The Old Scholar

Stepping out of the portal, Leilani's eyes gazed upon a sprawling city before her as she looked down. She was on a mountain top and it seemed that this entire dimension was now much more vibrant and full of life than before, massive beasts that eclipsed any in her world were all around her, all of them equal to the size of only the finger or tendril of the Leviathans. To Leviathans, humans were like small bugs much like how ants are to humans. Everything was much bigger here, from the environment, the buildings, the wildlife, etc, Leilani was an ant in a world of giants. But unlike a typical ant which was nothing more than a pest if provoked, Leilani was the harbinger of death, destruction and finality, she had been here before and nearly burnt it all to the ground, and now that she was back, she was determined to finish the job this time. 

None of the Leviathans of this world had detected her presence and it would stay that way unless she wanted otherwise, standing on the top of the mountain after a quick jump up to the summit gave her a much more grander sight. Her mind was now running through the various ways she would wipe this dimension clean of everything, she wanted to be thorough and leave nothing to escape her grasp, locking the dimension down with a spell that cut its ability to link with other dimensions outside to it. As she stood on the mountaintop, she had finally decided on a way to crush these vile insects once and for all. 

"It's a bit too bright here. Let's turn off the lights" Leilani mumbled as she snapped her fingers and the bright and sunny expanse above suddenly turned pitch black. 

{!} 

She smiled as she could hear the screams of the Leviathans down below who were caught unawares and were struggling to understand what was happening. That smile grew as she finally released all of her restraints, she was not going to hold back anymore and finally let loose in the first time in millennia. While no Leviathan could see her, she could still clearly see them, and everything else despite the total darkness. It also helped the darkness she conjured blocked any other senses, meaning there was no way they were going to sense what was coming to kill them. 

This came in the form of large wolf-like monsters made from her carnomancy, these beasts had a set of large tendrils sprouting from the back of its body, with each tendril ending in either a black crystal that shot out crimson arcane blasts that turned anything to ash, a closed bud-like end that opened into a gaping maw of jagged teeth that latched onto the target and ripped out a huge chunk of flesh it would consume to strengthen itself, or lastly, a large and serrated blade of bone that was designed to cut through anything it could find, unless it was Leilani who was immune to the attacks of her creations. 

Although she was small in stature and size, pouring magic into herself made her the same height as she had the last time she was in this world, being at least the height of the foot of one of these Leviathans. The carnomantic creations she designed were of waist height to the octopi bastards, and this was by design. 

Leilani smiled as she heard the purring noises of her creations who gathered around the mountain, each of them waiting for her command, they could see everything despite the darkness just as she intended and were itching to go on a hunt. One of them climbed up near the top and lowered its head for her to walk on and stand on the top of the beast. 

"Alright my beauties...time to hunt" She said as a bolt of crimson lightning flashed in the background 

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Somewhere else in the dimension, the chief of the Leviathans, Chief M'artak, the strongest, oldest and tallest Leviathan by far,was busy discussing with his advisors on the current state of the invasion, he had heard out of the legion of over a thousand ready to be sent into the target dimension, only one had been sent before the connection had been cut off without warning. 

[A/N: Translated for story purposes hehe]

"What do you mean the connection had cut out completely?! You promised me that our invasion would go without a hitch! Your human spies had not found anyone relating to the mortal who had crushed us last time right? So why did this happen!" He shouted as he looked down at the Leviathan in charge of the invasion 

"Chief. I assure you that it is only a temporary problem, once we figure out why we cannot reconnect to the dimension, the invasion can begin agai-" 

"Silence! I do not wish to hear your excuses! We are the greatest race in all of creation and yet we seem to cannot figure out why things are going wrong. Is that what you are implying?!" M'artak cut the other Leviathan off 

{!} 

But before the other Leviathan could speak again, the skies above them turned black and darkness shrouded them, this was a good thing for M'artak though as the oldest leviathan who had a reputation for showing no mercy now had an expression of absolute fear on his octopi face. His tendrils curled up and his eyes shrank, a chill ran down his spine as his memories from when he was a scared child running with his mother had come back, memories he thought he had locked away for good. 

