"Sir, we have apprehended some potential spies, they had this message from one of our agents," Said a certain lion headed demon to a shrouded demon that seemed to be the leader of this group. They were stationed in a cold stone room, furnished with only a Bloodred table, a lightly padded chair, and a blade propped against a wall; it seemed to be a place that one was not meant to grow attached to. "Let's see what it says then," he said, motioning for the letter to be handed to him. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at it 'It's encoded, not in a standard way either, but I think I recognize it' he thought. 'Ah, it's the 2back code, strange, let's see then' After some thought it looked like the leader finally understood what had been transcribed. "It appears that one of the vice generals of the infernal army will be coming on the next full moon, which happens to be tonight," "that's good to know, what shall we do?" After a second of deep thought the leader spoke again. "Which one of our agents was carrying this?" "we're not sure, we think he was someone from a different branch within the shattered world though," "any idea which branch" "No sir, the agent's face was unrecognizable and they had no Identifying documents or features on them." The leader sighed, "tell the men that we move as soon as possible, we must apprehend the vice general before anyone can figure out what is going on, make haste! And come back here when everyone is gathered" "yes sir!" and with that the Lion headed demon rushed out of the room. The leader stood up, pushing his chair out from under him as he walked over to the sword sitting in the back corner. Softly muttering, he said "hopefully we make some progress this time." He picked up the blade and after looking at it for a couple of seconds, he sat back down with it in his hands, and waited.
The Lion headed demon was walking quickly through the stone barracks that made up the headquarters of this branch of the demon army while shouting, "PREPARE TO MOVE, WE ARE LEAVING ON A MISSION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, GATHER AT THE ENTRANCE!!!" Scattered cries of "yes!" and "roger!" could be heard in response. He himself was going to grab his gear too. Before long he reached the end of the complex and stepped into his room. All the rooms seemed barren, as even this demon's room only had a small desk, a drawer, and some padding on the ground to serve as bedding. He grabbed a few things before leaving to return to the leader.
Demons were swarming about as he made his way back to the leader. He opened the door and the leader glanced up "Ready?" he asked, "Yes, we'll be at the entrance," responded the lion headed demon. The leader stood up and walked with the lion headed demon to the entrance of this complex, waiting for the men to gather. It only took a minute more before everyone was ready. Their force totaled 150 demons, average strength of a level 30, with the leader being around level 55. "QUIET DOWN NOW," The lion headed demon roared. The leader spoke up, "Today there is going to be a vice general of the infernal army arriving at the skyport, Daka and I will handle him while all of you capture his men! Today is a day where we make history! TODAY IS THE DAY WHERE WE CAPTURE A VICE GENERAL!!! LET'S MOVE, I'LL MEET YOU ALL THERE!!!" A brief cheer went up from the demons as they all dispersed. Daka, the lion headed demon and the leader were the fastest, pulling ahead of the others to arrive first and scout things out. The demon base was quite a distance from the port, so it took them half an hour of darting through the trees until they finally saw the docks and flying ships. "Good, they aren't here yet," Daka whispered. "Yes," the leader agreed. "Now we wait."
The other demons started arriving when the sun started to set, or rather, when the sky dimmed, as here there was no sun in sight. The stained slopes shared a moon with all the other islands that demons and infernals resided in. While a few knew the reason for that, no one really knew why the moon had a new to full cycle.
A horn blared in the distance, And all the demons looked up in anticipation. There was a reason they knew that the infernals hadn't arrived yet. All the higher ranking infernals had ships that were grandiose. Sails stretching a hundred feet into the air, thick metal scales covering the hull, dozens of mystical paddles on each side rowing with the help of no living creature. The ship appeared black in the dim light, Which is the color of any vice general ship. Now, the leader of this group had eyesight that far exceeded any human. So he was able to notice something, 'the ship isn't black' he realized. ' The faint torchlight on the ship was enough to let him see a color. That color was purple. 'The color of a general,' he thought with dread. 'Even if there were five of me we wouldn't be able to take one,' In a hoarse whisper he started to say, "Daka, we've been baited, tell the others and-" but he stopped, for as he looked around he noticed a beetle behind him. A very large bipedal beetle standing at a solid 7 feet in height. Thick purple plating covering every inch of his body, sharp pincers, short horns, and runic swirls inscribed upon his chest. Truly a sight to behold. Beneath this infernal lay a certain lion headed demon, crushed. "RUN!!!! WE'VE BEEN BAITED!!!" The leader yelled. "Oh we have no need for that," said the infernal in a cruel tone. "They would do that at the sight of your mangled bodies, but it does speed up the process," "Citlali, I didn't expect to see you here," the leader spat. "I was told you would be expecting a vice general so I'm not surprised, I didn't expect to see me here either though, I was only told this morning that I'd be on demon hunting duty." "I supposed I should thank you for giving my men a head start, even you won't be able to get them all at this rate," Citlali started to laugh a little. A weezing broken laughter typical of his kind, causing the leader's heart to sink. "Don't get our intentions wrong now, it's just easier to find your little hidey hole if any of them go back to it," "none of my men are that stupid," "you'd be surprised, this has worked like 5 times by now, anyway, my orders are to kill everyone that I come across, then we can pin the innocent deaths on you guys, pretty ingenious even if it isn't the most fun thing in the world, gotta make the queen happy though," "damn bugs, you'd even try killing the Infernal king if your queen wanted you to," Citlali chuckled, "you've gone a little too far now Bogdan," "HA! That's rich coming from you," "Any final remarks," "since you're being so kind why don't you tell me what you want with our base," Citlali sighed, "what use will knowing this be once you're dead, well anyway, you have quite a few of our spies captured i've heard, so we are going to rescue them. Most of them will likely be executed for unprofessional work conduct, but if they have a good enough excuse they might live… do you really think I don't see you fiddling with something behind your back," "worth a shot, you are an insect after all," "be that as it may I am not a bat. I hope this hurts," Citlali said as he began a strike aimed at Bogdan's stomach. "See you in a minute!!," Bogdan said quickly. He vanished just as Citlali's claws struck where he once was. "Yes, I will see you in a minute," Citlali said, "To think you'd be the 'stupid one' to lead us back to your base, HAHAHAHAHA," He said to no one in particular while laughing, "THE HUNT BEGINS NOW!!!!" He yelled into the now dark sky. A hubbub of joyfully buzzing wings could be heard as hundreds of infernals rose into the sky from their ship, which had just docked fully.
Bogdan appeared in his room unscathed, a teleportation artifact lay in his hands, seemingly barely intact. "One use left," he whispered. He shoved it into his pocket and bolted out the door. "ALL NON COMBAT MEMBERS GET OVER HERE NOW!!" There were a few people left at the base, the non combatants. These were the few cooks and people that tended to prisoners, among a few other people. In less than a minute all 9 had gathered. "If you want even a small chance of surviving, run or hide now, everyone else i'll explain what happened as fast as possible," Bogdan said. No one moved, everyone looked at him fearfully, "alright, then everyone with a family i'm ordering you to run for it." There were only 3 demons left now. "Alright i'll explain everything quickly."