Devourer

I let out a loud laugh as a wave of arrows bounced off my hide. I took one glance at the archers as they frantically nocked another set of arrows and turned away from them. Their attacks were so weak, shooting me in the back is as effective as not shooting at all.

The army was in so much chaos that they couldn’t even run. Some were trying but just ended up killed by some random thing. You take two steps and another of my children ends up in front of you. You either fight it or try to run, good luck out running one of them though. Some do try to run but always not fast enough.

I felt something next to my tail and I turned to see a pair of armoured soldiers stabbing at me with halberds. 

I raised one of my arm blades and slashed at them. I didn’t bother to be precise, the strike ended up carving up the pair of them and taking out a few more behind them. I watched as their bodies flew out over the crowd in pieces. 

I did another sweep of the situation and it looked like the army was half dead, the Gigantadons, formerly known as the Siege Breakers, that were formerly known as Battering Rams were carving through the enemy formation…

I had some trouble making the name… 

Anyway, so far the weapon test was going well, the light spells were just bouncing off their armour. I had tested the Gigantadons against ritual level spells, they did take quite a bit of damage from those spells.

The ritual spells were more powerful because of… something something… larger magic circle… something something… better magic efficacy yield… something something…

Look I don’t know the academic reason I just know how to cast it and plus I don’t need to care about it. I already have this artillery unit in the works and an anti air unit to shoot down angels. I planned to mount those on a similar body to the Gigantadons minus all that armour. After a lot of experimentation I found fire to be the most effective in terms of just raw destructive power.

Again I felt another wave of arrows pepper my back. I turned around and I watched as the archers flinched. I could smell their fear and that wasn’t just some figurative statement a good number of them had wet themselves. Well if they want to shoot things at me, then I’ll shoot back. 

I fired a barrage of spines at the groups of archers. The more sensible ones broke formation and tried to run. The rest were impaled by spines the size of greatswords. The only reason I didn’t ask my army to overrun the archers was that they were too close to the Priestesses. The army formation was organised in this order, the frontline, the mages, the archers and lastly the Priestesses.

The Mages are all dead and I rather not risk injuring any of the priestesses by attacking the archers. The last thing I need is to give the angels one more excuse to kill me. A monster obeying the rules of war is a good way to make me seem less likely to kill everyone for shits and giggles. Besides, the archer’s attacks were so weak that if they fired into the mass, they would more likely injure their own soldiers. 

I looked up and saw a flash of blue light as the command tent vanished. Ah looks like that idiot finally cut and run. Well it’s fine if he runs, he won’t escape, not to safety or into the next life. Mahaila has been sitting in his tent ever since they camped in Averlin. I knew about his little toy ever since then, the amount of Ether given off by that little relic was hard to hide from someone like Mahaila.

Mahaila will make sure he doesn’t run, ideally that applies to his family as well. Cecilia wants to lock the Prince and his Father in a room and make them fight for food and water like a pair of savages. With her watching of course…

I would personally just turn the pair of them into living ornaments that were still conscious so they could live in perpetual suffering. That is if I wanted them to suffer, if I didn’t I would just chuck them into one of the digestive vats. King or prince they are just meat to me honestly. All humans are just flesh, it doesn’t matter what kind of fancy hat you wear or what kind of shiny chair you sit on. 

As I cast my gaze to where the command tent was I saw a man in fine armour approach. Ah so this must be the famous General Montis. I guess he didn’t run and chose to die with his troops. Or perhaps not…

Clear me a path…

I said into the Hive mind and I heard Azatharine reply with an affirmative. I looked up to see her dive out of the clouds and towards the battle. I had ordered the Phoenixes to hold back for now. I planned to let the Prince escape but I didn’t want him to know that I had phoenixes. Also when Phoenixes cook humans not much is left, so I can’t exactly use the corpses afterwards.

I watched as she levelled out of her dive and blasted a path for me. She landed on the ground at the end of the burning line and swung with her flaming wings. Sending burning bodies flying off into the distance. I calmly approached as I ordered my Gigantadons to widen the path.

