After discovering that he couldn't enter the city due to the World Cores mana, Victor settled on a frontal assault with his army. He had expected greater resistance from the Frostlands, but all that met him were starved soldiers and peasants. Their faces were sunken and hollow; they had no fighting spirit as they quivered before his army. Some even threw down their weapons in surrender. Victor was naturally perplexed by the sight and wasn't sure what to do.
"Alice," he asked the floating girl wreathed in shadows beside him, "why are they surrendering like this?"
Alice shrugged her shoulders. "I hadn't expected much of a fight anyways. With famine throughout the continent, the Frostlands were going to be the worst affected. And I doubt the arrival of the [Demon Lord] did them much help."
"So, what should we do now?" Victor asked.
"We could slaughter them all, raise them as undead, and take the city," Alice suggested. "It's not like they will offer much of a fight anyways. This could all be over by sundown, and then we could pivot and deal with the other world cores."
"Alice, stop being bloodthirsty. Look, they've thrown down their weapons. There's no reason to slaughter them like that."
"You can't be serious," Alice laughed as she gestured to the giant undead army sprawling out below them shrouded in a mist of blue mana. "You think they'll see us as a peace envoy? We have approached their gates with hundreds of undead."
“If they are so weak, it doesn't matter if they see us as a peace envoy or not. But I refuse to slaughter an entire city of people for no good reason, especially if they lay down their arms like this. I mean, look." Victor gestured with a claw at the distant wall. "Even the soldiers up on the wall have thrown down their weapons and are praying to the heavens. Why don't we become the salvation they seek? A simple hot meal would go a long way with winning them over."
Alice seemed to ponder his suggestion for a moment, and eventually sighed. "Fine. Let's give it a go. What should we do first?"
"Well, I can't float any closer to the wall, or past it, until my army has expanded my demon core's territory. So, I will need you to make them open the gate to let them through."
Alice raised her brow. "You serious? Why don't we just blast it open ourselves?"
"Alice, we are a peace envoy, remember? At least give them a chance to try and open it."
"Alright, alright, I'm going." Alice floated towards the wall, stood upon one of the battlements, and deactivated her stealth skill. The soldiers reacted immediately to her presence, and the trembling fear in their eyes vanished and was replaced with awe.
Victor couldn't blame them. Alice had an otherworldly beauty, and slightly inhuman appearance with liquid gold eyes and veins, due to the royal card she had absorbed into her soul.
"Are you an envoy of the Goddess?" one of the soldiers shouted with a trembling voice.
"I don't believe in the gods," Alice replied. "I am here on orders from the [Demon Lord] and request for you to open the gate and allow his army through. It may sound odd… but we come in peace."
The soldiers exchanged a glance. "We are unable to," one of them said, with exhaustion lacing every word.
"Are you defying the Demon Lord?" Alice raised her voice as the shadows that wreathed around her form mirrored her anger.
"We would never be so foolish, Mistress of Death," one of them fell to his knees and begged while showing his frail arms. "We simply lack the strength to pull the pulley system."
Alice looked over her shoulder at where Victor was still in stealth, and seemed confused as to what to do.
"Just open it for them," Victor said telepathically to Alice. "You are level 317. You have enough strength to punch a hole through this wall without breaking a sweat, so raising a metal gate should be easy."
Alice rolled her eyes and leapt off the wall, floating down toward the gate. She didn't even touch the gate and instead her eyes lit up with power as she used telekinesis to make the gate shudder and then with a screech slowly rise before the army of the undead.
It was in moments like these that Victor realized the Netherborne race was solely designed for pure destruction. Such a simple spell like telekinesis wasn't available to him. "Thank you, Alice. That was really helpful," Victor said as he directed the undead army to march forth. The ground shuddered as thousands of undead skeletons pulled through the newly opened gate.
With his army advancing, Victor felt the mana barrier from the Frostlands' world core retreat. So he casually floated over the wall and past the soldiers who were watching the undead army harmlessly pass under them. None of them noticed him due to his maxed-out stealth skill and Alice soon floated beside him.
