"Val- um, Y-Your Highness, t-thank you for-"
"You don't have to call me that," I replied dryly, glancing over my shoulder as Rias came walking quickly out of a magic circle with Akeno by her side, "Nothing's changed, even if I did beat the hell out of your brother."
I'd been having interactions like this a lot over the past day, which was starting to become annoying. Seriously, I've known these women for a while now, and even slept with most of them, yet they were too scared to call me by my name?
You would think I had just massacred half the pillars, defeated their strongest leaders, and taken over their entire race or somethin' crazy like that.
Which I had, so I guess their reactions were understandable.
"R-Right," Rias nodded, blushing slightly at my words, and hurried over to me, "Thank you for sparing him. I was worried during the fight…"
We were standing in my palace again, but in a different room than usual this time. It was a 'med-bay' of sorts, which was really just a couple of beds in a room.
On one of the beds sat the form of Sirzechs Lucifer, who was still unconscious, but decidedly not dead. Nearly a day had passed since our duel, and the man had lived after some healing from a couple of my fairies.
I definitely wanted to kill the Maou, considering he had been trying very hard to kill me, but it wasn't the best course of action. Doing so would lose me a strong subordinate, and just stomp all over a lot of the reputation I'd gained with the various devil women.
That reputation had already taken a minor hit from killing the pillar families - which was technically a joint effort between my runes and Katerea - but it wasn't substantial. While the devils as a whole were a 'faction,' it wasn't like they were one big family or anything.
The noble pillars largely didn't like each other, and it could be considered a political battleground for power. Alliances were made to bring families together and gain more power, and counter-alliances were made to spit in the face of those alliances.
For example, the Solas family had a very, very, bad relationship with most of the other clans. Aside from a few allies, who had also been sent to extinction in the stadium, they were widely disliked for being shady assholes.
So, when they'd been blown up, it wasn't like any of the other surviving pillars were particularly upset about it.
In fact, I'd surprisingly even gained a bit of reputation with some of the remaining noble clans for my actions. I'd been surprised when Venelana Gremory's reputation had shot up to [Strongly-Liked] and given me a quest reward after nearly killing her son, but it was a combination of sparing Sirzechs and taking out pillars that the Gremory family didn't get along with.
That quest reward hadn't been the only one, as there had been a ton of completed quests sitting in my quest log after the events of the prior day.
The first one was the most common one, as there were actually 32 completed quests that looked exactly the same.
[Quest Complete!]
Conquer a Pillar!
Subdue or Kill all direct bloodline members of a Pillar Clan!
Rewards:
All [Territory] owned by the Clan!
All [Subordinate]'s owned by the Clan!
+10,000 STR
+10,000 END
+10,000 AGI
+10,000 INT
+10,000 CHA
+10,000 LUK
+10,000 HREG
+10,000 MREG
+All unclaimed Clan-related skills!
+All Clan-related skills will be raised to level 25!
[This quest is repeatable!]
From the events of yesterday, all of the remaining 32 pillars were either considered 'extinct' by having all their direct-bloodline members die in the attack, or had submitted to my rule. As such, my stats had very casually more than doubled, and I had gained a shit-ton of skills from claiming the quest rewards.
There were too many to look through at the moment, as I had been working around the clock the past day, but I'd take a good look once Katerea finished gathering the rest of the corpses for me to [Devour].
I had tasked her with cleaning up the remains in the stadium, as while half of it had literally blown up, there was a good chance that at least an arm or a piece of flesh remained from each clan. That's all I needed to use [Devour] even if they were already dead.
I technically didn't need to eat them, as I had gotten all the clan-related skills from the quests, but I wasn't going to turn down free stats. Once I finished devouring them when Katerea finished gathering them later today, I'd take a good, long look through all my new skills.
The business that had caused me to largely ignore the skill gains was the same one that caused me to not meet with Rias again until now, as there was a lot of work to be done. The other factions didn't know that Sirzechs was unconscious or that Ajuka was sealed, but I was sure word would leak out soon.
Whether it came from a disloyal devil that didn't want me to be King deserting to another faction, or from spies in the Underworld, it didn't matter. When they found out that the two strongest Maou were out of commission, they would try to take advantage of the situation.
So, in the past day, I hadn't even slept as I worked to secure my new dominance over the devils. It wasn't entirely done yet, but the groundwork was in place.
It'd been surprisingly easy, too, as the devil's original government was actually pretty solid.
The four Maou all had a department they specialized in - with Serafall's being Foreign Affairs, Sirzechs' being Domestic Affairs, Falbium's being Military Affairs, and Ajuka's being 'Technology' as a whole, which meant he essentially just schemed and invented all day - that already had a system in place.
The Maou themselves didn't do all the work, as it'd be insane to expect someone like Serafall to take care of all the devil faction's foreign affairs, so they had a lot of underlings who kept the operation running.
All I had to do was plug in a new headpiece, which wasn't all that difficult. Serafall could still maintain her role as the head of Foreign Affairs, and was currently the overall leader of my devil subordinates - a role she was sharing with a now-contracted Falbium after she said she would create a 'mandatory magical-girl dress code' with her new power. I seriously wondered how the devils had never had an all-out war break out from having Serafall in charge of Foreign Affairs.
