Chapter 15 - Alto and The Blood Queen

When Damien woke in the morning he sent a mental command his troops to get preparations set for departure.

The knight, two fighters, the two commanders and the mage were all on horseback with the two fighters in the back of the small convoy.

He had two of the ranged group sent ahead to follow the path that Selene and the bandits had run through and he would keep an eye on them while traveling on his map. He wanted them to unlock and raise their sneak and tracking skills while they traveled. He also had them hunt game and also bring any flora that seemed rare to them back to him every few hours so that he could store it all for future use and to rest.

The archer, he was driving the carriage with him sitting next to him to build so that he could build the road while Selene road inside of the carriage alone. He sent a mental command for them to turn east. They had 10 hours before they reach the bandit camp so the turned before they could draw attention to the group.

He didn't want confrontation with the whole camp, just yet. He knew he could possibly handle them with his current team, but without a solid plan, he didn't want to test that theory.

With a destination in mind, they began their journey. The journey was uneventful and would have been boring had Damien not been channeling earth magic the whole time.
Using magic was too new for him to ever get board with it.

He had even been able to bring the horses to a trot once he unlocked the two earth magic spells. 'Move Earth' and the 'Harden' after a few weeks of travel. He only had to rest a few times mostly so that he could eat and drink but his mana recovery from his mana core handled his mana replenishment well.

Selene seemed to be taking her new role seriously or the training Bartus had put her through was very effective because she didn't speak at all and rode in the exquisite carriage look like an actual princess.

Well, at least what we both thought a princess would look like. I'm sure we both have never seen one before. The hopeless frail girl that I saved from murderous bandits seemed like she was disappearing already. I needed her fully in on her role or this would be extremely difficult for me. I was too ignorant to convince anyone of anything. My magic and the Systems divine energy are the only reason even she was convinced.

With the townsfolk, I'll show them a few miracles and save them from the bandits I'm sure I'll have hundreds of followers and will be able to fully claim the village as my own.

With his enhanced eyesight he could see one of his hunters standing in the forest alone ahead of his convoy. The hunter had already brought back the fauna and the hunted animals with him an hour ago and he had only been gone for a half hour so, this was something else. Damien checked his map he could see the other hunter waiting, ahead of his carriage, so Damien knew there was some type of issue.

When the convoy halted a few hundred feet away the ranged commander dismounted and trekked ahead to see what was happening. The two exchanged dialogue, the hunter stayed in his position and back to scouting the area. The ranged commander had run back to report what he heard.

"We have spotted a group of 25 bandits headed this way. 10 of which are ranged units they are behind the 15 melee fighters about 500 paces. Some of these men seem to be trackers and if we bypass them, they will be able to follow behind us. How should we proceed, Master Archmage?"

"We will engage. We will need to take out the ranged units first." Damien still had about 15 minutes before their carriage is spotted. He could see the enemy on their minimap he found a break the in the wood line where all their archers will be exposed in the open area.

"We will circle and flank on both side and hit them in open area that I found. Once they are taken care of we will engage the melee units from behind. Bartus, you Selene, and the melee troops stay here and I'll let you know when we are in position and we will take the second group from both sides and stay out of sight until then.

" Yes, Master Archmage", they all said in unison, even Selene. Damien could hear Bartua telling Selene to never leave his side. He noticed his master values the woman very much so he took her under his wing.

"Move out".

The Ranged commander and the archer were with Damien and the two hunters were to the left of his group a few hundred paces and they traveled through the woods moving in blurring speeds with their enhanced bodies.

When Damien got in position he sent mental commands for all of the troops to climb the opening and forming a rough circle area that they made their kill zone and Damien waited with his archers and crossbowman. A few minutes later the first bandit entered the opening followed closely by the group of bandits. The loud and disorganized men walked until they were all in the opening. Damiens's plan was to build a wall around them so none could escape the area but when he sent the mental command to fire he quickly saw this was not needed. Within seconds the archer killed two with one shot by knocking 2 arrows at once, the ranged commander knocked down 3 and did not miss his shots either. Meanwhile, the hunters took out the last 5 shooting their arrows so quickly the last 5 men were dead before they hit the ground.

