Devourer

Chapter 92: The Fall Part 4

Chapter 92: The Fall Part 4

Eissa looked on at the scene below her through a pair of small binoculars. Being the future queen of Tralis she had a vested interest in the state of the capital that was soon to be hers. So far things seem to be going well, damage is minimal so the rebuilding costs will be minor. Well besides the southern slums and South Town that was now a blazing inferno. To be honest those two cesspits were filled with the filthy peasants anyway. They were an eyesore that only served to feed the debauchery of the lower classes. 

The peasants in South Town and the filth in southern slums were the source of two unsavoury things that Eissa detested. The Glittering Road which was just a road filled with inns that doubled as brothels. Then there were the slum barons that lived as crime lords, profiting from the filth in the slums by peddling beautiful women and narcotics to the Lords of High Town. 

The Elysians have taken most of the Capital Mile and she could see the Great Beast near the People’s Church that was south of Lower Gildton. The mages on the wall had foolishly tried to strike the Great Beast with their petty little spells. Even from here she could tell this was no mere beast. You see, Eissa had an interest in adventurers and beastiarians spent a good portion of her free time reading up on the sagas of the adventurers and the various creatures scattered about Terra. Perhaps their freedom to go to the far reaches of the world appealed to her. Afterall she was a woman that lived like a bird in a cage.

One thing she immediately noticed was the Great Beast’s smooth head, that was a sensor dome. It was the most powerful sensory organ that is known and it's also the most expensive sensory organ resource wise. In addition it also needs a powerful enough brain to process all the sensory information. So why would a creature retain such a trait when they could allocate those resources to armour or other offensive abilities? The answer was simple, it had strength to spare and it was used to fighting opponents far beyond what walks the world today.

The display so far has clearly shown that, a beast that commands a hive, can cast powerful spells and from the looks of it was also extremely durable. Eissa wouldn’t be surprised if the Great Beast had rapid regenerative abilities, apparently it was popular back then considering how many fights ended in brawling. Most of this was conjecture of course, information gleaned from ancient records that were missing entire sections of the text. Writing was a humanoid invention, their lifespans were simply too short and their memory too fleeting to rely on memory, oral tradition and experience to transfer knowledge.

Eissa smiled as she saw the Great Beast split itself into six clones, each body glowing with ether. Eissa had casted a spell that allowed her to see the Ether and each of the clones was glowing like a sun. If her suspicions were right, it looked like a variant of a Phoenix’s ability to clone itself to magnify offensive power. Dominant strategies changed from age to age but there were some which were popular and this cloning ability was rather common. Even some other species alive today use something similar. 

Then she saw the six forms open their maws and then they shot forth six white beams at the wall. She saw the beams strike the wall barrier, at first nothing happened but then she noticed all the beams were concentrated on a single point. After that, her vision went white, then she heard an ear splitting bang. When she reopened her eyes she saw this wave of force carrying a wall of dust and it slammed against the castle’s barrier. She saw the barrier crackle as the force dispersed along it. She didn’t feel anything but she would wager if there was no barrier she would end up knocked over. She was rather close afterall and judging by how everyone in the plaza behind the beast has been knocked over… well it would be safe to assume a good portion of the city didn’t have glass windows anymore.

Eissa felt this almost feral joy rise up from within her as she saw what that blast did. The patch of wall was now just gone, all that left was this gaping hole rimmed with molten stone. These large bits of molten stone crackled with ether as they flew into the city. The boulder-sized pieces of molten stone rained into the inner city, destroying houses, noble estates and setting those structures caught in the aftermath ablaze. Some of the highly charged pieces of molten stone actually exploded on impact. It wasn’t that big of an explosion but it was powerful enough to spew ether charged molten fragments and magma in all directions. She heard the people below screaming, she could see some of the people caught in the blasts were running around while on fire. 

Eissa laughed, harder than she ever had in her life. More than when she was just a girl getting a nice present. This was pure euphoria, she hated this place, hated the world. There was nothing she wanted more than for it to burn, and as she watched the corrupt people of this accursed city burn she couldn’t help but laugh.

As Eissa struggled to get her laughter under control she turned to her right to see Lyra calmly sitting there sipping wine as she watched the show below.

“You’ve seen this before haven’t you?” Eissa asked as she felt a wide smile tear across her face like a scar.

“You could say that, not this exactly but something close enough.” Lyra replied softly as she swirled her wine glass.

“The new can only be born from the ashes of the old. Especially something as old and rotten as this nation.” Lyra muttered before then taking another sip of wine.

