Chapter 448: Gaia.

In the far and wide distance…

The expanse of the Graveyard of Stars, or the existence known to the natives as the Ulm, was filled with a plethora of things, many of which were existence erasing for sure.

To make it worse, many of those things could be classified as living…

The “Bastions” or Uruk of the Kaelor Fiends was the only way these beings of this strange universe could thrive in their incredibly dangerous world.

But that didn’t mean they couldn’t survive it otherwise.

Born in the very harshest of existences, their essence was forged in malice and terror.

The worlds within the Ulm were dog eats dog worlds. Only the strongest could have access to territory, food and resources to propagate and nurture their young.

The Kaelor Fiends could also harness the Chaos Ether, energy unique only to this universe, or rather, sub-universe region, manifesting it as a “Flame”.

The Bastions were enormous constructs created by these intelligent beings, many of them jutting out or spiralling up to the very edge of Eternity’s void.

As the site of the last and most important trial in the lower Tiers, the denizens of Graveyard of Stars also had a lot of information about the creatures that traveled into their worlds seeking fame, fortune and power.

And thus, within this broken, fragmented, chaotic world, the creatures within it also sought out the participants.

Some sought to do simple trade with them, as the Kaelor Fiends and many other creatures within The Graveyard of Stars were incredibly intelligent.

However, most of them, despite their intelligence, much preferred pillaging and tearing apart invaders.

A fortress of roughly hewn steel…

The enormous gates to the Bastion slowly creaked and groaned open as the massive gears that held the drawn bridge rolled to life.

Surrounding the Bastion was a moat filled with bubbling green liquid— an incredibly rancid, acidic liquid substance. Within it, the enormous toothed spine of some terrifying nightmare slowly surfaced before returning to the depths.

The first of the creatures slowly began to march out. At the head of them, was an enormous six legged thing. Its legs were thick and encrusted with armor that looked like stone. The stones were ecuevered with strange austere glyphs that Cain would not be able to recognize or understand no matter how hard he tried, simply because his human mind couldn’t even begin to fathom such chaos.

It trudged forward, its footsteps causing tremors that rippled through the world.

The face of the creature was covered with an enormous mask of silver metal that glinted under the shifting lights of the chaotic energy swirls up above.

From behind the eyes slits of the mask, two enormous gusts of blue fire jutted out.

Behind it, several thousands of smaller creatures rode out. And on their backs…

Seated on the back of the enormous creature called a Drungè, was an enormous gilded carriage.

Within the carriage were two creatures.

While the Kaelor Fiends did in fact look a fair bit similar to Devils, they were not remotely the same.

They only looked similar because of their ability to grow external armor naturally as exoskeletal carapaces. If anything, their anatomies were much more similar to that of humans than Devils.

Seated on a velvet pillow was a small-framed Kaelor Fiend. A female.

Seated opposite to her, leaning on an armrest made of golden bones, was another Kaelor Fiend, this one a male.

The two of them slowly regarded one another while they drank from crystal bowls filled with a sloshing red liquid that looked eerily similar to fresh blood.

The first to speak was the male Kaelor. His voice was deep and booming, even in the small space, filled with natural power,

“Lord Sha coming to visit me is a great honor for a small Baron such as myself.”

The female Kaelor also put down her bowl.

Although the faces of the male Kaelor Fiends was usually covered by their natural armor, the females were only partially covered for the most part.

Lord Sha’s face was only covered with armor on her jaw, revealing the rest of her face which would be considered beautiful and yet slightly inhuman by human standards.

“The Council expects that you keep to your word and fulfil your quota this time, Baron Dortha. Although you are relatively young, the territory your father left behind sees a lot of those from the Otherside rather frequently…”

She paused for a moment and took a sip from her bowl,

“I even heard there’s been a lot of them recently.”

Baron Dortha nodded reverently,

“Several hunting parties have set out, with most of them being successful. I can assure you that—”

Lord Sha held up a hand which only had three fingers,

“Very soon, a new war over the northern regions will begin. The Council is in need of more resources. The beings that come over from the Otherside usually come with a lot of rare materials. Tell your grunts to do their jobs properly. Remember, removing you as your father was removed is not particularly difficult.”

The young Baron was silent.

“You understand, then.” Lord Sha said with a cold face.

Silence stretched within the carriage for some time.

“Other than that, you are doing good work with your troops. Continue like this, and you might one day be sent to the battlefront to feast on glory for yourself.”

The eyes of Baron Dortha lit up with a thick green flame,

“I appreciate your words, my Lord.” He said with a bow.

In the worlds of the Ulm, only strength was respected. Strength was required to live, to breed, and to continue.

The strong could tear the weak apart and vice versa.

However, with every intelligent species, with progress came organization.

The knowledge of a “Council” forming within the Kaelor Fiends was something that was not known at all, mostly because it was fairly young, at just a few thousand years old.

Cain had no idea of the enormous threat heading his way…

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