"Yawn like usual nothing is happening…"
"Yeah but those tricky beastmen will launch a strike whenever we let our guard down!"
A bunch of guards, dressed in simple gambesons with basic pikes, stood atop the exterior wall of a large stone fort that bordered the beastmen territory that failed to worship the one true god.
Their reactions were very different.
As the younger of the pair stood straight with his eyes narrowed towards the horizon that still had a faint glare escaping. Almost as if that nation of beasts was bleeding into the perfect sky to make for a beautiful scene. Not that he took the time to take it in as he stayed fully alert.
In comparison; his partner looked at him with a questioning look with a stance that told he was far less invested in his duty than the other. Unlike his companion his armour was less studiously equipped and truly felt like he just threw it at the last second. Even his weapon seemed in need of a tune up.
For a moment he just stared at his naive comrade as he wondered whether he should break the news that all soldiers have to come to terms with.
A sigh escaped his lips only for him to reach into his pockets and pull a smoking pipe out; quickly lightning the substance inside by applying his fire enchanting gift to the bowl itself.
Not hesitating to take a drag as he too turned to look over at the bloody sky on the horizon.
He didn't seem nearly as proud of the foreboding presence of war with the Federation of Fredome, as they preferred to call themselves, yet also knowing there was no point brooding on it. Your average military grunt like him didn't have any power to change it. Even knowing that they weren't killing monsters.
They were killing people (men, women & children) all so that the nobles as well as the church could brag to each other about their new slaves or jewels found in the "reclaimed land".
"Always found it weird they always call territory got through war "reclaimed" when we never possessed it in the first place…"
Shaking his head as he just took another drag.
And what a drag it was.
He found his boredom reached a peak as he looked to the ground and started to kick the pebble in front of her against the rampart. Letting it bounce off the stone construct only to repeat the process. Although he found his apathy fade away as he let the rock fall to the ground only to see it visibly shaking.
For a second he was confused yet realisation soon overcame his voice as he turned around to run up to the side of the wall. Resting a foot on the rampart as he looked into the distance. His body soon froze only to begin walking back to the centre of the wall with his pipe falling out of his mouth.
"What are you looking for?"
Obviously his partner realised his strange reaction yet he didn't get a chance to respond before the vibrating pebbles became obvious to everyone. Soon more of the wall sentries began to look around and that vibration soon turned into a rumble. It didn't take much longer before they started losing balance.
Panic was of course their first reaction yet from their position they also got to witness something rather weird to all of them.
The big wigs actually headed out their fancy offices to wait on the road back into the country.
"Makes sense they'd obediently wait with wagging tails…"
Mumbling out, without minding who would overhear him, as he reached down to grab his pipe again. Only to realise that his earlier actions had led to most of the contents in the bowl falling out. Clicking his tongue as he placed his pike down in order to get a little paper packet out of his pockets.
Pouring the contents of that packet into his pipe - shaking it about a little bit to make sure it's not too clumped up inside the bowl - then used a spark on mana to activate his gift again. Unlike the rest of the guards he didn't care to watch the higher ups nor try to find what they were waiting for.
Since he already knew.
His partner also noticed his strange reaction so looked to him with a faintly pale face.
"W-what was that…?"
That got a snort out of him as he placed the pipe back between his lips.
"Our illustrious marquise, or rather, newest duke Strauss."
"The war hero?!"
"More like the sexist, racist and classist warmonger…"
Unfortunately no amount of smoke inhalation could rid him of the memories of that bastard nor did he particularly care about the scowls of the younger guard.
"He is a brave veteran who did his all to stop the beast plague from entering this country!"
"Alternatively he's a bloodthirsty monster that I saw feeding children to his pet scalie worm just to get information out of their parents and then didn't stop when he got what he wanted."
"I'm sure the were be-"
"There aren't just beastmen in that country, kid…"
That seemed to leave the rookie sentry gasping as he didn't know what to say.
"Bet you believe that bullshit about his daughter commiting suicide."
"H-he is a grieving fat-"
"I wouldn't be surprised if he personally slit her throat after finding out she has some shitty gift; that man cares nothing about himself so wouldn't allow anyone to get in his way."
