Devourer

Chapter 163: Gambled and Lost

I smiled as I spun the pair of blades in my grasper arms and channelled power to my claws. I could see the group of angels flying high above me to the east. But they had no idea I had a flyer several hundred meters above them watching them. I designed special flyers that could climb higher than any angel. My idea was simple when you were a spy you would try to climb as high as possible and from what Mahaila has said the angels could climb higher than any other humanoid.

So the logic was simple, when you were always the highest one in the sky, why would you ever look up?

They wanted a show and that was exactly what I would give them. The five raven-like beasts all screeched and I sensed a slew of magical effects radiate out. I sensed [Petrification], [Instant Death], [Madness] and [Stun].

If those things screamed in the middle of any human army it would take out most of the soldiers in one fell swoop.

Hostile effects were detected, all effects resisted

Threat level, inconsequential

Proceed with combat

The voice in my head rang out letting me know their scream attack did absolutely nothing to me. I brandished my weapons and charged forward, my massive frame ploughed right through the line of undead blocking my path. Their frail bodies broke under my charge, I didn’t even have to attack. I just moved through the lines like I was crossing a grassy field.

Some of the Blood Knights fired spells at me but thanks to my improved armour, their spells just bounced off. I had my soldiers capture any vampires they could before this battle started and I was using their genome to create a body that was even stronger than before. Thanks to the vampire’s regenerative abilities my body’s ability to regenerate was even more powerful than before.

The lead Raven rushed towards me, and I raised my pair of Focii blades before slashing at it. The Raven blocked my slash with its magic-enhanced wings, but the blades ended up cutting deep gashes into it.

Then I did the standard slash in the Draconian style, and the blade flashed. The strike cut cleanly into the chest of the Raven staggered back a large wound now on its chest. I saw another Raven approach from my right flank, I did a quick winding thrust with the blade and the Raven backed off slightly as it dodged the point of the crackling Focii blade.

In the meantime, I raised my blade and thrust it right into the chest of the Raven. Then I withdrew it and with a simple flick of my wrist, for a quick follow-up attack. I delivered a deep slash to the Raven’s head. The good thing about Focii blades was that you didn’t need to worry about edge alignment. Just contact alone would do damage.

The Raven staggered back it’s limb twitching as the damaged brain struggled to process the magical strings keeping its body up. I opened my maw and torched the Raven as I backpedalled trying to prevent myself from being surrounded by the other Ravens. My fire took rather quickly since it was laced with curses and magic jamming, easily able to overwhelm their defences. In truth I didn’t even need to fight in melee but I’m only doing it because it’s fun.

Plus it has been a while since I fought an opponent about as large as me. I could tell these creatures were weaker than me. I was unlikely they would even trigger my [Metabolic Frenzy]. Also, this stage was also a reveal to the angels. The fact that I couldn’t change my body has been irking me for some time. I am a creature of change and yet I am stuck in this static form. So I came up with a solution that would allow me to change some parts. It was a bit obtuse and crude but then again the solution was also designed to make it look like the solution the Eternal Mother made had to create some interesting workarounds for me.

I watched as two more of the Ravens approached and switched out my Focii blades to a new design I made. This time a long hilt appeared in one hand and I grasped it with both hands. Then a large red blade appeared, it was bigger than the previous pair. Unlike the previous set which had this simple long laser blade, this one was a broad blade that looked almost like a holographic cleaver. If the past pair of swords were Focii blades, this one was a Focii Greatsword.

I brandished my blade as the Ravens charged me. I darted to the side and delivered a hard slash to one of the Ravens. Like the last time the Raven tried to raise its enchanted wings to block the attack. However, this time the blade cut right through severing its limbs and the blade sank into the Raven’s chest. I ripped the blade free and then with a quick slash I hacked off the head of the Raven.

When the other Raven tried to get closer I ducked off the side again dodging one of its downward swings and then I swung my sword horizontally. The swing ended up cutting the Raven in two at the waist and both halves fell to the ground.

I shifted my gaze and saw one of the remaining Ravens shoot a blast of purple energy right at me. I raised my blade and easily deflected the purple ball of energy. The ball went careening off the side and landed in the middle of the undead formation, vaporising a large piece of their forces.

The other two remaining Ravens paused as they stared me down as if awaiting orders.

I chuckled as I saw their reaction.

Your move Rosa…

??,`°.???.?.???.°`,??

Ariel grimaced as she watched the Great Beast hack the Raven in half. She knew it would take at least a squad of Silver Maidens to take down something like that. However, the Great Beast just took it down like it was swatting a fly. Further more it didn’t look like he was having much trouble dealing with them. It looked more like he was testing a new toy rather than taking the fight seriously.

She was familiar with this mentality of loving to test new toys and other experiments. The more she looked at it, he really did resemble the Eternal Mother in his insatialble quest for knowledge. From what she has observed those blades were living things, the hilts were made of flesh and bone. Furthermore she could sense some semblance of life emanating from those hilts.

Ariel made another note in her data pad as she wrote down some additional concerns. This was the first ancient she has ever seen that seems to be experimenting with humanoid techniques. The living armour found on the soldiers below, his usage of weapons and an understanding of sword fighting techniques were all sources of concern.

The one advantage humanoids had over the ancients was their ability to collaborate and the flexibility born from their creativity. The thing that gave humanoids was their ability to “amplify force” by working together or refining techniques. All scholars recognise this was a practice born of necesity but it did allow humanoids to push their abilites well beyond thier natural state.

