Asura Conqueror

"With the male population decreasing, we lacked power. The females had to join in the fray and fight together with the men." Ergetse had seen how the parents of the young females forbid them from practicing to fight in wars. 

Ergetse couldn't blame them, he himself knew the horrors fighting brings, especially on the field where there are a hundred spells being thrown at a time. But it is not like they also have a choice. Without people defending the city, it will crumble, even when there is a powerful guardian backing it.

Before Marcus could say something, a naga came slithering towards them.

He glanced at Marcus and then looked at Ergetse. "The leaders have called the guests back. They said that they have made a decision."

Ergetse nodded. "We will be there right away."

The naga once more glanced at Marcus before it slithered away.

"I guess we will try the meals here next time. We don't want to keep the leaders waiting." Ergetse turned his head to Marcus.

He was slightly surprised that the leaders made a choice this quickly. He just hoped that they made the right choice, for the good of everyone here. 

If they don't take their enemy down now when they have the chance, they might not have another one in the future, which makes him side with Marcus. Sacrifices may be made, but he already accepted that. Nothing good ever comes free.

Marcus and Ergetse headed towards the place where they met the leaders before. They stood outside as they waited for the ladies.

It didn't take long for Emily, Zoey, and Arielina to arrive. The three seemed to be in a good mood.

"Did you have fun?" Marcus asked as he walked towards Emily.

"Mhm," Emily nodded. They didn't only talk about the races who lived in this city and their religion, but they also talked about girl's stuff.

"Emily told us a lot of things." Zoey giggled as she slightly nudged Emily. Arielina too slightly giggled.

Marcus looked at Emily with a wry smile.

"Don't worry, it was nothing personal,ish" Emily planted her lips on Marcus' lips.

Ergetse clapped his hands. "Alright, let's go in and pray that they want to go with your plan."

"Your leaders are smart. They know the best thing to do in this situation." Marcus patted his back.

"Hopefully," Ergetse mumbled as he and Arielina led the group to the room they went into before.

The inhabitants of the city who were in their human form inside the building still had weird looks on their faces as they looked at Marcus and company.

There were even whispers.

"What do you think they are talking about in there?" One man with short hair asked. He had round eyes and a short nose. He stood around 6 feet tall. He wore a green-colored robe.

"I heard that that person saved a lot of our kind. Maybe the leaders want to compensate him for what he did." A female with long black hair spoke. She had a pointy nose and wide lips. She wore a blue-colored robe that had weird etchings on them.

"No, that can't be right. Why would our leaders ever compensate a human? For everything they have done to us, saving a few of our kind isn't enough. A lot of our people have died trying to fight those invaders. 

Compensating even one of them is like bowing our heads down. Think of all those who suffered under the brutality of the land dwellers, of people like him. Compensating my ass, he should be sent back to the surface instead of getting to enjoy this city that our ancestors built to keep the humans out!" A long-haired man spoke. He tried to keep his voice low but sadly his emotions betrayed him making him speak loud.

"Yes, they shouldn't be roaming our city. I heard that two humans went to the sea goddess' temple. If no one gets blessed by the sea goddess this year, then it is their fault." A bald man who had his arms crossed spoke. His brows furrowed as he thought of not having any blessed ones this year. 

The blessed ones are extremely important as they will have a chance to reach the Transformation Stage. They individuals worthy of fostering.

A lot of the inhabitants of this city thought that having Transformation Stage experts fight together with them will give them an edge against the humans who invaded their planet. 

"You are a bunch of bastards. They saved a lot of our brothers and sisters. Don't you think that they deserve more credit than letting them go back to the place where they belong. Think of all the families that are happy right now. Have you all ever thought of that? Have you all even for a second thought of the children that are happy to see their fathers, their mothers, their brothers, and sisters?" A female lashed glared at the people who spoke earlier.

She had short black hair and a pointy nose. She stood around 5'9 feet tall and she wore a green-colored robe.

"I, uh, uh, ahem, I think, uh." The bald man stuttered. No proper words came out of his mouth and so did the other three.

"What she said is right. Also maybe not all humans are evil, some just don't have a choice but to fight." A male with short hair softly spoke. He had a bony cheek and a large forehead. He wore a blue colored robe.

"Maybe not all humans are evil? That they don't have a choice? Are you even listening to yourself? Have you forgotten how much blood has been spilled? How many bodies we burned in the last few years? How many of our people were tortured? Have you forgotten?" A female with long hair had tears in her eyes as she looked at the man with short hair.

The others were silent. They knew that the woman who spoke right now lost her husband and two of her sons consecutively. She only had one daughter left who is forced to train for a war that will surely be coming in the near future.

"Not all of you have lost someone you love dearly, thrice. If you feel that they aren't evil then think of all the sacrifices the people made in the past trying to protect you. If they were not here, we would all be dead by the hands of the humans." The same female spoke.

"What's going on here?" A woman wearing white came walking into the building. She heard bits and pieces of what the woman said so she was wondering what was going on. 

Fighting was prohibited in this building and she knew that all of those who are present knew that, so she wasn't really worried about them starting a ruckus as all of the ones here are adults. 

She, the woman in white arrived in front of the group and listened to what they had to say. She just nodded her head and didn't interrupt. 

"And that's the last of it." The bald spoke as he finished telling the lady in white the things they talked about.

The woman chuckled. "The guests we have are not asking for any compensation. They want us to go to war with the humans, and they will help us."

Silence followed after the woman's sentence.

Seeing that there wouldn't be any more trouble here, she continued walking to the room where the meeting with the three leaders and the guests are taking place.

----

Marcus, Emily, Zoey, and the two nagas stood in front of the leaders who were sitting.

The air was pretty tense as both Arielina and Ergetse were nervous. They wanted to fight the humans and end all of the sufferings of the inhabitants of this city.

"If we go with your plan, what comes next? If we fight against the humans and succeed, what are the next moves? Because from how I see it, if we destroy one of the largest families, that will leave us with four more to deal with. " Dokoy calmly spoke. From his point of view, humans and the races of the sea could never co-exist, not in a million years.

"As I said before, you don't have to worry about the other big families of Estra. The real enemy is only the Strongwald family." Marcus smiled. 

"After we destroy the Strongwald's do you think we can live together with humans? Our people can go on land, explore the mountains, caves, plains, and other areas that a lot of our people only dream about? Do you think that the humans would accept that?" Dokoy asked.

"It will work like a modern society. One part of the land is yours and the other part is for the humans, same goes for the seas." Marcus wasn't expecting them to ask this question. From what he remembered, he made sure to say persuasive things.

"So there will still be no interacting with humans? Wouldn't that breed fear?" Dokoy has seen it before. Fear of the unknown can lead to brutal things.