Queen of the Damned (Host)

[Tassadar]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Spoiler

Nerzalil: HP = 97, PP = 44, EP = 47, Status = Fine

When Nerzalil's mandibles pealed apart to reveal her startlingly human-like face, the alraune was quite blatantly shocked by the revelation, though she didn't seem to be so in a displeased manner. Though she was still squirming under the continued attentions of the shadow demon's hands, as well as the added pleasure of the trio of vines now buried in Nerzalil's sex and the single vine buried between the cavern of her breasts, the alraune still managed to comment in a tone relatively bereft of pleasure, "Oh you're quite pretty beneath all of that after all! I was almost worried for a second~"

The next few moments went largely as Nerzalil might have expected they would, the connection of the voice allowing the alraune to determine her most sensitive spots with ease, which her partner attack repeatedly and without mercy, though from her own continued squeals of pleasure there . Though she was fairly unskilled all things considered, when her mouth closed over one of the alraune's vines the wonderfully sweet taste of the plant woman's syrupy cum was her immediate reward, as the appendage had begun leaking into her mouth as soon as her tongue touched it. With the guidance of the Voice, the erogenous nature of most of Nerzalil's body became quite apparent to the alraune, and she seemed to find no greater delight than to slide her tendrils all over Nerzalil's body in search of her most vulnerable spots.

With the added attentions of all of her additional tendrils and the ever increasing pace of the coil that had been pushed into her sex, it wasn't long before the previously dominant shadow demon felt herself being overpowered by the plant woman laying beneath her. Indeed, despite being the one on top and the face that the three coiled tentacles seemed unable to move very well on their own, Nerzalil wasn't the one doing the brunt of the motion in the act of receiving the alraune's seeds, as the tendrils around her body and the plant woman's hands on her hips, kept her moving up and down on the three tentacles, which were writhing around inside of her with increasing vigor. Though her return attentions were haphazard at best, it seemed that her partner was enjoying herself as well, or at least the moans that she was making suggested as much.

The constant writhing of the alraune's tendrils, not only against her sensitive insides but against the entirety of her body, was far too much for the pent up shadow demoness. It wasn't the most powerful orgasm she'd ever suffered. Decades among succubi and personal experiences with their retched ministrations had provided for a plethora of physical experiences that had oftentimes left Nerzalil so exhausted even from a single climax that she couldn't even find the strength to budge even for hours afterwards, and there was certainly no comparison between the two. All the same, the physical sensation of the shadow demon's orgasm was fulfilling even if she refused to enjoy the sensations emotionally.

It was during her orgasm that Nerzalil felt the life-giving eruption of the plant woman's cum firing up into her womb, a constant relentless stream that filled her and began to stretch her insides within seconds. The one in her mouth sent a similar stream of thick blue syrup down her glowing throat, the substance and the one between her breasts burst as well. All around her, streams of the alraune's semen flew out of her tentacles in order to coat Nerzalil's body with their sticky, sweet smelling, blue goo. With three tentacles pumping into her, filling her to the brim and beyond, there seemed little chance that the alraune had failed in her goal, though there was no way of knowing for sure without magic that Nerzalil didn't currently possess. Of course, given the nature of their reproductive systems, it seemed unlikely that it would take long for the two of them to know for sure.

For a moment, the alraune laid beneath Nerzalil while panting slowly, her breasts heaving in a manner similar to the way in which Neri's had when she had first caused the plant woman to ejaculate over her body. It only took her a short while to recover, however, and when she had she immediately said, "So... You had some questions for me?"

 

[Host]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Covered in the plant’s vines, there was little Neri could do to escape the pleasure, and little she could do to resist – the alraune had the bug caught as surely as any flytrap, her tendrils roaming over each of Neri’s rather numerous regions of sensitive, glowing flesh. Some stroked along the ribcage-esque design of glowing organs below her chest itself, which were ticklish if the alraune wasn’t careful, but otherwise further aroused the shadow demon. The tips of those vines that held and forced her lower body into motion were easily close enough to the sensitive, luminescent patches on the inside of her thighs for the appendages to tease them… or instead to raise, and fondle Neri’s glowing gluteals. The plant woman would get the impression – or, more accurately, mental warning – that the shadow demon would not appreciate anything more than the lightest of tentacle-whippings against the bright-white target. She’d feel pleasure from one, admittedly, but a sharp strike would hurt more than it would have on a human… and while she might be submitting to the alraune’s deal, she was only submitting her womb, not her whole body – anything else the woman was allowed to use was at the Shadow Demon’s discretion. The first vine to slither along her rump and up the glowing underside of her tail was met with a verbal (muffled) and mental “Wah!”, a strong shiver running through the alien creature’s body. The sound changed back to a murmured groan as the vine took instruction from the Voice, using significantly more force to prod inwards against the soft side of her tail, the way Nerzalil would enjoy it.

When Neri’s tongue first touched the blue splatter from the alraune’s first orgasm, the surprise of its taste widened her eyes, as she proceeded to lick at the vine in the testing manner of a person sampling and memorising the specific taste of a new food, rather than a lover. Nerzalil had, of course, a full palette of almost all the sexual (and several unfortunately non-sexual) bodily fluids demon kind could produce, including the variations they managed while shapeshifting. The vast majority of them were quite edible to the shadow demon, either because her natural diet included what most would consider offal… or because when a creature had changed your species’ very spiritual makeup and your body’s internal structure, giving her a taste for seed was no more than the blink of an eye. But Shorn syrup was something altogether different. Plants were rare and sickly things in hell, and sugar was essentially unheard of. There were sweet things, certainly, but few and far between- and most of them, pale imitations of the flavour the sweet seed had. And, well, the Shadow Demons had a sweet… uh, mandible, to rival an ant’s.

With all the appendages writhing on and inside her, each dutifully helping see to the already-present desire in her body, Nerzalil certainly had no ability to hold back her own peak. Only against the attentions of a few betentacled succubi had the female Shadow Demon occasionally been brought to orgasm solely through stimulation to her secondary erogenous zones. The three tendrils lodged inside her invalidated this as one of those times - but between the vines and the Voice, the plant-woman beneath Neri’s gasping form could have had a good chance at adding herself to the list. With the various sensations easily overwhelming the insect’s ability to co-ordinate her actions, she seemed very much the helpless prey, largely unable to continue returning the considerable affection outside of reflex. The one thing the dark demon could control – to some extent – was her voice; while the insect personally preferred to try and bite back the noises she made, the demons had seen to ensuring that she could be more vocal when they wanted her to bring the noise. If this had been simply for the slaking of lust and curiosity, Nerzalil probably would have tried to stifle the noise she was making… but she wanted to cause the plant as much enjoyment as possible, and so allowed herself to relax as much as she was able. Staggered yelps of increasing volume quickly overwhelmed any lesser moans, the tri-vine filling (and un-filling) her unnatural sex as deeply as the warped humanoid had give. Said give proved to be quite significant; her tormentors had apparently ensured that their toy could be shamed by essentially all-comers.

