The tension between Demona, the land of Demons, and Yogallia, a human country that has broken its promise of peace more times than most could count, was so thick you could probably crush a rock with it.
No place showed this tension more than the border wall between the two countries, originally built after a group of Demon hunters raided a border town, the Demon lord herself had turned their caravan to ash and returned with more Demons than had been stolen from her kingdom.
Not too long after its construction Yogallia built many guard hoses on their side of the wall, taxing traders and of course making sure no runaway slaves could cross the border, as once a Demon entered Demona, the Demon lord would personally retrieve them if they were reported missing, and she had done so without fail numerous times.
It was around one such entrance that a group of Yogallia guards were set up, taunting the guards who held authority over the entrance, said guards were a clan of Lizardfolk who had originally colonized the area of Demona before the Demon lord created her nation, they were also among the first to welcome living under her rule and would have helped build the wall had the Demon Lords Fifth General not done so alone within just a few days, in responce the Lizardfolk had instead chosen to help guard it.
"We stand proud," The Leader of the Lizardfolk tribe called down, "In the Name of Demon Lord Verona, leader of Demona, we do our job with pride!"
"Yeah," The Captain of the patrol stationed just outside their wall called back, "You've done a great job saving people, you lazy slobs have never once managed to welcome a single one of your wretched people within your walls ever since I took over as leader of this outpost, you might as well just give it up, I'm sure your Lord is already selecting your tribe's replacement, but don't worry once she casts you all out of her lands I'm sure my men and I could help you find a new home, Lizardfolk eggs are quite the delicacy after all, maybe you could set up a farm!" The Captain and his men howled with laughter at their wit as they went back to doing whatever it was they did when not jeering at the Lizardfolk.
"Cheif," One of the Lizardfolk ran up to the one in charge a tall Lizard man with long mossy hair that had been braided with decorative pieces made to resemble little fish. "We have a code seven,"
"Carry a head with the usual response then," His fellow tribe's man left to see his orders carried out and the chief smiled, it was true that no slave had ever entered through his gates, but that was by design, The Wall itself was basically a massive city that ran along the entire border of Demona, and hundreds of secret entrances where placed around along with watch men who had magical abilities that let them see for miles out, a code seven simply meant a large group of escaped slaves was on its way and to his gate and with his order they would soon be redirected and guided to the nearest hidden entrance before being processed for injury and to see if they had any family withing Demona who could help them.
All he had to do was make sure they didn't notice the distraction, the same way he did every time an escaped slave was heading his way.
"Hey, Captain I got a question for you," The Lizardfolk chieftain called out, "Have you gained weight, not being judgy of course but you just look so jiggly today," It was the same insult every time, and the Captain responded with an angry and long lecture every time, truly there was no greater bliss than having a self-obsessed fool as an enemy, it made working around them as easy as signing a lazy insult and then just watching.
A few miles down the road the Caravan that had been liberated was just rounding a corner when they were met with a row of Lizardfolk all holding spears.
"Yo," One of them called out, "We understand you have a few slaves?" The Lizardfolk were ready for a kindly human or an angry Caravan driver realizing he had gone the wrong way, instead, the one leading the Caravan took off the clothes hiding his fave, and revealed to the Lizardfolk a Demonling. Behind him, the rest of his Caravan was shown to be multiple Demonlings, with carts packed with runaway Demons.
"Oh wow," The Lizardfolk had seen a lot, but an entire Caravan taken over by Demons was frankly impressive, "how'd you do this?" The Lizardfolk cleared his throat, "You know answer that later, first we gotta get you inside Demona, Boys load up with the driver, let's get these guys home,"
The Lizardfolk Cheif was pretending to listen as the Captain went on and on about noble bloodlines and heroes of the past when one of his men waved to him, The Cheiften turned his back and walked away, much to the rage of the still-ranting Captain.
"So what's the total count?" the Lizard chief expected the usual count, one or two loners, or maybe a family of five, the response he received made him stop cold.
"Slightly more than two hundred sirs," The Chief stopped, then stared, and his jaw opened a little before he managed to reply.
"Hu?" was the best he could respond with before his subordinate pointed over the wall's walkway and a massive crown of Demons was being cared for by just about every member of the Lizardfolk tribe.
"It would appear a caravan was high-jacked by the very Demons they were transporting and most of them used it to travel here," The Chief ook tha in for a moment before properly responding.
