The Filthy Demon Ea's blood-red eyes calmly lowered, sweeping over the bowed head of Hammerbone.
With a flicker of his figure, he leaped down from the back of the giant Filthy Descendant. His hooves, covered in obsidian-like carapace, landed on the rubble-strewn ground with a dull thud.
He strode directly toward the fortress, not even turning his head as he commanded in a hoarse voice, "Have your Army Commander come out to see me."
Hammerbone's burly frame trembled slightly. Steeling himself, he said, "Lord Ea, the Army Commander is currently undergoing his trial. You can ask me about anything."
Ea's footsteps halted. He turned around, his gaze focusing on Hammerbone, and said with interest, "Excellent. Then, from this moment on, I am the Army Commander. Do you have any objections?"
"Uh..."
Hammerbone's throat went dry. He was momentarily speechless, his hand subconsciously tightening around his mace as he fell into hesitation.
While he was still hesitating, Grumg, standing to the side, had already opened his mouth wide, letting out a laugh. Leaning on his staff, he took a step forward and performed a salute toward Ea.
"Grumg pays his respects to our new Army Commander of profound wisdom—Lord Ea!"
The surrounding goblins clad in fine iron armor looked at each other, their gazes turning toward Hammerbone, the highest-ranking figure present, as if waiting for his final decision.
At the same time, Hammerbone felt Ea's gaze upon him. He had no doubt that if he showed the slightest hesitation, this demon would not hesitate to feed him to those Filthy Descendants.
In the face of absolute power and the terror of the Abyss, so-called loyalty seemed so pale and powerless.
His massive head bowed even lower. Using a roar to cover his struggle, he shouted loudly, "Hammerbone pays his respects to Army Commander Ea!"
His mountain-bear-like, robust, and burly frame appeared so insignificant and humble before this demon. It was hard to imagine that a bugbear, notorious for its cunning and brutality, could ever be so humble, even fearful.
Ea gave a slight nod, as if this was all as it should be, showing no surprise whatsoever.
He no longer paid attention to these green-skinned creatures, who were no different from food in his eyes. Turning around, he continued walking, preparing to step into the stone fortress that symbolized the change of power.
However, just as his hoof was about to cross the threshold of the giant stone fortress, he seemed to remember something. His steps paused once more as he asked in that raspy voice, "While active in this swamp, have you ever seen a combination of an undead and a crow?"
"Oh, right. This undead can use natural power. That crow is very noisy."
As he spoke these words, a trace of wariness mixed into his originally calm tone.
That's right. He was precisely that Filthy Demon who had previously lain dormant in the dungeon of the Eastern Swamp, nearly driven to a dead end by Arthur, and ultimately fled in disarray.
As for the so-called name "Ea," it was merely a code name bestowed upon him by that Greater Demon when he pledged allegiance in the Golden Radiance Valley.
In the Common Tongue, it meant "filthy" or "unclean"—not exactly a glorious title.
But a true demon possessing great power would never easily reveal his true name to outsiders.
Exposing one's true name meant exposing one's scent as prey in the dark forest, enough to attract terrifying hunters.
After his defeat at the hands of that nature-blessed Death Knight, he had wandered southwest, surviving dangers like adventurer bounties and magical creature hunts, and ultimately stumbled into the Golden Radiance Valley by chance.
There, relying on his cunning and thirst for power, he successfully caught the attention of that Greater Demon, completed the soul-trading ritual, and obtained even greater strength.
He thought about returning to this swamp, where he had suffered humiliation, every single moment.
He wanted to wash away the mark of his failure and restore the terrifying reputation of the Filthy Demon Scourge.
In the scenario he had envisioned countless times in his mind, he would drown that damned Death Knight, along with his laughable natural power, in an endless tide of Filthy Descendants.
He would imprison his soul, scorching it day and night with the most malicious flames, making him the soul fuel for his future ascension to the Greater Demon rank.
If not for this obsession, he would never have volunteered to return here.
As for helping these weak and foolish green-skinned creatures? That was even more laughable!
In his eyes, these goblins, bugbears, and even that ogre mage were nothing more than strategically useful miners and cannon fodder.
