Scarlet

I quickly turn into blood and begin flying through the air towards the pillar. And through life sense, I find several other people rushing in the direction of the crown as well. But before I even make it a quarter of the way there, the pillar flares, following which a System Message plays out in my head.

[Crown has been captured by competitor Dafid val Ren.]

That was fast. And judging by the name, it was taken by a demon. Although I don’t know the demon myself.

I continue rushing through the air towards the pillar that’s still in the air. But as I fly, I make sure to send some of my blood to the corners of the arena so that it’s not all with me. Even if I have to make it so that the blood floats in the air, because it’d begin destroying the arena if I didn’t. Then the pillar of light suddenly vanishes, making me narrow my eyes.

Guess it isn’t always active.

Doesn’t matter though. I can hear everything happening in this arena.

So I continue flying through the air straight towards where I hear the crown holder.

I’m not the only one with powerful hearing or other senses though, and I hear other people rushing straight towards them as well.

By the time I make it within sight of the crown holder, finding it to be a ghoul with a golden crown floating over his head, I find the man surrounded by three others. Two demons and one Knight.

Which is to be expected.

I quickly fly right above them, making all three look up at me along with the holder of the crown.

Amelia gives me a smile and so does Leonidas, meanwhile Xyvandra just nods her head. Although I’m pretty sure this is just a clone of Xyvandra. Not the real one.

Meanwhile the demon in the middle of all of us looks like he’s not having a very good time right now.

“I wonder why,” Tar says rather sarcastically.

The confrontation turns a little awkward since none of us are enemies, leaving us all unsure of how to take this. But our decision is basically made for us when the demon Dafid, suddenly says, “I forfeit to Her Highness, the Princess!”

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His crown vanishes along with him, then I find a golden light shining from above me, making me raise my head to find a crown floating over my head.

Oh.

I look down at the others again, finding all of them staring at me.

Well this just got even more awkward.

As if it wasn’t already bad enough, several others begin arriving as well, including the Blue and Red Knights along with Vorgrim and some demon dukes and duchesses.

No one says anything for several seconds with the Nobles who aren’t Demon Lords looking uncertain, and the humans who aren’t Knights looking the same.

Then I decide to make a quiet exit.

Tar snorts.

I turn into blood and rush off in every direction, spreading myself out.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Black suddenly shouts as he appears in front of the largest portion of blood. But the blade made of shadows that he swings at the chunk of blood just passes right through as I move the blood around it and continue moving.

Yes I do?

Too bad I can’t really talk in this form. Or at least, not very well.

Out of nowhere, I find my own blood beginning to act up. Almost like someone else was trying to control my blood but having some difficulty. Likely due to the fact that it’s not normal blood.

It’s Red Plague.

But despite that, they still manage to slowly drag me back, so I quickly reform the large mass of blood while sending the rest of my blood out to the corners of the arena.

“Say, sweetie, how about we have another round of training now that you’re stronger?” Leonidas says as he floats up to where I recreated my body. And the look in his eyes has changed from that awkward one he had earlier to a much more interested and slightly excited look.

My thoughts go back to when he and Gramps would train me during my time on Tartarus. Which was mostly them beating me up until I finally absorbed the martial arts of our family and got more used to fighting beings far stronger than myself.

A fight to the death with Leonidas where we won’t actually did…

I purse my lips at the thought, but despite my Sin of Pride begin gone, I can’t help but find the sound of that appealing.

Especially when I know that I have some of my blood in the corners of the map, so even if I did lose in our fight, he wouldn’t be able to take my crown from me. And it would act as a distraction for the others who have aims for my lovely crown.

Most importantly…

“Alright, let’s fight,” I tell him. “Of course, I won’t be using the Red Plague for this.”

…I can test my strength against a Demon Lord.

“Nah, I can handle the Red Plague,” he says, making my eyes narrow. “If you don’t believe me, just try using a little of it on me.”

And so I do, sending a drop of my blood over to him.

To my absolute shock, the Red Plague actually struggles to infect him before being killed by him instead.

“If you kill me with it, I’ll still be permanently dead,” he says. “But you can at least defend against me with it all you like, and I’ll be fine. So don’t worry about that.”

Interesting.

Very interesting.

The two of us both grin and I can tell he has the same idea as I do.

So we both shout at the exact same time, “Demons of Tartarus, I, as Prince/Princess of the Demons, command you to stand aside and watch!”

Power radiates outwards from both of us as my Princess’s Decree skill works with his Prince’s Decree skill to force every demon in this place except for the other Demon Lords to stand aside and watch.

Then a massive Blood Domain spreads out from Leonidas and he transforms into his beast form right as I coat my skin in a layer of Red Plague while using Crimson Overdrive and transform into my own beast form.

And without any hesitation, we both rush straight at each other.