Though she wouldn’t have referred to herself as premature, the Shadow Demon certainly didn’t break any personal records in holding out against her climax. She had possessed a low throb of arousal even before seeing the alraune, and every moment since had only served to quite rapidly build both her body’s ache, and the perceivable pressure waiting to burst from her form, not the least thanks to the full-body attention of her partner’s vines. Not in any position to speak verbally, she managed one message through the voice as her body shuddered with the now unavoidable beginning of its orgasm. CheATEE- “-HHHMMMMRRRHHH! …mmuuh-gglLp…!”

It was an unbecoming position for a Shadow Demon to be in, in Neri’s own eyes. Screaming as her body burned with pleasure, drinking down and becoming visibly swollen by the odd seed of her current partner… being overcome, being used in such a demeaning way, nothing more than a womb to be filled and a slut to feed shorn nectar, and worst of all being made to like it - she made her whole, glorious species appear weak. Pathetic. It was the face, the majority of intercourse as her captivity had caused the insect to understand it: dirty, disgusting, befouling… addictive. The world might be different, and the situation might be different, and the creature might be different, and the fluids she was filled by might taste better, and she may even be on top… but the nature of sex stayed the same. Years of experience had given the Shadow Demon many creative ways to justify letting herself be used, and a decent ability to hide her displeasure, but the Voice still laid bare enough of the insect’s thoughts to crack Neri’s charade.

Still, only moments later, (after wiping away enough spunk from her eyes to open them,) looking down at the exhausted form of her partner immediately made it worthwhile, her annoyance replaced with legitimate happiness at the job she had done of returning the plant’s affections, and contentedness towards the physical satisfaction of her lust. …oh, and the animal desperation of the nearby weed, when she again had the senses to realise its presence - that raised a cruel joy that more than made up for the reminder of her own weaknesses.

“Yes… questions. Firstly… where’s the nearest body of not sacred-tree water? Kkeheh…!” she couldn’t help but snicker at the degree to which the alraune had expended itself, filled and covered by what the insect almost believed could be her own weight in blue fluids. “As much as you’re enjoying the view,” she began, lifting off of the alraune… and arching her back far more than was necessary, pushing out a bust that was still actively dripping with lines of the excess syrup, giving the plant quite the view to enjoy, pausing a moment while her glowing tongue ran from forearm to fingers, finally sucking two of the digits clean before continuing. “…I’m going to have to get clean before I go back to my companions, but I can’t lick it all off – and I doubt the ancients would appreciate me using their lake to clean away your cum!” She had to let another moment of giddy laughter pass through her, the mental image too odd for her not to.

Nerzalil was now quite intimately aware of the rather perverse nature of her new allies, having felt a fair few curious flora paying attention to the Voice’s newest speaker and their sister – as if the alraune she was physically with hadn’t provided enough evidence. It wasn’t something the insect would respect them for… but it was actually rather comforting to find that the alraune had a weakness for activities of the flesh. While not exactly something they had ‘in common’, it meant that the Shadow Demon had an obvious way to ease the connection with her new allies. The two species could declare their alliance to each other until they were blue in the face, but it was actions that truly made the measure of a pact. The trees had let her permanently connect to their very mind, risking letting a foreign agent into their collective, but so far the black bugs had done nothing – bar kill some of the plants in the past, hardly an endearing act. Being able to give them something they wanted – even something as simple as a single being’s physical pleasure – was actually quite a relief. …Despite that, Nerzalil could not be said to be acting with entirely altruistic intentions; though she found lust and pleasure to be a weakness, making others succumb to it was a skill she took distinct enjoyment in exercising.

“You don’t mind if I use you to clean a bit of this off, now, do you? No…” the statement would have been confusing had she said it towards the shorn person, rather than the shorn weed. Neri honestly hadn’t expected to remember quite so much of her training from hell, and it was invigorating to find herself exceeding her own expectations… as well as a little worrying, given exactly what she was good at. Still, the insect was curious as to how well she could still work her moves… and the weed was essentially begging to be test subject number 1. Nerzalil walked to the immobile phallus, not even needing conscious effort to give a predatory gleam to her eye, nor a lustful roll to her hips, leaning in to press her face against the length that made up most of its form. With a soft coo she put her head to the shorn’s stamen, briefly wiping her face against it, shifting a decent amount of the alraune’s nectar off her face and onto the less sentient member of its species, very lightly licking up some off of the weed once she did so. Expecting the growth’s stamen to be about as sensitive as its fairer half’s tentacles, and the act she had been performing for its entertainment to have only made it all the more responsive to her touch, the Shadow Demon’s attentions were very light, very careful – she didn’t want the weed to pop just yet. Her body straightened with a lustful murmur, pressing her stomach and chest against the phallic entity instead, her breasts covering the weed’s very tip. Her face grew a teasing cat’s smile as she briefly, slowly rubbed her form side to side, as if to try and convince some overly naïve onlooker that the act actually had something to do with ‘getting herself clean’. To that end, the insect would perhaps have a negative degree of success, given the legendarily copious and easily coaxed precum of the alraune’s immobile cousins.

She rolled the surface of each breast against the plant separately, finally pressing her cleavage together around and it rolling her bust, slowly at first but with steadily increasing force. The weed would find itself in a quite hellish heaven, the softness of Nerzalil’s considerable bust rubbed slowly against it, its own traitorous thoughts ensuring that the woman could stop as it got close to orgasm. “Heehehe..” the giggle, made only when the weed seemed close to bursting, signalled a flip of her position, rubbing her back against the weed and removing at least some of the excess syrup, not that the plant had the cognitive function to care about Neri’s supposed motivation. With the same taunting slowness, the insect’s body gained an increasing bend, putting the phallus far more against her ass than the rest of her body. Soon enough, she was leaning about as far as she could without falling over, bracing herself on a tree if there was one within reach, the long plant tool brushing against her folds slightly from behind – the cause of a largely-theatrical, quiet gasp of pleasure, and a few pleased murmurs. “You’re good at getting those hard to reach places...”

“Thanks, hun~.” Nerzalil announced only a few seconds later, her copying of succubi mannerisms in full effect as she dismounted the unfortunate weed. It suffered a moment more of tormentous pleasure when the insect showed her appreciation with a kiss to the tip of its stamen… one that could have potentially been defined instead as a very short blowjob, taking a decent piece of the weed’s tip between her lips, glowing tongue darting out of her mouth to caress it.

And then the Shadow Demon walked away.

