by Brent Tyman
The city had gotten even worse, as it already looked like a ruin with the shining white walls replaced with decrepit ones. Fires raged in multiple parts of the city, and black smoke billowed out in all directions.
“Gods, such heavy destruction,” Eliandra whispered, and I agreed. Our siege of the Fulgremian capital was severe to the city, but we left much of it intact and it only needed repair. This was something else.
A ray of light shone from the sky and struck multiple parts of the capital. I watched as debris scattered everywhere and screams resounded all the way to my ears. That must have been the moon Goddess’s power.
“Eli, we must leave now,” I said, and she nodded. An orb of prime appeared and floated over her hand. A moment later, a portal opened behind me.
This time, I let my women leave before me, followed by my guards and then me. As I headed through the portal, I looked back to the former capital of Vulenchia.
I vowed I would do everything I can to avoid this fate for my own people and to those I loved. No matter who stood in my way, I would carve a bloody path until all my enemies were dead at my feet.
I would reign supreme.
This, I vowed.
Chapter 17
There was an air of uncertainty as I walked along my palace. As my people got comfortable with life in Fulgrem, I could tell if there was any changes that affected them. From the looks on their faces, something big must have happened in the time I was away in Vulenchia.
It was approaching midnight as I strolled to the throne room with some guards in tow. I had finished getting Zelenia acclimated with everyone, including Eklis and Flavious. They seemed surprised that I brought the Zegari back with me.
They treated her well however, but after explaining the developments in Vulenchia, they requested an emergency meeting with me at midnight to go over news they had heard from the north.
I figured this was the news that had somehow circulated to everyone in the palace. Perhaps they did not know much of the details, but they knew of its severity and that made them uneasy. I tried not inquire what exactly the slaves or guards knew, as rumors would not help me.
What I knew was that it had to do with the demons. It was the only threat that could have developed further. Going from one problem to another was taking its toll on me, but I hungered to kill anyone that threatened me or my people.
After I had showed Zelenia her room, the rest of my women shooed me away and I spent the rest of the time in my bedroom, trying to find the right way to describe the entity in my head. Ever since the events of Vulenchia and Eliandra’s words, I was convinced it was indeed some deity. A God from the time of the heavens.
Whether or not I had the crown on made no difference, so I must assume it was deep inside my mind, waiting for an opportunity to perform its own agenda.
Freeing the moon Goddess from her crystal must have been part of its plan to once again walk this earth. I could only hope we could find a way to deal with Frost, one way or another.
I reached the throne room and waited for the doors to open for me. Inside, I saw that everyone was there already. All of my women whispered to each other while Eklis and Flavious sat in silence. The only ones that weren't there were the trio.
“Ah, yes, my king, my king,” Flavious said with an exaggerated flair as he motioned to the seat the women left for me. “As sharp as always, come sit.”
This was bad, a Flavious that acted like this meant things had turned from bad to terrible. I frowned at him as I sat down.
“Just give it to me straight, what has happened?” I asked. Flavious and Eklis exchanged glances, and it seemed they silently decided that Eklis would break the news.
“Ordan,” Eklis said as he wiped some hair away from his forehead. “We got word earlier today that a demon army is marching towards Fulgrem from the north. It is heading straight towards a refugee camp that the Korodans set up next to our borders, in the hopes to get in, eventually.”
Despite my earlier perceptions, I was still not prepared for the news itself.
Fuck.
“How many?” I asked, and Flavious nodded to me.
“Many, many. Around ten thousand Lynic demons, with a high demon named Gertz as its lead,” Flavious said as he stroked his beard. “I do not believe they are focusing on us specifically, these demons have no recognition of national borders on this world. They simply wish to expand, but that is all we know.”
As I absorbed this, Zelenia looked around the room and pointed to the map on the table.
“We must destroy these red deep demons. Show me where you speak of,” Zelenia demanded.
Eklis looked at her funny before he tapped on a section of the map. It was north of Fulgrem and situated in terrain that was entirely flat. No mountains, rivers or even a hill. It left little to plan around and made it more of an even fight against the demons, which is not what we wanted.
“I can have my children there within days, sooner if Eliandra will lend me her portals. You can watch as I smite these wretches for my beloved consort,” Zelenia said with a confident smirk. The mention of beloved made the two men give me a look they would return to a child that had done something stupid. I grinned back at them, I did not regret it for a second.
“Zelenia, it isn’t as easy as that,” Eliandra said. “One demon is incredible powerful, an army of them will be hard to defeat without proper preparation. I will lend you my portals, of course.”
“Master would you like some wine?” Tessa said from behind me. She stood with more slaves that carried plates of refreshments, but it seemed we wouldn’t be eating anything just yet.
“Just water Tessa,” I said to her as I turned back to the table. “I agree with Eli, we should come up with a solid plan of action and also think about how to deal with them in the future.”
“What is there to deal with?” Lunara said as she crossed her arms. “They are demons, we should kill them all. If we talk to my parents, we can probably convince them to send troops to aid us. Demons in the north is one thing, but demons coming to invade an ally is another.”
