Chương 658: Chapter 657: The Shadow of the Queen

The power vacuum triggered a chaotic, multi front war across the entire realm. Ancient treaties were burned. Border patrols turned into raiding parties. Every demon who had been quietly biding their time suddenly saw a path to a throne. The stench of Demonic Qi, burning flesh and spilled blood covered the lands. Yet, amidst the absolute meat grinder that the realm had become, there was one glaring anomaly. A massive and ever expanding sphere of peace.

Somewhere on the Bloodstone Plains, a former territory of the Spider Queen. The earth was slick with dark and viscous blood. Thousands of demon corpses littered the plains. It was the result of a grueling three day battle over a rich subterranean spiritual jade mine. At the center of the carnage and currently inside a makeshift war tent woven from hardened hide and bone, two rival warlords sat across from each other. They were exhausted and their cultivation bases dangerously depleted.

Warlord Vorn, a massive rhinoceros demon clad in dented heavy armor slammed his fist onto a map spread across the table.

"This is pointless, Zarak! We've lost half our forces and neither of us has breached the mine's defensive arrays. If we keep throwing our warriors into this grinder, the carrion eaters from the neighboring domains will sweep in and kill us both." Warlord Zarak, a towering mantis demon whose scythe-like arms dripped with acidic venom, clicked his mandibles in frustrated agreement.

"Then we divide it. Fifty-fifty. We draw the border right down the middle of the Bloodstone Plains. You take the upper veins and I take the lower." Before Vorn could agree the flap of the war tent was violently thrown open. A winged scout stumbled in with his feathers ruffled and his eyes wide with a terror that completely ignored the two imposing warlords before him.

"My Lords!" The scout gasped as he was falling to one knee.

"Reports from the perimeter! An army is marching toward the plains!" Vorn snorted and went to pick up his massive battleaxe.

"Let them come. We will crush them and use their cores to replenish our Qi. Whose banners are they flying? The Rotting Bone remnants? The Gale Ape's displaced tribe?" The scout shook his head frantically.

"No, Lord Vorn! It's... it's a silver crescent moon on a field of pitch black! It's the Vanguard of the House of Night!" The heavy and oppressive killing intent inside the tent vanished instantly. It was replaced by a cold and suffocating silence. Zarak's mandibles stopped clicking. The mantis demon slowly lowered his venomous scythes. Vorn stared at the scout while muscular hands suddenly trembling just a fraction of an inch as he released his grip on his axe.

"The House of Night?" Vorn repeated.

"Are you absolutely certain?"

"They are fifty miles out and advancing steadily," the scout confirmed.

"They are not moving in battle formation, my Lords. They are simply marching forward as if they already own the land. And... and they are being led by a man wielding a greatsword. The Qi radiating from him is terrifying. It's Prince Renato." Zarak looked down at the map on the table. He stared at the lower half of the Bloodstone Plains and the incredibly lucrative spiritual jade veins he had just spent three days bleeding for.

Without a word the mantis demon raised a claw and sliced off the lower portion of the map. He pushed it across the table.

"The lower veins are worthless anyway," Zarak stated. His voice was completely devoid of his previous arrogance.

"The spiritual energy there is likely tainted. I wouldn't want it." Vorn didn't even mock him. The rhinoceros demon nodded rapidly in agreement.

"A wise observation, Zarak. In fact, upon further reflection, my forces are needed back at my stronghold. We should probably pull back. Far back. A strategic repositioning."

"Agreed. We evacuate the plains immediately," Zarak said and was already moving toward the tent exit. They had both heard the rumors. The entire realm had heard the rumors. The five beings that had besieged the Night Queen had been erased from reality. It didn't matter if the Night Queen possessed a heaven defying artifact or an unfathomable backer. The message was clear: anything that stood in the path of the silver crescent moon would be annihilated. The shock had been too immense.

Neither warlord was willing to test if those rumors were true over a pile of shiny rocks. Within the hour, their surviving armies were in full retreat. Leaving the lucrative spiritual jade mine completely uncontested for the approaching Night Demon forces. At the Jade Scroll Pavilion in Grim Spire. Grim Spire remained the popular hub for intelligence, mercenaries and black market trade. Inside the dimly lit, incense filled chambers of the Jade Scroll Pavilion, information flowed like water.

