Xvxcid’anil, He of Many Faces, was standing in the courtyard of the town barracks, wearing the body of the dark elf Aronden. He was panicked. He’d expected some resistance, but he hadn’t expected this.

A Mass Banishment spell, powerful enough to envelop the town, and strong enough to actually hurt him… Banishment, on its own, was a mid tier spell, difficult to cast but dreadfully commonplace, much to the Envy demon’s chagrin. It wasn’t easy to use in the middle of battle though. It required the caster to be able to see and target an individual demon, and the caster also had to know the demon’s name.

Mass Banishment, on the other hand, was extremely advanced magic, top tier stuff, many times more complex than a single target Banishment. The spell had to be constructed in such a way that it could automatically divine the demon’s true name, detect and target the link between the demon and the Abyss, and do that for each individual demon inside a certain radius. To cast such a complex spell over an entire town? He would have considered it ridiculous if he had not seen it for himself. There was obviously a powerful demonologist working against him, intent on foiling his plans.

This mystery mage also managed to kill a Fallen-fucking-Seraph! The imps were free disposable fodder, but each of the greater demons he’d summoned required an hour long ritual, a fortune in silver dust, and five mortal lives to summon. That Pride demon was the strongest type of demon he could summon using that five-person ritual. And that was the most potent ritual he could reliably perform! Not only that, but the Pride demon was the perfect choice for killing mages. With his strength, speed, and the magic he wielded, he should have had the advantage against a single opponent. And he was still defeated somehow.

That master demonologist must have their own greater demonic familiar too. Xvxcid kept a Sense Aura spell active most of the time, so he could sense them. This demonic servant was powerful enough to kill a Wrath Giant by itself. What ritual did this demonologist use? What kind of demon was it? How many lives had that one cost to summon?

The demonologist was unexpected, but it was okay. He wasn’t supposed to conquer the town. He was only supposed to raze half of it and retreat. If he died, it wouldn't matter, he would simply return to the Abyss until he was summoned again. He’d probably destroyed enough of the town to serve the intended purpose. The letters had already been sent. The humans would read Aronden’s insane manifesto and blame all this on the ‘evil, demon worshipping’ dark elves.

It was pure luck that a dark elf decided to summon him. He broke the flimsy magical geas, took over the poor fool’s body, and assumed control of this little dark elf cult of his. Scanthe, Lord of Envy was overjoyed by the news. It fit in quite well with his other plans.

It was quite convenient. The dark elves were already thought of as shady and untrustworthy. Now, the people would have proof to back up their prejudices. The Inquisitors were going to be busy investigating dark elf commoners, and consequently, they’d fail to notice the quiet work his peers were doing.

There was still one loose end he had tie up. The Chosen didn’t know much, but she knew enough to ask some dangerous questions. Her powers made her a threat, so she had to die.

Xvxcid sighed. That walking corpse acted like he was so great. Sure, he was terrifyingly powerful, but he was a lousy assassin. He didn’t even bother to confirm his kills. And now, thanks to his incompetence, the Chosen was Xvxcid’s problem.

It was supposed to be an easy problem to solve… she was just a little girl. Verita gave her no combat oriented Gifts, she relied on her absent bodyguards for protection and she couldn’t even wield magic to defend herself. Sending a hell knight into the barracks to kill her should have been overkill. And yet he was dead, and she wasn’t. He died in an instant. It wasn’t even a fight. What in the infinite Abyss happened? What sort of magic did she wield?

Xvxcid touched the charred finger bone in his pocket. Yeah… if Ugudrox the hell knight couldn’t beat her, then he certainly couldn’t. It was time for reinforcements. He didn’t trust the corpse… he wasn’t one of them. He was cooperating, but he wasn’t loyal. He screwed up last time, but the power he wielded could not be denied. Whatever magical trick the Chosen was using, the Envy demon doubted it would work on the corpse.