“Then let it burn, root and stem. The empress has little need of the support of the nobility. They are toothless without anyone to listen to their commands.” Eissa said with another laugh.

The Empress was so similar to her, both of them locked away in a cage. Now Eissa will be free and she will help Eissa mould the world in a far better image. Anything is better than what Tralis is…

Even a pile of ash is better…

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Mother Justina felt the blood drain from her face as she watched the beast release six beams of energy right at the wall. She had casted a spell to see exactly what was happening in terms of the ether. What she saw made her feel fear unlike any other. As a mother of the Church of Mercy she was well versed in magic. It was necessary for her to understand how much damage something would do so that she could allocate enough resources to address the clean up. Not all magic based wounds were the same, she could be treating burns, electrocution, acid burns, collapsed lungs from vacuum decompression and even cursed wounds. 

If there is one truth in the world it's that there are no limits to the creativity and cruelty of this world. The humanoids like to pretend but they are civilised but in truth their barbarism even eclipses the monsters. Humanoids lack the raw power of the beasts so they must compensate through other means… like terror and cruelty.

Yet here she was about to witness a display of power that was intended to induce terror. Her suspicions were right, the Great Beast has been playing nice up until this point. She was seeing what happens when his patience has finally runs out…

Mother Justina looked to the left to see Junie and Arias staring wide eyed at the beams. Then she looked back at the beams and tried her best to suppress her fear. She could see that those beams were ancient magic. It was chaotic, constantly changing with no stable structure to speak off. She could clearly see it in the unstable flow of ether that crackled off the beam in piercing arcs. 

And when spells were unstable…

Instantly Mother Justina grabbed Arias and Junie who was on her left, yanking them towards her. As she did she cast her gaze to her right and saw the large stained glass windows of the church. [Barrier of Light] Justina intoned and a gold magic barrier appeared. Just as Mother Justina saw the barrier stabilise she saw the wall’s barrier flicker and fade. Then for a split second she saw the six beams meet at a point on the wall, then her vision went white.

For a moment nothing happened then she felt something strike the barrier followed by this ear splitting bang and finally the sound of glass shattering. When her vision refocused she saw the entire square of people had been knocked over as shattered glass rained down on them. She heard the clinking of glass as it landed on top of her barrier.

Mother Justina instinctively looked around at the priestesses and she was glad to see they were instinctively healing themselves and ripping glass shards out of wounds. They may be perceived as weak women but in times of crisis the priestesses of mercy always rose to the occasion. She looked at Junie who was trembling next to her. She could see the wide eyed horror in her eyes and following her gaze she looked to see the Great Beast merge itself with its clones. 

She watched as it raised its arms as its body shook slightly, the ether crackling off its body, arching into the air around it. She could see there was this heat wave effect around it, how much ether was it’s body giving off?

Then Mother Justina saw the Great Beast raise its head and it let out a burst of white crackling fire right into the sky. She flinched as she felt the heat wash over her and the sounds of screams rose out of the crowd. Many were already screaming or weeping from wounds caused by falling glass but the screams grew louder as the heat bathed the terrified masses below. Mother Justina looked on and saw the more senior priestesses and priests still standing up above the common folk on the ground. They and the adventurers still stood tall above the weeping masses, in that moment it reminded Justina of why she took her oath to the divine.

There were many defenders of humanoid civilisation, the adventurers, the knights, the priesthood, even the beastiarians and alchemists, as well as many others. They were the bulwark against the terror, those who stood against everything this spiteful world threw at them. Even now with an ancient beast just turning an ancient fortification into magma, they still stood poised to do what needs to be done. No matter what forgotten horror appears before them.

Justina remembers what her mentor told her so long ago, she told Justina the difference between a humanoid and a monster is not intelligence, power, cooperation nor form. It is the heart, perhaps this was just religious dogma but her mentor's next point was nevertheless true. Humanoids were the only class of creature that was willing to die for something greater than themselves. The most that has been observed from other creatures was a mother defending a child but when the cause is lost most monsters just leave the young for dead. No monster will die for another unrelated monster, yet humanoids routinely sacrifice themselves for those of whom they have no blood relation, even when there were no mating prospects. Men dying for other men based on friendship and camaraderie alone.

The Great Beast says emotions were more often than not a hindrance but Justina knows despite it often being hindrance. The whims of the heart were also humanoid’s greatest strength. A monster like the Great Beast cannot comprehend doing something like that for another, to risk oneself just for the reason that it cares. It was plainly obvious this was an alliance of convenience despite all the theatre it and the Empress puts up for the masses.