"Most?" He noted, "As in this isn't all of them?"
"Of course not," An Imp cheered out upon hearing the Cheiften who gave her attention, "Since we were going to the Coastal Marketplace to be sold, the one who liberated us decided he would go there, crush their city, and free all the slaves in captivity to, I'm sure it only took him a few minutes, they'll probably be here in a few days,"
"Sound the horns," The chieftain called out in response," We can barely help these lot, the Costal Marketplace would be home to thousands of slaves waiting to be sold! We need help and we need it yesterday!"
His order declared one of his followers grabbed hold of the horn designated to be blown in the event of mass migration of Demons heading towards Demona and began blowing into it.
While the Lizardfolk were scrambling another group of Demons were busy themselves, deep in the heart of Demona stood the Demon Lord's Tower, the prized home of the Demon Lord herself, it also functioned as the Country's primary source of Income, thanks to one of the Demon lords powers she could allow those who die in her Tower to revive once per day, and by selling a daily revive pass to adventurers and Demons who wanted to try it and allowing them to try and scale the tower to fight her, thus far only a few had made it past her eight Generals, with the only rule being that Hero's where banned from purchasing a Revive pass, Near the top of the Tower, on General One's Floor was a conference room where all Eight Generals and The Demon Lord where hosting a meeting, Sitting at the head of the table The Demon lord listened as General Number Two, an Oni with a mastery of blunt weaponry and fire magic, spoke his mind on the topic at hand.
"I'm just saying, the tower has ten floors, and counting Lord Verona as number zero and going down, the first floor needs a General,"
"I am more than capable of handling the bottom two floors," The Wolf class Beast Woman General Eight replied, "I'm not so weak I need my burden shared, and Might I remind you before you go trying to pull your old stick again, that the last time we had a fighting tournament, the winner was weaker than most of our on-site staff, and none of them want the title of General Nine, I barely wanted to be General Eight but I let my young stupid self get talked into it,"
"And I'm sure we can find another young and stupid person to be Nine," Two said confidently.
"Do we have to have this talk every other meeting?" General Three, an Ocean Nypmh, asked as she rubbed at her head, "We'll get a new general when someone earns the title, can we move on with the actual problems, the nation of Yogallia has signed a peace treaty with the country of Loom, and I don't much like that our neighbors are now friends with the country that just last year declared the completion of purging all Demon life from their continent,"
"Speaking of Loom," General Five, a Dwarf skilled in Earth magic spoke up, "Refuges have started making their way to the shores of Yogallia and are trying to migrate here, only a few have made it so far but I feel like we need to double down on getting Yogallia to end it's slave trade,"
"All talks with Yogallia have failed," The Demon Lord cut in, "They bend to the will of their Hero, and he won't take anything less than me as a prize, even then I doubt that filth will do anything but try to destroy this country, It may be time to admit I was wrong and being a full-scale war on Yogallia, should only take a few days to turn their cities to ash,"
"But you'd hate that," General One, a Light Elf spoke up as she sat her glass down, "We all know you could kill them all, but you've tried so hard to forge peace, and if you turned Yogallia to a glass sheet we could lose our support from the country of Lillum, their adventures do love visiting, and they've been so helpful with trying to rescue slaves," The Demon Lord sighed.
"You're right," She admited, "I just hate that brat," General Number Four, a Tree Nyphme, was just getting started on a report about what kind of Loot they should give to adventures for each General they defeat when the sound of a horn echoed through the room.
"Oh, an emergency?" Demon Lord Verona held up her hand and a glowing horn materialized in her hand, she read the emergency type aloud for all her generals to hear. "Mass Demon Migration," She informed them, General Five gave a fairly smug, "I told you," look around the table before Joining General Eight, and Four at The Demon Lord's side, the others wished them luck as the three Genrals and The Demon Lord Teleported to the horn.
The Demon Lord had expected maybe fifty or so but had to admit that the massive number of none Lizardfolk looked to be well past the hundreds. The Chieftain of the Lizardfolk rushed to the Demon Lord and bowed, she waved the motion aside.
"Certainly a large rescue," She noted, "Are you the one to thank for it?"
"Oh, no" The Chifeten was noticeably on edge, "We just noticed the first wave and brought them in,"
"I see," The Demon Lord took a moment to process the words before questioning them "First wave?"
