38 Chapter 37 Step 1

In the little town not too far from the broken-down church was a group of well-equipped men and women marching out to complete the task of their master.

Their orders?

It was to apprehend the bastard child of one of the generals under the demon king, as she had more uses of being alive than dead as she had the blood of those that can control the barrier around the demon king's castle.

As strangely enough, such liability to the king of all demons was simply abandoned and left here to rot so of course there will be those that wish to have a chance to claim the throne for themselves or like those before them trying to kill the young girl.

As for why she was left here, unattended, unprotected, and lastly in a place that made her an easy target, it was unknown while this was suspicious, however, for a chance to join the ranks of the powerful, it was a much-welcomed chance for those that wanted to change things to their whims.

*Clank clank clank*

this was the noise that their armor made to ensure the success of their task even if the corpse of the child was found it was still possible to use what was left with some healing magic or rip the womb from the corpse if they had to use the more drastic means...

as the things you can do with magic is almost anything other than reviving the dead as souls are something the gods can handle.

The group marched in sync thanks to the years of training and discipline that they endured, they waited for some time from the gang leader that was haughty and proud to receive their gold yet there was no sign of the said person after an hour.

The words of the captain that led these troops laced with disgust and scorn were this.

"Trash will be trash, Tch, so damned useless that they can't even do a simple task of bringing a girl to us."

the captain was dressed akin to a dark knight, with exquisite designs in his armor with red lines along the edges, encased in enchanted full plate armor, gauntlets, greaves with a full helmet that allowed a gap for a good field of view and for his two long smooth horns that curved along the sides of his head, a Black tinted Nodachi strapped to his back, a Ninjato to his belt, this was was a sword lover or rather one that loved katanas and weapons from the same maker.

He was the cautious type that wore full protection wherever he went.

His troops also had the same design just a tier lower though, as this demon didn't like having troops that can 'one-up' him in any of the battles they go through.

The demon's name of Kruogaroth a currently middle-ranked demon that was 3 ranks higher than any abandoned demons as even slaves were higher than the 'wastes'.

if one were to rate demons ranks it would be like this.

0 = the abandoned ones

1 = Slaves

2 = lower ranked

3 = middle ranked

4= high ranked

5 = greater demons

6 = lords

7 = the demon king

those that reach the rank of 'Lord' need to defeat one of the 666 demons that are of that rank as the number can never exceed 666 as upon doing is taboo and even the demon kings would come after you to kill you!

Yes demon kings there can only be seven as for why it has never be mentioned in history or by the other 'kings', but they did deliver a fair warning despite no other demon managed to reach past the 'lord' rank for thousands of years.

"Death will claim those that break this 'balance'."

But that wasn't the most interesting of all the hearsay, as talks of demon gods watching their every move was definitely an intriguing story to talk about but such things have NEVER been proven so who knows if they truly existed.

Was it wishful thinking?

was it simply because they were jealous of the humans that had gods that blessed them allowing them a chance to stand their ground against their race?

Who knows...

But it had been 100,000 years since the so-called gods intervened with anything that happened in this world so the actions of the demons towards humans became bolder and bolder with every year that passed, but the only thing that made it hard to push their plans forward was due to the heroes that numbered 100.

but back to the main spectacle.

The sound of hooves from a horse could be heard intermixing with the Clanking of the armored personnel bringing an ambiance to the surrounding area.

Kruogaroth was positioned in the middle of his troops with a nightmare beast as his mount, his second in command who was now practically a mindless puppet also rode a nightmare, it was a requirement for a cowardly tactic of his where their bodies will become his shields when needed.

Each and every one of his troops had a spell attached to their minds, something that he used to ensure his survival throughout the time of his service while it can affect those under the spell for a few seconds if they had the same amount of mana it was still good enough to buy him a chance to survive even more so when he finally managed to alter the original spell to like ticking time bombs to activate when he wanted.

this made his spell even more dreadful for the unsuspecting victims.

Seeing the cross of the abandoned church in the distance, it wouldn't be long now before they reached the child that can change the lives of many.

The wind was still but the season was cold as always with every one of them could see their breath thanks to how much the temperature dropped again.

Being the cautious man that he was, Kruogaroth already noticed the strange silence that permeated within the area they were in, so he ordered his body double to begin relaying the orders as they might've stepped into an ambush.

"All units Halt! All units form closed ranks! let nothing pass our line of defense!"

A clicking sound was heard before all the hairs on the commander's body stood up, he was about to sound the retreat since the brief moment his trusted instincts warned him telling him to run but thanks to the numerous mind wipes the second in command was like a living golem that followed one order at a time was still in the process of completing the first order before something cut him off!

if you see-URK!"