Damien did not think these troops would be this efficient. Damien sent a mental command to his troops.

"If I had to guess, I'd say you guys were showing off."

They all just gave Damien white toothed smiles and jump down from their areas.

"Alright let's go finish the rest of these nuisances".

Damien and the archers got into position behind the rest of the bandits. He sent a mental command to all of his troops to keep the leader alive for interrogation. Once Bartus sent a mental communication that he was in position he and his archers fired from behind the bandit group killing 5 instantly with arrows to the torso and necks and he sent a mana bolt and making a skull explode.

When the surprised group turned around Damiens melee troops attacked cutting into the bandit lines. Selene using her nature magic ordered her vines to wrap the leader around his ankles and pinning him to the ground. Attis used his powerful mage bolt blasted the bandit leader sword arm at the forearm and the hand and weapon went flying leaving the man screaming stuck in place holding a stump forearm.

The knight and commander made quick work of the 6 bandits they encountered. A few of the veteran fighter of the bandit group were giving Damiens' two fighter units longer exchanges of combat but were soon overwhelmed by the rest of Damiens archers or wrist bolts.

With the bandit leader as the last man standing he was being healed with Selene's minor healing and being impaled over and over again while the men were still fighting. She had a maniacal look on her face of pure pleasure at being able to hurt the man and heal him.

Damien let this go on a bit longer, he let the woman have her revenge. Damien cleared his throat.

"Um...Selene, we need him conscious to interrogate him." He walked over and lightly touched her shoulder.

She blinked a few times like she was just remembering where she was. "Yes, Master Archmage I was.... just softening him up for you."

"Don't worry I have no love for this scum either. Believe me, when I tell you, you will have your revenge." Selene just gave the bandit a very cold smile. The bandit was wide-eyed looked at her in utter terror with his bladder releasing as he stared into her eyes.

After interrogating the man, which wasn't really interrogating him because he was already broken and answered all of the questions asked easily. There weren't any more patrols going out and the rests was incoherent. The bandit was a blubbering mess and Damien let the man go.

Besides, he felt a bit bad for the man but this wasn't why he let him go.

Selene was furious. "Why are we letting that monster go!" She screamed in rage.

Damien noticed a multicolored aura shining around her changing from dark to light green and her roots coming out of the ground for meters around her ready to impale fleeing man in a moment's notice.

"Calm yourself Selene! Look around you!" Damien said forcefully. She looked around slightly startled at her power and visibly began forcing herself to calm.

"I let him go so that he could report what he found to the south of the bandit camp. Their leader should be focusing on fortifying his bandit camp while his attention on the threat to the south and not harass the village to the East where we are going.

They have around 400 bandits in total. 5 mages of different levels, 40 crossbowmen, 150 archers and the rest different types of melee soldiers. Plus, the bandit leader is a former high level knight. We need time to fortify and prepare the village, as well as time to convert the village people to my cause. Do not let your anger make you forget our mission, my right hand."

Selene nodded and knelt on one knee. "I will not forget again, my liege."

"My liege?" Well, that's new, Damien thought.

He ordered the men to loot the bodies and bring him all of their weapons and armor. They could all be used as materials. He had his men put all the bodies in a plie. He wanted to do a quick experiment but wasn't sure it could be done. "System could I create a mythical beast with the bodies I have?"

Yes, but depending on the materials used the mythical beast could be weaker or stronger. If the host were to use the human bodies collected. Every 5 would increase the Tier of the created beast. That also depends on the quality of the material. These bandits are all low leveled.

"System give me the template of the Werewolf that I killed when I had come to this planet."

Done. The template had been installed in the Host memory banks.

