The Demon Lords General

"Pain sucks," was just about the only thing flying through the Forgotten's mind as he was turned into a living pin cushion, he had been slashed, hit, and beaten, and he was only still standing either because the current commander of the four hundred soldiers beating him was have a hell of a time watching his suffering, or because they wanted him to get on his hands and knees and hand over the Compact Mirror to the inside of Demonas walls while begging for them to stop.

"Alright, Mage squadron he's started healing again, hit him with false frostbite and phantom burns, we want him to feel the folly of his miss-deads!" The Forgotten was hit with a barrage of lance-based magic, he did his best to try and keep himself shielded but was quick to find that Blood didn't fare too well when it was frozen or hit with heat that caused it to burn away when it got too close to the fire.

When it froze he couldn't keep it suspended and had to let it drop and shatter, and the burned-away blood would chip away at his reserves, he felt an ice lance lounge into his belly and a fire lance embedded itself into his left shin.

Had it been normal fire and ice he might have been able to walk it off. But magic ice and fire such as these could be tampered with, ice just cold enough to make him feel the gnawing pain of frostbite, but never get the relief of it messing with his nerve ending, Fire that licked away at his skin, causing the sensation of feeling burned without actually leaving a burn, meaning he was being kept a maximum pain output magically to make sure his suffering was long.

Had it been anyone else they probably would have cracked under the pain, but him not being able to walk it off was literal, it was impeding his ability to walk since it was in his left shin, past that the pain, while still sucktactic, was nothing new.

He might have called out they were lazy in their methods if he hadn't held the firm desire for it to stop. Easily deducing from experience that saying, "Is that all you got," Rarely ended with a response of, "Why yes, that is all we have got," he just did his best to act like a wounded animal flailing about in the hopes he might find a chance to slip away.

A few soldiers moved forward at the commanders' call and began doing what the Forgotten could only think to describe as, playing with their food, Using shields and spears they would stab at him, block his attack, and then another group would stab him from the opposite direction, they were cheap with their shots, aiming for painfully vital spots like organs and more than a few lit up with laugher when one of the soldiers plunged their spear into his groin, a mortal wound to any man, even one with a healing ability.

Throwing away his plan to flail about and try to find an opening born of his enemy's confidence and underestimating of him the Forgotten grew his blood claws and accepted the spear as he managed to grasp the arm it belonged to firmly, more spears flew at him as he disconnected his right arm and backed off, losing a fair bit of his upper right side, torso, and head as a price for latching his hand onto his current mortal enemy.

Before the groin stabber could remove the hand cutting into their arm and toss it aside the Forgotten raised his left hand and activated his new favorite attack, "Hand Grenade," He declared.

The man who had achieved the lowest blow in the fight was the first on his side to be lost, along with most of the people near him as his Biomass was painfully sucked from him, his body made unstable with magic before bursting out into bone shrapnel that took a few members of the army out of the fight.

"Cut that bastard down now!" The Commander's call made the Forgotten feel a little stupid, but he had no regrets, try as he might, no man would ever walk away from the chance to kill anyone who had stuck a blade in a man's most personal area, even faced with the probability of a fate worse than death, it had been worth it.

"I feel terrible," The Forgotten decided out loud as he pulled out the compact Mirror, several hands snatched out trying to take it, only to be met with blood Spikes that burst out of the back of the Forgottens left hand, any who where unfortunate enough to be cut where quickly reduced to empty suits of warped armor as the Forgotten used them to fix himself up a bit, taking care to cover his shame after the incident with the groin stabber had left him only in a shirt, multiple pieces of cloth from the fallen soldiers were held together with blood, forming a mangy looking dress of fabric and living tissue to hide his shame.

"Sorry nice lady, I hope you have more of these back home," having been hoping to give the nice Demon her mirror back the Forgotten accepted he wasn't going to get to see Demona and used his blood to make sure it was rendered to near dust before letting it tumble to the ground.

