Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

Chapter 993 Victoria - Tactical Genius

Standing over the wall overlooking the vibrant lights, signifying the foreign army, bitterness, and hate scratched at my soul. I could feel my blood slowly beginning to boil alongside my demons.

The first time I ever killed someone, he was only nine. He begged for his life, clawing at the ground, with desperation dripping from his sweat. I could still remember the taste of the grass, the stench emitting from him, and the hammer I used to bash his head in, bathing me in brain matter. He had begun to convulse with the first hit, foam at the mouth with the second, by the eighth, when I had peeled away his skull, piss and shit soaked his trousers. By the ninth, he was dead.

He had begged. Begged over and over. Calling for a mother he'd never even known.

I hate killing despite being so good at it. I hate it… and love it. My blood made me love it. Each life I took was a war internally. One part of me wished to vomit, while the other wished to shower myself in the entrails of those I slaughtered.

And today. Which will win out? My demons or my consciousness.

"You ready?" the voice of the devil asked. "We are about to bathe with the blood of our enemies."

A lust formed out of death, and Insanity marred Ezra's serine features, standing by my side as we looked out at the army. She seemed so excited that it made me wonder if life as a pure devil was better than I was now.

Maybe then I wouldn't hate my life. To devils like her, life is all a game. A never-ending game that pleasures them to no end. Could I be like that… Could I be like that if I just cut my empathy?

"Two Demi-Humans just showed up. Master says they will help in the slaughter." She continued, despite my silence. "What do you think they'll attack first? Our right flank, maybe the left, or a foolish frontal one? Or maybe the cowardly rear."

Staring at the lone man in the air while everyone stood on the ground, I stared at the ice blue eyes that reminded me of a lone wolf. His wavy hair was a marvelous jet black that reached towards his shoulder, touching upon the thick black fur coat. In his hand stood a spear with a particular fang radiating an eternal aura, probably taken from the beast of an Eternal Sovereign.

He was cold. Colder than average with a cut of cunning in his wolf-like eyes.

"He'll attack head-on as a faint; the right will then soon be attacked by the main army, and the left will be left alone, but the real attack is not coming from our flank but the rear." I lifted my hands towards the siege weapons and pointed. " Those will be the troublesome things. Since this base is Arsene's and not my Sect, not all the warding is ready yet. We are defenseless, in a sense, to those weapons. Those weapons will attack focus on the left as a decoy to make us think we'll—"

"How the hell can you get all that?" Ezra swiftly interjected.

My hands slid to the various movement below. " Because that's what the army is doing. One just needs to make sense of it. I've been in many battles, Ezra. Far more than you. I know what I'm talking about."

'Then we'll follow your lead." Said Layla as she soared up into the skies. "I'm a bit rusty when it comes to leading an army… or would you rather be in the front lines."

"A paragon is our enemy," Came my response. "It's best I remain here while you and Darkmane handle him. I'll handle the rest. We'll use those Gods Arsene sent over."

"Freya can't join." Ezra reminded me, "and Master wishes we use minimal troops, this early in our conquest on Iluthath. You might be on the front lines anyway."

"I don't really care what he thinks," I rebutted in full, "He can just make more Shadowfell if he likes. The base isn't ready, and if we use a starship, it'll be destroyed in a blink of an eye with the battle with three Paragons. If we need more soldiers, we'll raise the dead. Not like morality exists in Arsene."

"There are ten squadrons. Freya will lead squadrons one and two from here. Three and four with Ezra if she is so capable, five and six with me, seven and eight with Layla and the rest darkmane. I'm sure you two paragons can multitask in a battle, right?"

"A battle between paragons," said Layla sternly.

"This is war. No such thing as fair. Whether they be on my level or higher, I'm still responsible for the lives of my squadron." I said, not bothering to mince words. " speak to each of the captains. And get ready."

Sensing the bloodlust in the air surrounding Layla, who picked her lips up, she nodded. " But, of course, commander."

I glanced at Ezra, and the two of them vanished with a similar smile.

Feeling the shutter of the earth and the rustle of the winds carrying the scent of iron, I looked on towards the lone wolf staring back at me.

"Let's get this over with," I muttered as an indescribable whisper sounded from my mouth. ' Into the Abyss."

Reaching into the Hive Mind, exposing myself to the entirety of the abyss, I took to the skies, unsheathing my sword from my soul.

"Surrender," I said with a cold voice that thundered over the Eben Forest, darkening this already quaint night.

The enemy commander's lips curled into a sneer, but no words left his lips.

"Then there'd be no surrender or mercy," I whispered not to him but myself.

Lifting his spear towards me, a look of bloodlust filled the enemy commander's face as he bore his fangs at me.

"Fire!"

Starlight lit up the night sky akin to the seven suns as hundreds of thousands of arrows and cannon fire whipped over the horizon aimed at the Castle of Noctem and me.

Opening my palms, a cube of reality formed as I borrowed the Spatial Laws from another Abyssal Fiend.

"Mirrored Heavens"