“Would that not take too long?” Eliandra asked and Lunara’s shoulders slumped as she nodded.
“Yes, it would,” Lunara said with a sigh. “I had received word that the war with the high elves has really escalated, with much of the army back at sea. My father is an idiot. He even ramped up the war with one of the royal high elves daughter’s in the capital. I worry for Dunara’s future at this rate.”
Lunara then looked at me and gave me a sad smile. “I’m sorry I did not tell you of this news before Ordan. I received it some time ago. We can still go ask for help and see if my mother will lend us some troops,” Lunara said.
What the Dunara royalty was up to wasn’t of any real concern to me other than that wedding. This news made no real impact on any of my plans, so there was nothing to forgive.
“It’s fine, it depends on how long it takes for this demon army to arrive,” I said as I looked over at the pair.
“Eight days,” Eklis said. I let out a slow whistle, more in reflex than anything else.
“That is not a lot of time,” Lunara said and the pair nodded in sync.
“Fret not, fret not,” Flavious said as he looked at each person at the table. “We have the numbers to match. Dryan, Lyan and Utalis are all near this refugee camp, with the army used at the Vulenchian border. The reinforcements we planned for you are also there and the final count is over eleven thousand troops to meet the ten thousand demons.”
For one, I would go into a battle with an army to match. I quickly looked over at Zelenia.
“How many of your children can you bring over?” I asked, and Zelenia turned her head slightly to the side. It was almost the same motion Flavious or any truth sayer did when they were talking to others telepathically.
“Five thousand in total. Four thousand Melasks and a thousand Ralasks, approximates. My Brulask escaped the holy city and is on its way here. I can direct him to the
north,” Zelenia said with a smirk.
Some tension left the room at this news. With Zelenia’s support, we had access to around sixteen thousand troops against ten thousand. I could definitely make this work out in our favor.
“The news doesn’t sound so grim now, Zelenia’s army is no joke,” I said, which earned me a lusty look from the woman.
“Indeed, indeed. We are unsure how to break this news to you, but the Zegari’s numbers are just what we need,” Flavious said as he tapped his chin in thought. “The only thing that concerns me now is this high demon. He will be a force to be reckoned with.”
“I will eat him,” Zelenia declared and the rest of the room looked at her. “A demon is of no concern to the brood.”
“Not so, not so,” Flavious responded. “A high demon’s presence in the mortal realm has caused my fellow peers to panic, and rightly so. They wish for us to abandon Fulgrem and borrow ships to sail elsewhere. Or take every warrior possible and fight the demons off. Many had researched demon kind during the time in our history where we used them for labor and food. They have concluded that a high demon is a threat worthy of an extreme response.”
I had to admit; I had heard of a high demon before but all I really knew what that they were powerful. In a one-on-one fight between one of my men and a Lynic demon, the demon would probably win. Hence the numbers advantage we had meant that I wanted to make sure we not only won the battle, but minimized our loses.
“Surely it isn’t as bad as you say, Zelenia seems confident that we can overcome this high demon,” I said but Flavious gave me a grim smile.
“Yes, yes. I am afraid that even with your power, it may prove to be a fatal battle. Perhaps with Zelenia at your side, the odds will stack against the high demon, but there is no guarantee,” Flavious said.
Zelenia hissed and scraped one of her perfectly trimmed nails on the table. “I will protect my consort, this demon will die and wish he did not crawl out of the gutter they call the red deep,” Zelenia said. I saw that a thought struck her then, and her face morphed into one of glee.
She looked at me and battled her eyelashes. I quirked an eyebrow at this behavior and wondered what she was thinking.
“If,” Zelenia said, with a glance at each person around the table, “my consort gives me enough seed, I can breed a Colalask to aid us in this battle. I will need to sacrifice many of my children, around two thousand to be exact, but it will be powerful enough to destroy any threat.”
There was silence and a hint of confusion on the pairs faces as they contemplated Zelenia’s words. I on the other hand, tried to imagine such a creature on our side. Before I would have been wary, but I trusted Zelenia now.
“A Colalask?” Eklis asked, and I waved a hand to answer him.
“A massive creature Zelenia can breed. All I really know is that its powerful, the extent remains to be seen,” I said honestly.
“Hmm,” Flavious said as he stared at the table in front of him. “Interesting, interesting. If there is the slightest chance, it would give us an edge over the high demon, then I propose that we do everything we can to bring this Colalask to fruition. Zelenia my dear, how long will it take for this creature to incubate?”
Eklis still seemed unconvinced but Flavious seemed very interested in this turn of events, even it is meant discussing things like my seed.
“Typically, it would take weeks or even months, but my consort is strong and the sacrifice of my children will bring it to fruition much quicker. Around a week, if not a little longer,” Zelenia said.
That didn’t seem too bad, but if it took longer, then it might not be ready for the fight. Still though, with Zelenia’s remaining troops, that would still be fourteen thousand against ten thousand.
