Seeing the nobles fully supporting her decree, the Lamia queen inwardly nodded, she could have commanded a small or middle scaled assault on Thalia’s forces, with the loyal forces under her, but for a big scaled one, she definitely needed the armies of all the major noble families.

Her body shone in a gracious emerald light and then her snake tail dissolved in green light particles, turning back into a lower human body which was perfectly hidden under her royal green dress.

Naturally she could notice the though hidden, still impossible to conceal, discomfort on the eyes of the Naga nobles as she deactivated her Lamia form.

‘Humph’, the queen inwardly snorted, her green snake-like eyes glared at the nobles who in response shrank into their seats.

“Very well, now that you are aware of the true purpose of this meeting, we’ll listen to what Gabriel’s follower, Zia, has to say about her previous affiliated force”, said the queen as she gestured towards Zia, who in exchange turned to see Daimon to ask for permission.

Unlike Rita or Horals, despite the fact that the recently contracted Zia, obviously idolized Daimon as the sparkles in her eyes every time she gazed at him, suggested, her attitude was more on the meeker side instead of the intense one like those two.

However, Daimon has seen how her calm and composed mind changed to a “war” mode, when she faced that guy earlier, meaning it was probably a racial trait, interestingly enough, that side of hers took over when she received an “order” from Daimon.

‘It’s a shame that there is no way to know what changed on Rita and Horals personalities, prior to the contract, since they were pretty much emotionless before that’, thought Daimon as he nodded at Zia.

But before the newly contracted Zia could start, a soft cough could be heard from the nobles on the amphitheater, more accurately from a slender and young-looking woman with short brown hair, the Zullie Duchess.

“Ahem, sorry to interrupt your Majesty and… Lord Gabriel, but before speaking about such an important and delicate information, wouldn’t it be wise if everyone but the representatives left?”, she said with a firm voice, only hesitating at the moment of referring to Daimon, since if the queen’s statement was valid, he was the soon-to-be king of the Lamia race, the first one ever.

It was praise worthy that she didn’t hesitate to express her doubts, despite the brutal exhibition of earlier, it’s not like Daimon was really a high and mighty young master, but he did play the role quite skillfully so far, mostly by imitating Adam’s usual attitude and the light idiot would have for sure openly reacted with extreme aggressiveness against anyone who defied him in any possible way, for some reason.

Anyway, keeping up that act was no longer necessary, so Daimon simply answered like himself this time.

“There is no need for that, lying is useless in my presence so earlier when you answered to miss Mirellia’s decree, I was able to determine that there are no traitors hidden anymore and for those whose resolutions weren’t up to my standards…”, Daimon casually snapped his fingers and Duke Nascenti’s corpse lit up in white flames, but it didn’t last long, since Daimon only wanted to “remove” his disguise.

“W-What the hell is that!”, exclaimed a young Lamia noble girl, where Duke Nascenti’s corpse was laying a second ago, now there was a fully scaled but faceless corpse with a vertical mouth on its stomach, the thing looked bizarre but not specially frightening, only strange.

“Nether is a strong power indeed, the problem is that when one isn’t up to the task of controlling it and more importantly when it is given by others, unlike mana it doesn’t only corrupt your mind but your body as well”, said Daimon.

Thanks to Agrak he now knew how artificial Nethereals were created, apparently Nethereals with negative oriented affinities have it hard when it comes to produce offspring, it is still fine if the desire is to create a small civilization, but to become a military superpower they couldn’t simply rely on that, so they created a method to bring members of other races under their “wing”, but it basically was slavery with extra steps.

At least the four Nethereal families of which Daimon obtained information thanks to Agrak, normally included hidden loopholes in the contracts they made with those who they recruited and that produced a massive affluence of cannon fodder in the form of lesser Nethereals, who were more propense to be consumed by their negative emotions adopting a bizarre form.

