Outside of the leader's tent, while the crazy girl and Jasmine didn't seem to be the least surprised by what happened a moment ago, Jeanne, Emily ad Reyne were obviously plagued by questions.
Daimon naturally noticed it, and as they walked through the headquarter, under the hostile gaze of the soldiers that previously idolized him, Daimon said.
"We'll talk inside the tent, our previous discussion hasn't changed at all".
"Mm", Jeanne and Emily nodded and then changed their attention to the soldiers that were observing them from afar with wat expressions.
Naturally, after what happened a moment go, old Ben and the others, immediately passed down the command to not approach Daimon's group under any circumstances, if what was happening inside that tent would have continued, humanity would have lost its higher echelon un a single sweep.
That being said, the leaders didn't give specific explanations, so now everyone thought that Jeanne and Emily must have done something, as for Daimon who was treated like a "hero" before, he was a considered a traitor to humanity for allying with them.
Some especially vicious comments involving Reyne, who used to be considered one of the dreamed lovers of a lot of members of the young generation, could be heard here and there too.
After all, everyone knew about the key holder on the flesh eating demon's side, who was a human that was seduced by the daughter of the traitor Cardinal, so they just put Daimon in the same category.
Once they reached the tent, Jeanne and Emily created a barrier around them, though they couldn't imagine old Ben and the others trying to attack Daimon after what happened, who knows what a cornered person might do.
Feeling the curious gazes of those three on him Daimon chuckled and then said.
"Though a bit late, let me introduce you to my… head maid, Rita", following Daimon's words, his shadow extended until it covered the whole room, before Rita who was barely able to restrain the urge to smile, emerged from the shadow.
If it was some time ago, she would have been kneeling down after receiving her young master's call, however the reward she requested from Daimon allowed her to act and speak in an informal way.
And though she still has a hard time adapting to it, she has started to accept the privilege Daimon has granted her, to act without asking for permit, since he trusts her judgement, unlike with the bone general who has an incredible lack of common sense.
"A pleasure", said Rita as she slightly rose the sides of her dress, before sinking into Daimon's shadow once again, she isn't fond of being in public after all, besides there is no more comfortable place for her, than her young master's shadow.
Once Rita returned to Daimon's shadow, the room returned to normal and light was radiated by the magic lamps that were placed inside of the tent.
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm This time, not only Jeanne, Emily and Reyne were surprised, Jasmine and even the crazy girl were surprised, because they have seen Rita before and know that she is a late stage peak Archmage, but now she was giving off a different sensation.
It was only for a second, but her presence was that of a Stellar ranked for sure, Jeanne and Emily had contemplative expressions on their faces, which Daimon could understand.
"You are wondering why did I make a contract with you, if I have such a strong person at my side, right?", he said as he sat down on the bed.
"Mm, from what I can see you could have alone overpowered the four leaders of the human side, they would have needed to put their lives on the line just to defend against that woman called Rita", said Emily.
"Even if Emi and me join hands, I think well be at most able to match up to her but once our transformation ends, we'll lose, not to mention that she honestly gives off a similar sensation to the Blood Archdukes, if you went to their side, you would have been worshipped by them for sure", added Jeanne.
Daimon nodded in response, some of the guys back at Brown Wind town, freaked out when Rita appeared, and he finally understood why after seeing the Archdukes.
Turns out, that besides Sarah and him, the only ones he has seen who are able to enjoy the boosting effect of Kerrol's atmosphere, are the Archdukes, to put in simple words, the Archdukes are Dukes that have learned how to surpass the limit of the Arch rank, by using that boosting effect.
But as the fact that Daimon who has infinitely harder than others to advance, due to what each minor realm represents for him, becoming a Lord rank thanks to the boosting effect, the Archdukes suck at taking advantage of Kerrol's atmosphere.
The Blood King on the other hand can properly use the boosting effect, and he use to be only peak Arch rank that was able to, that is until Rita appeared.
