After the rest had woken up the following day, the journey forward led us to a cave's entrance at the foot of a massive mountain range.
"The Dragon's Spine," Ashari said with awe.
The Dragon's Spine, its a location in the game that I recognize. With that in mind, I now know roughly how far we are from the capital-- it should be just past this range over the other side.
But what I did not recognize was the cave's entrance leading into the mountain. From what I remember, this mountain acted as much of a natural barrier that prevented attacks from occurring east of the kingdom. The addition of this cave wasn't natural, it was manmade.
"Did the Humans make this?" I asked, pointing to the mouth of the cave.
"I'm not sure, this is my first time seeing the Dragon's Spine for myself; I apologize," Ashari said sheepishly.
"This is where the Humans had taken us through," Rayji said with a scowl.
"Was it where you were captured?" I asked.
"No... we were captured at the Kingdom's outskirts when we were visiting a local town." He explained.
"Humans were that close to the kingdom!?" I said, surprised over how far they've encroached.
"Y-Yes, they like to raid the smaller towns near the kingdom. They do it because they can." Tesera glumly confirmed.
The state of the Demon Kingdom must be worse than I thought if this was the case of current affairs.
"Let's keep moving then, it's still early in the morning and we should still be ahead of any potential roving warbands," I told them.
"You're right, Tiki let's go!" Ashari agreed as she ordered Tiki to pick up the pace leading us into the cave.
---
Somewhere far away, where wheat grows heavy and the Twin Suns shine gently atop its citizens, stood a kingdom made of gold. This was Aurum, the Human kingdom, and it has stood proudly since the dawn of time on the world of Eos.
In the middle of the kingdom was a castle made of alabaster, its gleam was that of platinum under the Twin Suns; this was where the royalty of Aurum lived.
Inside the castle, there was a throne room. And inside the throne room, sat a woman as glorious and as beautiful as the gold that she owned.
Her name was Rea Milennia Aurum III; she was the Queen of Aurum.
Adorned in white and gold, her hair was a ravenous scarlet, and her eyes as cold and black as the coals of war.
She had her delicate heel sat firmly atop of a familiar fat man's forehead.
"YOU INSUFFERABLE PIG!" Screamed Rea, her voice echoing in the throne room.
She put her weight heavily down onto the fat man's forehead, he was groveling before her.
"Y-Your Majesty! I beg for forgiveness! Please, please pity my humble, humble life!" Vask cried as he began to kiss her foot.
But Vask was met with a heavy kick into his face, letting loose some teeth onto the throne room's floor.
"I give you warriors, I give you gold, and I give you a job-- all you had to do was this one simple task... and how do you repay me!? YOU DON'T!" Rea stomped her foot repeatedly at the man's crotch, causing him to scream in pain.
"Your Majesty, please do not get too angry; it's bad for your health." An old man dressed in a butler's black suit said by the throne.
"I DON'T CARE!" Rea hissed as she threw one of her heels at the old man.
But the old man simply shifted his head, letting the heel harmlessly fly past him.
"Get this bastard out of here, throw him in the pig pens; I'll speak with him tomorrow." Having exhausted her anger a little, Rea commanded the guards in the room to escort Vask out.
She watched as two of her guards hauled Vask's unresponsive body out of the throneroom, he was foaming from the mouth.
With the loud shut of the throne room's doors, it was now only Rea and her butler, Gauss, left in the room.
Rea walked back over to the throne, slumping into it and flying into a coughing fit.
Gauss knelt by her side as he gently put her heel back on while keeping a watchful eye on her as she violently coughed.
"Would you like more elixir, your Majesty?" He asked.
"No-- HACK." Rea coughed once more into her arm and out came blood.
"Your condition is worsening." He plainly said as he produced a cup of water for her.
"I'm aware of that, no need to remind me." She said as she took a sip from her cup, Gauss cleaned the blood off of her arm with his handkerchief.
"That bastard, using his teleportation scroll to get back here after losing all of his slaves." She sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"He had gotten greedy, he was rounding up more Demon children instead of immediately returning with those two," Gauss said as he returned to his post by the side of the throne.
"I had figured as much, he was gone for too long." She said as she rested her chin atop her fist on the arm of the throne.
"How is it possible for him to have lost all of them? His mercenaries, they aren't royal guard but neither are they such greenhorned slouches."
"His report from when he had come stated that he was ambushed by a rather strange Demon," Gauss added in.
"A strange Demon? How so?"
"He said that he was scarred from top to bottom as if it had survived hundreds of battles."
"And that he didn't display the same kind of predictable behavior like that of the regular Demonkin."
"So he was tricked? Fat fool had gotten too comfortable with his same old tricks, I knew he would eventually be outdone-- but now of all times? Such sour luck." Rea sighed.
"The mercenaries said that the strange Demon had also outsmarted them. They were tricked into releasing all of the slaves for their contracts, that of which were never in the chest that the Demon had swapped them for."
Rea cackled into the air hearing Gauss' retelling.
"Is that so? I must meet this strange Demon myself then. He would be a fine addition to the Trophy wall once I'd get my hands on him." She sneered.
"From what we know, he's accompanying those two."
"Good, let Wezick know. He'll find them." Rea said as she smiled and snapped her fingers, allowing the next visitor into her throne room.