CHAPTER 238: MULTIFRONT WAR

Minuvae sat with the leader of the clans in a private grove, the atmosphere was tense. When she got back to the clan leaders after her chat with that vampire general the forest was immediately attacked by some kind of creature.

Even now, as she sat around the fire, the atmosphere was grim. That creature did alot of damage, and even with Minuvaes help, it was a bloody affair, with dozens dead in less than half an hour. Their worst tally against a single monster thus far. It was blatantly obvious that the Elves were trained to fight humanoids, not monsters. They have spent too long living in harmony with the forest, and though they have fought vampiric horrors, they were weak to Elven magic. These ones had no such weaknesses, worse, they seemed to be evolved or perhaps made to fight on their terrain.

The creature had a white carapace, smooth and seamless, like polished ceramic. Its legs were double-jointed and ended in hooked claws. It had two large scythe arms and two smaller limbs tucked close. It did not have eyes. Its face was split vertically and filled with needle teeth.

It moved through the trees in low, arcing leaps, landing without sound on thick branches and trunks. The body coiled mid-air, twisting with unnatural control. Each movement was fast and natural, like it was for the canopy. It clung to bark with ease, shifting direction mid-jump, vanishing and reappearing between the branches. It almost skittered across the bark and was too fast to track when it wasn’t attacking.

The elves were waiting in the canopy, bows drawn, eyes tracking the movement. Arrows hissed through the air. The creature tilted mid-leap, rolling its body so the shafts glanced harmlessly off the white carapace. It landed above them, claws gripping the branch like it was part of the tree. Before they could fire again, it pounced like a twisted nightmare. One scythe arm sliced through an archer's chest, and the other punched through the bark to steady its landing. Blood sprayed across the white shell, and then it jumped away.

This went on as the Elves were slashed out of the canopy, snatched right off branches and all the while it kept moving and adjusting its body, making sure most of the arrows didn’t stick. As the elves fought they realised it was intelligent, it knew how to fight them.

When Minuvae joined with reinforcements, they were immediately beset by the beast. It tore across the bark, its claws flashing as it leapt onto elves too slow to get out of its way. A few arrows struck home but the beast was tough enough that it shrugged off the hits.

The worse thing, a half hour later, after taking a few superficial hits, the beast just turned around and fled leaving a pile of corpses down in the undergrowth. Minuvae remember pausing as she looked around at the devastation.

There were no wounded in this fight, just bodies so mauled that retrieval would require bags not stretchers. She jumped down into the undergrowth and saw the daughter of one of the clan leaders lying in the undergrowth. She was missing her body from below the waist and her right arm was bent at a horrid angle, white bone protruding from the shoulder. Her eyes were still wide in terror, and she could see dried tear marks on the sides of her face.

Now Minuvae sat in the grove as the so called rebels silently reflected on what happened. The clan Leader who lost his daughter was dead silent, his eyes hollow and teeth clenched in rage.

“We can’t win this fight…” Minuvae said.

No one replied, of course, everyone knew, but no one wanted to admit it.

Minuvae looked at her hands. Blood dried in the creases. It wasn’t even blood from the wounded it was from her trying to pack up what was left of the dead to be returned to their families. One elf was smashed against a tree trunk with enough force to splatter across the bark. Minuvae remembers looking up at that red pulped mush on the bark and wondering what they would bring back, and they settled for the elf’s broken bow and ruined sabre. They would tell the family that the beast had eaten him

“We tried to fight.” one elf said.

She nodded. “We didn’t even slow it down. Ordias Derenge did say some twisted flesh smith is here somewhere, using this place to test his twisted monsters.”

The clan Leader who lost his daughter stood. He didn’t speak. He walked off into the trees. No one stopped him. It was one thing to lose someone in a hard-won fight. Another in a last stand. But this wasn’t either. His daughter was butchered so a creature could test how they’d react. A test it would learn from. Use against the next group and the corpses would pile up, the remains returned in bags.

Minuvae watched the fire. “It wasn’t trying to kill all of us. Just enough.”

“What do we do? You didn’t get to finish what the General said,” another elf said.

“He said the Great Beast wants something from the forest. I don’t know what but… the only reason General Ordias told me this is that he doesn’t want all of us dead. He views vassals more useful than corpses,” Minuvae said, her voice hollow.

“So we’re supposed to serve? Just hand over our land, our people?” the scout said.

“If it comes to that, most won’t get a choice,” Minuvae said.

“What does it even want?” an elf near the tree line said.

“No idea. But whatever it is, at the very least its important enough they are willing to anger the angels over it. Ordias said he was willing to let us heal the leyline, but I’m not sure if they will request vassalage for it.” Minuvae muttered.

“It may not be immediate…” another older voice said, it was another clan leader. This one is a few millennia old, a venerable and respected voice.

“The ancients like the Great Beast do not think in the same time scales like we do. They may not want our obedience now, but they may want it in the future. Tribute does not flow from a dead race.” the venerable elf said.

Minuvae glanced at the elf and recognised him to be Clan Leader Arvian, head of the Corvus Clan. He was well known to be a very grounded and wise leader. He was offered a seat at the council once but he turned it down, citing that it would take time away from his family and his clan. He was a man that wanted nothing but the safety of his people and had no interest in power.

“Ordias said that as well. Tribute does not flow from a dead race.” Minuvae said.

“The old philosophy of the ancients is still written in the old texts. You all might know it if you paid more attention in your studies,” Old Arvian said with a small wry smile.

