“Sir! A squad of Paladins has breached the walls!” A soldier frantically reported to his commanding officer, trying to catch his breath.

“Damn! This is the last bastion of demonkind! We can’t fail here, or those elves will exterminate us all! Why do those damned humans refuse to pick a side?” the commanding officer began to lament.

“Your order, sir?” The soldier asked in an attempt to help the commanding officer regain his composure.

“Pull back and refocus all our defenses on the summoners. We are going to place our future with them. If they can summon something powerful, just maybe…”

“Yes Sir!” The soldier saluted with his fist to his chest, and briskly ran in the direction of the battlefield messengers. Soon, all the defensive forces were retreating towards the castle keep. As they reached the keep, they took defensive positions within and without the structure. The commanding officer sought the summoners that were within the keep.

“Dulgoth! How much longer?” the commander called out to the head summoner, hoping for good news.

“Just a bit longer… Perhaps five minutes, commander!” Dulgoth called back as the sounds of battle began to resound outside the keep.

“Hurry! Five minutes may be too late! The survival of all demonkind rests in your hands!” The commander urged the summoner to hurry the process.

Soon the keep doors were shattering and splintering under the assault of a battering ram. The latch that kept the keep doors solidly locked together gave way first, and the keep doors swung open wide. elves heavily armored in full plate, carrying tower shields, maces, and spears swarmed into the keep.

“Damnable elves!” The commanding officer immediately took charge in directing his remaining forces inside the keep to repel the paladin elves. For every single elf that fell, five demons would fall with it. Dulgoth felt the urgency and rushed to finish the summoning process as the paladins slowly carved their way through the defending forces.

“Almost…”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scio Umbra (Kage) POV:

I accepted the request I held to answer a summon. I surfaced from a pool of darkness centered in an archaic looking circle of some design. Before me was a battle, fully armored creatures with pointy ears slaughtering creatures with varying appearances, such as skin color, horns, tails, and wings.

“Please! Please aid us, dark one!” A creature with horns and red skin kneeled before me, hands clasped and tears streaming down his face. The script in my head said that I was supposed to slaughter everything in this area for the impudence of those that summoned me, but I also held the information that it would greatly upset the balance of this world. If I were to slaughter the pointy eared ones, balance would be returned, but it deviated from the script.

‘Well, I already deviated from the script once after all.’ I made my decision.

“I will aid you this time mortal, but you can not summon me again without a summoned being to face. If you do, you will doom all those who seek help.” I gave him a light warning while accepting his request. I alluded to the fact that it was ok to summon me to fight another elemental such as myself. It was a common occurrence among worlds that summoned elementals.

“Thank you! Thank you!” The creature said with more tears in his eyes.

A dagger of shadow materialized into my hand. It was a weapon I was familiar with, and when I thought of fighting, that is what appeared. I slithered forward smoothly, levitating inches above the ground.

I intercepted the nearest pointy eared creature, deflecting his spear thrust from impaling a creature I assumed was the race of the one who summoned me. The pointy eared one let out a gasp of surprise, and abruptly charged forward with its tower shield, meaning to bash me with it.

I blended with the shadows in the truest sense, sinking into the shadows cast by the setting sun. The pointy eared one stumbled forward and looked around in confusion. As he searched, I rose from its very own shadow, and plunged my dagger into the space protected only by chainmail under its left armpit, aiming for its heart. My dagger of shadow easily sliced through the chainmail as though it were parchment.

The pointy eared one collapsed as I removed my dagger, looking for the next opponent. There were far too many to slay in order to save these mismatched creatures. I had to do this in a faster way… Then a piece of knowledge came to my mind.

I split into two of me. I was both, yet neither. I was fully in control of the both of ‘me’ individually. It was a very strange sensation. Both of me divided again, then again, and yet again. Soon I had my own army of shadow ‘me’. I used very similar maneuvers with every ‘me’ that I had used on the first pointy eared one. With one ‘me’ I chose to test the strength of the dagger, and thrust it into the chest plate of a pointy eared one.

The knife tore through just as easily as it had the chainmail. Discovering that the pointy eared one’s armor was no more than cloth before my daggers, I began piercing multiple vitals that were normally covered by such armor. The pointy ears began to fall quickly, the slaughter now reversed.

Eventually a horn sounded at the back of the few who remained, and they fled with an uncanny swiftness for being fully armored and heavily equipped.

I brought all of ‘me’ back together and I coalesced back into one being. ‘This could be useful for multitasking’ I thought to myself. With this, I could probably manage multiple requests at once.

After I had coalesced into one being, the creatures I had saved began to surround me, whispering amongst each other. The one who initially summoned me approached and continued spouting his profound thanks.

“If you truly wish to thank me, then worship the Goddess of Darkness, Obscura. Do this, and the darkness will forever be your ally.” I told him with a sudden inspirational thought. If Obscura received more power, maybe she will be happy. At that, I sank back into the shadows to return to the Unseen Maze.