Chapter 31 #2
"Yes, let's. I put Rogers and his people closer to the sea.
After all, he was a pirate in my last life.
" I chuckled. If the man from back then could see himself now, he'd probably die laughing.
In his first life, he became the kind to bow to no one and vowed to live free.
But he didn't have that kind of strength in this life, and I'd lashed him to my cause well enough, I suspected.
He'd find his own way to come to peace with the fact that he was now simply a demon hunter for the rest of his days.
"Yeah, let's go. We've gotten four generals situated. We'll put another two more in place. It'll leave us a little thin back home, though," I thought aloud.
"Well, this is what we wanted. We're certainly flooding the area," Merlin said and stretched her back.
I smiled at this small reminder. "And when this is done, I'll find a way to give you a break from teleportation.
We need to get Ricky down here and working on a portal sooner rather than later.
I had expected to leave South America behind, but the simple reality is we're going to have to take it over, too. Better us than the demons."
"Couldn't agree more," Merlin said quickly.
“Any news from the scouts?" I asked. I wanted the Amazon completely combed through by our people, mostly because in all of this, I still had not seen hide nor hair of the Demon Lord himself.
After trapping his people in instances and pretending to be him in the city, I would have thought he would have shown himself.
The fact that he did not made me wonder what he was doing that kept him busy enough to ignore me.
"Nothing yet," Merlin confirmed. "But I'm sure something will turn up."
"I'm wondering if he's somehow gone and done something that's put him out of contact for a period of time,” I said.
Merlin’s sharp bob swayed with her nod. “At this point, that's really the only answer that makes sense, given what you said about him in the past."
"He's become wary of you," Almeria said and then smiled at me.
"My people have reached the mouth of the Amazon.
The news that the demons who once attacked our home were now present here, as well as your need for our skills in the water, rallied plenty of forces.
" She grinned from ear to ear, proud that she could provide help.
Without even thinking about it, I bent over and kissed the top of her head. "Good work. Soon the demons will run from you and your people."
She glanced up at me, a smile growing on her face. "Many people would particularly love the opportunity to trace back where the manta demons are coming from," Almeria said, fidgeting ever so slightly with her fingers. Her words gave me slight pause.
"Why do you want to trace them back?" I asked.
"To weed them out and kill them entirely. We fought plenty with them before. They left us alone deep under the sea. We were worried that they ran off to recoup losses faster than us," Almeria explained. "We'd prefer to find wherever they're holed up and ensure they aren't remaking an army."
I hummed in understanding. Stronger bloodlines tended to have fewer children, which meant that in a long, drawn-out battle, Almeria's people would be at a decent disadvantage. And that disadvantage grew if the demons had a decent-sized population of humans to continue restoring their numbers.
In a few years, the world would likely progress to a point where they'd be able to open gates to other worlds. By the time that was the case, and they were able to bring in reinforcements en masse, it would be incredibly dangerous.
The only aspect that had kept us from losing in my previous life was that there were many people in the wider universe interested in finding new demonic battlefields to scour and clear.
But if we acted fast, perhaps we could get the demons to a point where they weren't strong enough to even call reinforcements in the first place.
The idea hit me like a pleasant dream, and I shook my head to clear it.
"Good, then. I suppose we're moving forward with the plan.
Bring our armies down here and clear out as big a swath as we can.
We'll start far away from the First Garden, but Eve will notice sooner rather than later.
I'd like to be firmly situated before she's knocking at my door demanding an explanation," I stated.
"I'll give her an explanation," Merlin said, raising her fists like she was ready for a fight.
I gave her a long look, and she laughed, putting her fists down.
"What? A woman's got to have teeth in a harem or others might walk all over her."
"You're adjusting quickly," I said to Merlin, keeping watch out of the corner of my eye.
"My sisters have been very welcoming," Merlin answered, as if that statement answered everything. "And if you want to deal with Eve, perhaps you should just invite Simone down. I'm sure she'd be happy to put her in her place."
“I didn't want to have the conversation, but that didn't mean I was going to hand it off to someone else.” I frowned at her.
"I'm just saying that Simone would handle it very well," Almeria said from the side.
I gave her a slight nod, thanking her for her opinion, but I kept my thoughts mostly to myself.
"I suppose now we go directly and do some hunting ourselves among the tribes," I said, looking at the other two with me.
Both of them gave me simple nods, not looking away from the jungle.
They were clearly more wary, as if some lingering danger they hadn't yet identified might crawl out of the depths and make our lives more difficult if they were not vigilant.
I didn't think there was that much reason to be concerned, but I never begrudged someone keeping watch over my back.
“Well then, I suppose it is time to stop ignoring the tribes.” I gestured for Almeria to take the lead, since she'd done her own scouting to them on multiple occasions.