Chapter 432: Butterfly Effect

The Fog Mountains were located in San Antonio’s Amu Mountain district, and its capital was Fenbert, a city well known for producing outstanding fragrances and gems that originated from the depths of these mountains.

This place had a rather mythical history. At first, Fenbert was but an ordinary mountain village with nothing special whatsoever. Dangerous wild beasts roamed this mountainous area, and according to legend these forever fog-filled mountains had man-eating demons hiding within.

Rumor had it that anyone who entered the Fog Mountains would never return alive. It was common for people here to suddenly disappear, and everyone would put them down as the work of demons.

However, approximately seven hundred years ago, a brave young man named Amu went into the Fog Mountains of his own volition. He bravely fought and outsmarted the demons and obtained methods to enrich his hometown, the seed for an aromatic fragrance called “Dragoneye” and gem mining and refining technologies.

Amu used his newly-obtained riches to turn Fenbert into a thriving commercial center and military fortress. Not only did Amu become the first City Lord of Fenbert, but stories of his heroic deeds were also passed down through the generations. In fact, this entire mountain district ended up being renamed in his honor.

However, these events had taken place too far in the past. Nobody from today treated these legends as real. People didn’t believe in demons anymore, after all. The mysterious disappearances had stopped several centuries back. As for the adventurers that entered the Fog Mountains and never returned? Considering that the roars of plenty of vicious beasts could still be heard in the mountains, everyone felt that there was a far more likely explanation than one with demons.

In this current day and age, the environment had long since changed from what it originally resembled. Even the famous gem mines that the Amu Mountain district relied on were mostly empty. Still, producing Dragoneye fragrance and gem refining remained the most important economical pillars of this area.

Every year, many merchant groups would cross the mountains to bring valuable unrefined gems in exchange for Dragoneye fragrance and refined gems. Here, it was very common to find magical gems that required a master craftsman’s touch as Fenbert was home to some of the best gem craftsmen in the mortal plane.

However, nobody in the Amu Mountains expected that the legends would one day become real. The legends about Amu from seven hundred years ago ended up becoming a burden upon the people of today.

“Hello, we’re here to claim a debt owed to us. Please pay us what Amu promised back in the day. Please pay us half of all the wealth that he’s accumulated. You don’t have enough money? Then pay us with your land.”

Those man-eating demons? They really existed. The local hero Amu had even signed a contract with them. The wealth and technology he obtained wasn’t gained for free; it belonged to the demons, and now the demons returned to public view and came to collect the debt.

Alright, after saying this much, you readers must have understood who these demons were.

“Great Demons! So many Great Demons! Forest Demons, Snow Demons, Flame Demons and…”

When these hideous demons walked out of the Fog Mountains, they brought along Amu’s ancient contract.

Although the contract was well maintained, it was difficult to make out the wording on the paper that had long since yellowed after several centuries. The real reason the contract hadn’t become a piece of useless scrap paper was that a shocking number of two hundred thousand Great Demons, a tremendous army, came out of the mountains.

By now, it was easy to infer what must have occurred. As one of the losers of the previous Holy War, the Great Demons had escaped into the depths of these mountains, which was why there were so many rumors in the past of demons living here. But several centuries had passed without a single new rumor of demons—plenty of evidence for just how patient the Great Demons were in waiting for their chance.

Based on historical records, Great Demons were skilled at witchcraft and shamanism. There were many records of them using potions and magical gems in their religious and magical ceremonies. They sought to understand the source of the soul. They were far more skilled than the elves from their generation at understanding herbal medicines. Knowledge was wealth and power, and it would be simple for them to give out a little bit of their special knowledge to help a remote mountain village to become a flourishing metropolis.

As for why they chose to sign a contract with Amu that they obviously wouldn’t be able to collect on…

“…Amu was a brave warrior who overcame countless dangers to reach the deepest part of the mountains. He was able to survive after dueling against our own warriors. Why not give him a few presents? We are no barbarians. We respect the brave and the powerful. After so many years, plenty of people other than Amu have signed the ‘return half’ contract with us. However, he was the only one who kept his promise. Amu is truly a real hero.”

Nobody knew if the demons’ words were real. But at least the unfamiliar new “neighbors'” words made people feel better. Amu was their hero, after all. They felt that they had gained face as these outsiders had respected their hero.

Of course, the true reason why these “debt collectors” could stay so easily was due to their overwhelming military might. The most famous warrior in the Amu Mountains was sliced in half by a demon squadron leader. The local militia, which numbered less than three thousand, was entirely eradicated in a short three hours. Since there was no way to defeat the Great Demons, and no way to resist, the people here could only choose to believe what the Great Demons said.

