The Top Ten

IV

The Avalon Kingdom

(11 months left till the Core Stone resurfaces)

“You are quite late, Lord Jiraiya.”

Not the greeting Jiraiya was expecting when he entered the meeting room. And he did not even need to look at August to know that the ancient faerie was not happy. The thing was Jiraiya knew he was at fault, but the research materials he gained from the newly opened hot spring was worth every scolding. Also, this would not be the first time August showed his displeasure at his tardiness.

“I like to use the term, fashionably late,” Jiraiya replied back with a wide grin, “Besides is it not a universal rule for the leading man to arrive last, hmm~”

“So, it is true that Lord Naruto and Lady Yasaka are not joining us.”

Jiraiya turned toward the speaker and was quite surprised, “Well, I did not think you’d be here.”

Mephisto Pheles snorted, “I heed the calls when I know it is of absolute importance. After all, my time is quite precious. You should know about it the most, you skirt-chasing imbecile.”

“Guilty as charged,” Jiraiya gave an exaggerated bow and then swiftly went toward his seat. He wanted to finish this fast, after all his research materials were waiting. So the moment he sat down, his demeanor changed completely. And with one look, he got the attention of every single person in the room.

“Better,” With that thought, Jiraiya started, “I will start with a few quick updates on my side before we move on to our main agenda for this meeting. I am sure that everyone here knows what Magari has been up to. Unfortunately, her task is far from over. A few weeks back, she asked for some assistance. So I had asked Kumowatari to help her out. Fortunately, he agreed even though he had retired.”

“So, it is safe to assume that they will not be available to help us with our current predicament,” Mephisto added, making Jiraiya turn to the old devil. But he was not finished, “Because of the Nekoshou incident… no, because of the outcome of the Nekoshou incident the supernatural world is in uproar. And with how our forces are spread out, do you think we can accomplish the goal we had set up?” Mephisto finished with an annoyed tone.

Jiraiya shrugged his shoulders at Mephisto’s comment, “On paper, it may seem like we are falling behind. But in reality, it is not as bad as all of you may think.”

“Care to elaborate.” It seemed that the old devil wanted to cover every corner of their current situation. Not surprising considering his nature.

Jiraiya turned toward August who, releasing a sigh, intervened, “Magari’s mission will be over within two weeks. Even if it does not, she is to freeze her mission and return to the capital since our current situation takes priority over everything else. As for the other matter, Kumowatari already found his successor.”

“Who is it?”

“Kuroka.”

Everyone shared glances amongst each other but said nothing. But Jiraiya knew what they wanted to ask, “Don’t worry, she will be going through the usual procedures to secure Kumowatari’s position.” That answered the unspoken concern amongst everyone present.

“Now another update is that our king will not be available for the next couple of months to personally oversee our works and reports.” Jiraiya immediately put his hands to calm everyone down, “No, he is not sick or in any kind of life-endangering situation. I do not have the full report but what I can tell you is that our king will be accompanying Lady Amaterasu. During his absence, Lady Yasaka will take over his responsibilities. She will also be one to keep us informed about our king’s situation.”

It was a lie. He knew exactly what was going on. Naruto was preparing for his ascension to ‘Godhood’ with the help of Amaterasu. To Jiraiya, it felt like Naruto was training for a ‘Power-up’, similar to how he had spent time at Mount Myōboku to learn Senjutsu. But he knew that others would not see it his way. Even their Prime Minister freaked out when he heard about it. So Jiraiya suggested to Naruto to keep this news under wraps, something Amaterasu agreed wholeheartedly. This was why a handful of people knew about Naruto’s situation, him along with Amaterasu, Yasaka, August and Tsukuyomi.

Jiraiya focused on the meeting again. The youkai sage stood up, immediately getting their attention again. He waved his hand and a holographic image appeared in the middle of the table. “Oh~ The wonders of science and magic~”

“I will not sugarcoat this Gentlemen, but the supernatural world has entered the cold war era. And this time around, there are high possibilities that multiple factions may not make it through this.”