Damien would use this as his trump card for later. He went near the bodies and put them all in his inventory along with the weapons and armor. Selene stared at him in awe.

"Okay everyone, mount up and move out!"

As the carriage traveled along the newly created roaway. Damien was much calmer now that he could see the borders of Selenes village on his minimap. Everyone saluted and mounted on their horses, while the rest got on the carriage. Selene took her place inside of the carriage and the group continued with the hunters scouting ahead.

They rode on while Damien continued with creating a road. After about 5 hours of riding the scouts reported back that a wooden wall could be seen ahead about 200 yards outside of the tree line. Damien stopped the road about 100 yards inside of the tree line so that they would not be seen from the people I the village.

The group arrived outside of the forest and noticed a wooden wall that was about 8 feet tall with large missing portions in it. The wall was very worn down and was in desperate need of maintenance after various attacks. The town was very vulnerable.

Damien stopped the caravan to take care of a few needs before entering the village. He took out the iron ore and weapons and some loose wood out of his inventory and placed it on the ground.

Channeling his will into the creation magic he created four wooden chests with locks attached to them and created a few simple keys on a key ring and put it on his belt. He created a trailer with a cloth cover over it and attached it to the carriage. He opened one of the chests and put coins in it. He filled one with copper coins, silver coins, and one with gold coins. Asking the system to give a count of the coins and he had 5,000 of each coin. With the last larger chest, Damien filled it with fruits from the forest to feed the hungry village.

He took out 4 of the giant boar his rangers killed and summoned them on the back of the trailer. One of the boar looked like it could feed 1,000 people for days. He conjured his ice magic around the boar in the shape of a square container, to keep the meat fresh and loaded it on one of the spare carriages he built along the way.

If the village was anything close to what Selene had suggested then there would be many hungry people living here. He had his 2 fighters load the coins in the trailer behind the boars and fruit and he added their 2 horses to pull the now extremely heavy carriage and trailer due to the extra weight.

Something else got him thinking. Selene called him a liege. He would pretend to be a noble for now but he would need a house name and chose Sorlen. He would keep this last name a his surname. For a first name, he would be Donte for now.

He took out a pelt and with the rest of the weapons from the bandits and iron ore he made two alloy halberds with flags attached to them. On the flags were pictures of an 'S' with the realistic cartoon image of the werewolf's head that he killed that had a large 'S' in the middle.

With his preparations completed, he had the two fighters in full plate armor leading the carriage on foot followed by the two hunters and on horseback the melee commander Bartus and the knight, behind them. He had the mage ride on the carriage as a driver while he rode inside with Selene inside and the ranged commander Dulan and the archer rode in the back behind the trailer.

Then, he used his cleaning spell on everyone, one by one so that they could shine and smell fresh.

"First impressions are everything after all, as the saying goes."

He wanted to wear different clothes, but he didn't know what nobles wore so he just went with his mage robe. He sent a mental command to Bartus to ride ahead when they neared the gate.

Bartus sent a mental command that no one was guarding the gate, Damien was confident that no one would be harm upon entry and he proceeded with his much larger caravan. They rode along the wall until the convoy lined up on the dirt road where Bartus waited for them.

Once they lined up and Damien gave the signal Bartus banged on the thick massive wooden doors with his enormous strength. It sounded like a giant was pounding on them with three deep resounding THOOM!, THOOM!, THOOM! Noises.

Damien had already informed his phony entourage to call him 'my liege', instead of master archmage.

They waited a few minutes before the gates were slowly opened by two young men. They both looked like terrified young teenagers if Damien had to guess. When the gates fully opened they rode through. Everyone was calm except an anxious Selene. Damien noticed Hmher eyes darted back and forth as she stared out her window but he stayed silent.

Most of the buildings were one story except a few 2 story ones and all made of wood except the building that looked to be at the center of the village. It was a three story building and much cleaner than all the other buildings.

The roads were made of dirt and the village smelled, well bad and that was putting it nicely. It smelled a mixture of body odor and excrement and it made breathing fresh air difficult. There was also another odor in the air….fear.