The Amu Mountain District was a remote and sparsely populated district far away from potential enemies. The only military might they had were the few local soldiers and village militias. The local soldiers would only be sufficient for dealing with villagers that acted out of hand, while the village militias were only equipped for dealing with some wild beasts. As for organizing a rescue army? That would require the neighboring domain lords to act in unison, something that would take a significant amount of time.

The Holy Church and Holy Knights would have originally responded to this almost immediately. Unfortunately, they had their own problems to deal with, so it would be impossible to rely on them. And so, in just a short two days, all the residents of the Amu Mountain district were cut off from human society. They became the subordinates of the Great Demons.

Communication in the mountains was no longer as difficult as it had been several centuries ago. Visiting merchants brought along the current generation’s common sense and culture. However, the Great Demons had a rather bad reputation. The mountain villagers were terrified of how Great Demons were rumored to eat other intelligent species as their main food. Although the Great Demons claimed to have gotten rid of this habit of theirs, everyone remained afraid of the Great Demons’ bone necklaces and sharp fangs.

Still, the Great Demons patiently used concrete actions to change people’s view of them. They voluntarily handed out free food to everyone, sent out relatively better-looking female Great Demons to play with children and had their experienced hunters teach the human hunters about how to survive in the mountains.

Of course, the Great Demons also took the mountain villagers’ sensitive pride into consideration. They made sure to praise the mountain villagers’ unique culture and legendary heroes.

They brought out a new delicious food called “breadfruit” which soon became one of the most popular foods around here. And the highest-ranked gem craftsmen, herbalists and alchemists also received a large number of new formulas and precious materials. “Future gem capital,” “City of Merchants and Artisans” and other such promises helped fan human ambitions.

The Great Demons indeed did an excellent job. Their strategy was far more effective than forcefully invading. Someone capable at planning and strategizing had to be behind the scenes.

As an unfamiliar species that the entire plane was “familiar” with, their first appearance in centuries and the first impression given was critically important. If they started off by eating humans, just like in the legends, every single human would likely fight to the bitter end against them. But if they instead showed off a more moderate image, such as of a friendly species that wished to assimilate into this world, then their days would be far less troublesome.

Of course, there were some among the mountain villagers that pointed out how the demons were probably just faking, but the result was that these “smart individuals” mysteriously disappeared.

Large amounts of resources were suddenly “given for free” to everyone. Free food and gold gave all the mountain villagers benefits. The Great Demons hadn’t cared about cost and almost completed their tactical objective. In fact, even the fairies observing while hidden in the shadows had finished preparing their special edition report.

That’s right—almost. The problem wasn’t that some hero or demon slayer suddenly appeared. San Antonio had many troubles of its own, and this remote mountainous district wasn’t valuable to them. The problem was with the Great Demons themselves.

“Kill them all. Bring their heads to the altar.”

On a certain day, the Great Demons, who had acted so friendly just yesterday, suddenly transformed into the most vicious of villains. Their warriors, who previously had furrowed their eyebrows while doing their best to smile, now had bloodthirsty auras about them as they tossed out life-ending spears.

The slaughter began and ended quite suddenly. The 200,000 Great Demons even started a slaughtering contest between themselves to see who could slaughter the most. In less than twelve hours, the 170,000 population of the Amu Mountain district was completely butchered, only a few thousand spared by the demons. Even fewer managed to survive and escape. On the human heads piled on the Great Demons’ bone altar, many had looks of confusion. Even at their point of death, they didn’t understand why this had happened. Everything had been just fine yesterday, so why did the Great Demons start a slaughter today?

The entire city of Fenbert was filled with the stench of blood. The few remaining survivors that the demons spared were “lucky” enough to see what happened next when the bloodthirsty demons returned from their hunt.

Those who were spared were either young, courageous and resolute warriors, or the wise and experienced elders. This was because they would be the best sacrifices of all for the demons’ ritual.

All the altars lit up in unison, and a red pillar appeared to stain the clouds in the sky red with blood. Even though it was the middle of the day, the sun disappeared. Darkness and a blood moon descended, causing the fresh blood on the altars to begin bubbling.

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The blood started moving by itself and finally combined to form a crimson blood pool.

As Great Demon witch doctors and shamans incanted, the human blood pool and the blood moon in the sky mysteriously connected. Blood-red light cast down upon the pool, making it almost seem to come alive. The blood pool expanded more and more as the blood congealed. Finally, when it expanded to more than ten times its original size, it devoured the remaining living human sacrifices saved for last.

When the first blood-red goat-horned demon walked out of the bubbling blood pool, Arch Witch Doctor Halait sighed a breath of relief. The Great Demons had given up on their original plan all for the sake of this current scene. If they had failed, Halait knew that it would be impossible for him to be allowed to live even though he was the leader of the Poisonspear Tribe.

