“303 500… how?”

  Milo had found his general in Crystal’s house, the man had been carving a wooden toy for an eager Elise when they entered. The first thing the general had asked him when Milo asked him for help was how much spirit essence they had to work with. Judging by his wide eyes Haldor hadn’t expected to be working with such a vast quantity so quickly.

  “The event was every bit as perfect for me as we had hoped, so perfect that I suspect it might have been designed by Lilith.”

  Haldor asked him to pull up all the summoning lists so that he could get an overview. Milo did as he asked and read them out loud. This time it took the general far longer to come up with a plan. But when he finally did, he rose with certainty.

  “We need to move everyone out of the valley.”

  Milo understood what his general wanted and within minutes they were going from house to house telling everyone to move down the valley. The small evacuation took only ten minutes to complete.

  “Alright, let’s begin with the demonic keep.”

  Milo nodded and then bought the keep. A few seconds later his vision was flooded with translucent red lines which covered half the valley. A huge wall surrounded by a moat blocked off the bottom half of the valley and a small keep was now located above the altar. One look at the starting position of the keep made him certain that Lilith had placed the altar in the perfect position to be protected by the keep. He decided not to mess with the strategy of a goddess and instead confirmed the keep’s position.

  A giant vortex sprang up and enveloped half the mountain. This time Milo was inside the vortex and could therefore see what was happening. The translucent red lines were being gradually replaced with real material. Usually, the process took only a few seconds but this time it took nearly half a minute.

  Crystal, Indra, Nelly, Elise and Tim were all staring at demonic keep with wide eyes. The hybrids on the other hand had clearly seen a demonic keep before.

  As a group they walked up to the moat which was currently empty. The drawbridge was down, and Milo entered first followed shortly by the rest. The ground which had previously been covered by uneven black rock had been replaced by perfectly carved cobblestones. The space between the outer wall and the keep was completely empty aside from the six houses which had been relocated to hug the inner wall.

  They continued inward to the keep which contained everything a population as small as theirs could possibly need. There were bedrooms for several hundred people, a kitchen, a throne room. However, the most important feature of the keep was the narrow spiral stairway which led down to a narrow passage which culminated in a locked door. The passage was so narrow that a handful of guards could probably hold back a force ten times their size. Behind the door was Lilith’s altar.

  Once they finished the tour, they returned to the courtyard of the inner keep to finish their spending spree.

  “When you said that Willowford needed a garrison my initial plan was to send them 50 demon soldiers lead by an elder demon and a member of my order.”

  “Sounds reasonable.”

  Haldor shook his head.

  “It was back when we had limited funds, but now I think we can do better. The demons are foreign and even your new subjects who have lived here for three days are uneasy around them. I suggest that we send a garrison force consisting of only hybrid’s to Willowford. Once we’ve strengthened our hold on the town, we will get them used to pure blooded demons by introducing them to the workers. The workers would help around town and in the fields for free, once they’re accepted, we can start building fortifications.”

  Milo’s face drew into a smile.

  “I agree with your assessment; the garrison should consist of hybrids only. But there’s no need to wait with fortifications.”

  He tapped the crown on his head.

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  “This allows me to summon anything anywhere, I will use it to summon a marble wall with towers. It will cost us 10 000 spirit essence, but Willowford will be far more secure.”

  Haldor studied the crown closely, but it was Lizbeth who commented on his crown.

  “It’s radiating magic nearly on par with the enchanted items Lilith wears into war. You better make sure you don’t lose that, if another champion get’s their hands on it…”

  “They won’t, it’s soulbound to me.”

  Lizbeth looked genuinely surprised.

  “Incredible…”

  She clearly wanted to drool over it so Milo handed her the crown for inspection while he moved the conversation back on topic.

  “So, fifty hybrids for Willowford, what order should we take them from?”

  “Five from the order of war, twenty-five from the order of warriors, fifteen shadow stalkers and five elementalists.”

  Milo merely nodded and summoned the troops exactly as Haldor had told him to.

  A few seconds later the courtyard was filled with hybrids. Judging by their surprised expressions they clearly hadn’t expected to be summoned this early in the contest. Milo considered introducing himself but decided to wait for the summoning session to finish.

  Haldor clearly shared his thoughts because he went on.

  “Now that this settlement is visible from deep into the forest, we will need a garrison capable of defending it while you are away. I suggest we summon another fifty shadow stalkers, and twenty-five elementalists, twenty warriors, five leaders as well as the order master of the shadow stalkers, elementalists and the order of war.

  Milo was nodding along until the last part.

  “I don’t know about those last three Haldor, they’re Lilith’s chosen…”

  Haldor looked to Ivy and the shadow stalker shook her head.

