The Demon Lords General

Most people would probably have a meltdown over forcefully having a cursed item stuck to their face, with the only hope of removing it being a sadistic man who found other people in pain to be ecstatic. Luckily the man in question was not most people, in fact not even he couldn't confirm or deny himself if he even was a person, and since he was now being called a Demon and no one seemed to question that, he doubted it would harm his life anymore than usual to play along with the possible lie.

Having nothing to lose and little to gain he chose to enjoy what little time he got to rest in a normal cell, lumpy bed and all, he didn't get to enjoy it too long as he was forced to move out at first light and was personally escorted by the hero to the caravan that was waiting for its special cargo at the base of the mountain.

Since he was being called special cargo the forgotten figured he would be the only 'Demon' being transported, but he quickly found that the caravan was transporting nothing but Demons.

Large Cages lined the streets as people gawked from the sidewalk, a few grungey guys were, despite their appearances, happily telling the streetgoers stories about the different Demons they had captured.

From how they had been talked about he expected the Demons to be fantastical-looking creatures, but in reality, all the ones he could see were either humanoid Animals or Human-like creatures with odd-colored skin, horns, tails, and the occasional extra arm or two.

"Heard you have a present for me," the most stereotypical bandit-looking man spoke up as the Hero approached.

"A Hearty Demon," The Hero replied simply, "Cut it, burn it, break it, it just gets back up again, luckily a hearty zap and a lot of broken bones kept it down long enough to collar it,"

"Well lucky for you it doesn't matter if he was an Imp or even a General, ain't no Demon that can handle Fairy Iron," Having no idea what that was the Forgotten man tried to see if he could see anything Iron like around the Caravan and his eyes ended up on the Cage carts, The Demons inside each where huddled in the middle, afraid of being assaulted within the cart or afraid of touching the bars?

"Load it up boys," A Few Grundy guys picked up the Forgotten while a few others stuck spears through the bars of the cage to make sure none of their cargo tried to make a run for the open door.

The Door was unlocked and the Forgotten was tossed inside, landing in the Demon crowd, he fully expected them to toss him aside or at least glare at him, what he didn't expect was what the Demons acutaly did.

The moment the door was locked and the spears were pulled out the Demons of the cart all took great care in making sure the Forgotten was ok.

"He didn't touch the Iron did he?" One of the ones in the back asked nervously.

"He's fine," A Hefty one called back as the Forgotten was pulled into the center of the cage so the Demons could sit around the new most interesting thing in the cage.

"Hello," The Hefty one greeted, his skin was dark orange with mossy green hair that had four small horns sticking out of it, he was hefty around the middle, but his arms told the story that he was hefty from a good diet not from lazing about, "Sorry to meet You under such dreadful circumstances, I am Hue, and I am…I was the chief of my village, tragically as you might have noticed our village was not as safe as we had originally thought, it was a good run, though I wish my father had taken the Demon Lord's offer to relocate when he was chief, you know how it goes, this is our land, we'll never give it up, ya-da ya-da," Hue gave the Forgotten a mighty pat on the back, "But what about you lad? However did you end up fighting the hero,"

The Forgotten crafted a masterful story he was sure would help him avoid contradicting himself.

"I have no idea," he declared merrily to the confusion of Hue and the others, "I have a really good healing factor and I got my head blown off once or twice I think, I'm still alive but…I have no idea how I got here,"

"Well, I'm sure we could help you figure it out," Hue and his villagers seemed completely undeterred by an amnesia story, "There have been stories of Demons with High-speed healing losing their heads, we just need to focus your mana," Hue held his hands together and made a tiny ball of light, just out of the sight of the caravan. The Forgotten held his hands together and proceeded to make a small sphere of Blood in his hands.

"I appear to have Blood," He noted, "How do I use mana,"

"Oh dear," Hue clicked his tongue and shook his head, "Forgive me, I was unaware you were a Blood mage, focusing your mana won't help your mind, at least not with lost memories, but you should be able to use your magic to focus current and new memories into blood, That should at least help you not lose what you still have,"

Hue walked the Forgotten through the steps of focusing his blood magic, the Forgotten wasn't entirely sure he understood how it was supposed to work, but after the fourth red ball it suddenly latched to both hands and he suddenly had the odd feeling of knowing exactly how much blood he had in both his body and stored away in the magical space most people would have their mana. If someone were to look at his health and Mana bar, it would be Green and Red respectively.

