst all this madness: a hidden cave system carved into the side of the mountain ranges in the middle of the island, a short distance from the headquarters, obscured by foliage through the use of magic. And before long, here he was, leading a group of land dragons, ready to drive the demons out.

Now that he was free to be enslaved by his thoughts, his mind jogged through all the things he had seen. All the things he had heard, all the things he had run from. His mind had millions of questions. There were the obvious ones, such as who were these demons? What was all that magic? Those beasts? How can they suddenly cause the ground underneath them to erupt, as if they commanded the very soil beneath them? Then there were the disturbing ones, such as why were they attacking them? Had they woken up from their deep slumber from hell to feast on their souls? And was it possible to fight these demons? Would the elves and their proud weapons stand a chance against these vile creatures?

Elred brushed the thoughts away. This was not going to help. The situation was already grim as it was, and such intrusive thoughts weren’t making things easier. He had to concentrate. This was too much already.

He tightened his grip. Despite how they looked, they were quite good. Honourable, trusty fellows. Bonds formed with them lasted for a long time. Once tamed, they grew quite fond of their human/elf companions, much like dogs. Always faithful, always ready to sacrifice themselves for their companion. Stories of bravery of many elves and their land dragons were popular in folklore and in common literature, described often as a ’bond of centuries’.

Elred turned his gaze to his front. Ahead, many of the land dragons had an extra passenger on the back, an elf wearing a dark robe. These were the surviving Earth Mages. Their arms outstretched in the air, they had been casting magic all this time: using the foliage and trees above as a shield. The tree cover surrounding the forest was already thick enough, but not enough to be able to stop any attacks from above. The trees above them, however, were reinforced with magic, acting as a blanket, hiding and protecting whatever was underneath.

The tree shield was one of the few things that provide Elred a sliver of relief. Its potency was no secret in the Feplarian Army. Capable of withstanding pretty much any type of attack from any kind of wyvern or creature, magic or not. There were even numerous recorded instances of a dragon’s attacks being thwarted by such shields. It should not come as a surprise then, that the shield was one of the primary components in the Feplarian Army’s doctrine when it came to fighting in jungles.

Something caught Elred’s attention, and he focused his gaze. Ahead, at the very front. A light. They were near their destination. The dirt path they took would directly place them somewhere near the reserve wyvern base on the base’s headquarters. The time had finally come for their last stand against these demons.

Elred gulped. Soon they would be out in the open, devoid of the safety of the foliage shield. They had to be quick. Their luck would only last so long, after all. It was now or never. If they failed, there would be nothing standing between them and their proud homeland. Ready to be devoured by these unholy demons.

A noise rose up above his head. Elred looked up. Between the closely packed and intertwined leaves and branches, he could see the shape of something. The flying fish from before. Or flying spear, or flying shoe, he didn’t know. Its shape seemed so unnatural, so strange, so unnerving. He had seen them before he narrowly escaped being burned alive. All he could make out was that they had something above their heads spinning, something akin to blades, or swords, or just very peculiar petals. That was all.

Elred wondered for a moment, how the old folks back at home would react if he told them about all this, and smiled. He could inwardly imagine their laughter hearing about flying fish with giant spinning flowers above their heads. And how their stupid grins would become even more obnoxious when he would mention the flyi—

A loud crack. A small explosion. The land dragon in front of him blossomed into large flowers of blood and flesh erupting from its back. More and more land dragons around him followed suite, roaring in pain before being silenced abruptly, and permanently. More loud cracks greeted his ears, stunning them as puffs of dirt and smoke blew up from the ground where they hit.

All the life drained from Elred’s face. The demons had broken through the Earth Mages’ shield. However, he had to choose between pondering about how they did it, or running for his life. And he chose the latter.

“Haaahhh!” he let out a cry as he gripped the land dragon’s frills hard and steered it around the dead and injured dragons, narrowly missing them. Above him, the shield had opened up, revealing the enemy: a lone flying fish, as he preferred calling it, against the backdrop of the dim blue sky. Its mysterious magic had torn right through the shield, killing dozens, including Earth Mages. So now they were exposed, ready to be picked off as easy prey.

All around him was chaos. Everyone had been caught off-guard. No one expected the shield to fail so miserably like this. Land dragons tumbled, groaning and grunting in pain. Shouts and screams resounded amidst the sound of something heavy crashing, as elves fell victim to the demon’s vile magic.

