Moku stared at the camp in front of him, which looked more like a defense fortress. The tall walls made of wood seemed weak and incapable of protecting what was behind them. However, upon closer inspection, transparent diagrams on the walls revealed the presence of various spells.
Moku, along with the other monsters, walked, pushing their carts closer to the gate, where a demon stood guard. It was the first time the monsters had seen a demon up close, and they were puzzled, especially the asuras. They couldn't determine the demon's gender or, more precisely, the demon seemed to have no gender at all.
Having been accustomed to dealing with alraunes, the asuras had learned to control their instincts when faced with such ambiguity. Being asuras meant they also possessed inner eyes, which helped calm their gender recognition instincts.
As the demon saw the approaching monsters, it tilted its head in confusion. Why were these monsters outside the camp? It remembered that no monsters had been assigned outside the camp that day. However, upon seeing the monsters pushing carts, it assumed they were assigned to forage in the Bog forest.
Nevertheless, it needed to verify this first. The demon flapped its wings and descended from the gate. The monsters didn't show any fear, which only added to the demon's unease. Normally, monsters would tremble in fear when a demon approached them like this.
"Where are you from?" it asked in Demon Language.
Each monster brought from their respective continents understood Demon Language, or rather, they had to understand it. Demons didn't want to waste their mana just to communicate with these vermin-like monsters. So, for their survival, the monsters had no choice but to understand Demon Language.
However, the monsters in front of it seemed to not understand what it was saying. They merely looked at the demon and then turned to the young orc at the forefront of the group. They appeared to be waiting for orders from the young orc and ignored the demon as if it wasn't there.
This infuriated the demon. How dare these vermin ignore it! But its survival instincts, honed through harsh living conditions on the demon continent, made it feel that this disregard posed a significant threat. Thus, it suppressed its anger and asked again, for the second time,
"Who are you?"
Before it could receive an answer, a hand, not even a quarter of the demon's head size, gripped the demon's throat. It was startled and reflexively tried to step back, but it felt like it was bound by a mountain, unable to move at all. The young orc who had been three meters away was now standing right in front of it, gripping its head.
He couldn't even detect the young orc's movement, and in the blink of an eye, his head was already in the young orc's grip. The demon's body trembled, realizing the vast difference in strength between itself and the young orc before it.
"Well, we don't have much time because the humans will be arriving soon," said the young orc in a language the demon didn't understand. However, he had heard the same language when the captive monsters spoke to each other.
"Who are you?" the demon asked, trying not to tremble.
But once again, before it could receive an answer, it felt as though thousands of bees stung its head. It wanted to scream in pain, but its tongue felt stiff and could only helplessly stick out. In a short moment, the demon's eyes turned white before returning to normal, but with a vacant gaze.
Moku disabled the demon's ability to think and connected its empty mind to Pandava. This way, Pandava could easily control the demon as if it were a marionette controlling a puppet.
The demon, now with empty eyes, stepped back before leaping back onto the gate. It looked at the demons below and spoke with a stiff, robotic voice, "Open the gate!"
The demons below the gate didn't suspect anything and simply obeyed the command. They turned the lever, and the gate slowly opened.
Moku and the other monsters casually pushed their carts and entered the camp. The demons below the gate gave them odd glances but didn't suspect anything and returned to their respective activities, idling.
As reported by Gobuka and Boguka, there were many demons in this camp. Their numbers reached almost a hundred, with the majority being Level 1 Demon Cores. Unlike in their home continent, demons in Meer Continent didn't prey on each other. Their hunger had been satisfied by the abundance of mana species they found.
Therefore, instead of preying on each other and reducing their numbers, the demons chose to go to battlefields and feast on the mages who were killed. Their overwhelming numbers sometimes became a problem due to the limited amount of mages present in the battles. But because of this, every time a war began, the demons would fiercely compete to advance and attack, like famished pigs summoned by the sound of the feeding bell.
Moku also heard the news from Lordo that thousands of new demons would enter the Meer Continent from the Demon Continent every day. Their numbers continued to grow endlessly. Every mana species the demons consumed served as nourishment to make them rapidly stronger.
Once all the monsters had entered the camp, they were intercepted by a demon with a long horn on its head. The horn curved and sharp at the tip, resembling a rhino's tusk. Its dark red skin had prominent hard bones on its limbs. It looked like a Hellboy with only one horn.
"What have you brought?" it asked in the demon language.
When Moku took control of the previous demon's thinking with Pandava, he also gained the ability to understand the demon language. However, pronouncing a foreign language wasn't easy.
"W-w-wE Br-broUGHT H-hUMan FLE-sh," he stammered in the stiff demon language.
But 'Hellboy's' suspicion and anger quickly dissipated like foam blown by the wind upon hearing "Human Flesh." Its attention immediately shifted to the carts that Moku and the monsters brought. Other demons also gathered around, swarming the carts carried by the monsters.
The monsters quickly stepped aside, making way for the possessed demons. As the coverings of the carts were lifted, the aroma of fresh human flesh spread throughout the camp. Chaos erupted in an instant, with the demons fiercely competing to get their hands on the contents of the carts.
Their camp was located quite far from the frontline of the war. In fact, it was situated outside the defense lines formed by the three alliances. The cave that Moku and the monsters entered was a secret passage to bypass those defense lines.
The demons in this camp were tasked with finding a secret route to penetrate the human defenses without being detected by detection spells. That's why the camp was located in a slightly secluded area.
They used the monsters to search for this secret path. With bodies devoid of mana, the monsters wouldn't be detected by the detection spells. Thus, they could approach the defense lines created by the three alliances.
As a consequence, the demons in this camp couldn't go to the battlefield for some time. Although the Demon General had provided them with some mana species prisoners, they had consumed them all several days ago. It was only natural that they lost control in this manner.
Unbeknownst to the demons who were busy fighting for human flesh, the monsters had vanished from around them. Using their inner eye, the monsters sneaked into the place where the other monsters were held captive.
They entered an underground passage with almost no air circulation. With their inner eyes, the asura realized that the condition of the imprisoned monsters was worse than they had imagined.
Only a few dozen orcs and goblins remained, and they looked emaciated with lifeless eyes. They appeared like walking corpses, a stark contrast to the monsters living in Wilwatikta Kingdom with full bellies and smiles.
No demons guarded these captive monsters, and the room where they were held wasn't even locked. This indicated that even if a monster intended to escape, they would only end up returning to this place, but in a worse state than before.
As Moku and the monsters entered the room, the hobgoblins without inner eyes gasped in shock. They were appalled by the pitiful state of the monsters before them. Their hands clenched so tightly that they injured their palms.
Moku then spoke in the monster language, "Who is your leader?"
But the prisoners only stared and ignored him. Moku asked for the second time, "Who is your leader?" Yet, the same thing happened, and no monster answered his question.
They looked so lifeless, their heads bowed, and their eyes empty. There was no sign of spirit or hope left in them. They seemed like mere heaps of flesh waiting for time to rot them away. Moku observed that the current condition of the monster prisoners was even worse than that of the orcs in the past.
At that moment, Moku raised his voice louder, "PALAKA!"
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