After hearing the words “Diablo Clan”, the demon stopped his pen and placed it calmly on the table. He looked up at the soldier with deep eyes then asked in a tempered manner.
“Do you know what they’ve been doing inside the city?” → Demon
“Yes! They entered a clothes shop and bought almost everything inside, paying to the last copper coin.” → Soldier
“Clothes…?” → Demon
The demon looked a little bit confused when he thought to himself.
For what does the Diablo Clan need clothes from such a faraway place? They are close to the capital of the Demon Kingdom, which is in the center of the continent while this city is at the edge in the Est. which is also close to the most distant point from the capital… → Demon
“From what gate you said they entered?” → Demon
“From the Eastern one, sir.” → Soldier
“East?!” → Demon
The Lord asked with raising eyebrows. The Eastern gate opens up only to the Ocean which has nothing but a huge ravine. The only reason why they still have that gate is for quick evacuations of the city in case a huge wave of beasts strikes them down.
Not even a harbor or even a shore is on that side… From where did they come from? I’m really curious now. → Demon
“Go and tell them, the city lord invited them to dine with him. If they refuse then don’t insist, we need no problems but to form a friendly connection.” → Demon
The demon got up and commanded the guard in a firm voice.
“S-sir? Excuse my rudeness but are you sure about this?” → Soldier
The soldier asked while fidgeting. The notoriety of the Diablo Family was known everywhere on the continent. The last thing this soldier wished was to let such dangerous people inside his lord’s mansion.
“I understand what you’re thinking, but being of such a renowned family, it would be me the one who didn’t give them any face by not inviting. If they start later to make a ruckus as for why the Lord hasn’t welcomed them yet, this entire city will be doomed.” → Demon
The Lord explained in a calm and composed manner. After thinking some more, he made a slight smile and continued.
“Besides, I’m really curious as for why the sudden visit. If I could win some kind of favor from them, wouldn’t I be on the winning end then?” → Demon
“Y-yes sir…” → Soldier
The guard approved while sweating bullets.
It seems that my Lord loves to play with fire… The Demonic Wolf clan is renown for their courage but… this is too much. → Soldier
“Alright, go now! Don’t make them wait any longer.” → Demon
“Yes sir.” → Soldier
The guard prepared to leave and gather some more men when the Lord gives him another command.
“Also, wear the regal armor for a better presentation. We need to show respect to the Diablo Clan.” → Demon
“Yes sir!” → Soldier
We entered a clothes store and brought almost everything inside. The seller was a young dog beast-man and he trembled from the time we entered the store till we left. Even though we paid the money and didn’t make any scene inside, his forehead was sweating bullets all the time we were inside.
This Diablo family or whatever, who in the world are they? → Shen
I started thinking while looking through a window and saw my appearance.
I was thinking of Lissa while changing my appearance but I only changed the horns, being like those of a demon… She looked pretty demon-like with those red eyes and black hair, I was thinking it might work…it seems is working too well now. Hm~? By the way, Lissa always tries to change the subject when we were talking about family matters, no? → Shen
I thought with some interest while buying whatever clothes I saw in the store, I felt like I really should insist on this subject next time I talk with her. After we got everything we wanted, we walked to the exit. However, right at that moment, I saw 11 soldiers lined up right in front of the exit looking at us. As if waiting for us, they marched our way in a militaristic manner.
Tsk. I knew it. It was too easy for some illusion spell to work this well. → Shen
I opened my palm and on it, a little black-hole appeared, ready to create a star the moment I fed it some gas from around. For now, I was keeping it in a void space.
I’ll just blow the gate up and run through the commotion if they show any hostility. → Shen
Right when I created the black hole, everyone stopped and bowed down in front of me and Sylvia. The one from the middle was a demon with golden armor, devil wings and blue hair. He stepped forward and saluted:
“The city lord wishes to greet the young master and mistress! He invited you to his humble castle for dinner and a wish for closing a friendly link between the young master, young mistress and him!” → Soldier
“…”
I looked with indifferent eyes at the soldiers, making them feel uncomfortable.
Dine with the lord? The Diablo family is truly respected but I got no time right now. → Shen
“We have to excuse ourselves but-” → Shen
“We’ll go.” → Sylvia
Sylvia answered before I could finish what I started, making me look at her with wide-open eyes.
