Demonic Conqueror [LitRPG, Isekai, Progression]

By the time the sun rose and set, twenty more people had arrived at Hurricane HQ. There were now over 120 members of the resistance readying for battle – almost every rebel in the Severed Isles. It was to be the single-biggest operation in the history of their organization.

And unlike the rushed assassination against Piers, now they had time to prepare.

Victoria was handing out Artifacts like candy; offensive types, defensive types, and everything in between. Warriors sharpened their blades, double-checked their armor, and sparred with each other like they were cramming the night before a finals test. Spellcasters conserved every last drop of mana they could, hoarding their energy with a desperate sort of caution.

They were going all-in on the Mana Harvester raid. If it failed, the Hurricane wouldn't exist by tomorrow.

Simon found himself in the familiar position of being both an outsider and the linchpin of the entire mission. He was a blatantly suspicious Demon, yet also he'd slain Piers Helmund and agreed to help the rebels realize their dreams. Most of them seemed to regard him as bitter medicine – or perhaps a poison pill, depending on their outlook.

If nothing else, even his loudest detractors couldn't deny that he was well-suited to raiding a Mana Harvester repository. The Hurricane's main goal was to steal as many mana-containers as possible, and Inventory would be perfect for that job.

"Put whatever containers you find into that dimensional storage of yours," Marlene had explained to him. "And if you happen to come across an especially large receptacle, one marked with a triangular sigil, dump all the rest to make space for it. It will contain mana in its purest, most refined form – precisely what we're looking for."

Simon was fully on board with that. He had his own reasons to be interested in procuring mana-containers.

Once the Hurricane finished their preparations, everyone gathered into a cramped room designated by Lady Victoria, packed together like sardines in a tin can. Dozens of crystalline Artifacts had been attached to the walls and ceiling. When activated, they would teleport the raid team straight to a repository in a faraway city, simulating the effects of a one-way Waystation.

"They said it couldn't be done." Victoria gazed upon her handiwork with pride, a wild grin stretching across her face. "The mechanisms behind Waystation Crystals are one of the most jealously-guarded secrets of Helmund's empire. To replicate them, why, you'd need to be an intellectual virtuoso. They said it couldn't be done."

She belted out a cackle that wouldn't have sounded out of place from a cartoon supervillain. "Yet here we are! There is nothing that the Duke owns that I cannot recreate! I am just! That! Good!"

Simon got the distinct impression that this was only partially an act. Hope she gets some sleep while we're gone. Breaking into evil laughter can't be a good sign for her mental stability.

He paused, considered that thought again, directed it towards himself, then stuck to his guns.

"You have our thanks, Lady Victoria," Marlene said, before her subordinates could get too weirded out by the Artificer's bout of mania. "Your creations are as astounding as always."

She turned to address the crowd. "There will be just one chance at this. Although I am in possession of an Artifact that can transport us back to headquarters, it is single-use and virtually irreplaceable. After today, Duke Helmund will strengthen the defenses of all his Harvester repositories, and we shall be bereft of our only method of escape. Attempting another raid would be impossible."

Her gaze hardened. "This is the most vital mission we have ever conducted – yet also the most dangerous. I cannot guarantee the safety of anyone here. If you are having second thoughts, then you may leave now, free of shame."

I can't tell if she's being honest or manipulative, Simon pondered. Telling people that they're allowed to leave is the best way to make them stay.

Sure enough, not a single member of the Hurricane backed out. If anything, they seemed emboldened by Marlene's speech.

Simon didn't quite get it, but he wasn't going to turn down the extra help.

The room fell quiet as Victoria began activating the Artifacts one-by-one. Her grin deepened even further as the fruits of her labor were made manifest. An electrifying *hum* of mana filled the air, causing the hairs on Simon's neck to stand on end.

Katarina waited close by him. She had adopted the role of his permanent fire support. Her plan was to riddle people with arrows as he distracted them with an attention-grabbing Demon arm.

They wouldn't be partnering up with any of the rebels today. Marlene had offered Simon an honor guard of sorts...but frankly speaking, he didn't trust them not to stab him in the back. Figuratively and literally.

While most of them seemed to recognize him as an ally, it would only take one shortsighted fool to ruin things for everyone else. Bastian would've been an acceptable option, but he and Cyna were a pair, and she was far from trustworthy herself.

