One would think that a small army crossing through a portal would be something people couldn't miss, no matter what.
One would be wrong.
Actually, the tear in the fabric of reality didn't look like much from the point of view of the invaded world. Anyone staring in our direction would see nothing but a shimmering veil of colors in the air. Odd, to be sure, but more likely to be dismissed as an unprecedented natural phenomenon than to be attributed to a demonic invasion.
Moreover, we weren't stupid enough to just burst in and announce ourselves. The whole mini army's mana was bent towards one thing and one thing alone: stealth. Mia had beaten the spells into them, and she was also supporting the whole casting herself with her dream mana. So, even as our marching boots flattened the grass, all anyone would have seen was that same grass waving in the wind, its fate concealed by our illusions.
That part was all going splendidly.
Unfortunately, I wasn't quite as well put together.
No amount of calm thoughts and steady breathing exercises could stop my heart from beating a million beats per second and my mind from spiraling in unwanted directions. The city was right there. Every step towards it sent a wave of dissonance rampaging through me.
Was this really my Earth? Was I invading a place that used to be my home? Could I invade it? Would I be any better than Melchom if I did?
"Stay here, all of you!"
My voice rang out in the minds of our soldiers, carrying more than enough vicious anger to make them halt instantly. None of them were anywhere close to capable of fighting a Baron.
Then I turned around to face Mia, and everything immediately felt a tiny bit better. She understood. Of course she did. She'd seen every nook and hidden cranny of my mind.
Still, that didn't mean I had to be a fan of the sorrowful way she was looking at me. I didn't want her to feel sad at all, ever.
"I'm fine," I told her. "Well, I'm not, but I will be. Join me?"
"Of course."
A part of me was curious to know what our troops thought about their commanders walking away hand in hand. But honestly? Most of me didn't care. I had the city to focus on.
The first five minutes of our stroll were nerve-wracking. I couldn't take my eyes off the city, or the cars and highway stretching away from it. It all looked so horribly similar to the Earth cities I remembered dimly from my original life.
Yet, as we gradually got closer, I started to pick out some key differences.
The architecture was ever so subtly… off. It wasn't even something I could properly put a finger on, at least at first. More metal elements in the façades, maybe? Still, thanks to my superior demonic eyesight, I didn't have to wonder for long.
The city was unexpectedly 'modern.' The flashing billboards, the neon signs, and even the cars were more futuristic-looking than I'd anticipated based off my Earth-memories.
All of this was confirmed when we finally reached the city and began exploring the streets.
It was the oddest thing, seeing people dressed in familiar fashion that was just a bit off. Too… over the top, really, with brighter colors and glossier materials. Even the technology on display had the same disconnect between reality and my memories. I caught several people browsing on tablet-like devices, some of them clearly watching videos or even engaging in video calls. Yet they weren't wearing any obvious headphones, and I saw their lips moving without producing any sound.
Really, the whole city was much quieter than I was used to. People talked, sure, but the cars were soundless. Calls were much tamer, obviously. And the general bustle of life was just… muted, somehow.
It took me forever to notice devices cleverly hidden within public architecture, like sidewalks and façades, that seemed to snatch sound right out of the air. That was how the city maintained such tranquility, underscored by just enough noise that it didn't feel lifeless.
"This isn't like what you remember at all."
Mia's voice echoed in my head. It was all I could do to nod and send vague feelings of agreement back.
I was too busy jumping through hoops of mental gymnastics to say more.
After all… the first time I died, how long had I spent in the Abyssal void, getting slowly eaten? A week? A day? A decade? A thousand years? I didn't know. I honestly and genuinely didn't know. In spite of that, the longer I spent in the city, the less it felt like this was my old world.
That filled me with relief and grief in equal measure. The latter was honestly unexpected. I thought I was over it all, but now…
"Come on. Let's find some place to sit down," Mia suggested, tugging gently on my hand and speaking out loud for the first time.
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I let her lead me, welcoming the currents of warmth and amusement when she dragged us over to one of those cafés that sprawled out onto the street. I didn't need to ask what had drawn her to it. The smell of sweets and the cold wafting from the ice-cream fridge provided more than enough explanation.
Actually sitting down was a bit of a pain, though. Quite literally in Mia's case when she crimped her tail a little against the chair's back. I wasn't in a much better position, what with my wings, but I settled on wrapping them around me like a very fancy cloak.
A server approached us not even a minute after we'd settled in. Another difference between this place and my old world! On Earth, I'd have waited at least twenty minutes.
"What can I get for you?" the server asked.
My lips twitched in amusement. Thanks to Mia's illusions, this server saw nothing but two regular humans when she looked at us.
"Ah… any recommendations?" I asked. "We're looking for something sweet and refreshing. Some ice cream, definitely. And… cookies, do you think, Mia?"
She considered both me and the server with the seriousness typically reserved for to-the-death combat. "Cookies sound good. And that's a definite yes on the ice cream," my kitty cat declared imperiously, making my lips twitch again.
