351 The Greedy Queen's Schemes
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In a large and gloomy gothic-like palace, there was a medium-sized room filled with dark and crimson-colored furniture, decorations, and paintings, with black curtains and closed windows. In a comfy black bed, a beautiful pure blood Demoness slept.
Her beauty was outstanding, her skin was pale purple, and her long hair was black as the darkest of nights. She had two three-centimeter large horns poking from her forehead and large pointy ears.
Her closed eyes suddenly opened as they revealed her pink, purple, and red irises, which three colors twisted around constantly, creating the illusion of a chaotic whirlpool. Where there should be white color, there was a dark color, her eyes were deep and alluring, yet deadly and fierce.
"What is it?!"
She woke up and moved the bedsheets, running barefoot towards the closest window, the cold ceramic of the floor was rather annoying in her warm feet, but she did not mind it, as the loud sounds resonated through her entire surroundings, the palace where she was sleeping.
BOOOM!
BOOOM!
BOOOM!
Alongside her, hundreds of other demons and the servants that lived in the palace were surprised and annoyed by the incredibly loud sounds.
As the beautiful young demoness glanced at the sky, colorful explosions filled her sight. In Earth terms, these were fireworks.
Fireworks are often used in festivities in the earth, no one wouldn't know such things, but in the Realm of Vida, they were nonexistent, people often celebrated with spectacles of magic or other things. Gunpowder as it is was never discovered and other things were often used for magical technology, like Fire Spirit Stones.
The young-looking demoness was the current Queen of Thanatos, known as the Greedy Queen by her citizens and the rest of the world.
Belonging to the Pure Blood Royal Demon Family of Despair Demons of Xalgrod, her real name was Elrinneth Xalgrod Tryxrelle, she was elected as the Queen of Thanatos alongside the King, Eranylan Larlyx Eorviraz, herald of the Obscene Demon Royal Family, an Incubi, twelve years ago.
In Thanatos, the Queen and King were selected from several Royal Families, the selection is often made into a public battle demonstration, where the two male and female winners become the King and Queen and marry, without any previous engagement or meeting between each other.
Although the Demons of Thanatos were very advanced in certain areas of politics and magic technology, they still hold their traditions precious, as the Demon Gods themselves were the ones who created them for them.
The strongest and most promising youngsters selected through these series of battles become the supreme sovereign of the Kingdom, however, until they reach their fullest maturity, their parents support them from the shadows.
Elrinneth was known to be Greedy in every sense of the word.
Through the help and backing of her parents, she supported the conquest of Kingdoms, targeting weak demi-human kingdoms, especially those of Beastmen, as she saw in their territories, history, and people valuable resources that she must own for her people at all cost.
The King, Eranylan, was often supportive of his wife, and also wanted the best of his Kingdom, so he remained silent over these actions, without stopping her.
Certainly, most people speculated that this was because Elrinneth was oppressive and overwhelmingly strong, suppressing her husband to do her bidding.
However, although this may be true, no citizen objected to this.
Why? Because in Thanatos, the strong rules, there isn't any questioning over him, and this conduct was seen as natural and normal.
In past centuries, Kings would do the same to their Queens, or vice versa. Due to this, although Thanatos had both King and Queen, one of them would be seen as the highest figure of authority depending on their strength. It was often exceedingly rare to see the couple actually loving each other and supporting and respecting each one idea and thoughts.
The Greedy Queen had currently ordered the Vampire Family of Cythiliana to do her bidding, destroying the faraway Centaur Kingdom from the inside so they would easily conquer it in one day with a small army, own the place as a vassal nation and use the population of half-horses as cattle.
However, this recently came to an abrupt end when she was reported that the missions were a failure as a strange entity had taken care of every Vampire that was sent, destroyed their secret hideous in the Centaur Kingdom, and then conquered the Kingdom for itself…
The Greedy Queen certainly didn't like this and wanted to punish the Vampires for their great incompetence. A meeting with Aleksandra, the Vampire Family head, was scheduled for today in the afternoon… However, that had changed now.
Servants came rushing from the palace, the Greedy Queen was quickly given several reports about what had just happened in the Vampire neighbor, where all of these awfully loud explosions happened.
"Those bloodsuckers! Traitors!"
The Queen couldn't believe that just before her very nose, all of the Vampires alongside the allied family of Bat Beastmen escaped out of nowhere without leaving any trace whatsoever, the manor itself was reported to have been sucked by a strange gate-like artifact that promptly exploded, leaving the loud and colorful explosions in the sky.
The Queen saw how she may have been settled up… And could only blame her naivety and trust over those non-royal Vampires.
"Damn it all! I was already going to cut their heads off, and now they escape! What is this? How dare they break the promise of servitude that they did to us Demons thousands of years ago?! What will the Demon Gods say about this? And the Goddess of Blood should be held responsible as well…! Although I cannot meddle in god's affairs, no matter how strong or how high my position is, sadly… However, I hope that she gets a punishment at the very least and order her children to come back and receive their deserved punishment! Aleksandra, you snake!"
The Queen's tantrum was chaotic, her powerful eyes went out of control and flashing beams of black light began to destroy the walls, decorations, furniture, and paintings, the servants were running for their lives.
A powerful presence then awakened inside of her very soul, a black sphere with a red-shot eye, a gift sent by the Demon Gods to her five years ago…
"Aaah…! I see how it is!"
The creature spoke to her very soul, talking about information that she would have never been able to figure by herself.
