Eldritch Creature's Guide

Heart of the City, Selangrad, Human Continent, 8th Floor of the Tower, around the same time when Samiel entered the Core Layer of the Selangrad.

In the Layer Heart of the City, a fierce battle between the various Gold-Tier Professionals was taking place as the demons were tearing their way to the small plateau where the Dimensional Gate stood and several humans desperately tried to activate it to no vail.

Several of the Gold-Tier humans were holding the tide against the Gold-Tier demons while some of the remaining human Gold-Tiers were attempting to activate the Dimensional Gate. Everyone had exactly divided roles and was under great pressure because the time was tickling.

The Dimensional Gate, which the Human Brotherhood had constructed in the Heart of the City, was constructed like crap; that was apparent just from the outer appearance of the Dimensional Gate; it was evident and most obvious that it was trash one.

To construct a proper Dimensional Gate, one needed a lot of knowledge on that aspect, aside from countless rare resources for the Dimension Gate. Someone couldn't construct something precious and that advanced luke the Dimensional Gate just with scraps of metal and some random magically conductive stones.

From the outer appearance, it was clear that the Diimensioanl Gate was constructed under great duress and with enormous haste. Countless of its parts were just mashed up together and in some places, there was even a lack of the primary runic inscriptions that were engraved on the Dimensional Gate.

This was a signal of that the Human Brotherhood lacked anyone apart from things like constructing Dimensional Gates and even someone who had some rudimentary knowledge of Space. Usually, Dimensional Gates require people with deep knowledge of Space and Dimensional Elements very easily.

Knowledge of the Space Element was most important in constructing things like the Dimensional Gate because even a single mistake could lead to either destruction or something else happening with the Dimensional Gate.

Suddenly, as several of the Gold-Tier human Professionals ended activating the Dimensional Gate, it shone in bright light as the process of activation began. For a few seconds, everything looked good as five of the human Gold-Tier Professionals were looking at the Dimensional Gate with worry and anticipation as they wanted to escape from here as soon as possible.

Only for the Dimensional Gate to start going rampant as the energy that was being released by the Dimensional Gate was out of the charts, and only after several seconds did the founders of the Human Brotherhood notice that this was going very, very, very wrong and they were right on that.

Out of nowhere, the Dimensional Gate exploded into countless parts as the shockwave threw all the people surrounding the Dimensional Gate away while also killing several of the weaker ones. When this happened, it seemed like the entire world had crashed down on the leaders of the Human Brotherhood.

Seeing this chance, the Gold-Tiers of the demon army erupted with power as they started advancing towards the humans, who right now were in a state of realization that all of their efforts were completely futile.

The Dimensional Gate, which was set to lead into some random Lower World, was their last option for escape, but as expected, it didn't work; considering how it was built, it wasn't even that kind of surprise.

***

Siege lines of the demon army, Selangrad.

"Lord General, the advance squad has breached the Heart of the City and the Dimensional Gate has been destroyed. Together with it, the explosion has destabilized space around the Heart of the City, so..."

The adjutant, who was also a Golden-Horned Demon, reported to Lord General Qais of the invading demon army, who nodded his head in satisfaction about this.

He suspected that the founders of the Human Brotherhood would escape together with the resources they managed to sizzle from the Avalon Kingdom and whoever was supporting them.

It would be the only logical move in this situation because they would be aware that they would die here if they remained on the 8th Floor and chose to fight to the death.

Thus he crafted the plan in a way where he would send a group of their Gold-Tiers that would go straight for the Heart of the City and thwart their attempts to escape. Obtaining the resources that they sizzled away from the Avalonians was not that important, but they were just the cherry on top.

"Yes... lower the usage of the Spells on the Selangrad for now and employ more of the artillery bombardment. And also, send in the rest of the army, the Outer Layer is already technically ours and the human forces are withdrawing to the Inner Layer of the city."

The Lord General Qais ordered as the adjutant whom he was talking to ran to carry out his orders unconditionally, as the conquest of the Selangrad was going well... truth be told it was going too well, and that was not a good sign.

Typically when something was going too well and smoothly without any problems, it would be then royally fucked up. Not that he was aware that his intuition that was giving him an uneasy feeling all this time was actually right because Star-Moon Coalition was already in the Central Area and only several hours from the Selangrad.

"How are our losses so far?"