"Nononono...It can't be" He muttered as he tried to see anything within the darkness, he then conjured up a flame inside at the end of one of his tentacle arms and held it up to his face

 His advisors all gasped as they saw his expression of fear and terror and his whole body shaking, they had never seen this before and this was unsettling to them as well. 

"Gather who you can and make for the northwestern reaches of the world, man the old fort there and wait for me, I will try to rally as many survivors as I can" M'artak spoke 

"But Chief-" 

"GO NOW!" He shouted as he turned around and ran off 

The other Leviathans then did the same as they conjured a flame at the end of their tentacle limbs to light the path before them and then went to fulfill their chief's orders. None of them were sure as to what the hell had gotten him so spooked but none of them wanted to find out either, as if it was enough to scare the strongest Leviathan in existence, it surely would be something they wished to avoid. 

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Meanwhile, Leilani was humming to herself as she rode atop one of her beasts as they strolled through a burning town that lit up the darkness. The sight and sounds of the screaming Leviathans who could not fight back against her creations filled her with delight as she looked around and saw adults and children die in droves to her monstrous creations. She watched as her creations fired arcane blasts from their tendrils, ripped them apart with their tendrils of gaping maws, claws, and their own mouth or just ripped the Leviathans to shreds with their serrated bone blade tendrils. 

"Haaah....brings back memories" She mumbled as her gaze shifted from side to side 

{!} 

Suddenly, one of the smaller Leviathan children and its parent stumble out of an alley and into her path. Both Leviathans looked up at her atop her monstrous steed and shivered as the older Leviathan clung to its child in a protective manner, with the younger Leviathan doing the same, the sounds of whimpering and crying filling the air already plagued with screams and the sounds of burning buildings. The creation Leilani sat atop growled as it readied itself to pounce and kill the pair before it but stood down when Leilani stroked its head 

"Leave this one to me child, lower me down" she commanded and it obeyed as it lowered its head and Leilani walked off of it and stood before the shaking duo 

Standing before them and looking up, Leilani's gaze was unreadable to the duo of Leviathans, but the killing intent and the piercing gaze she gave them were more than enough for them to shiver in place and hold each other even tighter. 

"Please" The adult Leviathan said, its feminine voice surprising the mortal 

"If you are going to kill us, please make it painless for me and my daughter" The mother begged as she held onto her kid tighter 

Leilani was silent as her hands bristled with crimson lighting, the crackling sounds sending shivers down the spines of the duo before her, the Leviathans waiting for the sweet release of death. Leilani on the other hand was contemplating, something she did not expect. She had done this before yes, she had done the practice of wiping out a race off the face of the world before, the first of which were the people of the Khanate of Cretorum, a nation that had wiped her original people to the last man, she had wiped them out in the name of revenge, every man, woman and child, with no exception. The same goes for the Leviathans the first time around, she had wiped almost all of them to extinction and was on the cusp of doing so except that she made the mistake of hoping these things would have learned not to anger her but look where that thinking got her. 

Her home was almost invaded in its entirety, by the same race she had spared the first time. It was supposed to be an easy thing to do this time around no? They had barged into her home with the intent of killing all, so why couldn't she? Why was she now hesitant? She had sent her monsters to hunt and kill without discrimination and they had done just that, man, woman, or child, all of them were to be targets. But before her, a mother and her child, why was she now hesitating? Her mind could not fathom the reason why now of all times it chose to ask her to rethink her decision. The monster inside her was begging to be released from the leash it was being held on, but she would just not let it out, not yet. 

"Do you regret your actions?" Leilani asked them 

"What?" 

"I said. Do you regret your actions? Yes or No. The answer you give me will determine your fate" Leilani cut off the mother with the question again 

"I...I regret our actions" The mother answered, with Leilani looking her down, her magic and senses determining that she spoke the truth 

"Do you know why your race is suffering this tragedy?" Leilani asked 

"I...I was told it was because of our so-called wayward creations but I truly did not believe that nonsense" The mother replied 

"Were you the only one who thought like this?" Leilani asked 

"I believe so, there were others but they were executed...I, I taught my daughter the same thinking I had in that we should be better than our ancestors" 

"I see..." Leilani thought as she tapped into the devoured corpses inside her carnomantic creations to see if the Leviathan before her was speaking the truth 

She scanned numerous memories and saw that there were indeed a very small amount of Leviathans who tried to turn the species around but were all killed off, the duo before her were the last of them. 

