Rangon: “Then we are in an agreement. If a member of one of our clans becomes the next Demon King, we shall pledge our loyalty to him”

Korgan and Sento simply nodded.

Other Demon Lords begrudgingly uttered ‘Yes’.

It was not up to them to decide anyways.

Whoever becomes the Demon King would not care much about their opinion anyways, but this way it established that each of the clans of the Demon Lords had a fair shot at becoming the dominant force, and if one wins, the others would have to accept defeat.

Rangon: “But if the heir of Phoenix demons manages to become the King, we shall all unite against him”

On that matter, all Demon Lords were in agreement.

If the Demon King is a member of Altyn clan of Phoenix demons, he will most likely try to kill all of them. Only by standing together did any of them stand a chance against such a mighty powerhouse.

Korgan: ‘Trusting Gindan is out of question. Shin’s clan and my clan used to be allies, but now we are pretty much strangers and Sacronus gives me the creeps. But Rangon, as far as honor is concerned, he can be trusted’

Korgan mentally noted to offer Aiu clan an offer of alliance, but he needed to discuss it with Ren first, since he now was current the head of the Tengu clan.

Sento: “We are done here”

With a flash, the flames manifested around Korgan and Sento, enveloping them with its crimson hues, before the forms of the two Demon Lords disappeared from sight.

Flame type teleportation worked like any other type of transportation magic, allowing the user to move from one location to another or somewhere within the range of sight.

Only difference was that the Flame type teleportation was the flashiest one by far. But the flames were not just for show, they prevented anyone from interfering with teleportation, lest they end up receiving severe burns.

Rangon: “Farewell”

Slamming the earth, Rangon dove deep into it, essentially swimming away through the underground.

Sacronus: “Good chat”

Using mysterious magic, Sacronus stepped into his own shadow and vanished.

Shin: “I should go as well….”

Gindan: “Not so fast!”

Quicker than Shin Palak could react, Gindan Kumis grabbed her arm, sinking her sharp claws into it, in a rather painful fashion.

Shin: “Let go of me, Gindan!”

Gindan: “Not until you answer my questions, Shin”

Shin: “Or what?”

Gindan: “Or I will not give you the cure for the poison I just administered into your arm”

Shin: “You did what?!”

Pulling back her arm, Shin felt sharp pain coursing through her body.

Without a doubt, the poison was incredibly potent.

As expected of the leader of Kumis clan of Snake demons, the demon clan specializing in poisons. The power of their poison could even make a Demon Lord level demon lose her strength so quickly.

Shin’s vision slowly started to fade.

She could still see, but it was steadily becoming more and more blurry.

Her body was growing weaker and weaker by the second.

Unable to hold her weight up any longer, Shin ended up on her knees in front of Gindan.

Gindan: “Even if you cut off your arm, the poison will continue to spread. Within quarter of an hour, you will be dead. With you gone, your clan will not hold on for much longer”

Shin: “*Coughing blood*. What… do you…*Coughs* want?”

Gindan: “Answers, for starters”

Grabbing Shin by the throat, Gindan’s slitted eyes met with that of the frightened owl Demon Lord.

Gindan: “I know you are a spy for Jaulon”

Shin: “But how?”

Gindan: “Do not underestimate me, Shin. The reach of my spies is longer than you can fathom”

Gindan: “With your power, you could have opposed him, joined others and maybe stood a decent chance of victory…so why?”

Shin: “You really don’t know? Not even with your spies?”

Gindan: “*sinks her claws into Shin’s throat*. Don’t test my patience, Shin. Answer my question”

Shin: “*Coughs*. My clan was dying. A plague….affecting demons in my clan. Our resources were all but gone, decease, starvation; we were left with no other choice!”

Gindan: “So you became his spy in exchange for him lending your clan the healing power of Phoenixes? Do you think I am a fool? Jaulon I know would never help anyone unless he gained something out of it. So what was it?”

Shin: “Jaulon wanted our clan’s aid and allegiance”

Gindan: “*sinks her claws deeper*. And?”

Shin: “He wanted a son”

Gindan: “What?”

