A Rattling Monster - Chapter 113：Farewell, Lucia

The destruction of Lucia, the stomach of the kingdom, was easy. Not a single army waiting for me, only some guards and the usual low numbers of both priests and magicians. The walls were not even bigger than the first wall of the capital, my ghouls easily climbed them and slaughtered any defenders. After that, with the size of my army, I was able to encircle the population and block the doors, while my undead were doing their job.

It took me, what, three hours, well, let’s say three hours to raze the city. Now, I already have hundreds of lich and countless ghouls. I only produced three hundred zombies, to let them roam more around this part of the country. It is the only way that I can really exterminate every single believer of Aria. Because, even if there are multiple big cities, sometimes, it can be a fisher or a woodcutter town, with barely a hundred humans inside. And I can’t search for them and lose my time, that’s why I let the zombies deal with this. And with the power of Aria greatly reduced, the local priests won’t be able to slay my zombies, even the archbishops had a hard time.

Before leaving Lucia, I order five lich to go in all the cardinal directions, that way, even if a fortress appears, they will be able to deal with it. I only lost 40 lich by doing this, besides the fourth main directions like North, I also spread them to the North-West. More surface, costlier but should be able to really destroy the whole holy kingdom. Because, for example, to the west of Atria, there is the Green Coast, but I have no idea of the number of troops deployed inside it. Not a lot since they probably recruit some of them for their assault against the ratmen.

And now, here I am once again, going near Ronta, the city of my life. Honestly, at this point, I don’t really want it to be destroyed. Void of people, yes, but destroyed? No, just to have a reminder of it, I will ask my undead to do as little damage as possible on the buildings. That way, it will only be a ruin, and later, maybe some races will find it and think about the old races.

(That’s only if you don’t kill every single being on that planet. Because you told me that it was your plan, did you change it or not?)

No, but you can never know, for example, an underground race? If I don’t have an opening to the surface, I can’t know they are here, and I can’t kill them. And, if I spare some of them and open once again the portal linked to your world, you prefer to have some survivors, like the dwarves or everyone needs to die?

(A real question you are asking. Let’s see, they will have no idea that I worked with you, and I can even say that we killed the ratmen. Ok, yes about the dwarves, you can allow them to survive. Elves, you can slaughter them, they never liked the demons just once. The treants, don’t anger them, we don’t need their wood anyway, so that’s fine. Orcs, humans, and the rest do as you want. We will use the ruins of the former kingdom anyway, so that’s fine. Ok, no, you kill the Notongrod Empire before, and if you can just destroy the barbarians, or, no, just the humans in the empire.)

So, elves are dead, dwarves and treants are fine, I kill the empire but let the barbarians alive?

(Yes, you got everything, you do that, and I will be good. That way, my potential enemies are not a threat, and I can safely invade this planet. It will take some years anyway, but I prefer to not hear a huge army from either the humans or the elves marching toward my demons. I don’t have a lot of them, and I don’t want to lose them.)

So, after dealing with the ratmen, I create a portal, I destroy the empire, I kill the elves, and I will see. I should have evolved before that, I hope. 15/35, that’s good, but I still killed at least 400 000 humans in the process, with a lot of strong knights, magicians, and priests. The proof, an entire city razed to the ground, two levels gained. And Ronta won’t even grant me that, I mean, nearly all the refugees have left the city, the army is destroyed, what can the town give me?

After a few more days, I reach the city, and unfortunately my hope to not destroy it is over. I can see multiple banners with weird symbols, raised on the wall of the city. Some buildings are still on fire, with the smoke darkening the sky. The ratmen decided that just destroying the army was not enough, they attacked Ronta as well.

(Can you walk for a hundred more meters please; you will have a surprise waiting for you?)

I hate surprise and you know that, why I have the feeling that’s an assassin that you managed to spot. If it is really that, I would like to congratulate you, you are a lot better at spotting him than before.

(You have no idea how much power I recovered when you destroyed Atria. I am feeling as strong as I was after that meal of life crystals. And the perception of your undead and spirits are a lot higher than before, so it is them that have detected the threat before me.)

Oh, yes, I forgot about my spirits. Even if they don’t look like they have improved, I guess that they are more resistant, quicker and as Oslo said, have a much better vision and perception than before. Now that I think about it, my ghost army should be able to be done. Of course, I won’t need a sword forged by the elves and be born from a legendary family to use it, and uphold an oath made centuries before. And, that means, I will have a ghost army permanently, or at least, until they all die, or disappear, die from real death? How should that process be called?

Anyway, we reached the point that Oslo tasked me to reach. Shortly after, I can see the ground moving under me and my troops, and hundreds and hundreds of ratmen are emerging from the ground. They immediately begin to attack the limbs of my undead, trying to tear them apart. Of course, the skin of my ghouls is too thick to be pierced by just some rusty daggers and broken swords. Because that’s the equipment of the ratmen. Wait for a second, if they are just slave, that means …

I look to my left, and see two of my lich dead, laying on the ground. The ghouls surrounding them are slowly crumbling, without the support of their summoners. Damn those assassins. All lich, protect yourself with the strongest shield you know, do nothing, but protect yourself. Let the ghouls kill the ratmen. As I say this, I see all of them casting some dark shields, and the attack from the assassins are not as deadly. I still see one lich dies, but three attacks were needed, and the ratman responsible was grabbed by a ghoul and brutally killed.

As for me, enjoy attacking someone floating more than 50 meters away from the ground. Some tried to fire at me or throw some daggers, but none of them breached my shield. The problem is the fact that my domain is useless at this range, well, I still have my orbs. I quickly use them with my deadly shadows, and after each usage, I can see a lot of slaves dying. Even some of the assassins are affected by it, slow down and destroyed by the fast reflexes of my ghouls.

This battle barely lasts more than twenty seconds, and when only fifty slaves are remaining, the attacks from the assassins stop. As for the abandoned ratmen, they are quickly dispatched, not managing to hurt my undead anymore. That was the first test, and we are still far away from the city. I wonder what new devilries will await me when I get close to Ronta.

(You wonder, or you want to know for real?)

No, Oslo, I love the surprises, especially the bad ones, like I always told you. Getting ambushed is my favorite thing in this world, of course, I want to know. Do you really have to ask?

(Just saying, don’t be that mad. Ok, so, that little group you managed to kill, well, that awaken the hornet nest. The streets of Ronta are filled with ratmen, the pavement under them can’t even be seen. And they are installing some strange cannons on the walls, multiple guns, and some weird looking stick. Not really a stick, but it’s made of metal and I can see them placing a monster core in it, they are aiming, toward our position, I wonder what …)

I immediately rush to the ground and bury myself, only to hear something right before I enter the ground.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZIP