Cthulhu Gonfalon

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

As the only meaningful empire in the entire main dimension, the Orc Empire of course deserved to be the number one powerful nation that took up a huge land.

Even so, it was constantly invading and attacking its surroundings.

To the north, was the ice land that was covered in snow and ice. The intrepid barbarians had constantly retreated. To the south, they seized the Graystone Mountains and Giant Beast Mountain, and constantly invaded the territory of Eagle Kingdom; to the east, they were in to-and-fro tussle with Kingdom of Holy Angels, encroaching on the soil that was showering in the brilliance of the Sun God; But, to the west, they were facing the vast desert with nothing they could do about it.

Er, even though it wasn't really like they had nothing to do with it, it was the secret of Orc God system…

From the place where the south of Gobi Desert connected with Graystone Mountains, all the way towards the east, it was almost a month's time of walking to enter Orc Empire, or as it was also called, Wild Empire's hinterland.

It was a great grassland, a scenery of vast sky and boundless wild. The Orcs were reproducing and living on the piece of grassland. They were fighting against the natural environment that looked friendly but was actually not. They grew strong bodies, packed with muscles and ferocious spirits.

Of course, in the Orc Empire, it was not only Orcs, but also half-Orcs, dwarves, midgets, humans… a variety of tribes. But on the vast soil, the position of Orcs was higher compared to every other tribe.

If it was on Earth, such open race discrimination would be condemned by word of mouth and in writing. But in this world, race discrimination was something natural. Regardless of "upper class" or "lower class," no one had any objection about it, just like in India that was said to have a billion human and ten billion livestock; the panda neighbour that was wearing a bunny hat didn't understand why the ten billion livestock didn't fight against their mothers, but they themselves were contented…

The grassland was sparse but sparsely populated. Every tribe was far apart.

In there, no matter if there were more or less travelling businessmen, it wasn't noticeable.

For instance, the Tyrannical Tribe had another two travelling businessmen recently.

They were uncle and nephew. The uncle was a tall brawny man, wearing thick heavy leather armor and carrying a big axe. He seemed to have great physical strength and courage. The nephew was a skinny but intelligent young boy, quick to respond and fast in calculation, just like an amazing accountant.

They had a carriage that was pulled by two horses, and there were various household supplies in the carriage. Like most of the travelling businessmen, they stayed back temporarily and used the household supplies in exchange of anything valuable.

Among the Orcs, there were some sly ones. More than once, they intended to palm off shoddy goods as quality goods, or to deceive people with specious items. Although the nephew wasn't very old, his judgement was very sharp. No matter if it was shoddy or counterfeit goods, it couldn't escape his eyes. He was also very skillful in business and he quibbled on every single detail. Even those older who were experienced in haggling couldn't take advantage of him.

Of course, there were people that became angry out of embarrassment and wanted to settle with "trading" tricks that Orcs respected; even violent manual labor wouldn't enable them to exchange it with wealth. Along with the owner of wealth, they'd be sent to holy kingdom of their beliefs to rest in peace. By then, it would be the uncle's turn to take over, and his brawny body and strong muscles were definitely not for decoration. His big axe wasn't any gray import either. Every slash of the axe was sturdy and the strength was not discounted.

The outcome for multiple conflicts was that the witch doctor in the tribe had quite an increase of customers. The old-aged witch doctor was happy with the surprise income and hoped that the pair of uncle and nephew could stay back in the Tyrannical Tribe for a few days more.

The head of Tyrannical tribe, Aolike, who also known as "Mad Runner," was not happy. His gut feeling was that the pair of uncle and nephew were not ordinary people; in fact… they were very dangerous men!

The Tyrannical Tribe was a tribe of centaurs. They were creation of the Orc God King of Tyranny, and the whole tribe worshipped and believed in the ferocious and terrifying God wholeheartedly. The Tyrannical Tribe was the earliest bunch of descendants created by His Majesty. There were many experts that sprang up before and even broke through the last barrier to step foot into the God realm.

But, those were all in the past.

The Tyrannical Tribe then had weakened, and there weren't many experts that could come to blows. There was about three thousand people in the tribe, but there might not even be one legendary realm expert!

The current strongest people in Tyrannical tribe were the head of the tribe, Aolike, and the high priest, Oveila. They were both on the top of the higher order that were looking for an opportunity to step foot into the legendary realm.

Aolike's nickname was Mad Runner, and as his nickname had suggested, he ran very fast, even faster than a flying bird. His stamina was very good too, he could run for half a month continuously without taking a break. He was used to long spears, and his skill in casting long spears while running was superb. He could shoot down a flying bird in the sky, he also could shoot a mosquito on land, he could even shoot a hole through a century-old tree with a spear. Once during the war against the Eagle Kingdom, he gained fame from an incident where he shot a fully armed knight with a spear and it shot through the person with his shield altogether.