But perhaps all of this acting was for the best. If the Great Beast possessed the ability to truly understand humanoid emotions and was able to control this impulse within humanoids, then the good people of this world were truly doomed to live under the Great Beasts taloned thumb…

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Lord Warden Gabrion narrowed his eyes as he watched a particularly stupid teenager charge him with a pitchfork. Gabrion had just asked this particular group of soldiers to surrender. They were on the main highway and he could see the mangled corpses of soldiers and adventurers everywhere. Although he did see some adventurers already subdued on the roofs. The phoenix Azatharine was just here, the burning houses and the melted cobble stone was all the indication Gabrion needed. He could smell the stink of burning corpses. 

Looking around Gabrion could see the beasts of the hive dragging the corpses into holes. The humans were here so they immediately shifted their task. 

Gabrion raised his great sword and easily swiped the pitchfork out of the boy’s hands. Then he delivered a hard punch with his armoured fist to the face of the boy. He felt the boy’s cheekbones cave and his teeth giveaway. The boy went sprawling, blood pouring from his mouth and nose, his teeth clattering onto the stone like a set of dice. 

Gabrion shifted his gaze and saw a group of Elysian archers on the roof with hound like beasts next to them. The new unit that was to be tested in this war. They have already performed admirably in the Beralis invasion, and now they are here to take the capital. It was a small unit only a hundred strong but they were undeniably effective. Their speed and ferocity on land was unmatched by any human unit and they had superior tactical prowess to the typical Hive swarms. Effectively melding the strengths of both human and beast, Gabrion knew he was looking at the future of war. He was already considering incorporating the beasts into the Wardens.

“Now would all of you be so kind as to drop your weapons. There has been enough death today.” Gabrion said in a low town as gazed at the shivering band of militia.

“This battle is lost, it was over before it even began, we just needed you all to accept that fact.” Gabrion said and the militia looked at each other fearfully but they still held their weapons.

In the corner of his eye Gabrion then spotted the Great Beast split itself into six clones. He instinctively stopped speaking and turned to look at the Great Beast.

“I wonder what my dear friend is doing…” Garbion suddenly heard his Empress’s voice from behind him.

“Empress…” Gabrion began but was cut off.

“Shhh… Lord Warden. Look, all of you, you are going to miss the show…” Cecilia said as she nodded in the direction of the Great Beast.

Gabrion turned just in time to see a while flash of light, then he heard the bang, then a shock wave that rattled his bones and finally the sound of shattering glass. Gabrion looked on in mute shock as he saw the tall wall that was built by the ancients now had a section of it just carved out. He could see the rim of breach was glowing red hot with magma. Whatever the Great Beast did had melted the ancient stone into magma.

One thought perplexed him however. Wanton destruction was not what the Great Beast usually used. Destroying that wall was akin to destroying his own wall.

“Confused Lord Warden?” Cecilia asked.

“I am Empress.” Gabrion admitted as he gazed at the gaping hole in the wall.

“The Volerians simply needed a more heavy handed persuasion.” Cecilia said with mirth in her voice.

“We wanted to see if they would listen to reason, we made a deal with the Church you see. We gave the Volerians every opportunity, but I suppose they have run out of chances. If they want to behave like mad dogs then the only thing they will understand is the fist and boot.” Cecilia said and Gabrion turned to look back at the militia. 

They were looking at the walls and one by one their spears and clubs dropped to the floor. Even the professional soldiers dropped their swords. All except for one…

The knight captain looked around in shock and started screaming at the rest of the soldiers to pick up their weapons. But no one cared, they just looked mutely at the molten gash in the inner wall. Whether what came next was from rage or madness Gabrion did not know but regardless the knight captain raised his sword intent on hacking into his own soldiers.

Gabrion was about to intervene but he spotted an arrow fly in and hit the captain in the neck. Gabrion turned to see one of the special unit archers lower their empty bow. Adventurers were known for their precision and speed, so such a feat was not a surprise. It seems using them as members of the special unit was a good choice.

Then Gabrion heard the Great Beast let out a booming laugh that echoed out across the city. Its head was raised, its laughter boomed, rattling the bodies of everyone in earshot.

Gabrion sensed Cecilia walk up next to him as the two of them watched the Great Beast laugh and he heard his empress let out a soft musing comment.

A little fun never hurts…