The Fiend's Creation System

Hope and Despair

Julius made his way towards the Second Sanctum as quickly and as carefully as he could. If he rushed to the sanctum recklessly, he didn’t know what could happen to his wife who was still desperately clinging onto life.

The system’s status screen was able to show him that his wife still wasn’t dead but was at the brink of it. Just a little bit of shock might cause her to lose her life so he wasn’t willing to risk that.

Thankfully, the Second Sanctum was closer to the borders of the Shifting Hallows and Redgrove Forest so he didn’t have to take hours to get to and from the place.

It took nearly 15-20 minutes to get here while earlier, at his fastest speed, Julius was able to arrive at the spot where Eisha had been gravely injured and nearly died within 5 minutes.

It took a bit, but he was able to successfully arrive at the sanctum safely. No monsters appeared but a group of fiends had grouped up with him halfway through the journey and escorted him to the sanctum.

Upon arriving at the lowest point of the Sanctum, where the Fiend’s Cradle was located, Julius gently placed Eisha down on the ground before asking the system.

“What do I do now? Tell me, quick!”

[Alert: 18 hours 49 minutes until spawn completion.]

“I already know that! Tell me what to do to speed it up!” Julius impatiently roared.

[Provide 184,860 units of Flesh and Blood]

“W-what?”

[Provide 184,860 units of Flesh and Blood]

“...”

The same prompt appeared in his vision but the words were despairing. He needed to provide an astronomical amount of resources to speed up the process of spawning but he didn’t have anywhere close to that amount.

He only had a couple of thousand Flesh and Blood in his sanctum’s storage buildings and it was far from the required amount of resources.

“The human city...that’s where I’ll get enough...I’ll sacrifice every human and animal there…”

Julius created another hatchery in the Fiend’s Pool and placed Eisha inside. The waters were still poisoned but Julius had hooked up the hatchery to the Fiend’s Cradle as per the system’s instructions. 

Her body and life would be preserved for a while, giving Julius enough time to gather the resources he needed for her resurrection.

[Alert: Queen of Fiends Eisha’s consciousness has been preserved within the collective consciousness. Her death will only be in body, not in soul. The creation of a new body or the reparation of an old one will allow for rebirth.]

Julius didn’t know if this was good or bad, but it did ease his anxiety by a little bit. He left the Sanctum and left behind the squad of fiends that followed him to guard the place.

“180,000… it’ll probably be lower as time passes but I’ll finish things within an hour…”

Julius was still in a state of rage and he needed to vent his anger on the humans who did this to his wife. The flesh on his back began to quake and wriggle in a rather grotesque manner.

“Urgghhh…”

[Warning: Forceful attempt in upgrading the skill, [Metamorphosis] will―]

“Shut up!”

Bones emerged and pierced through his back before it elongated into skeletal wings. Flesh began encasing the bones until it formed proper wings. His wings were large to accommodate his large size.

Julius jumped into the air and flapped his newly created wings. It was awkward for him at first because the muscles and bones he moved were something unfamiliar to him. Eisha was able to fly immediately after she acquired Metamorphosis and her wings.

He stumbled and nearly fell a few times in the air but he soon got the hang of it. He forcefully changed his Metamorphosis form and it came with a cost. He felt...very hungry.

[Alert: Hunger levels have reached critical levels]

Julius quickly flew towards the battlefield where his fiends and the humans were clashing. When he saw the sacks of blood down below, his mouth watered. However, he was able to keep his mind in check.

“I’ll never eat a disgusting creature like them!”

He frantically looked around and saw the horses and animals the humans had brought on their expedition. He swooped down and caught one of them. The horse cried out in dismay after being caught but it was immediately silenced. Julius butchered the animal and a few more that were nearby. 

He tore the flesh away from the horse he just killed and flew next to a tent that was set ablaze and began roasting the meat. 

Julius had landed in the middle of the human camp which was now nearly destroyed while the clash between his fiends and the humans was occurring right behind him. He needed to eat so he ignored that for the time being. He haphazardly roasted the meat before stuffing it into his mouth.

He chewed a few times before swallowing and then tore off another hunk of flesh from the horse before repeating the process.

Julius devoured a few more animals before his immense hunger was alleviated somewhat. The only food that could completely satisfy him was the ones back at his Fiend’s Sanctum that were infused with the Fiend’s Plasm.

With his hunger staved off, Julius turned his attention back to the battlefield. He flew into the air and looked around. He quickly saw the paladins that were the main cause of his wife’s near-death state and his red eyes glistened with rage. 

The humans were all preoccupied with handling the numerous fiends that seemed endless in numbers so they couldn’t see the airborne fiend looming above them.

“These monsters…how come their numbers seem as if it’s increasing?”

Balt was wondering the same thing. He also noticed that their movements became more organized somehow. 

“I thought we had killed the witch controlling them?! How come―”

Before he could say anything, a large shadow was cast over him before something fell to his feet. When he looked down, he noticed that it was the head of the priest that should have been standing next to him.

He turned to the side and saw the priest’s body falling backward to the ground without its head, blood spurting out like a fountain from its neck. The blood from his companion sprayed all across his face in a gruesome manner. 

