Zekram Bael smiled, a faint, sad acknowledgment of the chaos Algernon had caused. "Calmness, Algernon, is merely the recognition of the inevitable. My political efforts—the Great King Faction, the Anti-Satan Faction—were temporary measures. They were scaffolding erected to stop the devil race from collapsing under the scars received from the war 500 years ago.
He set his coffee cup down, the clink of porcelain echoing softly. "But scaffolding is not a foundation. It still left the system tied to titles but empty inside. It still allowed the weak to prosper unchallenged. I spent centuries trying to reform the devil race from the inside, through legal means and political maneuvering."
Zekram leaned forward, his violet eyes piercing. "What you achieved today—the absolute imposition of meritocracy, the brutal demand for growth—proves that my methods were inefficient and ultimately doomed to fail. You are doing in decade what I could not complete in millennia. You are the superior solution."
"You are surprisingly calm," Algernon repeated, a slight smile finally touching his lips.
"I am calm because you brought the change, and the devil race desperately needs a change that can help us surpass our former self," Zekram concluded. "This peace has brought the entire state to stagnation. Look at the humans—they fight among themselves and progress every hour, day, or year. They are changing every time."
He set his cup down, his gaze unwavering. "We, the devils, were born powerful and settled into complacency. Our high status became our rust. Great King Faction is nothing if it can be exchanged for the future of the demon race."
Zekram Bael was, at his core, the ultimate Utilitarian Visionary. He was an ancient entity who viewed the devil race not through the lens of family or sentiment, but as a project—a biological and magical experiment that required constant, ruthless optimization. His mind did not cling to traditions or political loyalty; it clung to the single, cold metric of Racial Supremacy.
He had engineered the civil war, recruited the Satans, and founded factions all in the pursuit of shaking the system. When Algernon arrived, proving capable of enforcing chaos and growth on a scale Zekram could only dream of, the old devil did not see a rival—he saw the superior instrument. His own life's work, his own faction, was a small, expendable sacrifice for the ultimate, grand objective of making the devil race transcendent.
Algernon looked at the ancient devil, recognizing a mind as cold and calculating as his own, yet bound by the limitation of mortality and tradition.
Algernon smiled, a cold, evaluating assessment in his eyes. "You speak eloquently of evolution and the transcendence of the race, Lord Bael. But your philosophy sounds detached, as if you observe an experiment from a safe distance."
He leaned forward slightly. "Tell me, Zekram. Are you willing to experience this future yourself? Are you willing to personally endure and profit from the chaos and prosperity you believe the demon race requires?"
The challenge, aimed at Zekram's willingness to commit fully to the fire he helped start, immediately aroused Zekram's interest. His posture straightened, the weariness momentarily vanished, replaced by an intellectual eagerness.
"That is a most intriguing question, Your Majesty," Zekram replied, his voice regaining its ancient power. "What is Your Majesty proposing?"
Algernon sat back on the sofa, crossing one armored leg over the other. "Your loyalty is to the goal of supremacy, not to any one clan. Your knowledge of our political and legal weaknesses is unmatched. I require a foundation of ironclad law—a framework to manage the violent, meritocratic chaos I have just imposed."
"You will be given the rank and authority to be In Charge of the Judiciary. You will write the new codes, ensuring that even the common demon seeking to rise follows the rules of challenge and conduct." Algernon continued, his voice leaving no room for discussion. "And more importantly, you will oversee the four Duke Houses and help them in their tasks, ensuring the former Satans execute my orders with total compliance and efficiency. You will be my final administrative check on the entire empire."
Zekram's initial reluctance was gone, replaced by a consuming desire to undertake the complex, vital task and seeing everything around him as demon race rise.
Algernon, seeing the spark of renewed purpose and deep strategic interest in Zekram's eyes, didn't need to ask for confirmation again. He immediately issued the final instruction.
"Excellent. Your first task is one of surveillance," Algernon stated, his voice gaining a clipped, precise quality. "Keep an eye on the other major houses for some time. They won't be able to jump around as easily as they think."
Algernon paused, and his lips curved into a mysterious smile—a look that suggested absolute control over their environment.
Zekram, sharp enough to know the command concealed a massive, ongoing magical intervention, felt a keen spike of curiosity but wisely did not press the point. He recognized the boundaries of the secrets.
"It will be done, Your Majesty," Zekram affirmed, saluting in complete compliance to the new, formidable ruler.
___________________________________________________
The cold, ancient stones of Athelgrad were far behind him. Algernon now lay stretched out in a comfortable bed, the soft light of the distant city filtering through the windows. The silence was deep, a stark relief after the dimensional shrieks, the explosions of the Rating Game, and the tense, echoing pronouncements in his throne room.
He closed his eyes, his mind replaying the dizzying, brutal trajectory of the last twenty-four hours.
It had begun innocently enough, sharing breakfast and a simple, intimate date with Akeno at the quiet shrine. From there, the pace had accelerated into a political whirlwind: the abrupt, bloody confrontation with the four Satans in a desolate dimension outside Lilith; the formal, chilling coronation in Athelgrad, where he shattered the 72 Pillars with a single decree. Finally, the secret negotiation with the ancient, calculating Zekram Bael at the hidden Bael Estate.
