Devourer - Chapter 183: Threat of Intervention

Gornak marched at the head of his strike force as they approached the town of mewling Envy demons. They were weak and useful only as slaves. But perhaps not, there was another smaller warband that had fought the forces of Envy in the region. That warband didn’t report back. The warchief has deemed the entire band lost.

Gornak has served in the Envy Ring for almost forty years, and thus far, no warband has been completely wiped out. Defeated and routed perhaps, but wiped out? No, that never happened. A new player has entered the game.

Perhaps it was one of the old legends, the so-called heroes who refused to die. Or perhaps it was something else.

His mission was to figure out what had happened, and if it was one of the old legends, then his instructions were to pay his respects and invite them to the Warband at the Wrath Ring Gate.

Usually, Gornak would baulk at this path of action, but the old legends were legends for a reason. Their reputation precedes them, and they need no introduction. If it was Mahaila or the Crowfather, then courtesy was the only path to survival.

The rest of the horde didn’t know this, but that was the truth. Respect power lest it devour you.

“War Leader, the sheep have left an offering.” Gornak heard a voice say. He raised his gaze and saw the forward scout had ridden up on his hell beast mount.

“An offering?” Gornak asked as the thoughts started to swim in his mind. Only the weak attempted bribes, there was no way any individual of significant strength would give a gift to someone as weak as him. The only people Gornak could think of who would warrant such an act from any of the ancient heroes would be the Daemon Princes.

“Where?” Gornak asked, and the scout gestured straight ahead.

“About three hundred meters away from the wall.” the scout replied.

So too far from the wall for any kind of ambush. The town they were supposed to raid to draw out the culprit was surrounded by flat plains to make it more defensible. So, an ambush was unlikely.

Well, time will tell. Gornak had no intention of accepting the bribe, but it would perhaps inform him of where the new player was.

In an hour, Gornak arrived at the so-called “bribe”. The bribe was puzzling. It was a rather large stack of Fire Wine. There must have been a thousand barrels in a large, neatly stacked mound.

“Check it.” Gornak ordered. He was no fool. Fire Wine was given its name for a reason. Its alcohol concentration was high enough to make demons go blind if over-consumed. It was so flammable barrels of Fire Wine have been used as bombs in warfare when things got desperate.

With this many barrels, they were effectively standing next to a bomb.

Gornak silently observed as his troops inspected the pile of barrels. Soon, the verdict was out, there was no trap, no enchantments, nothing. The detection scans were checked and rechecked and still… nothing…

So it seems it really was a bribe…

Gornak gave his troops the nod, and they eagerly began approaching the wine. It had been a long march, and he knew what his troops wanted. A bit of refreshment couldn’t hurt, they were too tired from the long march to attack immediately anyway. If the bribe was here, then the town already knew they were coming.

Any sniping spells from the wall could be easily blocked, and the only other sniping position was a cliff almost two kilometres out. There was no way that anything could snipe them from that distance…

Gornak felt heat, then saw a flash of light, then pain…

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“Nice shot…” I said as I watched the pile of barrels explode with a shattering boom. I could hear it even from here. As far as the town was concerned, there probably weren’t any glass windows anymore.

I glanced at Azatherine, who was lowering her smoking hand, her index and middle fingers still held out like a gun.

“This form has its utility.” Azatherine said as she shook her hand, which was still crackling with power. One of the perks I built into Azatherine was a rather fun adaptation. She could now fire extremely focused beams of power from her fingers for sniping at extremely long ranges. Azatherine was used to being fire support anyway, so the role of a sniper was an easy transition.

“Told you.” I replied with a grin as I turned to look at the devastation in the plains below. The thing about plains was that they also gave you a good line of sight.

The Warband was in complete disarray, the Wrath Demons were either burning or impaled by shrapnel. The little worms writhed and screamed in a sea of fire. Damn, that wine burned hot, hot enough to burn Daemons.

“Alright let’s go, the party is starting.” I said as I spread my wing and took off. The blaze of heat right behind me told me Azatherine had transformed and was following along with me.

Down below I could see Adhaya’s brood emerging from the ground her forces have been bolstered from the prey we caught right outside the gate, so now her few hundred elite hive soldiers were assaulting remains of the Warband. Their bodies now black and red rather than the usual white due to the assimilation of Daemon essence. Although I could see the white Briars still laying into the enemy, a reminder of the origin of this brood and where it’s loyalties lay.

