As the two inquisitors approached Rex, who was chained to the pyre to be lit, he could see glee and sadistic joy in the duos eyes, clearly about to enjoy a small torture session before ultimately burning his body in their so called gods name. Rex, no longer interested playing the pretend game any longer, started to laugh loudly and almost hysterically. How could he not. It was trully maddening- their absolute zealotry and blindness to the world at large. Sure, he was far too strong and skilled for such country bumpkins to see through his disguise, but still, even Rex in his short time spent in Bythe had learned that every true archon is somewhat gifted in at least one area of expertise. A gift, a bloodline inheritance if you will, from their mystical ancestor ancestor.
His heavy laughter was recieved by a stunned moment, stopping the two advancing inquisitors and eliciting questioning glances from the two priestesses, as well as the people around. That soon ended though with a comment from the older priestess about him going mad from joy of being reunited with their lord through cleansing. She was about to go on another tirade about their mercifull and gentle god, but was stopped by Rex.
"Shut it bitch." Were the words he spoke as soon as his laughter ended. Once again bringing the gathering to silence.
"Our lord this, our lord that. Die for our retardness, bla, bla , bla. You are all too far gone. Fret not though, for I will find ways to mend your broken minds and souls through endless service." Rex's voice was now devoid of any emotions, sending chills down the spectators spines. And that bad premonition they got just a moment ago came true, with the chains holding the forsaken man neatly locked to the pyre creaking and shattering into pieces, releasing the man in question from his bound status.
"Why dont I give you the taste of pain and suffering in return? You will have the chance to enjoy your own medicine for years to come, before you can eventually rejoin your lords side." Rex delivered yet another line worthy of a villain and then withdrew the anchor he had made for the teleportats, activating the gate it was attatched to. In mere seconds the gate expanded to height of four meters and similar with, and in no time whatsoever men of height over two meters started to exist through it, joining by Rex side. Each and every one of them was armed with either axe and shield or two handed are or sword. In not time at all, Rex was surrounded by fifty buff and powerfull looking menwith savage thrill coursing through their eyes, sending even more chills down the spines of the villagers. The sight was so shocking that none of them could even think of running, the sight before them so out of this world.
''Go wild boys. This is your first official act after all. But worry not my Svergi friends, this is only the beggining."
With those calm words of Rex, the fifty men released a resounding roar of excitement, and every single one of them charged with astonishing speeds towards the crowd gathered here, spreading out in a measured manner. Rex could swear these guys were veterans of the Mountains Rage tribe with many raids under their belts. The familiarity and blind trust they showed in each other, as well as the practised synchrony they all displayed impressed Rex quite a lot. He wanted to see how they would deal with numbers three to four times their own, since to their fifty something men, there was a group of aproximately two hundred gathered here.
In just a few short moments the stunned group of villagers was already surrounded by the Svergi raiders, spread out with aproximately equal intervals between each and every of the muscled and powerfull men. The sight was so shocking that only whne their were in their positions did the locals came to any sort of thought. First of whom were the two arrogant inquisitors, who instantly charged towards Rex, fanatical zeal in their eyes. But Rex saw more. He saw the nervousness and fear that was gripping at the two, only the years of indoctrination and social programming they had went through allowing them to take action.
An action that was not reacted to in any way or shape by the fifty warriors who now surrounded the villagers. The two inquisitors new now why the group did not react, but if they could take out the forsaken, maybee the gate would close, maybee they could live in the chaos that would ensue once the leader would go down. A thought that was shattered in to a million pieces the second said leader caught their swinging weapons in his arms as though they were neither sharp nor dangerous. Then they felt excrutiating pain in their abdomens as they were flung away from the man, swords remaining tightly in his grip.
The two inquisitors landed a few meters away from him, gripping their abdomens in pain as they tried to regain the breath that had been knocked, or in this case kicked, out of them. Rex unceremoniously flipped the two weapons he had stopped and advanced towards the writhing two men, his movement slow but confident. Once hewas right in front of the two, he glanced down at them, and spoke calmly.
"You two are lucky, you get instant release." and plunged the two weapons right through their bodies, eliciting a painfull shriek from both, that lasted just a moment, and then came the silence, Dreadfull silence that promised more of the same for the rest of the villagers. And if the mans words were to be trusted, fates worse than quick death too. It was the swift death of the two inquisitors that finaly drew the crowd out of their stupor. The guards present quickly pulled their spears or sords, whichever was more comfortable for each, and took a battle stance, ready to take down whoever aproached them.