Had the Army not been full of mages that could counteract all of his blood spells if they got more than a few feet away from him he might have resorted to trying to form a blood twister, but that had failed spectacularly twice already, achieving nothing more than arrows sticking out of him. He looked up at the blue sky, thinking about how he might never get to set his eyes on it again.

"I'll miss the sky," He decided as they began closing in, arrows aimed, spells locked in, spears getting into place, "It's pretty," The time had come to say goodbye, so he chose to keep looking up, for as long as he could, waiting for the pain to pull him in, and never let him go again.

Seconds ticked by, minutes maybe? As that question entered his mind he thought they were maybe waiting for him to look at them or something, but instead looked down to see something amazing, in front of him in the place an army once stood was a lush field of grass, the paved area that had sounded the Market was now just a few rocks, an armored hand could be seen poking out of the ground as a flower curled around it.

The few still standing buildings full of mages and archers shooting him from afar were gone, not even reduced to rubble, simply replaced with trees, rapidly moving about as though posing for a picture as they grew to sizes that should have taken years.

"I agree," A female voice sounded next to him and he looked over to see a Wolf Beast Woman looking up at the sky, "It is pretty,"

"That was so cool," Another voice sounded, he looked down at a small person, to androgens looking to tell a gender by looks, nor by voice, "He was just like, oh I'm gonna die, miss you sky, wasn't even gonna give 'em the satisfaction of looking them in the eye,"

"Calm down Five," A Second lady told the androgynous one named Five, "Hello," She greeted politely, The Forgotten had no idea what she was but judging by the dress that looked to be made of plant life he assumed she was the one responsible for the garden they now stood in.

"This place already looks ten times better," Despite his chipper response his voice gave away he had just been in the process of accepting his fate and was now trying to accept the miracle he had been granted.

"Come along then Chaos bringer," The Wolf lady patted his back as she spoke, "Your Ratricks are having a meltdown, Imps are rioting, and a Ram Man-beast is orchestrating a dance in your honor," The Forgotten looked back at her, planning to speak, but all words were lost when he suddenly felt as though he had been hit and dropped like a sack, he had not been hit by anything, at least no anything physical, he had been hit with exhaustion, no longer being in danger his body was taking its time to heal as the stress of the situation overtook his adrenaline, leaving his legs out of action.

"It's ok, you're gonna be fine," The Wolf lady, despite looking wild and giving off the air she'd kill him without much personal grief, spoke softly, easily catching him before he could hit the ground "We won't leave you to rot, you can rest, I'm more than capable of carrying you home, The Demon Lords fairly excited to see you,"

Leaving Four and Five secured the area, making sure none were left to tell the tale of them being in the country Eight quickly set out, being the weakest of the Eight Generals she still had the bragging rights of being second in speed only to the Demon Lord.

This fact resulted in her getting many of the lamer tasks such as helping with disaster relief. Her keen nose let her find almost anyone within the distance she desired the check, easily able to reduce or even shut off her senses if she felt the situation required such actions.

Since Eight had a fair amount of fur on her forearms and upper body, she became the best Pillow The Forgotten had ever gotten to touch, and that alone was all he needed to pass right into slumber.

Eight arrived, finding that the Demon Lord was about as well put together as she had been when she had been tasked with grabbing Four and Five and taking them to retrieve their new little Chaos Bringer, a panic attack might have been slightly too far, but not by too much of a margin.

"I didn't even think about it," Demon Lord Verona had planned it all out. Her plan had been seen through almost to the end, but thanks to being able to hear through the Teleportal Compact Mirror, the fact that the Chaos Bringer going through it would leave in his wake a portal directly behind her wall had caused a fair response of fear and panic, up until five Ratricks tumbled through.

The Teleportal shattered in their wake soon after, turning fear and panic into admiration for the Demon who had just taken that information and done the honorable thing over saving his skin.