Mahaila, Serchax and Rosa were not far behind as they tore into the Daemons. Their warband of about twenty thousand was now dropping like flies. In seconds, I had torn across the two-kilometre distance. I grinned as I dove on top of a bunched-up group of Daemons. The shockwave alone sent hundreds sprawling as pulped remains flew in all directions. I did a quick scan of the surroundings and saw Mahaila giving me this look of annoyance with her sword still inside the throat of a Daemon.

Yeah, I know it’s a bit overkill to smash into the ground at full speed. Especially considering I was now standing in a decently-sized crater.

Mahaila darted towards me, her blades flashing as she slaughtered everything in her path before stopping in front of me.

“You know it would be alot easier for your hive to eat meat that isn’t pulped,” Mahaila replied dryly.

“It’s not a problem, there is always more.” I replied with a grin.

“Had a feeling you would say that. So I found their commander, he’s alive, thanks to a bit of quick thinking on my part.” Mahaila said as she nodded to this scorched Daemon lying unconscious on the ground.

The occasional stampeding Daemon was stepping on him, but thanks to his armour, it looked like he should be fine.

“Great job. Kill the rest and feed it to Adhaya.” I said just as Azatherine dropped onto another group of Daemons and raked them with a burst of gold fire before transforming into her human form.

It looks like things are winding down. This wasn’t much of a fight, especially considering the confusion caused by my little surprise. Yes, the Daemons were strong relative to most of the denizens of Terra but they were still faded humanoids. The age of the servants of the Firstborn were long past, without the Watchers to maintain the genomes random mutations have led to the prioritisation of breeding speed over power. This means now you just had alot of trash running around no matter where you went.

The rest of the battle was rather quick, and soon the only thing left breathing was the unconscious Daemon that was lying in the dirt.

I glanced around at the devastation around us and nodded in satisfaction as I saw the members of Adhaya hive dragging the corpses below ground for assimilation. Just in case I sent a small reminder to Adhaya to keep the hive strong but lean. I don’t want chaff, I want all combat troops to be above a certain strength level. Weak troops would just get incinerated in the types of warfare here, so we wouldn’t even be able to salvage much of our losses.

Adhaya sent back a calm affirmative as she went about to bolster her existing forces. It was a good thing I gave her some of Malegaros’s designs, the Fiend Pattern Genomes would prove useful in this desolate place.

Now then, onto the survivor, this was the leader. So I am sure he would have some interesting things to say. I cast a quick spell, and he sputtered as he shot up. His eyes widened as his pupils dilated as he saw my little band staring at him.

His eyes darted around before finally resting on Mahaila, who was staring coldly down at him. He raised his hands in surrender as he slowly got to his feet.

“Mahaila the Swift, Successor of the Blade. Your reputation precedes you,” the Daemon said cordially, although I detected a slight quiver in his voice.

“Save your grovelling.” Mahaila growled in response, her voice coming out with a snarl as she bared her long, draconic fangs.

At the end of the day she was a Draconian. Although I spent so much time with her, I never forgot this fact. The Draconians were known for their physical prowess, what they lacked in magical ability, they more than made up in physical attributes. Extremely dense bones, scales as hard as enchanted mithril and muscles so dense that it made them tougher than steel.

I watched as the Daemon glanced down at her powerful taloned feet. Each foot was large enough to grab him by the torso and crush him into ground and powderise his ribs. Looks like this one knew his stuff, Mahaila was well known for her powerful kick. She was able to fully utilise the quirk of Draconian physiology which was extremely powerful legs. What her master had in upper body in strength, Mahaila had in lower body strength. I have felt her kicks first hand, anything less than an ancient receiving one of her full power kick would simply explode from the force.

“Hmm… you know about Draconian Physiology…” I said with a grin as I slithered up to him.

His eyes flitted to me and then back to Mahaila. His eyes widened slightly when he saw Mahaila take a respectful step back to give me the floor. This was an observant one, good let’s see what else he has observed.

“The stories of the Ancients are common knowledge. None more famous as to how Mahaila the Swift kicked the Daemon Prince of Gluttony, Beelzebub hard enough to tear off half her face.” the Daemon replied warily.

“Kicking a girl Mahaila? The shame.” I said with a grin, and she let out a snort in response.

“Beelzebub, a woman, is a Daemon Prince of the Searing Hells. Your gender means nothing here, only your power.” Mahaila replied.

“A title well earned.” the Daemon added, and I turned my gaze to look at him.

“So you respect power?” I asked, and the Daemon nodded.

“My War Chief asked me to come here to speak to you.” the Daemon said, and that gave me pause.

