Season 3: Chapter 95: To Start of A Grand plan.
[A/N four arm croc girl will be renamed Dave, why? Because I keep forgetting her new name]
Season 3: Chapter 95: To Start of A Grand plan.
Covered in mud, sore, and half-starved, a mismatched group of humanoids stood on a ridge overlooking a massive city in the distance.
“Ugh…” Jesse groaned, crawling on the ground as he attempted to catch up with me and the others.
“Lord Hiro, Lady Berus’s inquisitors should find us soon, I recommend setting camp until they do,” Lhikan said, head bowed as he addressed me.
“By all means.”
The aging paladin unceremoniously took a seat upon the dirt floor as Simone dragged a moaning Jesse over.
Through Slimey's eyes, I surveyed the city that had changed greatly from the small village I once knew.
Or, thought I knew. The mountain range was familiar but the entire valley had changed.
Gone were the pink cherry blossoms, gone were the winding meadows, and gone were the rivers and lakes. Instead all that I could see were farms, dozens of them. The entire valley warped into a food production plant with a grey-walled structure in the center that served as a city center.
This was Gracemia? It was hard to believe.
I gave the order to Gobledo to take a break, the loyal goblin setting down Alexio and joining the humans breaking out berries and tree bark to eat, the only things they could forage on their journey.
“Uhm, Lady Slimey,” Simon began, approaching just in range of my audio senses. “How is Tipsy?”
“Human,” Slime turned, her eyes glaring at Simone that made the priestess take a step back. “You are in the presence of Lord Hiro, kne-”
Enough, Slimey.
The slime’s face twisted before she gave a bright smile that was just as unsettling to me as it was to the group of humans.
“The knife ear is recovering,” Slimey said, referring to the injured gnome resting on a glob of blue ooze akin to a beanbag chair. “It is stable.”
“T-thank you lady Slimey,” Simone dropped off some berries and bark and fles, leaving food for Tipsy that Slimey would break down to feed the unconscious gnome.
Yes, by tentacle…
Anyway, focusing on the city it was clear to me that this would be merely a start for my operations.
As my party and I trekked through the mountains, forest and endured the journey to reach this city, my army had already arrived.
Nestled into the Gracemia mines, my goblins, under the supervision of Simp and Dave, were hard at work carving out a new existence.
See, unlike meatbags that needed rest and complained about labor laws, skeletons and monsters don't generally complain.
They require less food, less entertainment, and have generally more stamina, allowing my soldiers to force march around the mountain and skirt any curious eyes by Berus or any stray human.
Of course this had been set in place months ago, my scouts long establishing routes to Gracemia for my army to cross whilst the humanoids remained oblivious.
The burning of wood, the soap operation, and mining system were all just a ploy to focus attention on the castle and not my army.
Why? You may be asking, well its simple.
I don’t trust the humans.
It's not like I held any doubt of Lhikan’s intentions, but Berus was different. She was a dutiful officer with ambition. And more importantly, she had authority and morals. Something that could prove… inconvenient if Operation Hydra was ever discovered.
Lhikan on the other hand was a broken old man, a tired soldier searching for purpose who was a bit resentful of Natalie’s death. He was still a dutiful man, and cared about his comrades, making him an excellent pawn.
Simone was a timid girl, curious but loyal to Lhikan whilst Jesse… well it was clear whom he was loyal to. The pair were also useful, but most likely unreliable for… darker deeds.
There was also Tipsy, a member of the party not by loyalty or familial bonds like Simone but contractual, a researcher more curious of unraveling secrets than any politics so far as I could ascertain. A potential liability, but one with connections and skills I could leverage.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
These humanoids sided with me because of my origins as the hero and promise of salvation from the demons that beset their borders.
A mutual relationship so to speak.
Of course Berus hoped to use me, but I was using her. And with Project Hydra already yielding dividends, conquering the world would be that much easier.
So long as nothing unexpected happened.
“So, Virgil,” Slimey said, adopting my visage to speak with the de-limbed robot carried by Hector that has been silent since our departure from the Normus mountains. “How does it feel to be outside?”
“I am uncertain,” Virgil chirped in a depressed tone, “Do you have any idea what it feels like to be able to see but unable to feel and smell? To witness ta world around yous while being unable to enjoy it? I thought I would have been happy, but I hang from yous skeleton, unable to feel the wind, unable to touch the earth. And the sky… my real eyes will never shed a tear for its majesty.”
“Yes… I am very aware.”
“Then you know why I am conflicted…” Virgil replied before raising his metal head to the sky above. “On one hand, seeing the sky again has reminded me of a world outside of my dim existence, yet, on the other hand, everything that I was, everything that I am is gone. My people are gone. And because of you, even my prison is gone. I have no purpose.”
