"Stop Samuel." Earl simon shouted in an authoritative tone and I saw a steel wing stop few inches away from my back about to pierce me.
"But father…." Samuel tried to say something but he was held back by another figure who have followed him to the surface before.
"I gave you a simple job to escort our guest into the hideout, but ignoring my orders, you went to test his capabilities, how long do you expect me to clean up after your mess?"
"I can exp…"
"No need, Gabriel, after tomorrow's war, lock this sorry excuse of a son in dungeon until he reflects on his mistake and learn to respect others."
Before I could ask earl simon reason for my mistreatment, he dumbed all the blame on his son's head while the young master Samuel just snorted and passed by me giving me a death glare and taking the already prepared seat for him.
Glaring at his son for few seconds, earl simon shook his head and stood up from his seat, heading in my direction.
I also turned my attention toward the bulking demon who had a creepy smile at his face as his eyes shined red.
The aura of earl simon was overwhelming but nowhere near what I felt when I fought aura master jabel in that dimension pocket.
He was 8 feet tall, his skin all black and muscles bulging out beneath his golden robe.
In front of his bulking figure, I was less than a mere child but this is not the world where size of an opponent defines the outcome of a battle.
The skills and weapons I had at my arsenal were far superior compared to people present here and thus I also walked toward earl simon until we stood face to face.
"I apologize for the disrespect my son has shown you, I hope you will snub it as a tantrum of a child." Earl simon requested me.
"I don't have time to waste on this useless conversation, so let's start the strategic meeting for which you have called me here, as for the matter regarding your son, I will receive a proper apology from him when this whole fiasco is over."
"You are correct, we have much more important matter to discuss, but before I start the meeting, let me introduce you everyone who is present here."
"To my right is the vice general of my army and my only son Samuel pelto and to my left is the general of my army and my trusted friend Gabriel fasco." Earl simon finished the introduction of two gentleman who looked at me disdainfully.
"Why do I feel those two gentleman don't like my presence much?" I asked.
"I apologize on their behalf; due to some past unfortunate events they have hostility toward humans." Earl simon lied.
"Father you feel that too don't you, he hasn't even finished his radiant physique yet, why are you treating him like our equals, genesis must have made some mistake sending a weakling to help us." Samuel couldn't hold back his tongue anymore and shouted making eye contact with me.
His father simon had an complicated expression on his face and was about shut his son's mouth but before he could do so, I released full weight of my 305 million units of soul force which covered the entire room in an instant.
The room started to shake due my soul force which materialized out of my body and descended on all three demons in the room.
"How ironic, it is you people who needs my help defeating an enemy but I am the weakling among us, then let me show you who among is truly a weakling." I said and concentrated the dispersed soul force on Samuel.
The place Samuel was sitting was crushed beneath my soul force along with the chair on which Samuel was sitting.
He didn't had the time to register what had happened because a white foam leaked from his mouth and nose as his eyes rolled back and he fell unconscious.
Both earl simon and Gabriel released their soul force shield Samuel but even their own soul force was crushed under my might as a embarrassed expression appeared on both their faces.
Sensing that Samuel was out of commission for next few hours, I retreated my soul force and took the center seat across earl simon while with an hand gesture of earl simon, samuel's body rose in the air and floated out of the room.
"He still has lot of things to learn." Earl simon spoke focusing his attention on me.
I have been recording every action of these demons from the moment I entered this hideout, which would justify my actions for killing them in the future.
"Who else knows about my identity as genesis member?" I asked earl simon.
"Only the people present in this room." Earl simon replied truthfully.
"That is good, when are we going to fight?" I asked.
"A day before your arrival, we received an invitation from Earl coslen in which he mentioned that he is ready to end this war and make an alliance with us, in order to show his sincerity he will give up 10 percent of the territory of mana crystal mine.
He think of us as fools to accept such an offer because he has already exhausted most of the resources of that 10 percent territory and want us to mine in a barren land.