"Hmm...I have decided on your fate" Leilani said, her words drawing the attention of the two 

"Yes?" The mother hesitantly asked 

"If you both renounce your loyalty to your race and swear fealty to me...I will let you live" The mortal stated 

There was a small pause as the mother looked down at her child who was shivering, still not understanding what was going on. She then turned her gaze back to the mortal who was busy killing her race, her thoughts going back to happier times when she and others tried to turn their species around. But after dodging multiple attempts to be killed and now seeing the mortal that had nearly wiped them to extinction written in the texts, it was safe to say she knew her choice then and there when it was offered. 

"We renounce our race, and swear our undying loyalty to you. Master" The mother stated with a bow, with the daughter following suit. 

"Hmm..very well then. Wait inside this pocket dimension of mine and gather yourselves. I will be busy eradicating the plague that is the rest of your former race" Leilani stated as she conjured up a portal 

"Understood Master, thank you so much" The mother stated with a relieved tone as she quickly carried her daughter into the portal 

When the portal closed, Leilani took a breather, she realized why she had not killed the duo before her despite her rage and reasonable justifications for doing so. Despite the monster on the leash wanting to kill everything, it still knew not to kill those who it realized were innocent. For example, she killed every single Cretoruman to the last because she saw that they were an unrepentant race that wanted to kill all of those who were not the same as them and continue their lifestyle of power, making Leilani see them as nothing more than monsters that needed to be eradicated, but for the Leviathans, a race purposefully designed to be the 'bad guys' she pitied them deep down and hoped they could overcome their programming as a race, only for them to fail at this and restart their attempts at wiping out her world. 

But the duo before her had proven her otherwise, they lived lives that had tried to overcome their programming and were successful but were hunted down and ostracized from everyone else, something that ironically saved them in the end. 

A sigh escaped the lips of the old mortal, her eyes of crimson still glowing with the rage and fervor from before like it had never been dulled by the encounter just now but rather had been solidified by it, she took a deep breath as she walked back onto her monstrous steed and then let out a small chuckle, her eyes then opened and it showed an even more determined gaze than before. 

"Right. Let's finish the job" She muttered with a slight glee in her tone

For the following hours, Leilani had finally unshackled the monster inside her that craved for blood from its leash, her mind going wild and her actions following suit. First was that she made copies of herself who then made more carnomancy monsters that spread out across the dimensional world, with each Leviathan corpse being absorbed and transformed into hideous abominations that hunted the still-living Leviathans. The pitch-black darkness lit only by the barely bright fire magic of the leviathans and the sights of burning towns and once glamorous cities gave a haunting backdrop the slaughter that unfolded. 

The Leilani clones were just as ruthless as the original as they sprang forth from their steeds and trapped villages, towns and cities in massive clear barriers before performing her favorite attack in the form of landing in the middle of the barrier and then wielding fleshy tendrils sprouting from her back and a weapon in the form of a sword, hammer, axe or anything else and then going to town slaughtering the unfortunate Leviathans trapped within the barrier, with any that tried to escape to the fringes being cut down or blasted, eviscerated or cut to pieces by her carnomancy creations waiting in the dark, their growls being the only thing heard before they would strike. 

Meanwhile, the original Leilani was busy having fun with her slaughter. She had decided to just use her magic to get rid of her foes, once again trapping large regions with invisible barriers before going on a hunt, sending out crimson beams of arcane magic that disintegrated anything to ash, or firing off blizzards of icy winds that froze and shattered her foes, or even just making giant graves lined with spikes that she could corral them into after all, it was mostly dark and the only sources of light were the already burning environment around and the burning cities or towns in the distance. She even cast a spell that ramped up the screaming, allowing those in the distance to hear the cries and shrieks of those who were dying to her clones and other beasts. 

This went on for hours and hours all across the dimension, until Leilani had received an interesting notification from one of her clones, it had reported that the reanimated Leviathan corpses she sent towards the northwestern reaches were destroyed by a Leviathan who had been able to see them in the dark. This information made her smile as she wanted to see firsthand this Leviathan who was putting up a feeble fight. Teleporting there right away, Leilani saw a Leviathan standing in the middle of a field of burning Leviathan corpses that lit up the darkness, the Leviathan before her was much older than the ones she had slaughtered already, its beady red eyes looking at her up and down as it began to conjure up magic projectiles around it. 

