The Fiend's Creation System

The Welcoming Gift

“Commander, do you hear that?”

As the human army was retreating out of the Shifting Hallows with just a quarter of the journey left before they exited the area, the earth began to tremble.

General Florence’s adjutant quickly voiced his concern earlier but his general was already looking towards the back where he felt the source of the vibrations coming from.

“Oh no…”

From the hill that they had just crossed, Florence could see a large number of silhouettes appear, completely dotting the peak of the hill.

“Florence! What do we do?!”

The other commanders quickly turned to him since they now knew that the man’s speculations were right. It wasn’t just a few hundreds of thousands that they previously faced before. When the champions released their sensory techniques, they quickly saw the innumerable number of fiends that were rushing up the hill.

They even felt the fiends’ presence under the ground and in the sky. Not only that, but they also felt the presence of 5 powerful individuals within this vast army of fiends. 

“Run! Don’t even think about fighting! Run!” Florence bellowed. He quickly pulled out a horn and blew into it, signaling for a full retreat. 

“Mages, quickly create platforms and get as many as you can onto them! Everyone with mounts, run for it! We’ll take our stand at Redgrove City if they pursue us all the way out there!”

Florence quickly sent out his orders and the mages used magic to quickly relay them. The army quickly began to move and multiple earth platforms and ice platforms began appearing. 

Luckily for them, they had just finished resting and were about to move again when the fiends arrived.

Julius, who was in his Metamorphosis State overlooking the humans from the sky, smiled in admiration at their decisiveness to retreat. He was half-expecting the humans to put up a resistance but instead, they ran away. 

“Smart, very smart. Heh, even the champions are helping their infantry run away.”

“Master, they are getting away…” Sammael spoke up in his hoarse voice from behind. 

“They won’t get far, it’s about time I give them my little welcoming gift.”

Julius snapped his fingers and immediately, the red miasma that had been pushed away due to the [Purification] spells began roiling back in to fill the ‘empty’ space they had been pushed out of.

“Th-the miasma!”

“Quick! Use [Purification]!”

“It’s not working! It’s not working!!!”

The humans immediately began to panic but the fiend’s plasm was already upon them. Everyone within the army was immediately engulfed by the red miasma, however, a resonating chant was immediately heard from within the human forces.

“Roaring winds, heed my call! [Tornado]!”

From within the center of the human ranks, a large tornado suddenly materialized, sucking in the thick miasma. The tornado was immediately dyed red and then suddenly, it exploded, releasing a large blast of wind in all directions, pushing away the miasma that was pouring in from all sides.

“GO!”  A young woman with dark green hair yelled.

This person was one of the only 2 champion-level mages within the human army’s ranks, Erina of the Northern Wind. As it was in her name and title, Erina was a powerful wind mage.

The [Tornado] spell was advanced wind magic that required quite a bit of mana and preparation to cast. Tallos naturally knew of this spell as well but he wasn’t able to use it at Erina’s level.

The wind mage had only used a short chant to evoke a large [Tornado] that immediately materialized in its largest state. Normally, the [Tornado] spell needed a few seconds to kick in since the wind needed to swirl and pick up speed before it formed into a tornado.

Erina skipped that process and her spell immediately materialized a tornado after which she was able to detonate and cause a huge wind to appear that blew away all of the miasmas that Julius was controlling.

Julius wasn’t angry when he saw this. He was surprised and even jubilant.

“Great! Haha, that’s more like it! Struggle! Struggle more so you can taste even greater despair!”

He raised both his arms into the air and took a deep breath. When he exhaled, his body immediately began flashing with sparks of red lightning and he bellowed, “Awaken! My brothers and sisters!”

The humans were confused by the words they were hearing, but what happened next caused everyone to despair and panic. Some people within the army immediately dropped to the floor, dead, or some of them began crying out in pain while clutching their chest.

Not everyone was able to convert into a fiend. The weaker and incompatible humans immediately dropped dead on the floor when Julius evoked the virus-like fiend energy that had been lying dormant within their bodies while others experienced a heart-wrenching pain that accompanied their transformations.

While there were some that died and some that were changing, there were still those that weren’t affected by the miasma or had been lucky enough to not be exposed to it since coming here.

“What’s...what’s happening?!” Charlie asked as he turned towards his friend, Florence.

Florence was looking around in a frenzy and noticed that his adjutant was also writhing on the floor while croaking for help.

“G-General...he...hel...help! Help!!!”

Not even Florence knew what was happening right now. He, Heather, Charlie, and another champion were all together riding an earthen platform that Charlie created using his magic, and a few people around them had suddenly dropped dead on the platform or were currently writhing around in agony.

“Priests! Do something!”

A large majority of the priests and paladins of the Holy Light Church weren’t affected by the miasma since they had been constantly using [Purification].

“We...we don’t know what’s happening! [Purification], [Blessing], and even [Heal] doesn’t work!”

“Dammit!”

“Florence, look!” Heather quickly called to him and pointed to one of the ice platforms in the distance.

