The Demon Sovereign (7)

The reasons humanity earned the appellation “Lords of All Creation” proved multitudinous, but paramount among them involved trust – that indispensable faculty.

A beast approaches from afar. Conceal yourself by climbing trees preemptively to avoid being devoured.

Someone previously consumed those colorful mushrooms, foaming at their mouths before perishing. Therefore, abstain from ingesting them.

By believing secondhand accounts without direct involvements, humanity’s ability to trust had enabled their wildernesses survivals.

However, the reasons for the Demons’ ascensions atop food chains to partition worlds alongside humans had differed somewhat:

“Dinner approaches from those distant locales! Come children, let us indulge!”

“I recall someone mentioning those mushrooms tasting exquisitely lethal. Having become quite curious, shall we not partake ourselves this time around?”

Healthy bodies alleviated cerebral strains. But if overtaxing one’s cranium, should their physiologies not warrant re-evaluations?

If capable of overpowering predators, why bother fleeing? Poisons or fungi – simply digest them. Humans perishing from romantic intoxications or poisonous soups represented unfathomable philosophies.

And the Demons – those quintessential embodiments of primal instincts – could never abide witnessing others’ prosperities unimpededly.

Certainly, humanity harbored envious streaks antithetical to Buddhistic transcendences as well whenever relatives acquired landed properties.

But for Demons, such feelings manifested as dysenteric convulsions – whether rages or destructions, something would inevitably erupt violently.

They had already commenced acrimonious ego-clashes over fabricated martial grandeurs and hypothetical adversaries since departing towards Antrim – akin to shepherds simultaneously claiming both existences and inexistences of identical perceived threats.

Therefore, the converse claims represented equally unexceptionable eventualities:

“Your battalions will not participate in the advances?”

“Alas, many commanding officers perished during recent battles. With compromised chains-of-command, we opted for momentary reprieves this time around.”

“I see? Then refrain from uttering subsequent contradictions.”

And if they had learned absolutely nothing from enduring those protracted backstabbing histories, passively awaiting demises represented appropriate recourses.

Some naively opined: “Surely not during active warfare situations?”

But those intimately comprehending ‘Demon’ and ‘trust’ as fundamentally antithetical concepts reciprocally refuted such follies. Postulating herbivorous-reptilian hybrid chimeras would be equally credible.

“General, are we truly the sole remaining contingents?”

“Negative. Everyone has withdrawn. Tonight, immediately.”

“If we do not hamper the human advances, would not the survivors attempt usurping our martial credits? And should any defensive breaches occur, would the ensuing responsibilities not……”

Even the General who had previously gloated about single-handedly gathering all those scattered beach pebbles representing victories had drastically pivoted in demeanor.

“I am well aware. But do you genuinely believe they harbor any goodwill intentions towards us? Hmm?”

“……”

“Such patronizing utterances merely represent tokenisms for utilizing us as disposable human shields. Such naivete, tch.”

The Demons hardly remained blindly oblivious either. In some respects, their intelligence-gathering capacities even exceeded human counterparts – their abilities to infiltrate moles among adversaries reached celestial levels at minimum.

And while the humans’ initial offensives might have represented uncertainties…

By this present juncture hours into the onslaught, those rumbling tractor convoys streaming forth to compensate for the Demons’ meager agricultural outputs clearly could not be overcome through mere excavations, rallying cries, or sheer effort exertions alone.

Warfare resembled convoluted group projects in many aspects:

The assault battalions providing offensive spearheads. Rearguard support contingents handling casualties alongside logistics. Command elements collecting intelligence while formulating overarching strategies. Innumerable interwoven roles coalesced into mapboard artistry manifestations.

To oversimplify: Presenters. Data analysts alongside report authors. Resource gatherers.

Even among rank-purchasers, remaining behind as solitary sacrificial pawns while everyone fled represented untenable propositions for anyone not utterly lobotomized.

Even against mere paper tigers whom they could theoretically overwhelm, surrounding isolations without allied support would only facilitate encirclements – so who would ever indulge such gratuitous futilities?

Yet astonishingly, such gratuitous futilities did transpire – undertaken not from personal volitions, but compulsions preventing even single steps of retreat amidst that apocalyptic carnage.

“Not one single step backwards!”

“Resist the humans until your final breaths, engraving this realization – that failing to defend our lands shall result in unending blood-drenched rampages!”

“The Demon Sovereign has decreed – fleeing here shall forfeit our kindred’s futures, condemning our brethren into perpetual enslavements under those bloodthirsty human oppressors!!”

Who had initiated that conflict no longer represented particularly pertinent details.