“This here is a major deformation caused by greed and this here is a minor deformation caused by lust, this is the result of being stupid enough to make a deal with a Nethereal whose status is way above yours, so I’ll suggest you to not let them tempt you, especially because now that I have seen this nether, no one who uses it will be able to hide it from me”, said Daimon as he pointed to the faceless head and mouth on the stomach of what used to be Duke Nascenti.

“Are they all like that, monsters with a fake skin on top…”, mumbled the Gramy Duchess, as she gazed at the chained and unconscious rebels, to which Daimon shook his head.

“No, that form is a result of recklessness in the sought of power for those who were converted, those with Nethereal blood, high ranked ones especially, have a human form and can gain traits depending on their lineages, ultimately they are only another race”, he concluded.

The concept of “genetic damage” was alien for the people of a world where magic existed, but Daimon knew about it, maybe for Nethereal those bizarre changes were a proof of a poor lineage, poor talent or some classist bullshit like that, but in truth it was majorly a genetic problem caused by an invasive rushed change of race, which is why Daimon couldn’t obtain a skill from them, in order for him to avoid future problems.

Of course he didn’t tell them that, also there was the problem of what happened to the Nethereals he saw at the casino, they didn’t have their original bodies, even the ones that had somehow sneaked into Neptune were the same.

‘Damn Agrak, even for dying he was useless, couldn’t he die closer to the main battlefield’, thought Daimon, not knowing the outcome of the battle that created the current Neptune was frustrating.

Back to the meeting room, the nobles were half in awe and half terrified, they realized that it wasn’t the queen’s cleverness what allowed them to uncover the hidden enemies, the silver haired masked youth had a way to recognize them and played them like fools.

‘The aura of earlier clearly exuded darkness, water and metal affinities but what’s up with those terrifying white flames he used to bring Nascenti’s pawns to the ground… an innate ability perhaps’, wondered the Mein Naga queen as she stole a gaze at Daimon, it was normal that she felt interested on it, since Mirellia stated that Daimon’s race shared some relation with the Naga one.

“In that case pardon the interruption, please continue”, said the Zullie Duchess as she sat down.

Feeling Daimon’s desire for her to continue, Zia took a couple of steps ahead to start with the explanation that her young master tasked her to give in the presence of the nobles.

“My name is Zia, a member of the Amber Asper Snake race, I held a peak middle grade authority among the Guardians of the Tyrant Snake’s army, despite my lower battle prowess and was personally appointed by that despicable woman, before I was freed by young master”, she said.

Just those words were enough to convince the nobles of her loyalty to Daimon, while even with those slave-like shackles that Thalia placed on her subordinates, she couldn’t deprive them of having their own opinions deep in their hearts, they were unable to badmouth her, a little rule she set to prevent dissidence, since she ruled as a tyrant where no one else’s opinion mattered.

So, Zia just demonstrated that she was no longer tied to that, just like Daimon stated earlier.

“Even if I wasn’t part of the higher echelon, my specialty was information gathering and accurate decision making, so I was held in high regard by some of the main Guardians, who of course wanted me to join their sides, as only those races who proved their worth would be spared from becoming test subjects of that woman”, she added, all this was to explain how the next information reached her ears, despite she obviously lacking the personal power to obtain it.

That outstanding trait of hers, was also what earned her the enmity of the other middle ranked guardians though, but that’s beside the point.

“As you already know, ever since Thalia discovered the existence of the Lamia and Naga races, she prepared countermeasures to prevent you who had spent more time here and gotten used to how easy spatial movement is in Draim, from infiltrating into some secret important places”.

“The whole deal with the “Perfect Watchtower Array” had always been a distraction, she made the experts of the Rune Scale race, engrave that array multiple times in the headquarters, important places and even all the non-vital facilities, all of that was actually to cover up a hidden… lab”.

The nobles nearly fell from their chairs, all this time they have of course focused on trying to assault the most “secured” places and now they realized that they were being led by the nose.

“I have to admit it, to even use her own home as bait, she might be a cold soulless witch, but she is quite clever”, said the Valiun Naga king as he smashed his fist against the armrest of his seat.

