Before fighting demon kings, Mike believed that having 120% bloodline purity would make him so strong that even demon kings would be like children in battle against him. However, after testing his power against Skyfire, he realized that he had greatly underestimated himself; he was far stronger than he had previously imagined. Demon kings were nothing compared to him; they were as weak as ants.
In the entire world, only the Big Demon could pose a threat to him.
Before discovering his true power, he was cautious and refrained from casting powerful spells within human civilization's territory. But after realizing the true extent of his strength, he decided to test his power against his direct superior, General Brightlight.
The results were astonishing; he encountered no problems, and none of his tricks were detected—not by Brightlight or the human civilization's magical treasures and formations.
"Now, let's try Widevision," Mike thought. He hadn't cast illusions in front of Widevision before because the latter was known for his ability to see through illusions. But now, Mike no longer believed any human could see through his illusion.
...
Mike returned to Widevision and, with the help of a fake 'Brightlight,' convinced him to do precisely as he wanted. Widevision was a magician specialized in creating and dispelling illusions, yet even he could do nothing but be deceived by Mike's spell.
With this, the two four-star generals ordered the recall of all human civilization's troops from the world. They showed no mercy; they recalled them all despite knowing it was wrong.
Mike wanted to prevent a confrontation between humans and demons as much as possible. The only way to do this was to keep humans inside the walls and demons outside. He wasn't worried about the survival of human civilization; with his protection, there would still be no issue even if human civilization disbanded its entire army. Mike's only concern at the moment is preventing the complete resurrection of the Big Demon.
...
Moondemon organized Mooncity and then returned to the headquarters of the Demonic Alliance to inform them about M, the wolf.
The demon kings were selfish and only concerned with their self-interest. In most cases, they would never agree to anything for the greater good unless it personally benefited them. However, the resurrection of the Big Demon would be a disaster for everyone, especially demons.
Every single demon was part of the Big Demon, and its resurrection would mean the complete death of all demons, with no chance of reincarnation. Nobody wanted this to happen. Therefore, after a visit from M, who displayed his massive wolf body as confirmation, all the demon kings bowed and agreed to M's plan.
The plan was simple: even if no demons were killed, many would still die of old age. To starve the Big Demon, it was essential to somehow prevent the bloodline of deceased demons from returning to circulation worldwide. With that, all demons united and began researching a solution.
With everyone's focus on the Big Demon, there was no room for anything else, like the flesh business.
The demon kings wanted to order the euthanization of all human captives. Moondemon, now under Mike's control, was the demon king most reliant on the flesh business. Most demon kings looked down on those addicted to flesh and were quite displeased with Moondemon. In their opinion, the flesh business harmed them, so ending it was not a difficult decision.
However, at the last moment, Mike intervened and saved the human captives. Instead of killing them, they were returned to human territory.
Mike did this primarily because it was simply a good deed. Those poor humans surviving didn't cause any harm to him. It only took a few words from him and didn't cost him anything; there was no reason not to do it. If demons had killed them all and the news had reached humans, it might have caused an outrage, prompting humans to seek revenge. Even though he had the power to stop it, there was no reason to create trouble for himself. Instead, after the demons voluntarily ended the flesh business and delivered the captives to humans, it significantly reduced people's hatred for demons, possibly paving the way for a future where humans and demons could live in peace.
It's not that Mike was a good guy—he wasn't. He had never been a good guy, not in his previous life or this one. It's just that he wasn't so evil as to watch millions die for no reason or benefit whatsoever.
...
Demons had much stronger combat power than humans, but humans were much better when it came to research and development. While it was good that demons were researching a way to prevent the Big Demon's resurrection, Mike didn't feel at ease with only demons doing the research; he wanted humans to work on it as well.
Mike had already convinced Brightlight and Widevision to withdraw the troops and had a lot of influence, but he still didn't hold actual power. His influence came from his connections with the four-star generals, but he couldn't simply order the military to research a way to contain demonic bloodlines after death; this time, not even four-star generals could help him; only the military leadership commission could help him.
Therefore, he started his attempt to take over human civilization completely; after all, it's troublesome to beg the military leadership commission every time he wanted something; it's much easier just to take over.
