Supreme Monarch

—Radiance City, Emerald Palace.

Gathered once again in the same meeting room was the Demon Lord of the Jaxith family, Keyrille Mayz Jaxith. Alongside her was her second son, Reynald Ley Jaxith— who had taken the reins as the crown prince ever since the death of his brother the first prince, Andrea Geld Jaxith.

Along with them was what remained of their court, consisting of only 5 of the original 12 Elders and a few ministers of state. This was now all that was left of the Jaxith family's ruling families.

The once vibrant and suffocating room due to the combined auras of high-ranked noble demons was now only a shell of its former glory.

The reason for their current urgent gathering was to discuss the current state of affairs within the rapidly collapsing Floato region. The urgency of the situation was obvious.

A week after what would be referred to as the Unfortunate Trials of the Floato region, or rather, the beginning of the fall of the Jaxith family, the war between the Jaxith family and the other three families, including the Adams family had suddenly escalated beyond what could be considered normal even in the Demon continent.

The cities being controlled by a majority of demon nobles on trial for treason and corruption had immediately surrendered to the invading forces without any form of resistance or even any attempt at seeking aid from the capital, giving the invaders a completely open path to the capital city.

Such a situation has been completely unprecedented and unheard of ever since the establishment of the modern system of nobilities.

Naturally, this all but confirmed the involvement of these families with the enemies of the Jaxith family, branding them traitors of the Floato region and bringing the trial to an abrupt end with all of the accused being found guilty.

This was a truly unfortunate situation, after all, the grace given to them by the Demon Lord herself was repaid with nothing but hostility and they had lost valuable time and resources trying to subdue the traitors without killing them.

Faced with such a dire predicament, having lost a majority of their strength in one fell swoop, even the Demon Lord, could no longer justify keeping these traitors alive despite their current rank and title within the family.

A decision that had lowered the masses' opinion of nobles even further, causing them to lose what little control they had over the commoners.

To make things worse, the Demon Lord's hesitation from the beginning had given leeway for most of the guilty Elders to escape and seek refuge with the Adams family, making their situation even worse than it was.

"Now then, let's begin."

The minister of War, or military affairs stood up with a grave expression and spoke as he waved his hands to control the holographic projection at the center of the table, displaying the gruesome scene of the areas around the cities that had surrendered to the invaders.

"As you all can see, we've lost a total of 5 cities in only a few days and more than 20 towns and villages have been completely destroyed in their wake. This amounts to the loss of more than 90,000 lives and counting. That's almost a tenth of our total population."

Due to the high levels of nature's essence in the Demon continent, the density of the mana here increased drastically, making the monsters and creatures living in the continent to grow stronger and more ferocious than anywhere else on Neron.

Naturally, this made the Demon continent a more dangerous place than anywhere else. Making the population of the continent become drastically lower than the rest of the world, especially the Human continent.

However, this also caused a massive disparity between the population of the Great Five's regions and the other families' regions. Even an ancient family like the Jaxith family only had one-tenth the population of one of the Great Five's capital cities.

Meaning, that the entirety of the Floato region holds a population of less than a million people while a single city in any of the Great Five's region casually boast a population of several million at a time.

This was a result of the vast disparity in power and the ability to protect one's citizens and provide stability as evidenced by the Jaxith family's current predicament. The only reason the population of the Floato region was even this high was because of their status as an ancient family and advantageous terrain.

The Great Five had already solidified their influence over the Demon continent and had become the Apex of predators that only consumed everything around them and had no natural predators capable of challenging them.

After all, the only ones that could truly contend with a Great was another Great and a conflict like that would rip the universe apart a billion times over. The gods would never allow such a thing.

This was why the noble etiquette and the war pact held so much importance amongst the ruling class nobles who stood no chance against tyrants like the Five Greats.

Naturally, if every other ruling class nobilities were to unite, even against the frightening powers of Demigods, even the Great Five would be forced to yield but why would the Five allow such a thing?

Even though they could never truly display their might within the vast Omniverse, Neron was unique as it stood at the center of the magical cosmic nexus that binds everything in all of creation together, and thus was under the protection of a multitude of gods that not even the Great Five could afford to threaten the planet for more land.

As for why the Great Five could still be restrained by their own rules and laws, the threat of another situation similar to the conflict with the seven primordial behemoths was enough to keep them on their toes. Contending powerhouses with nothing to lose while maintaining a reputation was practically impossible.

Hence the population amongst the ruling class nobles— who were constantly at war for the goal of one day ascending as the Sixth Great— was so low. There was always the threat of death, looming over the ordinary demons, lesser demons, and demihumans living under these nobles.

As such, the majority of the Demon continent's population has naturally gravitated towards the regions ruled by the Five Greats.

