"My lord?"

"Yeah?"

"None of them were a Hrekdroog."

"What?!"

"Look."

They were expecting at least one of them to have changed into a decapitated freakish-looking monster with black scaly skin, a body as thin as a person with anorexia, and a head without eyes and ears but with a mouth that of a snake. But the four bodies remained human, despite how long they waited in hopes one transformed. The two waited another two minutes, but there was still no change in the bodies.

"God dammit!!" Reth paced around with a hand under his chin." Ok....Shit!! What are we going to tell their families?"

"They died during the explosion. We can even show them the crater here as evidence if they don't believe us, but I doubt the sound it emitted will go unnoticed."

Vargha stares at them, emotionless, as they negotiate the good lie.

Damn, cowards. They commit manslaughter and now trying to save their ass'. Some king you are, Reth.

But he can give two shits about all this. All he cares about is getting more soul soldiers and growing even stronger. By the looks of it, he already has two. If this were the Bastard way of making up to him because he knew he’d put Our protagonist into the body of a futanari without his consent, the protagonist would undoubtedly be grateful. Though he’s not a massive fan of the futanari kink, he’s just happy to be able to be a necromancer, just like his favorite necromancer.

Soul Soldiers

2

So, he can already say the iconic word if he wants to. The inner fanboy in him is screaming with excitement. And given that the soldiers have no cap number, it can only mean one thing. He can recruit as many souls as he wants. These Nenniaidae are just overpowered. In addition, the sensation of power is almost absolute in this new body. He feels so powerful that he believes if hit with a planet-destroying attack, Vargha will come out of it unscathed. This is a perfect example of not judging a book by its cover. Vargha’s body radiates feminine energy. It will be hard for most to believe that such a gracious, elegant, and soft physique would have the amount of destructive physical strength at her disposal.

"Elas, how do you explain the dark mana, though? Who put it in the Reincarnation Spell?"

"I don't know, my lord. Uh, maybe it wasn't with us. Maybe the Hrekdroog stayed in the shadows to not be detected, infused its evil magic into the spell, and once it was a success, tried to escape but was killed by the explosion."

"Could be a possibility. Though I highly doubt it died from that explosion. Despite how they look, those damn things are tough as nails…” Lord Reth then groans while pinching the bridge of his nose.” Ugh! What a damn shitshow. We were supposed to reincarnate some heroes, but now we have four of the best mages dead.”

“Don’t worry, my lord. We can win this war against the demons without them. Though it's a shame if we ever want to try the Reincarnation Spell again, we’ll need to find mages strong enough to do it.”

“It took us five years to even find them,” Reth grunted through gritted teeth. “Let's just get back to Dugria. Vargha can-" Reth turned and expected her to be still where she was, but the Nenniaidae had already stepped onto their pillar and joined them. "Oh, never mind. Let's go, Elas."

"Yes, my lord."

Elas is tall as hell. Vargha thought, staring up at him. Didn't the message say I'm six feet? But he's a whole foot taller than me. His armor looks pretty cool, and he must be quite strong to wield a sword like that. He could make a good soul soldier. No. He'll be a great soldier after the 1000% buff.... Wait stop! Why am I thinking about killing him? He's an Adventurer. I shouldn't be thinking of killing Adventurers. Wouldn't that make me a villain? The demons they will show me will most likely be stronger.

Damn. He was thinking of committing premeditated murder. But it would be nice of him to be part of her army. Maybe he'll kill Elas after the demons become her soul soldiers. He’s already treating her like royalty. What’s the harm in shooting a Death Beam between his eyebrows and making him even more powerful than he probably already is? Yes. He’ll thank her. He will definitely thank his mistress. Just. One. Shot, and….

No! He can't make an enemy out of a nation the day he gets reincarnated.

Vargha sighs quietly. She looks away from the man because the more she stares, the more the urge to kill him grows.

Quit it with the murderous intent. I need to get to Dugria. Fast.

"Will it take long to get there?"

"No, ma'am. I'm going to teleport us to where the battle is taking place. It will quite literally be just an instant."

"Ok, good."

"Stay close to me, my lord, and miss Vargha." Elas summoned another shield around them, but it quickly obscured them with white light before condensing like a dying star until it completely vanished. The forest is now quiet and vacant of the three persons there.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

***

The Dugria village used to be a thriving one. Given where the nation is, it was far enough not to experience much demonic invasion. But now that the demon's territory has been stretching further and further, it's their turn to defend against the demon's attempt to colonize. Due to them having generally peaceful lives, they have the weakest Adventurers since they have little to no real battle experience. Sparring is essential when fighting against humans. But Assoriah's main threat isn't humans; it's the demons. For once, humanity is too busy fighting another species that has taken its spot at the top of the food chain to fight amongst themselves. Sadly, due to Dugria not having much experience with fighting powerful monsters, the weakest demons, the Tror'oras, who are Threat Level Silver, are a real problem for them. And currently, 50,000 Tror'oras are invading.

The Tror'oras are giant creatures towering at the same height as Hrekdroogs, at seven feet and eleven inches. Like a Hrekdroog, they are freakish, looking at what would easily be the perfect monsters in a horror film. Their bodies are skinny with no details to their face, like flesh put over a skeleton. They have pale white, peeling, dry skin with deep rashes covering their entire body. It's as if they are suffering from a severe case of Atopic dermatitis. They don’t have lips, so you’d be able to see their mouth full of all canine teeth. From the mouth down to the stomach, their muscles are exposed as if someone wasn’t finished skinning them alive. These atrocious creatures have horns similar to an addax but much thicker and sharper, with four long fingers that possess black nails just as sharp and as long as the blade of kitchen knives and as talons as feet.

