Chapter 137 – Imminent

"Now that we got that out of the way, there's one more thing that they asked me to bring up."

"What is it?"

Derrin spoke before they decided to part ways. 

"Since you're so adept at gathering intelligence, I was told to ask you if you had anything you could share with us."

"I do actually. And I can tell you right now that it's not looking good."

"Something happen?"

"Well, let's just say I was right about everything I said. That tablet, take a look."

Derrin looked down at the table and picked up the tablet. Its display had changed from the list to a demographic showing the current numbers.

"...My god."

"I know. This army that's coming is only a small portion of their population. Not only that, but many more are pouring into the continent as we speak. This tablet holds the data for their numbers and movements."

"..."

Derring looked through the data, stunned and a bit fearful. Not only was he looking at a number of monsters never before seen, but their power levels that had surpassed all the Empire's combined was scary to look at.

"We are definitely going to be working together more in the future. And it doesn't have to be you, but people need to start pushing for a more active stance. There's only so much I can do alone. And if the Empires still wish to only defend... Well, all I can tell you is to enjoy your families while you still can. Cause at that point, there won't be much time left."

"...I understand. I'll relay this to the others. I'll also notify the generals about your employment. They'll want to work with you. Unless you need to prepare."

"I can meet them. And my soldiers will be here by tomorrow."

"Great. Then I'll be going."

"Sure."

Saying bye, Derrin left the room, leaving Ciroc and Dream alone.

"He must be a busy man."

"He's good at what he does though. By the way, are your little friends going to show themselves?"

"Heh, I figured you would see them. Come on out ladies."

After saying that, two figures seemed to appear out of thin air. They were Luna and Iris and they were currently covered in their suits, which retracted after they undid their stealth. Luna walked over to him and Iris hopped on his lap in her fox form.

"Congrats Dream." (Luna)

"Thanks."

"I'm surprised he agreed. That was a lot of materials on that list." (Iris)

"Well, a lot of lives will be saved by those machines."

Dream pet Iris as Luna sat down by his side. Ciroc smiled and sat back, amused.

"And who might these two girls be?"

"Ciroc, meet Luna and Iris. They are Riddick's daughters."

"I see. And your women?"

"Mhmm."

"Impressive. Though I'm surprised."

"By what?"

"The fact that you only have two women."

"Only?"

Dream tilted his head. Was two partners supposed to be a small number?

"Of course. Someone of your power can easily have more. Though I guess you are still young."

"Is having more than one partner normal here?"

"For the most part."

"How many do you have?"

"9."

"9?! Sheesh! I can barely handle these two, how the hell did you manage to get 9?"

"That's what comes with power and age. Don't forget that I'm over 300 years old. After that long, you're bound to meet more people. And sometimes things just click."

"Uh-huh. Sure."

"It's true. I've even got children with all of them. That's another part about having several partners. You can have more children."

"You can have many children with just one or two partners."

"Sure, but as power grows so does the difficulty in having kids. At least for women."

"Huh. I thought it would be the opposite."

"Nope. I'm not really sure why though, so don't ask me. Anyway, I didn't see these two any other times that we met. They're rather powerful as well. Were you hiding them?"

"Something like that. It's complicated. Either way, they're here to stay now. In fact, they're going to be participating in the battle."

Dream put his arm around Luna and pet Iris as he said that. Ciroc smirked.

"I'm sure everyone is going to love that."

"They should just make sure to watch themselves though."

"What, are you gonna go around protecting them?"

"Heh, no. They can do that themselves."

"If I get looked at like that time at the restaurant, I'm gonna gouge someone's eyes out."

Iris flared up a bit in anger after remembering all the lecherous stares. She's much stronger now and no longer has to put up with it. 

Ciroc sensed the violent aura coming off of her. Sensing it as well, Dream stroked her back, calming her down.

"Well, isn't she a fiery one."

"You have no idea. Anyway, enough about harems. These two are the only ones for me. Tell me about the situation over here."

"Heh, alright. I'm sure you can guess though. Everyone's scared and panicked. And I'm sure things will only get worse after your new intelligence gets passed around."

"Do you think they'll start taking things seriously?"

"I think they will. Especially after this. The demons have already crossed the line and this battle will be the final straw. I've actually heard from Derrin that plans for some vanguard missions are underway. After this battle, that'll be our next step."

"Good. In fact, maybe bring up to Derrin the idea of keeping the reinforcements here so they can participate in those vanguard missions."

