Chapter 25

  [You have established the town of Scaragar as the Centre of the Ring and your Seat of Power. Cost: 100,000 RE.]

  [Congratulations! As the ruling demon lord of the Fourth Ring, you have established your capitol city from which your power and authority spreads out to encompass the realm. Your citizens now know where to find you to present their supplications or challenges, your officials now have a place to perform administrative tasks, and you have a place to call home and a throne to sit on. Note: an actual throne is not a requirement, although many previous demon lords opted to have one. Just saying.]

  [You have allocated to Scaragar: Detection Aura. Cost: 70,000 RE. This emplaced aura effect covers an area of two kilometres radius around Scaragar, and will inform the commander of the garrison whenever hostile entities enter this area. Please establish a garrison for your Seat of Power.]

  [You have allocated to Scaragar: Weakening Aura. Cost: 250,000 RE. This emplaced aura effect covers an area of one kilometre radius around Scaragar, and will reduce Strength and Constitution stats of all enemy entities within it by a variable amount.]

  [You have allocated to Scaragar: Soul-Weakening Aura. Cost: 450,000 RE. This emplaced aura effect covers an area of two kilometres around Scaragar, and will reduce Soulstrength stat of all enemy entities within it by a variable amount.]

  [You have allocated to Scaragar: Might of the Defenders Aura. Cost: 250,000 RE. This emplaced aura effect covers an area of one kilometre radius around Scaragar, and will increase the Strength and Constitution stats of all members of the garrison by a variable amount. Please establish a garrison for your Seat of Power.]

  [You have allocated to Scaragar: Fountain of Hell Mana Aura. Cost: 400,000 RE. This emplaced aura effect covers an area of one kilometre radius around Scaragar, and will increase the Soulstrength stat of all members of the garrison by a variable amount. Please establish a garrison for your Seat of Power.]

  [You have allocated to Scaragar: Mercy of the Hellfire Lord Aura (Unique Emplaced Aura derived from the ruling demon lord’s own skills.) (Experimental.) Cost: 600,000 RE. This unique emplaced aura effect covers the town itself, and provides a heal-over-time effect to all defenders and residents. This aura effect is in its experimental stage, results may vary.]

  [You have allocated to Scaragar: Defensive Structures Bolstering. Cost: 400,000 RE. You have used Ring Energy to reinforce your capitol city’s gates and walls, making them more resistant to physical as well as magical attacks.]

  [You have allocated to Scaragar: Might of the Demon Lord’s Guards. This aura effect will increase all stats of every demon appointed as personal guard to the ruling demon lord or a member of his dynasty, as long as both the guards and the guarded member of the dynasty are present in the city. Maximum number of personal guards: 50. Cost: 1,000,000 RE. Please appoint members of the garrison or your army to fill the ranks of your personal guard. Please establish a garrison for your Seat of Power.]

  I read the notifications as they rolled through my NeuroHUD, and I smiled; just over three and a half million Ring Energy points from the realm’s coffers well spent. I couldn’t help but wonder how much EXP and how many levels it would have translated to had it been possible to use it that way. Unfortunately, The Genius was running a tight ship when it came to the rules about what a demon lord could and couldn’t do with his ring and its funds, but I wasn’t unhappy; I had just turned Scaragar, a small, out of the way hilltop town of five thousand demons, into my capitol city, and made it the most defensible place in the entire ring. Well, they would need it.

  Flamey held my hand as she looked around, her eyes wide, no doubt sensing all the changes that were taking place, the aura emplacemet effects springing to life, and all the Ring Energy pouring into the walls. I myself couldn’t sense it very well; I could tell something was happening, but lacking the natural senses of a real demon, I had to rely on my notifications to know everything was going as planned.

  Tarashak was the first to recover from the shock that might have been the biggest one of his life so far, judging by the expression on his face.

  ‘My … lord. Hellfire Lord! What have you done?’ he half screamed half cried at me, and I could have sworn he was on the verge of collapsing. I’d not seen him this rattled in the six or so days I’d known him.