"To put it in simple words, we are exploiting a flaw of this world, to excel a stronger power than normal, and I'm not stupid enough to rely on such a thing, when there were to some people worth allying with, especially because I was in a bit of a hurry", said Daimon as he gazed at Jasmine, whose face blushed on the spot.
Jeanne and Emily smiled, happy with the answer they got, leaving that aside the had another important question to make.
"Why did they conceded like that, the offer they made was actually quite generous, if not for the existence of the Blood King, I'm pretty sure those guys would have accepted it", said Jeanne.
"That's because I have something they need, which is why they played that idiot to guide him to obtain it, only to have it stolen by Jasmine", said Daimon before adding.
"That being said, you should never, ever trust in anything that guy says".
…
At the same time, at the Ghoul headquarters, two figures were just arriving at the entrance, they were the female Archduke and Adam.
"His majesty has ordered you to go the royal tent", said the woman with a disgusted expression, which made Adam grit his teeth.
"I'm not his subordinate, I'm working with him so…", before Adam could finish speaking, the female Archduke lost interest and turned away to leave.
"Feel free to stay outside then, you'll cower and rush to the royal tent in a moment, whether you want it or not", she said as she left.
Adam spat on the ground, he really felt the urge to order the angel girl to take out of this stupid place, but the idea of losing his dick for 50 years, made him tolerate the humiliation.
'I have already fulfilled the first part of the mission, by planting the seeds of conflict, that bitch will for sure be handed by those guys, then I can retrieve that stupid trident and get the hell out of here, just you wait, I'll be sure to return this humiliation', he poisonously swore to himself.
Adam truly had no intention of going to Archbald's tent, so he walked towards the rundown place that was assigned to him, just to suddenly feel dizzy.
"What the hell is going on now…", Adam raised his head and his eyes widened in shock as he saw pillars of red liquid falling from the sky, until a red sea was formed around the Ghoul headquarters.
Adam felt his heart beating faster than normal, and the next he knew was that blood was coming out of his mouth.
"Blegh!", with blood exploding out of his mouth, Adam turned around and rushed towards the only place that gave a "safe" sensation for him, which of course was Archbald's tent.
On the way he noticed that the sea of red liquid had started to flow into the tents of all the soldiers, and a few of the nobles, in the form of a red tsunami that was following him.
Though he knew that he wasn't going die from this, that red tsunami gave him a bad premonition, he had started to feel a bit paranoic after he was stabbed by Jasmine, since that trident was supposedly exclusive for heroes, she would have been attacked by it the moment she held it,
"Fucking hell!", he cursed as he jumped into the tent, landing on the ground in an ungracious way.
"Hey, if it isn't the "boss", how did the mission go?", a mocking voice came from the other side of the tent, making a vein pop in Adam's neck as he turned to see the origin of it, just to feel even more enraged at the sight of Archbald sitting on a throne having Paula and the girl from the church, sitting on his lap.
He now learned that, it was Paula the one who placed the curse that immobilized him earlier, as to why his defensive measures didn't react, it was because the true nature of the curse was a "blessing", it only restrained the movements of those that didn't act as a hero should, so when he tried to escape, it was triggered.
Up to this moment he still was at a loss on how these guys found such an obscure way to bypass his defensive measures, but what angered him the most is that the women that were supposed to be his toys, tricked him like that.
"Oh, come on, don't look at my brides like that, you can only blame yourself for being stupid after all", said Archbald with bloodshot eyes.
Adam snorted as he glared at Paula.
"Enjoy the second-hand goods as much as you want, once I finish my mission I'm out of here, I have passed the message so you can expect them to accept in the next thirty minutes", he said.
Archbald's face twisted upon hearing that, it was a sore spot that he ha to "sacrifice" one of his brides, for the plan that the owner of the ruin had, which he accepted in order to obtain the power he desired, and what's worse he couldn't kill the one that cucked him.
"It seems like losing one of your swords didn't teach you a lesson, how about losing another one", said Archbald as he waved his hand.
A monstrous arm made of a viscous red liquid formed out of nowhere and attacked Adam, who suddenly felt as if his body was pressed down by a mountain.
