64 Construction in progress

In the middle of the afternoon, in a barren land mostly filled with stones and rocks instead of grass and trees, a frail little girl suddenly appeared from nowhere and fell from the air. When she first arrived at her destination, Leilade realized that Malakov changed a bit the surrounding landscape, and to avoid being materialized into the ground, she preferred to be a little bit higher. However, this time, it was really too high.

Thump aaaaaAAAAh Pouf

Everyone she knew, except the harmless Candaith, always had a small period where they had an issue with moving their own body. It was only a few seconds for most, like her, that's why most portals and teleportation gates where located in secure and protected locations. Even when invading, the magicians made sure to be covered by either the local obstacles or by a defensive structure. That's why, after her fall of nearly 5 meters, she couldn't balance her body quickly enough to not fell on her butt.

At the same time, she had let out a small shriek not befitting at all of her position in the Demonic Army and looking around, she was relieved to not have any witness. Cleaning the back of her clothes, to remove the dust and dirt on it, she scanned the surroundings and found the position of the base a little further North. That small incident was the only reason why she didn't appear immediately near it, otherwise, the image she projected in front of the rest of the survivors would have been slightly damaged.

Thinking about that, she only noticed something unusual when the Viscount warned her about something.

(Outlander, there is something weird around the base, and not some eccentricities of Malakov, something not from our side.)

Hearing what her most trusted soul said, she paused her walk and truly use her entire power to scout the surroundings. At first, she found nothing, but in the end, there was a place where her mana couldn't enter. It was similar to the spells surrounding the base, but unlike them, it was far too crude. They made sure to still allow magic to pass through and only gave the illusion of emptiness. What the other party did was just blocking everything in a small area. To put it more blindly, it was the difference between something concrete with camouflage and something without it.

Approaching careful that place, the more she crept closer, the stronger was her interest. She was certain that none of the magus she met could have felt it, with their archaic ways, meaning that only other nations or that Organization could be responsible. She was certain that they would be found, albeit not that quickly. She still had no idea if the gigantic scene was truly prepared, especially the fake and the true armies.

Deciding that it was still useless to spare a bit of mana, she turned invisible when she was dozens of meters away. Finally arriving nearby, she saw a grey patch of land, not really that discreet. From afar, it could pass as a big rock, but when someone was as close as she was, it was obvious that it wasn't natural. But they still made some efforts, so it was a good initiative. Piercing through the cover, she stumbled upon three individuals, one was sleeping while the other two were discussing while looking through a weirdly shaped instrument. Looking more attentively, it was similar to a binocular or scope.

"So, they are the surveillance team." Laying around, three bags were used as a mattress with one occupied and a small pile of garbage was located at the outskirt of the small encampment. Right now, the only human was noting something on a small book, probably what they observed. As for the two others, one was a sleeping female elf while the other was a ratman. "Weird combination."

Inside a country that still had some slaves, albeit not openly like the Synnada Empire, to find two non-humans working with a human was rare. But thinking about the supposedly immense power of the Organization, it was not that surprising. However, the appearance of the ratman still baffled a little Leilade, since she hadn't heard about that race since she first arrived here. Meaning that he was a long way from home.

Now she had a choice, should she kill them or just let them be? Because they were quite far, she had a doubt whether Malakov located them. She was certain that the unreliable lich felt their presence, otherwise, he wouldn't have been her strongest subordinate. But to pinpoint exactly where those rodents where located, without leaving the premise of the base, it was pretty hard. Especially since he had to use all of his mana daily just to meet the requirements of master Agnil.

Because she didn't want to ruin a plan, she decided to just let them live a few hours more. Reaching the base, she didn't have to wait for a lich to open the way. The sight beyond the shield and protections was quite good, especially the entrance. She was not deceived. Touching on of the two statues representing Ymir, she felt an uncontrollable terror filling her heart. Even that small detail was taken care of, not that it affected her in any way. Nodding her head with a smile, two undead similar to the one she created at the Academy opened the door.

They still were not armored and equipped with weapons, but it shouldn't take very long. Depending on whether they will still be bait or a threat. Inside the first room, she saw numerous smaller skeletons carving the stone walls of inscriptions. Most of those were just incomprehensible sentences in Demonic Language, that didn't make any sense. Like "Attaquer sala de baño with kinder". That made no sense, but because no one could really understand it, it was just nice to have.