  I took a quick look around; Reinos and the rest of the army behind me were staring at me and the town beyond the gate with mouths agape, the town representatives were frozen as they stood there, still bowing, and the residents behind them were fidgeting nervously but keeping deathly quiet.

  ‘Reinos, get your demons inside and start surveying the town and come up with ways to make it even better defended. Work with the town representatives to take stock of food, weapons and other supplies available in town and document everything!’ I gave the order to the captain, snapping both him and the town leaders out of their daze. Reinos hopped to it and ushered the townsfolk away to get started on their tasks, his company of demons following them. I turned to Tarashak. ‘General, you’re coming with me.’

  He opened and closed his mouth without a sound leaving him, and as I joined my soldiers pouring into the city, the general followed.

  ‘Why?’ He finally pulled himself together and asked. ‘Why have you done this? What will become of the castle?’

  ‘The castle? Oh, you mean Demon Lord Ugrathar’s Blazing Castle of Horrible Suffering or something?’ I asked. ‘You know, anything with a name that stupid deserves to be demoted and demolished.’

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  ‘You’re not wrong about that. But what are you planning to do? Hole up here and hide from the invaders, hoping the town will hold? That is pointless.’

  ‘Yes, that would be pointless,’ I agreed as the gathering townsfolk — each of them so much larger than me — parted ways and clearing the way into the town. ‘It might even look like I am holing up here to wait this whole invasion business out in safety.’

  ‘But … that’s not what you’re doing, is it?’he asked, finally realising it.

  ‘No, my good general, that’s not at all what I’m doing. It’s what you will be doing.’ I gave him a smile he couldn’t see.

  ‘What? No, I cannot just …’ he began to protest immediately, but I stopped him before he could get into it.

  ‘Listen, Tarashak! I have just made this place my Seat of Power, the Centre of the Fourth Ring. My capitol city. Well, town. You felt it, right?’ I asked him.

  ‘Of course, I did. We all did.’

  ‘Right, good stuff.’ I nodded. According to Button’s explanation, the establishment of the new capitol was such a major shift and momentous occasion that everyone in the realm would have felt it. ‘Now, who else do you think felt this change?’

  ‘Oh! The enemy. The minotaur king,’ he said, the blood-red colour returning to his face. ‘He knows like everyone else that only the ruling demon lord can do such a thing as establishing a new Centre of the Ring. He’ll be coming here.’

  ‘Exactly,’ I nodded again. ‘His goal is to claim my title, so he’ll be coming here, and hopefully he’ll be bringing everything and everyone he’s got. Or most of them anyway. You know what that means, right?’

  ‘The cities. The other armies. They’ll be freed up. At least for a short time,’ he came to the same conclusion as I had a few days ago.

  ‘Yes. But I don’t think he’ll want to leave them freed up, otherwise he’d be stuck between a fort and them. So, he’ll want to summon reinforcements through the gate between the rings, and use them to keep pressure on your colleagues and their armies. That’s what I would do.’

  ‘I agree,’ Tarashak said. ‘So, what is your plan?’

  ‘Your army, Tarashak, is to serve as the garrison. You will remain a general so we can communicate, and you will be in command. You will draft everyone in town who qualifies into your army, and select fifty of your best demons as personal guards for Flamey. This will be quite the power boost if I’m not mistaken. And I think you’ll need it because the damned bull-king will throw everything he has at this place if he thinks I’m here. I am his target after all.’

  Tarashak took a few seconds to think this through, then asked the next correct question.

  ‘So, you won’t be here, will you?’

  ‘No. Flamey will be here,’ I said, and my demon daughter immediately looked up at me, scowling like the cute little hellspawn she was. I had to ignore her for the moment, and I continued explaining the plan to Tarashak. ‘As far as I can tell, no-one can keep track of the location of an individual demon, unless bonded, not even minotaur kings or demon lords. But as long as a member of my dynasty is here, along with her personal guards, my capitol city will radiate an “open for business” energy. That’s how citizens usually know their lord is here so they can come and present their supplications or challenges. Is that right?’

