CHAPTER 100: RETURN

A few months after the con job started, Night had completely restocked his space rings and the bandits had enough supplies to last them years. It couldn't have been a more successful scam. They were basically rolling in riches. With Night serving as backup, the Noche Bandits could easily rob any of the caravans traveling between Manco Oasis and Nazca City. To help keep the focus off of Manco Oasis, they had even expanded their surveillance and managed to catch a few caravans headed to other oases.

However, even with the added resources and supplies, Night was more excited about several other outcomes of the caravan raids. The bandits had also used the opportunity to free another 100 or so slaves. The newly free men and women were quickly assimilated into the Noche Bandit group. They had also killed around 40 soldiers from Nazca City. While the numbers weren't large, Night considered any to be better than none.

But good things don't last forever.

Eventually, the Nazca City merchants had gotten aggravated enough by the bandit attacks that they organized three mercenary death squads to go round up the bandits. The death squads consisted of several low-level demigods lead by one high-level Demigod....and they were all people very skilled at hunting down others.

Much to Nazca City's disappointment, the bandits had completely disappeared after one big battle had wiped out an entire death squad. After that incident, no more bandit attacks occurred in the general area. Nazca City managers had been put on edge by the loss of a peak Demigod, but the misinformation and clues that Night had left at the scene had been enough to settle them down. After their investigation, the other death squads determined that the bandit attacks were actually a covert demon operation and that the demons had fled after surviving the attack. Given the current tensions, an attempted demon effort around Nazca City was to be expected.

Although the disappearance of an elite of Nazca City had caused a fuss, the hubbub began to settle down about two weeks later. Everyone seemed to have more important things to do. The only significant change was that patrols of soldiers began to grow more frequent around the desert surrounding the capital.

This incident had led to Night finding out some information that he couldn't have found otherwise. He learned some information about both the plague of the City of Southern Wind and the strength of Diego Family Demigods. Since Night had been on a search for information, he had interrogated practically anyone that seemed significant when he raided a caravan. So when the elites of the death squad were in front of him...he did the same thing. Surprisingly, the strongest death squad member had actually been a former guard at the Deigo Family's main compound and had all sorts of information.

The information included some hints about the strength of the Diego Family Demigods, but not just that.....The man had also heard about the poison that was spread in the City of Southern Wind from a close friend that participated in the attack. While the information wasn't much, Night did learn a key clue to how the poison was spread...and that information would be very helpful to the demons that tried to take back the City.

With the information that he gathered, Night could consider his mission to Nazca City a success. After relaying a bit of information back to the City of Setting Sun through his link with Famine, the Limim Clan had requested that he return as soon as possible to make arrangements for an upcoming attack on the City of Southern Wind.

Night was excited about the potential for battle, but he had a few loose ends to tie up before he could head back to the demon city.

First, he needed to find a really fast mount. Like a jackass, he had let the Khepri go without thinking of his future return. Sure an alloc would be fine to travel with, but he hadn't had good luck with one before.....and they were only about half the speed of a Khepri. He needed something quick so that he didn't spend a few extra months traveling. Eventually, he found someone that had one Khepri for sale...and he paid a large amount of money to purchase it. Night berated himself for lettting the other one go for several days.

Second, he wanted to make sure that Manco Oasis was being run properly. Night had grown a little attached to all the work that had gone into creating a fake identity in Mateo Manco. Distress had done a wonderful job at pretending to be Mateo Manco, so Night figured why not leave her behind in Manco Oasis to run the show. That way, he could get real-time updates on Nazca City through the soul link, keep everything continuing under control, and continue to help the Noche Bandits develop their power.

Night had brought Distress and the three other Keres to meet with the leaders of the Noche Bandits and soon an agreement was struck between everyone to continue the cooperative relationship despite Night's future absence. The whole arrangement was a pretty sweet setup in Night's opinion.....the only thing that it would cost him would be the lack of a few extra helpers. The tradeoff was more than worth it.

The three new Keres, Despair, Sorrow, and Gloom, were also staying behind with Distress. The three women seemed to have made Distress their defacto commander in their own little militaristic group. Initially, Night was going to put a stop to their weird ass behavior...but he decided to let them continue on in their ways. Night didn't really like managing people, so if Distress wanted to be the commander that kept the other troops in line.....Night would let her...He was always going to be the General anyway, so what did it matter if someone else managed the little stuff.

With all of the arrangements made, Night packed up his thing and began his journey through the desert to the City of Setting Sun.