Elred continued. The end of the path was in sight. In the distance, he could see the light, the opening in the long line of trees. Just a little more.

Explosions erupted behind Elred. He looked back to see the rear of the formation engulfed in flames, getting torn to pieces. Another one of the demon’s unholy magic. In the sky above he could see faint traces of a smoke trail.

Elred ignored them. Now wasn’t the time to mourn fallen comrades. He and the surviving elves raced towards the headquarters, now close to their destination. Finally, the horde of surviving land dragons burst out of the woods, crushing and trampling twigs and branches as it did.

Greeting them was a sight they would describe as straight out of their nightmares. Everything was burnt, or burning. Smoke could be seen rising above the buildings. Thick, black smoke. In the distance, ships could be seen burning brightly, crumbling as they did. Or at least what remained of them. Many of the buildings had been destroyed completely, reduced to just large heaps of broken and crushed stone and wood. Elf corpses could be seen, scattered all around, torn apart, opened up.

For a moment, his dragon stopped, the duo taking in the devastation. Then the dragon got up on its hind legs, and roared. A declaration, of avenging all of his fallen brethren.

Getting back on all fours, the land dragon sped off again. Cheers could be heard from the mobs of elves up ahead, as they hurriedly move aside to make way for the land dragons. Elred glanced at them as he passed by. Injured, haggard dark elves, their proud uniforms torn, their skins covered with wounds and plastered with bandages. Yet they stood, their spirit reinvigorated by the sight of the famous land dragons. Finally, they would no longer be hunted one-sidedly, such was the hope seen in their eyes.

The land dragons made their way through the narrow maze of buildings, sometimes winding around them, sometimes simply tearing through them, in the hopes of taking down any demons that may have taken cover in them. Of course, Elred knew, it was but a mere wish. The demons wouldn’t bother hiding in these, not when they were the ones winning.

They were getting closer to the demons, he could tell. The stinging pain in his long, elven ears told him that. It had been there ever since the demons stepped upon this holy land. Their unholy magic had been continuously torturing his ears ever since. The seemingly incessant, ear-piercing sound of cracks, explosions, almost like a musical instrument. It seemed louder than before, yet at the same time much less painful. Maybe his ears had gotten used to it, it seemed.

Elred’s land dragon turned around a corner, and caught a glimpse of something. A human figure, clad in indescribable clothing to his eyes. Many human figures, to be exact. All of them had – what Elred believed to be –their dark-coloured magic staffs, and all their magic staffs were aimed at the land dragons.

Demons. Elred shuddered, and instinctively ducked behind his land dragon’s frill. So did many of the older, experienced elves, taking cover from the enemy magic using their land dragons. There were many unlucky ones, however, who were a bit too late to react to the threat.

Then it came. The rain of magic. Hellfire. The incessant thunder that had been torturing the dark elves all this time, this time directly at their face. Once again. Loud cracks resounded above Elred’s head, as his own heartbeat quickened in pace below. His land dragon groaned as its armoured skin was pounded by demonic magic. Elred tightened his grip on the frill, as if to say ‘hang on buddy’ to the beast.

Screams erupted from his right and his left. The unlucky ones, those who had been too late to react, were getting hit. Flowers of flesh blossomed from their bodies, sometimes their heads, sometimes their limbs. Often, the demon’s magic completely consumed the elves’ bodies, erasing their heads, their arms, their hands. All of them exploded in a gory explosion of flesh, bones and blood.

Elred gritted his teeth as he held on. Surprisingly, he felt he was getting used to this. He no longer felt the same level terror he felt the first time, at least. He peeked above the frill, still keeping his head low.

He could now see the demon’s rain of fire more clearly. Bright red or green streaks of light, almost flying in a constant line. Almost thousands of these streaks flew so close to each other in a chaotic manner, yet Elred could see not even once did they collide. Always flowing through the air above him in a straight path. Beautiful strings of bright red and green interweaving each other, floating in the air.

For a brief moment, Elred stared wide eyed at the spectacle. In all his life, he had yet to see such a spectacle conjured up by any mage, much less a demon. For a brief period, Elred thought about the mages that were behind this dance of death, something he had never thought he would think about ever since the ill-fated night set in.

