The first base looked different now.
Not unrecognizable… No, he had been here recently enough that the bones of the place were familiar, the shape of the clearing, the particular way the treeline formed around it, the scarred ground where the engagement had carved itself into the terrain. He knew this place.
But it had been repopulated.
Not by demons. By the forest's other residents. The ones that had been displaced or driven to the edges during the period of heavy demonic occupation, the ones that had stayed away from this section of the forest while the demons maintained their presence here and were now returning to find that the presence was gone.
Finding, also, that what the demons had left behind was useful.
Mana beasts.
