Chapter 12

Trace was tempted to leave immediately. But it looked like she still had a few days to spare, as what looked to, easily, be tens of thousands of troops, in a march, on a b-line for Ever-frost. She could see several banners depicting a golden star, on a pure white flag. The banner for the legion of the light. A banner that was only ever hoisted during a crusade.

After Trace's initial shock, she skipped straight to a white-hot blinding rage. Talks had been transpiring for hours, before she was aware enough to hear anything.

"That monster can mind her own land, we all have a much bigger problem. Six of those damned legions are headed south. Besides, they're days away. The fastest here would take a week, minimum, and they would arrive alone. They might win in the end, but the damage will have already been done." Trace laughed in reply. She really had the worst of luck. "Oh, did you decide to finally join us here."

"Don't test me!" She hammered her fist down onto the table, which surprisingly did not damage it. The feet of the table, however, sunk into the ground a little. "I don't need a week, and I'm leaving now." A few laughed in response. Everyone present knew that no one could leave… here…

Almost everyone looked at the open hidden door at the same time. Maybe she had a way out, but she also said that she did not need a week to get there. While Trace had a bit of a bloody past, no one had heard of her causing any issues, in recent memory. Meaning, there was nobody present to have seen her capabilities with her ninth tail being gained. For whatever reason, there had even been word spreading of her having mellowed out – that rumor was the foundation behind Asmeus' Earlier stupidity.

"That door only leads to a library I'm afraid, but even then…" The helmeted figure had, at some point, removed his helmet, as Trace had discovered at that moment. Her first thought was that he looked human, but there was nothing human about his smell. The look in his eyes made him look dead inside, as no light seemed to reach his grey-washed blue eyes. Otherwise, he looked surprisingly young, with his skinny neck muscles, implying his possibly being tall and lanky as well, not bulky.

After pushing her seat back, Trace walked towards the supposed library. Only, the door shut upon her getting near it. With a "Tch," she clicked her tongue and stopped walking. "Fine then, I'll let you watch."

"Before you go, I want to offer a hand, a proposition of sorts." The armor cladded figure stood up and walked over to Trace. "Sign a pact with me, and I will take you there. Afterwards, I will even aid you, as we have a common enemy."

Vivian, who was the second oldest, and daughter of the vampire to have originally signed the very pact that Trace was just offered, violently stood up, throwing her chair behind her. She was clearly not the only one angry, as each of the five families tied to the demon lord stared them both down.

"Sit down Vivian." The red dragon from before had spoken up and continued before the vampire could complain. "She's right to be angry, however. What in the he –"

Vivian fell to a knee as the dragon in human form quit talking. The no-named demon lord had simply held his hand up, and then they had complied. It was not that he forced them to, but what he had presented to them. His gauntlet dissolved into smoke, which revealed his bare palm that had a solid black eye embedded in it.

Only the vampire queen and the red dragon king were old enough to know what that eye meant, and with its appearance they ceased all arguments. That garnered everyone's attention.

"Serve me as queen of the wastes, and you will not have to face the humans alone." Unsure as to why, Trace stopped what she was about to do, and listened.

"To what end?" Trace took a single step backward as she spoke. Her stomach had twisted itself into the gordian knot, and she could feel the blade drawing near.

"To whatever end that you seek." Matching her, he took a step forward. "You misunderstand the role that I play in all of this. I do not seek war. What I seek is peace, true peace. Unfortunately, that will require some blood to be shed, and lives lost, on both sides.

"I believe that I seek the very thing that you do, for places like your home to exist everywhere. To get to that, we must first make it through that wall," pointing at the floating image, he finished with, "together," as he clenched his outstretched hand into a fist. The eye closed as he made a fist but seemed otherwise unphased.

Trace felt stretched, pulled, taught between two simple choices. Yes or no. Even if she left now, and managed to slaughter all of them, that still left seven legions to potentially converge on her. The thought frightened her like no other, as Lita and little Roe, the girl's son, came to her mind. That was the deciding factor. She had no hope of protecting them, not by herself anyway.

"What do I have to do?" Again, she felt numb, as she fought to dam her tears. Trace wanted to disappear. She had just agreed to sign her life away. She had just agreed to go to war, with the church of light, with the human nations that supported them, and worst of all, the heroes, and her friends from her time before this world, the life before this life. But Trace would sooner burn it all to the ground, than watch her home fall.

Trace was absolutely certain now. Her gut was right, as always, about the demon lord. He really was bad news. Everyone else had immediately broken into scattered conversations, before the red dragon king slapped the table, and commanded everyone to, "be quiet!"

After an appreciative nod, the armored figure continued, "Simple. Hold up your hand." When she did, he interlaced the fingers of his hand, with the embedded eye, with Trace's, before saying something in a language that she did not recognize.

Trace's head felt hazy, like she was high or had taken a strong pain reliever. Then Trace felt like she was about to black out, which caused her to stumble. A few went to laugh but stopped when they noticed everyone else staring at them. "What… are… you…doing…" Something felt wrong, but she could not place it, until she noticed the searing pain at the base of her neck.

Trace's strength started to come back to her, as the butler helped her to her feet. When the armored figure released her hand, the name 'Lionel' flashed in her mind. When she looked up, she could see him holding a finger to his lips, asking her to be silent.

"And then there were six, huh." Trace's extraordinary hearing picked up what the red dragon king had muttered under his breath, as he smirked. Just because he trusted in his one true lord, did not mean that same trust was extended to all of his fellow kings.

A smile, that touched only his mouth, was worn by her now sworn lord, Lionel. "Now, you were about to leave here somehow, may I see?"

The kitsune did not hesitate. Trace knew exactly where the crusaders would likely make camp, and she knew exactly where she wanted to be.

Lionel watched as the kitsune bit her thumb, and controlled her own blood, so as to only allow a single drop to fall. Before the bead of blood splattered on the floor however, it stopped, and floated up, toward a strange dark spot in his vision. He could feel a tremendous amount of force within whatever it was.

Meanwhile, on a hill, that overlooked the crusaders in midst of their nightly watch duties, two small and practically invisible, due to the nighttime, spots of darkness formed, and then merged. The amorphous dark spot did not stay completely static, as it bulged in random directions.

Trace had just finished quantum entanglement, as her blood was sucked into the bead sized wormhole. Immediately, the entrance to the wormhole was stretched to a vertical oval, large enough for her to walk through. "Don't follow, it won't end well."

The demon lord, Lionel, could see how serious she had intended to be. The kitsune was far too enraged to joke around. "Noted, but I have my own way to follow. I'll search for you when I get there. I intend to keep my word."

"If there is anything left," Lionel could just make out what she said as she turned towards the anomaly before him, her teeth on full display as she bared her predator's maw on full display. He had never seen anything like it. He wanted it.

Malice had been watching the entire exchange in silence. Something did not fit together. Everything seemed to fall into place perfectly. Too perfect. Whoever the new demon lord was had known about Trace, and if he was right, everything was planned by him.