Terra Nova Online: Rise of The Strongest Player

Chapter 420: Blood In The Air

Chapter 420: Blood In The Air

( Duke Nico’s POV )

Two days had passed since Ben Faulkner handed the Demon Whisperer over to Nico.

During that time, the Demon Whisperer had sung like a canary, divulging every small detail of his encounters at the demon camp and all his experiences since.

He didn’t dare utter a single lie, confessing everything in hopes of mercy in return.

Thankfully the Duke was magnanimous and promised to not torture Eren if he continued to co-operate this way, and had even promised to give him special benefits if he could pass on the demon whisperer skill to others.

Agreeing happily to his demands, Eren promised to teach any candidate of Nico’s choosing about the demon language, only asking for a few hours worth of supervised free time outside of his prison cell in return.

Everything appeared to be progressing smoothly for Duke Nico as in his latest letter to the Emperor, he detailed the information he had extracted from the Demon Whisperer and confidently assured the Emperor that some of his men would soon be learning the demon language themselves.

Currently, he did not expect any big threat to befall upon his Duchy, as although he felt concerned about how strong Eren described the Demon King to be, since his territory was far away from the demon boundary, he felt a sense of security against a potential demon attack.

Unfortunately for him however, at this moment the Demon King had already crossed the boundary of the Unity Empire and was heading fast towards his direction.

In the next two hours, he was going to reach Thumba City, and Nico was not prepared for him at all.

There had never been an aerial raid on a human territory ever before, and never from a unit that was so small in size.

The only air raids that the humans had experienced before were during full fledged wars against demons and even then, they only used lava hounds and wyverns in their ranks.

A dragon was never involved in an attack against humans and hence the humans did not understand the level of threat that even an adolescent dragon posed.

With the hustle and bustle of Thumba City going on as usual, the common citizens were completely unaware of the approaching threat, as a brutal massacre awaited them.

*********

( The Elf King’s POV )

Between the Eastern Duchy and Southern Duchy of the Unity Empire lay the Dense central forest region, which was also called the ‘Elf Kingdom’.

It was an independent territory the size of a large County, and it was ruled by the Elf King almost as an independent state.

Many laws that applied to the rest of the Empire did not apply to the independent Elven Kingdom, however, they still paid central taxes to the government in StrongHaven and they still had open borders with humans free to use the internal roadways in their land.

Although the Elven Kingdom only consisted of one major city and a few small towns, 98% of the population living there were pure blood elves with the remaining 2% being mixed bloods.

The only humans in the region were traders that bought and sold goods, however, none were native to the land.

For the past few years, the dissatisfaction amongst the elves regarding the Empire and its policies was ever rising, however, with the Unity Empire surrounding their territory on all four sides, the Elves did not dare rebel.

With how dense their forest was, if a forest fire was orchestrated by the humans, it could potentially burn the whole forest down and hence the Elves never rebelled against the humans.

However, now as the turmoil within the Empire was on the rise, with problems eating away at the Empire’s forces from all directions, the idea of an independence movement gained steam once more.

For the past few days, since the news of the rebel movement in the Southern Duchy had begun to spread, the debate about elven independence had gotten more and more heated within the elders council, however, it was without any conclusion.

All this changed suddenly however, when an elf scout spotted a dragon flying over their forest on this fine afternoon.

The dragon was flying too high in the sky and a normal human would almost not be able to spot it at all, however, Elves with their sharp eyes did.

And once the Elves spotted the demon king flying over their forest and heading over to the Southern Duchy, they knew that something big was about to go down and to make the most out of the potential chaos that was to come, the Elven King issued the order for their army to be on the ready.

If the Demon King made a big move and the humans suffered a big loss, the Elven King intended to make the most of it and attack the neighboring human lands, so that the Elves could establish their control in regions beyond the Central Forest.

By doing so, if they succeeded, they could then prevent the humans from setting up a forest fire to their lands, making their current position less vulnerable.

However, if the Demon King failed, or if the humans did not suffer a big loss, then the Elven King decided to not make a move and stay put with the status quo.

“There is no point in infighting anymore. If we have the chance to rebel without suffering too many losses, we should, because the humans have not been treating us with respect.

Although we don’t suffer any injustices under the reign of Julien D Evanus, the prejudice that the humans have against us is very real.

Since we would be better off living independent lives as an independent kingdom with our own set of rules and tariffs, I think we should fight for our freedom.

However, if that freedom comes with too big of a cost then I’m unwilling to pay it.

Since the Demon King has personally made a move, let’s wait and see what happens…” The Elf King said, as he concluded the on-going debate within the elders council with this decision.

Everything now depended on the Demon King and his actions, as his attack on Thumba City was about to change the history of Unity Empire in ways beyond what the Demon King himself could ever have imagined.

The enemies of the state that were desperately waiting for the Empire’s downfall could now smell the scent of blood in the air, as the carefully crafted Empire that Julien had held together for years was starting to unravel.