***The Mortal Plane***

***Amon***

The fae were utterly unprepared for Philomena jumping past me while swinging a war-axe of her own size. The second the portal opened, she had pulled it from her storage item without giving the guards any time to prepare. Cold metal parted the air with enough speed that no mortal warrior could have reacted in time.

So it was a little surprising to me that the demoness didn’t kill both fae with a single blow like she clearly had intended to.

Instead, the axe was only fast enough to chop one of the fae guards in two. It passed cleanly through his torso, severing both upper arms and showering blood over the second guard who had the time to jump back with supernatural speed.

“Darin!” he yelled in some strange language and drew a thin blade. “Darin en quenya!”

I stepped through the portal and took in the scene, followed by the others who came after me one by one.

That obviously went a little too far for the fae who was entrusted with guarding the portal. He raised his blade in stubborn defiance and tried to block Philomena’s next swing. She didn’t even haul off. Instead, Philomena just reversed her swing as if she was wielding a two-handed sword.

When their weapons clashed, the fae realized too late that she had mass and strength far above his on her side. His weapon was pushed back and she would have gotten him too if it hadn’t been for that strange fae magic.

Once more he sped up, flowing away and somehow twisting his body past her axe while he allowed himself to be repelled by the weapon. He came up and landed on the axe’s huge blade before kicking the demoness with enough force to snap her head sideways.

Philomena didn’t seem impressed and reached for the fae’s leg, grasping only empty air.

I blinked, realizing that he was gone from his former position and now halfway between Philomena and me with his eyes on Kitia who was just passing through the portal. His movements were comparable to Ex’s speed techniques but far less refined.

In this seemingly infinite moment when he was rushing past me, I was glad for all the training and the beatings my tutor had dished out. Otherwise, this could have been a very short rescue operation.

When the fae’s eyes met mine, he realized that I wasn’t just coincidentally looking at him.

His expression had time to change while my hand came up, assisted by internal mana manipulation and some telekinesis because I wasn’t yet at the level to effectively deal with high-speed opponents in any other way than to empower my own body. Most other techniques and spells took much too long to manifest and could easily be dodged.

The fae’s legs struggled to change course, but his strange magic apparently didn’t allow for any large adjustments while he was already in motion. All he could do was to watch as my hand came up and wrapped around his throat. The innate magical resistance of most living creatures prevented the easy direct application of magical effects on their bodies, but that didn’t count for my magic on my own body.

All I had to do was to circulate mana through my arm while enforcing my skin with a telekinetic barrier, therefore turning it into an unmovable obstacle. An unmovable obstacle that was placed right in front of the fae’s throat while he was moving with magically accelerated speed.

First, there was a crack as something broke, followed by snapping tendons and the rending of flesh, and once his head was separated from his body I allowed my perception to return to normal. At the same time, I savoured the feeling of receiving a strong soul.

Thanks to its larger mass, the fae’s body flashed past me while his head tumbled through the air. My intervention had caused it to lose some of its momentum and so it landed on the ground without shooting away like a cannonball.

Kitia shifted her stance after leaving the portal and used her palm to block the beheaded corpse from slamming into her.

Once stopped, it toppled to the ground and she stepped over it, not even slowing her stride. “This might turn out to be some training after all if they are all like this,” she commented cheerily. “Not too strong, but this one wasn’t weak either. Once they start taking us seriously we might have an actual fight on our hands.”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “Don’t even know why he thought ignoring me was a good idea.”

“Maybe you don’t give him enough credit and he wasn’t going for the vulnerable demoness who was just stepping through the portal. Which is the important detail, I think. Maybe, he actually tried to get to the portal,” Jebril threw in a piece of insight. “Maybe there is some kind of emergency shutdown?” She turned and studied the portal.

I shrugged and surveyed the immediate area. Aside from the two guards, there was nothing that hinted at a thriving court of fae, and the other side of the portal was a perfect copy of the oak back in the mortal world which we just came from.

“That may be, but we are already in. Jebril, I suggest for you to set up a summoning circle right here and more as we go. Uphir, Shax, Philomena, Kitia, you guys go out into that forest and start killing things. Try to find us a worthwhile target to gain their attention while I stay with Jebril to protect the entrance. Isabella…”

The succubus had already collected the fae’s head and was studying its features. Her human appearance shifted and morphed until a perfect copy of the fae guard was standing in front of us. She had gotten the spindly body and the large cheekbones with the drooping ears perfect on the first try. Somehow, she had even replicated the wooden armour he wore.

Then she proceeded to use the head to rub blood all over herself. “Okay, if you see the fae who is screaming and running away, don’t kill him.”

