Esdeath and Maruti come out of the office building and start strolling around, the cool night air a welcome change from the stuffy office. They even thought of booking a hotel room for the night, but before that, they decided to stroll around a bit more.
There were many essence stones up to Rank D being sold, their dull glow illuminating the faces of haggling customers. Rank C level materials were also common, specially of the Dark path, which was very popular among demons.
Most awakened demons are specialized in using dark methods such as curse, rust, shadows, binding vow etc.
They walk around a bit more, but as they do, they see several demons leaving their works and starting to gather around the gates of the demon palace, their movements hurried and excited.
In just a few seconds, there was already a huge crowd around the gates, like a celebrity was coming, the noise growing louder with each passing moment.
"An event? Free food maybe?" Maruti says, guessing the reasons, a look of confusion on her face.
"Let's see," Esdeath replies, her eyes narrowed with curiosity as she walks alongside others towards the crowd.
Before they could ask anyone what was going on, the demon palace's huge gates open with a low, groaning sound, and everyone starts to enter inside in a hurry, even overrunning each other to enter first, their excitement palpable.
This ended up getting Esdeath and Maruti more curious. Both of them immediately slip inside the gates, their movements fluid and unnoticed in the chaos.
And a few seconds later, the gate closes on its own without any manual effort, the heavy thud echoing in the sudden silence.
Inside, there were huge statues of past demon lords and other high ranking individuals.
Murals depicting epic battles and other decorations covered the walls, increasing the garden's beauty.
"Good evening to all the demons present," a heavy voice breaks through the air, the sound seeming to come from everywhere at once. The tone was both filled with authority and like someone having fun while talking.
At once, everyone looks up in the air, and their expressions brighten immediately. It was a tall demon, floating still in the air, its massive demon wings flapping from time to time, sending a gentle breeze down on the crowd.
He had red, snake-like pupils that seemed to see everything, and two straight, sharp horns coming out of his head, while his muscular body had a tough layer of skin like an armor. Sharp facial features, arrow-like eyebrows, and a long nose gave him the look of some kind of leader.
Esdeath's expression immediately turns more serious as she sees him.
"A demon lord?" Maruti whispers, already guessing by Esdeath's sudden change in demeanor, her own playful mood gone.
"Viserys... The strongest among all demon lords," Esdeath answers, her voice barely a whisper, her eyes never leaving the figure in the sky.
Each demon lord has their own speciality.
When it came to defense, the Lord of Anomaly would come at top. He is like an unkillable cockroach, only those with a righteous aura or an affinity with the light element have the upper hand against him.
Igret, the succubus queen, has her charm and leadership skills.
Daemon has mastery in the transformation path, just like Arthur Mariette. The only difference is Arthur's transformations are almost impossible to discern, while Daemon doesn't hide. He transforms to attack and kill his opponents.
The Lord of Knowledge, Lady Eleanor, is a specialist in magic, weapons, and refinement techniques.
Or like the Lord of Nightmares, who attacks directly into a person's mind, rendering any defense useless.
Yet Viserys has none of it. Still, he is considered the unofficial leader of all demon lords.
Solely because of his single offensive ability. He doesn't have much defense, just an average S rank.
Still, his offense is just too overwhelming, more powerful than all the other demon lords' strongest attacks combined.
Of course, he can't use it all the time. Still, one attack, and it changes everything, a single attack to turn the tides of the situation.
Esdeath's lips couldn't help but twitch. "Zoltrak...", she murmurs, his main attack's name a bitter taste on her tongue. "I'm still pissed by how many times I got one-shot by him," she says, her memory of FLF coming to her mind.
Meanwhile, Viserys continues his speech, his voice booming across the gathered crowd.
"My fellow demons, something big is gonna happen soon enough. For that, there will be feasts and dueling tournaments for the next three days," he says, a wide grin spreading across his face.
Cheers and shouts fill the air, the sound so loud it felt like the ground was shaking. All the crowd were excited by the name of feast and tournaments where they'll show off their power, completely forgetting why it was being given in the first place, their minds already filled with thoughts of glory and free food.
"That is all I have to say. You can enjoy some of your time here and then, you can go back to your work," he says, completing his short speech, his tone dismissive, as if he had already grown bored of the crowd.
