Chapter 31: Plans

"Why'd you let James go? Isn't he going to try and get revenge or at least hinder you in any way possible," Kumo asks while eating with a mouthful of the chief's arm.

"Yeah, that's what I want. Once he does something stupid I can use that as an example and torture or *cough* punish him till death in front of the other harpies. As soon as they see one of their highest ranking fighters be tortured to death under my mercy they won't try and scheme against me," I say while ripping off the chief's left arm and taking a bite out of it.

Talking for a bit longer we finished eating the chief's entire body, of course away from the other harpies. I'm going to have to make an excuse for them like "I buried him where we had our fight, out of respect" or "I cremated him with one of my skills".

This makes me sound like an asshole but it is was it is. If I can't gain their trust they might plot my death or the fall of my kingdom with James.

[Gained the following skills]

[Demonic Berserker]

[Fire of Life]

[Fire of Life Armour]

[Fire of Life Sword]

[Body Modification: Boiling Veins]

WOAH... that's a lot of skills. I was only expecting the fire he used and maybe the berserk skill but not any of the other ones. I mean I guess the only different one is the body modification but I did get different versions of the [Fire of Life].

I'll try it out later since I'm going to be busy. I have to first find all of the fire harpy villages in this place while trying to convince them to leave their god and home. I think the chief I killed was the head, head chief of all the fire harpy villages so this should work out smoothly since I have his title.

********

"...Oh great god I wish to converse with you to remove a plague from this world. I offer part of my body as a tribute to you,"

As soon as James finished the chant his right arm was swiftly removed causing blood to spill out from the open hole. The white and red temple that you could find everywhere in the canyon had started to shake, as parts of the roof crumbled causing some rocks to fall to the floor.

The statue of a phoenix that he was praying to suddenly started to glow a bright white, partly blinding James.

"My descendent I am aware of this plague you speak of. Not only has she killed one of my direct descendants and the one I blessed, but it is also a damned... SIREN!" The walls started to shake as a male's voice escaped the temple traveling and echoing throughout the canyon.

James was shaking from the presence of his ancestor/god. Each word he spoke was soft but powerful at the same time.

As he heard the reaction to Arpious a smile had crept onto his face.

'This is good, he clearly doesn't like her. She has no idea what's in store for her,'

"It is even a type of siren I have never seen or heard of before. But even if we do nothing she still has a great chance to die soon since she is partly cursed. It is most likely from her previous evolutions since it seems her race isn't that of a cursed race," the phoenix spoke as he held an imaginary chin.

"If she is cursed then why doesn't she have a 100% chance of death?" James asked while calming down.

"Curses can be completely one-sided or half and half. But when it is an entirely one-sided curse the vessel has a 100% chance of dying, but when it is half and half, the vessel has a 50% or below chance of dying, while gaining incredible power... It is most likely the latter since she seems stronger than what her status displays,"

After discussing for a while they came up with a plan. James was never able to get comfortable talking to his ancestor/god so he stuttered a lot pissing of the phoenix multiple times. But despite the awkward air, they came up with a plan that includes just the two of them and has a 100% chance to kill Arpious.

********

"All right, we have sent messengers to all of the villages residing in the canyon. We have to wait for them to respond, if they agree with working under me then that's fine but if they resist we'll just eliminate them," I say to Kumo while talking about our plans for the future.

We are currently inside the deceased chief's house. There are only 2 floors in this house but each floor is massive, part of it even goes into the wall.

The chief never had a maid so I hired some of the harpies that looked like were struggling and turned them into my maid... obviously, they were girls. All 5 of them cleaned up the house and it was looking pretty good but I didn't want to get too attached since we won't be staying here for very long.

"Master we have received our first response from one of the villages and they have accepted to work under you," one of the fire harpies said.

I was currently sitting on one of the couches on the second floor. It is not as great as my throne for obvious reasons but it's still acceptable. As for Kumo, she was feeling tired since we haven't had a break all day so she's currently sleeping on my lap.

"That was pretty fast... I think we're going to go to sleep now since the sun has already set. If we get any more responses just inform me in the morning,"

"As you wish," the harpy maid complied.

I carried Kumo to the bed across the room and tucked her in. Soon after I snuggled right up next to her as I drifted off into the land of dreams.

[Day 19]

Today I forgot that I was still in the harpy village so I was filled with confusion in the morning. I decided to Eat some breakfast to get me adjusted but it was questionably made out of... eggs and chicken?

"Ummm... am I eating your children and brethren right now," I asked the maid who cooked the meal for me and Kumo.

"Master I would never do that. We have a type of bird that lives at the top of the canyons called the Magma Kingfishers. They normally live in groups and hunt the Magma Tortoises that surface from time to time," the maid replied.

That must be one huge bird since I recall the tortoises being pretty large in size. I wonder why I never saw them? The only type of bird I saw was the hawks... and the harpies if you include them.

"Update on any of the villages?"

"7 have reported back and 6 of them accepted but one declined to say, I quote 'We don't need your pity. Even if you are the head chief of the fire harpies I won't accept you since your not even a harpy in the first place.' How shall we deal with them?" the maid recites.

"It doesn't matter. I expected this response so just send a few assassins to deal with the higher-ups there,"

"... master, what is an assassin?" The maid replies with a slight head tilt.

What... they don't even know what an assassin is, are they just some barbarian village? Well... nevermind that... should I just try and train some up since I'll need some in the future... no that will take too long, I'll lead some of the battle-ready harpies to just eliminate them. Or I could just assassinate them all on my own since I'm pretty good at it.

tsk

"I'll just eliminate them on my own. I'll teach you what an assassin is later. I'm going to get the work done right now since leading a squad of harpies will cause panic and then they'll be ready... its just a pain if I bring others," I say.

Finishing up my meal and standing up to get ready I feel Kumo tug on my dress.

"If it's assassination I can do that. Plus you need to manage the village, it would be chaos if there weren't a head making decisions around here," Kumo suggests.

"No way, no way," I decline.

"It's alright I know you're worried about me but if it's not a head-on fight I can quickly finish the job,"

After mulling over what I should do I finally break and let her do the job. She's the person I trust the most after me.

Seeing her leave I couldn't help but feel a slight sense of regret. In order for the people around me to not attract the same mood as me, I shoved the discomfort away hoping for a safe job.

"Wait... when did I care about somebody so much?"