My name is Beria and I'm a woman; you'd be a fool to take me lightly because of that however, as I am one of the 12 demon lords .
Despite my appearance, I'm an ancient vampire and have reigned as a demon lord for a long time, even when compared to other demon lords .
Monsters . Demons . We are existences that only grow stronger through war .
After going through several, the strongest that emerge, gaining the recognition of those below them and their peers, are declared demon lords . There are currently 12 such individuals .
The Four immortals, the strongest beings among the demon lords, possess overwhelming power and influence; and they loom over others like insurmountable mountains, casting great shadows .
Our strength is absolute, not overshadowed by any other . Sadly, there will always be hot-blooded idiots who see us only as stepping stones and not as the giants we are .
Like that Larne .
I met Larne only once, at the demon lords conference in the past .
An arrogant werewolf who insolently looked down on others .
The kind of demon lord that didn't even try to hide his greed .
He governed his people with fear and gave no mercy to any who disobeyed him .
The population engulfed under such reign was pitiful of course, however, since the one who ruled the territory was a fellow demon lord, I restrained myself from meddling in the other's affairs as much as I could .
Even so, three years ago, Larne had suddenly declared war on me .
His aim? My seat as one of The Four Immortals .
For me, things like a title are of little import, but I'm not going to just sit still while somebody invades my territory .
This resulted in a full scale war, even though not having a battle would have enthused me .
I regarded myself as a comparatively gentler person among the other demon lords .
As long as one does not harm my territory I'll observe them only as my neighbor .
Of course once one goes beyond my limit, I'll beat them up mercilessly...
This might be somewhat lazy of me, but I could barely even control all aspects of my territory .
Thus, I don't need Larne's territory .
Rather than territory, I wish for capable subordinates .
Each one of The Four Immortal has their own faction, except me .
Most of the demon lords belong to one of these faction . In fact, I have already made two amicable demon lords my allies .
Larne was a man qualified enough to be a demon lord; and if I could, I would've take him under my umbrella even with his rather questionable character .
Killing Larne and forcibly replacing him with a new demon lord is bound to be meaningless if the replacement demon lord isn't of sufficient strength .
We are talking about hot blooded demons here, if a demon lord can't defend himself, he'll be killed .
That's why I want to avoid war as much as possible .
In such a situation, with intention of avoiding a war, I tried to offer a peaceful treaty, but Larne refused .
Holding a ray of hope, believing that maybe, by any chance, but...
As expected, war hadn't been avoided .
Honestly, looking at his character, having any expectation is pointless .
The treaty wasn't even considered, derided only as pitiful .
There is a vast differences between my war potential and Larne's, it was inevitable for him to get cornered .
The subjugation operation finally reaching its final stage .
Larne's castle as the last fortress was the only one left .
Even though I have driven him into a corner, Larne has still been a demon lord for a long time, and as his true strength is unknown, I had to personally face him with caution .
I had encamp before Larne's castle's gates .
The preparations for sieging the castle were advancing as planned .
And like that, when the so called preparations finally reached their final stage, an eccentric being came before my camp .
As my subordinates and I were taking a rest to restore our energy in front of Larne's castle, before sieging tomorrow, a gargoyle had abruptly leaped towards us .
The gargoyle's eyes was dim, it seems that he was under the influence of slave magic .
He was too imposing to be considered a scout; I gave order to shoot him down .
Even if the enemy's purpose was unknown, there was also no reason to leave such a danger alone . Fire magic, [Fire ball] (Pr: I was tempted to leave this mispelled as file ball), was used to shoot at him by one of my subordinates .
An explosion occurred, shrouding the gargoyle in smoke . Enough so, that I couldn't see it anymore .
To waste his subordinates without a second thought…I detest such actions .
Anger toward demon lord Larne welled up inside me .
One might call me naive, but I don't like slave magic .
Soldiers who pushed forward vigorously without being controlled by their emotions were indeed very convenient in war, however, it is still a troublesome task for the side that's fighting .
Battle only has meaning if both side are equal, risking one's life against such mechanical living beings was absurd .
To live and to die, it has to be decided by one's own will .
(TN: this paragraph is kind of confusing . But I think this was Beria's ideal, as an ancient being, she despises the idea of having an unequal battle even if she was the one who makes profit from it) (Pr: pretty much sums it up)
The smoke from the magical explosion gradually began to clear up .
