Fated Paths of Reunion (Whitebrand & Tigra9)

[tigra9]

Artimisa nodded and walked out of the veil and looked towards the gate, the merchants she emerged near got spooked, the veil after all hid the group from view and also hid their presence while under hence the horses not freaking out sooner since there was a massive predator not far from them and she started walking towards the gate calmly and wordlessly, she didn’t leave Tiamat’s range completely since she was actually greatly relying on Tiamat’s protection since in truth she didn’t have enough mana left in her right now for a proper fight

The elf guard stopped her inspection and quickly readied her bow upon noticing the new arrival aiming it “Halt Demon!” She called in a serious and loud voice to alert her allies at the gate.

Artimisa smiled when the guards took notice of her “aww, that’s fine I don’t plan to step closer” she said raising her arms innocently “let me introduce myself properly atleast... I am Artimisa Chimer, next Demon king, and....” she did an exaggerated bow then raised an arm pointing her palm towards the gate before unleashing a cruel smile “your reaper” with that she quickly cast a fireball, it was small, easily avoidable and missed the guards, since her aim wasn’t the guards in the first place as the fireball struck some of the gunpowder sand, instantly making it explode, and then causing a great chain of explosions that engulfed the town almost immediately, for those unaware of the magic gunpowder it would seem like it was purely Artimisa’s spell that caused this.

[Whitebrand]

The results were fairly spectacular. The outer walls protecting the town were almost leveled and many buildings were blasted apart. People were sent flying, even the guards were thrown forward like dolls. Tiamat reared up violently, her eyes wild, caught utterly by surprise. Saurfang almost dropped the precious crystal. The merchants and their horses immediately fled, and Tiamat was so frightened she didn't even think of snapping any of them up.

There was a stunned silence. Eventually the screams of the survivors began.

The guards began to move again, the female elf getting up first as she held her head. She fumbled for her bow and tried to pick up one of her scattered arrows. The others were slowly getting up too, reaching for weapons.

[tigra9]

The only one not stunned silent was Artimisa and she simply turned and started walking towards Tiamat lifting the magic veil as she reached it and spoke “climb aboard again Saurfang” she commanded and telepathically spoke ”We are done Tiamat, and I don’t have any mana left so lower your head so I can climb on and we can leave” despite admitting her current weakness to Tiamat in that conversation that couldn’t be overheard she didn’t let the exhaustion that came with it show visibly, she was still being recorded after all, and the human races witnesses couldn’t be allowed to see how vulnerable Artimisa was either.

With that said she glanced back as Tiamat lowered a head for her to climb on and spoke “Consider your options, you could attempt to strike me down in vain... or save those that had the good fortune to escape my wrath this day” she said coldly and with a straight face, even if Tiamat didn’t attack the very presence of the Hydragon would be enough to give any brave soul a second thought about rushing to attack the one that controlled it!

[Whitebrand]

The stunned guards stared as Artimesia turned and left. Finally they staggered back toward the shattered town to try to help those who were not killed outright.

"We should sweep in and finish them off," Saurfang grumbled as he remounted the nervous hydragon. "But that was...impressive."

Tiamat retreated from the scene rapidly, glad to be away. She knew Artimisa was normally nowhere as destructive as that and was badly rattled by the unexpected. Fortunately she didn't seem to blame her mistress for her fright...though she would be justified. Instead she tried to shake the ringing in her many ears and leave the town behind.

[tigra9]

Artimisa once they had gotten far enough away she sat down and petted Tiamat’s head clearly sad she hurt her precious Hydragon “is the orb turned off?” She asked and once Saurfang let her know it was she spoke “I don’t have the strength to do anymore right now, and besides that my little act there is certain to draw attention of the nearest military forces, it would be suicide to swoop on that town only to let our forces be surrounded and crushed, I would be safe thanks to Tiamat, but you, the other orcs, and the goblins are not afforded the same protection” she looked back at him, she trusted Saurfang, she trusted him a lot, but in terms of who’s safety she prioritized he was completely expendable next to herself or Tiamat

Once they arrived back at the camp of orcs and goblins Artimisa forced herself to get down and stand straight as she walked towards her tent but she stopped when one of the goblins spoke to her

“Big boom come from sand Majesty requested transported yes? Ver...”

The goblin was not afforded the chance to finish as Artimisa’s tail sunk its fangs into the goblins neck causing the goblin to start turning to stone and once it was fully a stone statue(which took only a few seconds) Artimisa promptly kicked it with a hoof to shatter it “that sand had nothing to do with my spell... anyone else wish to speak as if that power was not my own?” She spoke with a threat in her tone, she couldn’t cast another spell without risking her lifespan, but she wasn’t completely defenseless either even without Tiamat

[Whitebrand]

Saurfang grunted in approval at her dispensing of discipline.