Algernon felt the immense weight of the day—not as exhaustion, but as overwhelming authority. He had defied history, crushed the current rulers, and remade the foundational laws of an entire civilization.
He inhaled deeply, the feeling of absolute control settling deep within him. The power to command everything. The final authority to decide the destiny of an entire race. It was a profound, singular satisfaction, the true culmination of his conquest.
As he lay still, deep within his thoughts, contemplating the weight of his newly acquired empire, the profound quiet of the night was suddenly broken by a sound that resonated only in the deepest part of his consciousness. It was the sterile, objective voice of the system he had been waiting for.
[Main Quest Completed]
[Congratulations on conquering the Demon Race!]
The system chime was silent, but the implication was immense
[You have received access to: Training Space]
[You have received a Growth Artifact: Excidio]
A surge of new information flooded Algernon's mind, detailing the sword's unique properties:
A Growth Artifact which evolves alongside the bound user. It can be stored instantly within the user's soul. Most crucially, it can adapt and guide all powers injected into it.
Algernon opened his eyes, the satisfaction of the system notification still resonating within him. He sat up in bed, his body perfectly relaxed, and extended his hand into the empty air.
With a thought, Excidio, materialized instantly in his grip. It was a sword of profound simplicity: entirely deep black, with a matte finish that absorbed the dim light. It gave off no intimidating aura, no excessive magical brilliance—it felt like an ordinary sword, concealing its power beneath an unassuming facade.
He ran a thumb across the blade, feeling the potential latent within. Algernon decided to test its primary function immediately. He mentally commanded his Law of Space to flow from his core and into the artifact.
The black surface of Excidio instantly responded. Cracking, vibrant silver lightning snakes traveled along the length of the blade, wrapping around the hilt and surging toward the tip. The air around the sword warped violently, and with the slightest, unperceived motion of Algernon's wrist, the space before him was sheared open, leaving behind a temporary, silent ripple in reality.
It didn't just adapt the Law; it amplified it, Algernon realized. It makes the Law manifest physically and efficiently.
The weapon was perfect for him who use multiple laws.
The small bedroom was instantly deemed insufficient. Algernon, thrilled by the initial test of Excidio, decided immediately to utilize the rewards.
This space is too small for true application, he thought. The Training Space is a far better arena for Law mastery.
He released Excidio to his soul, where it instantly vanished, and focused his will. With a silent command, he accessed the dimensional bridge granted by the system, moving from the human world into his personal training domain.
The Training Space had changed. It was no longer a simple, empty void. The vast emptiness was now filled with colors, swirling and condensing into complex, geometric shapes that pulsed faintly like breathing structures.
The system's voice, internal and objective, confirmed the reason:
[Space environment calibrated. Environment has been changed to make it easier for user to comprehend Laws.]
Algernon smiled, appreciating the optimization. He stood in the center of the kaleidoscopic void, retrieved Excidio, and began his focused training routine. He started by systematically injecting every power he possessed—the energy from all five of his cores (Demonic, Destruction, Space, Holy, and Thunder)—into the deep black sword. The blade hummed, glowing with a brilliant, shifting spectrum of colored light, adapting and guiding the composite Laws.
With the sword absorbing and stabilizing his core energies, Algernon gently plunged the tip of Excidio into the non-existent floor. He then sat down in a cross-legged position in the center of the vast, colorful space, closing his eyes.
His breathing deepened, his consciousness expanding outward, reaching past the chaos of simple mana and into the very structures of reality itself, trying to sense the fundamental Laws woven into the surrounding dimensional space.
Algernon was now fully focused on his internal focus and the external dimensional colors, directing his concentration inward toward the core of his being. He had established a perfect bridge between his essence and the surrounding reality through Excidio.
He centered his will upon his five mana cores. The goal now was two-fold: to deepen the already engraved Laws on his foundational cores, and to engrave new, fundamental Laws onto the recently forged ones.
He first worked on his Destruction and Space cores, meticulously pushing his understanding of the associated Laws further. He was not just using the Law; he was trying to understand the mathematical and conceptual structures that underpinned them, solidifying their presence into an unbreakable, deeper mandate within the core.
Then, he moved to the demonic core and two newest cores: Holy and Thunder. These cores were currently strong in energy but vacant in Law. He began the challenging process of pulling the raw elemental principles of demonic, Holy and Thunder from the surrounding environment and attempting to etch their structures—the essence of the demonic law, holy Law and the Thunder Law—into the fabric of the cores.
Algernon's mind was a maelstrom of geometric concepts and elemental forces. In the vast, colored expanse of the Training Space, where time obeyed the dictates of the system, years passed in an unwavering, focused blur.
While centuries of wisdom and power accrued to Algernon within his secluded domain, the outside world—the devil race he had just conquered and other factions—had indeed long turned upside down.
(END OF CHAPTER)
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