“You fiend! I knew we could not trust your kind!” shouted Oscar.
Oscar and the rest of the allied officers and guards gathered at the siege camp pulled out their weapons and attacked the two-faced demigods that had killed the young king.
Scar jumped behind the underlings that had followed him inside and allowed them to block the angry attacks of the humans.
Unfortunately for the humans, their strength was only enough to kill one of the demigod underlings guarding Scar before they were overwhelmed and cut down by a variety of colorful skills.
“Find the rest of the leaders in this human army and dispose of them,” said Scar as he sat down and started to wipe the red blood off his armor to return it to a pure white.
The sound of battle inside the tent startled many outside. They were frozen with uncertainty and doubt, having no idea what was going on, and they had not been given any orders on what to do in a situation like this.
“Commander! Is everything okay?” asked a guard stepping closer to the tent that had gone silent.
There was no answer from inside, only silence.
As the guard moved his hand to open the tent…
Swish! His head was sliced in half with the rest of his body!
The guards at the edge of the encampment were taken by surprise when the entire force of white armored demigods rushed past them and charged into the heart of the encampment, killing anyone who tried to stop them but otherwise ignoring everyone else.
More cries of pain and anger rose from the center of the encampment for several minutes as the white armored butchers went about their work.
In less than ten minutes, the core leadership of the human army laying siege to the mishmash of demigods had been wiped out.
Just like that, the white armored demigods escaped from the encampment, killing only those who hindered their escape.
With the leaders and officers dead, the allied forces in the siege camp fell into chaos as they tried to figure out what was going on and what they should do. They did not even know that the king had already been slain!
While all the chaos was happening inside the human encampment, several representatives of the demigod guilds holed up in the monastery used the chaos to sneak out and meet up with Scar, who was now hiding some distance away behind several grassy dirt hills.
“I speak for everyone when I say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We would have taken many of those humans with us, but that is not a prize when we would have also been killed in the bloody fight. May we know what guild you belong to?” asked Oru as he stood before the white-armed guild members.
“Demon hunters,” said Scar.
‘Demon hunters?’
Each of the representatives had heard of the guild before, but the last time they heard any rumor about it was that it was filled with a bunch of ragtag people who were all gathered into a large guild with no unifying banner or matching armor. They were supposed to be based in Beorin. Was there a change of leadership?
“Is that so… we thank you and your guild…” said one of the smaller guild leaders. He was still being cautious since he was not sure what Scars’ motive was in helping them when the other large guilds had ignored their pleas for help.
“There is no need for thanks. We could not allow one of the human armies to wipe out the guilds in this area, as that would destroy our main goal!” said Scar.
“And that is?” asked Oru hesitantly.
“Our main goal is to unite all countries under one banner and bring peace to everyone!”
“Ah… that’s some goal you have. Um… about this army and the country…”
“Fear not! We do not want to interfere with any other guild’s claim on territory. We are just here to promote peace. We do not lay any claim on this small kingdom or the surrounding ones.”
The guild representatives all gave sighs of relief as more and more ideas popped into their heads about taking their gathered forces to capture the now-empty capital city.
Oru thought it was odd that the Demon Hunters had such a crazy goal, and yet they did not go about capturing land. It really didn’t matter much since he knew there were many ways to bring about peace, and if the Demon hunters wanted to play police, they would not stop them.
This show of generosity brought much goodwill with the small guilds that had gathered at the Fortified monastery.
“As for the remaining human army. We leave them to you, but I suggest you wipe them out as they know too much and will cause trouble later,” said Scar, looking directly into Oru’s eyes.
Oru had an awkward smile on his face after hearing this. The recommendation sounded more like a command than a friendly reminder.
“Is that really necessary? We can use them as a workforce and cannon fodder for other tasks in the future…” Oru stopped talking for a second as he saw the sharp gaze of the white armored guild members.
“…we will do as you say,” said Oru humbly.
“Good. With our mission complete, I will leave the cleanup in your hands.”
Oru and the rest of the guild representatives watched the white armored army get on their warhorses and gallop away.
‘You could at least offer to help us clean them up…’ grumbled Oru under his breath.
The human army may be flailing about without knowing what to do, but they still outnumbered the demigods’ forces inside the monastery.
As the representatives retreated to the monastery, they sent silent communications to their subordinates to ready the troops for a breakout attack.
Ten minutes after they had returned to the monastery, a haphazard force of subjugated humans charged out of the defensive trenches, rushing to the enemy encampment with a large force of demigod guild members flowing from the monastery gates right behind them.
Even in their panicked state and low morale, the human army was able to put up a desperate fight for over half an hour and killed a large portion of the enemy human fodder that were under the control of the demigods.
The demigods used the human fodder to whittle down any strong defensive points in the human army, weakening their resistance and will to fight.
Despite many of the demigods cowardly staying at the rear of the fight, there were still several demigod deaths, but in the end, the humans on both sides were the ones who bore the brunt of the attacks.
“Send out every messenger we have! The other kingdoms must know what has happened!” shouted a low-level young officer who was now in command of more troops than he had ever thought was possible.
The human soldiers, seeing the writing on the wall, knew they would all die here, and while a few weak-hearted men turned tail and ran to try to escape death, the rest held firm and fought to the last of their breath so that the messengers could escape and get word out about what happened here.