She made certain her intentions were hidden to the semi-intelligent foliage… through the voice, at any rate – if it could see her face with its not-sight, the grin on it (reaching the insect’s ears, not that she possessed any outward indications of their presence) spoke of enough lewd intentions to perhaps reassure the Shorn weed, depending on the degree of its animal intelligence. Nerzalil got far enough that she could duck behind a tree, waiting for a few moments before reconnecting to its mind. The weed’s continued despair brought a shiver of excitement to the invertebrate, but Nerzalil’s work wasn’t done yet. It would be fair to assume that the Shadow Demon’s only female enjoyed dominating others sexually due to the act’s ability to alter or control another’s behaviour… and that meant that after bringing the alraune’s cousin into as aching a desperation as she could manage, the only way for her to further manipulate it, and thus eke further enjoyment out of the plant, was to send it to the heights of bliss.

Aww, don’t worry, I’m not actually going to just leave you like this. the outsider in the Voice thought toward the weed, immediately returning to its side. She didn’t mount the crippled predator, but its length found her breasts against it again, this time with far less of a teasing intention, the glowing bust quite vigorously rolled around the end of the plant’s large breeding tool. I have to bear some other seeds though, so I can’t have you inside me… that isn’t a problem, is it? When the insect stopped actively pushing her delightfully soft bosom against the shorn stamen, this time it was only to lower her head and lick along the side of the phallus, sucking the plant-flesh around its tip. Finally, she carefully attempted to lick the centre of its cock’s head, keeping an eye on its arousal, but now only in an effort to dodge the titanic burst of seed suggested by its increasingly copious spurts of precum. Catching such a thing to the face would quite immediately undo all of the work she had done… the work to clean herself, at any rate.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Spoiler

Nerzalil: HP = 97, PP = 44, EP = 47, Status = Fine, Pregnant

(Due to irl issues, I erred to do very little response to your nonetheless excellent smutting in favor of getting the story moving.)

The alraune laughed lightly at Nerzalil's request, "No, they probably wouldn't think much of that~ There's a pool a short ways away, I can take you to it!" Of course, before she could do as such the shadow demon put on her display to the helpless weed that had been present while she took a healthy filling of the alraune's goo. The plant woman largely watched her display with a mix of amusement and arousal, though she did, at one point, pipe in; "You could take him too if you wanted to, you're almost certainly already full of my seedlings~"

Her actions did provide a few pieces of information about the weed, at least. Firstly, that their seed was both thicker and sweeter than that of the humanoid portion of their lifecycle. Secondly, they weren't intelligent in the traditional sense, as it didn't seem to glean anything from her expressions, its primitive eagerness dependent solely on Nerzalil's actions against its rod and her distance away from it, and she realized that it didn't see in the traditional manner either, as it didn't lose any perception of her when she hid behind the tree. And then, finally, she found out when it came that its release was just as copious as that of the alraune she'd just sampled a moment or so beforehand, as she managed to avoid the initial blast.... Only for it to rain down onto her from above anyway, giving Nerzalil a second coating. Of course, if she'd taken the alraune's advice to heart, she might have taken the titanic burst of goo into her already filled womb, but the result was the same; any work she had done on getting herself clean (if one could call it work) was erased courtesy of the shorn weed's orgasm.

"I can take you to that river now if you like~" the alraune said lightly, a smirk present on her face as she eyed the blue-painted shadow demon's voluptuous form. If Nerzalil was willing, she would be led a short ways through the woods and to a shallow body of running water in which she might be able to rub some of the seed now covering her away.

 

[Host]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

The alraune’s correction of her ability to ride the weed was not something Neri was overly thankful for. Truth be told, as she had already taken her fill from the alraune, fucking herself on the shorn wasn’t something she cared to do.

When the stamen she was attending to erupted, the bug wasn’t so distracted by the sweet flavour of its pre-release to forget to move, not that it did her much good. She hadn’t expected to be out of its way, and indeed the veritable geyser managed to soak Nerzalil thoroughly even without her being in the direct line of fire.

The alraune’s repetition of her offer came as Neri (rather stickily) patted the weed on the stamen, a gesture both affectionate and dismissive at once. Her own expression, soon hidden again by her mandiables, mirrored the alraune’s own, and she began to follow the plant woman’s lead. “You read my mind~.”

“Well, let’s start at the lifecycle…”

“Wuh- hey! You didn’t say that before!” It hadn’t taken Nerzalil overly long to find something to be concerned about.
“Well, it’s not really important, is it?” Her sudden discomfort was probably confusing to the alraune, given how casually she had stated that the young of a creature impregnated by an alraune would quite largely resemble their parents – which posed an ethical problem for the insect. “…so that means, these ones are going to look exactly like a Shadow Demon…?”
“Well, they’ll look a lot like you… except an alraune of course, skin like mine, and none of the face-claws. They’ll probably look similar to your body outside of that, though. A thought I don’t mind~”

”Oh… for a moment there I thought – it’s dumb, but I thought somehow they’d be almost indistinguishable.” The reason for her discomfort went unstated, and the insect hoped the leafy lady beside her wasn’t going to ask what it was. Her initial thought would have been a rather indelicate “Shadow Demons aren’t sluts, and alraunes are, so a creature that acts like an alraune and looks like a Shadow Demon would be an affront to our species”. The truth was more nuanced, of course, even if the underlying idea was the same. She could keep that thought hidden from the alraune for the moment, though to be honest the creatures had probably already discovered her feelings toward their general behaviour.

“…You… didn’t mention the oaks. Where do they fit into the alraune species?” The question was legitimate, even if it was partially being used to divert attention. “They don’t. The Elders are singular mutations to otherwise normal trees, usually caused by magic.” Nerzalil stopped. “Really? Do you know the magic to make more of them?” the alraune matched her pause. “Well, no… it’s more of a random accident that creates our elders, rather than something intentional.”
“…Would you like to be able to create them intentionally?” asked the bug, a strange look on her strange face. “My kind have mapped the anatomy of our soul; if we turned the same research to an alraune’s, I think we would be able to figure out how to create them… there might even be other benefits to it. …We’d need the hive mind, though, and more thinkers than we currently possess…”

"... That's a little bit out of my knowledge, to be honest."

They arrived at the promised river as the alraune replied, Nerzalil not overly wasting time when it came to getting in and cleaning herself. She wasn’t certain if the Alraune intended only to watch, or to remove her own residue, but either way the Shadow Demon was no longer putting on much of a show. That wasn’t to say the mobile plant wouldn’t like what it saw, but other than possessing a general shamelessness, the insect wasn’t being overly seductive. “So, I know a bit about the forest, but you Alraune seem to be everywhere. What’s around this jungle?”

"All kinds of stuff! Look in the wild lands, and you can find almost anything."

