Chapter 512 Dark Piece Of Art

"Sir Denzel, the demons have fortified their stronghold and are now amassing their forces to spread into our territory. I already sent a messenger to the nearest cities and warn them about the possible invasion, but they won't be able to evacuate in time", a Cessation Knight said while kneeling on the ground.

The man called Denzel that is sitting in a big tent with devastating wounds around his body looks up to look at the Cessation Knight, there's a healer on his side that is currently healing him.

Intense green energy cloaks his body like a layer of a blanket as his wounds slowly healed.

From the sheer amount of energy gathered into the green cloak of healing, the healer must be a very high-rank healer if he can even heal the wounds of a ninth-rank Awakened. But the tension inside the tent is high and the healing process feels like an eternity.

Just a couple of hours ago, the attack on the demon stronghold failed.

Denzel is the only capable Awakened here that can pose a threat to the Archdemons of the Demon Kingdom, there are three Archdemons there including the blue fiery demon that has a ninth rank power just like King Saruth.

Even with their sheer number beating the Supernatural side 2 to 1, it's still impossible to win.

Although they have the number over the Supernatural, most of their numbers come from the military and they are all regular men and women. Their strongest weapon can only pose a threat to a fifth rank Awakened at max.

It's a huge improvement from the last weapon model, but it's almost useless in this war.

Only the distraction created by the barrage of bullets can give enough time for stronger Awakened to retreat if necessary, aside from that, the weapons can only kill lower demons and that too requires a couple of clips.

Possessing three Archdemons on their sides, Denzel's forces lost the battle halfway through collapsing the demon stronghold's wall. They just need a little bit more but unfortunately still bested.

Now the demon stronghold's protection array formation has been completed fully.

This protection array formation is devastatingly bad news for humanity side, the demons now don't need to protect their stronghold that much and can focus on going on the offensive.

Just like what the Cessation Knight reported before, the demons are getting ready to attack.

Prang!!

Denzel grabs a drinking steel water bottle and threw it to the ground angrily as his eyes burn with fire, his fits of anger that he's feeling right now burning his face in reading as he looks to the ground thinking. The loss will be devastating if he doesn't take action as soon as possible.

Many cities are defenseless without much support, and the demons pose a very huge threat.

"Where is the reinforcement, we needed them here now!! Our current forces can only handle two or three legions of demons to intercept their advancement, but more than that we can't handle"

"The reinforcement will get here in a week's time, it'll take them a while.

Hearing this Deznzel curses once again standing up abruptly before pacing around the room, "That cursed blue demon... how is it have the ability almost as powerful as King Saruth? Where did te the demons hide that thing?!"

If not for the blue demon, the Cessation Knight will not lose the fight.

Using only one of his spells, the blue demon is able to kill hundreds of military men with just a swing of its black spear. Denzel is distracted by the two other Archdemons and this is the result. Losing the war is the result of the surprise by the Demons.

"Creates a couple of platoons to intercept the demon's advancement, we will need to fight"

"Call back the teams we sent to patrol, every one of them. And also, ask the Awakened in the nearest city to reinforce our perimeter too. It doesn't matter where they are from as long as they are able to help us", Denzel finally commanded firmly, he doesn't have any other choice.

Leaving the further away cities unprotected to reinforce the nearest city is the only option.

It will at least increase the probability of the near city surviving the invasion from the demons, but the Cessation Knight kneeling in front of him suddenly said, "But sir..."

"What about the defensive line in front of the Vampire Stronghold, they might need the Awakened we're going to call for help too if they're attacked. Aren't we risking too much, why don't we focus our defense in core cities?"

But upon hearing this, Denzel glares at the Cessation Knight sharply forcing him to look down.

The rapid breathing and the cold sweat wetting the palm of his hands show the nervousness and anger he's feeling, without even the Cessation Knight saying it Denzel knows about that, "Are you saying that we're going to abandon other cities to die?! Is that what you're saying?!!"

Like a thunderous roar, Denzel pointed and shouted at the Cessation Knight.

No matter how dire the situation is they still need to put human lives as a priority, abandoning the low-priority cities will mean the death of hundreds of thousands of lives. It's a mountain of corpses.

Imagining it himself, Denzel becomes angrier the more he thought about it.