Receiving the attack head on, most likely the gargoyle was broken into pieces...
I'm sure that everyone must be thinking the same .
I also thought so too, but...
Impossible…what is this!
That in which I saw before me was unbelievable .
As the smoke receded, what came to sight was the gargoyle flying flying unfazed, totally unharmed .
There was no sign that he invoked defensive magic before receiving the attack .
Gargoyles have some level of physical defense, but their magical resistance was average . Somehow they could resist water and earth magic, but their resistance to fire magic was low .
And yet..., why he is unhurt?
However, I didn't not lose my composure with just that .
No matter how strong the gargoyle was, he was no demon lord .
But, in the next moment . My composure was easily blown away .
The gargoyle began to invoke magic, looking down on us from the sky .
The next moment, an immense wave of magical essence began to flow towards the gargoyle, saturating the camp with distilled magic power .
Huh? Li, Lie...what's with this amount of magical power, it's similar or even above mine!
Judging from the wave of magical power, the gargoyle was chanting water magic, Tidal Revive .
Water magic of the highest rank, level 7, a level of magic few demon lords dare say they are capable of casting .
Bad, This is really bad!
If he was allowed use such magic, my army would instantly be destroyed
I rushed towards the gargoyle in a panic, attempting to stop the magic invocation .
Besides me, no one in my army was capable of stopping the gargoyle .
I changed the attack plan in a hurry .
I'll deal with demon lord Larne first to immobilize the gargoyle
If demon lord Larne as the master died, the slave magic binding him will be released .
To avoid fighting the gargoyle, I headed to take care of Larne first .
Even I won't leave unscathed if I were to clash with that gargoyle .
I can't fight directly with such a monster (TN: monster as in strong, not 'monster' like wyvern, griffon, etc) (Pr: We Griffons are civilised beings, how dare you slander us, those monsters you saw earlier were inbred BEASTS!)
After getting thrown around by my hair, having my stomach pierced by a stone needle and mud spat all over my face, I somehow managed to burn his wings and incapacitate him .
After he lost his mobility, I rushed into the castle and killed demon lord Larne in a haste, before the gargoyle could return to the front of the war effort again .
To be frank, Larne's power pales in comparison to that of the gargoyle's .
As demon lord, by no means was Larne weak; the gargoyle was just so much more .
Before Larne died, I asked him about the gargoyle, but he didn't seem to know about such a gargoyle .
What is this? Why doesn't the owner know!
In the end I was able to win the war, but that gargoyle's strength was on par with any of The Immortal Four .
I was really relieved I personally came here .
What on Earth is that gargoyle?
If I wasn't here, my troops would have been faced with total destruction .
After I gained control of Larne's castle, I commanded my subordinates to search for the fallen gargoyle, but I was too late, as according to them, he escaped south immediately after Larne died .
Leaving such a dangerous gargoyle on his own is a major problem, but it wasn't an avoidable one .
I ordered my troops to give chase to the gargoyle, with clear instruction to deal with the situation delicately .
For now I could only wish that the gargoyle that had regaining its ego was a good natured being .
If possible, I want such as strong being as a subordinate, but...
It would suck if he resented me for burning his wings off…
I couldn't help but feel insecure about the situation, I had to hasten the arrangement of post war issues .
"Beria-sama, the persons that wish to be employed as our troops are gathering at the entrance . "
"I, I will go there shortly, please wait a moment"
Uuu..., my face is a complete mess… and my hair . The mud; and the hair pulling did a number on me .
I scrubbed my face hard with a towel, but even that couldn't fully clear off everything . (Pr: Even the mud is magical, what a world to live in)(TN: LOL)
That gargoyle…I can't got out in public like this!
By no means was I going to face my subordinates with a face stained with mud .
I reluctantly decided to seek my maid for help .
Sure enough, the maid was astonished on looking at my face .
"Beria-sama?" She called out doubtfully .
Kuh, this humiliation...
Four hours later, Beria arose the victor in the confrontation between her and the mud and stood proudly before her troops, as their leader .
(Pr: Unbeknownst to her, the mud was not vanquished, but had escaped, planning his revenge from the depths of the sewers, revenge he would surely have . MWAHAHA!! HA HAHAHA HAAAA!)