Having instigated the first strikes yet succumbing to defeats represented ultimate disgraces superseding any conceivable humiliations. The Demons had long since self-reformatted those realities into oblivions.

Yet even the Flying Dutchman required captaincy.

The individual assuming that squad leader’s role hailed from the Demon capital’s elite officer cadres – equivalent to the Glasgow-Belfast Coalition Army’s supreme commanders within human nomenclatures.

“Allied reinforcements?”

“Whether they merit ‘allied’ designations remains uncertain… but according to their latest communiques, they were withdrawing preemptively.”

“Kkkhueeuugghh……”

“Judging from their unresponsive radio silences, they likely either preceded us into utter routs, or are deliberately ignoring our transmissions.”

“Deserting before anyone else – what defeats?! Absolutely inexcusable cowardices!!”

Having departed with terse parting remarks akin to “Farewell, best wishes, let’s endeavor diligently” before submerging into utter incommunicados…

The commander had to expend half his mental faculties suppressing desertion impulses upon witnessing those teammate abandonments.

The initial exhilarations upon receiving that imperative mission obstructing the human offensives had proven fleeting – quickly unveiling realities about confronting not idyllic campus lives, but nightmarish group project hellscapes instead.

“Your Majesty, our supposed ‘allies’ currently refuse adhering to any directives while universally deserting their battlefield deployments!”

“…I see.”

“You must sternly castigate their insubordinations, while compelling their immediate redeployments onto frontlines!”

While pondering options like falsifying illnesses to evade those likely C-grade punishment bludgeonings from professors…

No particularly dramatic transformations had ultimately transpired.

The sole recourse involved issuing mobilization orders – assembling every scrapable personnel for quadripedal deployments into the fray.

---

Freugne, who had foreseen the futures through torrential nosebleed expenditures, had perished.

Only the childlike Freugne from the ‘Land of Early Risers and Early Bedtimes’ remained.

That innate disposition demanding absolute overarching dominations before achieving tranquilities had significantly diminished following that pivotal juncture.

After all, existential urgencies no longer persisted – she had already secured her paramount desires within her very grasps.

While Sithe self-appointed herself as the night watchman during Freugne’s slumbers, Freugne had embraced Edan before drifting into dreamlands.

And upon awakening each morning, the first visage entering her eyes invariably involved Edan – having risen beforehand to dutifully await beside their bedsides with utmost frequencies.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Mmhmm, yes. And you, Uncle?”

“An excellently restful repose after prolonged absences. But I must depart for work soon. Likely an early return today.”

“If, if you arrive home early… with surplus time remaining……”

Edan understood the unspoken implications behind Freugne’s unfinished utterance.

He could not simply dismiss her words as jests – not when her previous threat about excising her name from the family registries had materialized just days prior.

Formerly, he could have issued verbose disclaimers beginning with: “At my advanced age, pursuing dalliances with–”

But such modern eras hardly considered dispatching prepubescent maidens into geriatric householdings as outrageous rarities.

Age discrepancies around a decade represented essentially immaterial trivialities, which Freugne actually preferred – fortifying her unbreachable citadel against potential intruders.

Initially, Freugne had pretended feeling victimized – deriving amusements from that naivete postulating “No, I dislike this, please desist” as sufficient affirmations preserving his chastities.

But upon belated realizations, Edan had adopted strategic readjustments.

While Freugne persisted in fixed gazes, Edan averted his eyes before eventually tossing his head nonchalantly with wordless smiles as he rose from bedside.

Feigning ignorances despite mutual understandings proved considerably more tantalizing, prompting Freugne into reiterating her inquiries towards Edan.

“Yes?”

“…Why must you constantly place Uncle into such predicaments?”

“Predicaments, you say?”

Freugne briefly contemplated that visage with glazed expressions.

What was this? Seductions?

-Rustle-

“?”

“This represents Uncle’s transgressions, so…!!”

“……?!”

Having mastered suppressing obsessive-compulsive symptoms yet still lacking desire-inhibition training, Freugne’s mental tethers had instantaneously severed.

And Edan, having cultivated techniques pacifying Freugne’s frenzied outbursts, had gently placated her before departing for the Tower – slightly belated but bearing a solitary love-bite upon his nape.

And during that commute…

After briefly scanning his surroundings before entering a shadowed alleyway, he received a folded note from an awaiting individual.

“…Here, the latest war updates.”

“Any noteworthy developments?”

“The offensives have progressed exceedingly successfully. At this rate… we should arrive at the Demon Capital within days.”

Edan swiftly perused the organizational member’s note before exiting the alleyway.

The war’s conclusions loomed imminent.