Then you arrived at the city

Almost from the moment you arrived, nothing went as you expected. At first you thought you made it in time.

The city that sprawled before you was filled with one story wooden buildings alive with daily activity. The well-maintained area seemed alive with people walking the streets and talking amongst themselves. It was so convincing that your group's guard was completely lowered when the illusion fell. The vision of normal people melted away as each citizen was replaced by a demon.

From all sides people shaped creatures appeared. They came in many strange skin colors including red and blue. Their features varied wildly, some looking as if they were part animal, but they had a few things in common. They seemed to all be female for one, wide hips and sizable breasts. The other commonality was more traditional demon features like bat wings, horns, and/or tails…

“Protect the Hero!”

As more and more forms appeared from windows and rooftops the knights cried out while trying to shield you.

“Form a circle!”

They shouldn’t have done that… these demons… they were weak, so weak you could kill each in one swing but then why did knight after knight fall around you. You kept your sword swinging and took down every enemy that approached until your sword arm felt numb and standing grew almost impossible.

Exhausted, on the verge of collapse you were almost surprised when the noise stopped. Abruptly it was silent and all you could hear was your own labored breaths and foot falls in the distance. The battle was over, bodies lay in the streets. Not one of your allies was still standing and what demons were left had fled.

You thought about morning your allies, about burying the dead, but the temple was only a mile away, you needed to secure the artifact before the Demon General did. Your thoughts converged on one point, a distraction. Such weak creatures could only be a distraction. These demons were trivially weak, maybe their leader was too? Then it hit you, no, they weren’t weak or else the soldiers would still be… could it be you were just stupidly strong… strong enough to win?

Pushing past your fatigue you ran, armor clanking, down the empty street and to the temple entrance. It was such a large structure, made of white marble that shone in the morning light that even without having seen it before you knew exactly what it was. On arrival you were greeted by an open doorway. You could see the intricate lock, the one ‘only the hero can open’ it laid over a foot away attached to the largest piece of the door. The stone wall had been blasted or torn open by something, or someone, with immense power.