After Logan's battle with the demons, another group of blue-skinned demons had settled themselves in the Pearl Isles to the south of the kingdom of Elris.
Lady Elara quickly called the kingdoms around their territory as the demons flew, teleported, and began causing devastation to the harbors and towns in their surroundings. They worked in groups of around fifty but caused great massacres throughout each place they passed.
Her own navy could not do much on land, so she was forced to blow up the towns to kill off the demons while fighting others within her ships.
They needed the heroes here badly, so she sent a distress signal to the kingdom of Elris and received a response that it would take a few days before help could arrive.
Lady Elara, the queen of the Isles, did not like the fact that it would take so long. She was never one for sitting around at a desk and was more about action. She readied all those she could muster and called forth the adventurers in towns to coordinate a medium-sized army to wait for the heroes and set up a large counteroffensive.
She knew that some of the Isles were beyond saving, but if they could keep the largest one, its capital, from being destroyed, they would have a winning chance and a way to recover.
The Isles thrived on trade routes, fishing, foods, and selling underwater crystals, making them important to the countries around them. Each Isle had its own small government but was held together by Lady Elara.
Her leadership had united the once-war-mongering Isles, known to contain pirates that would wreak havoc on the mainlands of other countries. Lady Elara took it upon herself to defeat each bandit in her youth and have them join together to create the nation she now governed. At this moment, it was being devastated by a large demon wave.
On the third day after the attack, Lady Elara was forced into a siege within her own town. Most of her ships were destroyed, and half of her islands were conquered. She was going crazy with sadness and anger, as she had family members on each island. One of her sons was even brought before her and hung for all to see within the harbor's largest ship.
Suddenly, everyone saw a blue demon within their walls. A man, about twenty with blue skin, had teleported to the center of town, right in front of Lady Elara who was standing before her troops.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Elara... was it? Did you like the present we left over your harbor?" The demon smiled, causing all those around him to cower back, while some raised their weapons in defiance.
"Don't speak my name, you foul creature. You may have taken our lands, but your end will soon come!" Lady Elara said with tears pouring down her face. The pain of her loss was great, and her anger towards the one in front of her even greater. Yet, she could not hurt him. She, along with everyone else, felt the power he radiated. The air around him crackled as his blue aura flowed with mana-filled particles.
Some soldiers even let out a volley of arrows to free themselves from the fear they were feeling from watching the blue skin demon who only wore pants while his muscular torso was on display as if daring for anyone to try cutting him down while he wore no armor.
To prove his strength, he stopped all the arrows before they hit him and ordered a few pebbles below him to levitate and shot them at those who dared defy him around Lady Elara with precision. Each fell to the ground a few seconds later, with a hole in their face.
"Kill me! If that's what you came for, then kill me!" Lady Elara had already broken from the assault on her family, and yet the blue-haired man laughed.
"No, we need you alive. We need you to witness our power as someone at the top, to keep calling for help and bring all those who will put up a good fight. So tell them to hurry, call them up before your people grow hungry and begin eating each other," the man said before leaving, tossing blue stones around the townspeople.
"Everyone, get away from those stones!" Lady Elara called out, but those who were near had already succumbed to mutation. Even being near the stones caused their limbs to grow abnormally, their faces to swell, and some to simply explode.
Soldiers had to use magic and long-range weapons on their own population as the mutated began to rampage. Chaos slowly overtook one of the last populated Isles.
"Cerrus, I told you to wait for the heroes to show before using the damn crystals. How will we enjoy their distress if the place is a ghost town?" Gomir rubbed his chin, looking at the massacre that was taking place in the large capital. He clicked his tongue, watching the people kill themselves, wondering if help would ever come. The Pearl Isles were weakened by the lack of soldiers who would no doubt have been sent to the empire to assist with the war.
Gomir was irritated because this win was nothing to feel happy about. He had killed no hero or had a worthy battle to raise his status. He would never be a general like the bastard kid Zaryx who had overtaken his place in the ranks.
As they were about to leave, seeing the towns on its last straw as even soldiers began to mutate, Gomir smelled the scent of blood.
It was not human blood but that of one of his own. He looked around, wanting to know where it came from.
He then spotted a close aide next to him fall, an arrow lodged in the side of his face.
Gomir grinned and licked the blood that splattered next to his lip.
"Seems fate has spared you, my son. Someone strong has arrived to play with."