Chapter 296 C296. Taking Action

*Tap tap tap!

"That's enough."

After watching the commotion going on in front of her for a while, Marline grew bored of the situation and decided to speak. She was already struggling to stay focused on such pointless ordeals but still put up with it as it was her supposed duty.

Although she would rather be naked in her bed right now working while in the company of some young boys, that was probably just her laziness creeping in after so many years of doing the same thing over and over again.

Then again. This situation with the unknown behemoth was a new development that was different from the last couple of centuries at least. It was also turning out to be quite entertaining as for the first time in her life, things were not going according to plans.

This was the reason why she was even still entertaining the foolishness of these nobles who seem to have gotten way too comfortable in the little kingdom they had built for themselves in these peaceful times.

Having grown tired of waiting, she tapped her fingernail on the armrest of her throne and spoke coldly with her usual expression, her eyes rapidly reducing the temperature in the hall.

Her voice was not loud but it carried the air of absolute authority that rendered the entire room speechless in an instant. Even her sons who were of relatively high levels had straightened up and could not utter a word as Nox could not help but let lose a faint smile as he felt the pressure from his mother's icy gaze.

'Hmmm, I wonder where Nina is right now. That child, why must you always be so difficult.'

Having lost interest in the cowering Elders and nobles, Marline's eyes trailed to the side as she took a glance at the last seat to her son's side.

Her thoughts trailed towards her stubborn child who seem to have an inferiority complex towards her siblings. Not that it mattered to her though.

The thrush of the matter was that she was simply too weak, and thus, would be a stain to their bloodline, and her stubborn personality, had caused her brother to loath her very existence.

However—

Marline had to admit that she was rather fond of her failure of a daughter though.

After all, she was always the only one to have an interesting reaction whenever she saw her mother naked or with a rather young boy in her bed. Her other children didn't seem to care and did whatever they were told which, while nice was a bit boring.

Perhaps seeing her own daughter as a form of entertainment was a bit bad for a mother but she couldn't help it. She hadn't felt much of anything for more than a hundred years now and even her children did not stir up many emotions within her.

Her only saving grace was that she could still feel a bit of pleasure from sex but even that was nearing its limit as it now took her to experiment with her extreme kinks and fetishes in order to get a semblance of anything from it.

She couldn't even remember the last time she climax but at the very least, the situation in the stale demon continent was beginning to get more exciting and she had great hope for this unknown behemoth.

Now then, returning a fraction of her attention to the odd bunch in front of her, Marline calmly spoke again.

"Please continue your report Elder Campil."

"As you wish, Grand Elder."

Acknowledging the Grand Elder's instruction, the bald Elder, Campil proceeded with the rest of the report he had on the situation that had arisen in the Darknar Region as well as the activities of the unknown faction behind the still mysterious behemoth.

"As I'm sure you're all aware, each of the Great Five had unanimously decided to send a few demigod level fighters to infiltrate the undead army both as an attempt to take advantage of a prolonged war while also identifying which of the Great Five is backing this behemoth based on the quality of the representative they had decided to send."

"So get to the point. Where are we able to learn something? Do we know who the traitor is? Or are you simply wasting our time?"

An elder with a full head of white and a clean-shaven face interrupted Campil with an irritated expression as his eyes flared at him.

"I'm afraid not. During our surveillance, we were able to locate all the representatives sent by each family and for the most part, they were all demigod level fighters and were all either killed or captured in battle."

Shrugging off the annoying gazes pointed at him, Elder Campil continued his report politely only as a show of respect to the Grand Elder, else he would not have taken such insults lightly.

"What!"

"What nonsense is this. Then how are we supposed to figure this out!"

Hearing Campil's answer to their question, a few of the lower-ranking nobles began to freak out when the Demoness Duchess that had voice spoken earlier, decided to intervene once more.

"That doesn't add up. Is there any family whose representatives were not killed but were all captured alive?"

"According to the report Lady Freya, that was not the case. It seems either all representatives were killed or one of them was captured alive, barely. It also seems that all of their bodies were recovered as there might be a necromancer amongst their forces giving as they had used the undead in their attack."

"Now this is vexing. It appears whoever the traitors are, they are even willing to sacrifice their most valuable assets such as demigods to hide their identity."

Hearing Freya's calm and analytic words caused most of the room to calm down and think for a moment as another Elder responded.

"Well if their aim is the throne or the hidden treasure we are all after, then even the lives of rare demigods are worth it."

"So what do we do now? If they already have access to the castle is there anything we can do to stop them?"

"Indeed. Despite how they achieved it. They have still managed to do the impossible. For over a millennial now, the Great Five have been attempting to break into that castle to no avail that it became an unwritten rule that whoever manages to achieve that goal, whether or not they acquire the treasure or not, they would become the new demon king, so why have they been silent for so long?"