"We should have just blasted that stupid old gate. The thing was falling apart anyways," Alice grumbled.
Victor chuckled. "I may be able to create things from almost nothing inside my dungeon, but out here, replacing something like that old gate would be a real pain. So it's best to leave it be. And hey, if we end up conquering this city, it would look bad on us if we destroyed the city's only protection from other countries."
"I suppose that's true," Alice agreed, and the two continued in silence up the ravine's long, well-trodden path towards the Frostlands city. Victor noted that the steep, almost cliff like faces on either side of the road would have made this the perfect location to stage a defence. Yet, other than the few soldiers stationed on the wall, Victor had not encountered anyone.
"If all countries have this lax security," Victor said, "then conquering the world is going to be a breeze."
"I thought you were against conquering the world," Alice squinted at Victor. "And dream on. The Frostlands have never been invaded by another country in its long history. Due to its trade agreements and crappy location, it's fully dependent on the Kingdom of Eshnar for food, and its only real economy is mining, which is a finite resource. The Delvers' Guild here is also incredibly pathetic and underfunded."
"Does that mean the Grand Dungeon here is also weaker than those in other countries?" Victor asked.
"No, quite the opposite actually," Alice mused. "Because the dungeon isn't delved into enough, the monsters are far too strong, which makes it too dangerous. Most of the delvers here stick to the upper floors, harvesting the monsters for materials that will be used in weapons and armor."
"If the monsters' materials can be used in such a way, surely it would be rather lucrative for a delver from another country to visit here."
Alice shrugged her shoulders. "I suppose. But the monster materials are heavy to lug around, so they can only realistically be sold to the locals here, who will decide the price that you are paid. And since the lower floors are too dangerous, it's hard to grind for EXP here. Not to mention the shitty weather, crappy imported food, rude locals, and uh, whatever, you get the point."
Victor had to agree with that. If there were perfectly fine dungeons that weren't life-threatening back home, why travel through the cursed forest just to live in the mountains for mediocre pay?
The path up the mountains was long, and Victor was getting impatient, but there was nothing he could do. He was restricted by the marching speed of his army. Luckily, before the sun had fully gone down, they reached the zenith of the path, and Victor got a good look at the Frostland Capital. It reminded him of the Victorian era, with well-crafted brick houses lining wide cobblestone roads, likely wide to allow for carts transporting minerals and monster parts.
It appeared word of the approaching army had reached the citizens of the Frostlands, as Victor could already see people holding bags of belongings fleeing down the street. Not that he could blame them, of course. His army did look very terrifying, but it was a peace envoy. There was nothing to be afraid of.
"Listen up, my army," Victor said through the Black Ocean Network as he connected to all nearby nodes. "Do not harm the citizens of the Frostlands. In fact, help them. We come here in peace."
A wave of groans came from the army as they agreed to his command and continued their march forth. Up ahead, the door to a building that appeared to be a bakery swung open, and an elderly woman, alongside a middle-aged man, ran into the cobbled streets. Both of them looked at the approaching army, and their faces went white with fear.
"Mother, we need to run," the man tried to pull on the elderly woman's hand, but she stood rooted in place as she stared down the thousands of undead. The man continued trying to pull her along, going so far as to drag her with such force that she almost fell over. "Mother, what's wrong?" the man desperately insisted.
The elderly woman pointed a shaking hand at Victor. "It's an Angel," she murmured.
Victor was confused but then remembered that he had his stealth skill activated, and the woman was actually pointing at Alice, who was beside him.
"That's no fucking Angel," the man shouted, pulling his mother out of her daze. "That's the harbinger of death!"
All the while, Victor's army continued marching forth and was now upon the pair. The man took one look between his mother and the approaching army and, with tears streaming from his eyes, he turned and ran, leaving his mother to face the undead alone.