The hail of fire was increasing in intensity as the land dragons heaved on. Elred knew. They were close enough. He peeked for a brief moment from behind the frills. His eyes caught a glimpse of a demon peeking out from behind a building. His outfit seemed heavy, and Elred realized there was something akin to a large sack on his back. Ducking as quickly as he had peeked out, Elred had decided. That demon was his target.

He loudly slapped the frill, and the land dragon rose up on its feet. The target was right in front of him, so he had no need to point its position.

GRRAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH

With a loud roar, the land dragon let out a fireball. Immediately, Elred heard a crash and an explosion. Internally satisfied, he peeked his head from his position. He had felt the huge amount of mana from the land dragon, and had confidence that no living being could survive such an attack.

Smoke and dust covered the building where the demon was previously, obscuring the result of his attack. Yet Elred knew instinctively that the attack was successful, for the ‘hail of fire’ suddenly felt weaker than before.

More roars, crashes and explosions resounded from his sides, and Elred turned to see the other land dragons letting loose their magic. Each fireball or ice lance, or ice spear for some, significantly weakened the demon’s ‘hail of fire’. The cacophony of the demon’s magic was interrupted; now the elves’ land dragons had joined the orchestra, playing their own tune of retribution as their magic began to slowly push the demons back.

For once, morale was at its highest. Nobody had felt this uplifted ever since the demon invasion. Now there was hope, hope of being able to fight back. Granted, it wasn’t going to be an easy fight. They had lost so many of their comrades, and were still losing more as the moments passed by. Most of the island had been completely wrecked, and even the land dragons themselves weren’t sparing them. Yet none of that mattered. In that brief moment, they were the ones winning.

Elred redirected his attention to the front. They would have time to celebrate later. They still had a war to win. He focused his attention on the nearest group of demons, singling them out by the sound of their magic. His eyes spotted a group of demons huddled around the corner of a house.

His land dragon charged up again, and let loose an ice lance this time. Unlike the fireball from before, the lance was powerful, used against armoured targets, such as thick walls, or other land dragons. Its penetrative capabilities made it very troublesome to deal with in a defensive siege.

Elred watched as the lance penetrated the walls of a building separating the demons and the dragons, before exploding right in front of them in a ball of bluish-white and grey. In between the puffs of smoke and dirt and glowing dust from the magic, Elred could see one of the demons writhing on the ground, as other demons dragged him behind the house.

“Yeeeeaaaahhhhh!!”

Elred cheered as his land dragon began moving down between the narrow buildings once again. Around him, the rest of the land dragons followed, pouring in from multiple directions, like water seeping in a sponge.

All the while, the land dragon’s attacks continued. Another fireball, another ice lance. Another building, usually a house, collapsed completely, another wall destroyed. With each step the land dragons took, the hail of fire dwindled down, yet never dying out. Even with the advances they were making, they could still not afford to be careless. Many elves learned this the hard way, and often a few screams could be heard as dark elves were caught by the demonic magic. Some of them died immediately, meeting a gory end, some were rewarded a more painful, slow and torturous death.

Stolen novel; please report.

Despite all this, it was clear that the advance was proceeding well. If they kept going at that rate, they might be able to even regain the island and defeat the demons altogether, it seemed. Elred was confident that in the elves’ victo---

A loud bang. An explosion. The land dragon on Elred’s right exploded into a giant ball of flesh and blood, spraying him and the nearby elves with their insides. Elred was caught off guard, as did the other elves. It took his mind a moment to process what had just happened. Of all the things they expected the demon’s magic to do, remotely killing their land dragons wasn’t one of them.

More explosions resounded, and other land dragons around him met the same fate, exploding like the first. What remained after the smoke settled, were mangled remains of the land dragons, and the torn and mutilated corpses of elves. A spectacle gory enough to splash cold water on the heightened spirits of the dark elves. Elves that had been slow to recover from the magic attack seemed to be the targets, as one by one, more of the stationary land dragons began exploding as well.

The unexpected attack halted the dark elves’ push at once. Narrow lanes and alleyways between the houses and the buildings that the land dragons were using were just wide enough to accommodate one of them at a time. Now with the path blocked by the gory remains of their comrades, the elves sat there, confused, with many still not having recovered from the shock. The more land dragons that died, the more hectic and chaotic the situation became.