“So, we are launching an assault onto that secret lab to bring that snak… I mean that tyrant, out of her home to ambush her?”, said the Mein Naga queen, who midway noticed her mistake, both Mirellia and Thea descend from snake related races, of course she didn’t mean it in a malicious way, apparently the Mein queen wasn’t too socially skilled, probably because she had to deal with two douchebag kings and a not bad but kind of musclehead one.

“No, tomorrow morning you’ll launch an all-out attack on the headquarters, while me and my personal army take care of that secret lab”, casually said Daimon.

Of course, the previous made some of the nobles unable to hide their inconformity, especially the young ones, but they were death-glared by their parents, family leaders and the like and zipped their mouths, it was hard for them to get used to the idea that as nobles a complete stranger was not only probably marrying three of the most coveted girls of their kingdom, but also calling the shots.

“Is there a special reason for that distribution?”, asked the Gramy Duchess, earning the gratitude of practically every young male noble present in the room.

“It’s not complicated, your appearance on their headquarters is meant to draw their attention, while I have the means to bring a group through the detection arrays, that’s all”, said Daimon.

The vast majority of high ranked nobles nodded, unlike what they expected that was a pretty valid reason, still, one of the noble family heads subordinated to the Valiun couldn’t help but say.

“We lost two major nobles and a bunch of captains from many squads of two Naga races, while assigning new ones to organize the armies in a day and one night should be possible, we wouldn’t be at out best for such an important battle”.

“Then don’t assign them, they might not have been directly involved in the rebellion orchestrated by those two old fogeys, but no one sent any information or anything, by law they should all have their noble status degraded if not completely stripped away, so they’ll be treated as soldiers for the next few wars if they are lucky”, exclaimed the younger Lamia princess, who was still pretty pissed after knowing the identity of the one who arranged her assassination attempt.

The though few, sane nobles from the three major families that didn’t involve themselves into the rebellion, felt shame, but at the same time they didn’t completely agree with Naomi’s statement, after all they were in the dark about this whole thing, though there were rumors among servants and stuff like that.

Nevertheless, the dangerous eyes of the queen made them unable to refute, if the only thing they needed to keep their noble status was to earn merits in the battlefield, that was a blessing from their ancestors at this point.

Besides, Daimon lent a little hand to the younger princess, because he had more important things to deal with right now.

“As for the loose in manpower, it’s irrelevant, Rita what’s the percentage of deceases due to the previous clash?”, he said.

“Around 10% percent died from both sides”, calmly answered the undead head maid, who by Daimon’s petition observed every battlefield that was created in the city.

Daimon nodded, with a snap of his fingers a giant pile of weapons, armor and potions appeared in the middle of the room.

“Here a little gift to celebrate our alliance, a ten percent of loose of manpower against a fifty percent in power increase”, he said.

The eyes of the nobles sparkled as they saw all that Stellar ranked equipment appear just like that, sure most were low ranked with some middle ones mixed here in there, but considering the fact that not all middle grade Stellar ranks had a low Stellar rank magic treasure, it was a game changer.

“Aren’t those the weapons that were pointed at our throats earlier…”, mumbled a noble, only for a young Lamia girl to retort.

“Shut up, I would take a stab from any of those weapons any day if I could get it in exchange”.

The Lamia queen gazed at Daimon, this wasn’t part of the plan, so she was genuinely impressed by such a display of wealth.

‘Damn, so he actually is the heir of a big force’, thought Naomi as she saw all the shinny things piled a few meters away from her.

Daimon on the other hand didn’t feel anything over giving those things away, he had emptied so many treasuries at this point that anything below peak middle grade Stellar magic treasures was probably only kept for its materials.

Also, he knew that Thea needed the Melliun kingdom for her challenge not to mention the fact that he was interested in the rune technology of the Melliun kingdom, it was a win-win situation.

And that is without taking into account all the free manpower he is about to get in the form of terror contracted Nethereals.

“Ahem, if there are no more questions, you are all dismissed, we’ll leave at morning so prepare your armies and don’t arrive late”, said the queen.