“I thought we still had some time left,” Mephisto frowned.

“Unfortunately, the situation has changed. The mid-rank factions have already started to make their moves, with the Greek faction in the lead.” Jiraiya replied as with another wave of his hand the image started to change.

“In the lead of what?”

“In the lead of carnage count.”

On cue, different holographic images started to appear, showing various locations. All razed to the ground. Needless to say, the temperature of the room dropped significantly.

“Are we not doing anything about this? These Greek bastards are starting to become a real pain in the ass lately.” Mephisto’s tone became murderous. Everyone knew that when Mephisto started cursing, it meant that the shit was about to hit the fan.

“I have sent messages to various independent supernatural clans and settlements, warning them about what is going on right now with clean-cut evidence. They needed to be informed. Also, I told them directly that if they need asylums, the Avalon Kingdom will be glad to take them in.”

“Although this does sound like a peaceful approach, it raises some concerns,” XuanZang added his thoughts.

“Security concerns, right?” Jiraiya then waved his hand and another picture appeared, which shocked everyone, except for August.

“Is this…”

“Yes, this is the second city that we are currently working on. The structure of this city will be more flexible to suit the needs of our new residents.” Jiraiya could not help but keep his smile down as he enlarged the holographic image.

XuanZang stood up from his seat and started to rotate the image. Telling that he was impressed would be a huge understatement. “This is ingenious.” Then he turned toward Jiraiya, “How far are we?”

“Naruto had chosen the location and already created the land for the city. Yasaka is working on the necessary enchantments and barrier designs. But the construction itself will start from next month and Yasaka will supervise the process herself, If she is unable that duty will be passed over to one of us,” Jiraiya paused for a moment before continuing, “If all goes well, the construction should take around three to four months to finish.”

“But there is more to a city than just the structures.” XuanZang raised an eyebrow at Jiraiya.

“We are going off topic here. First of all, what makes you think that we will have new clans joining us?” Mephisto asked. And he got his answer when a piece of paper appeared in front of him, and everybody else.

Jiraiya gave them some time to read. And he could see everyone finally getting the picture.

“This could definitely work,” Mephisto said, more to himself.

“Yes, it should. But we have to make sure everything goes exactly like it is planned if we want to achieve our desired end result of this bloody cold war.” Jiraiya snapped the and the images disappeared completely. He sat down before continuing, “We need XuanZang to speed up the construction process of our second city. And we need to have Sesshomaru on standby,” Jiraiya then turned toward Mephisto, “Along with Tannin, with your permission.”

“You have it,” Came the swift reply from the ancient devil.

“Can we know what we are to be ready for,” Sesshomaru spoke up for the first time.

“Direct as always.” Jiraiya smiled, “Most of the time your mission will be rescue related, with the permission to use anything and everything at your disposal.”

The raised eyebrows told him that they did not expect this answer. Nonetheless, Jiraiya continued, “August will be focusing on the political side of this war, and from time to time Yasaka will be helping him. As for you, Mephisto, Naruto thinks this is the perfect time for the merging to begin.”

It took a moment before Mephisto realized the meaning behind those words. Jiraiya got to admit Mephisto looked quite funny with his eyes wide open, “He wants me to move all the Magician associations to the second city.” Mephisto groaned and started to rub his forehead, “This is going to take almost a year even if everything goes accordingly.”

“Then you should start right now,” Jiraiya could not keep his smug tone down. He received a harsh glare from the old devil, but it was worth it.

“And what about you?”

Jiraiya waved his hand and holographic images of three beings appeared.

“I will be making sure that the Heaven, the Grigori and the Underworld stay out of this.”

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X

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Unknown Location

(6 months left till the Core Stone resurfaces)

“Do you think we will reach there in time?” This was the third time he had asked this after they had left off. It was quite uncharacteristic of him, but Sesshomaru knew the ex-Dragon King did not like their current situation. But there was nothing they could do at this point but hope.

