In a temple in the southern Demon Kingdom of Urir; a kingdom of Earth Demons, orange Demons; fire and magma shot out of one of the vents, and some priests scrambled. Orange Demons had their prayers interrupted by an embassy. Wearing metal and demon leather armour, all smelling of sulphur and ashes, these outlander Demons still had the portal open behind them as others clambered out. Their facial expressions screamed of impatience, they were red Demons, Fire Demons, in opposed to the Earth Demons of Urir who were orange in colour.

  “Our spies in this world have alerted us to some danger,” the red Demon said, flaring his nostrils.

  “Danger?” One of the priests replied looking terrified, “what possible danger?’

  “A… Warlock. A man who can draw infinite magical power,” one of the Fire Demons said, drawing a very long red glowing sword.

  Another had a spear, and another still simply held a fireball compressed in his hand; they weren’t particularly friendly looking. One stamped their foot impatiently, and the other rasped two blades together, another still snorted fire out of its nostrils.

  “The Demon Empire of Cahov will send soldiers through here, we wish to negotiate a landing space, where we can portal in and chase this cheeky Warlock,” the head ambassador said.

  The King of Urir, and the head priest were both displayed using holograms produced by a magic crystal as they talked to the Cahov Demon ambassador. They looked unimpressed beyond anything else. They were both skinny individuals, not that physically impressive.

  “There is a patch of desolate land on our western shores, you are free to portal in there and pursue this Warlock,” the high priest said reluctantly.

  You don’t give us much choice. The High priest thought.

  The King of Urir remained silent. The silence could write volumes about the situation of the Urir kingdom. The Cahov ambassador silently grinned, the King hardly looked imprisoned, but it was extremely apparent who was in charge of the country and who was just window dressing.

  Our intelligence about this place is true, still it pays to be cautious, we can’t trample on their pride. Not without consequences.

  High priest Amalkur nodded assent, and the king kept quiet in a farcical display of authority. The Demon Temples owned most of the land, most of the gold, had most of the soldiers and therefore the High priest was the true person in charge. The Cahov Demon embassy, disappeared and reappeared at the sight of their landing pad. A small piece of useless black ashy soot, the beaches had volcanoes in the backgrounds, unclear if they were natural volcanoes or merely the byproduct of angry Demons shooting fireballs into the ground. The waves were calm, seemingly like a giant lake, the taste of sulphur and salt permeated the air, and the smell of shit as various Demonic mounts suddenly started appearing. Wood. A lot of wood, and shipwrights.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “You are to find this Warlock and kill him,” the general said, “we are renting this land from the Urir for free, let us use it efficiently.”

  A rider on some lizard like creature carrying the standard of Urir, an orange flag with a red flame, on his back immediately piped up:

  “Who said it was free?” The words were cheeky, but they were delivered with an acerbic quality.

  “Are you really going to demand payment from the Cahov Empire?” The fearsome general said.

  He unfastened his armour, flexing his muscles before shooting a fireball into the air, the Cahovian officer clearly trying to intimidate the Uriri soldier.

  “Yes we are so scared,” the Uriri soldier said with his best sarcasm, “anyway, the high priest wants to focus on war preparations against Arar. Your expedition is not important to us.”

  The Urir soldier had a beard like a Human but was a dark orange complexion in opposed to the red complexion of the Cahov Demons, not that any Cahov Demons could grow beards, such things seemed to be indication of the corruption of the Earth Demons; the Fire Demons, the Cahov Demons thought their cousins had degenerated having lived near the Human scum. The Cahov stared and snarled, some of them raising their eyebrows

  “What is that lizard thing?” One of the Cahov Demons derisively asked, “why don’t you have a proper mount?”

  He pointed to his own Demonic horse, a fiery creature that itself blew fire out its nostrils. The Uriri soldiers winced and sighed at their ignorant cousins, and the Cahov grumbled outright chastising the Uriri.

  “We have those too, but they’re slower,” the Uriri soldier said defensively, “anyway well whatever, just don’t burden us with the costs of your expedition.”

  The Uriri soldier made the appropriate hand shooing gesture. Other Urir soldiers produced hubbub cacophony of disagreement. Eventually all conversation simmered down, and the verbal hostilities smouldered rather than being resolved. Each side glared at the other, lips pressed tightly in dissatisfaction.

  “I hear there’s a continent out west,” one of the Cahov soldiers said.

  “Who gave you permission to speak,” A Cahov commander said, clearly touchy at the previous conversation.

  The offending Cahov soldier looked at his commander with shock, but stayed quiet. The Uriri soldier walked away. Big Fire Demons teleported without the main portal, armed with large axes, they were special henchmen, muscly and filled with Demonic mana. Demons could teleport and were adept at making portals, but there were of course limits, they could link their mana together to form long range portals. Nonetheless they laboured on the beaches, preparing for their expedition against the dark sorcerer.