In the territory of Altyn clan of Phoenix demons, the patriarch of the clan, Jaulon Altyn, sat cross-legged upon his golden throne. Practically everything in the room was golden. Phoenix demons took pride in their riches and power and made sure to display it wherever they could do so. Jaulon Altyn was pleased with the progress of his sons; all five of them have completed the first trial without any significant losses or delay. At this pace, the throne of the Demon King would belong to Altyn clan for certain. That was the biggest goal of the Altyn clan, each one wanted to become the Demon King.

Years ago, during the last Selection of the Demon King, Jaulon Altyn lost the title of the Demon King to Akil Ras, who henceforth known as the the 56th demon king. Desperate for at least the portion of the power Demon King possessed, Jaulon reluctantly became one of the eight, currently seven Demon Lords via a contract. Because of that, Jaulon could never betray or plot against Akil Ras, not directly anyways. But it did not mean Jaulon could not harm fellow Demon Lords. One of the Demon Lords was Korgan Karatengu of the Karatengu clan of crow demons. Karatengu clan and Altyn clan were age old enemies, with the Altyn clan responsible for deaths of many Karatengus. Their generation was no different. Jaulon went as far as to manipulate humans into helping him attack the Karatengu territory, an attack that cost Korgan Karatengu an arm and his firstborn son, Omir Karatengu.

Jaulon scratched his face; along it was a diagonal scar, no matter what he did it never healed. The scar was given to him by Korgan’s son, Ymit Karatengu, when Jaulon tried to strike down the devastated Korgan cradling his dead son’s body, Ymit slashed Jaulon across the face with the Karatengu family’s sword imbued with his power. Part of the reason why Karatengus and Altyn members don’t get along is due to their powers being based on fire, crow demons manipulated dark flames while the Phoenix demons manipulated golden flames. Each flame if used right way could consume the other, based on which user is stronger, like oil and water, the two clans warred with each other for centuries. While Karatengu clan grew weaker and weaker till reduced to a single family, the Altyn clan prospered with many children and subordinates with mixed blood.

The philosophy of the Phoenix clan was the righteousness of the strong over the weak and their pride for their superiority compared to other demons. The phoenix type demons could heal most grievous of damages in seconds due to their unique bodies that produced the immortal golden flames. Phoenix demons, the pure blooded ones, are almost immortal, unless killed by a force greater than themselves that can nullify their regeneration, they will always heal. Yet, when a Phoenix takes a non-lethal damage from a high leveled magic, phoenix would get a scar that does not heal properly. Jaulon’s facial scar was such a scar. If Ymit Karatengu had slashed him even a centimeter closer, Jaulon was sure he would definitely would have been dead.

That was the reason he made sure that Ymit Karatengu ‘dissapeared’.

Without his heirs, Korgan, his arch-enemy was broken, his clan started to decline till there were less than twenty members in Tengu clan. Jaulon was sure that any day now Korgan would cease his own existence.

Yet, to his surprise, the clan started gathering members. More and more members joined the Tengu clan. Jaulon wasn’t sure why there was a change.

One day he received a letter from anonymous sender, informing him that the Tengu clan has a new leader named Ren Tengu. ‘So Korgan Karatengu had entrusted his clan to a Tengu clan member, huh?’ Karatengu clan members were the ones who had the blood of the crow demons, Tengu clan essentially were demons who joined the clan to be servants, not related to Karatengu clan by blood, only by loyalty and service.

Jaulon felt no need to be alarmed, after all, the one leading the Tengu clan was just a common demon, nothing more, and the Karatengu clan was practically extinct, with Korgan being the last crow demon. There was no reason to take Ren Tengu seriously.

After two days passed since the end of the first trial, his spies have lurked around the territories of the other clans. The spies could not however sneak in to Karatengu territory, because Korgan put barriers that prevented anyone from Altyn clan weaker than Demon Lord from breaking and entering the territory.

Jaulon took enormous pride that while so many of the Demon clans have been thrown into disarray after the first trial, his own was still strong, if not strongest right now. But his enemies had to be watched. He needed to know the state of each clan.

Then, he found out the fate of Aris clan. Jaulon thought of the clan as a potential threat due to its members and leaders being very strong, so he had sent an assassin to thin their ranks by putting poison in their food and water. He was sure it was successful. It seems like only six of the many Aris clan members that participated in the first trial came back alive. Somehow they all were exterminated by someone.

Jaulon wanted to find out, so he sent a spy who could blend in with the surroundings and overhear conversations between Aris clan members. The message the spy delivered was as follows.

“The Aris clan was not defeated by an army of demons, nay, they were beaten by only one demon who killed most of them, imprisoned six of them and let them go. According to them, the demon’s name is Ren Karatengu.”

Jaulon froze for a moment. That couldn’t be right. He must have misheard him. It couldn’t be. He must have said Tengu; it had to have been Tengu!

“Ren Karatengu? Are you sure his name was not Ren Tengu? The names Tengu and Karatengu do sound quiet similar, right?” He asked while looking at the spy with scrutinizing gaze.

The spy gulped in fear and uttered. “There is no mistake, your grace. The name of that demon is Ren Karatengu, of that I am quite sure.”

Jaulon bid the spy to exit the room. Then Jaulon proceeded to punch the table with his hand, making the table split in two and fall apart.

“Damn it! So that is how you are playing at it, Korgan! To think you had a secret third son! Now that your secret is out, I will make sure that brat suffers an unimaginably painful death!” Altyn clan would make sure that Ren Karatengu would perish. “He will regret the day he was born, I will make sure his fate would be to follow his predecessors into an early grave!” Jaulon knew very well that name Karatengu is only given to those of Karatengu bloodline, an ordinary Tengu clan member would not be given name Karatengu, and it was a name passed down by blood. Then that meant that all this time, Korgan has been hiding his third son all the while Jaulon thought Korgan sunk into despair. To think that crow did not give up! Jaulon felt his hands clenching into fists, eager to crush something. His foe, Karatengu clan was still active, and that alone was enough to make him flare up with anger.

While they could not invade Karatengu territory due to the barrier that warded off those of Phoenix clan, they could use the trials as a perfect battle ground in order to eliminate their foe.

The Karatengu clan and Altyn clan fought on the grounds that Altyn clan wanted to eliminate the weaker demons and reign as the sole supreme, while the Karatengu clan welcomed common demons and protected them. Altyn clan saw no use in the weak and tried to implement their philosophy by killing demons weaker than themselves. Yet, the Karatengu clan still opposed them, prompting the Altyn clan to view them as arch enemies and making an effort into eliminating them.

As someone who could not participate in the trials due to participating in them before during the previous selection, Jaulon decided to leave it to his sons to kill Karatengu Ren. Jaulon smiled wickedly at the thought of his sons triumphing and ensuring their clan took the throne of Demon King.