4. Infernal Plague

Day 1 After the Transfer

Demiurge 1

"Mayhaps this region of the continent is cursed with conflict," Demiurge suggested. He stood tall against the board where the drawn map was clipped, his brows knitted into a furrow and his lips pursed into a thin line. It made little sense to him how all the nations surrounding them could be locked in their own wars, minor or otherwise.

"It is unwise to blame the mystics for man's foolishness, Demiurge," his king said, his voice thick with fatigue. The demonologist had once contemplated the possibility of his liege being an unknowing vessel for Lust, given how frequently he took to coupling with the queen. Or at the very least, a victim of his wife's middling Myst curse—it was not absurd to suspect a fraction of it might have entered his system.

His suspicions ended up being for naught. The king was simply an extremely virile individual, more so for a person so purely elven.

Demiurge let loose a sigh. "Did the scryings come back faulty for demonic taint?"

From the shared information, they learned that the west had experienced a demonic incursion a mere two centuries ago, one that swallowed a few kingdoms further southeast of the were-tribe coalition currently warring against Oriculus. However, that was but an unproven theory.

"Quite the contrary. There are quite a few places infested with Infernal Mana and small rifts for parasitic demons to slip through." The elven king raised the cup of bitter brew to his lips and took a sip, cringing at the taste. "This thing tastes foul."

Amusement crossed Demiurge's face. "I'm curious about your reasoning behind its consumption."

"Sebas said it would be excellent for restoring my strength," said the king without hesitation or shame. With an unuttered cast of [Summon Item], a yellowish porcelain container filled with sugar cubes appeared near his hand.

"Your unbounded trust in the dragonoid is truly heartening, my liege."

"Do not be so quick to condescend, Demiurge. The drink is indeed effective, though you might be right about the butler's disapproval showing in his actions." The king drowned the brew in sugar cubes and took another sip. "No. Still dreadful."

Demiurge expected as much. The drink was clearly alchemic in nature despite being offered as a remedy. Sebas had likely foreseen that King Arathron would attempt to flavour it with some sweetener and thus added ingredients to counteract the attempt.

He dismissed his amusement and returned to the pressing matters.

"About the Infernal Mana?"

"As I said, Re-Estize is infested with Infernal Rifts and places thick with Infernal Taint." The king pushed forward a black leather folder. "There has been a growing number of demon cultists within the fractured kingdom in lands governed by its least competent lords."

Demiurge stepped forward to retrieve the folder. He made little ceremony of its study, his eyes roaming through its contents.

It seemed his liege's mūgen had already gathered some basic facts about these lands. Demiurge's own investigation was still dragging; thus, he had to make do with the information derived from the maps to piece together basic truths.

When he opened the folder, he found the files inside were many, compressed by a spatial enchantment. "So even the dwarves residing within the Azerlisia mountains might be locked in a brutal war... or just dead."

He saw that his liege had also added: or enslaved to ice dragons. How the elven monarch arrived at that conclusion the demonologist did not know. Still, the fact that the dwarves had been absent from the public for more than 200 years did not inspire much hope for their fates.

"The mountain range is likely home to many cold-natured creatures. I see no reason for it to lack ice dragons, no?" The king answered him, still struggling with the drink.

Demiurge found it amusing to see King Arathron like this, with his long snow-white hair slightly frizzled and his expression marked with annoyance. Though the sight of him was not unpleasant; his inherent charm made such a possibility near impossible. Yet it was rather obvious the king had participated in a strenuous activity so early in the morning.

'I wonder what it is the queen was trying to achieve?' He doubted it was for her bi-daily attempts at pregnancy. 'Perhaps she seeks to secure a favorable position for House Smaragdina.'

Again, that was a moot point.

Evidently, it was foolish to think the pair needed some profound reasoning to engage in coupling. It seemed an important aspect of their lives, though how the monarch would cope with his wife's pregnancy, Demiurge was unsure.

The demonologist shook off such thoughts and gave proper attention to the files in his hands. "Should we make contact with the dwarves a priority? You have yet to set a primary nation for our initial contact, I believe."

His liege shook his head. "We needn't be so focused on initiating communications. Our priority will be building our kingdom; for that, I want the highest of care." It was a logical response. "As for contact, we will start with the stray villages around these lands and the dark elves within the forest proper."