Further understanding his intension it seems that he doesn't wants to fight us using his full force and thus he has invited us to a neutral territory with only 500 soldiers to sign a non-aggression treaty."
"Did you accept his proposal?" I asked.
"Yes, we also don't want to engage in full scale battle with him or someone else might try to benefit out of this war while we both are weakened." Earl simon's deduction seemed reasonable.
"We have agreed to sign the peace treaty with him tomorrow morning." Earl simon replied.
"What do you expect me to do in the upcoming battle?" I asked simon.
"I can fight toe to toe with earl coslen but in order to kill him, I will need someone else's help and that is you.
Other than earl coslen, there are two other people, one his son and other is his army general who are rank 9 entities.
His son has recently broken through to rank 9 and that is what gave him the confidence to wage war with us.
My son and general Gabriel both are rank 8 entities and can help you stall one of them for few minutes so you won't have to fight both of them at once but they aren't capable of killing them, thus that task has to be handled by you." Earl simon spoke and looked at Gabriel for affirmation.
"I don't need anyone's help, I alone am enough to kill both of them, i just need you to provide me all the information you have on my targets." I spoke in a confident tone.
"Just what I expect from a silver ranked member of genesis." Earl simon smiled and praised me for my courage but I had already seen through his façade.
Just like that, the meeting continued for another half an hour where earl simon explained me the topography of the location where we would be meeting to sign a truce and also the abilities of each of my target.
To summarize, I would be working alone as I deem fit while earl simon and his subordinates would be holding back earl coslen.
After going through each of our opponents individual abilities, I assured earl simon that it wouldn't take more than half an hour for me to deal with those two rank 9 entities after which I would return to assist earl simon in killing earl coslen.
As per earl simon's explanation, even I wasn't sure whether I will be able to kill earl coslen alone and thus it was better to not act in haste and try to kill earl coslen while having some support.
I was assigned a guest room in the underground facility itself to get some rest while earl simon left the hideout in order to make preparations for tomorrows battle.
Now that earl simon had left the facility, there wasn't anyone to stop me from messing around if I wanted to but I knew that this wasn't the right time to act, though it didn't stop me from making some preparation beforehand and I happened to find my first target in his most venerable condition.
On my command, a small part of ether left my hand infiltrating the room where Samuel was lying unconscious and entered his body through his nose once again becoming dormant waiting for my command.
'Tomorrow would be quite hectic.' I thought as I entered my room and sat on the bed in meditative position recovering mana and soul force I had wasted.
***
Earl Simon POV
The matter of mana crystal mine was just a small cause for a long pent up frustration we both had harbored inside ourselves for decades.
My and earl coslen's territory were equal in size but he had twice the strength I possessed, he himself was a rank 10 expert and his army general and his son both has recently evolved there physique to immortal rank becoming rank 9 expert.
This incident caused an imbalance in the long existing stalemate between us, I don't know what he did to convince Marquis for getting permission to start a territorial war with me but left with no other option I had to bet my everything on winning this war.
It took me almost a whole month to convince genesis agents to classify this commission as gold rank and I had high expectation from them that they would at least send an immortal expert but when I saw an incomplete radiant physique expert coming to help us, I thought all my efforts were in vain.
That was until he released his soul force and subdued my son.
With one glance I knew his mana reserves and soul force were greater and purer then mine, without a doubt he was an expert who for some reason was hiding his strength and this conclusion eased my worries a little.
Not even my superdemon perception could see through his disguise but nevertheless, the outcome of today's battle would solely depend on his action.
"So earl simon, how did you like my suggestion to form an alliance and end this enmity once and for all." The voice of Earl coslen woke me up from my thoughts and I noticed that the act he was putting up would soon come to an end.
"You talk as if you want to form an alliance but my voting rights in this alliance are only 30 percent; it is not an equal alliance but subordination." I spoke pretending to be interested in his offer but I knew the situation could turn to worse anytime.
