Eldritch Creature's Guide

Because all of the Demon Tribes were warring with each other in some way, even when their Council functioned at 100%, neither single of them had the capacity to fight one of the Gates because they needed to leave a considerable part of their own forces, to watch for other Demon Tribe or Species that would try to profit on their situations and attack them while they were off.

"Indeed, though if the rumors are to be believed, then the Star-Moon Coalition has been doing what it could to usurp part of the market on their side. Especially, they have been investing a lot of effort into a slave business, probably aiming to cut the income of the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe considerably, so their wealthy status may shrink in the near future."

Samiel knew that if the income of the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe got lessened by the amount the Star-Moon Coalition wished, which was approximately one-half or so, and on top of that, the Star-Moon Coalition had the capability to achieve that feat, then in a century or two, the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe would be in serious trouble.

Unsurprisingly, the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe too much money each year on various things, though one of the most considerable items on the budget were the wages for the various branches of their extremely extensive military and upkeep of their outposts across the Cosmos and other things which were literally essential to the functioning of their tribe.

Now, as simple-minded as the demons really were, not many of them bothered about a simple thing called diversification and thus, approximately 80% of their income stems from the slave trade so... if someone were to cut that one into half, it would be absolutely severe hit to their finances, that would slowly reveal itself as a hidden crippling blow.

This was not a problem only for the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe but also for many others because they were not the most creative people around and they often stuck to something that worked for them and never bothered to try new things. Many demon tribes were depending on slavery as their source of income; because it was indeed very profitable, also there was not just slavery, but also for example selling body parts and so on from the killed people on the battlefield.

"Juulius, go and find some suitable place where we can build tents..."

Samiel ordered as his personal knight bowed his head slightly as he went to carry out the orders from his Lord. Meanwhile, Samiel and co were preparing for a relatively long time of doing nothing and just waiting for the breach of the defenses.

Not like he would want to participate in breaching the defenses or anything because, for him, that would be a total waste of time, and he would rather spend it otherwise. Letting the demons do the work was the best course of action.

***

On one of morning, Samiel was woken up by artillery shooting at the defenses of Selangrad City. Every single morning he was woken up by artillery firing at the Selangrad. It was like this every single morning, and in truth, it was becoming more and more annoying.

Tytos and Nefertari also weren't really thrilled by this and, right now, were pretty grumpy, to the point of eating a few demons that were trying to annoy two felines. Ironically though, nobody from the demon army cared about the fact that his and Juulius's familiar ate demon soldiers.

In fact, during those few days he spent here, he saw several tens of demon soldiers being killed in brawls or some sort of conflict. Juulius hated being in this enviroment because for him; they were an embodiment of everything he hated so far. They were undisciplined, doing what they wanted and fighting among themselves and even killing each other in some cases.

Even Samiel developed an even stronger distaste for staying here because even though they were an army, there was no semblance of acting as one coherent unit or even acting as all. They were just fighting, screaming, eating and drinking, making a mess or occasionally attempting to attack the gates without any proper reason.

"Those dammed barbarians should all perish and be left rotten somewhere in the desert."

Juulius cursed as he exited his tent and the first thing he saw was several demons fighting against each other over some insignificant things. It was like this for every morning, lunch, afternoon, evening and sometimes even night.

Samiel looked at his personal knight because Juulius, who spent his entire as a member of the Holy Templar Order, where discipline was always top-notch and even slight insubordination towards the superior commanding officer, was punished with extreme prejudice.

"Unscrupulous things."

And if there was one person who hated it here more than him and Juulius, it was Yvraine, who finally first hand experienced dealing with Demons and they were even worse than Orks. Really, there wasn't even a single hour passing without Yvraine cursing at the demons; she also killed three of those, which were too annoying for her tastes.

"Yeh, yeh... this is already the tenth time during this hour."

Samiel parroted at her because she was becoming increasingly annoying like the demons. At least Juulius was holding himself when he was looking at the demons because his Templar Codex told him to keep his opinions to himself only and continue his duty of serving his lord.

And fortunately for Yvraine, she was not restrained to something like this, and thus she was able to curse at the demons however she wished. Fortunately, Samiel learned how to ignore things like this, even though it was a pain in the ass.

Rather he continued reading one of the Magic Tomes on the Intermediate Warding and continued learning new types of Wards as they were waiting for something to change in the siege of the Selangrad.