"Huh? What the hell are you yapping about you old hag. Have you gone senile? Or do you just not remember what the actual rule is?"

Hearing Freya's incomplete conclusions had seemed to drive the white-haired man over the edge as he quickly lost his cool again when Campil suddenly decided to speak again.

"That is correct Lady Freya. Although it was never formalized, everyone knew the rule was that each of the Great Five was to work secretly in devising ways to break or bypass that barrier. However, in order to eliminate any bad blood between us, we were free to secretly interfere with each other's progress but when a family makes a breakthrough and decides to attempt the castle, we would inform the other families and make it a grand event with all five families present in order to acknowledge whoever was able to achieve our goal without regrets."

"Indeed. Making secret attempts was completely frowned upon because it would surely lead to us needlessly crashing with each other and would eventually be the cause of another civil war like the last time."

Hearing Campil calmly explaining why this situation was so Deplorable, the white-haired Elder, Grey Folov Zorak finally smiled as he added to Campil's explanation before continuing.

"I'm sure everyone has heard the stories of the brutal losses each family endured shortly after the civil war which lead to the establishment of that unwitting rule and the other families are aware of it. It doesn't matter the treasure they found in the castle, no single Great would be able to survive the wrath of all Five families at the same time if they have really broken the rules, where is their pride!" *BAM!

In a fit of rage, Grey's fist came crashing down on the sturdy wooden table that had been reinforced by Magic, leaving spiderweb-like cracks that kept speeding and the table had completely collapsed on itself.

"Oh come on!"

"What is wrong with you Grey, not again!"

As though on cue, the moment the table had crashed, the large doors to the hall swung open as a few guards carried in a brand new wooden table and the others rushed in to clear out the old table's debris with Magic while the new one was set in a matter of seconds.

Everything had happened so smoothly and without delay that you'd think they had practiced this motion countless times already.

"Alright then, let's get back on topic. With what has been said so far, how are we going to salvage this situation? Didn't we send some more scouts after our representatives?"

With the table replaced, Freya immediately brought the group back to the crux of the situation as she asked a question and Campil didn't hesitate to answer.

"We did. However, we lost communication with them only a few hours after the events of the war. It's safe to assume that all our scouts have been discovered and eliminated already. Luckily, there is little chance for any information leak."

"What! Seriously?"

"Well, given as they have a Great Family backing them, it's only natural that they would be able to predict our moves but to completely eliminate so many of our scouts without exception is unheard of."

Those scouts had been the best their family had to offer and were given strict information not to get anywhere close to the castle in Ofer to eliminate the chance of being spotted or sensed by Magic, and yet.

Although it seems the family was treating it as no big deal. They were all aware that this was a massive blow to their ranks. Of course, the chances that other Great had also suffered the same fate was high so that reduces their chances of getting burned by this.

Still, to dispatch so many top-tier scouts without even a single one of them escaping despite the tools they were given was insane.

Just what kind of terrifying weapon are these people packing. Perhaps it was even one of those valuable treasures from the castle.

"What does this mean? Do we not have any more information on them?"

"We do. For the past week now, we've tried various methods of divination and while the area around the king's castle is heavily protected, we've been able to monitor its surroundings."

"And?"

"And it seems they have been building a city on the ruins of the fallen Darknar city."

"I'm sorry what!"

"This is madness."

"Are you being serious!"

"I'm afraid so. The foundations for a massive city have already been laid and it appears dwarves are aiding in the constructions as roads are being laid to various parts of the Darknar region."

"Dwarves? In the demon continent? That's rare?"

"More importantly why are they building a fucking city. Is this a declaration of war? Why on Neron would one of the greats go this far? What's to gain from this."

"At this point, we can no longer stay silent. We have to make a move even if it's against one of the Great Five! This had gone too far!"

"Are you serious, we can't act that openly anymore, it will cause a panic?"

"I don't care!"

"I've heard enough!"

Hearing the madness going on in front of his mother, Nox could no longer maintain his cool as his eyes narrowed and an oppressive exploded out of him. Silencing the entire hall.

"Oh Lord Nox, is there a problem?"

"To see so many noble bloods tarnishing the Greats' legacy irritates me. Has it never occurred to any of you that perhaps the ones backing this mysterious behemoth is not one of the Greats but rather, one of his, a primordial behemoth?"

At his stern gaze and a sudden question, almost everyone in the hall was rendered speechless beside his uninterested mother and distracted brothers who seems to have tuned out this meeting from the start.

'I can't believe it. It seems none of them had actually thought of it. Just how stupid are these morons.'

An uncontrollable rage began to swirl with him as he realized that these were the so-called pure-blooded demon nobles of the Great Zorak family he was so proud of.

Oh, how far has the Great Zorak family fallen.