“After everything? It makes no sense,” Grigor protested.

“It potentially does,” Danivra added. “If you think it will work, then by all means do so now before the shield fails. They seem absolutely determined to get in tonight.”

“Yeah well I think I killed around a thousand of them with my stealth attack. So…”

“They’re never going to let us go. And it is embarrassing to beg like this,” Melandrac said.

I shook my head at him shifting what was essentially a nappy that I had covering my swinging bits. “We’ll see. There’s no harm in asking and I have no shame if they say no. swinging bits. “I’m not going to beg. You can stay behind if you want. But I’m asking for everyone else.” Before he could answer, I waved him off. Okay, I am going up.”

As I lifted up off the ground, Sania raised up to be at eye level with me.

“I was about to suggest she stayed, but the look she gave me caused me to clamp my mouth up tight. As we rose up, the attacks seemed to intensify in our general direction. I held up my hands in a peaceful gesture.

“Hey guys!” I boomed with a cheerful disposition. “Don’t make me come back out there and spank you all again.” The fire power increased, and Sanai looked at me with a disbelieving smirk.

“Seriously,” I continued. “I need to talk to your leader.”

“You killed them,” one of the paladins shouted. “In his sleep you bastard. You’ll pay for this crime too!” As he spoke, the firing did ease up somewhat.

“What crime?” I asked.

His answer came out in an almost hysterical screech. “You know what crime demon man!”

I shook my head. “You’re attacking us you fucking idiot. The crimes are on you lot.”

“We fight in the name of Justice! Our motives are pure, and we are beyond reproach.”

“Well, isn’t that convenient for you. It also makes absolutely no sense to all of the people on this planet who don’t worship your god. So rather than talking shit, go and get someone who can make some big boy decisions because I have a proposition for them.”

There was some further blustering, but in the end, the firing had ceased in wonderment and one of the nearby paladins opened a portal and went through it. I had to fight the insatiable urge to close it on him.

We waited for a few minutes and a portal reopen at a safe distance from me on the other side of the shield and the man who had been sent and another outraged man appeared.

Kanris Mon Bola. Level 92 Nephilim (Human III)

He slowly floated closer his face a finely sculpted depiction of anger and distaste. “What is it Demon? You are here to beg for your lives? Don’t bother. We will scour you from the face of Falritas.”

It was what I’d expected to hear. I smiled in response and looked to the first guy I’d spoken to. “I said someone in charge. Who’s this guy you dredged up?”

Kanris blustered some more. “Look we all have our reasons for being here and despite our clear hatred for each other, we are not in fact each other’s reasons. You want to dominate Kalabri, and I don’t care if you do or not quite frankly. We’re trying to get ourselves and a few innocent people out of Kalabri. We have two major forts that you guys need especially since pretty much all of Akomoka and destructions forces are coming here in far greater numbers.

“Two?” Kanris asked. “Which other?”

“The Palathi Peaks.”

His eyebrows shot up at that news, but he remained in thoughtful silence.

“What should we do, sir?” The first Paladin Id spoken to asked.

“Go to Delosha and explain. If no one wishes to come, then we continue with our operation.”

The man saluted Kanris and opened a portal

“Well, this is going, differently,” Sania pointed out as we waited.

“Yeah. Surprised I managed to kill all their leaders.”

“I wonder if anyone will come from Delosha. I wonder who it will be too. I have friends there now,” I laughed grimly.

She was saved from replying by a more energetic portal that I recognized opening up. I was so tempted to close it again as.

Gladviel MonDia exited looking as smug and as self-important as ever. “Demonspawn!” he spat. “I didn't think I would be seeing you again so soon.”

“Lucky you,” I replied.

“I see that you have undergone a further demonic transformation. Now what is it that you want exactly? My soldier here suggests you wish to surrender.”

“oh hell no. I I'd have to be seriously touched in the head to surrender to you lot you bunch of evil bastards.”

“then what?” he snapped.

“I want your troops to move far away from this fault until I have let these people out and then you can have it. should come in handy for you with the amount of destructions forces leaving the Craster mountains right now. What with Natom out of the picture and all.”

“you were well informed,” he said looking surprised.

“I do try to keep like to get to the ground,” I replied.

“I fail to see how that would mean. We would let you all go.”

“when the army of Destruction gets here. where do you want your men to be inside of the fort? Or dead on the ground outside of our walls? Because we are leaving here, and we will kill everyone outside of these walls as we go. the only reason I'm making this offer is because I want to get his close to our home in the South as possible before you meet Destruction. I have no interest whatsoever in Kalabri only the people in this fault and the people in the Palathi Peaks. if you let us walk away, you get both strong holds before destruction gets here and it will give you a far better chance of conquering the surface of Kalabri. if you do not we will fight you tooth and nail and I think you know how many soldiers you're going to lose doing it that way. Worse still, I’ll make sure that we hold you and reduce their numbers until Destruction gets here. I think you all know I have the ability to do that now. Im not as weak as you first thought I was.”

“So you would surrender both the Palathi Peaks and this fort to us in exchange for free passage South? Did you not care about the fate of this land that you have fought so hard to protect?”

“Only the people in it. Not the land itself.

“You know that we intend to capture you again and ensure you don’t break free this time, Yes?”

