The Second Layer of the Dimensional procession

  The lord of all demonkind, Dahubu the Blooded, watched as a mob of demons was smote by Templars of Ahee. Their pitch-black armor cut a striking image against the red demons and ground of the second layer.

  For centuries, the religious fanatics of the second layer had invaded the first layer. Little was known of the second layer or above to the denizens of Lindus or the first layer, but the forces of Ahee the Tick-God were a constant feature of it.

  Worshipping their blood god with a fervor, the Templars and Crusaders spilled in huge numbers from portals opened by their god. The demons of the first layer were well used to their intrusions. While the Baracians' betrayal had incapacitated Dahubu, the fanatics had made great progress in their invasion.

  Dahubu strode towards the rift between layers at the head of an army of elite demon warriors and a following mob of conscripts. With a wave of one of his four arms, a rift opened under a formation of Templars and swallowed the core of the group. The rift in the ground closed with a sickening crunch.

  The tide of demons, renewed with reinforcements, swept over the lines of initiates and clerics. The invader’s black armor was rent open with claws or weapons and painted with the human blood of its wearer.

  The infamous hulking warbeasts of Ahee were met with equally massive demonic berserkers covered in the grasping red claw of the Dahubu Imperium. The clash was huge, but no one on the side of the cultists could match Dahubu himself who flattened entire sections of the enemy line with his Dimensional Paragon rank Spirit Core.

  Soon enough, the Templars were pushed back through the rift and off the blood-red soil of the first layer. The rift itself was a clean sphere that cut slightly into the ground.

  Across it, the perpetual midnight of the second layer could be seen. The bioluminescent plants and black starless sky of the second cut a striking contrast with the roiling red clouds and jagged mountains of the first layer.

  Each layer had its own unique environment. The first layer was known for having a distinctive hellish tone, while the second was known for its silent and dark plains of glowing plants and forests of crystal spires. The Second layer was known as the Land of Gemstones and Gunpowder, after all.

  Dahubu reached out to the portal with his magic. The influence of Ahee was wrapped around the manaflows that formed the gate. Rather than make his own costly mana construct, he simply overwhelmed what failsafes the Parasite God had put in place and took control of the gate.

  Hordes of demons of all kinds and power levels flooded the remaining Templars, even though they had been reinforced with the weaker troops not sent across the breach. Dahubu swung his famed two-handed mace through a shield wall of the Crusader conscripts, sending broken bodies flying.

  Forming tendrils of demons, the Red Army spread out across the second layer. Somewhere out there, the Ancient Galivan Empire was besieged on all sides, and Dahubu owed its founder a favor.

  ————

  Azulean City, Capital of the Divine Ahee State

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  Second Layer

  The Blessed Council was the governing body of the Divine Ahee State. A collection of the most powerful and experienced clergy of Ahee, they formed the theocracy that constituted the nation.

  Until the day before the meeting, the war on the demons had been going swimmingly. More territories fell every day, and little meaningful resistance could be found by the Templars. Until Dahubu the Blooded suddenly returned from the dead and smited the entire invasion force at the main portal. Their intelligence network had reported similar losses on the part of the Republican Guard and the Veskayans due to a sudden surge in the strength of the once-dying Dahubu Imperium.

  Now, a swarm of demons spread out across the lands of the Divine Ahee State. The council was in uproar.

  “We must call on our lord! Only divine intervention can save us from this crisis!” “No you defeatist fool, we must rally the Holy Army! All hope is not yet lost!” “The necromancers in Talcodug have capitalized on our sudden weakness; they’ve renewed their advance towards Caproi!” “Infiltrators in Azulean City!”

  As the men in their clerical robes shouted and argued amongst themselves, the head priest, one Aemon D’Arogar, sat in his chair silently. He was an old man, with deep frown lines that showed a life stressed by politics and warmongering.

  “SILENCE!” At that, the other priests finally quieted down. Rising from his seat, Aemon strode to the end of the hall with the podium for giving sermons. “There is still much strength in our country, this is but a smack on the wrist for us. The Holy Army and Templars will be summoned in force to contain the necromancers in the north, the Peiltassan in the west, and the demons to the east. We will have to conjure more Messengers and Heralds to fight the Demon King himself, however.”

  At these words, most of the priests looked thoughtful. “We must stay strong in these trying times. Trust in the inquisitors to deal with whatever infiltration occurs in the capital. We will weather this storm as we have weathered many before it, and as we will weather many again in the future.”

  And so, the battle was joined.

  ————

  The Hive,

  Second Layer

  The Overqueen of the Penumbran swarm stirred in her nest. A huge bug that stood nearly ten feet tall, and whose gaster stretched nearly 60 feet behind her. Deep in the carved stone walls of the hive, lines of pig-sized workers moved processed biomass into her nearly immobile mouth.

  A similar line of workers took eggs from the back end. The queen's mind was simple, half as smart as a human adult. Not truly sentient; simply a biological machine designed to conquer wherever it happened to be.

  The endless wars against the empires of the Second Layer had universally slowed down for the hive. New weapons-loud contraptions that threw steel pellets at incredible speed-mowed down soldiers and titan variant Penumbrans easily.

  The queen was but one of thousands in the central hive. The overqueen had ordered many more queens to be produced, and the hive was exponentially growing. This was lost on the queen's simple mind-the only thing she thought about was the next morsel that would be shoved between her mandibles.

  Something tickled the back of her mind; a faint wave of some mana she didn’t recognize. Every queen sensed it-including the only truly sentient one, the overqueen. She knew what it was. An enemy from before the hive was thrown down into the Second Layer. A taste of demonic mana, interwoven with blood and violence. Dahubu had returned after centuries.

  The overqueen abandoned those thoughts and sent for a new wave of soldiers and titans to attack on the frontlines. The Elemurantese were growing complacent and now was the time to capitalize on their weakness. If a new threat wanted to join the battle, the hive would be ready.

  The petty mortal empires had used the Penumbrans as the bogeyman to scare their children for too long-it was time to show them what there truly was to fear.

  Across the second layer, the coming months brought renewed attacks from the hive and the loss of several key cities to the Elemurant Imperium. The major powers of the second layer were moving, and they had been joined by the superpower of the first layer.