Xvxcid’anil, wearing the body of a dark elf pulled the finger bone out of his black robe and broke it in half. The dried bone cracked easily, and a faint tingle of magic was released.

Patricia breathed hard and ignored the pain in her chest as she ran to the barracks. She was tempted to just Fly there, but it was an expensive spell and she’d wasted almost all her mana on the stupid Pride demon. Tanya ran along beside her. Despite the forty pounds of chainmail she was wearing, Patricia was the one lagging behind. That girl had crazy endurance.

The siege had started nearly an hour ago and night had already fallen. The streets were dark and empty. Patricia watched Tanya run and idly wondered how humans managed to live without darkvision. The moon was out, so Tanya would be able to see… probably? Patricia found it hard to imagine what darkness looked like through human eyes.

The greater demonic aura had vanished a few minutes ago, but Patricia could still ‘see’ the aura of an Envy demon with her Arcane Sight. Envy demons had no bodies of their own. They wore the bodies of mortals, but they were as dangerous as any demon, despite their mortal body’s relative frailty. They were generally mages with respectable magical power, more than enough to threaten someone like Amelia.

Patricia ran up to the town’s fortified garrison. The portcullis at the entrance was closed, but it had been crumpled and bent inwards, opening a wide path through. Inside the courtyard stood a dark elf in a black robe, one of the Children of Kair Tarost. He looked normal to the eye, but his demonic aura shone like a beacon to Patricia’s Arcane Sight. This was the Envy demon she sensed.

“Oh, that explains it,” the elf said wearily as he looked her over. “Lady Thalassa, the dreaded Cerulean Witch… I wasn’t expecting to find you alive. Of course the fool would fail to kill the Lord’s pet mage too… Two priority targets left alive… Did he deliberately spare you from the explosion? Did he do it to spite me? What a fucking joke.”

Patricia readied a quick Fireball and held it stable in her staff, ready to blast the demon back to the Abyss before he could try anything dangerous. But she hesitated… It sounded like he knew something about the one who killed her family. She held her tongue and waited, hoping he would divulge more secrets if she let him rant.

Before he could open his mouth, a massive surge of raw arcane power sparked into existence in the courtyard. It sent a shiver down Patricia’s spine and made her hair stand on end.

A tear in reality opened. The jagged rift slowly grew wider, into a circular portal five feet in diameter. Inside the circle, she could see another place. It was the interior of a castle, made from dark stone, subtly carved with a macabre motif of human bodies writhing in agony, all of it beautifully detailed.

From inside the castle walked a beautiful high elven woman. She had dark red hair, almost black. Her skin was pale as snow. She wore a billowing formal gown, red in colour and decorated with black lace. Her dress was cut to reveal her cleavage, and her corset pushed up her modest bust to provide that cleavage. A brilliant ruby necklace was visible around her neck and she had blood red lipstick to match her outfit. She also had crimson red eyes, which was not a natural colour for a high elf.

The woman walked out of the castle and into the barracks courtyard. The Gate closed behind her, the rift in reality repairing itself. Patricia had to fight to keep the expression on her face neutral. A stable portal, conjured from only one side, spanning an unknown distance, with no physical runes or structure to hold it steady… This was teleportation magic of the highest tier, archmage-level stuff. Whoever opened that Gate wielded magic well beyond what Patricia was capable of. It was a troubling thought. The high elf took a quick appraising look at Patricia and Tanya, and then faced the Envy demon.

“You disturb my Master for this?” the high elf sounded unimpressed.

“The dark elf is powerful, and she’s got some sort of demon familiar too,” the demon replied. “And the target managed to bring down a hell knight by herself.”

“My Master is quite cross with you. He does not appreciate being squandered like this. Your peers had to offer something quite valuable in exhange for those bones, you know. You won’t be getting any more once they’re used up. You shouldn’t keep wasting them on such mundane little chores. They’re beneath Him.”

“Yeah? Well, maybe he can complete the tasks we give him first before you go on about how it’s all beneath him. Your master failed to kill two of his targets and you’re only here because of his failure.”

