The first two days of marching went okay. Not great, but okay. Mercutio seemed satisfied with being a minor tyrant who could dictate when and where we rested, and he didn’t push us needlessly past the point of exhaustion.

Oh, we still spent an unreasonable amount of time on our feet. He gave us no real breaks for food and other, less pleasant bodily needs. But we were fine.

As we marched, I cycled mana through both the strengthening and refining technique to keep myself relatively fresh. I walked Mia through the process on our first full day so she could do the same. While she wasn’t quite on my level, she was making great progress. At the very least, she was less worn-out and cranky at the end of the day. She also shared more of her delicious cooking with me in return, which was nice.

I should have known life would not remain so simple, nor so easy. In fact, on the morning of only the third day, things started going sideways.

As with the first two mornings, we rushed to assemble and then waited in agony. As usual, Mercutio took his sweet time to show up and turn off our damn brands-turned-torture devices. He strolled out of his home in a leisurely fashion, staring us down like we were mere dirt beneath his boots. After two days of marching without being afforded the chance to clean up, because the ass apparently didn’t feel the need to let us stop for the day next to a river or some other water source, we were actually living up to his impression of us.

But this morning was different. This time, he didn’t just dismiss us and then ignore us until it was time to stop again.

“Hrm, I suppose we have been making… acceptable time, so far,” declared the demon. Then his smirk turned predatory. “However, a true test of your usefulness is coming up! We will soon encounter the first of the cities between us and our objective.”

I wasn’t necessarily against that. In fact, I welcomed a chance to earn some souls. However, my eyes narrowed a fraction when I remembered his words to us on that first day.

When he gave us our orders, Mercutio hadn’t said anything about cities. We were only expected to pass through a village he was instructed to check out. The next destination he had named was the Glarind’s Spine mountain range, and then we were to turn our sights on the capital.

Mercutio, kind and benevolent demon that he was, assuaged my doubts.

“The original plan did not call for us to make any stops before our destination. However, in my generosity, I have steered our course so that you might have this opportunity. You will be relieved to know that we should arrive at the nearest city by nightfall. Rejoice, mortals, for you will soon be useful! Now, your directions for the day…”

Why?

The question thrummed in my head as unease twisted my stomach. Why would he feel the need to ‘provide us with an opportunity’ like this? More importantly, wasn’t the threat level of all cities sharply increased? What if the city had a spatial shield? We had zero chance of even putting a scratch in that kind of barrier.

Mercutio, too, couldn’t achieve anything against such defenses. For all his grandstanding and self-importance, he never tried anything against Glaustro, even when the sergeant openly insulted him. The stuck-up idiot didn’t seem to possess the kind of wisdom I usually associated with such restraint, so I could only assume he had to stay calm for fear of being humiliated.

Mind spinning, I kept my gaze trained on Mercutio. So when he briefly turned in my direction, I had a great view of the malice and glee shining in his stormy eyes.

The bad feeling in my gut intensified.

When we broke into a march, I took my now customary spot next to Mia. Today, though, I drifted a little closer than usual, just near enough so she could hear me whisper without breaking formation.

“We need to be careful. He has some kind of plan for this city, I know it. Whatever trick he’s got in mind, if we give him a chance to pull it off, we might not walk away.”

Mia grimaced, but nodded. “I don’t have a great feeling about this, either. When he looks at me… I feel…”

The woman shuddered, and my dislike of Mercutio deepened.

There wasn’t much else we could say or plan at the moment, so we resumed our march in silence. But I had plenty of time to study the other recruits around us, and I didn’t like what I saw.

They were all tense. Many had deep circles under their eyes. Several others would flinch away if it looked like someone was even thinking about drawing too close to them.

More troubling still, some of the finer equipment from Graighast’s troop had changed hands. I was pretty dang sure Mister Twenty Percent Ascension did not have armor that fine when we started, for example. And that fluffy roll on his back looked oddly similar to the floor carpet Graighast’s soldiers used in their tents.