"Oh neat," The Forgotten chuckled, "Now I won't lose any more of my mind," Hue congratulated the Forgotten before asking a hard-hitting question.

"I know this is a bit late of me, but I don't suppose you remember your name?"

"I don't even remember what my face looks like," The Forgotten replied as he tried to touch his face and instead ran his fingers across the mask, "Oh but I remember this cursed thing," Hue pinched the nose of the mask and proceeded to drag the Forgotten around for a few moments.

"AH, I do apologize, I thought you might have forgotten you could just take it off, I didn't realize it was stuck to your face,"

"Nah, all good," The Forgotten replied as he lay on the ground, personally having a blast even just talking to Hue, who was the first nice person he could remember knowing.

The Forgotten got back into a sitting position and began talking to the other Demons, some in mourning over lost loved ones from the raid of their village, distressed parents whose children had been locked up in another cage down the line who were afraid they might never get to see them again.

They were scared, worried about loved ones they might never see again, and crying over lost friends and family who they would never get to burry and bid farewell to, and had still chosen to try and be positive about it, no one was insulting Hue's lost father for denying the chance to join under the demon lord, no blaming someone else for not keeping watch or getting too comfortable, they were just all scared of the torturous existence waiting for them and their children as slaves.

The Forgotten bit his lip as the idea crossed his mind, he didn't know these Demons but despite having the excuse of, I was tortured for decades and I just don't care about anything anymore, he found the idea of just being sent to the Demon Lords domain while leaving these Demons to rot as slaves sickening, he would be no better than the people who broke his body and mind just for shits and giggles.

Having now talked himself into it, the Forgotten now had to forge a plan using only a broken mind and a pipe dream to get these Demons off this path to pain. He quickly found thinking to be hard so he laid back and tried to craft a plan, never so much as even thinking of looking back at the Hero, who was smiling as the plan was set into motion.

"This is it boys," He told his followers, "Today the plan is set in motion, now we just wait a year or two, and then march up to the Demon Lords' tower and become legends!"

The Forgotten found he was once again plagued by his poor sense of time when he realized that the sun was rising, implying he had spent an entire night just staring into space trying to make a plan.

"Oh well," he decided as he got to his feet and looked out at the scenery, there was a large open field to their left and a lush forest to their right, the Caravan was set up along the side of the road with their captures camping on the plains. He could hear children crying and saw one of the men throwing a can in the direction of the crying.

"Can't we just kill the brats?" The Can thrower asked, "They just gonna cry and snot up the yard when we try to sell 'em, and you just know the buyers gonna bid high, then demand a partial refund because his new pet isn't trained properly,"

"If the kids don't sell within a few days you can toss them into the ocean, we can even take bets on which one drowns last,"

"Hey, sad Bastards," The Conversation of child murder was cut off by the Forgotten, who was frankly sick of listening to the topic, "Fight me, Cowards,"

The one with the can reached into his pocket with a smile and provided the Forgotten with the information he needed, who had the button controlling his collar. The Man got up, walked up to the cage, and made a big show of looking around as his men laughed.

"I'm sorry, I thought I heard a little bitch crying and figured it was the brats, but I guess it was the big bad demon who's got a lighting rod around his neck," The Man held one hand to his ear and the other pressed a button, his Collar started making a sound like it was warming up, "What was that, I didn't quite hear what you said but it sounded like you where about to get on your hands and knees and beg me not to taser you like the little bitch you are,"

The Forgotten knew for a fact the man would shock him regardless of what he next said, still, he did appreciate the other Demons doubling down with him.

"You are a sad Bastard," A Woman called out.

"Pathetic worms," Hue added, "Couldn't even fight a low-ranked orc without raiding my village in the dead of night, you are Cowards,"

The man glared at the Forgotten, "Hand and Knees, cry for me bitch," The Forgotten took a deep breath, and spat in the man's eye with great accuracy.

"Fight me, Coward," He repeated firmly, the man turned the dial, and the Forgotten prepared for a hefty shock, but instead just felt tingly as the collar went off, the Hero having failed to tell the man that the Forgotten needed a mountain of juice to keep him detained and that a low shock would do nothing.

