“This is… unexpected,” Glaustro ventured, eyes fixed on the massive tree-city in the distance. The demon’s countenance was stormier than the weather, which proved just how much trouble we were in.

“What would you like us to do, commander?”

Loyal as ever, Tybalt was already there and waiting to relay Glaustro’s orders. The sergeant, though, struggled to formulate a response.

I could tell he was tempted to back out, but there was something else in his eyes, too. It was hunger, greedy and eager. While not uncharacteristic of demons, it was a rare sight on Glaustro’s face. The only time I could remember seeing it was when I offered him the soul of an important mage on Berlis and earned a commendation for the info it yielded.

“How did no one warn us about… this?” Bronwynn gestured vaguely at the tree. “That’s what I’d like to know. This isn’t a landmark you can easily miss, but I don’t remember seeing it on any of the reports. Don’t we have lists of areas we shouldn’t try to invade without a considerable force? This should have been included.”

“It isn’t too far-fetched that no one discovered this city before,” the crystalline demoness noted thoughtfully. “The sandstorms prevent any long distance scrying, so we’ve relied on scout reports so far. If none of them ventured this deep into enemy territory in this direction, we could have missed it.”

“This? This?” Bronwynn demanded, clearly not buying it.

The demoness shrugged. “I’m simply presenting a theory. I’m not saying it’s correct.”

Bronwynn scoffed, but Glaustro cut him off before he could argue further. “Regardless of how our intelligence division missed such a glaring landmark, this is an opportunity. Even just a report of this place would be valuable. Of course, the exact value depends on how much information we can provide. It’s a definite fact that the jinn who attacked us came from here. If there are other jinn who made incursions from this base, that only boosts the value of the information.”

“And also puts a time limit on how long we have until someone else reports it,” piped up the scorpion-tailed demon I had seen jab himself with a monster’s stinger. “After all, you’re hardly the only one who knows a seer, commander.”

“It’s less of a possibility on this forsaken world, considering how the storms affect seers. But yes, you’re right.” Glaustro was eying the tree again, and there was something about his expression I didn’t like.

That hunger was growing in his face, replacing all former unease. As far as my hopes were concerned, this was bad news. Every instinct I had was warning me to stay as far away from that tree as I could.

Methialia, unfortunately, did not share my reluctance to move forward. “What do we do, then? Personally, I say we should at least try to get close enough to scout the place a bit better. If we just turn around now, we might catch flak from higher-ups for doing a subpar job.”

“You, of all people, are not someone I expected to volunteer for more work, Methialia,” the scorpion demon teased.

The comment earned him a scathing look. “Unlike you, Thelrod, I know when I need to push and when I should rest. I just don’t want them to send us out again if they decide we’ve been underperforming. If it’s between doing a little scouting now, or trekking back to the nearest city only to be sent back to scout anyway, I’ll always choose the former.”

“You seem to agree on what we should do, so cut out the bickering,” Glaustro snapped. Judging by his hardened eyes, I guessed he had made up his mind.

I was, unfortunately, correct.

“We are moving closer to that thing,” the commander ordered. “Make sure to be on the lookout for scouting spells and the like. Also, put up whatever camouflage or invisibility spells you have. I know the weather will wear at them, but we’re doing this right.”

Some of the demons complained, especially those who were put in charge of covering everyone who didn’t know the relevant spells. Still, the troop got moving remarkably fast. The promise of rewards for the information within our grasp seemed to overcome the demons’ initial concern.

I was put into the same group as Bronwynn, Mia, the chipper demon who sparred with me when I first visited Glaustro’s compound in Torment, and one very grouchy mage. We had just enough competent mages to assign ‘only’ four dependents to each, but they still grumbled. Apparently, it was hellishly difficult to maintain a spell over multiple people, especially with the sand tearing away at the connection between caster and target.

So when we finally started inching closer to the tree, we weren’t completely invisible. Instead, we moved as barely visible wraiths. The invisibility spells the demons could leverage were amazing, but not even superb spellcasters could get around several important limitations.

Most notably, ‘invisibility’ was not the same thing as ‘intangibility.’ While no one could see us directly, it was easy to notice the large, suspiciously humanoid-shaped patches of empty space where sand couldn’t pass through.

According to our ranting mage, there was a whole subset of fiendishly complex spells that addressed this problem. But Lagyel’s environment already made it difficult to maintain even simple spells over one person, let alone four. Because of this, it was impossible for our assigned mage to hide us completely.

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It obviously pained him to admit this, so none of us pushed. Most of the other groups were in the same boat anyway.

The closer we got and the more we saw, the less I liked our situation. This wasn’t some minor city with a single defender we had already slain. This was a major stronghold of our enemy, and it showed.

Countless people were milling about the many bridges and open areas of the city. Worse still, above it all hovered the figures of multiple jinn.

My eyesight was excellent, but from this distance, I was straining just to make out vague silhouettes. As such, I couldn’t gauge exactly how many different jinn I had spotted. But judging by the colorful blurs of their clothing?

There were at least seven different fliers lurking in the tree’s branches.

And that didn’t include any that might be inside the palatial complex at the top of the tree, looming up like a massive crown.

I thought it was a trick of the distance at first, but as we approached, I became absolutely certain of the thing’s dimensions. The manor built around the trunk was big enough to house giants five times the size of an average demon. I wasn’t strictly a betting man, but I knew a big boss lair when I saw one.

