"What is happening?"
"Could it be a mistake? How could half of them have died in just ten minutes? Those are our supreme warriors."
"Maybe the one who killed yesterday's is doing this?"
"Impossible, it took them several minutes to kill him. Most likely it was luck."
"Even if they could kill them in seconds, they cannot be in front of the next one in seconds. It must be an organized force, it is impossible for it to be an individual."
"Could it be the force of the Lord who is conquering the low level area?"
"It is possible. Most likely it is not a single Lord, but a coalition of many."
"That's right, that explains their strength. They must be the elite of the Lords. Damn it, why did we get this enemy?"
"Whoever they are, they ruined our plans. We will take revenge, no matter what."
Inside a meeting room there was a large scale aerial projection of the entire Black Forest. It was the surveillance room of the capital of Lunareth.
There was a large number of individuals from the Barak clan there, who had carried out their plan, planned for centuries, with the goal of conquering the Black Forest.
Just a few minutes ago they had released all the available clones they had. Thanks to the fact that they were in charge of the emergency teleportation arrays, mobilization was easy. They could even see the location of each clone on the map as light blue dots.
But only thirty seconds passed after they were deployed and one of those lights suddenly went out, indicating that it had died. Of course, the Baraks were not so egocentric as to believe themselves invincible, so they expected some casualties and considered the situation normal.
However, when the next one died just seconds later, and then another two not even two seconds after that, they realized that something was wrong.
That was how they began to die one after another in a chain, while the previously excited faces of those gathered grew worse and worse. From happiness they moved to surprise, then fear, and finally anger.
Each group died with minutes of difference in a linear fashion, so the logical answer would be that it was an individual or group hunting them one by one.
But the impossibility of such an action, given the seconds of difference between individual deaths and the minutes of difference between groups separated by enormous distances, led them to conclude that it had to be a group.
The more of them died, the more their fury grew, until in the end, when all of them were dead, they did not even know what to say. A plan of centuries dismantled in minutes. Although none of them spoke a word due to the shock, all of them silently cursed the mysterious culprit and swore his death.
They would never have imagined that all that hatred would turn into a path that would guide the culprit directly to them.
Of course, in reality, their location was the base of the Lunareth security office, a semi public place whose address Luna could provide if someone asked. But not even Luna, who knew well what the eight noble houses were capable of, imagined that they would be shameless enough to start a rebellion in a public building in the center of the capital.
In anger, the leader of the group slammed the table, stood up, and spoke.
"We will find the one responsible and..."
"And what?" Kaito's voice interrupted, seated in the chair the leader had just left, at the head of the table.
"Who are you?"
Kaito did not answer. He did not need to. According to Luna, even the royal family had more chances of knowing the plans of the noble houses than the noble houses had of knowing each other's plans. They were mortal enemies who would never share information.
In short, they had no value alive.
A blur of black and red colors spun around the table, at such speed that Kaito did not even seem to move. When he looked forward again, everyone present collapsed onto the table, lifeless and with blank eyes.
At this point, royalty was basically just another noble house since it had been taken over by an Ashen, and the only reason Kaito had not eliminated all the other noble houses was because he still did not know their plans nor whether they had something that could turn into a problem.
As for them finding out about the Baraks' deaths, it would not be an immediate problem. The closest person they could try to harm was Luna, but with Lina's strength it was obvious that she was not responsible. Besides, Kaito already had something planned so they would not find out about him, at least for a while.
After all, sooner or later they would end up fighting. Kaito just wanted to make sure he had conquered as much as possible and obtained all the benefits before that happened.
---
Three more days passed. From the beginning, it took the army of hell only five days to take the entire low level area and completely surround the kingdom of Lunareth.
From a strategic point of view, filling all the borders with the weakest parts of the kingdom was an enormous stupidity, but due to the characteristics of the Black Forest, it was possible.
The Black Forest was completely useless. It offered no valuable flora, fauna, territory, or minerals, so no one wanted to conquer it, allowing the defenses to be minimal.
On Saturday night, before resting to enter the Tower of Worlds the next day, Kaito spoke with Luna through a magical transmission orb.
"I already took care of the situation. The public version is that they all ate something poisoned and that is why they died," Luna said.
"And did they believe it?"
"Luckily, the day before the Barak house had organized a large banquet, so it is not that far fetched that they all ate the same thing. Although it is clear that the other noble houses do not believe it, they simply do not know who did it, so they are busy being cautious toward each other," Luna explained.
"What about our situation?"
"That was very easy, actually," Luna laughed. "The Baraks made sure that nothing about your conquests became public, so the information died with them. I put my trusted people in charge of the kingdom's security office, so no one finds out. Of course, this situation will last at most two weeks before someone notices something strange, but at least it is something."
"It is enough. Thank you very much."
"It is fine, this is a partnership after all. See you, Lord Lucifer."
Kaito put away the magical communication orb and rested until the next day.
---
"A living room?"
The next day, inside the Tower of Worlds, Kaito looked around with curiosity.
This time he was unlucky and the world title gave him no clues. The name was Virtual World.
The mission did not help much at the beginning either. It was confusing without entering the world: "Save 10 versions".
Even so, the title and the mission allowed him to deduce that it was a digital world.
His decision was simple. He formed a group with all his sublords so that Lala could help all of them with her abilities.
And he was right, because as soon as they entered he recognized the living room they were in and the usefulness of Lala in that world.
He sat comfortably on the sofa in front of the television and wrote to Lala through the system.
[Lucifer: This entire world is digital. We are inside a video game. Can you hack it?]
[Deviluke Princess: Of course!]
The reply arrived immediately.
[Lucifer: There is something using a character's skin. Can you delete it?]
[Deviluke Princess: In a digital world, anything that does not act as it is programmed counts as a virus or an error and can be deleted. I could even delete you if I wanted, hehe.]
[Lucifer: Please do not do that. Find that thing and make sure to delete it. Also, fix all the versions so we can complete the mission. Just fix them, do not reset them.]
[Deviluke Princess: Oki!]
After sending the messages, Kaito remained seated, waiting calmly. If everything went well, this time he would not have to do anything.
While he waited, a girl entered the room and naturally sat down in the single armchair, reading a book with her legs crossed.
She was a blue haired teenage girl, bob cut, with round framed glasses.
She was wearing something similar to a school uniform, a white collared shirt, a loose tie, and an open red cardigan, showing the volume of her chest. Below that she wore a blue school style skirt that showed part of her thighs, long black stockings, and red slippers.
Several minutes passed in silence.
Suspiciously, she did not turn a single page and from time to time glanced sideways at Kaito.
After more than ten minutes of silence, she finally spoke.
"Player, why are you staring at me?" she asked when she noticed Kaito's gaze.
Kaito apologized with a smile.
"Sorry, this is the first time I meet a Mita."
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
(They don't reach 15 at this moment, since there is a marathon of my other fic because it is ending.)
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)