—Conquest of the Beasts—
The city of Lufhsem was built atop emerald fields of wild grasses and was truly a display of wonder. Its grace was matched by the backdrop of grand forests which helped in shaping the city to what it was today.
All materials these forests brought were of great importance, but they were also influential when it came to architectural designs as the vast majority of buildings were built alongside the trees and often incorporated many different forest elements.
The culture was rising in Lufhsem and it had attracted a lot of attention. A lot of new cultures had left their mark not just on the city's development, but also upon the city's identity. What historically was a city of few cultures had grown into a large melting pot and it was one of the reasons that united thousands of people to this day.
Although the main reason for its development was not something to be proud of. The city had simply become the only refuge for most of the survivors from the destroyed cities of the Draconic Kingdom, desperately struggling for their lives.
But today, the city would fall and go down in history just like all the neighboring cities around it. Unless an impossible miracle would take place, thousands of lives would meet their ends.
Fortunately, a deal with the devil has been made.
After the conversation with his master, Demiurge was lost in his pleasurable thoughts and forgot he was flying for a while. Not long enough, the archdevil realized and stopped straight away, noticing the city was already beneath him.
The city of Lufhsem was in a lively festival of panic and fear. People were roaring and running here and there, every nook and cranny of the town was bustling with the energy of survival instincts. Horses and wagons full of food and rations were on the move, evacuating populace were all over the place, undecided for what journeys they would end.
Tremors of the marching army were blatantly felt, shaking the entire city to its core.
The approaching army of four hundred thousand beastmen came to his view though he could not see any human captives around. Demiurge dismissed the minor problem and instead licked his frog lips in anticipation of the upcoming ocean of blood that would flow through the grassy plains of the Draconic Kingdom and bathed its lands with the very blood and sweat and flesh of its accursed invaders.
Excited to make the remaining Supreme Being proud of him, he did not waste a flicker of time and launched himself to the marching beastmen.
x x x
"Shaikh Gilthur!" A white boarman suddenly yelled to his left. Facing his king, he pointed out the direction of their target city.
"Calm down General Tradori, I have already seen the human city a while ago."
An imposing bullman said, laughing with the other generals. They were the figureheads of the beastmen army, marching on their way to the city of Lufhsem.
The bullman faced the boarman, noticing the distressed face of the general, still pointing towards the direction of the city. Or more accurately, he was pointing at the sky.
The bullman slowly looked up above and saw a being with bat-like wings in red clothing, fast approaching and falling from the sky. He raised a red-colored flag and took out his horn, directly blowing it long and loud, enough for the entire army to hear and recognized the signal to stop the march.
The toadman landed ten meters in front of the four hundred thousand strong beastmen army. He instantly fixed his posture and hovered three meters above the ground, enough for the entire army to see him. He conjured magic into his voice to be clearly heard by the entire beastmen army and the humans within and without the thick wooden walls of the city of Lufhsem.
"I'm Demiurge"
He introduced himself and gave an exaggerated bow putting the palm of his right hand on top of his left chest with his left hand folded at his back.
"I'm here to kill all of you and I will accept no surrender of any kind!"
"General Tradori! General Scardva!"
The bullman shouted at the boarman and the snakeman general respectively. Being the strongest in the beastmen country, he could feel any looming danger like it was a part of his breathing. But, as for the hovering toadman, he could not only feel it, he could also see it, he could even taste it.
The aura of bloodlust and terror as if seeing death right before his eyes.
"Let us negotiate with the toadman! I'm having a bad feeli—"
"Wa Ha Ha Ha Ha! Wa Ha Ha Ha Ha!"
Gilthur was not able to finish voicing his worries, the entire beastmen army plunged into roaring laughter of hundreds of thousands of predatory maws.
"Wa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!"
The toadman gave his own unparalleled level of mocking laughter in response. Due to his conjured voice, every laughing beastmen heard the toadman's laughter louder than their own.
And not wasting any more of his precious time, Demiurge activated [Command Mantra].
"Silence!"
Within the throb of their heart, as a response to the toadman's command, the beastmen army gradually stopped their laughing spree. Their weakening voices echoed one by one as they realized the sound of their laughter was gone.
Everyone started their soundless shouting, throwing words of curses against the toadman. Panic overcame the beastmen's faces, lost on whatever trickery was used against them.
Some of the beastmen got agitated, realizing their very voice was gone. And as a result of both distress and anger, General Tradori raised a green flag to take command. Taking his own battle horn, he blew it long and loud as a signal, not to march, but to push forward.
Everyone had two simple goals in their minds, to kill the toadman and subsequently, to trample the city into the ground.
Hundreds of thousands of beastmen ran into a race, heading for the city with a hearty battle cry.
The crowmen used their extra-long spears and pierced through the hovering toadman's body with numerous cuts and holes. And as the toadman fell immobile on the ground, the furious snakemen used their long knives, and one by one, each of them took their turn and impaled the toadman with all their might.
Dozens of apemen with their thorny clubs mercilessly mauled the helpless toadman, crushing its hopes together with its bones. A party of ten tigermen and ten lionmen ravaged and clawed the toadman as if a game of tug, brutally pulling, breaking, and tearing its body and wings apart.
After the brutality, a dying shriek reigned on the battlefield and the toadman's life was no more. The city was next and an unstoppable war or the city's early surrender would not matter.
The landslide victory of the beastmen army was destined to be inevitable.
That was supposed to be its end but—
"Stop!"
Demiurge commanded, raising both his arms open towards the beastmen army as if to offer a hug.
And as a response, not even taking more than a step, hundreds of thousands of beastmen, all of them, had stopped from their silent laughing and shouting and cursing. Some faces were confused, some of them were angered, but most of them were afraid.