As the group rode further into the village people were peeking outside of their doors and windows to see what was happening. They village townfolk pointed and whispered as through they hadn't see a newcomer in a long while. These people were all unclean and sickly like they hadn't washed in months. I seemed like a good meal had avoided them for days and famine had become commonplace. He could see many of them coughing or struggling to stand, with bloated stomachs, most likely due to malnourishment.

Damien's heart instantly went out to these people. He had seen people starving on tv on earth but never like this up close. Living in America, even the homeless can find a roof over their head and a hot meal sometimes. Massive scale starvation where Damien was from wasn't rare but far from being this bad.

Damien couldn't help but frown rode but his party continued into town about twenty moreminutes more before coming to a stop in front of a tall three story building.

The townspeople were walking out of their homes by this time and and following behind Damien's group. Their curiosity overcame their fear and they followed behind the newcomers.

Where all of the other buildings looked worn down and in tatters. This one looked still looked well maintained and even had the surround grounds maintained. Damien's face soured. He could instantly see what was going on and anger filled his heart but he didn't let it show on his face.

When the carriage stopped in front of the building. Noises foul be heard from behind the closed wooden door and a balding man had poked his head outside of the door to see what the commotion was.

The moment he opens the door and saw the caravan he went wide eye and hurriedly slammed the door back. By this point, Damien had stepped out of the carriage but told Selene to stay inside. He could tell that this was bad even to her by the shocked look on her face.

This lets Damien know something more was going on. Even his soldiers were frowning at what they saw and they were new to even existing on the planet. Damien could hear their knuckles cracking from them squeezing their weapons so tight. He thought his men were like robots at first but, no, they have personalities and thoughts.

They are just professional soldiers through and through and would not react unless Damien gave the order.

Damien walked to the front steps flanked by his mage and commanders and they could hear someone shouting from inside the building.

" ...these insolent fools didn't tell me anyone was coming through the gates of my own village!"

By this time the speaker had kicked open his door followed by the balding man in a grey robe, beautiful young brown haired woman, and 12 large men in leather armor who looked like they could handle a blade stood on either side of of the fat man. Outside of the terrified young woman, everyone else looked like they haven't missed a meal in ages.

The speaker was an overweight man with brown hair and brown blood shot eyes from drinking, who wore an elaborate silk shirt with buttons and silk trousers lined with a black leather belt. His hand had silver and gold rings on them and a large round golden necklace adorned jewels on them. The townsfolk look at this man in complete hatred, but the man pretended to not notice.

"Your not with Marcus so who are you! I had no word of anyone coming to visit my village! If you have no business here you may leave. You have no business in Alto."

His forceful tone had greatly lessened as he spoke as he noticed the heavily armored men next to Damien. He assume he was dealing with a noble. He was a noble also so he felt like he didn't need to give much face unless he was dealing with a duke.

The smaller robed man in black he took an involuntary step back also after his master spoke. He could tell the men in front hide him weren't ordinary.

Damien scowled but before could get out the next word Damien heard the carriage door loudly forced open as the door hit the side of the carriage with noticeable force.

"Eulan Alto! You bastard! Where is my family! Bring them to me now!"

She said visibly trying to keep control of herself and Damien did nothing to stop her. Gasps and loud whispers could be heard from the gathering crowd.

"Selene! W-what are you doing here?"

It didn't escape the large man's notice she had come out of the fancy a carriage dressed like a nobility.

"You have been gone for months and your parents have died in a jail cell from their injuries that they suffered when you were taken away.

With your father and mother's leadership gone, the townspeople have made me the unanimous mayor of the town. Since then I have kept the people safe from the bandit scourge! We have not had an attack since the change of leadership."

Selene was visibly shaking, just as she was about to pull her blade and attack. She felt a firm hand on her shoulder. Bartus leaned down and spoke quietly in her ear. "Calm, head warrior and trust in your training but trust in our master first. Look at him. She could see Damien's fist tighten to where his fingers had pierced his flesh.

