207 Declaration of War (1/2)

Agustino had a smile on his face. The cruel demon-princeling was quite satisfied with the horde he had assembled over the course of the last two months, having done everything in his power to rally demonkind against the terrifying might of the god who had already built one settlement in the Heart of Darkness.

He could sense the fruits of his labor nearby, sensing the presence of a massive demonic horde just outside of his eerie palace. Thousands of demons, physical manifestations of destructive hatred and of xenocidal hatred, had answered his call to come and aid in his efforts to capture a god.

The soluto demon, an embodiment of hateful pride, had no doubt in his heart that this horde would be the one to squash the settlement the god had created in his little incursion into The Heart of Darkness. After all this horde was outfitted with all manner of magical enhancements and mystical armaments.

In front of the powerful demon stood a pair of his generals. One of these demons was a statuesque demon with a beautiful and feminine face and a simian body, though most of her fur was located on her arms and her legs, not her face or her chest. In her hands was a potent and mystical quarterstaff and on her head she wore a surprisingly delicate crown.

The other general who stood in front of the demon who was playing at being a monarch was a powerfully built centipede demon. His highly segmented body was divided into well over two hundred different sections and he extended all the way out of the throne room since each portion of his body was as large and thick as a young human.

Each segment of his body was several meters thick and was incredibly reinforced by both magic and his. The carapace of the centipede demon was the demon's pride and joy and he was so confident with it that he had once taken a direct blow from Agustino and only suffered slight damage.

Both demons were highly prized warriors who loyally served the strongest demon they had ever encountered: Agustino. And both generals were component commanders who sought to expand their lord's dominion throughout the horrifying dimension that birthed and housed the vast majority of demons throughout the cosmos.

Agustino gazed into the eyes of one of his generals, the centipede warrior. The demonic general had a set of human-like eyes and a set of compound eyes above them. The pseudo-monarch gazed into both pairs before speaking.

”And so... Demons march to wage war on the gods once more?” The unbelievably old being asked, rhetorically. The demons who heard its utterances heard the amazement in its voice. Truthfully, the two of them were also quietly amazed by this turn of events.

Neither of the two had expected the god who had invaded their dimension to be so skilled at rebuffing their attacks. Nor had they expected him to be what they needed to unify hundreds of thousands of demons and expand the size of their holdings, even as a foe. The god's presence had allowed the faction of demons led by Agustino to speed up their acquisition of demonic allies and of territory, and the demons were quite excited at the prospect of leading a horde unlike any seen since the mythic age against their potent enemy.

However, the demons had made a critical mistake. Agustino had just declared war and that mistake would haunt him for the rest of his life. Distantly, on another plane of existence, Althos silently read a new notification. And this notification caused the god to chuckle.

________________________________________________

[War Domain Alert:

Agustino the Soluto demon and a pseudo-monarch of demonkind has declared war on Althos, the emperor of the Althonite Empire. His forces are minutes from departing to raid Althonian territories throughout the terrifying dimension known as the Heart of Darkness.]

________________________________________________

The moment after I arrived on the grounds of the prestigious and public Lavern University, or L.U. as it was affectionately known by its students and staff, was when I read the notification alerting me to the machinations of my enemy, the ambitious demon known as Agustino. The notification brought a sly grin to my face and caused me to quietly chuckle.

I found myself standing just outside of a large building on the university I had visited's campus. I stared at it and shook my head regretfully. I had wanted to continue making progress towards acquiring the second tier of influence over the domain of magic, but I knew that this decision by Agustino meant that it was at last time for me to deal with him.

I admired the peaceful scene before me. Htrae was a world that was by and large at peace. It was a place that still had its fair share of struggles and inequalities but it was one of many worlds I had seen where the people who dominated it had largely grown tired and wary of wars and moved beyond the barbarism of warfare and conquest. I took a second to study the scenery around me.

The sky above me was a beautiful mixture of colors as the sun began to conquer the fading remnants of the night. No clouds dared show their faces and besmirch this moment of solar conquest. The building in front of me wasn't yet open to the public, or even to students, and at the moment only a skeleton crew consisting of the people who kept the building running occupied it. I could sense them easily, due to the assortment of powers I possessed that allowed me to make sense of the world around me.

The actual building was a surprisingly pretty multistory, multipurpose building that stood at the heart of the university's campus. Distantly, students were gradually beginning to awaken and once fully awake they would slowly begin to make their way over here over the course of the next few minutes. Sadly, by that time I would be long gone.

I spent another moment staring at the building. I was both sad and annoyed that I had literally just arrived and was now needed elsewhere but even my chaotic nature and the inclinations that came with it weren't able to make me deny the obvious truth: if Agustino was truly making his move to destroy or capture me I needed to meet his forces with my own.

I stopped looking at the building and teleported myself back to the eerie realm known as the Heart of Darkness. Doing so was an instantaneous process, one which I had done a few times now and was intimately familiar with.

________________________________________________

I went from standing in the middle of the campus to standing just outside of the Blackened Boscage, the forested area I had claimed as my own deep within the Heart of Darkness. I was facing a vast and bleak plain and behind me I sensed the presence of the light-absorbing trees I had long grown accustomed to within this odd dimension.

I was outside of the area I was used too, but I also knew that this was where my enemies would come from. I knew this because of the demons I had captured during my time colonizing the Heart of Darkness. I had greedily devoured their memories and edited what the demons themselves remembered to suit my fel agenda and in devouring the memories of my former foes I learned about the identities and goals of my demonic rivals. Unfortunately for my enemies I also learned where they had come from and also where the enemies who were on their way to capture me would arrive from.

I wasn't the sort to start wars of my own volition so I had been content to sit on this knowledge but now... Now I had reason to become a god of conquest and to embrace those who worshiped me as a god of war. And with that came a reason to act on the knowledge I had acquired in the wake of defeating several small bands of demons over the course of the last few months.

The plains before me stretched farther than even I could see. And I knew that in time, perhaps in hours, perhaps in minutes, the plains would before me would host a gigantic horde larger than any single demonic force had mustered in countless years. I readied myself for their arrival by raising my hand.

The truth was that what I was about to do was unnecessary but it was fun. And more than that it would sate the bloodthirsty nature of many of my more monstrous servants. I was about to marshall an army that would dwarf that of my enemy. And the army I was about to marshall would exceed my enemy's army in everything, even bloodthirst. I couldn't help but be a bit happy as I did something I had never done: I prepared for a real war.

Deep within me, multiple domains roared their approval of my actions. Not all of them ever evil or destructive domains either. The domain of goodness was one of the domains delighted by what I was about to do. I could sense that it enjoyed me turning my attention on evil forces rather than affecting neutral or even good people with my actions.