Devourer

Chapter 162: Clash of the Ancients

Rosa let out a scream as the Great Beast grabbed her broken leg and flung her over his head right into the ground. Then she felt him lift her up by the leg again and slammed her down. She was being tossed around like a rag doll. This was what happens when a caster ends up in this kind of situation. Ordias would do much better, even though Rosa has transformed into her true form she was still primarily a caster. She just wasn’t as proficient in hand-to-hand combat.

Rosa screamed as she was slammed into the stone again, she hacked up a mouthful of blood as she felt her ribs break from the impact. Then she felt a set of claws close around her head. She felt her body lift off the ground before being slammed down again hard. She let out a muffled scream as she felt her skull fracture and the stone beneath her crack, 

Then she felt the claw release her. She opened her one remaining good eye and she saw the Great Beast had in typical Draconian fashion grabbed her using his raptor-like feet and then stomped her into the floor.

Rosa groaned as she rolled over on the stone floor. She looked over at the Great Beast who had paused in front of a portal and he turned his gaze towards her. 

“Not bad, let's see how the toys the Crowfather gave you perform.” the Great Beast said as he stepped through the portal. So that was it, a simple beat down to see how good she was in hand-to-hand combat. Then he leaves as if he had arrived to buy a basket of vegetables and he had what he wanted.

Rosa sighed as she felt her limbs start to fix themselves. The Great Beast had snapped her arms and legs like they were twigs. She looked over at the right hand that was bent at an unnatural angle and she hissed as the wrist snapped back into place as her natural regeneration restored her body. 

She heard the sound of pounding footsteps behind her but her legs weren’t fully healed so she couldn’t even sit up.

Then she saw Ordias lean over her head as he looked down at her with a bemused expression.

“What happened?” Ordias asked.

“Ran into the Great Beast.” Rosa replied in a clipped tone.

“I take it you lost?” Ordias asked.

“With powers of observation like that, you should be king of the world.” Rosa replied sarcastically.

“Right.” Ordias said as she sensed him cast magic, she felt the negative energy course through her body and her limbs all snapped back into place.

“So was it close?” Ordias asked as he offered her a hand. Rosa begrudgingly took it as she got to her feet.

“No. He grabbed me by the leg and threw me across the room. Then he snapped both my arm and then both my legs. I could barely scratch him, his body was completely immune to negative energy.” Rosa said with a sigh.

“I assume it was a proxy body since the reports said he was rather large,” Ordias said and Rosa nodded in affirmation.

“He had this humanoid proxy body and he could control it remotely,” Rosa replied.

“Then chances are what the Crowfather told you was true, the only times I have ever heard of proxy body control was the Firstborn doing it.” Ordias said and Rosa nodded wearily.

“Same for me, I never heard of a simple Hive creature being able to do something like that.” Ordias said as he crossed his arms.

“Yes, it seems the Great Beast was really created with Firstborn essence. That fool the Eternal Mother was probably the closest to creating another Firstborn without killing herself in the process.” Rosa muttered as her mind wandered to how she was manhandled like a doll.

“And we thought the Watchers were bad. If I recall you were almost dissected by one.” Ordias said.

“Please don’t remind me, those lunatics are insane… and the humans call us crazy. Back then we were the sane ones.” Rosa muttered as she adjusted her ruined dress.

Rosa’s mind wandered to the haunting visage of the Watchers. Their bodies bore a certain similarity to the Great Beast’s proxy body. Similar armoured body, digitigrade legs and four arms. The only difference was the shape of the head and the fact that they had four eyes instead of a sensor dome. The had a wide head like a hammerhead shark with four beady black eyes. They had an insectoid mouth with a pair of mandibles for devouring any genetic material they came across for analysis.

Staying true to their nature as the humanoids that were the closest to the Firstborns they were monstrous in personality. Rosa herself although feeling that the lesser races were no different than animals, she at least enjoyed the accompany of particular muscular male pleasure thralls. She could to a degree appreciate the beauty in them.

