Frostbound [LitRPG Apocalypse]-Chapter 186 - Threads

With our first meeting concluded, it left time for a few awkward encounters. It was obvious that neither I nor the other City Owner knew how to treat one another. I didn't care much for throwing my weight around and he didn't seem to want to impose on me either. It made things strange at first but they eased as the hours passed while the trackers were still out.

The group with Hal still hadn't come back by sundown and neither did the other group from the city. It did worry me a touch when Hal didn't arrive back at camp but I trusted him to get the job done.

Or at the very least, to be so noticeable that we were alerted to something wrong.

While I sat and waited, I stayed outside of the city mostly. I had our group set up a very temporary camp with only the bare minimum in terms of structures. I wanted everyone to be ready at a moment's notice.

I almost didn't have people set up, but ended up thinking better of it. While Ashton had agreed to go on the offensive if the demons were found, his City didn't look like the pinnacle of readiness of being able to do so.

He was only just now gauging how people felt about going and getting numbers on the volunteers. If word came back now that we had the trail, he would need at least a few hours to get everyone in order on his side.

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While it was frustrating to know we would be ready and waiting well in advance, there wasn't anything I could change about it. The hours spent waiting for word certainly helped him get his ducks in a row.

The more time that passed without any new information gave him that much more to be ready when it eventually did.

Other than only waiting, I ran over a few battle preparation things ahead of time. This was going to be a direct assault on a mass of enemies rather than what we were used to.

The training for defending the pylon wouldn't help much in this instance.

Without Hal, it left Rachel, Gabriel, my mother, and myself to discuss plans and come up with something viable. Of our council, Brayden, Sam, and Vincent chose not to come, and Jonathan but that wasn't by choice.

One main thing we had to worry about wasn't even the fighting itself. It was not letting any of the Demons get away. I was hoping when word came back we would have a clearer picture of what we were dealing with so these plans could be finalized.

Without knowing the composition or type of Demons we were up against it was impossible to put plans in writing.

There were a few different Demons that could have been summoned and they acted differently and had different strengths and weaknesses. The Rank was impossible to know without setting eyes on them, but I could guess from the Formation.

While the blood was untestable to find out what was used as the sacrifice, the Formation itself gave some information. The care and effort, let alone the skill, required to create such a thing spoke of the person being in the E-rank.

While someone below level 50 could have done it, I didn't think it was likely. Especially with only a year being passed since knowledge of such a thing was introduced.

What sealed the deal though, in my mind, was the reason behind the summoning. Even the most sociopathic would have a reason behind doing such a thing. Deals with Demons were infamous even before the System arrived.

The reason I ruled out the person being below E-rank was mostly because no Demon below that would have anything worthwhile to offer. Summoning Demons was similar to spirits in the regard you could only summon something up to your own rank.

Without special care and extremely rare ingredients, your own rank was the highest you could summon. Plus, for Demons, it was ill-advised to go higher. Summoning a Demon stronger than you without protections put in place was folly.

Even without experiencing such a Ritual before, I would have been able to notice if there were such protections. I had spent extensive time since our return studying that exact subject. Wards and defensive Formations were much more in my wheelhouse than Summoning Rituals.

I spent multiple hours every day furthering my knowledge of Wards and while it sounded arrogant to say so, I would've been able to tell if there were any containment Wards attached to the Formation.

Not unless the engraver had a skill level so far above me that it was impossible to pick up on, but if that were the case, we had bigger problems.

That said, just because the first Demon summoned was E-rank didn't mean all of them would be. Demons didn't have the same rules for summoning more of their own kind as we did. They didn't need such Ritual Circles and could get away with Ritual Casting if there were enough.

The way it worked still wasn't entirely clear to me.

"Rachel, how does Ritual Casting work exactly?" I asked trying to understand.

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"Well, it starts by linking the participants together in something akin to a Formation. Instead of Runes and mana stones though, it uses people and their skill manipulating mana. If a Formation were a computer automated version, a Ritual Casting would be a manual version." She said.

"Yeah, but how do they compare though? Does one take less energy? Get worse results?" Gabriel asked.

"That depends," Rachel said, "I'm not that well versed in Formations, but from what I understand, the materials involved in making them play a key role in how they work. It's the same for Casting Rituals. The skill of the people involved plays a big role in how well they work. 6 novice mages won't hold a candle to 6 experienced mages."

The shortcut that Demons had was if there were enough of them, they didn't need to use such Ritual Circles, or, if the original Demon was strong enough, only one was required in the Casting.

As a Race, they had advantages in leading such Rituals and they excelled at it even. It was like their Race was trying to get them to expand and colonize. It was one of the main reasons they were hated so much by all non-Demons.