"Get back to work!" he roared. "We're moving out!"

The caution was warranted. Scouts began reporting that magical reinforcements were already arriving at the town...clearly the humans had been keeping an eye on the place. An entire unit of mages with backup had arrived. Once they saw to the rescue efforts they would surely be searching for her and her forces.

Mission accomplished. The message had been sent and received.

[tigra9]

After a brief period spent to rest while the goblins and orcs went about packing to leave Artimisa would return Tiamat to her shadows and also put everyone else within the shadow pocket dimension, though separated from Tiamat, the reason she did it this way was it made it easier for her to leave without giving the humans any sort of trail to follow.

——————

Time would pass and the war raged on, with her power proven Artimisa went on to prove herself a great leader by leading the demon armies, the human armies that had actually been gaining ground quickly found themselves pushed back to their starting points by her strategies that made the normally aggressive but predictable demons and monsters actually working as units with strategy comparable to humans own. Despite this the demons never pressed further seeming to keep a deadlock situation with the human kingdoms armies.

Now two years after they had left and started Derek’s training Ava would return him and herself back to their home and smiled “well, hello Corrina, were you expecting us to return already?”

Corrina was sitting at the dining table since the pair had appeared in the main room of the house that the dining room gave a full view of “no mother, I was eating and resting at home for a while” Corrina clearly had not been home long dressed in her form fitting black outfit, her mask, now with little scratches here and there, laying on the table next to her plate of food but her eyes looked at Derek and she spoke “glad that your home... I figured out who it was that had us under surveillance, well far as I know though your time away was somewhere they couldn’t find you at the very least”

[Whitebrand]

Derek looked different. His already decent muscles had hardened and become more toned. He stood differently too, more confident than he’d been before. He walked over to Corinna and gave her an unabashed hug. He looked around.

“First things first...are Alisae and Jarvis all right? What’s happened while we’ve been gone? Please tell me the war is over!”

[tigra9]

Corrina blushes at the hug but frowned at Derek’s questions “the war is not over, Alisae and Jarvis are alive, but they among a lot of adventurers of notable skill were drafted to help fight” she stood and slipped herself free of the hug “they also married each other in the time you’ve been gone, after me and Jarvis rescued her when she was captured some time ago” she furrowed her brow “don’t pester her about it though... what she suffered before we could rescue her would have broken anyone else so it’s a sore point that she does not need brought up” Corrina looked Derek in the eyes, she had grown a few inches in the past two years but she was still shorter then Derek who had also grown a little himself

Ava put a hand to her cheek “the armies drafted adventurers of notable skill? But for what reason would they do that for this war?” She spoke her thought out loud

Corrina looked at Ava “it began around half a year after the two of you left, the self-proclaimed heir to Demon King Typhon’s throne revealed herself by obliterating a town with a single spell, a town that was kept under strong surveillance, after that the demons started using strategy not unlike humans own to push the human armies back, for whatever reason though they choose to keep the situation more at a deadlock then pushing their advantage, and the demons are making very good use of goblins and their reproduction rates to stem the numbers difference for this dragged out fight”

[Whitebrand]

Derek felt a little stab in his chest when he learned that Alisae and Jarvis had married. A part of him had hoped that they could all pick up where they had left off. He had to remind himself that in a world at war a lot of things were going to change. Something terrible must have happened to drive the bubbly, busty elf into s human’s arms...and he regretted that he had not been there for her.

“Then maybe we need to go to them and make sure that our friends make it through this madness alive. So...who had been spying on us? Any ideas?”

[tigra9]

Corrina as if reading his mind spoke “it wouldn’t have mattered if it were you or Jarvis, she just desired the company of a male she could trust at the time” at his question though she nodded “yes... the self same heir to the demon king typhon, that is the one who was spying on us, though admittedly it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine she was still keeping us under surveillance given what happened to Alisae” suddenly she stepped so there were only centimeters between her and Derek and with no sign of preparation or warning Corrina moved her hand as if she was holding a dagger by curling her thumb to act as the blade aiming to strike Derek’s side where it was in his blind spot from start to finish, a testing act to see if he could notice an attack from an angle he couldn’t see

———————————

A few days travel by foot away from Derek and Corrina, Alisae would currently be crouched on a tree branch staring deeper into the forest they were at, her hair had been cut short and the right side of her face now sported an eyepatch to cover the eye that had been gouged out during the horrible captivity she had endured, she also bore scars all over her body but they were for the most part hidden by her outfit thankfully, she had been only been a captive for a day and a half before being rescued but the state she had been found in... it had made even the usually stoic and coolheaded Corrina nearly throw up and go on a rampage. But Alisae would speak without moving her eyes to the people below her, a small group of soldiers with a single mage among them “seems the reports are right, their poised to answer an attack against them, but they aren’t moving to attack even though they’ve clearly noticed us” she then stood and hopped down the tree landing and running her right hand, which now was missing its pinky finger, through her hair with her bow held in her left hand and she looked at Jarvis “I say we take the detour, it’ll take longer but at the least we won’t have to waste energy dealing with those goblins”

