The Fiend's Creation System

Advancing into the Shifting Hallows

“Sir, the scouts found what they believe to be the base of the fiends!”

“It’s about time. Those cursed lands have already hit the health of many of our soldiers...Now we can finally attack!”

A few days after General Florence issued the order to begin exploring the red miasmic areas, they finally found the mock sanctum that Julius had placed for them. The humans knew that the red miasma was dangerous to them but after spending fruitless weeks exploring for a breakthrough area that didn’t have the red miasma and not finding any, the general steeled his heart and ordered the scouting teams to begin exploring the red areas.

Thankfully, they found a way to cleanse the red miasma and that was to use the Holy Light’s priests and paladins to use their [Purification] spells to clear up the air. A single use of [Purification] cleared the miasma for about 30 minutes before the miasma infected the air again.

Thanks to this plan, the humans were able to explore the red miasma areas with a little bit of ease.

“Should I have the men get ready?”

General Florence released a sigh and nodded, “Yes.”

“Alright, sir. I’ll pass down the orders! How many squadrons are we sending?”

Florence thought for a moment before answering, “We can’t underestimate these fiends. We’ll finish them once and for all with a single attack! Inform the first through seventh legions to prepare themselves for battle. We march tomorrow at dawn!”

“Yessir!”

Florence’s adjutant commander quickly left the room and went to inform the rest of the Light Alliance’s joint army. There were 10 legions in total and Florence decided to use 70 percent of it to attack the fiends.

The remaining 30 percent were left to defend the camp and city. They were also to be put on standby just in case the demons did something and they needed to be deployed to a different area.

However, most of the remaining 30 percent were actually those that had gotten sick from exploring the Shifting Hallows in search of Julius’s base. Unfortunately for them, they had only found his mock base that he had specifically set up for them to find.

They didn’t know this so the humans were all elated and battle-hungry once they received the news and orders from their high commander. Julius had been sifting through the army with the infected humans he had under his control and was trying to look for the Ephalerith Empire’s joint legion but he couldn’t find it.

Julius felt a little disappointed but that didn’t matter. His revenge was important but the battle ahead of him was even more so.

Eisha had been providing him information about the humans’ plans and movements so he was never left in the dark about their activities. Everything was progressing all too easily that Julius felt that it was quite skeptical.

He had prepared for the worst if all of his plans didn’t work out but until now, every one of his schemes and plans had gone on without a hitch.

Julius had to accredit all of this to the system who had perfectly analyzed the humans’ behaviors and predicted every one of their actions. Now, roughly 70 percent of the Light Alliance’s joint army was being sent out to attack his mock sanctum.

He couldn’t ask for a better outcome since this 70 percent would soon become his fiends once they were infected by the red miasma. Even with the use of [Purification] the infectious properties of the red miasma still lingered in the ‘clean’ air.

Since they thought they were safe, the humans were bound to recklessly wade their way through the area while casting [Purification] spells left and right with the misconception that they were all safe.

Julius couldn’t wait to see the look in everyone’s eyes when they noticed that it was too late for them.

“Ahh...the show’s about to start!”

*****

Morning the next day, all of the human soldiers that were being sent to attack the fiends were ready to move. Armed with their armors and weapons, everyone was ready to attack.

There wasn’t any grandiose speech. General Florence briefly said that they were here to eradicate the plague that would one day destroy humanity and quickly started the march soon after.

When the army reached the borderlands between the Redgrove Forest and the Shifting Hallows, Florence quickly ordered everyone to halt.

“Halt!”

Once the army arrived at a complete stop, Florence issued his next order, “Priests! Paladins! To the front!”

The Holy Church’s people made their way to the vanguard and quickly began casting their [Purification] spells. They all waited before launching the spells together to form a spell resonance that enhanced the spell’s effects and area of effect.

“Aura of grace, give way to light’s blessing! [Purification]!”

“Aura of grace, give way to light’s blessing! [Purification]!”