Most of their Rank D to B Adventurers have already been slaughtered and eaten. Leaving only the knights who are trying their best to fend off the demonic force, but they are getting their ass handed to them.

"There seems to be no end to these fuckers!!!" a knight charges at the nearest demon; the beast tries to impale the warrior in the chest with its long pointy nails, but he side-stepped and then swung down his sword onto the monster's wrist.

He's wearing body armor made of steel with a helmet that, unlike Elas’, doesn’t have horns, and the knight’s face is exposed. Currently caked in dirt and blood, some of it is his and isn’t.

Thwack!!

"Augh!!" The demon cries out in pain as its hand lays on the ground.

"HAHA! Take that, you wretched beast!"

"Dray, look out!! Behi-!"

The overconfident knight turns to where the warning came from and sees another knight wearing the same type of armor as him running 50 yards away towards him. Thankfully, Dray was quick enough to see the giant beast coming at him with another crushing strike and block the massive blow with his sword, but the force sent him back. It was also strong enough to knock the wind out of him. It felt like getting hit by a cannon.

"Gaughk!!"

And it wasn't what his comrade was warning him about. There was another Tror'oras 20 yards behind him, and now the knight was flying right to him. Dray was too dazed to do anything as the demon he was closing in on had opened its mouth, revealing a forked tongue. It was opened so wide that its pointy chin had reached down to its kneecaps.

"NOOOOO!!" Dray's comrade desperately threw his sword at the monster, but he was now unarmed. The demon who had punched Dray back with crazy speed had turned his attention onto him, and before that knight could do anything, the demon stomped onto his head, crushing through the armor, flattening his body like a pancake with a wrenching splash sound.

That was the last thing Dray saw before being chomped down with his entire top half in the monster's mouth while his bottom half had dropped to the ground, his entrails exposed, and the loud sound of the beast chomping down on his body filled the chaotic air along with the screams, cries, and swords tearing through flesh. The thrown sword was caught and eaten by the monster before it continued its rampage in the village—killing and eating men, women, and children.

"My God! Where the hell are Nol and Levy?!" another knight weaves a strike from the demon before stabbing it in the thigh. The Tror'oras drops to a knee.

“AHHHHHHHHH!!!.” The rage of all the people these demons have killed is shown through the knight’s primal scream as he leaps in the air, digging his entire blade under the beast's chin. But the demon still had enough strength to deliver a mighty blow to his ribs, knocking him to the ground and leaving his sword in the beast's head. "Arugh!! We-we need Adventurers! There's too many of them."

His ribs are broken. His armor is now as helpful as wearing casual clothing since that's all covering him now. The blow destroyed the top half of his armor, exposing the white T-shirt underneath. Also, his helmet was knocked off his head when he hit the ground with a nasty thud.

They are currently outnumbered. Whenever a knight miraculously manages to kill one, there are already multiple they must worry about. And it doesn't help that the battle occurred in the middle of the village. Dead bodies fill the streets, most of them being those of civilians and the weaker Adventurers; homes on each side are destroyed and flattened. Given that the avenue has buildings on each side, the street is basically like a lane. While it's not too narrow to the point the civilians wouldn’t be able to maneuver around freely; the demons have the advantage of using their large size and numbers to smother the fighters.

The Tror'oras yanked the sword from its head; black blood now dyed the blade. "Die, human." Its voice was unnaturally rough and gravelly, like rubbing two stones together. Fitting for the type of creature he is. It stood over the wounded warrior, staring down with its solid red eyes, and showed him its palm. Immediately, what looked like black flames began conjuring from its palm. The fireball starts to get bigger and bigger, quickly reaching a size bigger than a volleyball.

I guess this is it. The knight stares as the flames get larger. He knows he won't survive this. These flames are not like the fire he knows. Trying to extinguish it with water is pointless. It turns the human body to dust in seconds. Sorry, Dahlia, Troy, and my precious wife, Frey. I won't be coming back home.

However, before the knight could say hello to God in the Afterlife, a white light appeared far down the street. It was bright and humming with energy; it got all the demon's attention. That ball of light grew from being no bigger than a human's hand to the size of a seven-foot-tall giant. When it finally dimmed to nothing, Elas, Reth, and Vargha stood in its place.

The first things that reached into their nostrils were burned flesh and decaying bodies. Only Vargha didn't retch and cringe from the atrocious aroma.

"UGHK!!” Reth pinched his nose to try to block out the smell. “There's more of them, Elas! They are filling the streets."

But before Elas could join in the fight, Vargha stepped up.

"I'll take care of it." She shows no emotion, but our protagonist inside is completely fanboying for what he's about to do.

Tror'oras Defeated

0/50,000

AHHHHHH!!!! Here it is!!! The time has come! Okay, okay. Moment of truth. I can finally say the iconic word. Don't screw it up. I got to sound cool and haunting. I got this! NO! Don't think too hard about it, or I'll fuck it up. Just say it normally. Don't fuck it up! Do not fuck it up!

"I will take care of all of them." She grows a mischievous smirk across her perfect face, but her eyes remain emotionless. "And they will join my army... Arise."