Five months ago, Sesshomaru learned that the Supernatural World was going into the cold war era. Honestly, he knew this was bound to happen. While he had hoped that this world was more peaceful than the Elemental Nations, he realized long ago that it was impossible to achieve everlasting peace. And after the Nekoshou massacre, he knew that the Supernatural World would once again be hit by chaos. He only hoped that it would not be as bad as the Great Faction War. While he expected the current state of the Supernatural World, he was disappointed at their strategy to handle the said situation. Instead of taking the initiation, they were waiting for their opponents to make the first move. He understood very well what Jiraiya was trying to avoid here. He was making sure that their actions would not create any kind of possibilities which other factions especially the Biblical faction could use to directly confront them. Separated the Grigori and the Devil faction would not stand a chance against them, but as a whole and along with the Heaven faction… that was a different story.

But the problem this time around was not the Biblical faction, it was the Greek faction.

It was true that other than Hades, the Greek faction did not have any special or powerful individuals. This had been the case for last several hundred years. And if Jiraiya’s reports were true, then even Hades was weakening. But that did not stop the Greek faction from being the barbaric savages they were. And the worst part, their approach at causing war and chaos were working.

“Sir.”

Sesshomaru opened his eyes to meet the wavering gaze of the inugami. He motioned with his head for him to continue. Seeing his approval, the inugami began his report, “There are three aircraft carriers and four destroyers surrounding the island, and there are twelve fighter class jets circling the island.”

“Humans?”

The inugami just nodded at his question.

Sesshomaru hated to admit this but the Olympians were the one of the cleverest at using their resources. From what Jiraiya was able to dig out, the Olympians put time, fortune and effort on the human armies instead of creating their own. At first, it did not seem like a good investment but turned out they were wrong. The Olympians were using human’s military technology to keep up with the other supernatural factions. They were also using the human armies as shields to cover up their supernatural acts. Most of the time their tactics worked since they would choose their target very wisely and subtly. And even if they failed, it was not like they were losing anything. After all, to the Greek faction the human lives were expendables.

Sesshomaru stood up abruptly, “Maneuver our ship to slip past the human ones. I will create a storm to cover our tracks.” Then he turned to Tannin, “The moment you land on the island, create a safe zone to receive the dark elves.”

“What about you?”

Sesshomaru just whistled and not a second later, twenty masked inugami came out of nowhere and stood behind him, “I am not waiting any longer. The distress call from the dark elves came half an hour ago. We wasted too much time to pinpoint the exact location.”

With that, he disappeared along with his personal squad.

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X

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Inside the mysterious island

The moment Falcon-1 and Falcon-2 flew over him, Cane looked at his tablet again. And just as he suspected, he saw no changes on the energy wavelength.

He could not believe that his unit would be stopped like this. And to make matters worse, this was the last barrier left. Just after this, was the biggest settlement belonging to the dark elves. Unfortunately though, the combination of the protective barriers was something that he had not seen before. It was quite ingenious if he was being honest.

Cane did not know how big the settlement was but from the scan he got the mist was covering around hundred and eighty-four square kilometers. This mist was not anything like the one which was surrounding the whole island. That outside mist only created a subtle illusion but the danger came from the jagged rock structures coming out of the water. He had to admit the combination was deadly. It would not have been that easy for his unit to bypass that barrier if it were not for the help of the captured dark elves. Truth to be told, the reason they came this far without any casualties was because of them. But unfortunately, it seemed even they did not know how to go through this mist.

This dense magical mist was blocking all of their attempts. It was behaving like an electromagnetic field, poisonous gas and was even generating noise that was creating confusion amongst his men. The easiest solution was to send the tanks in first and few small squads with them. But even that was not possible. Because the mist was not the only problem, the ground below them was behaving them like quicksand. And it was not an ordinary quicksand. It swallowed two of his tanks completely in mere minutes. It was just a guess, but there was a high possibility that an individual or a group from inside the mist were directly controlling this absurd phenomenon. If that was the case, then the best way to handle this was to send some highly trained individuals to go inside the mist unnoticed and take down those who were controlling the mist. Unfortunately, it was easier said than done. He had no such individuals who were skillful enough to take on the task.

