Eldritch Creature's Guide

Several hours later, after the conference between the representatives of the Demon Tribes present on the 8th Floor, the outskirts of the Demon Continent, Bronian Wasteland.

The higher-ups of the Demon Tribes immediately ordered the attack on the forward fortresses of the Human Brotherhood on the Demon Continent, which they had managed to construct on the Demon Continent, after the meeting ended between the representatives of the Demon Tribes.

There were four of such fortresses around the outskirts and various abandoned places across the shores of the Demon Continent, as the Human Brotherhood managed to build these things stealthily. Not like they were the only ones, as the Demon Tribes were doing the same thing on the Human Continent, as they too had their own outposts somewhere out there.

Moreover, things were moving extremely fast, and just within an hour, four separate attacks were planned on the four forward fortresses at the same time as well as the fight on the islands between the two continents was going to start again.

On the 8th Floor, there were not just two supercontinents, Demon Continent and Human Continent, as there were countless smaller islands between the two Continents, which served as battlefields for both Demonkins and Humans during the war between the two factions that already lasted for countless centuries.

A stalemate usually prevailed between the two sides on the island; aside from some minor skirmishes from time to time, neither side pushed too hard for the control of the island, since the control of the island was essential for the next step, the invasion of the continent on a full-scale.

That was because, till now, neither side was ready for the full-scaled conflict to begin; thus they were just preparing and occasionally testing the waters. Or maybe better said that the Demons, who would be the main initiators of any conflict were taking their time playing with their prey.

In the absence of the absolute control over these islands, which would serve as the base from which the invasion would be launched, there could not be a conquest or war, and because of that, both sides were perfectly secured in their position on the islands they controlled.

In the course of centuries, they have built lines and fortifications around the island, along with countless castles and fortresses, since they were determined to protect every square meter of their territory and not give it to their enemies for free.

Right now, the Bronian Wasteland, which was forsaken part of the Demon Continent due to its hazardous enviroment, and thus it becomes uninhabitable for living. Countless millennia ago, there lived one mad Arcanist who was dabbling in the Necromancy Arts; having reached the peak of the Silver-Tier, he wanted to reach the Gold-Tier and enhance his strength as much as possible because he wanted to defeat his rival.

Thus he started playing with very dangerous spells in the area of the Life Drain category, and unfortunately for the Arcanist, on one such fateful day, he developed a new variant of the Life Drain Spell, which was 8th Level Spell.

The moment he wanted to cast the Spell on the captured slaves, he couldn't handle the tremendous power of the Spell, and it backfired not only on him but on the entire area where he built his Magic Tower. And thus, as the Spell fell down, it drained the life from everything, be it the smallest insects or powerful Gold-Tier Magical Beasts that were slumbering somewhere, or the plants and trees, everything withered within seconds.

As such, the Arcanist Bronian met a sad end, after which the Bronian Wasteland was formed, which was once an enormous area that he ruled, once a vibrant place teeming with flora and fauna of countless species and types, and once a vibrant place full of life and vitality.

Now it was a dead place, where everyone who entered would find himself weakened to a certain degree, as only those with some innate Magic Resistance would find themselves unaffected by the terrible curse on the forsaken place.

It was also a reminder that the area of the Life Drain Spells was very dangerous and if not handled properly with enough care and preparations, it could easily got wrong and brought with itself catastrophic aftermath, just like in the case of Arcanist Bronian, who created the Bronian Wasteland.
Right now, a contingent of Demons of various shapes, sizes and appearances were crossing through the Bronian Wasteland, all of them were of the Bronze-Tier and higher, and their leader was from a Gold-Tier Golden-Horned Demon from the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe.

Their task in this place was simple, to find and eradicate the fortress as the final war for the supremacy of the 8th Floor has finally started after countless millennia of preparation. The Golden-Horned Tribe must know that the Human Brotherhood is internally panicking because of the moment when their backers started pulling out, leaving them to their fate.

This was because, from the perspective of the factions pulling the strings, their objectives were achieved, and right now, all the advantages that the Human Brotherhood had once again dissipated into the air.

The leaders of the Human Brotherhood probably still thought that they were supported by them, not fully aware of the great game behind them in the shadows. The contingent of around three hundred demons was already near the forward fortress of the Human Brotherhood.

Their leader, who was a member of the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe, stopped the entire contingent of demon soldiers from the various demon tribes as they scouted the area and discussed the strategy for the fortress.

After several minutes, from the shadows, several Shadow Demons emerged as they finished scouting the forward fortress. Members of the Valefor Lineage were always used for scouting, assassinations and information gathering because all of them were born with the innate ability of Shadow Control.

"Report."

Commanded their commander as he impatiently awaited the crucial information that the shadow demons brought to him so that they could decide on the next course of action.

"3 Silver-Tiers, including the commander of the fortress. The entire number of soldiers is 7,000. Most of them don't appear to be in alert, as many of them are sleeping in the quarts or doing just nothing."

Reported one of the Shadow Demons because for them, it was an effortless task to infiltrate the fortress and get all important information within a few minutes. While the fortresses were decently protected, they lacked any high-end magical protection and wards against some times of innate abilities, like in the case of the Shadow Demons.

"Is that so?... In that case, we are going for the frontal assault on the fortress. All Shadow Demons will return back, infiltrate the fortress and assassinate the commander and secure the crucial information before they can destroy it. Everyone clear?"

