Chapter 0270 - Wrath

Wu Hai appeared in Venezuela with more than two thousand troops. Noyuki landed in Columbia with a similar portion of their forces.

Vector had gone along with Noyuki, he had his own reasons for protecting the area. Noyuki hung in the afternoon light above Bogata's Ciudad Bolivar. It was a slum that was littered with holes for criminals to escape in. Three Hundred Demons coordinated together in packs, they led the first wave into the Slums. Vector flew around and overhead, an Ice barrier surrounded the City that was more than thirty feet tall, escape was somewhat impossible above ground. Of the many demon beasts in the Ying Family's employ, each carried the ability to summon their own familiars. With several hundred Demons and their familiars, clearing people was somewhat easier.

Each search party had a dimensional key card, empty pocket dimensions were used to store all people who surrendered without a resistance. Though some resistance did come, they could not put up a fight. It was unknown if anyone that had died was innocent but it was presumably so. A few groups of gangsters tried firing at those that surrendered but it never ended well.

Surrendering wasn't a problem for most of the people in the Slums, they had already been beaten down, robbed, raped and exploited for decades. Leaving was a beautiful thing for them, a taste of freedom and welcome change.

'I thought places like this would have gotten better after we left.' Vector looked at the ruined buildings, they had been ruined before the Empire had even arrived. "Clear the innocent, kill everyone that resists. Once everyone is gone, I want to destroy this place." He was angry, there were several dead children in the streets, they had been stabbed in an alley and left for days. Vector bit his lip and collected the children.

Noyuki flew through the shaking city.

As she flew, she gathered as many people as she could and threw them into the pocket realm. Not all of them were willing to speak to her but those that didn't show signs of contempt were spared, even if they had not chosen to respond. Noyuki didn't speak Spanish, when she actually thought about it, it was unlikely that anyone in her group did.

Vector spoke Spanish, it was terrible but it was somewhat pointed in the right direction.

Demons crashed through hidden doorways, it led into the hillside and into caverns that seemed to stretch out for miles. The Demon in charge called out to the Truthers, a message was sent to Noyuki. After a quick discussion, she appeared with several Truthers and Fifty demons. Many of the ground troops were following from behind, it was chaos in the slums, their population had exploded but their resources remained stagnant for more than sixty years. It wasn't due to the Empire but there was plenty of blame to go around.

People were being herded into groups and whisked away like an evacuation. In their eyes, this place would no longer exist tomorrow. Some begged to stay but when they heard Vector's yelling from above, they all knew it was impossible to remain.

֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍

Ying Qingchi and Demon King Ho appeared over Saudi Arabia like a pair of Lanterns in the night sky. They were leading the ground forces. More than five thousand newly powered people were traveling with them, all of them were furious and riled up with mixed emotions.

"Spare only those that surrender." It was an order from the Demon King given to all of the people under their command. He had chosen to leave the majority of the Ying Demon Family's forces in Japan during the battle. HRMM were opportunists of the worst type, they weren't afraid to kill the innocent or adjacent.

Qingchi's projection played over the region, she didn't care if it was interrupted but her image came up first out of the three battlefronts. "This is your only warning, surrender peacefully, there is no escape."

When the Island of Tarout had been cleared, Qingchi rose into the air and began to burn everything. She spared nothing and no one who was left in the area, they had been warned and most of the people had been taken away. As the buildings began to buckle under the heat and turn to glowing masses, all that was left were pools of molten glass and metal. The sea water surrounding the Island did little to cool the blistering heat from her seven colored fire.

Refineries and Oil Reserves were being taken over by the Stealth Corp, getting the workers out was difficult but most of them understood when the Alarms were ringing. From the water along the Tarout Bay, hundreds of explosions could be seen as the city was being reduced to rubble.

For six hours the Demons rampaged through buildings, tearing families from their homes and depopulating Dhahran of its innocent. Most of the people were against being taken from their homes, they had bought slaves from across the world to do their bidding while they enjoyed a luxurious life. No citizen of Saudi Arabia had to work, they had no desire to leave it.

֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍

Wu Hai walked through the streets of Caracas tearing down buildings, instead of having this group doing the clearing, he had them stand at the exits to round people up with the Truthers and Demons.

One by one, he erased the buildings in the city until he found a nest of people shooting at him. A camera drone followed him, "The first new Law of Earth's Society, Attacks against the Empire.. they are a crime." Soldiers were turned to mush with the Crusher, buildings were wiped away with fire. "The Second new law of Earth, Only those who register with the Truthers will be allowed to leave this Planet, ever."

A door was guarded well, several salvaged rail guns that were mounted in the walls turned the building to Swiss Cheese but they did nothing to slow Zao's advancement. He kicked the door from its hinges, a man was standing with a detonator in his hand. From behind a shield, Wu Hai watched as the man tried to blow himself up but the trigger had failed. He slammed his fist against the trigger but it still didn't detonate. "DAMMIT!!"

