"My king… you… you can't do this to us. I voiced no opposition. I did nothing…"
A recently evolved Gnoll Overlord pleaded with his new king to spare his life. However, the latter stood at the same place and looked at him impartially before commenting.
Eren had killed almost a dozen Monster Lords and slew almost triple that number of Monster Leaders at this point. He then zeroed in on this Overlord from the Gnoll race. He had fed them all to his demon beast Argo who was closer to breaking into D-Rank by now thanks to his essence-rich diet.
Argo beast faced no bottlenecks, thanks to Eren's rank and his connection with him. Now he needed a final push to complete his breakthrough.
"You said nothing. But you were thinking about it. Your thoughts are loud enough for me to take action. I don't want someone who'd backstab me at crucial times."
Eren said while narrowing his golden eyes on the Gnoll Overlord. He had used Echidna's authority on the monster, making it easier for the Ogre Overlord to take care of him.
The Ogre Overlord was one of the three Monster Overlords the Oni dungeon had. Ror was the most senior among them all with his status as someone who could be called a quasi Ogre King.
There was a Goblin Overlord who had been in a neutral faction not too long ago. But he had changed his mind and came to Eren's camp right away after seeing his new king's way of handling things.
The monsters' new king was even more of a tyrant than Har Jahar was. At least the former king cared about Echidna's traditions and rules. All of the people in the subspace were supposed to benefit from his methods of killing monsters.
However, Eren didn't care about any of those. Ror could only oblige at this point. Just when he was about to execute the Gnoll Overlord, the latter spoke up.
"My king, I… I was wrong. I was indeed thinking about backstabbing you. But I now realize my mistake and am ready to be curse-bound by you or anyone else of your choice. You shall have no opposition from me."
Gnoll Overlord Deiz said as he was lifted from his neck by Ror. the ogre looked at his king, ready to receive orders from him.
Eren pursed his lips before commenting.
"I am a reasonable man, Deiz. This is the solution I was expecting from the guys I had killed earlier. I am not naive enough to think that you'd immediately become loyal to me after I have assumed Har Jahar's position.
It's fine if you think I am not the king you wanted. It's fine if you don't see me as one of your own. And it's okay if you feel those feelings while doing exactly what I tell you to do.
Your actions need to be more loyal to me than your thoughts. And if you think of backstabbing me, I can only deal with you with a heavy-handed approach."
Eren spoke calmly to his audience while imbuing his voice with mana. If possible, he didn't want to kill the Gnoll Overlord either. He was an asset that could be used in various ways.
The only reason Eren ordered Ror to take care of him was that he had sensed that Deiz was planning to launch another rebellion against him. He was no Har Jahar who would tolerate a rebellion just because they hadn't taken any action when he was king. That was exactly the reason for the former Monster King's downfall.
Eren canceled Gnoll Overlord's execution and asked Ror. He then asked Ror to curse-bind himself with Deiz, ensuring his loyalty to Eren by proxy.
Roar!
Argo roared at his master when his food was taken away from him. Eren threw Har Jahar's hand in front of him before telling him.
"Eat this. This should be enough to make you achieve a breakthrough."
Argo was overjoyed when he finally got to eat the delicacy he had been eyeing for so long. He changed into his eagle form within a fraction of a second before catching the hand that was thrown over his head.
Argo used his devour ability on the Oni King's hand. And in a few moments, the mana cloud of D-Rank gathered around him. The Monster King's body part was a potent ingredient. Only devouring a bit of it was enough for Argo to break into his D-Rank.
Kiyeh!
An eagle cry was heard as Argo grew in size and his mana signature changed into that of a D-Rank beast. He also generated psychic waves that could suppress those weaker than him, which was related to demon beast rank-ups.
"Master! Me the greatest!"
Eren heard a voice coming from his demon beast. He was confused at first. It took him a while to realize that Argo's breakthrough had now granted him the ability to talk like humans. Despite speaking in broken form, he was speaking to him in human language.
Eren raised his eyebrows before feeling stressed. This demon beast was way too bold and cocky to say something humbling. His first words when he started speaking were that he was the greatest.
"I… back."
Argo said awkwardly to Eren before using his wings to fly away from the sacred hall and into the skies of Oni Dungeon. His voice sounded like the voice of a teenage boy who was only beginning to learn it. Eren didn't even have a chance to reply to him.
Argo had only devoured a bit of Oni King's arm. He was already full from whatever little he had devoured. So Eren took the rest of the arm back into his storage. He was planning to make a chewing toy out of the Oni King's hand to satiate his demon beast's excess cravings.
By this point, the rebellion had died. Those who Eren deemed suspicious were forced to be curse-bound. There was no neutral side to be found. All the monsters had only been given three options. A- be with him wholeheartedly. Get cursed and stay by his side. And finally, C– Die and become Argo's food.
Eren could sense with his soul that the monster population was under his total control. There were indeed some doubts and worries in the monsters' minds. But they could be dealt with over time.
Eren thought of something when he sensed the monsters' state of mind.
"Now that everything is settled down, let me put up a final show. Something that'll knock your socks off so to speak."
Eren said and morphed into a Goblin Lord in front of his audience. The spectators looked with their mouths wide open as they realized the final worshiper was more than meets their eyes.
Eren laughed when he saw the monsters' reaction and absolute silence. He didn't just stop there.
He shapeshifted into an Ogre Lord next.
Then… Gnoll Lord.
Cyclops Lord.
Eren returned to his normal black-haired human state after taking all the monster forms he had saved from the separate space of the Titus tournament. He broke the eerie silence with his next words.
