Dreadhoof floated above Nemus. The miasma in this part wasn’t especially thick. It appeared that wherever the elites of Nemus lived was mostly void of miasma, which made sense, I guess. “Is this one of the farms?”

“Yes, Great One,” the incubus next to me answered. Lilith so graciously let me borrow one of her more skillful subordinates, two in fact. On the next side of me was a succubus.

Male and female just in case, huh? The three of us were in my stealth spells, although as members of the Darkviper clan, I doubted they needed my help in that department. As for me, I needed them help to confirm the location of the Perseverance prisoners.

We hovered over the place, another magnificent estate of towers that felt like they were trying to compete with modern skyscrapers. Huge fiery skulls that represented their clan’s symbol was painted on almost all the buildings, so they were a proud clan. Lilith did say they were the most powerful clan in almost all areas. Their architecture, although similar to the Darkviper and Doomhorn clans, still amazed me due to their sheer size.

Well, the home of the clan master wasn’t my target this time; it was their farms. Unlike normal food, they forced their captives to use magic in order to produce whatever ambient manner they could siphon from them. These farms were like flats, and picked up a lot of real estate. We hovered over the farm of interest near the beach.

At that time of day, there weren’t too many demons guarding the place, just a few. And by a few, I meant a couple hundred of them. The place was swimming with fucking guards. If my jaw wasn’t attached magically, it would’ve probably fallen and smacked one of them in the head.

The succubus and incubus led the way down to an inside-man, or inside-demon perhaps, and only spoke to him after transforming themselves to look like Hellfire demons with enough rank to enter the farms. I stayed in stealth and hoped for the best.

“Open it,” the succubus said.

One of the demons who manned the door to the farm looked like he preferred to kill himself rather than talk back to a higherup, but he had to. “A thousand apologies, superior. There have been recent changes to security. All who enter and exit any farm must first inject just a snippet of their mana through this orb.” He held up a small black orb.

The succubus maintained her visage of lordliness. “I’ve heard of no such thing. And I will take no instructions from the likes of you. Now,” she joined her hands behind her back with the utmost composure and confidence, “I advise you open this door lest you want your brain matter splattered all over your little toy.”

The demon was shaking. This succubus, even at unexpected change of plans, stuck to her character, as did the silent and brooding incubus who stood next to her.

“R-right away, superior.” He opened the door.

When they entered, I stuck to them like glue. There was a demon with a large logbook sitting at a table inside. She looked to be seasoned at her job, but she still quivered upon seeing the Hellfire “superiors” suddenly walk in on her. The two guards with her kept as quiet as mice.

“We will inspect the recent prisoners. Key.” The incubus put his hand out.

The poor old demon tried her best to calm her wobbling knees and handed over a small silver plate to us. With that, we had full access to the farms. One floor underground were cells lining the sides of a hallway as long the eyes could see. The size of the farms from outside was rather misleading.

“Please start from the very end of the corridor,” the succubus suggested.

So, I got to work, only after I took my human form though. For the most part, the prisoners immediately took the portal I opened up for them without hesitation; no one wanted to be a prisoner treated like cattle by demons. Along my journey of liberating the captives, I constantly asked for Solina’s father. Even with description after description, no one I asked had seen him. I was beginning to grow worried.

But alas, someone knew something, apparently a coworker of his. The woman clamped her eyelids down in pain and shook her head. “He fought back on the way here and those fucking demons didn’t even hesitate!”

Fuck! Fucking hell! My heart plummeted.

She caressed her own forearm and tried to hold back her tears. “They, blew him apart. I couldn’t even recognize him. What will I tell Lina? He’s all she’s got!”

“I’m sorry. And, thank you for telling me.” I gestured towards the portal and she hopped into it after making a gratus. I paused for a few seconds to think about how I could possibly face Solina. She was a total daddy’s girl according to Adam. The shock reminded me that I might’ve been immortal, but my friends and their family were not. As much as this world had game-like elements for some reason, a death was still a death. There were no resurrection spells and no respawning.

The incubus laid a hand on my shoulder. “If I may, please, grieve another time. We stand against the clock in more ways than one.”

“Yeah.” I pulled myself together with a deep breath. “Yeah.” Alright, this is just too slow. I returned to the hallway, opened a portal to Perseverance, then opened nearby cells. They could get to the portal at a much faster rate that way, instead of individually opening a portal in their cells.

Thankfully, it went off without a hitch. We returned outside, gave the old bookkeeper her key back, and showed ourselves out. There weren’t any guards underground where the prisoners were kept, so there was no need to worry about being caught. Once all the prisoners were out as well as us three, I put stealth spells back on them and opened a portal to their hidden territory in the forests.

I returned to lich form and flew back to the fancy Hellfire towers. Honestly, I was tempted beyond belief to snap that tower in half with Hand of Winter or blow it to smithereens with Ray of Sol. But, that desperate look on Dion Doomhorn’s face as he tried to save his father irked me; no matter how vexed I was, blindly killing wasn’t the answer. My conscience was still alive and kicking.

I called it a day and returned to Lilith. When I got there, she was packing up her stuff desperately. “Good, you’re here!” She got on her knees again, even though she knew I wasn’t a fan of it. “P-please, Lich God Deidre,” she prostrated, “help my clan evacuate.”

I became stone. “Huh?!”