CHAPTER 1

Demon Lords—bountiful, benevolent.

The Lords, they whom maketh the land palpable and they whom govern it with authority.

The Lords, revered and worshiped beings, need not bowing. Those whom need bowing are not them but those which needs them. Great Lords of Order, Economics, Sciences, and War. They are the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine.

From the South hath the protection of Baal, from the West hath the grace of Paimon, from the East hath the command of Barbatos, and their legions.

Long before the cities, the dwelling of humans, they have already existed. All 72, whom had the Contracts of the Monarch, now reduced to 52. Those whom are not present have reduced off to Death, of Power, or of Title.

They are of reverence. They are of grace.

Demon Lords—bountiful, benevolent.

Demon Lords—bountiful, benevolent.

Demon Lords—corrupt, malevolent.

Trickery.

We were tricked. The old ones were fools. Lambs fed to wolves.

War...... the war is coming. We shall take back what was rightfully ours.

. . .

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[Seekh, Eastern faction of the Demon Territory, High Ranking Knight]

[Road to De Gracia]

It was a long day. The view outside the carriage had been bathed in the orange hues of the setting sun, telling that the day was about to end.

Inside, the silence was broken only by the soft sound of tongue-clicking and the turning of pages from a thick logbook. Lady Barbatos, Demon Lord and the leader of the Eastern faction, was sitting in front of me. Her posture was uncharacteristically fragile. Dark circles had formed under her eyes, and her already small figure sank into her seat.

I was tasked with keeping her company for the ride.

“De Gracia......” the lady muttered to herself.

Tap—tap—tap

The lady tapped the logbook with her pen.

Despite my reputation as one of the highest-ranking knights, I felt overwhelmed by the pressure of her being here, like being thrown into a lion’s den. Is she really a person who needs protection? I doubt that.

She is, after all—the commanding leader of the Eastern faction, a demon known for singlehandedly flattening entire cities—an ancient who once served the Monarch in an age where dragons roamed the skies. One would think she’s someone who wouldn’t need assistance in the face of an adversary.

Yet, here I am, supposedly watching over her. Needless, to say the least. Hahh...... I sighed quietly.

For now, all I could do was sit obediently.

We both sat silently as the carriage rocked up and down, and my body felt drowsy from traveling for hours. As I was about to close my eyes to rest, there was a sudden change of scenery outside the carriage.

A faint scent hit my nose.

“……”

Was that…... smoke?

“Halt!”

One of the escorts shouted.

The carriage jolted violently as the coachman pulled the reins, bringing the horses to a sudden stop. The lady didn’t lift her eyes from the logbook, but her fingers paused mid-turn.

I poked my head out through the carriage’s small door. Knights were inspecting corpses scattered across the road, and the smell of burning wood seeped into the carriage.

“What’s the matter?”

“It appears there’s a wreck ahead.”

I glanced back at the lady. Her patience seemed to be thinning as the corner of her eyes twitched.

“What shall we do, my lady?”

“Inspect it.”

She waved her hand dismissively.

I opened the door and stepped off the carriage.

A calm, cold breeze hit my face as I stepped through the rubble, and the neighs of the horses tied to the trees came one after the other. The knights were busy gathering the corpses from the road, piling them up for burning. Others worked to clear the path.

As I approached where our escorts had dismounted, I could see the remnants of a burning carriage in the distance. The whiff of scorched wood and something else—an unpleasant, nauseous odor—hit me. A thick smell of blood......

The escorts were murmuring among each other—their expressions were grim.

A toppled carriage lay ahead, one of its wheels still spinning lazily. The horses that had pulled it were nowhere to be seen, likely to have darted off.

“What happened here?”

I asked one of them.

“Ambush, sir.”

“An ambush?”

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“Yes, sir. We reckon it was from those damned humans.”

I could feel the bitterness of his words at the mention of humans.

I stepped closer and saw the true extent of the damage. The inside seems to have been ransacked by someone, its contents strewn across the road. A few bodies lay scattered, most of them dead, and others perhaps clinging to their last breaths.

After looking around, I kneeled beside one of the bodies and inspected his corpse.

I recognized the insignia on his cloak—he was a courier for one of the lesser Demon Lords.

His eyes stared blankly at the sky, and his mouth froze agape. The blood clung onto the collars of my shirt as I searched the body.

There was a pendant I found in one of his pockets. I took the pendant and made a closer inspection. It had a kind of engraving to it, something that requires someone who knows to decipher who it's from.

Well, I had no knack for these, so I only wiped some of the grime off of it and put it in my back pocket.

We should be cautious. For all we know, humans could be watching us right now. But what would they gain from attacking this carriage?

Is it gold? No. Although it seems ransacked, the jewelry here isn’t stolen.

This is concerning. The ambush doesn’t seem random, not to mention there’s a courier for a Demon Lord at that.

Then what could it be? I can’t seem to wrap my head around this.

As I was trying to discern what may have happened, a knight walked up to me in a concerned manner.

“Sir, Lord Beleth requested of you.”

“Why? Can't you see I'm quite busy?”

“'Find me someone competent.' That was his orders. You are the only high ranking knight that is currently present. That is why I came looking for you.”

I huffed a small amount of air off my chest.

“Lead then.”

He bowed and started to walk.

I followed and soon came upon a group of knights surrounding a kneeling figure—a human.

There was a pained wail as I approached and heard someone cursing.

“You scum.”

