In the end, the entire city's force field was destroyed in less than two hours. The city itself remained mostly intact, with only some houses and streets damaged.
There were many humans hiding in the residential houses, but for the sergeant, those were not an issue. Lieutenant Fiery Pepper would decide their fate personally.
In total, around 4,000 humans died, including nearly all the mages. Some ran to the forests around the city, but the demon army wouldn't bother chasing them, not without an order from Lieutenant Fiery Pepper.
There has been a legend among demons that eating human meat can make their bloodline more pure. However, that rumor has been debunked time and time again. In fact, eating human meat is not nutritious to demons at all; it is like a very oily, sweet cookie, which is delicious but harmful to the body.
Demons, especially muddle-blooded demons and those with less self-restraint, love to hunt and eat humans simply because, in their view, human meat is the most delicious and pleasurable food imaginable, almost to the level of being an addicting drug. But smart demons and those with higher blood purity and stronger self-restraint wouldn't touch human meat.
Fiery Pepper has prohibited all demons under its command from consuming human meat. The effects of overconsumption of human meat can be serious, including loss of physical strength, loss of magical power, loss of concentration, and, in severe cases, it can reduce wisdom and intelligence. The muddle-blooded demons are already as dumb as pets; if they lose any more brain power, they might become like rocks, not even able to walk without assistance.
Fiery Pepper has already ordered the demon lieutenants to gather human corpses and burn them all. Even the presence of human meat may tempt some weak-willed demons. Once they eat it, they may become addicted and look for more.
In the battle, in addition to human casualties, there were also many demon casualties. Initially, there were around 2,000 demons; now, there are less than 1,000. However, the demons that died were all dumb demons; not even one adult demon was killed in the war.
The demonic army wasn't really harmed at all in the battle. The death of muddle-blooded demons is no big deal; they were nothing more than low-quality meat shields in any case. Fiery Pepper alone could have wiped them all out in less than ten minutes, even without breaking a sweat.
...
"Is it over?" Fiery Pepper asked impatiently; he had been bored.
The demon sergeant responded, "Yes, my lord."
"Are there any humans left alive?" asked Fiery Pepper.
"There are some, but they are weak humans who are hiding in the residential houses," responded the sergeant.
Touching his huge left horn, Fiery Pepper shook his head and said, "Arrest them all and imprison them out of the city. Set up a human farm. Mix males and females together; double their population by this time next year! You are responsible for this task," said Fiery Pepper.
The sergeant trembled; the worst-case scenario had happened. No demon sergeant wants to be given a task; tasks are no-win situations. Completing a task has no reward because 'it's a duty'; failing a task has severe punishment. He didn't want to be given a task; he wanted to be left alone. Unfortunately, the boss decided to give him such a difficult task.
Doubling the population of the remaining humans would be borderline impossible. The demon sergeant, who calls himself Bullhorn, had briefly seen the makeup of the remaining humans. Most of them are male; even the few remaining females are mostly old. Out of around 1,500 humans hiding in the city, at best, there are only 300 women of childbearing age. Considering the nine months needed to give birth to a single human child, completing the task given by Fiery Pepper is outright impossible.
But, despite knowing all of that, Sergeant Bullhorn didn't dare to object. He only bowed and said, "Yes, my lord."
Once Fiery Pepper gives an order, it must come to reality. Any objection would be met with severe punishment. If he objects, Fiery Pepper will punish him until he begs to die. It can be said that the punishment for failing the task is not actually much worse than the punishment for objecting to an order.
"You're dismissed!" Fiery Pepper said.
Sergeant Bullhorn bowed again and then left.
"Call that blue-skinned guy. What was he called, Sergeant Deep Sea?" Fiery Pepper ordered his assistant.
The assistant bowed and left. After a few minutes, a massive, five-meter-tall demon with blue skin, a head, two pairs of hands, and legs like those of a horse entered. Fortunately, the tent was huge, so it was able to accommodate even such a huge demon.
"Master," the huge blue-skinned demon bowed deeply.
"What is the market price of the flesh?" asked Fiery Pepper.
Sergeant Deep Sea looked with wide eyes and said, "Master, the market price is 160 crystals per dose. Is my master planning to compete in the market?"
