Status of the War Against the Devil Kings:
Commencing with the attack on FavorWood Manor and New Boston, the Devil Kings attempted to blitz the human world by storm. While they were unsuccessful in the latter, with both the second and third ranked Devil Kings perishing in an epic battle, FavorWood Manor was essentially destroyed.
Lucius Wood is presumed dead, not having been spotted since George Moulin, the First Devil King, made a personal assault. His name has vanished from the leaderboard. Certain Skills and items can achieve this effect, but based on the preponderance of the evidence, we believe him to be dead. While his two sons and the major pillars of the organization, Bartholomew and Alfred are both alive, 98% of the other high-level officials are dead and large parts of their territory has been mostly incorporated into the Devil King’s empire. Most of their funds have vanished—embezzlement by high-level officials suspected but not confirmed.
Following their initial assault, the Devil Kings’ intermittent attacks have resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties. However, humanity as a whole has lost more manpower to defection than death or injury. With George’s announcement proclaiming safe harbor to any that willingly join and utter annihilation to those that refuse, hundreds of thousands in the last month and a half have joined the Devil Kings.
At the present moment, 25.1% of the global subregions are under their control. A far cry short of the 50% required to immediately end the Quests with the supremacy of George and the Devil Kings, but an immense growth in a short period.
The most concerning aspect is that it appears they are not close to using all of their resources for these assaults. Both Oracle, the Second Devil King, and George’s whereabouts and activities remain unknown. Based on the amount of missing beasts, monsters, and humans and numerous reports of demon blood experimentation, we also believe them to be hiding mass numbers of Devil Princes, ready to attack at a moment’s notice.
Enemy combatants of note:
George Moulin: The leader of the Devil Kings. In possession of a number of powerful magic items, full list unknown. Has ice-related powers and can conjure arrows of ice the size of chimneys that have the destructive power to destroy city blocks. Through the intel acquired by Evangeline and Alistair Tan, it is believed that George has direct control of all Devil Kings and, by proxy, their created Devil Princes. While it is likely that a certain amount of the Devil Kings are murderous through their own will, there is little doubt that many would surrender without their leader. In addition, with Experiment Cursed Needle #7, we can free those from his control without confronting him directly. Unfortunately, the needle remains with Alistair, whose last known location was deep in the Wasteland. All attempts at locating him have been unsuccessful. Search parties sent into the Wasteland came out with dozens of casualties to the serpentine beasts and Mana Storms. George participated in the Devil King’s incursion and destruction of FavorWood Manor, but has since vanished into thin air, though the Devil King attacks do not cease.
Has been seen using “Arcanous Devil Spell #2: Frozen Spear of the False Heavens.” We know this specifically because, upon activating the spell, he states this name. A spear three times as large as normal flies down from true north. Upon hitting the ground, it splinters into three spears, which splinter into three more spears, and so on.
Oracle: Second-in-command of the Devil Kings. Possesses Karmic powers unrivaled in the world and the ability to puppeteer corpses. While it was initially believed that her powers were to puppeteer living beings, with more information, it seems to be the case she utilizes corpses instead, similar to Oliver Cambry’s zombies. Highly dangerous and believed to be significantly stronger than Dragonus, her current whereabouts are unknown. She defeated Carmen Romero and Richard Atwood in a surprise attack while they were helping out a border town from the elemental beasts stemming from an enormous blizzard.
Chameleon: The Fifth Devil King, making them the third strongest of the remaining group. Possesses the ability to disguise themself as another living creature. This affects [Inspect]-type’s Skills perception of them, and other senses. The level of perfection is unknown, and it is unclear if someone with highly advanced senses could detect them. Chameleon’s true name and gender are unknown as a shapeshifter. Their main threat comes from a recently uncovered ability that allows Chameleon to replicate all of a target’s abilities. It is unknown how this truly dangerous ability works in detail. Chameleon infiltrated the headquarters of the United Polities and almost killed both Marzhan, #8 ranker, and Sally Ryder, the President. While his assassination plot was foiled, the injuries Marzhan sustained aren’t healing properly. It is unknown what method he used to injure her, other than in her words, “it felt like a dagger of ice to the heart.” The mention of ice leads to suspicion that Chameleon was given a weapon by George, though the possibility still remains that it is his own Skill, in which case, he becomes an even greater threat.
Jakk: The Ninth Devil King and replacement for Saturn, who was killed by Jakk for reasons unsure, though most likely Saturn’s creation of the Experiment Cursed Needle #7 played a large role. Perhaps Saturn intended on betraying the Devil Kings outright or perhaps it was insurance—either way, it is most likely that George did not care and sent Jakk to murder Saturn. His skillset is the most known of the remaining Devil Kings as he was recorded under heavy scrutiny in the Capture the Beacon trial of [Game of Life].