Besides, Kat knew better than to waste time asking questions if Simon did something unexpected – and he had a feeling that this mission wouldn't be anywhere near as straightforward as the rebels were hoping.

Victoria's Artifacts reached a fever pitch of mana. Dozens of them shone in unison, as if connected by invisible strings of energy. The pitch of her laughter was drowned out by the rising *hum*, growing louder and louder by the second.

It wasn't at all like the teleportation process of a Waystation Crystal. That was smooth, seamless, and consistent. This was the jury-rigged contraption of an inventor with zero oversight and a chip on her shoulder.

Wait, has she even tested this yet?

Simon barely had time to worry before the world vanished in a flash of luminescence.

--

The Harvester repository was a towering edifice to entropy.

Or at least that's what Simon had imagined it as. Mana Harvesters drained energy from the land itself – they were directly responsible for the barren, Fell Beast-ridden wasteland that stretched across the Severed Isles.

A repository of stolen mana should have looked...abominable. Spikes jutting dramatically from the rafters. An eternal dark cloud hovering above. Sneering soldiers wearing armor forged from the bones of the innocent. This building should've embodied the lifeblood of the world being imprisoned within man-made walls, left to rot as the land decayed into a hollow shell of their former self.

In reality, it was just a warehouse like any other. Constructed of stone and wood, with everyday guards ambling about outside. The slow death of the Severed Isles had been made banal and ordinary.

Somehow, that was more offensive than the alternative.

A stunned hush overtook the guards stationed nearby. For a moment, there was silence. The Hurricane was recovering from post-teleportation wooziness, and the soldiers were coming to terms with a small army of rebels suddenly appearing out of thin air.

Then the charge began. More than a hundred voices cried out at once, their fervor, panic, and bloodlust merging into a blaring orchestra of mayhem.

The Hurricane held nothing back. Helmund's soldiers were crushed by sheer numbers, trampled by a stampede of rebels hopped up on adrenaline and righteous fury. They burst into the repository like a battering ram, demolishing its reinforced front gate with a barrage of spells and mana-empowered weapon strikes.

More soldiers awaited them inside – just as stunned as the previous ones had been. The rebels broke off into separate sub-groups, hunting guards and seizing containers, a swarm of locusts picking the place clean.

Simon knew this would happen. The Hurricane didn't have a map of the Harvester repository, limiting how far ahead they could plan, so this raid had always been guaranteed to descend into a chaotic free-for-all. It was part of why he'd rejected the offer of an honor guard.

Easier to keep his eye on the prize when he didn't have to trouble himself with protecting hanger-ons.

Motioning for Katarina to follow, Simon ignored the crowded melee that was brewing and ran deeper into the repository. Waving his Shapeshifted arm around kept most soldiers away – there weren't many who wanted to tango with the Piers-slayer. The few idiots who tried their luck were summarily dispatched by either him or a crossbow bolt from Kat.

No point in lingering near the opening area. Sure, it was filled with rows and rows of mana-containers...but none that looked particularly large, and none that were emblazoned with the triangular sigil that Marlene had described.

If a grand prize existed here, it would be further inside.

Simon and Katarina were by far the fastest combatants here. It didn't take them long to leave the rest of their allies in the dust, venturing into uncharted waters as they navigated through winding hallways. The Harvester repository was a massive structure that gave no indication where to go next – but thankfully, transmigrators were dirty cheaters.

Identify. Reading the text box as quickly as he could, Simon made a sharp left turn, trusting Katarina to keep up. Identify. Right turn now. Identify. Straight ahead, sweeping aside the guards who got in their way.

Locked doors, unattended containers, even random scuff marks on the floor – they all counted as individual 'items' that he could check with Identify. Same as when he'd tracked down Bastian across Caelryn City, gleaning crucial information from seemingly innocuous details.

There was no place in the world that could keep secrets from a transmigrator.

Soon enough, Simon found himself staring at an unmarked wall in a nondescript room. It looked no different from anywhere else. In a way, he was almost impressed.

Without Identify, he never would've been able to tell that a hidden passageway was right in front of him.

The wall's Description informed him that a concealed switch nearby would open it up. He could've located the switch with more Identifies, methodically narrowing down its position...but busting through was faster. It had been constructed for secrecy, not durability, so his 43 Strength was sufficient to bash it down with a full-windup punch.

"I see my lockpicking services won't be necessary." Katarina poked her head into the now-open passageway, glancing at a staircase that descended below ground level. "How did you – nevermind. What are you anticipating to find in there?"

