Demon King's Elf General

No matter how many times Princess Viara had seen it, there still was certain morbid beauty in observing the swan-like elven airships engage with the more numerous minotaur ships that looked like flying coffins. By now, the Empire of the Horn had battered the Peninsular Alliance's forces for months now, all the while taking their fortified cities one by one. Not even demons with their portals and quick raiding attacks had ever posed such an existential threat to the nations Viara lived to protect.

At the start of the current battle, the two fleets had formed neat formations in the air to exchange volleys of magic-tech cannon fire. Neither side had lost that many ships at first as the same engines that kept the large ships in the air provided very robust barriers against magical attacks. But the moment the minotaur ships got to the kinetic projectile range, the fight turned far more brutal for both sides.

Focused cannonball barrages punctured through shields and crashed into the white hulls of the elven swan ships. But the flying pieces of art were able to respond with their stronger magic-tech cannons that made the coffin ships burst into balls of fire the moment their shields failed. So the longer the battle lasted, the heavier the casualties were on both sides.

"Give the final sign to withdraw, we have bought enough time," Viara commanded with a sigh to her ship's captain. They both stood on the quarterdeck of the elf fleet's flagship that was only providing long-range fire support past the frontline formations.

The city under the air battle was little more than a burning ruin waiting to collapse. All the magic barriers were gone and the vital wall sections had crumbled under the assault of the minotaur tanks. Today the fleet had been there only to buy time for the ground army to retreat.

"Angle thirty, enemy ship, breaking formation, ramming speed," came a series of shouts from a spotter on the quarterdeck mast. A minotaur ship was going straight at one of the larger swan ships that the elf fleet was using as cover to take projectile hits. It was one of the newest ships in the fleet and its core had been modified to resist even direct projectile hits. So it should fly even if most of its structure was turned into a holed skeleton.

Since the minotaur ships were usually made of rune engraved wood like the elf ones, ramming attacks usually ended in their ships blowing up on the stronger barriers of the elven counterparts. But this time as their barriers collided the swan ship's shield flashed only once to resist the massive projectile before it collapsed.

Viara's lips gaped as she watched the minotaur coffin crash through the large white ship with shocking ease. Even as she had seen many battles, her blue eyes dilated while her fingers went to grab her silky silver hair that was on a tightly tied ponytail. She pulled from it just to have her focus back.

Before the corpse of the destroyed swan ship began to even fall Viara shouted, "Angle thirty, all guns target that ramming ship, full power."

While the magic-tech cannons on the deck and sides of the princess's flagship aimed, the minotaur ship clearing the white debris was already being fired upon by others. But to an added horror, the magic blasts simply drew lines on the black ship like it did not even have a barrier and its hull alone was able to take the hits. Though it did began glowing red a moment before it crashed into another swan ship.

"That ship is not rune engraved wood... metal?" Viara uttered even as another realization came to her. The seemingly unstoppable ship was changing its course to fly straight at the flagship next. Like it had planned the first two hits just to have a clear path to it. Not to mention it moved with a speed that not even most elven cruise ships were able to achieve. Like gravity was a joke to it.

"Prepare to be rammed, change direction to go straight at that ship, prepare to tilt to avoid direct ram at my command," Viara shouted a series of commands before she had the time to even think, it would take the hostile ship to reach the flagship only around a minute if she calculated its speed right. Not to mention she had no idea how the massive iron coffin was able to fly or what it was able to do. Making metal tanks was one thing but no engine had even been able to keep such a massive pile of metal in flight before. At least not before this day.

"Signal the fleet to disperse if flagship down," Viara added and swallowed hard. She tried to think if there was anything else she should do to minimize the damage this single ship with unknown properties could cause in the worst-case scenario. By now it was being focused so intensely that the rest of the minotaur fleet was able to get even closer with their kinetic weapons. The only bright dot was the fact the enemy seemed to have only one of these borderline unnatural ships in the fleet.

