Dantalion was struggling desperately to break free.
The shadows rippled as if the Death Knights were about to emerge, but perhaps a single Demon Lord's power couldn't rival the dominion exerted by six. The dark knights couldn't even step out of the shadows.
"Kuh… uaaaah!"
Dantalion drew a dagger from inside his coat. He drove it down toward Valefor, who had seized his right arm. His ferocity was surprisingly intense. Valefor was caught off guard and instinctively let go, and Dantalion seized the chance to scramble away.
Valefor shouted in alarm.
"Grab him! If we lose him here, everything is finished!"
The Demon Lords hurriedly gave chase after Dantalion. Several of them quickly chanted spells and fired off magic. However, the clothes Dantalion wore appeared to be imbued with a considerable level of anti-magic, and the spells bounced off without taking effect.
"It's anti-magic!"
"Stab him to death!"
The room was spacious, but Dantalion was cornered in an instant. Just as they thought they had him trapped in a dead end, Dantalion slipped out onto the terrace.
It was a full three stories up. There were no bushes on the ground below to cushion the impact. Yet without a moment's hesitation, Dantalion threw himself off the terrace.
"What an annoyingly persistent—"
"We absolutely cannot let him get away!"
The Demon Lords clicked their tongues and leaped from the terrace.
Broad daylight.
A chase scene was erupting out of nowhere in the imperial palace's courtyard.
The commotion drew people's attention. Countless officials and servants were moving back and forth through the palace. Wondering what all the noise was about, people turned to look at the courtyard.
It was a grand plaza lavishly paved with marble. Dantalion was being pursued by the Demon Lords. Perhaps because he hadn't executed a proper landing, he was limping badly. In the end, he couldn't even make it a few steps before the pursuers caught up to him.
At first, the people couldn't understand what was happening.
There was something surreal about the spectacle.
Spring sunlight, freshly pouring in, bathed the marble plaza in brilliant radiance. At the center of it all, where beams of light reflected in dazzling white, one Demon Lord had seized Dantalion by the scruff of his neck. Dantalion thrust his arm out to shake him off. In that very instant, a second Demon Lord who had arrived right on his heels swung a dagger.
The razor-sharp blade grazed Dantalion's nape by a hair's breadth.
Crimson droplets of blood scattered through the air, catching the sunlight as they fell.
Perhaps only now did the people grasping the meaning of what was unfolding before their eyes.
"Scream!"
"Oh, Goddesses above!"
The onlookers recoiled in horror.
The maids and attendants working in the imperial palace had all been seasoned warriors, prepared for emergencies. But a group of Demon Lords slaughtering a single Demon Lord — even calling that an "emergency" felt like far too mild a word.
That was when the hunt began.
"Execute the tyrant!"
"A bastard who betrayed the Demonkin and groveled before the humans!"
The unaffiliated Demon Lords surged forward in a pack like starving wolves. Dantalion screamed at the top of his lungs and fought back, but it was no use. Six Demon Lords surrounded him, taking turns striking one after another.
*Thud.* The tip of a blade plunged into Dantalion's back. He thrashed desperately and twisted around. This time, the Demon Lord standing on the opposite side swung his sword. The blade tore deep through the flesh of Dantalion's waist.
"Kgh… guuuh…!"
Dantalion slowly began to collapse.
He tried until the very end not to let go of the dagger in his left hand, but Valefor deftly wrested the weapon away. Then he stomped on the back of Dantalion's hand with his foot. Now Dantalion was completely face-down on the ground. The six Demon Lords drove their blades into him dozens of times over, like rabid dogs tearing apart a corpse.
All around, the plaza was flooded with sunlight — yet Dantalion alone lay in shadow, shrouded by the darkness of the Demon Lords circled around him.
Bright red blood seeped across the white marble plaza, soft as a woman's skin. The blood trickled between the Demon Lords' feet, swelling into ever-thicker rivulets as it flowed.
"Hah… hah…"
"……."
The assassins gasped raggedly as they stared down at the corpse.
No matter how exceptional a Demon Lord's regeneration might be, this was a fatal wound. The conspirators exchanged glances and nodded. They had succeeded. They had thought the odds were slim, yet they had managed to kill Court Count Dantalion.
It hardly felt real. The assassins were more dazed and dreamlike than anyone else in the Imperial Palace. As people who accomplish what they had believed to be impossible often do, the six Demon Lords were too overcome with excitement to collect themselves.
"What comes next is what matters."
The first to regain his composure was Valefor.
"Bring Gamigin here at once. We shall use this plaza as a grand courtroom and present evidence of why Dantalion deserved to be executed."
"I'll go right away."
It was the former Rank 22, Ipos, who answered. Despite his youthful face, this man's hair had gone prematurely white, and he had been the first to seize Dantalion by the back of the neck.
When Agares had launched his civil war, Ipos had eagerly joined the campaign — and when Agares was defeated, he lost the territories that should have rightfully been granted to him. The independent Demon Lords who had taken part in the assassination mostly shared similar circumstances.
Valefor nodded.
"I'll be counting on you."
After sending Ipos off, Valefor struck the corpse's neck. The magic-enhanced dagger severed the head from the torso in just two cuts.
Valefor seized Dantalion's hair and held the head high.
"Th-That…!"
"What in the world…!"
Screams erupted from every direction. People stared at the plaza with shell-shocked eyes, unable to look away. Not a single person dared to approach.
It was then that the Imperial Guard arrived at the plaza.
The captain of the guard froze where he stood. Even with his own eyes, he could not believe what he was seeing. The very person he had just let through moments ago had killed the true master of the Imperial Palace. The captain sensed his own death approaching.
In the grip of shock and horror.