"Mana of the purest, most refined quality."

Although...would Duke Helmund have built a hidden tunnel just for that? Special mana-containers were rare, presumably, but they weren't irreplaceable. This was hardly the only Harvester repository in the Severed Isles.

Allowing himself a moment of curiosity, Simon examined the staircase and cast Identity again. This time, he tailored the Skill to inform him what else might be lurking underground.

He jolted back as mild pain burned behind his retinas.

Name: Staircase to #####
Description: Leads to a workshop of misery and theft. Houses several Artifacts powered by #####, and incarcerates lost children of the #######.

A kernel of dread formed within his stomach. Identify had partially malfunctioned. First with the pain, then with the strange text in its Description.

He had only experienced the latter once before. When they were fighting Armand Calloway, the serial killer of Caelryn City, and...

Ah.

Simon locked eyes with Kat and told her what she should expect. The Arcane Rogue gripped her crossbow tighter, nodding tersely as she glared at the passageway with a renewed sense of apprehension.

Without another word, they descended. The sounds of distant battle became even more distant, darkness seeming to swallow them up as they went down, down, down. It couldn't have taken them more than twenty seconds, yet knowledge of what they would find made the journey drag on for much longer.

At last, they reached the bottom, stepping into a dimly-lit chamber.

Simon had seen worse. Mostly during Piers' Sin Scry visions. That fun little incident had inured him to the sight of depraved horrors.

It still didn't make what he saw any more pleasant.

Enormous cages lined the chamber walls – each with a Fell Beast locked within. There were no less than thirty of the creatures trapped here. A scent of rot and disease assailed Simon's nose; the smell of prisoners who hadn't seen the light of day in ages.

Stains of blackened blood could be seen everywhere, so common that they may as well have been a coat of paint. All of the Fell Beasts were hideously injured, missing flesh, limbs, faces, and worse. Some had nails inserted into their bodies. Some were hanging from hooks embedded into the walls.

Yet none were moving. The most they could muster were tiny spasms indicating that they still clung to life.

Simon took a moment to absorb what he was seeing. He'd encountered two Fell Beasts before – the Red-Eyed Hunter and the Ravenous Wanderer – and both had nearly killed him. Fell Beasts were feared, destructive, deadly, the bane of travelers and rural villages alike.

Witnessing them in this state was...disquieting. Not that he held any sympathy for unthinking monsters, but they should've been put down like animals infected with rabies, not subjected to this.

"Why?" Katarina whispered as if she would wake the Beasts from their slumber. "I don't understand. What purpose would Helmund derive from mutilating Fell Beasts?"

Two options sprang to mind. First, that this was how Duke Helmund or his minions entertained themselves. Similar to what Piers had done at the Sanctuary Grove.

And second...

"I think they were experimenting." Simon cast Identify on a Fell Beast, wincing at the accompanying flash of pain. "Yeah. Don't get me wrong, the people involved were definitely sadists, but they didn't do this just for kicks. They were trying to discover something."

A shudder passed through Katarina. "Never a dull moment with you, Simon. This isn't even what you warned me we would find."

He'd only been able to interpret half of the staircase's Identify Description, and that part had yet to show itself. Guess I know what 'lost children of the #######' refers to now. Though that raised uncomfortable implications which–

"Mana..."

It was so quiet that Simon initially thought he'd imagined it. He slowly turned to face a Fell Beast caged not far from him. The creature's ravaged mouth trembled when it spoke, as if each word required herculean effort.

"Give...your mana..."

Simon unconsciously stepped forward, compelled by morbid curiosity and a faint notion of pity. The Beast tilted its head up slightly, gazing at the transmigrator like a man in a desert happening upon an oasis.

"Complete...me..."

The Ravenous Wanderer had screamed much of the same. 'Give me your mana'. 'Complete me.' And most of all–

"Why..."

It stared directly at his Shapeshifted arm. Even with a monstrous, inhuman visage, the hatred and envy on its expression was clear as day.

"...Why...you?"

Katarina cautiously approached, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Simon. "Isn't that what the Beast of Springwater was screeching about?" she said, echoing his memories. "Are all Fell Beasts driven by a consuming hunger for mana?"

