An army of birdmen tore through the skies, a mad rage in their expressions.
Below them a similarly furious unit of snakemen slithered forth, leaving the trails of their tails behind them.
And behind them was an orange demon who was more focused on his own watch than he was the raging creatures in front of him.
This orange demon had a carefree smile on his face as his dress coat fluttered in the wind.
'Ah.... time is running pretty fast, isn't it? If this takes too long I won't have enough time to finish things off today. I have to get back by the night to apologize to her, and being late would only make her more angry.....'
Looking forward, fields of grass were spread across the landscape.
With a shrug, Vex laughed to himself.
'Ah well! There's no real need to stick around and see where this goes. I'll stick with them until we get to the village and then I'll dip.'
Minutes of flight passed, and eventually a certain structure erected itself in the distance.
From this distance it was hard to make out, but Vex grinned as he took a closer look.
An enormous set of purple walls rose high into the sky, yet even higher was a central building.
It looked to be a massive rib cage that had a heart within it. With his advanced eyesight, Vex was likely the only one who was able to notice the details from here.
And atop this ribcage was a flag.
A purple flag which fluttered in the wind, showing all who dare approach the hellish nature of the horrid place.
Drawn onto the flag was a demonic hand that held a heard within it, crushing it and splattering blood around the canvas.
Without a doubt, this was the lair of the antiheroes- the demons who threatened the 7 houses and their positions as the most powerful figures of this realm.
'Already here? Looks like we saved a bit of time....', Vex thought as he glanced at his own watch. 'Well, not enough. I gotto travel all the way down south, so I guess it's time to split.'
"To the men who have chosen to follow me, halt for a moment.", Vex stated in a booming tone that resounded in the ears of everyone present.
Instantly the birdmen and snakemen stopped in their tracks, turning to Vex.
"What is it, savior?"
"Is something wrong?"
Turning to the South, Vex pointed into the distance.
"I'm the only person here who can take on the antiheroes, but they're coming from that direction. If you don't want to be caught up in the fight, then stay away. It isn't gonna be a fight that someone of your strength can survive. Hawkman, what's your name?"
The hawk flew forward with determination, boldly making his proclamation.
"I am Erasalis, leader of the birdmen tribe."
"Then Erasalis, I leave things to you. I'll hold off the antiheroes. You just go and wreak havoc on their city."
With a sly smirk, Vex began to chuckle to himself.
"Show them that they should have never incurred your wrath."
With a nod, Erasalis looked forward, and Vex took off.
"You all heard him. Every single one of us has a reason to hate the antiheroes... we cannot forgive them.... the only thing they have done is destroy!!! They've destroyed our families, our towns, our people, our leaders..... everything we once had is gone because they came into our lives and took it from us!!!! It is time to give these demons a taste of their own medicine!!! We will destroy their town! Their people! Everything they hold dear, we will tarnish and trash!!!!"
The birdman and those around him bulged with an unnatural fury, one which was clearly beyond anything they would usually emit.
It was a fury so powerful that it literally empowered the people, filling them with adrenaline and energy.
"That's right!!!!"
"We will do to them what they did to us!!!!"
"We will take our revenge!!!!"
"We will fight for the provider, and avenge his death!!!!"
Waving his wing, the group of roughly 150 headed out towards the city in the distance.
----
Vex smirked as he flew off.
'Haha.... they've gone mad. They're not thinking clearly. I sensed some very powerful presences in that city, so without a doubt the antiheroes are in that city. From those auras.... they were probably 9th tier? But why were there so many of them?! How many antiheroes are there? I thought there were supposed to be 4, but there were..... somewhere around 8 beings that were in the 9th tier. 8? That's more than we bargained for. I better steer clear of that place until we have a full force lined up.'
Vex was now heading to the South while checking his own watch.
'I still got time, but not that much. I'll head to the city over here and maybe set off a few bombshells, then I'll head back. The antiheroes will probably be reeling by the end of the day after having discovered that so many idiots raging for revenge started attacking them. When they're weakened we can swoop in and defeat them.'
Vex nodded to himself.
He was not the smartest demon, but he knew well how to manipulate the anger of another. As the Host of Wrath, these abilities were granted to him.
'Wonder what Hube will do next? Are we all actually gonna gang up like some sort of task force? Haha!! That would be interesting. Can't see Hube agreeing to that though.'
