It takes us a good hour to circle the town while using the nearby forest as cover, we kept our distance as much as we could while Gilda told us what exactly happened with her.

The moment she tried to get into her home, the guards spotted her and just dragged her away to jail. She told them repeatedly that she had the gold to pay her debt, but the guards didn't care at all. Besides, I wouldn't have let her give her gold away anyway, it would most likely go to this greedy King who's bleeding his people dry enough as it is.

"You do realise this means I'm now a fugitive right?" Gilda tells us as we're now clear from the town.

"Better than working in the mines for who knows how long right?" Desire replies. "At least you have all of us to protect you."

"Yeah, G! If those feather brained guards think they can take you away again they've got another thing coming!" Rainbow boasts and pats Gilda on the back.

Gilda smiles at the support she's getting while I just smirk, I’d love to meet this gryphon King and beat some sense into him. I’ve learnt earning the loyalty of your people gets you more than taking what you want from them.

We continue our journey through the forest while everyone seems to be in some sort of conversation with each other. Luna and Selene are talking to Dusk about learning more magic and eventually demon magic when he's ready to turn.

Ironhoof is talking to his brother about what they'll do in the future and possibly bring their family with them if things turn out alright as he pulls the cart with Applejack in it who is cursing at the uneven ground causing her legs to hurt with each bump.

Pinkie is looking even more miserable and looks about ready to cave in to be healed. Though Applejack is still being stubborn.

Twilight and Desire are chatting happily about Tartarus' history while Shining is walking as close to Gilda as he can.

Rarity and Spike are flirting with each other and I guess it will be tonight or tomorrow night that she'll have to feed from him.

Fluttershy is talking to her animals from atop her hellhare, getting them to learn and say new words while Angel is constantly looking around the forest for any threats. He's really taking his role as her guardian seriously now.

The lesser demons are carrying supplies and watching our surroundings for any threats. A harpy suddenly dives down and lands in front of me.

"Master, a squad of thirty gryphons are heading this way," she tells me and I frown.

"So much for getting through here undetected..." I mutter quietly. "Let's pick up the pace and see if we can lose them in the forest, if we can't then we'll have to kill them!" I tell the others and we all start jogging through the forest.

"Sir Damien! We hast a suggestion!" Selene tells me.

"What is it?" I ask her.

"We can cast an illusion over us to make us look like a large boulder. We canst just wait for them to pass and then continue on later," she says.

That could work, and if it doesn't it would give us the element of surprise should we need to attack. "Alright then, do it!" I tell her.

We all move to a clearing and huddle as close as possible together. Selene's horn glows and a thin barrier is now surrounding us. I curiously stick my head through and see the outer shell looks like stone. Luna's horn then glows as our tracks are covered up and a new set continuing on is made. I pull my head back in and just watch as after a few minutes the squad arrives.

"Where did they go?" one of them asks another.

"They couldn't be that far ahead..." replies a female.

"Just keep following their trail, the Captain will have our heads if we don't find them!" the biggest of them with dark brown fur and grey feathers says, he then looks our way before narrowing his eyes. I glare at him ready for a fight but he just snorts and starts walking away following the fake trail.

It seems they've not noticed us at all, but then the worst thing that could happen does... Pinkie sneezes.

"AAACHHHOOOO!"

The squad freezes and looks our way again. I slowly turn to stare at Pinkie who smiles sheepishly.

"Whoopsie?" she whispers and the gryphons aim ten bows at us. Fortunately they're not silver arrows.

"LUNA! SHIELD NOW!" I order her and she quickly Makes a dome of energy around us as Selene's illusion crumbles.

"We'll be taking back the hen you took from the Eaglesburg jail," the big gryphon tells me with a stern look. Gilda then hides behind the tower of muscle that is Ironhoof who looks bored.

"Hm-hmm, listen here, sweetheart," Desire says getting his attention. "Gilda here is a friend of ours, and what you have planned for her is tantamount to slavery."

"She failed to pay her rent, so she must work it off," he replies calmly.

"So taking her home and all her belongings wasn't enough to pay for it?" I ask him just itching to summon Thanatos.

"She'll have no need of them once she's in the mines. Now hand her over and the ones responsible for breaking her out or we'll take you all back," he replies and now glares at us.

I laugh long and loud at his threat before looking at him with a deadpan stare. "Tell me you're not serious?" I ask him sarcastically.

"I never joke around," he replies and turns to the other gryphons "Take them all!" he orders them.

I step through the barrier and activate my demonic form, causing them to stop in their tracks.

