With their cover blown, Lisa and the army flew down to meet the waiting enemies.
Upon closer inspection, Canis realized he had seen these demons before as well as their supposed leaders riding the dragon.
However, his gaze soon settled on a beastkin woman that he had clearly never seen before, yet was eerily familiar.
The more he looked at her rage filled expression, the more a single name came to mind.
“Bekka?”
Once the rest of the tribe heard him call out his daughter’s name, they all hesitated as they scoured the sky looking for her.
Suddenly, all of the wives leapt from atop Lisa’s back and landed on the ground a fair distance away from the defending forces.
With 1,000 demons hovering in the sky, the Osa tribes measly 50 warriors made their preparations seem like gross overkill.
Zibel began to feel like he’d been caught with his pants down and grit his teeth in anger.
Even with extra reinforcements inside of the base, he only had half as many as this enemy force.
So that left him with only one option.
Seeing how the army was led by demons, Zibel believed he may be able to bargain with them if he played his cards right.
“Hey, hey, ladies! Why don’t we… talk…”
Soon his eyes landed on a woman who appeared to be human, yet her dense and powerful muscles denied that possibility.
It was then that he saw it.
On her exposed abs, there was a tattoo that he would recognize even if his eyes were closed.
It was the same one that his organization used to brand all of their ‘merchandise’.
He did not remember the menacing and beautiful woman but with one look into her eyes, he knew she remembered him.
Immediately all of his hopes for a peaceful resolution went out the window.
“Canis, kill as many as you can and I’ll triple your pay!” Zibel slowly began to back away and make his way back into the fortress.
Unfortunately, the warwolf chief sheathed his sword.
He was not stupid.
It was easy for Canis to see that all of his men would be annihilated if they chose to go on the offensive.
He would not see his entire tribe destroyed over meager coins. “Sorry, Zibel. You’re on your-“
“Are you.. working with them?” Bekka suddenly asked.
Canis looked at the girl who was supposedly his daughter and sighed. “Not anymore. You’re welcome to do whatever you like with him.”
“Canis you filthy demihuman son of a bitch!” Zibel roared.
The beast men surrounding him began to form a circle, leaving him completely exposed.
Canis ignored his taunts and instead continued to address his daughter and her friends. “Would you mind hurrying though? If you don’t do it, I think I might.”
Valerie looked overjoyed that things had turned out this way, however Bekka was noticing a certain irregularity among her tribesmen.
With Canis’ confirmation that he was indeed working for Emperium, it wasn’t hard for her to connect the dots.
“You… disgust me..” Bekka muttered.
Evidently, the other wives came to the same conclusion as Bekka and they were all giving Canis the same hateful glares.
Even with anger clouding her mind, Valerie still remained aware of the difficulty of this situation “Bekka, I…”
“It’s fine, Val. Just give the order.” Bekka growled.
These men were no longer her kin.
As far as Bekka was concerned, they deserved everything they were going to get.
Assured that Bekka was alright with their course of action, Valerie finally gave her first order as leader of an army.
“Wipe them out. Bring me the human.”
“RAAA!!”
As soon as the word’s left Valerie’s mouth, Bekka was the first to make a move.
The hellhound shot forward like a bullet with her claws aimed directly at her father’s throat.
By some miracle, Canis was able to narrowly sidestep her attack despite being caught off guard by her impressive new speed.
“How can you lot let one of our queens make the first move?! Bring these wolves down!” Stheno roared angrily at the rabisu in attendance.
The battle was over in an instant.
After eating the corpses of the phoenixes, the ancient demons’ speed and lethality gained a monumental boost.
Heads were pierced, hearts were pulled out and blood flowed like water onto the stony surface below.
Zibel was personally brought by Stheno right to Valerie’s very feet.
‘Husband is so paranoid… 1,000 soldiers was a bit too much.’ Lailah thought with a smirk.
“NOOO!” Canis was heartbroken.
His tribesmen, his sons, his brothers they were all killed before they could even put up a fight.
They died more disgracefully than dogs on the street!
How could he call himself their leader if he did not avenge them?!
Canis’ body began to glow, and in a moment, there was a massive silver fox with nine swaying tails.
“Lisa… help Bekka with this, the rest of us are going inside.” Valerie said as she grabbed Zibel by the neck and started forcing him to walk towards the entrance to the fortress.
“Got it.” Lisa shrank back down to her regular appearance and summoned her golden trident.
“Get your hands off me you manly bitch!” Zibel struggled with all of his might but how could he as an unevolved manage to escape Valerie who was stage two.
Evidently, Valerie eventually got tired of his pointless struggling and gave his neck a small squeeze.
Crack!
“Ack!”
“Stop talking and lead us to the farm.” Valerie ordered.
The human nodded furiously from within her grasp as he slowly started walking towards the entrance.
‘…I’m not manly…’ Valerie didn’t have very many insecurities, but that comment seemed to strike a bit of a sore spot.
As the army marched on the waiting fortress, Lisa and Bekka stayed behind to combat the rampaging fox.
–
The inside of the Emperium base was like a maze. Such a design was intentional for the purpose of making sure that any would be liberators were never even able to get outside the building.
Valerie politely asked her hostage to lead them towards the area where they kept their products and farms.
At first he was less than cooperative but another well placed squeeze on the neck was enough to persuade him.
Of course, he led them into several ambushes along the way and more than a few of his hired hands came to free him.
Stheno put them down before they could even come within ten feet and in the end they served no more purpose than to give the walls a fresh coat of paint.𝑜𝚟𝔩xt.𝒞𝐌
Eventually, the army marched into a huge room with cages lined on one side and women in chains in another.
As far as the eye could see there were women of various different races and ages with equally dead eyes.
At a glance one could see dwarves, phoenixes, warwolves, and various beastkin. Their numbers totaled out to roughly 400.
Lailah noticed that Valerie’s eyes had become hazy and unfocused and followed her gaze to the cages on the other side of the room.
A small soft hand on her shoulder spurred Valerie from her melancholic memories.
“Are you alright, Val?”
“I’m alright, Lailah.” Valerie lied while showing a very convincing smile.
In truth, there was no way she was going to be completely fine.
How could she be when she was seeing her home for the first time in over twenty years?