The Golden-Horned Demon decided the next steps for every; seeing that nobody was objecting, they started moving out of the fortress. The Golden-Horned Demon was leading the charge, showing anyone why their tribe was the strongest of all Demon Tribes.

As the bearer of the lineage of the Grand Emperor Bael, the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe, were sometimes born with Innate Magic, called Destruction Magic, which allowed them to destroy practically anything with the Edictual Magic.

The Destruction Magic was one of the most destructive in existence and it was said that only a few other types of Magic were superior to it when it came to its destructive capabilities as it dealt with the Edict of Destruction itself.

Just this alone made the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe the strongest of all Demon Tribes that existed at the material plane. Indeed, not many were born with it, and even then, not many could master it to a very high degree. Yet, even then, the numbers of those few who had achieved the such feat, was terrifying, as each one of them was an extremely mighty Lengedary Level Powerhouse.

Especially on the Mortal Level, it gave its user a tremendous edge over other enemies because such power was never meant for the mortals in the first place. Thus very few people at the Mortal Level could effectively defend against it.

Even on the Legendary Level, it was troublesome to defend against the Destruction Magic efficiently. Only those who were very proficient in some branches of Magic could defend against something so destructive such as Destruction Magic or people who were born with Level Abilities that could be used for such a purpose.

The Gold-Tier Golden-Horned Demon Tribe looked at the gates of the fortress of the Human Brotherhood, as the humans in there activated some sort of defensive ward when a translucent shield-dome appeared around the entire fortress within several seconds after they spotted the demon marching towards them.

Suddenly, a crimson-like star appeared above the head of Gold-Tier Golden-Horned Demon, conjuring an 8th Level Spell of the Destruction Magic, called Ruin Star. Such a powerful Spell, was strong enough to destroy already some medium-sized island without much trouble, as the Gold-Tier Golden-Horned Demon contained and compressed its power and shot the Spell towards the translucent shield-dome and fortress it was protecting.

And as expected, while the translucent shield-dome stopped the 8th Level Spell for several seconds and weakened it to a certain degree, it soon crumbled apart into thousands of shards, as the Ruin Star fell onto the gates of the fortress, unleashing an unprecedented level of destruction.

All demons observed how literarily half of the fortress was turned to dust, as nothing remained aside huge crater, where once the fortress stood, together with the remaining half which wasn't destroyed was falling apart.

"Maybe I went a bit overboard."

Muttered the Gold-Tier Golden-Horned Demon as he contemplated if he shouldn't use rather a 7th Level Spell, but whatever. What was done was done, as he gave the order for his squad to attack when the hundreds of demons rushed at the defenseless humans, who were either injured or in a state of shock at what had happened.

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Instantly the demons flooded into the fortress, killing anything that still lived and robbing everything of any value. Fortunately, the Shadow Demons managed to obtain intelligence from the fortress before the Gold-Tier Golden-Horned Demon blasted half of the fortress from the face of the earth.

Not like the things that were in the fortress were of any significant value to the Demons in the first place, aside from some sensitive documents about the Human Brotherhood, but that was all. There were not even storages of the Genetic Strengthening Synergies or weapons at all in this concrete fortress.

***

And during the time of the attacks on the hidden fortresses and outpost of the Human Brotherhood on the Demon Continent, similar occurrences were taking place on the countless islands between the Demon Continent and Human Continent.

The moment when the first such attack started, the Demons on the countless islands started marching and advancing towards the defenses of the humans, who were caught by surprise by this attack, as they were not prepared for such large numbers of demons flowing into their territory.

Even worse, the situation became the moment when large quantities of Silver-Tier Demons started joining the fight, spearheaded by some elite mercenaries from The Guild, among which there were several Gold-Tier ones.

They breached several of the initial fortifications of the humans and soon enough took control over significant parts of the islands. Only several hours later, the humans recognized what was going on, that the war for the supremacy of the 8th Floor had erupted and started pushing back.

Unfortunately for them, it was too late, as they lost significant parts of their territory in the islands, and the only thing that remained for them were a few isolated places where they decided to concentrate their forces.

This was, in truth smart move from the strategical point of view because they didn't have the manpower to retake even an inch of their former territory that they lost, so the General of the human armies in charge of the defenses of the island decided to sue a few remaining castles and fortresses, to dig out the trenches and fortify them as much as possible to slow the advancement of the demons as much as possible.

They were basically buying time for their compatriots on the Human Continent to mobilize completely. This certainly complicated the advances of the demons who were marching through various places like storms, as the first heavily fortified positions lost significant numbers, and even several Gold-Tier Professionals, as the places were heavily warded and protected.

Not talking about several Gold-Tier Professionals on the side of the Human Brotherhood, who were holding their ground there and with support from the wards and spell formation, they were able to give demons trouble.

Surprisingly the humans were prepared for the attacks, and as most fanatical soldiers of the Human Brotherhood, they stood their ground and fought to the last man and to the last breath, not surrendering before bring down with them several of their enemies.

Thus the blitzkrieg turned into a combination of siege and trench war which was terribly exhausting for both sides. Still, the higher-ups of the Demon Tribes were relatively satisfied because even though they didn't achieve all of their goals, their gains were still within their expectations.