“His task was to blow up a heavily warded mansion and he did.”

“We implied he should kill everybody inside too… Why would we only want a building destroyed? The people inside were the targets! And why are you here? Why is he not here himself? It’s insulting that he only sent his minion when he himself promised to come when called." The Envy demon calmed down and caught his breath. "Well whatever, let’s hope you can do the job. Kill those two first, and then the blondie upstairs.”

“No,” the ‘minion’ said flatly.

The possessed elf gave her a confused look.

“You do not give me orders,” she said with a voice like ice. “I am Lady Vivian, Mistress of Blood, Vampire Matriarch, and one of the eldest of my kind. I am among the most powerful and the most trusted of my Master’s servants. I drank the blood of thousands, crushed entire armies under my feet, and I kneel only before Him. You will address me with the proper respect, as befitting my station. The Agreement grants you a request, it does not let you order me around.”

The exasperated Envy demon held up his arms dramatically, “O Lady Vivian, Great Mistress of Blood, I humbly beseech thee to kill those three stupid mortals. Preferably before they die of old age!”

“You are being sarcastic…” Vivian replied with a warning tone. “I do not appreciate your sense of humour.”

“Ugh!” the demon threw up his hands. “And where’s your respect for me, huh? I’m the one organizing this whole thing, and you’re the help. I shouldn’t have to play these stupid power games with you. Just honor the Agreement!”

Lady Vivian dissolved into a cloud of red, a fine mist of blood droplets. The mist quickly enveloped the dark elf, swirling around him, condensing into the shape of a high elven woman again. The mist faded away and she now stood behind the suddenly-fearful dark elf with a hand placed gently over his throat.

“Orders received Sir,” she spoke gently into his ear, the last word dripped with sarcasm.

The vampire opened her mouth, revealing two long fangs, and bit down on his neck. The dark elf struggled desperately, but he wasn’t strong enough to squirm out of the woman’s grasp. The vampire kept a grip around his throat with one hand, and sensually caressed the elf’s chest with the other as she drained him dry of blood. Her eyes rolled back, a look of depraved ecstasy on her face. The victim’s helpless struggles grew weaker. The vampire made eye contact with Patricia as she drank the last of the dark elf’s life away.

A Vampire. A powerful type of sentient undead, vulnerable to natural sunlight, silver, and holy attuned magic. Lucky for Patricia, they also had a lesser weakness to fire.

The vampire licked her lips and casually tossed away the drained corpse, “Thank you for waiting for me to finish. I must say, you’re far more polite than this annoying little insect was.”

“I don’t suppose you’re willing to walk away? We were fighting the demons. We have no issue with you if you’re willing to leave the town in peace,” Patricia tried.

She was lying of course, she desperately wanted revenge for what happened to the Lord and his family and it looked like this woman or her master was responsible for that. But Patricia was practical. She was exhausted, drained of mana, and she wasn’t looking forward to another difficult fight right now.

“I’m afraid not, dear,” Vivian replied. “As much as it pains me, I really must kill you.”

Patricia shifted her weight back, clenching her staff firmly, ready to react.

“Oh don’t worry dear,” she replied. “You waited for me after all. Go on, take a moment to get yourself ready. Let me know when you want to begin.”

Patricia held her ground near the portcullis for several seconds, watching the vampire closely. Vivian just stood patiently with a polite smile.

“She’s weak to silver,” Patricia spoke under her breath at Tanya. The fighter responded with a subtle nod. No doubt the vampire heard it too, but she’d be able to tell the sword was silver right away by looking at the tarnish.

Patricia and Tanya walked out from under the gatehouse and into the middle of the garrison courtyard where they had room to maneuver.

Tanya got her sword ready, sizing up her opponent. Patricia had never fought a vampire before, but she knew this waif-thin woman in her impractical gown would be much stronger and faster than she might appear at first glance.

