Preparations

White specks of faith slowly drifted towards the dark figure of the devil after which coming into contact with his body, they dissolved into the eternal black. Though it was nothing compared to the extreme amount produced by his apostle, with enough time, the goblins would eventually generate a decent amount of faith after their belief in the devil was strengthened along with the integration of the other goblin tribes. Interestingly, the latter would result in the former, after all, conquest was the best method to show the new followers the benefits of belief in the Lord of Corruption. 

However, before the subjugation of the other tribes was carried out, it was high time a territory was established. This didn't mean claiming the goblin's village, these lands already belonged to the devil, devils established territories by terraforming the lands they had conquered, allowing them an environment in which their follower's strength was boosted. The environment in these terraformed lands also decreased the time for believers to undergo demonifcation - a process that occurs once they have reached a certain degree of faith. Currently, Thrag is the only one among the believers whose faith is sufficient to start the process, and with the current conditions, it would take a few months before he would be fully demonified. This was why a territory needed to be established.

The devil had long sent his apostle the details of the ritual needed to create a certain item that would allow him to leave his first mark upon this world. Resting his head upon his fist, the scheming being allowed himself to drown in his thoughts as he planned his next move, his purple eyes focused upon a certain Asura barking orders at a horde of green beings. With the instructions of a special ritual implanted into her mind, Faye ordered the goblins to complete tasks that would allow the young apostle to ready the preparations for this ritual. Once the ritual was completed, then she could once again let loose and set off on her bloody conquering except this time the Asura now had soldiers with her. This meant they could conquer many of the settlements hidden away in the forest in a single day.

Although this would be an arduous task for the goblins in the initial stages, the pressure on them would be eventually eased off as each conquered settlement would have to supply their warriors to the subjugation effort. But now was not the time to think about the coming conquest, Faye first had to fulfil the current demands of her Lord, demands that would take some time to complete due to the time needed to create one of the materials needed for the ritual. Calling upon the natural sensory abilities of her body, the demoness located a group of goblins who were embroiled in the task of felling a tree on the outskirts of the village. Utilising their expertise in the art of tree felling, the group had already made an undercut on the side of the tree that faced the village walls, and now two goblins, packed with muscles, hacked away at the opposite of the tree. 

As one axe fell upon the tree's trunk, another was raised, ready to take the place of its comrade, this pattern repeated itself, causing the two lumberjacks to fall into a mindless rhythm, the world around them fading away as the only thing that mattered right now was bringing this tree down. Shaking his head at a sight that impressed him every time, a stout goblin that stood by the two lumberjacks moved towards the tree trunk, his coarse hands pulled upon a vine rope tied around the circumference of the trunk. Happy that the rope was secure, the goblin turned his head towards the lumberjacks and raised his arm in the air upon noticing their task was nearing completion. With the final cut crashing into the back cut, the stout goblin pulled down his raised arm whilst taking in a deep breath, forcing his lungs to expand to their absolute limits. Upon reaching the natural limit of his body, the goblin began to circulate his mana, guiding it towards his mouth - this entire process only took a few seconds. 

Two organised columns of goblins stood on opposite sides of the vine rope with each goblin holding onto a part of the pine-green rope, their ears awaited the order of their team leader. They wouldn't have to wait for long as a single word was roared from the forest area.

"PULL"

Without any hesitation in their moments, the goblins did just that, they pulled on the rope that they held making sure not to fully exert their strength; they needed sufficient strength to run away from the fall zone of the tree. The combined strength of the goblins caused the young tree to slowly lean forward but it was not enough, so they kept pulling. They pulled while paying no attention to the state of the tree at all, they had been doing this long enough to know that their group leader would tell them when it was time to scram. Veins bulged through their skin as their teeth were clenched together, and their minds that were concentrated on the task at hand burst out with determination, allowing the goblins to keep going. And then they heard the word that brought them the relief that they were waiting for.

"SCRAM"

The vine rope fell to the crowd as the two groups dispersed in opposite directions, while the young but large tree came thundering down before it spectacularly crashed into the ground. Tired cheers erupted from the tree-felling group as they sat down to rest so that they had enough energy to drag the tree back to the village. 

Back in the village, while the tree was being felled, Thrag was moving from villager to villager with a skull with its cap removed and a dagger. Inside the skull, was a red liquid that sloshed against the white walls of its container as the First Priest moved around, the identity of this substance becoming quickly obvious as Thrag handed the dagger to a young female goblin who pricked her finger upon the sharp end of the dagger, before dripping a few drops of blood into the skull from the self-inflicted wound. No one was spared from this undertaking, whether they were children or elderly, it did not matter, the Apostle of Corruption had made her orders clear. It was necessary for the ritual that was about to place. 

Taking a momentary break from his task, Thrag turned his attention to the area in the centre of the village where the Apostle was currently crouched, working away at what seemed to be an array. It was an interesting scene, a being that had been revelling in the bloody murder of the previous village chief was now drawing markings with the utmost care and concentration. If one were to ignore the rippling muscles that packed the demoness' body, one would think that she was some Array Master, a title that represented calmness and tranquillity, the very opposite of what the Asura was.

After admiring the scene before him for some time, the priest returned to the task that he had been entrusted with, the sooner he collected the blood the better. As the aged goblin moved towards a small family, a being watched him with interest as plans on how to maximise the use of this pawn whirled through its head.