Barbarians

Not far from the forces of the Chthonian Empire, Several months later.

Currently, it was heavy winter, and everything was covered by a large amount of snow.

As the white blanket of snow covered everything, tens of thousands of fur-clad barbarians were marching through it. Each of those barbarians wore fur clothing made out of some kind of native animals and were armed with crude weapons, mainly axes, hammers, clubs, and other primitive arms, made of either stone or basic metalwork.

Though some of the barbarians wore pristine armors and top-class magical weapons, signifying their status and personal strength in the tribe. It was clear that these weapons and armors were obtained from killed or defeated foes from the more civilized area of the Noscent Plane.

Leading this horde of the tens of thousands of barbarians was the Barbarian King himself, an existence on the Transcendental Level by standards of the Noscent Plane. Under the rule of the Barbarian King, there were several of the Tribal Chieftains who reached the Deity Level and were pretty strong themselves.

If not for their strength, the barbarian race would be long ago either wiped out or enslaved by the Sacred Millenial Empire established by Charles the Great. Sacred Millenial Empire waged war against barbarians for decades already as they battled for resources.

I stood on the cliff as I observed the barbarians marching at our fortifications without showing any emotions. Hela and Zekram were together with me as we all observed the march of their species. At the same time, all three of us analyzed their strength and prepared plans on how to deal with them.

I went here for only one reason, and that was so I could capture the Barbarian King and bring him on the dissection table for his magic resistance; if not for that, I wouldn't have bothered myself in participating in this endeavor as I have decided to stay out.

All of these planar conquests have lost their charm to me after several centuries of conquering the planes here and there, and after the conquest of the Feisuo Plane, I wasn't that interested in it anymore.

"There are more than 3 million barbarians; they are outnumbering out slightly."

I stated the oblivious thing as I looked at the hordes of barbarians marching.

"They may be, but we make it up with superior equipment. Aside from a few important members of the tribes, chieftains, and other officials in their horde, which are only a few thousand people, the rest have trash equipment. Our weapons and armors are one of the best quality."

Scoffed Hela in distaste for the barbarians, as she found them dirty, primitive and stupid species.

While physically, the standard of the barbarians was the same as our soldiers, the difference in their equipment was too wast. Each soldier of the Imperialis Militarum was armed with the best mass-produced weapons and armors of the Low-Grade Artifact, something that cannot be matched by not even primitive magic weapons of the Sacred Millenial Empire.

Even the lowest of the Low-Grade Artifact was stronger than top-grade Magic Weapons or Armor. And not everyone was so extravagant as to clad entire armies in such equipment as it became standard for the lowest soldiers. Not to mention officers and stronger soldiers who have higher-grade artifact equipment.

This wealth was putting even some Warlock Dynasties into shame bit by bit, as even they would think twice before making a standard of the Low-Grade Artifact for basically ten million soldiers. For the Chthonian Empire, it was only a small price, and that was mainly thanks to our brutal plundering of planes.

Contrary to Warlocks, who decided to rule it when they conquered the plane, we Baatorians extracted everything from it, including the planar core. While the plane was destroyed in the process, we obtained far more wealth from it. Additionally, Chthonian Empire was never interested in procuring territories outside the Baator, as it was not worth it for us; we would instead focus on developing our own plane. Also, we didn't have such a vast population that we would need more outer territories due to a still-low birthrate.

Compared to humans, we multiplied slowly like snails.

"When they start their siege, I will take care of the Barbarian King. Also, leave your opponents alive; I need them for my further experiments."

I said while I teleported away from the cliff where we watched the barbarians marching.

After I reached the remote location, I summoned three of my familiars.

Namely Jin, Heishen and Isla.

All three of them have reached Tier 9, and while their appearance has not changed much, their power was very strong, as they were nurtured by me personally.

Isla's illusion could trap even powerful Tier 9 beings and it was almost impossible to break from them unless one used a unique method or overwhelming power. Additionally, after reaching the Tier 9, she could use her innate elemental magic of Fire, Wind, Earth, Water and Metal elements to cast extremely devastating spells.

Heishen, the Dark Devilgod Tiger whom I brought from the Douluo Planet, has grown a little and now looked pretty more intimidating. If he currently fought any Gods from there, they would become his foods, aside from those who reached the level of the God-King, of course. He also unlocked more of his innate power and achieved new Darkness Control and Clone Creation abilities. His clones were pretty terrifying, as Heishen could use of souls of devoured enemies to create a clone with the same combat prowess as him.

And finally, Jin, Wolf God whom I fed corpses of countless gods and sometimes even gods that were alive, became his meal. In truth, Jin's Anti-Divine abilities were so frightening that even I, as peak Common God, was wary of him not getting accidentally injured if I played with him. He also could kill a Supreme Stage God of the Astral Boundary with relative ease due to his particular nature.