The Dawn of the New World

Hao Xuan physically gagged upon seeing the wretched state within the mass grave even with all that experience of being around dead bodies.

Almost every corpse had been mutilated with all its appendages cut off and thrown in one corner of the grave. What remained had been cut open from the neck to the groin and all of their internal organs were dragged to the middle where the lava hole was.

Blood trails could be seen in almost every direction from where the bodies were dismembered and the organs emptied.

"Oh my fucking god, how did I not smell any of this before?!" Hao Xuan unwittingly muttered out loud in his baffled state.

"Snort Snort!"

As soon as the words left his mouth two loud snorts came from the black smoke followed by a pudgy four-legged silhouette. It was a giant swine demon trudging through the mounds of limbs and organs to look in Hao Xuan's direction.

He quickly took cover behind the canopy before it could get too close but that appeared to be unnecessary as another growl came from the smoke and two lanky figures walked out on two feet.

They growled at the swine demon and it begrudgingly returned.

Hao Xuan slowly peaked his head out from the tree trunk to inspect these new arrivals. They had hoofed legs and faces of goats attached to somewhat humanoid abdomens. They were both holding bone spears and speaking in some language that he had never heard before.

They yelled a few times at the lava hole and out came nine more swine demons came out one by one.

The two-legged goat demonlings were around 1.2-1.5 meters tall at most while the biggest swine demon was over 2 meters tall on all fours. Length wise it had probably exceeded 4.5 meters with ease which made the goat demonlings look like toddlers in comparison.

And yet the swine demons obeyed them without making a sound. They spread out in every direction of the mass grave, using their tusks to rip open the abdomens and bring the organs towards the lava hole.

Hao Xuan's brow was locked in a tight furrow as he examined them from afar.

'It was that black smoke! I couldn't sense or even see any of them while they were next to it and there is a layer of it around the mass grave. It's messing with my senses,' he told Baracus using spirit sense.

'Agreed. It also appears there is a class system within their ranks. It would explain why the smaller 'Capra' demons are in charge,' Baracus stated, referring to the goat demonlings.

'Yeah, I feel the same way. They are like watchdogs keeping the less intelligent swine demons in check while using them for manual labour. But that's not the concerning part right now, does this mass grave not remind you of something else?' Hao Xuan asked while tilting his head to the side.

'Negative. Please elaborate.'

'It's too...neat, too well organized. The right arms are all in one mound, the left ones in another. It's the same for the legs and the heads but the midsections are all strewn on the sides, while the organs are neatly piled in the middle. Not to mention that none of the demons are eating them themselves. If I didn't know any better I'd say it looks like a-'

But before he even had the time to finish his thought the ground shook loudly making him lose his grip. Thankfully he reacted quickly enough and pulled himself up while looking towards the source of the noise.

*Ruuumble*

*Craaack*

The trees that were on the side of the grave were pushed aside like twigs as a five-meter-tall hulking figure plodded through. The energy it was giving was so oppressive that he could barely breathe even though it was still several hundred meters away

Hao Xuan swallowed a mouthful of saliva while shaking his head in dismay, finishing his thought haphazardly, '-It looks more like a plate for a picky eater than anything else. I was wondering what the 13th demon looked like, guess I know now.'

The figure walked down into the grave to reveal its true demented form.

Its back and sides were covered in giant spikes. The arms and legs looked like the claws of some ancient beast. They ended in talons that could cut a full-grown man in half without much effort. (Reference image posted in discord and in Authors notes)

Its protruding abdomen was just a gaping maw big enough to swallow entire cars in one go whereas the head looked like a bare human skull that was missing the lower jaw and served no real purpose.

***

Authors Notes:

All images are posted in the Official Discord.

Link: https://discord.gg/AHdSBFQ

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Reference Image Link: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/09/d7/e9/09d7e94c235730197274d3e44dd7b050.jpg

Shortened Image Link (case sensitive) : https://urlzs.com/YpCS7