"Prepare to be boarded, drop the shields, full power to stay in flight," Viara commanded as she had seen two ship cores overheat from even attempting to mitigate the ramming of this ship with their shields. It was relayed by one of the lieutenants to the core via a communication crystal.

Suddenly the elf princess felt naked even in her rune engraved steel plate armor that had been shaped to give room for her bust. She was a high-class astral mage knight and still just thinking the horned monsters that manned the enemy ships made her shiver. Not even putting on her helmet helped her to lose the feeling.

"Starboard, half tilt, drop altitude," Viara shouted when the enemy ship just kept accelerating towards them. The agile swan ship followed the command aided by the crew. The deck tilted to a vertical position and only the magic boots of the crew kept them on the deck along with the gravity-defying pull from the ship's core.

For a moment it looked like the cast iron black coffin was going to fly past them but then it cut its power to drop on the swan ship like a rock. The increasingly unsure princess almost commanded to abandon ship as the coffin used gravity to loudly sink into the tilted side of the white hull. But then it ignited its core again and locked in place. A moment later hatches opened on its side and deck.

"Get ready," Viara shouted and manifested several astral blades and shields around her. But then she spotted portals opening on the sky above the crumbling elven city. Demons had come to join in the battle after seeing an opportunity to fight two wounded armies. And all just for some diabolic fun.

Like not even caring about the demons, several minotaurs charged on the tilted ship deck. They were met with loose spear and rifle formations. Viara found a moment to smile before she disengaged the gravity alteration on the main deck with a control crystal. Several of the chain-mail-wearing brutes slid off the deck and to the ground below but some managed to strike their axes at least some of the elves on their way down. Even if they too were affected by the tilted deck, their magic-tech boots still let them stay on the deck in oddly practical low-profile positions to fire their rifles.

For a moment no more minotaurs charged from the hatches and Viara swallowed hard. Even her mind was hitting blank on if she should command abandoning ship now to save more lives or wait for the next move to buy more time for the fleet to retreat. But then several minotaurs launched themselves with magical jet packs to the quarterdeck.

Only twenty of the crew was near Viara and two of them were crushed by the first landing of the hooves. The elf princess welcomed the first of the horned brutes with a barrage of astral blades. The creature kept swinging his ax to the moment he was physically no longer able to do so.

The minotaurs ignored most of the rifle fire due to their thick magic-oiled furs. So they only swatted the marines to a side while aiming at the mage knights protecting Viara. Five of the horned attackers has decided to charge the princess even before the minotaur she had disassembled collapsed to the ground. Instead of axes, two of them had large metal nets they were clearly planning to wrap around her.

On the relatively small quarterdeck, the fact the large horned monsters were able to fight several seconds even after most other raced would have been permanently paralyzed by wounds was extremely detrimental to the elves. Especially since the last acts of these elite warriors was to launch themselves horns first with jet packs at the closest enemy.

In less than a minute of intense fighting, two of the mage knights were cut down after rune engraved axes broke their personal barriers with repeated hits. They had shielded their princess and she now knew this battle was not winnable to the point it was not worth it even to buy time. But still, she and her knights managed to dismantle several more of the elite minotaurs before their numbers began tilting heavily against them.

"Abandon ship," Viara commanded and she and three of her mage knights launched themselves from the deck with speed the minotaurs were not able to follow. Flying for an astral mage was one of the first things they tried to learn so to these masters it was easy.

Some of the faster cruise ships had lingered near the flagship and Viara motioned her knights to head to one of them to assist in evacuating the crew. From distance, she was able to tell what she had guessed in the back of her mind to be true. Her flagship had been torn so deeply in the side it was a sheer wonder it had not begun to fall down already.

At first, two options Viara could have done differently came to her mind. Then five, then ten and they just kept coming while she barely managed to focus on the battle itself. The more she thought about what could happen if the minotaurs kept utilizing that metal ship, the more scared of it she became. So she tried to focus on the demons just to fill her mind with something else.

Both the minotaur fleet and the retreating elf fleet were now battling against hordes of flying demons that circled around the large ships like flies. Though even as the retreating princess observed it, her mind kept thinking if she had acted like a coward or a clever tactician.

