The Innkeeper
chapter-829

The soldiers truly had been soldiers before, and had even collaborated with the Midnight Battalion various times. On this that they had previously taken to calling the Cursed Planet, rather than its official name of BGY-987, their entire unit was positioned close to the battalion. That is why, when they were originally given the order to retreat, they took a path close to them.

When catastrophe struck, and the ships were destroyed, they were the first to spot the battalion's beacon. Fortunately, due to their close proximity, they arrived unharmed and without incident. Unfortunately, while the remainder of their companions were normal, at some point during the original retreat they had been separated from their group.

That was all it took for them to be captured, and turned into demons. Now, though they wore the outer appearance of their former selves, it was a mere facade. As demons they had their own instincts, but more importantly, they had an inclination to obey devils!

The specific breed of demons they had been turned into were called Nephil-drones, and were most commonly used by devils for slightly complicated tasks due to their retained intelligence.

Slowly and silently they stood up, making sure not to wake up any of the sleeping soldiers besides them. They had been given a mission to infiltrate the Midnight Battalion and sabotage them from the inside.

What the intentions and plans their superiors had they did not know, nor did they have the capacity to be curious. All they knew was that they had to weaken the Midnight Battalions defenses, but they were not allowed to kill any members of the battalion. Everyone else, though, was fair game.

Their instincts told them to immediately kill the sleeping soldiers besides them, but they had strict orders. As they channeled their inner demonic energy, more and more of their skin shed, revealing dark blue muscle beneath. Using their energy would remove their camouflage, but it no longer mattered.

They had received the signal from outside, which meant all the preparations were completed. The two split, channeling their demonic art as they walked, causing tiny bits of their dark blue muscles to shed, falling off their bodies like grains of sand.

When one of them exited the room, he saw another demon, half its decayed body showing from where its own disguise was failing. They made eye contact for a split second before they went their separate ways.

Minutes went by, slowly and excruciating, but they were not discovered through some miracle. One of the demons had spent a majority of his demonic energy, so he now moved onto the next phase of the plan.

Sticking to the shadows, he walked out their designated area, and turned towards the boundary wall. Before it could get too far, however, it noticed something unusual.

Right in front of it, sitting on a barrier that was only waist high, a child seemed to be munching on their rations.

Nephil-drones were a favorite among devils because, based on what their original species was, they retained enough intelligence to form their own complicated thoughts and consider many variables to complete their missions.

As the demon looked at the child, it began to notice multiple things. First of all it was night and this planet had no moon, yet they were still engulfed in a silver yet somehow milky light. There was also an eerie silence all around them, despite the fact that this was an encampment filled with thousands of soldiers. Sure many of them were asleep, but many should have also been awake. Yet there was none of the noise that usually accompanied a crowded camp.

In fact, the demon now finally noticed that the only sounds it could hear were the chewing of the child, and its own heartbeat.

As the demon's gaze lingered on the child, who had his face towards it though his focus remained on eating, the sound of crunching slowly became louder and louder. It was a trick of the mind perhaps, that the child also seemed to be coming closer, as if the gap between them ws reducing.

But the demon was frozen still, so as to avoid making any noise and alerting the child, and the child himself was sitting still. Yet the space that divided them itself seemed to be reducing.

*Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.*

The sound of eating seemed to be echoing in his ears, even as his heart beat ever faster.

*Thump. Thump. Thump.*

Wait, what was that…

As the child somehow turned larger, or maybe came closer all without moving, the demon's gaze finally landed on the ration bar. It was oddly shaped, and had a distinct blue color that seemed so familiar to the demon…

Fear took a hold of the creature as it tried to retreat back into the shadows, but there were no shadows left. There was only the child, the sound of eating, and him.

By now the child seemed giant, and the creature had to crane his neck upwards because his gaze was fixed in the child's ration. As it got larger, the demon could finally recognize it completely. It was the demon itself the child was eating. It could see its own face, frozen to depict its final action: a wail, filled with absolute terror.

Crunch. The child took another bite, and it thundered in the demon's ears.

Silence. The demon's heart gave in, preferring the solace of eternal silence to matching the infernal noise of that child… of that true demon eating.

The demon died, in its sleep, unaware that it had been dreaming this entire time. Simultaneously, hundreds of other demons who had infiltrated, died at the same time, all of them in their sleep.

From the shadow a small child walked out, wiping the sweat off his face.

"Big brother Z was right, there really is a grand scheme at play in the background. How could he have known? Never mind, I better go report this to Luthor."

The child rushed off, his steps making nary a single sound. From his pocket he pulled out a ration bar, and the world seemed to darken further, if just for a moment.