Hence the population of the brand new Paragon city within the Darknar region was growing at such rapid pace after news of the new Demon Lord being comparable to the Five Greats spread around.

The minister of war sighed, as he waved his hand and the image displayed on the holographic screen changed to that of the towns and villages that have been absolutely decimated.

While the cities that had surrendered had simply been occupied without any casualties, the towns and villages around them had not been so lucky as the lifeless bodies of demons and demihumans lay in between the ashen rubbles of the destroyed buildings.

"We've heard rumors that a majority of our citizens close to the borders are already seeking refuge from the Great Five. Even the ones here in the capital are desperately calling for the help of the Great Five to save them from us. It's become an absolute mess."

Reynald's brows furrowed at the words of the minister. The images being displayed on the screen made his stomach turn as he shook his head and spoke.

"As expected, this was the plan of the enemy. To use our own citizens against us. Even with the help of Quantium ranked Hunters, Evident, we've practically lost any semblance of control over the masses."

With each passing day and with every fallen city, the number of people that sought the aid of the Great Five was soaring by the droves, it was only a matter of time before the Great Five responded and used this as an excuse to attack them directly and everyone here knows it.

"Our only hope now is the Darknar family. With the trial completed and the remaining traitors executed, we can only hope the Darknar family responds to our message and comes to our aid as soon as possible."

Everyone's face immediately went pale, it was as though the blood had instantly drained from their bodies.

After making her decree during her last visit to the throne room, the emissary from the Darknar region had chosen to return to the Darknar region. Leaving behind a strange device that was apparently a communication tool they had never seen before.

She had stated that once the trial is completed, the tool be used to contact them and they will return immediately to finalize the details of their vassalage.

Reynald had been against this decision as the borders between the Floato region and the Darknar region were hindered by the Adams family's region which might delay the Darknar family's forces from coming to their aid on time.

Although he didn't think the Adams family by themselves would dare challenge the Darknar family, he wasn't confident in that assumption with one if not more of the Great Five secretly backing them.

They had sent their messages through that device only yesterday so their biggest problem right now was to survive until the Darknar family's forces arrived.

"Is that even possible? At our current strength, I don't see how we can stave off three separate armies for another two weeks. Will the Darknar family even still be interested in us."

One of the remaining elders suddenly spoke up in anxious agitation as his face and clothes were already drenched in sweat.

"What exactly are you saying, Elder Lowe?"

The minister of war who was in charge of this meeting asked with a questioning gaze as he turned to face the fidgeting elder.

"While we still possess our family's secret and calling back our forces to the capital should help strengthen our scattered forces."

"That would mean leaving our citizens to die, are you okay with that?"

"What of it? Isn't it more important to protect the capital than the lives of mere commoners and lesser demons?"

The minister of war was speechless, so much so that he couldn't even fathom a proper response to such a statement. This was why he rarely attended these meetings, to avoid listening to nonsense like this.

Just when he thought things would go downhill from here, someone suddenly responded to the elder.

"Are you by chance incredibly stupid Elder Lowe? What did the minister of war just say about our citizens losing faith in us and you want to give them even more reasons to do so? What do you think would happen after that?"

Reynald's eyes were as cold as the night's sky, so much so that even the elder couldn't help but take a step back.

"Oh..."

"You moron. Not even the Darknar family would be able to save us if the Great Five came at us directly."

The room fell silent at Reynald's words as even the remaining elders fell into despair at the thought of their impending doom.

"True, with the addition of the Dark Orders' sudden increase in activity, any semblance of control over the commoners is non-existent. Still, at this stage, is there any way to salvage this situation even with the help of the Darknar family."

"That is not something I have an answer to. All I know is, that we don't have the military might to hold back the forces of the Adams family alone much less with the other two families sitting with them. We'll need a miracle at the very least."

The Demon Lord sighed, her eyes unfocused and hazy. Her complexion was utterly pale but one could see a small fight within her eyes, she was desperately trying to hang on even in such a hopeless situation.

Just then, the world shifted.

Or rather, the atmosphere as far as they could sense had suddenly changed so drastically, it felt as though they were no longer in the same dimension as they were only a moment ago.

Tension in the room rose drastically. After all, everyone in this room was a high-level demon capable of sensing even the slightest change in the air.

There were countless forms and types it the ability known as Danger Sense, a sort of Precognition if you will.

As the name of the skill implies, every variation of the skill grants the user one ability, the ability to sense or perceive danger or threat ahead of time.

As everyone present here possessed a variation of this ability, they had all sensed the arrival of a sudden subtle pressure that immediately suppressed the Mana essence of the entire region, making the air, or rather, the atmosphere itself bend to its authority.

"What's going on?"