"I've disabled your device." Wu Hai walked up to the man who was pissing his pants. "You will stand trial before the world." A slave collar appeared in Zao's hands and it was clasped around the man's neck. "Policing on Earth must be done by Humans in the future. If the Empire is forced to interfere the next time, there will be much bigger consequences."

Wu Hai walked out of the building with the shield covering him and his prisoner was forced to follow in chains. "The Earth is now part of the Empire but you will not be treated as my subjects until you earn a place on Shiyan."

Gunfire surrounded him. The camera drone was forced to fly higher so that it wouldn't be destroyed by stray bullets.

"What part of Wrath of God was unclear?" Wu Hai yelled.

The City had been clearing out since the first building had disappeared. Wu Hai felt no reservations, he let his power surge. Green light surrounded him while his energy levels rose to its limits.

"Fire and Brimstone, Lets take that up a notch!" An inferno erupted, the heat in the atmosphere turned to lightning and Wu Hai watched as the east side of Caracas was leveled by chained lightning strikes. Men that were running away with their guns didn't get far, the lightning found them as quick as it could find the ground. Smoking bodies laid everywhere, the Camera drone had even been taken out in the process.

֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍

Qingchi was busy burning down centuries of oppression, seven colored fire made seven colored glass in the sands while she passed through the Desert City. "Those who wish to travel to Shiyan," Qingchi's phantom image appeared on the projections. "Acts against the Empire, will be seen as Treachery..." She reiterated what Wu Hai had just said almost word for word, people were fleeing as fast as they could but they were being evaluated, scooped up and sorted. Those that were destined to become corpses were left in pieces upon their discovery and anyone that fought back was considered the enemy.

It was ruthless.

"Selection for Truthers is open to the public, only the true of heart and kind should apply. Then, only they will be allowed to decide if you're worth giving travel between worlds." Qingchi's voice rang out across the Planet for everyone to see and hear.

The public seemed to take the news better when it came from someone born of earth but the inescapable feeling of being small crept over most of Earth's citizens. The battles that had been shown on the projections were nothing like what they envisioned, it was a once sided slaughtering.

"This world belongs to the Zao empire, its people have a history that cannot be ignored in such a short span of time. Wake up, as a people, you Humans are unkind. The Empire wishes to end that notion, here and now." Qingchi poured out her energy and even the desert surrounding Dhahran turned to Glass. No buildings, no structure remained. Not even the insects could be heard over the sounds of fire crackling.

֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍

Kullu, a Ying Family Demon, had been sent out to attack with three others. Three shadow scout demons followed him. {"I smell Humans."}

{"So What. If they are stupid enough to remain, they deserve what's coming."} One of the shadow demons caught the scent and dismissed it out of hand.

{"Those are not our orders, just grab him.. He's alone.."} Kullu pointed to the building in front of him.

Three shadows spread out and flipped through the darkness, it was nearing dawn but no one in the City was asleep. They crept into the room and saw a man ready to cut his throat when he saw the shadows rising.

The Man's hand moved quickly, the shadow scouts were unable to stop him but he had slashed superficially. It was taking him time to bleed out, his eyes darted across the room when several muffled voices came from behind a wall, it was sealed. "HRMM!" The Man tried to stab himself in the heart to end his life with a dramatic flare but the Demon scouts stopped him.

{"He's bleeding out, Stitch him up."} The scouts were forced to do it the analog way, repairing the wound with stitches and sutures. With the bleeding stopped, perhaps healing could have begun but the man was marked for death. Hunter-Truther Demons were good at stitching bodies together, the problems with demonic stitching is the imprints they leave behind. He was placed in a slave collar and escorted back to the main force.

Ying Qingchi and Demon King Ho were still destroying the City, they wouldn't stop until there was nothing left but flat land.

Prince Wu saw the collared man and took custody of him. He handed each of the Demons a large jar of essence for their troubles and grabbed the chain for the collar. Yanking it hard, the man fell into the dirt. Ying Wu stepped on his neck and teleported back to Japan. 'We're not allowed to fix them unless its to save their lives in that instant.' Wu didn't want to bring him back to Japan but Zao wanted to hold a trial for the members of HRMM.

Since the Founder had said as much, it was important to Wu that he follow the orders given. He sighed heavily while he watched the other battles on the projector.

Bazingah sat down beside him and whispered, "The Founder isn't going overboard. These humans need to see strength, they are violent and they only respect the strong."

"These humans make me sick.. Why do they kill their own kind? It doesn't make any sense." Prince Wu leaned back and watched the destruction, "I wonder what he'll do next.."