"Pitiful" Leilani mumbled as she flicked her wrist and mentally casting a spell that destroys everything below the Leviathan's knees. Causing it to fall to the ground in pain

{!}

It raised its head and then growled as it let loose its tentacle limbs at blinding speeds to try and crush the small mortal but was horrified when Leilani brought out Augusta and skillfully shredded the tentacles into disorganized chunks that could not reattach themselves to the main body. It then groaned when Leilani snapped her fingers and conjured up gigantic metal rods that snaked and coiled around the Leviathan and then dug deep into its skin while also firing off an incantation that blocked all of its magic and amplifying the pain it was experiencing while also raising it off the ground, making the groan turn into a shriek and then a cry. But despite the immense pain it was in, its eyes kept looking down at the mortal before it, 

"Ohoho, I think I recognize you and you recognize me...You were that little child with his mother during the first purge I had done of this dimension right? Little M'artak all grown up" Leilani taunted with a wide grin as she scanned the beast's memories. 

"You...It can't be possible!" M'artak growled in pain 

"I told you that if you dared to enter my dimension again I would wipe you all out, and guess what? You did just that, now I am setting out what I promised to do" Leilani replied, the grin on her face going wider as she made the metal rods twist and turn inside the old Leviathan 

"GAAAAAGH! NOT LIKE THIS!" M'artak cried as he felt the pain amplify a hundredfold, his eyes looking up into the black nothingness and his life flashing before his eyes as he looked back on everything he had done to get his race to this point in time, the sacrifices he made, the fellow Leviathans he killed in order for them to become stronger, 

All that sacrifice and hardship, all that effort he put in slaving away to lead his race to become stronger than before, all for naught as they were now about to be finished, and this time, it was all his fault. He tried to shift his glance back down but could not find the strength to as he continued his screams, 

{!} 

BOOOM! 

And then, M'artak exploded into chunks of flesh, the iron rods inside his body detonating on Leilani's command. While he was busy screaming and regretting what he had done, Leilani had scanned his mind to find out where the last vestiges of this damnable race were hidden, and thanks to the discarded and very much dead brain of M'artak, she now knew. 

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After combing the dimension for another two hours just to make sure she did not leave anyone else alive, she had gathered everything to assault this final redoubt of defiance against her. She reabsorbed her clones and she had a full-scale army of reanimated and carnomancy-buffed Leviathan corpses and more carnomancy monsters in the form of dragons, scorpions, orcs and other creatures. But they were merely just to look intimidating and surround the place from outside, above and underground, with the barriers in place, there was no way to escape from her wrath now and she was going to make sure of it. She peeled back the dark skies and neverending night, bringing back the clear blue sky and the bright day just for this occasion, she had thought long and hard on how she was going to finish them, but now she had decided on what to do. 

She grabbed a large black crystal from her item box and poured a Leviathan's worth of magic into it to ensure it was to be used at its fullest capacity, a smile on her face as she then enchanted it with several spells that would make it impossible for it to be moved or even carried from its position by anyone but her, she then stood on a peak near the mountain fortress, and threw the crystal as hard as she could, breaking the protective barrier and smashing the thick section of wall in the way, planting the crystal smack dab in the middle of the place, she then hovered above the fortress as her army of monsters slowly trudged forward from all sides, prompting the Leviathans inside the fortress to desperately fight and ignore the crystal she threw, and after a few moments, she let out a smile and a giggle as she clasped her hands together

{!} 

Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light for a few seconds before a massive shockwave blew past her. In place of where the fortress and the entire mountain range once stood was a massive mushroom cloud that streaked high into the atmosphere, before a massive explosion roared into the air for a few moments before subsiding just like the shockwave. She had nuked the place and erased both the fortress and the mountain range it was placed in, leaving only a crater the size of a small continent behind. 

"What's done is done...to the souls who were not avenged last time, I dedicate this to you" Leilani mumbled before she teleported out of the dimension that began to collapse on itself

A/N: And here we go! Leilani's massacre and I hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as I had fun writing it. If you got comments or reactions, let me see in the comments below and as always Stay Safe and Enjoy Your Day!