"If you value your lives, you'll head back to Eaglesburg. You take one step closer to my group, and I will rip you all apart, tear out your very souls, and burn what's left so no one will ever find your corpses," I threaten them and summon Thanatos in my right hand while coating my left arm in darkfire. "This is your only warning!"

"The cluck are you!?" one of the females yells out while backing away slowly.

I stare at her right in the eyes with a frown. "I am the Overlord of Tartarus!" I tell her making a few of them gasp.

"So you're the demons the King was warned about... funny, the reports said you'd arrive at Talonsport," the big gryphon says while looking us all over.

"We had a change of plans. Now, leave or die. There's no third option. And should you follow or attack us, we will kill all who attack us," I tell him.

He looks to his squad before looking back at me. "Very well. I know when it's a fight I can't win," he replies and then walks away. "Fall back!" he tells his squad and they all fly off without question.

"You know that's going to bite us in the rump later right?" Desire tells me with a raised brow as I revert back to my human form.

"Possibly, but at least we know these gryphons aren't as dumb as lemmings like the Equestrian guards are," I reply getting an angry 'hey!' from Shining. "Let's keep moving! They're bound to come back with silver weapons now that they know we're here," I tell my group.

We quickly continue on at a much faster pace now to get as much distance between us and the gryphons as possible. It takes us six hours of travel through this forest, but we exit the tree line to see a pathway across a short clearing leading through some kind of valley between two cliff faces.

"I don't like this... Feels like we've been followed and watched for the last four hours," Desire says eyeing up the valley.

"Same, looks like a good place for an ambush," I reply and turn to the harpies and the thestrals. "I want you lot to fly up there and see if there's anyone waiting to jump us," I tell them and they nodded before flying up the cliffside. I just stare at Rainbow who looks back at me.

"What?" she asks confused.

"That means you too, get up there and check if it's safe," I tell her.

"Oh? And why should I?" she replies and crosses her arms.

I glare at her harshly. "You're a part of this group and you will do your part to help, I will not have you as just a waste of space and supplies. Now go up there and help the others or I will take your free will away and order you to go!" I tell her angrily at her constant hostile attitude towards me.

She growls and then spreads her wings. "Grrrr, fine!" she replies bitterly and takes off quickly after the others.

"Did you really need to do that?" Twilight asks me.

"Yes, I will not have her just tagging along, everyone will do something to benefit the group," I reply and wait for them to return with their reports.

"Damien?" I hear Gilda say to me. I turn and look towards her. "I just wanted to say thanks for getting me out of jail... You have no idea what it's like down in the mines. I've only heard rumours, but they say they either strap your wings down or clip them so you can't escape, you're barely fed, and the living conditions are worst than a prison... So, yeah. Thanks for saving me," she tells me with a sad frown.

I smile and kneel down to her. "You're welcome. We could have tried getting you out with your bag of gold, but after hearing about how your King runs things, I'd rather not add more funds to his already inflated pockets," I reply and ruffle the feathers on her head.

She smiles slightly and heads back over to Shining and starts chatting with him. I turn back to the valley and wait.

It takes ten minutes, but the others return unharmed. "Master, there are signs of gryphons having been up there before, but right now there aren't any," a harpy tells me while Rainbow sulks off to her friends.

"Alright then, I want two lycans up front and two in the back, harpies and thestrals stay above the valley to make sure nothing comes to surprise us. Selene and Luna, help protect the rear while Desire and I have the front. The rest of you surround the cart and keep an eye out," I tell the group getting affirmatives in return.

We make our way into the valley and keep watch for anything out of the ordinary. After about ten minutes one of the harpies yelp as she's shot by an arrow in the shoulder. She drops out of the sky but fortunately Ironhoof catches her and places her on the cart where Applejack pulls out the arrow and starts to wrap a cloth over the harpy's wound.

Another harpy screams in pain as she’s shot in the heart, everyone watches in horror as cracking lines spread over her and she bursts into ash which is blown away.

"Gryphons!" the third harpy yells down to us.

Rainbow comes back down and lands in front of me. "They just showed up out of nowhere!" she tells me and yelps as an arrow just misses her and sticks into the ground.

"SHIELD UP!" I yell out as Luna, Selene, Shining, and Twilight join together making a large barrier over the whole group. The other harpy and thestrals fly back down and enter the shield.

I pick up the arrow and notice it isn't made of silver. 'So Celestia didn't tell them about the silver?' I wonder and look up.

I can see about fifty gryphons on each side firing arrows down at us which bounce off the shield.