For a beastman who was far more superior to most humans in the Draconic Kingdom, fear was a very foreign feeling. Now that such a feeling was slapped on their faces, they could simply imagine what horror awaits for them. Realizing the power imbued in the toadman's voice, they could be commanded easily and would die within a heartbeat.
'Maybe we should have negotiated after all.'
Shaikh Gilthur pondered in his thoughts, seeing the toadman's power getting over the will of his army. He looked up to the cruel skies.
'Emirya….…'
As he silently muttered the word, the bullman closed his eyes, remembering the name of the love of his life.
"Father! Wake up! Father!"
Shaikh Gilthur straightaway opened his eyes. He was back in his personal chamber, staring at a ceiling made of cypress wood with sandstone decorations, and on the corner of his eyes, he saw a large rectangular window exuding with the faint rays of the dawning sun. The room was built with polished blue stones as walls and had numerous pieces of wooden varnished furniture, fainty shining even on the tiniest light.
"Nalten? My son, what's the problem?"
The bullman woke up from his deep slumber only minutes before sunrise, lying on a big luxurious bed with a silky black sheet.
He had a patch of dark red hair straight through his nape littered with several silver strands, evidence of his growing old age. Two brown curved horns were the highlight of his head and despite his caducity, he still got the vigor of a young man.
"Father! More than half of Mother's body was already corrupted! And...—" A younger bullman sadly said, kneeling on the side of the bed.
He looked more human than a bull except for his legs, hooves, particularly large nose, and a majestic pair of horns. He had a small patch of rough brown hair in between the pair of his white curved horns protruding to the sides in parallel to his shoulders and a short slender tail overhanging at the top of his butt with a number of short black hairs on its end. His body was overflowing with life and strength— a man in his prime yet his round black eyes with slit-like brown pupils glowed with what it seemed as tears of sadness.
"And?!" The lying bullman exclaimed more than asked and swiftly shifted his head, facing the kneeling bullman on his right side.
"Father, some of her senses were also gone." The young bullman said with a defeated tone in his voice.
"What?!"
The lying bullman yelped and jolted up straight from his bed and after a deep breath, he stood up frantically as if jumping out of a bucket of cold water.
"Come, my son, let's go and see your mother at once!"
Both bullman, father and son, walked out of the room and dashed through the wide corridor with fast stomping steps.
And after a couple of minutes, they had arrived in front of a big double door. The old bullman quickly opened the doors with ease and both of them entered the room.
It was a peaceful room with two wide windows tinted in dark green. The room had a number of candle stands in every corner, holding five candles each as the main source of light.
The room was the castle's healing chamber.
Inside the wide room, a female bullman was lying on top of a huge luxurious bed with a silky white sheet. She had long black hair straight through her nape down to her shoulders. A pair of short horns were protruding from her head and coiled back down to her big ears. She had a dark skin complexion though her face was pale, evidence of her deteriorating health.
The old bullman approached the luxurious bed and knelt beside it, putting the palm of his left hand against the forehead of the lying female bullman.
"My Emirya!" The bullman whispered with a concerned voice.
His wife was sick or more like cursed. It was an unknown illness that had befallen upon her, causing her to be bedridden for years. And through those years, hunger and poverty started to rise upon the lands of the Beastman Kingdom. Their farmlands turned to deadlands, affecting their harvests and sources of food.
Faced against the grim situation of the kingdom, the beastmen had no other way but to go through great lengths just to cure the female bullman and in turn, cure their now cursed lands.
"Gilthur?"
Emirya responded with a weak voice. She raised her hand just before the face of the old bullman and caressed his cheeks. Though she could barely feel the rough skin of her husband, it was warm enough to feel his presence and love.
"I'm sorry, I can't see you anymore, but I can still hear your loving voice." She added with a forceful but sincere smile.
"Please bear with it a little more, Emirya! We are almost there! Your suffering will end soon."
Gilthur said with a hopeful voice, his eyes were almost bursting into tears. Simply seeing his wife every day in a declining state made the bullman's heart to be broken into pieces over and over again, sinking and drowning and suffocating in indescribable pain.
"Thank you Gilthur, for always loving me and our son." Emirya said and shifted her head facing her son, giving him a weak but warm smile.
"Nalten?"
Emirya raised her right hand, expending all the strength she could muster. In response, Nalten carefully took his mother's hand and knelt beside his father.
Emirya squeezed her son's hand and vaguely felt his warmth.
"I'm sorry for being weak and unable to take care of you and your father."
"Mother, you are sick and I know that you have always loved us." Nalten said and gave a little squeeze on his mother's frail and soft hands.
"I love you too and for that, I promise, as a man and as an Amir, father, and I will do anything and everything for you to be cured." Nalten said with a weak smile and conviction in his voice.
"You can sleep now Emirya, my love."
Gilthur said and slid his hands from her forehead down through her face, closing her tired eyes.
"You will be cured sooner than you think."
The bullman promised, reassuring his wife.
'The cure is needed, the sacrifice must be met and the bargain will be fulfilled.'
Gilthur reaffirmed his thoughts. He had no other option and despite the cruelness, it must be done. His conquest was for the betterment of the Beastman Kingdom. It was not a choice, it was a necessity, not for the country's glory but for its survival.
'Sagajana… I beg of your blessing… please guide me and our kingdom in this conquest…'
Shaikh Gilthur stood together with his son. Shifting his body, he faced the young bullman. With burning determination in his eyes, he clenched his fists strong and hard.
"Amir Nalten. Summon all the generals of the warring tribes. We have a kingdom to conquer!"
A/N: Some supporting OCs from the Beastman Kingdom: Shaikh/King Gilthur, Shaikhah/Queen Emirya, Amir/Prince Nalten, Boarman General Tradori, Snakeman General Scardva.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Overlord Universe.