For those of you reading this for the first time, I would like to inform you that this is the sequel to my first fiction, the link is at the bottom of this chapter.

It was just a few hours before sunrise. The snowfall had already started decreasing as the time of the year drew closer to spring. What should have been a quiet serene morning was interrupted by screams as humans and elves alike fled from their homes in a quaint little mining town.

Being located close to the borders of the Demon queen’s beast horde, the mining town was still highly vulnerable to attacks by demon beasts that have been trying to expand their territory from the north. Despite the frequency of attacks and clashed with the beasts dying down the last few decades, such attacks on smaller outlying towns were not uncommon.

A couple frantically packed whatever they could into their small car. Necessities for the road, map, compass and a mana operated emergency beacon. As the pregnant lady strapped herself into the front seat, the husband swiftly hit the ignition key, gearing up the starter motor of the car which in turn got the engine going. As the repulsion runes in the piston heads started blasting the piston away from its cap, the axles on the car started turning and soon, the couple was fleeing southbound in their old car.

They were about the only family who owned one of these relics. Being from a poor mining town, most of the workers could barely afford day to day living expenses, much less a mode of transport. The richer higher-ups who ran the mines had their own shuttles which took off into the skies long before the beasts even reached the town’s borders. One of those shuttles would cost more and a limb and a life to purchase. They ran on mana supplied by highly sought after and valuable moon stone, needing to recharge after use.

Her water had broken, but in the midst of the chaos and panic, neither she nor her husband noticed, both keeping their eyes peeled on the road ahead for signs of any more magical beast that might show. They navigated their way through the winding path alongside the ravine. This was a somewhat familiar path for them. Having taken multiple trips to the Portal City to visit their families every holiday season, they knew almost the entire path on the back of their hands.

As he left the screams of his fellow colleagues and miners behind him, he pushed forwards into the thick forestry, constantly checking in on his wife who seemed to be having a hard time coping. That’s when he noticed.

“Honey! Your water’s burst! We need to stop and prepare for our child!” He exclaimed, looking at his wife’s bulging belly, within which held his future son.

“NNNGGGG…! No! Keep going! I will handle this. We are not far enough from the beasts yet!” She rejected his proposal, enduring the pain that was radiating from her lower half.

“Oka – SHIT!” he screamed as he turned a corner to find a Wyvern perching on the edge of the road.

A sinister grin grew on the sky blue wyvern’s face as its black eyes shimmered in the morning sun. With a loud screech, it leapt into the air and extended the talons on its hind lefts, ripping the roof off the small car that was trying to swerve around and past it. Tossing the roof to the side, it grabbed the man and took off into the sky, dropping him from a height.

The woman watched in horror as her husband came down in a crunch on the asphalt road not too far behind the car. Enduring the pain, she winced as she stretched her body over to grab the wheel with one hand, stabilising it while the other frantically opened the glove compartment and pulled out a small sidearm.

The wyvern turned its attention to the still moving car after dropping off his first victim. Slicing through the air it dove for the car only to see its prey turn around and look it in the eye. A blinding flash later, it found itself crawling on the road, watching the car roll away as its left eye bled out. Unable to do anything about the pain and injury, it quietly returned to the carcass of the man, grab it and flew back towards it’s dwelling, leaving behind a trail of fresh red blood that covered half its face.

The moment the woman shot the beast, she desperately tried to regain control of the car as it began rolling off the road onto the forest floor. Navigating the car through the woods to avoid the trees, she held in her screams as her contractions tore her soul apart from the sheer pain. Eventually, the thick undergrowth entangled the car’s wheels and axles, causing it to come to a gradual stop deep in the midst of the forest.

She clambered out of her seat, struggling to lay out a thick blanket on the forest ground as she went into labour. Screams of pain and anguish reverberated through the dense forest, with no one nearby to hear. Too focused to delivering the baby safely, she couldn’t reach for the emergency beacon, eventually holding her son in her arms.

