NATHANIEL
The dark lands were a place where might truly made right unless you were a part of the dark elf empire. It was bound to be full of danger and death. Misfortune could be hiding under any other average rock, Nathaniel had to try and make sure that his people got to their destination safely.
But the subterranean world was not as dark as Nathaniel had expected it to be, the place was beautiful and filled with colors and uniqueness that was completely aesthetic to it's own environment. There were varieties of bioluminescent plants and fauna, glowing crystals that bathed the entirety of its massive caverns and tunnels in a rainbow of colors and delight. Truly it had its own beauty to be appreciated.
"Brutus, how do we get to the dark elves capital city."
Nathaniel asked while looking over the map that depicted the entirety of hell. So far getting every single member of his community down here had gone smoothly, however now that they were in a relatively uncharted territory, Nathaniel needed to keep them safe, while making sure they made constant progress towards their destination.
"My lord, from here on out, there's a tower fortress with a garrison of dark elves and Nagas stationed there. The terrain is made in such a way that there's a huge land depression from here to the fortress, making it into a very massive valley that eventually narrows into a chokepoint, and that fortress is standing right in the middle of the chokepoint.
The mountains on either side of the valley are completely un traversable thanks to five thousand years of dark elves intentionally sabotaging and shaping the lay of the land to their own preference. If we want to get into the dark elves empire properly, then we have to either gain passage through that fortress, or conquer it, which would be impossible and completely detrimental in the long run since that fortress was built to withstand a siege led by the onslaught of land wyrms or even dragons."
Nathaniel looked at the highlighted part of the map that was shaped like a beaker. Their group was at the spherical end of the bottle, and they had to make their way up towards the narrow entrance where the fortress was waiting, right in the middle.
Due to their extreme lack of understanding of this place, Nathaniel could not have them staying in one place for too long. Anything could go wrong, or there could be an outbreak of a disease due to the new environment. What ever action he had to take, he had to take it now, but smartly.
"Brutus do the dark elves have any routine patrols in the area, I would like to know if they may have been alerted by our presence."
Nathaniel asked, as he actively tried to put a plan together. Though his mind was still blank at the moment.
"They do have routine patrols, but they're not usually this far out. We can only begin to get a glimpse of them when we're about thirty kilometers away from the fortress."
"How efficient are they to responding to foreign threats?"
"Well my lord I have no idea. Since I was born, I have never seen a demon crazy enough to lead a campaign against the dark elves. There have been civil disputes among their ranks and leadership, but never a full blown war. So as far as the efficiency goes in responding to foreign threats, I have no idea."
Nathaniel rubbed his hands over his eyes as he tried to analyze everything he had just heard. He would be a fool to think that Brutus was being completely honest with his information, after all this was hell and no body trusted each other, and Brutus had a plausible cause to plot against Nathaniel. So he had to be careful in his dealings with him.
Nathaniel knew he had to take everything Brutus say as half truths and expect the worse, so if he says they won't notice them until they were thirty kilometers away, then Nathaniel would assume it was a hundred.
But Brutus was the only guide here, and that was because the dark elves had strict rules about the people who were allowed to come and go from the kingdom. Before Brutus became an emissary, the dark elves had ordered his predecessor to be put to death, or they would cut off all ties, which meant only one person was allowed to know how to get to the empire safely. So it meant that without a reasonable doubt, Nathaniel was stuck with the demon prince.
"Do you have any idea about the military capabilities of the dark elves and Nagas?"
Nathaniel asked, beginning to put together the puzzles of a plan he thought might work. Though it was a little fuzzy and in infancy, he was sure it would work.
"The dark elves are great archers, one of the best in hell besides the Lamias and Sirens. Not to mention they're great masters in the art of assassination. That's what they truly do best, they can kill silently and completely unseen. The Nagas are warlocks, a very dangerous bunch I might add, as they're well know for their poison, curses and mind torture spells. They're also proficient in black magic and spells of the darkness element. It is what makes them really viable partners to the elves, so as far as the Nagas are involved, you have to expect a whole lot of painful mental torture."
Suddenly Nathaniel felt the need to restructure his still premature plan immediately. The one resource he had sorely lacked during their five year journey, was a magic user of any sort. In fact the only one he had was Eve, and there were hardly any succubus's in the grey mountains to follow him. The ones who he did come across were more interested in a quick fuck, and then he never heard from them again. Eve had powerful magic, that much Nathaniel knew and understood, but what kind, he had no idea as Eve's magic would always manifest itself in different ways depending on her mood. So without a proper teacher her magic was still a mystery, which made her completely useless in this case.