“The ancients are a brutal type, they believe strength and domination to be the true nature of this world. If you read the histories you will know them to be right, when you see life in eons not centuries, then domination, strength, that is all there is.” Old Arvian said as he leaned back slightly and looked up at the stars.

“These creatures are not gods, but the power they hold over beings like us, they might as well be. It is a miracle that we even managed to slay most of them, but alas if its just one people against one of them we are doomed. The Great Beast even has the Empire on his side and the Empire alone is enough to finish us.” Arvian said.

“So what do we do, we just roll over?” another elf asked.

“No we need to get rid of the council.” Minuvae said.

“That’s treason.” another elf said.

“Yes, but we need to negotiate, come to terms before a million of those things we just fought come barreling into the forrest. That fight looked like a practice run, ironing out the small imperfections. The next beast is going to be worse and it may not be alone.” Minuvae snapped in response.

“We haven’t even accounted for the dead yet, the scouting parties are supposed to check in soon, and they were also supposed to send early warning on that beast. Yet it got this far into the forest anyway. There is a good chance we are down a few dozen scouts.” another clan leader muttered.

“I believe young Minuvae is right.” Arvian said and the group stirred. An elder is backing rebellion is no small matter.

“We need to negotiate, with the Empire growing as powerful as it is, some attempt of conquest is inevitable, not to mention that their interactions with the Angels could be a flash point. We do not want to be caught inside that war on the wrong side.” Arvian said.

“The Angels will not protect us over Divonia, since that is their main worldgate to heaven. With the demons tearing through Divonia, they will not save us in a war. Thus we might have to consider new allies.” Arvian added.

“But what if they ask for fealty right now?” Minuvae asked.

“I doubt they would do so, annexing us risks the ire of the angels, they would not attempt such a thing unless they had something of real value to gain.” Arvian replied.

“My thoughts exactly.” Minuvae said.

“The only thing I can think of is this…” Arvian muttered as his face grew fearful for the first time.

The worldgate to hell…

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.♚.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

I lazed around on my cushion as looked over Cecilia’s shoulder as we read the letter. The war in hell is raging as it should, after the initial shock of the first strike the war has been grinding along. With Lucifer obssessed with offense and Beelzebub just bunkering down its become this horrible grinding battle with trenches and magic artillery.

Ordias brings some intresting news it seems that elf I let go has decided to play rebel. Thats fine, great even, not something I calculated but definately something that would be useful. If the elves overthrew their own leaders then it would be useful for me.

“Interesting, that adventurer, you mentioned something before about this yes? Around the fall of Tralis if I recall.” Cecilia mused.

“Yes that elf has been busy it seems, and all it took was for me to tell Ordias some lies about Malegaros.” I replied with a slight laugh.

“This changes somethings, if say this Minuvae does bring me her council’s heads, what then? Do we just ask for control of the World Gate? That one leads to hell it would cause problems if the angels found out.” Cecilia said as she lightly tapped her throne.

There was no one else nearby in the throne room. Cecilia had ordered everyone out the moment Ordias’s message came.

“We let them fix their ley line network, the world gate is on the southeastern edge of their territory, and Necoronas is on the southwestern edge, what if we traded? We take the southeastern section we give them some land in the southwestern section.” Cecilia said.

“Hmm yes, that would work, it would be less of a buffer for Necoronas but Ordias and Rosa won’t complain. Plus it would make us seen magnanimous and we can guise it as us wanted the resources of their forest. We already trade for Mugumman resources afterall. We trade with you and we even let you save your forest.” I said with a grin.

“Yes, but can we do this in time for the Hell front?” Cecilia asked and I shrugged.

“If Beelzebub falls it just drags the war, we won’t lose in the long run. But then again Montis is going over to Vulpus Maxima. He might have another path but his one is more challenging since they are rather isolationist.” I mused and Cecilia nodded in understanding.

“Hell, Divonia, the Elven Woods, Vulpina Maxima, many fronts all at once. This will be trying time for the Empire.” Cecilia said with a sigh.

“Don’t worry, we will manage.” I replied with a chuckle and I caught a small smile twitch on Cecilia’s lips.

“Always so confident.” Cecilia said with a small laugh of her own.

“Anyway Montis should be in the gorge now, I heard some reports from him, its not encouraging. Ether levels are higher than expected. Your brood has had to evolve creatures that actively drain the ether out fo the air, lest the ambient radiation kill my men.” Cecilia said as she picked up another report.

“I have no idea how you keep reading all this crap? Isn’t it dry?” I asked as I rolled over in my cushion.

“Its work friend.” Cecilia replied with a slight bit of mirth in her voice.

“Boooring work…” I grumbled as my mind shifted to my hive deseperately trying to keep Montis and his not so merry band alive.

It was an interesting experiment to do but still, didn’t expect to have to do the on the fly adjustments like this. There were pockets of the gorge that had enough ether to kill a man in minutes.

“There is something else Cecilia.” I said as I grimace slightly and Cecilia pausing looked around at my sudden change.

“Yes, friend? Is something wrong?” Cecilia asked.

“Yeah…” I mutter as I look over at the map on the wall.

I look over at the map, from the colour that indicates that the region is supposed to be…

“Isn’t Vulpina Maxima supposed to be a temperate forest?” I asked as I stared at the colour.

“Yes why?” Cecilia asked as she furrowed her brow.

“My scouts just reached the end of the gorge, Montis is a few days away but…” I paused as I scanned my mind eye.

Why does it look like an ether irradiated desert?