A New Dawn 9 A Brand New World

"What happened, where am I?" Those were the thoughts of Leilade as she recovered her awareness. She quickly got back on her feet, only to ponder about her surrounding environment. The portal that she just took should have normally sent her in one of the numerous bases deep in the Demonic Empire. If she remembered well, that should have been the base of …

(The base of Prime. However, that planet is composed of volcanoes and the entire atmosphere is filled with poisonous fumes, dust, and ashes. In addition to many magical arrays, teleportation portals and countless buildings for transports and storages of goods. Our current location is filled with trees, and by what looks like an agreeable air, maybe even a pure one. We are in a forest, something impossible to found on Prime. In conclusion, I can say that we are currently lost.)

Just by hearing the voice in her head pointing the numerous problems, she began to have a headache. She also noticed that she was incredibly weak, something that should not happen. Finally taking some time to a.n.a.lyze the situation, she realized how dire it was. Her former pure and white hands were entirely flayed and she could see the blood leaking from those wounds. With the remaining of the magic stored inside her body, she created a small mirror, to see how was the rest of her body.

The sight presented by that magical creation managed to scare her a little. Her hands were only the most visible. From head to toe, her body was either charred or torn apart. The previously st.u.r.dy purple armor was gone, only present on her right shoulder. Otherwise, everything was damaged. Her beautiful black hair was razed, leaving only an empty s.p.a.ce on her head. As for her face, she was no longer human, instead, some dark rifts were signaling the location of the former mouth and nose. The only good thing was the fact that her body was incredibly st.u.r.dy and completely immune to pain, otherwise, she would have died from the pain.

Tempering a body was a technique used on nearly everyone that was an officer in the army. And if someone climbed the rank, that person would often have his body reborn, to be more efficient. That could have sold the problem of the body of Leilade, allowing her to finally grow up, but it was not deemed as useful. And since she never expressed any interest about that issue, everyone was happy. But by seeing the amount of damage done to her body, she realized that only a few could have survived whatever happened. Seeing nothing moving around her, the young girl tried to heal her injuries, only to find out that she couldn't.

That was the most baffling part, the lack of mana inside her. Like, something used it to supply something else, only both of them were unknown to her. Since it was useless to wait like that, she began to spread the darkness inside her and suck all the lifeforce of the trees and animals. The result was a pathetic shroud barely covering her naked body. Even after pus.h.i.+ng her concentration to the maximum, she couldn't make it leave her body. After abandoning another idea, she just decided to roam around, since nothing else could be done.

As she did that, she tried to gather the magic present in the air, only to find out that it was completely foreign. Nothing is always alike in the universe and mana is not an exception. On every planet, this invisible energy is gathered by scientists and magicians alike. However, each planet creates a specific type of mana, unique in a certain way. That created a lot of problem for the demons, that's why they experimented and finally produced something capable of converting all those different types of mana into only one. Without any real discussion about the name, it was called the Demonic Energy. But for Leiladed, she couldn't replicate the same process.

(Outlander, I would check your spatial bag if I was you. And after that, check how many souls we have lost, because I feel that it is quite empty.)

Bad news always travels in flock. The small girl had to fight just to open her bag, and when she entered it, she realized the devastation inside. Nearly everything was gone, her robes were reduced to ashes, her bottles broken and the spirits inside wiped out. She checked everything, armors, broken, plasma weapons, melted. As for the more important and locked chests, they were destroyed and what was contained inside in pieces. Her scepter was fissured; it could probably cast only one more spell. She nearly sobbed at that sight, since it was the only weapon she used and cared about. On it, countless circles of power and enchants were s.h.i.+ning, but the visible crack on its entire length didn't let any place to doubt.

As for the rest, it was more or less the same. She still scavenged some stuff, a rail gun, a few cold weapons and two armors with many holes on them. But it was cruelly lacking compared to what she should have. And she still had nothing to put on her, leaving only a right shoulder covered. The only good thing was the fact that she could hide herself behind the shadows leaking from her body, but it was purely cosmetic and without any real value. As she sighted, she finally found something useful. On the ground, some seeds and three beetles were moving. With that, in a few years, the planet should have its mana converted to Demonic Energy.

She grabbed those and left her bag. After that, she carefully spread the content of her hand on dozens of meters. With that, she found a burned skeleton of a creature wearing a dark robe. She could still see some flesh on the bones, but she couldn't confirm if it was a human or something else. Many races were humanoid, but with that height and the location, the most obvious choice would be an elf. Following the trail of flames that was left behind the corpse, she arrived in a clearing. It was not really a clearing, just all the trees surrounding this location were either blown away or burned to the ground.

In front of her, she saw another corpse, only this one was clearly from her side. It was a werewolf, probably one that was right in front of her. His fur turned black and half of his body was missing. The chances of surviving this ordeal were clearly low. After reaching the crater that was formed by what brought her here, she saw a good news. An Akûl was laying on the ground. They were one of the strongest demons and with their thick skin, he should probably have survived. As she approached, she took notice of the arm not attached to the body.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG

The Akûl howled in pain and began to use his three other arms to stop the bleeding of the fourth. He only woke up to find his entire body in pain. He was bleeding purple from all his body, not even a single part of his armor managed to resist the transport. As he kept rolling on the ground in pain, he noticed the frail girl looking at him. Blinded for a second, he began to pounce on her, only to notice the darkness leaking from her wounds. Just in time, he suppressed his feelings and kneeled in front of her.

"GAAARG Ymir, reporting to the Empress!"

Even the intense pain was suppressed by the terror that was rising inside him as he realized that he nearly attack Leilade. If he really had gone through, an eternity of pain would have awaited him for even death would not have him set free. He still didn't know that she was far weaker than him.

"Rise Ymir, and pick up your arm. We are in enemy territory and we need to heal our wounds. We have a lot of …"

Brush Brush

Soon, two silhouettes appeared at the edge of the forest. Two weird looking humans, one was entirely blue while the other bore some fur on him. Both were very tall, near three meters for the blue man and a little more than 2.50 meters for the ferocious looking male. None of them was in a better state than Ymir, besides the fact that they hadn't lost a limb. From the opposite side, a wounded woman was slowly walking. She clearly was more impacted by her injuries than the rest. They all heard and recognized the shout of a demon, prompting them to reach this location. By now, they all stood side by side with the three armed demon, pledging their loyalty to their superior.

"Davion, reporting to the Empress!" The tallest human shouted.

"Kardel, reporting to the Empress!" The savage human screamed.

"Meridiana, reporting … ouch … to the Empress." The woman softly said.