One of the soldiers the technical leader of this small force spoke up “you have to be joking, their monsters, all monster need to die!” He said angrily, he was a good commander and usually kept a cool head but when it came to the idea of not outright killing monsters they were so close to he just wouldn’t have it

[Whitebrand]

The red rune-like markings on Derek’s body seemed to glow for an instant and Corrina’s wrist was suddenly stopped in mid-thrust by Derek’s free hand. Derek’s face looked a bit startled as he easily pulled her hand up between them. He raised his eyebrows.

“Did I pass?” He asked.

————————

“Alisae is correct, Commander,” Jarvis said. “The main force can handle this group of goblins. We need to remain focused on our objective and strike where the enemy will feel the loss.”

Jarvis remained calm despite his irritation with the man. He always supported his wife in as many ways as he could, whether in private or in public. He had his share of marks and scars from the war, several of them from the rescue effort of Alisae and her fellow prisoners.

[tigra9]

Corrina smiled, it was a faked smile but Derek wouldn’t be able to see through it “yes you passed... but I wonder if it will still be enough given our enemies displayed strength” she slipped her hand free and turned walking back to the table sitting down to eat again

Ava watched the two have their exchange and tilted her head “displayed strength? You mean the destroying a town you mentioned before? How did her spell manage that?”

Corrina blinked and nodded “yes, according to the information I gathered and pieced together after her spell was fired it exploded, and then there was a chain of explosions so fast that by the time anyone became aware enough to move the town was rubble”

Ava looked down “a spell that made multiple explosions? Wide enough to reduce an entire town to rubble huh? That doesn’t add up, even using the natural elements as a spirit I would need to atleast call on a tornado to do anything close to that amount of damage”

————————

The man stood up “we can just kill these goblins in front of us, there is no need for such a detour” he gritted his teeth “I want to kill that demon queen bitch, I don’t care how many enemies we have to plow through to do it, we can kill her!”

Alisae was about to speak up but couldn’t get any words out in time before the man coughed up blood and her eye widened in terror and horror as she began trembling and taking tentative steps back it was a lie! She couldn’t be here, she couldn’t be HERE!!

“Kill me? My my, to overestimate your ability so much weakling, I’m disgusted to breathe the same air as you” said the owner of the scale covered arm that had pierced the man in plate armor as she pulled it out and with a light swing of her arm tore the man’s head off before he could retaliate and looked at Alisae and Jarvis, the other soldiers had quickly stood and drew their blades but were promptly swallowed by shadows and sent into Tiamat's home area to feed the Hydragon “it’s good to see you again little elf.... I did so enjoy playing with your body” she gave the most excited smile “really I sensed his return and I became so ecstatic I tried to teleport to his location to give him an invite but my teleport location was very very off... some humans must have perfected a good teleport proof barrier... but I’m glad, this still works out with you two here” she clapped her hands together in the most innocent girly pose she could, Jarvis could sense it since he was a mage, her mana was ridiculously huge and pure to the degree it should be impossible to have that much purity in one’s magic power.

[Whitebrand]

"The only way I can imagine," Derek mused. "Was that she set something up earlier somehow, to be triggered at her command. Unless she's insanely powerful. But if she's that powerful...she could pracically win the war all by herself.

"And why would she have been watching us?" he asked. "We haven't been anyone of real consequence up to now. What could possibly attract the attention of a demon-lord-in-training?"

_____

Javis stood in between his wife and the demon girl.

"I don't know what 'he' you are referring to," he said as he bought up his defenses. "And soon it will not matter. The day you chose to harm her was the day you chose to face the likes of me. While I am impressed that you have enhanced your natural abilities to such an extraordinary degree...it will not save you."

Jarvis had compiled several spells just for this encounter, spells tailored to affect demons quite greviously. As mighty as they were, even demon lords had their weaknesses...and Jarvis had armed himself with those very spells.

[tigra9]

Corrina shrugged “perhaps there is some...” she suddenly stopped eyes going wide and she dropped her fork grabbed her mask and leapt to Derek, she was fast, even after Derek’s training he could tell she was fastest of the group still as she grabbed his hand “sorry gotta teleport!” She gave only this as a warning before breaking an orb and her and derek’s surroundings blurred and began to change.