Nathaniel needed to desperately come up with a way to render the Naga useless or at least, stall them long enough to deal a hard enough blow to their morale and destabilize them long enough for a massacre to occur.
"Vane, Brutus, any idea how we would deal with the Naga if hypothetically speaking, we ended up in a fight with them?"
Brutus looked shocked as if he did not expect Nathaniel to go with this option rather than diplomacy. Vane on the other hand had his clawed hand under his jaws as his mandibles clicked in thought. Vane's appearance had spooked Nathaniel more times than he could count, because the four eyed and normal human mouth with mandibles growing out of the side was not something you see everyday, even for a demon. Not to forget, he also had spider like limbs growing out of the middle of his back. Vane looked up and let out a sigh, as he met Nathaniel's gaze with his own.
"My lord to be honest I have no idea how we can fight on equal footing with the Nagas. If it was just the elves, I say we would have a seventy percent chance, if you fought with us, it would be a hundred percent."
Brutus also had his own suggestions or complaint to add.
"My lord, I do not mean to downplay your might, but a direct confrontation with Nagas is nothing more than suicide. I thought that we were going to go with a diplomatic approach and send a petition to the empress for safe passage through her lands. Then we can make a plea at her palace and have her help us in our fight against the purists. It's just that, we're not out fitted for a fight with the Nagas. Magic is rare enough as it is, and incredibly dangerous. There's no way we would be able to win. Why don't we just try for a diplomatic approach."
Nathaniel was really backed into a corner as he had no idea how he would solve this problem in front of him, he was not too keen on asking or begging for help or safe passage. But it seems like this was the only option available to him.
"Brutus, I have heard your opinions and I think in light of recent events, and our severe lack of manpower or magic power rather, we will have to go with the diplomatic option to avoid unnecessary blood shed and battles. So I need you to go and put together an advance guard of five hundred soldiers, choose the ones that look really good and are more presentable. Focus on appearance rather than strength. After you're done, prepare yourself as we're both going to that fortress to make that petition to the dark elf empress."
Brutus bowed deeply with a smile on his face and made his way out of the temporary tent Nathaniel had set up for this meeting. When he had made sure that Brutus was out of ear shot, Nathaniel turned to Vane.
"We can not rule out the option of diplomacy, but such a move will put us at a disadvantage and leave us to the mercies of the dark elves and their allies. We will lose any sort of bargaining chip, but if we take the fortress, we will have something to bargain with, and the queen will have to take us seriously."
Vane nodded his head in agreement, but he still had to try and dissuade Nathaniel from making any sort of decision that would put either himself or any other member of their community in danger.
"My lord everything you have just said is true, but without a definite course of action, we're nothing but sitting ducks. The Naga are a threat we have to consider carefully before we make any decisions."
"I understand that Vane, which is why I would hold back from making any sort of antagonistic action until I'm sure of what we're dealing with."
Nathaniel paced around the tent for a few moments, before he finally came with an idea he did not think sucked too much.
"I will need you by my side when we go make that petition, I have to keep up appearances, because I feel we have spies in our midst. But I need you to take out two teams of fifty very capable demons, with very good skills in climbing or scaling mountains. Have them explore each side of the mountains that make up the valley that leads to the choke point. The terrain is rather dangerous, but I need them to check it out and see if they can find out anything out of the ordinary. Any further decisions would be based on what they find. And for the sake of our pride, let's hope they find something, because I'm not too keen on bowing down to anybody."
"Okay my lord, but what about the other soldiers."
"The other soldiers would stay with the rest of the community, and slowly march towards the choke point behind us. They would serve as our rear guard, and protect our people, we will deal with whatever lies in front of us. And Vane relay the orders I just gave you as silently as possible. No matter what, Brutus must not find out."
Vane looked confused, and he usually never questioned the orders he was given, but this time he had to know why Nathaniel was so distrusting of Brutus, when he always had him around.
"My lord why do we have to keep all our plans a secret from Brutus. He has made an oath to serve and follow you, he even gave you his demoness as a form of good will, so why are we so distrusting towards him."
Nathaniel looked at Vane and shook his head at his naivety, Vane was many things, but when it came to understanding matters of the heart, this Anansi demon was completely clueless.
"This is hell Vane, to more than eighty percent of its population, oaths are nothing but pretty words said to keep their lives or gain more power. You have never been in love, or been with a woman, so you would not understand the lengths a man would go to have revenge for loosing his woman. Also Brutus was an envoy to the dark elves, he knows things that we don't and he can just as easily screw us over if he wants to. I can't get rid of him because we need him, so the only thing I can do is to keep him at a distance and out of the loop of what is really going on as much as possible. Now run along, we have work to do."