Red Room Robotics
Calibri reviewed the feed. He allocated several automata to choke points and created a tri-planetary killzone. Several hundred portals have been destroyed and the bodies that flew out of it have been harvested by resource drones.
[Command: Release Demiurge Mk 3]
He input the key codes required to activate the artificial intelligence from it’s slumber. Then he returned to the fabricators and lauched the command to create copies containing the Demiurge Mk 3.
Several High-orbit bombardments have been initiated and razed the whole ground below it. This will cause temporary pollution in the future, but it was an acceptable risk to destroy the growing demonic flesh base in planet number 959-K’s polar caps. Several ships appear next to the solar system’s dyson sphere shell by using the latest thaumaturgic spatial arrays.
The assistance arrived just in time.
[Demiurge class automata ready for deployment]
[Deploy]
Calibri recieved a message to capture some portals and put it in a stasis chamber. From this he surmises that their plans to seize resources from hell. And why wouldn’t they. It was an infinitely renewing resource with enough area to be used as storage units, mines, and a great testing area.
Today, hell has thrown the first stone and they will make sure they regret it. By the time they’re done with it, hell will be emptied, stripped, and repurposed.
All is within acceptable parameters.
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Bukor Hantas
Nikolai stored his house, his clothes, his family, his neighbor, his neighbor’s shop, actually everything he could store in the empty void given by his ability. Now he was running, hiding from waves of demons. He only wanted a normal life, why the hell did this have to happen?!
Right now he was sneaking in the alleys.
Gods help me please don’t let me die!
A loud bang destroyed the stone walls in front of him and he froze.
[Alpha Demon Hound 166] [Demon Hound 128] [Demon Hound 140]
“Eeep!” He made a sound and activated Hesitation and slowed the area around him. The hounds sniffed in his general direction. Spit and slobber flew as a loud huff splat him in the face. The slick saliva covered him as mouths far larger than his body was directly in his face. This was it, he was gonna die.
He shed a single tear. It was a good run.
Then the hounds just ignored him and went to the other direction. Huh?
“Erhud down there!”
FIRENADO!
A short, stocky man said, floating in the sky burning two of the demon hounds in a swift infernal tempest. The alpha demon hound dodged the attack, growling at the man.
“Haha, this system is the best! I just got another level.”
“Yeah but don’t forget the empire gave it to us for a price Gald, ‘kill those demon scum’ and all that”
A thin, tall elf said, surfing in a board made of ice. He spread a snow wherever he went, smothering the fire before it had the opportunity to catch on.
“Ughh don’t remind me”
Nikolai saw those mages and spread his arms, waving them haphazardly, and shouting in that annoying voice he has.
“Help! I’m over here! Help!”
The elf scanned the area, until he spotted him waving in the alley like an idiot.
“Hey look Gald a survivor” Erhud smiled, crossing out a note he made in a piece of paper. ‘Survivors saved (120/200)’ Before making a new one with his pencil. ‘Survivors saved (121/200)’
The dwarf flew next to the boy and shaped the earth around him.
EARTH BIND!
A mound of said substance wrapped around Nikolai and floated him up to the air.
“Okay, let’s get this guy to the evacuation site” The dwarven mage said.
“One down! Woohoo!” The elvish ice surfer said.
Nikolai had his hands and mouth bound by dirt. Sand and rocks got in his nose and in his underpants. Nikolai couldn’t help but shed a tear. Why me!
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Buriedborne Foundation
Hell, their bitter enemies have invaded. Orobas was busy making seals, gritting his teeth in anger. He still remembers the day they were cast out and left to fend for their kingdoms. They ran away here, to this safe place they all made. Their piece of paradise. And now Hell has the gal to invade it?!
He activated the seal and space thrummed and warped. He bent reality to follow the mechanisms of a machine. That particular machine however, was a meat grinder. Sounds of squelching and mutilated flesh filled the air as the very portals hell used to find purchase in their paradise became the very things that brought their demise.
“Aahhh, sweet sounds of carnage”
Though they originally came from hell, they are no longer demons. No, they were called devils now. They refuse any relation with hell. He stepped over the bodies with his little horse hooves, relishing the fraction of the fury he made manifest today. The ground was getting pretty messy though, so he should have probably chosen an incinerator instead of a meat grinder.
No matter, he’ll deal with that problem afterwards.
He is joined by devils, just like him. Not totally from hell, well not their version of hell. Devils are more of a group of stragglers made from beings abandoned beings who’ve touched the conceptual core of reality. They come from Demons, Daemons, Concept beasts, Personifications of concepts, spirits, entire dreamscapes given a personally, basically anything the world does not have a place for.