"We've only heard testimony from two that were capable of speech," Simon muttered. "Isn't really a large sample size. Still...I'm starting to believe that yes, they are."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

He'd been theorizing about that since the Wanderer's ravings in Springwater. Until now, however, there hadn't been enough evidence to confirm anything.

And that wasn't all.

"Hold on." Kat peered closer at the imprisoned Fell Beast, following its gaze and listening to its murmurs of 'Why you?' "Is it...jealous? Of your arm? Or–"

She froze, coming to the same realization he had. "It wants to be you. It thinks that with enough mana, it can be you."

The Arcane Rogue hesitated. "Simon, maybe, perhaps, what if–"

"No need to beat around the bush. It makes sense that Demons would be an advanced type of Fell Beast."

Simon thought back to his meeting with the Sealed Demon of Ruination. 'Do not conflate Demons with the feral, mindless Fell Beasts you have witnessed thus far,' it had said. 'To do so would be the highest of insults.'

Kirkelas was vain and arrogant. He wouldn't have bothered to set himself apart from Fell Beasts if there wasn't some truth to the idea. That alone wasn't proof, but when corroborated with additional evidence, Simon felt confident accepting the hypothesis as fact.

Funnily enough, he and Katarina were concerned for entirely different reasons. She was worried that he would take offense to this revelation – that learning he was related to mindless monsters would give him some sort of existential crisis.

Simon didn't care about that part at all. He wasn't an actual Demon anyway, and his affiliation with Fell Beasts was irrelevant. His abilities were a tool to be used; it didn't matter where his mana came from as long as it helped him achieve his goals.

But he was worried about how this factored into the Hurricane's Last Resort.

Please don't be planning what I think you are.

"Who in the blazes are you?"

Simon and Katarina whirled around to find a group of people standing at the opposite end of the chamber. Three of them were more of Helmund's soldiers, garbed in weapons and armor. The fourth was a woman at the forefront, dressed in leather attire covered by a baggy robe, her clothing stained with Fell Beast blood.

All of them had jeweled daggers strapped to their waists.

Kat stiffened and sucked in air through her teeth. This was what Simon had warned her about. Those daggers with the exact brand of mana-stealing Artifact that Armand Calloway had snatched from a guard in Caelryn, then almost killed her with.

Identify, he thought, to verify what he already knew.

Name: Dagger of #####
Description: An Artifact powered by #####. Passively absorbs mana on contact. When injuring a living creature, significantly more mana and ### is absorbed.

"You aren't supposed to be here!" the head woman exclaimed – who Simon was beginning to suspect was Valtia's version of a mad scientist. "What are...who..."

She trailed off as she noticed Simon's Demonic arm. "Oh no. Ancient One take me, no."

All four of them immediately went into panic mode. The woman hurled herself back behind her guards, tripping over a cage in her haste to get away. The soldiers were stricken with terror, unable to even draw their swords.

Katarina took a vicious pleasure in watching them squirm. "Fascinating weapons you've got there," she hissed. "You know, a madman nearly gutted me with a knife just like that once. How curious to find more here."

The scientist woman audibly gulped. "I, I–"

"Always was strange to me. Calloway took his dagger from an inebriated guard, but I've never seen these Artifacts elsewhere, and we've fought quite a few of Helmund's soldiers by now. Had resigned myself to that mystery going forever unsolved...and now you're here to answer whatever questions my heart desires."

She aimed her crossbow at the woman's head. "You'll cooperate, won't you?"

Simon cast Identify on a different dagger, altering what he wanted the Skill to divulge. Using it on the same dagger as before would've generated an identical Description, but he had spares to work with this time. Using the new insight he'd gleaned, he then cast another Identify on a third dagger, revealing more secrets with each use.

"Looks like the daggers were originally intended for mass production," he explained, prompting the woman and her guards to flinch with shock. "Apparently, Duke Helmund wasn't satisfied with just draining the land of its mana – he wanted to harvest people as well."

The transmigrator shook his head with disgust. "Only reason he didn't is because it ended up being cost-inefficient. The daggers are extremely difficult to manufacture, and they can't drain much mana per life."

Otherwise, Armand Calloway would have been even stronger of an opponent. "Wasn't worth upsetting the populace and spooking the nobles over. Armand was just fortunate enough to stumble upon one of the few test cases released for public use."

"Figures," Katarina muttered, her voice dark. "Then why are there more daggers here, hidden beneath a Mana Harvester repository?"

Simon gestured broadly at the dozens of caged, tortured Fell Beasts. "Take a wild guess."