Demiurge nodded. "I suspect you'll have Mare handle them?"

It had been a surprise to find multiple colonies of elves within the great forest, especially considering the number of strong creatures roaming its inner wilds. Yet it was not an unwelcome one, at least from Elgroth's standpoint.

The dark elves were in a point of struggle, terrorized by riled-up beasts fleeing from the taint of the corrupted treant and the starvation it wrought upon them.

"'Tis an opportune moment to win their loyalty, is it not?" the king said, an amused smile on his lips. "And to have kindreds like Aura and Mare bring that aid would lessen suspicion and reluctance."

Demiurge agreed with that logic. "Though is it wise to intervene so soon? Would it not be favourable to allow them to simmer in such misery a bit longer before we act the saviours?"

"Not quite. Currently, the elves are on the fringes of desperation and frustration. They'd be grateful and happy for aid, especially once they learn of our recent arrival. If we allow them to fester and suffer much longer, they'll turn angry and bitter." His liege sighed. "I'm looking for people still full of the desire to live and be happy, not bitter warriors fuelled by vengeance so far gone."

Demiurge would have scowled, but even he had standards, regardless of the king's leniency on proper decorum.

"The carrot then?" he muttered under his breath, grey eyes returning to the file. He rather preferred the scheming and manipulative aspects of politics, not the charity, much less when it was done without notable opposition.

Yet the man was smart enough to not show his sadistic tendencies so blatantly, thus he swallowed his displeasure and returned to reading the report.

He came upon the parts regarding the demonic presence prevalent within the kingdom fractured west of Elgroth—the Re-Estize Kingdom. It seemed to have been a problem for a century and a half now, ever since the kingdom went into a fracture as the result of the main royal line dying out during the Demon Wars…

He wondered who was responsible for that whole debacle.

…due to that, a persistent civil war broke out among the remaining nobles with many claiming blood ties to the royals. Throughout it all, the peasantry suffered most, thus it was no surprise when cults that proclaimed the banished Evil Kings as gods started to surface and gain followers.

It was probably the result of an individual either corrupted or possessed by a parasitic demon of sacrifice…or maybe it was just a very passionate diabolist. It was hard to tell when it came to these things.

Regardless, this led to another outbreak of demons, though on a much lesser scale. This event was dubbed "The Cleanse," and it involved the theocracy south of Re-Estize and its Templars marching north to slaughter suspected and tainted alike. Though it seemed they were not cautious enough to purify the Infernal Taint left behind, thus a few curious souls did still suffer possession.

Demiurge wanted to both laugh and cry. How could a kingdom, even if fractured, be so incompetent? Didn't they keep records of restricted sites or a dedicated mage unit to handle the demonic incursions so native to their nation? Gods, even mass awareness would be a reasonable deterrent at this point.

He looked up and sighed. "So, Re-Estize has a demonic beast problem? Why?" His liege seemed amused, no doubt he picked up on his frustration.

The king smiled. "It's not as widespread as you might believe. The reason behind the nobles' incompetence would be their general distrust of magi." He paused and allowed Demiurge to digest the information before continuing. "After 'The Cleanse,' the nobles took to blaming the magi within their lands for the whole affair. Along the way, they seemed to come to believe their own lies."

That explained the ignorance. "Have they no methods of combating the creatures?"

"None that I know of. However, there are still remnants of the Adventurer's Association—an independent combatant organisation with the goal of defending humanity against the evils of the world."

This time the demonologist frowned. "That…seems utterly stupid. Who would allow such a huge security risk to roam free within their lands?"

"That's what I said," the elven monarch exclaimed, arms thrown into the air in theatrical exaggeration. "Regardless, the organisation has been successful in subjugating the larger beasts in recent years through the support of King Ramposa's youngest daughter."

Demiurge flipped the page to the Re-Estize's three factions. There was the Vaiself, a 'former' duke house with blood connections to the first king of Re-Estize—it seemed it was a cadet house of the old royals. The house was led by Ramposa, the third of his name, and it currently had the largest number of supporters and lands within its corner.

He seemed an honest man, this Ramposa; unfortunately, honesty did not quite translate into rulership. Though a few of his progeny did seem competent.

'None of which are his heir.'

The second house was the Raeven. Funnily, its head had not proclaimed himself king despite his predecessors having done so. The house was a marquis and it drew its claim to the throne from being descendants of the last true king's paternal aunt.

