The Demon Sovereign (2)

As humanity encroached upon the Demons’ indigenous territories in earnest…

Their artifacts, while hardly commonplace, gradually percolated into circulation as commemorative or collectable merchandise within markets.

Freugne had retrieved an ancient oration the Demon Sovereign had once delivered while unifying his kindred into a confederacy.

Evidently, the Demon Sovereign represented the linchpin driving their collective warfighting resolve and unity. Eliminating him would effectively terminate the conflict.

A straightforward paradigm where the righteous hero vanquishes the nefarious warmongering tyrant, ushering peace into the human realm.

“So what are your intentions regarding the Demon Sovereign?”

“While unsettling… there seems little necessity for his outright termination.”

But it remained non-obligatory.

“The endeavors and risks outweigh any prospective gains.”

While heroes had been martyred during previous wars under dire circumstances, history did not universally mandate Demon Sovereign fatalities as prerequisites for conflict resolutions.

Numerous factors had precipitated former cessations – the Demons’ diminishing warfighting capacities, internal disarray, high-ranking subordinates overcoming indoctrinations to assassinate their liege, and so forth. The chronological sequence differed – victories preceded Sovereigns’ deposals or mortality from shock-induced cardiac arrests, not vice-versa. As long as humanity survived, their nemeses’ fates proved ultimately immaterial.

Where Freugne had previously insisted upon eliminating all potential threats without reservations, her recent brush with mortality had finally instilled judicious pragmatism into her software.

Not that she had ever lacked prudence – she had always contemplated multiple contingencies, occasionally to neurotic extents physically taxing her constitution.

“…I’m retiring for the night.”

“Very well. It bodes well that you’re resting earlier today.”

Perhaps she had merely tempered those obsessive neurotic perfectionist compulsions slightly.

Massaging her throbbing temples after ruminating deeply, Freugne eventually rose from her seated position.

“Uncle.”

“Hmm?”

“I’ll be retiring now.”

“Oh, alright…?”

“Join me.”

“…?!”

Even as she tugged me along by the wrist, I felt somewhat reassured.

Freugne had refrained from overtaxing her precognitive faculties beyond sustainable thresholds, her complexion regaining healthy vitality. Admittedly, I seemed to be gradually deteriorating instead, but nonetheless.

Maphackers remained distinctly cognizant about permanent stasis risks – surely she had not utilized those capacities unwittingly.

Yet existential disparities inevitably persisted between merely conceptualizing those hazards academically versus personally experiencing stasis instantiations.

Freugne occupied that precise juncture – comprehending those perils intimately while refraining from overtaxing herself, as if some hypothetical observer might caution: “That’s not how you’re supposed to utilize precognition…”

And she had already endured two brushes with that stasis-or-demise crisis twice over. While I had successfully intervened previously, neither of us could foresee how long such fortune might persist.

Having already expended two out of three metaphysical lifelines, any subsequent Demon captivity could permanently sever her final tether through consecutive decapitation strikes.

Finally acquiring minimal composure amidst such cataclysms, Freugne had lapsed into contemplative ruminations while drumming the tabletop pensively.

The offensives had been successfully repelled, humanity steadily advancing into Demon territories.

Newspapers trumpeted this as an unprecedented military achievement against their adversaries – the populace brimming with renewed hope as if never having cowered in terror.

Yet everything remained far from optimal.

“It seems we should commence deliberations soon.”

The war would need concluding eventually.

---

Not long ago…

The Demon Sovereign’s final convulsive throes had proven somewhat troublesome.

The Earl, having meticulously compiled military intelligence and Demon interrogation data into an 11-point neatly formatted Nortron Gothic briefing, had initiated his presentation:

“Our casualties unfortunately surpass initial projections.”

Unable to exculpate himself from partial culpability, the Earl cleared his throat awkwardly before continuing:

“While the overall situation precludes overt admissions, General Andre commanding the vanguard frontlines harbors considerable pessimism about our immediate prospects.”

“For what reasons?”

“Resource scarcities notwithstanding, our foremost deficiency involves manpower shortages. With many wounded troops still unrecuperated, further advances risk overextensions and reversals.”

Correction: It had proven excruciatingly grueling.

The Demon Sovereign too must have recognized this represented his final opportunity. Hence his unrestrained, indiscriminate attempts to prioritize eliminating Freugne and myself foremost.

To summarize the conclusion, this final dance had achieved semi-successes.

Doubts had arisen questioning the leadership’s competencies and stabilities within the organization’s upper echelons.

Consequential losses of control over financial and military sectors had ensued – a disoriented humanity merely represented another nutritious meal for the Demons.

