Chapter 4: Determination
"LITTLE SELIANA!?" All four demon generals shouted in surprise. While everyone was too stunned to even move, Thornton was immediately the one to observe the female orc closely to see if she was telling the truth.
"Curly black hair? Check. Yellow eyes? Check." Thornton then flew behind the female orc and phased his head through her back armor. Seliana meanwhile was looking a little uncomfortable with the ghost staring straight through her.
"Ummm...Uncle Thornton.."
"A family insignia branded on her skin that is impossible to replicate?" The specter poked his head out. "IT'S HER!" He then surprised the princess by immediately pulling her into a hug.
"GAAAH! UNCLE THORNTON!" Despite having a big grin on her face, it was clear to everyone that Seliana was freaking out slightly. "STOP IT! YOU KNOW I HATE YOUR GHOSTLY HUGS! THEY FEEL REALLY WEIRD!"
"SHUT IT SQUIRT!" Thornton yelled back. "THIS IS PUNISHMENT FOR ALL THESE YEARS!" While Seliana was trying desperately to free herself, she didn't notice 2 more pair of arms had wrapped around the orc until it was too late.
"Ooooooh Seliana! It's so nice to see you again!" said Minerva.
"You've grown so big sweetie!" said Qree.
"Can't...breathe...!" The orc managed to squeak out. The three demons spent their time hugging the unfortunate orc and spouting all kinds of heartfelt nonsense that it wasn't until Dorma cleared his throat that they remembered where they were.
"It seems that my generals held some information from me." The demon lord raised his hands when he saw they were about to panic. "Though judging from how you all reacted to the orc princess, I can only assume you all had a good reason." The demons in the room looked down in shame for their actions while Seliana could only look on in confusion. Their heads immediately snapped up when they heard the sound of a chair moving.
"Let's rectify that, shall we Seliana?" said Dorma as he was offering the chair to the orc which had changed position to face the couches.
"It all started around 50 years after the humans defeated the Hell Knights...defeated the demon lord." begun Seliana. As of now, the orc had shed her armor and placed them to the side to be comfortable while telling her story. The rest of the demons, Dorma especially, looked to her with full concentration.
"My father, King Draken, assigned me and others to fish at the nearby river while everyone else focused on repairs to our town. It was supposed to be like any other day, I wake up, my father assigns me a task, I complete it, and I go to bed." Seliana gripped the armchairs tightly.
"...Then that witch came." Seliana hissed. "When I came back, I saw my people gathering in the center of my home, so I went to check it out. Right in the town square, I saw my father holding his prized mace in a threatening manner to an outsider. He was yelling at them to leave immediately and that the orcs have honored the treaty."
"Seliana..." Thornton interrupted. "Who...was this outsider, this witch?" Seliana looked at the ghost for a couple seconds before her expression turned into a glare.
"The witch...was that dark elf!"
"What do you want from us human!? Your kind has already taken so much from us, what more can you want!?"shouted King Draken.
"Hmph. I see that you demons still think elves and humans are the same." Olga huffed in annoyance. "No matter, what you think will have no effects on my plans."Draken immediately got into a combat stance and held up his mace. In unison, other orc men followed suit with their weapons of choice. Their eyes trained solely on the dark elf.
"Do really think the proud Orcs are just going stand by and let you do what you want.!?"
Olga's only response was to roll her eyes. In an instant, dark magic gathered around the tip of her staff and shot out into crowd surrounding her. King Dracken and every male orc in the village lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
"Like I said..." With a flick of her staff, the male orcs suddenly woke up and retrieved their weapons. The women and children could only look on in horror as their soldiers and King were pointing their weapons at them now.
"...it doesn't matter what you think. Now my orcs, KILL THE REST!"
"FATHER!"
"...All of them were under her command. Fathers, husbands, brothers, sons? They all threw themselves into the crowd and showed no mercy." Seliana continued. "I saw one of them even cut down a child and walk away like it was nothing."
Seliana sniffed, clearly trying to hold back tears. "I was the only woman who had any combat training in my home...and I was the only one capable of holding back the men while the everyone else escaped." She felt a cold hand hold hers in sympathy, but she continued on.
