POV: Altair Oberon Lyrius

"You said that I had two years," I complained as I leaned back, against the thick wooden mast of the flying ship.

I currently sat atop a wooden barrel, held together with metal rings. Wind blew against me up here and I could hear the ripped and ragged black sails move around above me. The undead soldiers, which surprisingly enough didn't smell like rotting meat as one might have assumed from the zombie-like appearance some of them had, walked around, some cleaning the deck of the ship while another steered it.

"I said you had two more years to accomplish your goal, now you accomplished your goal, it's not my fault that you did it in six months instead of the two years I gave you," Ira's mother said.

'What a pleasant person your mother is,' I said to Ira.

'Oh quit complaining, you're going to have a long time to train and such soon anyway,' Ira said.

Vera, which was the name she wanted to be called by me, now stepped into my line of sight. She was a tall woman, not as tall as I was but still quite tall, with toned muscles on her arms and stomach. She wore an open coat that was so long that it dragged across the floor with some silver decorations on it, she wore thigh-high black leather boots with a metal spur on them and heels that would have me tumbling off this ship in minutes. Her pants barely covered all of her wide hips, she had a silver naval piercing that looked a little weird against her pale, ashen skin. She wore something of a tight-fitting black crop top with dark red edges and around her neck she wore a black collar from which a broken chain hung. Her face was one right out of a love story. Fine features enhanced by beautiful purple eyes that seemed to glow a little as well as two horns protruding from her forehead, although they were rather short and of a colour only slightly darker than her actual skin tone. To top it all off she had long silvery-white hair that fell all the way down to her waist while it was tied into a long ponytail. It glistened in the light from the torches, reflecting it.

I sighed.

"Fine."

She chuckled.

"Good, now let me tell you what's going to happen. We're now going to the castle of the council, there I'm going to introduce you and after that, you will begin your ten years," Vera explained.

"My ten years?" I asked, raising one eyebrow.

"It's a sort of tradition, basically after some time being trained by a demon lord the candidate is presented to the demon lord, and then depending on whether or not the demon lord thinks they're worthy or not they are supposed to go out into the world, gather fame and return after exactly ten years. If they can do that the demon lord candidate becomes a full-fledged demon lord and is allowed to take the trial," Vera explained. "Sadly I never got to train you, but since you're one of the hosts Albus won't even try to argue, even if you're weaker than the others," Vera said.

"Am I weaker than the others?" I asked.

"Honestly, I've spent the past like four or so years watching you. And no demon lord was allowed to get into contact with the sins except for the ones that were assigned to them. So really I have no idea, but you'll meet them once we get there," Vera said.

"Oh, how fun," I responded as I looked up at the sky.

It was slowly turning darker and darker, I could even see the first few stars appear.

'You think this will work out well?' I asked Ira.

'I dunno... but they're probably going to be angry since you basically delayed the beginning of their ten years,' Ira said.

I chuckled.

"Oh, and by the way, you can stop pretending to be perfectly sane, I saw you doing all that shit over the past four years," Vera said.

"Right, totally forgot," I responded.

As if a flip had been switched my body suddenly tensed up and then relaxed again.

"Now then, how come you're so silent Arva?" I asked as I got up, leaving behind my cloak.

'I still can't believe that you just killed that guy and then became a demon lord candidate...' Arva responded.

"Things happen in my life, did I ever tell you about the taking bird that I used to travel with?" I said as I began chuckling.

I stared down at the clouds below, they were thick and white.

"Right, where did that one go?" Vera asked as she leaned against the railing next to me.

"I dunno said he finally remembered something and left. Pretty sure he will reappear in a few years or so," I responded as I just enjoyed the wind hitting against my face.

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"You know, having a flying ship really isn't that bad," I said, "Where did you get yours?"

"They built them in the capital," Vera responded, chuckling afterwards.

After a while, I could finally see the castle of the council that Vera had talked about. It had been built on a thin mountain top, parts of it supported with old looking pillars and support beams. It was a truly crooked thing that seemed like it might slide right off at any moment. Towers grew from it as branches grew from a tree. I could see a long wooden stairway that coiled around the mountain like a snake come up from below the clouds and lead all the way to the sort of dock that was in front of the wooden entrance gate.

Vera's flying ship docked, as if automated, and we got off. Just from walking upon the stone, the ground was made off I knew why this thing hadn't been taken down yet. At this point in time, I could throw everything I had at it and I would barely leave a scratch on the stone.

"Gentlemen first," Vera said as she pointed towards the gate.

I sighed and walked up to the gate. I put both hands on it and pushed. By the way, Vera had said it I nearly assumed that it was supposed to be something difficult.

"Good," she said.

When we entered the entrance hall I saw two creatures that I recognized as wyverns, one on each side. They looked at me with their glowing orange eyes. I stared right back and it almost appeared as they nodded at me as I passed them both easily opening the next door they appeared to be guarding.