He even understood clearly that the true power behind the scenes of this army, from beginning to end, cared only about the mineral resources within Riftrock Pass.
The life of a single goblin was worth even less than a vial of Magical Dust.
The goblins looked at each other, their faces filled with bewilderment, shaking their heads one after another to indicate they hadn't seen such a thing.
Hammerbone did have a vague impression of "crow," but in his understanding, the swamp's main enemies had always been those Slimes. He had never seen any powerful undead force.
Thus, he answered in a booming voice, "Reporting, Army Commander. We have never seen the undead and crow you described in the swamp."
"The enemies we have currently confirmed are a group of cunning Slimes."
"Slimes? That is interesting."
Ea's eyes flickered with light.
Regarding the intelligence on Slimes, he had already studied it thoroughly through Grumg and other channels before deciding to return.
This was the basic competence of a qualified Abyssal strategist, not worth mentioning.
He hadn't expected that besides that strange Death Knight and noisy crow, this swamp also harbored strange Slimes capable of establishing a kingdom.
It was making him more and more interested.
With Hammerbone and Grumg leading the way, Ea quickly inspected the entire fortress, including the petrified dragon corpse in the main mine shaft deep within.
But what left Hammerbone somewhat puzzled was that this new Army Commander seemed rather uninterested in these things. Instead, he was more interested in that planar rift.
After he personally entered the rift, surveyed the frozen tundra beyond, and returned, he directly finalized the army's next course of action.
"Immediately procure large quantities of cold-resistant furs and anti-freeze potions."
"Then, dispatch your most elite warriors and occupy that tundra behind this planar rift for me."
Hammerbone scratched his scar-covered bald head, his face filled with confusion. "Army Commander, but... there's nothing in that tundra except freezing winds. What's the use of occupying it?"
Ea glanced at him. "Foolish. The fissures nearby are all interconnected. The area behind this planar rift is undoubtedly an important strategic location."
His dark red pupils flickered with ambitious light. "As long as we firmly control this place and establish a stable outpost..."
"Not to mention that small swamp to the east, even the Dark Realm to the south and the distant southern kingdoms, our army can achieve rapid deployment through this network."
"My children... need more flesh, blood, and souls as sustenance."
"These creatures of the Prime Material Plane, with their weak souls yet occupying fertile lands, have been living in peace for far too long. It is time to reclaim everything from them."
In truth, there was another reason he wanted to occupy that planar fragment: for the sake of that castle.
The ignorant creatures here didn't understand its origin or value, but he knew.
And that Slime Kingdom... Having suffered a loss from that strange undead, Ea was far more cautious than last time.
Once he patiently developed and cultivated a Filthy Demon Scourge of sufficient scale, it wouldn't be too late to annihilate them.
He couldn't help but sigh, thinking he truly was the smartest among demons.
For now, let those Slimes jump around for a few more days.
...
Ice Elemental Plane, Nameless Tundra.
The cold wind, like countless icy razors, howled endlessly across this dead, silent world.
Occasionally, the figure of an ice wolf, its body entirely composed of ice, would flash through the blizzard, quickly darting behind a giant blue ice crystal, never to emerge again.
An unknown amount of time passed. At the edge of that blue ice crystal, an ice elemental creature that looked like an ice ball quietly peeked out.
[Devour Digestion Lv.7 triggered—Partial characteristics of Ice Wolf recorded. Talent acquired: Frost Affinity Lv.1]
This was precisely Chen Yu, who had activated "Frost Affinity."
At this moment, a layer of hard frost had condensed on the surface of his gel. His color had also changed to a mix of ice-blue and snow-white, perfectly blending in with the surrounding snowy environment.
Immediately after, one large and one small head peeked out from within the ice crystal nest. They were Peachy and Little Ka.
These two, one possessing ice-control supernatural ability, the other possessing Flame Affinity, were completely unafraid of the extreme cold environment here.
"King, there are lots of green guys over there," Little Ka said cautiously, lying on the snowy ground.