“Commander Cane, permission to use the railgun.”

Cane did not even look at the demigod who was speaking to him, “Major Sherman, our objective here is to capture the dark elves not to collect their corpses.”

But he had to admit, the newly developed railgun was the perfect solution for these kinds of scenarios. It was redesigned to destroy magical and supernatural barriers. He was sure that their strongest railgun could even badly damage the mighty barrier surrounding Kyoto, they could even completely collapse it if they could fire a few shots in succession. But the problem was not the firepower, it was the casualty. There was a high chance that they could wipe out the entire settlement.

“Unacceptable,” Cane muttered to himself.

They needed the dark elves. More precisely what they truly needed was the knowledge dark elves possessed about magic.

The power level of their technology and army had reached the point where the Greek faction could finally say that they were now equal to the Norse faction. But the term ‘Equal’ was not good enough for his father Ares and his aunt Athena. He knew that. Heck, most of the top-ranked demigods knew that the Olympians would never stop, not until they became one of the top-tier factions again. But sometimes he wondered, would they stop even if they reached their goal.

Unfortunately, the Olympians were at a bind right now. Yes, their faction’s army had the number and the technology, but they were lacking in two things right now, very powerful individuals and in-depth magical knowledge. As far as he knew, Lady Athena was planning something to gather strong individuals. He had a hunch what it was but he knew better not to poke too much. And his father Ares took the responsibility to find groups who were well-versed in magic. The easiest option was to raid one of the magical associations situated in Europe. But after some thorough recon, Ares dropped the idea. Not surprising since quite a few of the associations were being led by Mephisto. Cane knew his father was a warmonger but he was not stupid. The devil faction was in a very agitated state. Crossing paths with them now would be considered suicide.

So, Lord Ares told his sons to focus on the independent minor factions and rogue mages. But Cane knew what his father was truly aiming for, the vampire factions and the dark elves. Unfortunately both of the vampire factions, the Carmilla faction and the Tepes faction were situated in Europe; meaning they could not use brute force to subjugate them as that would alert the Biblical faction. So, currently his father was consulting with Lady Athena on how to handle this situation.

As for the dark elves, no one knew where they were hiding.

Until now.

“Major Sherman, prepare the railgun. But instead of firing directly at the center, fire at the coordination I will be giving. These are…” Cane stopped when he saw the sky darkening. It was not just the sky but he felt as if the whole atmosphere just became dark and eerie. It took him a few seconds to realize that the weather was becoming very terrible and very fast.

Was it the dark elves?

No.

“Commence operation danger close! Everyone fire at will; shoot anything that moves!” Cane shouted at his earpiece as he turned around and started running toward the camp, “Elizabeth-1 send in the air supp…”

It was only because of his instinct that he activated his bracelet and tower shield appeared in front of him made of pure imperial gold. He did not know what hit him but the shockwave from the attack had sent him flying, after shattering his shield like a fragile glass.

Cane landed on his feet but he could not get his senses straight immediately. But he was not one of the top demigods for nothing. Even though he did not know what was happening, he kept barking orders.

‘Stay in line!’

‘Form a defensive position!’

‘Fire at will!’

He was screaming his lungs out as he started to run toward the camp again. But he was stopped again when he saw it. From the dark cloudy sky emerged this giant serpent purely made of green fire. But unlike others who were watching it in stunned silence, he immediately calculated where it was heading. And it was heading toward the heavy assault group.

“Re…”

He could not utter one word before that thing was smashed into the ground. The heavy assault unit consisted of ten heavy tanks that each of which could easily fend of multiple minotaurs, three squads of forty strong men who were much stronger than your average exorcists. But that full unit vanished into thin air just like that. Nothing was left behind but scraps and ashes.