Shin: “A child born of light and darkness, embodying power of both the Altyn clan of Phoenix demons, the birds of day, and Palak clan of Owl demons, the birds of the night”

Gindan: “So you gave him a son?”

Shin: “One of them, I kept the other one. I gave birth to twins, one as golden as the sun and the other as pale as the moon. I named the golden one Zirc before Jaulon took him away…”

Gindan: “I see. So that’s why your clan was the only clan Jaulon did not touch in his rampage. Tell me more…”

As the interrogation continued, Gindan learned many crucial facts.

In the past, Palak clan was tasked to spy upon Tengu clan by pretending to be their allies, giving Altyn clan a lot of vital information about Tengu clan’s whereabouts. This led to the death of the firstborn heir, Omir Karatengu.

Palak clan was also responsible for banishing of Ymit Karatengu to the human realm, effectively taking away both of Korgan’s sons.

Gindan: “So it was you, causing all of this mess, even if indirectly…”

Shin: “I had no choice. It was for the sake of my clan…*Falls down*”

Gindan: “Pathetic. You dropped to the ground even faster than I thought. Unfortunately, it is not the day you croak”

Once Jaulon finds out Shin, his ally, was dead, he would go on a rampage unlike any other. And Gindan’s clan would be the first on the list of clan he would raze to the ground.

Because of that, keeping Shin alive was a necessity, for now.

Piercing her claws into Shin’s bosom, Gindan injected the anti-venom.

Gindan: “Henceforth, you will report to me, everything you see Jaulon do, and everything he says… do you understand?”

But Gindan made a mistake of injecting the anti-venom tad bit too soon.

Shin faked her succumbing to the poison’s effects and made Gindan think she was dying, prompting Gindan to administer the anti-venom into Shin’s body, fearing Shin would pass away too soon.

As soon as the anti-venom entered her blood stream, Shin manipulated her blood to destroy the poison on the inside in a matter of seconds.

Activating her demon eyes, Shin used its power to the fullest.

What followed was an explosion of a grand magnitude, swallowing everything in a ten meter radius.

As far as power was concerned, Shin’s demon eyes were not the most powerful, with the power of explosion being proportional to the mana used, but it was very effective.

Gindan was left burned and bleeding, yet still alive.

As for Shin, using the explosion as a diversion, she made her escape, flying away towards the sky.

Gindan: “I let my guard down. Damn it!”

* * *

Sento: “Ok. That is messed up”

Korgan: “No kidding”

Korgan was practically growling.

Even Sento, his fellow Demon Lord and friend had never seen him so enraged.

After leaving the meeting, Sento activated the unique power of his demon eyes, “The Observer”, in order to see what other Demon Lords would do.

Sento’s demon eyes allowed him to mark a single location and then be able to observe what is happening there by projecting an image of it with light based magic. Even the sounds could be overheard by using this power.

It was not an offensive power, much to Sento’s chagrin, but it did come in very useful at times.

After watching Gindan interrogating Shin, what they overheard was rather bone chilling.

Korgan: “I can’t believe this. Shin was the traitor all along….”

Clenching his fist as hard as possible, Korgan punched the enormous boulder so hard that it ended up shattering into pieces.

It may be his non-dominant hand, but when he was enraged, that did not matter in the least.

Sento: “What is in the past stays in the past. You cannot change it”

Korgan: “I am well aware. Doesn’t make it any less awful though”

Sento: “I am more concerned about the recording…It was a crow demon, a genuine article, wasn’t it?”

Korgan nodded.

Sento: “But it was not Ren. Do you remember when I told you of the powerful demon me, Lumina, and Korkau faced? He used a fighting style that is eerily similar to yours. From what I could tell form the recording, it was the same demon”

Korgan’s expression was a mix of rage, confusion, and bewilderment.

Sento: “Do you know who it might be? The crow demon looked rather young to be honest….”

Korgan: “It can’t be…”

Sento: “Can’t be what?”

Korgan: “Ren told me that he once had a twin brother….The one he lost while they were in the human world…. What are the chances…that he too had survived?”

Sento: “Are you saying…”

Korgan: “More likely than not, the one who did this, is my other grandson”