Sergeant Deep Sea is one of the smartest demons; he understood his master's intention with a glance.
"Yeah! I am planning on setting up a large-scale demonic city. Let's call it Fiery Sun City. I need a lot of money; money is in the flesh business; there is no better way to earn money!" said Fiery Pepper.
Deep Sea said, "My master is a genius; this plan is amazing," praising the plan loudly while cursing in his heart.
The flesh business is already occupied; demon kings dominate it. If Fiery Pepper dares to claw away at the demon kings' market cap, it would have consequences. Of course, he didn't dare say any of it. Whatever demon kings do is for the future. If he objects now, he will be punished until he begs for death.
"I have ordered Bullhorn to double our humans in a year; for next year, I want an initial output of 100 doses. You have three responsibilities: first, hunt as many humans as possible; second, assemble a group of demons with good self-restraint for the production process; third, find a good flesh production formula. I don't want my production team to end up addicted; we only sell, we won't use," Fiery Pepper ordered.
"Yes, my master; I would obey your orders with pleasure," Deep Sea said this, while in his heart, he almost collapsed. How is he supposed to find a flesh production formula? Those are deeply held secrets of demon kings! How is he supposed to find so many strong-willed demons for the production team? How is he supposed to find humans? Didn't they just kill so many humans? Shouldn't his boss have captured them instead of killing them? Deep Sea had so many complaints and grievances that he almost showed it on his face, but in the end, he barely managed to keep his smiling and loyal face intact.
"You're dismissed," said Fiery Pepper.
"Thank you, my lord," said Deep Sea with a smile before bowing and leaving.
Consuming human meat for demons would have severe consequences, but there are ways to reduce the negative impacts. Over the years, demon kings have tried and succeeded in producing flesh, which is based on human meat, but most of its negative effects have been eliminated. Of course, it is still half as pleasurable and twice as addictive; its formula is a secret, only known by two demon kings who are fierce rivals.
Aside from the two demon kings, there are other producers who offer inferior products, but even they pay protection fees to at least one of the demon kings; not a single producer sells flesh without at least partially sharing profits with one of the demon kings.
Officially, most demonic cities completely forbid the use and purchase of flesh, but in actuality, those bans haven't been very effective. Tens of thousands of demons are addicted, and they are willing to buy a single dose for hundreds of crystals. Without a doubt, the flesh business is the most profitable in the world.
The production involves 'processing' humans while they are alive; therefore, using corpses for the production of the flesh is a non-starter. Also, it is said that the highest quality of flesh can only be made from humans aged less than ten years. This is one of the reasons Fiery Pepper didn't capture the adult humans in this battle. As a high-class demon, his standards are very high; he would only produce the best products, not second-class ones.
Fiery Pepper scratched its right horn and stood up. The flesh business is for the next year; this year, he would be occupied with The Fiery Sun City.
Step by step, he went out of the tent and looked at the city. It was still intact, with the exception of its wall, which was entirely demolished.
Looking at the sky, Fiery Pepper frowned; it was cloudy.
Fiery Pepper waved his right hand and cast a silent spell. The clouds were violently cast away, and the strong, fiery sun returned to the sky and illuminated the world. It smiled and, step by step, moved forward to inspect Its new territory.
...
The disappearance of Hard Summer City didn't cause any disruption. The city was isolated and only had a cooperative relationship with human civilization.
Human Civilization closed a few of its stations around the former Hard Summer City and consolidated all of its agents in the nearby area into one single station housing over 200 permanent staff.
Its security specialists didn't feel comfortable having so many small stations in such a dangerous environment. The new Fiery Sun City is itself a strong demonic city, and what's worse, it is also between two big demonic cities. The risk factors were overwhelming, so the only way to maintain a station in the area was to consolidate.
Human Civilization values monitoring events around the world. Intelligence is key to survival; if anything goes wrong, they must know as quickly as possible. So, despite all the dangers, they only consolidated and didn't abandon the station near Fiery Sun City.
The two big demonic cities didn't react to the disappearance of a human city and the formation of a new large-scale demonic city. It was as if they didn't care at all.
Time continued to pass like this...