Unaware of just how little he was doing the man turned it off, and then back on laughing, "Hands and Knees bitch, maybe I'll stop," The Forgotten crossed his arms and glared at the man silently, the man held the button, his confidence wavering as the Forgotten seemingly just took the electricity like it was nothing.

"Fight me, Coward," His voice came out weird due to the effects of the lighting coursing through his body, the man let go of the button and started turning to dial on the remote to increase its power, before doing the most spectacularly stupid thing the Forgotten had ever seen.

Seemingly to keep up a good show the Man dramatically thrust the Controller forward, "Eat thi-" His oh-so-clever punch line was cut off when The Forgotten's hand popped through the bars of the cage and snatched the controller from the man's outstretched hand, practically handing it off.

All delusions of power fell from the man as the other Demons freaked out.

"He just went for it," One of them cried out, "He could have lost his hand but he just went for it,"

"Of course he did! He can just regrow it if he lost it!"

"Bitch," The Forgotten jeered to the man before using the controller to unlatch his collar the man turned to call for reinforcement, only to be hit by the Collar as The Forgotten threw it at him and then turned it back on, the man's scream was short, but it was the last sound he ever made as his charred corpse fell to the ground.

No longer having to worry about being electrocuted into submission, the Forgotten walked up to the cage door and firmly grabbed one of his arms, he could have just forced it open but he didnt want to sell out he wasn't a Demon, luckily he had a good excuse hidden up his sleeve.

"Fairy Iron only works on Demons," He Noted Out loud, "So let's see what happens when I use some stored Human blood to touch it," The Forgotten turned off his pain before tearing his arm off, and the bloody stump began swirling as he held it up and turned his blood into a massive hand that grabbed the entire side of the cage with the door and proceeded to crush the bars in its grasp, now free and with guards on their way with Demon slayer weapons the Forgotten jumped out of the cage, "Hue could you be a dear and take your people to the other carts, I'm sure the children miss their mommies and daddies, and I need a moment to fight some cowards," 

The Forgotten kept his severed arm in his other hand to keep it safe, feeling slightly stupid since he had just learned how to use Blood magic without ripping his limbs off thanks to Hue's little lesson on focusing magic, but old habits die hard he supposed.

His Pain still being off, and him having at least half an hour to use the power, he chose to just run screaming at the caravan group, numbering thirty or forty, The Forgotten only remember fighting against desperate dying people, so this would be the first actual fight he could remember.

"Have at the," He declared as he turned his stump into a blood sword and swung at some of the men, when a separate group tried to run off to subjugate the other demons The Forgotten dropped his hand and used the blood in his veins to sever his other before calling out, "Rocket Punch," He declared as his arm shot off and slammed into the head of the man heading the second group, it grabbed his shoulder as claws of Blood formed to slice into the man's body.

"Hand Grenade," The Forgotten cheered, the one who had his hand embedded into his shoulder started screaming as his Biomass was absorbed quickly, destabilizing the blood magic due to its rushed speed and causing the man to explode, sending out bone shrapnel that took out most of his group.

"It was supposed to do that," He assured his opponent as he turned his other stump into a blood spear, slashing with the sword and stabbing with the spear, the second the spear hit someone it broke off and he chuckled at the man, "Hand Grenade," he repeated before running the other direction, he was hit with some bone shrapnel but simply absorbed it into him and turned to find several demons taking up arms against those who had survived his first-hand grenade.

Despite being against weapons that would one tap them and being barehanded, the Demons cleaned house, Hue taking charge and crushing a man's skull with just his bare hands while other demons used magic to bind their aggressor's hands.

"Funny how much less powerful you are when you don't have a knife to a child's throat,"

"Ah, I wondered how they caught so many without having to harm any of you," the Forgotten left the demons to clean up and found the man who the Hero had talked to coming out of his tent, clearly waisted.

"Hey," The Forgotten said, waving his blood sword hand, the drunken man tried to pull out his sword, only to reach for nothing, his weapon probably lying disregarded in his tent.

The Forgotten held up his stumps and formed a small Blood Twister, using it he was able to absorb all the lifeless Biomass around him and hastened his hand's regrowth.

