Chapter 1316: Coup d'état

Chapter 1316: Coup d’état

“What are you all doing here? Can’t you see that we are being attacked?” A loud stomp from his precious metal staff reverberated throughout the entire room with magic power resonating from it.

“You think that will scare us away, Master Nathan Welihelm? Just because you created us does not mean that we are not equals.” One of the Demon Rat General said as his axe scraped the floor with a loud clicking sound. And soon, the rest of the generals followed suit and surrounded the Scholar of the North, Nathan.

“And? Can’t you see that we are busy discussing what we should do about this mess? The Eastern and Western fronts had somehow been discovered and they were all more than ready to attack us. More importantly, they even knew where the exact pinpoint locations of the digs were and had us in a pinch. And you guys are wasting your time – WHAT?” Nathan who was busy digesting the list of text from the Eastern and Western frontline did not notice the severed head that the Axe Demon Rat General was holding.

Immediately, he put up a shield right in front of him and demanded an answer from the Demon Rat Generals. “What is the meaning of this?! How did Master Douglas die and why are you holding his head in such a manner? Explain!” Nathan shouted as he tried to rummage through his desk to find the commanding ring that was supposed to cause all Demon Rats regardless of ranks to obey his questioning.

But before he was able to find it, the shield right in front of him started taking damage from the Demon Rat Axe General as his axe was no ordinary weapon. Like a rotating pinwheel, the axe continuously pounded onto the scholar’s makeshift energy shield and roared as it ground through the layers. 

And this was merely just the Axe General doing his part where the others were smirking at how easy this whole ordeal was to perform a Coup d’état. They had no idea that the command rings could be overwritten with just a simple loophole. By wearing one of them by themselves. 

The Rat Generals forcibly took the command ring from Douglas, the Scholar of the South who was preoccupied with boosting the defences of the main headquarters further into the capital. But in reality, Douglas was mainly boosting his room with traps so that anyone coming in would be killed. He however disabled the traps for the Demon Rats for very obvious reasons but Douglas had no idea that as he was enchanting the room, he would be stabbed in the back by various Demon Rat Generals, killing him almost instantly. And as if the Demon Rats knew the impossible possibility that he might be resurrected, beheading the head before he could make any further response was the most appropriate choice they had selected.

And as if the beheading was not enough, the Demon Rat Generals demanded that his body would be cut into pieces and burned in the midst of this chaos. And in the meantime, the Generals looted his body and gave most of them to the Mage General of the Demon Rats since he had previously been bestowed powers by the Scholars themselves. 

As for the beheading, it was also used to serve as a conduit for the Mage General to obtain whatever knowledge Douglas had withheld from him previously and also preserved his remaining soul within that beheaded piece so that the Rats can control play with fire by controlling the scholar even from the dead. 

The Mage General believed that if he was able to do so, controlling the humans outside might be a feat that could be achieved too and this war could end sooner than they might expect.  Simultaneously, having the tortured soul of Douglas in their possession also allowed the Demon Rats to utilise the Command Ring as if simulating the effect of Douglas controlling the current group of Demon Rats General.

But the control was still under the Mage General and thus creating a loophole that enabled the Rat Demons to move so boldly against the stronger of the two scholars. And since the Demon Rat Generals were under the effect of ‘Douglas’ the commanding ring used by Nathan was rendered useless and all he could do now was to defend himself. 

“Why!? Why! After all that we did for you! You know that we are the only two that you can trust!” Nathan shouted as he attempted to prepare a lightning spell to zap the Rats into oblivion, hoping to buy time by learning their reason. 

Yet, the attack got fiercer and more of the Rat Generals took part in the destruction of his shield, causing Nathan to fire the lightning bolt prematurely and also doing some damage to himself from the feedback. And still, the Demon Rats did not fall back but rather pressed forward, going into melee range and slashing the two arms away from Nathan’s body, disallowing him from even holding a wand. 

Nathan retaliated despite the loss he suffered. Even without hands, he was still able to chant, allowing him to regrow his hands with black magic. Although it might lessen his lifespan, Nathan knows that his life will end in seconds if he does not use them and soon after, cast a necromancy spell that provided him with the ample amount of buffer that he could potentially need to fight against a group of well trained, well armed Demon Rat Generals. 

“Raise the dead!” Nathan shouted after his quick successive rows of chants. Swift casting the spell enabled him to raise a few death knights at his behest and yet he was bested once more by the Demon Rat’s Mage General who cast a holy smite to break a pathway for the Demon Rat Axe General to plough through. The rest instantly blocked the remaining Death Knights, allowing the Axe General to shove the entire axe through Nathan’s body, causing him to be in shock and major loss of blood.

And with that opening attack, the Demon Rat Generals continued to eviscerate the last scholar who created them so that this entire race of Demon Rats will be led solely by Demon Rats