Her eyes snapped open. By the Prophet, she fumbled with her hands to make the holy sign. They had stumbled upon a developing demon incursion. She’d been attacked and infected by the vilest spirit known to mankind. Emily looked down to see her hated heretical black feathered wings folded and her belly pale without a hint of scarring.

Before she had passed out, orange fur had grown from her cauterized wounds. Something wasn’t right.

She looked around to see formations scrolled everywhere. A few of them she recognized as noble techniques. If not for her spartan surroundings, she might have believed they had been rescued. Wooden poles sat on pedestals covered in tiny formations. Emily recognized one she had learned training under High Inquisitor Logan. Absently she traced the script of the formation, sounding out the Prophet’s holy words in her head.

Light qi stored and dormant awoke around a higher formation slowly at first until white light blindingly filled the room. When Emily’s eyes adjusted to the new brightness, she looked around the room. A desk waited beside her bed with a chair tipped over. Someone had rushed out of the room.

Familiar scrolls were piled upon the desk with sheets upon sheets of thin wooden plates. The pale, thin white wood was written upon in an unfamiliar language. She had never seen qi used this way.

Perhaps they had gotten lucky and stumbled upon a powerful hermit or a hidden sect. With a demon on the loose, they were in dangerous times and dangerous times made strange bedfellows. Her Interrogator badge sat on one of the pedestals beside her bed. Perhaps Red had negotiated on her behalf and promised to get her help. This was clearly an isolation room built to assist cultivation.

She felt at the state of her cultivation and nearly fell to her knees in prayer. While unconscious, her body must have fallen into her mother’s cultivation method. It was the only explanation. How else could she explain her cultivation base rising to the great circle of the coalescence realm? With some preparation, she could attempt to reach the nascent realm.

The door opened, and Emily reached for a sidearm that wasn’t there. A shaggy brown-haired teen slipped into the room, covering his face while his eyes adjusted. “Damn, you’re hot; no wonder the old guy didn’t want any of us getting in here. He must want you all to himself.” The boy said.

Emily had no idea how to respond to the boy. The old guy could be the sect master or even Red. But, by the boy’s admission, he broke rank to enter her room. Whether that was to sate his curiosity or a less magnanimous purpose, she would know soon. If she had her sidearm, she would have pistol-whipped the boy for staring at her, and that would be the end of it. But, instead, he stared at her the thought of demanding one of his eyes became attractive.

“You’ve seen me, so go away. I don’t have time to converse with a lowly disciple of an unsanctioned sect.” Emily said.

The boy opened his mouth, his eyes grew wide, and a lecherous grin spread across his face. “You’re a tsundere. Well, I know just how to deal with your kind.” The teen leered.

He took a step forward, raised his hands forward, and pretended to trip before leaping at her hands raised. A green arm wrapped around the boy’s neck before he could go too far. The boy gasped, choked, and Shadbak squeezed tighter. Emily never thought she would be glad to see the heretical alien mutant.

Unfortunately, she let the boy go just as he lost consciousness.

“I’ve caught him peaking in through the door twice now. He’s been biding his time waiting until Red was busy fighting back the lions. I’ve seen his type before, always liars and opportunists. They’ll say whatever you want to hear and expect you to spread your legs afterward. Like a beta male waiting until the alphas fight for dominance to mate with the females, he only makes the tribe weaker.” Shadbak said.

“He’s still a child of the Prophet, and trying times can make men stupid. Maybe he can die bravely against the demon’s hosts in penance. If not, I’ll have an eye for peaking, an ear for his spying, and a hand for the attempt. Do you think that’s too merciful? I know you are unfamiliar with the customss of a proper society, but how would you handle him.” Emily said.

Before Shadbak could answer, she felt a shift in the qi of this place. The entire structure seemed to quiver in anticipation and shout in joy as a familiar presence joined them. Only he was much larger than she remembered. Vast amounts of qi flowed around him but not of a higher cultivation base. It was an incredible power not based in proper cultivation. This feeling was more presence than anything else. And the building breathed, pulling in qi through its formation and bellowing out the impurities she had left behind.

Red appeared in the doorway, and the shadow he cast by the light within the room blackened the hall behind him. He walked in with the confidence of ownership. When he moved, it was like a count or a baron walking through their castle. The walls of this place quivered in joy with Red’s every step. It was in how the qi of this place ran through Red and the walls seamlessly.

She put her questions together, even naked and weak from bed rest. Emily Ramael was an interrogator first and a woman second.

“Did you fall back out of the demon’s territory before building this base?” Emily asked.

“Why would I do that? You were injured. The lions didn’t give me time to think, and their aura nearly turned you into one of them. I had to isolate you fast, so I learned formations, stored some food, and built up my position. There was fur growing from your wound the same color as theirs.” Red grounded out. “So, I built up here and made crossing my moat hell on earth.”

