Linie

Linie stared evenly at the opponent several feet across from her, hands resting at her sides, almost giving her the appearance of a statue. One could be forgiven for assuming that was how her opponent had found her.

Were it not for the massive hole in the battlements above them. Linie had forced her chosen foe off the walls so that Lord Lügner could deal with the mage. To her surprise, her adversary remained standing.

Lesser beings would have fallen from that strike alone, Linie thought.

An explosive crackle sounded behind Linie, blasting part of the battlements above her to smithereens. The sheer force of the magical attack sent a gust of wind rippling through Linie's hair, yet it didn't seem to even register for her.

"... Sounds like they've begun as well." Linie glanced up at the walls.

So, that apprentice of the mage Frieren still had some fight in her. Lord Lügner would handle her, however. Best not to interfere. If there was one thing a Demon valued, it was their pride.

She spared a sidelong glance at her opponent. They had survived the first strike, yes, but they would perish soon. Aura's executioners always fulfilled their tasks.

"... It's a shame, though. We're nearly finished here."

A few more blows from her axe had seen to reassuring her that she was still the superior fighter. Her opponent would not be long for this world.

"... Perhaps I'll observe their battle," Linie mused. After all, this wouldn't take much more time. One strike, maybe two, and her foe would collapse.

Still...

The battle above didn't seem to be wrapping up any time soon. Doubt briefly gnawed at Linie. A mere human... a match for Lord Lügner? Ridiculous. But even so...

Lord Lügner gets cross when I interfere. And yet...

Violet energy coalesced into the shape of an axe, as her magic Erfassen tapped into her memories of the dwarf Eisen's combat techniques. Linie spun the axe as she assumed a low stance, observing her opponent for any sudden movements.

Eliminate them quickly, Linie told herself. Then deal with the apprentice.

Linie's eyes flickered from side to side as the guards of Graf Granat surrounded her and her fellow executioners. To her right, Draht stared ahead, the Demon looking about as bored out of his mind as Linie herself felt. Ahead, Lord Lügner was engaged in conversation with Graf Granat, commenting on how lively the Graf's town looked, despite the conflict. A distraction, Linie surmised - of course Lügner had no actual interest in the condition of the town. The three of them were here on Aura's orders, after all. Where brute force had failed for twenty-six years, subterfuge would instead prevail. All they had to do was convince the Graf to lower the defensive barrier in the name of 'peace'...

Ba-dump.

Linie froze, her movement stopping so suddenly that the guards in the rear almost bumped into her. Lügner had also paused, as had the rest of the contingent, no doubt noticing the change in Linie's demeanor.

Her senses were going haywire. Somewhere in this city, there was a presence filled with mana. Very, very large amounts of mana. Her eyes had widened almost imperceptibly before she masked her surprise, but she saw Lügner's gaze sharpen out of the corner of her eye. He knew what Linie was experiencing without even needing to ask.

Draht, on the other hand, looked about as confused as the Graf and his guards. Typical. If he wasn't so efficient at executing Aura's targets...

She had a predicament. The Graf would no doubt want to know the cause of her sudden stop - and even if she made an excuse to separate from this group, there was no way the human ruler would trust a Demon to go off on their own. But that presence was practically screaming at her...

Damnation.

Linie stumbled through the forest, hand clutched to her shoulder. The trees surrounding her faded in and out of focus, indicating to Linie that she could well lose consciousness at any moment.

Which only made her resounding defeat all the more bitter to swallow.

Her. A Demon. Bested by a lowly human.

The thought was laughable. Absurd. Never in Linie's lifetime would she have even countenanced the idea. And yet... that was exactly what had happened.

Her left side, almost severed completely from the rest of her. The axe strike from that red-haired warrior had barely missed her heart. If it had been a fraction closer...

The only reason she had survived in the first place was because of a blinding flash of light that had ever so slightly disrupted the warrior's aim.

Zoltraak. Since when did humans know that spell? Lord Lügner had mentioned earlier in the night that it had been modified into a demon-killing spell, when that apprentice of Frieren's had first struck him with it. Clearly, the modification of Qual's signature magic had been undertaken by Frieren herself. Still, to see it used against her own kind...