'Shit!", he inwardly swore, the attack wasn't lethal and that meant it wouldn't trigger his life-saving methods.
"Do you think I'm that much of a pushover!", Adam shouted as he waved his hand, a white sword appeared on his hand, and then released a shinning white dazzling light.
Archbald was taken by surprise, not only his attack was immediately blown away, but the light coming from that sword was aimed directly at his neck, and he felt threatened by it.
That being said, he managed to react on time and jumped from his throne which was evaporated the next second, but then he felt a tremble coming from his left side, and he turned to see the origin of it, just to see that the girl from the church was missing the left side of her chest as well as her arm, and was about to die.
Paula released her mana, just in time to block another radiance shot by that sword, but was sent flying out o the tent which was burned a hole through it.
Archbald's eyes dyed red, he forced a vial with a red liquid down the mouth of the girl from the church, which stopped the bleeding, her cells started recovering at a visible ratio, but she was screaming in pain.
The Blood King then waved his hand and the black sword, which used to be Adam's, appeared on his hand, but as he was about to kill the bastard in front of him, the black mantled figure appeared out of nowhere, and created a wall between those two.
"Enough Archbald, did I not tell you to not mess with him!", said the black mantled figure with a severe voice, there was a change, usually the voice coming from behind those mantles was a genderless one, but now, it was clearly the voice of a woman.
"And you… keep that weapon away", said the woman to Adam.
"I want my sword back once the deal is over, otherwise I'll kill that bastard, fifty years are starting to sound bearable, so tell him not fuck with me", said Adam as he sent the white sword back to his inventory.
Archbald saw red but when he saw the black mantled woman glaring at him, he ultimately swallowed his anger and sheathed the sword.
"Now go ready yourself, this battle won't be like any of the ones you have faced before, how much did you prepare?", said the woman, to which Archbald answered.
"I prepared as much as I could, all the cattle in the farms were "sacrificed", the current humans don't know why the leader of the flesh eating demons is called "Blood King", but after today they will never forget, well, that is if there are humans still living in Kerrol in the future", said the Ghoul.
"A mere half-baked half Stellar like you dare to say such a thing, you can be arrogant here, but in front of the experts I have seen, you are nothing", said Adam as he turned to leave, making the ghoul grit his teeth.
The black mantled woman didn't scold Adam and instead followed him out of the tent, not without saying.
"If you make the plan fail due to personal affairs, you are dead".
At the same time, Archbald could see Adam looking at him from the corner of his eyes, with mockery.
'Tough luck fucker, the one that has a leash on you turned out to be a woman, just watch by the sides and regret not having been born with the qualities of a hero like the great me, you fucking npc!', thought Adam as he left.
…
Back at the human headquarters, there was a turmoil going on, the moment those pillars of red liquid came down from the sky, even if the distance between the two headquarters was quite big, the humans all felt as if something was crawling up their skins.
And it was for a good reason, that huge amount of red liquid was all blood, human blood to be precise, that being said, that's not all that was there, otherwise the liquid won't be as viscous as it looks, flesh, bone, organs, everything was turned into those red pillars that were now surrounding the enemy's headquarters.
Old Ben and the other three leaders, as well as Oliver who was the second in command, came out of the leader's tent, and their faces blackened at the smell that assaulted their noises.
"It hasn't been even fifteen minutes, those fucking bastards!", shouted old Ben.
"H-How many people was needed to create that?", mumbled the female elder from the church.
Antonio saw Daimon's group approaching and he didn't know how to react, he was angry that his daughter ended up in such a state, but on the other hand she was the one at fault, not to mention her life was spared.
Old Ben turned to see the newcomers, it was easy to know who they were, because the nearby soldiers all tensed up and prepared in case a fight broke out on the spot.
"That is quite a large amount of vitality, using nine star knights as reference that would still be a few hundreds of thousands", said Daimon.