As Vex flew he glided above a forest for quite a bit before it opened up into yet another plain, though this one was much more hilly than the previous ones.
'Looks like we're almost there.'
The sun rose high into the sky above Vex as he flew, beating down on him. The fresh air and clear skies were so untainted that it was almost unnatural, as if the very essence of contamination and corruption had been removed from the land.
'Not what I'm used to. To be honest I prefer living without that blaring ball of light in my eyes all the time.', Vex thought as he shielded his eyes.
With a smirk, he reached into the pocket of his own jacket, pulling out a pair of sunglasses.
'But it looks like I finally get to use these, so that's a plus.'
Placing the sunglasses on his face, the demon flashed a toothy smile as he propped up his scarlet hair.
'Looks like I get to play the badass today!'
----
The systematic and practiced shuffling compacted the earth below it as thousands of soldiers made their way through the forest.
All wearing the same bronze uniforms in the style of roman legionnaires, the only thing which differentiated these soldiers from one another was their helmets.
The mane which their helmet's bore was colored if one was a ranked officer. If one did not hold a rank, then their helmet bore no mane.
The soldiers held spears in their hands, and wielded short swords at their sides. Among those who did not have swords at their sides were the men who wore bows on their backs, lining the back row of the unit.
Lining the middle of the formation were men who had short swords at their side, yet also held magical wands and wore robes over their heavy armor. Not a man in the unit didn't have at least some form of melee combat gear, yet this was merely for the sake of self defense.
Tirius did not hold any prejudice towards those who used magic, yet he firmly believed that anyone in his unit should be able to hold their own if they were caught in a bad situation. As such, melee combat training was a must, and even the weakest physical fighters among the magic users had been transformed into formidable warriors.
The third legion was one of adaptability.
It was a well known fact that the beasts beyond the walls held strength far greater than that of men, and so Tirius embraced a number of techniques for the strengthening of his own forces.
"How can we act as the stronghold of humanity if we push away the ideals which our Emperor has taken such great lengths to promote for our own sake!?! It is exactly so that we stand a chance against the monsters that he has labeled magic not as a heresy, but as yet another method to combat our opponents!!!! It is for OUR sake. For the sake of the third legion in particular, he has fought tooth and nail against the men who wish to deny us this method. We cannot allow his sacrifice to be in vain, therefore we will use every method available to us! However, this does not mean that you are allowed to neglect the way of the sword! On the contrary, we must hone all of our skills so that we are prepared to face even the most nefarious of beasts."
These were the words spoken by Tirius years ago when Percius had first legalized the practice of magic and the use of it within the military.
Right now, Tirius was at the head of thousands of men who made their way through the forest.
Despite the forest separating and splitting the paths of the men, they did not so much as break rank or become disordered. It was something which would bewilder the mind to see, yet without so much as the slightest bit of hesitation or incorrect footing, thousands of soldiers made their way through the forest.
Eventually, the forest opened up into a plain.
Tirius covered his eyes as the blinding light of the high risen sun assaulted him, and when the dilation in his pupils had become accustomed to the light of the open skies, he saw something strange in the distance.
"Colonel. What are our current coordinates?", Tirius asked as he looked with shock at the fortress in the distance.
"Er..... if our navigation unit has correctly guided us, then we should be arriving at the location of the slime village."
"The slime village?"
The face of Tirius became distorted, and a cold sweat went down his body.
Walking forward, the men began to form rows behind him as they filed out of the foliage.
As each man lined up, their faces too became wrought with surprise.
"What....."
"Is that....."
Tirius walked over to the Colonel who held a map in his hand, grabbing it from his arms.
"Are you absolutely certain that we are in the correct location? Perhaps we went too far. Are you sure we haven't accidentally stumbled into the realm of demons? Because that thing..... that is not something which a mere slime could create."
Flipping the map upside down and on it's side trying to get a read of it, many of the Colonels approached Tirius in an attempt to figure out just what had gone wrong.
Tirius handed the map over to the Colonels and walked forward to face the 10,000 men who had lined up perfectly with the forest to their backs.
"Men! Is there any one of who who can use any form of mapping magic? Please step forward if you can. You will be promoted one rank if you can assist us in solving this issue."
Many of the men looked back and forth to one another, however their eyes were too focused on the demonic castle in the distance for them to think about anything else.