"Well, after this battle they may not want to. I remember those metal troops of yours and after they see them, I don't think they'll want to let you go."

"They don't have to worry about that. I'm the one who wants to fight anyway. But again, my services won't come free."

"Speaking of, you're not affiliated with anyone are you?"

"Nope."

"Why don't you? I'm sure the Spire would love to have you as one of them."

"Well, I guess I never really needed them. I collect my own resources and sustain myself. Plus I've got Riddick and now Idona backing me. Though even without them I'm not so weak as to not be able to take care of myself. Plus, the Empires have nothing I need."

"Resources?"

"That's something I want. Given enough time I can collect however much I want. The main reason I've given demands for my recruitment is to put the materials they have laying around to good use. That and it never hurts to get paid."

"I see. I guess it makes sense since you were able to make the army in the first place. But still, maybe you should think about officially joining an Empire. It'll give you more authority than you have."

"I disagree. The authority I have will come from my ability. In fact, joining under an Empire will restrict my abilities. They'll have an excuse to put me on a leash and use me however they wish. But with how it is now, they have no way of dictating what I do since I'm totally independent."

"Hmm, maybe. Though if it were any other time, there would be no war to showcase your abilities. I guess this war is very beneficial for you."

"It could be beneficial for a lot of people should they start moving."

"Mm. Anyway, tomorrow the generals are getting together for last minute arrangements. They're definitely going to want to talk to you. Are you planning to stay here for the night?"

"If you have a room for us. Otherwise we'll be heading back to our own home."

"I can arrange one. The others will feel better if you stay here. Come with me."

Standing, Ciroc led the three out of the room and through some corridors. After walking for a bit, they came up on some doors.

"This is one of our suites. Use it as you see fit. Tomorrow someone will come and bring you to meet the generals."

"Thanks."

"Then I'll be going. I've got my own women to please."

With a smile, Ciroc turned and left, leaving Dream and the girls to enter the suite.

"He seems nice."

"Really? That's good."

Entering the large bedroom and living area, Dream plopped down on the bed. The girls hopped over and also crawled on the extravagant sheets.

"Your dad will be coming with your mom tomorrow. They're going to join us for the battle."

Dream spoke up after a bit. The girls nodded.

"Okay. Are we really going to be able to fight 3 million demons?"

"I think we'll be fine. We outnumber them in class 4's easily and with the reinforcements that came not long ago, we outnumber them in the lower classes as well. Even without me they should be able to win, albeit with many times the casualties."

"I'm excited though. I've never fought these demons. Will I be able to just run around?"

Iris voiced her excitement. Dream smiled.

"As long as you and Luna stick together, you'll be perfectly fine. In fact, I'm interested to see how you match up to my soldiers in terms of killing speed."

"Hmph. Challenge accepted. I'll put your puny metal soldiers to shame."

"Good. And since there's going to be so many enemies, that also means a lot of energy and mana for you to eat. I want you to employ your training. You've come a long way in these past several days."

"Only because you worked me to death. I've never fought so long in my life! You made my soul hurt!"

"Psh, that's nothing. At least you could just eat and recover. I had to pass out and recover slowly. You're lucky."

"It didn't make it hurt any less!"

"I will give you that. *sigh* Anyway. We should relax until tomorrow. Hopefully I won't be dragged around to a million meetings."

Saying that, Dream made himself comfortable under the covers. The girls also joined, cuddling against him.

.........

......

The next day, Dream was pulled to a meeting as expected.

This meeting not only had the generals there but also all the class 4's of the Mercenary Empire, plus the class 4 reinforcements. On top of that, all the class 3 officers were here as well. Everyone in the room Dream was in were the people who would be leading millions to fight millions.

After everyone had arrived, the meeting started and the general began going over the plan one last time. 

Basically, the plan was to form the soldiers in a way that they wouldn't get surrounded during the battle. To do this, defensive lines were set up at the East and West of the city. And with the demons being funneled into the north wall, they would have a much easier time bombarding them with magic and chopping them down. 

But while the plan sounded nice, nobody here was naive enough to think that it would go perfectly. The hastily built defensive walls to the side of the city could be easily broken through and there would then be no one to maintain the funnel.

To counter this though, they decided to station 5 class 4's on each wall. Since according to Dream's intelligence the demons could feel fear, they shouldn't put as much pressure on the walls if they sensed class 4's. This would allow them to maintain the walls. 

