Chapter 659: No King Rules Forever... But there are always exceptions. 2
Gremory Territory.
A tall woman holding a battle ax made of Ice looked down at the city from a hill.
"… Is this the state that Gremory let his city fall to?" Vine spoke in disdain when she saw this sight.
The old city, which used to be the most beautiful despite not being the richest, had been reduced to the ruins of a slum.
"There is no glory to my Master in conquering the weak." Vine swung the battle axe, which slammed into the ground, her vision stretching across the entire territory and falling onto a nearly crumbling palace.
For a moment, Vine saw a flash of red light and felt a mighty Demonic power.
'Oh...? What is this?' Her interest was piqued by something inside the palace.
"Lady Vine, shall we invade?"
"...." Vine stopped watching the city and looked back, and soon she saw whole hordes of Demons. Just like her Master, she'd progressed a lot in her conquest.
At first, she thought it would be difficult, but she'd underestimated how much stronger she had gotten. With the strength of a 45th Rank Pillar Demon and the strength boost Victor granted her, she could easily handle most of the Higher Ranks.
Her armies were nothing compared to her Power to control storms, and she still had this weapon... The Ice Axe was made from her Master's own Energy, a deadly item that, no matter how much she swung around, the Ice itself would never take a scratch.
Vine didn't know how many days had passed; she just knew that her conquest was almost over.
All Pillar Demons from ranks 46 to 55 were all dead, and their strength was taken from them. [At least those that hadn't survived her invasion.]
Previously, during her first invasion, she'd used 'cowardly' means of gaining victory. But, after learning about her strength, she attacked head-on in her successive conquests just like her Master had against her, something she preferred as she was never much for subtleties on the battlefield.
She currently had over 200,000 Demons under her command, most of whom were weak. After all, unlike her Master, she didn't have tremendous 'Charisma' nor overwhelming 'force' to lean on.
Therefore, she had to go the old-fashioned way, defeat everyone and everything, and those who lost would pledge allegiance to her Master.
Now, after several months, she was in front of Gremory's territory.
"We will not attack. Wait for me here; I will talk to Gremory. With the current state of affairs, he should offer no resistance."
"Yes, Lady Vine."
Vine tensed her legs, and with a burst, she jumped towards the city.
...
'Too easy.' Vine thought as she entered the Demon Pillar's chambers with no effort.
'I had heard rumors and news about it, but to think that Gremory had fallen that much, Sitri's blow must have affected him a lot.'
"Who are you?"
"..." Vine stopped walking, looked back, and saw a female Demon. She had long reddish-black hair, two horns, two wings, and a tail. She had pale skin, crimson red eyes, and black eyeliner; if any Mortal saw her, they would find the woman very beautiful.
'I didn't notice her... A succubus?' Vine raised an eyebrow when he saw the Demon's otherworldly beauty.
'Those dead eyes... She's seen a lot of shit, huh.' Vine knew those eyes very well.
"My name is Vine."
"The 45th Rank Pillar? What are you doing here?" The girl asked with a confused voice but with the same dead expression.
"I came here to have Gremory swear allegiance to my Lord."
"We already serve under the same King, don't we?" she asked, confused.
"Diablo is not my Lord," Vine spoke with a disdain that took the girl by surprise, not that the surprise showed on her face.
"My Lord is far more incredible than him~. He was the one who did this to me, and he even gave me a present. Look!" Vine spoke with a dreamy look as she pointed to the axe.
"..." The girl looked at the axe and found herself surprised again.
'So much Demonic Energy... And this fanaticism.'
"Who is your Lord?"
"You do not know?"
"Noooo...?"
"Don't you keep up with the news? I thought all of Hell knew that already."
"Look around. Do you think I have time to listen to rumors?"
"Make sense..." Vine said as she looked at the decrepit palace.
"And if you're looking for Lord Gremory, he's not here."
"Oh...? Did he leave his territory in this state?"
"You do not understand."
"... Huh?"
"When I say he's not here, that means he's not in Hell or anywhere."
"... He..."
"Died? Yes, he died."
"Well, shit." The possibility that the girl was lying to her was very high, but Vine didn't detect any lies or traces of deceit that she would typically pick up on. This entire time the girl was honest.
Did she hide things? Yes, she did; that was obvious. But she never lied.
"May I ask how he died?"
"I don't know. I recently learned of it from an Emissary of The Demon King."
'If the Demon King sent an Emissary, then it's true that he has died permanently.'