The Watchers viewed other types of life as nothing but materials for their twisted work. They bent life to their designs, creating lifeforms in service of thier cruel and apathetic masters. They were devoid of many of the emotions that made humanoids what they are. They do not laugh, they do not comprehend compassion, and they do not feel anything for any other living creature. The only reason that humanoids had any of those things was that when the later humanoids were created genetic errors started to develop and the Firstborn felt it was funny so they ordered the Watchers to lock this into the genome.

Entire races were warped by the Watchers as the people were herded like animals into their alteration sanctums. What came out would be what most would consider more compassionate and emotional creatures that would often undermine each other and occasionally make a mess of things.

In other words, it is perfect entertainment for the old gods to laugh at. Then they figured out they could create alot of drama by using wars. So they used entire civilisations in their own twisted theatre plays. Making legions perish in the battles, watching with glee as the desire for vengeance took root within the humanoids. Watching the wars of vengeance, the wars of liberation and the wars of whatever dramatic reason the Firstborn cooked up. They fostered racism and war crimes as if trying to outdo each other in the contest of the best forms of drama.

The Firstborn had gotten to the point that fighting each other meant certain death but ever competitive they sought to outdo each other in different ways. Thus the world gradually devolved into their bloody playground. They created the orcs to create more drama when they realised that the more monstrous the enemy the better. They made the orcs all male and in need of other species to breed when they figured out that the humanoids tended to care deeply about their mates. 

Then when the orcs started to reach the maximum potential for destruction thanks to their humanoid base template the Firstborn got another idea. More specifically the Eternal Mother realised that the humanoids have become very attached to their own racial identity, creating entire cultures around it. So what better to create a living nightmare than to take what they treasure so much and twist it into some kind of nightmare.

Thus from the twisted mind of the Eternal Mother was created the hives. She unleashed her new creations upon her own personal Orc horde and she found the results more than satisfactory. The once terrifying nightmares that were the Orcs were introduced to a true nightmare. They didn’t last, they were butchered to the last. Then the Eternal Mother started unleashing her Hive upon the other Orcs hordes and then onto the humanoid races. The other Firstborn took notice and soon they had their own Hives. 

Although Rosa did always notice that the Eternal Mother’s Hive seemed far more effective than the other Hives. She always thought it was because they had some kind of special commander type unit. However, as she looked at the Great Beast and after hearing what the Crowfather has said she was starting to think that the Eternal Mother simply learned alot from an extremely powerful prototype. 

The Great Beast was that prototype according to the Crowfather, the only creature that managed to openly defy the Firstborn alone. The Crowfather said the Great Beast had wrested control from a portion of the Hive using his abilities of frequency manipulation. Judging by how he was so easily able to take over the teleportation array she was inclined to believe him.

“So what now?” Rosa asked.

“I think it’s time we sent out your fancy gifts,” Ordias said and Rosa nodded.

“The Great Beast also said he would be expecting them.” Rosa said with a grimace.

“I assume you feel the strings?” Ordias mused. Even though there was an all-out war going on outside the two commanders were just standing there having a leisurely conversation. The reason was simple, the battle didn’t matter, if they were sending out the Crowfather’s personal creations then it was the final act. The rest was just window dressing.

“Very accutely. I wonder if heaven will fall for the deception.” Rosa said with a sigh as she flexed her limbs checking to see if they healed properly.

“I’ll wager my right arm that Mahaila is walking around in Zarima as we speak.” Ordias said with a savage grin.

“No need to wager. What’s the point of a wager when we bet on the same thing.” Rosa replied dryly.

“Fair enough. Well I must admire the cunning. The Crowfather gives you these creatures specifically to fight the Great Beast. It give the impression that the Crowfather is working against the Great Beast but in reality he knows that we plan to ally with him.” Ordias said witha chuckle.

