Eldritch Creature's Guide

Several Hours Later, an Unknown Location on the 8th Floor, Demon Continent.

When the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe obtained the crucial intelligence through the Mercenaries of The Guild, they immediately started going through the countless plans, maps, documents, and other things that were delivered to them through The Guild. All of them were from the Fortress that belonged to the Human Brotherhood, which they built on the Demon Continent.

A ton of materials came out; some of them were good news, some of them were more likely to be neutral, some were bad, and some were outright catastrophic. Especially the information along with proof that one of the Princes of the Black-Wing Demon Tribe had collaborated with the Human Brotherhood.

That one was particularly grave because, as the Prince of the Black-Wing Demon Tribe, the man had cess to some very sensitive and valuable information, which he probably sold to the Human Brotherhood. And what made this situation even worse was the conclusion that the Human Brotherhood was supported by the collective efforts of the Magisterium, Germinal Order and the Avalon Kingdom.

One was better than the previous one.

For the Demon Tribes, the only real threat was the Avalon Kingdom because that one was for sure scheming something against their race, while the Germinal Order was just testing some of their new inventions, and they cared about results, not of the user. They gave shit about what was happening to the Human race as a whole or anything because they only cared about the progress of their technology and other things.

The Magisterium was probably the most problematic of the 13 Gates because of the multitude of sub-factions it had and the state it was in. Certainly, the state of Magisterium was rather understandable because it mainly consisted of self-serving Magic Users of various Paths, who cared only for their advancements and power, and one of the ways to obtain more power was destruction and absorption of other factions.

Of the rest 13 Gates, Magisterium was the one that had the least sense of inner unity and could fall apart at any given moment. There were many people who waited for the moment when something of high enough importance happened, which would crash the "unity" of the Magisterium and it would fall apart like a house of cards blown by a weak whisper of wind.

Even though the people who were creating the Magisterium were only concerned with material gains, they knew that together they would be of greater power and could obtain more if they worked together; thus they reluctantly collaborated in order to achieve their goals.

Right now, in the secret location, the meeting between representatives of all Demon Tribes on the 8th Floor were having a meeting together as well as a strategic conference on how to proceed against the Human Brotherhood.

Particularly on how to deal with the traitors, as the representative of the Black-Winged Demon Tribe looked very uneasy in this situation because from his Tribe, a very, very high-ranked traitor appeared, which shamed the reputation of the entire Black-Winged Demon Tribe and by an extension, not only them but also whole Demon Council, because collaborating with Humans was one of the greatest taboos among the Demon Tribes.

It was no secret that immediately after this information reached the ears of the Patriarch of the Black-Winged Demon Tribe, he personally killed Prince Bariux was killed by him, together with the entire group of his supports, which resulted in the Black-Winged Demon Tribe losing 4 Legendary Level Demons who were deeply engaged with the Prince Bariux.

So, not only they got a great deal of shame, but they, on the tip of all that, lost several of their Legendaires, which lowered the collective strength of the Black-Winged Demon Tribe, and now, their enemies would have better opportunities to make a move on them.

This stunt cost the Black-Winged Demon Tribe too much, and it was very probably, that sooner or later, they may be assimilated by another much stronger Demon Tribe because the Black-Winged Demon Tribe had only one Holy Legendary who was overseeing the whole Tribe, which wasn't good for them, especially in their present position.

"To summarize the situation, we know right now. We can safely conclude that the Avalon Kingdom is using the Human Brotherhood as testing subjects for some sort of Genetical Enhancement Serums for humans. From the preliminary information, we came to the deduction that the Serum was developed by the Germinal Order in cooperation with the Magisterium and the Avalon Kingdom, albeit the touch of the Germinal Order is the strongest. From what we can say, is that the Avalon Kingdom is planning to use them en-masse on the Lower Worlds to break the stalemate between Humans and Demonkins, thus weakening us and strengthening them."

The speaker who was giving his speech was a member of the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe. In terms of his appearance, he looked very youthful, around thirty years in the human age with tanned skinn, and he would be almost indistinguishable from the ordinary human, aside from his two pairs of golden horns atop of his head.

The Demons with strong lineages, especially those of the Transcendental Lineages, could effortlessly shit forms, between their humanoid forms and demon forms, in a very similar way to dragons, could switch between theirs.

The presence of the Demonkin in the Lower Worlds was crucial because it was like a breeding ground for them. Not to mention that many of the Tribes depended on the Lower Worlds and even on the Middle Worlds as some kind of artificially sustained battlefields where they could train their troops and get powerhouses from.

Approximately 40% of the Legendaries in various Demon Tribes were originally from the Lower Worlds that managed to rise through carnage and slaughter, which was something pretty common. Many of them were even the Demon Lords, meaning those who command vast armies of the Demons in the material plane.

Basically, the population of the Demons in the Lower Worlds was very important to them, as humans were also a source of food for the Demons and other resources. If all of this were lost, then the consequences would be extremely dire, to the point that after several centuries the Demon Tribes would be essentially crippled, and the only thing that would remain for them would be either to retreat to the Abyss or live as rogues.

Certainly, while retreating to the Abyss provided an option, it was a very bad one because their Transcedenal Ancestors needed them in the material plane to fulfill their tasks and spread influence, gather souls and sacrifices, and other things that wouldn't really be possible in the Abyss.

