Demons did not control Fires civilization. Its name came from Baron Antonio Fires, the one who created it.
It was a civilization with only a single rank 11 world and three rank 10 worlds.
As a low-ranking civilization, they were reliant on a rank 12 civilization, basically a colony, having to pay a protection fee.
But, it was worth it.
In addition to protection, their rank 12 civilization also provided them with coding support and sold them necessary materials.
This arrangement is standard. The overwhelming majority of civilizations are those below rank 12, most of whom have a sponsor.
With only rank 11, they can't code their world independently.
...
One of Fires civilization's rank 10 worlds was named Fires-Adams. It came to be after a marriage between two Great noble-based civilizations.
Fires-Adams was quite a young world, only existing for a few billion years. It was an old-times world with swords and magic.
Knights dominated it, with mages significantly suppressed.
In this world, Marquis Emanuel Fires-Adams was the ruler, being rank 10 and controlling the complete law of the world.
In addition to him, many other nobles existed, all of whom were related to the Fires-Adams family.
Pablo Fires-Adams was a count who controlled a vast land. In this world, nobles are all high-ranking knights. Pablo, for example, was a rank 9 knight and a powerful one at that.
He was quite young, being around 10 million years old. With the lifespan of rank 9s being only around 50 million years, he had most of his life ahead of him.
To the ordinary people, he was popular, but to the other nobles, he was intensely unpopular.
People in this world don't have a bad life. There are very few wars, with everyone being under the command of Emanuel.
But life is not great either.
Anyone related to the nobles is a master, able to enjoy a comfortable life, and anyone who isn't is a servant whose only job is serving the masters.
It has been this way from the beginning, with no one even remembering or knowing any other way.
Among the masters, some were good, treating their servants well, and others who were cruel, abusing them.
Pablo stood out. Not only did he treat his servants well, but he even wanted to stop other nobles from mistreating their servants.
It made him highly unpopular among everyone. They saw him as trying to interfere with things that had nothing to do with him. However, these actions made him very popular among servants.
It wasn't anything revolutionary, like overthrowing the Nobels, etc.
Those are not possible, and even Pablo would be opposed to it. It's not even changing the status quo of two classes of nobles and servants; it's just improving the rights of servants by giving them some rights.
...
Pablo continued to pursue his goals, and after thousands of years, he finally managed to convince the council of nobles to establish some fundamental rights for servants.
These rights included:
Not working them without compensation.
Not punishing them without good reasons.
Not forcing them into sexual relations.
These are very minimal rights, but they are better than nothing.
It was a great move forward.
Or, it would have been if Emanuel wasn't opposed.
To the surprise of many, Emanuel opposed it and vetoed the plan.
As a rank 10 Marquis, his opposition killed the plan entirely.
Pablo became very upset, so he communicated the issue to the Fires world.
...
The Fires world was where the only rank 11 knights in Fires civilization lived, Duke Marvin Fires. He was a direct descendant of Baron Antonio Fires, the founder of the Fires family.
It's said that Marvin is a reformist.
The natural fate of every civilization is technological advancement. Fires civilization also advanced immensely from when it was founded; they improved their methods of knight training.
But, they deliberately suppressed science. Their policy was to focus only on the knight's path.
Marvin disagreed with this approach. He wanted to try the technological path.
He was taking action, but resistance was fierce.
However, as a rank 11 knight, if he wanted to push it in the headquarters, he could do it.
And he did it, getting results.
In the Fires world, technology is thriving. Ancient laws were set aside, and many new inventions began to appear.
As a result, today, people's lives are great.
There are still nobles, but even the nobles are satisfied. However, in the other rank 10 worlds, things are different.
Relative families control those, and Marvin cannot force them as he wants. So, in those worlds, nothing changed.
He gave up for a long time until today when he received a letter from a count in the Fires-Adams world.
"Maybe I can use this as an excuse to interfere?" he thought.
A count asking Marvin to help in a matter seldom happens. But when it does, it can provide a great opportunity.
Because Marvin is the head of the Fires family, and when internal disputes between high-level nobles happen, he has to be the judge.
Using this as an excuse, he ordered his right-hand woman, Anita Fires, to go there and act as the judge.
Fires-Adams couldn't refuse this.
...
Anita landed on Fires-Adams world.
She was a rank 10 knight and was old.
Still, she looked very young, like a 14 or 15-year-old girl. As a rank 10 knight, she could remain physically young forever.
But in fact, she was old, older than Baron Antonio!
She still remembers Baron Antonio when he was a toddler.
She would have succeeded Baron Antonio if she was in the line of succession.
The reason she wasn't in the line had nothing to do with her being a woman. High-level civilizations never cared about the prejudices that some mortal nobles had, like not allowing women to inherit titles.
As for women usually being physically weaker than men, it might matter for mortals, but for knights, it doesn't make any difference.
The reason she didn't inherit the title was her talent. She didn't have rank 11 talent; Marvin did, so he inherited it. The head of the family must have at least rank 11 talent.
Anita looked around.
She was familiar with Fires-Adams, so she just moved to the residence of Marquis Emanuel.