Following the direction Little Ka pointed, through the swirling blizzard, one could vaguely see many goblins wearing thick fur and woolen clothes busily transporting wood, stone, and metal components under the shadow of that distant, towering castle.
They seemed to be trying to build a crude fortress, utilizing the relatively wind-sheltered terrain on the castle's periphery.
Chen Yu couldn't help but mutter to himself, "What do these guys want to achieve by going to such great lengths to occupy this godforsaken elemental plane?"
He remembered clearly that these planar rifts, accidentally born due to magical turbulence, were extremely unstable and mostly temporary.
With the arrival of the Harvest Moon, the mana of the Prime Material Plane would gradually calm down. Most of these rifts would shrink on their own until they completely disappeared.
Investing significant resources to build a fortress here meant it was very likely that, by next month, both the fortress and the area would be abandoned in the unstable elemental plane fragment.
A total, unrecoverable loss.
This was logic even a Slime with a small brain could understand. These goblins' brains should be larger than almonds, right? How could they make such a foolish move?
Unless their goal wasn't simply to occupy this elemental plane.
Perhaps they wanted to use the planar rift as a springboard to invade other regions?
It wasn't that Chen Yu looked down on these not-so-bright goblins, but with their average intelligence, could they really conceive and execute such a strategically insightful plan?
Even if they could think of it, neither the Evernight Domain controlled by the vampire clan nor the land of Gore occupied by the Stone Descendants were easy places to invade.
Hmm...
Just as Chen Yu's brain was whirring, pondering the goblins' true intentions, he keenly detected subtle changes in the surrounding light and shadows.
It seemed two very faint shadows were silently approaching the ice crystal nest where they were hiding.
"Boss, it's me. Auntie came too."
Yano's voice came through, but not from the shadows. It was transmitted through the avatar Chen Yu had left in the Stone Fortress, perfectly solving the problem of shadows being unable to communicate.
"Hello, hello, dear Lord. How have you been these past few days?" Nilly's voice also came through.
She seemed curious about whether the Slime avatar could transmit sound, poking it several times, which also transmitted the strange tactile sensation.
Chen Yu bounced once to welcome them.
But he immediately discovered that, in the state of activated "Frost Affinity," a thick layer of frost had formed on his gel surface, making his body more solid. This greatly reduced his elasticity, making it a bit difficult to "bounce."
So he could only roll somewhat clumsily, like a small snowball, back into the interior of the ice crystal nest.
The interior space of this naturally formed ice crystal nest wasn't very large. The massive Peachy occupied most of it.
She was currently curled up carefully, even lightening her grunts, afraid that one deep breath causing her belly to swell might squeeze her tiny King out.
Chen Yu and Little Ka didn't feel cramped, as their sizes were relatively smaller.
It was just difficult for the shadow creatures projected by Yano and Nilly. To squeeze into this limited space, their shadows had almost shrunk into fuzzy spheres, barely managing to project onto Peachy's broad back.
"What's the situation outside now?" Chen Yu asked.
Yano's grave voice came through the avatar. "Not good. Auntie and I secretly scouted the camp the goblins set up near the castle."
"They seemed to mention words like 'demon' and 'invasion' in their conversations."
"The key point is, the planar rift at Gore is right at the edge of the Fluorescent Forest. If the Goblin Army really invades the Stone Fortress through there, there's almost no terrain to hinder them, and there are no gargoyles there either..."
Chen Yu thought for a moment. This was indeed a serious problem for the Stone Descendants.
Even if the Stone Descendant family hid many powerful Shadow Masters and elite assassins, compared to the Goblin Army, the number of Stone Descendants was still too small.
They were better at executing decapitation strikes, intelligence gathering, and covert sabotage missions, not at holding the line against a tide-like, army-style assault.
This was equivalent to an assassin's hideout being discovered, exposing their greatest weakness.
Not to mention, there might be a demon standing behind the Goblin Army who had arrived here.
"So, our clever Slime Lord, do you have any good ideas?" Nilly's voice came through. She didn't seem as anxious as Yano.
Ideas?
Of course there were.
Dealing with goblins was what Slimes were best at.
"Finally, another chance to collect protection fees," Chen Yu thought.