A large shadow loomed over him and Balt quickly leaped forward and turned around with his sword at the ready. If he had been a split second too late, his head would have flown off his shoulders.

Balt looked up and saw the large pale white demon with glowing red eyes glaring down at him.  Julius had just swiped at the paladin captain’s head but missed. He noticed the smell of Eisha’s blood coming from this man’s sword and contemplated for a split second whether he wanted to take this man alive and torture him or directly kill him.

Julius chose the latter and wanted to just knock him out but the paladin’s reflexes were rather fast so he dodged him.

Balt swallowed nervously as he stared up at the monstrous demon that was glaring down at him. 

“T-The Lord will―”

“Your false god can’t save you,” Julius uttered in his distorted, gravelly voice.

“A demon like you will never―”

Julius raised his arm and a red-colored Wind Arrow was shot at the paladins’ captain. The other priests and paladins finally took notice of Julius but they were immediately subjected to the scene of their captain losing his shield arm after Julius’s Wind Arrow penetrated his shield and skewered his arm before exploding.

“AHHH!!!”

“Puny insect. Where’s your god now?”

“Arrggghhh…”

“Tell him to come save you...just like he told you to come and exterminate us.”

“D-Demon...you...you will not win!”

“Your god is not benevolent. Look at how he sends you out to war against a peaceful race who’s far superior to you… he sent you to your death. Plant that into your head because death isn’t going to be something that I’ll give to you so easily.”

Julius quickly approached Balt who raised his remaining arm that was holding a sword. Julius simply swiped his claws and lopped off his hand.

“GAAHHH!!!”

“Armor enchanted by light magic? Is this the best protection your false god can offer you?”

Those were the last words Balt heard before he was smashed in the head by Julius’s fist cutting away his consciousness. Julius didn’t kill him. He was going to torture this man for harming his wife.

He also smelt the blood of his wife coming off from a few other paladins and quickly made short work of them. The other paladins weren’t waiting around to be killed as they rallied together to attack Julius. Their attacks were futile and meaningless, however. The blades only made light cuts to his skin which immediately healed and the magic spells bounced off his body without even fazing him.

Julius only turned to the pesky humans and shot out multiple Wind Arrows at them. With his presence there, the fiends also began attacking in a more organized manner. They no longer attacked randomly or were baited into focusing on a single person. 

The fiends began working together to tear apart the humans in front of them. Both figuratively and literally. Julius didn’t let a single human go. He ordered his fiends to tear them apart limb from limb before eating out their hearts.

Only 5 paladins and 2 priests remained alive and this was because Julius could smell Eisha’s blood from them. These 7 individuals were brought back to the Fiend’s Sanctum and would be dealt with later. He wasn’t going to let them off so easily.

He left behind a few of his fiends to clean up the battlefield before he ordered the rest to march towards Redgrove city.

[+12,579 Blood]

[+10,101 Flesh]

Julius didn’t spare any of the animals the humans brought with them and turned them into his fiends’ resources. While moving through the forest, Julius ordered his fiends to attack and butcher anything alive.

He needed all the resources he could get so he wasn’t going to skimp out on killing any of the beasts in the forest. It would probably anger the elves, but that was the least of his worries.

They may protest, but who could blame Julius for his extreme conduct. His wife was laying on her deathbed and needed treatment immediately. The only way she could get treatment was if the second hero unit that Julius intended to be a healer was quickly spawned.

The elves were lucky that Julius saw them as allies. He didn’t order his fiends to attack but if they had been enemies or were neutral towards each other, Julius wouldn’t have hesitated to order an attack on them.

To Julius right now, anything moving was just a large sack of resources. He didn’t discriminate when killing the monsters or the humans. Females, elders, cubs, and children were all killed and turned into resources.

It took them a while because they were destroying every living, moving creature that they encountered but Julius and his fiends eventually arrived at Redgrove City.

It was still early in the afternoon, but Julius immediately decided to siege the city. The city gates were still open and with their speed, it should be enough for them to rush to the gates just before they closed after being alerted of their presence.

“Go...kill everyone in that city but don’t destroy it...I have other uses for that.”

Julius had regained a little bit of his rationality so he wanted to preserve the city instead of destroying it like he initially ordered out of rage. 

“My forces still aren’t strong enough...we’ll need to deceive the church for the time being…”

He really wanted to just raze the entire city, especially the church, into the ground. However, the church would immediately be alerted and this wasn’t something Julius wanted.

He’d deal with them soon enough but this wasn’t the right time. He finally caught a glimpse of the church’s strength today.

Their paladins and priests when working together were able to overpower a Fiend Soldier and tied down one of Eisha’s evolved fiend soldiers. Only 2 of Eisha’s evolved Fiend Soldiers were still alive while the rest had perished.

It was such a huge loss on his side but this showed that the church’s forces couldn’t be underestimated. He had just won a huge victory over them and annihilated their scouting force, however, this was just a small team that consisted of a few paladins and priests.

If he was to go head-to-head with the church’s army that numbered in the thousands or tens of thousands, Julius would suffer not only a loss but perhaps his entire race would be faced with extermination.

He had to play this out smartly or else his ending wouldn’t be a pretty one.

“I’ll endure it for now...but just you wait ‘Holy Light’ Church.”