The soldier that was relaying the commands made a strange sound before falling to the ground with an arrow stuck in his head as it managed to slip through the gaps, it made a few beeping sounds that all of those near the body heard before a flash of light and loud BOOM that made many of their ears ring with a few unlucky ones ruptured.

The explosion made the helmet of Kruogaroth's body double into a fragment grenade so those closest to the body double had their bodies ruined from the shrapnel thanks to the armor of the victim being a tier higher than theirs!

The screams of the injured were like a symphony played by a sick man, as they called out to be helped, to be saved, or those that thought that the pain was too much begged for release from this.

The armor they were equipped with can repel physical attacks and magic but only to a certain degree, the shards of metal stuck in the demons groaning in pain was disrupting their mana flow making the pain even worse as they are unable to heal themselves thanks to that.

But the hellish attack had only begun, as more than 30 arrows landed at the soldiers location before making them experience 'fireworks' firsthand as squeals, screams, wails of despair echoed out only to be snuffed out by the explosions that happened shortly afterward.

Kruogaroth that man was already trying to escape as his troops received more blasts that ruined the formation completely, His thoughts while spurring his mount to hurry away were towards what had just happened as he just nearly died with the blasts nearly knocking him off of his mount and the nightmare to the ground while it struggled to run away from the place!

Was he betrayed? only a few people knew that he was coming to this place and he used quite a bit of gold to clear the surroundings to ensure a successful mission, but that thought quickly went away as all the people he had talked to were mind-controlled puppets of his master so that was unlikely since it cost so much to do such things.

Was it an assassin? that was a high chance since there were so many factions keen on claiming the throne for themselves with him being so far away from their territory it was the best time to do so, but something felt missing, wrong about this.

As another bizarre thought came to mind.

where all the facts wrong about the child and that she also had an army of her own?

Pfffttt!!! HAHAHA! The escaping demon realized how stupid it sounded started laughing as his mount was halfway to clear the woods, but that same feeling as before and the clicking sound was heard yet again.

He rolled off of his horse before a BEAM destroyed more than half of the loyal mount's body that collapsed to the ground and slid on the snow thanks to the momentum it had from the gallop.

As he rolled along the ground stunned Kruogaroth tried another method.

"I am one of the captains under the demon lord Thorias, if you spare my life I'll pay double that of what you were offered as well as a recommendation to my lord!"

He assumed that his would-be assassin was just another lordless demon so his offer would be quite enticing for regular demons, but Alas, the one he was talking to wasn't a demon, and on top of that he certainly wasn't in the mood for dealing with idiots.

Jack was currently in his speed mode with one hand embedded into the tree not too far from the Demon with the other hand holding the plasma spear cannon, what he wanted to do now was to beat the shit out of someone and unfortunately for Kruogaroth, he was the one chosen for this.

As he bore the crest on his armor that was related to the group that ruined his niece, so why the hell should he even listen to his random babbles that didn't relate to what he really wanted to hear.

Which was the information of where he could find their bases to complete his step one, as well as the demon's screams!

Kruogaroth had no idea about this but if he did the demon would've been more than willing to offer so much information to save his life as no demon was truly loyal to their masters.

The cannon that Jack had held quickly disappeared before he moved right beside the demon (still invisible) then delivered a right hook that not only put his target into a daze but his neck popped like from when someone moved their head towards one shoulder then the other.

Kruogaroth's eyes glazed over as he slumped to the ground as he instincts overwhelmed his senses rendered him unable to move as it amplified, even more, when Jack's suit managed to collect a sample of his blood which also provided him with another thing that set this demon's death in stone.

Some remnants left inside of his niece came from this bastard!

So jack decided to take the extra slow route as his foot descended on to the man, no, this pig's shin!

*Crack*

"AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH-burgh!"

The demon wailed out in pain before another punch to the face cut it off then sent his head back to the ground, as he failed to understand what just happened the same surge of pain happened to his other leg, it was a repeat of before...

This happened two more times before long all four of his limbs were now ruined, while he WAS healing this didn't work in his favor as one the armor was deformed so it was healing in a deformed manner and when it recovered enough to barely move it was broken again while being dragged mercilessly to the church slowly as the demon was trying to figure out what the hell just happened!

Who was attacking him?

Where was he being taken?

Then a cold voice muttered to him.

"your death will be a long one, so try to survive and hope that I get bored of you soon enough."

Jack wasn't planning on releasing but when an invisible captor talks to his prisoner that had no idea what was going on it can mess with their mind, even more so for a demon that thought of himself as intelligent since being too smart, THAT can make them miss the most simple of things.

Even the cold truth that he isn't going to walk away from this!