***The Infernal Plane of Lust***

***Amon***

I did it!

The spiritual anchor, that which connected a soul to its physical body, had been cleanly cut and rendered useless. The ghostly after-image of the demon’s arm on the ground was just a result of the dispersing higher dimensional energies that were now released from the untethered part. The spear had worked just as I intended it to, but the result paled compared to another milestone in my development.

I had also proven that enchantment magic and mana manipulation could be combined in a powerful way that made most conventional armour simply unnecessary.

On their own, the two fields of magic were already remarkable, but by combining the two they became extraordinary. The ability to control and shape the mana in my environment allowed me to cover myself in whichever enchantments and spells I had a need for. As long as I had knowledge of a spell or magical effect, the sky alone was the limit for this new ability.

I watched the interconnected runes that covered my skin and guided more of all the unused energy in my environment into predetermined spell matrices. Once I refined this skill to its full potential I would become even stronger.

Grinning, I gripped the spear tighter between my fingers and readied myself to finish off Isabella’s attacker. He had dared to touch my…

Your what? Shouldn’t you be fighting instead of congratulating yourself!?

The other’s voice in my head jarred my train of thoughts.

No! Why was I having possessive thoughts about the succubus? She was her own demoness and I didn’t care which choices she made. That blow to my head must have really rattled my brain! I shook my head, reminding myself that I was indeed wasting time for no reason at all with my inner monologue. Right now, I had to deal with our attackers.

To my chagrin, my hesitation proved to cost me a clean kill.

The four-winged demon who led the attacking party didn’t give me any more chances to finish him off, as he snapped out of his stupor just in time. Indeed, he even surprised me with his reaction. He could have attacked me or chosen to go after Isabella who was still on all fours, crawling away from him. None of those actions would have surprised me.

Instead, he threw his large and heavy club at me – which I blocked effortlessly – and yet it allowed him to create some distance between the two of us. He flapped his wings, floating backwards while he screeched like a little demonling. “Soul Weapon! Everyone on him!” The shaking finger of his remaining arm pointed accusingly at me.

The other attacking demons who were suppressing the rest of my party dropped what they were doing and turned. Suddenly, I was the top priority of our attackers. So much so that they ignored my minions completely, no matter that it quickly caused some of them to receive a blade in the back.

It was nice that my outnumbered minions had now some breathing room, but I hadn’t intended to sacrifice myself for the good of my people. And it was looking dire indeed since the whole raiding party had turned on me. Only a scarce few kept their attention on those of my people who were still standing, their only purpose to keep them busy while I was being dealt with.

No matter how proud I was of my weapon or my new metamagic, I had no desire to face over a dozen experienced warriors alone as a test of my new prowess. “Why are you following his orders without question!?” I complained and dodged the first attacker who flashed past me without caring for his own life. The tip of his sword passed close enough past my eyeball that my Mana Shield was triggered, slightly redirecting the weapon.

Letting him go, I instead stepped right into the path of another enemy and crushed his face with my elbow, sending forth a spell array that scrambled his brain in the process. The back of his head blew outwards in a cone and the goo that was formerly the man’s brain blinded my third enemy when it landed in his eyes.

Then I suddenly found myself being charged by at least ten more demons.

Cursing, I swung my weapon, severing the blinded opponent right through the middle. Sadly, the scene of carnage did absolutely nothing to repel the experienced warriors. I bet mortals would have puked out their guts upon seeing someone bisected from his head down to his groin.

And it was very real this time around since I had switched on the slicing function of my weapon! That made it possible to be blocked by normal means, but who cared about things like defence if the victim was rubbing his eyes instead of concentrating on the fight.

The one who had passed me by earlier came back from behind.

I more so felt him with my mana sense than that I saw him. That allowed me to prepare as he swung his blade, which was promptly deflected by another Mana Shield. I replied by kicking out without even looking, catching him with enough force to send him flying in a high arch. The snapping of bones assured me that he wouldn’t return to the battle any time soon, wherever he decided to land.

Gathering the energy around me, I quickly unleashed a lightning spell of raw, unguided power that managed to fry the four demons closest to me. It jumped from one to the next in an instant, completely obliterating the first target and losing power with each jump. Unfortunately, the fifth warrior had the foresight to block the spell, somehow grounding it out with his spear by redirecting the energy down into the earth.

My glorious battle quickly turned into a not-so-glorious wrestling match when eight more attackers practically dog-piled on top of me. They had clearly never heard of proper group-tactics, taking the enemy one by one so that they wouldn’t get in each other's way. Their way of doing things might have been crude, but I couldn’t argue with them that simply rushing the enemy and holding onto whatever piece they managed to get their claws on wasn’t effective.

