Their little band withdrew back to where Lizbeth had left the demon workers to hold their first war council. Both Lizbeth and Ivy were amateurs at war, so it fell to Milo draw up a proper plan. The first thing he did was clarify what they had at their disposal. He began with Ivy.

  “Ivy, from what little Seti told me about shadow-stalkers I have the impression that you mostly fight with arrows and knives while using shadow magic for concealment and mobility.”

  Ivy nodded.

  “That is largely correct, personally I’m better with a bow than daggers.”

  Milo moved onto Lizbeth.

  “Seti and I mostly worked on metamorphosis, but he did show me a few spells, can you cast inferno or flame breath?”

  “Yes, to all three.”

  Seti had indeed said some of his elementalists knew metamorphosis, it did not surprise him that Lilith had sent him one of the few that knew it. Still, Lizbeth like Ivy struck him as primarily a ranged fighter, which was why he had asked about two of the most destructive flame spells Seti had told him about. He moved on and pointed at the dull eyed demon workers who were all looking to Lizbeth for further instructions.

  “I think I already know the answer, but I assume those creatures are useless in a fight?”

  Since Lizbeth was the closest thing to an expert on the workers, she took it upon herself to answer.

  “Useless is a strong word, they might be stupid, but they are still quite strong for their size. Historically they have mostly been used to carry supplies and create or destroy fortifications. I do know that they have been used as sentries occasionally and even in one desperate instance as vanguard troops to soak up arrows.”

  Milo cast a dubious look at the workers and then with a shake of his made his decision.

  “They’re sitting this one out, we’re going to need them to gather loot after the battle anyway.”

  Lizbeth greeted his pronouncement with her regular uncaring expression, Ivy however was quick to agree with him.

  “Your reasoning is sound, but that leaves us with 39 enemy combatants of unknown power and skill. I am no strategist or expert warrior but those seem like poor odds to me.”

  Milo thought back at what he had seen.

  “They have no armour, and I didn’t see any other weapons than long knives and spears. We don’t know if they can use magic, but I strongly doubt it.”

  “I sensed enhancements of any kind” Lizbeth put in.

  “Right, so no magic, no armour and no visible ranged weapons. Now here’s what we’re going to do.”

  Milo outlined his plan step by step. It would largely rely on his own fighting skills mostly because Ivy and Lizbeth were unproven factors in a battle as far as he was concerned. Still, they seemed happy enough with what he came up with as it strongly played to their perceived strengths. In the end there was nothing to do but wait for nightfall.

  A big part of his plan relied on the night vision all hybrid’s shared. Much to his annoyance the sun was replaced by the moon which meant there would be more light than he had hoped for. Still, they went ahead with the plan.

  Milo drew his sword and slowly approached the campfire at a crouch, by his estimation about a third of the unknown creatures were now asleep, the rest were still preoccupied with their disgusting feast. He was nowhere near as quiet as Ivy but fortunately for him the creatures were loud. He carefully snuck up behind the largest of the creatures, the very same one which had killed the unknown human.

  Milo took a deep breath and then leap forward with a slash. The creature was growling something at the others when its head suddenly fell from its shoulders in a fountain of blood. The creatures stared at their slain for a second before jumping to their feet with roars. By that time Milo had already slashed his blade left killing a second creature. One of the nearest creatures drew a long knife and lunged at him, Milo deflected the blow sending his opponent stumbling past him. He followed up by slashing the stumbling creature across its hell crippling it, then he turned and ran towards the hill at a sprint.

  The creatures were stumbling over each other in their rush to follow him out into the darkness. He’d expected them to be night-blind from the fire, unfortunately it seemed that he had been mistaken about one of their main advantages. The creatures either had excellent eyesight or sense of smell because they were following him far easier than he’d expected. Once he got to the foot of the hill he stopped and closed his eyes, then fire washed over him and engulfed the creatures in the lead.

  Wisps of fire and shadow coiled up around his legs, chest and arms and a few seconds later his body was covered in the black exoskeleton of the metamorphosis spell. To their credit the unknown creatures didn’t run when Lizbeth bathed them in fire with the flame breath spell, nor did they seem to fear his sudden transformation. They charged him with a howl and Milo grinned as he leapt into them, his sword slashing left and right with incredible speed and strength. Despite their overwhelming numbers the creatures seemed to have no concept of fighting as a unit and therefore got in each other’s way more often than not. He moved between them purposefully dragging them into each other as he slashed and parried. Occasionally one of them would get into a good position and attack him from a blind zone but whenever that happened an arrow coated in shadow magic would strike them down.

