The Kingdom of the East was similar to the Kingdom of the North, the capital city contained the Royal Castle and most of the upper echelon of the kingdom. So if one wanted to ruin the entire kingdom, destroying the capital city was enough but that was a pretty hard task itself. Since the capital city was the most important, it also had the most effective security and powerful guards compared to other small towns like Sheldor from the north.

I sped towards the outer gates of the city with my army of bloodthirsty monsters behind me, kicking up dust in their wake. I could see the guards at the gates gathering some of their knights because of my unexpected attack, but there wasn’t going to be enough time to gather enough defenders.

I threw a Chaos ball from hundreds of feet away that blew away the entire front gate and pieces of the outer wall of the city too. Most of the rubble was devoured by the chaos energy and some knights were turned into ash mercilessly within a few seconds as well. Those that survived the onslaught retreated towards the royal castle in the distance while a horn blared. Perfect, a signal to gather all the knights in the city in one spot.

After making sure almost all enemy forces were focused on my troops, I finally flew into the city and let the monsters rampage to their heart's content, destroying everything in their wake be it buildings or humans. The royal castle was already prepared for my attack, with knights over power levels of 80 surrounding the premises. The more important nobles and royalty though, I could sense their aura inside the castle inside a specialized room in case anything like an assault on the city happened.

Letting my monster army handle the small fry, I activated stealth and headed towards the king and his family whom were surrounded by the strongest knights in the kingdom. They may be the strongest few in the kingdom but they were ants compared to me. I casually flicked my wrist and chaos enveloped them, devouring them completely. Now all that was left was the King and Queen, and their son and two daughters.

They begged for their lives and even offered me anything I desired, but their offer was answered by a punch to each of their heads in the span of a few seconds. Instant death proceeded, and the room was quiet once more even though I hadn’t even used 1% of my power yet. It was quite a boring task, destroying a kingdom. It didn’t even take an hour for the royal family to be killed and the capital city’s forces to be completely wiped out. That was to be expected though, it would be even more disappointing if it took longer than an hour for the kingdom to fall.

As sulfurous smoke billowed into the sky, I examined my left arm which contained Othida’s eye. I hadn’t used darkness energy in the past battle because I still didn’t trust that demon yet. Having me rely on his power may just be a ploy to lure me in and eventually allow for him to take over my body entirely, which wasn’t a risk worth taking. Pondering about what I should do next while tapping my ring against a wall, Z came up to me.

“Sir, Bugat has requested that you return to the castle to receive your award for successfully taking down the Kingdom of the East,” Z said.

“Why didn’t Bugat contact me himself?” I asked. “Why not just tell me, the General, directly?”

“For some reason, his communication skill doesn’t work on you even though he said it still worked before you went into the treasury,” Z answered in a respectful tone.

“Gather everyone, we’ll head back at once,” I relayed to Z.

Z left to gather my army so that we could take the portal back to the demon realm, but why didn’t Bugat’s communication skill work on me? It worked before I got that ring so...ah it must because his chaos energy doesn’t work with darkness energy. The level gap might be too high for his words to reach me through the power of chaos.

Having figured out the problem, me and my army went back through the portal we came through and traveled towards Bugat’s devilish castle.

***

“Hey Bugat, we’re back” I reported to the Demon King sitting on his throne. I had left the rest of my troops in their quarters including Z, and came here to receive my contribution reward alone.

“Welcome back Dark Orchid, thanks to your contributions the humans have lost a great portion of their forces,” Bugat said while commending me for my hard work. “You deserve a suitable reward, you can have whatever you want if it’s within my power to do so.”

What should I ask for? I searched through the entire treasury, so there isn’t anything there that I need but some information about Othidas could benefit me immensely.

“Can you tell me everything about Othidas?” I said.

Bugat’s relaxed expression instantly tensed up. “How do you know about my grandfather? I haven’t heard from him since a few hundred years ago, but we never found his body either.” Bugat got out of his seat and put his hands on my shoulders after a few quick strides down from his throne.

“I just happened to come across someone that knows a little about him, but I need a bit more information.” It wasn’t a lie, Othidas did know a bit about himself after all.

“Since this is your reward, I’ll tell you all I can but I’d appreciate it if you told me what happened to my grandfather after I provide you with that information,” Bugat said, practically begging at this point. His grandfather must mean a lot to him if he’s this desperate to know what happened to him.

“My grandfather Othidas was the Supreme Demon King a few centuries ago, but after a tragic battle against the Angel’s forces he was never seen again,” Bugat explained in a depressed tone. “Back then, I was just a little child and my parents didn’t know what happened either. We even asked my grandmother, but she wasn’t with my grandfather when he disappeared.”

“What was he like back then?” I asked.