A brow was raised, a laugh following it. “Haha! That’s the kind of answer a Shadow Demon would give! I was hoping for something more specific, though. For instance, you’re to our South, humans are to the North, and a bit South-West of us I think there might be some fey – fairly close to here, actually. How do you manage to keep them off you?”

“The fey don’t give us trouble, they’re friendly.”

Neri’s first shock from the alraune was not the last. “You’re allied… with the fey?” Since meeting that winged woman, that was a less dangerous revelation than it would otherwise have been, but it still left the Shadow Demon’s blood glowing weaker. “…What? How? They just… let you live here, kidnapping humans – even though we’re parasites?” This did seem in line with the information the angel had already given, which was terrifyingly odd. Nerzalil knew that all non-Shadow-Demons were essentially insane, but letting parasites run rampant on your crops defied even the broken logic Neri knew them for. The new knowledge pointed Neri even further towards a terrifying conclusion – even she had no idea how Fey worked. The humans, at least, were predictable, but the sidhe’s methods seemed inscrutable. If Neri couldn’t determine the logic they followed, she couldn’t determine their actions; they may happily allow the Shadow Demons refuge, and then suddenly turn and attack without warning. Keeping away from the creatures was, undoubtedly, the best current course of action.

"Allied? Not really.... We merely have a peace that we maintain. And we only rarely kidnap humans! When we do, we usually release them when we're done without harming them."

“What?” the Shadow Demon wondered aloud, perhaps as surprised at the new information as she had the tidbit before it. “…You did say there were many seedlings to a birth, but alraunes really must have some impressive biology, to be able to get such a sizable swarm of your kind without often kidnapping humans – especially here, with everything that tries to eat you. And releasing them… I only wish we were numerous enough to not fear the repercussions of other humans learning about our existence. If we could just get a harvester, just one…”

The insect paused a moment, a strange look crossing her face. “…Are the elders powerful enough to scan my kind’s souls for a certain feature? And the souls of others, for that matter… it’d be immensely helpful if we could determine which of my brothers has the spiritual traits needed for bearing a harvester. I still remember what the particular deviation looks like, if I could see the spirits of my brothers through the Elders I’m sure I could find it.”

"I don't know, you'd have to ask them about it. You have the Voice, just use it!"

“Mm.” The Shadow Demon sat in contemplation of the new possibility for a moment, though she did not actually contact the elders yet. Instead, after a brief pause, she continued her inquiries.

“You said you could help our captives stay alive? I’ve been getting better with the humans, we haven’t broken one by accident for a few months – but there’s still a lot I can’t be sure on. I mean, how often do they need to eat? I’m starting to think it’s something excessive, like once a day.”

"You only feed them once a day!?”

“No, every three days.”

“No! You have to feed them well, or they'll die!"

“That is well!” Nierzalil bemoaned. ”Even a goblin could run off a kill for three days. It’s not like we have them doing anything, most of the time they should just be hibernating! How could something their size eat more than a kill a day, anyway? Not that they even eat the whole thing… it’s like they’re trying to starve.”

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Spoiler

Nerzalil: HP = 97, PP = 44, EP = 47, Status = Fine, Pregnant

"...You have to give them edible food," the alraune replied exasperatedly, "Mortals are more fragile than we are. They can't eat uncooked or rotting meat, not without growing very sick, and they need to bed given food and water on a daily basis. You'd be better off collecting fruit than trying to kill enough to feed them, and you have to give them lots of clean water!"

 

[Host]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

“Ah, water I managed to figure out. It isn’t easy to transport fluids, but we can make some rudimentary containers. Though, I’m pretty sure humans can eat meat raw, as long as you got the kill to them quickly enough. They don’t always eat the first kill they get sent, but they never pass up the second one three days later, and some of them were lasting a month on the stuff – they just never ate overly much of the body. We couldn't cook it anyway, none of our available strains can cast fire. …So they can’t eat rancid meat, and they can’t eat more than a little in one go? How something so finicky managed to create a civilisation is beyond me. Still… plants, berries… do you know which ones poison them and which they can eat? There was a… mishap with that a while back, it’s why I was trying mostly meat.”

The Shadow Demon paused after the Alraune’s answer, almost as if out of things to say – but instead proved to be in thought. “The fey…” she began, slowly. “…This peace you have, have they imposed anything on you? …I met a winged human yesterday that claimed to be one. She said that they weren’t hostile to us as I thought…” While the insect wouldn’t allow her species to go through the same suffering it had under demonkind, she –had- come to this world expecting to make some sacrifices. If the demon could actually bring herself to trust the fey, despite their reputation, and if the fey would legitimately allow her kind to continue existing… well, that was something she would have to strive for. It would depend on their intended restrictions to the bug-race’s culture, of course… “Do you think that they would actually extend the same courtesy to my kind that they have yours?”

…Well, even if peace with the fey was a possibility, it was too unlikely as the Shadow Demons currently were. The basis for all cultural interaction between the other races, as far as Neri had been able to determine, seemed to be based in a simple equation of whether or not one of the cultures could cause harm to the other. The former demon-slaves had no ability to fight back to any significant extent against a power like the fey, no way to so much as inconvenience them. While Nerzalil hardly expected to wrest the world from its current owners, she needed a bargaining position. To think poetically, her species was currently as a fly; small and fast, and hard to swat as long as they kept moving – but they had settled here, and their mobility was no longer an advantage. If they wanted any chance to keep threats at bay, they needed to develop a sharp sting, like some of this jungle’s fiercer insects; even more so now that they were being attacked by demons. That way, though they might be crushed easily, it would cause their opponent great pain to do so. The Shadow Demon’s greatest weapon had always been their reproduction, and their best method of spawning additional larvae was by far through harvesters. Having an arrangement with the elders to search for the needed mutations to produce the larvae-factories was going to have to be her next task, once she finished the gathering of information.

“You never did tell me what was around here. Maybe you could use the Voice to show me a map in your mind?” Actually, I should probably practice that myself. The insect mused. She would, after all, probably need to guide the plants when they assaulted her former home. Once the alraune had tried to so as much herself, Neri followed by projecting the memories of the lost burrow, trying to focus on the shape of the colony and the way the areas in her memories fit together.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Spoiler

Nerzalil: HP = 97, PP = 44, EP = 47, Status = Fine, Pregnant

"They CAN, that doesn't mean that they should! And you can make fire without magic! Honestly..." the alraune stated exasperatedly, "Yes, we can show you what plants are safe to eat... I can give you a list through the Voice, and you can teach your kin about it." If Neri was willing, the alraune would do exactly that, producing a selection of edible plant-matter that she could feed to her captives in order to keep them alive.