It was my misfortune that their strategy of not giving their prey any chance worked just so well against me.

Though, I had one trick that could take advantage of the situation. So I activated Death Grasp and choked the life out of the one who had been foolish enough to attempt wrestling the staff out of my hands. Then the many hands on me pulled me down to my knees and I took a blow to the back of my head.

The world spun and I snarled, shaking the one who I got my hands on until his neck snapped.

Another blow, much stronger this time, rattled my brain and I circulated more mana through my body, refusing to give up even as the opponent behind me fell into a steady rhythm while cursing the Infernum and my hard skull.

Suddenly, everything faded to black.

For a small moment I must have blacked out, but that was clearly enough to take the staff from me and put me in magical cuffs. My minions were still fighting for their lives when the raiding party decided to retreat with me as a prisoner and their original goal only partly fulfilled.

Four demons were holding me, one for each limb while they lifted off and flew back towards their legion, right into that teeming mess of bodies. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to tell how my people were faring.

A glance forward told me that our forces, unlike Uphir had predicted, hadn’t pushed for the Anima Stone with every available body. Maybe they had tried while I was distracted, but for some reason, our commander must have decided that the time wasn’t ripe.

I shook and tested my chains in vain. “What by the Infernum are you doing? Just kill me off and be done with it!”

The four-winged raid leader snorted while cradling his now useless arm. “Killing a soul mage who works for the enemy? I think not. Putting you in chains until all of this is over is the much smarter decision. Only a fool would allow you to respawn. Best to chain you up in some dark dungeon and forget about you.”

He turned to one of his minions. “Do we have the weapon?”

“Yes, sir! Took it right away, sir. Damn, that skull of his forced me to do a real workout. Now let’s see what this beauty can do…” The demon in question brandished the staff and activated it by feeding it his power.

The direct consequence was a screech from the very same minion when the staff formed spikes of energy that impaled the unauthorized user, shredding his metaphysical body to tiny little pieces. Having lost control over his body, it caused an uncontrolled descent for the staff’s victim which ended with a dull and unhealthy sounding thud somewhere beneath us.

All I had to do was to grin and graciously accept the generous donation of souls that the Infernum added to my balance.

“Quickly, get the weapon, but forget the fool,” Four-wings commanded another soldier to risk his life with the protected weapon while we flew on. “I swear, it’s hard to get good cannon-fodder nowadays,” he grumbled and pointed at me. “And strip him completely before we return to base! I don’t want any nasty items on his body before we return.”

Of course, I tried to struggle, but they quickly and efficiently stripped me of my leathers and my items, leaving me completely naked. The worst of it was that they took my storage ring and with it everything it contained. Thankfully, their search hadn’t been halfway thorough enough to find all of my hidden trump cards.

Returning to their base took us something between five or ten minutes. Despite their speed, the way back took far longer than their original approach because they flew me further behind their lines than I anticipated. They also had to circle around the two opposing legions who were still caught in an artful dance of death. In the end, we ended up far away from their command position, but close enough to their Legion’s support structure to see their Anima Stone from afar.

It was a large, shining monolith that was well protected by soldiers and defensive installations which looked like spell projectors to me. A quick search of my souls’ memories assured me that the large spikes which looked like futuristic cannons were indeed spell projectors – devices that were built for the sole purpose of channelling magical energies into a preset spell matrix. They allowed to unleash magical energies on a scale that was impossible to handle for a single organic being.

The impressive artefacts were widely used throughout the multiverse because they circumvented the need for large rituals that involved several people. As long as one had the resources and knowledge, a single person could unleash a spell that would normally require a whole group of experienced casters who knew how to work together.

Not to mention that finding such people was hard, training them to work together was another problem, which was why a spell projector was often the better choice despite the intensive resource requirements.

The fact that the enemy had access to advanced magical artillery surprised me. Why hadn’t they already used it? Or had our employer some kind of counter-measure in place? In that case, Sogman’s legions may be biding their time until they found a way to disable said countermeasures.

My spying was interrupted when my captors swooped downwards and landed further back at the edge of their base camp, denying me the opportunity to glean any more information about their camp’s makeup.

I squirmed while they dragged me into a tent that was apparently intended for prisoners, only to receive another educating blow that rattled my brain. For a moment my vision swam, but I didn’t pass out this time. The bunch of them really had it out for my skull.

Dazed once again, but not out for the count, I started to develop a real headache. Despite a demon’s natural resilience to injuries, repeated blows to the same spot tended to develop a trauma that took a little longer to heal. And I had the bad premonition that I was about to experience this first-hand.

Though that didn’t stop me from overhearing that they intended to call upon their commander. It was clear from the excited voices around me that Four-wings was mightily proud of himself, having caught an enemy soul mage.

