Demon Continent Alsace in 291 after the Shattering of the Empire

At some distance from the camp of the Cikarti, the forest was bathed in a dazzling light.

Trees and bushes standing around a small clearing were scorched, the smell of ionized air hung over the whole scene. On the ground in the circle of this burnt vegetation lay a body.

In the clearing and the forest around it, everything had come to a standstill, not that Daemon could have heard anything of it. He couldn't even hear the thunderstorm anymore. A side effect of a hasty teleportation.

His senses would need some time to get used to the world around him again.

With some strength, he managed to turn onto his back, and the cold wet of the rain was already pelting his face. His skin, still irritated from the teleportation, welcomed the cooling from the rain.

Shivering, he raised a hand to look at it in the dim light of the lightning and the moon. The light conditions were not good, yet he could see what had happened to his hand and parts of his forearm.

Both had turned to stone, just as his men had turned to stone beside him.

This must have been the power of which Meinoume had spoken, but he did not know from which of the children it emanated. He had only looked into the slitted pupils without perceiving anything else. Also, a dimness had settled over his mind, which had made it difficult for him to think.

After finding the priest and questioning him, he had found out that something had happened to the priest while marking the children. He had not been able to find out more, because, after only a few moments in which they had been able to exchange information, more guards had already arrived. Probably to guard and protect the priest. Thus he had had to make his escape. He thought the priest could be saved later if he had to be saved at all.

Meinoume seemed to have other plans for the priest.

So he had made his way to the wagon with the children, which was already attacked by his men. In the confusion of the general fighting, he had sneaked behind the enemies, along with a single aide, to take the children hostage. From that point on, he no longer knew what had happened.

He tries to remember it several times, but the only thing that kept coming back to him were the slitted eyes.

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If he had had the opportunity or the talent, he would certainly have noticed the pair of eyes that followed him out of the darkness of the undergrowth. But as it was, he never realized he was being followed.

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She groaned as she hoisted the last fallen man up onto a cart, promptly, after he was on top, she dropped onto her butt and tried in vain to catch her breath.

Sia did the same a few meters in front of her. They both, like everyone else, had been given the task of recovering the bodies and preparing them for removal. Like all the others, who could rest before the fight.

Everyone was still tense, the only good thing that seemed to lift the spirits a little was that they had not hurt anything, at least nothing that could not be healed, and that nothing had happened to the children.

They had only heard the noise of the fight but had seen nothing, the two enemies who had rushed into the wagon had fallen over backward to the outside a few moments later. Whereupon one of them seemed to have used a teleport, while his colleague had crashed to the ground on impact. This they knew more from Naima and the fighters who had accompanied her. Because the tarpaulin in front of the wagon entrance had fallen again when the enemies fell down behind. This had spared the children the sight.

After that, they had immediately taken care of the bodies, because Dikili Tash was only a few kilometers away and they wanted to try to reach it that night. To prevent further attacks.

"That was the last one." Broke out Sia between big breaths. "Why do we even need to load them up. Let them be eaten by wild animals and monsters."

"You know very well why we're taking the bodies to show to those in charge in Dikili Tash." She had to pause to catch her breath further. "I also suspect it's related to possible orders from the city itself. So we can say with certainty that we've already taken care of the prowler problem." She put a hand on her chest to reassure herself that her heart was calming down.

She looked around, the world, was still bathed in darkness from the thunderstorm. The forest seemed even darker than it already did. The only good thing was that she could not yet detect any glowing pairs of eyes in it. According to the lack of a warning signal, none of the guards had noticed anything similar. They had been instructed to watch for animals and monsters in the forest. If any were seen, they would leave immediately. Without further loading the bodies.

"Come, we should go back to our wagon and prepare to continue our journey." She stood up and extends a hand to Sia to help her. The latter accepted her hand gratefully but did little to help her stand up. Sia was always burnt out after a fight, which had to be because of her core. Which was smaller than the other Cikarti, which had caused problems for Sia in the past. However, with the years she had known her, she had come to terms and learned to live with it.

"You just want to get too little Cali." Which she punctuated with a nudge in her side. She swatted at Sia's hand after a yelp.

"Yes and no. I want us to get the hell out of here, I'm not comfortable with this whole thing. You saw the traces of teleportation, who knows what other surprises await us if we stay here longer."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah it's alright. We'd better hurry up then." She thought she heard Sia mutter "you're right." With that they let one of the guards know and headed off to their wagons.

"Your fear that Agenor wouldn't protect the little children was confirmed as unfounded today, after all." Sia seemed to think about an answer for a moment, then nodded.

"Yes, that's true. Possibly I had misjudged him." After that, they walked on in silence to their car. Each absorbed in his own thoughts. The thunderstorm seemed to be weakening, which was good for them all. The rain had probably already turned the road into a muddy slush, through which it would only become more difficult to reach Dikili Tash.

After reaching their wagon, they didn't have to wait long before the order to proceed came from the head of the column.

Slowly the column of wagons began to move, with time it became more and more difficult to see anything as the moon was obscured by the clouds of the thunderstorm. In addition, they were constantly delayed because one of the wagons got stuck in the mud.

The only good thing was that after a few hours of toil in the dark, the moon appeared from behind the clouds. Thus the visibility became better, but not the mud. Also, there had been instructions that no magic or arcane energy of the body was used. The strongest among them had to take it easy, while the weaker ones could drag the wagons out of the mud.

While this was good insofar as it ensured that the strongest of the group could rest, it only caused them to lose their numerical superiority. In addition, there were all the injured who could not help, so everyone who could help was ignoring the orders of Panos and Naima.

Everyone just wanted to get to the city as quickly as possible, and hopefully to safety.

As it began to get brighter at the edges of the sky, they could see the lights of Dikili Tash. As if spurred on by this, they all gathered their strength once again and doubled their speed to reach the city even faster.

Dikili Tash was a city surrounded by mountains. Only from their direction could it be reached without crossing mountains. From all other directions, one had to force oneself over narrow and dangerous mountain roads. On which, time and again, even experienced guides lost their lives. If the road itself did not kill you, the animals and monsters would.

Thus Dikili Tash lay before them surrounded by a black high wall, from which in regular intervals pointed towers rose against the sky. It always reminded her of the mouth of a hole beast, which killed anyone who stepped into its maw. A worm that camouflaged its mouth as an entrance to a cave and ate unwary prey that got lost in its maw. Probably the wall and its towers reminded her of it because this worm or hole beast lived around Dikili Tash and is also called Dikili Tashworm by the local population.

On their way to the city, they crossed the fields that were laid out around Dikili Tash and guaranteed a long and clear view of any enemy approaching Dikili Tash from its only good side.

The gates of the city had opened with the rising of the sun, crowds of demons poured out of them. Some to pursue their work outside the city in the mountains or in the fields, others to offer their warrens and services.

The first wagons had arrived at the city gate by now, she couldn't see what was happening, her wagon was too far back for that. Not that she needed to see it to know what was being discussed between Panos, Naima, and the guards at the gate.

After a few moments, they moved on and in the next moment, all the wagons had passed through the city gate of Dikili Tash.

The city itself, like its walls, was constructed of a dark stone. What the city only benefited, because the winds, which prevailed here, were quite cool and the stones were heated by the sun.

"Do you hear them?" She had to smile. Dikili Tash was known as a black sound play. Wind chimes made of various materials hung everywhere in the streets. Which threw plays of lights on the black walls of the houses and reflected back from their colorful windows.

"Yes at last in Dikili Tash." She heard a sound behind her. She turned, only to see Cali looking at the world with wide interested eyes.