"I know, I had already started once you toured a couple of the towns, I had a fear that they would be doing this, and my fears were proven right." Aethion suddenly said to Reign.
The demons were currently screaming out in pain as their souls were being tortured by multiple magic arrays that Aethion had placed on them. Each one caused enough pain for a normal human's soul to collapse, but the demons were strong and their souls were many times more powerful and resilient compared to a human's soul, which allowed them to continue existing and enjoy every ounce of the pain they were being caused.
'What did they do?'
"It's their leader, while they were fused with the bodies of the two kings, the last demon had started working on an array, one that encompassed both the kingdoms."
"The other two demons, however, were using the kings."
"Each time the kings went to sleep, the demons would take over their bodies without them noticing and would help out with the array from long-range by using a device they had on them, it took them a long time, probably the whole time they were fighting against Riplas to finally finish the array a couple of days ago."
'What did it do?'
"It's just as we have feared, Reign." Aethion suddenly said in a heavy voice, "The array was created for one purpose, to connect the kingdoms with the demon plane and bring forward a massive amount of demonic energy that would overflow from the two kingdoms."
"The demon used that demonic energy with another array they had placed over the original, which would force the demonic energy to gather at places that were high in population, and turn all of them into demonic creatures."
"Not only does the demon now have a massive army, but he is also being strengthened by the demonic energy, his power is above those at the same tier."
"This will not be an easy battle Reign, you might not be able to win against him," Aethion said as Reign stayed silent.
He wasn't afraid of the enemy.
No.
He was enraged.
How many humans were turned into demonic creatures unwillingly by the demon?
The number was too high to even be counted.
Millions of people had been turned, all of them having their own dreams and desires. Some wished to simply grow up old and see their kids and grandkids.
Some wished to become soldiers, some farmers, and others perhaps researches or merchants in order to earn enough money to support their families.
All of them are unique in their own way.
And now, now they had been turned into demonic creatures, mindless beasts that simply lived to fight and slaughter.
None of them had an intact soul, their mind was corrupted and twisted, made only to serve the demon that had managed to turn them and gain control over them.
"You have to tell the king to go back, you also need to go to the other kingdom, go with full speed and warn the others, otherwise they might get surrounded by the enemy and killed," Aethion warned Reign who steeled himself before turning around.
"Your Majesty, you need to leave." Reign said before taking the king to the side and telling him what was happening.
Upon hearing what had happened, and how many enemies there now were, the king grew pale.
He knew that no matter what the enemy had done, it would have been a horrible thing, but he never expected something as horrible as this to happen. For the millions of people that had lived in the two kingdoms to have suddenly turned into demonic creatures, was beyond anything he had ever thought of.
Not just his army, but even if all the kingdoms that had existed before Riplas managed to defeat the alliance had joined together, they wouldn't have been able to have such numbers, nor would they have been able to defeat so many enemies.
For every soldier in a kingdom, there would be 6 - 7 citizens present. That meant that even Riplas with their population and a huge increase in recruiting soldiers for the last year only had about 400 000 soldiers in their army.
It was impossible for them to go against such odds.
Perhaps if the enemy was human, they could.
With good tactics and plans, they could slowly chip away at them and bring down their morale by killing their leaders, but demonic creatures possessed no such thing as fear. They only felt rage and desire to kill.
Even if they had the superiority in numbers, it would still be incredibly difficult to win against such beings that simply charged forward to fight and kill.
"Don't worry, we will find a way to overcome this," Reign told the king as he grabbed his shoulder.
"They are now mindless monsters, even though that gives them benefits, there are also drawbacks to the enemy army not caring for danger, right?"
"Right, perhaps we can use this to our advantage, but that can only be done if we are the defending party, not the ones on offense."
"Yes, that's why you need to go back and tell the army about what is happening, then make your way to this place," Reign told the king as he took a map and showed a spot on it.
The area he pointed at was right outside the territory of the two kingdoms and was the place where their borders met.
"The enemy army is currently gathering between their capitals, there's no point in us attacking the capitals, there's also no way for us to simply wait for them back in Riplas as they would definitely use that to spread more demonic energy and turn more people into demonic creatures, further increasing their forces."
"That's why we need to be here, because they will be passing through this area, if they make changes, I will see it and make sure they follow me to this place, it's up to you guys to create traps and make sure that you can deal as much damage to them as you can before they reach you." Reign said before looking at Skye.
"Take her with you, and go back, I will meet up with Raigon and Eisenhorn to tell them the news."
"Alright, Reign." The king said before heading back inside the shack and picking Skye up.
"Good luck, and see you on the battlefield." The king said as Sky waved at Reign.
"Bye-bye big brother."
"Goodbye Skye, see you soon." Reign said with a smile before turning around and disappearing from the spot.
'Are you sure that the enemy will pass through that area?' Reign asked Aethion as he made his way toward the capital of the other kingdom.
"That's what the demons told me, it also makes sense, Riplas is the only force that can threaten them at the moment, the enemy would definitely be looking to get rid of them first since the other kingdoms don't have enough soldiers, or high-level combatants to threaten the demon and his army."
'Yeah, I guess it does make sense.'
'I just hope I get to Raigon and Eisenhorn on time.'
"You should, with the speed, those two are traveling, they still need about 7 hours to get to the capital, while you will only need about 4 – 5 to get there," Aethion said as Reign nodded his head before exploding with his full speed.
Lightning flickered around him and was left in his wake as he used his full speed to get to the capital.
And just like Aethion had said, he only needed about 4 and a half hours to get there.
He stood on a hill that overlooked the capital and stared at it.
The gates were closed, and nobody was going inside or outside the capital.
There were no guards on watch.
No activity at all, except for some demonic creatures that were walking around in front of the capital.
Reign could sense that they were all below Tier I and were extremely weak. They would pose no threat to the soldiers of Riplas, but when faced with millions of them, they would be a force to be reckoned with. Reign traveled to the side, calculating where Raigon and Eisenhorn would show up.
He knew where the two had started making their way toward the capital, which made it possible for him to know approximately where they would pass in order to reach here.
He looked at the map and made sure he knew where he was and where the two would be traveling through, before heading to meet them.
He went full speed ahead, and about 2 hours later, he was able to sense the two.
They were about 2 miles to his left, so he quickly stopped before charging at full speed to them. The two sensed him a bit later and stopped before getting ready to fight, only to be confused after realizing whose mana signature they were sensing.
"Reign, why are you here, what happened?" Raigon asked as Reign stopped about 100 meters in front of them before walking over to them.
As he came about 2 meters in front of Raigon, he quickly charged in and stabbed through the man's chest with his sword.
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