Smiling softly at the coughing and sniffing baby, she wrapped him in a towel and hugged him, covering him with her body as she passed out. The snow piled up on her back as she hunched over her baby boy, keeping him warm with the last of her strength and will. As she drew her last breath, the baby boy fell asleep in his mother’s warmth, leaving behind an eerily silent forest.

The sky gradually lit up, then dimmed as afternoon passed and dusk approached. The mining town was but an empty shell now, with no indication of any survivors. Distress beacons were lit all over the town and on the outskirts but the help came too late. Even by the quickest plane or airdropped soldiers, the town was still a good 3 hours away from the nearest military base or developed city.

As the leaves of a nearby tree rustled, a giant cat slowly emerged from its optical camouflage. It was one of the top predators in the forest, next to the magical beasts. Lying just beyond the reaches of the demon beast horde, this Seraplor had yet to be influenced by the demon queen’s aura which affects all manners of magical beasts.

The cat slowly crept up to the woman’s lifeless body, observing the surrounding for any threats. Sniffing the woman’s body, she nudged the body with her nose, causing it to fall over but not change position. Rigor mortis had started to set in, and in the middle of the corpse, hidden away in her bosom was a young baby. He was wrinkly and ugly, wrapped in a soft yellow towel with a few strands of black hair on his head.

As her warm breath fell on the baby, it seemed to wake up, stretching and opening its mouth, yawning. His eyes were still closed as he squirmed out of his mother’s embrace, rollingonto the soft forest floor in his towel. For reasons unknown to anyone, the Seraplor made an odd decision. Nibbling on the towel, she lifted the baby up and returned to its den, where there were 2 youngling Seraplors awaiting their mother’s return.

The Giant cat was but a young mother, not yet reaching its full length of 10m. She had a coat of colour-changing fur, a thin soft mane which signified its gender, and 3 long agile tails that kept swinging from side to side. One tail was slightly shorter than the other two, only having recently grown when she hit reproductive maturity.

As the young single-tailed Seraplors began suckling on their mother’s milk, the baby subconsciously did the same, grabbing a tuft of soft fur with his 2 pudgy hands to draw himself closer to the warmth of the big cat.

[[Demon beast Territory]]

The demon beasts loitered around the vast icy plains lazily with no real goal in their life except carrying out orders from the demon queen and her generals. These beasts used to be normal or even magical beasts that had been affected by the demon queen’s aura. Transforming their body from prolonged exposure to the deathly Aura, they no longer ate for sustenance, but instead fed on the mana in their surroundings to survive.

Mana there was, plenty of it especially in the north. They had improved intelligence and could coordinate with each other I attacks. Planning an ambush was not out of reach of their intellectual capabilities.

The horde was a mixture of wyverns, bears, tarsuses, Fientrals, and even smaller but just as vicious trenitts. Even the plant’s had evolved with the exposure to her aura, becoming deadly poisonous and growing a sentient mind. In short, the demon beast’s territory was a terrifying place to be, even with the advanced technology of the world. The humans and demihumans had tried assaulting the north on numerous occasions in the past millennia, but none had succeeded in dealing any sort of damage. Long range ballistics projectiles simply disappeared once they entered the reaches of the Demon queen’s influence. The beasts were unbelievably powerful, able to withstand infantry or armoured attacks.

Despite their power, their attacks on the rest of the world seemed to have slowed down considerably recently. Even though satellite scans revealed that their numbers were more than ever before, they were not moving out. It seemed to strike fear into Aioa’s world leaders who speculated that the demon beast horde were gearing up for one massive invasion.

While the demon queen slumbered, her 2 generals took over the duties to keep the attacks from humans and demi-humans at bay. With just the 2 of them, it was definitely enough to take over the world, and yet, they never revealed their true abilities, choosing instead to bide their time as they protected their queen, and the precious egg that she was grooming. It was their only connection to their long lost master, their King.