————

Artimisa blinked and frowned “I’m well aware boy, you’ve gathered together all the spells you could learn to use against demons, even some forbidden level ones that compensate with your life” she tapped the side of her head “or did you forget I have your group under constant surveillance?” She then blinked and leapt back quick as she could as a blur rushed her and the shine of a blade drew an arc through the air and she quickly landed on her feet using a hand to slow the momentum she threw herself back at to avoid the blade, a bleeding cut now visible on her chest where part of her silk dress fell off one of the straps exposing half her buxom chest “well that’s a surprise, how long has it been since somebody cut clean through my barriers”

Corrina moves back to stand next to Jarvis, she and Derek has appeared right next to Alisae since the orb had contained a one time use teleport to a specified target, in this case Alisae “had a feeling you might target them, Demon Queen... Artimisa”

Artimisa frowned looking at the two new arrivals her mood going from ecstatic to annoyed and pleased at the same time quickly “well saves me trouble in one way, but annoys me in the other” she said calmly as a hand reached up to cover her exposed nipple, normally she didn’t feel shame, but given her feelings that persisted even now for one of the new arrivals... it was quite the different story

[Whitebrand]

Derek stared around for a moment. Jasrvis and Alisae...being threatened by a...whoa.

Corinna identified the woman for him and he dropped into a fighting stance with his staff as he gathered his powers around himself. So this was the creature who had been spying on him and his friends. He glared at the suddenly half-clad demon woman...slightly distracted by her brief nudity. His brow crinkled in confusion when he looked up at her face.

What...she looks like...someone I know...but I've never seen her before...

"Derek!" Jarvis blurted in surprise. Then he thought fast. Surely Corinna would have told him what had happened to Alisae. "She's the one who hurt Alisae!"

That, more than anything else, solidified his resolve. He gripped his staff and a dangerous look appeared in his eyes.

[tigra9]

Alisae upon seeing Derek, and Corrina, arrive finally calmed herself down and retightened the grip on her bow as she reached back for an arrow, but her hands were still shaking and the grip on her bow was to tight

Corrina took a glance back and then spoke Alisae just calm down and wait, if you can face your fear enough to stop trembling that will be a great accomplishment by itself”

Artimisa hmmed “much as I would love to stay here and fight... I’ve seen the one I wanted to see” she smiled and spoke “you’ve gotten stronger... but your still not ready” at that everything stopped, Derek would only get a brief sensation like something happened before Artimisa was now gone from where she had been and her voice spoke from behind them “this is my invitation Derek, come to my castle if you want the cure” she said a hand running along the stone statue that looked like Alisae before she vanished completely through a teleport spell that couldn’t be traced at all, not that it needed to be given Artimisa’s words.

Corrina had quickly turned when Artimisa spoke from behind them and though her expression couldn’t be seen behind her skull mask she was clearly trembling and she spoke once Artimisa left “damn it all!!”

[Whitebrand]

Jarvis stood where he was, stunned by the swiftness of events. Derek ran over to Alisae’s stone form, looking aghast.

“She’s alive,” Derek muttered as he examined her. “Somehow...she’s still alive...there’s a cure...”

“I would have done it,” Jarvis said as he slowly walked over to where Derek and the statue of his wife stood. “I’d have ended my life to make that woman pay...”

“Like that would have done her any good,” Derek said sharply. “Here’s what we have to do: we secure Alisae somewhere no one will damage her. Then I find a way to that demon lords home and take the cure out of her damned hide!”

“Not alone you won’t,” Jarvis said darkly.

[tigra9]

Corrina was thankful for her mask, it meant the boys couldn’t see that her trembling, and her comment, were for very different reasons then their reactions, but after a moment of silence to collect herself she spoke “and what good will it do either of you to just rush in there blind? Incase you didn’t notice she moved without any of us even noticing it from other there to behind Alisae, and in no time at all Alisae had been turned to stone by her venom aswell, I’m sorry but those don’t exactly scream ‘there is no need to worry’ to me” she said speaking bluntly and truthfully, she knew the actual reason that had happened but to reveal that fact now would expose things she didn’t want exposed yet

————————

Artimisa would reappear in the castle throne room where she had left and put a hand to the cut a green light enveloping her claws as she traced them along her wound causing it to heal without a scar being left “that girl needs to be punished the next time she comes here, I liked this dress a lot and she cut it” she complained completely forgetting the presence of the one other being in the throne room, a young orc male that now acted in Saurfang’s place as over all leader of the orcs, a position earned by rite of combat.

[Whitebrand]

"We were invited, remember?" Derek said. "Did you find out anything about this...witch? Anything useful?"

"She's far more powerful than she should be," Jarvis said, rattled. "I don't know how, but she's overcome ll kinds of limits..."

"I saw," Deerek said shortly. "And what's this about giving up your life?"

"She wanted you, Derek," Jarvis said bluntly. "She took up with me because you weren't here. I'm expendable..."

Derek grabbed Jarvis's shoulders suddenly.

"You. Are not. Expendable," Derek growled through gritted teeth.

-------

"You could just give her to us," the orc said with a sadistic grin. "We'll straighten her out."