We bantered with the server for a bit, eventually settling on an order of 'mixed fruit juice', 'floral delight muffins', good old chocolate chip cookies, and a mix of several different ice creams.
Through it all, the situation continued to amuse me. There we were, chatting with a server like we had nothing better to do. As she went off to prepare our order, I spent a moment simply enjoying the faux peace that settled around us.
Then, ever so lightly, I touched Mia's mind with my own, just enough for us to plan and cooperate more effectively.
Strings of mana unspooled from me, undetectable and invisible to any normal human. They dipped into the handbag of a human passing by the café. A moment later, the strings emerged holding a wallet, which was then gently deposited on the table in front of us.
Not a single human reacted, of course. Mia was getting far too good with her illusions for most demons to see through them, let alone humans. Particularly humans on a world that appeared to be entirely reliant on technology.
"Hrm, lucky," I mumbled, inspecting the contents of the wallet. And we really were. Not just because the locals still partially relied on a physical currency, some kind of plastic bills that felt very odd under my fingers, but because we now had our hands on a local ID. If the need arose, Mia could easily shift her features to pass as the woman in the photo, at least until the woman reported the theft.
Of course, there were still some hurdles to overcome. Neither of us could actually read any of the info on the ID or the menus we'd pretended to peruse. We could rely on our soul senses to understand the locals, and we could talk back by tricking their minds while letting their souls interpret our intentions. Still, we'd need to fix the issue of our lack of familiarity with the local… everything, sooner rather than later.
And there was only one way to do that.
But we were content to leave it for later. Much later, in fact.
Our order arrived very quickly, once again underscoring the customer service quality of this world. The food was delightful. The muffins were just the right balance between crumbly and moist. The fruits in our juice were balanced very nicely and sweetened just right. The cookies were practically a universal staple, so it would have been hard to mess them up anyway. They did have a nice softness to them, though, which I appreciated.
The ice cream was great, too. Perhaps a little too great. Once we figured out which and how many of the bills we were supposed to hand over, Mia dragged us off on a café crawl to sample more of it.
We weren't goofing around, though! Of course not. We were just… engaging in important reconnaissance of the local culture.
Still, as was often the case, the fun had to end eventually.
For us, that ending came in the form of three 'tough guys' hanging out in an alley. The cigarettes they were passing to each other smelled cloyingly sweet, even from a distance. While it couldn't affect my physiology, I did catch the slightest hint of chemicals and a mind-altering substance that tried to do something to my brain and failed miserably.
My eyes narrowed. "Go for it?"
"Yep."
"Keep in mind potential surveillance devices?"
Mia scoffed. "Please. I've got it covered."
I knew she did, but hey, I figured it was best to confirm. It was one thing for some complicated camera we couldn't account for to catch us snatching a wallet. Letting one see us commit murder was something else altogether.
Then again, I wasn't really worried, for the same reason I wasn't worried about anyone seeing through our human disguises: Mia's illusions were really progressing nicely. Since she was using dream mana, one could even argue she wasn't technically putting up an illusion. She was convincing reality itself that whatever she had in mind was the true state of things. So…
Well. Once Mia's power settled over us and the alley, guaranteeing that no one would ever know what had happened there, the three idiots never stood a chance
It was almost too easy to rush forward and bury my arm in the chest of the first guy, crushing his heart and seizing his soul in one smooth motion. When I tore my hand free, it was clutching a wispy collection of vapor that featured a face screaming in shock and agony. I promptly threw the whole thing right into my mouth.
I tuned out the sounds of blood splattering and bodies hitting the floor. Sinking into the memories the soul provided for me, I felt the last dregs of tension and worry release their grippers on my mind.
This wasn't my former world.
The history of the human species here differed greatly. They'd moved out of the bronze age and straight into wars, conquests, and countless pointless clashes over land.
No fewer that fifteen different empires had sprung up and faded away over the course of three thousand years, all because their world was one massive, entirely connected landmass. Oh, they had seas and lakes and rivers and such. But land covered roughly seventy percent of the planet, and all of it was almost disgustingly verdant and productive.
None of the kingdoms and empires had gone to war out of necessity. Their survival was never dependent on victory. They had warred for silly reasons like glory and divine right to rule, because of course humanity always hit on one version of religion or another.
All of that changed when technology really took off. Companies and conglomerates rose up and eventually unified, turning into massive corporations that practically held a monopoly on their chosen field of commerce or production. The planet's constant wars shifted from senseless mass carnage to assassinations, espionage, and corporate politicking, leading to a massive boom in population numbers.
A big enough boom that the civilization had recently turned their eyes to the vastness of space.
Plans were being drafted. Spacecrafts were being built. Already, the rich were dividing up the stars. And that was just from what a single would-be ganger knew.
I took a deep breath in, letting it escape me in a whoosh of resigned annoyance.
We were going to have to be more careful than I'd anticipated, or the world we were invading would go up in atomic flames and orbital bombardment. Great. Amazing!
I'm sure that was just what Glaustro wanted to hear.