The Fiend's Creation System

Ceremony

The next day, Julius returned once more to the elven town. This time around, he brought Eisha along with him and the two were amiably welcomed.

They weren’t stopped at the gate of the town and were allowed through. Someone had informed Arlayna so she went to receive them. The elf was immensely grateful to them for their help yesterday.

She treated Eisha in high regard because of her accomplishments yesterday so the two got along quite fine. Her transformation was a little scary but it wasn’t like she was a demonkin. 

The aura Eisha and Julius gave off in their transformation weren’t like the demonkin who radiated with evil. The Fiends only gave off an aura of ‘creation’ and neutrality so despite seeing Eisha in her terrifying transformation yesterday, Arlayna wasn’t repulsed by her.

Arlayna respected Eisha as a fellow warrior and since they were both women who didn’t hesitate to step into the field of battle, they got along quite well. 

This time around, Julius took a better look at the elven town. The aesthetics of the town was quite pleasing and refreshing. It was much better than his bleak cave. Seeing the bright smile on Eisha’s face as they toured around the town, Julius decided that he should do something about the gloominess of their home.

After taking a look around and buying a few things from the elves, Arlayna finally took them to the Oaken Tree House that Julius had previously visited and attended a meeting with the elven elders.

“Welcome, Mellon Julius,” The Grand Elder greeted. The elderly elf had an amiable smile on his face as he looked upon Julius.

He learned just a few moments ago that the daughter who was kidnapped by the humans and was nearly defiled by the city lord was actually the Grand Elder’s great-granddaughter. 

Thanks to his help yesterday, they were able to capture the city lord and crush the humans, leading to an overwhelming victory for the elves. The casualties they suffered were also not that high thanks to Julius’s help and the warning he gave to the elves before they fell into City Lord Viktor’s trap.

Elder Vysin, who was seated close to the Grand Elder nodded at Julius. Julius returned the nod since it could be seen from the Grand Elder’s attitude that Vysin had reported everything without holding back a single piece of information.

Julius didn’t know nor did he bother asking about the elves’ rescue mission after the battle. It didn’t concern him but judging by how lively the town was earlier, the elves had successfully been able to save all of their brethren from the clutches of the humans.

“Greetings to you, Grand Elder. I trust that everything has been taken care of? All loose ends have been handled properly, yes?”

“Yes, the previous city lord has been killed by us after we rescued our people. Although it pains me to say it, his death was necessary for our continued survival and stability.”

“I agree. If you let him off, he’ll just come back to haunt you again with an even greater force standing behind him. There’s just no way a human like that pig would repent.”

“...True, such is the greed and ugliness of the humans.”

Julius smiled and thought that he and the elves would get along quite well after this. The other elves in the council, especially the more radical ones, had become less guarded and more open to Julius after he proved himself to them through his actions.

They no longer nitpicked at every word he said so their trade negotiations between their races proceeded quite smoothly. The elves were interested in the ores and Mysantis monster materials that could be found in the Shifting Hallows while Julius only wanted normal provisions like food, water, and some other elven specialties that were available for trade.

The items that the elves wanted from Julius were actually much harder to acquire and from their perspective, they were the ones on the winning side of the deal. However, they had to look at it from Julius’s perspective.

The Shifting Hallows was just a dangerous and barren place that there was no way for him and his Fiends to plant and grow food. Of course, it would be another matter once his Fiend’s Plasm permeated deep into the land and fertilized the soil with the Fiend’s unique energy.

Julius could probably plant a few seedlings of plants and vegetation inside his Fiend’s Sanctum, but without sunlight seeping into the cave, it would be impossible for the plants to grow.

[Correction: Even without sunlight, vegetation planted within the area of the Fiend’s Plasm will mutate and grow.]

Julius smiled to himself when he heard the notification in his head. However, he still needed to expand his land to accommodate for more of his homunculi and with more homunculi, there was also a need for more farmland and the like. 

Most importantly, his Fiend’s thrived only if there was water. He needed to find a clean and stable source of water. The river within the elven forest was naturally Julius’s target and he had won the right to use the river as he pleased.

Julius wanted to dig a long trench from his Fiend’s Sanctum all the way to the river so that some of the water would flow to his land. This was going to be a grand undertaking and he didn’t know what kind of effects it would have on the land and the ecosystem, but he could care less about being an environmentalist. 

He prioritized his race’s benefit above all else and if he really needed to redirect the river's flow, then he would. 