Now having hands again he pointed to the man, "Fight me, Coward," the man turned and tried to run, only to end up with a Blood hand plucking him up and dragging him back. "Well I gave you the chance to die on your feet," the Forgotten noted as he held up his hands, the blood constructs turned back into a twister, and the last man was finely diced up before being absorbed as Biomass, if anyone were to walk by, they'd have no idea anyone had died here.

"Hey, I found the keys," The Forgotten called out to his new friends, earning a cheer as he picked them out of the ripped-up remains of the last man's clothes. "Oh man, I'm still wearing just a bunch of torn-up burlap, I need pants or something," The Forgotten turned with a sigh, "oh well, problems for later," Whisleting a happy tune the Forgotten began unlocking cages, each cage had about thirty demons piled in, and with seven in total that resulted in the group growing quite large.

The Forgotten did his best not to be too weird as a horde of Demons began raining praise down upon him, after talking he found that only three of the cages held members of Hue's village, the rest had already been in transit before the Caravan had stumbled across Hue's people, He quickly found that most of them had been refugees trying to escape to Demona but had been caught at sea by Demon Hunter patrols.

Most of Hue's people consisted of portly orks, and small Cyclopses, he had no idea what the race of oddly climbed demons were call, while among the children there were four Imps, a race of Demons that looked like Human Children with long horns and razor-sharp teeth, while some thanked him and moved on to their family, the Imps where enthralled by him due in no small part to the fact that Imps where naturally born as Blood mages.

"All I can do is make a little knife out of it," One said as it formed a blood knife, "But that blood tornado," The Imps were trying not to cry at what they considered the beautify of his craft, "It was an honor to watch an artisan of the craft at work,"

"And the way you just turned their bodies into blood, it was inspiring," The one imp who spoke was sobbing, "I never knew so much could be done with blood magic,"

Having no idea how to deal with such dramatic little creatures the Forgotten failed to calm them down as they gushed over his mastery of the art form, even though he had just been making most of it up on the spot.

"Can I see you're real face?" One of the imps asked, shocking and confusing him to no end, "I'll admit your body handcrafted from Human Bio-mass is a stunning work of art, but I wanna shake your hand propper!" The question was denied on his behalf by the other imps.

"How dare you, he probably spent months crafting that body, what if taking it off means he has to completely remake it?" The Imp who asked the question looked from the Imp who had chastised her, then back to the Forgotten.

"I hadn't even thought of that!" She practically cried out, "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to be rude, your human meat body is a work of art and I'd be honored to touch it,"

"Don't say it like that," One of them huffed, as the Imps devolved into arguing Hue was forming a group with three other Demons from the Caravan, a Dark Green Female Demon of the unknown race with two small right arms, one large left arm, a two-pronged horn over her left eye, two right eyes, and dirty blue hair. The last one was by far the tallest Demon in the group, a seven-foot tall Ram Man-Beast with arms as thick as trees, the hoof like ends of his fingers looked like they could crush rocks.

"The Coast they were taking us to isn't too far from Demona," The Ram spoke with confidence, "we could probably hoof it there in just a few days and then follow the coast to the country.

"This group is massive," The Demon woman said sternly, "If we follow the road we'll be spotted, we need to camp out in the woods and bunker down, then we can send out a small party and see if Demona will help us get to safety,"

"Ah, the Hero of the day arrived," Hue smiled, and the other two, despite being mid-argument both turned very polite as they thanked the Forgotten for spiringing everyone from the Cages.

"My Brothers did not make it," The Ram noted soberly, "But so long as I make it then their stories will survive, you have my gratitude,"

"My sister would have killed me if I'd lost her daughter, so on behalf of me and my niece I thank you,"

"I just don't like watching others suffer," The Forgotten replied sheepishly, the overflow of positive attention starting to get to him a little, "I've seen enough of that to last a lifetime,"

"Old memories?" Hus asked curiously.

"Not very good ones," The Forgotten looked over at the rising sun before sighing, "Anyway I think I'll go turn that coast town to rubble and free a few more slaves," He turned and started walking down the road.

"Dam alright," The Ram cheered.

"Everyone get ready to move out," The Demon lady called out, "Caution to the wind so long as you follow…that guy, I didn't get your name sorry,"

"I Forgot it myself," The Forgotten informed her helpfully as he stopped walking down the road and waited for the Demons to loot the camp before moving on to the coast for conquest.