Seriously, please do. I'm fresh out of ideas.

Identify had failed to discern why so many Beasts were being diced up with mana-draining daggers. The Skill's output was influenced by his own biases and assumptions, and all of his guesses had been wrong.

"I see." Katarina put on a savage grin. "Then we'll simply have to ask our new friends for answers."

"Not that I'm complaining, but usually I'm the one having to make threats."

"They remind me of Calloway – in their demeanor, their actions, and their weapon of choice. Can you blame me for wanting to torment them just a–"

The scientist and her three guards ran back through the door they'd entered from, screaming bloody murder.

Huh. Simon exchanged a glance with Kat. Surprised they broke so fast. As far as threats go, we didn't even get to my A-material.

Your Level has increased!
Level: 40 → 41

4 stat points added to Unspent Points! Allocate them at will!

Then again, they were probably just terrified that Simon would do to them what Bastian was doing to other soldiers upstairs. Thanks for the EXP.

He and Kat pursued the group into an even wider chamber. Rather than jailed Fell Beasts, this area housed several small mana-containers, more replicas of Armand's Artifact dagger...

And an egregiously tall container tucked away in the corner. Its side was emblazoned with a triangular sigil, and Simon could feel the mana within resonating like a beacon drawing him closer.

Was wondering when that would show up. It's why Identify led me here in the first place.

He shifted his gaze over to the scientist woman and her guards. One grand prize at a time, though.

"St-stay back, vile monstrosity!" The woman was roughly thirty feet away, body quivering, her face as pale as a ghost. "Not one step further!" Her guards weren't in much better shape, eyes distant as they contemplated the life decisions that had brought them to this moment.

Katarina raised her crossbow again, but Simon sent her the hand signal for 'hold your fire'. He cast Identify on the three soldiers.

Hmm. They were each about Level 30 – a solid cut above the standard soldier fare. Little chance that he would lose to them in a straight fight, but there was still a mild risk that Kat could get hurt in the crossfire.

Might as well remove that risk.

Simon eyed a small mana-container laying near his opponents. Fell mana swirled around his Shapeshifted arm as he took aim.

As long as I'm testing theories...

"Kill."

The woman and her guards frantically leaped to the side, yet this attack wasn't meant for them. Simon's Kill collided with the container, puncturing through its casing, mixing with the energy inside – and warping it.

All at once, the container expanded and burst, detonating into an explosion of Fell mana.

Katarina watched with awe as the three guards were blown aside like human bowling pins. They slammed bodily into the far end wall, then collapsed into a heap, burnt and unmoving. By some stroke of luck, the scientist woman had unintentionally used her cohorts as meat shields, but she'd still been left dazed and injured by the blast.

"Thought so." Simon let out a sigh. "Stolen mana. Fell mana warps stolen mana."

Armand's dagger had detonated when hit by Kill. Then the same thing happened to one of Piers' mana-burst attacks. Now a container filled with mana drained from the Severed Isles itself.

It was a consistent trend – Fell energy had a violent, explosive reaction to mana that had been stolen from another source.

Which all but confirmed where the Helmund lineage derived their incredible power from. Simon wasn't surprised. Even for a world of fantasy where some people were born with a phenomenal capacity for magic, there was nothing natural about what Piers and the Duke had exhibited back in Caelryn.

"...I won't ask how you knew the container would burst." Katarina gestured up towards the ceiling, pointing at the cracks running through its stone. "However, how did you know the blast would be strong enough to kill the guards, yet not so strong as to collapse the chamber on top of us?"

"Calculated it," Simon replied, with the most calm voice in his repertoire. Truthfully, the explosion had exceeded his highest expectations. He'd chosen the smallest container he could, but it still almost reached him and Kat positioned a good thirty feet away.

A pained groan interrupted Kat before she could question his logic. Both of them looked over at the scientist woman. She was struggling to stay conscious, her hair dampened with red from where she'd smashed her head against the wall. "Stay back...I said...back..."

"Concussion," Simon noted. "Possible brain contusion." He approached the downed woman, kneeling in front of her. "Hope you're still lucid enough for an interrogation."

"You...Demon..."

"Sure am. Not so different from those Fell Beasts you carved up. Mind telling me why? What were you researching here?"

The woman blinked rapidly. "Duke's orders. Wanted to...kill them better."

"By 'them', you mean the Fell Beasts?"