If that thing didn’t contain at least one high-level jinn who could ruin our day with laughable ease, I would cut my arms off and find a stretch of sand-blasted countryside to retire in.

Surely, if I could recognize the truth of our situation, the unit’s leadership could as well. But thanks to the work of our mages, I could only see the four people who were under the same invisibility spell as me. I had no way to gauge the reactions of Glaustro and the other important demons.

Bronwynn, though, looked more tense than I had ever seen him.

An odd sense of impending disaster settled on my shoulders, making my heart beat like a drum inside my chest. Something was telling me that I was about to die, horribly, and that I should flee at once.

I ignored it, because what else could I do?

This was a decision I came to bitterly regret twenty minutes later.

That was when the first group of advancing demons crossed some invisible line, and the trap was sprung.

Our only warning was the pained grunt of their mage as she fell to her knees. Then Glaustro’s entire group, at the head of the procession, popped out of stealth as one.

“Stop! Someone support Kayla, we need to—” Glaustro started shouting immediately, but it was already too late.

A wind stronger than any before whipped up ahead of us, and countless streams of sand converged around an invisible nucleus. The swirling cocoon grew rapidly, towering over all of us in a matter of seconds.

“Group up! Prepare for combat! Formation—”

Glaustro tried, he really did, but the howling wind drowned out even snatches of his voice.

Then the cocoon broke, and the life it had been nourishing spilled forth.

It was some kind of golem or construct, which was better than a whole group of jinn, but only barely. The thing was a collection of huge rocks spiraled by pulsing rings of sand. From its formation, I already knew its mana resistance would likely be a massive pain.

Worse, runes glowed all over its chunkier body parts, channeling so much power that they were practically bleeding mana. Even the sand twisted and snapped into runic patterns as it moved. Whoever had constructed this golem was a true master.

To complete its awakening, six amber ‘eyes’ snapped to glowing life on the golem’s approximation of a face, and the thing reared back.

Far too belatedly, I realized it was gearing up for a blow. Its arm snapped forward like a whip, and a tendril of sand unfurled with unnatural speed to strike at us.

The only reason I lived past the opening move was because it wasn’t aiming near me.

Sand exploded around us and shot into the sky in a blinding curtain. Screams filled the air. My mana senses were barely working, but I could still feel the implosion of mana as several demonic lives were snuffed out.

A second explosion followed, and a third, and a fourth.

Then Glaustro roared.

His rage overshadowed even the noise of the storm. There was a tremor under our feet. The sand shifted and solidified. Glaustro was stabilizing the ground beneath the troop, allowing us to keep our footing.

The next moment, a fist of stone larger than the golem burst out of the sand. It hovered for an instant, then came down on the construct with crushing force.

If the distant city had somehow missed all the commotion up to this point, that boom and subsequent sand explosion definitely got their attention.

Yet the construct didn’t fall.

As if the golem itself was screaming, the winds around it intensified, rising to a deafening pitch. Their force pushed all the raised sand away, and we were treated to the sight of the golem facing Glaustro’s spell head-on.

It was a contest of strength, and the golem was winning.

Chunks of the fist were already missing where the sand had managed to wear away the mana keeping it together. Still, I thanked our lucky stars that Glaustro’s specialty was earth. Any other element would have been blown away by now. Only the extreme stability and inherent physicality of earth elemental spells allowed Glaustro to put up a fight at all.

The commander roared again as his mana erupted around him in a corona of red light. Rocks rose from underneath the sand to envelop him completely. In a show remarkably similar to the appearance of the golem, Glaustro turned into a titan of stone that rivalled our enemy in size.

His previous, damaged spell was integrated into this new form, giving Glaustro’s stone incarnation a lopsided appearance. It didn’t seem to hinder him, though. In fact, the titan’s footing seemed remarkably resilient.

When the golem reared back and struck with the same kind of attack that had already claimed demonic lives, Glaustro’s new form didn’t even flinch. He just brought his massive fist around and pile-drove the thing into the ground, then continued to bash it again and again in a frenzy of violence.

I could barely see what was happening, but I could tell Glaustro wasn’t victorious when the golem’s screeching winds picked up yet again. This time, its attack came in the form of gale force winds that whipped the sand against all of its enemies.

The deluge slammed into me like a wall. I managed to stay upright, thanks only to my spell improvements and the stabilization of our footing from Glaustro’s previous spell. But the sand still felt like a grater against my skin, and this time, someone was actually wielding the tool with considerable force and skill.

Trails of pain burned all across my body. My breather and goggles felt like they were being hammered into my face. They didn’t break, thank goodness. Demonic craftsmanship prevailed, but it hurt more than almost anything I had experienced before.

If I was having it rough, the demons were far worse off. I heard screams all around me, barely audible over the howling winds. The one weakness of their bodies was working fiercely against them. If something didn’t change soon, we would all be wiped out.

The moment of realization filled me with a bitter sense of irony.

Out of everyone there, Mia and I were best suited to assist Glaustro in his desperate efforts. Our purely physical bodies made us tougher against the sand attacks. And if that construct was high-level enough to start developing a sense of self, a real soul, then my sword could be one of the few things capable of damaging it.

I had no clue how, but it was down to the contribution of two mortals to tip the scales in our favor.