Oveila was a direct bloodline descendant for Tyranny. The centaur tribe was the proprietor of the most honorable and strongest bloodline. Although she was a female, Oveila was not weak at all; she had a body with combination of strength and beauty, an aura of health and grace, yet wildness. She was aggressive and ferocious, she didn't allow anyone of a lower bloodline to appear around her. Besides praying, the other thing she liked to do the most was massacre. Although she was a master archer and a priest of higher order, she like to swing the huge halberd across the battlefield even more. Especially when the Tyrannical stepped on the remains of their enemies, she would even roar with laughter; hence her nickname of "Fresh Blood Trampler."

Aolike had always wanted to find favour with the priest of higher order but it was all to no avail after he tried many different ways. The Fresh Blood Trampler had no interest in a man that was weaker than her, and she disdained to Aolike's lower grade bloodline. She didn't even give him the most basic respect to the head of the tribe when they spoke.

For that, Aolike was full of anger but there was nothing he can do.

To Orcs that believed in the theory of the bloodline, a noble bloodline was something extremely important as it signified the distance between them and the God.

Most of the Orcs were creation of Orc Gods. Orc Gods were segregated into two categories; one was strong Orcs that were made into Gods, such as the main God of Orc God system "Giant Dog that Swallowed the Sky" Lefon. He was originally a human-canine. The other one was a strong beast that was made into a God, and broke away from their identity as they opted to join the Orc God system and create tribes that possessed their characteristics. For instance, the main God from the previous generation, "Iron Mask Ferocious Spirit" Snakenell, was originally a poisonous snake. He made the tribe that was famous for its cunning and brutality among the Orcs, human-snake.

The centaur was the creation of King of Tyranny, Kredak. This God was originally a wild steed. After it became a God, it took the form of centaur and created a centaur tribe in order to promote belief.

To a centaur, the concentration of Tyrannical blood was its level of nobility. Aolike was born a collateral bloodline but not a direct descendant. Before the direct descendant of His Majesty, he was born a level lower.

Dealing with the natural difference of identity, Aolike held no grievance. What he was unsatisfied with was that Oveila rejected his love. It was like a businessman that started from scratch, who had already gotten used to the belittlement by the officials. But if they were to reject his proposal of a marriage alliance, he would still be angry.

"The anger of this person is our chance." After the sun set, in the tent of the travelling businessmen, Jose lost his innocent smile that made him look honest in the day. His face was dense with murderous intentions.

Frost lost the cunning smile that she put on during the day but replaced it with ferocity and said, "I think you are being too careful! It is only two higher orders. If we find a chance, surprise attack and take one down, the one left could be taken care of in whichever way we want to!"

Jose smiled faintly but there was no warmth in his eyes; instead he was ghastly and bloodcurdling. "Our target is to not only kill a priest of higher order and the head of the tribe. If we were to act rashly, we would be exposed and soon be sieged by the experts of various Orc tribes. Then, we will have to retreat earlier. What do you think about that?"

"No way!"

"I don't want that either," Jose nodded, "so, we have to create an illusion. Make everyone think that the death of the priest was not related to us. Although it couldn't be kept secret for long, it could buy some time. Maybe we could kill one or two more priests!"

Frost's eyes brightened up and she had a hint of ruthlessness in the corner of her smile.

"I like the idea!" she said.

Jose smiled and took out a few more bottles of medicine. "These are specially prepared by Master Acraian and Master Wendy."

"When are we taking action?" Frost asked impatiently.

"It's almost done; within two days," Jose said with confidence. "Regarding the situation of the tribe, I am completely clear. Next, is to make an opportunity to give full play to the creation of the two masters' power!"

The second day, something big happened in the Tyrannical Tribe.

That night, the head of tribe Aolike who had been always after the high priest, Oveila, was drunk. He seized his tipsiness and barged into the temple of Tyrannical King to propose to the Fresh Blood Trampler openly. Even after he was rejected, he was not willing to leave but insisted to stay overnight in the temple shamelessly.

Oveila was pissed off and decided to attack with her halberd. At first, with Aolike's capability, he should have been able to dodge her attack easily. But uncertain if it was due to intoxication of alcohol that led to weak limbs, Aolike missed and got heavily injured by her halberd.

As the halberd had taken countless fresh bloods and possessed terrifying magic, not only was Aolike injured, but he was also poisoned. After the examination by the witch doctor, he concluded that the poison derived from so-called "corpse bacterium." To resolve the poison, they had to look for a corpse that cultivated corpse bacterium. Only then could he cast witch magic to absorb the poison from his body.

Oveila was of course duty-bound. So, the Fresh Blood Trampler brought along her halberd and long spear, then departed to the south to go into the region where battle never stopped, to look for the corpse that they needed.

In the early morning on the third day, the travelling businessmen that felt the atmosphere in the tribe was too overwhelming eventually left. The uncle looked a little unsatisfied but he was convinced with the reasoning, "a smart businessman will not stay in danger," by his nephew.

They bid farewell to those centaurs that were depressed due to the mishap and continued to travel to the east.

In actual fact, not long after they left, they kept all their goods along with the carriage and horses into semi dimension storage box. Frost took her original form, spread her wings and carried Jose to the south, and whizzed past.

Their overall arrangement had been completed and it was time to kill!