Lady Xinun's Castle, Lady Xinun's P.O.V.

The guards around the throne look nervous, it seems I have been a little too brutal lately. While I need them to fear me, I also do not want them to become desperate. For the next few days I will have to restrain myself and not kill anyone who doesn't deserve it.

Guard says "Lady, Helker has arrived."

"Bring him to me right now!"

The guard turns and dashes out of the throne room, eager to escape my gaze. I notice a few of the guards throwing envious glances his way, but I let it pass. At least for now, Helker's report is far more important, my fun can wait for now.

Helker is my new lieutenant, he isn't as strong as Trezon, but he is more intelligent and cunning. That is the only reason I promoted him, he is no fun at all, unlike Trezon. His intelligence has made him a good spymaster, which is what I need the most.

Helker enters and says "My Lady!"

"Report!"

Helker says "Our infiltration of the empire is going well. Recently I even got a spy into the imperial court. Also I found what I think will be an interesting pawn."

"Interesting how?"

Helker says "He was a guildmaster in Illium and he hates Ash with a passion. Not only has he provided full details on Illium but also on Ash's activities since you released him."

"What can you tell me about Ash then?"

Helker says "First, I have confirmed that he has completely wiped out the shadow demons!"

"Good, one less enemy for us to worry about! What else?"

Helker says "Ash has spent a lot of time and effort on the beast tribes. He already has complete control of all the outcast villages."

"The beastmen could be a serious problem, especially if they are unified. I trust you have a plan to deal with this?"

Helker says "It has already begun. Ash hates slavers, and the empire has a lot of slaves. We are covertly encouraging conflict between them. Ash has earned the loyalty of the kingdom and Illium, our goal is to start a war between them and the empire. No matter who wins, all of them will be weakened!"

"It sounds good, if you can pull it off."

Helker says "I won't fail you, Lady Xinun!"

"If you do, you will beg for death! But, if you succeed, you will be rewarded!"

Helker says "I will absolutely succeed!"

"Do you have anything else to report?"

Helker says "Yes, we have successfully started a cult on the island. Within a month we will start summoning new demons directly to the island."

"Good! You are dismissed! I have to meet with the other lords."

Helker bows until his head touches the floor and then backs out of the room. With a wave I send all the guards out leaving me alone for a few minutes. Then I gather a thousand mana into my throne to begin the meeting process.

One by one the images of the other four demon lords appear, and my image appears before them. A bystander wouldn't be able to tell that they are not in the room physically. Lords Bibiq, Sakra, Timment, and Zzenth each greet me politely as they appear.

After returning their greetings I give them a briefing on our intelligence operations. The five of us already agreed to work together, even when dealing with covert operations. The island we found is being occupied by demons of all five lords, we are working together in everything.

Lord Sakra says "I also have spies in the empire, I will instruct them to assist."

Lord Bibiq says "I will do the same."

Lord Timment says "My spies are focused on the Free Union."

Lord Zzenth says "My people are in the wilds north of the empire and the kingdom. But if you need either to be attacked, I can do that."

"Lord Timment, can you have your people try to delay Ash from growing too big in the Free Union?"

Lord Timment says "I will have them try. However, I won't compromise my plans to do so. My purpose in the Free Union is to lay the groundwork for our invasion."

"I understand that, anything helps. Speaking of preparing for the invasion, I have an idea."

Lord Sakra says "We are in this together, go ahead and speak."

"I would like the four of you to send me your new recruits and your engineers."

Lord Bibiq says "To what purpose?"

"I want to start building a road across the land bridge. It will allow our armies to move faster and make supplying them easier."

Lord Sakra says "I agree."

Lord Timment says "That only explains the engineers, why do you want our rookies?"

"The land bridge is full of beasts, they can gain experience fighting them and protecting the engineers. They can also serve as manual labor and help clear the jungle."

Lords Bibiq and Timment say "I agree."

Lord Zzenth says "You had me at killing things."

"Alright, that's all I have. Do any of you have anything to bring up?"

Lord Sakra says "Why don't we just kill Ash now?"

"Likely, it would take all five of us to take him, and there would likely be casualties."

Lord Zzenth says "You think he has become that strong?"

Lord Bibiq says "If that is true, then if we give him more time won't he be able to defeat all of us?"

"Yes, I think he is that strong by now. As for the future I don't plan to fight him directly. We will use our elites and our lieutenants and overwhelm him with numbers. Just like our predecessors did to take down the gods."

Lord Timment says "Our lieutenants and elites are not that strong."

"Not yet, but after killing their way through a war for a few weeks they will be. Especially if we focus on raising them up starting now."

Lord Bibiq "Raising up lieutenants is risky, if they get too strong they start thinking they should be in charge."

Lord Zzenth says "Just do what I do, when they get out of hand have the next in line eat them!"

"That's pretty much what I do as well. It works fairly well."

Lord Sakra says "I thought you broke all your lieutenants in bed?"

"No, if they are that easy to break they don't even make it to lieutenant."

Lord Bibiq says "I will take your advice. Are we done now?"

Lord Sakra says "I have no other issues."

Lord Timment says "I believe we have covered everything. We will meet again in a month."

Lord Zzenth says "Finally! I get so bored during these meetings!"

"Until the next meeting."

The four of them disappear quickly, but I don't summon my guards back. Having some time alone to think is nice, so far everything is going according to plan. None of the lords acted suspicious of me, but I still need to proceed carefully.

For now I need them to believe I am cooperating with them in all activities. I am sure they each have their own plans they are keeping secret from me and the others. That much is to be expected, but I doubt they have any idea that I plan to use them all to get Ash.