“That’s impossible; the amount of qi to make something like this should be beyond you. This formation alone is something that only nobles possess.” Emily pointed her finger at a lamp and made the triad sign. “It’s a frivolous waste of the Prophet’s words. The formations of light should only be used when necessary.”

Red tapped the light formation and dimmed the light. “We have bigger things to worry about than the use of light formations. What the hell is a demon? Those lions all have the same spiritual signature, and more gathered every day. They don’t even have spirit cores; I’ve killed enough of them to figure that out. When a spirit possesses physical matter, they develop a spirit core tied to their origin memory. So why don’t these lions have them?” Red asked.

“No, you don’t get it; if anyone saw your use of the Prophet’s words, then they would abandon us. We need all the help we can get at the best of times. The Prophet protects but don’t use his protections frivolously, or they’ll fail when you need them most.” Emily said.

His eyes narrowed. “That’s good to know. I’ll act accordingly. Do you want to talk about what’s going on, or would you rather berate me for using the only tools I had?” Red said.

Emily kicked the unconscious teen. “We picked up either deserters or the remains of a hunting party. Some noble probably thought it would be a good experience for their heir or second son to hunt down a pack of rowdy ashen lions. That sort of thing shouldn’t be a problem for a few dozen soldiers. They were slaughtered, and their remnants were herded to us. Do you want to know why?” Emily asked. “You don’t have to say a word; it's common knowledge but rarely thought about. The demon’s earliest memory was of a human torturing it to death. Our demon was the cub of two pseudo spirit beasts granting it a near human-like intelligence at birth. The cub was old enough to run away when another male lion killed its father, and its mother began killing and eating its siblings. It only escaped cannibalism to be found by the worst human possible. Some poacher fattened him up only to betray, torture, and kill the orphan lion cub. When the lion cub manifested as a spirit, the poacher tried to bond with it only to be overpowered by the lion cub’s spirit. From there, it began possessing people and animals.” Emily said.

“That’s good to know, but does it have any weaknesses. I’ve managed to kill a few of its drones, but it has thousands to spend; the only thing I can’t figure out is why it hasn’t attacked already.” Red said.

“Maybe it doesn’t know how to sacrifice its men. Leaders need to know how to send men to die. Vlorg, my dad sent me, five of my sisters, the ugliest women, and all of our old and sick out because they couldn’t afford to feed us in a siege. Then, of course, only my sisters and I were sent to request aid.”

“That is some brutal shit, but I’m not sure the demon feels the same about its drones. If I were the demon, I would have rushed the defenses. Unless we aren’t the demon's main concern. What if we’re a side project, and he’s keeping us right where he wants us until he can afford to shift focus?” Red said.

She hadn’t considered that possibility. “The barony to the north wouldn’t fall quickly to a demon incursion. With the birth of a king of kings, the high lords will send legionnaires and perhaps heroes to put down any demon sightings.” Emily said.

“Heroes won’t think twice about killing an orc or wiping out a few tribes. So I need to warn my people.” Shadbak said.

Emily didn’t give a damn if a few green skins had to die to kill a demon, but she didn’t want to get caught fraternizing with a green skin. They needed to get out while the demon was distracted.

“I heard a tale of a walking fortress Barnabas. A majority realm king sacrificed his family and fused the stones with their screams of betrayal. Since then, the castle moved on its own. It's heretical, but sacrifices must be made, and they’re dead anyway. If you killed the others, would it allow you to move this place?” Emily said.

“That’s cold; how could you do that to me. You’re my tsundere; you’re supposed to care about the MC.” The pitiful teen babbled.

“Where are my sidearm and clothes?” Emily said.

Red opened a door on one of the pedestals revealing her gear mostly intact.

“It looks like I no longer need this place, so it's time to pack up and go.” Red touched the side of the building, and the qi within condensed. Until a branch bearing, a single seed poked out. After Red plucked it, the structure seemed to lose its personality. The seed bore vast amounts of qi, far more than the familiars most wood qi practitioners possessed at the coalescence realm.

Suddenly the roar of thousands of lions resounded through the air. The sound fell upon them like a physical force, and if not for her wings, she would be a gibbering wreck. So some good seemed to come out of her witch ancestry after all. Red looked unbothered; a smile tugged at his lips even as the might of a demon washed over them. The seed in his hand sprouted and grew, becoming a spear with a jagged tip. She heard a buzz and knew Red had serrated and looped the edge of his spear. It had been a few weeks since she had been infected by the demon, and in that time, Red seemed to grow by leaps and bounds. He stood now with a full smile on his face and an air of anticipation.

“Or they were waiting for us to run before chasing us,” Red said.