"Did Diablo kill him? Did Sitri kill him? Did some random Demon whore kill him? Who knows? I don't know."
Even with her apathetic tone, the tone of disdain was evident in the woman's voice.
"... Who are you, girl?" Vine narrowed her eyes and realized she wasn't talking to an ordinary servant. After all, an ordinary servant wouldn't speak to an Emissary of The Demon King.
"Helena Gremory, heir to this shithole you call a town."
"..." Vine opened her eyes a little.
'Gremory had a daughter? With a succubus? I thought he would never get over his ex-Wife's death...'
"Now that you know, what are you going to do? Kill me? Use me as a breeding machine because I have the 'Gremory' Bloodline?"
'This girl says some morbid things with a neutral expression...' Vine thought.
Vine looked at Helena for a long time, thinking about several things.
'It's obvious that she has been through trauma; her dead eyes prove it. She doesn't seem like a naive girl either, and she revealed her Heritage with complete certainty that I meant no harm to her. She's smart... And usually, people who have gone through hardship, when they gain something for themselves, cling to it with undying loyalty... A loyalty my Lord will love.' Plans began to form in Vine's head until she grew a big Demonic smile.
"Have you heard of Victor Alucard?"
...
Vine, marching towards the territory of the 60th Rank, looked to the side and saw Helena in full armor, a new addition to the army.
After explaining who she was and who she served, Helena readily accepted joining Vine. Even the Demons from her territory joined Helena, allowing Vine to conquer another city easily.
'She's a diamond in the rough.' That was Vine's only thought regarding Helena. The woman was a strategic genius and an expert in the Magic of Succubus' 'Dreams', not to mention that the Gremory Bloodline was strong in the girl.
'The ability to increase and decrease mass at will.' At first, it might seem pointless, but the previous Gremory proved how wrong they were.
Do you want gold? Okay, just give me a piece of gold, and by increasing the mass of the coin, you now have a few hundred pounds of permanent gold.
The Gremory were quite wealthy because of it.
Was it useless for combat? Of course, now! Take any stone and throw it at someone while applying significantly more mass, and that stone becomes a damn meteor.
The Gremory were deadly in combat because of it, and anything in their hands could become a weapon.
Vine didn't know the rules for applying this Power, there was a limitation on its use, something the ancient Gremory made quite apparent to all Pillar Demons, but one thing was certain,
'The Power of Dreams and bulking up combined perfectly.' If Helena could reach the state that Lilith's Former General, The Reaper, and Lilith herself had achieved…
The Power of turning a Dream into reality for a few minutes, that ability would be deadly in Helena's hands.
'Master will be pleased with me~' Vine had the excitement of a child waiting for rewards from their Father.
"Lady Vine, the 60th Rank City is ahead."
Vine awoke from anticipating future events that would happen to her [she was absolutely sure that her hopeful future would come to pass] And looked at Helena:
"I already said, don't call me Lady Vine. With your talent, you will probably be my equal in the future."
"Until that day happens, I will continue to call you Lady Vine." She spoke in the same neutral, emotionless tone.
'Ugh. That's her problem; she's very 'proper'. She doesn't look like a Demon who revels in chaos, but a damn Angel.' That was Helena's only 'flaw' in Vine's opinion.
"What should we do?" Helena asked.
"The same strategy we used previously with 59th Rank."
"I shall announce our terms; if they refuse, I throw several stones at them, got it," Helena replied.
"Hmm, glad you understand. Let's get back to work."
"And you nerds! Don't be inattentive; prepare for any enemy attack!"
"Yes!" The Demons behind her screamed.
"..." Helena looked at this vision with neutral eyes.
'Alucard's Legions of Demons, huh... I was supposed to have researched more about that name when I heard it in the past... Although even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have time for that given the events my 'Father' brought upon us, She thought in disdain.
"Demons!!" She heard Vine's booming voice and looked straight ahead.
'... I wonder what kind of person Alucard is. He must be someone powerful and interesting to make a Pillar Demon of the same generation as my 'Father' so loyal to him.'
"You know who we are. You know who I am."
"Now, choose." Vine's smile grew, and the weather around them started to look like a storm would break out at any moment.
"Submit or die!?"
...
'Heh, not bad... Not bad at all. It looks like Vepar has an innate ability to command.' Victor was extremely pleased.
The entire process took longer than he'd expected, but that was normal; these Demons weren't him.