"Such chaotic carnage," Viara muttered. She was more than aware the entire demon attack existed simply to amuse their king that had commanded it. Just the sheer number of the multiple varieties of demons charging the sky and the city would be enough to threaten most armies. Even the minotaurs had begun to retreat from them as they knew as well as the elves that the horde from hell would go away when their king would get bored.

A few of the demon portals that had unleashed the flying hordes were close enough to Viara for her to see the massive demon citadel floating in the void between realities. It made an idea come to the princess's mind she had pondered many times before. If she could just get the demon king to attack vital minotaur supply bases and shipyards, she could easily offer at least time for the elven city-states to adapt their airships to be a better match for the utilitarian coffin fleets.

"One more defeat, one more reason to change tactics," Viara gritted her teeth when she noticed the flagship began spiraling towards the ground, only barely slowed down by the remaining power of its core. The crew was jumping overboard with haste using all kinds of magical parachutes. The minotaur airship had parted with a heavy downward rotation that had utterly devastated the swan ship's hull and even damaged its core enough to make it lose altitude. The only luck they had was that the demons were being directed by their king to mostly attack the minotaur fleet and tanks surrounding the ruined city.

There was no way for the princess to know if the demon king was attacking the minotaurs because of some agenda or if he simply found fighting against elves boring or something. But still, his actions were helping the elves in their retreat. Like perfect fodder troops, nobody would miss that the skilled and immortal warriors lacked.

While the flagship crashed to the side of a hill, its killer flew away even as two rearguard swan ships sent long-range magic barrages into it just to make sure nothing was able to stop it. Viara was not even sure if she had done a mistake that had led to a worse outcome than the best possible one. The moment the iron coffin parted from the formation, nothing stopped it. It could have rammed as many ships it had wanted but now it had only hit three.

After a hard swallow, Viara made sure that nobody was focusing on her and headed towards the closest demon portal. She had read hundreds of books about the demon kings and how they operated almost like chaos gods for their own amusement. There even were recorded trade deals with some of them. As long as the offer would provide them some new joy in their apparently very boring and bleak lives there was a chance for them to accept it.

"Trip to hell sounds just the right kind of punishment for me to atone for my mistakes," Viara muttered and launched herself through the demon portal. But even as she did so, the defeated fleet commander was not sure if she was committing to yet another mistake or not.

On the other side, the elven princess was welcomed by the sight of the biggest citadel complex she had ever seen. It stretched to every direction below her in all kinds of twisted shapes, like in parody of the beautiful elven cities.

But Viara did not have the time to be disgusted or awed by the architecture as nearby imp demons and others spotted her almost immediately. So she focused on reaching the demon king that was directing the entire host of demons. He was on a large platform at the top of the main fortress structure.

Astral blades rotated around Viara while she flew towards the platform below her. They kept the swarming demons at bay but then the horde parted and created a clear path to the king. Even the demons around him shifted to create the elf princess a landing space.

The demon king was clearly the red-skinned being that laid on a divan, being attended by some succubi. His muscular form was barely hidden by a white toga with golden linings. His black eyes observed how the steel-plated knight landed to a respectful distance away from his leisure spot.

"Welcome to my humble evening party, I'm Demon King Azazel. How may I address you, my lady?" he voiced with a polite noble tone that sounded only like mockery when coming from a demon. Especially from one with long silver hair and a golden tiara of some long-lost human king. But since this overlord of demons was trying to imitate the customs of the civilized races, there was no reason for Viara not to play his game.

"I'm Princess Viara of Meridia, It is my honor to be your guest," she voiced. The princess hoped her title would entice the pretentious demon to play this weird noble game even more.

"May my honored royal guest respect the dress code of tonight's party?" Azazel mused. It made Viara look around to note that the demons on the platform were wearing very revealing togas. Even if breasts or cocks were not bulging out of them, their muscles were. The same was true for the king who had a well-toned chest and abs that had unnatural statue-like beauty even an elf was forced to admire.