Master Orok, an ancient turtle demon whose shell was carved with thousands of intricate runes, slowly sipped from a cup of hot spirit tea. Sitting across from his desk was a heavily scarred mercenary captain. The captain was currently sliding a heavy pouch of spirit stones forward.

"I need an assessment, Master Orok," the mercenary grunted.

"My company has been offered a contract by a coalition of minor lords. They want us to hold a defensive line in the jagged mountains against a rival coalition. The pay is astronomical." Orok didn't touch the pouch. He simply opened one heavy, reptilian eye.

"Where exactly in the mountains?"

"Near the borders of the old Night Demon capital," the mercenary replied. Orok let out a slow, rumbling sigh that sounded like grinding stones. He pushed the pouch of spirit stones back across the desk.

"Keep your stones, Captain. I will give you this advice for free because if you take that contract, you won't live long enough to become a repeat customer. Do not go near those mountains. Do not go anywhere near the House of Night." The mercenary frowned and crossed his arms.

"I've heard the rumors. I know what happened to Malakor and the alliance. But rumors get exaggerated. The Night Queen just survived a siege; her armies were decimated and her vaults were completely emptied during the ambush. She can't possibly hold her old territory, let alone expand."

"You are operating on outdated assumptions, Captain," Orok said as he was leaning forward.

"The House of Night is not just holding its territory. It is exploding outward." The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Orok waved a wrinkled hand over a smooth slab of jade on his desk. A glowing map of the Demon Realm projected into the air.

"Days ago," Orok lectured as he pointed at the projection, "Queen Morrigan returned to her ruined capital. The warlords who had moved in to scavenge the ruins didn't even fight. They took one look at her banners and fled into the wastelands. She reclaimed her ancestral seat without drawing a single drop of blood."

"So she has a pile of rubble," the mercenary scoffed.

"You can't rule rubble. And you can't pay an army to rebuild it."

"She doesn't need to pay them," Orok countered.

"She is recruiting at a pace that defies logic. She has opened the gates of the capital to any demon, beast or rogue cultivator willing to swear a soul vow of loyalty to her House."

"And people are actually signing up? For free?"

"They are flocking to her by the tens of thousands," Orok said as he was shaking his head in disbelief as well.

"The rest of the realm is tearing itself apart in a bloody war of succession. Every minor lord is conscripting commoners to die in the meat grinder. The Night Queen's territory is the only safe haven in the entire world. She isn't paying them in spirit stones, Captain. She is paying them in tomorrow. She is offering the one thing no one else in the realm can guarantee: survival." The mercenary's eyes widened as the reality set in.

"They believe the rumors. They think she has the backing of whoever killed the five."

"Everyone believes it. Wouldn't you?" Orok said softly.

"The five empires were wiped out in a single day, exactly when she needed a miracle. You don't ignore a coincidence like that. And it isn't just the Queen you have to worry about," Orok continued and was pointing to different expanding borders on the map.

"Her children have returned. Prince Renato is currently leading the new Vanguard. He was seen recently personally cleaving a rogue Beast King aspirant in half with a single swing of his greatsword. Prince Ganhao has already restored the capital's grand defensive arrays and is modifying them with incredibly complex and lethal formations."

"What about the daughters?"

"Princess Vespera is always by the Queen's side," Orok noted.

"Her cultivation base has stabilized and those who have seen her say she carries an aura of unshakeable confidence. But there is another. The prodigal daughter has returned." The mercenary blinked.

"Another daughter?"

"Princess Nyx," Orok whispered with a genuine note of caution in his voice.

"She ran away decades ago to the distant floating islands. She has returned. She commands the newly reformed intelligence network. The shadows in the capital have eyes and teeth again, Captain. Assassinations of rival scouts and spies are happening daily, perfectly orchestrated." Orok deactivated the map projection. He looked the mercenary dead in the eye.

"The House of Night is currently a slumbering demon that is rapidly regrowing its claws," Orok warned.

"Everyone with half a brain is giving them a wide berth. The major Demon Lords are deliberately leaving buffer zones just to avoid accidentally provoking her. Tear up that contract, Captain. Go fight in the distant bordering regions. The pay might be lower but at least you won't be erased from reality." Far above the chaos of the ground wars, Lord Ignis, the Demon Lord with wings of dark fire, stood on the balcony of her obsidian fortress.