I can’t say I was surprised at how quickly we had turned against each other. If it weren’t for the fact that I could go without sleep longer than most, and that I actually trusted Mia, I would have been as miserable as most of the others.

Still, even if I expected it, I hated it. This wretched state of ours played right into Mercutio’s hands. Most of us were exhausted and desperate, and now he was presenting an ‘opportunity’ for us to please him. Would he reward those who did well? Could they expect protection and better living conditions?

It seemed obvious to me that he was priming the recruits so he could twist them to his will. Then again, maybe that was just my paranoia talking. Listening to my fears had already driven me to do some stupid things. Like attacking Mia in the middle of a demon-owned hotel.

So, while it irked me to do it, I forced myself to put my suspicions aside and focus my attention more productively. I cycled my mana through the strengthening technique, then the refining technique. I tried to ignore the simmering unrest in the troops around me. I kept my eyes trained forward.

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The terrain became increasingly difficult to navigate safely. Hills rose up on either side, obstructing the view and threatening minor landslides as our boots pounded recklessly along. Regardless of Mercutio’s claim, I didn’t expect to reach our destination until well after nightfall.

But, true to Mercutio’s words, the sun was just starting to tilt beyond the horizon when we spotted the city.

In the distance, a hill rose sharply above the surrounding landscape, then evened out into a plateau. It looked like a mountain had once stood there, before some giant cut it off at the base and then carted it off to who knows where.

The city was a gleaming crown atop the plateau. Its marble shone in the sunset. I imagined it was once an imposing sight, striking fear into any foes, ready to stand as a bulwark of the kingdom.

I imaged all that, because it was definitely no longer true.

The city’s appearance went beyond ‘damaged.’ The shining walls were stained with soot. Gaping holes were all that remained of the many guard towers. Beyond, even from where we stood, I could glimpse crumbling houses and other signs of bombardment.

Even from where we stood…

How is that possible?

I squinted at the city, then looked away, casting my gaze around the landscape.

Yep. That’s odd.

I could definitely see much further and more clearly than ever before. Yet another involuntary bodily change… but I couldn’t feel dismayed, because they were all so useful. Thus far, I had night vision, what I assumed was generally increased bodily toughness, a weird thing going on with my tongue, and the ability to ignore levels of heat that would scald a normal mortal.

Mia had helped me discover that last one. After watching me gulp down boiling hot soup three times in a row, she suggested we do some testing. I wasn’t fireproof, by any means. But if some locals tried medieval defense tactics and poured boiling oil down the city walls, I would be just fine.

None of my changes were really obvious yet. Sure, my eyes shone in the dark. My tongue was… well, I didn’t like talking about my tongue. But otherwise, I was as human as the day I made the dumb decision to put a ton of souls into my ascension all at once.

Which was to say, questionably human. At best.

All these musings were important, but I couldn’t deny I was using them primarily as a distraction from my mounting anxiety. We were drawing closer and closer to the city, and our commanding officer had not stirred from his hole. Were we supposed to storm the walls? Make camp outside? Or just pass by and keep marching? It didn’t seem like there was much left to conquer.

Then, about forty minutes out, I was shocked to see figures start to emerge on the walls. The soldiers were very obviously human, and they were scrambling badly. Not a single one of them stood confidently or held their weapon like they knew what they were doing. One figure, an older woman, went from one figure to the next, screaming her head off as she tried to whip them into shape.

It wasn’t working.

As we hesitated between speeding up and slowing down, the door to Mercutio’s mobile home slammed open loudly behind us.

“What are you waiting for, you idiots? Charge! I want them all wiped out! Leave no one alive!” the demon shouted at the top of his lungs. He must have used some sort of mana technique on his voice because it echoed loudly enough for the defenders to hear him, too.

The effect was devastating.

The line of archers that had just barely formed broke. Most of them scattered, vanishing from the wall. The older woman turned in our direction and glared balefully, but it was all she could do.

I took a deep breath, then I obeyed my superior officer.

Body strengthening flared through me more powerfully than ever before. Soon, I was moving way too fast for anyone, even Mia, to attempt to keep pace. It should have taken me another half an hour to cover the remaining distance. I made it in under six minutes.