When she was in position, the Pyromancer held out her hand, and a cone of red-orange flame spiralled out from her palm, completely engulfing the vampire. The spell was unimaginatively named Cone of Flame.

As expected, the vampire had an answer to her fire. She didn’t even flinch. The flames collided with an invisible barrier, splitting in half and flowing around behind her. Flame Shield, Patricia suspected. It was a mid-tier spell, hard to overwhelm with brute force but it was only usable while stationary. It required intense focus and a lot of mana to maintain. This vampire clearly had some decent magical skill on top of whatever natural gifts her vampirism gave her.

Patricia held out her hand, and another cone of red-orange flame shot out from her hand. She strained with effort, and with a sputtering start, a tongue of blue fire appeared inside the cone, growing until the entire cone was blue flame.

The vampire rolled her eyes. The Flame Shield shimmered into existence again and deflected the attack. “Is that really the best you’ve got?” she chuckled.

Patricia gasped and hunched over. Exhausted from the ‘strain’ of casting a low level fire spell with a simple modifier. As a ‘last desperate effort,’ she held up a trembling hand, ready to unleash another cone of fire. The vampire looked unimpressed. She maintained her Flame Shield and waited, confident that whatever spell this pathetic pyromancer tried to cast wouldn’t work on her.

Patricia dumped a lot more mana into her cone this time and wove a curse into the flame. A swirling jet of green fire, hotter than before, engulfed the unsuspecting vampire. The Witchfire flame burned away the Flame Shield near-instantaneously, and the overconfident vampire, suddenly stripped of her protection, had no time to react and dodge out of the way. The jet of flame engulfed her and set her alight. She let out a scream of agony as the flames spiralled around her.

A cone of blood shot from the vampire’s palm, hissing and turning to steam as it absorbed the flame’s heat. At the same time, a long tendril of misty blood shot out behind the vampire. Vivan’s body dissolved, compressed, and flew through the misty tether in an instant, rematerializing where the tendril had touched the ground. She was now out of reach of the flame jet, but Patricia’s flames burned away all the blood mist that was left behind.

Vivian hunched over slightly from the pain. The front of her body was charred black and her dress had been reduced to ash. Blood flowed from underneath the crust of burnt flesh, and the blackened skin started to flake off, revealing perfectly smooth regenerated skin underneath. Flakes of charred fabric broke away and regenerated in much the same way. After a few seconds, the vampire was left with perfect unmarred skin, and a pristine ballgown, free of damage.

“You tricky bitch!” the vampire said, half in anger and half in admiration. Her bloodthirsty grin revealed her horrible fangs.

Vivian’s expression suddenly changed, she glanced towards the open gate to the barracks. Moments later, a terrifying monster, claws spread wide, passed under the bent portcullis and charged towards the vampire. Lily was butt naked, soaked head to toe in black blood, and seemed to be missing one of her horns. Vivian’s eyes went wide with surprise as Lily closed the distance to her. Then, the vampire’s expression turned into a smirk.

Vivian extended a hand towards the demon and swiped upwards, over her shoulder. Lily was lifted off the ground by an invisible hand. Now airborne, her momentum carried her past the vampire, and she flew over the opposite wall of the garrison at high speed. A second or two later, there was a distant crashing sound, as Lily flew through a building somewhere on the other side of the wall, causing it to collapse.

“Was that one yours?” Vivian burst out laughing. “How dumb do you have to be to charge directly at a hemokinetic vampire while completely covered in blood?”

Patricia returned the smirk, earning herself a dirty look from Tanya. On the inside, she wasn’t laughing. Lily was a dangerously cunning demon and she hoped Vivian would continue to underestimate her.

Patricia was trying to come up with another plan. Now that Vivian knew about Witchfire, the same trick wouldn’t work again. She was also getting dangerously low on mana. She didn’t even have enough left for a proper Lightning Bolt.