Such obscurity!

Elias was the current head, and he was a man with some degree of pragmatism, at least more so than the other two. Though he had a smaller following, he did have the most prosperous lands and wealth.

The third house was the Boullope, a former marquis turned 'warrior king.' Despite its head's recent ascension to kingship, quite a significant number of nobles stood behind the man in support. Unfortunately, aside from their deserving boast in martial might, there seemed nothing else remarkable about the man and his faction, which in itself seemed curious.

Demiurge breathed and snapped the folder shut. "I believe I have the scope of things within the kingdom." He turned his gaze to his liege. "What would you have me do, my king?"

"There's a very prominent syndicate rooted within Re-Estize that deals in all things criminal. I would like for you to infiltrate its ranks, though your methods need be soft and cooperative."

That would explain the mystery behind Boullope's following. Well, it was either that or the whole faction was just an army of thralls.

Demiurge pushed his round spectacles back onto his nose bridge with a leather-gloved finger, a smile beginning to form on his lips. This he could work with.

"You mean the creation of a proxy spy network, no?"

"For now," was the answer from his king. "In the future, you will expand its reach and establish it as a true criminal empire in the underworld."

So it would be a patient infiltration. That should not be difficult to achieve.

"You wish for it to act as a front for Elgroth's future machinations?"

"That and more. It will prove a very important part of Elgroth's expansion."

The elven monarch's unblemished face did not quite express joy, still struggling with the half-drunk brew, but the demonologist felt there was a spike of thrill within his tone.

"Oh!"

Then the cold seeped in like the winter's thirst. The false veil breaking.

[3rd Haven] was the first to lose its stability under the molded and focused onslaught of Frost Aura. The hard-shell illusionary barrier that had allowed the faux presence of his liege to appear as if he was in the advisory room shattered like broken glass.

Demiurge had nary a feeling of fright rush his heart at the sight, already accustomed to his friend's winter field making little work of low-tier spell fields. Next to go was the sound insulation barrier, though its fall was not a sensory spectacle.

"Demiurge," Cocytus' voice was rich and booming. "I had expected you would be the first to be here."

He turned to regard the larger man, the demonologist's own feelings of joy surfacing but controlled.

Cocytus stood there, large and muscled, with his frame bedecked in a phenomenal pale lavender suit so unlike his militant fashion. He had a large smile on his face—a grin full of white teeth and crinkled glacier eyes—that promised joyous news yet to be shared.

"Cocytus," his own voice was shaky, slightly frightful that the blue-haired man might just decide to give him a crushing hug. "You seem to be in a grand mood."

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Information [Magics]

1. Lust: A sin demon of lust. Demons of lust are infernal beings of intense allure and seduction, most commonly known for draining the liveforce of their victims or hosts through sexual means.

*They often appear in dreams as beings of an otherworldly beauty and captivation, unless a dedicated ritual is performed to summon them in which case they would appear in their ever-changing grotesque form.

**Individuals under Lust's possession would gain rapid beauty and an insatiable desire for sex to the point of explosive madness when denied it for great lengths (a single day).

2. Myst: A mundane curse that increases a person's sexual drive.

3. Infernal Mana: This is the type of corrosive mana utilised for demonic spellcraft. Left to linger within the real-space, it can warp a location into a semi-suitable place for demons to exist without the assistance of a sacrificial host or contractor (summoner).

4. [Summon Item]: An 8th-tier spell that allows the caster to summon marked items to themselves regardless of distance. It's mana charge is proportional to the mass and quantity.

5. Infernal Rifts: Portals caused by high amounts of Infernal Mana. These portals allow demons of a certain degree of strength to slip into real-space without need for a summoning.

6. Infernal Taint: The negative effects Infernal Mana has on real-space. I.E demonic corruption on land and creature. All demons exude this taint, though the type of taint is closely related to the demon's nature.

7. [3rd Haven]: This is a complex 6th-tier communication spell creates real-time hard-light illusions of the individuals using it, allowing them to appear within each other's vicinities and enabling limited physical interaction if cast under a supporting barrier.

8. Frost Aura: An extremely cold shroud inherent to individuals with an extreme ice affinity. The shroud also has a domination effect in matters of cold and ice. I.E the aura is capable of appropriating control over foreign ice.