Chapter 760 760 Denied
It was obvious to the Emperor that Wolfe was not at Rank Eight, in fact, he had only just become a Saint, but for some reason, the Magi could counter his magic and put out Unholy Flames. That wasn’t right, those flames should burn everything to the ground when he used them.
Emperor Claudius had taken over his entire world using those flames to burn enemies out of castles and purge cities that wouldn’t comply, but for the first time, he used them against an enemy a whole Rank lower than himself, and they were immediately snuffed out.
If he had tried it against the Wrath Demons, the same thing would have happened, though not quite as quickly. But he had never faced them, either. In fact, his entire world had never interacted with the other Planes at all, only other human controlled worlds.
They had some witches, but in Witch tradition, they were tending gardens, forests and other natural areas, or working as doctors and alchemists, not fighting in the army.
Wolfe looked up at the Emperor sitting on his throne, now immobile on the ground, as the carriers were dead.
“Do you wish to surrender? We can let you close the portal and go home once we have your assurance that you will never try to invade our world again.” Wolfe suggested.
“I shall never fail. The second legion will soon arrive, and your world is doomed.” Emperor Claudius announced.
“You do realize that you are fighting against a single village, not even a proper fortified city, right? Your losses today will be in the thousands, and I’ve already eliminated all of your Commanders. Surrender, or I will end your conquests right now.”
Claudius opened his mouth to retort, but never got a single word out before a massive axe came flying from behind Wolfe and cleaved straight through his enchanted armour to pin the two halves of his body to his throne.
Wolfe looked back at the smirking Wrathbringer, a massive Rank Eight beast of a Demon, with power surging through the spells engraved into his armour.
“Hey, we were having a dramatic negotiation moment here.”
The Demon shrugged. “It was taking too long, and I already know how the ending goes.”
The nearby Demons and the Upper Planes attack team burst into laughter, a terrifying noise that drove the rest of the Emperor’s army to their knees in surrender. The Wrath Demon gestured to Wolfe, indicating that he could continue with his speech making, as if he didn’t just kill the enemy leader to fast-forward through the boring part of the argument between Wolfe and Emperor Claudius.
[All soldiers of the invading army, lay down your weapons and prepare to be gathered as prisoners of war.] Wolfe announced.
For some reason, they actually looked relieved at that news, and Wolfe wondered if they had a very different tradition for prisoners than his people, the Demons or the Fae did. They would have to interrogate a surviving officer or two in order to fully understand what drove these people to try invading another world, but at least they weren’t determined to fight to their very last breath.
Desperate people did unpredictable, stupid things. The sort of things that might actually get someone killed. The only issue with taking prisoners was that Wolfe had no idea what he should do with them. He didn’t want to keep them in town, they were enemy soldiers, but he didn’t have another place to put them.
The Demon sensed Wolfe’s hesitation and stepped up to stand beside him.
“I think I have a solution. There is a crystal mine on my property that can always use some more workers. If we shackle them to lock away their magic, they can break stones to extract crystals until everything is settled and the war is over.” He offered.
Wolfe smiled back at him. The chances that the ‘war’ was actually going to end any time soon were somewhere between slim and none if the Emperor they just killed actually did rule this entire planet.
It could take years before he was replaced, it would almost certainly lead to a civil war for the right to his various territories, and then there would be the question of who represented the world in negotiations with Forest Grove.
But there were only a few hundred survivors at this point, out of the thousands that had attacked, so it wasn’t going to be too big of a burden on the mine to hold them all.
“Alright, feel free to take them away and ensure their good behaviour. There are supposed to be reinforcements coming to assist this force, so they can deal with the bodies. How many casualties did we have on our side?” Wolfe replied.
“I see some wounded, but I don’t see any dead. Whatever that light spell that the feathery ones use, it’s impressive. It shares the damage between their troops every time someone is hit, so you need to defeat them all to kill even one. Some of the Demon and the Fae weren’t quite as lucky, but nothing that a bit of Witch Magic can’t regrow.”
A Light Sprite flew over to hover in front of them, buzzing with excess magic as it hovered.
“As nice as this conversation is, we should likely go. The reinforcements are on their way, and there are closer to a million of them. This must have been the expeditionary force to first set foot on your world because the main army is way larger.”
“How is their power level?” Wolfe asked.
“About the same as this, but without the leader. Lots of Rank Six leaders, a few Archmages as they call their Rank Seven magic users, but with a million troops who are all capable of using some level of magic, and they’re equipped for a siege.”
“Can they open another portal to my world when they arrive? I wouldn’t want to just send their retaliation to another part of the world.” Wolfe asked.
“No idea. I can see the army, not their spell books.” The Light Sprite replied with a giggle.
“Sorry, silly question. Alright, take the survivors with us and retreat. I don’t want anyone here to tell them what happened, let them guess whether they actually managed the invasion or if they were hit by a third party. The more confused they are, the less likely they are to continue their attack.” Wolfe announced.