On the topic of the fey, the alraune's jaw dropped when Nerzalil reported her meeting with the angel. "You... Met an angel? And you're still alive!?" she said, clearly very surprised. "That's.... Surprising, actually... They've only required that we keep our population low and not harass them or the local humans too much. Hence the catch-and-release policy. If you met an angel and they DIDN'T turn you to dust on the spot... Well, I guess they've already extended the same to your kind... Which is odd considering your policies with your captives." The alraune shot Neri a scathing glare as she concluded, clearly not approving of her wastefulness.

"There's jungle around here," the alraune offered dryly, "And I've no idea what you're asking! You want to know what's around here? Other than the elder's grove, very little. There's food and water, and we care for nothing else barring the occasional partner~"

 

[Host]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

“…It sounds like you’re not talking about waiting for lighting to hit a tree, but I don’t know of any other way to produce enough heat to start a fire that doesn’t rely on magic.” Though her kind may have had a full understanding of their own physical, mental, and physical existence, this unfortunately had currently left them fairly unintelligent towards many other sciences, especially ones that related to physical properties of things other than shadow demons. They had dabbled occasionally in more typical technology, Nerzalil’s armour being one example of such, but they more-or-less had a poor understanding of anything more complicated than friction – and Neri herself had long since even forgotten that.

The alraune’s disapproval elicited only indignation in the insect, Nerzalil being altogether too easy to anger. “Hey. You know I’m not trying to have a casualty rate, that’s why I’m asking you how to help keep them alive.” The kneejerk response was actually handy, as it gave the Shadow Demon time to think about the rest of what her leafy companion had relayed.If the fey would actually allow her species to exist…

…No. the fey acting kindly towards her kin was not the end of their troubles. The Shadow Demons had been exposed to Demon kindness for long enough already, and it was something Nerzalil would not allow to happen again. ‘keep your population low’? they may as well have said ‘stay weak, so that we can easily bully you into whatever situation we want, with no fear of repercussion’. …Well… despite the independent Shadow Demon’s mistrust, there was perhaps a way that peace with the fey could be attempted. In the distant past, when her kind had been still a power in hell alongside the demons – rather than under them – there had been a trial of one-hundred. It was a ritual killing of 99 of every 100 Shadow Demon spawn to be produced, to keep their numbers in line with the amount of resources available in that barren wasteland… as well as a way to keep only the most physically perfect shadow demons around physically, allowing the rest to join the hive-mind. Neri had discontinued the process; their population was too small for it to be practical, and this world offered far more resources than hell at any rate. But if they were to regain a harvester – and the harvester still functioned largely the same after the demonic curse – …then, they would be able to produce young at an unparalled rate, far more than the fey would surely accept. But, if they were to kill 99 of every 100 spawn, the population would stay low – and if they fey ever tried to bully them about anything, well, they could simply stop the culling, and suddenly have their numbers swell in a matter of minutes, making them too painful a force to be trifled with.

There was at least one complication to that plan, however. Nerzalil would not simply kill off most of her kin without knowing that they would enter the hive-mind. She hoped, more than anything else, that her brothers still had some innate connection – that even that base aspect of their existence had not been stripped from them…because if it had, well, then anything that could be called a Shadow Demon had died on the day the demons had warped them, and Neri’s attempts to save her specieswere already in vain. But still, even if they were only the likeness of shadow demons, Neri could not bring herself to meaninglessly force suffering and death upon her brothers, leaving them to be eaten by that cursed Destroyer – the simple thought wrenched at her gut. There had been enough harm done to the likeness of her species already.

She would need to restore the hive-mind first, and while Neri had an idea of how the hive-mind might be restored, it was looking like something of a catch-22; restoring the hive-mind may require the death of many shadow demons. It was a theory Nerzalil had only developed recently, on being added to the voice and feeling how it worked. The plants communicated with each other, but each plant could only reach so far. It was completely different to the hive-mind, which permeated everywhere, through all shadow demons without limit… but at the same time, there was perhaps a similarity. Just as the Voice used living nodes to chain together its speakers, perhaps the hive-mind also used some form of relay between shadow demons… just not physical, nor living relays, but instead the souls of the insects’ dead. It was not a stretch to make the conclusion – Neri already knew that her kin’s consciousness’s entered the Hive-Mind on death; perhaps they did more than merely live inside the hive-mind, and actually powered the connection as well?

This idea would have been simpler to reach if Nerzalil had been able to ask her brothers about it, since they quite likely knew the answer, but such was life. She could barely bring herself to think abouther species as they had been; she could hardly ask her brothers to do so as well. They had been much more harmed by their loss than Neri could ever be; they were coping poorly with an unspeakable amount of tragedy since their defeat to the demons - a good number almost seemed to still believe they had the hive-mind, even when they clearly did not.Asking them to think about the past might break them – it wouldn’t be the first time Neri had seen one of them give in to despair. As far as they had fallen, her kin could still reach an even more pitiful state, and that was not something Neri ever wanted to see again.

The possibility of restoring the hive-mind through dead shadow demons was only a theory, but it was the only theory. To test it, the glowing bugs would need to be more plentiful than they already were – there was no point in killing most of the population to restore the hive-mind, only to have species go extinct when some threat reached them. They would also have to have a cause to die upon, given that Nerzalil refused to simply allow them to die without purpose… and luckily, the demonic incursion provided just the needed excuse. But the demons would probably not be easy prey; they had killed one-hundred Shadow Demons, a fifth of their population already, and while they had the element of surprise at the time, even with the plants there might be some trouble destroying the threat. Having more shadow demons to throw against them… having more spawn to die against the demons and perhaps recreate the hive-mind… getting into a state that they could have peace with the fey… a harvester was the key to all of them.

“…I have to speak with the elders.” Nerzalil announced, almost not having registered the rest of the alraune’s message. “…but after these seedlings are born.” Having been talking for some time, the female shadow demon doubted that the birth would be much longer, going by what the alraune had already explained. “Is there anywhere in particular I should be to birth your seeds?” She looked to her now considerably more noticeable belly, and began to go off on a tangent. “…From the way demons describe them, I was half expecting the fey to be vengeful creatures made of magic light, or little black balls with spindly arms and legs, but apparently some of them just look like winged humans, and the vengeful part…” Her glowing eyes met the alraune’s again. “I really don’t know anything about this world, after all. You’ve told me about your own kind, but now I need to know more about these fey you’re working with. What do they look like, how do they act… it will give me something to do while I wait for these young of yours. I’d rather not return to my brothers while pregnant…”

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Spoiler

Nerzalil: HP = 97, PP = 44, EP = 47, Status = Fine, Pregnant

The alraune just looked bewildered at Nerzalil's unusual manner to produce fire without magic, practically stunned by her ignorance on the subject. "You... You have to.... Uhhhh.... Have you tried asking them?" she said, still fairly exasperated. The Shadow Demon's indignation caused her to scowl and break free of her confusion, but the alraune didn't have any response for her beyond that.