One young man stepped forward, shuffling through the lines and saluting deeply by beating his fist to his chest.
This man wore a blue hood over his armor and wielded a wooden wand which curled around a spherical blue gemstone.
"Come with me, soldier. See if you can pinpoint our current location on the map."
Tirius led the man over to the Colonels and they presented the map, rolling it out onto a small table which had been set up temporarily.
The young man held out his staff while closing his eyes and seemed to be murmuring some sort of chant, and the gemstone glowed brightly before an arrow that seemed to be made from mana formed in the air.
Blue contour lines formed on top of the three dimensional map, laying out the terrain within the area, and the fortress too was formed on the map.
The arrow began to glow, and pinpointed their approximate location.
"Sir, I have used my own mapping magic to produce a topographical scan for that which is visible, and I have pinpointed our own location."
"Well done, soldier. Let's have a look."
Tirius walked over to the map, however when he did so he was greeted with the grave expressions of the Colonels who stood around it.
"What's wrong, men? What's with those faces? Let's see here."
As one man stepped out of his way, Tirius made his way into the circle to take a look at the map.
"This.... cannot be....."
The fortress which was formed on the map was located at the exact same spot which was marked as the slime village.
"How..... that....."
Tirius found himself at a complete loss for words.
"That's.... the slime village!?!?!??!!"
----
"It's a good day to get our revenge!!!! Let us kill all those who pledge loyalty to the antiheroes!!!!!"
Erasalis found himself overcome by an intense desire to destroy.
'Kill..... destroy..... burn..... I will make them feel the same pain we have felt since that day!!!! AHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"
His hatred for the antiheroes seemed to be growing in strength, and with this growing hatred so too did he feel his own power grow.
"I've never felt better!!!!! My thighs have never in my life been as plump and muscular as they are now!!!!!"
He felt himself losing all fear that he once held towards the antiheroes. It was as if he was being flung forward with all stops removed.
With the very concept of fear taken from him, the only thing that was left was the desire for revenge which this fear had buried inside of him.
From miles away, linked to this wrath which he had spurred, Vex chuckled to himself.
He could feel it.
The birdmen and the snakemen were beginning to lose their fear.
"Isn't that the only reason wrath does not rage throughout this world? If only we could rid ourselves of fear. If we lost all fear of repercussions, then what would remain? Wrath. We would blindly burst forward in an attempt to take revenge on those who have harmed us, not holding a care for the consequences of our blind hatred."
Before Vex was an enormous city which seemed to be made from metal and gaskets.
Pushing up the sunglasses which he wore, he disconnected his own link with the birdmen and the snakemen.
"I no longer need to sustain this. Their limitations have been removed. The fear which held them back will never return, and they will spend the rest of their lives giving into their anger without the slightest bit of hesitation or warning. They will almost certainly be killed in this show, but it will be amusing to see how many they take down with them."
----
Erasalis noticed in the corner of his eye as he approached the village of the antiheroes by air that there was something off.
"What's that over there?"
Far off to the side, surrounded by a U shape of trees, the ground seemed to be covered in a shining bronze metal.
With the vision of a hawk, Erasalis did his best to glance over to the suspicious disturbance in the land, to notice something.
"Soldiers... there are human soldiers over there!!!! Hundreds... no, thousands!!!! They must be working for the antiheroes, hiding themselves outside the village so that they can ambush us once we begin the attack!!!!"
"What!?!?"
"How dare they...."
"Those sneaky bastards...."
With a grin, Erasalis shouted out to all the birdmen and snakemen around him.
"The fools!!! We won't fall for such a trap!!! Instead we will slaughter their reinforcements before raiding the city!!! AHAHAH!!!!! They must have expected those reinforcements, so they will be completely overtaken when they don't arrive!!!! LET US MOVE!!!! Birdmen, where is your pride!?!?!?! LET US SHOW THESE FILTHY FOLLOWERS OF THE ANTIHEROES THAT THEY WILL PAY FOR THEIR SINS!!!!! AHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!!"
The snakemen and birdmen changed their course, no longer heading directly for the capital city, but rather towards the U shaped grove where the soldiers were lined up.
"That's right!!!! WE WILL DESTROY THOSE WORKING FOR THE ANTIHEROES!!!!!"
