78 Chapter 78: Negotiation

"That has to be the most stupid thing the goddess Evelyn did ever," I muttered in disbelief. "Choosing Kobayashi to be her hero. I thought she wanted us to save the people of Restia, but it ends up with the main hero enslaving the human populace of Restia without any resistance, and becoming a tyrannical emperor who rules over this world?!"

"Well, it's not as if there isn't any resistance," Takeda informed me. "There are several human kingdoms who refused to bow down to Kobayashi's rule, especially because he pissed them off by killing their kings and queens. The royalties of those countries have formed an alliance to resist his dictatorship, and are rebelling even as we speak. Perhaps we can persuade them to join our cause, to ally with the demons to fight against Kobayashi. To be honest, he's the greatest threat to Restia now, not the demons."

How ironic. The heroes who were summoned to save Restia from demons had become the most dangerous threat to Restia itself, and the only hope free humans had of escaping tyranny and slavery was to ally with their previous enemies, the demons.

This was why you don't summon random strangers from another world to protect your world. You can't ever trust them, especially if he was a greedy, ambitious, selfish, self-entitled arrogant bastard like Kobayashi Kenji.

"Kobayashi Kenji, the self-declared Emperor of Humanity and Restia, and the biggest enemy to both you and us, the Iron Knights. Not only can he enslave the masses through his Kingly Disposition ability, he is also nearly invincible in combat with his Peerless Knight special ability and Royal Armor equipment. Not to mention, he wields the Holy Excalibur treasure sword that our Nagano-san has forged for him."

"I bet she regretted doing that now," I remarked. It also explained why Nagano was able to stay behind and serve as undercover in Havia City even while the rest of the Iron Knights went into hiding. She had established a close relationship with Kobayashi through forging his most powerful weapon for him in the past. Takeda nodded.

"That's why Nagano-san is so determined to stop him. She wants to repent for her mistake."

"Nagano-san should cut herself some slack. It's not as if she or anyone could have predicted Kobayashi going this far."

Takeda snorted. "I'm sure you have already anticipated that."

"What do you think I am?" I scoffed. "I might hold a grudge against Kobayashi, but even I wouldn't imagine that he would go this far."

Not to mention, he also had his sights on becoming not just the Emperor of Humanity but also the Emperor of Restia.

The guy was totally nuts. Well, that much I already knew.

"So what exactly do you plan on doing?" I asked, folding my arms. "You plan to ally with the demons and the rebelling human kingdoms to fight against Kobayashi?"

"That's right. And from Nagano-san's information, I can tell that in a week's time, Kobayashi intends to launch his attacks on ten different domains in Morten. Apart from Moria, he's seeking to isolate each of the strongest demonic domains and destroy them to cripple Morten's strength. Your friend – Lilith, if I'm not mistaken – and her domain is among those targeted. The force he sent a few days ago with Sakaguchi and Miyazawa as the vanguard was just to test the waters and scout out their strength. No doubt he'll personally head a much bigger force there to destroy them in a week's time. But they aren't his first target. His first target is the dwarven kingdom of Moria, which is the only exception and not part of the nine strongest domains. He intends to wreck the demons' technological infrastructure and war industry before he attacks the rest of Morten."

"You've got to hand it to Kobayashi, he is smart," I muttered grudgingly.

"Once he gets past all nine domains, he'll launch his attack on the capital of Morten itself, Helsguard, and kill the current Demon Lord. Upon accomplishing that, he will set up a military base there and begin systemaically rooting out all the remaining demonic survivors. When that happens, it will be impossible to defeat him."

"Yeah. The demon race is the last great power standing against Kobayashi and his armies."

I gritted my teeth. This was not looking good at all. We couldn't let iit come to that, or Kobayashi would be surrounded by an unassailable wall of indoctrinated soldiers and citizens solely devoted to his cause.

"And he has put a huge bounty on each of the demon nobles that lord over those respective domains, such as your friend, Lilith. You can be sure that a lot of warriors, mercenaries, adventurers and soldiers will be aiming for their heads."

