Chapter 399: Powerful shell, and even more powerful content.
"Always so serious Alvey, you could at least tell him the less important reason."
Just as that voice rang out, the door to Alvey’s office opened and Arthur wondered just who in all of Militopolis dared to barge into the Premier’s office so casually.
It was a man who stood tall with a commanding presence. His sharp, ’blue’ eyes pierced through the room, framed by a pair of sleek glasses.
His buzz-cut hair emphasized his stern face and chiselled jawline, and he was adorned in a crisp, formal uniform that bore a crest Arthur had become all too familiar with recently.
What he wasn’t familiar with, however, was the number of stars around that crest.
’Five!’
Seeing the man, Alvey and McEnda raised their brows in light surprise while Sigesi instantly got down on one knee and bowed.
’This aura...a Demigod realm, so he’s a Peak Rank Demon and Alvey’s superior.’
Arthur thought that, about to appraise him to get his name, but Alvey’s next words saved him the stress.
"Sir Orkorin? What brings you here?"
The Greater Demon remained on his seat as he asked, while McEnda narrowed his eyes strangely while looking at the man.
Seeing McEnda’s reaction, Arthur turned towards the man once more, only to notice something ’off’.
’Wait up...this feels familiar; like when Mum uses her avatars.
The shell is a Demigod, but the content is something higher!’
The moment that Arthur had that thought, he took notice of a similarity between the ’Possessed’ Peak Rank Demon and the other person in the room who had a strange reaction.
’Both of them...blue eyes.’
A conjecture bloomed in Arthur’s mind, and McEnda did him the honours of confirming it.
"What the hell are you doing, old man?"
"Bahahaha!! Took you long enough, kid."
The man suddenly burst into laughter when he heard McEnda’s words, while the High Demon only sighed with exasperation and told Sigesi to get up.
"This silly old man and his silly antics again."
"Oy, that’s not something to say to your father who took ’great pains’ to check on you."
"Great pains, my ass! I can bet my life that you came here to talk to Arthur, and only chose to possess Sir Orkorin just for the fun of it!"
"...that was part of the reason I came around."
"More like the whole reason."
Somehow, what should have been a meeting with a Superior military officer turned into a banter between father and son.
Sigesi on the other hand was clearly worried if that was any manner to speak to a Demon King, but neither McEnda seemed to mind.
"Besides, you have a streak of not following proper protocol with higher-ranked demons already, what makes this any different?"
"You are a special case, General."
"How and why?!"
This little interaction between them made the older McEnda burst into laughter for some reason.
"I see you two are getting along.
And Sigesi, you’re close to achieving Sovereignty, huh? No wonder your grandfather wouldn’t stop yapping in our ears."
The man clicked his tongue repeatedly while shaking his head and having a look of light exasperation on his face, only for his son to tell him off.
"You’re just getting your desserts. Weren’t you the one who was bragging unnecessarily before?"
"Haa?! I was bragging about you, kid."
"Did I ask you to?"
"You don’t need to, it’s my right."
"Put me on the line to the nearest Demon Emperor, I need to have that right revoked."
Once again, father and son began bantering once more while the others just watched on while shaking their heads.
Arthur had a feeling that this was going to go on for quite a while so he stepped in and spoke to cut them off.
"So...nice to meet you, King...McEnda II?"
"Just call me Jack!"
"Please don’t grant this idiot the privilege of using his first name."
When it seemed like they were about to start again, Arthur just gave McEnda III a pointed glance before returning his gaze to the older one and speaking.
"I’d stick with McEnda II."
"Suit yourself."
The man didn’t seem to particularly care what Arthur called him, and he pulled out a random chair from kept to the side and took a seat before continuing.
"I can’t stay long here for various reasons, so imma just get straight to the point."
"It would be nice if you just got straight to the part where you left."
Ignoring McEnda III’s words, Arthur wondered if perhaps there was something that prevented Race Kings like him from interfering in the war, but he stopped himself from theorizing and just flat-out asked.
