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Solra’s brow wrinkled as he stood to the side of a tunnel. A red humanoid creature with blue eyes trotted past him. It was bald with pointed ears and naked except for a loincloth that barely covered its indecent parts. It towered over Solra by a whole head. “What the hell was that?” Solra mumbled as he watched the creature advance down the tunnel. He went around a bend and saw another one of the red creatures. And another one. The tunnel was swarming with them—everywhere he could see was red.
One of the red creatures noticed him and saluted. The others quieted down as they noticed the archangel as well. “We greet the commander!” the red creatures shouted in unison with their hands raised in a salute.
Solra nodded at them, pretending he knew what was going on. He didn’t recall recruiting halflings that were like hobgoblins but red. The creatures parted to let Solra through the narrow tunnel. He rounded another corner and froze while dropping his walking stick. A four-armed red centaur was walking towards him. “I greet the commander!” the centaur roared and knelt while saluting. Solra blinked and nodded before picking up his walking stick. The centaur remained kneeling until Solra rounded another corner.
A bead of sweat rolled down Solra’s forehead as he glanced behind himself. Why was everyone red? He’d have to find Pyre and ask. Everything time something ended up being odd, it was usually due to the eccentric angel. Just a few days ago, he had found a series of hot springs in the far corner of the tunnel system. Pyre had installed them because he needed to relax. The discipline of Solra’s rebel army had crumbled that day. After making his way through the winding tunnels, passing red centaurs, red hobgoblins, red harpies, red lizardmen, and red dwarves, he wound up at the detention center where Pyre was extracting the powers from the captive angels. Solra noticed that half of the angels were missing.
“Pyre,” Solra said as he walked to the eccentric’s angel corner. Ishim was still in the center of the cave, using an orb of charity to nullify all nearby powers.
“Solra,” Pyre said and turned his head. He was standing over an angel that had an orb inserted inside of her chest. A line of non-red halflings were standing behind him, each one holding eating utensils in their hands. “What’s up?” He turned back to the angel he was standing over and jabbed her with a red-hot poker, causing her to scream.
“Nearly everyone is red,” Solra said as a wrinkle appeared on his forehead. “Do you know why?”
“Of course,” Pyre said as he smiled. The orb in the female angel’s chest began to glow with a white light. “Don’t you want your army to be stronger? I’m evolving them.”
“Pardon?” Solra asked and raised an eyebrow.
“I’m evolving them,” Pyre said again as he wrenched the orb out of the female angel’s chest. A fountain of blood gushed out of the gaping wound, but it was quickly plugged again by another orb. He pat the female angel’s cheek. “You know the deal. Do you want to continue?”
“Just kill me, bastard,” the angel said and spat a glob of blood at Pyre.
“Wait. What deal?” Solra asked.
Pyre shrugged. “You know. The deal,” he said and turned around to look at the halflings standing in line behind him. “Y’all can eat her now.” The female angel screamed as a centaur dragged her away, and a ring of halflings surrounded her. Pyre turned to face Solra while a four-armed red centaur fetched another prisoner.
“Please explain to me what is going on,” Solra said and sighed, leaning against his walking stick.
“It’s simple,” Pyre said as he stretched his arms towards the ceiling and yawned. “You know how people evolve, right? Once they reach a certain mana threshold in their bodies, they become stronger and may develop abilities.”
“Right,” Solra said. “And the main way to increase the mana capacity is to practice a virtue or make a contract with someone whose mana capacity is greater than yours. I don’t see any of that here. Don’t tell me all the halflings are gluttons.” He made a face as the screams of the female angel turned into tearing and chewing noises.
“Why do you think demons change the fundamental structures of their bodies when they evolve?” Pyre asked. “And why do angels stay the same when they evolve to archangels?”
“I know you were a lecturer at Hailing Academy, but don’t treat me like a student. Just tell me,” Solra said and narrowed his eyes.
Pyre clicked his tongue. “You’ll never learn anything if I just tell you. You have to think for yourself,” he said and sighed. “A third way to increase mana capacity is to eat things with abundant amounts of mana. That’s how demons evolve. They eat each other while angels focus on cultivating their virtues. But eating someone else’s mana isn’t as stable, and the consumer’s body may change to reflect the attributes of the ones they ate.”
“You’re feeding the halflings angels to evolve them?” Solra muttered. He recalled the strange behavior of the halflings: the kneeling and salutes. “So they become more disciplined. And they turn red because angels are red?” Solra nodded. “I see. Why didn’t you do this earlier?”
“I didn’t have a thousand greater angels to feed the halflings,” Pyre said. He gestured towards the prisoners. “Now I do.” He smiled as the four-armed centaur presented him with another angel. “Right. How’s the tearing down of the wall going? I really want to build that cannon.”
“We tore down a section, but it’ll take a while to get here,” Solra said as he watched Pyre brand the captive angel. “The Stormbringer’s army is approaching the checkpoint, and I didn’t want to take the risk of breaking down the wall so close to them.”
“We have the advantage now,” Pyre said. “Before, we only had greater numbers. Now, we have greater numbers and firepower. If you capture Michael’s army too, we could create more evolved halflings.”
Solra wrinkled his brow. “Are you sure we should give the halflings so much power?” he asked.
“Didn’t you want equality?” Pyre asked in return as he took a knife out and plunged it into the captive’s chest. He cut open a hole to place the orb inside, ignoring the angel’s shouts. “You were tired of the maltreatment of the natives and wanted to overthrow the tyrannical angels, no?”
“Well, yes,” Solra said slowly, “but aren’t they too strong? After hearing about this, I can’t help but feel threatened myself.”
Pyre smirked. “You don’t have to worry about anything,” he said and licked his lips while wiping the blood off his hands. “As you long as you embody the ideals of your army, they’ll follow you. If you try to go back now….” Pyre shrugged.
“You’re not afraid for your own life now that the halflings have tasted the flesh of angels?” Solra asked, narrowing his eyes at Pyre.
“I’m nearly a century old,” Pyre said and waved his hand dismissively. “I’ll croak in a year or two. Whether I’m eaten alive by halflings or tickled to death by a demon, it doesn’t matter. My only regret is that the angels won’t be around to appreciate the fact that the young Khondra they screwed over screwed them back.” He laughed. “But we can’t get everything we want. I’m satisfied with this.”
“You’re a madman,” Solra said.
“And you hired me. What does that make you?”
Thanks for the chapter.