Victor was looking at the image of Vepar on top of a Pillar Demon's corpse.
The whole conquest process was quite ingenious.
Vepar first made her statement, and with that, several Demons left the city and joined Victor's forces. After that, the process was smoother, and she just had to order the Demons to hit key points in the city and disperse the Pillae Demons' Elites. Then she ordered some Demons to attack head-on, and amid the chaos she created…
She left a copy of herself where she was and single-handedly attacked the Pillar Demon and managed to kill it.
A distraction tactic and perfect murder.
'Clones, huh...' Victor looked at Vepar, who was ordering the Demons around, and the other, original, Vepar.
'Not perfect like that General.'
Victor once fought a Human who could make clones, but with his eyes, he could distinguish them even though they looked similar to the original.
Vepar's clones lacked substantiality, but from what Victor understood, that wasn't her specialty. The reason for that was that these clones were made from pure Water.
'She's a Water User just like me... Interesting.'
"Your Lord is dead!" Vepar's voice carried across the entire city, and she raised the Demon's head.
The moment the Pillar Demon was declared slain, all the remaining Demons lost their will to resist and knelt down.
'Very Good indeed... Looks like I found my second General... Only one to go.' While Victor enjoyed the view, he wasn't idle and was thinking about the future,
And how his army's power structure would form.
In total, he wanted three Generals and twelve Commanders split between those Generals, making a total of four commanders for each General.
This combat structure was more efficient for commanding so many Demons precisely.
Even though Victor was a genius, he couldn't give orders to thousands of Demons without a very rigid command structure.
'The three Generals will be the Elites. I want them to be at least the level that can fight me and Scathach in our basic forms without breaking a sweat or being outmatched, and the Commanders, I want them to at least take a few punches from me.' He had a basic idea of how the forces of the world were, but since he hadn't fought much with these Beings yet, he could only use him and Scathach as an example.
After all, he knew more about himself and Scathach than the rest.
Victor would not accept mediocrity. He wanted strong Demons beneath his command, and the three Generals must be absolutely loyal to him. Because of that, Victor would take the three Generals for himself.
Unaware that his expectations were ridiculous, after all, he and Scathach were constantly evolving at an insane pace, Victor looked at Vepar, who was kneeling before him.
"My Lord, the head of their Leader," Vepar spoke humbly as she looked up at the hill where Victor's Throne once stood with expectant eyes.
"... Vepar, you have proven to me your efficiency and the execution of plans and dexterity worthy of an Assassin. I am satisfied."
Vepar's eyes gleamed.
Victor looked at the other Demons behind Vepar.
"You all were excellent as well. You followed Vepar's orders perfectly and didn't act with arrogance for the sake of 'glory'. You are true soldiers."
The Demons behind Vepar nodded and kept their heads down, but their small smiles were quite visible on their Demonic features.
"Tell me, Vepar... Is Assassination your specialty?"
"No, My Lord. Although my Powers aren't as strong as Sitri's, I'm an expert in terrain control. I use the Water I produce to my soldiers' advantage."
"Assassination is just a side job I'd learned over my long life."
"I see... How many minor trades did you learn?"
"I've lost count."
"..." Victor's smile grew.
Good at everything, but Master of nothing.' In a way, Victor and Vepar were similar, with the only difference being that Victor's talent was much more extraordinary than Vepar's.
"Looks like we'll have to change that in the future," Victor spoke.
Those words left Vepar completely confused, but she didn't have time to think of anything when Victor raised his hand to speak.
"Cocoon." Pure Ice began to be created beneath the kneeling Demons.
And that caused a little commotion since they thought they had let Victor down on something.
"Don't worry; I'm not punishing you. I'm rewarding you… We just don't want prying eyes watching, right?"
With just those words, he managed to put all the Demons at ease, proving once again how ridiculous his Charisma was.
Soon, all the Demons in front of Victor were encased in a cocoon of Ice along with Victor.
[Roxanne.]
[Leave it to me! I'll focus on the Lesser Demons! We're just giving them a small portion of Energy, right?]
[Indeed, I will focus on Vepar.]
Inside the cocoon, threads of red Energy began to enter the Demons' bodies.
That pure, Negative Energy was changing the Demons, making them…better.
Soon, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoons, the Demons were reborn.
FUSHHHHHHH.
Several pillars of Negative Energy rose to the heavens, painting the entire red sky with an even deeper crimson glow.
.....