But at that moment, he notices someone's stare directly coming towards him, a feeling that was both unusual and intriguing.
As he turns his head with a faint, confused smile, he sees a young girl with red eyes and ghostly pale skin standing beside a bull demon, staring at him without blinking, her gaze intense and unwavering.
Of course, those two were Esdeath and Maruti.
He feels slightly weird, a prickle of unease that he quickly dismisses, but ignores her stares and turns his head around. But the next second, he decides to look back.
But as he did, there was no one there. No vampire girl, nor female bull demon. Just a sea of excited demons, their faces turned up towards him.
He shakes his head, with a confused smile and flaps his wings, taking his leave, his form disappearing into the night sky, leaving the crowd to their celebrations.
Meanwhile, Esdeath and Maruti come out of the crowd without drawing anyone's attention, their movements quick and practiced.
"It's a good thing that he doesn't recognise me," Esdeath says to herself, a quiet sigh of relief escaping her lips.
"Why would he recognise you?" Maruti asks, narrowing her eyes.
But Esdeath chose to ignore her words, her mind already racing with the implications of what had just happened.
"Wanna walk around?" Esdeath asks, as Viserys said, they had some time to stroll around the garden.
"Nope, it's almost midnight. Let's book a room and sleep for the night," Maruti replies, a yawn escaping her, the long day finally catching up with her.
*****
In Lortell's palace, seeing Lortell's confused expression by the situation, Meldia tried to explain it, her voice calm and measured.
"You know about the decline in strength of fox kins and how tiger-kins and rabbit-kins replaced them and became the strongest beast kins while fox kins' bloodline got thinner and weaker," she asks, her eyes fixed on Lortell's face, gauging her reaction.
Lortell nods, her brow furrowed in concentration. "Yes, everyone knows it," she replies, her voice a little impatient, wanting to get to the point.
"Right, but long before it happened, the strongest beast kin, Arlin. Who was considered a goddess of beast kins, also predicted this situation and used a secret, forbidden technique," Meldia explains, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"With that technique, she extracted all her power in a spiritual form and passed it down to her next generation, making sure that this power goes down generations to generations in her bloodline",She adds.
"Hmm... extraction of power in spiritual form? How did she even do it? And how does it work anyway?" Lortell asks, more questions coming to her mind.
"That is not known. Beast kins usually transform into spiritual beasts after their second awakening, so it isn't impossible either," Meldia answers, her voice still calm.
"What's important is how unique this power is. Not only does it go down generations to generations, but its power increases by sucking in the power of its current successor," Meldia explains as easier as she could.
In other words, what Meldia was trying to say is that not only will they get the same power as Arlin Arlecchino in her prime, but as well as the power that they'll build throughout their life.
And once the host has an offspring, both Arlin's and the host's power will be passed down to the offspring, making the offspring even more powerful than its previous successor.
"Instead of depleting, the more generations it is passed down, its power grows even further," Meldia adds, her voice filled with a sense of awe.
"And which generation's successor is Alice?" Lortell asks, leaning forward on the sofa, her elbows resting on her knees, her eyes fixed on Meldia.
"Seventh, I believe," Meldia replies, her voice calm and steady. "Also there is a term to describe it, Yokai," she adds, her expression serene.
"Alice is a Yokai," She adds.
"Yokai huh... By the way, is this power the reason why she has a split personality?" Lortell questions.
Meldia lightly shakes her head. "No, it's her mental illness. One personality where she thinks herself as a weak and useless person with no confidence, while in the other one, she has full access to her powers," she answers.
"Hmm...", Lortell lightly nods, tapping her fingers on the sofa. "What are we supposed to do in it? She's already strong. What kind of training does she even need?" she asks, a frown on her face, genuinely puzzled.
"Therapy. She needs therapy," Meldia replies.
Lortell rubs her chin, her eyes looking off into the distance, thinking for a second. "To cure her mental illness? But what kind of therapy?" she asks.
"Leave it to me. I have already assigned others to dig more into her past. I'm sure I'll figure something out," Meldia answers with confidence.
Lortell smiles, a slow, faint smile on her face,"Good, then I'll leave Alice's case in your care," she says, Confident in her year's trust in Meldia.