The one who spoke wore gigantic armor clad in black. He towered over the small human and kicked him by the sole of his boots. It was Demon Lord Beleth who was in charge of our escorts.

“Lord, anything?”

“D’you think I’d be beating him if he talked?”

He kicked the human on his stomach with enough force to reach my feet.

“Where do you think they’re at?” I inspected the human’s bloodied face.

“Judging from the arrows, I’d say east. Beyond that, who knows?” Lord Beleth snorted.

“I have found this earlier. I suspected the lord might know something about it.”

I gave one of the pendants I found when inspecting one of the corpses.

“This? It's one of the pendants used by the non afflicted ones. By the looks of it, it's Dantalion’s if I recall. Didn’t know any envoy regarding him was passing through, though.”

Demon Lord Dantalion…...

I’ve only seen him a few times during the Eve of Walpurgis. He’s not exactly a noteworthy figure. But recently, Lady Barbatos has taken an interest in him, though her reasons are still unclear.

“I remember hearing the lady mentioning his son traveling to De Gracia.”

“That brat, Deilos, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Lord.”

“Hah,” Lord Beleth spat. “Doubt even Barbatos would tolerate that little shit.”

“Bastard,” a soft, cold voice came behind me. “Who’s not tolerating whom?”

Small footsteps followed those words and there was a sudden stillness from the knights around me.

It was Lady Barbatos. She wore a small white cloak over a skimpy black skirt that barely covered her chest. Her tiny body walked up from the shrubs, followed by the escort I had consulted before.

I turned to the lady and bowed.

The lady’s eyes observed the scene—her gaze was cold.

With a glance from the lady, the knights running amuck straightened their backs at the sight of her. None dared to look into her eyes.

“Tsk, there you are.” Lord Beleth sneered as the lady walked toward us. “It seems like we have pests at hand.”

“If it’s something trivial like bandits, we might as well just burn the entire forest to lure them out. It’s easier to take care of vermin that way,” she remarked, and from the lady’s hand came a small black fire. A hellfire.

“Going with that so early into the conversation. Being impatient as usual. Did you get tired while sitting all day?”

“What are you trying to say here?”

“That you’ve gone ill.”

“Agnh?” Lady Barbatos’ brow flared upwards.

The flame dancing on her palm grew larger, and the heat from it I could feel even at a distance. Before the lady could burn the entire forest to an everlasting purgatory, I interjected.

“Unfortunately, my lady, it’s not as trivial as bandits.”

I cleared my throat and explained what was going on.

The lady tipped her head lightly. She shut her eyes and placed her right hand on her chin. I breathed a sigh of relief as the black fire diminished.

After a moment of silence, the lady spoke. The ridges of her frown softened, and her brows became more flat. Her irritated demeanor changed to something that resembled a sick sense of pleasure.

“Is that filthy human still alive? That rascal’s corpse should be a reliable compass in trying to find Dantalion’s brat.”

She turned to the fainted human.

“Hahh...... I can never know what’s happening inside that thick skull of yours.” Lord Beleth frowned.

Lady Barbatos didn’t answer and only smirked at him.

“Bring me the worm.”

I dragged the human to her feet.

Without a word, the lady pressed her thumb into his temple.

The human’s eyes opened in shock. He cried and begged as blood splurged down his face while the lady’s thumb slowly sank deeper. I could hear the human’s skull crack as it opened like soft clay. The human’s screams choked off into a horrid gurgle, and bits of his own flesh and a thick red liquid covered his face.

Then, a sudden stillness.

Once the human’s body became limp, the lady whispered an incantation, a kind of dark magic only known by the ancients—the spell of necromancy.

The surrounding air around the lady became unnaturally cold, and a black smoke entered the human’s mouth. His veins became prominent with some kind of dark substance that pulsated like maggots inside his skin.

The human’s body jerked upright, moving in a disjointed, unnatural manner as if tied to invisible strings controlled by a puppeteer. His head lolled on his broken neck as his limbs flailed grotesquely, and his eyes were now white as they stared blankly ahead.

The resurrected human began to walk, swaying drunkenly as it moved toward the forest.

Knights and escorts watched without a word spoken and only stood as the horror that came before them unfolded.

Most of them had turned their faces away, unable to bear the gruesome sight as the thin skin torn and innards of the human flopped to the ground. Some had their faces turned pale and green, expressions twisting in disgust, while others clutched their stomachs and vomited.

“Seekth.” The lady grinned.

“Yes, my lady.”

“When you catch that child, don’t bother showing him any respect. If he dares insult you, you might as well feed him to the dogs. Well, unless that twat behaves like a dog, don’t bother letting him see me.”

I bowed my head.

“As you wish.”

“I’ll be taking my way to De Gracia. Be there when you’re done. I have high hopes for this.”

The lady stepped back—her lips curling into a thin smile of satisfaction—and walked back to the carriage. Lord Beleth followed.

The lady...... her brutality was worse than I had imagined. I thought it was an exaggeration, but it seemed like I was the one underestimating her. Watching my own tongue should keep my head from falling off.

The smoke of the doused pyre from the wreckage ran upwards, and the embers crackled. Both knights and escorts were walking unsteadily towards their carriages as the road was clear enough to pass through.

My body felt weary as I watched the human corpse make its way toward the inner parts of the forest. I should have slept more.

The orange hue of the sky was now painted red.

The night seemed to be not far off.

. . .

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