Apostles of Doom

The demons moaned at this. Several soldiers tried to rail against the demon lord, but by and large they did not have the energy. They were too exhausted, too wounded. They all knew they were dead.

“As far as I am concerned at this moment, you are all dead!” the demon thundered.

Lesteroth felt his stomach curl as he braced himself for the D’Orc charge that was about to come.

“And I, Tommus, am Lord of the Dead in the Abyss! Thus my word is law!” the demon thundered again.

This guy was rambling a lot for a general. Obviously, he had been to Dark Overlord School. If only there was a hero around who could slay him while he pontificated. Lesteroth shook his head. He was scared, dark lord snark or not. This stupid diatribe did serve to prolong his final anxiety before his eternal demise.

“Since I control all, by my grace I shall give you each four choices!” the Dark Lord Tommus shouted.

Four choices? What, die fighting, die lying down, or die standing up? Hmm, what’s the fourth? Lesteroth wondered.

“My warriors will open a corridor behind you. You have my word that if you enter that corridor, you may return to Lilith and report your failure,” the demon lord stated. That caused quite a few murmurs. Of course, no one was going to take that option, but it would prolong one’s life so that one could be horribly tortured.

“Alternatively, you do not have to return to Lilith; you can simply make your way in the Abyss. You may not return to Doom’s Redoubt, however. I own that now.”

He would let them just go? Let them wander off into the Abyss? Lesteroth shrugged. That was an option, at least until Lilith’s people tracked them down and took them in for torture. Could take several years, maybe a century.

“Third,” the demon lord proclaimed, “you may stay where you are and my warriors will chop you up into smaller pieces. As you can see, you are not regenerating at the moment. We will spend considerable time chopping your corpses into bite-sized pieces, let you rot for a small eternity, and then the storms will return to send your bits to the far ends of the Abyss. This is the option you came in with. Death at our hands. Death at the hands of those you have harassed for four thousand years!”

“Finally…” The demon lord paused for a moment. “You may lay down your weapons and swear eternal allegiance to me and accept my binding.” Lesteroth shook his head. He could not have heard that right. “You will swear allegiance to me, you will put aside all past grievances with my people. You will join my army. In return, you can regenerate and you will be protected from Lilith and given a place to live that’s better than a cave or Lilith’s dungeon.”

That really shook things up.

“How can we trust you?” Darflow asked loud enough for all his demons to hear.

The demon lord shrugged. “It really doesn’t matter; the default is that we finish killing you all here and now. So how would taking any of my options be worse?” He gestured to the D’Orcs in the rear.

Lesteroth could not see, but from the murmurs, he assumed they were opening the corridor.

“Any of you want to leave? Go now. The rest will see that I allow their comrades to leave,” the dark lord said.

No one moved for some time, and then slowly one or two demons began moving towards the exit. One demon — Forwith, Lesteroth thought — began marching down the tunnel the D’Orcs had opened. He got to the end and looked back, rather incredulous that no one had stopped him. He turned back and launched himself into the air.

“Now is when the lightning bolt comes down and blasts him out of the sky,” Bellyachus whispered, apparently now paying attention. Lesteroth nodded and Talgorf chuckled nervously. However, nothing happened. The demon simply flew off.

After a few moments of continued silence, a few more began to depart. They left, one after the other, walking to the end of the tunnel and launching themselves into the sky. None was struck from the sky. None was pursued. It was very odd. This Dark Lord Tommus was actually allowing demons to escape!

At this point, demons began leaving in twos and threes. All departed successfully. Finally, no more were left. Lesteroth had counted over three hundred demons leaving, the majority being the reinforcements that had arrived right before battle.

Lesteroth wasn’t about to leave. He was not going to risk Lilith. He was not going to volunteer to die either. It was pretty much a no-brainer. It was doubtful this dark lord could be worse than his own current dark queen.

When it appeared that no more were leaving, the dark lord nodded. “Very well. Those willing to swear to me, kneel. Those who wish to die, please remain standing so we can shoot you.”