Linie grit her teeth. Now Lord Lügner was dead as a result, destroyed by the apprentice in their skirmish, while Linie thought she had the upper hand on her own opponent. But he had, impossibly, gotten up from beating after beating. And when she had swung her axe into his side...

He had just grinned, dismissed it as weaker than his master's (whose technique Linie was imitating), and swung down.

Linie paused, leaning her uninjured shoulder on a tree. Just how were humans capable of such... such tenacity? Had she underestimated them? Could humans actually stand against-

Linie felt something distant flicker. Then...

Her eyes widened as her nerves practically burned from an overwhelming amount of mana she was detecting from...

From where Aura had been waiting for the barrier around the city to be lowered.

Then, it dulled. Vanished into nothingness and beside that... another presence was snuffed out completely.

Aura's presence.

Linie sagged against the tree, her breathing shallow.

Lady Aura... was killed?

There was only one possible explanation. While she and Lord Lügner had been engaged with the two companions...

Frieren.

Nothing else could explain it. But with Aura dead, as well as Lord Lügner and Draht (who had foolishly tried to kill Frieren earlier when she was Graf Granat's prisoner), now...

Now she was alone. Ordinarily, that wouldn't have bothered Linie. Demons were alone for most of their lives, only cooperating when necessary. Linie just happened to be a special case, acting directly under another Demon as a subordinate and with peers as well.

But this was different.

The hunter had now become the hunted - and the odds were thoroughly against her.

Linie lurked near a market stall as she observed the bustle of the townsfolk on the street. She had been sent by Aura to this small town - there was a target here that Aura wanted eliminated. Simple enough. Still... Linie preferred a 'get in, eliminate, get out' approach. This more drawn-out subterfuge...

Linie adjusted the top of her hood, making sure it still obscured her horns. It was tiresome, trying to blend in with humans (and more than a little nauseating). Unfortunately, despite the continued wounds her pride received, this tactic was necessary. Aura had explained to her that the target didn't have a known public identity, blending in just as Linie was. So, she had the drawn-out process of trying to find them before she could kill them. Her aptitude for mana detection was failing her as well (otherwise, such subterfuge wouldnt be necessary). So, she had to watch and wait for the smallest opportunity, the moment that they slipped up...

Linie's hand surreptitiously plucked an apple from the stall while its owner was distracted. She regarded the fruit for but a moment before she took a bite from it.

... Hmph. Not bad. Humans had their occasional moments, she supposed. Now...

Just where was her quarry hiding?

Disgrace. Shame. Embarrassment. Fury.

Those were but a few of the emotions coursing through Linie as she found herself in a cold, dark cell beneath Graf Granat's estate.

Captured. She didn't even get the grace of a proper death in combat. She had escaped her confrontation with the red-headed warrior, only to collapse in the forest... and when she woke up, here she was, in a human cell.

Disgusting.

Linie sat up and found that her hands were bound behind her back. That didn't surprise her. The Graf likely wasn't taking any chances, given that she could conjure any weapon with Erfassen and adopt the skills of its original wielder.

She willed Erfassen into the form of a small dagger in her hands as she tried to saw at the restraints. No luck. Likely the same technique she and Lord Lügner had employed when they had captured Graf Granat themselves. Of course humans would learn from them, just as they found a way to adapt Zoltraak to killing Demons...

Her nose wrinkled. The stench of death was still in the air. Not that it bothered Linie too much, but it made her wonder what had happened here. She reflected over the events of the past few days.

Ah, this was the same cell where the mage Frieren had been kept after she tried to obliterate Lord Lügner in the middle of a street. Where Draht had tried to foolishly execute her and paid the price. How... poetic.

Admittedly, she was somewhat curious. Why bother keeping her alive? Surely by now it had been made quite clear that a living Demon was a liability and a threat for a human. But here she was, still breathing. That could only mean...

Information. They likely want to know about the activities of other Demons. Not that I've much to tell.

Still... survival was her top priority. She'd have to play this little game carefully...

The sound of metal scraping against stone jolted her and her attention snapped to the corridor her cell was adjoined to. The door leading to the dungeon had been opened. Someone, it seemed, would be visiting her.

And so the interrogation begins, Linie mused as she heard the sound of footsteps get ever closer.