"WE WILL MAKE THEM SUFFER AND BEG US FOR MERCY!!!!!"
"WE WILL MAKE THEM REGRET SERVING THEIR CORRUPTED LEADERS!!!! AHAHAHHAHAH!!!!!"
The rage within the group became blatant and their own faces became more and more distorted with madness as time passed.
Rushing forward, the group darted at the encampment of soldiers.
"KILL!!!! KILL THEM ALL!!!!", a particular snakewoman exclaimed with bloodlust.
"AHAHAHAHHAH!!!!!!"
----
"Legion Commander..... what should we do here? We expected something to have happened to the slime village.... but this!?!?!"
One of the Colonels looked to the Commander with surprise as he pointed to the demonic hell on earth in the horizon.
Tirius nodded, his own hands trembling just at the sight of such an abominable place.
"Indeed..... we cannot simply turn back and give up, for the Emperor ordered us to begin this campaign, however I now realize.... this is not the right place to start..... to think that the monsters set this up while we weren't looking.... something strange is going on here.... is this the reason behind that attack on the wall!?!? I...."
The men were looking to one another with uncertainty at seeing their usually charismatic leader stumbling with his words, unsure what to do.
"We cannot simply attack a fortified structure like that without the assistance of a hero."
Turning to the men, Tirius did his best to erase every bit of doubt and fear in his voice, yet even then he could not completely remove it.
"Men. As you can see before us, this fortress has presented an unexpected obstacle in our path. It was beyond our own information that such a fortress would exist, and it would be a fools errand to attack such a fortress without proper preparation."
Standing forward and sticking out his chest, Tirius gained a slight bit of confidence with the fortress at his back.
"I understand well that I have led 8000 men here, and that it is shaming your abilities as the members of the third legion to simply pull back here. It is true that we could likely take that city with our numbers, however I ask you men this question. Is it worth it!? Is taking that city worth the sacrifices that must be made!? Without a doubt, a siege would be necessary. During this siege, our side is sure to take many losses. If we are to begin this campaign to take over the entire monster realm, we cannot allow ourselves to be culled down so greatly just to jump over the first hurdle!!!!! We will head back and rethink this campaign from scratch!!!"
Even as making such a shameful statement, Tirius held his head high and smiled to his soldiers.
"For this waste of time, I will provide a feast to each and every soldier in this Legion!! Myself and the Colonels will return to the drawing board, and we will design a new strategy to approach this campaign- one free of the great risk which this new obstacle poses. In the meantime, rest yourselves and we will once more head out tomorrow morning!"
"Legion Commander!!!!"
"Thank you, Sir!!!!"
A barrage of cheers was heard from the men at this statement.
It was generous indeed for someone to provide a feast for 10,000 men out of their own pockets, but that was just the type of man Tirius was.
He held fervent patriotism more than anything else, and would serve his country until his death. It was his duty to provide for the soldiers underneath him, and to ensure that he carried out the orders of the Emperor above him.
With such a massive campaign on the radar, making such an early sacrifice would surely doom not only his men, but the entire campaign.
And so, Tirius made the decision to retreat.
Yet at this moment, the head of Tirius was torn off his shoulders.
The egg shaped helmet which towered above the 8000 men disappeared from their sight.
The head was now in the talons of a birdlike monster who had soared in, picking off the prey which stood out the most.
Silence filled the area, and the men watched as the headless body fell to the ground.
With the spray of blood and the hard slam of the body onto the soil, the jaws of the men dropped.
Turning to their flank, they witnessed something which filled each and every one of their bodies with fury and terror.
A unit of birdlike monsters soared through the air, honing in on the thousands of men who stood in the field.
On the ground, another unit of snakemen rushed at them. Their faces were all filled with a disturbing hatred, and not a single shred of rational thought could be seen in their eyes.
"The Legion Commander...."
"He.... is dead?"
Some soldiers in the front perceived what had happened, speaking these words out loud.
As soon as these words were said, a realization came across every single person who stood in this field.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!!! DIE, SCUM!!!!! YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!!!!! YOU HAVE CHOSEN THE WRONG LEADERS TO SERVE!!!!!"
The birdlike creature who held the head of Tirius within his talons shouted violently as the men prepared their weapons for a fight, yet each of them knew one thing with absolute certainty.
"This..... this is why it is called the realm of monsters....."