The only problem would be the monsters that came out at night. He needed to first do away with the Mysantis Swarm that inhabited the Shifting Hallow’s underground. He could infiltrate it and try to kill them, but with his numbers, that was just a far-fetched dream.

He also needed to be wary of the Mysantis General Swarm. Last night, as per usual, he and Eisha had taken their forces out to hunt the Mysantis and they encountered the General Swarm.

With their newfound powers and upgraded abilities, Julius thought that he and his Fiends could kill the General Swarm. However, he was wrong. The monster was overwhelmingly powerful and it had cost him quite a lot of homunculi just to be able to escape. 

Thankfully, they didn’t lose any of Eisha’s evolved homunculi, or else the losses would be quite severe. A few normal homunculi lost was not a problem since they could just make them again.

They could evolve normal homunculi into one of the newer ones but the requirements were stringent. Julius had already taken note that first-time evolutions or buildings had their costs and requirements toned down to only 10 percent of what was normally needed.

So losing one of those evolved units was quite a heavy loss to Julius. Thankfully, he prioritized their safety and none of them were lost in the escape.

When he tried to take a look at the General Swarm’s attributes, he saw that he couldn’t look at the monster’s level and skills. Everything else was all question marks with only the monster’s agility being a B+.

The B+ agility allowed him to stall the monster with his expendable homunculi and successfully escape. If the General Swarm’s agility stat was higher, it was unknown whether Julius and Eisha would have been able to make a clean getaway.

They might’ve had to abandon a few evolved homunculi but thankfully, it wasn’t that fast or agile.

However, for a large monster like itself, the B+ grade in agility was quite high. From what Julius had seen, there were about 5 more General Swarm monsters within the Mysantis Swarm. 

It would be a stupid suicide mission if he decided to directly attack their hive at his current level. He needed to get stronger before he could tackle the Mysantis Swarm. Julius also had to take into consideration that the Mysantis General Swarm wasn’t the only powerful monster swarm in the Mysantis army.

There was bound to be more powerful monster swarms in that huge hive. He still had a long way to go before he could establish himself as a powerful faction and race.

After their negotiations, Julius and Eisha were invited to the banquet that would be held later for the elves that had returned from captivity and slavery. It would also be a banquet held in honor of the newfound alliance between the Elves and the Fiends.

While Julius was at it, he pulled the Grand Elder to the side and asked him something private.

“Grand Elder.”

“Is there something you need?”

“Well, yes… you see, my wife and I...we never got properly married and it just sort of happened. I wonder if you could host a private wedding for the two of us and bless us in the name of the World Tree, Yggdrasil?”

“Hmmm, normally we would hold weddings only for our own kin…” The Grand Elder looked to the side and at an elf woman who was currently chatting up Eisha.

Julius looked over as well and saw the elf lady bowing to Eisha as if to thank her for something.

“Is that?”

“Yes, that’s my great-granddaughter who, thanks to your wife, we were able to save. It was because of your wife’s actions in acquiring the city lord that we were able to rescue her before she had been defiled by the humans and lost her purity, not many of the elves sold into slavery or were held captive were able to have her ‘fortune’...”

“...I see…”

The Grand Elder ruminated over Julius’s request before he agreed to it in the end.

“Fine, we’ll make it an exception this time around. When do you want it?”

“Can we do it now?”

“Straight to the point, I see… go grab your wife and follow me.”

“Thank you!”

Julius quickly went over to Eisha and whispered into her ear. When Eisha heard about the request he asked from the Grand Elder and the splendid news that he would officiate their marriage ceremony, she was over the moon.

Since it was going to be a private ceremony, the Grand Elder had everyone leave the Oaken Tree House before leading the couple a few floors up.

When they got to the highest floor, the Grand Elder exited through a door and led them outside. Julius saw that beyond the door was an open-air platform situated right in the middle of the tree’s crown. It had a small and beautiful fountain in the middle and the place looked like it would normally hold some kind of ceremony.

“This is the place where our elves would either be blessed in matrimony or when the young’uns would undergo their rite of adulthood and be blessed by Yggdrasil. We’ll hold your ceremony here.”

“Thank you, Grand Elder! It is an honor,” Julius and Eisha both said as they bowed together deeply in thanks.

“Don’t mention it. You saved many of our kin. Receiving a blessing from the elves is the least we could do on top of acknowledging your race as our ally.”

The Grand Elder waved his hand and immediately, flowers began to blossom all over the platform. It was a pleasant show of his nature magic and with the stage set, Julius and Eisha’s private wedding ceremony quickly went underway.