The huge building was the newest construction in the entire city. Rebuild from scratch after their victory over humankind, a monument to the new times that would come. Or so they said. Aziel only felt nauseated when he looked at the round walls that raised twenty floors up, the sky reflected on the glass a mere mockery of what they could do in Nether. In nothing it resembled the twisted black iron of his old home, the buildings so intricately done that you could see new forms and drawings on the wall each time you looked at it. To say this building was a monument of their new empire was to mock all that was left behind in Nether.<br/><br/>Sometimes, Aziel doubted Saleos' decision to leave.<br/><br/>"Good to see you two have finally decided to join us." the sneer made his attention return to the present, as he raised his eyes to scowl at the speaker.<br/><br/>"Intel is a harder job than to wave a whip over defenceless cattle, Belial." Ravan interjected, before Aziel could speak. Not that he would. Belial would've never been sitting amongst them if he hadn't killed the previous one by backstabbing him in battle. He wasn't worth speaking to, even less being called a Lord.<br/><br/>"Yes, yes, we all know how difficult and troublesome your job is." Kasdeya interrupted, waving her hand in a tired gesture. "We can save all the jibe and jeer for later and focus on reports."<br/><br/>"Lovely as always, are you not, Kasdeya?" Ravan smiled, if the twist of his mouth could even be considered such a thing, and rested his hand on Aziel's back, guiding him towards the last two empty seats around the circular table.<br/><br/>Aziel heard once that the shape of it was supposed to be a mockery of some human tale, but he never really paid any attention to it.  Repressing a sigh, he sat down on his place, glancing at the other five reunited there, his entire body tense. He hated these meetings. He hated the whole aspect of invading the human world. Not that he had had much of a choice.<br/><br/>"Well, now that we all are here reunited..." Kasdeya began, making another gesture with her hand that Aziel was almost sure meant she was bored of this already. "Reports. Malphas."<br/><br/>"We have intercepted quite a few cargo ships with illegal products meant to supply the rebellion. They have burned." the toneless answer came from the tallest in the room, face just as emotionless as his answer. "They are getting careless."<br/><br/>"Which means they are getting desperate." Ravan nodded, laying back on his chair and setting his blue eyes on the ceiling. "The known land routes of smugglers are being intercepted. We have managed to gather quite a lot, except, of course, information. But Murmur has discovered quite a few other routes as well, including one the rebels were using to smuggle the missing slaves outside the city. We've intercepted those as well."<br/><br/>"Aye, aye." Murmur chuckled, her delicate hand drawing circles in the wooden table. "Rebels are getting stupid, all right! Made it quite easy to spot them on air. I won't be surprised when at the end of the week we capture all their safe points." another chuckle. "Belial will have a lot of cattle on his farm!"<br/><br/>Kasdeya hummed, the pencil in her hand tapping on the desk without writing anything down in the blank paper in front of her. Her gaze moved slowly to Belial. The bald demon scowled, shaking his head slowly.<br/><br/>"Slaves are still escaping. They could not, not by their own. So the damn pigs must be stealing our slaves. We need to find their base soon."<br/><br/>"Done." Aziel forced himself to say, trying not to shift under their gazes. "I have managed to break one of theirs, and I've seen their location. It seems to be the central base, at least for now."<br/><br/>"Great!" Murmur clapped her hands together. "We can finally strike true, now! The farms will grow so much!"<br/><br/>"There is no need for that."Aziel interrupted, the familiar dread setting on the pit of his stomach. "We've won the war. We got what we were looking for. Why not use it to rebuild Nether? There is no need in senseless waste of lives..."<br/><br/>"Waste of lives? Do you hear yourself speaking?" Belial growled, eyes narrowing. "Their lives matter not. We have the power to take Earth, make it better than Nether ever was!"<br/><br/>"I agree with Aziel." the drawl of Malphas' voice made Aziel look up, surprised. "The Earth does not belong to us. Leave it to the humans. We must return home."<br/><br/>"This is our home now." Kasdeya rested the pencil on the table. "Nether is gone. So is our old life. Get used to it. Dismissed. All of you. Aziel, send me the location of this base as soon as possible."<br/><br/>Aziel felt the dread of realization hit him, hard. He didn't wait for Ravan to get up before he walked out the door, doubt settling in his mind. He had followed Saleos' mad plan to raid the Earth because it was needed to rebuild Nether. Because it had been a promise of making their homeland better. If Aziel had known...<br/><br/>He would have done nothing different. The demon closed his eyes, pained. Had he known they were coming to stay, he would have come just the same, because now there was no Nether to come back to. Since the first day of the war, either they conquered Earth or they would be in the humans' position, slaves and rebels fighting for a home. But even so, Aziel had nurtured the false hope that they would return to their home once they gathered enough sacrifices to rebuild it. Otherwise, he wasn't sure he could've agreed - helped. even - with the endless bloodshed.<br/><br/>If he allowed this base to be destroyed, the human resistance would suffer too much. Perhaps they would never recover from such a loss. But, if they didn't, all of them would be living the rest of their lives as the lowest animal of all, serving the demons until the end of times. Dying for nothing.<br/><br/>Aziel couldn't allow it. True, he couldn't simply refuse to tell Kasdeya the location of the base. But he could inform the rebels of the incoming attack.<br/><br/>This war - that now he knew had no real purpose -  had already gone to far. There was no need to sacrifice innocent lives if those lives wouldn't even be used with a purpose.<br/><br/>He only hoped the others would never find out about this.