“Speak with me?” I asked as I leaned down, he wasn’t lying, but that was strange. I could smell Alastor’s hand in this, looks like I may not actually have to fight my way down to Limbo.

“Yes, the War Chief has sent us to greet you and invite you to our camp in good faith. We are sure you wish to depart for the Sloth Ring, but first we wish make your acquaintance.” the Daemon said.

“Hmm… what’s your name?” I asked as I looked down at him.

“Gornak.” the Daemon replied.

“So how did you know that I was here.” I asked as I leered down at him.

“Our Strike Force was wiped out, and the forces of Envy were routed. The site of battle was also at the World Gate, thus the only plausible conclusion was a new entrant.” Gornak replied.

“Logical conclusion, but I want to go down the rings not up.” I said and that caught Gornak by surprise.

“Down?” Gornak asked.

“Yes, down, I wish to go to Limbo, can your War Chief help with that?” I asked with a wicked grin.

“Yes… but I am confused as to why.” Gornak stated.

At those words I gave him by best blood thirsty smile. It had the intended effect, especially considering he took a wary step back.

Haven’t you heard a Blood War is brewing…

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“A Blood War is brewing.” Arthis said with a grimace, repeating those hated words again.

“Yes a Blood War, the Great Beast sent us to offer you a place in the Empire to guard you against the chaos to come.” the Mugumman said calmly. This man was named Kykikaze Shairen, he was a senior member of the Mugumman Farseer Council.

It has been a few centuries since a high-ranking Mugumman stepped into the halls of power of Eastern Voleria. The Eastern Empire has always been rich thanks to the resources found within the Mugumman Jungle. That naturally meant that the great houses of the East were always at odds with the Mugummans of the great jungle.

Just a few years ago, this current situation would be unthinkable. Back then, plans were being made on how to handle an ascendant Tralis. Would they reform the Volerian Empire under the banner of House Tralis? Or would do unite to resist the new Emperor. But then entered the Great Beast and Empress Cecilia Averlon.

Tralis was broken under the might of the Great Beast and the Averlonian Empire now ruled from Elysia to the forsaken wastes of Necoronas. Elysian, Volerian, Zariman and Vampire all kneeled beneath the Empress.

Now here a Mugumman comes bearing news of a peace offer in the wake of an alliance signed between the Averlonian Empire, Mugumma and the Naga. Arthis was no fool, he was of House Vangar, the greatest house of the East. His house held half of the eastern border and was able to extract the most wealth from the Mugumman Jungle.

<img src=”https://i.imgur.com/K6evACH.jpeg” alt=”K6evACH.jpeg” />

The only reason the other houses remained was that House Vangar expended so much military force, keeping the Mugummans at bay that they didn’t have the available forces to conquer the rest.

The other Houses were wise enough to leave House Vangar alone, for if his house fell, then the Mugummans would be free to punch deep into their territory. Not only that, without the resources of the Mugumman Jungle the other houses would starve and fall into ruin.

That of course, led into the main question: if they signed a peace, gone were the days of foraging the Mugumman Jungle.

“Tell me, why would we accept this peace deal? It would ruin us, we need the silk and herbs from the Jungle.” Arthis replied calmly.

“You will have them for trade. We will even allow some small outposts for foraging on our border. However, our main concern is the demonic presence within your lands.” Kykikaze stated.

It seems the Great Beast must be really twisting the Mugumma’s arm. Or perhaps the Serpent Serchax has thrown her lot in with the Great Beast…

“They are coming in via the refugees and immigrants from the Valley of Plenty.” Arthis replied as he crossed his arms.

“The overflow of refugees you mean. The Valley is at capacity, only the most desperate attempt to cross the Azure Sea to reach your lands.” Kykikaze stated.

“There is nothing we can do on the matter, we have a long coastline and the desperate find ways.” Arthis retorted.

“Which is exactly why I am approaching you and only you. The rest of the Eastern Voleria will only receive a notification of the ceasation of hostilities. For you and House Vagnar, there we have something else on the table.” Kykikaze said.

“And that is?” Arthis asked suspiciously.

“The Empress and the Great Beast do not like scattered and small territories, they believe in large provinces with centralised territories.” Kykikaze said.

“What are you suggesting?” Arthis asked.

“The demons will increase their presence, and soon the other houses will fall into disarray. When that happens…” Kykikaze said but paused, and Arthis knew exactly what he was going to say. It was a tactic as old as time.

The Empire will intervene…