One might expect that Fiery Pepper's missions would decrease the number of human captives on the farms. While this was true in the short term, the overall situation did not improve. As the number of farms belonging to Skyfire decreased, Moondemon's farms increased and expanded; at the same time, Skyfire also opened up a lot of new farms; instead of decreasing, the total number of human farms and captives increased.
Of course, it takes time for captives on those farms to mature. The demons didn't use magic to accelerate this process, as they believed it would lower the quality of parents, who gave birth to tiny humans, who are the main materials in the production of the flesh. Demons are quite sensitive about the quality of their flesh. As a result, Moondemon put more pressure on the existing mature humans in her farms to give birth to more babies, aiming to meet the increased demand.
Human civilization, naturally, was aware of this and was furious. However, fighting two demon kings simultaneously was far too risky. The reason they dared to oppose Skyfire was that Fiery Pepper, being a demon, had no direct connection to humans, and all transactions were conducted in secret.
Skyfire likely knew that human civilization was behind the purchase of the released captives, but she didn't confront them. After all, even though humans aren't individually strong, Skyfire didn't underestimate them either. Since the humans didn't attack her directly, she avoided escalating the situation—she already had one troublesome enemy, and that was enough.
However, this didn't mean Skyfire took no action against human civilization. She hired demon mercenaries from various medium and large-scale demonic cities, paying them to attack human stations. As a result, the number of attacks on human stations increased exponentially. Nowadays, each station must be staffed by at least 100 humans and have 500,000 energy crystals in reserve to be considered safe.
So far, human civilization's stations have managed to hold on with minimal casualties, but the constant attacks have greatly increased magic crystal consumption. Saving human captives has cost human civilization a significant amount of money, but they didn't waver and continued their efforts; some cold-blooded and rational magicians pointed out that no matter how many they saved, it would not change anything. It's like buying turkeys to save them from being grilled—sure, one might save the current turkeys, but the farmer would simply return to his farm and hatch more. The root of the issue lies in the incentive.
Humans weren't paying demons for human captives, but they didn't need to. The price of flesh and its profitability is so high that no matter how many human captives they save, the two demon kings would continue to farm more; the financial incentive was too big to give up. The best way to address this issue is to remove the incentive—to find a way to make human flesh unappealing to the average demon. Of course, this is easier said than done.
Other possible solutions include increasing the cost of production to the point where it becomes unprofitable. Another option is eliminating the current distributors: the two demon kings. While this wouldn't completely solve the problem, it could temporarily alleviate it until another demon king is tempted by the profits and fills the void. However, taking out two demon kings is impractical, so this solution remains theoretical.
There are also more creative methods, such as poisoning some of the flesh and spreading the news to instill fear in potential buyers. Even if 10% of all demons were deterred, it could save millions of people. Yet, humans lack the ability to pull this off. The first issue is that there is no poison that is both undetectable and harmful to adult demons. Even if it could harm them, it wouldn't be able to kill them.
Other theoretical methods include infiltrating human farms and poisoning the captives. While this is a bit evil, it would at least end their suffering.
There are many ways to address the issue, but none are practical. Human civilization also knew it lacked the ability to solve the root of the problem. Everyone understood that no matter how many they saved, the demon kings would only farm more humans. Despite this, human civilization couldn't turn its back on so many captives.
Even though it didn't solve the root issue of human captives in the farms, human civilization continued its partnership with Fiery Pepper.
...
Fiery Pepper checked its space ring and smiled. Inside was a mountain of energy stones—over 1 billion!
"Maybe I can build a city out of energy stones?" it thought. Fiery Pepper had always been interested in ruling a city, but unfortunately, Skyfire had destroyed its Fiery Sun City, ruining its fun.
"Forget it! I don't need those demons anyway. They only lower my class; I'm a loner by nature," it thought.
Thinking of this, it became excited about the upcoming meeting. It cleaned its clothes and entered the room.
...
Mage Wide Vision sat alone in a chair made of sturdy white wood. Beside him was another chair reserved for an esteemed guest.
Over the years, his rank had improved many times. Now, he holds a very senior role in the military's central command—he is the commander of all of human civilization's troops outside the walls.
No matter which army they served, once they moved out of the wall, they became Wide Vision's underlings.
He was given this much power based on his performance. Over the years, his coordination and leadership were unmatched. Even though demons staged many rounds of attacks on the stations, very few agents died. The deal with Fiery Pepper was an amazing success; over 10 million humans were saved. He had become very famous, and nearly everyone saw him as a hero of humanity.
Suddenly, the door opened, and a short demon with red skin entered. It was Fiery Pepper.
"Long time no see!" Fiery Pepper smiled and sat on the chair.
"It's time to increase the intensity of our missions," said Wide Vision, wasting no time on pleasantries.
"What do you mean?" asked Fiery Pepper.
"You know what I mean! We should start attacking Moondemon!" said Wide Vision.
"No! That's all I'll say about this! I'm not suicidal! Moondemon is very skilled in astrology and can calculate my location just by looking at the projection of the moon in a lake. She is an amazing master and far more dangerous than Skyfire," said Fiery Pepper.
"I know! I didn't say we would attack her directly! I have a plan. Hear me out. If you don't like it, you can reject it," said Wide Vision.
Fiery Pepper remained silent, waiting for Wide Vision to continue.
"Skyfire Demon King has grown increasingly mad over the years—firstly because of you, and secondly because of Moondemon. After all, it was Moondemon who took her market share."
He continued, "Skyfire is like a bomb waiting to explode. What we should do is give her a target. Thanks to our intelligence agents, she can't catch you. You have no permanent location and can always run as soon as our agents give you a tip. But not everyone is like you."
"Moondemon is the leader of Moon Demonic City. She cannot run away like that, and I don't think she would even attempt to run away from Skyfire. What you should do is increase your cooperation with Moondemon and make it look as if she is the mastermind behind Skyfire's troubles."
"Skyfire already knows that you sell the flesh you steal to Moondemon, but she doesn't think Moondemon is deeply involved. She sees you as the main culprit. If you can shift the blame to Moondemon, she will attract all the firepower while you sit back and enjoy the show," said Wide Vision.
Hearing this, Fiery Pepper asked one serious question, "How can I do that? That's the key!"
"Visit Moon City often and meet Moondemon as many times as possible. Whenever you talk to another demon, don't forget to mention your amazing friendship with Moondemon. Praise her at every opportunity. If you do these simple things, the news will eventually reach Skyfire's ears. All we need to do is wait, and she will eventually explode on Moon City!" explained Wide Vision.
Humans usually hate seeing two Demon Kings fight, but not this time. Wide Vision decided to take a risk. If the plan succeeded, it could save the lives of over 100 million human captives outside the walls.
"Not bad! It does seem plausible, but you forgot something. Moondemon is no idiot; she will instantly discover my true intentions and kill me," said Fiery Pepper. In the face of a demon king who could truly threaten its life, it didn't display its usual arrogance.
"She won't discover your intentions if you have a good excuse to meet her, such as discussing plans for joint distribution of flesh to far away small demonic cities! Also, it wouldn't hurt to bring a few gifts. According to our intelligence, she loves unexpected gifts. We have prepared a few precious items for you to present. Why are you so risk-averse? You've been working with Moondemon for years; she wouldn't turn on you that easily."
Fiery Pepper shook its head, thought for a moment, smiled, and said, "Let's do it!"