"I tried to avoid seriously hurting them...I tried SO hard, but they just kept getting back up, the dark elf would keep healing them, my people were getting slaughtered and-" The orc suddenly found herself in the middle of yet another hug from the specter and the succubus, but this one was more gentle than the last. Seliana could even tell that Thornton was trying to keep his energy low for her.
"Kid..." Thornton whispered. "...You already know it's alright to let yourself loose around us."
"So please..." added Minerva. "If you must cry, cry...we're here for you."
That looked like it did it for her.
The orc immediately wrapped her arms around Minerva and sobbed loudly into her shoulder. The succubus cringed slightly at the idea of having to clean her dress afterwards, but she banished that thought immediately to comfort the girl. Watching all of this go down right in front of him, Thornton nodded to Minerva and floated back to the others. While he wanted to comfort Seliana as well, there was only so much he could do when he phases through everything.
"So you four had no idea what happened to the female orcs?" Dorma asked quietly, doing his best not to interrupt the moment between the two.
"No, my lord." Jonah replied. "As per the agreement of our defeat, we had to cut off contact with the rest of our people. The status of the demons we knew has only been through rumors."
"That was why Minerva never knew about Oh-I mean the imp's actions until recently." Qree explained.
"I see...and what kinds of rumors did you hear about the orcs?"
"Female orcs became infertile; the male orcs set their sights on human women to repopulate. Eventually, the female orcs became extinct and the men had developed a taste for human women. The interspecies breeding resulted in brain dead spawn." Thornton then titled his head to look at Seliana, who seems to have calmed down a little and was now listening in on their conversation. "Of course, now we know that was all bullshit thanks to a certain someone."
The faces of every demon changed to that of anger when Thornton brought up the true culprit. They already hated humans with a passion, but to hear that the Dark Queen was solely responsible for crippling a species just added more fuel to the fire. Forcibly enslaving the men, have those same men attack their family and friends, and giving them no choice but to rely on humans to birth more soldiers. The horrible sins she has committed, and where is she now? The dark elf is most likely in some remote village enjoying her new life as a sex slave without a care in the world. Just thinking how blissfully happy she probably is at this moment made Thornton's metaphorical blood boil.
"Damn you Discordia." Dorma muttered. At that moment, he stood up from his chair and his black armor materialized on his body.
"Princess Seliana, I promise you that when I find that woman, I will personally execute her for her crimes." The orc looked like she was going to break down into tears again.
"Th-Thank you my lord." Minerva gave her a headpat that Seliana immediately leaned into.
"Yeah!" Qree agreed. "I say we find where she's being held right now and put the disgusting human down!" The rest of the demons were already nodding in agreement with the wendigo (who has already drawn her weapons out) before Thornton had to bring them back to reality.
"Whoa guys! I know Olga did something incredibly shitty, but let's just simmer down okay?" He turned to the demon lord.
"Dorma, it's great that you want to avenge the orcs, but your declaration still isn't going to get us out of our little situation." Thornton reminded everyone. "The barrier surrounding Eostia isn't going down anytime soon, and we don't even have an army to fight the humans while their guard is down."
Dorma rubbed his head in embarrassment, making his armor disappear in the process. "You're right, sorry. The humans still don't know they're cut off from the rest of the world, but they'll find out eventually. I wouldn't put it past Celestine to leave detailed instructions on how to deactivate the barrier that ends in my death."
"So what the hell are we going to do?" Minerva asked. "All of us are extremely powerful, but that's all we got for us right now. Without an army backing us-"
"Actually...I might have a solution to that." All heads turned to the orc princess. Seliana slightly flinched at the sudden attention, but continued anyway.
"Uncle Jonah, you said yourself that it's impossible for someone to just wander near here." The fallen angel nodded. "While I didn't know exactly what was in this mountain, I was drawn here by the sound of the war drums. Logically, one should assume that I wasn't the only one that heard it."
Thornton raised his eyebrow. "Seliana...are you saying..?"
Seliana nodded. "Everyone, if you could follow me back to my hideout, I can give you all an army to lead."
After that conversation, Thornton and the rest of the demons let Seliana take the lead on the way back to her original location. As they didn't have a warp array near the destination the orc had in mind, they all decided the best way to travel there was by air. At first, the demons were worried on how to accomplish this, as the only ones who couldn't fly were Qree and Seliana. No matter how powerful they are, even the demons had a limit on how long they could fly, and carrying two heavy people would drastically drain their stamina for the journey.