Viara swallowed hard and narrowed her mind to her goal. After leading so many more or less disastrous fleet battles, having to sexually seduce a demon was not even close to the amount of punishment she deserved in her mind. Not to mention, the longer she looked at the disgustingly elegant demon, the less she was against the idea. But that did not make the noble elf happy at all.

"It would only be natural for me to do so," Viara slightly bowed and took off her helmet. The sight of her silver hair, clear blue eyes, and beautiful facial structure immediately made the eyes of the king sparkled with excitement. He motioned one of the succubi near him to bring a toga to his new guest.

Despite the pretense of being civilized, Viara knew very well the lengths she might need to go to amuse this king to get what she wanted. Since he was surrounding himself with the most beautiful demon variants, it was clear the princess's assets should be more than pleasing to him.

The first and most likely the smallest hurdle was that the king was clearly expecting Viara to change her clothes in full view of the whole party. So she took the offered white toga and sandals from the succubi and considered her options.

Despite special one-way viewing portals close to the platform still showing the battle against the minotaur forces, the princess had become the main attraction of the event. So she decided to play on that even more without giving everything away from the start.

Almost transparent astral shields manifested to surround Viara and even the most keen-eyed demons only saw her outlines. Behind her cover, the princess used her magic to quickly drop her armor pieces to a pile. She even went as far as to drop all her miscellaneous clothing articles besides her dark red undergarments.

But then the undressing elf focused on the supposed toga. No matter how she would look at it, it would reveal her undergarments from some angle and make the red fabric shine like an inviting beacon of lust.

So when the astral shields faded away, Viara wore a white toga that had a middle cut from her neck down to her stomach. Her breasts and hip were mostly covered despite their amble perky shapes being clear. But in exchange, her firm athletic legs and arms were almost entirely exposed by the scant fabric. She had also fully opened her silky silvery hair to flow behind her.

"I hope what you see is pleasing you, my king," Viara voiced with a slight elegant tilt of her hip. It stretched the toga almost dangerously to play with the fact she had removed her support garment that had been wrapped around her breasts. One wrong move and at least one of her mounds might be freed from the remaining white fabric.

"Very pleasing, come and sit, to the spot of my guest of honor," Azazel voiced with a tilted smile, he tapped the divan in front of his half-exposed red stomach muscles. It made Viara swallow hard before she elegantly walked to the king and turned around to sit down.

For a moment the leader of demons simply inspected the neatly posed elf princess from the side and even the crowd that observed them stayed surprisingly silent for a partying group of demons. Though Viara simply focused her attention to watch one of the surrounded minotaur tanks being ripped to pieces by several larger demons. It gave her a slight smile she was unable to hide.

"Now... did Your Highness come just to enjoy the battle or did you come for... other purposes?" Azazel asked and reached to stroke Viara's hair. He seemed amused by the fact both of their hairs had a similar silver tone.

"I have to say, this battle exhibit is most pleasing to me and I have a proposal to you that might provide even more... exiting entertainment," Viara replied and tilted her head to better show her side profile to the king. It worked well with the slight smile on her lips from seeing the usually valiant minotaurs running from hellish abominations. Though still their retreating tank formations mostly held back the chaotically charging demons with relative ease. If only there was someone to direct them against more suitable war targets.

"Ooh please do tell me what you have in mind," the king mused and let his right hand slide on Viara's stomach while his left kept exploring her hair. He fully utilized the middle cut to feel her bare skin but still, the elf princess simply sat there letting the demon feel up her body. Not even having a finger lock into her belly button moved her to resist.

"Give me the command of one of your demon hosts. Preferably one that can fly and I can provide you many entertaining battles... that will be different from these," Viara voiced even as her stomach tensed against the demon's hand. Her silky yet durable immortal elven skin almost mitigated the leathery properties of the red fingers. But it was clear the king was finding more enjoyment from the touch than her. His hand wandered and threatened to approach her breasts and crotch in turns and seemingly only his middle finger in her navel stopped him from fully doing so.