“I’m fine with this, if this Colalask will truly help against this high demon then I will do what I must,” I said. Zelenia gave me a wide smile as she practically bounced in place. She seemed to have her moods shift rapidly in mere moments. Quite a woman.
“If we exclude this Colalask creature,” Eklis said as he scratched his neck. “We still have the numbers. We have a fort on our side of the border, but we think it may be better to move our army up to the refugee camp and defend it there. The lizardmen are strong and resilient, almost as powerful as our own. If the men watch them get slaughtered by the demons, morale will plummet for the fight.”
I nodded as this made sense. I had no plan at all to take anything from the Korodo empire, so enlisting their help would only be beneficial for us.
“The trio are there already, right? We can have them take the truth sayers and army to their camp. Offer to defend them if they fight with us. Even if most are refugees, a few extra bodies will mean less of us will perish overall,” I said.
“Yes, yes,” Flavious said. “I will have one of my peers give this order to them after this meeting. Defending them is a viable strategy if we go down that route.”
“All right,” I said as I looked at everyone. “There are many unknowns for this battle, but we will emerge victorious at the end. Now lets look at some quick strategy before we break up.”
We spend far longer than we probably should have, looking at ways we could mount an effective defense. Me and the women were tired from the day's events but we all stayed as long as we could.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t any obvious strategy we could use for this battle. Our fort was at our border with the Korodo empire, while the refugee camp was within fifteen minutes of marching. The last thing we wanted was for the demon army to march straight through, as it would hard to track them down all across Fulgrem.
Knowing demons, however, I knew they would try to attack us straight away. There would be no power plays like it had been with the Vulenchians. The high demon Gertz will order his army to overwhelm us as soon as his soulless eyes finds us in its sight.
The more we discussed it, the less appealing it was to defend the refugee camp outright. Walls would be nice, but Lynic demons could quickly climb over them. Their strong limbs and sharp claws gave them an advantage against us, which may render our defense helpless as they didn’t need ladders.
Lunara came up a suggestion that we could develop upon. If we took our armies and travel further north instead, we could fight next to a river. North of the flat plains near the border was a fairly wide river that ran from west to east of the Korodo empire. The demons would need to cross it at a specific point where it was shallow enough to wade through.
The only problem was that we would need to rush through Korodan territory. It would take us seven days of solid marching to reach the river, and bringing any building material would slow us down until we were too late to gain the advantage.
We would, however, have a day of rest before the battle, and it would ensure that the demons could not bypass us.
In the end, we went with this plan. Flavious would send a message to the north to prepare the troops and I would leave in the morning. Eliandra would transport Zelenia’s troops as well, and we would all march through the Korodo empire. One thing I wanted to do however was to go into the refugee camp and enlist anyone I could. We would see how much these lizardmen cared about their fellow refugees.
After we had discussed our strategy, everyone seemed eager to leave. I stopped them, however, as I wanted to talk about what we saw in Vulenchia and discuss the truth about what happened to me after putting on the crown.
“Listen up,” I said as I looked at everyone in the eye. “We still need to have a talk about Vulenchia.”
“Are you sure this cannot wait until after we face the demons Ordan?” Lunara asked, and I shook my head. Everyone was tired, but they deserved to know the truth, even if it was better to keep it all under wraps.
“No, now pay attention, for I have a bit of a confession to make,” I said.
I told them of what happened when I put on the crown, how a self-proclaimed God has wormed its way into my head, and how I feared it had some deep measure of control over me. Everyone see
med enraptured by my tail, except for Flavious, who looked at me with a grim expression. Even gloomier than when he told me of the demons.
Before they could ask for more detail, I also told them of what really happened in Vulenchia, as it seemed none of my women remembered what went wrong.
“It was you?” Eliandra said with her mouth agape. I nodded with a sigh.
“You released the moon Goddess?” she asked, as if for more clarity. I nodded again. She slumped in her chair and let out a breath.
“Who knew that the key to releasing her would be to press down on a blue pin,” Lunara said with a shrug.
“I’m not really sure what to say,” Eklis said as he drummed his fingers along the table. “This moon Goddess business doesn’t matter for now, how in control are you with that thing in your head?”
“Once it had seemingly left, I felt as I always did,” I said truthfully. “It appeared to force me to do its bidding, and that was the task it gave me. It hasn’t come back to ask more of me.”
“I am sorry, my king,” Flavious said with a face full of regret. “Only me and a select few others knew of the true nature of the crown. But even then, I did not think it was a God. The action it had you do confirmed my suspicions, however. It must be a deity from the time of the old Gods, as these humans call it. There is little doubt, especially if it claims it was from here originally.”
The table was silent as we all processed the news, and then Zelenia leaned forward and hissed.
“Why are you all so sad? If a God of the heavens is inside my consorts head, we can release it and kill it,” Zelenia said. I was wary that Frost would emerge and take issue with her words, but I felt nothing, so I was unsure if it was listening.
“Kill a God? Did you not see that moon Goddess? I doubt we have the power to kill something like that right now,” Lunara said frantically.