Within a couple of days, the forces of Lisbea began to organize to prepare against the enemy onslaught, most of the lisbean forces, alongside the allied forces, went north in order to prevent any advances from the Esteller Empire, it wouldn't be an easy task, they were aware that their enemy wasn't particularly powerful, but when it came to numbers, they alone far outnumbered all of Lisbea and its allies.
Completely preventing the Esteller forces from making it past the Lisbea frontier was a straight up impossible mission. For that reason, the king and his generals had to properly administrate the distribution of their soldiers, those who would be on the assault and those who would stay behind to protect the towns and the capital from any sneaky assault groups that could get past the primary defense.
The main forces of Lisbea were led by General Drake, who had to assign many commanders for all of the groups the entire army had to divert into. Meanwhile, Prince Julius and a smaller force of soldiers were tasked to stay in the capital, despite the prince's objections and his desire to go to the frontlines, his father was firm on keeping him around. In his words, every part of Lisbea was important, but some are just more important than others, like the capital. If the enemy managed to sneak by and attack the capital, they would for sure send some of their best soldiers, and if that happened, they would need to have their strongest warrior to defend the capital.
And finally, the group in charge of protecting the back was left in charge of General Erbow, who similarly to General Drake, assigned some commanders so they could split their forces to protect many points at the same time. This secondary force was compounded in its vast majority with mercenaries and adventurers, including of course the group of Lyle, Ascalon, Stella, Mistia and Sylvana.
Just a few weeks after the main forces had left, scouts reported large battalions of demons that had managed to sneak by and were heading towards multiple towns in the nears of the capital. It was time for the secondary force to take action.
The groups were made and the forces were split to cover all of the terrain necessary to defend the upcoming attacks. The party was assigned to the same group as General Erbow, it didn't come off as much of a surprise, after all, he and Sylvana had spent time together during her stay at the capital's castle and had developed a small bond.
Before parting, Erbow gave a little motivational speech, it was far from being the most inspirational thing ever said, but even if it was, the attention of most of the people was on the person, or rather, demon, standing by Erbow's side.
No one could comprehend the reason for a demon to be there, he didn't look like a prisoner, so, what was going on?
Upon finishing his speech, Erbow made a question. "Does anyone have any doubts?"
Nearly everyone raised their hand.
"If your question is why the demon is here, first his name is Jeremiah and second he has agreed to help us out and I'm looking after him. Any other questions?"
Everyone lowered their hand.
Having the situation clear, the group set out on their way towards the town they were tasked to protect. The town wasn't very far away, they would be there by midnight, the trip was by no means a silent one, many of the warriors were whispering and mumbling about Jeremiah, who walked next to Erbow and who everyone seemed to evade as if being near him was toxic.
Everyone but a certain group. The party walked close to Erbow and Jeremiah, Mistia didn't seem bothered at all by having a demon among them, unlike Lyle who looked at Jeremiah with noticeable suspicion, whereas Sylvana had a look of curiosity in her face. Then there was Stella who, to his discomfort, hid behind Ascalon, she was afraid of Jeremiah.
"Are you ok, Lyle?" Mistia asked, looking at her friend.
Lyle was taken off by the question, being unable to come up with a comprehensible response.
"Hmm… I think I understand" Mistia said. "After what you've experienced, I guess it makes sense that you wouldn't be very pleased to be so near a demon, especially with him being a former Esteller Empire soldier"
"That's the thing that worries me" Lyle responded. "Is he really a former soldier or is he trying to deceive us?"
"I suppose time will tell. Calm down for now" Mistia tried to reassure him.
Lyle didn't respond and just continued to look at Jeremiah, who was having a conversation with Erbow. For what Lyle was able to understand from where he stood, they were talking about which animal provides the best meat.
Suddenly, Sylvana quickened her step, enough to catch up to Erbow and Jeremiah. Positioning herself behind the demon, making him nervous.
"Greetings, my name is Sylvana" She greeted, even if her expression seemed nice, a hint of violent desire was noticeable under that cordial tone.
