Ariven

Princess Mai and her company were waiting at the entrance of the castle, some of them sporting headaches from the drinking the night before. However not showing their pains they were waiting on the arrival of the lone survivor. After waiting for a bit he could be seen being lead down the hall by Raphael.

Princess Mai evaluated him, it was clearly a young man likely close to her own age, with black hair, he carried a bag likely full of supplies and was dressed in clothing that appeared heavy duty. What caught her attention was his eyes, they seemed to hold a weight many years beyond his age. Her heart breaking she could only look at him with empathy. For his whole village, likely his whole family to be slaughtered and for him to be the only one to survive. It was dreadful, and for many it would be too heavy a burden to carry.

'What drives him' she wondered before he was suddenly before her.

Introducing himself as "David" he spoke in a respectful but somewhat reserved manner.

Well it was only to be expected that she wouldn't get too much out of him right away after all. These types of stories are the kind that don't get easier with time, but she resolved herself to save her questions for later.

Nodding at her company they began their long journey back to the Kingdom of Anavir.

...

Xarros hesitated, he had come upon Ariven one of the smaller cities in the Demon Lord's Domain. While small it boasted sturdy walls and fierce warriors. geographically located to the southwest of the Demon Lord's Castle it was in a direct line between it and the territory of Kilore which gave it enormous strategic importance. It was burning.

Xarros, as one of the demon generals possessed great strength, but if Ariven was falling before they even had a chance to send for help then it was clearly beyond his reach. However it was his duty to determine the cause of their destruction to plan for it. Inwardly he cursed. While the Territory of Kilore and the Kingdom of Anavir weren't on good terms and were always working to take power from the other it often felt like they would gang up on the Demon Lord's Domain. Simply due to the fact that geographically the domain resided in between them although slightly north. Meaning that the Demon Lords Domain shared the most border with both of these nations.

The outer battlements were devoid of movement. In fact as Xarros watched carefully the only movement he saw were the flames flickering from the houses within the inner circle.

'What is going on here'

Looking back at his troop of minions that had accompanied him, fifteen in total he gave a command, "Return and request for assistance." The three minions he spoke to immediately departed.

"The rest of you ready your weapons we are going to enter."

Steeling himself he began approaching the city to investigate. Approaching the outer gate puzzlement again beset him. 'Where are the corpses?'

The iron gate had been slammed through with great force, however there weren't any bodies around. If the city was fighting an enemy there surely would have been both defender and attacker corpses present. Entering the gate he had a closer view of the houses burning, listening closely the only sound he could hear was the fire crackling.

No screaming in agony, no sobbing over the bodies of the deceased, no begging for mercy. Silence.

'Could it be that no one was here?' improbable he eventually decided. So where are the inhabitants?

Walking on the cobblestone road with his 12 remaining minions behind him Xarros stretched out his eyesight as much as possible. Attempting to look for any clues that may be available as they approached the keep within the city. The keep, a large stone structure was one of the few buildings within the city not currently on fire. It also served the purpose that if the outer walls ever became compromised it would serve as the inhabitants last line of defense. Every city within the Demon Lord's Domain would fight to the last man. After all they knew that in this world no mercy was given to those that sided with demon kind. Because of that these cities were notoriously hard to defeat due to the knowledge that negotiation's would always fail. Even with the threat of starvation looming these cities would rather take out as many intruders as possible.

This led to the fact that although no nation was friendly with them, very few would actually step foot inside their lands to invade. Which left Xarros to wonder what had changed, potentially there was a beast capable of razing cities even within the Demon Lord's Domain. This was alarming news.

Stepping closer to a burning building he saw his first hint of battle. A simple puddle of blood surrounded by a spray of the red substance could be seen just inside the doorway. Almost as if someone's arteries had been left to squirt until every ounce of blood remaining in the body was bled dry. His curiosity growing he summoned an [Earth] spell to put out the fire in the house as he entered and began looking for other signs.

One of the minions alerted him, "Movement. Big. Quick." giving one last glance at the house Xarros exited and watched the keep apprehensively. While never very descriptive he appreciated the minions conciseness of their reporting. Squinting his eyes in the direction of the keep it did look like something was moving inside of it, however it was too dark to see.

They would have to get closer.

...