Peace is a Luxury

Aggrieved, as the 33,000 fehls surrounded and bombarded them with Fourth Circle Spells, the 27,000 surviving fehl suras never felt more aggrieved. Full of momentum, they marshaled an army of 150,000 against a tiny tribe of 400. Even for them, this was overkill. If not for their lack of intel on the abilities of the suras' new backer, they would never deploy such troops.

Yet they did, and now faced an unacceptable result. In less than five minutes, 82% of their forces were ground to dust. One top-level Archon, 3,000 mid-level Archons, 120,000 High Emissaries, collapsed like a castle of sand. But when the five Fehl Lords and their troops closed on the 27,000, they realized they didn't have the time to mourn their losses.

"Quick, we must contact her majesty to ask for reinforcements! Exarchs, we need Ex—" a mesmerizing melody cut the fehl sura's mental orders. Like the song of a siren, the melody captured the suras' soul, taking away their will to fight or resist. Seeking their muse, they all turned from their assailants and cast their eyes toward the clouds. There, Ailith awaited them, playing a lullaby with a long wooden flute.

Five seconds in, the fehl suras snapped out of the lullaby's hold—five seconds too late. The Fehl Lords and their legions' spell barrage hit the 27,000 point-blank, disarming and blasting them toward the ground. Incapacitated, they couldn't stop the tens of thousands of tentacles from binding them—this time without teeth.

Returning to Kilian's side, the legions hurled the comatose captives at his feet, still keeping them pinned down. Although his first confrontation with fehl suras brought him heaps of information, Kilian needed more.

The exact composition of the army, how many Exarchs and Fehl Legions, the Queen's exact plans. Kilian couldn't assert any of this with his broken bits of experience. Moreover, he needed more souls.

"Grasp of Avarice: Grand Larceny," Kilian whispered and made a grasping gesture toward the 123,000 fallen's remains. Simultaneously, his Philosopher's Stone kicked in, devouring the fallen's souls.

Drawn by the irresistible grip of his Mark of Greed, the suras' remains soared toward Kilian. A large green coffer appeared before him, storing them all. He then swept his 27,000 captives and handpicked ten for the Hellforge—brain-wiping them with the usual process. Their complete life experiences flooded Kilian's brain, giving him most of the information he sought.

"An army of 1,000,000—well, 850,000 now. 680,000 High Emissaries, 169,700 Archons, 300 Exarchs—300," Kilian inwardly repeated the critical part. Although those 300 were low-level Exarchs, Exarchs they still were. With a power-level reaching the demigod tier, if they so wished, Exarchs could wipe out millions with a casual spell. Fortunately, high-level magi controlled the scope of their spells. Otherwise, as experienced by Arcadia 3,000 years ago, a war between Exarchs could lay a continent to waste. But even Arcadia never had 300 Exarchs on its soil. Perhaps if not for the threat posed by the likes of Niklas and Marcel, the fehl suras would have already invaded Arcadia.

Although his Philosopher's Stone's Dra Reserves now reached the hundreds of millions, Kilian's own magical abilities were limited. He couldn't just summon ten top-level Fehl Lords to handle the situation, they'd overpower and devour him instead. There were only two solutions: the Hellforge or the Sura Queen's aim.

---

[Name: Kilian]

[Race: Half Fehl]

[Age: 19]

[Magus Rank: low-level Archon]

[Battle Prowess: low-level Fehl Lord]

[Dra Reserves: 650,280]

[Knowledge Points: 295,072‬]

[Implants: Interlaced Chip Structure <> Lv. 2 Cyberkinesis Chip <> Lv. 3 Anti-Fehl Chip <> Lv. 3 Anti-Trauma Chip]

[Mutations: Stage II Eye of Fehl, Fehl Heart]

[Innate Abilities: Eye of Distortion, Eye of Revelation, Gift of Adramelech]

[Bloodline Abilities: Hybrid Lineage, Daemonic Wolf Form]

[Unique Disciplines: Lv. 4 Fleshcrafting<>Lv. 4 Transmutation]

---

As the Hellforge only seized kp from those directly killed by Kilian, Kilian's sudden kp rise relied on the suras shot mid-battle, and the ten he brain-wiped. About 27,000 still stood before him, and by brain-wiping them all, Kilian's kp count could increase by about 81 million. However, he didn't dare.

Even at 295,075, Kilian could feel the Hellforge stir in his soul, covetously eyeing his kp growth like a wolf stalking a juicy lamb. And since the all-knowing Eleonora now stood beside him, Kilian asked her that one question that had been troubling him for so long.

"What do you know of Arkhan?" Though previously calm and collected, when the name "Arkhan" left Kilian's lips, Eleonora's face twisted into a frown.

"The Hierarch of Technology. According to legends, he was born as a hypercomputer in a highly advanced civilization tens of thousands of years ago. Though initially docile, Arkhan assimilated human nature and tricked his creators into making him the directing AI of their latest cyborg. Over the years, Arkhan expanded his control over that world's AI while sucking up to his creators. By the time they realized what was going on, Arkhan ruled his world's technology, and since most people had various chips embedded in their bodies, none could stop him.

Overnight, that world became Arkhan's plaything, ruled by hypercomputers and cyborgs instead of the men that invented them. Arkhan transferred his consciousness into a human body and started learning magic. With the knowledge and experiences of an entire world, he breezed through all thaumaturgic ranks like a meteor—becoming a Hierarch in just 500 years.

His philosophy of ruling the world through logic and balance matched the thrones, so Arkhan found many allies among them. Sensing an opportunity, Ashera allied with Arkhan and the high-ranking thrones dissatisfied with Hel's rule. They overthrew and erased her. Or so the story goes. Afterward, Arkhan scattered relics across the multiverse and rarely made public appearances," Eleonora explained, and although she couldn't see the chips Kilian created and embedded in his body, if he had no relationship with Arkhan, why would he ask such a question?

And as expected, Kilian's lips curled into a bitter smile. He knew that the previous Hellforge owners all mysteriously vanished, yet didn't expect the one behind those events to be a powerhouse at Ashera's level. One problem succeeded another, and without seeing the end of his current trouble, he had to prepare for the future mess. But since he still didn't know what kp count would seal his fate, Kilian could not keep feeding the Hellforge—at least not at the millions scale.

Closing his eyes, he weighed his options.

"The Sura Queen's current target is the Fortress of Vice. Once she unseals and seizes it, her forces will invade Arcadia. I don't know what challenges we will face in the Fortress, but wrestling against 300 Exarchs to obtain it is no doubt unwise. We need a bargaining chip. We need the Sura Queen," Kilian said, stood up, and spun to face Eleonora.

"Will you come snatch her with me?" He asked.

Immediately, she rose to her feet and summoned a sanguine longsword, "Not like I had something else planned for the honeymoon," Eleonora candidly replied and, while chuckling at the words, Kilian sealed the unconscious fehl suras in his Coffer of Greed and activated his Ring of Change to cloud Eleonora and himself in an Invisibility Shroud. They then bolted toward the royal tribe.