This strange sphere was not the responsible for this knowledge but was being used as a mere transmission device of sorts from the Demon Gods themselves, who had quickly got to know what had just happened in their Demon Kingdom.
"So the one that stopped the Vampires from the start was an irregular… A Vampire born from the System… and also is the one behind the sudden appearance of the Monster Kingdom in the faraway Grand Forest… Huh?! And also, the one behind the conquest of Athetosea?!"
The Greedy Queen was kept being informed about what had just transpired, and also the conclusions of the Demon Gods.
"The Realm Menace of Lust, Kireina! To think that there was another Sin User… It seems that my Sin of Greed will finally have a friend… and I will be able to finally put to use Snatch and Sin Devour…"
Indeed, the dark sphere that had a red-shot eye as its only feature that resided in the Greedy Queen's soul was… the Sin of Greed. And she was given the Title of The Realm Menace of the Sin of Greed five years ago by the Demon Gods themselves, who had saved the Sin for this special occasion when a worthy vessel was finally born.
The Demon Gods were not omniscient neither omnipotent, but knew about things that mortals didn't or weren't able to figure out by themselves to easily… The knowledge of Kireina and her status as the Sin of Lust was already widely spread amongst Gods, and after the information about Agatheina was shared with the Demon Gods before she surrendered to Kireina, they also knew that she was an Irregular, possessed powerful and never-seen abilities and that could easily kill Noble Vampires like flies.
They saw in this individual not only a menace and an enemy that must be exterminated at all cost, but also as an opportunity for their precious Sin's vessel to grow stronger and grab on another sin, stealing the Sin of Lust, and possibly the Sin of Gluttony that was speculated to be possessed by her through the Blessing of the System Master.
"I suppose that everything is connecting now… the conquest of Athetosea and that mysterious fairy… the monster Kingdom and the monster waves in the Grand Forest, the sudden conquest of an abandoned dungeon and the fall of a god, and also the mysterious figure that killed all those vampires like nothing… She is certainly a worthy rival!"
In the Greedy Queen's mind, there wasn't any hint of fear, but only admiration for Kireina, and also the endless greed to possess her, her servants, her children, her kingdom, her powers, everything, she wanted to strip her of all she had or could have in the future… Her body, even her soul, her very existence.
"She will be mine! Everything that you possess will be mine, Kireina-san!"
The Greedy Queen wasn't talking baseless words, she had the backing of every Demon God that supported the Thanatos Kingdom, with their help, artifacts, blessings, powers, and Divine Energy, she was confident over her triumph.
"Oh? So that's how it is, she damaged Agatheina through the Divinity Devouring Skill and… Chaos Attribute Magic…? Bwahaha! To think that there was another user of my Attribute! The world is really big, isn't it, Greed?"
The sphere that possessed a bloodshot eye, the Sin of Greed that inhabited her Soul, stayed silent.
"…"
However, the Demon Gods spoke through it once again, the Greedy Queen carefully heard their words and then began once again to speak alone, although she was conversing with the gods, she seemed like an insane person for her servants.
"Hmph! That Agatheina is really undeserving of the title of a Goddess…! To think that she would act like a dog and ask for forgiveness desperately, such a disgusting being! She was damaged once and quivered in fear, immediately submitting to her and giving Kireina-san everything! Even her children! Such a ridiculous woman, a whore, that is!"
In strange dialects, the Sin of Greed once again spoke to the Greedy Queen, as she sat down in a pile of rubble at the top of her palace, this wasn't the first time it was destroyed, but this palace had special self-regenerative properties as it was constructed by one of the Demon gods scales. She had done such tantrums several times in the past, but the palace went back to normal like nothing afterward.
Although she was still young in Demon standards, The Greedy Queen was being nurtured and taught by her devilish parents, who were the Demon Gods' apostles. Since childhood that she had an extraordinarily strong connection with them when she received the blessing of all of them.
From that day she was treated as the one who would lead Thanatos to greatness and prosperity. Her mind grew wicked and destructive, and awakening the Chaos Attribute was not so hard due to this.
Despair Demons are a Royal Family of Pure Blood Demons who have powerful eyes capable of causing despair and destruction, a superior version to Demon Eyes, Demon God Eyes, capable of channeling the destructive power of the Demon Gods who have blessed them.
A renowned family of Demons, several of their members had been Kings and Queens before, but such a case as the Greedy Queen, where she was blessed by every single Demon God worshiped, was never seen before. She was seen as a demonic chaotic child, the one who would lead all demons in the Realm of Vida to their awaited ideal world of prosperity.
The Demon Gods once again reported some other things to their precious vessel, the knowledge about Levana, her connection to Agatheina, and also the treason of her as well.
"Ah, I should have expected that as well… Well, those Bat Beastmen were useless beings anyways, completely inferior to us, pure-blooded Demons! If they did not have such connections to a demi-goddess with Agatheina, I would have made them into cattle, although I doubt that bat meat would be of any liking for my citizens…"
Crumble, crumble…
The Thanatos Palace had once again reformed from its pieces, back anew, while the Greedy Queen, Elrinneth, glanced towards the horizon over the top of the palace, while the brilliant sun appeared from within the Icy Mountain Walls, she could see the entirety of her Kingdom and the vast surroundings, the different forest, dungeons, biomes and mountains, a beautiful sight, which filled this Devilish woman with enthusiasm and expectations over the future… A future where she would own all of this.
"Realm of Vida… You will be mine one day… And Kireina, you are no more than a stepping stone in my journey, your powers will be certainly useful… Fufufuf, I can't wait to meet you~!"
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