Turning to more productive subjects following Nerzalil's internal monologue, however, the alraune replied; I doubt that they would mind seeing you now, but such is at your preference. The seedlings will take the rest of the day to grow properly, but they should be ready to come out shortly after nightfall! Don't worry about where you're going to birth them, once the seeds are out of you they'll find their own way~" Turning to the subject of the fey, the plant woman said; "Oh they're gorgeous! They come in all shapes and sizes, but all of them are wonderful to look upon~ They're very nice to us too, even if they mostly just leave us to ourselves. Sometimes they let us make seeds with them like you did!"

 

[Host]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

“Well, no, but I didn’t know that there was a non magical way until you just told me.” Neri replied, taking the question at face value before realising the exasperation she had caused in the alraune. “… Teaching me about this world must be like demons trying to teach me how genders work. It’s annoying to have to explain something so innate to you… sorry.” Nerzalil was hardly the most courteous or understanding of creatures, but that was not to say that she did not try to understand the way interactions between independent creatures worked. An apology was something that seldom passed Nerzalil’s lips… but after unintentionally riling the alraune, it was appropriate.

The comment about the nature of the fey managed to worry Neri just a little further. “All shapes and sizes? How do you tell them apart from the humans? …Is there even a way?“ If she had been capturing the things by mistake…

Should the alraune opt to give a more in-depth breakdown of the fey species’, Nerzalil would continue to listen and ask continuing questions on their capabilities until the plant ran out of information to milk. One way or the other, finding the depth of information the alraune relayed on the fey to be considerably less than she had expected, Nerzalil impatience would get the better of her. “Thanks for doing this… really. What you’ve told me will already completely change the things I and my brothers are doing, even if your elders aren’t able to help me.“ she said, the pair having made their way back to the initial glade, and the Shadow Demon being in the process of re-donning her armour. “Here’s hoping all our interactions are this prosperous…” Call it slave training, or playing to the plants’ tastes, or an act of domination… but the big bug decided to part by grabbing the alraune close, parting her mandibles and lips to fairly suddenly kiss the woman-shaped plant, and far from lightly. After a few long seconds, she broke the embrace a little less forcefully, a smirk quickly hidden behind six mandibles again… giving the plant a brief second to respond, and turning and walking away if she did not, giving a light wave behind her as she left for the grove of the elders.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Spoiler

Nerzalil: HP = 97, PP = 44, EP = 47, Status = Fine, Pregnant

Nerzalil's comparison only caused the alraune to shift from exasperated to confused, but she allowed the matter drop without further bother afterwards... Only to become exasperated again when she asked how she could tell the difference between different members of the fey. What followed was a long explanation of what the plant collective knew about the fey, ranging from the lesser faeries like the kobolds and goat-men to those at the top of the ladder, the sidhe and the angels. After that came the birth of her seedlings, bulbous things the size of small fruits that the alraune had shown were edible each with two little tentacles sticking out and flailing wildly, and then Nerzalil was led back to the glade with her armor.

"You're welCUM! Mmmph! Mmmmm~" the alraune replied, cut off but hardly made unhappy by the shadow demon's sudden passionate kiss. The plant woman returned the kiss until Neri pulled away, and then laughed lightly and gave her covered backside a quick smack as she turned away. "Come and see me again if you ever get lonely~"

Arriving back at the central glade in the dead of night, Nerzalil stepped up next to the pool through which the sentient trees spoke. She could sense that they acknowledged, or at least recognized her presence, but for the moment they were silent.

 

[Host]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Elders. Nerzalil couldn’t help but be struck by how odd the creatures she had named seemed to act. They surely had knowledge of her reason for being there, as they could have heard it all through Neri’s own connection to the voice – unless they hadn’t bothered with listening in, which the Shadow Demon supposed was possible. It was either that, or they had a very odd lack of desire to act… which did actually match up somewhat with the experience the insect had with the humanoid plant.

The information I’ve gained in the last day alone will help me and my kind well beyond any aid we can currently offer you. I can feel all the plants under your command… and they outnumber us immensely. You clearly don’t need our help to kill the demons; and even if they could threaten you, our small number would not make much difference. You were being kinder than you needed to by agreeing to exist with us on friendly terms. The only thing you have asked for is our help, and I intend to provide it, but we currently number too few to be of real aid… which is why I have to ask a little more of you. Some Shadow Demons are born as harvesters, which are able to create new larvae at an incredible rate… but getting one to be born is tricky. Only certain spawn with a specific spiritual characteristic are able to produce Harvester Larvae, and only with very physically powerful mothers. I can identify Shadow Demons with the right soul, but only if I can see their spirit through you… and after that, with all the powerful creatures in the jungle, finding a mother shouldn’t be too hard. If we could create one, my brothers would be able to provide much more useful aid… but I won’t pretend this is entirely for your sake. It will also pull my species further from the edge of extinction, and let us defend ourselves to a much greater extent… if you help us create a harvester, we will be less of a liability. …So, will you help us?

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Spoiler

Nerzalil: HP = 97, PP = 44, EP = 47, Status = Fine, Pregnant

'We know of this mutation in your race,' the elders replied without preamble, 'We have seen it within your mind. We may identify it through your eyes if you would permit it. Observe your kind, and we will aid you in finding one of your kind who is suitable.'

 

[Host]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Thank you. Really… you already know what it means to me. While Nerzalil had been hopeful, no-one could truly know how a request would go, and her heart had soared to hear of their acceptance.
…Though, I do have a question about that… there was something that had been bothering her since the first time she had met the oversized trees, and still niggled at her now.
Why do you wait for me to phrase the questions I have before answering them? You can see into my mind at a much deeper level… surely, you could answer the questions before I form the words to them? Nerzalil allowed the thought to lead to the second half of her question.
For instance, I’m about to ask your advice on how to proceed, but are you not able to give your advice before I ask for it?
Should the elders either be unwilling or incapable of that degree of mind-reading at the moment, the Shadow Demon would continue to format and send her next thought-question to the trees.
Do you think I should wait for the attack on the demons to secure a suitable female to birth the harvester, or search for one in the jungle before the attack? If I do find a mother in the jungle, the harvester will not be ready to help in the fight unless it was delayed for a week, but it will mean that after the attack, my kind would be able to still recover, even if we lose almost all of our number against the demons. Unfortunately, I do not know of any suitable creatures myself… they would have to be quite physically powerful, and female, and able to bear a Shadow Seed. On the other hand, the demons will almost certainly have a suitable mother - so as long as a Shadow Demon with the right mutation stays in the burrow, and we capture at least one suitable demon, we will get a harvester in the end… but capturing a suitable birth-soul in the fight is not a guarantee. I would prefer to be sure; the question is if I can find a mother for the harvester without delaying the attack… do you know if there are any suitable mothers around? And, when do you plan to assault the burrow that the demons stole from me?