This was magic; raw, unfiltered and unstoppable.

It was then, Cane saw him.

He was wearing exquisite Japanese clothes while holding a large katana in one hand. He was standing between them and the mist barrier. It took him few seconds for his features to register in his mind. And when it did, he felt as if all his blood were drained from his body.

Sesshomaru…

“Release the Beasts!”

Fifteen artificial Chimeras made of imperial gold and engineered by Lord Hephaestus himself were released. They were created and trained so that together they could fight against Ultimate class beings. As they charged toward him, Cane ran toward Sherman who was giving orders around him but he knew better. He always knew better. This fight was a lost cause. It would be a massacre. He had to get out.

His intuition was proven correct when Sesshomaru took down the whole Chimera team within less than a minute; all the while standing on the same spot and dodging the bullets courtesy from his unit. The worst part, he never used any magic.

That youkai was a monster, pure and simple!

The moment Cane reached Sherman, he grabbed him and activated the transportation spell. It took one second for him to teleport back to temporary main base which was one of the aircraft carriers. But that one second was enough for his opponent to give a lasting impression.

“Argh!” Cane screamed as he looked down to see his right arm which was now missing. He did not know how it was done. Heck, he did not even see Sesshomaru moving and he was at least five kilometers away from him.

“Commence operation meteor…” The words died down as Cane realized that he was poisoned. He saw Sherman supporting him and started giving orders around him. Cane knew he was not going to die, but the mission was done for. He gritted his teeth and screamed his lungs out.

One youkai, it took one single youkai to sabotage their whole operation that took months to plan and destroyed one of his divisions that took years to create.

“ARGH!” With one last scream, Cane lost his consciousness.

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Sesshomaru’s POV

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“You do not look happy.”

With a wry smile, Sesshomaru turned to meet Tannin’s gaze, the ex-dragon king was still in his human form. Then he looked behind him to see the chief of the dark elves was gathering his people.

“How did the talk go?”

Tannin shrugged, “It went better than I thought. They were really impressed by our quick action and your monstrous strength.”

“Is that all?”

“No. Turned out they want to leave with us.”

Now that surprised Sesshomaru, “They are accepting our offer.”

“They are more than happy to. And to be honest, are you really surprised at their decision after what had just happened?” Tannin smiled as he looked back to see the dark elf chief, “He is asking for us to guard them starting from now till they are done moving.”

“We should ask Lady Yasaka and August…”

Sesshomaru could not finish as Tannin turned around and gave him a mischievous smile, “Let me rephrase it, they are asking for you specifically to guard them during this whole time.”

“Ohh…” Other than this he had no comeback.

Sesshomaru then turned around again and faced the sea, “I thought they would need more persuasion.”

“Do they?” Tannin stepped forward and stood by his side, “They saw how strong and tenacious these bastards were. They were no match for them. If it were not for us, they would have been turned into slaves for all eternity, maybe worse. Also,” Tannin lowered his voice a bit, “I think they are tired of hiding, tired of being unable to see the world.”

“Hope for their children, their next generation,” Sesshomaru muttered to himself, but Tannin heard it regardless.

“Not just for their children, for them as well,” Tannin paused to take a deep breath before asking again, “You still do not look that happy.”

Now it was Sesshomaru’s turn to take a deep breath. He knew Tannin was not going to let this go.

“I know why we let them go but we had the chance to take their whole unit all out.”

“You and I both know taking out all these ships and the men on them would not mean a thing to the Olympians. The Greek faction would just use this as an excuse to entice the humans to start a war amongst themselves. Until we have something solid on our hand, our hands are tied.” Tannin’s answer was something Sesshomaru already knew. The Avalon Kingdom did not know where the Olympians were hiding. The only thing Jiraiya found out was that the second Mount Olympus was somewhere in the United States. There was also this case about the huge number of demigods they were producing, which was not possible according Lady Amaterasu. So, the Avalon Kingdom needed to find something that they could use against the Greek faction, till then just like Tannin said, their hands were tied.