“He was arrogant at times, but reasonable too. He never let his emotions get the best of him, and that’s why he was named the Supreme Demon King, the strongest Demon King in history,” Bugat praised. “He could even wield the legendary darkness energy with expert control, something past demon kings had never accomplished.”

I glanced at the closed eye on my hand and inwardly took note to not underestimate this demon, in case he actually was as strong as the legends described him as. Also, the I aquired was explained now by Bugat’s words.

“Is that all the information you have on your grandfather?” I said respectfully as Bugat sat back down in his throne, having calmed down a bit.

“Yeah, that’s all,” Bugat sighed. “If you’re not satisfied I can always give you something else, you definitely deserve it after contributing so much.”

“It’s fine, I’ll provide you with that info you want now,” I responded. “Just ask away.”

“What happened to my grandpa if you know,” Bugat asked. “I’ve scoured everywhere in search but I haven’t come across a single clue.

“I think he might’ve been sealed up somewhere, that’s all I know,” I said even though I could say more. But giving away too much information causes more bad than good, especially if you’re telling someone you don’t trust yet.

“Ah, that explains a lot of things,” Bugat exclaimed. “Thank you for that info though, it’s better than having nothing.”

Now that that affair was over, I had some time to relax before Bugat would give me my new orders because he needed to think a little by himself. Once again, I entered my luxurious room—by demon standards—and my bed looked really appealing considering I was somewhat tired after everything so far. So I lied down and had another small nap, this time without a demon king trapping me inside their personal realm.

After sometime, I awoke and looked at my aching arm. For some reason, the blackness seemed to have increased in surface area for some reason. I stared straight at Othidas’s eye, but it didn’t move a muscle. I sighed, and decided to talk about the matter along with everything I discussed with Bugat when Othidas was actually awake.

Soon, Z came knocking on my door to alert me that it was time for my new orders to be given out. Bugat looked more tired than usual, the bags under his eyes (even demons can get bags under their eyes) were visible and his eyes kept closing by themselves despite Bugat’s struggle to keep them open. He greeted me and gave me my new orders efficiently since I could tell he was going to fall asleep any second.

“I need you to go find my dad and relay the info you just told me,” Bugat ordered. “That info you have me might help with his search for my grandfather.”

"Do you have his location?” I inquired.

“Head northeast until you reach a castle situated on a mountain even bigger than mine, that’s where you’ll find my dad,” Bugat directed.

“Ok, I’ll come back if I get lost or run into any trouble,” I said.

“You won’t get lost if you follow my directions, and even if you do just ask any wandering monster for the direction of my castle and they’ll tell you,” Bugat seemingly whispered as his eyelids closed.

Time for me to go and let this Demon King have a nice, revigorating nap.

***

I finally found the Demon King’s father after following the path Bugat pointed out for a few hours. I passed by a lot of similar monsters that I had seen back when I first entered the Demon Realm such as trolls and orcs. The castle I finally discovered was two times the size of Bugat’s and even more menacing. Everything was enlarged, the lava was hotter and felt more sinister, and the pillars and doors were more pointed and rigid. Even the mountain was a darker shade and seemed more devilish.

I approached the gate with caution, in case any uninformed monsters sprang a surprise attack but I didn’t spot a single monster nor guard. Even the gate and doors leading to the throne room were unlocked. Bugat’s father’s throne room was in an open courtyard instead of indoors, and the sulfuric acid normally in the air was more filtered and pure in the courtyard. Did all castles have better air than their surroundings?

On my way to the open aired throne room, I didn’t see a single monster at all. The halls were silent and felt eerie, but even with my chaos enhanced vision I couldn’t see any monster silhouette within a few hundred meters. That was until I felt an immense pressure coming from behind the throne. When the demon who had his hands shrouded in darkness energy showed himself, I could immediately tell that he was Bugat’s father. All their features were alike and the air around them were similar. Also, I understood why my chaos enhanced vision wasn’t working before, Bugat’s dad’s darkness energy was interfering with my chaos energy since it was the evolved form.

“Hello human, welcome to me—Bahmt’s—castle. Prepare to die.”

“I’m not human! I have a messa-” My words were cut off by Bahmt’s sudden explosive attack aimed straight towards my heart.

***

“Your majesty, it seems like sir Dark Orchid has arrived at your father’s cas-” Z tried to say.

“Oh no!” Bugat yelled. “I forgot to tell my dad that he was going to deliver a message! I even said it would be fine to Dark Orchid but I was so sleepy that I forgot to inform my dad.”

“Will he be fine?” Z asked worriedly.

“He...should be fine,” Bugat said uncertainty. “He should have enough energy to last until the message I’m about to send arrives at his castle.”

“We can only pray for sir Dark Orchid to be safe,” Z said.

“I guess so…” Bugat whispered in a concerned tone.