Elred darted his eyes around in dread. Whatever mage was capable of doing such a powerful attack as this, he had to be very close. There was no way such an attack could be carried out by one mage, and at range too. There had to be at least a large number of such powerful mages in quite close proximity to the land dragons. Maybe they were hiding in the ruins of the buildings they had chosen to ignore behind them?

Suddenly, another land dragon exploded somewhere to his left. But Elred saw something. His eyes had caught glimpse of something flying at very high speed before it collided with the land dragon. His eyes traced the path of the mystical object, and he turned to look at the culprit of the attack with a chill on his back.

There, several hundred feet away, between two houses, he could see a bunch of demons. Specifically, a pair of demons. One of them was on the ground on one knee, while the other was standing by his side. The first one seemed to be holding something on his shoulder, something of a dark colour. By the looks of it, it seemed the object was quite heavy.

Elred shuddered. That was very definitely a projectile attack, there was no doubt about it. The demons were far more powerful than what he had imagined them to be. Was that a magic artifact? Or was that the demon’s own magic? He didn’t know. What he did know, however, was that the demons were very capable of defeating their land dragons, and that he had to move quickly.

His eyes quickly darted around, scanning his current position. Right now he was trapped in a small opening between several houses and buildings. Along with him were several other land dragons, some confused, unable to find the next course of action, while some tried to move the bodies of their fallen aside to clear a path. The land dragons had been killed when they were attempting to move forward through the narrow passage. As a result, the way forward had been blocked completely.

Suddenly, an explosion resounded. Elred barely had any time to react as an explosion occurred barely a few feet away from his land dragon. Everything looked suddenly blurry, his ears still ringing from the blast. Elred looked up again, trying to regain his bearings. It took him a few moments before his vision became clear again. His land dragon seemed fine. The land dragon was an intelligent beast. It wouldn’t go berserk and start rampaging after having a close call with an attack like that, at least not as far as he knew. Its low grunts indicated it was shaken, but fine.

Screams and shrieks, followed by more explosions around Elred snapped him out of his shock. He may have been lucky, but not for long. Elred raised his arm in the air as he turned towards the lower ranking elves, and shouted.

“Follow me!”

The elves quickly fell in line with the senior dark elf as he sped the land dragon towards the west. Racing through the narrow space, Elred looked on his side. There were multiple groups of those ‘land dragon hunters’, all spread out amongst the group of buildings. There demonic magic seemed to completely outrange the elves, so for now there was nothing he could do other than move.

His eyes ran through the buildings around him. Normally, it was possible to command land dragons to simply demolish the buildings and brute force their way ahead. Here, however, it couldn’t be done. They’d either get stuck underneath the rubble before the land dragon could come out the other way, or they’d end up depriving themselves from precious cover, which had so far saved their lives from the demons.

Crowds of dark elves huddled around the area, armed with swords, spears, shields; whatever weapons they could get their hands on. Mages grunted and groaned as they expelled precious magic trying to clear a path for the land dragons. The land dragon was heavy. Moving it around was no easy feat, even if it involved moving the badly destroyed carcass of one. Many mages had already collapsed on the ground, some sprawled unconscious, some on all fours, panting heavily, their robes’ dark purple hue obscuring the dirt and sweat accumulated from all the hard labour. More mages had to be assigned to nurse the exhausted mages back to full health, so progress was slower than desired.

Suddenly, Elred heard a muffled explosion in the distance, and he ducked. Something bright, the size of a coconut passed over his head. It hit a small warehouse behind him, blowing a large hole in its wall. Elred turned to look at the warehouse, his heart almost jumping out of his chest again. The demons weren’t going to let up so easily.

Several explosions and screams followed from around him. Some of the land dragons tripped and tumbled, stirring up a cloud of dirt, stirring up more screams and sounds of death. Panicking elves were either crushed under the land dragons, or were caught up in the demon’s attack. Mages staggered to their feet, pouring whatever strength they had into putting up a wall, only to get eviscerated in one blow, their insides splattered everywhere.

Elred steeled his heart. He couldn’t falter now. The only way to survive this was ahead. He must not look back. He continued moving as the screams from his fellow elves reached his ears, all the while the demon’s magic rained around him.

“M-m-my a-arm..!!”