Numerous goat-horned demons walked out of the blood pool. They weren’t particularly tall, and their triangular shaped goat faces even seemed rather comical. They were also hoofed, just Half-Goatmen. However, Half-Goatmen would have purely human upper body halves, unlike these goat-horned demons.

Panen, the leader of the goat-horned demons, was gray and much larger than the others. The moment he stepped out he shook off the blood from his body and stuffed some bloody meat remaining from the human sacrifices into his mouth. After he hurriedly filled his stomach, Panen ran back to the blood pool and roughly pushed aside a Great Demon mage. Standing next to the blood pool, he cut his own arm and let out a large amount of blood, continuously chanting as he attempted to enlarge this Dimensional Door.

These goat-horned demons were known as Sickle Goathorn Demons. Rumors had it that they were a special demonized form of fallen Half-Goatmen and taurens. One of the most skilled species among demons at using magic, having them be the first to arrive was a clear indication of the demons’ plans.

With the Goathorn Demons’ assistance, the blood pool expanded even further. Panen ordered the Goathorn Demons that ran out of mana to be tossed into the blood pool as additional nourishment. These Goathorn Demons wailed in pain as they became nothing more than blood themselves, transforming into the Dimensional Door’s nutrition. After witnessing this scene, the other Goathorn Demons could only focus even more on casting magic to expand the blood pool. Some even began cutting off their body parts to sacrifice to the blood pool, hoping the Dimensional Door spell would stabilize.

Finally, twentyish minutes after Goathorn Demons stopped arriving out of the blood pool, a giant red demon claw reached out from the pool and accidentally brushed up against Fenbert’s town wall. It randomly grabbed what was closest to it—a few Great Demons and Goathorn Demons—and tossed them all into the blood pool.

As these unlucky demons howled at their impending deaths, the blood pool started receding at a great speed. It seemed as if the Dimensional Door was about to collapse. However, Panen revealed a smile that appeared even uglier than someone crying and hurriedly retreated. As he did, he whistled loudly to the skies, appearing… delighted?

“Ahhh!”

Before the final unlucky demons that the claw had grabbed dropped into the blood pool, a massive maw appeared and swallowed half of the entire blood pool along with these demons. The final shrieks could be heard from between the cracks in the maw’s teeth.

The bloody sacrifice continued. The maw of this Chaos Abyss Lord had already arrived in the mortal plane. The only part of its body that had currently entered was its tremendous mouth that had a diameter of more than thirty meters.

“Blood, more blood! Delicious… I want more… Devour… Evolve!”

This was an existence that would be at minimum a Demon Earl. However, it seemed it wasn’t very intelligent. It wasn’t even capable of forming complete sentences.

“Inferno Devourer Bethulus? Why is he the one summoned?”

Arch Witch Doctor Halait recognized this venerated evil existence but began secretly retreating at the same time. He instantly canceled his original plan to negotiate with the summoned Demon Lord. He would already be considered lucky if he was able to keep his life in front of this particular Demon Lord. Halait had no death wish.

Inferno Devourer Bethulus was one of the oldest Demon Lords. Although he was also one of the most powerful Demon Earls, he was the worst possible Demon Lord to have as a reinforcement. He viewed eating as more important than anything, and Halait knew full well that his entire Great Demon army might not even be a snack for Bethulus.

Currently, it seemed that Bethulus was stuck in the Dimensional Door. He roared angrily as Goathorn Demons ran around busily in an attempt to save their leader, Panen.

Quite obviously, the current amount of sacrifices were still insufficient to summon such a powerful Demon Lord to the mortal plane. And Bethulus was an impatient individual who wasn’t accustomed to waiting. Goathorn Demon leader Panen spent a great deal of time convincing and explaining to Bethulus before the latter finally withdrew slightly, at least returning some of the blood pool space. However, Bethulus’ eight bloody eyes were filled with the will to slaughter and devour and exposed his desires for all to see.

And so demons started jumping out of the blood pool again. This time, it wasn’t a “weak species” like the Goathorn Demons.

Instead, Berserk Demons, Dragontail Demons, Devourer Demons and other such vicious demons specialized in slaughtering arrived. Tall and physically strong, just one punch from them would easily be able to shatter a giant’s head. Some even had toxic spikes on their bodies. They started searching for new prey as they took to the skies.

Demons, who excelled at devouring and evolving, were technically classified under the overarching species of “demon.” However, every individual demon would have their own unique and wondrous evolution. There would often be tremendous power level differences even between two demons of the same species. It could be said that there were no two identical demons in the world. If one had to forcefully find a common point, then it would be that the more ugly a demon was, the stronger and more vicious it would be. In every single dimension, demons would forever be the most unwelcome visitors. They would never bring anything with them other than death and destruction.

