10 The First Encounter

For nearly a minute, the five survivors waited for another member of the Demonic Army. But in the end, besides resting a bit and beginning to heal, nothing really happened. Leilade sighted, feeling an incoming headache toward their situation. She was nearly powerless, their strongest warrior lost an arm and the other three were not really better. She knew all of them and that was the only saving grace. No one was weak and all had at least five hundred years behind them. The youngest will probably be Meridiana, even if right now she was nearly broken.

While she had the appearance of a regular woman, she was riddled with injuries and her bones were visible on her limbs. Like the small necromancer, Meridiana lost all her hair and a good part of her skin. However, no matter where Leilade gazed, the little girl couldn't find either the horns or the tail characterizing the nature of the succubus. Hell, even the innate beauty and charm that should exude from her body and fill the air were absent. Just by looking at her, no one could guess that she was one of the three most gorgeous creatures inside the Demonic Empire. And it was a real rank, acknowledge everywhere.

As for Davion, the blue human, he was an Orodil. They were created with magic and science by the Ancient. As for why, the same question would be the same for the countless other races created by the smartest race of the Universe. The principal perk of the Orodils was their immense connexion with the mana surrounding them. However, they were designed to never be able to use it efficiently. At best, they could only use it by activating an external device, but never by their own means.

When the gaze of Leilade landed on Kardel, she could only be a little perplexed. She knew that he and his fellow Duvodiad were feral, to say the least. But seeing him on all fours, sniffing the air was a little comical. He totally discarded his injuries and kept doing that for a few more seconds. After that, she saw him trying to smile, even if half of his left cheek was gone. Instead, it only showed her the piercing canines that filled his maw. Like his compatriot, he could use the beast souls of his tribe to improve drastically his aptitude, whether it was his sight or his strength. As for the beast present on his home planet, they were brought from all around the Demonic Empire, to provide them the most dangerous, cunning and ferocious monsters.

"Empress, there is a battle a few kilometers away from our position. I smell human blood, horses, sniff sniff, and a few unknown scents."

After hearing this, everyone stood up and Ymir began to lick his burned lips. Nothing could make them heal better than a fresh feast. However, none of them made a move before Leilade said anything.

"Kardel, go ahead and scout the battle. Go and see what we are facing. Technology, magic, equipment, everything. The worst possible outcome would be us on a planet controlled by the Lanfos. If you see any of those green slugs, retreat."

Hearing those words, the hungry animal began to morph into a huge black panther that instantly began to sprint toward the battlefield. Leilade looked around her one last time, only to see nothing. She felt that her nose was itching and began to touch it with her hand. Only after sensing the liquid at the tip of her fingers did she remembered that her nose was gone. Seeing the black blood on her hand, she wiped it off and began to instruct the rest of the group.

"Davion, in front. Meridiana, stand side by side with me and Ymir stand back a little. You are too big to be discreet. And don't worry, everyone will eat if they are weak, you will not starve. As for your weapons and armors, wait here."

She entered inside her bag once again and left with the few items that could be used. As for their clothes, they will have to stay naked for the moment, all their armors already destroyed when they left the portal. Ymir winced after seeing all that broken stuff, and even the imperturbable Davion raised an eyebrow. Both of them were afraid to say it loud, only for the hornless succubus to spill it out.

"Empress, I think it will be better to use our own body for now. This is, just not useful at all."

Even Leilade had to agree after seeing everything on the ground. She was certain that it was salvageable, but for the moment, it would probably be more of a hindrance than everything else. She quickly filled her bag, and then, ordered the group to march, following the traces left by Kardel. Even injured, they were still capable of quickly cover a lot of ground. Less than a minute after that, they arrived in front of a drooling panther. They could already see blood inside his maw, proof that he ate something before they arrived. Noticing the group, Kardel quickly turned into a human, and with an evil grin spoke to Leilade.

"It is our lucky day, the one around us are weak humans. They only have some iron weapons and armors, nothing dangerous at all. I didn't see anything proving that they can travel in space. From the look of it, it is an archaic planet. Their bodies, however, are delicious, so tender, without any muscle."

The Duvodiad was still happy from his meal, but that didn't reduce his attention. After licking the blood still dripping from his lips, he kept telling all the information he gathered.

"By the looks of it, the battle is between two forces. One is those iron puppets that I talked about, the other is composed of magicians, they are the delicious meal. For the moment, everyone around here is dead or dying, but a little farther that way, they are still battling. But I figured out that you would prefer to eat a bit before. One of the magicians was throwing some serious spells, even from my point of view and the iron warriors were capable of enduring it."

"Good job Kardel, you can resume your meal. I will personally see what is this serious magician that you are talking about."

"Empress."

The human bowed while the panther left right after it. Around her, she could see dozens of bodies, either dressed in black robes or in complete armors. "So the body that I found was a human magician, he probably did something that locked the position of the portal". Leilade quickly understood what probably happened before she got on that planet. Whatever this organization did, the five of them were here because of it. The least they could do was to repay that favor. All of her four subordinates rushed toward whatever they needed.

Everyone had a different way of eating, creating a lot or a few wastes. Meridiana crouched near the dying ones and kissed them, claiming their lives. She only dealt with the living but what she left was a mummy. For Davion, it didn't matter if they were alive or dead, he only opened the skull of his victim to eat the brain, letting a near complete corpse. That bothered neither Ymir or Kardel, since both of them ate always the entire body. In the end, the only intact corpses were the ones on the path of the small girl. The rest would soon be turned into skeletons or mummies, since the latter were particularly disgusting for the three males.

Since the time she woke up, Leilade felt that the darkness inside her was incredibly weak, even after she strengthen it for centuries. The toll of her survival was bigger than the destruction of her purple armor and her external injuries. But with the blood flooding on the ground and the nutrients inside the human corpses, a small tentacle finally appeared. It was incredibly small, not even a meter tall. But she could feel that it was alive and moving on its own, gathering all the energy around her, even the one coming from the grass under her feet.

After walking for a few hundreds of meters, she felt magic being casted. Even if right now, Leilade couldn't really tap into the mana pool of her surroundings, as one of the greatest magicians of the Demonic Army, if she couldn't felt that, she better should destroy her own soul. It was nonetheless incredibly crude how it was done, so the small girl couldn't help but shake her head at that sight. If this was that a serious magician, they won't have any problem on that planet.

When she finally left the cover of the trees, she saw a battle between five armored humans and two magicians. All around them, close to fifty corpses even if they were mainly from the army and not the organization of magician. Soon, the remaining magicians casted a spell that created a black mist on the five soldiers. A few seconds later, a sword was launched from that mist and split the head of one of the two mages. However, only one human was left standing, a girl in a white armor. Her skin was slightly green and she had a hard time breathing, but she was still alive. Grabbing the sword of one of the fallen warriors around her, she pointed it at her final opponent.

He was an old man with a strangely cut white beard. He was very similar to Akama, if not for his beard unequally cut, probably a result of that battle. The old man was wearing the same clothes as the rest of the mages but since he was the last man standing, he should be one of the strongest experts. Yet, he was pale and out of breath, his knees were shaking. The two of them were so concentrated on each other, that they didn't even notice the moving shadow that appeared near them.