Some time later.
“Reports of harassment from demigods have gone up drastically since our last meeting with the six guild leaders of the demigods that are staying in the capital,” said the royal scribe as he read off the numbers and other details about the crimes reported since the meeting.
“How is the mobilization of the army faring?” asked King Yung.
“Those stationed in the city have all gathered at the barracks and training grounds with their weapons and armor. The city guards are on full alert and ready to support them with any orders you may have. The army forces from the villages, towns, and cities under your command are marching to the capital as we speak. A few of the remote non-aligned towns and cities have also offered a decent number of men to help rid the lands of the demigods. ”
“Send the order to close the side gates leaving only the main gates open to not affect the flow of people in and out too much. Begin the clean up! If the demigods wish to leave, let them… If not, then force them out!”
***
Bam!
The door to a decent sized two story building slammed open as a group of six city guards swarmed in with their weapons drawn and pointed at the few people who were sitting in chairs playing a game of cards.
The large room was well lit due to the several windows that were open to let in fresh air.
“By order of King Yung, you are to leave his royal territory and cease your hostilities against the kingdom!” roared the lead guard.
“Who the fook are you!?” asked a demigod who stood up and squared off with the city guard.
“I am here to escort you out of the city.”
“… and if we refuse?” asked the demigod as he placed his hand on his two daggers sheathed in his silk belt.
The guards, seeing this, felt a deep sense of fear at seeing the demons that everyone gossiped about. Even with all the terrible rumors they had heard about the demigods, they still held firm and did not show any weakness as they focused on the card playing demigods, ready to fight if the need arose.
“We will escort you out of the capital by force if necessary,” said the guard leader, who had beads of sweat forming on his forehead betraying his high tension and fear of the demigods.
“I refuse!”
With that said, the demigod unsheathed his daggers and launched several attacks at the lead guard, piercing his daggers into the cracks and weak points of his armor, killing him instantly.
“For the king!” shouted the guards as they fearlessly rushed forward, hacking and slashing at the demigods.
“Pitiful. You call this an attack?” asked one of the demigods as he blocked an attack with his sword and countered with a quick stab piercing through the guard’s stomach.
The guards were only able to land a few good hits, lightly wounding the demigods before they were cut down by the demigods’ colorful glowing attacks.
“What has gotten into these people? Have they gone mad?” asked the demigod with daggers as he wiped the blood off his blades using the leather armor of one of the dead guards.
“They should know it’s suicide to attack us here. Even if we are not fully geared right now, our power is far stronger than theirs,” said a female demigod as she walked over to the dead body of a guard slumped down against the wall right underneath a window.
With a quick motion of her foot, she let loose her anger by kicking the dead guard a few times.
Thunk!
The female demigod who was in the middle of kicking the dead guard crumpled to the ground, fresh blood pooling out from her head.
Seconds later, her body started to dissolve into light fragments from her feet to her head before disappearing completely.
“WHAT THE…?”
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Dozens more crossbow bolts rained in through the open windows, piercing the bodies of those standing or sitting near any of the open windows.
The few demigods that were quick enough to react threw themselves to the ground next to the dead guards and started to crawl to one of the walls to try and find cover.
“Damn it! I don’t want to die! We just got started!” shouted one of the demigods who was lying on the ground paralyzed from a lucky shot that hit his spine.
“Cox, go help Luk! Give him a sip of your potion!” ordered the dagger-wielding demigod as he sipped a red potion and poured some of it on his left arm and shoulder that had been pierced by several crossbolts.
“Screw him! He’s going to die! If I go over to him, I will just be shot up as well,” screamed a frantic demigod that was huddled underneath the table they were just sitting around moments before.
The surviving demigods did not have time to argue with each other as a flood of guards and soldiers rushed into the building, throwing themselves at the wounded demigods that were crawling on the bloody ground like wounded beasts.
With the sacrifice of an additional 20 men being heavily wounded or killed, the city guards were able to clear the building of the demigods who occupied it.
Throughout the city the same thing was happening at each building that was owned by the demigods.
The city guards were surprised that not one of the cowardly demigods voluntarily offered to leave after hearing the royal decree from the king.
Only a short time ago, they were all holed up in their buildings, afraid to leave for fear of dying due to the new sickness that was spreading out and killing civilians, nobles, and demigods. These same cowards were now fighting to the death when all they had to do was leave the city.
King Yung listened to all the reports flooding in and sighed.
“This is both a blessing and a curse…” said the young king.
“How so?” asked his general, who was sitting with him looking at a freshly prepared map with several red pawns being placed about at certain villages.
“Although the death count of the guards and soldiers will continue to rise as they clear the city of the pest, we have caught them by surprise and since most of the troublesome demigods have been holed up in their rented buildings we are able to take care the majority of them before they can armor up and make preparations to defend against our sweeps.”
“These other towns and villages will not be as easy to cleanse the demigods if they have received word of what we are doing right now and we plan to do in the future,” said the general pointing to the red pawns on the map.
“That’s why we must move immediately after we have cleansed the capital of the demigods! They were offered the option to leave, but they chose to attack us!”
“We must be quick, the supplies needed to keep the army running is not a small sum even during a time of abundance. Now with the hardships we are facing it is even more taxing on our reserves. We will be unable to continue a protracted campaign.”
***
“What did you say?” asked the demigod leader of a medium-sized guild that had set their base of operations in a village not that far from the capital city. This was all done to save costs.
“I just received a message from one of our guild members. He saw a large army marching along the road that leads to this town!” said a female demigod as she showed the guild leader the message.
“What are they doing with such a large force? Has some other kingdom declared war on them? Or has a dungeon break appeared near the capital?” asked the guild leader.
“I tried to get more information from him but…”
The guild leader’s hands moved through the air for a moment as he stared at something only he could see for several moments before uttering a soft word, “Dead…”
“Have they gone mad?”
“I doubt it. We have done nothing to warrant their wrath… well, the kings, at least. You don’t think they heard about that incident last month?”
“I suspect they are just using the road to march somewhere else.”
“It’s better to be safe than sorry. Notify all our members that are out hunting and fulfilling requests for the locals to return as soon as possible.”
To the demigods’ shock they noticed that the locals had also heard of the coming army and were all fleeing the town causing the demigods to panic as they tried to capture and stop the townsfolk from escaping.
In all the chaos, they only managed to stop a handful of old villagers while everyone else escaped into the wilderness.
“What do we do?! The army has arrived outside!”
“I told you already, they are just passing by!”
Normally these demigods would not be worried about an army from one of the human kingdoms but ever since the odd virus started to spread they were more aware of their new found mortality.
The bickering of the demigods was stopped by the sound of a loud bugle announcing the arrival of the army.
“Wicked demons known as Demigods! King Yung demands that you peacefully surrender and offer yourselves to the high courts to stand trial for your crimes against the kingdom and its people!”
The demigods did not respond to the soldier shouting and instead were trying to figure out a way to rescue themselves from this disaster.
“Did you message the other guilds for help?” asked the guild leader.
“…they asked that we hold strong from now on as they are gathering everyone at a monastery before they can come to our aid.”
“Those damned bastards! They are just using us as bait to allow everyone else to gather and prepare their defenses!”
Again, the soldier from outside the town’s wooden walls shouted, gaining their attention.
“There is no need to stall for time. If you do not surrender we will be forced to deal with you by force. We may lose many men to your attacks, but we know that you are no longer immortal!”
The demigods cursed their luck.
They did not want to fight to the death, so there was only one option for them: they exited the town and offered themselves up to the army, where they were relieved of their armor and weapons and put in leg and arm chains.
“On to the next town!”