However, his choice had brought problems with it, as five Ratricks who had, apparently, been taught to attack all creatures in armor couldn't tell scale apart from armor and had thus turned to violence against any Lizard person who was shiny, being so close to Lizard-Folk mating season, where the males shinned themselves up to gain the eyes of the woman, the problem had only been slowed by a few cyclops who had been branded as nice by a group of Ratricks in the past and had been able to get them to at least stop throwing knives at the medics, Fry pans still got tossed out every few minutes but it was easier for Lizard folks to deal with the occasional blunt attacks over a storm of knives.

Imps, all four of them, had started crying, that would have been easy to deal with but one of them had an aptitude for sound magic and their cries had started cracking the earth.

And then the first wave of escapes arrived, among them the last few members of the escaped Caravan, a Ram Man-Beast had managed to calm the Imps enough to stop the crying, but now they along with a lot of the refugees were trying to memorialize their savor in dance, and Imps being highly artist by nature became a different kind of problem.

The Demon Lord still was freaking out at how such a major detail had passed her by, Eight had left to do the job, and upon returning, nothing much seemed to have gotten better.

"He's not dead," She called out firmly as demons started noticing them, and she heard some muttering about how bad his corpsed looked, "Despite how messed up he looks he's already gotten better over the last few minutes of my running him down here," She set him down when the Medics provided a stretcher for her to put him on and turned to rush back and retrieve Four and Five. Figuring they should be finished scorching the earth by the time she got back.

Once Eight was out of sight the Lizard-folk in charge of medical care faced a hard problem. When The Demon Lord noticed the gathering of Lizard Folk around their little chaos bringer she made sure to approach the situation to see what the problem was, and indeed it was an odd problem to have.

"He's completely fine," One of the Lizard Folks noted, "Not even a scratch, but he's still breathing oddly, do you think there's something lodged inside him like an arrowhead preventing him from healing properly?"

"I already tried scanning for that," Another Lizard Medic replied, "No Internal bleeding, nothing there that shouldn't be there, maybe he just needs rest?" The Demon Lord broke through the medical staff and looked down at the Chaos Bringer, he was breathing shallowly, his ruby eyes gazing up into the sky, though she had noticed the previous night that he slept with them open so that didn't prove he was conscious if he could just shut off his vision.

"Pardon, Pardon," A New Lizard broke through the crowd as he walked up to the Chaos bringer, "Need to scan for allergies, can't go sending our own patience into anaplastic shock," The Lizard placed a finger onto the Chaos Bringers Forehead, making sure to avoid touching the odd mask they wore and nodded slow, "Yes…Yes, I see," The Lizard took his finger off and then looked to the Demon lord, "You said you feed this guy right?"

The Question caught most all the gathered Medics and the Demon Lord off guard, "Y..yes I gave him the emergency rations that are handed out to units on patrol,"

"I see," The Lizard nodded slowly before shrugging, "Welp then Blood Magic must suck because this guy is starving to death, his stamina is at the level you'd expect someone who hadn't eaten in several days to be at, maybe those emergency rations need so working on,"

After scanning for it and finding he was indeed starving the Medical staff rushed to hook him up to an IV, only to be countered by his healing factor, as the IV needle was pushed out by his body healing itself.

The Medical staff began hurriedly trying to find a workaround when an Imp, having snuck in during the panic held up a half-eaten Ration bar to the Chaos Bringer, "I heard you were hungry, you can have some of mine," before anyone could try to shoo he away the Chaos Bringer leaned forward and munched down on the snack.

"I appreciate that," He noted, his words muffled a little by chewing.

"Have you been awake this entire time?" One of the Medics demanded as the Chaos bringer tried to get to his feet, only to be forced to stay on the stretcher.

"I woke up the second the Wolf lady put me down," He declared simply, "Where can I find more of these bars I'm starving and they are divine,"

Hearing anyone call the bland ration bars divine brought up a snarky response from one of the Medical Lizards, "What are your taste buds gone or have you just spent the last decade in a cellar eating rats?"