Their need to colonize and drive to consume put them on bad terms with nearly every other race in the multiverse, the only thing keeping them from being killed off was their strength.

The fact they grew more intelligent as they gained power and could assuage the urge to consume helped matters.

If Demon Gods ran around destroying planets and Civilizations, it didn't matter how strong they were. Enough people would band together to kill them.

The details of the Demon Race and their standing in the multiverse weren't important though. All that mattered right now was wiping them off the face of the Earth.

Sadly, even with our timely intervention, I doubted this would be the last Demon Hunt I would participate in. Even if we caught the person responsible, another would fall to the temptation.

The fact it happened this early after being gifted new powers only spelled out what we, as a society, were in for. It was a fun thought experiment to think about though if a bit sad.

Years down the line, when people were born with the System already in place, would they be more or less likely to fall to the temptation?

I dismissed those thoughts to focus back on the matter at hand. Even with Rachel's explanation, we wouldn't know anything with certainty without knowing which Demon was summoned.

Imps, Hellhounds, Demonic Converted Beasts of any kind, Demonlings, and Lesser Demons all went about things differently.

Common sense made us throw out the possibility of any non-sentient Demon but that wasn't something we could do with 100% confidence. ANY Demon could make a deal, even if convention said Hellhounds couldn't communicate.

Most types were inclined to summon more of their own type above all else but there would be a variety of them given time.

With hours spent going over the local maps provided to us, it wasn't until Hal came back that we had something to work with. What he had wasn't concrete, only a direction, but it was better than nothing.

He didn't end up coming back until noon the following day, marking our second day since arriving.

Hal's group was able to follow the trace they had further South and came across an increasing amount of evidence. Whether our trackers were better than Fort Hope's wasn't confirmed, but we at least had someone with a better skill.

Informing the City of what we found sent them into a tizzy. It sped their plans up significantly and while they took a while to form up, it wasn't as bad as I feared.

As soon as Hal came back and signaled he had their trail our camp was up and ready within the hour.

Fort Hope wasn't ready until three had passed.

I stood at the head of our group as we watched those from Fort Hope march out.

"Hal, how many do you spot?" I asked.

We were a distance away from the City Gates and he had the best eyesight in the group. I could have tried to count the ranks coming out but it was easier to ask the man dedicated to scouting.

Plus, he had experience doing just that during the waves.

"Hard to tell, they aren't the most organized ranks but from what I can tell, a thousand. Twelve hundred at best." He answered.

"More than we feared but less than we hoped." I sighed.

Adding our numbers put us at roughly one and a half thousand strong. The largest army I had ever been a part of but I still couldn't help but feel worried. Demons were not to be underestimated.

Their City Leader marched at the front, armor gleaming in the sun and shield and sword at the ready. He was even more armored than when I last saw him with a knight's helmet to finish the suit.

The plated man was the epitome of a medieval knight and his Paladin-like aura only made the picture more accurate. He led similarly to what I did, awkwardly but with authority.

What I assumed was his inner circle followed close behind. The Ranger with the bow looked much the same as when I'd seen her last along with the other members of their group.

Only the three who met with me marched close to the leader, the rest of the ten who had ventured to my City were either further back or staying behind.

The man, Carson, I confirmed to be a Mage rather than a Healer. Other healers wore a familiar red cross somewhere on their get-up that the man lacked. I suspected he would be a Mage of some sort but this confirmed it.

I could have asked during our month spent traveling but that wasn't something discussed outside of family. Even asking reminded me of other taboo subjects from before.

Still, watching the people who would march with me come streaming out of the gate made me feel something else.

These people would be my comrades in arms in the fight to come. My companions on our warpath. Even with everything we'd been through, it was hard to think what I felt was real. Even with magic, a Castle, and a weird System.

Something about marching off to war kicked me in places that were different than the rest. Most of the group were just regular workers less than two years ago yet here they stood.

Hell, here I stood.

I was armored and armed with medieval-style weaponry and armor, standing at the forefront of what could be considered my army.

The feeling coursing through me made me stand and take it all in with clarity. The people I watched coming out of the gates were to fight with me and the people who stood behind me were to fight for me.

The severity of what we were about to march off to face had never felt so heavy.

The burden I had dismissed when the chance first arrived. When we were transposed into what we were, I faltered and shrunk away from the responsibility. I watched as another took up the role and followed listlessly behind.

It was a stark difference to what I was doing now.

The weight of people's lives were in my hands and it was just now dawning on me that not everyone would make it back. Sure, I knew that intellectually, but now it felt all more real.

Like the threads of fate were only now settling into place and our course was too far along to end up any other way.

Some of those threads would be cut short soon and the only thing I could do about it was grip my hammer tighter.