Hafleet, whose four arms and legs had been chopped off, was hung up on the wooden wall. The tenacious physique of the Demon Race allowed him to cling to life despite being on the verge of death.
"Cough, cough... Don't kill me... Don't kill me..."
A strange emotion he had never experienced before welled up in Hafleet's heart. Previously, he had always instinctively sought advantages and avoided disadvantages regarding death, but now he felt a sliver of fear. This sliver of fear was being constantly amplified as he remained in this near-death state.
"Why won't you let me cut his head off?"
Aura was still angry; this guy who stole her property deserved to be beheaded.
"I didn't expect him to be so tenacious either."
Hafleet had been hanging up there for half a day, yet he still had the strength to speak. Generally, a Demon in such a miserable state should have already dissolved into mana particles and disappeared.
At this moment, the thirty Demon soldiers were standing in a row to the side under Aura's orders.
"How about giving him a chance to turn over a new leaf? At the very least, he has some ability to have developed this stronghold to this extent. Worst case scenario, I'll let you cast the Magic of Obedience on him again, making him your slave for you to lecture for the rest of his life?"
Nanoda spoke while turning the roast chicken in her hand. They were indeed somewhat short on manpower right now.
"What is this? It smells so good."
Linie expressed curiosity toward Nanoda and Aura's act of roasting chicken.
"In human terms, this is called 'cuisine', and it tastes pretty good."
With the skin roasted to a golden brown, Nanoda waved her hand to sever and extinguish the flames.
"That's not impossible. Now that you mention it, killing him with one stroke is indeed letting him off too easy."
Aura snatched a drumstick directly, speaking as she gnawed on it.
"Does Linie want one?"
Nanoda broke off her own drumstick and gave it to Linie. Without standing on ceremony, Linie accepted it directly.
"Mm... Delicious. Is there more?"
Linie revealed a rare trace of expression.
To Nanoda's surprise, Aura and Linie were unexpectedly big eaters. She actually couldn't out-grab them and ended up eating only a small piece of chicken breast.
After giving that small reward, Nanoda began to inspect the stronghold. Before leaving, she had Aura use the Magic of Obedience on the half-dead Hafleet; weakened to the extreme, Hafleet was completely unable to resist.
Although the Demon Race was fractured, quite a few experts still remained. Leaving aside those unnamed Great Demons, there were still three of the Seven Sages of Destruction remaining right now.
The Hero of the South took Schlacht and three other Seven Sages down with him; Böse died at the hands of the Hero's Party; and Grausam's whereabouts were unknown, though it was possible he had also died at the hands of the Hero's Party.
At this point in time, the Seven Sage Teacher Macht was likely running around somewhere, and the Sage of Corruption Qual was still serving jail time inside a seal. Although the fellow Seven Sage Aura was right beside her, she didn't seem to be presentable enough to take the stage.
Nanoda now wanted to organize a few high-end Demon combatants to anchor the situation, and then imitate Serie by establishing a new Demon association to integrate the loose and scattered Demons. Incidentally, she would try to train new Demons who possessed new ideologies.
After thinking about it, Nanoda decided to find an opportunity to subdue the remaining two familiar Great Demons. Combat power was extremely scarce on her side.
At any rate, Serie was surrounded by a bunch of First-Class Mages. Over here, Linie and Hafleet could barely count as Generals; they might be able to exchange a couple of moves if they ran into a First-Class Mage, but the outcome would likely be precarious.
As for Aura, although a Seven Sage had the strength to match several First-Class Mages, without her subordinates and without using the Magic of Obedience, Aura seemed to only have the strength of an ordinary First-Class Mage.
Having toured the place, she had to admit that Hafleet had managed it quite well; it was a bit like a human town.
Although everything other than that manor consisted of crude stone houses, there were perimeter walls, watchtowers, and the facilities were fairly complete.
In the evening, Nanoda had Aura gather everyone in a clearing.
Hafleet had returned to his original state under the treatment of magic potions, but being whittled into a human stick and exposed to the sun for half a day seemed to have left him with trauma.
"Don't kill me... Don't kill me..."
At this moment, Hafleet was squatting in a corner, incessantly drawing circles on the ground with his hand.
As soon as Aura walked over, Hafleet jumped up like a rabbit, keeping his distance from her.
"You, get over here! Get down! Chair!"
Under the command of the Magic of Obedience, Hafleet tremblingly transformed into a human-shaped chair, still muttering 'don't kill me'.
Aura sat down on him ruthlessly.
The thirty Demon soldiers lined up neatly; after learning of Aura's identity as one of the Seven Sages, they had all submitted voluntarily.
Aura felt she had a lot of face today.
"Ahem, everyone, I want to announce something here today."
Pausing for a moment to feel the gazes directed at her, Nanoda continued.
"I want to establish an internal association for the Demon Race. I've already thought of the name: it will be called the 'Mutual Love New Demon Association', or 'New Demon Association' for short."
"We can research magic together, research humans together, and research emotions together, exchanging ideas and progressing jointly. Association members must abide by the principle of not wantonly slaughtering innocent humans. The Association can provide everyone with living quarters, opportunities to interact with Great Demons, and various kinds of human knowledge."
Nanoda decided to use a gentle approach first to try and subdue a batch of Demons who were relatively accepting of new concepts, and then have them spontaneously spread the word and expand. As for the remaining ones who jumped out to cause trouble, she would forcibly suppress them.
"Is there anyone who wants to join voluntarily?"
Nanoda asked the thirty Demons.
Of course, not joining wouldn't prevent Nanoda from turning them into foot soldiers in her and Aura's hands.
She wanted both the army and the New Demons.
Hearing Nanoda's invitation, the thirty Demons remained unmoved. They were all relatively low-level, young Demons. Compared to having their own thoughts, they were more like beasts lacking ideology, instinctively obeying powerful existences.
"Can I join?"
Just as she thought there was no hope, Linie suddenly raised her hand.
"I'm somewhat interested in that thing called 'cuisine'."
"Good, welcome to the group. I'll get you a human cookbook in a while. Since things are a bit rushed, I'll figure out a way to create some proof of identity later."
Linie nodded upon hearing this.
"Aura, I'll trouble you with the Association's propaganda."
"Huh? Why do I have to work?"
"Don't you have thirty extra subordinates now?"
"Oh, alright then."
Aura agreed reluctantly. To be honest, she wasn't very interested in this Association.
Nanoda had once asked Aura about the communication methods between Demons. Aura's answer was that Great Demons liked to lead teams alone or act individually; only Schlacht, who could foresee the future, knew such things, but Schlacht had long since perished together with the Hero of the South.
Nanoda had Aura release half of the subordinates to serve as propaganda soldiers for the Association, using orders of obedience to exhort them a thousand times to act cautiously and not to kill humans.
Nanoda actually just wanted to use these Demons to generate rumors of the Association among the Demon Race. As for the effect, she had no way of knowing.
"Where was Qual sealed again?"
Nanoda was still lacking intelligence.
____
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