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There was a contingent of guards stationed by the drawbridge of the castle. Ironically they were stationed to keep anything from coming out, rather than stopping people from coming in. Everyone in the group storming the castle was checking on their equipment and doing last minute preparations before we got ready to enter.

I nodded at Silva. "Keep the twins safe, I'm trusting you to protect them."

"Of course. Take care of yourself Lilith." Most of Silva's sarcastic and teasing attitude was gone, she was aware of when it was time to play around and when things were serious.

I took another look at the castle. I could already tell there was a lot of miasma inside. Rather than being a simple inspection, this was instead going to be a demon extermination... assuming we kept control of the situation.

Jasper was a bit ahead of our group so I decided to pull him aside when he wasn't busy talking with any of the other guards. "Jasper, I can see the demonic miasma from here. There are definitely demons in there, either a lot of them, or a strong one."

He grimaced. "I see. Then it's good that I pulled together this many people. Do you have any idea what kind? Anything we should watch out for?"

"Unfortunately my experience only goes as far as recognizing the miasma. As for advice, the only thing I can really say is to stay alert. Most of the demons I've dealt with so far try to hide most of the time." I scratched the base of my horn. "I can usually tell the general direction of where the miasma is coming from so I should be able to determine when a room is safe. I wouldn't be able to say with certainty however."

The man tapped his fingers on his sword hilt in thought. "I understand. I'll relay that to the other party leaders. We'll still split into two teams but probably not any less than that until we've cleared a majority of the castle. Your party members' role will be to keep a look out for demons and advise the group leaders of anything you can regarding your hunting senses. I would prefer you stay out of combat unless it is unavoidable, protect yourself if required but don't go charging in."

I nodded. "Understood."

I relayed our orders and waited with my friends for another ten minutes before the guards that had been stationed here started dragging back the barricades to let us through. My party's two groups were with a group of more than thirty guardsmen each, a lot more than I was expecting for this mission. I was probably na?ve to expect only four or so adventuring parties would be clearing such an important landmark but that's what I had been picturing.

I followed just behind the advance group and got my first sight of the castle courtyard. The stench was awful and it wasn't hard to see why, there were still corpses littering the courtyard and the demonic miasma was thick here. It didn't take me long to recognize the source as the first corpse the advance soldier approached leaped up from the ground at him.

The guard was ready for it and deflected the monster with his shield, a nearby spearman quickly pierced the corpse's skull before it could recover. After the failed surprise attack the rest of the corpses got to their feet and started running at the front line of guards.

Zombies. A staple of movies, comic books, and video games. Even when depicted as such, nothing does justice to how gross they are in person. The scent of rotting flesh was in the air and the disgusting monsters were far from slow despite their shredded muscles and broken bones. My magic sight made it clear how they were still moving, demonic magic that felt revolting to my senses clung to these monsters, holding them upright and empowering their mangled bodies.

Since the frontline guards had these monsters covered I turned my attention to the inner ramparts of the castle. Demons liked to be sneaky so I wanted to make sure there wouldn't be any nasty surprises dropping on our heads.

I cast [Light Beam], using my magic control to make a wide cone infused with light magic to smoke out any potential shadow demons. I almost thought it had been unnecessary until it passed over a shadow that started screaming in rage when the light hit it. The beam was unfocused and not particularly high-powerful but the demon was weak to light magic, meaning while it didn't do enough to kill the monster it was plenty useful for flushing it out.

Unsurprisingly, it was Torien who reacted to the shadow demon first. An impossibly fast arrow struck the demon, making it lose balance and fall of the wall into a group of guardsmen. Fortunately, they had been paying enough attention to quickly dodge the falling monster and kill it. I didn't know if they were upset that she had shot at it but I suppose they would complain to her directly if that was the case. While all of that was happening, I continued scouring the shadows and corners of the inner courtyard and ramparts but I didn't find any other demons hiding around us.

Once all of the zombie demons were killed the guardsmen spread out and begun blocking off all of the windows and entrances, save for the one we were planning on entering. Others built a large bonfire in the center of the courtyard and started drag over the bodies to be burned there. I noticed Torien looking at the portcullis and since the groups have been disbanded for the moment, I wanted to see what she was looking at.

"Torien, what's up?"

She glanced at me before looking back. "The portcullis winch wasn't damaged. Not only was it not destroyed, no one sabotaged it either. Despite everything that happened here, including a demon being summoned in the courtyard, no one was able to throw the castle portcullis."

"Do you think it means something?" I asked.

"...not on its own. But it is odd. Leaving aside that the men in black brigandine were let in without any issue, they didn't even bother to force it to stay open." Her tail flicked back and forth in agitation.

I shrugged. "Maybe they were more focused on finding the baron and summoning the demon than damaging the portcullis."

"Perhaps, but they likely had someone stay here to make sure they didn't get locked in either. It's just odd, something that's out of place."

Jasper's voice carried across the courtyard, "Form up!"