Shaking his head as that little boy could no longer find it in him to argue with the more experienced man who had witnessed the duke first hand.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Why can it never just go as planned…"
"Just make sure not to play around with them too much and kill them all."
That archdemon not even bothering to even pretend that he cared about the thugs who were surrounding them from all sides. All starting from when they began heading back through the same route they had originally come from. Yet this time she noticed far more people lingering about,
Didn't take too much longer for the people they passed to follow them while more walked out from every other possible escape they had.
"Hey their kids, why don't you give your big brother & sisters some of your stuff hahaha~!"
"Hear what that pretty boy said?"
"I know Madame Curls will be interested in one with that much spunk!"
They began to talk amongst themselves however she honestly was used to this situation from her time living in a place with even worse social security. She knew that the easiest way to deal with these situations is to show overwhelming strength. Fortunately she had a lot of magic as well as-
Panic overcame her as she tried reaching into her mana reserves, using it to enhance her body like she usually does, only to find out she had far less than she should have had. Instead she felt that demonic power she gained from first summoning had increased even more. Dwarfing even her past mana total.
An impressive feat considering the Strauss family always had big pools.
What was worse was that (now that she was paying attention) she could feel her demonic energy practically cannibalising the mana to enhance itself which explained the amount!
"That surprise?"
That sudden bell-like voice caused her to look in the direction only to see that the flaming demon was hovering behind the thugs. Looking ready to burn them all to ashes with that creepy smiling mask still present on her face. Elizabeth once more found herself ignoring everything else.
"Mana & Demonic Energy both gifts from gods; is rude to double dip."
She… Knew nothing about this and also didn't have time to contemplate the consequences such a fact had on everything she knew. A first suddenly filled her vision as she only had a mere second to quickly turn her head away from it as she decided to ponder later.
When she first awoke it she found out demonic energy was better for physical enhancement anyway so sought to simply use her energy just as she always had.
Not waiting as she threw a punch at the same moment…
Only to find the movement of her energy sluggish as she punched the man in his gut - still stronger than a regular punch but without the overwhelming power she was used to. Rather just causing him to be winded than completely out of the fight. Not even buying much time as it was less shocking to his companions.
Finding herself swarmed as fingers turned to knives and tried to swipe at her with her quickly stepping back; although it wasn't just her strength affected. Finding her speed far behind what she was used to while enhancing herself. That didn't even account for the boost demonic energy gave!
Fortunately she managed to get away with just a light cut on her face.
"Be careful not to damage the merchandise!"
"Demonic energy isn't as obnoxious as mana - doesn't act just because you ask."
That divine demoness just watching with Elizabeth somehow understood that there was amusement contained within those violet-flames. It made grit her teeth in frustration. In hindsight that should have been rather obvious that the two types of energy wouldn't work the exact same but…
"It worked fine before…"
She thought as she panicky rolled out the way of some sharpened fingernails that exploded towards her with enough force to puncture through wood. The one with the knife-fingers, in his haste to attack her again, ended up being the one to receive the attack. Roaring in pain as he fell down to friendly fire.
Unfortunately her luck seemed out as she wasn't able to get up quickly enough to avoid finding someone right in front of her when she did get up.
A girl who opened her mouth to spit out a thick cyan gas that quickly made her feel sleepy.
"Still had mana to ease process."
Those were the last words Elizabeth heard (even if she wasn't able to fully understand them) as the haze began to completely fill her mind causing her to fall to the ground.
At least that should have been the case if she didn't suddenly jerk back like a puppet who had their strings abruptly tugged on. Initially she seemed shaky on her feet. Something that caused those thugs to be amused having already convinced they had their prey caught and just needed to bag it.
One of them promptly walked up as the rest turned to look for Necro only to find he had already left; it was easy enough for him to teleport back to the inn since he had already been there.
The girl approaching was the same one who had spit the gas in Elizabeth's face and couldn't help stop the growing smile that formed on her face. Hand reaching forward to hold the chin of the ex-noble. Licking her lips with a growing forming desire in her eyes.
"Damn you don't look too old but you definitely developed in all the right places; buyers won't care if a woman plays with you so I hope you're ready for a lot of fun."
And she did reply to that.
"Nn."
With a voice slightly different to before, less caring yet with an ethereal… Bell-like quality.