Jeremiah could feel his heart rate pumping up, his breathing coming in short and sweat dropping from his face. "It-it is a pleasure. Erbow had told me about you, you're admirable" The demon talked without looking back, he felt like any wrong move, any wrong word could result very badly for him. Erbow was nervous too, he knew Sylvana was someone of taking action and moreover, someone agile. If she attempted to kill Jeremiah, he would not be able to prevent it, not with her this close.
"So, tell me" Sylvana's tone shifted suddenly. "How many people have you killed?" Straight to the point, the situation became more tense in an instant.
Their pace remained constant, as if everything was going on normally. The party, as well as some other warriors close, were overhearing the conversation, curious of how this would unleash. Even if Lyle came across with the thought of intervening, deep inside there was a part of him that wouldn't mind Sylvana taking care of that demon.
Jeremiah's heart was beating so fast that the ones nearby could hear it, it was like it was going to come out of his chest at any moment. "I-I have not killed anyone… miss…" His breathing was ragged, he could feel his sight getting blurry. "I was just a soldier by title, i-it was just a job where I would get paid to do nothing. I haven't been in a real fight in my entire life"
"Uuuuh, how curious. Do you not consider the Battle of Demon Valley a real fight?" The elf questioned.
"I-I do not miss. During the battle I limited myself to lay in the grass in fetal position while praying t-to Eternal and Mephistopheles to not die. The moment I was told to give up I did" Jeremiah mumbled as he kept his sight on the ground.
"Oh, so you're just a coward?" Sylvana asked, the passive-aggressiveness in her voice seemed to diminish.
"I guess you could say so" Jeremiah responded.
Sylvana moved right next to him. "Well, it's better than being a filthy murderer, don't you think?" She asked with a smile.
"I mean… I guess that's true?" The demon let out a nervous chuckle. "It may depend on who you ask- BUT I personally agree with you-!"
Sylvana looked down with a smile, she seemed more relaxed and the tension in the air eased little by little. "At the end of the day, you can't judge someone for other's actions, won't you agree?"
Jeremiah limited himself to nod. He could finally relax as all of the murderous intent emanating from Sylvana had almost completely disappeared, and so did Erbow, who thanked the gods for not having him to deal with having to explain the situation to Julius.
"What is your name?" Sylvana asked. "I told you mine but you never told me yours"
"My name is Jeremiah, it's a pleasure to meet you"
"Jeremiah, mind if I ask you a question?"
"O-Of course, you can ask me anything. That's what I'm here for!" Jeremiah flashed a smile of fake confidence.
Sylvana turned to look at him directly. "I am very curious… how did the Esteller Empire find out about the Elven Cannon? It was a pretty well hidden secret"
"T-That's a….question- Well, I personally didn't have much to do in relation to that, although I did hear that some spies of us- them, were the ones to find out about it, but as I said, it wasn't something I was that involved in" Jeremiah responded, still a bit fearful that any wrong words might cause his death. "However, something I do remember is being surprised that one of the sent to steal that weapon was Lady Selene, the Second General of the empire!"
"So that's the case… They must've been expecting a lot of resistance to take the weapon" Sylvana's voice softened a bit. "I still remember that day. I was doing a patrol around the zone when I felt something piercing through my stomach in the middle of a jump between the branches of a couple of trees… I fell to the ground, it was a hard fall. I had some healing potions with me but they mostly broke with the impact… I licked what I could from the remains, it was disgusted, but it kept me alive"
Jeremiah, as well as Erbow, listened to the elf with great attention.
"Once I ran to check in. They were gone, and my partners were dead…" Sylvana sighed. "I don't know why I'm even telling this, I have no point to try to clarify"
"It's good to sometimes just… vent" Erbow said.
"It must've sucked, to live through that" Jeremiah said. "I'd like to say that I understand the feeling, but I barely had any connection with those who perished during the Battle of Demon Valley. Although, come to think of it, that situation as a whole, was pretty confusing"
The words of the demon immediately caught the attention of Erbow and Sylvana, and in the distance, Lyle's ears twitched.
"Mind explaining what that is supposed to mean?" Sylvana asked.
"I'm with her, how was it confusing?" Erbow questioned.