“O-Oye, hang in there, okay? You wanna see her again tomorrow, right? Right..? Kid, stay with me…!”

“I-I-I a-ain’t gonna g-go down just y-yet..!! I s-still h-have a l-little more magi…..”

“h-hahaha, it-it is o-over, the-the demons a-are h-here t-to……””

“Hang in there, kid! Oye Dakichan! Get me a mag—AAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!”

“MOVE! MOVE!!”

Elred shouted as his land dragon narrowly avoided trampling the panicking dark elves. This was not good. He was too slow. Casualties would continue climbing if he didn’t pick up pace, and who knows, it might be his turn next.

Several bright streaks of light passed by as the land dragons rushed towards the west, with some finding their mark upon unlucky prey. With every land dragon that was hit, the chaos only increased in intensity. From the perspective of a distant viewer, only the tip of the horde could be made out somewhat clearly. The rest of the group was shrouded in a thick cloud of dust and dirt, kicked up by the tumbling land dragons. Speeding land dragons hit each other from behind, starting a domino effect that sealed the fate of the younger, inexperienced elves and their armoured companions.

There it was. After continuously trotting through the narrow paths, Elred had finally reached a relatively empty area. Though still populated by houses and small buildings, here there were no land dragons. The elves had not yet been able to mobilize in large numbers yet to be able to be able to maintain a frontline this big, courtesy of the ‘land dragon hunters’ and their magic.

Elred looked towards the south. They had travelled quite a distance, and he was confident they were out of the demon’s range. Flanking the demons from a different angle was also an option now. It was finally time to deliver the decisive blow he had been waiting for.

Suddenly, Elred’s ears caught something, and he looked up. The flying fish demons. Their peculiar chopping noise seemed to be getting closer. Is that the sound of them breathing, he had often wondered in the brief moments of respite he had ever since the last sunset. It sounded so….unnatural, inorganic. Nothing like a living creature he had known.

The demon was flying towards the north. It didn’t take Elred long to realize its goal, as the demon unleashed its disturbing magic again. Long lines of smoke suddenly drew themselves in the sky, followed by bright flashed and ear-piercing sounds of thunder on the ground, right where he had been a few minutes ago. Elred gritted his teeth. That was another large group of dark elves, devoured by the demons.

He looked around. Right now, he only had at best a handful of land dragons, all of whom had braved the demon’s magic and had so far managed to accompany him. He turned, and raised his voice as he spoke, addressing them.

“Proud elves! Right beyond these lie the demons from who-knows-where, the ones who just killed your best friends, your brothers, and continue to do so even at this moment! I shall be straightforward: who wants the honour of vanquishing the enemy of God and immortalizing the name of our proud elven race!”

“Aye sir!!”

“We ain’t backing off now, sir!”

“No way I am going down before I serve them demon heads on my Queen’s feet! We with you sir!!”

Energetic affirmations greeted Elred’s equally energetic speech. Good, he thought. The dark elves still had some fight left in them, despite how exhausted, scarred they looked. They wouldn’t be going down just yet.

Elred turned towards the group of small houses in front of him, which once probably used to be officer’s quarters. Raising one arm in the air, he shouted.

“CHARGE!!!”

The land dragons roared, before taking off. This time, their pace was much faster. Elred braced for impact as the land dragons headed towards the buildings, ducking underneath the frills.

With a huge crash, the land dragons burst through the houses, emerging from the other side, throwing up debris and dirt in their wake. The sight of several land dragons completely flattening a house as they tore through it probably would have been enough to make any average human in the 3rd World collapse out of sheer terror.

As Elred’s land dragon came out from the other side, he quickly got up from his position, scanning the area ahead. And the moment he did, he froze.

Standing between two, much smaller houses right in front of him, was something. Elred had no idea how to describe this ‘something’. A strange, almost otherworldly collection of perfect, inorganic straight lines, round shapes, draped in a strange, green and sand-coloured hide that felt so unreal and disturbing. Was it a beast? Another one of the demons and their demonic beasts? Elred had no idea. Much like the flying beasts from before, he had never seen or imagined that such a being, or thing, could even exist. If it were a beast, then where were its legs? Or did it crawl on the ground, like a snake? He didn’t know.