  The creatures refused to break even as their numbers dwindled rapidly. In the end only the best of them were left standing, these were obviously veterans of some sort, and they surrounded him in a circle. Every now and then one of the would dart forward and feign an attack while another tried to strike him in the back. By this point Ivy had obviously run out of arrows but Milo was more than happy to play the waiting game. After all, there was a reason why Lizbeth had been quiet since her first spell.

  A sudden light made both Milo and all the creatures look up. For a moment it looked like the sun had risen prematurely, then the giant ball of flame crashed to the ground like a meteor incinerating everything within range.

  Milo walked trough the magical fire unhurt thanks to his immunity. Normally a spell like inferno probably would’ve melted his armour but it seemed the exoskeleton of the metamorphosis spell shared his immunity to fire. He dismissed the spell and whistled as loud as he could. A few seconds later Ivy popped out of a shadowy cloud next to him, he’d seen her use the spell a few times before back in Lilith’s realm and recognised it as shadow blink. Lizbeth on the other hand seemed content to walk down the hill at her own pace.

  Milo bent down and retrieved one of Ivy’s arrows, sadly it had been incinerated by Lizbeth’s spell. He offered her the charred remains with a sad smile.

  “Good shooting, unfortunately I don’t think we can salvage any of your arrows.”

  She eyed what remained of her arrow and then shrugged.

  “The demon workers can make me more, all we need is stone, feathers and wood. I saw a few birds earlier and both wood and stone are plentiful in supply in this area.”

  The thought back to the massive summoning list he’d seen when he first got to this planet.

  “I guess we could also summon more with spirit essence.”

  Ivy shook her head.

  “Only if we absolutely need to, we will need all the spirit essence we can get our hands on.”

  Lizbeth finally joined them and the old elementalist acknowledged him with a curt nod. Milo heard a distant grunt and turned to see that a few of the creatures were still alive. A few had been crippled early in the fight and another few had survived partial burns from Lizbeth’s first spell. He walked towards them with the intent of finishing them off when Ivy stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

  “Don’t, we need them.”

  He frowned at her.

  “What for?”

  “Information.”

  Milo had serious doubts that she would be able to interrogate the creatures, but he was willing to let her try. They started searching trough the wagons and carriages and quickly found some rope. As Ivy went to tie up the creatures Milo searched the camp for anything useful. He found several sacks of salt, some sort of ore and what looked like dried fruit. He had just reached the same carriage from which the slain human had been dragged when he heard what sounded like a muffled sound coming from inside. He undid the crude lock the creatures had put on the door and tore it open. Inside he found three terrified human women and a short boy. They screamed when they saw him.

  Milo backed up and held up his hands in a peaceful gesture.

  “Calm down, I’m not here to hurt you.”

  The screaming stopped and the prisoners went perfectly still. They looked him up and down with obvious fear but finally one of the women spoke. She had blonde hair, and he put her age at somewhere in her mid-thirties, she was clutching the young boy to her as if they were family.

  “W-what are you?”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  He sheathed his sword across his back and did his best to smile at them.

  “My name is Milo Harper, I am the chosen champion of the goddess Lilith. My race is known as hybrids, we are part human.”

  Hearing that he was part human did much to calm them down. He could only imagine what he looked like with his absurdly tall body, deep blood red eyes and jet-black hair. It also didn’t help that his armour was covered in blood.

  The woman who had spoke stumbled out of the carriage and the others followed behind her. The boy was watching him with wide eyes but there was no fear in his eyes. The blonde took in the scene of the battle before speaking again in an awed voice.

  “You killed them all?”

  Milo nodded.

  “We did, well we took a few prisoners for interrogation but most of them are dead.”

  The blondes head whipped back in his direction as soon as the word ‘prisoner’ left his mouth.

  “The satyr are bloodthirsty savages, they cannot be reasoned with or spoken to.”

  The moment she spoke the word ‘satyr’ the pieces fell into place for Milo. They did indeed look a lot like the satyrs from Greek mythology. By this time Ivy and Lizbeth had finished tying up the prisoners and had joined him.

