Whispers echoed through the crimson mist. The voice was soft, like the rustle of clothes in the wind but it could be heard no matter where you stood. The sound wormed into your ears and echoed from every direction.
“I want to make a deal with you,” the Demon said.
I narrowed my eyes as I tried to peer through the thick blood mist but no matter hao much I tried, I could barely even see the people standing next to me, let alone where the Demon might be. We could not risk spreading out our domain to cover the area. The Demon’s ability to appear anywhere forced us to keep our domains as armor for fear the Demon might ambush us at any moment.
“Otto, can you pinpoint where he is?” I whispered softly.
Otto’s innate talent allowed him to see the souls of those around him, he was probably the only one other than Owen who might have any chance of seeing what was happening through all this fog. However, Otto just shook his head.
“He keeps moving. He is not staying in one place longer than a couple seconds before teleporting again.”
I brought my finger to my chin as I considered our options. So long as we all stayed grouped together like this, the Demon would not be able to break through our armor before the others attacked. However, if we did not spread out to protect the army, the Demon would be able to pick off commanders and officers before anyone could respond. The entire chain of command would undoubtedly suffer horrendous casualties. Our only options in this thick fog were to either somehow trap the demon in a way that prevented his teleportation or wear him down until he ran out of energy.
“I will try to keep him talking,” I said grimly, “If he shows his face anywhere, do not hesitate to attack.” The domain warriors all replied affirmatively. I took a deep breath and raised my voice to the best authoritative tone I could manage. “Speak Demon. What kind of deal do you want to make?”
The Demon’s laughter echoed through the mist. “Truthfully, Aurielle, I don’t want to fight you anymore. The power you have displayed today goes far beyond what Berith predicted. Unfortunately for both of us though, Envy’s orders are absolute. I cannot disobey them.”
“And yet you still seek me out to make a deal?”
“Yes,” the Demon hissed. This time the sound came from my left, uncomfortably close, sending chills up my arm. I ignited an explosion of flames towards the source of the sound but all I hit was empty air. The Demons laughter continued to echo at my discomfort. “You see, Aurielle, while Envy’s orders are absolute, how I carry them out is open to my interpretation. I can haunt your every step as you march to the capital. I imagine I can slaughter several thousand soldiers before you reach your destination but I have never been a fan of direct confrontation. Instead, I am giving you a second option. Turn your forces around. Save your strength for the true war to come and in exchange, I will personally deliver to you every single splinter cannon atop the city walls as well as anything else that you might desire from within your former capital. Whatever it is you hope to gain by retaking Ater-Albus, it will be yours. Then we can simply ignore each other until the day Envy comes for your head.”
“You must be quite scared if you are making such a one-sided deal. I believe Berith tried to threaten me with your power once before when she also tried to force a deal with me. Yet, you have never once followed through with that threat. I wonder why that might be.” I paused as a grin spread across my face. “Unless your talent has a higher price than what you are willing to admit.”
The Demon’s voice fell silent for a moment. “Regardless of the price, I will follow Envy’s orders. Do not mistake my inaction for weakness, Aurielle. Take my deal. Leave and let us fight again during the final battle.”
I placed my hand on my chin and pretended to consider the Demon’s proposal. I did not really believe his words. Even if he was really willing to deliver each and every splinter cannon Sebastion had made, there was more hidden in Ater-Albus than the Demons knew. No matter what deal they made, they would never be willing to hand over the Chronicle hidden in my vault and if they knew that I was trying to resurrect Lucia, they would use her as leverage against me. Promises meant nothing to Demons.
However, now that I knew this Demon’s teleportation had a high price, he became much less of a threat. I thought back to all of the actions the Demons had taken up until that point with the most important ones being our clashes at the edge of the blood mist while the two armies fought below. If he had acted without restraint during that time, we would have suffered horrendous losses. Yet, he always stayed back until circumstances forced his hand. I had centuries of experience and had seen hundreds of thousands of innate talents. I quickly started to form a theory on how his talent might work. Rather than costing a set amount of energy per teleportation, it was more likely that his talent had him enter a state where he could teleport as much as he wanted. The longer he maintained that state, the price would probably start to rise exponentially. That is why he only ever acted in short bursts of time rather than harassing our army nonstop. Of course, this was still just a theory. There was no way I could prove it without forcing the Demon into a situation where he was forced to use his talent without rest.
The Demon stayed silent through my ruminations. He probably thought I was considering his offer rather than thinking of ways I might kill him. After half a minute of silence, the Demon finally started to grow restless.
“Speak, Aurielle! Do you accept my offer or not?”
I gazed in the direction the sound came from, knowing the Demon could see me even if I could not see him. “You are offering everything in the capital? Why not simply abandon the city? Walls and houses can’t possibly hold much interest to you.”
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“We cannot do that,” the Demon replied firmly.
“I see,” I mumbled thoughtfully, “Ater-Albus was where Irene was active the longest. It is probably the location where the wall between the realms is the weakest. Since the Leviathan’s children have been able to pass through to this realm, without a doubt, a massive rift must have formed there and Envy has ordered you to protect it no matter the cost. Am I right?”
“Since you know, take my offer and leave. You might have gained a small victory here today but within a week, The Demonkin you killed with be replenished twice over. No matter how strong that cannon might be, you cannot win. We will tear the city to the ground brick by brick before we let you take it.”
