The Demon King's Hero Of Light 189 Chapter 189 The Devastation Of Kingdoms

"The survivors are in the large house," he said, pointing at the ramshackle shed.

Aella nodded and teleported over, peeking into the doorway as it was too low for her to comfortably fit. The children were sitting on the edges of the bed, looking up at her morosely, the oldest girl holding the baby.

"Where are the adults?" asked Alfred, reappearing beside her and taking in the scene quickly.

"Dad died right after everyone else left," said the oldest boy, not too much younger than the girl. "Mom died this morning, and Auntie went to bury her, but hasn't come back."

Aella glanced over at the graveyard, but didn't see anyone. There was a couple of fresh graves, but it looked like Auntie had fled and left the children to fend for themselves.

"Would all of you like to come with us?" asked Alfred, not stepping into the filthy room. "There's warm clothes and good food there. You won't have to work too hard, either."

"Are there demons there?" asked a little girl. "Daddy said the demons would eat us alive!"

"I know that the church has taught a lot of bad things in the past," said Alfred, cautiously. "Especially about the demons, but I promise that no demon will eat you."

"My people eating days are over," said Aella, hunching down to not be so big. These kids must have been starving, they were so little!

"You actually ate people!" exclaimed a little boy.

"When I was younger," nodded Aella.

"Did you rip out their hearts and eat them raw?" asked another boy, his eyes dancing in excitement.

"Actually," began Aella, but Alfred jumped in.

"We need to get all of you back where it's safe before the storm gets worse," he chimed in cheerfully, drowning out Aella��s words.

She blinked at him, but stopped talking. Maybe a confession wasn't the best idea right now.

"Everyone has to touch her, for her to teleport you," said Alfred, ushering them towards Aella.

"We know," complained one boy, rudely. "We saw how she took the others."

"Will we get to see the others, before you eat us?" asked the oldest girl quietly.

Aella sighed. "I don't eat people anymore, and yes, you should be able to see the others."

Making sure that she wasn't leaving anyone behind, Aella teleported all of them to the field where Josephine was tending to the last of the demons she had brought earlier.

"Alfred, see to the children, I have things I still need to get done," said Aella, stepping back away from the children.

"But, where are you going?" he asked.

Aella smiled and teleported without telling him. After all of the fuss from earlier about her not doing her job as king, Aella wasn't about to tell him she was checking on the other kingdoms. She knew she was the king of the demons, but she still felt responsible for the others since she was technically the one who had caused this mess.

The halfling lands had been swept clean from the torrential storm, but they were snug in their underground villages. She only spent a few minutes there, talking to a few who a.s.sured her they had everyone taken care of, and could spare several more caves worth of food for whoever needed it, as long as she properly repaid them in the future. Agreeing to those terms, Aella bid them goodbye, a.s.suring them she would check back in often in case they needed anything.

The gnomish city looked like an explosion had gone off. Buildings were scattered, roads were filled with debris, and she couldn't find an entrance to the underground bunkers they had mentioned in order to check on them. She intended to return regularly to see if they needed her, but without access to the bunkers, there wasn't much she could do right now.

Teleporting to the elven forest, Aella was shocked to see the trees laid flat. If it wasn't for the barrier, she had around her as a type of air aura, the wind up here would have blown her away. There wasn't a single sign that elves had ever lived here, among the scattered debris. Aella knew the elves didn't have an underground burrow or bunker to hide in, and they surely didn't dig one in the time since she had been here last. As her eyes scanned over the destruction, she noticed tree trunks sticking out of the side of the dwarven mountain.

A sinking feeling had her teleporting over there to check them out. Screams of fear confirmed her suspicions.

"Aella?!" came a shout from one of the trees, and Aella flew closer.

Princess Daefina stood just inside the crack that had formed from the impact of the tree hitting the rock, braced against something to keep from being blown away by the wind. The moment Aella got closer, her aura provided some respite from the wind, and the princess gasped in delight.

"Ha! That's better! What're you doing here?" asked the princess, turning to help some elves that appeared in the sudden calm to start cutting the wood furiously.

"I came to check up on your elves, but instead I find you hiding underground like some dwarf!" laughed Aella in relief. She had not liked the thought of all of the elves dying from the storm.

"My brother had us all pack up and move in with the dwarves until the storm is over. It's a good thing you took all of the lions, because they would have been left to fend for themselves, and from what I'm seeing from here, that wouldn't have been very good for them."

"How are the dwarves taking their new housemates?" asked Aella, as they finished cutting the tree with a loud crack. One half fell down the side of the mountain, for the storm to play with and the other fell inside, with a much more controlled fall. Aella could see the ropes being used to direct it away from the many walkways and such.

"Well, with the hollow structure they have made the mountain, every time the storm flings one of our trees at it, the rock gives way and we have to patch it as soon as possible, or the wing will rip away whole chunks of rock. We've already had to collapse a lot of the lower tunnels as they were flooding from all the rain," said Daefina, motioning for the elves to head for the next damaged section. "It sure would be nice to have someone capable of flight and air control to help out though."

Aella chuckled and nodded. "It's the least I can do."

Waiting for them to finish patching the hole before moving, Aella flew over to the next puncture. This tree was much smaller, and wouldn't take as long for them to cut.

"Sure is a lot easier when you're not also fighting to keep your footing!" laughed one of the elves when she arrived.

"How is everyone doing with food?" asked Aella.

"Not too bad, I don't think," said Daefina, once they had finished the last spot. "I think my brother wanted to talk to you, though. If you have a moment?"

Aella nodded and waited for them to finish patching this spot up before turning to make sure there weren't anymore trees about to be launched this way. She would need to get Rupert over here to secure them all to the ground and to strengthen this wall, though she wasn't sure how the dwarves would take to having an actual earth hero in their presence.

Teleporting to the dwarven throne room, she was amused to see that Voluri, the dwarven king, had allowed Elalar, the elven king, to set up his own throne during their stay. The arrangement left the throne room looking rather interesting as she studied it.

"Aella!" cried the two at the same time, eliciting laughs.

"Greetings," she nodded, settling down on the floor and walking towards them. "Daefina said you wanted to talk to me?"

"We have been talking to Bob, and were wondering if you had a chance to get bars opened up for him in the halfling and gnome lands yet?" asked Elalar.

"Not yet," she said with a frown. "With everything that's been going on, I was trying to make sure everyone was safe at the moment."

"Well, I know that the halflings have plenty of food stored away," said Voluri, "and if you managed to get a bar opened up down there, Bob said he would be willing to facilitate trade between everyone, so you didn't have to try and cart it all over."

"That's nice of him," said Aella, thinking of the money Bob would make off that. "I don't know how to contact the gnomes, though. They've withdrawn into bunkers and I didn't see a way into them."

"Well, I'm sure Bob could help you out," laughed Elalar. "He's the one who helped my people escape the initial rush from the storm. Everyone streamed into the bar in the forest and out of the bar in the mountains. It was quite an adventure!"

"Bob a.s.sured me it was an emergency type thing only," grumbled the dwarven king with a shake of his head.