[Ruins Of The Fallen Kingdom]

  A place which was once filled with people, engulfed in rich mana, and greenish fertile, boasting its beauty as one of the best tourist spots in the world: The Kingdom of Gracia, now lies barren. Overrun by the Black miasma, which took away all the life and brought darkness to the kingdom, the once hopeful land of opportunities, is now the home of despair, making it the perfect spot for Demonic Tower reside in.

  In this barren land of death, a black tower stands, with Red crystals embedded in it, each floor of its filled to the brim with Demonic humans. From the lowest floor to the highest, from the weakest to the strongest, and on the top of it lies the chamber of the head of the lunatics, sitting on his black throne covered in red crystals, his hair long and white as snow, his face is partially covered with a horned black mask with red curly stripes glowing slightly.

  Standing in front of him were the four elders of the tower, representing the demonic tower branches in the four nations, all four of them bend one knee and bowed in respect while simultaneously saying

  “We greet the Demon lord! The one and only successor to the Demon emperor!”

  The Demon lord slightly raised his hand while simultaneously saying

  “You may rise.”

  His voice was eerie, deep, enough to send chills down anyone’s spine, it echoed through the whole floor, striking fear in all the guards and the elders present on it. He didn’t scream neither yelled, but his voice spread out further and even the lunatics present at the bottom floors and the demonic beasts residing near the tower could hear it.

  Demonic humans are known as lunatics, due their brutality and madness, which comes from the dark mana they use. A type of mana so wild and unstable, it gives immense power in return for losing sanity, but after the Demon lord’s voice echoed throughout the area, even the vilest of beasts and the craziest of lunatics instinctively fell quiet.

  The Elders stood up, after a brief moment of silence, one came forward, a man in his Fifties, his beard reaching the end of his neck, he offered his greetings with a slight bow and said

  “Donsus Rovelt, reporting to Demon Lord. As per your orders for the past year, we have increased our influence in the Kingdom of Velhiem, Even though not the higher hierarchy, we have mostly taken control of the lower classes, and have managed to infiltrate the middle ones as well.”

  Donsus bowed and went back into his spot, another Elder stepped forward, a woman in her forties with a translucent veil covering her face, she greeted the Demon lord and said

  “Valerith Rosaria, reporting to the Demon Lord, As per your orders for the past year, we have infiltrated the Kingdom of Rivious, and managed to get a few of the mid rank healers under us, some of them are acting as our spies and the rest were used as test subjects in the ‘Project Guardian’, increasing the research progress by Forty percent.”

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  Valerith bowed and went back to her spot, and the next elder came forward, the oldest of the elders, his age reaching eighties, he came forward, he neither bowed nor greeted the Demon lord and started reporting

  “Morgan Ironheart, reporting to the Lord of Demons, As per your words for the past year, this old man has managed to get the Thirty percent of high rank, Fifty percent of mid rank, and Ninety-five percent of lower rank mages in the Kingdom of Magus…”

  The other elders were shocked, their expressions turned serious, Their minds were racing with thoughts, Elder Donsus was silent, yet his face clearly expressed his inner monologue “Thirty percent of high ranks?! That’s almost Three-hundred! If not for the Archmage, that number is enough to overthrow the kingdom itself! For someone who joined just two years ago, this is insane!”

  Elder Valerith bit her lips in frustration, her thoughts racing “How did the geezer managed to this?! Is he lying?! No, then the Demon Lord would have taken action, this… is unbelievable!”

  Interrupting their thoughts, Morgan continued

  “Power is nay,

  Words are might,

  Loyal I say,

  As long as you are right.”

  The three elders got flustered, “His catchphrase! Last year we laughed it off, but now it feels like a threat!” Their thoughts in sync, but none acted and stood silently as Elder Morgan left after saying

  “Then I take my leave.”

  As the elder left, a brief silence swept through the air for a minute, before the last elder, presumably looking the youngest among all of them, came forward and bowed respectfully and nervously proceeded to state

  “J-Jord Lagnis, reporting to the Demon Lord, as per your orders for the past year, W-we have tried our best to take control of the mid ranks in the Kingdom of Alcra, a-and have succeeded in getting few of the lower ranks, b-but failed to get the mid ranks. I-I ask for the Demon Lord to show mercy o-one last time-“

  The Demonic Lord slightly raised his finger, and in an instant, elder Jord’s hand was slashed off, “Ugh!” he groaned in pain, and coughed out blood as he collapsed to the ground, but that slash not only cut off elder Jord’s hand, it went beyond and slashed the many lunatics in the lower floors, killing and injuring many, and leaving the entire tower sliced in half.

  The ground started to shake, and the tower started to collapse, seeing this disaster, both Elder Donsus and Elder Valerith casted spells. Donsus put his hand on the ground and a magic circle appeared which raised the ground directly from beneath, going through and filling the gap the slash left, it reached Donsus’s hand and he screamed

  “Now, Valerith!”

  As Donsus removed his hand, the magic circle also disappeared and the ground which was raised using magic started to melt, seeing this Valerith straightened her hands, her fingers making a triangular shape, conjuring a magic circle in between them. A bright light shone as she yelled “Ha!” and her magic covered the melting ground, attaching it to both halves of the tower, drying it and making it solid, even though tilted, the tower finally stabilized.

  The elders were shook, but slowly calmed down, Jord stopped his bleeding, and the three of them raised their heads towards the Demon Lord, but they were surprised, their faces turned in awe as they saw the floor was tilted, the tower was slant, but the throne of the Demon Lord was floating, levitating in the same position as it was before, as if nothing ever occurred.