I calmly moved forward, through the slaughter and screams. The humans gave me a wide berth by just running away. Except for one…

I looked forward and saw Azatherine had paused as she looked down at someone. As I approached she stepped aside to reveal a woman in her forties. She was wearing the white robes of the priestesses of mercy. Her hood was down revealing long brown hair and a grim determination in her brown eyes.

“You are in my way woman.” I growled as I loomed over her.

“I will not allow you to march forward to kill the wounded and my sisters. If you decide to do so, you will have to kill me first.” the woman shouted in response.

“I am High Mother Justina of the Order of the Mercy. I will not stand aside while you slaughter at your whims.” the woman called Justina shouted.

“If you haven’t realised, all of you are still alive. I have no intention of killing the priestesses.” I replied.

“As for the wounded?” Justina asked.

“I would like to kill them, since they are soldiers but I think you might have some issues with that.” I replied nonchalantly.

“Of course I would. They are under our protection, you will not harm them!” Justina shouted as she pointed a finger at me.

“Then move them out of the way before I crush them by mistake. I’m going ahead, so I suggest you get moving.” I said as I began to move forward. Justina baulked as she turned around and started running back shouting for the priestesses to make a path.

I watched as Justina started shouting commands at the other priestesses. I slowed down slightly and watched them levitate the injured out of the way. I guess being able to levitate bodies is a good thing to have when you are treating battlefield casualties. Well they were not to be harmed anyway. I just didn’t want to be slowed down too much.

I continued on my path towards the command tent as Azatharine calmly walked next to me. 

“It looks like they wish to parley.” Azatharine said. Though she was better suited to flight she could still walk rather gracefully on land. The heat from her talons caused the bodies she stepped on to sizzle ominously as she walked. 

“Of course they do, General Montis is a brave one. He will be very useful after this war.” I replied not bothering to keep my voice down. I saw General Montis’s eyes narrow as he overheard me. Our voices were loud thanks to our size and our voices carried easily over to General Montis.

“Greetings General.” I said cordially as I gave him a wide fanged smile, ignoring the slaughter around me that was still raging on.

“A pleasure, I assume you are the Great Beast?” General Montis said evenly as his eyes darted to the area behind me. I could sense the priestesses all looking at us in apprehension. 

“You assume correctly.” I replied.

“First may I request a cessation of hostilities while we speak?” General Montis asked.

“No. The. Killing. Stops. When. We. Reach. An. Agreement… So… I. Suggest. You. Speak. Quickly.” I replied as I spoke at a pace slower than usual.

“I would like to offer surrender. I only ask that you spare my men and treat them fairly as prisoners of war.” General Montis said a pace faster than usual.

“And… Why would I accept that? General Montis… you have no leverage to make any conditions.” I replied casually, my tone betraying that I was no rush.

“Unconditional surrender is as good as being slaughtered since we surrender with no guarantees. But yet you said I will be useful during the postwar period. Why is that? The fact that I am alive means you want something. So I ask you this Great Beast. What do you want?” General Montis said as he kept his cool.

Impressive, very impressive. I could tell his guards were on the verge of exploding with anger. I could sense anger and despair in Montis as well. But his body and tone of voice betrayed nothing. He was poised and stoic, he was clearly smart enough to understand his position. He speaks to the point and with courtesy. 

Not bad, not bad at all, we can definitely use someone like him…

“I want you to command the forces of Voleria when I inevitably conquer it. You all started this war, I plan to finish it.” I replied as I reminded him of his position as a defeated aggressor.

“I agree to those terms.” General Montis said evenly without hesitation.

“Oh? That was easy. But first I want to test you. Why did you agree? Just to save your soldiers? Or perhaps something else. Be thorough in your reply General, even if this army is slaughtered there are a lot more bodies up north that can end up cold and dead.” I said with a small chuckle.

“Your demands were the most probable possibility for you even agreeing to this parley. I was wondering why the command tent was untouched during the battle. Your soldiers are burrowers terrain and battle lines mean nothing when you can just tunnel under them. Yet I have not been attacked. In any battle removing the head of the army will doom the battle. Of course with your strength, you do not need to take my head to win the battle which means there was another objective.