  ‘That is right. Demons can sense when their lord is present in his Seat of Power. The place feels different.' He confirmed what I already knew from the menus and from Button, and I even knew that my heir’s presence would have the same effect. ‘So, we are bait. A distraction. Aren’t we?’ he concluded.

  ‘Yes,’ I said plainly. ‘You will need to hold this town for as long as you can and then some.’

  ‘And you, my lord?’

  ‘The first wave of the enemy will arrive soon, so I will be leaving in an hour or two. I’ll take ten demons with me,’ I answered him. ‘It will take days, maybe even weeks, before the minotaur king can redirect his forces to take Scaragar under a proper siege. I think and I hope he will bring everything he has to bear. While that’s happening, I’ll be making my way to the gate.’

  ‘The gate? Between Third and Fourth? I see. You want to take it back under your control and cut the enemy off from reinforcements. But … you and what army?’

  ‘Yeah, me and what army …’ I sighed, and I stopped walking. I hadn’t even realised, but we were quite deep inside the town already, only a few of Tarashaks soldiers following us as a de-facto personal guard. The citizens of town stood in large doorways of houses constructed with the same, dark rocks the hills were made of. I wished I had the time for some sightseeing, to take Flamey for a tour and sample local cuisine, mingle with the demons, and make it a day. Unfortunately, time was of the essence. I brought up the map of the realm and shared it with Tarashak via the appropriate military menu. ‘There are several cities on the route I planned from here to the gate. Garoshek, Simorrak and Orroth are the ones I’m thinking of. Large populations.’

  ‘Hm.’ Tarashak thought about this. ‘I recommend Orroth, if you are to make a detour to recruit. Riaret the Severing Strike is there with her army. If they’re still alive.’

  ‘Riaret?’ I asked.

  ‘Riaret the Severing Strike. She is a general,’ Tarashak explained. ‘She is from Garoshek, but she had taken a liking to Orroth in recent years.’

  ‘Sounds promising. I’ll definitely swing by Orroth then,’ I said, consulting my map. ‘About ten days to Garoshek and another five to Orroth. I hope by the time I get there most of the enemy forces will be on their way from there to here, if not here already. If I can get your colleague and her army, we might have a proper chance at the gate. We’ll see how things are there when we get there. Then we adapt, improvise and overcome.’

  ‘This could work, my lord,’ Tarashak said, and I could see enthusiasm returning to him. ‘Let’s say you succeed at the gate. What comes after?’

  ‘Well, that’s a bit up in the air,’ I admitted. ‘I hope the enemy king will be here at Scaragar with most of his forces when that happens. Once I reclaim the gate, he will know I’m not here because only a demon lord can exert control over that thing’ I explained. ‘I’m hoping I’ll have an army by then, and some extra time for me — and hopefully this General Riaret — to find and recruit more soldiers and possibly other generals. If we can find them and if they’re still alive. Either way, we’ll have to garrison and defend the gate so it won’t be taken again. If we can keep the enemy trapped in our ring without any reinforcements, we can find ways to whittle them down, and eventually capture or kill their king. This is the plan. Opinion?’

  ‘It could work,’ he reiterated his earlier statement. ‘Whether you’ll be able to do it is another question. If you find Riaret or any other generals, and if they object to making the bond with a human, tell them Tarashak sends his regards, and that for the time being he has placed his trust in a human. If they want to hear it from me, they should take the general’s bond and I’ll tell them myself.’

  ‘Thanks, general, this will help,’ I said, looking up at the tall, bulky demon archmage. ‘So, now, about the garrison. Accept the post!’

  ‘Yes.’ He agreed.

  Then we got down to the nitty-gritty of organising the garrison, the defenses, and the allocation of personnel to form a guard unit for Flamey. After that, we quickly discussed what he thought I could expect to find at the cities on the way as well as at the gate itself. With all that discussed in about an hour, the general rushed off to consult with his captain, then to recruit everyone in town into his army. And that left me one important and difficult task: to convince my daughter to stay behind peacefully and without throwing a tantrum. And to find a bathroom.