《Empress' Evolution》76. Goddammit
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[Three days before the Arrival of the Rescuer’s Aircraft]
After the fight with the humans, Chief and the strongest of daemons went to sweep the area so no one would live. Other than the human Eve and the others watched, everyone was killed.
The East area was given to Sylva and Killa to take care of, and an hour before sunrise, corpses littered the area.
The sun rose up from beyond the mountains; smoke billowed as the daemons bathed in the blood of their enemies.
The Village was bustling despite their tired bodies. Lilith sat on the steps of her dwelling, watching the daemons go about their businesses. From time to time, the daemons would look at Lilith and smile before doing something else. They were simply glad that she was now awake, though it was a little awkward.
Food was being handed over by the Workers and Sylva while the rest filled their void bellies. The food was cooked with the meat of the nearby beasts; although the other daemons wanted to make use of the humans by cooking and eating them, Lilith shook her head.
"Those guys may have diseases, don't eat them." She treated them like how one would avoid exotic food, "Stupidity is a disease, don't eat them or else. Just throw them to the wilderness and let them rot and be eaten by tigers or something like that." She just had to add that on before moving forward.
The number of daemons that died numbered 69, but the humans were annihilated, so it was for a good cause.
Before Lilith came around, it was the custom of Ogres to eat their fallen comrades. They had asked Lilith if they could burn their fellow men.
Of course, Lilith agreed to their demands.
Lilith understood why they were doing this as she had read some parts of the Compendium of Daemons; the Ogres cremating the dead was a part of their culture.
This was also done when Ogres died in the war against Pixies to honor the fallen, Warriors.
According to the Compendium, when food was scarce in the past, Ogres, like many other daemon races, used to eat those who had fallen.
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But after Meat Dungeons appeared, such customs were abolished. Now, instead of being eaten, the corpses would be cremated after retrieving their Mana Cores. The retrieved Mana Cores would be given to the new family head, who would then be in charge of protecting those left behind.
Some Races like Elves would bury in a pile known as a Warriors' Honor; then, after being buried, a tree or a crop would be planted over the grave. Even in death, daemons wished to be of use, so such customs had somehow appeared in most races.
It was said that the tallest trees of the Elves were the representation of the strongest warriors buried beneath.
The Praeries and their Variants wanted to bury their dead members. Lilith also agreed to this, but they had to do it far away from where the fight happened.
'Their culture should vary from one Tribe to the other, but its essence remains the same.' Lilith didn't know that it was a thing. Documentation of daemons only goes as far as observation and nothing more. Conversing with a daemon was not done unless it was in a bedroom.
Daemon culture was complicated or more like unexplored territory for her. Though she was now a daemon, she was also once human. There were certain things she could do and certain things she cannot.
She could also eat anything if it was laid in front of her and if she was starving. Even if it was poisonous, her Cursed Purgatory Dragon could eat it without worry.
Lilith could eat anything she wanted if it led to her survival. Her innate hypocrisy will kick in and even eat a human if needed. Who cares about pride? She already killed humans and slaughtered thousands of them; why not take a step forward and try eating them?
'I heard they taste like tuna.' Besides, it's no longer cannibalism because she was no longer human, so what the heck. However, with food still being abundant, Lilith chose to stick to eating mindless beasts.
Other than the two races, none of the others suffered any more deaths.
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Werewolves: 20: Brick Bears: 4: Harpies: 27: Dracas 17: Praeries (and Variants) 143: Ogres 69 (and Variants): Dwarves 20: Persians 10
Only 310 of them remained from the 1186 daemons.
The funeral would be held later; now, it was time to recuperate.
Food was served per portion. Those who were awake will eat while keeping watch of the surrounding for any possible ambush. Being vigilant was a lesson taught by the master.
Those asleep from the tiredness would eat later, and as Lilith received a bowl of soup, Chief, Sylva, Dhampy, Luna, Killa, and other handpicked elites by Lilith sat before her.
Just like before the Forest of Beast was destroyed, Lilith slurped the soup and asked, "So, what happened, and what are we doing here?"
Luna raised a hand as she volunteered to answer the question.
"Luna, report," Lilith said.
Like a student asked to recite for the class, Luna began recounting the events that had transpired for the past months when Lilith was in a state of a coma, "When the Priestess protected us from the light, sending us to a foreign land together with the Village to save our lives, we arrived on a shoreline populated by humans who tried to kill us without question.
"When that happened, Chief protected us, but the sheer number of humans overwhelmed him. Sister Sylva was forced to teleport us away from there. Big Sis Dhampy had Sister Sylva use Marked Teleportation on a pebble; she asked Senior Aero to bring it with her as she was asked to escape. Moving from one place to the other, we managed to reach this place after some more teleportation. Every time Sister Sylva used her Marked Teleportation, her control over Space weakens, so we have been stuck here. Fending off the humans."
Lilith nodded her head, "It must have been tough on you. It seems like I failed to properly send you guys to somewhere safe. This Priestess of yours is still lacking."
"No, no, please don't think that way, Boss Head. We are only alive because of your sacrifice!"
"That's right, boss."
Sylva and Dhampy interjected before everyone followed suit. Lilith smiled as she released crocodile tears. At the moment, Dhampy's and Sylva's loyalty had already reached 100/100. In their eyes, she can do no wrong.
It was even written in the description.
[Your followers will follow you to the ends of the earth. They will go through flames and crawl through the valley of blades; in short, their loyalty was genuine.]
Lilith cannot see the villagers' loyalty, but she gauges it using Luna's loyalty and cutting it by 20%. Even if that was inaccurate, that should be close enough.
"Okay, moving forward… I was informed that our Extermination Rank has reached B+. I want to know how and why such numbers appeared."
This time, Sylva raised her hand, "In the time we were stuck here, we killed a lot of those detestable humans. Big sis Dhampy said that it was the humans who fired the white light that injured Boss Head, and when everyone learned of that, every moment we can, we would kill humans that approached the Village."
Dhampy quickly turned her eyes away as Lilith looked in her direction. The "Really? You instigated them?" kind of eyes were present.
Dhampy was also blinded by rage, so she informed everyone who did what to her boss. At some point, she was even considering mass genocide.
Sylva noticed this and immediately added, "We only killed Hunters because Big Sis Dhampy said killing the innocent will bring us a lot of trouble."
Lilith sighed at her words, "So, how many did you guys think you killed? Has anyone kept tracked?"
"I have!" Luna proudly raised her hand once more.
Seeing this made Lilith have an instinctual feel that what she's about to say is going to cause a massive headache. But she had to ask her, "So, how many?"
"143 humans…"
"143? That's quite a lot, I…"
"…143, not counting the ones who ambushed us earlier."
"Goddammit." Lilith cursed.
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