Devourer

I watched as the soldiers all looked at each other for a moment in confusion. I told them that whole thing about the Empress wanting to parley to get them to send someone to talk to me. If I told them that I wanted to talk they would just start firing stuff at me. But then again this was why my partnership with Cecilia works so well. She provides the human touch and diplomacy while I provide the brutality and violence that was out of reach for humans. The proposition is simple, take the carrot or get hit by the biggest stick this side of the world.

“I suggest you get moving to send the word. The Empress’s patience is finite.” I said dryly and one of the officers gave me one last suspicious look before ordering one of his men to get his commander. 

I calmly waited as I watched the tense soldiers on the wall. It always starts like this, I mean I’m above them which means I’m in a better position. If they attacked now and hostilities began it would make things difficult. So my best guess was that their officers were waiting to see if they could get a good opportunity. Just a cursory examination could reveal that these soldiers were disciplined. They were standing at the ready and had razor sharp focus, their demeanour was a big giveaway if their fancier equipment wasn’t already a good enough indicator.

It wasn’t long before an officer in fine armour appeared on the wall as he stared me down. I tilted my head and flashed him a smile. In response I saw him narrow his eyes as he crossed his arms clearly not impressed by my little challenge.

“So I assume you’re the one?” I asked with mirth in my voice.

“So what has the empress sent her pet to say?” the man replied as he raised a brow. He was acting brave for his men but I could see his heart hammering in his chest. Of course he would be, he was standing behind the same kind of barrier that I just easily took down yesterday.

“I’m no pet little human.” I said with a chuckle.

“Then why have you been sent here like a servant?” the man asked with a sneer.

“Because I wasn’t sent here. I lied.” I replied with a laugh and this odd chill washed over the wall.

“Ah you humans are so predictable.” I said as I descended until I am looming right over the officer.

“I said that because it is comforting for all of you to believe that a human has control over something like me. That a human being able to control me is even possible.” I said as I laughed and my voice rumbled over the city. In the back of my mind I could sense from Legiana’s side that Cecilia had just asked what was making me laugh so hard. Well Legiana can’t reply to that just yet, there were too many people surrounding her.

“No… nothing can command me. So, the reason I am here is to offer you the first of two more chances to surrender. I will be blunt, my entire army is under your feet right now. You stand no chance, I know all of you have this stupid little suicide vest thing. I know you have quite a few of them but do you know how many soldiers I have left? 

I had about 100 000 soldiers at the start of this whole thing. I have lost about 30 000 soldiers throughout this war, half of which have already been replaced. So all of you have traded about 90 000 dead, wounded and captured soldiers for 15 000 of my casualties. The Elysian deaths are in the dozens, most of which were hanged or killed by my soldiers for crimes during the campaign.

So let me ask you this? Do you have enough of those silly little bombs?” I asked as I leaned forward and placed my hand on the barrier. It crackled and sparked, trying its best to push me off but my magic resistance was so high there was barely any damage. I was out healing what little damage was being inflicted by a very wide margin.

“It’s over, surrender and live. What do you think is going to happen after this? With all the loyal and upright men dead, what do you think the criminals are going to do? What will become of your nation when there is no one left to defend it? 

Even if all of you die the Empress and I will take up the slack but the result will be different. Cultures live within the people, the less of you there are, the weaker it becomes. Simply put, there aren't that many of you left at this point.” I said and the man’s eyes filled with fury.

“My brothers and sisters are dead because of you…” the man spat.

“Figured that out by yourself, have you?” I replied with a grin and I saw the man’s eyes flicker with fear once again.

“I have no issue killing the rest of you and adding to the corpses, you think I care about your culture? I am just laying out the facts for you, you humans can be so idiotic at times. Doing nonsensical things like saying you want to fight to the death for your lives and families. But when I say I’m not going to kill you or your families you fight to the death anyway. 

Yes some of you don’t believe me but honestly at this point I have proven repeatedly that whatever pathetic little resistance you can muster is pointless. So right now you have two options: surrender and maybe survive or you can fight and definitely die. Do I really need to spell out which is the wiser choice?” I asked as my tone turned cold and I felt the wall twitch in fear. 

This wasn’t the fun loving monster that I often portrayed, this is the beast inside me talking. The cold calculating state of mind that once ruled this world. The very mentality that made the devourers the rulers. There is no morality, only the effective and ineffective choice. Choose poorly and on your head be the consequences.

The rulers of the old world knew how to have their fun but when the fun and games ended there were none who were more practical. For the Firstborn were born into a world that was so ancient that it predated some basic concepts. That world predated the concept of species, of morality, of gender and even pride. The only thing they knew was the constant fight for survival but the one thing they didn’t know was cooperation, such was the nature of the old world. I know cooperation was essential for my survival, seeing as that lack of cooperation was what killed the Firstborn. 

If the Firstborn united against the so-called great rebellion the humanoids would have been crushed into the dirt. How arrogant were my predecessors that they just sat on their asses for thousands of years as they watched their fellows be taken out one by one. I have an idea based on the Eternal Mother’s memories but she was just a servant of one of the dominant Firstborn at the time so she wouldn’t exactly have an ideal perspective of the larger picture.

Many stupid decisions in the past and present with more to surely come in the future. The humans who cannot accept their weakness, the Firstborn who could not accept strength from a source they were not familiar with. They deserve to die, they were weak of mind, inflexible. As far as the Firstborn goes, being inflexible was a cardinal sin, our entire species was based on our adaptability. 