Jeremiah cleared his throat before speaking. "Well, the thing is that General Selene was the one in charge of protecting the weapon. However, a couple of days before the attack, she was commanded to leave the site of Lisbea and send someone else to watch over, alongside a fairly sizable army. So, Commander Albedo, as well as a lot of unfortunate idiots like myself were sent to the tower, and well, you know what happened next"
"That makes no fucking sense" Erbow declared.
"He's right" Sylvana said. "How could they decide to lower the defenses of such a powerful weapon? I assume this General Selene is fairly strong to be the Second General.
"She is" Jeremiah responded. "Had she been there, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now"
Neither Sylvana or Erbow could make sense of said statement. Who in their right mind would do such a… stupidity.
"And, come to think of it" Jeremiah seemed to have just remembered something. "I remember someone saying that they overheard a conversation General Selene had with other generals about something she was tasked while on her way to steal the weapon"
"What else did she do? Besides stealing the cannon" Sylvana asked with curiosity.
"If I heard correctly and my memory doesn't fail… wipe out a village"
Lyle stopped walking.
"I don't think that's anything out of the ordinary for the Empire" Erbow said.
"Not really. I mean I'm aware that our kind is savage, but being honest, at least the ones that were in my group were somewhat lazy. If they were to get into a fight out of bloodlust, they'd most likely just fight between ourselves" Jeremiah declared. "Besides, as I said. This is not something they just did because they felt like it. It was an order"
"That is… odd" Sylvana stated. "Was there anything of value in this village?"
"For what I know, not at all. I think even General Selene was confused as to why-" Jeremiah's words were promptly interrupted by the feeling of someone grabbing him from behind to turn him around just to grab him by the hem of his shirt while staring at him with a murderous look that could make anyone's blood run cold.
"What else do you know?" Lyle practically yelled as he asked Jeremiah, lifting him into the air despite the demon being taller than him.
Everyone around stopped on their tracks in order to see what was going on between the blonde and the demon. A great darkness emanated from him, the look on his face was terrifying and completely focused on Jeremiah's.
The demon could barely formulate a sentence, he hadn't felt as fearful as this ever. Even just a couple of moments before where he had been threatened by Sylvana, this somehow made him feel even more scared. He knew nothing about the man holding him in the air, at first glance he looked like just a quiet and well-mannered young man, but right now, hate and rage, previously buried somewhere inside him, were showing off like stars on a clear night.
"Speak. Now" Lyle's words had become more threatening.
"I- I a…. I am- I do not- I-I swear I know nothing else!" Jeremiah was terrified. "This is something I was just told. I-I-I have no idea if it's even true!"
The people around stared at the situation, whispering and mumbling about what could be going on. Jeremiah continued to panic, attempting to make out a sentence from a bunch of thoughtless letters he spitted out while feeling how his soul was being pierced by Lyle's cold and murderous glare.
Sylvana limited herself to stare, she wasn't sure what she should do in this situation and decided that the best was to do nothing. This wasn't her business after all. However, Erbow was another story, he had to stop this situation, his first thought was to stop Lyle by force, something that he believed shouldn't be much of a problem at first, but when stepping forward to stop the swordsman, he froze.
It was an odd sensation, he wasn't a coward, he had faced more fearsome foes already, yet he felt how his instinct told him that in this case, violence would not help him. Erbow then decided to try and dialogue with Lyle, but in the end it wasn't necessary.
"It's enough" Ascalon said as he grabbed Lyle's shoulder. "This idiot ain't worth it. Besides, you heard him, he had nothing to do with it. Let him go"
Lyle let go, but not immediately, many seconds went by where Lyle stood there, with Ascalon's hand on his shoulder while still lifting Jeremiah in the air. The latter, completely terrified of what could happen to him, stayed quiet as he attempted to control his breathing.
Once Jeremiah was finally left on the floor, Erbow approached him in an attempt to comfort the demon. This made Jeremiah feel odd, he felt a strange feeling inside him, it was certainly something he didn't understand, but he didn't hate the feeling, having someone to care about you, even if for obligation, was not bad.
The darkness emanating from Lyle dispelled slowly as he seemed to calm down, lowering his head. Once all darkness had vanished he felt Ascalon's hand leaving his shoulder.