  “It’s too early, we don’t need Seti and Beldan butting heads with our champion about the best course of action. I suggest we summon the master of my order but not the other two, not yet.”

  Milo made no effort to hide the scepticism he felt at her statement. He’d seen Ivy’s order master around back in Lilith’s realm. The woman was usually quiet as a mouse unless Lilith gave her orders, and she also had a strange eye coloration with one eye being blood red with the other being pale red.

  “You think your order master will take orders from me without complaining?”

  “No, but she will if I tell her to.”

  Milo looked at Haldor and the general gave a reluctant nod of agreement.

  “The two of them are as close as sisters, Lily would never go against Ivy. Besides, out of all the order masters she might be the most useful for our current situation.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Haldor waved a hand at the endless forest.

  “We know very little about the area which surrounds us, the forest is largely unexplored, as is the mountain we cling to. If we give Lily twenty shadow stalkers she could find all there is to find and warn us about any potential threats we need to prepare for.”

  Milo held up his hands in surrender.

  “Fine, let’s do it.”

  He summoned the exact list Haldor had come up with minus Beldan and Seti. Once again, the number of hybrid’s grew.

  “Is that it?”

  “No, I’d also like another two hundred workers, a pair of elder demons to guard the altar. Fifty soldiers to guard the wall as sentries and weapons and supplies for all the hybrids.”

  With a sigh Milo kept summoning until they were left with only 13k spirit essence. Haldor looked happy to finally be in command of a true army, no matter the cost. He urged Milo on with smile.

  “Excellent, now I do believe it’s time to address your new troops.”

  The hybrids had been watching him in silence ever since their arrival in waves. Only a few of them had ever seen him before during his duel with Nero, those who hadn’t weren’t nearly as respectful as those who had. Many of the warriors were giving him hostile looks which seemed to accuse him of being unworthy.

  Milo cleared his throat.

  “My name is Milo Harper, champion of Lilith. Welcome to Archeus!”

  No cheer rose to greet his welcome, hybrids truly were a cold and brutal people. He went on.

  “You have been summoned here today for three tasks, some of you will guard our first conquest to make sure it stays ours. Some of you will defend this keep against any threat which might arise. And the rest will scout and map this entire region. Now you all report to my general, he will give you your assignments.”

  The only one who moved from the crowd was a woman with mismatching eyes. She shadow blinked over to Ivy and embraced her in a hug that looked genuine. For a moment Milo thought things might work out but then one of the warriors stepped forward. The man drew his sword and pointed it at Milo.

  “I am Herbor, and I don’t recognise your authority to command us!”

  Milo looked at Ivy, but she merely shrugged as if to say, “this is to be expected”.

  Milo approached the man and as he did, so the man cast fire sword. Milo didn’t even bother drawing his weapon, he simply stared at the would-be mutineer.

  “I’d reconsider if I were you, I don’t react well to threats.”

  The man responded by lunging at him with his sword extended. Milo slapped the blade aside and deliver a crushing blow to the man’s windpipe. His opponent went down in a heap clutching at his crushed throat as he made gurgling sounds.

  Another warrior leapt for Milo, and he kicked the man’s sword up before slapping him across the face. When the man rose with fury in his eyes Milo felt something within him activate. Suddenly the rising man went slack and dropped the dagger he had drawn as if he was a puppet whose strings had just been cut.

  Milo stared down at the slack faced warrior with confusion. He looked back at Ivy and saw that both she and Lily were looking at him with shock on their faces. However, it was Lizbeth who took it upon herself to explain what had just happened. She placed his crown back on his head and then looked down at the slack faced warrior.

  “It seems you’ve inherited yet another of Lilith’s potent abilities, the eyes of command.”

  “What…”

  “It allows you to fully control hybrids and pure-blooded demons. It won’t work on any of Lilith’s true children such as Seti and Ivy, but for me and this lot you could take total control and force us to do anything you like.”

  She spoke so casually about this new ability to brainwash his followers on demand. He looked down at the slack faced man and tried deactivating whatever he had done but no matter how hard he tried the man refused to go back to normal. Lizbeth pointed at the helpless hybrid.

  “I suggest you give him a command, or he will simply sit there until he dies.”

  Unsure of what to do Milo gave the only order he could think of.

  “Defend the altar of Lilith.”

  The slack faced man rose to his feet, dusted himself off and then turned on his heel and walked towards the keep. He was given a wide berth by the other hybrid’s as he walked trough them, a living reminder of what might happen to them should they disobey.

  Milo’s gaze was drawn to the hybrid whose throat he’d crushed. The man’s face had gone purple.

  “Heal him.”

  Lizbeth inclined her head and bent to carry out her task.

  When Milo looked back at the gathered hybrids all traces of hostility and uncertainty had been replaced by a new and unfamiliar expression, fear.