"I wasn't eating rats," The Chaos Bringer halted for a moment before muttering, "I couldn't catch them without triggering the collar," on purpose or not the depressing statement won the Chaos Bringer enough points to get his menu upgraded.

"You know what?" The Lizard who had been trying to be snarky spoke up, "I can live off of ration bars for a day or two someone give this man actual food,"

"You are fine," The Demon Lord informed the Lizard as she walked up to the Chaos bringer, "And you are coming with me, I will send for your Ratricks and Imps later, for now, I would like to have words with you,"

"Ok," The Chaos bringer replied in a merry tone for one who was still technically dying since a single bite of a ration bar did little to stop starvation past push the death time back a few hours, "Did you tell the Demon Lord about me apologizing for standing 'em up?"

"You told the Demon Lord," She replied, "Who is I,"

"Really?" The Chaos bringer looked her up and down before adding, "I thought you'd be spikier, or maybe scarier? One of those two things definitely,"

"We will have time to talk once I have placed food into your stomach," The Demon Lord offered her hand and The Forgotten took it before being blinded by light.

"Welcome home my lady," Several Dozen Women in maid uniforms bowed to the Demon Lord, all of them being an assortment of Demons, from the ones with three arms that the Forgotten had taken to calling Demonlings since he had no idea what their actual race was and it felt rude to ask one directly, to several Man-Beats and Beast Woman, Several looked over at the Forgotten and he felt judgment fall upon him, although he was a little to distracted by the fact that he was now magical standing up to take any offense at judgy stares.

"Hello me dear staff," The Demon Lord replied, "This is the Demon who just freed several thousand slaves from one of Yogallia's Costal Market cities, along with promptly destroying most of the city, I'd ask you to avoid judging their attire as I'm fairly certain they spent a fair amount of time as a slave themself, and as you might imagine fighting an army while protecting fleeing slaves for several days straight leaves one very little time to find a proper outfit," 

All Judgment ceased, whether due to the Demon Lords' command, them feeling bad, or them realizing they hadn't been subtle, there was no real way to tell. "I'm off to make sure a proper meal is made for my guest, as my staff I expect to come back and find him in a presentable state," Without another word the Demon Lord set off to see to it a meal was made as the maids all gathered around The Forgotten, all keeping a wide breach of space between them all, After a Moment a Large Tiger Woman-Beast stepped forward.

Instead of introductions she simply picked the Forgotten up and held him at arm's length. "Your dress is bleeding," She informed him in mild disgust, The Forgotten looked down at the scraps of bloody cloth he had made into a makeshift bottom piece, "Looks like more of a skirt to me," His response was seemingly not the one she had wanted as the Tiger lady carried him down the hall without another word, the others maids followed and only broke formation after opening a door and moving out of the way as the Tiger lady brought the Forgotten into a side room and set him down on a stool before motioning to a porcelain white object he had never seen in his life.

"What's that thing?" He asked curiously, apparently not a question the maids wanted to hear as many of them called "Not it' from outside the room.

"Oh shut up you babies," The Tiger growled back, "And you, you got brain damage or something? It's a Bath, you wash yourself in it,"

"Tell me more about this Bath" The Forgotten was ready to listen but the Tiger lady just growled at him.

"Turn the handle, fill it with water, and clean your blood-soaked…self," The pause near the end suggested she had wanted to tell him to clean something else but had stopped herself for some reason.

"Fascinating," The Forgotten walked up to the tub and, after picking one of the three handles he turned it, his eyes sparkled with wonder as water poured out into the tub, "That's amazing," he reached his hand into the cold water, and cupped it before bringing it back to his mouth, it had an odd taste to it, but the water was still just that, water and he would gladly take it.

"What are you doing?" The Tiger lady demanded as she watched the Demon Lord's guest drink bath water.

"Look at this," The Forgotten was mystified as he splashed his hands in it, "It's cold!" The Tiger took a deep breath, she'd never had to personally deal with an escaped slave but not knowing water could be cold seemed like something beyond being a slave was behind the Demon before her.