Demon commanders wielded their whips in midair but it wasn’t necessary. The Demon Lord’s desire of devouring and slaughtering would be far more effective at motivating them than any minor demon commander. With great efficiency, the demons organized themselves into squadrons and immediately set out to attack the outside world. They intended to bring a sufficient number of sacrifices to their Demon Lord master. A new round of slaughtering had now arrived, earlier than scheduled.

“It’s finally complete.”

Halait, who was currently hiding in a corner, heaved another sigh of relief. The Demon Lord and his subordinates had now arrived, and Halait and his tribe had successfully stayed safe. No—it should be said that Halait and his tribe still needed to leave as quickly as possible. Otherwise, they might all become nothing more than a snack for the Demon Lord Bethulus.

Agreements? Plans? Allies? The most powerful demons would never think about such things. Their brains were filled with muscular instincts and reactions. Fulfilling their desires was the only important thing to them. Something like a plan? A high-level demon would carry it out if they remembered or simply forget about it entirely.

What about the boss’s punishment for losses incurred from not carrying out the plan, you say? Firstly, demons would rarely think about overall situations or strategies in the first place. Secondly, any Demon Lords powerful enough to rule an entire plane in the endless Chaos Abyss would all have personalities where they thought they were the best who ever lived. The so-called concept of them having a boss wasn’t even in their minds. Rather than calling the Demon Lords “companions that allied for a common cause,” they were more like “a group of bastards that hurried to partake in a big dinner because someone in the mortal plane summoned them to enjoy a slaughter and a feast.”

Not only that, this incredibly simple way of thinking also gave them their most appropriate path of evolution. Demons would forever be able to grow more powerful through slaughtering. When considering the total combat strength of an entire species, the demons that received an endless amount of power from the River Styx could definitely be ranked as the number one most powerful species overall throughout every single dimension.

What about losses to the overall plan due to eating one’s allies? A hungry Demon Lord would only consider such a question after filling their stomach. But that would be too late for the eaten Great Demons if that occurred.

“Damn it, I clearly supported the original plan. Why was I the one chosen to…”

Indeed, the Great Demons that lost everything in the Holy War had long since chosen the Chaos Evil Gods and Chaos Abyss as their new master. Many inferno-lized Great Demons even got accustomed to staying and living in the lower planes. It would be impossible for them to return to the mortal plane with a normal method.

The Great Demons’ original plan wasn’t to use such a major blood sacrifice. They had wanted to obtain the human society’s recognition no matter what it took. At the very least, the Great Demons didn’t want to be treated as a high-level threat. They would then slowly take over nearby surrounding territories and cities, secretly becoming a major power base for the demon armies before a full-scale invasion. They didn’t want to start things with such a simple-minded slaughter.

However, sometimes plans would change faster than one expected. The foundational reason for the sudden change in the Great Demons’ strategy was actually mostly because of Roland.

Although there were no official rules to the Holy War, there were plenty of unwritten rules. The mortal species would fight other mortal species, while the Order Gods would fight the Chaos Evil Gods. Ordinary soldiers would fight against each other, while generals did the same. Only by killing the enemy general first would a general start slaughtering ordinary soldiers.

This unwritten rule was because of the current situation and the power level on both the Order and Chaos sides. The Elemental Tide was currently far away from reaching a peak. Sending top-level combat strength to the mortal plane would come at a tremendous cost, and it wouldn’t be beneficial, especially to the demons. This was why the battles happening now were only supposed to be precursors, with mortals acting as the representatives of the Gods.

But now this unwritten rule and taboo had been broken by the Order Main God, the God of Holy Light. Not only did he personally descend in an incarnation, he also sent down a large number of low-ranked angels and Follower God incarnations all for the purpose of fighting. Without a doubt, this broke the power balance between the two sides and sped up the development of the Holy War. And so the Chaos Abyss responded in turn by sending out their own vicious generals and demon army. Under this butterfly effect, higher-level combat strength like the angels and demons arrived far earlier than they originally should have.

Fortunately, the Elemental Tide was still relatively low, which limited the demons’ power levels. Sacrificing an entire mountain district’s worth of humans only managed to successfully summon the Demon Earl Bethulus’s mouth and half a demon army. Although the demons succeeded in coming to the mortal plane, it would still be difficult for them to expand their army and obtain results due to logistical difficulties.

If the Holy Church could organize an army to deal with the demons, it would be possible to eliminate this problem before it got any bigger. Unfortunately, that would be impossible with the Holy Church’s current situation.

As this butterfly effect made the mortal plane’s troubles worse and worse, bringing calamity ever closer, I was doing something that could be considered as evil as summoning demons: I was summoning… the devils!