  Ivy clearly saw the opportunity for some juicy information because she immediately started interrogating the prisoners. Fortunately, she was one of those few rare hybrids capable of smiling and talking in a pleasant voice.

  “We are new to this area and are badly and could really use some information, please tell me who you are and how you ended up in this place.”

  “My name is Indra and this is my son Tim.”

  The boy waved at them once his name was mentioned. Then Indra turned to introduce the two women behind her.

  “This is Crystal and Nelly.”

  Her name had barely been mentioned when the woman named Crystal sank to her knees and started repeatedly thanking him in between sobs. Indra waited for her to stop before going on with her tale.

  “My husband is… was, a merchant, he was killed earlier today by those fucking monsters. Nelly’s husband was a caravan guard, he was slain in the initial attack. As for Crystal, she is from a nearby town called Willowford, our last place of call, she was travelling with us to Ferdoria, our next stop.”

  Ivy wasn’t slow to seize upon what little the woman had offered.

  “Tell me more about Willowford and Ferdoria.”

  Indra hesitated for a moment, eyed the blood on Milo’s armour then continued.

  “Willowford is a bordertown that belongs to the Lendorian kingdom. It’s only half a day’s travel from here. As for Ferdoria, it’s a port city state which is famous for its trade. It lies four days travel east of here and you can catch a ship from there to just about anywhere in the world.”

  Ivy nodded along as if this was just some friendly talk between new friends.

  “And this Willowford, you say it’s a border town, does that mean there’s no garrison?”

  Once again Indra’s eyes were draw to the blood on Milo’s armour and he felt sort of bad bullying a traumatised prisoner for military information. Still Ivy hadn’t lied, they truly did need every scrap of information they could get their hands on.

  “It’s a small town, barely over a thousand people live there, mostly farmers. The local sheriff is a knight, and he commands a dozen or so guards, as for the town it is protected by a wooden palisade.”

  Indra made a face when she mentioned the sheriff which made Milo suspect she’d had a bad interaction with him. Still all in all the town sounded almost defenceless, I’ve must’ve thought the same because she asked the most pointed question so far.

  “Assuming Willowford was attacked, how long would it take the Lendorian kingdom to respond?”

  Indra snorted.

  “I’d be amazed if they showed up at all, from what Crystal here told me on the road Willowford has been suffering Satyr attacks for months now. They raid isolated farms and drag their victims away before the sheriff can organise the militia.”

  The woman named Crystal rose from her kneeling position and seemed to come back to herself now that they were talking about her hometown. When she spoke, her voice was weak but certain.

  “It’s true, the mayor told us he sent for reinforcements from Lordon, but nobody ever came.”

  “How far away is Lordon from Willowford?”

  Crystal looked deep in thought but it was Indra who answered.

  “A week on foot, three to four days on horseback, but I wouldn’t count on reinforcements from the Lendorian kingdom anytime soon. The rumour is that they are fighting some sort of war in the north.”

  Ivy was unable to hide the smile Indra’s information prompted. Still she went on as if she hadn’t just struck gold.

  “And what about this Ferdoria, you said it’s an independent city state. I take it they are well defended?”

  “Indeed, the entire city is protected by massive walls as well as an inner keep, they can fall back to if the walls are breached. As far as I know it’s been a long while since anyone tried the city, mostly because they have a solid guard force which they augment by hiring mercenaries when attacked.”

  Indra was proving a better source of information than they could’ve hoped for. As a merchant’s wife she was obviously used to trading and Milo had a feeling she was only being so forthcoming because she thought it was the only way to get out of the forest alive. His suspicion was confirmed when she spoke next.

  “Now that I have told you everything, I know I would like to discuss a trade.”

  Once again Milo let Ivy lead the conversation.

  “What kind of trade did you have in mind?”

  “My husband is dead, as are our horses, which means these wagons are useless to me. I will give you all the gods in our caravan in exchange for safe passage back to Willowford.”

  Milo had to admire the woman. It was obvious to everyone that three unarmed women and a boy wasn’t in a position to give away anything. Still, he appreciated the boldness this woman was displaying despite what was probably the worst day in her life. Unfortunately for her Milo had no intention of going to Willowford without enough troops to take and hold it. He was trying to come up with some way to let her down softly when Lizbeth surprised both him and Ivy by stepping forward.