The most important governing body was the Military Leadership Commission; once he took it over, the entire human civilization would fall to him. The problem was that the commission was extremely well-protected. Mike wasn't sure he could infiltrate it without being detected. Maybe he was underestimating himself again but unwilling to take the risk. The situation was severe—once the secret got out, it couldn't be easily contained again. So, he took a different route, a simpler one.
He ruled out taking over the government by force; he wanted to have legitimacy; the only way of going about while keeping his legitimacy was to take over everything legally.
Human civilization had four and a half branches of government: the Executive, the Legislature, the Judiciary, the Military, and the Constitutional Court.
The Executive was responsible for civilian government, including the president, prime minister, ministers, and other officials tasked with executing the law. The Legislature was responsible for passing laws and electing the prime minister. The Judiciary was responsible for upholding justice, imprisoning criminals, solving civil disputes, and handling all other judicial matters. The Military was the fourth branch, tasked with protecting humanity from external threats. It was completely independent and unrestrained by democratic will, focusing on humanity's long-term survival. The half-branch, the Constitutional Court, was solely responsible for resolving conflicts among the branches of government. It even had jurisdiction over the military. The Constitutional Court had long been pro-military, which is one reason the military's political power is so strong today.
From Mike's point of view, the best way to take control of the government was to seize control of the Constitutional Court and the presidency. Once he had these two, he could easily do whatever he wanted.
Fortunately for him, the president and the judges of the Constitutional Court were far less protected and were very weak; most of them were mages who had graduated from D or C-grade schools.
Mike went to their homes and cast mind control spells on them. He had no legendary mind control spells, only a few high-grade ones.
Controlling human minds for a long time is difficult; he might be able to control Brightlight's mind for an hour, but she could resist it and eventually regain control. However, when cast on the president and the judges, the same spell has a much stronger effect; without outside help, they wouldn't regain control even after a hundred years.
Human civilization had a strong tradition of not electing strong magicians as presidents, prime ministers, or judges. As a result, they were all weak. Although there were a few strong bodyguards, Mike managed to sneak around them. The president's protection was nowhere near as strong as the military leadership commission.
Mike began his operation with both the presidency and the Constitutional Court in hand.
The best and most advanced labs in human civilization were those in S-grade schools. Still, overall, all supernatural labs in the Human Civilization were ultimately under the control of a department called the 'Research Agency' (RA). The Military Leadership Commission had always appointed the leader of the RSA. The law clearly stated that only the commission had authority over it.
But Mike didn't care; with the court in his hand, the text didn't matter. Courts were excellent at twisting words to fit their desired outcome.
The president appointed Mike as the leader of the RA. When the news broke, most people could only shake their heads in confusion, thinking the president had gone mad. The Military Leadership Commission ignored the president and refused to recognize Mike as the leader of the RSA.
Mike had already predicted this; he filed a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court, asking for an injunction to force the Military Leadership Commission to recognize his appointment. Usually, the court could only hear cases of conflict among government branches, not suits filed by private individuals. However, since the judges were under Mike's control, they took the case and quickly ruled in his favor, ordering the RA to recognize him as the leader.
The ruling shocked the entire human civilization. The law was clear—it explicitly stated, 'The Military Leadership Commission shall have sole authority over the RSA, the appointment of its director, and all matters related to it.' There was no ambiguity at all. The court's ruling was simply lawless.
In its written decision, the court stated, 'Even though the text gives the Military Leadership Commission authority over the RSA, the spirit of the constitution directs us to a different result. Indeed, the constitution places the president as the head of state. History and tradition are clear; the president must control civilian departments. We rule that the RSA is a civilian department, and therefore, ultimately under the president's control.'
The ruling massively increased the president's power, completely sidelining the prime minister and the Military Leadership Commission. The Military Leadership Commission wanted to ignore the Constitutional Court's ruling, but after consulting with the two four-star generals, they decided against it. After all, everything was held together by laws; if they disobeyed the court, it would shake the country's foundation during a crisis, which was not good, to say the least. Also, ultimately, Mike was a two-star general, so he was barely an acceptable person to run the RSA.
In this way, Mike became the director of the RSA. Immediately after taking control, he ordered them to stop all their current work and focus solely on finding a way to prevent the bloodline of a dead demon from returning to circulation.