Scriled hurried towards the Union centre, intent on breaking up the meeting. After all, he obtained what he needed. Pursuing any more information by wasting that much gold was just foolish.

It was on the 22nd of Redmoon, and the sun was already rising, with orange streaks of light painting the dark sky. The chilly wind of dusk had died down, being replaced with a rising heat. The cloak was already starting to feel stuffy for Scriled, but he couldn’t bother enough to take it off. After all, time was of the essence.

The dark doors loomed before him like a guardian, threatening to crush him if he dared to attack. Ignoring the enchantments that were cast on it, Scriled pushed hard against the door, sending it flying open.

The crash of the door against the door blocks behind sent a dull echo throughout the room. Scriled stepped in, only his silhouette visible amongst the dust that had risen. He walked inside and ignored the astounded clerk at the desk. His pale eyes were already using the Seeker’s magic. A trail of magic appeared before him, leading him to where he needed to be. Naiva’s trail was really distinct, since her magic was formidable. He swiftly walked through the halls of the building, occasionally finding traces of Klaus here and there.

It’s no surprise. After all, he was here to buy some slaves. It’d be more surprising if he didn’t leave a trail.

The two armoured guards blocked the room where the trail led to. As Scriled arrived before them, the burly men brandished their pikes, blocking his path.

“Halt! What is your business?,” one of the guards declared, his atmosphere domineering.

“My name is Scriled, one of the Seekers of the Knight party from Gureis. My captain is inside, and there’s urgent news I need to report to him.” Scriled had half a mind to just push them away and enter, but he knew that there were some social etiquettes even he had to display. The guard paused, then nodded towards the other guard.

The taller guard knocked thrice on the door, and then spoke “Seeker Scriled here to speak. Allow permission?”

Scriled could hear some faint mumbling here, after which something more distinct emerged. “Let him in”

The guard immediately opened the doors, and Scriled walked in, half removing his fur cloak as he did so. The heat had already begun to permeate the building, and he had no wish to cook himself inside the cloak. He was greeted by a familiar sight, one that he had seen more than a couple times before. People sitting around a circular table with a serious atmosphere. He always hated meetings like this. The knights were seated at one side of the table, and the slave traders sat facing them. In the middle of the traders sat a particularly fat man. His olive skin and the sly look in his green eyes immediately made Scriled distrust him.

“Scriled? What is it?.” Hearing a familiar voice, Scriled immediately turned towards Naiva. Her hands were on the table, and her demeanour suggested the deal wasn’t going so well.

“Please, take a seat,” the fat well dressed man spoke, directing Scriled to sit beside Naiva. He had half a mind to just tell Naiva to leave, but there were many other matters to attend to before that. He nodded curtly and sat beside her.

“Now then, as we were saying before your ‘friend’ came in, the Union simply cannot reveal information like that. After all, we maintain a certain level of professionalism.” The fat man declared, crossing his hands as he kept watching Naiva, waiting for her next move. Of course, Scriled could easily guess his intentions. He was a merchant after all. Profit was all that mattered to him. Naiva sighed, unable to make a decision.

“Let’s leave Naiva,” Scriled whispered in her ear. Naiva immediately stiffened, and turned to glare at him. “What, are you an idiot Scri? We need to do this mission! Did you forget who our king was?!”

“That’s not it. I already got a trail. We don’t need these guy’s help. The sooner we leave, the faster we catch that brat”

Naiva’s look turned to one of understanding and she turned towards the trader. His cocky attitude had disappeared, replaced with a look of wariness. “You were right Lord Gremon. We should not have pried this much. We shall be taking our leave now” Naiva said curtly, but Scriled could sense the triumph in her voice. After all, this guy was just irritating her all this time. He briefly saw the trader’s face change to that of frustration, but he quickly switched to his work face.

Hmph. Serves you right. You should have just taken it when you could.

“We’re thankful that you understand Ms Naiva” the fat man said and Scriled could almost hear him gritting his teeth as he said it.

Nodding, Naiva and the rest stood up from the table, and promptly left the room. Scriled sneaked a glance at the trader just before the doors shut. It was absolutely hilarious.

“Good thing you came in Scri. I was just about to cut his head off.”