Fortunately, Seliana already had the perfect solution to their problem.
~Outside the tomb~
"IT'S SO CUTE!" Minerva squealed. "CAN I PET HER!? CAN I!?"
"Sure you-" She couldn't even finish her sentence before the succubus immediately dashed forward to pet the giant winged creature, who was taking the scratches under its chin with obvious glee. "...can. Please be gentle with her Auntie!"
"Seliana, is that who I think it is?" Thornton asked. "Last time I saw her she was just a hatchling." Seliana in response smiled which practically radiated confidence.
"Yup, despite my circumstances, the female orcs have done their damn hardest to keep our precious wyverns out of enemy hands. I made sure to give my little Albion in particular the best possible care." The orc boasted.
"Who's a cute little wyvern? Yes, you are! You are!"
RAAAAHHHH! The wyvern looked to be in absolute bliss as Minerva has now moved on to rubbing its belly. Thornton rolled his eyes at this, but he was still glad to see the succubus being genuinely happy again.
"Alright, Minerva. That's enough for now. You'll have plenty of time to pet Albion when we get to our destination." Jonah picked up the distracted succubus by the top of dress and dragged her away from the wyvern. Said wyvern whined quietly when it realized the petting session was over.
"Noooooooo! I want to pet her more!" Minerva whined. Jonah in response threw her off the cliff edge, her crying echoing off the mountain face as she fell down.
Dorma face palmed. "Jonah, was that really necessary?"
"She'll be fine, and you know we would've been here for hours if I didn't do anything." Jonah turned to the others, his black wings unfurling in the process.
"Princess, me and the others will go on ahead. Thornton, you'll stay by her side while she's carrying Qree." The specter nodded.
"Good." With that, the fallen angel jumped off the cliff and shot off toward the west, already becoming a small speck in the distance. Thornton could also see a black dot dashing towards him from underneath with small amounts of orange being shot from it.
Dorma groaned. "I'll make sure she doesn't kill him." The demon lord's cape suddenly split apart to form wings, and Dorma disappeared in the blink of an eye. The only ones left on the cliff now were Thornton, Qree, and Seliana. The orc clapped her hands.
"Alright! So, Auntie Qree, you have two choices for your arrangements." Seliana pointed at the saddle situated on the back of the wyvern. "You could sit directly behind me while I'm flying Albion." She then pointed at the creature's big claws. "...or you could let yourself be carried to our destination. Your choice."
"Thank you, Seliana. I'll take Option B." Seliana and Thornton raised their eyebrows.
"Really Qree?" Thornton asked. "You usually hate it when anyone of us carries you somewhere, so why-"
"Because I'm pretty sure your beautiful wyvern isn't used to having a 7 ft tall creature with extended limbs hanging off of him." When she said that, the wyvern gave off a small roar, as if it was confirming her reasoning. The specter and the orc gave each other a slight glance before they collectively shrugged their shoulders. Seliana quickly took her place on her mount and with a short command; the wyvern lifted itself off the ground and latched it's claws under the wendigo's shoulders.
Thornton just stared at the odd sight with a smile on his transparent face. The specter rose into the air as well until he was on the same level as the orc.
"Alright guys, if everything is settled. Let's meet up with the others."
~Desolate Mountain Summit, West of Eostia, an hour later~
It took quite a while, but Thornton and Seliana were finally able to catch up with the others at their destination, who they found situated on a nearby mountain peak with a campfire roasting several large pieces of meat. But that wasn't what got their attention.
"Guys...can you explain what that is?" Thornton asked his comrades while pointing his finger at the pile of human bodies that were manipulated in a way that left them in strange positions. Qree looked to be salivating at the sight from what he could see in his peripheral.
"Oh that? While we were waiting you three, these human women stumbled in on our temporary camp. It looked like they just escaped from the Black Dogs. Probably thought they could hide out here." Dorma chuckled. "How unfortunate..."