“Virgil, nothing I say or do can convey how sorry I am for the annihilation of your home. But I can give you purpose. Do you remember the Dragon Forge?”
The bot went silent for a moment before letting a binaric chirp, “I'm listening.”
“Good, then listen closely,” Slimey replied, letting out a series of short and long taps with the Dragon Slayer, a hidden language not from this world but understood by those closest to me as figures wrapped in shadows were spotted by Slimey in the distance.
After being locked away for so long, it was time to make my debut back onto the grand stage.
****
Upon the ruins of her father's home, a four-foot humanoid wrapped in fine black silk cast her four red eyes on the statues of her father erected in the once-abandoned laboratory.
Torches illuminated the clean walls, devoid of webs, dust, and refuse. As far as Gisellneia could see, this castle wasn’t so abandoned after all.
Yet… there was no one here. No monster, specter, or even the gazers she had left behind to guard the cleaned castle from looters. The dryad was also gone, something she had planted in her garden that had been turned into a crater of black ash.
A singular attack that had wrecked her once beautiful exhibit of flora.
“Empress Gisellneia,” Soben, the death knight clad fully in darker-than-black steel said as he knelt on the floor to give his report. “We have scoured the castle milady, there are no life forms within save for the mold that runs unabated below.”
The demon shifted her gaze to the spot where mold ran rampant, the spot she had last seen the sight of her genetic donator known as her father.
Contrary to popular belief, the Demon Lord known as Barborall wasn’t a bad father. In fact, to human standards he could be considered… kind. Thoughtful. Even considerate.
This didn’t stop the purple-haired monster from poisoning the old demon and melting his insides with mold. In fact, she had specially designed it to kill and devour flesh as well as to multiply in the presence of metal to counteract his two main skills.
Regeneration and Armory, the latter a skill that he was so fond of using, a type of ability that allowed him to summon hundreds of weapons and throw them as projectiles.
Of course luring it into her lab to drink her concoction had been easy as the idiot had foolishly believed his “little princess” wanted to show him her science experiment.
Perhaps that what had been what sealed his fate in her eyes, being treated like a child. Or maybe it was because she just didn't like him.
Truth be told it had been so long ago she didn’t quite remember what had tipped her over the edge.
However… she did remember vividly watching as his face morphed from jovial teasing to one of disbelief and shock as mold grew from his flesh and consumed him.
Gisellneia smiled, the memory bringing with it a fuzzy feeling in her bosom that was quickly replaced with annoyance.
The idiot was dead.
So why did she see him clearly in some blabbering fool’s memory she had snatched upon hearing rumors of his return?
Memories could lie, this she knew, that’s why she had her minions hunt down several of the heralds that were proclaiming his return. However, each of the lower life forms minds showed her a demon that matched her father down to his gait and mannerisms.
Gisellneia grit her dagger-like teeth, her eyes darting across the old crusty laboratory. From the looks of things, someone had definitely entered her old workspace, not to mention the sprawling mines and weapon smithing... Maybe an old general she hadn't purged had found a way to survive the mold and resurrect her father? Or maybe he had simply been playing dead as a jest to bide his time?
The demoness didn’t know. In fact she didn’t put it above him to fake being dead for a few hundred years as a means of a practical joke.
“Tsk, even now you piss me off,” Gisellneia hissed.
She had her hands busy dealing with her siblings as well as the war on the monkeys and the other sapients, throw an ancient demon into the mix well… the entire Normus mountain range was no more, adding more fire to stoke the suspicion that her father was still alive.
“Milady, I sense the presence of the traitors Sharr and Ludwig, the usurpers may have arrived to scout the castle,” Soben said, the black knight’s red undead eyes glowing brighter.
“A Hiroyuki huh…” The demoness hissed, her hands balled into tiny fists as she recalled the words the memory of her father had spoken so smugly about upon his throne.
Only a Hiroyuki could kill him. And obviously, the signaling of his return was bait to lure her and her siblings here so they could witness the might of his all-consuming power from afar.
But why the games? What could he gain? Was he finally bored? Why did he send heralds to proclaim his resurrection? No one with tactical sense would ever give up the element of surprise… but then again, when you were as strong as Barborell… even the legendary hero couldn't kill you.
“Soben, take me away and have this place leveled, I tire of the stench,” Gisellneia spat, the short demon climbing onto the rigged back of her deathknight.
Gisellneia furrowed her brow, glaring at the spot where she had last seen her father.
“As you command my queen,” Soben said before whisking his mistress away.
Stay tune for side chappies and S4 news.