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Spoiler

Nerzalil: HP = 97, PP = 44, EP = 47, Status = Fine, Pregnant

'You are welcome,' the trees replied, and then paused a moment as Nerzalil asked a question. 'It isn't polite to read another being's mind in polite conversation,' they replied promptly, 'And the Voice does not allow for such readings anyway. If we did read your mind to find your questions beforehand, it wouldn't be much faster than just waiting for you to ask it in the first place and would require energies that would simply be wasted.'

Her next series of questions was met by silence for a moment as the elder plants processed her questions, but then the trees gave Nerzalil an answer in order; 'A demon or yourself would serve best. We will send our forces soon, within the next day, and provide for you such a host. Find your harvester candidate, and keep your kin away. We will come to you when the battle is ended.'

 

[Host]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Given the way that Shadow Demons communicated naturally, one would be quite correct in saying that their opinion of mind-reading's 'rudeness' was exactly the opposite of the elders. In fact, the very notion that another linked species like the Alraune and their relatives didn't like to read minds had once again put surprise on Nerzalil's face.
Oh... huh. Still, it was only a mild surprise. She did not know their full reasoning; only that it wasn't polite… and it was hardly of any great relevance at the moment.


The tree's second statement was met with less surprise, though a markedly more apprehension. The independent Shadow Demon already knew that her soul and body were fitting for a harvester - that she could be scrapped and remade into what their race currently needed. It was an option that she had rejected for a number of reasons, the most pressing being that her brothers were still not autonomous without her leadership, and becoming a harvester would overwrite her mind. Still, hearing someone else suggest it paled her glow... but in the end, becoming a harvester wasn't the fate she deserved. Informing her of the option was cold, for creatures that had just informed her they wouldn't read her mind on grounds of impoliteness...

The insectoid woman didn't make any comment about the warped plants' second statement, not that she was given time to.
"What?!" the Shadow Demon blurted verbally, hearing that the elders intended to fight the demons without any of their former slaves aiding them. "We have to fight, they killed a whole burrow of my brothers!" She could feel the less instinctual part of her mind point out, once again, that there was no help the band of insects could make against the demons, but it failed to stop her. "They warped us, they tortured us...!" Nerzalil's words lost steam every second. Her desire was only fuelled by petty revenge, and she knew it. Her species wouldn't have acted for reasons of vengeance, and she was only perverting their image further by being so desperate to fulfil that dark desire.

...You're.. right. There's no reason for my kind to risk this battle when it will be of no aid... Amidst everything else, a few little lights went on in the insect's head. To be so callous towards her own emotions twice, or three times now... for their alraunes to speak so unemotionally when controlled directly, and the trees themselves to have not shown any emotion in the voice, where other alraunes had at least phrased things in an emotional way... it wasn't exactly solid proof that the trees lacked emotions, but some condition along those lines certainly seemed to be the case. That possibility was hardly of use at the moment, however.
Then, I will wait to hear from you tomorrow. Good luck with butchering those demons..



If the trees had nothing further to say to her, the shadow demon had fellows to locate. She had left them outside the glade, and they were in all likelihood still somewhere near where she had entered to talk to the elders the first time, given that she had given a hand command they had been trained to understand as ‘stay in that area’. She did not expect them to be -exactly- there, however, because this area had a large number of luscious female bodies parading around naked, throwing themselves at anything with a cock (or otherwise) - a category her brothers happened to fall under. While the male Shadow Demons did appear to have a general dislike of their new lust, they were still weak-willed as individuals. The female bug would hope to find some of her entourage easily, but would be surprised to find more than two where she had left them... instead expecting most or all of them to have been talked into heading a few steps toward somewhere more secluded (and into Alraune pussy).

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Spoiler

Nerzalil: HP = 97, PP = 44, EP = 47, Status = Fine

'We found it odd as well,' the elder trees commented, 'But the fey assured us that contact with outsiders would best be done verbally, and that mind reading would result in negative reactions from outsiders. They were not incorrect.'