"We might be in a war against the Supernatural, but our ultimate goal is still protecting humanity. It's going to be a disgrace for us to leave our people to be butchered. My decision is firm, we're going to do my plan and buy time for the reinforcement of the SCO to come"

"Do you have any more questions, captain...?", Denzel asks squinting his eyes sharply.

Without even the need to raise his gaze, the Cessation Knight already knows the expression Denzel is wearing right now. The expression of sheer anger from what he just said before, "No, sir!"

"Then get to work and get out of my sight!"

Upon the Cessation Knight leaving the big tent, Denzel sits back down on his chair roughly.

The healer that kept silent all this while continued healing Denzel without even saying anything, but with a gloomy look Denzel looks into the void as he's getting healed, "I just hope the other side is not attacked too, but they are there so it should be fine..."

~

Meanwhile, on the other side of the human territory.

An onslaught starting to spread like germs in a trash bin, maggots in corpses, dyeing everything the eyes can see with blood-red color. A grotesque stage that delights the nocturnal creature that has darkness and evilness as their friends.

The scent of blood in this place is so thick that a mutation occurred in the nature around the place.

Green lush trees starting to have their leaves fall despite not being the autumn season, even the leaves hanging or already on the ground have already turned red mutating into a plant called Bloody Temple Juniper.

With its leaves mutating alongside the tree, blood energy starts to ooze out of the leaves.

Alongside the dyed red scenery filled with the mutated trees, hundreds if not thousands of human corpses are littered around as if they were nothing, perfecting the haunting scene into a complete piece of dark art.

One trait is shared by all of the human corpses here, the work of devilish creatures.

Each one of them is impaled on a tree, a house, and even a tall and thick pole in the middle, they all are also headless as their skull was ripped from their heads and placed neatly circling a pool of blood that looks like a huge pond.

"KYAAA!!"

"DEAR GOD, SAVE ME!!"

Screams and shrill of horror can be heard inside this rough village that has gone through hell.

Fanged creatures in black outfits chase after them like hungry animals sweeping the entire village out of life, their red glowing eyes and pale skins point them as the obvious race they are, Vampires.

Coming out of the red forest, two Vampires in fancy armor are followed by an elf.

Upon seeing the sight of the villagers that are ruthlessly disrespected even in death from how they are impaled, Calidora widen her eyes before her surprised expression quickly turns into a frown, "Why did they do this to them? These humans are filthy but they are still civilians..."

"Princess, fear is a necessary instrument to be used in war. You must understand this"

Despite getting consolation from Queen Shanaela, Calidora shakes her head angrily refusing to be consoled with such a scene in front of her eyes, "I know that we're in war with the humans, but we need to show that we're not ruthless to civilians"

"If we show them that we gave these humans a swift death, then they will start to do the same"

"Hurt as much you want to be hurt, that's what I believe in. I don't want our civilians going to suffer like this because of our doings", Calidora rebutted glancing at Queen Shanaela before taking down the impaled humans as much as she can.

Seth who watches this from the side stops Calidora, he gave her a look of disapproval.

Realizing that Calidora will not listen if he just told her to stop, Seth then mutters warningly, "Princess, King Solomon will not like it if he knew about this. The others will also not like this attitude coming from their princess"

"If you really don't want to be this ruthless, we can destroy the pool of blood"

Upon hearing her father's name being brought up, Calidora clicks her tongue helplessly before she heads to the pool of blood intending to destroy it. It's not necessary to make this pool of blood just to mock the humans further.

Venting her anger on the pool of blood, Calidora's vampiric eyes are activated.

With nothing but a glare from her devious red eyes, the pool of blood exploded making the place shower with blood for a couple of seconds as the skulls rolls around the ground. Not satisfied yet, Calidora destroyed the skulls with a blood needle she created.

Only the impaled headless corpses remain that Calidora didn't touch in respect for her father.

Seth nodded his head finding that Calidora is at least still reasonable realizing that many Vampires around them are already giving her a disapproving look, but he quickly added, "Let's kill the other captured humans, we're here to feed the Blood Devourer after all"

Despite feeling frustrated, Calidora complies as she turns and walks away.

Queen Shanaela and Seth look at each other before both of them sigh, "With this progression, the mission will take too long and it might endanger the princess. This village has the most humans from the villages we come across, and it's still simply not enough"

"I know... but the demons are not launching their attack yet. We need them to attack first before we can raid a bigger and more important city, the report shows that there's two ninth rank Awakened around this place", Seth replied remembering the report she got when they went past the Vampire Stronghold.

