The gray light of morning provided a backdrop for Gi as he flew high in the clouds. The condensation joined his liquid light and slowly dripped off of him. Carefully, he lowered himself down through the clouds until the area below him revealed itself.
Hundreds of ships dotted the harbor and the surrounding ocean. The docks of Stonereach spread all across the shoreline. They, like much of Stonereach herself, were made of intricately carved stone.
The walls of Stonereach towered over the docks at her base and Gi knew it extended all the way to the waters. The Sea Dwarves weren't as trapped by this blockade as it seemed, but neither did they have any hope of breaking it either.
Most of Veridia's forces were tied up in the capital and the majority of Veridia's navy lay scuttled in the harbor with only the galleys of the demons remaining.
The demons' ships were all constructed out of some type of red wood. Gi wasn't sure if it was stained or natural, but color of the wood seemed to be very similar to the demons' own skin tone.
The camouflage wouldn't help much in a ship-to-ship battle, but perhaps it was some legacy of their battles against another monster clan with a unique Skill that made such tactics important.
"It's a shame," Gi muttered. The Empire was his enemy, but as sophisticated as their society was, he knew these weren't mindless monsters that they were destroying.
Each of them likely had thoughts and feelings and desires, connections with friends or families, and anxieties that kept them up at night.
It was unfortunate that they'd need to be particularly thorough in their opening blow.
Having confirmed that nothing had changed, Gi disappeared back into the clouds and flew back to King Rellington's ship.
He entered the captain's quarters that served as their mobile war room. All of the leaders awaited him - Elders Altman and Tisch, King Rellington, Alice and Samba, Versha, Nori, Kumo, Tala, Tiria, and Wane.
The only one who wasn't a leader of their alliance was Commander Cedrick who shrunk into the background.
"Any changes?" The King asked.
Gi shook his head. "Our plans are still intact. With only the weakest of the demon nobility here, it should be a simple victory. I don't expect any surprises."
Nori scoffed. "Are you trying to fucking jinx us? No battle ever goes to plan."
"Most battles don't have a war plan dictated by the gods themselves."
****
Galvina's head was pounding and it felt like her mouth was full of cotton. She rolled out of some lieutenant's bunk and found a barrel of water to splash her face with.
The night before was mostly a blur, but it didn't matter. What else was there to do on this gods forsaken ship?
She stomped up the stairs, holding for a moment at the top as the swaying made her head feel even worse. Her Vitality wasn't as strong as some of the others, but it should take care of her hangover soon.
She walked out onto the deck into the slowly rising sun. A light fog drifted in from the south, clinging low to the water like some great ghost coming to swallow them whole.
Morok, the fucking half-breed, stood at the bow of the ship watching the fog roll in. His goblin-like ears twitched as he noticed her foot steps and took a brief look back at her.
"Good morning, Galvina," he said.
"Fuck you."
"This unnecessary hostility won't return your spot to you. Perhaps if we joined forces though, we could both rise together?"
"Fuck you."
"How pleasant. You know, we're likely to be stationed here until the siege ends. You could try-"
"Fuck you."
He sighed and leaned heavily on the railing. Galvina followed suit, but outside of striking distance. Morok wasn't the type, but she knew that she was being particularly annoying.
Not enough to make her change her actions though. Fuck him.
The two of them continued to watch the fog roll closer.
"That fog is awfully thick...," Morok said. "It's going to cut down our visibility quite a bit. We should get a few Water Aether users to try and reduce it."
"No one is coming here, dumbass. We scuttled all their-"
Both Morok and Galvina stood bolt upright.
The fog had disappeared in an instant, revealing a fleet of ships right on top of them. Humans dotted the bows on all of them and Galvina could just sense the barest whimper of Aether that had been used to build up that fog.
"ENEMIES!" Morok bellowed. "ENEMIES! AWAKE!"
Some of the demons on watch were ringing warning bells that started to cascade to every ship. Like a rolling sheet, the water turned dark and muddy and bubbled up into a wave barreling towards them.
Galvina sprinted towards the stairs, her hangover gone in an instant and replaced with a pounding in her ears. She took two steps on the stairs when the entire ship lurched and she flipped head over heels and smashed her back against the wall before clanging down the stairs.
Her Vitality meant the pain was simply annoying and nothing damaging. Her Agility helped her catch herself before she darted through the now-awake demons that were sprawled across the floor where they'd fallen from their beds.
She kicked the door of her room open. She snatched her rapier from where it had fallen and quickly belted it. After a moment's hesitation, she grabbed her leather cuirass and threw it over her head as she ran back out the door.
She tripped over one of the demons who cursed loudly, but Galvina yelled right back.
"What the hell are you doing?! We're under attack! Don't you hear the warning bells?! GET YOUR WEAPONS!"
She finished tugging on her armor as she darted back up the stairs. The entire deck was wet and muddy, but the ship seemed to have stabilized itself.
The undying bastard Ponde had appeared from somewhere and Morok looked off to the west. Galvina followed his gaze and saw a veritable wall of water that had two figures astride it standing at the head of a platoon of human soldiers.
"That woman is an Elite. Potentially Progenitor level. If we don't get over there, we'll lose the port," Morok said.
"Finally some action!," Ponde shouted. He started sprinting toward the edge of the ship so that he could jump from ship to ship and make it to where the humans were invading.
Two maces appeared from nowhere, smashing into his head and sending him sliding across the deck in a bloody pulp.
As though she'd stepped around a curtain, an otter appeared wearing a grey robe and a dark look in her eyes. "Boss says those humans are off limits so you get to play with us instead."
"Us?" Morok's head spun around just as a huge otter leapt over the side with a drenched and almost drowned looking human who slid off his back. The human readied her axe as the huge otter stepped forward.