  “I am afraid we will have to decline your most generous offer. However, I am willing to offer you another deal in its place.”

  She turned and whistled, a few seconds later the demon workers who had been hiding out of view came rushing over. One of them was carrying what looked like a hollowed-out skull. The skull still had bits of flesh attached to it and Milo realised that the workers had just finished making it out of a satyr skull. Lizbeth bent down and accepted the skull, then she took hold of the creature’s arm and ran her dagger across it. Blood flowed from the demon’s arm into the skull cup. By the time she finished the little spectacle Indra, Crystal and Nelly had all gone deathly pale. Only the boy was looking at the ritual with something akin to curiosity.

  Lizbeth held the cup against the chest and spoke again in that cold voice which never seemed to leave her.

  “I have decided to offer the four of you a gift. You will be allowed to join the service of my lord, in exchange we will offer you food, shelter and protection. Should you accept this deal you will be blessed by Lilith, the goddess of demons, with long life and power.”

  Milo looked from the terrified women to the cup filled with demon blood and then up at Lizbeth’s expressionless face.

  “You can make them into hybrids?”

  He remembered Beldan talking about people joining their faction as a means of generating spirit essence. Still, he hadn’t expected Lizbeth to be able to turn them into hybrids. As it turned out the reason it sounded to good to be true was because it was.

  “Not quite, I am not a goddess, I cannot recreate their bodies. The best I can do is offer them demon blood and a ritual sealed with a binding vow. They will still undergo a partial transformation. They can expect increased strength, some resistance to sickness and a much longer lifespan. They might even be able to access the elements of Lilith’s realm with training.”

  The woman named Nelly stopped backing away and spoke for the first time.

  “How much of an increased lifespan are we talking about?”

  Lizbeth shrugged.

  “Probably a few hundred years, maybe even a thousand.”

  The woman’s eyes went wide, and she stepped forward, it seemed her sales pitch had worked better than he thought. He looked over at Indra and Crystal. Crystal looked uncertain, while Indra on the other hand looked weary. As the wife of a merchant she was probably used to offers that sounded too good to be true. As for young Tim, he looked as eager as Nelly, he probably would’ve approached as well if not for the death grip Indra had on her son.

  Milo decided to intervene.

  “I take it the rest of you are uninterested in this offer?”

  Indra’s eyes switched to him, and she looked closed to running.

  “You’ve spoken of the advantages, but what is the cost of this magical gift you are offering us for free?”

  He looked to Lizbeth who much to his surprise answered the question truthfully.

  “You will be bound to my lord and his cause for the remainder of your life. We are strangers in this land and chances are high we will soon be at odds with this Lendorian kingdom and possibly others. We have no intention of making any of you fight for us, but you may get caught in between us and our enemies even so.”

  Indra was clearly caught by surprise by the honest answer, but she still didn’t look entirely convinced. Crystal on the other hand nodded and walked up to take her place at Nelly’s side.

  Milo took over.

  “Look, I’m not going to pretend that this is an easy decision, what I will promise you is that you will be treated well. I have no intention of mistreating my subjects, as long as you work you will mostly be left to your own devices. And besides, it’s not like you have a great alternative, you were nearly killed in this forest with guards watching over you. There’s no way you will make it out of this forest alive on foot, I urge you to think of your son.”

  Indra’s resolve was clearly faltering as she looked down at her son who piped up in an eager voice.

  “We will live for a thousand years mother, and the lady said we will be stronger. Next time I will protect you from the monsters!”

  Indra teared up and Milo could see her reach the only reasonable decision available to her.

  “Very well, but I have a condition of my own.”

  Milo arched a curious eyebrow at her. Indra’s face turned in the direction of the bound satyrs and her face filled with murderous hate.

  “I want them dead, by my hand.”

  Nelly quickly nodded along.

  “Same, I want vengeance.”

  Lizbeth’s face drew into an ugly smile.

  “Deal.”

  Lizbeth spent a few minutes carving runes into the skull chalice with her dagger. Once she finished, she closed her eyes, a few seconds later the runes started glowing. She walked over to Nelly and offered her the chalice.

  “Drink, a few mouthfuls will do.”

  Nelly hesitated for a moment before following Lizbeth’s instructions. Once she was done Lizbeth continued.

  “Now repeat after me: I willingly bind my soul to the eternal service of Lilith, goddess of demons and her champion on this planet, Milo harper.”

