Chapter 168 Undead Scourge (1)

8th Floor of the Tower, Demon Continent, Goldtooth City, one day later after the creation of Elder Lich Negash.

All members of the Khaos Chapter, plus the official mascots Nefertari the Elder Wampus Cat and Tytos the White Tiger, were in attendance at the meeting. Two felines were minding their own business because they were focusing more on eating than anything else, as they had a huge platter full of meat from the best types of magical beasts, especially the kind that both felines loved.

While Nefertari was not much eater in terms of quantity, the same couldn't be said about Tytos, as the enormous White Tiger could continue eating for several hours without stopping. Naturally, Juulius's spending on food for his familiar during the time they were in the Goldtooth City was out of the norm, because there was nothing to hunt for the White Tiger, so Juulius was forced to buy his familiar food, which was pretty costly.

"So, in this meeting, we will be drafting plans on how to advance through the Western Area and naturally unleashing my Undead Army to act as the Undead Scourge to collect souls."

Samiel said as Juulius, Yvraine and Dharzug surrounded him, as they were all looking at the map of the Human Continent, while next to the map was another map, this time only that of the Western Area of the Human Continent.

Best

The maps that Samiel was using were extremely detailed and could be considered art because they were printed on canvas, as Samiel wasn't using just the projection from his Holo-Brain, but rather opted for the physical version of the map. The map was pretty detailed, with rivers, landscapes, mountain ranges, cities, villages, forts, other places of interest and even territories of the magical beast hordes were highlighted on the map.

Of course, both of these maps were updated with the latest information about the state of things at the Human Continent, especially marking the forces of the Human Brotherhood, Demon Armies, the territories both sides already controlled and territories for which both sides fought. Samiel had these maps custom-made by the Guild, as he was still surprised what everything they were selling.

"We will head to the borders between the Western Area and Northern Area; there is one E-Ranked Mission from The Guild to create a mess by destroying several outposts and supply lines of the Human Brotherhood. You can act as you wish while I will unleash the Scourge on the Western Area and start taking city after city and harvesting souls."

With the addition of Negash, who controlled more than 9,000 Undead, while most of them were either pinnacle of the Iron-Tier or Steel-Tier, it was still a lot and a very high number of Undead to be just ignored. More importantly, with the combination of Ashimer's and Samiel's Undead, his Undead Army was numbering more than 10,000 Undead.

This was already a proper start for the Army and would probably even be considered as Army in some weaker or less populous world, as the ten thousand was a relatively high number. For example, if his Undead Army was taken to some random Lower World, then it would be automatically considered probably a world-ending threat.

Yes, it lacked any Gold-Tiers, but some of the weaker Lower Worlds, also lacked the Gold-Tier Professionals, with only the Silver-Tier ones being the strongest existing in those worlds. Not talking about Mana-Less World like his former homeworld of Earth, with such a strong Undead Army like he had today, he would be able to overrun the entire Earth several times over without any obstruction.

"That seems plausible... we can expect zero to no resistance in that area, and it would be a good place to harvest souls."

Commented Juulius, as he was more proficient in military strategies than any other person in this room, as he had studied them his whole life. Being a member of the Holy Templar Order of the Hall of Kadath, everyone was expected to have reached a certain standard in all martial disciplines, be it mastery over weapons, combat magic or war strategy and tactics.

As part of his studies, he had an extensive part of it dedicated to the strategies and tactics of battles and war overall because Juulius was to be one day named as the Grandmaster of the Holy Templar Order in a similar fashion as Samiel was predestined in a certain way to become a next Hall Master of the Hall of Kadath.

For the Hall of Kadath, soul harvesting was the primary source of strength because, for them, many had a symbiotic relationship with the Azathoth's Court, souls for power, as easy as that could get. Nothing else mattered and not everyone was a fanatical believer in the Outer Gods, though it had been noted that the longer people stayed with the Hall of Kadath more devout to the religion they became.

For Samiel he needed souls to continue evolving his Undead, who all depended on the Souls to evolve into higher forms of the Undead Life; without it they would remain forever at the stage they were in, not advancing even a bit towards something greater.

"Indeed, there are a lot of cities that are completely defenseless after the humans pulled the majority of their forces towards the capital..."

Samiel stated while suddenly Yvraine was pondering over something deeply, ignoring what he was saying at all. She was in deep thought before she said the thing she was thinking about.

"There is a very high probability that they are building a Dimensional Gate to escape from the 8th Floor..."

Yvraine muttered because it sounded logical and it was the only conclusion she could to after thinking about the situation for a bit.

All signs were there and the possibility of the Leaders of the Human Brotherhood building something like a Dimensional Gate was not technically that low. While the construction of the Deimsnional Gate required a lot of resources, it was possible for the leaders of the Human Brotherhood to gather them after several decades.

For several reasons, it was known that the Leaders of the Human Brotherhood were actually three men from the Avalon Kingdom and another one from the Magisterium and one from the unknown civilization of the High World.