"You were supposed to wait," he growled.
Galvina froze only for a moment as her brain caught up to the fact that the otters were here. Here. Then the last one popped up over the side and Galvina recognized this one - Tiria, Gi's Subgenitor.
She'd tried to warn the Emperor about these mongrels. They'd always had more ambition than sense and it hadn't changed since Gi's death clearly.
But had the Emperor believed her? No.
She drew her rapier and activated [Darting Swallow] in one smooth motion, flying across the deck towards Tiria. The otter summoned two maces made of water and deflected her attack downward, forcing the tip of her rapier into the wood.
"You're not supposed to be here."
Ponde had gotten back to his feet and both he and Morok had engaged the other assailants, but Galvina only had eyes for Tiria. She lashed out with a series of quick attacks using her maces and Galvina wrenched her sword free from the wood to parry the incoming attacks.
"Where else would we be?"
There Stats were similar, but Galvina thought she had a slight edge in speed with [Written Wings] improving her speed passively. If she could find a good opening, its active could guarantee a kill.
Tiria had a good [Fighting Style] though so her timing would need to be good.
"In a hole hiding after losing your Progenitor I'd hoped. Were you the one fighting with that goblin rebel?"
Tiria leapt towards Galvina and she stuck her rapier out to impale her. The otter pushed off the air, changing her trajectory. One mace smashed into her rapier and the other came shooting towards her face.
Cursing, Galvina activated [Written Wings] and darted backwards to avoid the incoming blow. With her speed boost activated, she immediately dove back in, stabbing forward three times as quick as one normal strike.
The surprise was lost though and a shield of water appeared to kill the momentum of each of her stabs. Tiria shoved backwards and the shield of water felt more solid than the ship as it smacked into her face.
"You can't win here. Not with just the three of you," Galvina spread her arms wide and gestured towards her demon soldiers that were finally starting to form up on the ship.
The neighboring ships had already rallied and were starting to pull closer to converge on their location, their soldiers ready to offload and assist.
Tiria quirked an eyebrow. "You didn't think I'd fight without my clan, did you?"
As though summoned by her words, a swarm of otters burst out of the water and overwhelmed the closest ship with a press of bodies. Each of them breathed streams of water out of their mouth to knock the demons into the water below.
From their screams, the waters were even more dangerous than the ships.
"MOROK, YOU HALF-BREED PIECE OF-"
"I'VE GOT IT!" Morok flipped backward away from the huge otter and the human who were fighting him together. An enormous surge of Aether ripped out of Morok and her faux sibling sagged for a moment at the sheer power released.
Translucent green light flew out of him. Each speck of light stretched, elongating into the form of a monster more mouth and teeth than anything else with the exception of its long almost entirely triangular wings and its swordlike tail.
One became two became a dozen until hundreds of the creatures flew through the air. Their mouths opened impossibly wide to let out silent cries that would be unheard even over the sounds of the battle.
Morok's Skill [Instant Army] had been the entire reason that he'd been elevated into the heirs originally at number twelve. While Galvina was a duelist type and could probably beat Morok in a straight fight, Morok was king when one needed an army somewhere fast.
The wraiths spread out, most of them careening towards the next closest ship that was under attack by the otters. In the background, Galvina could hear the deep thrum of ballista bolts being fired against the enemy fleet and she smiled at Tiria.
"The fog was a neat trick, but the Demon Empire was born at war. You'll need more than that to defeat us. Surrender now and I'll consider giving you mercy."
Galvina wasn't sure how she'd expected Tiria to react. Surrender, ideally. Maybe fear or at the bare minimum surprise. She was not prepared for the smirk that lit the otter's features.
Whatever confidence Galvina had crumbled. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
A chorusing roar cut through the sounds of battle and her eyes shot to the sky to see dozens of Fighting Drakes flying in formation towards the newly spawned wraiths. That sight alone might have been enough to make Galvina shiver remembering her desperate fight against their clan.
But it was what was behind them that chilled her to the bone.
Hundreds of all-white otters swam through the air, each of them a shining beacon of light. The battlefield was bathed in an ancient aura that she'd felt once before just as Queen Siht had died, giving Galvina the opening she needed to escape.
Being sewn into that aura was music, it took the constant alarm bells that rang from the masts of the demon ships and turned it into the gentle march of church bells.
"No...," Galvina whispered.
"WHAT IS THAT?" Morok roared, but Galvina couldn't respond. She cast her gaze through the hundreds of summoned otters, looking for the one she knew - the one that couldn't possibly be there.
The Fighting Drakes struck first. Flames burst from their mouth and torched the sickly green wraiths into nothingness. The flying otters didn't fire out any beams of light unless it looked like one of the Fighting Drakes was in danger.
"It can't be...," Galvina said again, eyes still scanning the veritable sea of otters in the air.
"It is." The voice that spoke was warm and confident, lacking any of the fiery obstinance that made him such a pain to work with, but it was undeniably his.
Appearing right above their ship was Gi, his invisibility allowed him to approach sight unseen easily.
It was him, but yet, it wasn't. He didn't wear the dark Demonsteel robe that she'd given him as part of their Contract from [Demon in the Details]. Instead, he wore a white robe with a shining steel breastplate and two completely perfectly functional arms.
"You were dead. I watched you die. How can you be here?"
Gi just gave her a sad smile. "I've come to negotiate your surrender."
"The Demon Empire doesn't surrender..." She didn't even mean to say the words. It was just the Emperor's propaganda that had been so ingrained in her that it had come out first when she'd found herself with nothing to say.
"We won't accept the Empire's surrender. Just yours."