  Nelly repeated the oath word for word and the effect was immediate. She gasped as both her brown hair and blue eyes turned black as pitch. The wrinkles on her face smoothed and she suddenly looked 10 years younger. Both Indra and Crystal gasped when they saw the transformation but neither one backed out.

  Lizbeth quickly repeated the process for the other three with identical results. Once they were done Indra was pointedly staring at the dagger on Milo’s belt, clearly eager to collect on her part of the bargain.

  “If you can wait half an hour for your vengeance, I have a place in mind for the deed.”

  Indra nodded her agreement.

  Milo organised their little band and they brought as much of the supplies with them as possible. Unfortunately, the prisoners were heavy and so the demons ended up carrying them rather than the trade goods left over by the attack. They decided to return for the rest of the stuff the next day.

  It took them nearly an hour to reach the altar, but thanks to their transformation none of his new subjects were even tired by the time they arrived. Indra clearly felt cheated by the lack of buildings when he announced that they had arrived.

  “This is your base?”

  Milo had to admit he probably would’ve asked the same question in her shoes. Still if everything went to plan her disappointment would be short lived. He had Ivy and Lizbeth organise the satyrs by the sacrificial altar and motioned for his four newest subjects to join them. He pointed at the black hole beneath the statue of Lilith.

  “I realise you probably want to skin these monsters alive with a dull knife, but I would be grateful if you shoved them into that hole instead.”

  Indra walked up to get a closer look and then turned back with a frown.

  “I can’t see where it leads, what is it?”

  “Let’s just say that whoever trips into that hole won’t ever be coming back.”

  She nodded.

  “Good enough for me.”

  Lizbeth and Ivy yanked one of the growling satyrs to its feet and shoved it down on its knees in front of the hole. The satyr tried to get back up, but a shackle of magical fire appeared arounds its feet and hands keeping it from moving. The restraints were burning into the creature’s fur, and it started howling with pain.

  Milo beckoned Indra forwards. The former merchant’s wife never hesitated, she walked up the satyr and shoved it into the hole. The creature’s scream abruptly cut off the moment it hit that invisible barrier right beneath the surface.

  They repeated the process two more times with the same result. He hesitated before offering the same thing for Tim, but Indra declined the offer on her son’s behalf much to Milo’s relief. The satyrs obviously deserved nothing better but having a young boy, not even into his teens participate in a sacrifice struck him as going too far.

  Judging by all the crying and hugging going on the executions had been a very cathartic moment for his newest subjects.

  As for the three remaining satyr prisoners, Ivy came to him with a rather gruesome request.

  “I need their heads for a project.”

  Milo gaped at her. Just over a week ago he had been a famous athlete, now people were asking him for severed heads.

  “Care to elaborate?”

  “It will become obvious once we move on Willowford.”

  He decided that Ivy had earned some leeway. He unsheathed his sword and offered it to her. She accepted the blade and then set about her grizzly task in silence.

  With everyone distracted he decided to scratch out the last thing on his to do list.

  “Interface, show me how much spirit essence I have.”

  Spirit essence available: 4300

  “Interface, show me all buildings available.”

  Buildings current available:

  Small wooden house - 250 spirit essence

  Small stone house - 500 spirit essence

  Wooden palisade - 1000 spirit essence

  Marble wall with towers and walkways - 25 000 spirit essence

  Demonic keep - 25 000

  Demonic castle - 250 000 spirit essence

  Demonic fortress - 2,5 million spirit essence

  Lilith’s citadel - 25 million spirit essence

  He wasn’t about to splurge on houses that would probably be temporary anyways, so he decided to keep it cheap and simple.

  He purchased a small wooden house expecting to see a large vortex appear just like had happened all the other times. Instead, his vision was suddenly filled with the translucent red outlines of a house. It took him only a few moments to realise that the interface was giving him an opportunity to adjust and place his house where he wanted. He was toying around with it for a few minutes before placing it door out next to the river. The moment he confirmed the position a large vortex appeared in the selected spot. When he dismissed it a perfect copy of the translucent red house he’d been adjusting had materialised.

  He looked over at Indra and saw that she was watching the wooden house with eyes as wide as saucers. She slowly looked from the house and then to him.

  He flashed her a grin.

  “Time to build us a city.”