“A double bluff. We wouldn’t want heaven suspecting that the Crowfather and Mahaila were working with the Great Beast.” Rosa said.

“It also cushions the blow for when we go over to his side. At last they can take comfort that the Crowfather of all people is working against the Great Beast.” Ordias said as a wicked grin appeared on his face. He only has this smile when a particularly clever scheme was concoted. 

There was this saying that you never want to see Ordias Derenge smile. This stoic man only smiles like that when something really bad was about to happen or when he was about to make something really bad happen.

“Let’s raise some hell shall we?” Ordias asked a savage glint in his eyes. For a moment Rosa was reminded one of his many monikers was the Knife Eared Demon. Both Rosa and Ordias were similar in a certain way, they were both creatures of light being born as High Elves but their souls were as black as night. Their souls held closer resemblances to the creatures in Umbara who had daemonic blood flowing in their veins.

Later Rosa sat in her command chair as she felt the pull of these five dark creatures in her mind. In truth for an average necromancer controlling even a single of those creatures would be extremely taxing. But Rosa was able to control five, her greatest strength was her ability to control and create undead. Rosa shut her eyes as she focused on the magic threads that were binding the creatures to her will.

She sent them forward, massive hulking beasts the size of buildings. They had the telltale signs of Ravenborn origins. The Ravenborn’s shadow arts were one of the many original arcane arts that eventually led to the branch of magic known as Necromancy. So for someone as capable as the Crowfather creating such powerful necromantic constructs must have been child's play.

Rosa licked her lips in anticipation. It has been a few hundred thousand years since the black-feathered beasts of the Ravenborn walked into battle. It has been so long since she saw them in action. Even then what she saw in the past was the products of a crumbling empire. She never had the opportunity to see the Ravenborn at the zenith of thier power.

But now she had the honour of controlling one. It was enough to make her salivate. Even though she knew they would lose since they were not that strong by Ravenborn standards but it was still a rare honour.

These creatures known as Shadow Dreads were shaped like oversized crows, with large muscular bodies and wings that were too small for their size. They were clearly unable to fly but the reason for this design oversight was the amount of runes emblazoned on their feathers. There were so many runes that the entire body seemed to be covered in a pulsing red pattern that reminded the viewer of blood vessels.

The Shadow Dreads let out a great roar as they began wading forward. The dead who were in range started to twitch and collapse to the ground. These creatures had jamming abilities and in its presence, lesser undead and hive creatures would find themselves severed from their controller. As expected the hive immediately retreated making sure none of their soldiers were too close to it.

Then from the ground emerged over a dozen Maleficience Fiends. Their centaur-like bodies tensed as they brandished their hands that were shaped like crab claws. There was a pause then the Fiends charged right at the Shadow Dreads. 

Rosa watched as the lead Dread smashed a Fiend aside like one would swat a fly. There was a resounding crack as if lightning had just streaked through the sky as red energy discharged from the blow. The Ravenborn’s shadow magic wreaks havoc on anything it touches. The Fiend went sprawling into the compacted formation of the surrounding battle. Bodies flew and red pulp was ejected into the air from the force of the impact.

This happened to two more Fiends but one tried to bite down on the leg of one of the Dreads. But there was this sparking red energy that coursed through the Fiend's body and it shrieked before exploding in a display of blood and viscera.

The Fiends then stiffened before swiftly retreating. 

Suddenly from the skies slammed down none other than the Great Beast himself. He clearly intended to take on all five alone. He brandished his two arm blades as two bone hilts appeared in his lower arms. Red focii blades emerged from the hilts crackling with energy. Each Focii blade was almost five meters long. 

Then the Great Beast paused as he turned to look at the sky for a moment. To her surprise, the Great Beast then gave a bow as if he was an actor about to begin a show. The Great Beast then turned his gaze right at the magic device that was capturing the scene. From where Rosa was sitting it looked like he was staring at her.

The Great Beast then spoke his voice echoing out 

This is going to be fun…