But it was still hard to let enemies walk away fully knowing that they would be coming back more prepared. Still, he could not help it.

“Ironic, is it not? The Greek faction is the least worshipped amongst the humans and yet they are the one who has the most control over them.”

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X

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Kuoh Town

(5 months left till the Core Stone resurfaces)

“I am a genius.”

Azazel could not help but praise himself as he looked over his newly purchased apartment. His new place was in stark contrast to his usual ones. Truth to be told, this simplistic three-room apartment looked quite appealing than some of his old luxurious manors. All it was missing was a few sexy maids, and this would be perfect.

Speaking of his intelligence, he really had to give a pat to himself. Securing a base in Japan, especially in Kuoh was harder than he thought. Of course, this town was not his first choice. He tried to take a trip to Kyoto, but he was surprised at the level of the security. It was close to impossible to get inside the city with all the patrols and the barriers. To be honest, if he wanted to, he could have passed all these securities if he had used his powers, with some difficulties of course. But unfortunately that would also get the immediate attention of some of the youkai he was desperately trying to avoid. So, he had to make sure he did not trigger any sort of securities the youkai had placed in Kyoto and regions beside the city.

The leader of the Grigori, the strongest fallen ever to exist had to tiptoe around the youkai territories. This alone just showed how Naruto Ōtsutsuki disrupted the power balance in the supernatural world.

Of course, it did not stop him. He just went with his alternative plan. Instead of bringing all the selected fallens at one time, he sneaked them in groups. And stationed them in small to medium-sized churches all over Japan. The selected fallens, under his command, were tasked to subtly create a small network within the next few weeks. He planned to create the foundation first before expanding.

“Maybe I should ask them to speed up.” Azazel thought to himself as he lazily rubbed his chin.

His musing was cut short when he heard the doorbell. His eyes immediately darted to the figurines nicely arranged in his shelf, more toward the empty spots between some of his antique figurines.

“Finally, they are here.”

With a skip in his steps, Azazel went toward his door. When he opened it, the view of the delivery man standing there with his precious package brought a smile to his face.

“Hope you took utmost care to my precious package.” Azazel grinned as he took the package from the delivery man, he was quite young from the looks of it.

“Of course sir, our company is the best in the courier service.” With a sheepish smile, he added, “My boss was also quite vocal about the safety of the packages. He said that you are a regular?” With that, he took out an envelope and handed it to him.

Azazel raised an eyebrow as he took the envelope. He tried to remember what this could be but nothing was coming to his mind.

“Are you sure this is mine?”

The boy blinked hearing his question, “This came with the package.”

“Hmm~ Maybe something promotional?” Azazel muttered as he gently put down his package to open the envelope. What came out from there was something completely absurd.

An airplane ticket.

“We got the first class for you.”

Azazel’s eyes snapped to look at the boy in front of him. But wearing the same cloths, there was someone else standing instead of the boy.

If anyone would ask who was the most feared youkai? The answer was obvious, Naruto Ōtsutsuki. But who was taking the second place? Now that would raise some debates. Some would say it was Yasaka; not because she was the queen but how good she was at using her power, fame and position. And then some might say it was August, the God of Fae. Well, that one did not need any explanation since he was the ‘Eternal Guardian of the Forest’ of the Faerie faction. But to him, they would not come close to the original threat, the one youkai whose real talent was hardly noticed by anyone outside of the Avalon Kingdom. He was sure that even in the Kingdom, very few knew what that youkai was truly capable of.

Now, why did he think that this youkai was more dangerous than the queen and the prime minister?