All of the other people continued staring at the situation, but quickly Erbow yelled at them and ordered them to continue walking, threatening with a reduction of their payment, just in case.
The battalion continued their way towards the town, Erbow and Jeremiah followed close behind, the latter still trying to regain his composure after what just happened. The party, however, stayed a bit behind, Lyle was walking slowly and the rest were keeping up with his pace. Ascalon and Mistia walked right next to him, while Sylvana walked a bit ahead from the group, in contrast to Stella who was actually a bit behind, Lyle's attitude had scared her.
"Are you ok?" Mistia asked with worry.
"I am, it's just…" Lyle grunted. "A direct order? Why? This doesn't make sense. We were an unassuming small town, why would anyone-?"
"Lyle" Ascalon said firmly. "Remember that we are not talking about humans, but demons, they don't think like us. Their reasons don't have to make sense to us"
Lyle preferred to not answer his friend's affirmation, instead he looked at Jeremiah in the distance, with a pretty clear thought in mind, Ascalon was wrong. An idea that he actually shared with Sylvana, who similarly decided to not refute Ascalon's statement, she couldn't bring herself to make any statements, at least not until seeing more of how demons behave in a more relaxed environment.
The battalion continued its way towards the town, accompanied by constant mumbling and gossiping. Jeremiah and Erbow kept their distance as the former wasn't really feeling comfortable with all of this situation, similarly the party also stayed considerably far behind the rest of the people in order to prevent any unwanted interactions as well as to not hear whatever the others were mumbling.
It was a long and awkward walk, but at last, as the sun began to tint of orange, the battalion spotted the town in the distance, unfortunately, it wasn't the only thing they spotted. While walking down a hill, Erbow was able to have a clear sight of the place, and despite the fairly large distance, he was able to recognize a group of demons approaching the town from the opposite side.
"Everyone! Hurry up! The city is about to get attacked!" Erbow screamed his lungs out.
Immediately, Sylvana began rushing towards the town at high speed, prompting her teammates to do the same, except for Stella who was unable to keep up the pace. Soon enough the entire battalion started to run towards the town, they were not making it there before the demons, the damage was unavoidable so the priority had become to diminish it as much as possible.
Sylvana was the first one to make it to the town; she passed by several scared villagers who attempted to run away as fast as they could from the demons. The guard of the city was by no means useless against the demon menace but their numbers were just too small to fend off the threat. The moment the elf arrived she didn't waste any time to begin massacring any demons in her way, before they could overwhelm her, Ascalon, and Lyle and Mistia not too long after came in to aid the elf.
It didn't took much longer for Erbow and the rest of the battalion to arrive and quickly get the upperhand against the demons, an advantage that would last little as more and more demons appeared one after another, the corpses accumulating in the streets just seemed to benefit the demon army who moved with more ease through the roads of flesh.
Lyle found himself slicing through the hordes of demons, it was almost like fighting against sticks of butter at how easily it was for him to kill them with his sword, which was only amped up by Mistia using her own magic to boost his.
Stella had probably not even made it to the battlefield yet and both Sylvana and Ascalon had separated from them during the chaos, Lyle had noticed that Sylvana seemed to have gone to aid Erbow who was almost overwhelmed by the enemy. Whereas Ascalon had seemed to just disappear.
Nonetheless, Lyle knew that if there was someone he didn't need to worry about, that was Ascalon, and right now, he only had to worry about himself, not only were the demons getting harder to fight, but also, the corpses were making it difficult for him to move and moreover with all the blood that had been spilled over his face it had begun to get into his eyes, making it difficult for him to see properly.
Sooner than later, a well given punch landed on Lyle's face made him lose his balance, followed next by a relentless assault from multiple demons that badly injured Lyle. But in what seemed to be the blink of an eye, Lyle noticed that all of the demons on top of him had disappeared, and now the only thing he could recognize was what seemed to be Mistia's silhouette and seconds after he felt himself being carried away in her arms at a dizzying speed.
Before he realized, Lyle noticed that he had been healed up, he looked around and noticed Stella in front of him, they were at the outskirts of the town. Mistia let Lyle go from her arms.
