Approaching the manor wasn’t overtly difficult. I had assumed I would have to go through a village in order to reach it but Selve had informed me that the manor itself was a bit removed. We did have to walk around the path but finally, it appeared. During our walk I had been able to confirm that my claws and tails were extremely sharp. Splitting wood like it was air.

I could only hope it could hold up to steel.

That was a big worry of mine. The baron’s men all had ‘basic’ armor, but that meant basic, non magical, non enchanted, steel breastplates and helmets they could put on if needed. Fighting fourteen men armed to teeth would have been suicide a few… hours? ago.

As both me and Selve stood, seeing the entrance to the large house or small mansion, I turned back to him.

“It would be the smartest move for you to stay here.”

Selve looked at me with burning desire in his eyes. I held his gaze for a moment and then nodded.

“Sadly, man was not meant to take the smartest paths.”

His expression did a 180 and he looked slightly surprised. It was dangerous, yes. But, emotionless and broken I was, what was left, what was reforming, it acted as a guide. In a way I would not be fully the same once I was repaired. Who I am would be more… more. It’s rare someone has to restart themselves from the ground up. The Line acted as my baseline, shaped and formed from a life of generally being a good person. It had been reinforced from a vague misty notion into something not even a god could break.

Then came the disparate emotions I could see but not feel. My mind and ego each having to check and recheck again and again what I wanted, what was right, what I should do. Every action was analyzed and selected off what I thought was me and what my mind and emotions hinted at. It was easy but complicated. I was the logic of myself. Problem solving came easy to me. Since reforming was an inevitability and not doing so screamed to me of an ego death, my entire mind had spun to quicking that pace.

This was another of those moments. Smart, but not the right choice. It wasn’t something I fully understood as I was now but seeing as refusing would bring me closer to not coming back together, I had no choice but to choose it.

I felt another solid piece of me reforming.

Which was actually not good. I was now starting to feel nervous. The emotions separated from me were starting to come back. I didn’t know if I could kill fourteen men plus a baron with my demon body, but I was reasonably certain I couldn’t do it while panicking and having a follow up mental breakdown about the current situation of my life. I felt like I was now on a timer. I had thought the process would take days or possibly months, if not longer. It seemed that following who I am sped the repair process up. The ‘wound’ I had suffered was a mind unable to take what it had experienced. But it hadn’t been caused by my mind. I hadn’t experienced normal psychological damage, it had happened from my soul filling my mind.

The effects were… different. With the odd mental-soul barrier in place, it felt like red dye being filtered out until you were only left with water.

“Derek?”

I snapped out of a daze I hadn’t realized I had fallen into. Not good, time is running out before this becomes a lot more impossible and dangerous.

“We move.”

I walked up to the gate, Selve a bit behind. My clothes were the same I came to the world in, a black T-shirt and black sweatpants. I had been relaxing at home after all. My tail had been going over and out my clothes and my wings were underneath my shirt. As I approached the gate into the yard, I saw two guards and they saw me.

I flexed and my wings burst out my back and shirt, my tail cracked like a whip, and my claws appeared and gleamed. I walked forward and the men…

Ran.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

They ran at a full dead sprint, as if their lives depended on it. They were probably right. Selve stood next to me, frowning.

“We’re not going to chase after them?”

“We follow. I have a plan.”

And honest to god, I did. Two, actually. The first was a fortified location. I had tested my strength and a fallen tree assured me that even if I couldn’t slash through armor, I could probably punch a full grown man away from me. It was more dangerous, but hopefully it’d prevent the situation of killing ten, only for the last five to try taking hostages to save their lives.

The second was negotiation. But we’d have to see about that.

As I continued to stalk up the path where the men fled, it didn’t take long to arrive in front of the front door. It had only been a few minutes but judging from the amount of noise in the house, word was spreading fast.

We stopped and simply waited. Selve probably didn’t understand what my goal was, but he had faith.

Minutes passed by and I considered just knocking down the doors and going with a rush, when the doors finally opened. What appeared in front of my eyes made them nearly pop out of my skull.

Three women, normal enough, besides the fact that they were totally naked, mortally terrified, and looked worse for wear.

“Sandra!” Selve called out next to me.

“...Selve?”

Clearly, he recognized one of these women. Honestly, he probably knew all three really. My logic nodded in my head, understanding that they had sent three of the people they captured to see how I’d react. Emotionally, however, I recognized that they had sent three innocent unarmed people to potentially die, and that I had a strong sinking sensation that they had been naked long before I got here. One of them had a dead and manic look in her eyes, as if she was more than ready for her death.

My emotions turned from being dumbfounded, to confusion, to extreme anger.

As the emotions started to engulf me further and my other pieces started to come together, I realized my time limit had grown shorter again. It was almost funny, being myself in this situation meant a higher chance of death, yet I couldn’t exactly slow it down. Not in any way I trusted. Besides, it was far too late to back down. Speed would have to be the name of the game now.

“Take me to the Baron.”

All three women’s eyes either snapped back to me or focused with another layer of intensity. Thank god, I thought the one woman was going to suicidally rush me. As I looked upon them, I felt a rising of lust, quickly followed by disgust. I shook both off. Not the time, need focus.

“Now.”

They practically hopped like rabbits and started to lead the way. I looked around the manor as Selve seemed like his heart was shattering and he was in some kind of horrible pain. He had seen their bodies just like I had. They weren’t doing okay. Some of them had bandages on their arms, the rope marks on their wrists and ankles were obvious, the look in their eye was soul destroying, they looked malnourished, and one of them even still had cum dripping from them as they walked.

It was frankly, horrifying.

“After Selve, after.”

I kept it short. I just needed him to remain in control for now. The time would come.

We were both led through the manor until we actually were led into the backyard. There, on a grassy field, sat the baron. At least I assumed he was the one at the small table he had set up, given that there was a naked, honest to god, elf beside him and fourteen armed and armored men behind him.

My eyes were drawn to the elf. Naked, like the others, but with a beauty that seemed almost too good and pointy ears. She had a supermodel figure and I had to pull my eyes away from lust, surprise, and wonder. I may be a demon but this was the first fantasy element besides myself I had seen since coming here, minus the really scary squirrel.

The Baron noticed my gaze and smiled. Good. Seems I’m in luck, plan A has already worked and I might even be able to do plan B as well.

I refocused on the Baron and was immediately annoyed. He wasn’t fat, he wasn’t ugly, he didn’t even look stupid in some way. He looked like a mostly totally normal person, maybe a bit on the bigger side of things. If I had passed him on the street I wouldn’t have even been able to remember him. Just some 30-40 year old guy.

And yet he was a fucking god damn monster. Hell, even the men behind him all at least looked like they were more the mercenary types. Men I wouldn’t be too shocked were actually awful scum. The Baron just seemed like someone’s dad. How, frustrating, in a weird way.

“Welcome! Please, feel free to take a seat.”

He offered the seat at the other end of the table and seemed to notice Selve for the first time, being only slightly confused. Not because he figured out I was summoned, but probably more because it might not be too strange for me to have grabbed a random human to guide me here.

I sat while Selve stood. The Baron took a drink of tea and gestured to my own.

“So, how may I help you today?”

And so negotiations began.