With a respectful nod and other words, the nobles started leaving on the spot, not without being assigned a certain number of new and sparkling Stellar grade treasures for their respective armies of course, until only Mirellia, her daughters, Nea and her mother were left, well besides Daimon, Rita and Zia.

They weren’t alone though, the pile of chained Nethereal aspirants including Duchess Allmere were still in a corner waiting for their sentence, they were the sole Nethereal infected people, the other troops were just regular traitors bribed by Duke Nascenti, so they were all dead.

“Okay, let’s start now, we have to leave at night”, said Diamon to Mirellia and Thea who nodded and started moving the chained rebels towards the center of the room.

“Why are you moving separately, the distraction would not be effective if you reach your destination before the battle breaks out?”, asked Nea’s mother.

“As a I said, the whole battle is just bait, that woman values that lab more than her own castle, so what would happen if she were to get a request for reinforces in the middle of her fight with miss Mirellia and Thea, as to why we are moving separately, while there were no more traitors in this city, who knows how much eyes the enemy has outside, they’ll of course spot an army at some point, but so what, isn’t the best way to mislead your opponent, letting him believe he is winning?”, casually said Daimon.

Only for the empress to immediately answer.

“Insta-chance to kill, courtesy of my general~”, the Gramy Duchess couldn’t help but feel a bit apprehensive about the silver haired masked youth, such craftiness from a member of the young generation, whereas the young nobles from the families subordinated to her own, couldn’t even stop drooling over the princesses.

‘Sigh, this is going to take some time’, thought Daimon as his body exploded in white flames, what came next was a plethora of screams and then a rain of notifications of his terror contractor skill.

…

After a couple of hours, till the last rebel was leashed properly, leaving only Duchess Allmere behind, ever since Duke Nascenti’s bizarre appearance was revealed by Daimon, she remained silent.

“Something in specific you want to know, she is forbidden from lying even in the slightest now”, said Daimon to Mirellia and her daughters, to which the older Lamia princess, Ferris nodded.

“Yes, why did they wanted to kill Naomi, I could understand going after me, the crowned princess or kidnapping her but…”, mumbled the older Lamia princess.

Daimon probably knew the answer to that, but it was better to let the Allmere Duchess answer it by herself, which she did, with his permission of course since she was now under a terror contract.

“As much as a lie as it may sound, the who made the plan wasn’t me but Oliver, he was the one who received that poison but the idiot choose to use it in a “non-vital area”, but that was a lame excuse, he simply wanted to preserve the beauty of the queen, so the idea was to just infect her with the poison which should cripple her and then cause her enough emotional damage to break her, imagine his surprise when not only the poison didn’t cripple her, but the assassination attempt failed”, said the Duchess referring to Duke Nascenti.

Naturally, let alone Ferris, Mirellia was furious, her daughter was nearly killed just because an idiot coveted her, however seeing that said idiot was killed in part by her hands literally and figuratively, she managed to regain her cool.

“As to why the nether poison he used, failed to cripple you, that’s probably because of your strong ascendence, after receiving nether from others, the thing takes over your previous characteristics, your affinity, mana, appearance and even personality can be altered, depending on how low you fall, that’s what Duke Nascenti was aiming for”, said Daimon to then add.

“Which brings me to the next question, to affect someone, nether of the same rank is needed, I already a High Stage Stellar Nethereal under my command, but he was originally a Netheral instead of having been converted, and according to him, a representative of their “Lord” would be needed to create an artificial Nethereal of that caliber, so where the hell did you get the Nether to transform yourselves?”.

Rita had already scanned till the last house or possible hideout in the whole capital city, during the past few hours and she found no one hiding, not even at the main residences of the two guys who led the rebellion.

“We… were given it, Oliver and me were exploring potential new dimensional tunnels at a random location under the sea and found an especially strong current, so we investigated a bit and were suddenly surrounded by a strange black mist inside the dimensional tunnel”.