Lord General Qais questioned, after some time of consideration, he asked how high the losses of their army had been.

"Lesser than initially anticipated, the initial estimation were losses of at least 30% + entire vanguard, but we are currently with 15% and at least a third of the vanguard survived the initial clash."

Answered the adjutant of the Lord Commander of the demon army, as the Lord Commander nodded in satisfaction hearing the coefficient of losses. He would have too anticipated much higher losses, but this was beyond good. Naturally, this was mainly because of the superior command of the operation and also due to the preparations that the demon army carried out for the Human Brotherhood, as the Lord Commander expected very stiff resistance.

Though it was absolutely unmistakable and something that didn't escape his attention, that the morale of the defenders and all soldiers of the Human Brotherhood that were currently fighting in the Selangrad was absolute shit and many of them didn't even have the will to fight against the incoming demon horde.

"Be vigilant... for my tastes, this is too easy. I have a very bad feeling that something bad will happen... hopefully, it will be only my paranoia."

Lord General Qais muttered as he observed how the siege equipment and artillery of the demon army bombarded the Selangrad to oblivion. Every second, countless magetech canons and mortars fired one salvo after another.

The entirety of the Outer Layer was already in rumbles from the intense bombardment that the magetech artillery was giving them, not to mention parts of the Outer Layer were already on fire from the "magical napalm" that the trebuchets were throwing at them.

***

Several tens of kilometers from the Selangrad, with the forces of the Star-Moon Coalition.

"How far are we from the Selangrad?"

Crown Prince of the Moon Demon Tribe, Thadon rode his magical beasts as he was on the spear tip of the demon army of the Star-Moon Coalition. The Star-Moon Coalition demon army was going non-stop for some time until they finally reached the outskirts of the Selangrad; they were right now only a short distance from the Selangrad.

"Several hours, my lord. It appears that the forces of the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe have breached the city and the attempt of the Human Brotherhood's leaders to escape is already a failure as their mashed-up Dimensional Gate exploded into their faces. Within the next hour or so, they would have secured the entire Selangrad."

Reported the leader of the scouting regiment that was in charge of collecting all information about the Star-Moon Coalition demon army that was now advancing directly at the Selanrad. Right now, Thadon was alone here, as Zormot of the Star Demon Tribe was currently in his carriage, carrying out some divination from the stars.

He said that right now, the Stars were in his favor, so it was the best time to carry out the divination as they would be strongest during this time and they would also be more precise. This was the reason why not many believed the divination and prophecies most of the time because they were typically so cloudy and general.

Divinations were basically just small peaks into the future or, rather into one of the possible futures. They were unreliable and were not to be trusted blindly because none of them were actually true; there was only a small percentage of them happening.

And then, some people had special bloodlines and due to their unique bloodlines, their divination was highly accurate and most of the time, they came out as true. The Star Demon Tribe had such a bloodline and their divination capabilities were always top-notch, especially those of the direct lineage of the Star Demon Tribe.

"Excellent; alert all commanders to be combat ready all times. Golden ones are walking straight to their death the moment they took over the Selangrad."

Thaden commented on the situation as the Star-Moon Coalition demon army was continuously closer and closer to the Selangrad. Everything was going according to plan, as their forces were advancing towards the city without any hindrance.

Naturally, the forces of the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe didn't bother to leave any scouts or guards here to be notified in case they were attacked, which was another plus for the forces of the Star-Moon Coalition.

"My Lord, is the war between the two factions truly the only solution?"

Asked one of the commanders of the Star-Moon Coalition's demon army, who was coincidentally also from the Moon Demon Tribe and was someone of the direct lineage, as his great-grandfather was an Elder of the Moon Demon Tribe.

"The Golden-Horned Demon Tribe will never accept the friction and the fact that we have created the Star-Moon Coalition as another faction in the High Council of the Demon Tribes and Species. Golden ones are too arrogant and would never allow anyone to exist outside of their influence. Even if we want to settle this peacefully, the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe will never let that slide and they will sooner or later declare war on us... it is only a matter of time."

Thadon stated grimly because he was very well aware of the situation and of the fact, there was no escape. He was also aware that in the combat, the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe was above the combined forces of the Star Demon Tribe and Moon Demon Tribe, and even with the addition of the Hall of Kadath that was stealthily helping the Star-Moon Coalition would change that out of nothing.