So they made the Buriedborne foundation, an association that aims to ‘bury’ the past and ‘born’ anew. Okay, maybe it’s a bit cringeworthy, so the young people made another name for it, Devil town, a place where everything unloved can find acceptance in. Despite being infinite in size, like a set of realities sandwiched like a wafer, it was still a pretty small place, like a transfinite recursive version of a town.
What was that word that the youth were calling this place again, oh yeah! The town was like a ‘Backroom’ of sorts. Infinite layers hidden behind everything else, where all the people undesired by reality make their home in.
They actually made something for themselves here. And they’ll be damned if they’ll let anyone take it away from them.
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Black Box Merchants Guild
“So we are in agreement.” The heads of the guild finished the deal in a round table with their..special guest.
yes
The first voice said, low and slow, filled with power and promises of sorrow.
“We agree. We are confident you’ll keep your part of the bargain. Well lets not waste more time than we already have. Eldest, let us be off then.”
The second voice said, loud and proud, confident that things will come to pass on it’s terms. These were beings far smarter and far more volatile than the guild can handle. With but a moment, the two voices disappeared from their perception, leaving the room empty and silent.
They were promised so much fortune, more than they have ever accrued in their lifetimes. All for the task of finding and protecting two individuals. Honestly, this was probably worth the potential scandal they could get in if this news ever gets out to the other empires. They all looked at each other, coming to a silent agreement to keep this secret to their graves and probably even past that.
Every member was immortal, just a difference in genre and flavor. They were deathless and patient, as such they were willing to invest on their two new projects no matter the cause.
Outside their base, millions upon millions of demon armies were harpooned and captured. It would be in bad taste to waste such a premium resource like demon flesh right now, after all they could make it into rations, clothing, or some luxury items. They’ll capture the inhabitants of hell for free labor too, why not?
And so the guild made plans. Plans, upon plans, upon plans, all in good time.
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Green Leaf Court
“Do not falter men, all our sacrifices are for the greater good! Think of your kin, your family, think of them and we will live forever. Hold your shields close to you and raise your spears, for your stories will be written in the annals of history!”
The preacher was going on and on for hours now, raising the morale through the roof. This was not the result of just her speeches however. No, it was the propaganda, mass suggestion spells, and the cocktail of psychoactives they pumped in their rations and water. They even put soul-binding contracts on them when they were newborns, subconsciously making them malleable to whatever whims the upper class desire.
Many of them would die today, but many more would take their place. The upperclass have made a plan to harvest demons to splice with the genetic material of their species, faeblood, creating a hybrid race of loyal, durable workers with barely any freewill.
Based on the samples they acquired, they could warp the physiology of the clones and create different subspecies specialized in several different tasks. Some could be pleasure drones, food sources, entertainment, heavy labor, or data storage devices. The possibilities were endless.
Portals have appeared all around the colony worlds. It would be a shame not to sample the delicacies.
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Sha Hanshas sultanate - Sha Morar
“Prince Malik, please stay in the castle where it’s safe!” The advisor said.
“I cannot just stand by when my people are dying! A sultan must serve his people, not step over them just be cause it’s a little safer. If my presence could lessen the casualties by even just one, I would gladly do so, you know that. Honor guards! Follow me!” Malik put on his helmet and marched out of the palace.
He went to the battlefield brandishing the sword he got from his father after being made a hero.
Today would be a bloody day.
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Sha Hanshas sultanate - Slumworld
Kibria was leading a small army of stragglers and orphaned children. They were systematically targeting waves of demons. She convinced several gangs to follow her lead and serve her in her war against the demon kind.
A stationed merchant guild ship just so happened to carry siege weapons and a crew, so she commandeered it and made herself captain.
“SUBMIT YOURSELF TO ME!”
She commanded the wave of demons to do her bidding. She had a small army manning magical harpoons and rail cannons, skewering and piercing holes over demon leviathans. A hundred of them probably couldn’t kill a single one of those flying beasts, they slum’s inhabitants were barely learned in magic and even less have systems. But a thousand of them? And all equipped with violent weapons stolen from demons? Well, let’s just say that she was racking up the levels for her class.
“Long live our Empress!”
“All hail Empress Kibria!”
She rolled her eyes and smirked. Her small army has been calling her that for quite a while now. Honestly she likes it. She aims to lift the people to her level, not abandoning a single one. Under her rule all must prosper. She feels a little bit of joy at the hope her people’s eyes have been filled with. She has something to live for again. She holds her blue dagger a little closer.
Today will be the start of her own little empire, and she will be it’s ruler. She will see to it that her people will live better lives than the one they were dealt with. She swears it on her new name, Empress Kibria.