"Cheif," One of the Lizard in a medical tent was looking into a crystalline object had the shape of binoculars, a far viewer usually used to check up on distant locations, the Demon Lord was about to question the casual use of such an expensive and rare item, only for the reason to be given, "We have confirmed reports, the Costal Marketcity has been partially destroyed, hundreds, no Thousands of escaped Demons are traveling toward our location! The Lizard took the view away from his eyes and then nearly had a panic attack upon seed the Lord and a few Generals present. "My Lord, nobel Genrals, It is an honor to meet you,"
"What happened?" Five asked curiously, "Earth Quack? A Rebellion in the kingdom? Oh did they leave the cages unlocked? I kind of hope it's that one it would funny,"
"Um…" The Lizard looked into the far viewer pulled it away with a few blinks, rubbed his eyes, and tried again before handing it to the chief, who looked into it with confusion before making an odd sound, finally bringing a question forward to the escapes, "What the hell is that thing?"
"He's an Artist," Several Imps called out excitedly.
"Can someone else answer the question," The Cheif called out as the Demon Lord took the Far Viewer and looked through it, she could see the Costal Marketplace of Yogallia, and a large portion of it was in ruins, but only the parts that stood between its center and the path towards Demona. After a moment she spied what had stumped the Lizardfolk, a creature closely resembling a Human was fighting most of the city guards with some sort of Red Liquid, aided by what looked to be common Ratricks wielding kitchen appliances, The Human looked like a typical human woman, albeit a very flat chested one, with a striking face mask on her face as thought she had been on her way to a galla before deciding to make a pit stop and start a jail brake, she had what looked to be eyes made of Rubies.
"How strange," She said aloud as she passed the viewer to General Eight.
"Weird," She agreed as she watched the strange creature slowly move to the side during the fight suddenly its back broke open, and several clawed hands reached into a collapsed building and began pulling out Demons, once done it held them in its claw and retreated to the city's edge, her squadron of Ratricks providing frypan based covering fire as she pointed the Demons towards Demona, and then turned back and began forcefully pushing the guards back, the far viewer was visual only, so no audio, but General Eight could practically hear the unknown demon insult the guards just to keep them on her as she moved in to pull more Demons in hiding out of the city.
"I like her," Eight decided as she passed the Viewer to Four.
"Him," An Imp replied, "His Meat suit looks like a lady but he's a guy, we asked,"
"Ah, he's disguised as a human then?" Four asked, "I was kind of confused for a…oh wait I just saw his eyes, yep that's a Demon," as General Five tried to get a peak at the viewer The Demon Lord made her decree, "I'll have provisions and temporary encampments sent at once, Lizardfolk, serve me well as you have in the past and we will make sure all these people find a safe home within the next month, you will be rewarded for your work I promise," The Lizardfolk cheered at her decree and went back to the task of making sure everyone got a meal put into them.
"Ma'am?" General Four asked as Five finally looked into the Far Viewer.
"Does this guy have a little squad of Ratrick's?" Five asked curiously "That's kind of cute, in a weird way, smart if nothing else, no one expects vermin to jump out of the wood work and start beating you upside the head with cookware,"
"He probably just feeds them or something," Demon Lord Verona noted, "Ratricks either hate you or love you, and it's borderline impossible to get them to change their opinion so first impressions matter greatly, even if you try to be nice to a secoind group of unrelated Ratricks it'll be like they can smell you've wronged their kind before," Demon Lord Verona walked up to the front gate of the Lizardfolk home and pushed it open, being greeted by an overweight man throwing a hissy fit.
All the fight left the man when he saw the door open, it was possible he didn't even notice the Demon Lord was there, he and his men scattered to the wind before the gate even fully opened.
"Problem with people who never have to do their job, they're usually really bad at doing it when the time comes to do it," The Demon lord waved her hand and wiped their little outpost off the face of the earth. "Alright Keep this gate open and guarded, we have a lot of Demons coming this way, let's make sure they have a clear entrance, and make sure you move everyone once you've finished your checkups and made sure everyone is healthy and fed,"
"Alright," General Four clapped her hands, "Come on Five, let's put our heads together and make some crops grow,"
"You got it, baby," Five cheered before returning to the far viewer and joining Four as they were escorted to the Lizardfolk farmland.
General Eight cracked her knuckles before speaking, "I've got a lot of work and not a lot of time, where we setting up the temporary housing at?" with the three General working on their tasks, Demon Lord Verona took flight intent to see the odd creature who had caused the situation in person.