Supreme Monarch

The hooded figure giggled in amusement, her voice was a slightly high-pitched yet sweet, she gently removed her hood revealing the figure of a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties, she had an extremely pretty face and doll-like eyes with short silver hair and a carnivore's predatory gaze.

Her figure was well-toned and countless men would no doubt find her impossible to resist, as long as they admired her from a distance.

"Why are you here?"

That question rang in her ears from the imposing figure standing in the air in front of her, his presence condensing the atmosphere around her to the point where most demons would lose their breath just standing there.

However, Citrus shrugged as she smirked and spoke in a childish tone.

"Well I just returned and heard you were facing off against a horde of Lord Class monsters alone, so I came to see my old man in action after so long. Is that so bad~"

Malik remained silent after hearing Citrus' response to his question. He did not bother to repeat himself as the air trembled around him and Citrus giggled.

"Oops... looks like I've been found out. My bad~ I simply came to deliver Isabel's report on the Jaxith family cause I'm so nice. Aren't I a great big sister?"

"Get to the point."

Malik frowned, his gaze still fixated on the approaching horde in the distance.

"Geez, you're such a party pooper. Anyways, the soul link I had on the agent I sent to infiltrate the Jaxith family disappeared."

"Hmm..."

"That means he is probably dead or no longer in this dimension. Unfortunately, that means the list I sent him to retrieve from that organization was stolen and is now in the hands of the Jaxith family."

"Is that so? How unfortunate."

Citrus couldn't sense any reaction from Malik's voice so she couldn't tell if he was at all displeased as her report essentially meant the failure of the Great Five's plans to pressure the Jaxith family into submission from both within and externally.

A plan that had been in the works for over 3 centuries as the Great Five had systematically cut off the Jaxith family from all forms of support and alliance before finally using those three families to begin their attack.

A plan with thousands of moving pieces and carefully laid traps and traitors. Yet in only a single month, the appearance of a single-family had utterly demolished their plans with very little effort on their part.

They had been aware of the secret organization Numbers using their corruption of the nobles of the Jaxith family as a means and opportunity to infiltrate the Floato region to feed off the scraps of the Jaxith family's secret by establishing connections with said nobles' households.

However, they hadn't chosen to interfere with the organization as it had proved useful in the past yet this time had been different. They hadn't been aware that the organization had kept a list of all the nobles they had "convinced" to help them and many more.

Perhaps this was used as a blackmail tool against the nobles or a form of deterrent against the Great Five but now that said list had ended up in the wrong hands, no doubt due to the interference of that blasted family.

That said— none of this was of any concern to Citrus as she had only involved herself with the plan because she had taken an interest in Athena and considered her to be fun to play with temporarily.

Aside from her sister, there weren't many people in this world that could catch Citrus' eye so the fact that the 5th Princess of a small noble region could hold her attention had surprised even her father.

There was also someone else she was interested in, and that was Snow, the ice princess they had captured a while back but failed to extract her innate ability. If only that man hadn't arrived when he did, things might've gotten more interesting.

"You don't seem too concerned about this news. Now that the list is in the hands of the Jaxith family, all spies and coerced nobles are being captured and trial for treason."

"Hmmm... It no longer matters."

"Huh?"

Although Citrus didn't care about any of this, she was still at a loss for words at her father's nonchalant reaction. She hadn't told him any of her personal plans involving the 5th Princess so she didn't think there was much to laugh about. Unless her father has finally lost his mind.

*Rumble... Rumble... Rumble...

Just as her thoughts began to trail, Citrus felt the sands and air tremble violently as her eyes naturally traced the source, her gaze landing ahead of Malik, she could see it now, the vast horde of terrifying monsters capable of leveling towns on their own, charging at them with insane speed.

"There is no longer a need to worry. The moment the Jaxith family listened to the emissary and began its trial of demon nobles was the moment the lost whatever little value they had left."

Just as Citrus was beginning to question what her father was saying, a wicked smile soon crossed her face in realization.

She was keenly aware of the current predicament of the Jaxith family and what they had essentially just done was akin to crippling themselves as they had begun to cut off their own hands and legs by reducing their manpower even more, and of course, sowing chaos and doubt in the eyes of the clueless masses.