So the summary was the Demonkins in the Lower Worlds were of the utmost importance to the continual survival of the Demon species and their domination in the material plane. So they needed to do everything to thwart the efforts of the Humans and whatever they were planning.

"Now, onto the more positive news. We have managed to procure samples of the Genetic Enhancement Serums for the Iron-Tier, Steel-Tier, Bronze-Tier and Silver-Tier individuals. We still haven't done any research on them, but from the available information and report from the Mercenaries from The Guild, who obtained them did a scan on the humans who injected themselves with the Serums. Clearly, these Genetic Enhancement Serums are drastically lowering the lifespan of their users so that they could live only a few months at most. Of course, those of the higher Tier could leave longer, but not that long, maximally one year even for the Genetically Enhanced Gold-Tier."

Even though the people who injected themselves with the Genetic Enhancement Serums had drastically lowered lifespans, it still didn't make the situation any less catastrophic to the Demon Tribes, as they were determined to solve this threat at any cost.

"Now that you have been briefed on the situation, the Conclave has decided that it is time to start the war against the Human Broterhhood officially, annihilate them and with the secondary goal, to secure the research of the Germinal Order and other Gates they may have left in the headquarters of the Brotherhood at the Human Continent."

Stated the representative of the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe, as the other representatives started gossiping with each other. Some were disturbed by the news that such a thing was once again was spreading among the humans, while some of them were wondering how much trouble it would bring them in the long term.

"Any progress on the development of some curse or anything that could target the people who were injected with the Genetic Enhancement Serum?"

Questioned the representative of the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe at the man next to him. All Demon Tribes were descendants of the Trasncedent Daemon, and the Golden-Horned Tribe carried faint lineage of the 1st Pillar of the 72 Pillars of Ars Goetia, the Grand Emperor Bael.

The man to his right was a member of the Moon Demon Tribe, descendants of the Grand Duke Agares. The bearers of the lineage of the Grand Duke Agares had a very strong affinity for the Arcane, and all of them were in-born Arcanists who often displayed a terrifying talent for the Magic Arts.

So they were tasked to develop a special curse that would target the people who took the Genetic Enhancement Serum. Things like this had already happened in the past and based on the quality of the serum itself, it wasn't that complex or immune to curse, as they couldn't detect any anti-magic and anti-curse properties in it.

"We are conducting the preliminary tests, but the final results would still take at least one or two years to fully complete. While the synergy itself is lacking any anti-magic or anti-curse elements, the creators still inserted something there, which would make its research and reverse-engineering much harder."

Reported the representative of the Moon Demon Tribe. Creation of the custom-made curse that targeted specific elements, especially one relatively complex like this, needed to put a lot of effort, even considering the fact that Legendary Level Magicians who specialized in curses.

Ironically this could be considered a short time to achieve such a feat, but in the end, all of the present knew that it was too long, considering the fact that the Germinal Order was for sure developing an even more advanced version of the serum.

The creation of an advanced version would render their current research worthless, and they would need to start from the start. Though different situations would emerge if they managed to obtain a core component of the serum, a primogenitor of some sort, on which all versions were built.

"We could haggle some deal with the Mind Flyer Fleets... they are constantly on the war with the Germinal Order and Transcendent Level Mind Flyers and their Elder Brains are on the search for the backers of the Germinal Order. They should have the best chance to procure us the primogenitor virus of the concoction."

Stated the representative of the Golden-Horned Tribe, as this was a matter which would be handled either by the Patriarchs of their Ancestors themselves, depending on which Fleet they would negotiate with and which Fleet would be interested in negotiating with them.

Mind Flyers were not known for their aptitude to do negotiation about something with anyone, as they were too arrogant for that. They believed themselves to be the most superior species in the Cosmo.

However, when it came to the Germinal Order and their masters, they would for sure change their aptitude very quickly, as the existence of the Germinal Order was an indirect threat to the existence of the Mind Flyer Race as a whole.

That was because the majority of the Germinal Orders consisted of the Githyanki and Githzerai, who were psionically talented and powerful races that were long ago enslaved by the Mind Flyers and their Elder Brains.

Since then, they constantly fought against the Mind Flyers and searched for ways how to completely eradicate their race. Of course, those who became Annulled among the former slaves and enemies of the Mind Flyers knew very well their enemies and knew how to hide and how to not be seen by their enemies.

There were even some occasions when they managed to destroy entire Fleets where Transcendent Level Elder Brains were present, which was a big hit to the Mind Flyer Race as while, and that made them rather dangerous for the psionic squids.

"Then we will launch the offensive on the remaining forts of the Human Brotherhood on the Demon Continent and at the same time, start the offensive on neutral grounds. Shadow Demon Tribe will take care of the traitors on the 8th Floor, as we managed to obtain their entire network and operations."

Decided the representative from the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe, the bearers of the lineage of Emperor Bael, as he looked around and others followed with his statement. Particularly the representative of the Shadow Demon Tribe had a glint in his eyes as he heard about the upcoming war.

Shadow Demon Tribe were bearers of the lineage of Duke Valefor, a mighty Transcendental Daemon known for his dominion over the Shadows in the Abyss, so the Shadow Demon Tribe and anyone who bore his blood were perfect assassins.