I harrumphed.

Shax pointed at his throat, probably hinting at the fact that Isabella had spoken with her seductive female voice.

She rolled her eyes and coughed. “Aieee… help… help! They are coming to get us with their tails! No fae ass is safe!” Her voice had shifted to a perfect copy of the fae’s, but somehow I doubted that a fae would have said such a thing.

“Better, but a little too melodramatic,” Uphir pointed out. “And, do I have to point out that it probably won’t take long until all of them are screaming and running away? It will be hard to recognize you.”

“Okay, then I have no other choice but to show you guys the secret succubus recognition signal.” The false fae formed an ‘o’ with his thumb and index finger and proceeded to thrust through the hole with the middle finger of his other hand.

Uphir pursed his lips. “That works, but I think a few words in demonic will do it just as well.”

Isabella threw up her hands. “Boring! Okay, I am off, looking for the child.” Then the now male fae-Isabella looked seductively towards me and blew me a kiss before he-she ran off. “You know how to find me.”

I shuddered. “I hope she never gets the idea that I am into that.”

Shax studied me as if he wanted to imply something, so I gestured towards the forest. “Shoo, you have your orders.”

The others split up and ran into the forest.

My people did the reconnaissance while I watched over Jebril who had her whole attention on the new summoning circle. She cleared a space and drew the summoning circle into the dirt. Then she proceeded to use the fae’s blood to incant a ritual that would allow us to return to this plane of existence.

Despite what the mortals believed in their naivety, demons had no true need to actually be summoned by a mortal. Why would we have to? As powerful creatures in our own right with the knowledge of all of our souls at our fingertips, we were plenty capable of bridging the gap between dimensions on our own.

In fact, all a mortal did with a summoning ritual was to provide an anchor point for the demon. It was necessary to know where to go and not to become lost in the multiverse’s infinite dimensions. All the power necessary to actually bridge the dimensions came from the demon and the Infernum at large.

Being summoned and striking contracts with those who were willing was simply an easy way for demons to increase their power. It honoured the ways of the Infernum and so it was simply not questioned by most of demon-kind. We had few rules, but the few we had were the laws of the Infernum itself.

And like mortals couldn’t ignore the laws of physics, demons were bound to the laws of the Infernum. Souls had to be acquired through contracts. That was the way of things and as long as the Infernum existed it would stay that way.

My silent musings came to an end when Jebril finished her work and the circle immediately started glowing with red light as a demon took shape.

Kitia stepped out of the circle and growled. “They got me with a trap! Those little rats!”

I raised an inquisitive eyebrow and waited for her to elaborate.

“They have a castle with a small village just a few kilometres down a trail from here,” she explained. “I charged the settlement and broke into a tree-house, slaughtering the inhabitants before they blew up the entire building.”

I nodded. “Do you want to try again, or should I join you to help?”

“I am plenty capable of spreading a little mayhem on my own. And they have to pay me back tenfold for the soul I lost.” Kitia smiled and started jogging in the direction she had taken previously. “Stay here and protect the circle for now until the others brought back some more information. I will keep harassing the village in the meantime.”

If she was confident to handle things on her own, then I would stay for the time being and protect the escape route.

I took the chance to take a closer look at our surroundings. “Jebril, do you have any idea why the mana in this pocket dimension is so dense? It almost feels like back home in the Infernum.”

The djinn looked up from her circle and knelt down to touch the grass that was brimming with life. “I can only guess without further information, but it feels like this pocked dimension is artificially empowered with life energy. You have to pay closer attention to how slowly the energy flows. It only feels like the Infernum at the surface. Our home dimension is a place that’s naturally overflowing with mana. It’s like a never-ending well that’s pushing energy out into the dimensions beyond it. This place, on the other hand, was artificially sealed up so that the power doesn’t leak out. The flow is stale, almost standing still. I can only assume that the fae have some ritual with which they are able to oversaturate this enclosed environment with power.”

“So they are intentionally accumulating it?” I asked myself. “What’s the purpose? Do they feel better in a mana-rich environment? They are similar to us demons then… but I won't complain. This makes casting large spells much easier.”

Our discussion was cut short when Uphir returned, jogging out of the forest. As always, he had been quick on his feet. “I have searched the vicinity, but this area is smaller than it seems. This pocket dimension is a circular space, no more than four or five kilometres in diameter. This tree is almost at the edge of it and there is a fae village in the centre. I haven’t found any other large structures of note.”

He gestured towards the edge of the pocket dimension. “If you reach the edge, you will encounter a disorienting mist that will inevitably turn you around and back to from where you entered it.”