The beast was looking directly at him. Elred actually didn’t know, he just had an inkling. He didn’t even know where were the eyes, or the head. All he knew was that the beast had some sort of odd-looking, long snout, and it was directly pointed at him.

Before Elred could even begin uttering a word, something happened. All he saw was a large fireball instantaneously mushroom in front of the beast’s snout, obscuring it. The next moment, his consciousness, along with those ‘energetic’ dark elves he had been with, were whisked away to the same plane of afterlife as his other fallen comrades.

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Elen looked up at the bleak stone ceiling above. How long had it been? She didn’t know. An incessant, unnatural thunder raged outside, and occasionally the ground shook. Enough to deprive the slaves from whatever precious sleep and respite they could afford.

Yet all this seemed to have no effect on Elen. At least not anymore. It seemed she had remarkably grown unaccustomed to it, despite how very little time had passed since it started. Quite surprising, she thought.

Elen’s fingers curled up on the edge of the ‘blanket’, if it could even be called that. Her skin felt chilly. The ‘blanket’ she used to cover her body, and the revealing, see-through lace outfit she wore did little to help her situation. Calling it a ‘blanket’ would be a pretty big overstatement, for all she knew, it was certainly no thicker than her slave clothes. The sizable holes further consolidated the image of a rag instead of a blanket.

Elen’s gaze ran around the room. The large, spacious room with all its luxurious handicrafts and furniture, was filled with slaves. Sex slaves. Women and girls like her. They’ve all had families and lives of their own. Maybe some were of noble birth, just like her. Maybe they would have probably spent the rest of their lives doing what women do; reading romantic novels, engaging in useless banter, seducing naïve young men for their gold, destroying families, even.

Now, however, it was all but a distant memory. Everything from before felt like that. Elen barely could remember her own full name. It was too long, too hard to remember, and did not mean anything to her outside of petty politics and parties. No, nothing meant anything to her. Elen had pretty much forgotten everything. Her family, her father, her mother, her siblings; their faces, their names, all seemed strangers now.

Elen didn’t remember how she got here. Weird, she thought. Getting invaded and turned into a slave would normally be the most traumatising and sad event of a person’s life. Yet she seemed to have completely forgotten it, as if it didn’t matter. Others would have that day’s events play out in their heads vividly and frequently, yet her head seemed to simply have discarded those events altogether.

Her gaze aimlessly drifted from one slave to another, until it rested on one particular one. A pair of girls, probably the same age as her. Both had pale skin and shoulder-length blonde hair, their necks saddled with the weight of the dark metal collars. Their bodies shuddered from the cold under the same see-through lace outfit Elen wore. Both were huddled in a corner, hugging each other.

How sweet, Elen thought to herself. So they still had someone to look out for. It was both a miracle and a curse at the same time. Miracle because they had a loved one to share in their suffering, curse because they had a loved one to share in the suffering.

Elen had seen it. Sex slaves being ‘disposed’ after they became useless. It was quite common here. With the way these women were being treated, seeing several sex slaves’ corpses being disposed was an everyday sight. There were rumours of sex slaves becoming mistresses of some elves and living somewhat less miserable lives, but such a privilege was something more akin to a dream than a reality for the average slave here.

For her, it didn’t matter anymore. Elen remembered the first time she was violated. It felt scary at first, then suddenly her body began to relax and loosen up against her will. She remembered being confused, scared, not knowing what was happening to her. Then she felt it. The pleasure of being violated against her will, as she preferred calling it. It sounded so wrong, she would often think.

Yet she had no complaints about it. Or rather, she couldn’t complain about it. At the very least, she had come to derive pleasure from her daily life. Plus, she was sure she wasn’t going to end up like those other slaves, who had the lights from their eyes gone, and whose lifeless corpses she was used to seeing being disposed. And what did she really have to lose, anyway? All she had to do was just lie down and drown in pleasure as elves ‘forced their way’ with her. There was no point in resisting, nor was there any need to do so.

She had given up everything. Her name, her grace, were a thing of a past she didn’t recognize. All she had become was a mere sex slave, a whore as she preferred calling it. She didn’t regret it one bit. She had risen above the other slaves, probably the only captured human to be truly alive in what others would otherwise call living hell. And while the captured sex slaves usually weren’t very fortunate when it came to living conditions, Elen’s exceptional performance and the frequent ‘customers’ she had earned had ensured she never faced the same level of misery as others.

