Rise of The Immortal Wraith - 37 How Cute

Looking down at the mewling little demon Salem could not help but think it was quite adorable, its tiny double set of eyes were trying to open while its head moved from side to side looking for food. He took out a corpse of a wolf he had hunted just for this little king.

He gave the little king a blue pearl, and showed the wriggling head the bloody wolf, “Go on little one, if you can break free from that little cage this wolf is all yours.”

The small demon stopped moving at the sound of his voice, it smelled the offered pearl and ate it quickly, it could smell the blood from the wolf. It got agitated that it couldn’t escape the egg, and started to scratch and bite at it, the struggle lasted for a few minutes before it freed the remainder of its tiny body.

It cried in joy, it looked at the corpse and back up at Salem, “Go on you earned it,” hearing the command it jumped onto the corpse and dove into a wound, the sounds of chewing and ripping of flesh came from the wolf.

Salem watched as similar scenes were happening for every Shade and apprentice, the queen was with the remaining eggs and a large pile of meat and corpses for her and the rest of the hatchlings.

There were over four hundred remaining hatchlings, one hundred and ten apprentices, with each guard taking five apprentices until they advanced to shades. The guards would then allow an advanced apprentice to take on a teaching role to the new batch of apprentices.

They would all get to choose a partner from the hatchlings, though there would be some hatchlings that would grow up before they were chosen, Salem had a use for those who didn’t get chosen.

Salem drank some tea while watching the hatchlings bond with their partners, his own partner was currently eating the brain of the wolf, he could feel its strength growing with every bite it swallowed. The system explained in the first week they would eat and grow very quickly.

“Master Salem, I have good news, the two books you have given me are ready for you to look over and absorb them, both books were in the wraiths own language which was a mixture of demon speech and a few ancient magical languages that we don’t have a record of.

There is one other things master that I noticed the demons cocoons, eggshells, and similar refuse have high amounts of energy made for the body, if you were to grind it to power and add it to the body nourishing powders it is estimated you will increase the potency by five times. That is only of the infants, any ingredients gained by the queen will be significantly stronger, estimated and ten times the potency.”

Salem choked on his tea when he heard about the new ingredient that would boost his physical body, it was easily obtainable and would be perfect for helping his guards’ progress to Squires quickly. He could then sell his body nourishing powder without worrying about the other cities catching up to him in physical strength.

He could now use Koftas and Idos as shields and deploy his own troops through his secret exits, he should have enough time to gather the elven clans before the undead marched full force. They were currently gathering as many supplies and any resources they could find before heading to the meeting location where Udein would take them into the mountains.

Jennah and Annah would be waiting with an army ten thousand strong at the hidden gates, more and more undead were being brought in, they would know soon that someone was challenging their claim if they didn’t already.

He would be prepared for the war to come, he knew he wasn’t the intended target, Koftas and Idos were just meant to be used at whetstones and a source to bolster the cannon fodder. That would change once they realized he had interfered in their plans, he did wonder who their true enemy was, they weren’t exactly enemies, him being a wraith made him on the opposite side of the Gods that emperor had been wanting to fight against.

Placing him and his people in the dark races camp, who by default was placed with the demons, he had no allegiance with any of them besides the wraiths and that was only because he would always be a wraith and if he was commanded by a higher ranked member he would have to obey, or perish.

His elven army should be meeting with the other tribes and would be arriving in a few days, he had already been preparing farms, food, and shelter for all of the elves. Humans were being permitted to move into his lands as well, he had even spoken with the dwarves about purchasing land on the far side of the valley to build a small village.

He had told them that he would let them build a town, but the price of it was their allegiance, should his land come under attack he would be able to call upon them for war. They agreed after holding a council of elders, they had planned a feast once everything was settled, he was looking forward to becoming friends with the dwarves they were, for the most part, a happy people.

His little king “mewd” from inside the skull, and popped out an eye, it then crawled over to him and wrapped around his arm before falling asleep. Looking at the slightly bloated creature Salem smiled and thought aloud, “What a cute little thing, though that last display was quite frightening, hope the children’s partners are better behaved.”

He ordered a few servants to collect the eggshells and any other refuse from the warren and have it ground to powder, it would then be delivered to the palace, the powder would be separated from what it came from so as not to mix the highly potent powder of the queen with those of the hatchlings.

That night he and his guards took a bath they would never forget, screams of pain lasted for fifteen minutes before their bodies adjusted and began to heal. Even Salem had to grit his teeth and endure his body screaming at him.

This was just the hatchlings powder, he would need to get used to this before he tried the queens’ powder but this first session advance greatly, the first use would be the equivalent of five months of training with what he was using before.

He could feel the power of his guards growing, with the nourishment they had gained from the bath and the soul being nourished by the palace itself, they would become squires much sooner then he had thought, though it would still be a couple of months before then.

After the bath and meditation, they all slept on the giant mattress, exhausted from the day of hard work and the pain from the nourishment powder. Salem fell asleep with his five girls surrounding him, he was glad Jennah had talked with him about turning too many women, he could barely give them all the attention and time they deserve.

He pulled Jennah close to him and kissed her on the cheek before falling asleep.

Salem woke the next morning to find a shocking report that was delivered to him in the middle of the night, both Koftas and Idos had been under heavy siege from the upper undead, their own forces were still fine but if this continued they wouldn’t be able to hold for another three months.

Once the undead broke past the two cities they would flood his mountain in full force, he had not expected the undead to move this quickly, he would now need to support the two cities war efforts and that meant putting his own people at risk.

Should he seal off the mountain?