"Ok...but that still doesn't explain...THIS." Seliana gestured to one of the bodies of the women, who was laid on her side with her right hand resting on her hip while her left kept her head propped up. The seductive pose was greatly contrasted by the fact that her face was burned to the point where she practically didn't have face anymore. Albion tried to sniff it, but Seliana pulled the wyvern back.
"No Albion, you know human meat is bad for you." Albion whined in protest, but obeyed her master anyway. Seliana then took a seat next to Dorma who offered her a plate of meat to munch on. Qree quickly joined as well and furiously devoured her share of the meal. Looking at the collection of demons sitting around the campfire, Thornton noticed someone was missing.
"Where's Minerva?" Simultaneously Dorma and Jonah pointed up to a cliff above them and from what Thornton could see after he followed their direction...
"Minerva, what are you doing up there?"
"ART!"
"That doesn't look like art..."
"ART IS SUBJECTIVE!"
What the succubus was referring to as art was more like an amalgamation of various body parts being thrown around haphazardly. Heads attached to the neck stumps of other heads, torsos with extra limbs sticking out of places they really shouldn't, and various other combinations Thornton couldn't understand.
"What the hell is even the point of all this?" He called out. Minerva simply giggled.
"Well, considering the large amount of human women who managed to claw their way up here somehow, there has got to be a massive search party for them at this moment." The succubus tried to balance the head of a woman with red hair with obvious difficulty, who Thornton recognized as one of Alicia's former knights, but it toppled over and was about to fall to their level before Minerva quickly caught the stubborn head. "So when they eventually reach their way here, they're gonna be SOOOOO surprised of what they see! It's going to be glorious! HAHA!"
Thornton looked over to Jonah and just pointed at Minerva with a confused look on his face. Jonah just simply waved his hand to tell him that he should just let her have her fun. Thornton looked at him for a couple seconds before shrugging his shoulders and floating to his spot near the campfire.
"So Seliana..." Dorma began as he finished off his plate. "How close is this hideout of yours anyway?" The female orc quickly swallowed her meal and pointed at a forest near the base of the mountain.
"See that large forest down there? There's a cave deep in the woods that leads to a large collection of tunnels...actually, now that I think about it, I believe that cave system used to be an old weapon storage for the Hell Knights back in the day."
Dorma blinked and did a double take while looking at the forest. "Really? ...The area doesn't look familiar."
"It HAS been 5 centuries my friend." Explained Jonah. "Even the areas where you battled Olga and Celestine have regained their greenery. I wouldn't be surprised that there are a few weapon caches overtaken with nature." Dorma simply nodded and continued looking over the mass of green.
"You're right, and to be honest...that fact still hasn't really registered in my mind yet." Everyone around the campfire stopped what they were doing after hearing the sadness that came from Dorma's tone. Even Minerva seemed to have put her little art project on hold. Dorma stood up from his spot and slowly walked towards the cliff edge to look over the horizon.
"Do you all remember that day? The final battle between the Hell Knights and the Human Alliance?" Thornton and the rest of the demons nodded. No matter how many years passed since then, there was no way he could ever forget.
Entire plains, filled with the corpses of human and demon alike...
Both sides wanting nothing more than to kill each other...
And his near defeat that would've likely ended with his 2nd death... from the hands of thaT wRetCHeD-
He shook his head. 'Stop it Thornton, now's not the time to think about...H E R.' The specter felt Qree's hand fall on his shoulder in a comforting way. Thornton gave her a smile and mouthed a silent Thank you to the gentle wendigo. He then brought his attention back to the Demon Lord.
"We remember all remember it vividly, Dorma. Though...we still don't know what it was like on your end."
"..."
Minerva took this moment to fly down from her perch. "He's right. For the longest time...we thought you were dead. The man who united all of demon kind to fight the tyranny of humans vs the most powerful dark elf and reincarnated goddess. Exactly how did it go?"
"...Exactly how it went isn't important. Celestine and Olga tried one more time to end our conflict peacefully, but it was futile. That's all." Dorma responded. "What is important however is what Celestine said to me before she sealed me away in that tomb."
"I promise I will bring peace to human and demon alike." Dorma said in a mocking voice, and then he started laughing. "...and throughout her years of ruling, what has happened under her rule while I'VE been cooped up in a cave she put me in?"
"SEVERAL DEMONIC SPECIES EITHER ENDANGERED OR EXTINCT!"