“Well then, it definitely is a good thing”

Naiva chuckled, and then looked inquisitively at him. “Where’s Humdee? He was with you right?”

“Ah, there were some uh.... naked slaves outside...” Scriled sighed, exasperated.

“Oh right. Will he be back by sundown?” Naiva nodded understandingly, already used to Humdee’s actions.

“Hopefully.”

The Knights Order walked out of the building, their minds already working on how to capture Klaus.

*************************************

The sound of his footsteps echoed through the empty corridor as he walked through it. There was an irregularity in his gait, almost as if he had a limp. The sounds alternated between that of a heavy thump and a metallic clink.

“Master Altrock” The guards in front of the council’s hall bowed and greeted him in unison.

Altrock nodded and the guards immediately opened the gilded doors, decorated with the carving of branches and leaves. The doors slid smoothly against the milky white floor and Altrock walked into the room, looking around proudly.

It gave off a rich feeling, with the sunlight filtering in through the tinted windows in the back of the room. In the centre of the room was a large table, with maps and charts on it. Altrock’s eyes ran past the symbols and writings, and locked on to the people in the room.

“Well well, look who’s here?” One of the people in the room said as he brushed his bright yellow hair back.

“Creune” Altrock curtly acknowledged him. After all, he did not have a very good relationship with Creune, another one of the demon commanders. Creune always competed with him to see who’d do the best. And he won every time. In terms of cunning and technique, Creune was nigh unbeatable.

“What is this about Altrock? You summoned the council today so urgently too. What of your mission? We heard there were some.... mishaps at the laboratory?” An old woman questioned him, her faint silver hair cut short.

“Yeah that’s right Al! What happened? And where are the others? Augustus? Lucia?” The third in command of the demon army, Kwarius inquired, his scarred face distorting in confusion.

Altrock took a deep breath, and began to speak. “There were some... incidents at the facility. To begin with, Augustus conducted the experiment, and all was good. Then, the human version of the Demon Lord... went berserk. Half berserk”

“Half berserk?! That’s impossible!” The old woman declared, her face contorting in shock. Altrock understood her sentiment. After all, the only instance when half berserk was observed was in the synthetic army of the Dothrals. The ‘sentinels’ they created would go into a half crazed state, attacking enemies with terrifying ferocity and vitality. Humans, demons, Dwarves, Elves, every race on this land learnt how terrifying the power they displayed was.

“I thought the same thing at first when I saw him Paitiria. But then I saw him fight. Berserk or not, his targets were always set. He never went on a crazed murder spree. Rather, he went for the first one who attacked him. Not only that, he waited for him to approach” Altrock explained, his voice tinged with the slightest bit of excitement.

“Half berserk? If we can harness its power, then..” A bespectacled person pitched in, her voice suddenly emerging from the corner of the room. Of course, Altrock had already sensed her, but most would never be able to detect her presence.

After all, she’s the Shadow. The master spy of the Empire. But I don’t think I’d be able to detect her if she were serious.

“Hold your horses Shadow. There’s more. After that I was about to kill him along with the hero that appeared then—“

“Woah wait! Hero? You never mentioned anything about a hero Al!” Creune exclaimed, nervous. After all, a hero was the powerhouse of the human’s army. Even Altrock would have some trouble with him.

“Oh right I forgot. When the kid went berserk, the hero showed up with Gjaltrosia and fought him. One of the hero’s friends killed Lucia. So I just gathered them all up and went for the kill. And then... Niantal showed up.”

“Niantal?! What did he have to do there?” Paitiria asked. Altrock began shaking slightly, as he placed his hand against the prosthetic leg he had. It would take him a while to regain his old leg, but the humiliation he suffered was much more painful than that.

“He intervened, and took the hero away. Then... He blew up my leg, and used the bodies of the hero’s friends to do a suicide bombing on us.” Altrock tapped his metal leg, and Paitria widened her eyes. He sighed, depressed at his carelessness.

“Trickery... Those church bastards go on and on about holy teachings and such, but after all they can only do such things to win against us” Shadow spoke again but Altrock could distinguish the anger in her voice.