The two demons who were dragging me right now even mentioned a substantial price that came with prisoners like me as they chattered in excitement.

Having reached our destination, they chained me to a chair and my captor started the initial interrogation. He pulled my head up by my left horn and snarled directly into my face. “Which warband!?”

I blinked and wondered whether there would be any point in refusing to answer the question.

Seeing none, I answered, “Ebandon’s.”

He growled. “The one from Irkos!” He turned and spoke to one of his minions. “They are located in the whore’s territory. Does that mean that the Ashborns are now actively taking part in the war?”

The minion pulled a face. “We haven’t seen the succubi taking action so far, though there was one with their group. I wondered about that.”

Another one snorted and shook his head. “Even so, isn’t it strange? They are normally working as spies and thieves. Why would one be with a random mercenary group?”

“They even had a soul mage with them!” another pointed out. “Something isn’t right here. Was there something important in those supplies that we overlooked?”

The former shook his head. “A few magical items, food. Most of it was mundane crap. Nothing that could truly sway the course of the battle. It was definitely a trap, but our commander managed to trigger it without committing.”

I bit my inner cheek and pressed my lips together, revising my idea that knowing the name of our warband would be of no substantial value to them. No matter how high I thought of myself, these guys were no fools. In one swoop, I had told them an interesting detail that served to deduce the political situation in Khorne’s faction.

Given that I knew relatively little about Lust’s political situation, I decided that staying silent might be the better path of choice.

Four-wings turned his attention back to me. “You, why was a soul mage like yourself guarding those worthless supplies? They weren’t even magical artefacts! Just random scrap-metal that any mortal could forge. And why was there a succubus in your party?”

I grinned and answered his question with one of my own. “Why do you think one would employ a highly renowned mercenary group like Ebandon’s Warband in a mundane battlefield action?”

He frowned. “Why?”

Shrugging, I decided to tell the truth, even if they almost certainly wouldn’t believe it. “Look, at least ask me stuff that I might know. I am just one of Ebandon’s mercenaries. The chief gives me souls and tells me where to go. I take the souls and execute the orders, no questions asked. As far as I could tell, the supply stash was a trap. Simple as that.”

It came as no surprise when Four-wings backhanded me and screamed in my face. “Don’t get cocky with us while we have our hands on you! We have some soul weapons of our own in our legion, and once the commander gets here, you will beg the Infernum for us to just take your souls.”

I smiled and decided that my position probably wouldn’t get any better. In any case, I had no desire to meet this commander of theirs. Facing someone on Ebandon’s or Ex’s level was far out of my league.

“If you come a little closer, I might tell you a little secret that would help you to figure everything out…”

He leaned in closer, and I whispered, “You see, I really had one heck of a day. There is this war, and everyone tells me that I have to sit still on that pile of trash – and protect it! I truly have no idea what they thought that would get them. But I have to sit there – out in the open – and watch all of you having fun! No killing people for me… What a joke.

“And then I tell my people about this marvellous plan of mine! And they say: You are nuts! You will never get anywhere close to their base! It will never work! This is a real army you will have to get through… bla… bla…”

I blinked and looked around. “Oh, and look where I am! Such a glorious coincidence! And all it took was showing you guys a little soul magic.”

Four-wings pursed his lips, looking uncertain. “Are you nuts? You wanted us to catch you?” He looked back to his minions. “How often did you hit him on the head?”

The other demon frowned and spread his hands unhelpfully. He clearly hadn't counted.

“Oh, nonono… don’t blame them.” I laughed and guided my magic, easily unlocking those pitiful handcuffs. “It’s not every day that you catch an enchanter on the frontlines.” The cuffs clicked open and dropped to the ground, allowing me to move my arms and massage my wrists. “Those cuffs, by the way, try to get better ones next time.”

They raised their weapons, pointing them at me. But I wasn’t getting up, nor doing anything threatening, so they left me be for now.

I grinned and reached up to lift the hair that was covering up the golden runic ornament that was engraved at the base of my left horn. Its nature would have required someone to break off my horn in order to get it off. “And next time you might search me a little more thoroughly. You forgot one of my spacial storages.”

A thought was enough to retrieve the small tactical nuke which I had enhanced with a little magic – a leftover from my first campaign that never saw its use.

It had the size of a large medicine ball, but that still made it far easier to carry around than the full-sized version. The two half-spheres that were connected by a thick cylinder had two handles on the sides and instructions which made it clear how this device was to be used.

Normally, it would be necessary to set a timer, but I forewent that step and simply pushed the two spheres together, therefore ending my friendly visit at the enemy’s base.