Sylvia? → Shen
I asked a little bit surprised through telepathy.
If the Lord wishes to make a friendly connection with us, then we can ask from him to make us a favor and bring everyone to their homes. We can make up some lies, saying they are our men and how they were kidnapped and took as prisoners or something. → Sylvia
Sylvia told me through telepathy while smiling at me.
…Great idea. Very well done, Sylvia. → Shen
I smiled back then continued.
“Alright, lead the way then.” → Shen
I commanded the soldiers in an overbearing voice, just like a snobbish young man. I felt like I needed to play my role of highly arrogant and dangerous idiot from the capital.
“Yes!” → Soldier
The soldiers looked like some kind of burden got lifted from their backs.
He almost rejected. Thanks to the young mistress we were able to invite them successfully. → Soldier
We walked till we entered a huge black castle. It had slim and huge towers, with pointy, round roofs. The interior was illuminated by blue crystals. Even though the windows were few, small and far in between, the castle was well illuminated by the blue and white crystals which shone with a bright shine. We walked till we entered the dining hall. Inside it, a long table with a red sheet on top was placed right in the middle. Around it were exactly 8 chairs, with 1 at both ends of the table. In the top-most of the table, a noble demon was waiting while sitting up beside his chair with a polite smile. His horns were red, his eyes golden while his hair black.
He looks a little bit like a demonic Ryu with a nice beard and mustache. → Shen
I tried to hold back a giggle when I saw him. The demon got up and greeted us with a gentleman-like behavior.
“I welcome the Diablo’s young master and young mistress. Please have a sit and dine with me from the best delicacies around this area.” → Demon
The demon bowed politely and showed us to our sits, right beside him. We sat down first while he sat after us, then the servants around the room started bringing all kinds of delicious and sometimes disgusting kinds of foods.
“I’m honored to have the Diablo Clan inside my house. I wish you’ll have a relaxing and good time inside our humble town.” → Demon
The demon said with a humble smile.
“We thank you for your invitation, mister city lord.” → Sylvia
Sylvia bowed her head politely while I nodded in greetings. I already talked to Sylvia. It seems the Diablo is an arrogant kind of Demon, by other’s reactions, they are the type of nobility which are doing whatever they wish. I said I’ll take the role of the idiotic and arrogant young master while she will be the wise, humble but firm fiancée of this idiotic young master. Like this, we can keep the arrogant and fearful image but be able to talk normally at the same time.
“Ah, How rude of me. Please let me introduce myself. My name is Charl Haineken, I’m from the Devil wolf clan and also this little city’s lord.” → Demon Charl
The demon got up and introduced himself with a polite bow.
“I’m Shen Diablo while this beauty here is my fiancée, Sylvia Diablo. We have the same surname but we’re from different families under the same clan.” → Shen
I said with some arrogance. To my surprise, I had the time of my life in playing this arrogant kind of role.
Damn! It feels good to be bad~. → Shen
Don’t get over yourself now. → Sylvia
Sylvia giggled while feeling my spirit relaxing and dilating from the overgrowing pride.
“Nice to meet you, young master Shen, young mistress Sylvia. Now, if it’s not too much trouble, may I ask what’s the reason to honor my humble city with your presence, coming from the Demon Kingdom’s capital region, to here?” → Demon Charl
The city lord asked in a probe, trying not to seem rude.
“There is no problem. While we were on some travels around the continent, we got news about how some of our servants got kidnapped on their way to the next city. We told them to build a new mansion somewhere more secluded as a Holiday house for me and my fiancé. They wore some ragged clothes for work at that time. It seems they were confounded with slaves because of that.” → Sylvia
Sylvia giggled with her hand on her mouth like a true lady, talking about it as if it wasn’t a big deal at all.
“Hm? And what happened after that?” → Demon Charl
Charl asked with surprise in his eyes, the story seemed quite incredible, but he didn’t dare to suspect them of anything.