Then I was shooting past the damaged wall as a few scattered arrows missed me by a mile. I spun on my heel, forcing my footwear to produce an unpleasant squealing sound. Immediately, my eyes landed on the stairs that would take me to the top of the wall, as well as a couple of soldiers fleeing down those stairs.

I moved faster than they could react.

My sword flashed out, aiming directly at the gap between the soldier’s helmet and the rest of his body. Blood splashed out as his head went flying, but I was already far from the spray and on top of his friend. With an effortless jump, I landed feet first on the other man’s kneecaps. It was a tricky maneuver, and I almost lost my balance, but I was rewarded with a loud crunch as his legs bent in a way they shouldn’t.

He also screamed, but I cut that off by burying my sword in his forehead.

I rode his body to the ground, wincing a little at the way my sword screeched against his helmet. Then I was moving again, racing up the stairs.

The top of the wall was the definition of chaos. The older woman, I guess the commander, was yelling orders. Some of the soldiers were scrambling away from my approach. About seven archers were trying doggedly to fire at my approaching allies. But since their limbs were trembling in terror, and their own allies were shoving each other around in a panic, it was difficult to keep up a steady volley.

I shrugged and waded into the fray.

I wish I could say they put up a good fight, or any fight at all. They didn’t. With all the advantages I now had against a baseline human, I scythed through them in very little time.

Slash here, slash there, and suddenly, I had seventeen corpses at my feet. The commander stood before me, a bit shorter than she was supposed to be.

Probably because I had just cut her legs off at the knee.

“What happened here?” I asked calmly, then sighed as she tried to crawl over to her sword. Kicking the weapon away from her grasping hands, I pushed her onto her back and planted my foot on her chest. “I’ll ask again: what happened?”

Strictly speaking, I didn’t need to hear it from her own mouth. I could dig the info out of her soul if I chose to inherit one of her skills. But powering the absorption process would be a waste of good souls, and besides, I didn’t particularly feel like wading through her memories.

“Kill me already, you scum,” the woman hissed. “I would rather die than speak to a traitor!”

“Traitor?” I was genuinely confused. “What are you talking about?”

“You are human, like we are. Yet you have sold your soul to these devils!”

The venom in her voice took me aback, but then I couldn’t stop myself from erupting into laughter. The affronted look on her face only made me laugh harder.

“Sorry, sorry. But no, nothing like you. I’ve already… well, doesn’t matter. I’m not even from your world! Completely different conquered plane, I’m afraid.” I pressed my blade against her throat. “Now, you can tell me what I want to know, or I can rip the answers out of your soul. Your choice.”

Of course, no information would spare her soul from being harvested and consumed. I wisely chose not to voice that, though.

The woman hesitated, disgust and fear warring on her face. As the sound of my fellow recruits rushing past the wall reached us, fear won out.

“Our defenses exploded, all at once. We were feeding the rituals as commanded! They were supposed to support the barrier that would keep you monsters out of our inner kingdom. They were supposed to keep a barrier over our city! We sacrificed so many people, and yet…!”

She gritted her teeth together, tears sliding down her cheeks.

I frowned, confused. Then understanding hit me. That barrier we had passed through on our first full day was meant to cover the entire inner kingdom. Whatever the demons had done to destroy that barrier must have caused a backlash of epic proportions on all its anchors. And if that was true, most of the kingdom’s remaining cities were little more than ruins waiting to be picked over.

Having lost all interest in the conversation, I simply said, “Thank you for making things a bit easier for me.” Then I brought my sword down again. The woman died, and my soul purse grew a little heavier.

That’s when I heard footsteps behind me.

“All done here. ‘Fraid there’s no more souls to claim,” I said, distracted as I bent down to clean my sword against a dead archer’s tunic.

The other person didn’t answer, which gave me pause. I started to turn towards them.

That is the only thing that saved me from losing my head immediately.

I managed to jerk slightly aside, but even so, I felt blood suddenly bubble in my mouth as a sword bit deep into my neck.