"THAT TYRANT OLGA ENSLAVING MY PEOPLE TO DO THEIR BIDDING!"
"FORMER COMRADES FUCKING HUMAN WOMEN AND SPAWNING BRAIN-DEAD HALF-BREEDS!"
Dorma's prized battle axe materialized in his right hand in which he immediately used it to bring a lightning bolt down on a nearby tree below them, splitting it in half and absolutely scaring Seliana's wyvern mount. He then turned to face Thornton and the rest, clear anger showing in his eyes.
"The encounter with that I M P, the personal executions I've brought down on the traitors I've found, news that the orcs have been enslaved. I thought I was ready for all the changes when I exited my tomb, but I never would've expected things to be this bad."
"That's why I have decided..." Dorma's black armor materialized around his person, the red glow from the eye slot on the helm shined brightly. "...there will be no mercy this time. No prisoners, no slaves, ALL will be destroyed. Any demon that willingly joined the Dark Queen or the Black Dogs will be put down without hesitation!"
He then held out his hand to everyone in front of them. "My old friends, there will surely be familiar faces amongst the enemy. If you don't have the courage to face former family, then I would understand if you left this path now."
"Are you crazy man!? I didn't die the first time for nothing! There's no way I'm abandoning our cause!" Thornton yelled, and he wasn't the only one.
"Dorma sweetie, do you really think some ex-friends are enough to drive me away?"
"Mmmmm...to be honest, I was never really close to anyone other than...him so I think I'll be fine."
"I owe you my life my lord, I will stand by your side matter what path you take."
"As long as my father and the rest of my people are saved, I will cut down our enemies!"
Despite being covered in armor, Thornton could tell Dorma was smiling underneath that helm of his. "Hmph. I thought as much, but I just wanted to make sure before we meet up with those demons Seliana told us about." With that said, the demon lord snapped his fingers and all evidence of their camp (minus the bodies) were erased from the face of the earth. His cape then immediately morphed into a pair of wings.
"Well then...shall we meet our comrades now?" said Dorma, and then everyone took off towards the forest.
Well almost everyone.
"Minerva? The hell are you doing?" Thornton asked. He was just about to fly off to the forest when he realized the succubus hadn't even unfurled her wings yet. When he looked at what she was doing, he saw her still messing with the various body parts.
"Quiet Thornton! Just give me a sec!" Thornton had no idea what she was doing to the bodies until he heard her muttering something under breath, then the body parts gave off a bright red light for a good few seconds before disappearing.
"...Did you just-" The specter didn't even get to finish his sentence before Minerva shot past him and finally started her flight towards the forest.
"Just decided to give those humans a bonus to their original gift! Come on already!" She yelled back to him. Thornton looked at the body parts for a few more seconds before letting out a hefty sigh and jumping off the cliff to join his friends.
'Note to self: Come back here in a couple hours to clean up the mess.' He thought.
~Forgotten Forest~
Thornton wasn't a stranger to forests, but he wasn't exactly a fan of them. Even now as a ghost, he still found it a little unnerving walking through the trees that were currently blocking out all forms of sunlight. Despite being friends with an ACTUAL WENDIGO, he couldn't stop his nerves from being on edge as he kept feeling like something was watching his group as Seliana led them to the cave. He remembered all the warnings his father gave him when he was alive that evil demons would drag him away into the forest near his home if he wandered too far from the house.
Of course that was all a lie that he made up so that he could keep him away from any prying eyes that could possibly see the personal hell that his father put him through every day. Those "evil" demons that he constantly spouted on and on about ended up saving him after that bastard quite literally stabbed his own child in the back. Thornton smiled as he remembered that day; he can still vividly hear his screams as they tore him apart.
"Hey Thornton?"
Thornton's mind was brought back to the present as he looked back over his shoulder. "Hm? What's up Jonah?" The fallen angel shrugged.
"Nothing important, it's just that neither of us have had time to properly talk to each other over things with just the two of us...and while we're walking through this forest, I'd thought it be best to do so now."
Thornton raised his eyebrow. "What are you talking about? We've had plen-"
"Also to help distract you from the fact that we're being followed." Thornton's eyes immediately widened and in response, he used his powers to detect the stalkers...