Other than that, smaller details about who went where and fallback plans were discussed. And after they had gone over all this, they brought up Dream's reinforcement. 

If he were delivering as promised, then he was going to be a huge part of this battle. Plus, most of the officers had received his troops not long before the meeting, and after counting they now knew he wasn't bluffing about the 80,000 soldiers. And while their capabilities hadn't been seen yet, Ciroc vouched for their ability personally. With this, Dream would be trusted. For now.

The final part of their discussion was about where Dream's troops would fit into this plan. Some people recommended they reinforce the funnel walls, some thought they should be a backup for if there's a breach. But Dream stepped in and told them to let his soldiers dive into the horde.

This caught many people off guard. Most of the people there were aware of consequences should Dream fail to deliver. His employment details definitely hadn't been hidden from them. So him wanting to throw his soldiers into hell head first was considered a dangerous move by all means. 

But he insisted, saying that they would attain peak killing efficiency within the horde. Otherwise, they would just be wasting around doing nothing. He was there to cut down on the lives lost, not provide a stronger shield. 

Though this plan of his came with one condition, and that was a quick response should the class 4's show themselves. Dream knew that his soldiers would be decimated should they step in, and if they just left them to do their own thing, he would have no army by the end of the battle. 

Thankfully, this wasn't met with resistance. They had already prepared to act fast should those class 4's show themselves. They didn't want them destroying leagues of their own soldiers after all. 

So with that, all the plans had been fleshed out. Dream would loose his bots into the horde and the rest of the army would defend against anything that slipped through the cracks. Simple.

When the meeting ended, everyone went off to make final preparations. Dream had given them an ETA on the demons and it wasn't until the next day. They even had a live drone feed of the horde, showing their distance. With this, they were more content. 

The rest of that day was filled with many goodbyes among the soldiers and rest. They all wanted to be at their peak to ensure their survival. It would be quite a shame if they died because they were tired and careless.  

..........

.......

"Alert! Alert! Demon arrival imminent! Repeat! Demon arrival imminent!"

With loud sounds that echoed across the city, Dream's bots sounded out alarms. 

At this time, the sun was only barely rising over the horizon. Though despite it only being morning, nobody was asleep. Everyone had already been awake for an hour now, waiting for this very alarm. 

"I see them. I guess your estimation was spot on."

Up in the sky above the city, a man spoke. Around him were 22 other men and women, one of which was Dream. And that man spoke to Dream.

"Of course it was. It won't be long until they start charging the walls. I've also started the search for those 4 Grand demons. They should be identified soon."

According to the class 4's who had killed a class 4 demon before, the class 4 demons were known as Grand demons. Below them were the class 3's known as High demons, and then just demons at class 2. Class 1's were lesser demons.

As Dream spoke, Sophia was using all of the 6 drones above them to look through the 3 million strong demon army. As his bots had seen the 4 Grand demons, or class 4 demons, at the destroyed kingdom when they killed the king, he at least had a visual read on them. Using this and Sophia's quick processing, it wouldn't be long until they were found. Unless they were stealthed of course. But that was unlikely. 

"Right. Now are you sure these bracelet things will be able to alert us properly?"

One of the other class 4's spoke, looking at the metal band on his wrist. Dream had given them all bands so he could blip the Grand demons in their vision when they were found. Not only that, but they were able to talk with anyone else who had the band. Though most of them were still skeptical since they had never seen such technology before. 

"It'll work. We did that test, remember? Just trust my creations, it'll make things very easy for us. Now, I suggest we all take our places. The demons are getting agitated."

He looked down at the utterly massive army in the distance as he said that. The army spanned several miles in width, and even their aura could be felt from so far away. Even Dream, who was the most familiar with these demons, felt panicked at their sight. And knowing this was only a small fraction of their entire population made him fear for the human race of this world.

Sp4de

Hello all!

Sorry I disappeared for a few days. I had college finals to do and it took up all of my time. But I'm finally done now and I'm going to be doing a lot of writing in the future, so look forward to more releases. My creativity was stifled during the finals and I've done a lot of internal story mapping, so now I can finally let it all out. 

On another note, the story has surpassed 160k views and is about to get 5000 favorites! I always get excited seeing the numbers rise. It's insane that so many people read my story. I have doubts sometimes, but seeing that keeps me going.

Anyway, thank you all and I hope you enjoy!

Sincerely,

You friendly neighborhood Creato