I chuckled at the Demon’s words. “I think not.”
“What?”
“If you could destroy my capital, it really wouldn’t be worth much. My answer is no. Run back to the others and tell them to prepare because I am coming. The moment I step foot in the palace is the moment all of you die.”
The Demon’s growl reverberated through the air, seemingly coming from all directions. “You will regret this, Aurielle.”
“I doubt it,” I said with a grin, “But if you surrender now, I can let you live on as one of my undead.”
There was one last furious growl before everything went silent. Otto looked around for a moment before speaking. “He seems to be gone.”
“Alright, go ahead and spread out according to our original plan,” I said with a nod, “I doubt he will be back in the next few hours. However, he will strike before this storm is over so stay on high alert. If you are not confident in your domain’s ability to block a surprise attack from at least three Demons, retreat to Dragon’s Nest. The rest of us will do our best to mitigate the damage.”
There was a quick discussion as we each decided how to best protect the army. Several of our warriors retreated, leaving large gaps in our defenses, but it was better than them dying in an ambush. While losing the commanders that led the army would be painful, losing a domain warrior would be devastating. Without them, the Alphas would easily tear apart the army and no amount of protection from glyphs would be able to stop it. That meant that only those who were confident in surviving a direct ambush remained.
My own power had grown enough in recent days that I was sure I could survive long enough for the others to reinforce me. I took position among the troops on the ground. A commander saluted me as I landed on the front lines. He seemed nervous as I approached. His hand shook despite trying to appear formal.
“Au-Aurielle,” he spoke timidly.
“Stay focused commander. I am here to reinforce the eastern front. My undead will act as the first line of defense should the Demonkin attack this side.” The commander nodded. His eyes shifted away from mine. Even shrouded by the mist, I could feel the fear in the man’s gaze. I sighed in disappointment. I thought I had been doing better at repairing my image but even now, I was still seen as the monster by many. “Don’t worry, I don’t bite,” I said, reaching out to pat the commander on the arm.
The man visibly flinched as I touched him, causing some laughter from the surrounding soldiers close enough to see the encounter. The commander blushed in embarrassment.
“Sorry,” the commander said softly, “But last time we met you sort of… stabbed me.”
I blinked a few times as I looked up at the commander’s face. I did not recognize him at first but after a few seconds, I finally remembered. “Ah! You were that valiant knight in Bastya fortress. What was your name again… ol… od…”
“Okos,” the commander said.
“Right, right, I remember now. I tried to threaten you into not giving my plans away. I even tried to recruit you but you were loyal to General Hull. You’re a commander now? That is quite the promotion. I look forward to seeing your progress in the future.”
Commander Okos shifted his gaze away. He was clearly not comfortable around me but I could not blame him for that. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was traumatized for decades to come after our previous encounter but for now, we had to work together.
As I considered the possibility of recruiting this good seed, I heard screams rise up in the distance, followed by Svend’s booming voice. “Two Alphas attacking the northwest front!”
A few seconds later, Chancellor Otto spoke up as well. “Two thousand Demonkin moving towards the southern front. One Alpha is hidden in its ranks.”
Another shout rang out followed by a fourth. The Demons had begun their assault. Their forces were spread out so that we would not be able to use the giant cannon again. Instead, they began to attack using hit-and-run tactics. An Alpha would swoop down from the sky, grab an unsuspecting soldier, and disappear before anyone could do anything. Even with our domains spread across the army, there was practically no time for any of us to react before the Alpha was gone.
Ignoring the shouts and screams, I closed my eyes and focused. My sight would not be useful now anyway. My power spread out in every direction. It covered nearly ten thousand soldiers, touching them lighter than a spring breeze. None of them would notice what I was doing but it allowed me to somewhat see what was happening in the area I protected.
A few seconds later, a blurry figure swooped down from the sky and touched the edges of my domain. Without even turning, I formed a glyph in my hand that launched an explosive fireball in the direction of the shadow. Golden flames were blocked by a bloodthirsty domain that sought to devour everything.
My voice rose up to match the others. “One Alpha on the eastern front.”
As quick as my fireball hit the creature, it swooped back up into the sky and disappeared beyond what my domain could sense. I frowned as I waited for it to reappear. Every second was tense. If I let my attention waver for even a second people would die. The Demons knew this. They were using it to wear us down before they made their own move. Still, we had little choice. It was either exert our power to protect the soldiers or watch them die. None of us were willing to choose the second option.
Otto’s voice echoed out again. “Two hundred Demonkin quickly approaching the western front. Several dozen mature Demonkin are among their ranks.”
I could hear Commander Okos next to me. His armor shook slightly as his grip tightened around his sword. He stared unblinkingly into the thick mist. I did not blame the man. Unlike us, the common soldiers had no way of knowing what was going on outside their view. All they could do was rely on people with the right talents to prepare them for what might emerge at any moment.
I grit my teeth as another figure grazed against the edge of my domain but just as quickly as it appeared it vanished. They were testing the limits of my range and there was nothing I could do about it.
I opened my eyes to look in the direction the figure had disappeared but all I saw was the myriad of faces that mocking me as they distorted in and out of the all-encompassing blood mist. I cursed under my breath and prayed this storm would end soon. Until it passed, all of us were little more than prey for the Demonkin.