“Then Oliver heard a voice calling him, so we advanced through the tunnel and found a small breach in the space from which that black mist was coming, the voice offered Oliver power and he accepted with the condition of becoming the king, I thought we were being tricked but we tested it on a couple of our subordinates and the thing worked, you can imagine the rest”.

“As for that breach in space, it was forcefully closed the moment that couple of red vials and the ampule with the poison came out of it, we couldn’t hear the voice at the other side anymore, but after taking the red liquid we somehow “learned” of our mysterious benefactor, Oliver was more affected than me”, she concluded.

“Well, that’s probably because you didn’t covet the queen, but power and status, while that guy was driven by more carnal desires”, said Daimon, that solved the mystery if there ever was one, the one who tempted those two idiots and brought them to his side, was one of the three Nethereal Lords. Searᴄh the Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The smooth looking guy who belonged to the Asmadian royal family also known as the Desire royal family and probably, Sarah’s father, or at least the one who poisoned both mother and daughter with nether, “Reed”, apparently the idiot did use his real name during his little hidden mission at the Elemental Sea.

‘It doesn’t surprise me, after being trapped like a rat for so many years, those three have been probably looking for each and every possible way out and they can somehow use the nether floating in the dimensional tunnels as an amplification tool, but can’t control it’, thought Daimon.

As “eerie” and bizarre as Nethereals might look, which would for sure make some superstitious people believe they are devils or some other creature from ancient texts and the like, they were just another race, what made others afraid of them was the same factor that could made anything something to fear about, the unknown, being in the dark about what surrounds you is an instinctive fear that all living beings share, that’s why fire’s discovery was such a huge change for primitive men.

Those guys were probably used to exploit that to make their enemies submit with less effort, Daimon could totally understand that, he’s got an angel girl hanging from his neck after all, ultimately what the folklore depicted as “Gods” were probably just higher ranked mages, who were like gods for mortals and weaker mages, but that’s beside the point.

Leaving spiritual beliefs aside, Daimon now knew that whoever left his black Sea Emblem behind, knew of this little trick that Reed was using and probably used this specific challenge to teach him about it.

The question now is, if said person also knew about missions and systems, because all of this was of course related to that, strangely enough there was no information about system users in Agrak’s memories, but their existence should be known at higher ranked places, even Evangeline confirmed that as she didn’t want Daimon to grow complacent.

‘Perhaps, they have other names for system users and that idiot of Agrak simply didn’t think about it during that day, damn hell he was really useless’, inwardly cursed Daimon, unaware of Evangeline giggling at him.

‘Just a bit more, meet the requirements already, I’m dying to explain more things to you my dear host~’, she thought.

By the time the interrogation finished, the sun was leaving the sky, the dome reflected the same status as the sky on the surface to not alter their perception of time, and this marked the start of Daimon’s own mission.

The truth is that, he chose to go to that lab, not only because it would be helpful for Thea, but because his instincts told him to, wo why not kill two birds with a single stone.

However, what he didn’t foresee, was that a certain couple of Lamia sister princesses, would knock on his door a few minutes before leaving to say in unison.

“I’ll go with you”.

Accompanied with a though gentle, firm as steel gaze from the Lamia queen and a sole sentence from her.

“They’ll be safer with you than within the walls of my own castle”.

Daimon’s right eyebrow twitched behind his mask, which he had already put on as a sign that he was about to leave.

“Fine, but they’ll listen to my every word”, he said, as he especially focused his attention on the younger princess.

“Hey that’s rude, I understand the importance of all this”, said Naomi as defense, only for Ferris to nod at Daimon.

“I’ll break her legs if she causes any trouble”.

“Okay, let’s go then”, answered Daimon, from within his shadow a portal appeared, Zia, a group of black clothed figures and of course Daimon and the Lamia princesses jumped into it, disappearing from the room, leaving behind the empress who was slightly sulking over not going and the Lamia queen who couldn’t help but chuckle at her.

“Let’s go, we have our own war to win”.

“Mm”, limited to say the empress, while she thought to herself.

‘Humph, you better be there to share my victory, like you did with Marlene…’.

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