“Aura of grace, give way to light’s blessing! [Purification]!”

“Aura…”

“...”

The simultaneous chants from the priests and paladins formed a loud and resounding roar through the field as their magic spells were cast. The small [Purification] spell magic circles formed a link with each other before a super-sized magic circle appeared in the air above the army and the miasma-filled lands ahead of them.

A purifying light immediately descended upon the lands as the air and the army was purified of all ailments and the miasma evaporated into nothingness.

This caused Julius to frown only for a slight moment but he released a relieved sigh after seeing his fiends unaffected by the mega spell. The mimics hiding within the army didn’t flinch one bit when the [Purification] spell’s effects hit them. 

Julius was worried that they would suddenly revert to their original forms but that didn’t happen which was relieving.

Florence saw that the miasma was purified and the large patch of land in front of them that was previously infected by the miasma had completely been cleansed. He quickly ordered his army to march once the priests and paladins were moved back in line.

“March!”

Everything that the humans did were being completely monitored by Julius and he rubbed his chin when he noticed that the air and land had been thoroughly cleansed of his plasm’s infectious effects.

“No matter, the air will still become contaminated in a matter of seconds even after they use that spell.”

Despite the large-scale [Purification]’s cleansing effects, the miasma in the air of the areas that weren’t purified were quickly filling in the empty void that the spell’s effects had caused.

However, the color of the air didn’t change. The only reason why the plasm was visible to the naked eyes was due to its dense concentration of fiend plasma particles that tinted the air in a red hue.

Normally, the air would not have this color. Everything was still moving according to plan since the humans would still become infected by the fiend plasm sooner or later. For now, they had around a ten to thirty minute moment of safety.

Along the way, the humans were met with resistance from Julius’s fiends. After all, he needed to put up some kind of struggle for them, or else the humans would become suspicious that everything was moving too smoothly for them.

They arrived at the first fiend outpost that the scout teams had missed running into because it was obscured by the thick miasma. It was a tall tower-like construct that was formed from some kind of flesh or meat.

This large tower was actually a fiend. Julius’s level 3 upgrade had unlocked many new and bizarre fiends and constructs. This tower-type fiend was known as the Spire Thorn Fiend, or simply put the Thorns. 

The Thorns were able to move underground and pop its root-like body from underneath the surface to attack its enemies by using sharp, flesh-like projectiles or by whipping its tentacle-like body around and smash the enemies away or flatten them into pancakes.

The projectiles it fired also had a corrosive property and thanks to its large body it was very resilient and sturdy. Like any other fiend, it would be able to regenerate indefinitely by consuming corpses or fiend energy.

Inside the fiends' plasm, the fiends would virtually be unkillable and Julius had placed this obstacle in their way to give the humans a very, very hard time. However, thanks to the [Purification] spell that was cast earlier, the dense fiend plasm that should be there to provide energy for the Thorn’s nearly infinite regeneration ability was no longer present.

“Company, halt! Vanguards, ready your shields! Archers, Mages! Fire at the enemy on command!”

The Thorn was already waiting for the enemy to arrive and after seeing the army stop a distance away, it immediately burrowed underground and moved closer to them.

The overturning earth gave away the Thorn Fiend’s position but seeing the ability of this odd construct caused Florence to nearly panic. However, like any experienced commander, he quickly and calmly ordered his men to attack the monster.

“Earth Mages, harden the ground in front of us! Quickly! Fire Mages, ready your spells and hit the enemy once it resurfaces! The rest of the mages and archers, fire your spells and arrows at the monster and force it out of the ground!”

The mages and archers quickly did as they were told. Florence jumped down from his horse and quickly moved to the army’s vanguard.

“Vanguards! On me! We’re going to repel this fucker!”

“Yes, General!”

With their leader with them at the front, the shaken soldiers quickly regained their wits and steeled themselves.

The General’s tactics were working since it could be visibly seen that the Thorn Fiend was slowing down its advances and couldn’t handle the barrage of tactics that were aimed at it from below.

