It was late at night when Grimm awoke from a deep slumber, ready once again to prowl under the moonlight. She had been dormant these past few days, watching through Orchestra's eyes. However, after witnessing the standoff between the demon lords and the heroes, Grimm understood that it was time to pick a side.

Grimm believed that the heroes wouldn't bother her too much as long as she didn't bother them, but after seeing what happened to her fellow demons, Dune and Asche, she knew that it was no longer viable to side with the heroes.

Grimm climbed out of the window, now standing on the rooftop. She spread her wing, which was around three times larger than the one Orchestra could summon and flew away at an unimaginable speed, dark armour forming around her. This was only possible thanks to Orchestra's royal blood, acting as a catalyst to enhance her magic. With the right user, royal blood was one of the most potent magical items, which is why Orchestra was even able to use demonic magic without formal training in the first place.

After a long journey, the clock striking midnight, Grimm finally landed upon the window of the castle. Karudo opened the window greeting her.

"I take that you are... the alternate persona of the hero. We've been expecting you. I assume that this is about a partnership?"

"You are indeed a sharp demon lord,"

Grimm landed indoors on the fancy carpet, recently renovated. She removed her armour and retracted her wings, now undifferentiable with Orchestra in appearance.

Karudo led her to the throneroom, now occupied by Zealot.

"Good to see you, my friend. Your name is...?"

"Grimm"

"Grimm! What a lovely name for a lovely lady. Now I understand you want to switch teams, but I can't just let you into the club without merit. What can you offer us?"

"...Right now not much. I can only offer you information on the heroes, but someday I will escape their shackles"

"Hmm? Why not desert now?"

"I've got a business yet unfinished. I also plan to free Asche and bring her to you - IF you agree to our partnership of course"

"Ooh! I like the sound of that! Now that we know what your offer is, what do you want in return?"

"...After I desert, the heroes will no doubt be after me. The only refuge for me is the demon lord's castle. I simply request a space in which I can continue my research"

"Hm? May I ask what the research is about?"

"...If you wish to know, I can tell you-"

"I do wish to know!"

"Very well then. There is someone I must resurrect. She is neither a hero nor a demon lord, but a mere demon such as myself. She was killed by a hero... whom I now see every day. I suppose I also wish for revenge, but my sister is my main objective"

"Very pure and noble, though your personality doesn't match it too often. I suppose that's the way demons are, aren't they? It's hard work to suppress our beastly instinct, to keep ourselves on the ground"

"..."

"I have but one question. Why not just use any resurrection spells?"

"...Firstly, most resurrection spells have devastating consequences, which I do not care for. And secondly, perfect resurrections do indeed exist for humans, but for demons, the subject is ill-researched. This is why I must continue my research. I believe by studying the mechanism of the resurrection event of the heroes and the demon lords combined with the royal blood, it may be possible to finally resurrect my sister"

"...How far are you willing to go?"

"I've already sacrificed many things. My soul, my life, my legacy. I am the demon known to have betrayed the demon lord of my era. I am willing to lose anything. For her"

"Kehehe! I like it! I accept your deal little demon. However, I will ask that we form a demonic contract"

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"Of course"

A familiar parchment appeared out of thin air as a magical circle summoned beneath their feet.

"My conditions are," began Zealot "that you make sure to desert to Sonosis in a timely fashion and that you share the fruits of your research with me"

"You won't include the rescue of Asche?"

"Heheh, I don't expect much from a feeble demon like you. There are... two, maybe three heroes who could obliterate you in a second if you try anything. Sure, feel free to risk your life, but make sure to put yourself first. I am very interested in the complete demon resurrection"

"I see. Then my conditions are the guarantee of my safety after desertion and adequate space for research"

"Nothing else?"

"Nothing else"

"Then let this demonic contract be etched into our souls," said Zealot

The magical parchment with the conditions written burnt into ashes, which blew away into mana, the summoning circles retracting beneath their feet.

"Now what will you do?"

"Well, I must return to the heroes' base, as if nothing had happened"

"They will know, you know"

"...I know"

With that, Grimm summoned her armour and wings, flying through the opened window.

"...Do you really trust her, Gilgamesh?"