In the same vein, Falbium maintained his position in charge of Military Affairs.
Replacing Sirzechs' position as head of Domestic Affairs was Raya, though it would be temporary until the man made a contract with me when he woke up - or permanent if he refused to and I had to put him down. I hoped the former, as Raya's role within my faction was much too important to be tied down to just managing the devils.
Finally, Vargan had taken over Ajuka's position. It wasn't like Ajuka actually did much for devil society anyway, as he just focused on creating inventions and having political battles with Zekram, so the former Dwarven King had slid into the role easily.
He was having a field day with Ajuka's various unfinished inventions in his Estate, and I had the feeling that my new sword would be even stronger than before. The broken blade was still sitting in my palace, as I'd hung it on the wall behind my throne, but Vargan had said that it would be easier to create a new one than repair that one.
The final devil-governing position that was left empty was Zekram, as while the ancient devil wasn't in an official role of power like the Maou were, he was the one who guided and controlled the majority of the noble clans.
That was the part that was still unfinished, as the pillar situation was a mess at the moment. Half of them had been sent to extinction, and the other half were keeping quiet so far because they feared ending up like the other 16 pillars had.
There was now a ton of land up for grabs from the now-extinct clans, and it wouldn't be easy to manage.
I still had the heads of most of them charmed, but just controlling the heads didn't mean the entire clan would be submissive. I'd need to place someone in charge of both leading them and keeping them in line.
Besides the flood of pillar quests being completed, there was also another major one that I'd finished by killing Shalba Beelzebub.
[Quest Complete!]
Conquer the Old Satan Faction
Subdue or Kill [Katerea Leviathan]
Subdue or Kill [Creuserey Asmodeus]
Subdue or Kill [Shalba Beelzebub]
Rewards:
All [Territory] owned by the [Old Satan Faction]
All [Subordinate]'s owned by the [Old Satan Faction]
+10,000 INT
+10,000 MP
+10,000 MREG
+10,000 HREG
+All unclaimed [Leviathan] related skills!
+All unclaimed [Asmodeus] related skills!
+All unclaimed [Beelzebub] related skills!
+All [Leviathan] related skills will be raised to level 25!
+All [Asmodeus] related skills will be raised to level 25!
+All [Beelzebub] related skills will be raised to level 25!
It was just more stats and skills to add to my ever-increasing list, and I wasn't complaining about it. This quest had been more of a side-thought, as since Rizevim wasn't included it wasn't actually that difficult.
Creuserey had been child's play, and calling Shalba's 'child's play' after killing him in two blows would be an insult to children around the world. He'd done my work for me in taking down Zekram with Katerea, and then died nice and quickly.
Of the major quests I had at the moment, there were now three left. Taking down the New Satan Faction - which was really just sealed-Ajuka and unconscious-Sirzechs now - the Grigori, and the Realm of the Dead.
The Grigori would be easy, as I was sure Azazel would much prefer to become a sub-faction within my growing empire than pointlessly fight until his faction met the same fate as the devils.
Taking down Ajuka at this point wouldn't be a struggle, as any resources he had to oppose me were mine now, but it was more so what to do with him. He was smart enough to not fight until he died against my rule, but he was also smart enough to bide his time if I let him live.
Having a super-genius as a subordinate would be great, but keeping that super-genius on a leash would be the annoying part.
Finally, there was the Realm of the Dead. During the construction of the stadium, Hades, the God of the Dead who ruled over the Realm of the Dead, had approached Zekram with the intention of watching the duel.
Obviously, I didn't let that happen, but it was still a bit concerning why he wanted to be there. In the series, he had gone out of his way to attend Sairaorg and Rias' rating game, so maybe he just wanted a good show?
Either way, what I intended to do with him actually relied on the game system. The Realm of the Dead was a pretty unique place, as while it was technically in the Underworld, it was in the lower strata.
When I thought about the Underworld, I didn't even really consider the lower floors, because they were much smaller and used only to house prisoners and souls for the most part. Some of them were more like connectors between realms than actual floors, so my next course of action would depend on how picky the quest system was.
If I had to take down Hades and take the Realm of the Dead to complete the 'Conquer the Underworld' mainline quest, then I'd have to take him down soon, and thus start a war with the Greek Gods.
If the Realm of the Dead wasn't needed to complete the quest, then I could let him stick around for a bit as I grew my power and army more, and stabilized the new factions coming into my kingdom.
Considering the New Satan Faction quest was still incomplete because sealing Ajuka didn't count as 'subduing' him, I figured I'd need to take him down, but that would be seen soon.
"And, I'm… I'm glad you're fine, too," Rias blushed lightly, pulling me out of my thoughts as she looked up at me cutely, then stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me "I-I thought you would win, but when my brother transformed, I was a bit scared…"
It was cute that she was worried about me, but she really didn't need to be. The stakes of the fight were only really my own reputation, and not my life.
