Blood Assimilation

“Indeed. Truly disgraceful. Your mission this time was simply cutting and plucking weeds that had no way to retaliate against you whatsoever. How can you still fail such a simple mission?” Another member in Grand Hall agreed with them.

“As expected of the weakest general among us. Jarkoffin, you truly bring shame and dishonor to our title as the Demon Generals of our liege.”

“As a fellow general, how can you still have a face to show up in front of the liege after you failed to complete such an important mission?”

“You should’ve killed yourself for failing such an easy mission that any of us could’ve handled properly without failure, Jarkoffin.”

…

“…”

Meanwhile, Demon General Jarkoffin still knelt behind the enormous gate of the Grand Hall without any movement or changes to his posture. However, if one looked at him closely, one would see that his body was trembling on the spot with visible veins bulging in and out of existence, seemingly attempting to control his emotions as he was in the presence of their liege.

Among the members who spoke out were the ones that held the title of Demon General, the same rank as him, but his treatment among them was very different compared to the rest because he was the weakest Demon General.

.....

Even though they were all Demon Generals, the others had always treated him as if he was beneath them. They don’t see him as an equal, and to make matters worse, he had less army to command. This further prevented him from acquiring enough merits on the battlefield to get a territory with enough resources. He had always felt frustrated and even hated these Demon Generals for looking down on him, but he was the weakest among them.

What could he do or accomplish by himself, when faced with the strongest Demon Generals’ oppression?

He couldn’t retaliate against just one of them even if he wanted to. Thus, he could only swallow his anger and ignore their disparaging words toward him.

After all, there was nothing he could do to change his situation at the moment but endure their insults. Furthermore, he still hadn’t heard a reply from their King, who was still silent without uttering a single word.

At some point, the Demon King raised a hand while emanating a terrifying and unfathomable aura, turned to the Demon Generals who were still hurling mockery words at Demon General Jarkoffin, and said: “Silence! I don’t recall asking you for your opinions.”

All the Demon Generals and the others immediately closed their mouths and halted their speech as they felt the suffocating pressure of the Demon King on their bodies.

Their liege was angry! No one would dare to purposely make their liege angry as the consequence would be one that would be worse than death itself.

‘Hahaha! Serves you guys right! My liege, thank you for upholding justice for me.’ Jarkoffin was inwardly pleased when he saw the other Demon Generals cowering in momentary fear, as it seemed like their liege was displeased with their behavior before their presence.

“As for you…”

The Demon King then turned to Demon General Jarkoffin and coldly glared at him for a moment before saying in a commanding tone: “Tell me what happened during your mission. Do not leave out a single detail. Tell me everything, do you understand?”

“Yes, my liege!” Demon General Jarkoffin solemnly replied, and then began his recount of the events that transpired after he left to complete his assigned mission. He made sure not to leave out any detail even if it was an embarrassing event as he was afraid of being seen through by his liege.

“A human apostle? A strange human who happens to be at the location of your mission? That is indeed very strange… More importantly, according to what you said, if the human apostle was real, then they must’ve arrived there to investigate the battle site right after they sensed the demonic aura emitting by your careless subordinates…” The Demon King pondered deeply afterwards without saying anything else.

The other Demon Generals, Supervisors, Managers, and Advisors also held their breaths as they waited for their liege. Even as they waited, various thoughts were running through their heads regarding what they had just heard.

Some were doubtful of the words spoken by Jarkoffin, as they believed he was mostly lying to avoid punishment from their liege. Others were cautious and apprehensive of the possibility of this news being true and the implications behind it.

At some point, the Demon King suddenly spoke: “If what you say is true, then just like us, the humans are also plotting something behind the scene. No, it would be more appropriate to say that the gods of this world had found a way to intervene with the world despite the previous restrictions that prevented them from doing so. With that in mind, it seems that I would have to visit the human continent to check things out myself. I have to verify the validity of this information and also to confirm and clear some of my previous doubts.”

“What?!” The Military Advisor of the Demon King exclaimed when he heard this declaration and then said: “My liege, you can’t!”

The Demon King didn’t mind this advisor’s comment and instead asked in a calm voice: “Why not? Do you think that this King can’t handle a task such as this?”

“T-That is not what this subordinate meant by his words.” The advisor took a deep breath to calm himself down and explained: “If my liege were to visit the human territory, your holy presence would no doubt be instantly discovered.”

“Hmph! Are you saying that this King is incapable of doing something as simple as retracting the aura I naturally emit? Are you looking down on me, Sidisfin?” The Demon King glared at him, causing him to break out into cold sweat.

However, the Advisor did not relent despite facing the threatening glare of the Demon King.

“This subordinate wouldn’t dare to look down on the liege’s capabilities. This subordinate is only suggesting that it would be better to reveal yourself only during the climax of the war. This way, we would be able to achieve ultimate victory without revealing our hands.” He solemnly said.

He then continued with a very serious expression: “However, if my liege were to somehow be discovered by the humans before then and also witness my liege’s great power. Without a doubt, those humans would take drastic measures to thwart our current plans from proceeding any further. That would be counterproductive my liege. Which is why it would be better for my liege to leave this kind of menial task to us who—”

“Enough! You talk too much!” The Demon King suddenly cut him off and said with a hint of annoyance: “I know what I’m doing, Sidisfin.”

As they spoke, they unconsciously released a bit of their overbearing pressure, causing everyone to keep their mouth shut.

Noticing this, the Demon King calm down and retracted their pressure. They thought for a moment and then added: “As for my presence, as long as I don’t go with my true form, it should be okay. No one would be able to discover my identity unless I let them. Bring me one of the ordinary-looking villagers that we’ve captured. I would possess their body and soul and then visit the human territory to investigate the truth in order to further our plans without any setbacks.”

“The Divine God is getting impatient with how slow the progress has been. We need to find a way to expedite the conquest of this world, and join the Divine God in conquering the other worlds.”

Hearing this response, the advisor still appeared worried, but he didn’t say anything as it seemed like their liege had firmly made up their mind. At this point, no amount of words or arguments would be able to change the Demon King’s mind, so the Advisor could only give up and hope things turned out well with their liege’s sudden decision.

…

Present time.

At this time, Randy and the other Dungeon Hunters had arrived at the magical teleportation operating center on the other side and were currently walking out of the building.

Vairon explained to Randy as they made their way out of the building: “This is the nearest operation building located near the Imperial City. This place is a few miles away from the Imperial City as the Royal Family had prohibited teleportation to and from the Imperial City. Therefore, we still have some distance to travel before we will arrive at the imperial city.”

“I see…” Randy nodded.

After some time, they came out of the building and took a carriage drawn by magical beasts for the remainder of their journey. It took them 4 to 5 hours to arrive outside of the gate that led inside the Imperial City.

Of course, they could have chosen to walk the remaining distance as the distance to the city gate was only a few miles of running distance. However, there was no need to go through all that hassle when they could comfortably ride in a carriage to their destination.

Randy himself would have preferred to run since he wanted to see if he could have caused his temporary attributes to become permanent through the exercise. But he was a newcomer to this place and didn’t even know which direction the city gate was located, so he could only follow the others all the way until they eventually reached their destination.