“What else? We searched for them with detection magic. I thought at first they wanted to escape so I already more up some torturing methods for them. However, we found them being transported with a huge ship of pirates. It seemed those bastards wished to sell my men as slaves. For that, I used the torturing methods of them then killed every damn pirate, took the ship and sailed back to the shore 2 days from here.” → Shen
I said with some indifference in my voice, trying to sound as evil and arrogant as possible. And again, I didn’t have any kind of acting-problems with that.
“But there is no shore in East from here though?” → Charl
He asked without thinking while remaining a little bit confused.
“I know, that’s why I created one. I hate sailing, so I destroyed the ravine and made it into a shore.” → Shen
It’s quite incredible how this is the only true part of our story… → Sylvia
Sylvia thought while smiling wryly.
“…” → Demon Charl
The city lord remained a little bit dumbfounded.
Just because you don’t like the natural environment, you change it completely? As expected from the Diablo clan. → Demon Charl
“I see. Thank you for answering.” → Demon Charl
I nodded without too much of a care while feeling better and better in my arrogant role-play.
“Now, mister Charl Heineken. My fiancé and I wish to continue our travels but we also wish to bring everyone to their homes. Can we ask for your assistance in bringing them back to their places? We’ll pay as much as is needed.” → Sylvia
“Hmm?!” → Demon Charl
Charl starred at Sylvia as if she said the weirdest thing ever. After a few seconds of weird silence, I finally understood which was the weird part in that conversation.
“What’s with that look, City Lord? Our people might be slaves, but my Sylvia still wished to make them a place to stay in. And because of that, every single one of them chooses where to live. Right?” → Shen
I said while posing an annoyed face as if saying that she was too nice to the slaves. Sylvia looked back at me then she understood the hidden message.
“Well~ my mother always said that A lively tool always works better than a depressed one. So I thought that if the slaves are happy, then they might work more efficiently~.” → Sylvia
Sylvia smiled sweetly, making both me and Charl feel a cold wind down our spine.
You came up with quite the terrifying lie. → Shen
One has to play his role of a demon until the end, right~? → Sylvia
“I-I understand. I’ll be honored to be of help to the Diablo Clan. Just invite your people inside my castle, I’ll take care of everything. And about the payment, there is no need for such things.” → Demon Charl
Charl said with a polite smile on his face, his doubts disappeared completely.
“I thank you with all my heart, mister Charl Heineken.” → Shen
I nodded again in agreement, without saying anything, while Sylvia smiled brightly. After we conversed some more and after we finished dining with the city lord, Sylvia and I rushed back to give everyone some clothes and invite them to the city lord’s castle. Charl was surprised to see such diversity as part of my servants, being from all ages and almost all races, but he didn’t comment anything. The elves were left outside the city. I was thinking of trying new magic to transport everyone.
When we were sailing, I asked the elf leader in which direction we should go so we can be the closest to the World Tree Yggdrasil. He said is in the most S-E point, but because of the icebergs and a huge amount of demonic beasts, we had to stop sooner.
After everyone got inside a carriage, we thanked the city lord and I gifted him “just a sword” made from a thin, glass-like material which was sharp enough to cut diamond in one slice and go through stone like butter. Charl was completely thunderstruck when he saw the sword and he was dumbfounded when I said it’s just a sword I found through my travels, take it and do whatever you wish with it. This is for your services. He thanked me profoundly then we left back to take the elves.
“Alright everyone. I want you all to stay as close as possible.” → Shen
I commanded to everyone, Dhavala, Sylvia, Theo and Melinda included.
“[Light, avoid us]!!” → Shen
After using this command, we became invisible to everyone who used their eyes to detect their surroundings, then I created a floor of pressed gas, making it solid enough for them to step on.
“Everyone, step on this platform.” → Shen
After they did as told, I jumped in front of them all and tried to control the platform. With just a mental-wave, it started to lightly levitate in the air, however it was still too low.
It’s still too heavy…then [Null Gravity]. → Shen
Everyone started to levitate in the air, making them some even fly away from the platform. I got irritated by the little miscalculation then, [Mana Tentacle] tentacles made of mana shoot out from the floor made of compressed gas and grabbed everyone’s waist to keep them on the platform.
“Finally everything looks alright… Now, show the way.” → Shen
I sighed then looked at the elves’ leader.