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After months of travel, Night returned to the City of Setting Sun under the cover of darkness. As he made his way to his inside, he had noticed a few changes throughout the City of Setting Sun. Guards patrolling the city's defenses were in much higher number....at least double the amount of manpower. There were less people on the streets at night and more guards were patrolling around randomly. It really seemed like the City leaders had stepped up their security after the Diego Family's attack on the City of Southern Wind.

However, the added security measures meant very little to Night. With his skills, he slipped through the streets of the city without anyone really noticing his existence. He wasn't really doing this to be covert or sneaky. Night just wanted to get back without being harassed by anyone and this was the best way to achieve that goal.

Eventually, he had made it back to the gates of the Limim Clan at the center of the extremely large city. When he arrived at the gate, he stepped out of the shadows revealing himself to a startled group of guards.

"Stay on your toes. If I was from the Diego Family.....you'd all be dead and someone would be inside killing your families," Night said as he flashed his identification medallion.

The guards made a few promises to be more alert but were a little hesitant in dealing with Night. He had just appeared out of nowhere and most of them were still trembling at his verbal threat. The panicked guards gave Night a bit of a chuckle, so he assured them that he wasn't going to report them for a failure of duties. However, Night needed one of them to do him a favor. The guards quickly agreed and one man was soon running off to deliver a notice to the Countess' residence that Night had returned and was headed home for some rest.....he would be in touch tomorrow to discuss his findings in detail.

The whole scene was staged by Night so that he could get out of immediately undergoing interrogation by the Limim Clan leaders. He had been traveling non-stop to return to this city and just wanted to get a shower and rest.

From the guard station, Night quickly made his way back to his house within the heart of the Limim Clan. It had been over 6 months since he had last slept in his bed. It had also been 6 months since he had last seen Lili.....and he hoped that she had managed to get past of whatever phase she was in.

Quite honestly, he didn't really miss her....not at all. Sure he missed the occasional romp under the sheets, but he had learned one thing over this trip....he didn't have any feelings what-so-ever for the woman. He had assumed that most of his infatuation was due to her influence as a succubus and his weakness for good looking women.

On his return trip, he had thought over the entire situation and he decided that it was about time to come clean with Lili and set her straight on the relationship. He felt that his position in the Limim Clan was secure enough that not much would happen.....especially with an approaching attack on the City of Southern Wind. If worst came to worse, he could always bail and join up with the City of Rising Sun.....he wasn't hurting for resources at all and could just piggyback on their attack efforts if need be.

With all these thoughts going through his head, Night knocked on the door to the house. A few servants were quickly at the front door to welcome him inside. A few others scurried off to fetch Lili. It didn't take long before Night caught sight of the woman making her way to see him. But as soon as Night's eyes caught sight of her, he felt like he was paralyzed.

"My mate, welcome home! We are going to have a baby," Lili said as happily while flaunting her swollen midsection in what looked like a motherly maternity robe.

Night felt a painful shiver course through his body. He had experienced shocking moments in his life. But even his parent's death had been slightly less shocking than Lili's announcement.

"How....How the fuck can we have a baby? Your mom said that humans can't have children with demons," Night said as he began to snap out of his stupor. He was having a full blown panic attack.

"What are you talking about, Silly? My mom must have been messing with you. Are you not excited that we will be having a beautiful daughter?," Lili asked Night after seeing the look on his face.

"Daughter? You already know what sex the baby is going to be?," Night said still trying to wrap his head around the whole scenario. His mind was screaming. Everything he seemed to know was a lie.

"Oh, geez. You really are quite dim sometimes," Lili said a bit exacerbated, "I am a succubus. You didn't research your own mate when you were working away so hard in the study all that time? We, Succubi, only have daughters. Succubi are unique in the demon world. We find a mate and give birth to more Succubi...its what we do."

Night stood there as stiff as a board with his mind almost fracturing from the stress of the situation. Why the fuck didn't he do some more research? What the hell was wrong with him? He just took the Countess' word that this wouldn't happen. He was a fucking idiot.

He didn't know what to do. His mom had always wanted him to marry and bring over grandbabies, but now she was dead....and he was on another fucking planet. He hadn't even considered having kids before now. The thought had never really crossed his mind. He wasn't even really married.....this was some weird demon relationship that he wasn't even certain about anymore.....and now they were having a kid....and that kid was going to be girl....and she was going to be a succubus too.....Night knew what Succubi were like....and now his daughter was going to be one....

Night felt like his head was going to explode as a mix of panic and terror flooded throughout his body at the idea of being a dad....getting attached to Lili forever....and having a succubus for a daughter.