She was looking out over a massive, volcanic mountain range that her armies had just seized from the remnants of the Rotting Bone Lord's domain. Footsteps echoed behind her. Her top general, a hulking fire lion beastman, approached and knelt on the scorching stone tiles.

"Lord Ignis," the general reported.

"The Vanguard has secured the three resource valleys bordering our new domain. We have crushed the minor resistance and established forward operating bases. However..." Ignis didn't turn around.

"However what, General?"

"The mountains adjacent to the third valley," the general hesitated.

"Our scouts report that the Vanguard of the House of Night has moved in. They have planted the silver crescent moon banners along the peaks." The fire lion general looked up and his eyes were burning with ambition.

"My Lord, those mountains contain incredibly rich veins of fire aspect spirit stones! They are practically on our doorstep. If we strike now, while their forces are spread thin reclaiming territory, we can easily crush that detachment and take the mountains for our own!" Ignis slowly turned around. The dark fire of her wings flared and raised the temperature on the balcony to a suffocating degree.

"General," Ignis said with a dangerously soft voice.

"Do you wish to join Malakor in the abyss?" The fire lion general flinched, the ambition draining from his face instantly.

"N-no, my Lord!"

"Then you will order the Vanguard to halt their advance," Ignis commanded.

"In fact, you will order them to pull back fifty miles from the base of those mountains. You will tear down our forward operating bases and leave that land completely empty."

"But the spirit stones—!"

"Are meaningless if we are dead!" Ignis snapped. Her Demonic Qi flared and cracked the tiles beneath her boots.

"Listen to me closely. The House of Night is not a rival faction right now. They are a localized natural disaster. Do not provoke the disaster. Do not look at the disaster. If the Night Queen wants the mountains, she can have the mountains." Ignis turned back to look out over her own vast and newly conquered territory.

"There is more than enough meat on the bones of the dead lords for us to feast on," she said, her tone pragmatic and cold.

"Let the fools and the minor warlords fight her. We will expand everywhere else. We give her a wide berth. Understand?"

"Yes, Lord Ignis," the general bowed deeply, terrified by the absolute certainty in his master's voice.

"I will relay the orders immediately. We pull back." The dirt road was choked with thousands of weary travelers. They were a mix of low level demons, beastmen and rogue cultivators. They pushed rickety carts filled with meager belongings and their faces were covered in dust and grime. They were fleeing the actively contested territories where the power vacuum had turned daily life into a hellish cycle of conscription and slaughter.

Near the back of the massive procession, two demons sat by a small, smokeless campfire during a brief resting period. One was an illusion demon with pale, shifting skin and the other was a brute demon with thick, rocky plating covering his arms.

"How much further?" The brute demon groaned and rubbed his calloused feet.

"We've been walking for weeks."

"Another few days, at least," the illusion demon replied while carefully portioning out a piece of dried ration meat.

"Once we cross the jagged ravine, we will officially be in Night Demon territory." The brute demon frowned but accepted the small piece of meat.

"Are you sure about this? The old capital was a warzone just a few weeks ago. What makes you think it's any safer there than back where we came from?" The illusion demon let out a dry laugh.

"You haven't seen the borders, have you? I scouted ahead a few days ago. The other warlords are literally drawing lines in the dirt and running the other way. I saw a Minotaur battalion stumble across a single Night Demon scout. The Minotaurs surrendered their weapons and offered tribute just so the scout wouldn't report them." The brute demon's rocky brow furrowed in disbelief.

"They surrendered to a scout?"

"Everyone is terrified," the illusion demon whispered while leaning closer to the fire.

"They say the Night Queen is unstoppable. They say whoever killed Malakor and the Beast Kings is watching her every move. The banners of the Night are flying higher and further than they ever did before the siege. She isn't just rebuilding; she's expanding and no one is lifting a finger to stop her."

"So... if we swear the oath..."

"If we swear the oath, we get a roof over our heads and a lord who no one dares to attack," the illusion demon nodded firmly.

"I don't care if her vaults are empty. Safety is worth more than gold right now. It's the only sanctuary left in the world." The brute demon chewed his meat slowly and was digesting the information. He looked out over the endless line of refugees ahead of them, all heading toward the exact same destination. Fear was the ultimate weapon and the Night Queen was currently wielding it to reclaim her empire without ever having to draw her sword.