With all that being the case, now was the perfect time for those three families to go on an all-out attack and invade the Floato region with full force. Using the excuse of rescuing the oppressed citizens from an incompetent sovereignty, the Great could easily justify the complete annihilation of the Jaxith family.

"I see~"

The smile on Citrus face because even more predatory and sinister as she licked her lips in anticipation.

"I guess I'm going to see something interesting soon, kekeke~"

Malik did not respond to his daughter as his muscular frame began to heat up to a ridiculous degree that even Citrus with a ue heat resistance it a member of the Brimstone family, had to fly back before she got burned.

The purest of red flames began to encircle Malik's body as he suddenly shot forward before Citrus could even blink. The air literally burning in his place.

*Boom!

His flaming body had crashed into the horde of Lord Class monsters with the sound of a devastating explosion that shattered and incinerated anything he had come in contact with. A massive crater of crystalized sand forming underneath his feet in a vast radius.

In just one move, he had completely halted the charge of a ridiculous number of Lord Class monsters, creatures even Quantium-ranked Hunters needed to be careful with.

Malik's eyes glanced at the eyes of the monsters that seemed to be possessed by something yet did not carelessly move as they began to encircle him. He had thought about using his innate ability, World of Inferno, but soon decided against it.

He was still inside his territory after all and did not want to render this place unlivable more than it already was. After all, the last time he used his innate ability, his bustling region full of life and vegetation was reduced to nothing but sand.

"How annoying."

Malik frowned as his mind had gone to a place he didn't want to remember. Just then, the monsters and magic beasts seemed to sense his distraction and instinctively lunged at him from every direction.

There were monsters ranging from Demon Sand scorpions, Giant worms, Sand Demon Vipers, and many more. Most of them were highly intelligent and possessed both magic and skills.

The intelligent ones did not rush to attack as they immediately activated several protection skills and used attack spells at the same time.

This was what it meant to fight multiple Magic beasts or Lord Class monsters at the same time. Despite them not communicating with each other, they all instinctively understood each other and acted accordingly.

However, in front of a true Great Demon Lord, none of that mattered as Malik hadn't even bothered to dodge their attacks and didn't even deploy any magic shield. Yet, before any of the mindless monsters or spells could reach him, they had all promptly been reduced to ash by the sheer heat being released from his body alone.

"I haven't been out in a while so I was hoping for an actual challenge from beings classified as Lord Class creatures. Worthless."

The truth was, he had only come here himself due to the peculiarity of the situation with these creatures as he was interested in the reason why they had been gathered in the previous site of that fortress.

However, none of his observational skills has yielded any significant results. From what he could tell, these creatures were probably just reacting to the magic signature left by the skill that had caused that fortress to disappear.

Still, that did not explain why they had suddenly gone mad and charged in the direction of Capital City although he had judged that there was no information he could gain from these creatures.

Just as he came to this conclusion, the remaining monsters that had stayed back and used magic, began another round of spells and skills, each stronger than the last.

At some point, they had completely surrounded him and had used their most powerful attacks.

"You insult me. Burn in Hell, - Blaze of Fury."

Sensing nothing worthwhile in this endeavor, he scoffed and cast an original spell as flames hotter than the temperature of the sun erupted from his body in all directions, in a radius further than the eyes could see, reducing everything it touched to dust in seconds.

The flames were so powerful, that they had burnt through the magic shields and protections of the magic beasts without even giving them time to escape.

Even Cirus had needed to alter the kinetic energy of the flames to protect herself from becoming collateral damage. She had also activated a spell to boost her heat r distance despite the fact that she had few a few miles away to get away from the impacted zone.

In the next moment as the flames disappeared, thousands upon thousands of magic crystals and monsters in the forest began to rain from the sky.

"Wow, as impressive as always."

Citrus marveled at the beautiful sight of falling crystals that oozed an air of calmness across the desert as she appeared behind Malik in amusement.

"We're done here, have the Adams family begin the attack on the Floato region immediately, there is no longer a need to hold back, I want that city to be reduced to nothing. This is where the true war begins."