With two ninth rank Awakened around, they can't be reckless and attack bigger cities.

Calidora is the princess of the Vampire Kingdom, she's the only sole Vampire that will inherit the Kingdom if something happened to King Solomon or Queen Nezera. She's a prized possession.

"Our origin sent a test for us... he deliberately let Calidora holds the Blood Devourer"

"Giving the Blood Devourer to King Solomon or even others just to feed it with blood will be a heavy insult to the Origin, the Origin forced us to accompany Princess Calidora in feeding the Blood Devourer. Maybe there's a meaning behind all of this...", Seth mutters before looking at the sky asking for certainty from the Vampire Origin.

~

Meanwhile, Rex's mansion in sector 2.

"What are you doing dear...?", Robert who is playing a game on his phone asks when he saw Mrs. Greene tying her hair into a ponytail before heading to the door.

Stopping in her tracks, Mrs. Greene then said, "I'm going to make ginger chicken soup..."

"Ginger chicken soup? Who's sick? You only made that when I'm sick"

"Today I overheard Rex's conversation with people from the new crow organization, he mentioned that Ryze got a sickness and turned into a Supernatural! Isn't that crazy?"

"Ey... are you sure you heard that right?"

Robert who heard the surprising news takes away his attention off of his phone and positions himself to sit on the bed, there's a sliver hint of doubt in his expression that doesn't belief what his wife overheard.

But he still feels alert from realizing that there's a Supernatural in their mansion.

The news about the demonic cities is still hot despite happening a couple of months ago, the fact that a human can be turned into a Supernatural by the opposing side is pretty horrifying to think of.

Ignoring her husband's doubting gaze, Mrs. Greene left the room and headed to the kitchen.

A couple of minutes later,

Since the night has already dawned on the sky and it's already a little late, the lights on the hallway heading to the backyard are already dark with the others training in their own respective room. Mrs. Greene wanted to ask Rex about this matter but he seems busy after getting back from the meeting with Hester Family.

In that case, she decided to skip asking him and just went straight to Ryze.

Upon arriving at the small house in the backyard, Mrs. Greene doesn't see Tandu anywhere who usually sits around the small house, 'He might've gone to the toilet...', keeping a positive thought, Mrs. Greene enters the small house.

Creating a creaking sound, the door opened slowly revealing Ryze lying unconscious on the bed.

There's an oxygen mask on the side of the desk but Mrs. Greene didn't question it as she doesn't know the condition Ryze is in aside from being a Supernatural, she creeps closer and sits on the edge of the bed.

Putting the tray on the desk beside the bed, Mrs. Greene looks at Ryze's peaceful expression.

But just as she was looking at Ryze's face with a blank mind, "Rex, don't... don't leave me..."

"Hmmm?", Mrs. Greene snaps out of her blank mind upon hearing Ryze muttering softly, he seems to be dreaming about Rex. His sleeping expression turns into an anxious one as cold sweat drip down the side of his face.

"I- I'm not useless... I'll do it then, I'll become a Werewolf..."

Mrs. Greene heard the soft mutters before a frown appeared on her face, "Why is he dreaming about Rex, and what does a Werewolf have to do with Rex?", with Ryze being so deep in his sleep, she then decided to leave the tray on the desk and let him rest.

While walking back to the mansion, Mrs. Greene kept thinking about what Ryze just said.

She intended to tell Robert about what she just heard but stopped when she walked past a door, there was a scratching sound coming from inside which piqued her attention.

'It should be Gistella's room, what is she doing in there?'

Feeling a little bit curious as the house is emptier than usual, Mrs. Greene wanted to knock on the door but finds the door is opened. She pushes the door slowly and finds Gistella sitting in a meditative position on the bed.

Although it's rather dark, the moonlight illuminates the room enough for her to be seen.

But slowly Mrs. Greene's eyes enlarged seeing Gistella's fingernails are not fingernails, but they were claws instead. It came as a shock to her as she mutters, "W-Werewolf...?"

Just as she mutters that Gistella's eyes suddenly jolted open.

Her piercing animalistic yellow eyes look directly at the door making Mrs. Greene stumbles back in utter shock, she crawls back while still fixating her eyes on the half-opened door of Gistella's room. And she suddenly felt her back hit something but it was definitely not the wall.

With the fright she's feeling, Mrs. Greene lets out a high-pitch scream, "KYAAA!!"