"I just hope they don't let Kobayashi's promises of rewards get into their heads," I muttered.

"I see your penchant for puns still hasn't changed. Well, the exception is still Moria. While the dwarven kingdom does not have a strong demon noble in charge of them like the other nnine domains, they remain strategically vital to Morten's war industry. Destroying them will still cripple the demon race."

Back in Hoshizaki's room inside Cross Castle, Yonebashi was standing against the window while Hoshizaki Kozue was seated on her bed, staring at her smartphone.

"From today onward, Kobayashi-kun has issued a huge bounty for each of the demon nobles in charge of the nine domains that he has targeted." She frowned. "Isn't this Tanaka-kun's friend? Lilith? Seems like she's the queen of Heamorage."

"That's of course. Each demon noble killed will tremendously weaken the demon race." Yonebashi Kyoko stretched her back as she turned back to Hoshizaki. "Kozue-chan, what do you think? We'll have to protect the demon nobles, don't we?"

"Seems like it," Hoshizaki agreed glumly. Yonebashi giggled at her expression.

"It's funny, isn't it? We were originally summoned to this world to defeat the demons. But now we're supposed to protect them from one of our former comrades. I can't believe it has come to this. Just what is Kobayashi-kun thinking?"

"I don't know."

Hoshizaki jumped off her bed, chewing her lip. Raising her hand, she conjured a tear in space, which glowed yellow while revealing a vast darkness on the other side.

Stellar Travel: Wormhole.

"Wormhole, open!"

"Oh?"

Yonebashi lowered her ruby-lense glasses to peer at Hoshizaki's spell, astonished.

"I've never seen this move before…it looks like a spell that sends you to a specific location?"

"Yes," Hoshizaki affirmed. "There's someone I've to visit."

There was sorrow written all over her expression as she regarded the dark space on the other side of her wormhole, but she did not hesitate to step through it, disappearing into the other side. Even as she vanished, her words continued to trail out back into her room.

"An old friend."

Meanwhile, somewhere back inside Cross Castle, in an underground cave that was full of stalactites and stalagmites, the trio of guys stood in the middle of the darkness. Nishida Kensuke trembled as he raised a shaking hand to point in front of them.

"Boss…that's…"

A titanic eye looked down menacingly on the trio. Zooming out, a massive dragon that stretched over a hundred meters in length glared down on the two delinquents, purple demonic mana crackling all over it.

"…the Demonic Shadow Dragon."

Nishida swallowed in fear. Swallowing, he gestured wildly.

"Boss, do you need me to bring Aoyama back here? Ask him what weak points this thing has? I heard it's almost as strong as an ancient dragon."

Suzuki Shirou glared at Nishida, his veins popping in annoyance.

"Why are you scared?"

With a scoff, he turned his back on the intimidating Demonic Shadow Dragon and rested his spear casually on his shoulder.

"If we can't even kill this lizard…"

His eyes gleamed murderously in the dark, almost shining golden with lightning that began to spread all over his body in response to his fighting intent.

"How can we hope to kill the real monsters that are the demon nobles in the nine domains Kobayashi assigned us to take…?"

Back in the elevator, Takeda continued with his explanation.

"As you know, there are seventy-two demonic domains in Morten. Each domain is ruled by a demon noble, guarded by vast armies loyal specifically to that lord."

"Seventy-two, huh?"

I had heard of that. It was similar to the Lesser Key of Solomon and the seventy-two demons of Goetia, except that there were a few differences in Restia's version.

"The nobles ruling the top nine domains are on a completely different level." Takeda narrowed his eyes. "Each of them has the potential to be the Demon Lord, the number one Lord of all demons. And each of them has the power to rival us heroes, possessing enough combat ability to beat a party of us. If they get over their pride and ever decide to form a party of their own, they would be able to destroy even us heroes."

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Now that I thought about it, Regis and Lilith, as well as the previous Demon Lord, only ever fought alone, without asking help from each other. They did send military might, but they didn't form a party of demon nobles to take out the heroes.

Was it really just pride?

