God-Tier Villain

Chapter 9: Chapter 9

"Great Demon Emperor, none of us can see through Soren any longer. I suggest the Great Emperor Palace hold its hand for now."

"Since he refuses peace talks, we send people to watch him and learn his next moves."

"We bide our time and wait for the right opening."

"This avoids startling the snake and endangering the Princes and the Princess, and turns our passive position into an active one, the crisis gets resolved at the smallest cost."

The Great Demon Emperor turned it over in his mind. And nodded.

Soren held three hostages, the Great Emperor Palace held only one, the Sixth Matriarch. With the scales that uneven, restraint was the only sane play.

The boy had taken Abel’s arms and his manhood as an opening move, who knew what else he was capable of?

The Great Demon Emperor would not place a bet he had no chance of winning.

Even so, his thoughts churned like a storm tide, and he found himself muttering the same words over and over.

How? How! My son, who wouldn’t dare kill a chicken, turns into this overnight? And he was deceiving me right under my nose the entire time?

The Ice Heaven Demonic Realm.

Soren sealed the Dantians of Althea and the other two.

Sealing a demon’s Dantian required no special technique, a layer of overwhelming demonic energy pressed over the Dantian was enough to lock their power inside, even stripped of techniques, Soren managed it with ease.

He sat in his chair, gaze sharp as a drawn sword, Bruce and Arnold flanked him on either side.

The newly awakened Lysara stood off to one side, looking distinctly worse for wear.

She had learned her lesson. However unconvinced her heart remained, she no longer dared speak out of turn.

What occupied her now was how to escape, she was a human Empress.

The face and dignity of the entire human race, associating with a demon was out of the question.

Across from her stood Soren’s three prizes, Althea, Duke, and Abel, all glaring at him with open fury.

Though in Abel’s case, the fury was shot through with deep terror, his arms were gone. His manhood was ruined.

All that remained on his body was a pair of blood-stained underpants.

Abel understood his position perfectly, Soren had spared his life only because it still held value. The moment that value ran out, he would be the first to die.

"I have a task for you."

Soren’s gaze hadn’t moved, but the words were clearly meant for Lysara.

Even smeared with blood, her face was breathtaking, and her eyes were still proud.

Damned demon, I am not one of yours. What right do you have to give me orders?

"Dream on!"

Her fingers flicked, drawing a brand-new longsword from her spatial storage.

She was standing close, if luck was with her, one strike might end this monster.

There was no time to weigh the odds, she trusted her instincts, seized the opening, and thrust the blade straight at Soren’s throat.

"Stubborn to the bone, courting death."

Soren’s arm snapped up in a backhand blow aimed at her chest, violent demonic energy shot forward like a massive arrow and blasted her sword pressure apart in a heartbeat.

The longsword tore free of her grip, snapped, and shattered in midair, carried on Soren’s overwhelming power, the broken shards slammed back into Lysara’s body.

Demon! You... ruthless...

Lysara wrenched a shard of broken blade from her flesh, clutched her chest, and collapsed as her vision went black.

"You all saw that, self-defense."

From start to finish, Soren hadn’t even shifted in his seat.

Arnold and Bruce allowed themselves small smiles, Althea and the other two were struck dumb and took a synchronized step backward, staring at the woman on the floor.

Lysara was a Lower-Tier Emperor, the same realm as Soren. How had she crumpled like a snapped carrot?

The three of them, Upper-Tier Demon Venerables all, had better behave.

This Soren was not someone they could afford to offend.

The angry glares melted into careful, apologetic smiles, they exchanged cautious glances, but as long as Soren didn’t speak, none dared open their mouths.

Althea broke first.

One hand pressed to her forehead, the other resting on her waist, she put on a deeply remorseful act.

"Little Brother Soren, Big Sister honestly doesn’t know how she offended you."

"Why don’t you tell me, so Big Sister can feel properly guilty and repent?"

"Doesn’t that sound fair?"

Soren sifted through his memories and smirked.

She wanted a list of her crimes? He had time to chat, his real goal was shocking Lysara and breaking that arrogant spine of hers, and she needed a while yet to wake.

"Back then, you stuffed your used undergarments into my arms and accused me of stealing them, in front of a crowd, remember?"

"For that, I took thirty lashes of the Profound Demonic Whip, my mother took one of them for me."

Althea did remember, in her eyes back then, Soren had simply been fun to bully, he never fought back, never talked back, like teasing an idiot.

"Little Brother Soren, that was... a joke, can’t Big Sister just apologize?"

The corner of Soren’s mouth rose, and he went on.

"You filled a jade bottle with your bathwater, claimed it was a rare spiritual nectar you’d gone to enormous lengths to find, tricked me into drinking it, and then mocked me for it in public, you haven’t forgotten that either, have you?"

"Ah? You... you still remember that?" Althea felt a headache coming on, her silver teeth pressing into her lower lip.

She didn’t regret doing any of it, she only regretted failing to prepare for the day she’d fall into his hands.

For the next half hour, Soren calmly recited every excessive thing Althea had done to him across three hundred years.

By the end of it, she was completely numb.

He waited until Lysara’s wounds had knitted enough for her to struggle to her feet, then ended the boring recital, propped his chin on one hand, and glanced at her.

That backhand blow had thoroughly shattered her composure.

But Strangers Meeting by Chance meant Lysara could be neither trusted nor used, he needed her at Obedient and Submissive, at minimum.

Clearly, that was still a long way off.