On top of the platform, they could see a few fiends on it wreaking havoc on the humans that had managed to remain alive.

“Fiends? How?!”

“T-the soldiers suddenly changed into them!”

Florence’s eyes immediately widened and he quickly pulled out his sword.

“Florence?!”

He turned around and immediately stabbed his adjutant.

“G-General?”

“I-I’m sorry...I’m sorry, Carl...”

Carl, his adjutant, looked at Florence with wide eyes but when he turned to the side and saw his hand that had transformed into something else, he immediately smiled and said with his dying breath, “It’s...o...kay…”

“...Dammit.”

“He...he changed?” Charlie asked in horror. 

Heather didn’t say anything and immediately pulled out her battle-ax and began chopping down at their soldiers that were writhing painfully on the ground with parts of their bodies transformed.

“...We fell into a trap,” Florence dejectedly said.

He looked up at the 6-armed fiend with 2 pairs of wings that were in the sky far behind them. Florence could tell with his intuition that this monster was the rumored Fiend Lord, Julius.

He couldn’t see the monster’s expression, but Florence could tell that he was sporting a smug smile on his face and indeed he was. Julius was looking down at the humans in amusement but this was only the beginning of their counterattack.

“Sammael, bring me their high-general. I want him alive.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Retreat if you think it’s impossible. In this form, I can sense two powerful presences that are on your level or even higher. Don’t try to push yourself.”

Sammael nodded before he suddenly shot forward with a single flap of his wings. Julius turned to his wife who was hugging his arm and leaned down to kiss her. 

“My Love, will you do me the favor and lead our army to attack them?”

“With pleasure, my King~”

Eisha gave him a deep and passionate kiss before she floated down and hovered just above the fiends that were still waiting on top of the hill.

“Go, my children! Hunt to your heart’s content!”

Her words immediately opened the floodgates as the fiends began dashing down the hill. The fiends underground immediately surfaced in front of the retreating human army, blocking their way forward as the fiends in the sky quickly swooped down to attack.

“Breakthrough them! Breakthrough them! We can’t fight!” Florence bellowed. He readied his weapon and immediately slashed apart the Thorn Fiend that had suddenly surfaced from under the ground.

All of the champions were on the same page as him and they used their various spells and techniques to tear down the blockade of fiends ahead of them. They punctured a hole through the blockade and immediately, the remaining human forces that were still alive rushed through it.

A few of the champions stayed behind to keep the breach open as long as they could. They continued to s***h down every fiend that came their way but they were slowly being overwhelmed by the sheer number of fiends that were appearing left and right.

One fiend fell, two more would replace them. Although the newly transformed fiends were only homunculi, the number was a bit too much for only a handful of people to handle, even if they were champions.

“Has everyone been able to make it through?! I-I can’t hold them back much longer!”

“Th-there’s only a few more! I think th-UAAHHH!!”

“Aaron, No!!!”

The champion named Aaron was suddenly slammed into the ground from the air. A large dust cloud emerged from the intense impact and once it settled, a pitch black-skinned fiend was standing on top of champion Aaron’s body.

“K-Kuaagghh!!”

Aaron immediately began coughing up blood. Multiple rib fractures, punctured lungs, and a nearly collapsed diaphragm. Just from a glance, anyone could tell that he had been mortally wounded and if not immediately treated, he would inevitably die.

“You...are not the one Master is looking for,” The black fiend said in a rumbling voice.

“Die…”

“No, wait!”

Sammael didn’t hesitate to kill the champion that was already dying at his feet when he saw that he wasn’t the person his master told him to bring back. He stomped down and crushed Aaron’s chest, flattening his heart and lungs.

“You monster!”

“Stop! We need to retreat! The other powerful fiends are already on their way!”

“!”

The angered champion was immediately stopped by Heather who was one of the champions that had volunteered to stay behind. She quickly grabbed his color and immediately jumped away from this place. 

There were still a few platoons of soldiers that hadn’t passed through the breach yet but the champions had to save themselves. One of their own had just died while they were already being overwhelmed by the sheer number of fiends attacking them.

To add insult to injury, Heather and the remaining champions immediately detected the other strong fiends making their moves. Only Julius was remaining in place with the clear intent of letting his subordinates do all of the work.

If they stayed, they’d only be trapped in by the demons and eventually killed off. Although it was selfish to leave behind those soldiers that were struggling for their lives, they also needed to live since more people were waiting for them past this blockade.

A majority of the human forces that had managed to survive had already passed through the blockade so this much was enough. They felt remorseful for leaving behind the remaining soldiers but they had little to no choice in their current situation. 

“You can’t run…”

Sammael had no intention of letting the champions run away. This was a perfect chance to whittle their numbers to a more manageable amount so he quickly took to the skies and rushed to intercept them or at the very least, slow them down until his allies arrived to support him.

“Heather, that black demon is chasing us!”

“I know!”

“He’s too fast! He’ll catch up to us at this rate!”

“Dammit!”

Sammael was hot on their heels and with his speed, he’d be upon them in a few breath’s time.

“Time to die…”