"It's also politics," Takeda added, as if reading my thoughts. "Each of those demon nobles are keeping a watchful eye on each other, waiting for one of them to slip up so that they can usurp the position of the Demon Lord. In fact, it benefits them politically if they allow their rivals to get killed by the heroes. That's why they don't bother banding together. They have one eye on the throne that belongs to the current Demon Lord. The sooner he vacates that, the better."

"So I've to convince them to work together?"

Takeda chortled at that. "Good luck succeeding in that. You'll have an easier time fighting through Kobayashi's army."

"Ugh…"

Somehow I felt as if I had just been made a fool of.

"And as for this territory…Cross Castle used to belong to the demon noble, Varic, who was in charge of this domain, formerly known as Vashna. Varic, also known as the Bone Dragon King, willingly became my equipment."

Takeda's armor glowed, and I could see the visage of a skeletal dragon looming over Takeda. It looked very comfortable taking the form of his armor and serving him.

"We reached an agreement. Kobayashi had slaughtered his forces and nearly killed me. I stumbled across the dying Varic and offered him a deal. Even though I wasn't able to save him, I could carry on his ideals and take revenge for him."

"So that's how he became your equipment."

"Yes," Takeda nodded. "It happened as part of the multi-pronged invasions shortly after Kobayashi and us defeated the previous Demon Lord. He launched assaults on several domains. This Vashna domain used to be one of them."

"Uh huh. Cool story, bro."

I nodded absent-mindedly as I listened. There should be more to this story than what I was hearing, but I doubted I would ever get to know it. Nonetheless, Takeda had given me no reason to doubt him, so there was no point questioning his every sentence.

Folding his arms, Takeda continued seriously.

"But the demon nobles of the nine strongest domains are very different. They have a lot of pride. They won't easily agree to an alliance. Right now, they are cooperating under Emperor Regis's command, but they're granted full autonomy. The only exception is Moria but they are not entirely autonomous and are extremely reliant on the other demonic domains for trade and protection. They're the odd one out in the ten targeted domains. That's not the case for the other nine domains that Kobayashi has set his sights on. They are not as reliant or vulnerable. Your friend, Lilith, also had her domain break away independently before returning to the alliance a week ago. And even then, I suspect she maintains a high amount of autonomy."

That was true. From what I had seen, Lilith wasn't beholden to the beck and call of Regis like the other smaller and weaker demon nobles. She pretty much did whatever she wanted.

"They descend from ancient, prestigious lineages that are almost as old as Morten itself."

While Takeda continued elaborating, Hoshizaki walked through a vast, cavernous space filled with rocks and violet crystals. The air itself was imbued with violent mana, shining demonically in the form of mystical bubbles.

"Since the birth of Morten, the lineage they descended from are among the most dangerous and powerful demons."

Hoshizaki continued walking along the cavern even as Takeda's voice echoed in the background. What was this, an anime-styled exposition?

"Arrogant…dominating…unyielding…"

Hoshizaki paused in front of a particularly massive purple crystalline structure.

"Since the beginning, no one was able to command them, nor was there anyone capable of defeating them!"

"Except the heroes," I muttered. Takeda conceded that with a smile. Back in the cavern, Hoshizaki looked up at the crystalline structure she stopped in front of.

"Even the heroes will have difficulty defeating them. It took almost the entire class and even so, Kobayashi sacrificed Samejima-kun just to defeat the previous Demon Lord. Now that our numbers have been diminished, especially with you being forced to kill several of them who have…gone insane, and the Iron Knights breaking away from the majority of the class…"

That was right. I remembered that the whole class, except me, had gone to fight the previous Demon Lord in Helsreach about a month ago, and even then they had difficulty defeating him. Hell, Kobayashi even failed to kill him. Thanks to that, I ended up devouring the Demon Lord and gaining his special abilities, but even then I only obtained a fraction of his strength.

…and that small fraction alone was already enough to defeat a hero or two…

"It doesn't matter if they were heroes or the most powerful guardians, they were worthless in their eyes. Your friend, Lilith, is only the ninth, and weakest among them, but in time she'll definitely reach her mother's strength. When she does…"

There was nothing much to say. I knew that Lilith had the potential to become among the most powerful demon nobles, a challenger for the throne of Demon Lord.