Marquis Emanuel had black hair and a short beard. His eyes were deep, like eagles, and shone with strength.
"Hey, Anita, long time no see," he laughed and greeted. He disliked Anita, but still, he should be polite with a knight of the same rank.
Anita also smiled.
"Emanuel! You look even more impressive! Maybe one of these days, you can finally advance to rank 11!" she said.
Advancing to rank 11 requires controlling two laws. But there are also other requirements:
One must have rank 11 talent. As rank 11 talent pills are rare, this requirement alone rules out most people.
The two complete laws must be compatible with themselves and the meditation method. Meditation methods are how one can absorb chaos energy at high speed and are not necessary for rank 10. But in rank 11, it's essential, as without it, one cannot absorb enough energy.
One must be able to hold two complete laws in one's body.
To hold more than one complete law in the body requires a rank 11 body.
One can have a rank 11 body if they strengthen their body using chaos energy. A rank 11 body simply means having the ability to hold more than one complete law in the body, and it doesn't mean reaching rank 11.
After one satisfies these three conditions, then one can reach rank 11.
Emanuel smiled bitterly and said, "Maybe. Now, let's talk about the matter," he said.
"Yeah, let's do it," Anita nodded.
They both sat in a luxurious room, and Emanuel started, "This matter is an internal policy matter, not a conflict between high-ranking nobles," he said.
Anita shook her head, "I already looked at it. Let me tell you, Pablo is not going to reconcile. This is a conflict."
Emanuel sighed. Because Anita is an agent appointed by Marvin, her judgments are Marvin's. When the judgments are handed down, they can only be overruled if the other two nobles in the rank 10 worlds concur. Emanuel is sure they will do so, but it will take years.
"Okay, let's cut the nonsense. What is your Final judgment?" Emanuel said, wanting to minimize Anita's stay here.
Anita smiled and said, "According to my observations, Pablo had the support of the nobles' council, and only because of your honor's opposition did the proposal fail. As the lord of Fires-Adams, you have the authority to do this."
"However, His Honor, Marvin, also has the authority to overrule your objections," she said with an innocent smile.
"Wait, where did that come from? He doesn't have that power! We are independent in our world, and only in matters related to our collective security can his world overrule mine!" he said with a bit of anger.
"According to my investigations, this matter is deeply related to security; the people can be much more productive if their rights are protected," Anita said.
"So it's about a power grab! Marvin wants to take over, right? I will appeal this decision to the Supreme Council. Respectfully, Anita, you can leave!" he said.
Anita sneered and left.
...
Emanuel went on to ask the Supreme Council to overrule Anita's ruling. But something very unexpected happened.
Marquis Leslie Fires-Singleton, the new leader of the Fires-Singleton world, refused to overrule her decisions.
For Anita's decision to be overruled, unanimity is necessary.
As a result, to the unbelievable eyes of Emanuel, her decisions were upheld and set a precedent that boosted Marvin's power beyond any limits.
If a simple matter about servants' rights can be considered a security matter, what can't be? Anything can be a security matter.
As a result, Emanuel's objection was overruled, and servants gained very basic rights.
It didn't end there. After a while, Marvin, with the excuse of security, ordered everyone to start allowing mortal technology to advance.
This time, the internal nobles' council didn't agree. Still, Anita came again and ruled that if it's related to security, the spirit of the law requires that Marvin's decisions take precedence over any other law.
As a result of these decisions, Fires-Adams' servants began to advance rapidly.
At first, the nobles resisted, but after a while, they began to accept it, and after a few thousand years, many began to favor it.
The new technology brought many benefits and made the lives of everyone easier and much more productive.
After ten thousand years, Fires-Adams was unrecognizable.
Cars flew in the skies, and everywhere was beautifully designed, with tall buildings around. Everyone was much happier than before.
...
Pablo looked at the blue sky and the beautiful buildings in the night sky.
He was proud of himself.
When he looked around and saw many happy people, a smile came to his lips.
"Our future is very bright!" he thought.
Just as he thought of this, a tremendous earthquake came, and all those huge buildings began to collapse! These buildings were built very sturdily, so one can imagine the extent of the earthquake!
"What is going on?" Pablo was stunned.
...
Just outside Fires-Adams world, something very fast-moving, with a lot of chaotic energy, was approaching.
Fires-Adams world noticed it and sent a lot of missiles, trying to explode it in space. But it failed.
With nothing to stop it, the space waste hit the world!
Its massive chaos energy hit Fires-Adams.
Fire, pieces of complete law, radiation, and harmful energy spread worldwide.
In just a few minutes, the entire world turned into a crisp and exploded.
...
Pablo only felt a bright red light, and everything went dark forever.
...
Everyone in Fires-Adams world was killed, even the rank 10 Emanuel.
The space Waste was from Rachel's rank 12 world, so of course, a rank 10 world had no chance to resist it.
The space debris created by the explosion of Fires-Adams hit the neighboring worlds of Fires Civilization but only damaged them, not destroying them.
This disaster was recorded in the Fires history books and will always be taught in school when they want to scare off children.