No matter how strong Sirzechs' True Form was, it wouldn't be enough for both me and the giga-boosted Tiamat if she needed to interfere. And, even if it was, there were thousands of buffing succubi on standby.
"You're cute," I said bluntly, grinning at her and hugging back as she blushed even deeper, "But I won't die that easily. Your brother put up the hardest fight I've had in a while, but he'll need more than that to kill me."
I wasn't lying either - the only harder opponents I've had so far were Ragnar and Tiamat. Neither of which was nearly as strong as Sirzechs, but they had been more difficult to take down because of how much weaker I'd been at the time.
I barely resisted chuckling as I thought about it. Only a few months ago, I had to use a cheap trick to defeat Ragnar, and then run from Tiamat while spamming skills.
Now, I had taken down an opponent who could kill both of them rather easily without any tricks. It'd cost me my sword and my armor, but I had won in a way that I'd consider honorable.
"So forward, fufu~" Akeno teased as Rias stayed in the hug for a bit longer than she needed to, and Rias blushed again.
"When will he wake up?" Rias asked curiously, pulling away and looking down at her brother's mostly healed body as he lay unconscious, "It's almost been a full day already."
"Soon," I replied evenly, "Talia said it would be any minute now, which is why I'm waiting."
I didn't usually just hang around Sirzechs' side when I was swamped with work that needed to be done, but I had been here for a few minutes because of Talia's words.
I didn't think the man would wake up and try to run or destroy my palace or anything, but it would still be for the best if I were around when he finally did get up.
"I'm already awake," I blinked in surprise as Sirzechs suddenly spoke, his tone a bit dry as his eyes cracked open, "I was hoping that was all just a dream, but I guess not."
"It was all real," I confirmed, smirking lightly at his words.
"Rias," Sirzechs smiled lightly as Rias stepped forward, leaning forward to hug her brother.
"I'm glad you're alright," She said simply, smiling back.
Sirzechs looked at me with a raised eyebrow as she pulled away, "I am, too. Why am I not dead, Beast King?"
"I'm a conqueror," I hummed simply, "Not a monster. Well, I might be that too, but I don't just kill for fun. You should trust your sister's judgement more."
"Yeah! Valon wouldn't just kill you for no reason!" Rias nodded in agreement, pausing for a second as she thought about it, "Actually… you have done that a lot…"
"To those that are useless, which you are not," I said pointedly to Sirzechs, grinning broadly, "I love Rias, and that's reason enough to spare you-"
Rias blushed at my words, and I had to ignore Akeno's teasing giggle.
"But, you're also much more useful alive than dead." My face turned hard, my eyes locking with Sirzechs, "You lost, Sirzechs Lucifer. You've lost the duel, your people, and your life. I will only say it once…"
My presence filled the room as [King's Aura] activated, though Sirzechs barely seemed phased, even in his still-injured condition.
"Whether you live or die is in my hands. Your life is mine," I leaned forward, my eyes boring into his own even ones, "I spared you for Rias, but if you'll continue to live depends on you. Bend the knee, become my general, and continue to lead your people under my rule. Or, your story can end here."
[Valon] [Beast King] has offered a [Master-Slave Contract!]
[Master: Valon]
[Slave: Sirzechs Lucifer]
A thick tension filled the room as the magic flowed between us, my eyes boring into his, and I had no idea if he'd accept or not. If he didn't, then he'd breathe his last breath in this-
"Sure," I blinked, the tension ripping away instantly as the next notification appeared.
[Sirzechs Lucifer] [Ultimate-Class Devil] [Maou] has become a [Subordinate]!
[Subordinate Tier]: [Slave]
"...Well, that was easy," I deadpanned at him, and Sirzechs just chuckled.
"I'm no idiot, Your Highness," He said easily with a grin, "I lost, and refusing you would just lead to my own death. If I'm dead, then I can't protect my race, and…"
His lips twitched down, causing me to deadpan as he fake-cried and lunged out of the bed at Rias.
"I could never hug Ria-tan again!"
"B-Big Brother! Don't embarrass me!" Rias whined as Sirzechs hugged her tightly, "Y-You're supposed to be injured! Go lie down!"
"I'm never too injured for Ria-tan!"
I just sighed, shaking my head as I turned around and let the two siblings have their reunion.
"W-Wait! Valon! T-Tell him to stop! Help me!"
"Ria-tannnnnn! Your Onii-chan thought he was going to die! I need Ria-tan to comfort me!"
I ignored the display, promptly leaving the one-sided reunion.
"A-Akeno! Even you?!"
Akeno stepped out behind me, a smirk on her face as she also left Rias to her fate.
"I'll see you tonight, Your Highness~" She simply teased, looking up at me with sensual eyes, and I grinned back lightly.
Soon, I would officially take control of the Grigori and thus rule the entire surface of the Underworld. If the quest was completed, then I would have access to entire other worlds. If it failed, then I'd go to war with the Greek Gods.
But, for now, celebrating my victory a bit wouldn't hurt, right?
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be out tomorrow!
You can also read the next 7 chapters right now on Patreon.com/Koyon !