An unexpected blow was always painful.
Embrio, the Demon King of the wolves, sat on the walls of the newly occupied city and looked far away.
He looked toward the north, not the west or south that he used to.
Meanwhile, Embrio's operation went well.
The family heads in the western region didn't dare to leave on an expedition to the north when their own dungeons were in danger.
Although there were some who attempted to advance to the north, they often ended up ending their expedition shortly.
Nobody knew where Embrio's core dungeon was.
The northern region had been already occupied by Embrio.
It was unreasonable for them to go on a faraway expedition when their dungeons were in danger. There were several reasons.
That was why Embrio could keep pressing those family heads in the western region. He could keep driving them into a corner. He could force them to choose a single-round match.
But something unexpected happened.
The 'reasons' that covered Embrio could be sustained only when the family heads in the western region made a rational judgment.
But they gave up everything, who was like 'revenge demons' earnestly hoping for Embrio's ruin.
So, those reasons could not be accepted by them. They were willing to sacrifice themselves to set fire to a forest named Embrio.
Most of them were survivors.
They were not only children or brothers or relatives of the family heads in the northern and western regions trampled by Embrio but also, their loyal dungeon demons.
And they attacked the north.
They didn't think of retreating. They attacked Embrio's dungeons or front lines at the risk of their lives and succeeded in inflicting considerable damages to Embrio.
Of course, Embrio's forces were not to be defeated by their sporadic guerrilla battles. If they had been such a weak force in the first place, they could not have subdued the northern region. Embrio put an end to the turmoil in the north within a relatively short period of time and pressured on the family heads in the western region.
However, it was clear that he had a setback in the plan. After all, the time required to end the turmoil was described as 'short' at first, but it proved 'relatively short'. In fact, Embrio had to exhaust a considerable amount of time to do that.
The family heads in the western region, exhausted from being chased by Embrio endlessly, bought some time for a break. They began to look for ways to use revenge demons.
That was why Embrio went out of his way. In a situation where the supply line linking the north was in jeopardy, he achieved the feat of attacking one of the western cities in an ambush and occupied it overnight.
One of the wolves wandering around Embrio looked down at the wall. Death Knight stood in front of a mountain of corpses piled up as a warning sign. Behind his back, who was standing with a huge sword as if he were a gatekeeper, a purple magic power close to black rose like a haze.
The powerful undead was supposed to radiate the energy of death around it. And such energy of death altered the magical power omnipotent in the demon world.
The undead began to rise among the crowd of corpses. Of course, their number was small, and most of the newly produced undead were zombies that were hard to be called undead at best.
But they couldn't be ignored at all.
The wolf that was staring at Death Knight frowned. Hugin, the wisest of the wolves following Embrio, discovered that Death Knight's action was a sort of an armed demonstration.
It was true that the powerful undead radiated the energy of death. However, a powerful undead could keep such energy hidden from outsiders.
Obviously, Death Knight didn't try to reinforce his force by increasing the number of zombies. That Death Knight was showing off his ability to create the new undead simply by radiating the energy of death by himself.
And his showoff was not directed toward the family heads in the western region. Obviously, it was directed toward Embrio on the wall.
But Embrio didn't care. He felt that the outright hostility of the surveillant became a little more concrete.
Rather, it was a good sign to him. If the surveillant had sincerely been wary of Embrio, he would have posed an invisible threat instead of such a childish act.
Embrio stroked Hugin's head. His gaze toward the north turned to the east and south this time.
It seemed that he could occupy the western region sooner or later.
Plauros, the Demon King who could be called the head of the Western Owners' Alliance, was by no means a fool. Further expansion of the front was not beneficial to the Western Owners' Alliance. It would be possible for them to attack Embrio's rear to some extent by using revenge demons, but it would be nothing more than their desperate efforts that could not affect the general situation.
Be it a single-round match or a thorough defense, there was no choice but to mobilize the forces now. The damages in the western region were too big to continue a war of attrition.
That was why Embrio concluded that the western region would be occupied sooner or later. So, he thought of the east and the south, his next target after occupying the western region.
The eastern region was still in turmoil. The big chaos and turmoil that Embrio caused awakened those with ambitions in the eastern region. It was the so-called warring states period. It would take a considerable time for the turmoil in the eastern region to subside.