Unfortunately, the moment the seven or so guards of the village took action, just as many Svergi charged towards the surrounded group, each of the raiders aiming for one of the guards now taking action in defiance against their comrade in arms. A fast and imposing charge, followed by a perfect deflection or block, depending on the weapons of said Svergi man in question was wielding, and a swing causing a splatter of blood was all it took for the guards to be permanently put our of commision. That in turn brought all hell loose as the people started panicking, trying to disperse and flee in every dirrection. Unfortunately, they were surrrounded, their formation failproof. Something that was proved the moment a smaller group decided to try and run away and was promptly taken down by them.
"On your knees!" yelled one of the Svergi as the villagers were frantically seeking for the safest route out, not finding any as the braver ones who tried that were all mercilessly and instantly killed by the attackers. The failiure to comply was quickly responded with another few screams as a few more villagers all fell down, now lifeless.
"KNEES!" yelled the raider again, this time causing the remaining peopel to shudder and do as told. The villagers were no warriors, they had never experienced true war or bandit raids. How could they ever hope to resist wat was happening here. Not to mention that the most powerfull people on the villagers side were the two inquisitors, who were barely B class entities. The raiders however were all of high B class, with some even low A class. Rex had asked for experienced group on the lower spectrum of Svergi warriors, and so he had recieved just what he asked for.
Disciplined and experienced raiders who were still leagues above whatever was within the village. With the villagers in order, the raiders started to shackle them one by one, withdrawing the items from their new bags of holding- coutesy of Rex. If anyone were to pay attention to the shackling process, they would notice that the elderly and quite a few of men were not shackled. And once the Svergi were done with it, the cshackled people were pulled aside, leaving the unshackled in the position they were in beforehands, where as the shackled ones were off to the side. Young women were all shackled, part of the younger men too. Cries were heard as mothers were seperated from children and wifes from husbands.
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As all this was happening a few more people emerged from the gate. Women of height close to two meters, dressed in clothes that would make one think of magicians and faces that showed their long lived lives, were at the very front of said group. While aged, they moved with relative ease and were quickly joining the raiders. They ordered a few of them to grab a person from the remaining unshackled people here and there, Once someone was dragged before them they just grabbed said persons crotch, be it male or female, their eyes glowed for just a second, and they would either send them over to the shackled ones, being shackled like the rest of the villagers in that side, or send them back to the original groups location.
"Barely anything good." Snorted one of the elder women in the dirrection of Rex, once her group was done with their aprisal of the prisoners.
"Ha ha ha." Rex laughed at the sentence. "What else do you expect. A small rural village with no magical landmark or anything near them. They are pure human as well, removing any chance of mutated bloodline as well. So of course there is nothing special here. They will sell well anyways, and with your tallents wewill know who are the good ones to keep for other needs. If there is anything you need, just order the raiders around as you always have. I am here to make judgement and take out the most powerfull enemies. The rest is your job."
"Tch. Men." the older woman scoffed, eliciting another laugh from Rex as she focused on the tasks at hand. The shackled people were now moved towards the portal, and as soon as the last ones dissapeared in it, a bloodbath started. The remaining people, be it old, young, male or female, were all slaughtered without so much as a blink. The raiders worked fast and efficiently, eliciting scream of pain and panic from the remaining villagers as their lives were snuffed out. That left only the two priesteses alive here from the side of the Echlisiarchy. The two had already wetted themselves from the savagery they had just vitnessed. but unfortunately for them, what lay ahead was so much worse.
"We rest for now and depart in a few hours. Have fun with the two as you like untill then." Rex spoke as he walked to sack the chapell, desperate screams, cries and pleas sounding behind him as the raiders did what they so chose.
Rex spent the few hours he had inside the chapell. He had gone over all the books he could find here, but sadly, nothing he found had anything of interest hidden within the pages. Even the gold and silver was in low amounts here, once again showing just how small and remote the village was. But Rex had expected it. All he cared for was the purge of such small settlements. The true spoils would come from cities, more specifically the twenty capitals of the regions and the seat of their holy rulers. And of course the greatest of them all would come from the oracle training grounds.
