“Tom shouted. Cirille got up, hearing laughter from his posse and the audience .The [Clown] glared, then turned it into a grin.”
-> “Tom shouted. Cirille got up, hearing laughter from his posse and the audience. The [Clown] glared, then turned it into a grin.”

Sleeping God – Dragon told Ryoka that this is not god and thing is more nianced

There’s also the S&W 340PD, and the SP 101. Probably others.

Many of the “causes” he seems to fight for do seem fairly petty, especially for how much death and destruction he causes in return.

For example, the gnolls. A few hundred might have died, and that sucks, absolutely. But it’s probably as many or less than what would normally die against drakes. And in return, he decides he’s going to kill 1,000 Belchan citizens for every gnoll that died. That is way, way out of proportion.

Another example was back in his earlier chapters. He wiped out an entire Order of people all because of one little girl. Not saying that Order was good – it seems like they weren’t, even if they likely had their own reasons for doing what they did – but again, it’s a hugely disproportionate response.

So, sure, maybe other people started most of the fights. But its also true Flos will use the smallest excuse possible to start a massive war, killing and/or enslaving tens of thousands of people, if he feels it is justified. And he often doesn’t seem to go after the truly bad targets – he was more than willing to let Roshal continue to exist because it served his purposes, even though they likely commit way more atrocities against people than any of the things he uses to justify his causes.

The bombs dropped on Japan are relatively tiny compared to modern nuclear weapons. The Blighted Kingdom might have a few dozen, or even a few hundred Tier 7 spells available. Earth has over 10,000 nuclear warheads that would probably be equivalent to Tier 8 magic. And we have the capacity to produce more of those, while essentially no one living on Innworld currently can do better than Tier 6 magic, other than perhaps Teriarch or similar.

The Antinium left because the corruption of Rhir is in the ground itself. It likely sets a maximum limit for the sizes the hives could ever achieve. And with the sleeping god spawning new monsters at various intervals, it also means the hives there would be constantly under assault from nearly every direction.

The Blighted Kingdom also likely saw the Antinium as just another monster species, not something that could ever be bargained with or made into allies. We know for sure, now, that many of the “Demons” aren’t actually even Demons, but other species that used to exist in the world. And, potentially, that the Demons didn’t start the war.

I find it increasingly likely the original Blighted Kingdom was formed by humans that were simply massive bigots. The Demons were just people still living on Rhir after the crelers wiped out nearly everyone, and were mutated over time by the corruption in the land. When the Blighted Kingdom started, they persecuted the mutated people until it reached the point of violence, after which they were labeled as “Demons” and were made to be seen as just another type of monster spawned on Rhir.

As for why they can control monsters, it could be something as simple as lots of Monster Tamer classes. Or perhaps a similar class specialized for creatures also affected by the corruption. Or whoever the Deathless and/or Demon King are have skills that allow for it. I could see a King getting a Skill such as [Unit: Monster Legion] or whatever.