Heavyset: The Thirteenth Devil King. While the least offensively powerful of the group, her area of effect buffs and debuffs are highly troublesome, which is why this report recommends attempting to take her out first. The full extent of her abilities is unknown, but there are confirmed reports of gravity-related abilities. She appears to be able to lighten people in a way that simultaneously makes them hit harder while also being faster and lighter while, and create fields of intense gravity for enemies.
Other numbered Devil Kings have too little data for an in-depth report. The Sixth and Seventh Devil Kings are believed to be identical twin brothers, possibly with shadow-related powers. The Tenth Devil King, Morgana, is believed to be responsible for the Massacre of Beijing, the single highest death incident in the world since after Atavius Meloi’s initial attack. Due to the absence of high-ranking individuals in the area at the time, she was successful in killing over one million people. As her name suggests, she uses magic, but her exact capabilities are unknown.
It is true that the Devil Kings all came from the top 100 of the leaderboard, however, many of their abilities from their times at humans are unknown due to their taking happening close to the beginning of the initiation, when the historical records are more unclear and speculative. It is even believed that some of their number, upon changing into their current forms, went back and eliminated any ties to the human world in order to protect their identities. Due to memory savants, their government names are known, but at this point, it is fair to state their Devil King name is their true name.
In addition to the numbered Devil Kings, hundreds if not thousands of Devil Princes are at their disposal, on top of two other major threats. The Beast Lords Vritra and the Pride Lord have joined the Devil Kings, and have been given demon blood, making them at least twice as strong as they were before.
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Alexandra read the report in its entirety. Celeste Mendoza, who was in charge of their freehold’s communications, gave her the jade slip containing the information. Alexandra couldn’t lie that she was a bit grossed out by the many holes that opened up in the woman’s body, from one of which she pulled out the slip.
The information extended far beyond the information about the combatants, providing highly detailed maps of the Devil Kings’ territory. Repeated sighting spots of various Devil Kings, points of conflict, and suspected hideouts.
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All the while, she could barely focus on the text.
It was a moonless night, dark as nature intended. She was in the middle of the wilderness, far apart from civilization. Most of the suburbs had been abandoned and left to the beasts, which were mutating at even faster rates. Luckily, they weren’t growing to unstoppable levels of strength—her and most of the top rankers could still best the strongest beasts, but they had become much more fantastical. No longer only slightly different and larger animals, there were sightings of eight-legged humanoid spider creatures. Hell, she had even killed a chimera.
Her fingers curled around the jade slip that was feeding her the report’s contents. Its glossy surface reflected a green light.
Fuck this. The green luminescence of her burning eyes was like a sore thumb that never went away. She would be forever marked as a monster, an aberration that should never have existed.
There were options, of course—glamors to hide the eyes. Fate-warded clothing that disguised her demonic presence. But none of that changed who she was deep down.
And she couldn’t even give the standard excuse people gave in novels and such. “What you look like doesn’t matter, it’s what’s deep down that counts!” Alexandra wouldn’t have cared at all if all she got was a cosmetic change, as long as it didn’t ruin her appearance that much. Even if it did do that, it wasn’t the end of the world. But that excuse didn’t exist when it was a veritable fact that demon blood altered one’s Fate down a path of evil.
From being in her father’s presence, she could tell her effects weren’t as strong as a true Devil King. Dev’rox ghostly nature probably had something to do with that. But she could feel slight changes. Growing quicker to wrath. Occasional dark thoughts becoming more frequent.
So she availed herself of thinking about the future. There was only the here and now. And there was only one mission. Kill every Devil King on Earth.
Maybe then, she could find her peace. If it had to be an eternal one, so be it.
She internalized the report once more. 25.1% of the world. Letting them get to 50% was game over.
But that’s what she didn’t understand.
How on in the name of FX-14752 did they not already have 50%?
To be honest, things were barely functioning without Alistair. He had set up a solid chain-of-command, but even she didn’t realize how much everything relied on his immense power and stellar reputation. She suspected he even caused a Dao-related inspiration effect, where the average person of the Northeast Order Freehold gained an appreciable combat bonus because of their trust in him.
The exact opposite was the case for the Devil Kings. George could control his troops with unmatched precision. The world of humans was messy and uncoordinated. Even the groups with leaders couldn’t operate as smoothly.
They did attack FavorWood Manor and the United Polities, but those were the only two major attacks on prominent freeholds in the entire month and a half period since Alistair disappeared. And of those, FavorWood Manor was the only one in which it seemed like they were trying at full force, and that was even before Alistair went missing, technically speaking. The United Polities incident was more like a terrorist attack, with only one individual at fault.
George should have been able to muster his army and steamroll the world of humans with his overwhelming power. Alexandra could only think of two reasons why he hadn’t already.