“Stop them from escaping!” shouted Oru.
Anyone who was seen running was targeted first by the demigods and their minion human soldiers.
Although most were cut down with ease, a few still managed to run far enough away to release messenger pigeons with hastily written messages containing only the most basic information of what happened before the enemy caught up to them and cut them down.
“Damn it! Hurry! We have to kill them all! We can’t waste time here! We still have to march to the capital and take it over!”
With the fighting coming to a bloody end, Oru scanned the silent battlefield, which was now littered with human bodies.
“Damn it. Our minion forces have been cut down to a third of what they were… how are we to accomplish our plans now!”
“The longer we stay here, the more time passes, giving the other guilds a chance to snatch our prize! We must leave at once!”
***
The news of King Yung’s death and the death of allied officers spread like fire, leading to the fall of the newly born kingdom.
The surrounding allies that were ready to join the young king were alarmed and frightened by the bloody news. They immediately halted their march to the fallen kingdom and rushed back to their own territory, worried that the same thing might happen to them if they went anywhere near the demigods.
The few surviving neighboring kingdoms held a hasty meeting on what to do about this troubling event. In the end, it was all a work in futility as the meeting ended with nothing being accomplished, as they were all too afraid to change the current situation they now faced lest they become like the dead king.
***
Inside the capital city of the fallen kingdom.
“Damn it! I thought I told you to make sure that no one let out the news about the king’s death. Now look what we have to deal with!” shouted Oru as he and several of his guild members huddled inside a stone building for protection against the fierce battles that were taking place throughout the capital.
“We did kill them all and stopped them from saying anything… it’s just a few managed to send flying birds…” said one of Oru’s Officers.
“And now it’s open season out there with at least five other guilds fighting to take control of this city!” growled Oru.
“Well… I actually counted over 10 other guilds…” The underling went silent when he saw the glaring look from Oru.
“All our hard work has been wasted, and now these vultures are eating our reward! Even those cowards who ran away from the city and didn’t help us are here again fighting for control!”
“Not to mention the other guilds that had captured nearby cities have given them up for a chance to be the winner in this struggle.”
***
The fighting in the city was brutal, even for the conflicts between the guilds.
Their fight for control of the capital was nonstop. There was no safe place inside the capital.
Those affected the most were the regular humans who were killed in the thousands by stray attacks, carelessly shot out by the demigods. Civilians, nobles, and city guards were no different to the demigods, they were all killed by stray attacks or from buildings crumbling and collapsing on top of them.
The majority of the main street houses and stores were all in ruins from the fierce combat. Those that were not destroyed were being used as fortified bases for the different guilds who were staking their claims on the city.
Unfortunately for these small guilds, an even larger guild arrived several days later and started to clean house, and managed to take control of the entire capital city.
The now beleaguered guilds that had many members die in the brutal struggle for the capital had to disband as they were unable to continue with the small numbers they had left. Many of the now homeless demigods joined the new ruling guild that had taken control of the city.
Bitter enemies that were fighting to the death only days before were now in the same guild.
***
Several days after the Purgatory guild took over.
“For justice, we must liberate this city completely! You said there are still a few holdouts?” asked Phior, the guild leader of Purgatory.
“Boss, there are a few small guilds that say they will not accept your rule over the city. They have holed up in an abandoned monastery on the east end of the capital.”
“Order the new units made up of the recently added guild members to clear them out! This will be their first test of loyalty. If they can’t do something as simple as cleaning up those rebels, then kick them out of the guild!”
“Your will is mine to obey.”
“Now what was the other matter you had for me?” asked Phior.
“Boss, we are having trouble with the food stockpiles. If we don’t do something about it soon, the peasants will starve to death, and then we will just have an empty city without any workers to help us in our war goals…”
“Damn it! I thought controlling a capital city was supposed to make our lives easier! All we have been doing is running around fixing one problem after the other! How is our income? Is it at least enough to fund our plans?”
“We have been losing more money than we have been making… mainly because of all the repairs that need to be done to the walls and other fortifications of the city. As well as the food we have been buying to help feed the peasant workers.”
To the demigods, civilians, guards, and the nobles were all peasants. They were only worth being used as laborers or meat shields on the battlefield.
“DAMN IT! Cut their food rations to 1/4th of what they are now. We can’t waste money on these weaklings that die so easily. Focus on building up the walls and other fortifications of the city and don’t bother with anything else.”
“So what about the civilian housing and shops?”
“Let them build their own shelter and shops. They have enough material lying all around them from the collapsed buildings. There is no point wasting gold on other materials for them.”
Like this, even harsher laws were passed in the capital city as the new demigods enslaved the remaining humans, including the nobles and government officials who had all their power stripped from them.
The demigods became brutal taskmasters, forcing the humans to work on little to no food and water each day.
They were forced to endure whippings and beatings for the most minor things and sometimes for no reason at all, other than the demigod overlords were bored.
The few lucky civilians who managed to escape the capital were forced into the life of bandits just to stay alive in the brutal territory. Under the overbearing demigod dictatorship, there were massacres of villages almost every month. But nothing was done to stop them, as every death lessened the gold the guild needed to pay to keep them alive.
