Conqueror

Argh... my body feels incredibly heavy. "Status." My HP and Mana are barely scratched. But why am I feeling this extreme exhaustion... 

"The Demon King form draws out the entire capabilities of your normal self. That's just a bonus since the Demon King form in itself is already strong." Lagrima responded. "A single swing of the Demon Sword Acabar with the Demon Form can kill a normal human being from exhaustion. Their bodies can't take the power they're receiving. And for you, it draws out every single power in you just to make a swing. So in your first swing, you're already exhausted. You're just running on fumes on the rest of the battle."

"I feel like sleeping."

"Then do it."

"I... see." My Demon Form automatically dispelled and I fell on to the ground.

...

Several hours later, I woke up back at the castle of Izgoy. My whole body was patched up by bandages. If heal wasn't used on me, then that means that Helga is still asleep. I sat up and began to think of what to do now.

Now we definitely attracted attention from Ouroboros. I still don't know how powerful he is but it's going to be trouble if he's much more powerful than that Naga Queen or the manticore that we fought.

The Crimson Knights couldn't handle them so it's going to be difficult fighting them now. The only thing we can do now is remove all the evidences leading up to Izgoy. So that we don't get raided. "Telepathy, connect me to Afal." 

"Yes my lord?" Afal asked over the telepathy.

"I need you to do something."

"Anything my lord."

"Clear out the entire Serpent union's base. We've already shown our faces there. If we don't we'll get raided by Ouroboros before he even comes here. Right now they're all packing up trying to escape. But even if one of them is alive, they can call be retraced back to us. So do this quick. And clean. Double check everything."

"I obey. I'll go now my lord."

"Sure."

I stood up from where I stand and looked outside the window. The people below are circling around some of the Crimson Knights? It seems that they mean no harm. But what is it they want?

I flew outside the window and landed on the ground and hordes of people came running at me. 

"My lord! I want to ask who used that holy powers yesterday!" Is what the people were asking me.

"Holy powers?" I asked them.

"Yes! Someone used their holy powers and my son's illness was gone in an instant! And some of the villagers here got their disabilities disappear. Healing their blindness and others! Some even got their limbs back which they thought were gone!"

"Hmm... must be Helga's doing." 

"Helga!? Is she the one that did this!? I thought she was just a meek girl but to think that she was this blessed! Please! bring her to us! We'd like to thank our savior!"

I just had an idea... "She's still in recovery from yesterday's battle. So just work on what you need to do for the time being."

Everyone took a little bit more time to get away from us since they're really eager to see Helga. 

After that little outburst of the villagers, I called everyone to the meeting room. Yefa, Precia, Neco and Zeta came. I was the first one to start up the conversation. "Where's the others?"

"Still unconscious." Zeta replied. "Herold left as soon as the fight was done. I don't know where Afal is."

"Afal is cleaning up the mess in the Serpent union's base." Everyone was shocked on what I just stated. But I just chose to ignore it. "Right now, we have eliminated a big part in Ouroboros' plans. So we'll definitely be a target. Our next target for now is to expand."

"Expand? Zieglind, that's an incredibly wasteful move. Wars in this world aren't determined by army numbers or tactics. It's a battle between the leaders of the army. This'll just be a waste of time."

"You're correct. But right now we don't have anything to do. Just as you've seen in the battle yesterday, we still aren't ready for Tartarus."

"..." Everyone was silent, unable to say anything. 

I just continued what I was saying. "For now that Naga Queen completed the final puzzle I was looking forward to. The existence of the Naga Queen confirmed everything I have in mind. There is something... Stronger beings in hell, in the waters and on the sky. So that's why we'll expand. We'll gather every species that are willing to submit to us to defeat Tartarus. That's why this time, we won't lose. Again."

"But that's near impossible! Getting some species to come to our aid will be difficult! The Sky Island has one goal only, peace. They won't join in wars or anything like that. They're just pacifists! And for the sea creatures, it'll be difficult to talk to them."

"I did talk to a sea creature. The Naga Queen herself. In the battle, we exchanged some words to each other. It seems that Ouroboros is threatening her kingdom. And when she knew that she's going to lose to me, she asked me to at least send the message to her kingdom. They'll all comply to me is what she said. That's one species down."

"Then what about the other species?" Neco then asked.

"I'll teach Precia and Yefa about enslavement later. Your jobs are to gather as much monsters as you can."

"By me and her... You mean you already assigned all of us?" Yefa joined in.

"Yes. This plan needs to go through. Our numbers are not enough and even a single weak human is fine. We can't storm Tartarus by ourselves. And we can't wage a war with Ouroboros with just 100 elite units and a bunch of foot soldiers. We'll just exhaust ourselves battling small fries that aren't important."

"How... how long will this take?" Precia asked.

I had a hard time letting these words come out of my mouth but I had to do it. "If we're extremely lucky... Five months. If not, then a year or two. Uniting other species will be difficult."

"So... we all have to split again?"

"...Yes." Silence filled the room as they were all trying to figure out what to do from now. So I had to break the ice. "Right now we're going to fight an adversary which we don't even know. That man controlled this world and lived multiple battle royales. And the scariest part? The gods doesn't know him. So that's why this is the final thing I'm about to say to all of you. LEAVE. I want you to leave if you don't want to enter this holy war, then leave. This fight isn't going to be exactly easy."

But after a moment of silence, no one stood up and said anything. "We'll see this to the end." Zeta was the first to speak. Everyone agreed with his statement and nodded their heads.

"Good. Now, here's the plan that we're going to be taking."

Since I'm the Demon King, I just have to make all of the demons from hell submit to me. It'll be easy but Lagrima told me that there's going to be a trial held before I truly become the ruler of hell. So in this mission, I'll just bring Afal to me since he's the only one that can withstand hell's environment.

For the sea creatures, I tasked Zeta and Greta for this mission. I told to Zeta what the Naga Queen said to me so that he could rely her message to her people. If we manage to get the monsters from the sea, our military will be amazing. So I passed on to Zeta the skill, Universal Language to help him get them.

For the land based creatures, Yefa and Precia will team up to enslave monsters on the surfaces. I explicitly told them to let the monsters from the artificial forest that we made to not be included in their gathering since it's a great cover for our base. I taught them the enslavement skill and I ordered Ortov to make houses for the enslaved monsters they were going to catch.

For the air creatures, I put up Rize, Neco, Feran and Helga. Right now they're currently the weakest point of our team and I need the four of them to stick together to protect each other. For this mission, Rize will try to find air kingdoms. The Sky Island is a secret place of royals to be in. So that means that there should be other things. This is an unconfirmed theory of mine so I don't really mind if they don't find anything as they fly around the skies. I also told them to return to Izgoy every week to ask Lam if he found any evidences leading to this. 

"Now. Our plans will now commence. We all have a week to get some rest and prepare."