Outraged by the vampire’s taunt, Tanya charged at her, sword held high. No Tanya! Bad idea! Vampires were deadly up close. The vampire stood patiently, maintaining her smug smile, waiting for Tanya to close the distance. Tanya swung down, and the vampire blurred, shifting out of the way of the sword blade faster than Patricia’s eyes could follow. Tanya maneuvered her blade into a second attack. The vampire dodged that one easily too.

Tanya didn’t give up. She swung her sword around in a whirlwind of silversteel. The vampire masterfully dodged every blow, but her playful smile vanished. She was focused, taking Tanya’s barrage of blows seriously. Tanya wasn’t as fast as the vampire, but she had the advantage of reach and technique. She left no openings for the undead to land a counterattack.

Finally, the vampire burst into a fine mist of blood. The silversteel sword swung through the cloud, burning the blood on contact, carving a sizzling line through the mist. The mist cloud lunged forward and engulfed Tanya. The vampire rematerialized beside her with one hand gripping her throat. Taking a step forward, Vivian lifted Tanya by the throat and threw her. She went flying towards the far wall where she crashed into a hay-stuffed archery target.

Vivian straightened up. Her smile was gone, and her face was serious. “Okay, I’ll admit that my assistance was warranted. I can see how you might have been able to disrupt that fool’s plans. Congratulations, I deem you worthy of my attention.”

A monstrous roar echoed through the town. Patricia’s blood ran cold. She recognized it immediately. It was the sound of destruction and despair. She’d heard a roar like this only once before… two hundred years ago, when Kair Tarost fell. She still heard that roar in her nightmares. The pitch was a little high, but the timbre was unmistakeable.

A moment later, a monster, wreathed in flame, leapt over the 15 foot high wall, and landed inside the courtyard with an earth shaking impact. Lily’s body was engulfed in red-orange flames, the black blood now burnt away. To Patricia’s Arcane Sight, it looked like the flames were being controlled somehow, but not with an arcane construct. Just like the vampire’s hemokinesis, this was a natural ability. Lily controlled the fire on a basic, fundamental level. It wasn’t a spell.

Patricia knew hundreds of variants of demons. She’d studied and memorized everything the former dark elven empire knew about demons. All that meant now was that she knew hundreds of variants of demon that Lily was most definitely not. The prominent rear-facing horns… the claws… natural pyrokinesis, and that unmistakable roar… The dark elves knew of only one demon that had those traits. Lily was an archfiend? An elf-sized archfiend? That didn’t make sense.

The flames lapping gently against Lily’s skin burst into a swirling firestorm at her command. She charged towards the vampire.

Vivian cast a Fire Ward spell. It granted a passive resistance to fire, like Patricia’s own Demonskin spell. It was weaker than Flame Shield, possible to overwhelm with enough heat, but this spell would allow the vampire to move, and she didn’t have to maintain focus on the spell or constantly feed it mana.

Lily reached Vivian and lunged forward, claws extended. The flames swirling around her licked against the vampire but caused no damage. Vivian blurred out of the way and grabbed Lily’s claw by the wrist. She twisted and threw the demon into the wall behind her.

The thick stone crumbled from the impact, causing a rain of heavy stone blocks to fall on Lily’s head. The demon was completely buried, and without air, her flame was extinguished. Lily kicked and thrashed, quickly digging her way out of the rubble.

“Tenacious little thing, aren’t you?” The vampire said, grinning and showing her fangs. Her voice was growing more vicious, and less playful.

“Give me your green fire!” Lily yelled to Patricia, reaching out a hand towards her.

Patricia grinned savagely. Now that was a fun idea. She held up her palm, and conjured a small Firebolt spell, empowering it to blue flame temperature, and weaving the Witchfire curse into it. The little bolt of green flame streaked towards the demon like an arrow. When it got close to Lily, the Firebolt’s path twisted and it started to orbit her body. Lily returned the vampire’s bloodthirsty grin, and the firebolt exploded into a whirlwind of green flame.