Valefor projected his voice with the full force of his magical power, declaring with authority.
"My beloved citizens! Calm your startled hearts and lend your ears to my words for a moment. This man here, the criminal who was known as Dantalion, has died today!"
Valefor slowly turned his body, sweeping his gaze across the palace buildings that surrounded the plaza one by one.
"I was formerly known as the sixth-ranked Demon Lord. Now, like all of you, I am merely a citizen serving the Demon Realm. Wise ones who respect my character and honor — please, do not doubt my words!"
Valefor unleashed the full breadth of his demonic dominion as powerfully as he could.
The position of sixth-ranked had never been won through a card game. He had simply been less interested in worldly affairs, but Valefor, much like Barbatos who had held the eighth rank and Paimon the ninth, possessed a dominion strong enough to command an entire legion.
"Among those gathered here, there may be some who once favored Dantalion. However, I ask you this: can love for a single individual truly outweigh the love for all Demonkin, for the entirety of the Demon Realm?"
Valefor silently commanded the Demonkin within his heart to calm down, and this order proved somewhat effective — it at least captured their attention.
"Dantalion subordinated the honor of the Demonkin to an empire created by the human race. Even if we fight honorably on the battlefield, that honor is no longer the honor of the Demonkin — it becomes the honor of the Empire. Even if we unite and accomplish a great feat, that achievement is no longer part of the Demonkin's ancient history — it becomes the history of the Empire. And so our sons and daughters, our descendants, will be taught that we were not honorable warriors and wise citizens of the Demonkin, but merely members and subjects of the Empire!"
Valefor clenched his fist.
With his skin entirely bronze, Valefor stood out prominently against the white marble plaza, and he successfully drew the attention of the entire assembly.
"If Dantalion lives, then the Demonkin die — and for the Demonkin to live, Dantalion must die! My beloved citizens! Please, answer me honestly! Would you rather keep Dantalion alive and become wretched slaves of the human race yourselves? Or would you rather see Dantalion dead and live as free citizens — all of you?"
No one dared to answer rashly.
"If any among you is willing to live as a wretched slave, then very well. I will accept it. I, Valefor, have committed a crime."
Valefor seized the momentum and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"But if all of you yearn for freedom — if you do not wish for your honor to be twisted into nothing more than the honor of the human race — then I dare declare this: what I did to Dantalion was nothing less than an act carried out by me, Valefor, on your behalf!"
Valefor raised Dantalion's severed head even higher, as if displaying a public execution.
"Demonkin! Do not love the Empire — love the pride of the Demonkin! Citizens! Kill Dantalion and save yourselves!"
Just then, the Plains Faction Demon Lords were storming through the main gate.
Around ten-odd Plains Faction Demon Lords had surrounded the plaza in an instant. Protocol within the Imperial Palace had already collapsed — all of them were brandishing weapons in their hands. Six unaffiliated Demon Lords, armed with nothing but daggers, could be cut down in moments.
"You've done something terrible to my little brother, haven't you, Valefor."
Demon Lord Beleth took a step forward. A sneer played at the corner of his lips, but beneath it his mouth trembled with a rage that even that mockery could not conceal.
"I trust you've prepared your final defense."
"Court Count Dantalion is a traitor!"
"Hmm. Hardly fitting as a last word, though."
A tense standoff erupted between the Plains Faction Demon Lords and the unaffiliated Demon Lords.
"You losers! Are you ready to die!"
"Hmph, you're nothing but Dantalion's puppets, yet you've got plenty of bark!"
"Today's the day we exterminate you parasites!"
The six Demon Lords stood back to back, daggers raised high, while the Plains Faction Demon Lords glared at them and snarled like hunting hounds.
Valefor spoke with piercing eyes.
"What crimes Dantalion has committed will be announced once every Demon Lord and Grand Duke has assembled."
"You seem to be under some misconception."
Beleth swept his axe through the air in threatening arcs.
"The reason I haven't split your skull in two right now isn't because I'm afraid of those toothpicks you're waving around. It's because I'm saving your neck for our Legion Commander's sake. The moment Lord Barbatos arrives, you're a dead man, you oversized lump!"
"Ha. The sight of an entire faction shaking in its boots over a single Demon Lord — how absurd. Barbatos must have lost his edge too. Falling for a man who rapes women in broad daylight in the Imperial Palace!"
Beleth furrowed his brow.
"Rapes?"
"That's right. Dantalion dared to threaten Gamigin and forced her into something too horrifying to even look at!"
Beleth let out a low growl.
"You think you can smooth over this whole affair with baseless slander?"
"We possess irrefutable evidence."
Valefor thundered, making sure every word rang clear.
"I have preserved Dantalion's crimes in Memoria, and my comrade is currently retrieving the evidence and witnesses. Not only Gamigin—the head lady-in-waiting of this very imperial palace is also a witness. There is no force under heaven that can cover up Dantalion's sins, Beleth!"
"Hmph. If all you've got is empty talk, even the neighborhood brats could do that much."
The two Demon Lords locked eyes in a fierce glare.
Before long, Ipos returned to the plaza with Gamigin supported on his arm. Valefor requested that they wait until enough people had gathered. Beleth sneered throughout, but in the end the standoff between the two factions dragged on until evening—when Barbatos finally arrived.
All the Demon Lords and Grand Dukes who were to attend the grand assembly now assembled in the imperial palace's plaza.
Nearly a hundred figures had claimed the plaza. The Grand Dukes could not hide their unease at this unprecedented crisis—the attempted assassination of a Demon Lord. They must have sensed that some kind of bloody storm was about to break.
"Well then."
It was Barbatos, the last to arrive, who spoke with icy calm.
"By all means, show us this evidence your pup has been clamoring about."