Equality For everyone! #235

"We're on the edges of a forest," I said as I retrieved a piece of paper and quickly scribbled a rough map relying on the information my Scout Drones were feeding me.

"There's a white tower not far to the east, and another black one far to the west, a town northeast, a temple in the middle of the forest, and a big castle straight west," I added as I quickly finished the map and handed it to Nightshade.

"You're the expert here. Where can we find this so-called Incubus?" I asked, frowning as I watched the heroine take the paper from my hand and give it an inspecting look.

"Don't you mean my brother?" Nightshade asked as she raised her head from the map, matching my frown, to which I merely shrugged. After being possessed by some jumped-up inter-dimensional demon for so long, her brother was likely already a goner.

She wouldn't believe me if I said it, and I made it a promise to help her to the best of my ability, so it didn't really matter. On the off chance that he was still somewhere in there, I'll still find a way to help him, though it was unlikely.

"We're currently in the Forest of Eternal Blight, right here," Nightshade said as she pointed at the map to our current location. "These should be the towers of dusk and dawn," she went on, moving her fingers to the two fingers on the edges of the forest.

"The Temple of Blight is in the middle of the forest, and this right here is the palace of Royal Darkness," She continued, moving her finger to the temple, then to the big castle to the west.

"My brother could be anywhere, but I don't recall a town being here," The heroine added, pausing as if to think. "Maybe we should investigate it first?" She asked as she turned to me inquisitively, to which I nodded.

I ordered my scout drones to close in on the town to get a better look and instantly frowned as I realized that some barrier protected the small settlement, preventing my machines from advancing and blurring their vision.

"There's a barrier protecting the town from prying. We'll have to do it the old-fashioned way," I said after a minute's pause as I tried to work around the barrier and found no opening.

"Can you open a portal here?" I asked as I fed an image of the town's borders directly into Nightshade's mind, to which she frowned in concentration and attempted to do it.

"No, but I can do it a bit further away," She said as she opened her eyes after a second. "That barrier seems to be getting in the way," She added, shaking her head.

"That's fine too. Do it," I said, nodding at Nightshade, to which she quickly obliged and opened the portal. "Let's get going," I said as I walked into the portal, my vision turning dark, only to come back a second later.

I hurriedly inspected the surroundings and sighed in relief once I was sure Nightshade's power hadn't malfunctioned and sent me into the asshole of Baphomet or some shit.

I was still just as paranoid about portals as ever, but I was the most durable member of our little party, so I had to compromise and be the first to walk into the unknown as I was the most likely to survive.

The area around the strange town looked like a wasteland, baron and weathered, not that different from the Forest of Blight but without the dried-up trees.

The town itself looked like something straight out of the middle ages, but I couldn't see anything beyond the rough outlines of its buildings as it was blurry because of the barrier surrounding it.

"Stand back," I said, briefly turning to Nightshade and Poison Ivy as they stepped out of the portal. I took a deep breath, channeling my energy as I reached for the barrier and scanned it.

"Brute force it is..." I said, letting out a sigh as I realized subtlety wasn't an option since the barrier was too advanced for me to work around it anytime soon.

My entire body glowed in a golden hue as I channeled the full of extent of my energy into the barrier and pushed, to which it slowly began to crack before promptly shattering into countless pieces.

I grunted, dissipating my energy as I relaxed my arms. "Let's go," I said as I moved towards the town, and the two ladies shared a brief looking before following behind me.

We quickly arrived at our destination as the barrier wasn't that big. I immediately froze as I noticed dozens of humanoid demons with leathery red wings and horns walking around the town.

There were men and women. They all had sculpted bodies and exquisite facial features. Each could have been a supermodel on earth if they weren't friggen demons.

"Incubi and succubi demons...?" I muttered as I tilted my head, the nerd inside me instantly awakening at the scene before my eyes, but I didn't get to overthink it as one of the creatures noticed our presence and approached.

"You there, slave!" The demon said, her wings spreading as she looked at me coldly. "What are you doing standing around?! The portal to Azarath will soon open!" She went as she opened her palm, a thorny whip appearing in her hand.

"Your betters need their meat shields!" She concluded as she raised her hand and shot the whip flying toward my face. Her eyes widened as I casually caught it and shot her a bemused look.

"Bitch, who the fuck are you calling a slave?" I asked as I yanked at the whip and pulled the demoness towards me. I brought my fist back and planted it straight into her face, breaking her horns and sending her crashing into the nearest building.

"And they say chivalry is dead," Poison Ivy mockingly said, rolling her eyes at my actions as more demons noticed the racket and came charging at us.

"It's called misogyny these days," I replied, shrugging as I retrieved the Leviathan's axe Ebony before lunging at the demons. "We need to gather information, don't overdo it," I added as I decapitated the closest succubus and blew the head of another with my gun.

"I'm just going to sit here and let you guys take care of business if you don't mind," Nightshade said, sounding depressed as she stepped back and crossed her arms while watching us decimate the demons.

...

"These guys are either the most loyal demons in existence," I said, sighing as I blasted the living demon's head with the Ace of Winchesters. "Or they really don't know where their boss is," I added, shaking my head as I stored the rifle in my inventory.

I tried reading their minds, but their brains, or whatever they had, as opposed to humans, worked differently, and I didn't have the time to figure it out.

Still, I was willing to bet they didn't know since demons were selfish creatures by default. They had no concept of loyalty. Well, lower-class ones like these guys didn't, anyway.

"That succubus said something about slaves. Maybe we should look into it?" Nightshade said, frowning as she approached, to which I nodded as she stopped in front of me.

"Yeah. The succubus mistook me for a slave, so there might be humans here," I said as I inspected the area. "We can't leave them here," I added, sighing as I scratched my head.

"Hmm?" I frowned as I felt a faint burst of energy from the edges of the town. "I sense someone that way," I muttered as I turned to the energy source's direction and started walking.

The two ladies followed me, and we soon found ourselves standing in front of a relatively large, dilapidated shed surrounded by several hidden magical circles.

Barely resisting the urge to joke about how stereotypical the shed looked,I shook my head as I approached the building and stomped on the ground, sending out an energy shockwave that dissipated the magical circles around it.

"I can hear people inside," I said as I moved to the shed's entrance and opened the flimsy door, promptly freezing as I noticed about a dozen people tied up on the ground, all in horrible conditions.

The only one who didn't look half-dead was a dark-skinned teenager, and his eyes instantly lit up as he noticed my presence. "Thank... thank god, dude, you gotta hurry up and help these people!" He said, clearly struggling to speak.

"The collars... it's draining their life force or something..." He said, heaving a sigh of relief as he promptly lost consciousness and his body went limp from exhaustion.

...

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