I nodded. "I agree, something is off about all of this. Keep an eye out for anything else that seems strange."

I went back to my group as we prepared to enter the main building of the castle. Two men ahead of the party opened the doors and contrary to what everyone was expecting there weren't any demons waiting on the other side of the door. Instead it was eerie and quiet inside the entrance hall.

Our groups filed in and I once again checked the corners and ceiling for any shadow demons. I didn't find any. There was a small haze of miasma in the air but nothing concentrated. The castle had four stories, three above ground and at least one below. I had been told ahead of time we would clear our way up to the top and then do the storage and dungeons below the castle last. Because of the nature of the area, that's where we expected the most resistance.

Our large group was finally breaking into two groups, one headed left and my group headed right.

I patted Mimi on the shoulder. "How are you doing Mimi?"

She smiled back at me, "I'm doing okay."

After a moment she added something through the bond. -- "I'm keeping an eye out for Mimics. This area feels familiar to me." --

-- "I'm not surprised, we found you in a place similar to this. Though the area we found you in was a bit more like a mansion." -- I said.

Our team turned a corner and it took a little while before we were able to follow. They had run into more zombies at a choke point so we had to wait for them to be taken care of before we could continue moving forward. Not long later some of the guardsmen were dragging old corpses back to the bonfire.

The area we were clearing out was mainly guest rooms and servant's quarters right now. From what I understood, the other side of the main building had the kitchens and other facilities. There was a low level of miasma in the area, meaning there were probably demons nearby but not in great numbers or ones that were particularly powerful. Bella, Mimi, and I were just standing in the hall and waiting while the guards checked out all of the rooms. They didn't want to put us in too much danger and based on the level of miasma concentration they would be fine on their own as long as they were careful.

There was a few zombies here and there as well as the unmistakable cry of a banshee but other than that there wasn't any problem. The few guards who had alerted the banshee were brought to Bella for healing, nothing serious but bleeding ears isn't a fun experience. After thirty minutes of waiting around it was time to move on to another part of the castle.

Mimi had been polite and cheerful with the guards who spoke to us but I could tell that there was something about her that made people wary. She didn't notice at all and was always happy to talk with them, they didn't speak about anything important of course but none of them chatted with her for long, even when there wasn't anything better to do. Maybe it was because when she wasn't talking with anyone, she stood stock still like a statue. I knew she was probably freezing to conserve her energy but to others it seemed bizarre and off putting for reasons they couldn't directly explain. I wondered if I should mention it to her or if she'll figure that out on her own through observation.

Our group progressed through another part of the castle. I could still see the low levels of ambient miasma and we still didn't find any high concentrations of it in any of the places we looked so far. Not all that strange considering we were in the parts of the castle where no one important lived or worked. While the people in brigandine had been brutal with their targets and anyone in their way, they had no reason to track down all of the castle's servants who hid in their quarters. There were only a few bodies left at this point. Anyone who had been here had either escaped out into the town or died and become one of the zombies we were cutting down.

It was rather sad to see some of the young servants' animate corpses throwing themselves on the guardsmen's swords.

While some of the sights were harrowing, there was a level of distance from the tragedy since the demonic energy was only infesting their corpses. These people were already dead. It was sad but I wasn't watching them in their moments of death, they were already gone. It made the awful sights a bit more tolerable.

It had been about two bells total by the time we had cleared out the entire first floor and both groups regrouped back in the entrance hall near the stairs. Now that we were here again the stark difference between the first floor and the second was even greater. It was obvious the next floor would have much more demonic presence than the last. Whether that would mean even more zombies or fewer but more powerful enemies was yet to be seen. For now we were taking a break back in the courtyard. We had blocked off the doors to the different wings of the first floor after we finished up in there to keep anything from the second floor from getting behind us and reinfesting those areas as we pushed forward. We were making steady progress so far.

I sat down with Silva and the twins while Bella and Mimi healed and looked after some of the people from the other group.

"How did it go?" I asked.

Morrigan gave me a sad smile. "Mostly zombies, dead servants and slaves that hadn't escaped. It wasn't hard to clear the area and we didn't get to do much. We mainly stood around and talked about the miasma concentration."

I sighed. "When we came here I was excited by the adventure. Instead this just feels depressing. We're slaughtering the undead corpses of the people who didn't escape the attack."

Silva's face hardened. "Don't worry, it won't be until the third floor that we get most of the answers we're looking for. Most of the nobles and important people were in the keep, as well as their most powerful guards. If there's any more clues about who the people in black brigandine are, we're most likely to find them on one of their corpses in the keep. Let's just hope the people in black didn't take all of the clues with them.

I grimaced. I wasn't looking forward to digging through the pockets of one of those zombies.

Jasper's voice cut through the crowd's murmuring once again. "Form up teams. Next is the ballroom. If there are any large demons left in this castle, that's where they're most likely to be. Everyone prepare themselves!"

I sighed and stood up. Back to work.