In addition to her, there was also…

"Nice to see you again, Kozue-chan."

A woman with lavender hair was seated in a throne that had been carved into the violet crystalline structure that Hoshizaki had stopped in front of, dressed in a skintight, leotard that bared her shoulder and much of her upper chest to emphasize her voluptuous figure.

"Long time no see," Hoshizaki greeted the massive figure, who had a lavender flower in her hair. "Lord of Lustrous, Queen Asmodai."

Asmodai smiled warmly at Hoshizaki's deferential greeting.

"Have you come to play, Kozue-chan?"

"No, I've come to negotiate. I see you're still maintaining your independence from the Demon Alliance. Even the vampire queen of Haemorage has agreed to rejoin the alliance. Won't you reconsider?"

"Kozue-chan, I consider you a friend…especially after having that battle to the death so long ago. Hmm, even though I won, you're the only person who has successfully escaped from me. That's why I've become interested in you."

Hoshizaki swallowed, but didn't reply to that.

"But if you insist on this alliance, even I'll get angry, you know?"

"I…" Hoshizaki trailed off, unsure of how to continue. "I'm just worried. Kobayashi-kun is very strong, you know? And now he has all of the human kingdoms under his rule. It's only a matter of time before he arrives here with a powerful army."

"Let them come," Asmodai replied sinisterly. "I welcome them. If this bold fool thinks he has what it takes to conquer my Lustrous domain, he is welcome to try. I will crush him with my vast armies of incubus and succubus. We'll show them the heights of pleasure before plunging them into the depths of hell. It'll be pure ectasy!"

Asmodai was so animated that she was practically dancing in her seat.

"Kobayashi-kun is not an enemy that you can underestimate," Hoshizaki warned. Asmodai merely smiled.

"Perhaps not, but I've been longing for an enemy that can finally entertain me and my armies. And I'm sure the other six are the same. Regis might have the whole of Morten to take care of, and Lilith has just only inherited her mother's title, so she's still fresh and new, so the two of them might need each other and the other sixty-three demon nobles, but as for the other seven of us…we'll be more than happy to test out skills against these Evelyn's Chosen."

Just how high did we need to go?!

Well, putting that aside, I had more important things to worry about. I placed my finger on my chin and contemplated.

"That means…to make up for the lack of heroes after the splits and deaths, and to tackle the demon nobles who are so strong that even Kobayashi doesn't dare challenge them directly, he has to enslave the whole human population of Restia to become his fanatical, zealous soldiers who are so devoted to his cause that they're willing to throw away their lives for him? Kobayashi intends to throw wave after wave of bodies at his foes and perhaps eventually drown the demons in an ocean of demon blood?"

And here I thought only Commander Kubrik Chenkov of the Valhallan Ice Warriors was ever that ruthless.

"Exactly…and Kobayashi thinks the final peripheral domain of Morten, the hidden domain in the Northmost region of Restia, will be even more terrifying than Helsreach and the nine domains themselves." Takeda raised his head thoughtfully. "Like me, Kobayashi doesn't know anything about that last, secret domain. He reckons it's like the secret level in a game, something filled with the most valuable treasures and most powerful monsters that you unlock after completing a game. In fact, he treats this whole thing like a game."

"That's why he doesn't hesitate to expend the lives of the people in Restia," I remarked. Takeda nodded in grim agreement.

"Yeah. He sees them as NPCs, as…units, or expendable pawns that he can always manufacture like in a game."

"Wait, you mean, him becoming Emperor and exterminating the demon race and invading Morten is just so he can unlock this so-called secret level?!"

"Yes." Takeda clenched his fists. "Before he and his gang attack that final frontier, they need to prepare some legendary, godlike and even more powerful weapon."

"That's why he wants to defeat all the demon nobles in these nine domains," I muttered in stunned realization. "They want to turn these demon nobles into treasure weapons…"