Reason 1: George was afraid of not only the damages he would take from the war, but the Experiment Cursed Needle #7. He wouldn’t have a way of knowing it was on Alistair. While outward communication severely implied that Alistair was missing with no knowledge about what exactly happened, George had no reason to take that at face value. It could be that he was afraid that Alistair would free multiple Devil Kings from his control. It could also be the case that George was afraid of future conflicts with other planets and wanted to preserve as many of his soldiers as possible, which indicated he thought he was getting stronger at a faster rate than the humans. Now that Alexandra thought about it, this reason was like five reasons in one.
Reason 2: He was being hampered from going all out. Alexandra wasn’t sure why this would be the case.
Reason 1 sounded more likely, but also incomplete. Though when she listed them out like that, it sounded realistic. In that case, it could never, ever be leaked that Alistair was the one to possess the needle.
Alexandra dismissed the jade slip, moving through the night like she was born to the shadows.
It mattered not why George wasn’t acting personally, or why those thirteen, no, ten demons in human skin didn’t attack at once. Though deep down, she wondered if she could pass judgment so harshly. Through the Pathfinder AI messing with people’s minds and George’s control, she could easily have been one of them.
In either case, they still had to be killed. Or turned, she reminded herself, thinking of the needle. She wondered how Alistair would do things. How could you even determine if one followed George out of their own free will or through Fate control? What would he do if it turned out their murders from before becoming Devil Kings were their solely their own doing?
The area she hunted in was the most quiet environment she had ever heard. There was not a sound in the air but her own footsteps and breathing, not one sound. The beasts in this area had cleaned out all living things except some remaining trees. The rest was dead, rotting tree flesh.
The culprits were a familiar breed—the serpents of Vritra. Her mark.
In her quest to find Alistair, she had come to one conclusion: the only one who could give her any kind of answers was the Reptile Emperor. He came from the Wasteland, and was the only being known to have ventured deep into the recesses where Alistair was last heard of.
The problem was finding him. Her idea was simple. She had run it by Caren and William, of course, the brains of their operation. They were both working overtime with Alistair gone, so she hadn’t bothered them too much.
William told her there were too many open-ended variables for [Hypercalculative Induction] to work. Caren said it was an extremely risky idea. Alexandra didn’t care. But she wasn’t stupid. That was why she took the number one get out of jail free card—Jesse Waterfall.
In the [The Game of Life] Quest, he had become a valuable ally. He was the #7 ranker after all, and had the ability to teleport himself and others. His [Scarlet Flash] had a range of three kilometers, while [Scarlet Shift] was even higher, at six kilometers. While this normally only applied to targets within his vision, he could create five saved locations of places he visited with [Scarlet Flash] and one with [Scarlet Shift] and teleport to them, if he was within range.
Alexandra had the feeling he was still hiding his true power, but she didn’t say anything. She trusted him to make the right decision when the going got rough.
She had Jesse continuously create anchor locations along their path. They slowly wormed their way through the outlying forested area of the Wasteland, including Logista, where Alistair was last spotted.
At last, they arrived at the gap between the world of the living and the Wasteland.
Like how it had been described to her, it was desolate. There was a marked line between the forest, however quiet it was, and the Wasteland.
There was no color in the desert. Like an old black-and-white movie, it was like your brain could tell you what the colors should have been. They just weren’t there. They were drained right out of the rocks like they were water in a sewer.
Cacti and tumbleweeds dotted the landscape, looking sad and dark without their colors. Pools of mysterious black liquid seeped into the cracks of the sandless desert, winds wafting nauseous scents into her nostrils.
There were dead things everywhere. Deader than dead. She peered closer at the sight. They were the corpses of all sorts of reptiles. Mostly snakes, but also lizards, geckos, and some other species Alexandra didn’t recognize. All larger than normal, and some with strange mutations, like extra heads or gigantic spikes.
She knew what those were. The dead spawn of Vritra. They must have run out of food in the Wasteland and died of starvation. The ones that successfully escaped their vast expanse were killed shortly by the surrounding people. Luckily, they almost always came one at a time or in small groups, so they were never that big a challenge.
The dead are the weak ones, Alexandra thought. They must be reproducing at a rate that the prey population of the Wasteland can’t handle, so the weak ones are left out to dry. But what are they even eating?
She remembered what the intel on the Wasteland mentioned. Mana Storms, and mysterious elemental beasts called “Devonic Purebreeds.” From what she understood, there weren’t that many Mana Storms at a time, no more than a dozen in the Wasteland, and the Devonic Purebreeds weren’t the size of apartment buildings or anything. The reptiles must have been eating their pure Mana to survive.
Jesse spoke as if answering her thoughts. “There must be a shit ton of those snakes if they’re taking out the inside of Mana Storms. It’s hard for me to imagine how they could take out a bloody storm, ey?”
“I’d have to agree,” Alexandra said. “We’d better be careful.”
“And you want to go around killing a bunch of them?”
“Vritra styles himself the ‘Reptile Emperor,’” Alexandra said. “If he can’t defend his subjects, he doesn’t deserve that lofty title, does he now?”
“I like the way you think,” Jesse grinned.