"Why not? She seems like a lot of fun"

"...Very well. I'll be going"

Karudo returned to the orphanage he ran in Sonosis, looking for any demon lord candidates as well as giving back to the nation he so loved. During the day he would return to Avangarden to continue his facade as the headmaster of the Royal Gladiatorial Academy, though the position began running out of its usefulness.

"I suppose it's time for me to check up on the others"

Zealot first went to one of the rooms and noticed that Alcaeus was already asleep. Despite being a rare daywalker, he did not seem too vampiric other than his status as a demon lord. He was really no different than a human. Zealot wondered if he was a hybrid daywalker and human, an extremely rare combination. However, Alcaeus never liked to talk much about himself so Zealot decided to leave him alone.

He then moved onto the deepest layer of the basement, where he found both Interrobang and Velvel, organizing the harvested souls and corpses.

"Man, it stinks in here!"

"...What do you want, Gil?" said Velvel

"Oh, nothing. Just checking up on you guys. It sure was scary, wasn't it? Facing the heroes like that today"

"...I wasn't scared"

Interrobang stayed silent the entire conversation but continued listening. Zealot understood that that was simply how he was, demon lords came in all shapes and sizes after all. As long as they were good at their job, Zealot did not wish to berate them.

"Woah, what are you building here?"

"...It's going to be my largest zombie yet... I'm going to bring it to Championnat... I heard there were rumours of two heroes being there..."

"Does it have a name?"

"... It's named... Alice"

"That's a great name! I love it!"

Alice was a gigantic zombie shaped roughly humanoid. However, she was actually stitched together using hundreds of corpses, causing the zombie to look like an eldrich nightmare.

"I wish you luck," said Zealot, hugging Velvel "We wouldn't want to lose our cutest demon lord do we?"

"...Get off"

"Damn. I wish we had more female demon lords. All I see are guys and genderless monsters - or monsters whose gender doesn't matter because they're ugly"

"...I don't care"

"Maybe I should create an "Anti-Hero' plan... I've seen a lot of cute girls at the heroes' abode"

"...Weirdo"

"Well, have fun!"

Zealot left the facility to move on to the next. It was a colosseum similar to the one in Avangarden, but this one was stationed underground, lit by torches. Two demon lords trained within its ground.

"Brutus! Ambergris!"

The two turned around to face Zealot. Brutus was a floating armour possessed by a ghost, and as the 25th demon lord, he was powerful and battled Poda-Bruss in his era. Ambergris on the other hand was a tall woman with dragon-like characteristics. She had red skin, dragon horns as well as fangs. She was the 62nd demon lord.

"My favourite floating armour! And the cutest demon lord!"

"G-good e-e-evening ma-master Gil-Gilgamesh" replied Brutus

"...What do you want, Gilgamesh?" said Ambergris, annoyed

"Ah! My dear Ambergris, I've brought some precious gems just for you!" said Zealot while holding various diamonds, gems and minerals

"Wah! So pretty! I love you, Gil!"

Ambergris snatch the precious stones and began gobbling them up as if they were the most delicious food in the world.

"I was getting so tired of eating steel! I love you!"

"Anything for my favourite demon lord, and I didn't forget about you, Brutus! Well, I didn't bring anything either but mostly because I don't know what floating pieces of armour like, not because I forgot about you. Remember, you guys are family! If you need or want anything, just reach out to me and I might just make it happen!"

"I-if I ma-may. I would-d like a new-ew ar-armour"

"Wish granted! I'll be sure to tell our servants to look for the best armour in the armoury"

"Th-thank you"

"Anything for you, big man"

Zealot had found the two of them not too long ago within Sonosis. He was confident that if the number of demon lords continued to grow, they would be unstoppable.

Zealot finally returned to his throneroom after checking up on everyone. After some stretching, he began to ponder about the rumour he heard from Karudo, one he heard in the orphanage.

"The 100th demon lord, huh"

It was rumoured that the 100th demon lord was already walking the land and that the 100th demon lord would be the most powerful of them all, having control over all demonic energy in the world.

"That'd be really useful..."

However, rumours were rumours and it was baseless. Though it wouldn't be a bad idea to search for the 100th demon lord now. Zealot decided to think about this tomorrow as he entered his bed chamber. While he took some losses today against the heroes, he also won some. Overall, being a demon lord was just too much fun!