“Not until I have all these people free. Hell, if you leave us be on the way south we will even whittle down Destruction forces for you a little bit. You can’t lose with this deal and you know where I’ll be when the time comes that you want to come and get me again.”

“You would come freely?” he asked surprised.

“Ah hell no. You come for me you better come for fight.”

He nodded. “Your offer all rests on whether you can defeat us here and at the Palathi peaks.

I shook my head emphatically. “no my offer rests only on holding you long enough for destruction to arrive. “We’re struggle of her to defeat your forces within a couple of days. two days travel South, and we will be getting there just as destruction are arriving. we can find a way in to help our friends inside, but we will then be in the centre of a battle we want no part of.

You leave in the morning to the north, we leave to the south. |You come back and claim the fort for your own. You let our friends out of the Palathi peaks. We all walk away, in two days or so and you have the peaks, and you are Ready for Destructions arrival.”

Gladivel began speaking to Kanis. Within moments, his face was suddenly bright red with anger. He turned on me quickly. “You killed over 1000 of my soldiers?”

“I did yeah. You are besieging us remember. That’s kind of how this works. If they weren’t there, I wouldn’t have killed them to be fair.”

“You think so little of Justices followers?” Gladivel said dangerously.

“Look mate. I’ll be killing 6000 more in the morning if they're all still here. I’m pretty sure you know now I can do a lot of damage just by myself, but we have a lot more capable people here.”

“Apart from the Nystiobek and the Dokalfar queen there is little to concern us. The rest are half starved or weaponless.

“Clear off to the north in the morning and let us walk out of here. Do the same in the Palathi Peaks once we get there and they’re both yours.

“Stay and I’ll have your answer. Now we all need some rest. Busy day tomorrow, one way or the other.”

We flew away from him back to the ground. He said no more and when I looked back he'd disappeared

What's happening then?”Melandac asked.

“I explained what had transpired Before we headed back to go in the castle. Nearby that was of course a small problem small in the sense that I couldn't fit through the door.

I've got bothered anyway. I just sleep out here,” I said pointed at the ground out front of the castle.

“there is a storage root down into the cellar. You can sleep. down there should be able. to fit you might have to crawl.

I think I will just sleep on the floor here. Thank you very much. Of course Sania and Danivra and Grigor opted to stay with me, which prompted the rest of the Dokalfar and Wultr to remain with us too.

There was no more trouble for the rest of the night from the army outside of our walls.

The next morning we were woken by shouts from our walls. At first I assumed an attack. But when I flew up to see what the drama was about we were faced with Justice moving around packing up their things. I could hardly believe it.

Neither could Sania. “Are they really going?” she asked.

“Sure looks that way,” I replied as a portal opened up 50 yards away from where we hovered on the other side of the barrier.

Kanris came through it and moved slowly closer. “You have until dusk tonight to leave the fort, by which time we will have returned to reclaim it one way or another. As you arrive at the Palathi Peaks, our forces will withdraw for one full day. Be sure to have emptied the place by the time they return. From that point, there will be no quarter given and once Kalabri is consolidated we will be coming for your little mountain hideaway. And no amount of deals or begging will free you from Justices wrath.”

I gave him the thumbs up. “Cool, thanks. I’ll see you all there then if you make it.”

He fish-mouthed for a response to my words, but if he ever found one I would never know, as we flew back down to the castle.

Melandrac and Loric waited with Danivra at the entrance to the castle, bleary eyed after a rough night but eager for news.

“They’re pulling back north, which means we can head south at full speed.”

“Truly?” Loric answered. “Can we trust them?”

Melandrac snorted “Of course we can’t trust them. They’ll turn on us as soon as we are past the walls. This is suicide.”

“IF they didn’t go, I was marching you out there today anyway,” I answered. We were going to fight our way out and run south where more were waiting for us. It was either that or hold out and wait for Destruction to come and help us.”

“Destruction would never help us,” Melandrac snapped.

“Exactly mate. So we run like an open tap. Their infantry can’t catch us. Their Paladins can portal to us, but not in big enough numbers to stop us. We have close to three thousand capable of fighting. I mean I don’t know about your lot, but the thousand I brought are worth more than capable of surviving this.”

“Melandrac bristled at that which I had intended. Nothing makes a competitive person perform like insulting their competence. He would have something to prove now, and we needed that kind of fire.

“I assure you we are more than capable of holding our own against many times our own number!”

I saw Loric smirking at my goading of Melandrac before responding. “Of those capable of fighting, they are as strong and as competent as any. But we do have around six hundred who cannot fight.”

“They will be safe in our centre,” Sania said. “If they fall it will be after everyone else has, but that will not happen I assure you.”

“Silarial one of our shield holders is old and unsuited for frontline battle, but he is very effective. He can walk with the others who cannot fight and hold a shield indefinitely as we move.”

“That will take a lot of the burden of concern from the warriors,” Danivra said. “Did they give a time frame?”

“They did, by tonight.”

“We should be long gone by then if they are returning at that time.”

“Yup. First things first. We need to get everyone fed. And everything prepped to go. Then everyone rests and eats again around noon. Sleep if they can because once we go, we should go full speed. Traveling through the night.”

We broke up the meeting to get everyone fed and prepared. This was the calm before the storm. We were running all the way back to Far Reach from here.