The elderly woman fell backward, her eyes dead set on Alice, who floated overhead. She said a silent prayer and closed her eyes.
Victor watched the dramatic scene with a sigh, starting to understand why Alice had said no one would see them as a peace envoy. Something about a thousand groaning undead marching down the streets of the living incited a little bit too much fear in people's hearts.
The woman, of course, was not slaughtered by the undead, but instead, one of them stepped forward and offered her a helping hand. The undead stood there with its outstretched hand for quite a while as the woman quivered and shook, muttering a prayer under her breath. Clueless of the waiting undead.
"Lady," Alice shouted, "you can open your eyes. We are not here to hurt you. Rather, we come offering salvation."
"Good one," Victor whispered as the elderly woman opened her eyes and saw the outstretched hand from the skeleton. Hesitantly, while looking at Alice, she took the hand and was helped to her feet.
After finding her footing, the elderly woman surprisingly thanked the skeleton and then took in a deep breath and, to everyone's bafflement, screamed at the top of her lungs, "Jonathan, you bastard! I told you it was an Angel. You'll go to hell for leaving me behind like that."
There was a brief silence, and then Alice burst out laughing, which was very uncharacteristic of her due to her usually dulled emotions. She floated down to the woman. "Old lady, don't be so angry at your son. He wasn't wrong. I am no Angel, but I do come in peace."
"Oh. Well, peace is good enough for me," the old woman chuckled, and then, digging into the wicker basket she held under her arm, she pulled free a loaf of bread. It looked as hard as a block of stone that made up the surrounding houses. "I was saving this for a grand escape," the old lady admitted, "but I'm too old and frail now. So, I would like you to have it. Think of it as thanks for exposing my son as a bastard."
Alice politely declined. "Old lady, I'm not even human. I have no need for something like food anymore."
The lady gazed into Alice's golden eyes and nodded with a knowing smile. "But the humanity hasn't left you." She then looked over her shoulder. "I suppose none of your skeleton friends over there would want it either."
"No, I don't think they would," Alice laughed again. "Maybe you could use it to hit your son over the head."
The old woman seemed to contemplate the idea and then slowly nodded. "What a great idea. I suppose it is hard enough to be a lethal weapon."
Although the conversation was amusing, Victor was only half-listening as he scoured the city. His objective was to locate the residence of whoever ruled this place to explain that he came in peace.
Locating the castle was easy, as it loomed over all of the other buildings by at least a few stories. Since it was only a few roads away, deeper into the city, Victor directed his army in that direction.
"Come on, Alice, leave the elderly woman," Victor said telepathically. "We're heading for the palace."
Alice bid the elderly woman farewell, and the two made their way over to the palace.
Right as they arrived at the castle's gates, they were rudely interrupted by a sudden explosion. Victor identified the source immediately as being the entrance to the Frostlands Grand Dungeon. A plume of smoke soon followed, and Victor could feel thousands of monsters pouring out of the dungeon's entrance.
"What the hell is happening?" Victor wondered as he floated up above the city. "Is the dungeon trying to attack my army directly before I can get inside?"
He wasn't sure, but he knew he needed to deal with it quickly. So, he directed Alice to talk to the silver-haired girl who was standing on the castle wall and was likely a noble of this place, while he decided to deal with the Grand Dungeon.
Seeing that the Frostlands' people were being overwhelmed and slaughtered, Victor readied a [Doom Ray]. Purple lightning crackled between his outstretched claws, and for a brief moment, his stealth deactivated as purple lightning shot across the city, illuminating the world, and smashed into the Grand Dungeon's entrance, obliterating a giant monster and setting the area ablaze.
With that distant threat settled, Victor returned his focus and noticed that Alice had wiped out some nearby monsters with Hellfire. So, he decided to raise them as minions and instructed them to secure the city and conquer the distant Grand Dungeon. The freshly raised monsters roared and scampered down the streets, leaving Victor to have a conversation with the princess before him.
It wasn’t an ideal backdrop for a talk, but he did come in peace…
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