"Did you feel that?" Kies asked Ammine. He finally caught up to her after chasing after her for around ten minutes. He felt a surge of power from far behind him and took a moment to look back. A strong gust of wind slammed into him and when he looked up, he saw that the skies behind him were strange. There was a giant hole in the clouds where the sun was shining through.
Ammine also stopped and dropped down to the ground. She looked up at the sky where the hole was with her magic-enhanced eyes. "I felt that and I definitely saw it too, but what is that?" Ammine dispelled her magic looking at it for a bit. "Well, if it doesn't have anything to do with us, then we don't need to worry about it."
Ammine picked up Jasyeu again and took to the skies. Kies re-chanted Wind's Blessing and continued following Ammine through the empty wastelands. Everything here looked the same to him but somehow, Ammine was able to tell which parts were different from which and knew how to get back to the village.
The journey was surprisingly quick and they made it back to the castle in under an hour. Along the way, Ammine insisted that they took a small detour to stop by what looked like the ruins of a grand city. Kies and Jasyeu waited quietly outside the entrance while Ammine went inside to do whatever it was that she wanted to do. If not for that, Kies was pretty sure that they would've made it back in half that time.
While waiting, Kies explored the ruins at the entrance and found that everything was carved or written in demonic. From that, he figured out that the ruins of the city belonged to the demons before it was destroyed. And that also explained why Ammine knew her way around the wastelands despite everything looking the same to him.
Now that they were finally back at the castle, Kies saw that the atmosphere had changed drastically. The two guards that were supposed to be standing outside the entrance were gone and in place were several racks filled from edge to edge with various kinds of weapons. Ammine walked up to the door and opened it and told the two behind her to go in first before going in herself.
The insides of the castle were even messier than the outside. Weapons laid on either side of the walls and the throne room was wide open. The three of them walked to the door and Ammine knocked on it and peeked her head in. There was no one inside.
The sound of footsteps appeared from behind them and the three turned around to see a demon dressed head to toe in armor. "Oh, Ammine, you're back." The demon saluted Ammine and then said, "Tornon is at the village."
Ammine gave the demon a murderous glare, causing him to flinch and take a step back. "What? Is there something wro- Oh! Lord Tornon is at the village," the demon corrected himself, remembering that Ammine didn't like it when people said the demon king's name or refer to him without any formality.
"Why is he there?"
"He's finding people to help bring back some captured demons."
"What!?" Ammine ran up to the demon and placed her hands on his shoulder. "What happened!?" she demanded from him.
"Uhhh... We sent a moderate-sized force to Otane as planned but something went wrong and apparently, their army came back much faster than expected. According to the two demons that managed to make it back, three others were captured and six were killed. Tor- I mean lord Tornon was very angry and wanted to go there and rescue them himself but we stopped him because you know... he's our leader and all. Anyway, because of that, he's at the village trying to find capable people for the mission," the demon explained to Ammine.
"By the way, who is she? I don't remember seeing her face around here. Nor do I recall there being someone as short as her in our village," the demon asked, noticing that there was someone that he didn't recognize here.
"It's a pain to explain so I would rather not. And also, why are you in a full suit of armor? Are we under attack as well?"
"No, I was selected for the mission."
"Alright." Ammine pushed the demon aside and rushed down the halls of the castle and out of the building. The three watched as she took off into the air the moment she stepped foot outside. Kies and Jasyeu chased after her but lost her after a few seconds. She was too fast.
Luckily, Kies remembered how to get to the village and continued down the path to it. Jasyeu didn't know what to do and so she followed him. The other demon stayed back at the castle and watched as the two left. The two of them ran through the trees until they entered a clearing with a bunch of huts around. There was a crowd in the center of the place and as they got closer, they saw that there were several demons fighting.
Ammine was standing next to Tornon's side and the two of them along with the rest of the crowd watched as the demons in the center brawled with each other. Kies and Jesyeu went over to the demon king and he put one of his hands up as a greeting, and then pointed at the fight happening in the middle, telling him to watch it with him and that they would talk after it was over He gave Jesyeu a strange look but didn't say anything as he went back to watching the brawl. It looks like Ammine hadn't informed him about her yet.
When Kies got close enough to the demon king, he noticed that his aura felt different from before. It was still extremely powerful, but it also felt more aggressive and dangerous this time. What the demon from before said was true. Tornon was not in a good mood, though his face didn't really show it. He didn't look any different to Kies than when he last saw him. If not for the change in his magic aura, Kies wouldn't have been able to tell.
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