The top secrets housed within the Earl of Norton’s cerebrum, as well as Freugne’s own, had become compromised.

Concurrently, the Demons had initiated their counteroffensives. Troops charging forth under assumptions of routine patrols had instead plunged straight into the gaping maws of human meat-grinders.

“Any significant war updates today?”

“Same old, nothing much. But they seem to be concealing something.”

“Rumor has it the casualty toll already exceeds a million, which the government is suppressing!”

“You there, spreading such demoralizing disinformation constitutes punishable offenses! Keep your mouth shut immediately!”

“Then why are they concealing anything? Recent war coverages have abruptly terminated, so do you have anything to say about that?!”

The newspaper pages previously brimming with victorious updates had gradually become inundated with trivial filler content like Londinium’s produce sale advertisements.

With the war having persisted over a year, the populace had grown acquainted with the patterns of controlled media coverages – prompting PTSD-induced hives as they envisioned frontlines encroaching upon the capital’s outskirts once more.

In contrast, this chaos represented a mere well-orchestrated banquet for the Demons – akin to being served seaweed soup after the main courses in culinary metaphors.

Swarming forth ravenously, they had swiftly culled the veteran troops on the cusp of earning their battle-hardened stripes before attempting to film ‘Juggernaut Towards Antrim Season 2’ – until:

“Erin! Erin! Erin!”

“Eeek……”

“Our heroine! The Demons’ bane!”

“Guh, it feels rather awkward receiving such acclamations. I did not achieve this alone, after all…?”

“Kkhah, and now such humility too!”

“You see, this exemplifies a true hero’s demeanor! All of you slackers should observe and learn!”

Had someone not once proclaimed heroes manifest during times of crises?

It was thanks to the indefatigable valiance of Londinium’s proud heroine Erin – persevering until the bitter end without abandoning her comrades – that the overall frontline had avoided complete disintegration.

While the overarching objective of inflicting devastation upon humanity had been partially accomplished, her refusal to prove the final domino ensured the Demons’ failure to completely reverse the conflict’s trajectory.

The Demon Sovereign’s preview subscription to military deployment foresights had been terminated – and Freugne harbored no intentions of renewing it regardless of whatever incentives he might dangle.

And so, after several tumultuous weeks of that audacious gambit to seize the initiative had concluded…

The frontlines had stagnated into an equilibrium of sluggish, incremental rearguard retreats.

Victory or defeat, the outcomes remained equally catastrophic – but the former obviously represented the preferable calamity between those alternatives. Yet the aftermath of this Pyrrhic victory remained grim:

Morale had plummeted considerably, equipment losses were staggering, and General Andre’s task force in particular had lapsed into near-vegetative comatosities from the complete strategic resets required.s could not be cultivated like crops, nor did either Freugne or I possess any magical artifacts capable of instantaneously conjuring replacements.

The prospect of humanity suffering total territorial losses no longer manifested within any of Freugne’s foresights. Yet the converse possibility of absolute victory equally remained unvisualized.

Ultimately, if exterminating the final Demon proved unfeasible, a judicious severance point needed identification.

Enacting ill-conceived schemes like incinerating the capital into an infernal wasteland or aerially bombarding the Demon citadel into a lavatorial hellscape would merely initiate apocalyptic cycles of mutually assured destruction.

Or perhaps that eventuality remained plausible after all…

If every eligible youth from Glasgow and Pfalzbrycht were conscripted into the meat-grinder while simultaneously defaulting upon all future-leveraged debts.

The Parliament had previously erupted into vociferous debates over this very conundrum:

“If we fully mobilize until the last individual, humans attaining planetary dominance would no longer remain mere fantasies!”

“Does that not represent an excessively optimistic outlook?”

“And what would remain after achieving that? Even if bartering our futures for present survival, what awaits us thereafter?”

“But have the ambiguities regarding post-armistice Demon evolutions not become apparent through previous histories? You cannot intend bequeathing such lingering anguishes to posterity?”

“No, that is not my intent! Without their Sovereign’s dominion, they inevitably revert into internecine shambles. Left unimpeded, would they not simply self-destruct?”

“Yet does not their current Sovereign still persist?”

“Well, perhaps his advanced age might resolve that issue organically.”

The Demons had always represented existences perpetually teetering upon reciprocal annihilations if unrestrained.

Therefore, persisting stoically while weathering their infighting would inevitably culminate in humanity’s ascendance over time.

The parliament had proceeded towards consensus alignments reflecting Freugne’s intentions:

“Certainly, we cannot initiate armistice overtures from positions of foreseeable disadvantages during any prospective negotiations.”

However…

One final linchpin still remained unresolved.