All five of them were rogues, those who were discarded by their betters and somehow found their way together and settled on the 8th Floor of the Tower, where they started building their forces. Some of them were banished from their factions for various reasons and thus they became pariahs and rogues.

Through their connections to the Avalon Kingdom and some to the Magisterium, it was common knowledge that certain sorts of people, mainly those of prestigious background and social status, were aware of the fact that the five of them were hoarding some precious magic knowledge and even some rescues they managed to obtain during the centuries their organization existed.

"And because the entire 8th Floor is essentially locked down, there are only two ways how to get out from here. Either to find a natural Dimensional Pathway and use that, but that is not really possible because they are static locations and all of them are watched by the Legendaries who were observing the happenings on the 8th Floor."

Samiel explained because he quickly caught one of what they were probably after as he made a small pause before proceeding with the explanation.

"And the second possibility would be to build a Dimensional Gate, connect it to the outer layer of the Dimensional Pathway and use it as means of leaving. Naturally, the construction of the Deimsniaonl Gate would be harder but more manageable than finding a natural Dimensional Pathway between the Tower and outside Cosmos."

Of course, it would be logical because they should be long aware that any kind of siege of their capital would end in the complete slaughter of every living human in the capital... so the question there stood, why did they remain there and didn't escape to prolong their lives longer?

Or to just hide?

Certainly, the resources to construct something like Dimensional Gate was out of the reach of a small-time faction like the Human Brotherhood, but if they were robbing some resources from the Avalon Kingdom together with stolen knowledge of the Magisterium?

Then it was certainly very possible to build something like that. It became clear to everyone who was even a bit observant of the situation would see that the people who created the Human Brotherhood were just making use of the situation to obtain as many resources out of the Avalon Kingdom and others who wanted to profit on this proxy war as possible.

And, of course, everything would be for naught if they died here, so they put everything on their last card, which was the Dimensional Gate. If that was not working, they would be killed and their effort would not succeed; they lost... if they succeeded...

Human Brotherhood existed for entire centuries and for entire centuries, the Avalon Kingdom, Magisterium and Germinal Order have supported them. Aside from these three hegemons, it was very possible that they were supported by a whole deal of other factions across the Cosmos, who had some interest in the fight of the Human Brotherhood and Demons, aside from attaining control over the lower Floors.

The control of the Lower Floors of the Tower was essential for the human factions because humans were one of the species with the least talent and power and because of that, countless humans who entered the Tower won't ever get past the first ten Floors. The aim of the Human Brotherhood was to obtain control of these Floors through the Human Brotherhood so they could increase the numbers of humans who would be able to pass through the Floors and, at the same time, they would increase their own power.

"It would be very unfortunate if their plans didn't succeed... I wonder if the demons realized the possibility of them escaping?"

Samiel questioned mainly to himself, really wondering if the demons were aware of the probability of demons being aware that the Leaders of the Human Brotherhood could escape or they were not aware or they were aware of the possibility but, as always, were ignoring the fact that something like this could happen.

Not like it would be any different from their common sense and typical thinking process. Demons were a pretty arrogant and equally stupid species; using a head was sometimes among some species considered as a weakness.

"Indeed... they have resources to create at least several Legendaries... it was highly possible..."

Yvraine muttered dangerously; of course, in the greater scheme of all things, the fact that the five of them escaped with the resources they managed to hoard was inconsequential, but Samiel would prefer if those things fell into his hands.

Though in the end, he really doubted that he would be able to able to get his hands on the resources belonging to the Leaders of the Human Brotherhood. There were many factors in play, the chances that he would be the one who could get hands on it, was very low, though he predicted that the resources would fall into the hands of demons... that also wasn't a win.

"For now, that is not of importance... we should depart to our targetted destination."

Samiels stated soon afterward, so they could focus on the important thing that were right now the goals of the Khaos Chapter, which was right now the Soul Gathering for Samiel to hoard some Souls, and now was the perfect opportunity.

"Gonna smash some skullas!"

Dharzug cheered as he smashed his fist on the table, probably holding himself very much from the eagerness to go and kill something. Samiel could share his sentiment because he, too had some itching to go and kill something or someone as soon as possible... not to mention he was once again feeling the hunger... the hunger for souls.

The more he became closer to the Eldritch Creature in the fundamental nature of his race, the more aspects he was taking from them. One of them, which was becoming increasingly intense with each passing month, was the unquenchable thirst for the souls of living beings.

That was one of the major reasons why he was so eager to go and started unleashing his Undead Army on the defenseless humans so he could massacre them all and harvest their souls. Because that thirst for souls was stronger and stronger, it was painful and outright torturous and was becoming absolutely unbearable the longer it lasted.

It was then Samiel realized that the souls were not only a means of obtaining power for the Outer Gods, but it was partially a means of survival or maintaining some sort of sanity or ability to have clean thoughts.

"We should be going..."

He muttered when they finished discussing everything, as it was time to depart to carry out the mission finally. Dharzug grinned in anticipation as he was finally getting to smash some skulls, while Juulius just nodded because he was only going to carry out his duty to his Lord.