When Nerzalil reacted as she did to the tree's suggestion that she and her kin stay out of the retaking of her burrow, the trees stated; 'Your kind are endangered, ours are not. If you would prefer a presence, then come with whatever you would prefer to bring to the burrow on the morrow. We will wait.'

~~~~~~~~~​

Her business with the plants finished, Nerzalil returned to the place where she'd left her kinsmen so many hours ago, no longer weighed down by her alraune spawn. As she'd suspected, they'd all wandered off slightly to take part in the local delicacies. Thankfully, all of them were both finished and quite easy to find, and her group was assembled and ready to depart back to the main burrow in short order. If she did, Neri would find that nothing major had happened in the meantime, leaving her free to spend the rest of her time however she chose.

 

[Host]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Gathering her guard gave Neri time to think, but perhaps not enough so. A day in the grove had left her head swimming with ideas, and now that she was presented with an opportunity to act on them, there seemed to be little that she could do. Though she certainly wanted to be in the fight against the demons – both for the attack on their burrow, and the torture endured by their kind in general – she was smart enough to know when to stay away. While she might now see the fey in a light that she could perhaps be at peace with, there was no reason to seek out an audience until her species had a harvester to its name. Though she had a lead on restoring the hive-mind, to follow it was a risk born of the deaths of her brothers… one that may not even work.

After thought, however, there was at least one thing she could do; head to each of her species’ burrows and inform their inhabitants of the new human-keeping practices. Her guard should make the journey largely uneventful (unless they were quite unlucky,) given that they would be primarily going through their own territory. Given that they’d spent the day in intense diplomatic relations with their new plant allies, Nerzalil had no qualms about extending their duties for another day.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Spoiler

Nerzalil: HP = 97, PP = 44, EP = 47, Status = Fine

Nerzalil was right to think that her journey would leave her and her guard unmolested. Going from burrow to burrow, Nerzalil spread the new policies that she'd learned from the plants, having taken the descriptions of plants edible to their mortal kin from the minds of the alraune using the Voice. Her brethren received their orders with characteristic stoicism, and the task was accomplished with relative ease. That said, it was also incredibly time consuming, leaving Nerzalil with ample time to plot her next day's activities mentally while she walked with her kin between their various lairs. By the time she'd finished with the last of the burrows, night had fallen, and while the shadow demons were hardly strangers to darkness, the jungle was a more dangerous place at night by far. Whether she wanted to bother wandering back to the burrow she'd left the two elves at or simply stay where she was for the night was up to Neri, but it was largely the next day's events that would require the shadow demon's attentions.

 

[Host]

Re: Queen of the Damned (Host)

Time, unfortunately, did very little to lessen the difficulty of the decision facing Nerzalil. The trees had extended the option for her to send some of her kin, even if she had initially rejected it. Both sides had their merit – keeping from attacking would keep her species safe, as she knew and the elder plants had additionally pointed out. Attacking with them would mean losses, the weakening of her species for no gain. …Except it wasn’t no gain, was it? She wanted to hurt the demons that had so harmed her kin… and also had the excuse of testing if she could restore the hive-mind with a large number of her brothers’ deaths. But the first reason, it went without saying, was selfish and unimportant In the grand scheme of things… and the second point was something she could do easily once they had the harvester.It also needed to be considered that, before they had that breed’s method of speeding up their population growth, losing that many of her species was a serious threat to their survivability. …and that thought only made the situation all the more complex. The alraune were almost guaranteed to make good on their end of the deal; they had the numbers to back it up. Yet still, the one and only caretaker for the Shadow Demons was worried that it wouldn’t work out. She was ever hoping for the best outcome, yes; but she was also not one to leave a bet unhedged, not when it was the survival of her species on the line…

Nerzalil was two burrows down before she finally reached a conclusion. If she took revenge out of the equation, nothing changed. She still wanted sorely to send everything she could spare to attack the demons, though it had taken her a while to figure out why. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the Alraune, at least in a general sense. It was that she had, until now, been almost solely responsible for her kind’s fate. She had sworn to herself that she would do everything she could to ensure that her species would return to its previous state – and sitting around while others fought battles to decide their fate, no matter how one-sided those battles were, would break that promise. ‘Even if there was nothing she could do, she had to try to do something’. That was the philosophy that had gotten her out of hell, and she wasn’t going to abandon it now.


Nerzalil altered her path to insure that the last burrow she visited would also be the closest to the one the demons had taken. If that was a sub-optimal location, the Shadow Demon wouldn’t however bother herself with night movements – some of the jungle’s predators may be slowly learning that her species didn’t leave much eating after death, but she didn’t intend to use herself to reinforce their opinions. And even though she might want to consider this section of the jungle to be ‘theirs’, there was always someone with dark intentions lurking around the place. Barring the corrupted insects themselves, of course. Making that choice was hardly the only one she would have to make, now – when she arrived at the fourth burrow, and even before, she had been plotting out the specifics of the conflict. Getting to eyeball the number and distribution of her brothers helped a little, but she already had a reasonable idea – each burrow was effectively around a trial of spawn ( a disconcerting thought – that each burrow of one-hundred essentially amounted to only one spawn if she had been doing things the old fashioned way).

The number of her brothers that the insect could bring to the fight depended, at its base, on the statistics of day to day tasks, something Nerzalil had become intimately familiar with. She had found that one-hundred was approximately the number needed to be able to fight a reasonable human force and still have others to send out to gather, at least as far as she had determined in the journey from the gate to this jungle. Five or three Shadow Demons was a good number to search nearby to the burrow for food, given the protection staying in their territory naturally offered – as well as essentially being the border guard, allowing the burrow to know when something threatening attacked (or had left tracks) in ‘their’ lands. Hunting further out, or encroaching on the areas other creatures hunt forced about a ten-strong group, just to be completely sure to have the best outcome against any opposing hunting groups, harpies, or other creatures they might run into. Twenty was the good number for operating close to others’ territory, which was typically enough to deal with the traders and travellers they might encounter and resulted in the most women caught, though the size of the bug group made stealth less of an option. The female Shadow Demon only rarely sent out groups of twenty, and usually only if she had a target in mind; the humans that travelled tended to feel safe with around ten guards, and rarely as many as fifteen, which a group of twenty of her kin could deal with.

The burrow typically had at least thirty left in reserve, with around an additional ten fairly close by just due to insects coming and going, to be able to deal with anything that might stumble onto their territory and to defend themselves if a reasonable human force were to ever arrive – Neri didn’t expect to attract the attention of the full might of human armies, and certainly didn’t expect to survive if she did - but against the militia a town might send out to see what had happened to their citizens, forty should at least ensure that it would be a battle rather than a slaughter. The burrows weren’t too far away from each other that they couldn’t reinforce each other when needed, and after nearly two years, the insects knew their way around enough to have the home ground advantage.

Nerzalil’s gut reaction was to send a group of twenty to aid the plants, but only a second’s thought saw the flaw in that- the demons had already killed a hundred shadow demons without trouble. The plants were the only reason attacking directly was at all feasible; not even all four-hundred of her brothers could have turned the fight into a certain victory. No, if she legitimately wanted to have the best possible chance to turn things in her favour, she would need to attack with as many shadow demons as she could conceivably spare. Truly using every single one of her species to attack was still a terrible idea, of course… though not because of the losses – four hundred shadow demons all dying in order to produce a harvester, and at least one breedable female would have actually been either an even or beneficial tradeoff. The real problem with it was that the harvester would need time to mature in which others would have to defend it… and that getting the harvester, as much as the big bug wanted to believe was certain, was still a matter of chance.

To be able to continue surviving as a species after the attack, it was preferable that all four of the burrows continued in their current capacity. Three would really be pushing the limits; anything less and they were at an even more severe risk than usual, not certain to be able to survive against some of the more common threats in the jungle. Taking all one-hundred from the one she currently occupied, then, would be too risky – if things went as badly as possible, she would be down a burrow. If she took all the defenders, and some demons managed to run from the battle and find it, they might end up killing off a good deal of the gatherers. If she took the gatherers and they all died, the burrow would be forced to run at considerably less capacity… although, really, the whole ‘assume worst case scenario’ ideology wasn’t entirely applicable here, was it? The true worst-case was her death, and she was already definitely going to be risking that – because if anything could damn her further, it would be not keeping to her desire to do everything she could to help with her own hands. If she was willing to accept putting herself in combat’s way, she had to be secure in the belief that she could either win or escape; and if she assumed that she could escape, presumably most of her allies could be saved along with her, should things somehow go quite badly. Sending most of the hive was a gamble, but unless the whole group suddenly evaporated around her, the burrow should be able to deal with moderate amounts of losses – especially if they also got a harvester to replace them.

That in mind, Nerzalil finally decided on taking sixty of the burrow’s Shadow Demons with her, having the rest stay and defend, with the occasional group of three to see if any true-demons had entered their territory. Taking away the gatherers would hardly be a problem, as the battle would essentially be its own great hunt – there should certainly be a decent number of bodies left afterwards, both for consumption and, hopefully, for creating more young. While the decision had been carefully made, she still had most of the night left to sleep through. And in the next day she would be able to head to the burrow the demons had taken from her in force, and see it taken back with her own eyes. Perhaps even help take it back with her own hands… should the plants leave anything for her species to do.