“Then let’s take the fight to them! We’ll show those stupid humans what it means to mess with us! They get all cocky if one of the idiot gods blessed them and decide to go against us?! It’s all because we wasted our time with these Demon Lord creation garbage! After all, the strongest man is the Demon lord! That is, no was our law! How else did Lord Neeram become such a splendid Demon Lord?!” Creune yelled out, banging his fist against the table.

“I never thought I’d say this but... Creune might be right this time around.” Kwarius finally spoke, crossing his arms. His face was grim, but Altrock could guess that he was already formulating the plan to annihilate the humans. Every one of them was mad at what the humans did. After all, they dared to attack the demons.

“Hold on. There’s more isn’t there Altrock?”, Paitiria noted, looking at the solemn expression on Altrock’s face.

“Yes. And this might be the worst of all.” Altrock took a deep breath, and then said, “Augustus is a traitor. He attempted to poison me, and he might have killed Orthius too.”

For a second, there was silence in the hall. Everyone took some time to comprehend what Altrock said. One of their kin was a traitor. What did that mean? There could be more. Right this moment, the demons could be in grave danger.

The demons prided themselves on the fact that no matter how much they fought amongst themselves, they’d never betray their own kin. In a war to protect their own kind, the demons would unhesitatingly leave their backs to their comrades, even if he were an enemy in some old feud between them.

“Haha.. You’re kidding right, Altrock...?” Creune muttered, a half smile on his face. His eyes were wide, indicating the shock he just received. But his smile faltered even more, looking at Altrock’s grave face. This was not a joke.

Sighing, Altrock continued “The Augustus that was with us was a fake. Some kind of golem. Perhaps it was something that is impersonating him, but based on his words... I highly doubt that’s the truth. In the worst case, there might several more of those... golems out there.”

The silence in the hall was interrupted by the cry of the raven that entered the room. It came and sat on the table, moving restlessly as it showed its claw to Paitria. With trembling hands, Paitria untied the note that was tied on it, fumbling as she did it. The news from Altrock was shocking to Paitria. She never expected it to happen. After all, Augustus was like a son to her.

The silence continued as she opened and read the piece of paper. Creune was still in shock, his smile still plastered on his face as if he were broken. Kwarius just stood still, his expression grim. There was no response from Shadow, but Altrock could feel that she was still here.

“Haa..” Paitria held her hand against her mouth, her eyes widening in shock. Altrock immediately got curious, and the others turned their sight towards her. She crumpled up the paper, her knuckles turning white as she held it tightly in her fist.

“I-It’s from the Port... They just confirmed the presence of the kingdom’s armada moving towards here... “ Paitria said. Altrock couldn’t help but exclaim at this. An attack?! At this time? How could it be?!

“The flags...It’s of the Church’s. They’re declaring war on us... Also...” Paitria paused, taking in a deep breath.

“It seems all the soldiers who were meant to keep watch were slaughtered... The search party apparently found traces of demon magic...”

“So there are traitors... And it may be more than we figured” Creune whispered.

Rather than wallow in sadness and shock, Altrock immediately kicked into action. “Ships?! Where are they attacking?!”

His yell snapped everyone out of their trances. They immediately came to their senses, recognising the fact that the problem at hand needs to be dealt with first.

“It’s... towards Suparia...”

AUTHOR!!!

Nexus here!

Heya! Another update to Demon Lord's here!

If there's any of you wondering when the story is gonna get a move on, it will. Definitely.

Also, to readers who read my other fiction, Tale of A Slayer

Great news! I've been working on it, and have started working on a more solid plot. There will be quite a few changes from before. You have been warned.

I worked out the entire latter half of the story. With the villain, the final battle, the stuff preceding it, everything! Also figured out the start. But the bridge between start and the finish, the subplots required, and all the other stuff. That's troubling me a bit. I'll solve it in no time though. I wanted to write the first chapter for ToS today, but figured I'd do a re run and finish the story line before I just go wild.

Oddly enough, after I finished the plot of my story (only the finish) I kinda felt really sad that it was over. I don't know what you lot think, but being a plotter doesn't take out the creativity out of a story, it takes out the.. expectations 'you' as a writer and reader have as you progress through the story. Write what you want to read guys.

Nexus Out! Deuces~!