"Drop the boulders!" I hear one of them yell as giant boulders then start dropping down on top of us.

The shield cracks and quickly repairs itself but I don't know how long they can keep this up for.

"Desire, you take the left side I'll take the right. Leave none alive," I tell her.

She smiles and takes off quickly up the cliff face while avoiding the arrows and boulders. I head up the right side and once I get up to the top, I go wide eyed at the amount of gryphons here. There has to be at least three-hundred on this side alone, and what makes me worried is most of them have silver weapons and armour.

'They tricked us! They used normal weapons to make us think they didn't have any silver! And how did they hide this many from my demons initial flyby?' I think to myself and frown at them.

"FIRE!" I hear a gryphon male yell as a large amount of silver arrows fly straight for me.

I quickly meld into the Shadow Realm and I notice something odd with the wraiths in here. They're all just staring at me with their blank expressions, they've never done that before. I ignore them and move behind the gryphons and exit the Shadow Realm, I then gather my energy and spray out a large plume of darkfire into the backs of the archers.

Eighteen of them scream in agony as they're reduced to ash, I glance to the other side and see Desire lashing out with multiple tendrils which pierce her opponents while avoiding their weapons and arrows as best as she can, though she does have a couple of cuts on her arms.

I then create six darkfire dragons and launch them into the gryphons which detonate on impact. The gryphons, instead of panicking, rally up and try to flank me on all sides, these bastards are much more organised and quicker to react than the Equestrians are.

I fly up and meld into the Shadow Realm again while heading over to Desire's side to get her out. I reappear behind her and grab her by the waist before melding back in. "What?" she asks in a whisper.

"There's too many of them and with all the silver weapons they have even we'll have trouble fighting them, we need to get back to the others and get through the valley quickly," I reply and fly back down through the barrier they're still holding up.

We exit back out of the Shadow Realm and walk over to the others. "Are you okay?" I ask the four holding the shield up, more cracks are starting to appear on the shield.

"Yes, but we cans't nary hold it for long!" Luna replies while I see the lycans digging into the cliff face as the inccuponies and succuponies are tossing the rock and dirt to the side with their magic.

"What are they doing?" I ask as another boulder slams into the shield deepening the cracks.

"They think a cave system is on the other side! They're trying to break through to get us in!" Twilight replies and grunts as both hers and Shining’s horns flicker out and they collapse onto their knees panting for breath.

The shield is starting to get worse so I walk over to Luna and Selene then place my hands on each of their shoulders before pouring a good quarter of my energy between them to keep the shield up.

The gryphons are still dropping boulders on us while firing a few arrows down as well. The silver tipped arrows violently react to the demon energy in the barrier which makes a hissing sound as energy leaks out of the shield like a mist.

The four lycans finally break through three metres of the cliff face which leads into a cave system, leaving enough space for our balrog and cart to fit.

"Alright! Everyone get in there!" I tell them as Ironhoof pulls the cart through followed by everyone else leaving Selene, Luna, Desire, and I still outside.

"Alright, slowly pull the shield back then plug the entrance with the boulders they dropped!" I tell them getting affirmatives.

We walk back slowly as the gryphons start flying down to stop us but as soon as we're inside, Luna and Selene then drop the shield to levitate the boulders to stuff the entrance tightly preventing the gryphons from chasing us and leaving us in total darkness.

A few of the inccu and succuponies create small orbs of lights in their hands so we can see our surroundings.

"That went as well as it could have," Desire says and hisses in pain from the cuts she received.

"At least they're small, should heal within the hour," I tell her and look around. There's two tunnels, one to the right and one to the left.

"Gilda, do you know which way from here?" I ask her.

"Yeah, the right tunnel leads to the other side of the valley, I used to play in here as a chick. The entrance is a mile back to the left of the valley, and the exit is at least three miles ahead from here," she replies.

"Well then, let's get going. We have a long way to go still, but I think we'll make our own exit just in case those gryphons know these caves too, we'll collapse them along our way as well," I tell everyone.

Fluttershy looks terrified while clinging onto angel, Pinkie looks upset, Dusk is shaking while Luna is trying to calm him down, and Rarity is hugging Spike’s arm tightly.

Twilight is sitting on the cart still catching her breath while Rainbow is talking to Applejack. The other demons are checking their gear and supplies that they're carrying.

Once we checked we have everything, we start making our way through the caves, though the lycans have to widen the tunnels now and then for the cart to fit through.

Next Chapter: Chapter 35: In the darkness I reign Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 51 Minutes