Once the time he had dedicated to rest was over, he left the chapell, and to no suprise all of the raiders were already there. Rex reasoned that Jorg must have drilled his men beforehand to ensure no delays would occur on their acount. While Rex might not be too upset for due to it, he had acted just dangerously enough for the chief to not gamble on the fact. He had to admit the two priesteses did look rather worn out, as they laid unconscious near the portal.
"Make sure to keep them alive." Rex said to one of the closest raiders. "This is nowhere near enough to pay for the atrocities they are performing even now, if a bit less due to the barriers existance."
"Yes sir!" responded the man Rex adressed and quickly rushed to ensure his orders were forwarded to someone who could arange for the execution of them.
With that out of the way, another fifteen minutes later the raiders returned to their town through the portal, the two priesteses in tow. The once inhabited village was now devoid of life, The building were ransacked, the corpses were now nicely burning in a large pyre, leaving the village empty and desolate. Rex was sure that in a weeks time there will be no traces left of humans ever living here, besides the architecture itself. maybee in time, the Svergi people would repopulate the place, if it happens to be discovered to have some valuable recourses around. They woudl after all take over these lands once the purge will be over. Rex had even had a talk with Jorg about the capital city they would build here and an optimal location for it. That was also the reason he started with this place, since Jorg said that their seat of power and heart of their lands should be relatively close to Blythe, for obvious reasons.
The Svergi chief was smart enough to know he needed powerfull allies and quite the detterant to ensure no vultures would swarm him and his people once they start to settle in. And what better way to do that than having the heart of their state near two insanely powerfull and influential people. Neo, the SS class warrior, and Rex, the S class blood mage. With the two of them so close and covering his ass to grow their nation, it was only a matter of time untill they would become a powerhouse within the continent, maybee even further out. It was just mind bogling just how large the world outside the dungeon was, and the fact that most of it was inhabited by weak and squishy people, humans being one of the largest populations, had the man grinning from ear to ear. His plunderer blood was boiling just imagining the raids they could perform, the lands to explore. He was positively drooling at the posibilities.
With the village, looted, cleaned up and empty, Rex retrieved his portal plate and and summoned his hawk from Elysion. He was not interested in wasting time to reach the next target on his list. It was precisely the city from which the inquisitors had come. One of the two major cities besides teh capital of Nor county. Rex would siege the city with quite a solid number of Svergi warriors. He would deploy more than a few thousand men here. A number he found adequate since the city population was around ten to fifteen thousand. While it seems like the disparity in numbers was quite large, he was more than aware of the power balance. Half of the people were women, barly any of those were geared and trained to fight. No matter the world, if you have a decent life no one would want their wifes and daughters to endanger themselves in mortal combat. And only the most rowdy and determined ones, or noble ones who were ostracized by their families would put in the effort and work needed to get anywhere. Not to mention that ones talant solf caps were also an issue. Unless one was of mixed blood could they even dream of surpassing their limits in somewhat possible way. Sure there were ways to do that as pure human too, but one had to have the right connections, unreasonable amounts of money and get lucky beyond belief to even hope for the chance to change it.
Half bloods or mixed bloods however had much greater chances to go beyond their own limits. Though their problem was the races inherent caps. Those were nigh impossible to surpass. So, unless your predecessor was mythical tier beast stepping in the ranks of S class entities was just a pipe dream, unless you were a one in thousands tallent. That was also the reason why Svergi were just that powerfull. Where humans average person was barely awakened, they had the average of high B class as the baseline. Every woman and child who had reached adulthood was B class entity, easily capable of shredding dozens if not hundreds of peopel without much effort. Sure, Svergi had few S class and above, fewer than humans in fact, if one was to look at the percentages across races, but that did not matter when the bulk of armies were not even comparable one with another. Rex reasoned that if he were to take out all the S class entities in the Echlisiarchy out of the picture he could probably take it down with no more than ten thousand Svergi warriors. Granted he still employs his barrier, taking one territory at a time, but still, that was more than impressive in of itself. Rex was employing an absolute unit of trained and bloodthirsty elites. With tactical and strategical superiority. And their enemies were to be hordes of peasants. As long as he could controll the engagements and the streams of the people, millions, hell billions could come, and they would still all fall. And controll he did, He had split them apart, divide in manageable bites, ready for consumption, and seeing the enthusiasm of the Svergi men, he was damn sure they were also having a blast, thus ensuring the biggest energy output from them. Rex had learned that once Svergi get going, they put their utmost into said task, always striving for perfection.