This youkai was the mastermind behind the youkai military that went toe to toe with the devil faction. And if his sources were not wrong, Jiraiya was almost if not just as strong as Serafall and Fabium. Speaking of his sources, the spy network Azazel created for the Grigori was considered to be the best out of all the factions. And it took him hundreds of years to completely create the network. But recently he found out that the Avalon Kingdom had one just as good as theirs. And the one who created their spy network was none other than that youkai. But the worst part was he only took half a century to do it.

And right now, that youkai was standing right in front of him.

“I also got you some premiere services,” He took out another envelope with a perverted grin, “As a man of culture like me, I am sure you will appreciate this little gift.”

“Lord Jiraiya; what a surprise.” The smile on Azazel’s face was now very strained as he looked down at the ticket again, “If I may, I am a bit confused about these hospitalities.”

The perverted grin on Jiraiya’s face turned into a wry smile, “How about we drop all these shenanigans, Azazel. If it was any other time, I would have taken you to a club of our liking. Women and booze all night, sounds like a perfect setting for men like us to relax and chat, right?” Then the youkai sage’s smile disappeared completely, “But unfortunately, I cannot extend such invitation since we are going through a troubled time. You know where I am going, right?”

Absolute silence reigned for the next minute, but it felt like an eternity for Azazel.

Azazel was completely at lost for words here. He did not know where to start or how to counter Jiraiya, but he had to try. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he finally spoke up with a serious tone, “Is it because I am from the Biblical faction that I am getting this special treatment?”

At first Jiraiya blinked at the statement; and then out of nowhere he started laughing out loud. It was absurd, Azazel did not know what was so funny.

“You think we are discriminating you just because you are from Biblical faction and has ties with the Devil faction?” Although Jiraiya had a smile on his face, his eyes were hard and calculative, “Let me say the details from a high level perspective to save us some time. The number may not be exact but you have brought in around two hundred fallens in last three weeks; quite covertly if I say so myself. And if I have to take a guess as for why, it is to create a network and establish a base here in Japan. So far, I got the main facts correct, right?”

As Jiraiya was speaking, Azazel felt a chill running down his spine. He had underestimated this man greatly, and now it was his turn to pay the price. Since Jiraiya knew this much, Azazel was sure lying to him would be of no good. So, at this stage the best approach would be, “You are right, Lord Jiraiya,” Azazel started with a heavy sigh, “I did bring few of my men here, to expand my network. But should it come as a surprise? After all, the supernatural world will soon enter the cold war era. But unlike the previous cold wars, this time we have a wild card, a mysterious and dangerous wild card.” Azazel paused as he pointed at Jiraiya, “So will you blame me if I am taking precautions to ensure the safety of my people.”

Jiraiya did not say anything back, he simply stared at him. The stare-down continued for a minute before he finally broke the silence, “Your reasoning is sound, I will admit that. But we both know that it's bullshit.” Whatever Azazel was expecting, this was certainly not it. But Jiraiya did not stop there, “You are not here for the cold war, you are here for us. You want to see, you want to learn what we are capable of. To be honest, I completely understand why you want to do that. I would have done the exact same. But regardless of your intentions, you are still trespassing our territories with shady purposes.”

Azazel drew a heavy breath, he was neither dumb nor stubborn. He knew when a fight was lost and when to back off, “So you are telling me to leave.”

“You and all your men,” Jiraiya corrected him.

Azazel simply nodded.

“Please leave while we are asking you politely.” Jiraiya then pointed at the ticket, “After that date, we will not be so generous.”

“Is it possible for me to meet with your king,” Azazel tried his last hope.

“I know what you are trying to do here. But try to understand this, you came in his territory without any kind of invitation. And you came here for your own gain, and you chose a very troubled time. Do you really think that it is a wise idea for me to let you meet him?” Jiraiya answered with a wry smile.

“I thought he was a benevolent king,”

“Yes, but he is not stupid either.”

Azazel opened his mouth but nothing came out. He honestly did not have anything to say. And it seemed Jiraiya understood that clearly. So he gave a respectful bow and without any word started walking away from his door. The fallen governor could only watch his retreating steps for a minute before he slowly closed the door.