Some spiked lanterns were hanging around those comical sentences, making the room illumined but not that much. On the ground, beautiful artworks and drawings representing the numerous planets they conquered were visible. It was still in construction, but to make a first impression, it was nice. After two, two new doors led to the deeper part, but a lich indicated the wall standing between the two.

After hearing the undead casting a spell, the wall opened himself and let place to a small room composed of only a magic seal. It was mainly used for very short distances teleportation, only less than a kilometer. But it had a very low cost, so, when a base was located underground or in the skies, it was the main way to transport good and peoples. Standing on it, she felt a brief change of air and soon appeared in a room filled with scribblings and a huge holographic globe.

"Empress of the Underworld, welcome back." Malakov was the first to greet her, in his usual-licking tone.His only main drawback was his inability to consider the subordinates of Leilade as equals and not his subordinates. But from the looks of it, they had no problem and did a good job, gathering enough intelligence without being detected. Unlike her, but she won't say it.

"We greet the Empress of the Underworld" Davion and Meridiana slightly bowed in front of the small girl and they kept working. Because they didn't have any living beings under them, all the reports were sorted by them. They could let some liches do the most basic things, but the undead that were of such a low level were not the smartest. Only one comparable or slightly inferior to Malakov could be of a help, but that was not in the orders of Leilade.

Looking around, she didn't see Ymir, but it was possible he was just resting. Not wanting to uselessly bother someone, she got an update on the latest news from their side. Meaning not very much since they were waiting for things to go down a little bit. Hearing about that, Leilade couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, until Meridiana finally spit it out.

"Well, you see, there was a slight issue with the adventurers. Malakov didn't tell you about that?" Shaking her head from left to right, both the orodil and the succubus realized that the undead wasn't that unreliable since he hid the worst parts. But now that they said it, it will most likely fall on them.

"First of all, I need to say that they are the most backward, primitive and stupid humans I ever saw. The amount of distrust we received was so important that it is a miracle that non-humans are accepted with such behaviour. When we arrived, we were told to undress, and as you can expect, we couldn't. After that, we received mockery after mockery, everyone doubted us. Because of this, we killed some weak monsters in the underground grid under the mountains, to shut their mouths. And even that, they didn't believe it was us. And maybe, I threatened of death some adventurers. In a very friendly way."

(Looks like they are as reliable as you are, Outlander.)

"Not another world." Leilade really thought that with a succubus, it was nearly impossible to not gain the trust of some petty humans. A race born with such a massive advantage against males, capable of finding their deepest secrets in a blink of an eye, managed to alienate an entire guild of adventurers. Getting found out by the Academy was less a failure than that. Thinking about that, it was the moment that Malakov chose to ask the questions that were bothering everyone else.

"Empress, not that I doubt you but, why are you here right now? The useless humans were too boring? You have recovered all of your powers?"

After he said that, the little girl proceeded to unleash all the darkness inside her. The two living beings and the lich withdrew, not saying anywhere close to the dark tentacles. Two enormous ones were wiggling in the air, and a very small one was a tenth of their size. Even if it was a better sight than previously, they knew that if Leilade had her full powers, the entire room would be filled with shadows, not just a corner of it.

"Yes and no. Their pathetic attempts at teaching magic were too long, especially when they weren't even teaching it properly. Because I could already destroy it by myself, I had nothing left to keep me there. And finally, I learned the only important thing that mattered. The reason why the previous dark gods failed at their invasion or whatever it was."

Nowhere in her small tale did she said that she was found out and she only escaped because of this. She was still the highest ranked commandant around here, so she didn't need to be honest every time. And it was not really important, or at least, that was what she was repeatedly told to the Viscount that was bothering her with this. No, she rather focused her efforts on the initial worst case scenario that they formulated, and that was in the end, the truth.

"Empress, sorry for being late." The huge Akûl finally entered the room, leaving the lich behind. He was enjoying a nice dream where he was eating ten humans when an undead woke him up. But to his surprise, it was to tell him that Leilade had arrived. He was not late enough to hear the last sentence and express the same surprise as the rest.

Casting a small spell, she made the exact painting she saw in the basement of the Academy appear in front of everyone. Even the small writings under the drawing, that described what happened were easily visible. It didn't take long to read the few sentences, but even the impassive Davion showed a fearful face after being done reading. Because what they all feared when they first learned that it was a planet built by the Ancients did happen.

"One of them is here."