Chapter 302: Rage (1/2)

Three Cars and a military truck soon drove toward the gates of the Grand Escape, with the humans in the cars while the demons hid within the tarp of the truck, their heads cowled just in case.

Zac sat in the passenger seat while Joanna was driving. Ogras was the only demon not hidden away in the truck, and he sat in the back seat as well. Shadows had gathered around him, making his features indistinct without drawing attention to itself.

“Who are you?” the guard captain said with a frown when he saw the odd procession.

“We bring news to his Excellency Thanso,” Joanna said without missing a beat. “The natives are amassing for an assault.”

The guard’s brows rose in surprise, but they soon furrowed again as he took a second look at Joanna and Zac who calmly looked right ahead. But Zac was starting to get a bad feeling when no answer was forthcoming.

“A-“ was all that escaped the guard’s mouth before he and the other four gatemen had their necks cracked by shadowy tendrils that somehow had reached the guards from the odd shadow appendage that usually stayed within Ogras’ metal casing.

Zac quickly looked around, and when he saw there was no traffic in the area he pointed out two fingers from the window, and the next moment a Valkyrie jumped out of the car behind. She rushed over to the dead guards who were still held upright by Ogras’ shadows and touched them for a few seconds each before running back to the car.

Zac nodded toward Joanna and she sped off, leaving the corpses of the five guards frozen solid. They knew that little stunt wouldn’t buy a lot of time, but a minute or two was all they needed. The town wasn’t very big, and they already knew where they needed to go since Thanso was always holed up in his palace, mostly occupied with cultivating or torturing his poor slaves.

The convoy sped through the town at a breakneck pace as it was only a matter of time before the corpses of the guards would be noticed. Interestingly enough the hurry of their group seemed to lessen suspicion rather than the opposite. The people on the street seemed to be under the impression that they were hurrying along on official business and quickly got out of the way.

But even though they drove as fast as they could Zac was able to see the type of town the invaders had built. The Grand Escape was a completely alien settlement, just like Azh’Rodum on his island, and all the architecture was foreign.

But the interesting design choices weren’t what garnered Zac’s attention. It was the copious amount of slaves that hurried along the sides with their heads held down. Most were barely clothed even though winter was coming, and he couldn’t spot anyone without a fresh set of wounds.

It was easy to see the utter disdain the Ez’Mahal had for the native slaves, and they were treated worse than cattle. There were also a huge amount of brothels, with chained girls listlessly standing in the windows, their eyes devoid of emotion.

A fire raged in Zac’s chest, and he wanted to jump out of the car swinging. The Valkyries in the car looked even worse and it was as though their fury would set the car on fire.

“They’ll pay,” Zac simply said as his eyes moved away from the road and toward the castle in the distance.

“What’s our strategy?” Joanna said from the driver’s seat.

“If the gate is open drive straight through it. If it’s closed, then I’ll open it. Afterward, we kill every soldier we can see,” Zac simply said drawing quick nods from the others.

The town wasn't very large, and it took just a few minutes to drive straight through the main street to the palace.

”No array,” the Valkyrie sitting next to Ogras noted as her eyes had a golden glow.

The Valkyries had proven more versatile than Alea had made it sound like, and the abilities they possessed were far more diverse than he expected. They did all have spear-related classes, but many possessed their own niche abilities that rounded out the 100 woman squad.

”Head right in,” Zac said with an emotionless voice, his axe already lying in his lap.

A few guards made to stop them, but they were ripped apart by shadows before they could even voice a complaint. The group of vehicles easily entered the large square in front of the palace and leisurely stopped in a line as everyone got out. Zac had already ripped apart the robe Ez’Mahal robe he had covered his real gear with, disgusted with even pretending to be part of this debased force.

A red blaring light suddenly exploded in the sky above the castle, and soldiers almost immediately flooded toward them from every direction. They were all wearing livery with two insignias; one for the Ez’Mahal Confederation, and one for whatever aristocratic family Thanso belonged to.

Zac breathed out in relief when he saw that it was only well-trained soldiers who had moved to intercept them. The intelligence packet mentioned that these people used human wave tactics, sending throngs of slaves to their deaths to tire out their enemies. But luckily it looked like the innermost core of the Incursion was guarded by elites instead, enabling Zac and the others to fight without any compunctions.

”Lay down your weapons immediately,” a guard captain shouted, but Zac simply hurled a large rock from his Cosmos Sack at him.

The captain was not bad, and a shield rose in front of him lightning-quick. But the force of the rock was massive, and he was thrown backward ten meters even though the rock disintegrated before it could harm him.

The guards stared with wide mouths at Zac, and the next moment shields and other protections covered the wide array of soldiers. There were roughly 800 people in front of them, and more were joining every minute.

Worse yet was that all of them were very strong, and a few of the soldiers might even have reached E-Rank, though barely.

”Attack,” Zac simply said as he started to throw out fractal blades.

It looked like the strongest people of the incursion still weren't around, so Zac wanted to take the opportunity to thin out the numbers to lessen the pressure on his strike team. Not that he needed a reason since he was still completely infuriated after seeing the misery these people had brought upon Earth's citizens.

Five blades imbued with the Dao quickly soared toward the defensive line, ready to cut the army to pieces.