My troops and I attacked our respective targets. We streaked in at full speed, grabbed the enemy demons by their skull, and slammed their heads to the ground. Hypocrisy and Mustache immediately broke into their shaken victims' minds, and with a touch of my Will through theirs, two new demons were added to my ranks. One was a muscled barbarian, and the other a hooded figure with glowing red eyes.
Unfortunately, I had been unable to stop myself from indulging in my violent instincts and my demon ended up splattered on the ground. Oops. I sighed. Now I had to hunt down all his monsters, and I had no wish to take so long on one zone.
"System, a little help here. Please mark the locations of this guy's monsters on the minimap."
"Done."
Not forgetting to slurp up my impromptu snack, which tasted like strawberry dipped in chocolate, I flapped my wings and soared into the air. I hadn't realized how yummy demons were to this form. Maybe I should mess up a few more times before this conquering is over.
Once I reached five hundred feet, I used my mana to cast a spell. Spears of explosive fire shot away from me, each accurately targeting a monster. A thrill shot through me as I watched explosions shoot up everywhere, killing monsters and some animals that were just in the way. I did make sure that no sentient race was killed, though a few warriors fighting off the monsters got some shrapnel and scorching. No worries, little wounds like that won't kill them.
I pulled in the mana released from the monsters, drinking it down slowly. I made sure to keep different patches separate, so I could find out which tasted the best. My favorite was the fire giants. Aside from realizing that my explosive spear attack had taken out a creature that should have been immune, its mana was like eating a Hot Tamale candy minus the dyes and sugar. Just pure cinamonny heat and goodness.
A close second was the slime mana. It had a taste reminiscent of stew. A stew where everything in your pantry was thrown in for flavor, yet somehow came out delicious. It probably had something to do with the indiscriminate way it absorbed everything.
My least favorite was the goblin mana. It tasted like peanuts, unsalted and raw. I'm just not a peanut lover, but I could imagine some people I knew munching on a bowl of goblins for the flavor.
To finish cataloging the flavors, beastmen taste like turkey, draconians taste like chicken oddly enough, and the dragons and giants had different flavors depending on type. The fire dragon was more spicy than flavorful, and reminiscent of a habanero, while the poison dragon tasted like nothing I could think of. It was a rich, smoky flavor, but a little more rich than I would like. The lighting giants tasted like sugar, just sweet goodness.
I mixed the mana from the fire and lightning giants together, and that was awesome. It really tasted like Hot Tamales now, except even sweeter. I went a little crazy and started comparing combinations. Some combinations went together to complement or clash with each other's flavors while others transformed the flavor entirely. Slime mana usually complemented everything, except when I mixed it with lightning giant mana. It turned into chocolate.
There had to be some kind of system to this, but I was interrupted by the knowledge that my subordinates were getting impatient and in need of direction. I sighed, swallowed all the rest of the mana at once, and streaked towards Hypocrisy's location.
It was a good thing I had just finished my final tweaks to the Sea Volcano Hell, because its population was about to have a nice spike upwards.