"Here's an idea," Her tone shifted to a falsely calm and polite one in the hopes it would avoid making her suggestion seem like an insult to the Demon, "Think back to before you were bound in chains, did you come from the country of Loom maybe?"

"Before I was in chains?" The Forgotten scratched his chin, "Yes, there was a time before wasn't there, I wonder what it was like," The Forgotten attempted to sit on the side of the tub to think and proceeded to fall in, instead of getting out he lay in the cold water, having seemingly forgotten he was supposed to be thinking about a time before his chains. "Am I doing it right?" He asked in excitement as he started rocking side to side, waving his arm to the Tiger lady, "Am I cleaning up?" The Tiger lady let out a low sigh before replying.

"You have to take off your clothes first, and sit up don't lay in it you'll drown yourself," She reached into the tub and forcefully repositioned him.

"Thank you Tiger lady," The Forgotten said sweetly.

"My name is Lola sir," Her tone shifted, no longer chastening and judgmental, as though she had realized the person she was talking to might not have had all their lights on upstairs, "May I ask you your name, sir?"

"I have a name?" The Forgotten grasped out for it mentally and came back with air, "I wonder what it is?" Lola shook her head at the response before calling out into the hall, "We don't have all day, some of you better get in here and lend a hand before I drag you in here,"

Following Lola's command, several maids helped undress the Forgotten, his shirt was barely anything, and his make-shift skirt had come undone in the water, one of the Maids tried to remove the mask and proceeded to yank the Forgotten's head in the direction they pulled.

"I don't think that can come off," He Informed them, earning an apology in response, after making the water warmer Lola set to making sure the Forgotten's bath water was flushed clean of blood before properly stopping up the tub and seeing to it he was soaped up, rinsed, and had his uneven red hair washed.

Lola Finished it off by toweling him down and having him hooked up with a spare Maids outfit since nothing else was widely available in his size at the moment and being in drag was better than leaving him to sit in a towel for them to find a pair of pants for him. 

The Forgotten seemed to enjoy the outfit, he had gotten a long loose black dress with a white belt, and long sleeves that went slightly past his wrists, the dress stopped just above his ankles, where they had sadly failed to find a pair of shoes he could wear leaving him to slip around in a spare pair of black socks.

The type of outfit he had gotten was usually reserved for Maids in training and was made cheap so that in the event the new maids tried too hard and ripped a few tears into their uniform they didn't have to bite the financial loss of paying for a new uniform.

"Look at me, I'm wearing a blanket," The Maids took up positions at the end of either side of the hall as the Forgotten had the time of his life slipping around on the marble floors in his new socks, easily being lured into any of the side rooms just to look at it in the event other staff members needed to cross through the hall the Forgotten was being held in.

The Forgotten had almost forgotten why they were even being treated to a fun night of Sock sliding but remembered when the Demon Lord returned that they were fairly hungry.

"Interesting choice of attire," The Demon Lord noted.

"We couldn't find anything else on such short notice," Lola informed her curtly.

"I'll look into getting them fitted for something, I don't suppose you managed to get their name did you?"

"I don't think they remember it," Lola looked to the Demon Lord and then back at the Forgotten, "Are you gonna keep it?" She asked curiously.

"Yes, yes I think I will," The Demon Lord smiled back, "The First floor could use a General, and it just so happens that our new friend comes with plenty of Imps and even a few Ratricks to fill out the bottom ranks a little,"

"Rarticks?" Lola looked disgusted at the statement, "I hope it's not a breeding group,"

"I had it checked, they're all males," The Demon Lord assured her, "So we don't have to worry about their population booming and turning into an infestation, and as a bonus, they've already been trained to attack armored units exclusively, so long as they stay below the fifth floor they should only assault adventures, and Lizard Folk but we'll look into dealing with that,"

"Can we eat now?" The Forgotten asked once they managed to slide to the Demon Lord.

"The first course should be finished cooking right about now, follow me, I'd like to propose an opportunity for you,"