What concerned her now was that if an ancient was doing the same thing then all the old strategies against combating the ancients would need to be revised. They couldn’t count on the Great Beast using the same strategies that ancients used. They would have to expect that he would develop his own technologies and techniques. Hive leaders were already extremely adaptable and problematic. But at the very least they followed a basic pattern for their strategies. So all the opponent had to do was to keep in mind that a perfect counter to their own cards could appear at any time and move to address it.

However, an ancient with all the power it’s ancient bloodline gives being able to creatively make innovative solutions to problems would be a tough opponent. Not only that it seems that he has somehow won the trust of the humans in this region. Only time will tell if he succeeds in doing the same for the Zarimans.

The only good news she had from this observation mission so far was that at least the Crowfather seemed to be against the Great Beast. So that ruled out the presence of Mahaila in Zarima since she was one of the Crowfather’s staunch allies. Yes, it could be a ruse, but honestly, to Ariel it looked more like the Crowfather was testing the Great Beast and trying to find out what he can do. Ariel knew for a fact that the Crowfather could create stronger creatures than these but why didn’t he?

It could be this was a ruse, and he just wanted to look like he was against the Greatbeast. Another possibility was that this was a probing attack, where he sent weaker creatures to test the Great Beast’s mettle. This was certainly in line with how the Crowfather usually operates. The last thing she could think of was that the Crowfather also wanted to trick the Vampires into destroying themselves so he gave them a group of creatures that were just strong enough to look impressive but not nearly strong enough to take down a true ancient. It was a well-known fact that Crowfather and the Vampires don’t get along, so him helping them at all was strange. It was either an attempt to sabotage the Vampires or it was a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” type scenario. But in the latter case, the Vampires were just pawns in the Crowfather’s plans. Not the first time he has done something like this. Ariel herself was tricked once by the Crowfather. She never did hear the end of that from her siblings…

Ariel continued to record her findings when she paused momentarily as she saw the Great Beast do something strange. He raised both his claw arms and then hacked off his own grasper arms. Ariel’s eyes widened when she saw the arms didn’t grow back as the regular hands but instead, what sprouted were large curved blades that resembled a mix between a sabre and a cleaver. They were jet black and crackling with purple energy.

Ariel tried to wrap her mind around it. She has studied extensively in the academies and nowhere did she ever see something like this. Changing one’s body on a whim was the domain of the Firstborn yet here the Great Beast did so. Granted he had to forcefully remove the limbs and then regrow them.

So perhaps it was a kind of workaround dreamt up by the Eternal Mother. Perhaps it was a kind of controlled regeneration. There were some creatures that could stop their regenerations at certain areas of thier body to conserve energy in the middle of the fight. Some creatures also intentionally molt to cleanse status effects. So this ability was not without precedent but yet… This was truly something dreamt up by a Firstborn.

As far as Ariel was concerned the Great Beast just confirmed that it truly was a personal creation of a Firstborn. He reminded her of Serchax, that twisted serpent in the Azure Sea was the twisted creation of the Deep Shaper. Personal creations of the Firstborn always had strange and unique abilities. It seems the Great Beast was no exception. Ariel was starting to understand how the Great Beast managed to break free from the Eternal Mother. Perhaps in the Eternal Mother’s arrogance, she ended up giving the Great Beast too many gifts which enabled the rebellion.

Ariel silently thanked fate, if the Great Beast was weaker and the Eternal Mother could maintain control she could only imagine how much damage he could have inflicted in the great war.

The Eternal Mother’s hives were already extremely dangerous, Ariel could only imagine what they could do when commanded by the Great Beast.

“This is concerning.” one of her guards muttered.

Ariel turned her head to look at the Silver Maiden and saw her glowing eyes narrowed as she gazed at the Great Beast. Ariel looked back down and saw the Great Beast slash with one of his new blades and it cut one of the Ravens in two. He dashed to the other one and impaled it with both blades. She heard him let out a booming laugh as he pulled the Raven apart and both halves went tumbling into the Vampire’s formation.

“The Great Beast has definately been adapted to handle the vampires.” another guard muttered.

“Yes he is far too resistant to their attacks. But then again this is the Eternal Mother’s territory. The vampires have bordered the desert for a long time it would make sense for him to be given such adaptation.” Ariel said and both of her guards let out a light murmur of assent.

“But in that vein, the Firstborn were always wary of us who managed to live in an entirely separate realm. What is far away is hard to control.” one of her guards said.

“Yes we must expect that the Great Beast has many adaptation tailored to counter us.” Ariel replied.

“The divine council will need to convene again.” one of her guards muttered wearily.

Ariel internally grimaced at those words. The Divine Council would always bicker during those meetings. The two factions would often argue on the best course of action and decisions may take years to execute. Somehow Ariel thinks the Great Beast and the Empress will not take years to decide on a course of action…

Then she heard the Great Beasts loud booming voice echo out.

I’m giving you one hour to surrender before I kill all of you

Surrender and serve me

Or die!

Ariel’s blood turned to ice when she heard that. She mentally kicked herself for not seeing this coming. The entire plan was that the Averlonian Empire and the Vampire Courts would deplete each other in this war. The last thing Heaven wanted was for these two to work together. But now that she thought about it something like the Great Beast would see little difference between a human and a vampire.

“By the divine…” one of her guards muttered in horror as the entire battle stilled. The cease-fire had been ordered and the negotiations would soon begin…

It was clear now, to Ariel. They have severely miscalculated this situation. Rather than weakening the Great Beast they may have just served an army of the dead to him on a silver platter.

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