“Keep going South. if we go straight South we’ll reach the World Tree in 5 weeks if we move as fast as a wind-carriage.” → Elf Leader
“That’s too long, I’ll make it one day, hold tight!” → Shen
I made a dynamic wall in front so the wind won’t make anyone eat a fly and at the same time, dynamic enough so it won’t resist too much the air. We started to fly with the speed of sound, looking like a huge bullet made from mana, cutting through the atmosphere.
“W-with this speed, we might get there in not even half a day!” → Elf Leader
The elf was really happy, he can finally get home after so much time. And he wasn’t the only one. Everyone around him was the same, with hope and excitement in their eyes.
Why is there so much infested mana around here? → Shen
I was able to see below us a lot of places from where miasma was evading like poisonous gas. Everything it touched either died or took a demonic form. Be them plants, animals or rocks, everything took a more eerie and nightmarish appearance, giving anyone the creeps.
Is it from the broken seal? Or is it from something else? I can’t really tell. → Shen
If this kind of energy would suddenly burst inside a village, everyone would either die instantly or get corrupted, transforming into an evil spirit or undead.
I’ll look into this later. → Shen
We flew like this for more than 6 hours when we finally saw a huge tree. It was as big as the biggest mountain on Earth, being visible from almost a hundred kilometers away.
“W-why it’s like this…?”
Even though the tree was visible, everybody had the face of despair. At the base of the tree, all kinds of races were fighting against the elves and were burning the trees around. It looked like total war. The demonic armies had around 100.000 soldiers while the elves had a total of around 60.000 soldiers. There were some kinds of huge ships without sails but weird engines that flew over the forests, dropping explosives on top of them or shooting cannons, numbering in dozens. Huge golems with armor and swords were decimating everything in front. Elemental entities were fighting back against the golems, looking more like elemental giants rather than spirits. Huge trees were fighting against the invaders, throwing boulders at them. Wyverns were spitting fire to kill them while some were hit by the flying boulders.
Demons and beast-men of all races from the Eihwaz continent were fighting against the elves in an all-out frontal attack. The ones who couldn’t fight anymore were either killed or took as prisoners. The elves had some allies from the other races too, but most of them were mages, fighting from the back while elemental golems protected them when they used area of effect, magic like: [Rain Fire], [Lighting Shower], [Blade-Tornado] and so on. Demons flew with the wyverns to kill from the air while on the ground, arched elves shoot them down accurately, the ships were bombarded with magic like fireball or ice spears, some more high power-ranked elves were flying, trying to bring down some ships but were intercepted by high demons, starting an epic fight in the air. The ground was quaking and breaking while the air was twisting and tearing. Blood was raining from the fights on the sky, or from the exploded bodies of both camps, turning the entire battlefield blood-red.
Nobody could say a word, I flew above all the carnage when suddenly a huge asteroid appeared right above us. While the huge asteroid was closing upon us, I didn’t even look up but said to Dhavala in a serious tone.
“Dhavala Ashura, your first strong enemy in a while, don’t underestimate it.” → Shen
“Understood.” → Dhavala
“Here. Take these, now go and have your fun.” → Shen
I gave him two Obsidian Gauntlets and sent him down to flank the demons from behind. Even though it was a ridiculous idea to send just one man to flank an army, Dhavala was already a one-man army himself. Sending him alone was more than enough.
Dhavala jumped high from the platform toward the asteroid.
“[Yang Palm]” → Dhavala
He formed a palm in which a little sun appeared from the condensed chi. The sun started to shine more and more and become smaller and smaller when suddenly he activated another skill [Nova Explosion].
Dhavala struck forward with his palm, then the entire explosion made by the little sun released forward to the asteroid. The beam lasted only for a flash but it was enough to turn the asteroid into dust. To my surprise, Dhavala didn’t only master the Yang-set, but he also upgraded it to be on par with his own ridiculous amount of chi.
I created yet another monster. Good. To fight the world, one needs Titans. I’ll be sure to create equals to him in the future. → Shen
I said while looking with sharp eyes at the war. All the gore and blood flying around made anyone seeing it sick in the stomach. However, what I felt wasn’t disgust or fear, but disappointment.
“There is no glory or honor… Just death.” → Shen
I whispered to myself while gazing downwards at the tearing beast-men which were in the middle of all that massacre.