As the blonde stood up, he was asked by Stella if he was fine, to which he responded affirmatively and also stated that they had to go back to help on the battle, which both women agreed with.
They made their way across the chaos unleashing, the battalion held off as best as they could against the demons, but slowly the numbers were overwhelming the warriors. At the front of everything, they found Erbow and Sylvana fighting side to side, to which Lyle quickly joined in.
Very soon, the demons attacking had gone from reckless beasts, to beings that could actually pull off a fight. They didn't just try to jump at their necks, they were blocking, dodging and even using magic. The first one to come to the realization of what was happening was Sylvana, as soon it hit her she yelled it to the others.
"We've been tricked! Those demons from before were nothing but cannon fodder to tire us up for the ones who actually can fight!"
Erbow, Lyle and Sylvana regrouped, before them stood 7 demons of tough look. It wouldn't be an easy fight by any means.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the village, two demons that had wandered off on their own to murder villagers that had been left behind heard something suspicious from one of the houses, and upon further inspection, they found a tired and terrified looking woman who had futilelessly attempted to hide.
Though the first thought of both demons was to kill her, they quickly changed their minds upon noticing how attractive the woman was. She tried to fend off herself as she could but she was too weak to be able to resist the demon in any way.
The woman yelled in desperation as the demons put her on top of a counter, the woman yelled even louder, but with all the chaos going on outside, it was very unlikely she'd be heard.
Unexpectedly, just as one of the demons attempted to rip off the lower part of her dress, a burst of blood spilled over the second demon and the woman alike. Before any of them could process the events, the beheaded body of the first demon fell into the ground, completely lifeless. They both turned to look at the one who had killed the demon, a strange and intimidating looking man that seemed to have come out of nowhere.
The man was tall, very tall, he was dressed up in leather, chainmail and iron. With a cape that around the neck was completely made out of fur. His garments reassembled those of a some sort of warlord.
Nevertheless, the most highlighting aspect of them was undoubtedly what was beyond his neck. His hair was a dark purple mess and he wore an iron mask that only left out space to see his left eye that shined with an intense purple that irradiated hate.
The stranger drifted his gaze towards the second demon, and before the latter could register the fact that the man was in the room to begin with, his remains were scattered all over the wall behind him.
Still completely terrified, the woman looked at her saviour and he looked back at her with the same hateful look he had looked at the demons with. Which only scared the woman even more, but before she could scream, the man had disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Outside, the battalion of Lisbea prepared themselves to fight off the remaining demons, most of them were already tired which would for sure have an effect on the next part of the battle. It would, if it had happened.
None of the present were able to tell what happened at first glance. One second, a group of menacing demons stood before them, and less than a blink after, they were nothing but deformed corpses if not puddles of blood with some meat on top.
Everyone but one demon had been killed, the final demon stood there, in complete shock as the blood of his comrades fell through his body. He looked terrified as he attempted to understand what just happened. A question that would not remain unanswered for long as the menacing figure of the dark purple haired man appeared before the demon, causing him to trip and fall onto the ground as he looked up at the threatening man.
For a couple of seconds, the man did nothing but stare at the demon with a soul piercing glare that almost caused him to die of fear. Then, the man took off his mask, revealing his face, a very manly and defined looking face, with a beard worth no more than a couple of days.
The fear that the demon felt only became more intense, if having one of those eyes on him was already so fearsome, two of them were just worse.
"Listen" The man said, his voice was deep and firm, everyone around got cold just by hearing him. "I don't care how you demons do things down there in that rotten place you call home, earth is within my jurisdiction. If you are going to start a war in my territory you must stick to my rules, the rules of war, or I'll personally kill off your entire empire of scumbags. Was I clear?" The demon nodded, unable to speak even a letter. "Then fuck off and go tell your leaders what I just told you"
As soon as given the order, the demon sprinted away as fast as he could. With a renewed value of life and tears of fear and happiness dripping down his face he quickly disappeared into the horizon. It was needless to confirm if he'd accomplish the task given by the stranger.
Everyone in the battalion looked dumbfounded at the mysterious man, who turned back to look at them as he put on his mask again, completely out of words for what just happened.