A dangerous aura surrounded him and she could see tiny cracks forming around his feet. She could see he was struggling to keep calm. The aura terrified her who could feel the large amount of mana building, it made her feel like this archmage could destroy the whole village or more like the whole capital city of Altaria with this dangerous power that filled the air.

Damien who was so angry that he looked calm. As though the situation had already been handled.

"So let me get this straight. Under YOUR leadership these people starve while you stay well fed and live in luxury, under YOUR leader the people are sick and offered no medical attention, under YOUR leadership the previous leadership dies which happens to be the parents of my second in command, Damien's voice rose with each statement, Under YOUR leadership the bandits suddenly decided to have a change of heart and leave this village alone, is that right!"

The sound on his voice brought fear to the twelve bodyguards' who's hands were on their blades by now.

"I'm going to give you one chance to confess your crimes Eulan Alto. Just remember your answer could cost you your LIFE!"

The man stepped took a couple of steps back, but the man quickly collected himself anfer bumping into his guards. No matter who this man was, there wouldn't be any issues if he doesn't make it home alive. Besides, how many nobles lives has these wilds claimed. No one would be to blamed of another nobel was looking for death to claim fame of traversing the wilds.

"I do not need to confess anything in MY TOWN! You think these are all of the men that I have at my disposal. GUARDS! They could hear many footsteps running out of the building and the twelve men turned into fifty ad more randed and melee troops arrived.

Bartus drew his sword and motioned toward Selene, "well young battlemage it looks as though you will get your wish for blood this day!"

Selene just smiled and drew her blade and raised her mana shield like she's was taught.

Damien raised a hand to stop everyone. He had no intention of letting anyone interfere. These men would die by his hands today. He was thoroughly pissed.

The 20 crossbowmen raised their weapons to fire but Damien conjured 20 arcane whips from his tethering skill and sent them forward and the blink of an eye. All of the crossbows the men held, exploded from the impact of the whips. Damien had attached small fireballs on the end of the whips to make the tips explode. He swung both of his arms and cut into the troops of the line killing the two lines of troops instantly by cutting them in half.

That was 40 men dead in seconds. The 10 men who surround the fat man were backing away in fear they dropped their weapons and turned to run. Damien sent a mental command to his troops to hunt them down.

His soldiers blurred from everyone's vision, besides Selene and the other ranged troops and the crowd gasped. The crowd could only hear steel impacting flesh some distance away and in just a few minutes all the men reappeared next to Damien's blood dripping from their weapons and armor.

The fat man stumbled back and fell on his rear, in shock and fear. "H,h,h HOW!"

"It doesn't matter, you won't be alive long enough to worry about the answer. Selene, he's all yours."

Selene held a smile that didn't hold any warmth and sent shivers down the back of everyone present. Anyone could tell the happiness her revenge brought her.

"Allen help me! D-d-do SOMETHING!" He begged the butler.

"I have tried to help you, but your greed and cruel ways have brought this calamity to your own doorstep. I cannot help a heartless fool."

Allen turned his head and left the man to his fate. Selene just grabbed the man's collar and drug him towards the door. No matter how hard he struggled he could not be released from Selene's grip. The fact that this small woman was dragging by his collar like he weighed nothing terrifed Eulan to on end. It showed from the wetness between his legs.

"Selene, don't! You can't do this, this isn't you! What would your parents think! Eulan Alto pleaded.

"I'll never know what they might think because they are dead but you can ask them for me." Selene responded without emotion.

You could hear flesh tearing and a man screaming for an unknown amount of times throughout the night of that fateful day. By the time she finished her dress down to her boots turned completely red with blood. Blood dropped from the crown on her head the bottom of her feet. No one from the village could sleep that night after the horrific screams that left the large building.

From then on Selene became known as the Blood Queen to everyone in the town.