"And Demons. Both. Sacred mana...insufficient. Helmund wanted...something new. We played with Fell mana."

She winced. "It...failed. Please don't inform the Duke."

From her scattered recollection, Simon put together a portrait of what they'd been attempting to accomplish. Duke Helmund had sought a more effective way of slaying Fell Beasts and Demons. To that end, he'd tasked the people here with draining mana from Fell Beasts using Artifact daggers, then experimenting on that mana to reverse-engineer a new weakness.

However, their efforts had all been for naught. There was no silver bullet against Fell creatures that surpassed what sacred mana was already capable of.

For the umpteenth time that day, Simon could only ask himself why. Why was Duke Helmund researching improvements into anti-Fell technology? Is he concerned about an invasion from Ashora? Or even the Sealed Demon of Ruination breaking free of its confinement?

Both were plausible explanations...yet both rang hollow.

Simon was missing something. Something vastly important. Someth–

The scientist's eyes shone with a sudden flash of lucidity. She reached into her pocket and pulled out an Artifact.

Katarina's crossbow bolt took her in the head a moment later. The woman seized, gurgled, then fell still.

Your Level has increased!
Level: 41 → 42

4 stat points added to Unspent Points! Allocate them at will!

Simon frowned. "Was that necessary? I wasn't done interrogating her."

The Arcane Rogue sputtered. "She had an Artifact brimming with sacred mana! I did it for your sake!"

"Well, I appreciate the thought, but I'm actually resistant to sacred energy."

"What? You are? Wait, is that why the Artifact attack in Springwater barely affected you?"

Simon grinned. "Keep it to yourself. Fights are easier when my enemies underestimate me." Or overestimate, in certain cases.

He stood up and dusted off his pants. "We should take what we can and rendezvous with the Hurricane. You grab a few mana-containers – and some Artifact daggers, while you're at it. I know you're not exactly a fan, but I'm sure we'll find a use for them."

Katarina grumbled in assent. "And what of you?"

Without a word, Simon walked over to the large sigil-marked container in the corner. It was taller and wider than him, the potency of its mana radiating with a warm glow.

Moment of truth. He placed his hand on its side and used Inventory.

The container disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Simon breathed a sigh of relief. Inventory had a total weight limit of 100 pounds, and this mana-container was just at the upper end of that. Any heavier and he couldn't have taken it with him. If he hadn't already removed everything from Inventory beforehand, he would've also needed to empty it to make room.

"Package secured. Let's go give Bastian and Marlene the good news – they should be wrapping things up right about now."

--

The Hurricane had left a trail of bodies in their wake.

While there were some rebel casualties, most of the death toll belonged to Helmund's guardsmen, who had been severely outnumbered and caught entirely unawares. Mana Harvester repositories weren't equipped to handle an ambush from 100+ armed warriors with an axe to grind.

Everyone was waiting outside the front entrance when Simon and Katarina returned. The Hurricane had stacked an impressive pile of mana-containers nearby, openly displaying the spoils of their conquest.

In the center of the crowd, Marlene was inserting a small Artifact into the ground – the device Victoria had designed to act as a makeshift Waystation Crystal. "It'll take time for it to gather the energy needed to transport us," she explained. "Thankfully, we're ahead of schedule. Less than half an hour spent here."

She peered up at Simon. "What of your efforts? Did they avail anything of note?"

He produced the sigil-marked container from Inventory, depositing it onto the ground.

A muted gasp swept over the Hurricane. The rebels gradually broke out into cheer, congratulating Simon and Kat as if they'd won a gold medal at the Olympics. Bastian nodded at them, and after a moment of hesitation, Cyna did as well.

"Well done." Marlene gave a rare smile. "Now we–"

"Found you."

An aura of power settled onto the street, crushing and insistent.

Like a meteor from the heavens, a sphere of blinding light crashed down not far away. Simon fought to retain his balance as the ground shook. Many of the rebels collapsed outright, clutching their heads in pain as if drills were piercing their skulls.

When the dust finally cleared, an aberration of Valtia was standing before them.

"It appears that a swarm of rats has infested my domain. Gnawing, persistent, a mass of many to compensate for their individual weakness...and much like all rats, heedless of the trap snapping around their necks."

Duke Helmund's mouth split into a too-wide smile that didn't reach his twitching, bulbous eyes. "Now – step forth, Demon. I would have words with you."