I now entered a U-shaped hall. Seating stands lined the walls to my left and right while right at the end of it, in the bowl of the U, was a throne, and sitting on it was a man, dressed in a coat similar to what Vera wore with brown hair and a U-shaped, almost golden crown hovering above his head. He looked young and I could only assume that he was the current demon king, judging from the fact that he was the only one sitting on a throne.

Standing in the middle of the hall were twelve people. Vera and I walked up to them and I positioned myself right in the middle of those six, blatantly pushing aside a small looking girly looking kid and a tall woman that wore a suit.

"Good, now that everyone is here we can finally begin," the man on the throne said.

"Yeah yeah, we all know why we're here. Let's just begin their ten years, give them the bracelets and then let them leave!" the man that stood behind the girly boy said.

His voice sounded uncanny and he wore a mask with two black dots for eyes and a crooked and jagged smile as well as four black donkey-like ears. The man on the throne sighed in response.

"I guess that is the best approach. But before that I would like all of you to introduce yourselves to the council," the man said, staring down at us.

I sighed.

What a bother.

I took a step forward.

"I'm Altair Oberon Lyrius, host of the Demon Queen of Wrath, Ira," I said, not even bothering to bow or anything like that.

"I'd like to get a taste of your mana pressure," the man said.

I sighed again and took a look around the hall. I recognized no one there, except for one man, a man with blood-red hair.

"Uh, Barion is really a demon lord, I thought that he was just lying," I said, staring right at him. "If he made it then I won't have any trouble."

I began chuckling a little.

"Oh shut it you brat!" Barion yelled.

One of the other hosts chuckled. It was a girl with long purple hair and a lower body that was that of a snake with purple scales. I then took a deep breath, looked the demon king right in the eyes and smiled before I released all of my mana pressure. I enjoyed the gasping that came from some, and the sound of four out of the six other hosts falling to the ground and kneeling, only the tall woman and the half-snake staying on their feet and... tail, although the tall woman seemed to be struggling while the half-snake woman merely smiled at me.

That was the moment I heard a loud scream.

"Lyrius!" someone yelled.

Confused I looked around the room, only to see a red-skinned woman with long sharp ears, pale pink shoulder-length hair and two horns the same colour as her skin with slightly darker tips jump towards me.

"Gora!" someone yelled.

But at that point it was too late, I could already see purple-white flames burst forth from her. In the corner of my eye, I saw the demon king move but before he could do anything I warped right above her and brought my fist down, slamming her right into the ground.

"Now that's a welcome!" I laughed loudly.

The man that stood behind the girly boy also laughed.

"My, my, Vera, you found yourself an interesting kid there," he said... or they?

The voice of that one sounded somewhat feminine but also masculine at the same time. I crouched down and lifted up, what I believed to be some kind of elf, by her hair and looked her straight into her orange eyes.

"What's your problem?" I asked, my head slightly tilted.

She just spat in my face.

"Your ancestors!" she screamed as she shot out flames from her mouth.

I simply warped behind her, letting her shoot at nothing.

"Ah, now that actually doesn't sound like my problem, so would you kindly fuck off?" I asked the woman.

"Your ancestors killed my entire race!" she yelled as she got up and prepared to attack again.

"Oh, so you're one of those blood elves, I thought you were all dead," I responded casually as I tried to remember Elster's lessons.

The blood elven woman simply screamed and charged at me. In the corner of my eye, I could see Barion shake his head. I smiled.

"You know, it was funny the first two times, but now I really think you're just wasting my time," I said as I activated my wood elven magic mark on my right arm and used [Predator's Strength] along with releasing the mental seal I always had on the Power of Wrath.

Black and white mana burst forth from my right arm, radiating of it and taking a shape similar to that of a flame. With my strength at about half of the strength that I could currently output and a wicked smile on my face, I drove my fist right into the blood elf's stomach at a slight angle. She flew straight up, crashing right into the ceiling of the hall. I heard some clapping from the person with the weird mask.

"Is that enough of a demonstration?" I asked as I stared right at the demon king, mana still rising from my entire right arm like a flame.

I saw the demon king visibly swallow.

"Yes, now would someone please take away Gora, she'll have to be punished for disrupting this meeting later," the demon king said.

I chuckled as I watched two women, dressed in your typical maid dresses, take away Gora into the entrance hall. Then I went back into the line of people behind me sat down on the ground with crossed legs and closed my eyes. And then I waited for this whole thing to be over, nearly falling asleep and ignoring all of their introductions. I barely felt the mana pressure of any of them, except for the tall woman, who actually made me feel like someone put a heavy blanket over me and the snake lady, who managed to nearly get me to bend a little. I could tell that she was definitely the strongest out of us in terms of pure mana capacity. Once everyone was done the ones that had taught us gave us some weird necklaces and with that our ten years had officially begun.