Lily breathed deeply, focusing on the flames around her. The swirling vortex of fire grew to a ten foot radius, engulfing a sizeable chunk of the courtyard and setting the practice equipment alight. Patricia was amazed. Growing a Witchfire flame to that size and maintaining it required a considerable amount of mana. Even Patricia would struggle to maintain a firestorm that size for any reasonable amount of time. Lily’s pyrokinesis was powerful, but it must have been consuming an incredible amount of energy. Lily’s demonic aura had grown a lot stronger since the last time Patricia saw her. Demons didn’t gain power that quickly, and certainly archfiends didn’t. Just what exactly was she?

The demon charged towards the vampire. Vivian hesitated. A brief glimmer of panic washed over her face, and then she seemed to get an idea. She stretched out a tendril of mist, and shifted over next to Tanya, who was just getting back on her feet. The vampire grabbed Tanya by the throat again and hoisted her up, cutting off her air. She turned away from the human and looked back at the demon. Lily maintained her firestorm but hesitated before getting too close.

“Come on then… burn your ally-”

Tanya’s silversteel blade sliced through the vampire’s arm while she wasn’t looking. Tanya landed on her feet. The limb that had been grasping her throat splatted on the ground and melted into a sizzling bloody puddle. Vivian stared in disbelief at the stump of her former arm. Flakes of scabbed blood rained down as it slowly regenerated. The regeneration was far slower than before. Vivian was starting to weaken, she was running out of blood. Tanya seized the opportunity and took another swing at the stunned vampire. But Vivian had enough presence of mind to dodge backwards and shift away.

The vampire shifted around the courtyard, being chased by Lily. There was real fear on her face now. She flung the occasional quick spell at Lily when she could, bolts of shadow, arrows of acid, spears of frozen blood, but the demon seemed to shrug them off, regenerating faster than Vivian was able to damage her. Lily occasionally managed to catch the vampire with her flames, but Vivian mostly kept her distance. Still, the vampire found herself unable to retaliate.

Patricia watched from the sidelines, keeping a Witchfire modified Cone of Flame ready to cast. Vivian eyed her, but probably realized that taking Patricia hostage was an even worse idea than taking Tanya hostage.

The vampire suddenly turned her head, noticing something inside the garrison’s keep. Someone had made her way downstairs and was watching the fight from inside the building. She grinned with delight. She stretched a tendril of blood into the building and there was a choking sound from inside. The tendril retracted, and a tiny blonde woman in a white robe was dragged out the garrison door. The tendril was wrapped around her throat, and when she got close enough, it shifted and morphed back into the vampire’s hand.

With an unhinged manic grin, the vampire turned back to Lily. “Now, as I was saying…”

“You are Dust…” Amelia rasped quietly, struggling to breathe.

The blond girl stretched out her hand, and it began to glow red. An astonishing surge of raw demonic power overwhelmed Patricia’s magical senses. This was a ridiculously powerful spell, magic of the highest tier, but the effect wasn’t as explosive as Patricia expected. There was a quiet pulse of magic, a faint distortion in the air, and then the vampire soundlessly disintegrated into a puff of fine grey powder. The previously intense sounds of battle suddenly went silent as the dust drifted away on the wind. A large red ruby, once held in an ornate golden necklace around the vampire’s neck, was the only thing left of her. It fell and clinked quietly against the ground.

Patricia was too stunned by the staggering display of magical power to move. Lily let the swirling flames dissipate and warily approached the Saintess. Tanya limped up to the group, rubbing her bruises, also stunned into silence.

“Hey guys,” Amelia said, with forced cheerfulness. “Glad to see you’re alri- Uuuagh…”

The Sainted dropped to her knees, bent over, and threw up.

“Ugh… sorry. Don’t worry, this happened last time too. I just need a little- Uuuuagh…”

Amelia threw up again, splattering the shiny ruby on the ground with bile.

“Give me a minute,” the Saintess groaned in misery.