The building shook. Elen looked at her hands as she pulled the smelly blanket closer. A wide band of reddened skin stood out against the pale white skin on her wrists. Elen didn’t consider it a scar, at least now. If ever asked about it, she would say she liked it. Being tied up as the elves did nasty things to her. In her eyes, she found no fault with it; after all, was this not how a majority of romance novels that women read at the time, depicted ‘love-making’ to be? Would it not be hypocritical to term it as anything but desirable, when women themselves fantasized such a thing being done to them by their ideal image of a man?

Odd as it would be to admit, she didn’t detest this life. There were no petty politics, no petty mannerisms prevalent among those of high birth. Just raw human emotions, and a whole lot of raw, unchained lust.

Suddenly, a door burst open, causing Elen to almost jump out of her ‘blanket’. The other slaves stirred, their bodies trembling from fright as the door, the only door in the large room, swung around.

Standing in the doorway was a seemingly haggard elf. He seemed to be out of breath, covered in dirt, tattered clothes that were probably an officer’s uniform once. In his hand was a small sword.

The elf ran his eyes around the room, scanning the women. His reddened eyes intimidated the women, who instinctively attempted to back off; it was certain that this man was bad news.

His red eyes eventually landed on the pair of girls from before, both of whom looked at him, pleading with their eyes. The elf walked towards them, and yanked away the younger one from the girl’s arms.

“Noooo! Please, not her! Please I beg you! Please, take me instead! Please!”

“Sister! Noo! Please! Help meee---”

The dark elf slapped the sobbing girl with one hand as he pinned her down with the other.

“S-shut up! Be proud you get to sacrifice your w-worthless life for t-the proud Q-Queen! Know what! I w-will plant my s-seed in your filthy w-womb s-so your w-wretched child w-will spread the Queen’s n-n-name in the h-h-heavens! I-I will make y-your last time memorable!”

Elen didn’t need to think too hard about it as the dark elf ripped away the girl’s already skinny clothes and began violently groping her breasts. Quite violent, she thought. His movements and his speech revealed the horrors he had seen outside, or at least that was the impression she got.

Man’s lost it, huh, she thought. She wondered for a moment what could be out there that had the power to drive THE dark elves to insanity. Well, it didn’t matter. It seemed this was the end of the line for her too. Violently violated, then consumed as fodder by some nasty spell. As other slaves trembled and began quietly sobbing after seeing their companion pinned on the floor, Elen sat back and simply exhaled, seemingly disconnected from the sorrow around her.

Suddenly, loud muffled explosions resounded, their sources right beyond their door. Shrieks and more smaller explosions followed, probably from the dark elves. Along with the shrieks came unfamiliar sounds and voices.

Everyone in the room paused, their breath caught in their lungs. No one, even the dark elf, seemed to know what just happened outside. Before anyone could speak a word however, a clear voice resounded, this time as if the person speaking were directly standing at the door.

“You see this door son!”

“SIR, YES SIR!! I SEE IT!”

“I DON’T WANT TO SEE IT SON!”

“SIR YES SIR! BREACHING!”

Before anyone could utter a word, there was a loud explosion, loud enough to hurt Elen’s ears. The door was hidden in a cloud of dust and dirt as it fell right in front of the doorway, merely a foot away from the dark elf and the poor girl.

The dark elf almost jumped away, staggering as he reached for his sword. His face wore a myriad of expressions: dread, anger, exhaustion. Elen did not miss the trembling fingers that tightly gripped the short, worn-out sword.

“Y-you--”

“CONTACT! ENGAGING!”

The elf began to say something, but he was cut off. Literally, as bright streaks of light tore through the elf’s body, striking the stone wall behind and showering everyone in the room with dust and stone fragments. Accompanying the streaks of light were painfully loud explosions and cracks that forced Elen and the rest of the slaves to cover their ears.

As the elf tumbled backwards on the ground, Elen peeked up. She could make out a figure emerging from the smoke. And what came out was a figure of a man, clad in a bulky outfit she had never seen before. Cradled in his arms was something black, shiny and probably bulky, considering the way the figure held it. He stopped as his gaze met Elen’s, and he quickly ran his eyes around the room before turning back and calling out to someone.

“Sir! We got civies in here!”