When it hit the slowly hardening earth, it quickly resurfaced and tried body slamming the vanguards. With its large body, it could easily flatten a large area of soldiers before it released its corrosive projectiles to wreak havoc on the human army’s lines that were behind the vanguard.

“Brace yourselves! Activate your strengthening techniques! Push this fucker back!”

As if on cue, the Thorn Fiend immediately surfaced after it couldn’t take any more bashing from the humans’ attacks and burst out from the ground. The hardened earth was also overturned and like projectiles, they flew out at the human army.

Since they were prepared for it, the vanguards used their techniques and braced themselves for impact. The Thorn quickly slammed into the vanguard but before it could flatten its surroundings with its body, Florence quickly jumped out from the vanguard and used his shield to try and smash the top of the Thorn’s body to the side.

“URAAAHHH!!!”

Against the immensely large body of the Thorn Fiend, Florence was just a small ant to it, however, against all expectations, Florence’s Shield Bash was actually able to redirect the Thorn Fiend’s trajectory and smash it away to the side.

The soldiers all saw this and their morale immediately rose as they uttered a loud battle cry.

“Warriors! Charge!” Florence commanded with a roar.

“RAHHHHH!!”

The vanguard immediately began moving while the archers and mages concentrated all of their attacks on the fallen Thorn that was still squirming on the ground, trying to reorientate itself from their general’s shield attack.

“Quickly kill this thing!”

“For humanity!”

“Kill!”

“Ahhh!”

The sounds of the soldiers’ battle cries rang through the messy battlefield as the warriors began hacking and slashing at the Thorn Fiend’s body. Some of them courageously jumped onto the fiend’s body and began attacking it.

The long-ranged attackers quickly noticed this and their team captains immediately stopped them from attacking any further. 

“Archers, ceasefire! Let the warriors do the rest!”

“Mages, switch to support spells!”

“Priests, get ready to move! Prepare your spells and immediately cast them for healing!”

The Thorn Fiend wasn’t just going to wait and die so after it recovered from General Florence’s attack, it started retaliating by thrashing around and shooting its corrosive projectiles from the pore-like openings on its body.

“GAH!”

“M-My armor! It’s melting!”

“Priest! We need a priest here!”

“Shields up! Shields up!”

The battle descended into chaos as the soldiers were caught off guard by the Thorns’ retaliation and things became even more frenzied when the soldiers noticed that the Thorn was swiftly regenerating its injuries so they immediately tried to push the attack once again.

Florence was just about to move again but this time, two warriors quickly stepped forward and stopped him.

“General Florence, how about you let us ‘foot soldiers’ go do the dirty work. You blocking the monster earlier was enough already. Go back to commanding the army!”

“Yes, we’ll take care of this~”

“...Please finish things now then, gentlemen.”

Florence sheathed his oversized Warhammer and placed his shield on his back again before returning to his horse.

The two warriors that had just stepped forward were 2 of the 12 Champions that were dispatched in this campaign against the fiends. General Florence Atna was also one of these champions and his power level just so happened to be ranked 3rd on the list of champions that were dispatched.

The two champions that had just stepped forward were the weakest of this bunch but they were still champion-level humans. When they stepped into the battle, the Thorn Fiend’s regenerative abilities weren’t enough to keep it alive against the continuous stream of damage they dealt to it.

Julius took note of the General and these two warriors, making note of their abilities and the clear indicator that they were one of the few champions the humans had dispatched on this mission.

He knew that there were 12 of them since the humans had publicly campaigned the information about the dispatched champions.

“That’s 3, now where are the rest?” Julius mumbled to himself while looking at the images brought to him by the scryer fiend.

Julius made sure to take note of the people that weren’t moving and constantly staying in the backlines. People of their strength possessed a large ego and would obviously not move against ‘small fry’ like his Thorn Fiend.

“The next barrier...maybe I’ll dispatch 3 Thorn Fiends and a few companies of normal fiends. This’ll bait a few more of them out.”