Zayn needed the Blood Seal to enter the sealed chambers of the only Demon King mankind had managed to chain and restrain. Rumors said that the chains drained the Demon King’s power and that the drained power was why the volcano awakened sentience. Nobody could prove that point yet, but it didn’t matter much to Zayn.
The most important thing to him was to meet the Demon King because he had encountered him in the last cycle as well. The Demon King sealed underneath Spyro was also the only Demon King who’d descended upon Earth when the World Bridges opened. Instead of being chained underneath Spyro, the Demon King had been enslaved by the Gods of the Underworld.
That was part of the reason Zayn wanted him as well. He was in dire need of the information hoarded in the sealed chamber. Of course, Zayn also needed the Demon King for his power and knowledge. Even if the Demon King wasn’t on mankind’s side, as they’d chained him underneath Spyro for centuries, the Demon King hated the Primordial Pantheon even more.
Right now, Forgotten Lands was merely a game. As realistic as it might be, meeting the Demon King wouldn’t be dangerous. He might die, but so what? Dying in Forgotten Lands was much better than ending up dead in the real world.
The Blood Seal came his way. Thus, Zayn might as well make use of it as intended.
Princess Ophelia stared blankly at Zayn for a while. She had been too rash to bring such a dangerous item to Spyro. Something bad was about to happen, and it was her fault.
“Please protect Spyro…and the kingdom,” She said once she concluded.
Princess Ophelia approached Zayn and handed him the Blood Seal. Her hands trembled, but her eyes were filled with determination. She knew a mistake had been made and wanted to fix it.
The bodyguard didn’t approve of the princess’ actions, but he didn’t do anything to stop her. Instead, the bodyguard stared at the Guard Captain’s insignia attached to Zayn’s shirt.
“Since the Gods accepted your vow, I won’t act…this time. But remember that I will have to report this to the palace and come after you if I find out that you have been lying about the wave of demons!”
The bodyguard growled and muttered a curse. Princess Ophelia couldn’t understand him, but Zayn, with his high Perception, could.
“I hate this job.”
He smiled at the man understandingly.
“The demon wave will happen. I guess it will happen in one day. Maybe 48 hours if they’re gathering first, but I doubt that. Then again, we might be unlucky, and a Greater Demon might be nearby. You and The Guard Captain would have to handle the Greater Demon and stall him while my people and the rest of the City Guards kill the masses of Lesser Demons and Demons. But that’s for the future. We will have to warn the Guard Captain and his Guards first.”
Zayn glanced at Levi Zenot, who understood right away.
“I will warn the City Guards.”
Levi was about to rush off when the bodyguard lifted his hands.
“How many demons are we expecting?” He asked Zayn, even though he knew the young man shouldn’t have an exact answer.
To his misfortune, Zayn had an exact answer.
‘If everything stays the same, there will be nearly 80,000.’ He nearly said, but that would have exposed his knowledge of the future…or was it the past? One way or another, Zayn didn’t know how much changed through the butterfly effect. The numbers were almost certainly not the same, so he could only make a rough guess.
“There will be more than ten thousand, but it’s more likely that there will be tens of thousands. If we’re unlucky, the numbers will cross one hundred thousand. Of course, I am only guessing. Most of them will be Lesser Demons either way. They shouldn’t be stronger than Tier-1 Warriors with average combat prowess, but we never know.”
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“Fuck.” The bodyguard muttered under his breath. He turned to Levi Zenot and gestured for him to get moving, “I will come with you. We need to prepare to fight a horde of Demons.”
The bodyguard turned to the Princess, “Inform your father and tell him everything.”
Princess Ophelia pressed her lips together and nodded. She didn’t look like her former dignified self, but that didn’t matter much to Zayn.
“I got what I wanted,” He said instead of consoling the Princess. His attention was on the Blood Seal, “I’m glad your bodyguard didn’t attack me. It would have been a hassle too–. Well, whatever. It’s good that he listened to my warning. This will be messy.”
Zayn looked up, only to stare straight into the Princess’ watery eyes, “And I hope you’re going to hide because this is going to be a lot more bloody and dangerous than your usual adventures in the business world.”
“People will die. All you can do to help is to use what you’re best at.”
Zayn turned to the door, ready to leave and prepare everything for the upcoming battle, but the Princess raised her trembling hand.
“But I don’t have any real power. I’m only the 7th Princess. The only thing I have is–...”
“Money. Mountains of gold,” Zayn said, his eyes locking with the Princess’, “And there are thousands of Immortals in the city, ready to get killed once or twice as long as you offer some of it.”
He felt that he said enough. If it required more to convince the Princess that she had to move, she wouldn’t have been this successful in the merchants' world. Zayn walked past the Princess and left her alone in the office.
He returned to the Guild, where he opened the Old Alchemy Tower’s vault. Thousands of energy recovery and replenishment potions had been stored alongside a bunch of other potions.
Zayn stared at his attendants and pointed at the potions. “Distribute them and tell everyone to grind their Card Levels as much as possible. If possible, they should level up all Cards, but it’s better to focus on those close to level up first. Once they’re done grinding, they should rest and be prepared for a fierce battle.”
“The fight might last longer than a day, but hopefully not. Make sure to remind everyone to be ready. We’re expecting a horde of demons to hit Spyro tomorrow or the day after at the latest.”
The attendants swallowed but didn’t hesitate to get moving. As his attendants moved, Zayn didn’t stay idle. He told everyone to get moving and went to the church to prepare some holy water and other resources that could be helpful against a wave of Demons.
**
Less than 30 hours later, Zayn was ready to fight. The same could be said about the other members of the Golden Age Guild, thousands of Players, the City Guards, and other volunteers. They were ready and had spread alongside the massive walls or before them, waiting impatiently for the Demon horde to arrive.
Zayn was unsure how the Guard Captain and the City Lord managed to do it, but Pablo convinced the sentient volcano to open several pathways to the outside world. All paths lead to one side of the city, where most City Guards and Players had been deployed. The sentient volcano was their first line of defense, yet they requested the volcano to open the paths temporarily. If not for that, the sentient volcano wouldn’t have survived the Demon horde’s attack, or they would have to defend Spyro in the open outside the volcano. Neither option was pleasant.
Thus, they used the first line of defense to lead everyone to the second—and final—line of defense: the walls of Spyro.
The biggest advantage on the defenders' side was that the pathways weren’t that wide. A few Demons could emerge from the outside at a time, but the entire horde couldn't come at them together. That played very well into their Cards.
Zayn was also glad that Princess Ophelia came back to her senses. Contrary to the Demon horde in the last cycle, the Princess created an official mission, which was announced to all Players of Spyro.
The content of the mission was simple. A horde of Demon was on the way to the city, and everyone would be rewarded with gold for every Lesser Demon and Demon they killed. The reward was also enticing enough for Zayn and his people to accept. Since they were given a chance to drain the Princess’ wallet, they chose to take it. It would be stupid to ignore this golden opportunity.
But that was not all, Zayn and his brothers made a video, warning everyone about the Demon horde and sharing the news of the Princess’ generous mission reward. The video didn’t get as many clicks as his other videos, but Zayn’s channel was still the most popular in the Forgotten Land scene. More than a thousand Tier-1 Players rushed to Spyro to accept the Princess’ mission and join the warfare against the Demon horde, and more were on their way.
But it was uncertain if they would arrive on time. The Demon horde, close to 100,000 Demons, were already going through the volcano’s pathways.
The siege was about to begin.