In warfare, winning a battle and the war is the easy part. The struggle comes later. If you conquer a territory how do you maintain control? How do you exploit the resources there? How do you make a disgruntled and spiteful population work for you? Winning the war is easy, winning the peace is the real challenge.

But before I continue I would like to ask two questions. Did you know that the Prince had such an escape path? Also are you aware of the Prince’s personality?” Montis said as he finished with those questions.

“If I wanted it, the Tralis royal family will have their throats slit by sundown today.” I replied with a smile.

“Hmm, so the Prince did not just bring himself and his guards back…” Montis replied with a sigh.

“I can’t have him killing himself before the Empress gets her hands on him. Or the king for that matter.” I said with a laugh as the guards around Montis all started to shake. 

Yes, the Prince just brought Averlonian agents and potential assassins right into their palace. Saved them quite a commute too…

“For you humans to challenge me… well all of you will need to live a thousand years longer to even attempt that with a slight chance of success…” I said with a laugh.

“We thought we were attacking lambs instead we walked into the lion's maw…” Montis said with a small sigh as he paused for a moment.

“And you cannot negotiate with a lion when your head is in its mouth…” Montis finished softly as he cast his gaze up to the sky. 

“If you do know what my Prince is like, you will know how he will act next…” Montis muttered.

“He will act like a cornered dog, adopting a death before defeat mentality.” I said, finishing his statement.

“You knew he was prideful and impulsive…” Montis began again.

“That's why we insulted him by stealing the princesses and leaving those portraits for him.” I said as I finished his sentence again.

“So he will act like a mad dog, run the nation to ruin, deny peace terms even in the face of annihilation. Even if you promise you will slaughter every man, woman and child if Tralis does not surrender. He will go on to the end, sacrificing the entire nation for his madness and stupidity… and his father is not much better… Royals know the price of total defeat, they would let the world end first as if the alternative is their end. At that point the world matters not to them…

So you want me to be the voice of reason, someone who is decorated and trusted. With the service record, glory and right family name. Someone to denounce the Prince, and perhaps create an insurrection if that is part of your plan. People do not want to die, they wish to live, so when the choices are a Royals pride and their lives…” Montis said.

“They will choose their lives…” I finished.

“And you will need someone to stabilise the region after the war. Someone to help you win the peace. Someone the people will trust… you can give us good terms, good treatment, say it is I who negotiated such favourable terms. The people will adore me while never knowing that it was the plan all along. Never knowing that it was all just a scheme and fancy theatre. They will never know their son’s lives were just props on a stage…” Montis said.

“Exactly, and in return you all get to keep living nice cushy lives. I accept your surrender.” I said as I sent out a mental command to my army to stop attacking.

It was almost too dramatic, one instant screams and terror. The next silence…

I turned around and I saw my soldiers still as statues. The remaining 20% or so of the Tralis soldiers just stood there staring dumbly at the monsters that had suddenly stilled.

Then I heard a loud horn being blown. I turned around again and I saw one of General Montis’s guards blowing the horn in a specific rhythm.

“That horn signal means, hold position, hostilities have ceased.” Montis said calmly as he saw me turn around.

“I can tell we are going to work well together.” I replied with a smirk.

“Now then as for the rest of you, loyal guards of your general. I assume you understand the position your people are now in? If you rebel or cause problems well by letting anyone know of the true nature of this agreement… Well my army could always use more meat. Just give me a reason…” I said as I gave them a wide eager smile.

I saw all the guards' hearts skip a beat before they all bowed in unison. 

“Excellent, rejoice you are lucky enough to survive. Your lives will improve after this. I will beat the inefficiencies out of your civilization. I will not tolerate inefficiency and incompetence. I will destroy then improve. In a year all of you will see the merit of my vision.” I said as I watched the delegation in front of me focus all their attention on me.

I will champion this withered world

I promise strength when there was weakness

The competent get their due, no longer will the lambs lead wolves…