An unlikely group of guests graced the halls of my castle the next day. The first to answer my summons was Lilith Darkviper, master of the Darkviper clan. The second guest of honor was Ayana Vernon, Queen of Reuland and subordinate of Lilith. Of course, my knight, Einar the Unbreakable was seated at his spot beside me. And yours truly sat at the head of the table, though it was mostly round.

Such prestigious leaders sat in wait for Rayna Doomhorn, the new master of the Doomhorn clan. Dion, her son, was making a bit of a fuss because he wanted to see his father. It was, an awkward feeling. It didn’t feel right to use a spell and calm him down, or put him to sleep. But I did have the attention of some rather busy people, I couldn’t put it off for too long. “Leave him with a knight,” I advised, “they won’t hurt him.”

Rayna reluctantly agreed. She kind of realized I wasn’t actually as ruthless of a person I made myself out to be after we chattered last night. But I knew at the end of the day she felt forced to do as I said. Finally, she took her seat.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” I said. Ugh, I feel like I’m heading a meeting. “Queen of Reuland, Ayana Vernon,” I pointed at her and introduced. “Lilith Darkviper, master of the Darkviper clan. Rayna Doomhorn, master of the Doomhorn clan. My retainer, Einar the Unbreakable.” I joined my fingers together on the table. “We’re here to discuss our plans.”

And discuss we did, but I had to make it clear to them that I was actually willing to listen to their suggestions. Because most of this was planned by Lilith, she spoke the most about it. The high-ranking officers of the demon clans had magical devices that could store mana, which they used to quickly mature their own children. Her plan, essentially, was to slowly mix and merge demons into the human continent, extract the ambient mana that was in rather high concentrations and bring it back to Nemus. Ambient mana was generated by many living things, including plants and trees, and the human continent had more than enough.

However, immature demons couldn’t come across to the human continent; the miasma they emitted when they were under affliction from the pact would kill the trees, animals, and other low-level organisms just like Ashen Wither did. It would lessen the amount of ambient mana the human continent could produce naturally.

Rayna and I loved the idea, but Ayana and Lilith weren’t so happy about it, even though it was Lilith’s idea. “Change doesn’t come about so easily. And, forcing it isn’t good either, even if we don’t hurt them in the process. So…”

I see. It made sense, somewhat. Her idea was to become demon queen, and force these ideals, or at least offer them to demons of her own clan that were willing. Queen Ayana would endorse it and once there were enough rumors of the benefits of demon adventurers, an official trade contract could be formed. Lilith’s idea was to have demons in as many adventurer parties as possible and help humans with things they weren’t strong enough to do, like killing particular death list monsters.

In return, the mana-collecting would be increased by bounds and leaps, giving them way more than ever needed. It was a win-win for both sides. Once it got traction, other clans would want a slice of the pie too, and would opt-in.

But, in order to start that process, there was an obstacle I had to get rid of – Demon King Fyren. However, that had to wait for a bit. My first order of business was protecting the Doomhorn clan. It wouldn’t be long before news of my takeover reached Fyren’s ears.

I really tested my MP that day. After I returned Rayna and Dion to the Doomhorn territory, I bolstered the place with close to a million undead summons. There were at least ten thousand berserkers mixed in there, and over two hundred thousand revenants. Hmm… I looked at my hands of bone. My power was astronomical, almost to the point that I was a broken character. No game designer would ever give an NPC this much power and allow it to interfere with the game. I needed answers, and I knew I could only find them from either Lich Kaya, or Niran the Primeval.

I sat back for a couple minutes and allowed my mana to regenerate. The amalgam of towers that was the Doomhorn master’s house had an amazing view, despite the miasma about the air. I imagined this place was once a paradise, back when demons were elves.

“Why?” I asked, taking a page from Solina and roughhousing with the elephant in the room, the elephant that was present in the mind of every demon. “You were elves. Why make a pact with a devil?”

Rayna paused and laughed. “No one knows. That was a long time ago.” She stared blankly at the papers in front of her – all work she had to catch up on – then sighed. “Only the oldest of the old would know. But, perhaps Lilith Darkviper or Fyren would know as well.”

Agares should know too. When I summoned her yesterday, every demon that saw her had an intrinsic fear so visceral that it felt like they swallowed their own tongues. So, I summoned her again.