The eastern region was wide. There were also quite a few powerful demon kings. If somebody could subdue the period of confusion and unify the state, he could be a strong rival of Embrio himself.
However, Embrio wanted to pay more attention to the southern region than the eastern region. A wind was blowing in the southern region. The sudden wind began to swallow everything in the region.
It wasn't surprising that the new strongman defeated those family heads there. But it was something that raised Embrio's attention that he took the Free City after defeating Agares.
In the southern region, there were no houses with strong power like those in the west, and there were not many families like those in the east.
That was why Embrio had ignored the southern area the most until now. He thought it was a place that he could easily take immediately after occupying the west.
However, the time came for Embrio to think differently about the southern region.
'The House of Mammon.'
It was the very house where that great King of Greed was born.
Although it lost its past glory, it once had the name of the 'king' during the old days.
'Embrio, you don't have the power of sin. So, you can't be a king.'
Embryo recalled the fortune teller Naga's words, who he trampled in the north.
Instead of thinking of something positive or negative, Embrio simply turned around.
He muttered softly, "Is he the Demon King of Flames?"
The new divinity that has risen from the southern region.
The new Demon King bearing the name of the House of Mammon on his back.
The wind blew. With the energy of death, it blew toward the north.
***
[Name: Tigrius Randolt (male)]
[Race: Magius (Mine)]
[Category: Demon King-Demon King of Union]
[Attribute: Flame Level 3]
[Individual nature]
[Prudent / Upright / Honest]
[Individual aptitude]
[Intellect / Magic power]
[Evolution EXP 0/100]
[Strength Specialization Level 2 | ★★ (2)]
[Physical Strength Specialization Level 3 | ★★☆ (2.5)]
[Intellect Specialization Level 4 | ★★★ (3)]
[Magic Power Level 4 | ★★★ (3)]
[Skill Specialization Level 4 | ★★☆ (2.5)]
Thanks to the effect of the contract, Yong-ho could observe Tigrius's evolution information in great detail even though he had not yet made him his subordinate demon.
What caught Yong-ho's interest more than anything else was his other name, "The Demon King of Union."
'Is it also his last magic?'
During the battle, Tigrius's two different magics merged into one, and they were completely different properties like fire and water.
When it came to magic, Yong-ho was close to a layman, but it didn't mean he had no commonsensical knowledge of it at all. As far as he knew, two magics could not become one like that.
Closing his green eyes, he pondered for a moment. He spoke to Tigrius in a low voice, who remained silent after declaring that he would become Yong-ho's subordinate, "Is the Demon King of Union your other name?"
Since he had been accustomed to speaking to Eligos informally, he could ask Tigrius the same way.
At that moment, Tigrius replied with his eyes glaring, "Yes, Lord. That is my name as a Demon King."
The power of the Demon King was not given by Providence. He obtained the power by awakening the possibility of his own soul as the Demon King.
Therefore, the name of the Demon King could be called the name of the soul.
Tigrius tried to suppress his curiosity.
Yong-ho's different name, known to the public, was "The Demon King of Flames."
Tigrius thought so until now, but he didn't think it was true.
Just as Yong-ho was deeply impressed by Tigrius's magic of merging two into one, Tigrius was also greatly shocked by his free attribute transformation.
Moreover, this time, Yong-ho accurately found out Tigrius's other name.
There was a possibility that Yong-ho guessed right after watching him merge the two magics, but Tigrius's intuition denied such a flimsy possibility.
When his green eyes flashed, it was clear that some magic power was triggered.
Maybe it was not his attribute transformation, but the power that he just showed.
So, Tigrius got curious and wanted to know.
However, Tigrius himself was now a subject of the House of Mammon. So, he could not ask his lord to reveal the secret.
The power of the Demon King was the best weapon the Demon King had. So, asking him to reveal the secret of such power was like asking a warrior for his sword.
Tigrius took a deep breath.
Yong-ho and he had a different status. Yong-ho was his master, while Tigrius was his vassal.
The master had to know clearly what power his vassal had, so he could use his subordinate's power in the right place.
Tigrius was good at making himself clear. Now that he pledged to become Yong-ho's subordinate through the contract, he did not consider himself more than a vassal of the House of Mammon.
So, he explained to Yong-ho about his power in a soft voice, which could not be heard around him.