"I would have loved to form an equal alliance with you but considering your strength…." Earl coslen spoke but stopped mid-sentence maintaining his trademark smirk.
"Don't over-estimate your strength just because your son and general have become pseudo immortal experts, they amounts to nothing if I decides to move myself." Earl simon shouted.
"No doubt about it, but can you handle three of us together?" Earl coslen spoke stopping the tapping of his finger, his eyes glowed red and his expression became serious.
After that not a second would have passed and the noise of fighting outside could be heard.
Blue lightening raged from high above the clouds but only on the forces of Earl coslen and the tent above our head flew away due to huge gust of wind or aftermath of someone casting a powerful spell.
"So you have decided to die here." Earl coslen spoke in an calm tone.
Dusting my robe I stood up in my place and my momentum pushed the chair and other material nearby us far away.
"That is not something for you to decide."
***
Just few hours before my departure merlin woke up from his slumber and we discussed about my current mission.
Merlin didn't had any issue with me taking any mission without discussing with him and he made few adjustment to the already prepared plan which would make fighting those pseudo immortal expert easier.
I was hoping for system to give me a quest but that didn't happened which was quite suspicious from the point of view of merlin.
Ignoring the system's behavior I arrived at a barren land which was spread in the area of 20 kilometer.
On both sides of land two armies were stationed, consisting of mixture of human, demons and beasts.
In the center of the battlefield 1 big tents were stationed where the peace talk would be happening right about now but from the momentum of both armies it was evident that it was not a peace talks but a final territorial war.
'As per the details given to me, there peace talk should have started 10 minutes ago, seeing that neither side has made a move it seem it is up to us to start the war.' I said and manifested [Lightning wings] flying high in the sky until the whole battlefield war covered in my field of vision.
I used [Dragon gaze] and confirmed two powerful entities on earl coslen's side whom I have to deal with while rest of soldiers comprised of radiant physique expert, I could also see 6 figures around whom mana was quite unstable and it proved they were ethereal stage experts.
'If ether devour this many peoples, how strong will it become?' I asked merlin.
'Well it depend on quality rather than quantity but this much sacrifice would definitely boost its power exponentially, though it wouldn't be enough to awaken him.' Merlin said.
'What awakening are you talking about?' I asked.
'Well, it is a living entity and it is in its sealed form right now, but as its host grows it will grow alongside him unlocking different abilities.' Merlin said.
'You should have said something like this earlier, Never mind let's discuss about it in detail, once we have dealt with our current situation.' I snapped my fingers and mana around me started to flare violently at increasing pace, within seconds whole battlefield was covered in thick black clouds as the expressions on the face of army below grimed.
Sensing abnormality in environment two pseudo immortal rank experts as well as earl ranked demons below released their soul force to detect my presence but their senses betrayed them because their soul force fell short to mine.
Immediately hundreds of mana shield and artifact shield were created by the experts of both forces and the whole battlefield was shrouded in different color lights as fierce cold wind started to blew on the battlefield but nobody moved.
'Let's begin the show.'
Hundreds of [Lightning sparks] fell to the ground from sky at lightning speed and burst into bright light robbing the soldiers below of their senses followed by thick lightning bolt which fried the soldiers inside their armor.
"Transform into your beast form, combine your soul force and shoot it upward." One of the powerful figure below shouted on top of his lungs and transformed into 5 meter giant eagle and flew in my direction.
'Not so fast.' I said and released my 305 million of soul force which pushed the flying eagle back into the ground making it harder for it to even move.
The soldiers below tried their best to combine their soul force and overpower me but it was fruitless efforts as both our soul force clashed, their souls received heavy damage.
By now Earl simon's son and general both were leading there armies toward earl coslen's direction taking benefit of the opening I had created while the center of the battlefield was already a mess where earl simon was engaged in fierce battle with earl coslen.
'Let's wrap things up ether.' I said and a red formless matter left from my hand.