The Black Walls that surrounded the Selangrad stood strong, without any damage or anything. Naturally, this wouldn't really last forever because, during the past few days, Samiel noticed one thing... demons were getting restless, very restless, as they were becoming more and more nervous, especially the commanding ones.

This could mean only one thing, that the Star-Moon Coalition was nearing the Central Area of the Human Continent after they were done with the Southern Area and the Western Area was no problem because it was empty and without any significant military presence, while the Northern Area long ago fell to the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe and their pawns.

To obtain the city before the armies of the Star-Moon Coalition could reach the Selangrad, the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe needed to take the capital as soon as possible. So, right now, it was understandable why the demons here were nervous.

Suddenly, as he was reading one of the Warding Magic Tomes, he suddenly heard shouts and screams from the outside, meaning that something significant had happened because of the volume of sound was way higher than some fight or anything like that.

"Something had happened."

Samiel muttered as he exited the magically enchanted tent as he saw thousands of demons were now all looking at the White-Blue Gate and at the same time, they were looking at the thing that they were brought here...

When he looked at another place where most of the demons were looking, he saw there an enormous cannon. Literarily speaking, it was Mana Artillery Cannon capable of unleashing firepower comparable to some very weak Legendary, but it was Legendary, nevertheless.

"Fuck..."

Samiel muttered as he suddenly saw Yvriane and Juulius coming up to him; all of them saw there hundreds of demons dragging that enormous Mana Artillery Cannon and positioning in front of the White-Blue Gate directly at it.

"They have brought out the big guns right now."

He commented as he looked at the Mana Artillery Cannon, which was now in a state of loading and preparing to shoot. Suddenly several hundreds of magical particles started gathering in front of the Mana Artillery Cannon and the mana density in the entire area of the Mana Artillery Cannon started decreasing drastically.

In a split of a second, suddenly a blue beam of energy shot out from the Mana Artillery Cannon and directly hit the White-Blue Gate of the Selangrad, as it was blocked by the magical barrier that was enveloping the entirety of the city.

While the magical shield withstood everything, it started shaking and shaking a lot at that. Instantly after that, all siege weapons and everything that the demons brought here started firing at the magical barrier and at the same time, all Sorcerers or Warlocks were casting their spells.

During the time when the huge Mana Artillery Cannon cannon was reloading, hundreds of shells, shots and spells fell onto the magical barrier that was protecting the Selangrad; while the enormous Mana Artillery Cannon was finished reloading and once again, it fired another shot of Legendary Level might that hit the magical barrier with a full force, as countless cracks started showing on the barrier.

"Dammit... that barrier is stronger than expected... this is already approaching the standard of cities where Legendaries are living."

Yvraine commented from the side as she watched the show when the Mana Artillery Cannon shot the second shot at the protective Magical Barrier around the Selangrad.

"Indeed... who would have thought that the Avalon Kingdom would invest so much into the creation of the Selangrad, but it won't be able to withstand the third shot; even right now, it is already on its last legs. After the barrier is done, the White-Blue Gate would be destroyed in one or two shots."

Samiel stated when he analyzed the situation because soon, the White-Blue Gate would be breached as this came like lighting out of the clear sky. Nobody could have ever predicted that the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe would send a magetek weapon with the firepower on the Legendary Level.

Sending this level of technology on the 8th Floor seemed to be really a bit of extravagance, but considering the strategy of the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe was employing this time. Though considering the state of the defenses of the Selangrad, it would take them weeks at best to get into the city in the normal way, so the only thing that remained were some unconventional methods to breach the defenses very fast.

Soon enough the Mana Artillery Cannon once again was reloaded and shot its final shot which shattered the magical barrier like a projectile shattering a glass window, as thousands of shards of barrier dispersed into the air, as the barrier that was protecting the entire capital of the Human Brotherhood was done.

Immediately, a ferocious bombardment of the city started by the forces of the demon army, who started throwing everything they had onto the city because this time, their "packages" would reach the city. Not even two minutes later, one could observe countless explosions happening in the city, as the trebuchets were throwing there explosives, cannons, mortars and other types of artillery were sending there salvo after salvo, together with Sorcerers and Warlocks sending their spells.

Naturally, the defenders of the city had some means to protect themselves, but unfortunately, contrary to a city-enveloping magical barrier, these methods couldn't protect everything and there were a lot of blind spots where the damage could be done as this was being explored by the demons at 100%.