“So what is your answer, human.” I said as I stared down the officer.

“A soldier knows his duty, when the barrier falls we will rush to fill the gap. We are the defenders of this city and we will fight to the last.” the officer said in response.

“Who said I needed to take the barrier down?” I said as I channelled ether into my body. I had this interesting thing built into my body. Barriers worked by repulsing foreign contact and acting as a wall. But magic was not a physical thing, in theory if you could generate enough magic resistance you could in theory do something rather unexpected. A novel idea honestly it was something even the Eternal Mother couldn’t think up. I got it from Cecilia’s spell, the same one she used to put her hand through the barrier. 

I funnelled my ether into the two organs I built into my body that could serve to enhance my magic resistance as much as possible. It’s still lower than Mahaila’s thanks to her slew of fancy equipment but it’s enough for this.

I folded my wings and hovered towards the barrier. I reached my hand out and though the barrier crackled with some resistance I was able to move through easily enough. I saw every soldier’s face go pale as a sheet once I crossed the barrier.

“Ah you all thought I took down the other barriers because I needed to do that to go through. No, I did that to let everyone else through.” I said as I stared down the mass of trembling soldiers that were now painfully aware that I am on their side of the barrier.

“Now then I know you can open the barrier at select areas but there’s a lot of you here. So just as this barrier was supposed to keep me out it also keeps all of you in…” I said and my tone lowered to a growl as I bared my teeth. The threat was simple, surrender or die. My patience is wearing very thin in all honesty. As much as I can smile and joke, a part of me was getting a little irritated.

“This is your last chance to surrender. I have never interacted much with you humans before I awoke but thus far it has been rather disappointing. Your predecessors were far more rational. I struggle to comprehend how all of you even lasted this long.” I said as I tilted my head and eyed the humans. They all had spells and weapons pointed at me, fear brimming in their eyes.

“You all are brave I will give you that. Perhaps that is why you survived. My good friend the Empress once said the willingness to sacrifice is what sets humanoids apart. But at the same time as I see the senseless death and resistance from you lot those words ring a little hollow. So what will it be?” I asked dryly… and I was met by a fireball to the face.

“You will never understand us monster!” the officer shouted as he drew his sword.

“So it seems…” I muttered in response as I channelled ether into my body.

“Well there are always more of you humans. If you won't listen, perhaps another lesson is in order. Maybe your comrades in the palace will be more receptive.” I said as the spells began to fire. They slammed against my body but only knocking loose some feathers. All my magic resistance meant nothing they had could possibly do enough damage to me. I had edited my body to be a perfect counter against humans.

I opened my maw and released a torrent of white flame into the mass of soldiers on the wall. General, officer, soldier or militia, they burn all the same. My flames washed over the crowd of soldiers and they screamed as they scattered. No matter how well disciplined they were they ran all the same. The panic was beginning to set in…

I landed on the wall and raised a hand in the direction of a group of warmages that were channelling a ritual spell and fired off my jamming spell [Batian Jam] a translucent pulse flew at the circle of mages and shorted out the spell. The ritual level spell exploded and blasted bits of burning bodies in all directions. The ether crackled out from the ensuing fireball and it fried several unfortunate souls.

“DIE!” a voice screamed and I looked down to see a knight wearing one of those suicide vests charging at me. I raised my hand and swatted him off the wall like a fly. He collided with the wall of the palace and exploded. The shock from the collision must have ruptured some of the crystals.

I noticed there were more soldiers swarming out of a nearby watchtower. I charged towards it ignoring the soldiers in my path, many were crushed and others were flung off the wall from the force of the impact. I spun and used my tail to bash the top of the watchtower off. I saw a mage standing in this now exposed stairwell as she looked up at me blankly. I opened my mouth and breathed another wave of flame down the stairwell intending to burn every soldier inside. 

Then I saw a flash of light and then I felt the floor beneath my bowl outwards. I sensed the great surge of ether from below me and I immediately tried to back off but not quick enough. I felt the force knock me over backwards and I landed hard on my back.

I took some superficial damage, some cracked armour plates and some internal damage. These were quickly healed. When I looked back up I saw that entire watchtower and part of the wall had been blasted apart. Now that I think about it they had to store those suicide vests somewhere…

“[REAVING SLASH]” I heard a man shout and I looked to the side to see a knight slash down at my arm. The strike bounced off obviously but at least he tried.

“Little insect.” I muttered as I raised a hand and flicked the man off the wall. He went off the wall and into the inner city. That was when I realised the barrier was gone. Ah oh yes, the barrier had to be powered by ether crystals…

That explains the blast, they must have shielded the ether signature. It made sense ether crystals were naturally explosive and could easily be considered a weak point. A crystal of that size would naturally give off a large ether signature that could be detected by a skilled mage. Still for the fire to flood in so easily seemed odd, don’t tell me someone left the door open or something…

My king shall we attack?

I heard Azatherine ask me suddenly and I flinched as I realised I could just ask them to attack now. My little solo brawl has now been suddenly interrupted. Well I guess it was for the best, might as well settle this as soon as possible. There’s still the palace soldiers after Cecilia arrives.

Well might as well give my answer, I replied as I slash another group of soldiers that were charging at me.

Yeah, yeah go get them