"Who… who the hell is that?" Lyle asked himself. No one responded, or even noticed.
"This power… how is this even possible?" Mistia whispered, she was completely terrified of the man before them. Her pupils dilated as much as humanly possible, her breathing became ragged and she was shaking a lot.
Noticing the state of Mistia, Lyle quickly put himself in front of her, to at the very least give her a feeling of protection, which did make her feel a bit less terrified.
"I have never seen a presence like this. Could he be…?" Sylvana mumbled.
"I pity you humans" The stranger said. "But at least for once you aren't dealing with problems caused because of your own selfishness and greed. Although I'm not sure if dealing with demons is any better. But anyways, I hope that this war ends up being short and as deathless as possible, even if I'm aware that the latter it very unlikely"
As he finished his speech. The stranger disappeared in a burst of light, leaving everyone confused and wondering what the hell just happened. The whispering and mumbling quickly began amongst all of the present.
"Purple hair… intimidating look… unbelievable strength…" Surprisingly, Stella was one of the less terrified ones. "He did say that earth was his territory, didn't he?"
"He did, I'm sure of it" Sylvana confirmed.
"Then I cannot be mistaken. That man must've been Ark, the God of War" The healer declared. Everyone near her gasped in surprise at the mention of the divinity, and the word spread quickly, causing everyone to be in sheer awe.
"A… god?" Lyle questioned, skeptical.
"Yes, Ark, the God of War" Erbow said. "According to the books, there is no being, even amongst the gods, that can surpass him in strength. With the exception of Eternal of course"
"Meeting with a god… it feels so… unbelievable" Lyle said.
"It does, but I do think they're in the right" Mistia declared. "The power that man emanated, it's like nothing I've ever felt before"
"Indeed" Sylvana said. "His emanation of magic, it's nothing like I've ever seen. The feeling it gave me it's something I would qualify as… divine"
"What could've prompted him to act in our favor?" Erbow asked himself.
"If I recall correctly. The God of War only intervenes when one of two sides disobeys the laws of war, those given by him for all humanity to follow" Stella stated.
"What law could've the demons broken?" Lyle questioned.
"I'm not sure, but I suppose such a thing isn't much of a surprise" Erbow said with a chuckle.
"I must agree with you" Ascalon said, appearing seemingly out of nowhere.
"Where the fuck where you?!" Lyle asked.
"Fighting over there" Ascalon responded, pointing at behind him.
With the menace eliminated, the villagers soon returned to their homes. They were very thankful to the warriors who had aided them in this battle. The lisbean battalion decided to skip the fact that a god helped them.
Erbow reunited with Jeremiah, who avoided getting into the village during the battle for safety reasons. After a little inspection, Jeremiah declared that most of the corpses of demons were of those he called 'savage demons'.
"Savage demons?" Erbow questioned.
"That's how they are called. Demons that grew up more like animals rather than… well, demons. It is not particularly uncommon, as you can see by the amount of them used as cannon fodder" Jeremiah responded. "If I had to compare it to something on this realm… it's like sending a pack of rabid wolves as first line of offense"
"I see…"
Night finally settled, however things were not yet. They still had to clean up all the mess left behind by the battle, which would take a while and it would be difficult without light. The reason for why it was decided that the mess would just be put aside so it wouldn't be a bother and tomorrow they would clean everything up.
The night was used to celebrate the victory and being alive.
The following day, Erbow called out for a little meeting, he told the battalion that the leader of the village had offered a cart with resources for them to take to the capital, so they would have to split up between those who'll stay and help out cleaning up the village and a little squad that would escort the caravan back to the capital.
Most of the warriors decided to stay behind and help out the villagers. Some offered themselves out of the kindness in their hearts while the majority stayed because of the great hospitality shown by the villagers.
The caravan, led by Erbow, ended up having very few volunteers, among them was the party. Even though they were few, Erbow didn't fear that much would happen in such a short track.
By 10 AM, the caravan was set and ready to depart to the capital, and once the warriors were ready to go, they all began making their way back towards the capital.
Surely, nothing bad would happen on the way back.