The nearby people all paled after listening to his words, due to the first king being someone that escaped from the human farms being a knight, the humans kept there weren't allowed become knights, but forced on the mage's path.
Apparently, Ghouls liked more the flesh and blood of mages either way, so it wasn't that much of a loss to them, anyway, a knight has many times the amount of vitality than a mage.
Meaning that based in Daimon's calculations, those pillars were created by killing a few millions of humans and that is assuming that all the humans in the farms were allowed to become mages, which wasn't the case for sure.
"I see, so while we were busy arguing among ourselves those bastards were acting behind our backs, damn it!", yelled old Ben.
All the people that earlier thought that it was a good idea to hand Daimon's group for a truce, were now burning with anger, they realized that the flesh eating demons were just playing with them, such a large scale sacrifice couldn't be prepared in fifteen minutes.
That guy who came earlier was just planting dissension among them, peace was never an option to begin with, and the worst part is that they fell for it, and drove out the one that would have brought them victory.
"That is the biggest blood sacrifice I have ever heard off, among the records of the church, there is one that said that the subordinates of the Blood King will become stronger, when the king is present, the soldiers that will come to attack us, won't be anything like before, we need to call all the reinforcements we can", said the male elder of the church.
"You won't be able to use the spatial array now, those pillars are messing up with the space of this place, by the time you reach an unaffected area, they will be at your door", said Daimon.
"Then what you suggest us to do?", asked one of the secondary leaders, to which Daimon smirked.
"Well, you guys pretty much don't have a choice but to attack now, those pillars are strengthening the enemies each second, the longer this drags on, the harder you'll have it".
"Everyone prepare to depart!", without a second of delay, old Ben gave the order, at this point he could only pray that the masked youth's goals aligned with them, so he lends them a hand at the battlefield, even if it isn't for the sake of humanity, surviving is surviving after all.
It's not like he was expecting Daimon to do all the work, but judging by the aura coming from the Ghoul's headquarter, at least three of the leaders will be needed to keep the Blood King in check, meaning only one leader will be able to support the others.
And two Archdukes escaped earlier, so the slaughter would be on their side this time, unless Jeanne and Emily join the fight to balance things out, since Oliver isn't at the level to take on an Archduke and win, without suffering heavy wounds currently.
Seeing that Daimon wasn't moving, the four leaders started advancing towards the enemy, only then Daimon and the others flew with Jeanne's help, they were staying behind the lines of the human army, which made some of the soldiers grit their teeth.
Unfortunately for them, Daimon had no intention of putting his life nor the ones of his teammates, in danger for them, the only reason as to why he was siding with them, was because they were needed for his plan, whether they survived or died would depend on their own strength and luck too.
"Stick up to the plan, once the target comes out, we make our move, meanwhile stary next to me at all moment", said Daimon.
"Mm", the girls nodded as they approached the enemy's headquarters, the whole group was stopped by the red pillars from which that viscous blood kept seeping out.
"Fire mages go!", shouted old Ben.
While light might be the best counter to negative kind of spells, like the blood sacrifice used by the Ghouls, the blood could still be used by them, even after purified, so they needed to eliminate it, and for that, fire spells were perfect for the job, having wide areas of effect and fire being a common affinity.
"Haaaa!", a squad made up of exclusively fire mages chanted and a tsunami of flames fell upon the red pillars, making a black smoke be released from them, the blood wasn't evaporating as it should, which was a sign of how much people was killed, to have such a density.
But then they all felt a sensation of danger and turned to see origin of it, just to witness the majestic appearance of Daimon wielding the white cross bow passed down by the first Adjudicator.
"Let's speed things up a bit", said Daimon, a white flame ball condensed in front of the cross bow which was then shot in the form of a white flame arrow, compared to the sea of flames ahead the arrow looked ridiculous.
But the moment the white arrow made contact with the sea of flames, the nearby fire started to change its color to that same white, and before they noticed the dark night was illuminated by a huge tsunami of white flames.
And then a requiem of pained screams, could be heard coming from the Ghoul headquarters, which only added more fun to the party that was about to start.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