“Okay, did the layout of the land offer any particular strategies to proceed?” I asked.

Uphir shrugged. “I climbed a few of the creepy trees, but the whole pocket dimension seems to be just a circle of flat forest.”

“Creepy trees?” Jebril asked for clarification.

“Particularly large oaks with human shapes that are grown into the bark,” our scout explained. “They are radiating magic into the environment.”

I tilted my head in thought. Something told me that we had found the origin of the fae’s mana ritual. “Could you show us one of these trees? Something tells me that the origin of the fae’s mana source isn’t something that our contractor would find morally acceptable. Did you run into anything dangerous out in the forest?”

Uphir shook his head. “All the fae seem to be living in that tree-village of theirs. There were a few little people with butterfly wings fluttering around, but they were weak. A single swat was enough to kill them off.”

I turned to Jebril. “This is an opportunity. You should set up more summoning circles throughout the forest. The more we have, the less likely it is for the fae to kick us out of their pocket dimension. I doubt we would get access that easily a second time.”

“I will guide you to a spot that seemed less frequented than the other areas of this forest,” Uphir offered. He led us a few hundred metres into the underbrush towards a tree that was larger than all the others and covered in moss. While Jebril got to work setting up yet another summoning circle, Uphir showed me the form of a human man who had apparently grown into the tree.

“Are you sure that it isn’t just a weird sculpture?” I asked and prodded at the bark. “Who knows what gets these fae off?”

He shook his head and drew a sword, then lightly stabbed the living sculpture’s leg. There was resistance at first, but when it went through the bark, red blood welled up from the wound. Uphir withdrew the weapon and licked the blood from the tip of his sword. “That’s definitely human blood. Human wizard to be exact.”

I shrugged. “Well, maybe that makes Betsy and Loretta less bitchy once they come looking for us with the rest of the paranormal community.”

“I doubt that,” Uphir refuted. “The two of them struck me as the do-good kind of people. Humans like that are always so high and mighty about the sanctity of life, even if their way of seeing things does more harm to the whole than it would to simply eradicate the problem.”

Unable to stop myself, I leaned away from the other demon. Had he infected himself with something? That was no way for a demon to act.

Uphir realized that I was looking at him strangely. “What!? I have spent my fair share of time among humans and other species while I was an imp. If you live among them as some warlock’s familiar for long enough you can’t help but emphatise just a little. It's not their fault that they are less knowledgeable and frail.”

“Okay…” I decided that it would be best to switch topics. “I doubt that we can do anything more here. Let’s join Kitia’s assault on that village once Jebril is done.”

“I will call the others and tell them to prepare.” Uphir pulled out a metallic card which was issued to us among other items of convenience by Ebandon’s warband. He quickly drew the stylized and simplified versions of each demon’s summoning circle, setting up a group communication channel.

It was the only magical item that we received, but what a useful item it was. The little enchanted piece of metal allowed us easy and secure communication with anyone within the warband whose summoning sigil we knew.

Ten minutes later Philomena joined up with us. She came from the direction of the portal to this dimension and announced that the others were continuing their assault on the fae village.

With Jebril having done her most recent work, we slowly walked towards the village. Counting the summoning circles back in the human world, we now had several fallback points should one get destroyed.

“The village’s outskirts are badly defended,” Philomena explained the current situation while we walked. “Shax and Kitia are setting fires while they roam the outskirts, and it seems like the fae are too intimidated to fight back openly. Unfortunately, most of them have retreated into a large tree which is more like a bunker than an actual tree and it’s hard getting to them because their best warriors are defending the entrances.”

“Sounds like we will have to join up and crush them with our combined might,” I joked.

We finally left the dense forest and I got to see the fae village for the first time, or at least what was left of it. There were numerous dark pillars of smoke and glowing embers flittering about, hinting at huge bonfires.

I summoned my wings and flew up a few dozen metres to get a good look from the sky.

There were several hundred stout trees planted in neat rows, their trunks wide enough to rival a human’s house. Between them were roads, all leading up to a huge central tree-fortress which looked like someone had grown and intertwined a number of trees to create the structure.

The pillars of smoke were caused by burning tree-houses and I could see figures running back and forth between them. Kitia hadn’t joked when she said that she would do a good job at drawing the attention of these fae.

My minions had done their part and knocked onto the fae’s door, hopefully giving Isabella the chance to sneak into that stronghold of theirs. Now it was time to get the party truly going so that all of the fae’s attention was directed outwards.

I smiled and allowed myself to slowly float back to the ground before I addressed my minions, “It seems like we still have a lot of purging to do before we can take care of the fortress itself.”