...only to find absolutely nothing. The specter groaned and glared at Jonah who had a small smile on his face.
"You're an asshole."
Jonah chuckled. "I'm sorry, it's been so long time since I messed with you like that I just couldn't resist. Would've done so sooner, but we were all obviously busy, I felt it would've been inappropriate to do so."
"Not sure if I should be happy or severely annoyed that your sense of humor hasn't changed after all this time." Thornton said with an eye roll. Jonah could only shrug, but he could still see the smug grin on his face. The two continued their walk through the forest for a while, slightly lagging behind the group, talking about various topics. Jonah would occasionally crack a joke, much to the suffering of Thornton, but it served to bring a laugh to the other demons.
Their conversation eventually drifted to the topic of interesting events that happened to them after the war, which interested the other members of the group so much, they joined in as well. The post war era wasn't happy topic for any of them, but it felt nice for everyone to socialize again.
"So many demonic spirits couldn't find peace after the war." Thornton said. "After Dorma's supposed death, most of them became consumed with so much anger and grief towards the humans that they ignored my warnings and assaulted Ken in hopes to avenge him." He sighed, thinking back to that day.
"All I could do was watch as Celestine and her followers performed a mass exorcism on them and banished the spirits from this plane of existence. All I could do was watch...and hear their screams." The rest of the specters comrades could only look to him with sympathy. He continues to speak.
"I have never felt so powerless until that day. I...I just hope that things will be different this time. That we as demons learned from our mistakes in the past, and will use those as lessons in the future." By that point, Seliana decided to cut in.
"Well, I think you'll know the answer to that question very soon." She said. "...We're here." The party stopped in their tracks and looked to where the orc was pointing. To the untrained eye, there was nothing more than an endless sea of trees blocking their view. But as they looked closer, the demons could see the barely visible outline of a cave opening with guards posted in the front of it.
To Thornton, it seemed like Seliana's theory of it being an old weapon storage during the war was right, as while the emblem seemed to have faded from time, he could still detect where it used to be due to the magical signature on the wall above the cave opening. Flexing his magical talent a little, he manipulated the residue to reform the emblem, not only to reclaim it as theirs once again, but to also scare the guards that clearly had no idea what was going on.
By the time the emblem became fully reformed, a human skull with a knife stabbed into it, the guards finally noticed the party.
"Halt! Who goes there!?" A feminine voice came from one of them. Both of the guards looked ready to fight immediately until Seliana dashed forward to meet up with them (but not before shooting a glare to the ghost) All Thornton could do was shrug.
"It's alright! They're with me! Put your weapons down!" She said quickly. The guards sighed in relief and laid down their arms.
"Oh good, it's just you princess." Said one of the guards. "Sorry about that, lots of things have happened since you left, everyone's a bit on edge." Seliana nodded.
"I understand, and we will go over what has been happening in my absence, but right now, I want one of you to go ahead and tell everyone inside to gather in the main area of the cavern." Seliana turned to look back at her party. "I was successful in my mission."
The guards eyes widened as they looked at their present company. One of them gave a salute and immediately dashed into the cavern. Seliana motioned to them to follow her inside. As the group of demons walked forward, the guard that was left behind took Thornton's hand. Or at least attempted to, but it still managed to get his attention..
"Ummm..Are you the Vengeful Specter, Thornton?" He nodded.
"Indeed I am, what do you need?" The guard didn't say anything at first, but instead took off their helmet to reveal the face of a heavily scarred female orc.
"Can...can you help us?"
Looking at the amount of damage the female orc had on her face, Thornton's eyes narrowed, trying to imagine the amount of trials and tribulations this orc, Seliana, and others had gone through after all this time. Just what sort of horrors did the Dark Queen inflict on these people, and potentially others?
As the specter nodded and turned to continue his way through the cave with his friends, the image of the orc shedding tears of happiness will forever burn into his memories.
AN: Welp. Finished this chapter, but I can't say I'm exactly proud of it. Little bit of procrastinating, and a little bit of thinking WAY too far in the future of this story when I should be focused on paving the road to those future events. Oh well, hope you guys enjoyed it nonetheless, let me know what I need to improve on, etc.
Next chapter: The human protagonist of this story