"Is there a reason why you Demon Kings just can’t enter the war?"
"Huh? Why’d you think so?"
"Because it would be a walk in the park for one Deity Realm existence to handle all the Aramisians and get this world.
It’s very possible if you act fast and seal off the moon at the start.
After, you can maybe threaten to destroy the whole planet if the gods want to pick a fight or something...I don’t think they’d want Aramis destroyed so they’d most likely bend a knee."
"...that was certainly not the reason I expected to hear."
It was hard to tell if McEnda II was surprised or impressed with Arthur’s words, but the teenage progenitor didn’t care too much.
"I can think of that, so there’s no way you wouldn’t be able to, and think about many more methods as well."
"True. We have thought of doing what you just said.
But anyway, on to your original question—yes, there is.
We Race Rulers are keeping ourselves in check, as we know that the moment we make moves, this issue will not just be about Aramis anymore.
Fights between Race Rulers would inevitably end with a few planets getting consigned to oblivion and that’s not something we want right now."
McEnda II then pointed towards the other three demons before continuing.
"Besides, a ’War’ without our input, is beneficial for us as a whole.
Invading and being Invaded.
Whichever way, it makes us evolve even further.
For younger demons like these three, it’s a way for them to grow stronger, gain experience, accumulate merits, build prestige and get their names out there on the Interstellar stage.
On the bigger picture; thanks to it, we can observe the technology of different worlds, and recreate it.
The same can be done with other races. We can discover new races we never knew of before, and observe their compatibility with us and from there, new Demon Breeds would come into existence when we couple a few of them.
It also serves to keep our internal conflicts to a minimum."
He made it sound like the constant invasions and wars were some sort of profitable business, leaving aside the fact that millions on both sides die.
Take Arthur’s first day on Aramis, for example. He hadn’t been around for up to 30 minutes when the whole city he was in got nuked.
Thousands of demons died in that explosion, and that number increased in the subsequent attack.
"But the biggest reason why we aren’t involved is because the scale of this war is still ’too small’."
"Too Small?"
"Indeed. Aramis is a Prime World, but in the end, it’s just one planet.
If it was a war that involved something on the scale of a Realm containing hundreds of planets, or wars between Interstellar/Intergalactic level forces...we’d move with little to no reservations."
"When you put it like that, it makes much more sense.
You guys interfering would be like bringing a Rocket Launcher to a Knife fight."
Once again, Arthur came up with another strange analogy which perfectly represented the happenings.
"Anyway kid, you’ve asked your question, now’s my turn."
McEnda II looked at Arthur’s hands and saw the small black and gold dot at the back of his palm, raising a brow lightly before asking.
"Your sword, mind if I ask how you got to possess that weapon?"
Arthur traced the man’s gaze to his hand before replying.
"Ah, Celestia. To be honest, it’s quite complicated."
Just as Arthur was thinking about how he was going to explain it, McEnda II shook his head and spoke.
"The weapon I’m asking out is definitely not named ’Celestia’.
It’s that black sword of destruction I’m asking about; Lostvayne."
When he heard this, Arthur silently infused cosmic energy into the Stellar Guard in his arm and narrowed his gaze at McEnda II.
"And why exactly do you want to know that?"
McEnda II noticed that Arthur’s wariness had gone up a notch and his instincts told him to be ’careful’ considering this was just a possessed body which he could not exert his true strength from.
"Nothing too serious.
It’s just that I happen to have seen a weapon that looked just like that and bore the same name in the past.
Some, 70,000 years ago."
"70,000?"
This got the other three very curious about where Arthur’s Sword came from, with Alvey paying the most attention out of all of them.
Arthur went silent for a second, but in his mind, he had run through numerous possibilities, before eventually deciding on an answer.
"Does the name ’Lucifer Morningstar’ mean anything to you?"
