Nidhogg POV:
With so little notice and wanting to go to a place I knew I was going to go; I went back to the planet where the Midnight Covenant was located. Best decision I have ever made, because consuming that demon yielded me his memories.
Number one, the truth to elevating to Demon King was tied to planets. Within every planet, was essentially mana crystal. So far, the only way to ascend to Demon King, was consuming an A-Tier planet. The mana it provides transforms a demon thousandfold. However, they were guarded by the guardian. It took someone being around peak Demon Lord level to make it past all the levels of fear but fighting a guardian was another matter entirely.
Which lead to another truth this demon knew. Almost every year, each Demon King would lead a raid on an S - Tier planet in an attempt to consume its mana core to ascend to Demon God. However, the church would always interfere and stop them. This idiot got captured by Iros because he attempted to run past Iros fighting both the guardian and the church.
Then, there's the final truth that matter most to me. On becoming a Demon Lord, he intentionally made contact with a Priest which for a second revealed to him the image of whom I assume is their god Luminous. I could admit that the demon was right on that this god's power seemed to be far more than that I've witnessed from the Demon Kings. Of course, that's considering if the Demon King's were even fighting seriously there.
Movement at my feet brings me out of my thoughts, as I see more members of the Midnight Covenant come and kneel at my feet. Oh right, I forgot that I had evolved and was thankfully smaller now. I was also vastly different in appearance from my previous form, so how did they recognize me?
I change my voice to match the goofy aloofness of Silverfoot. "Whatever demon you were kneeling to before; it won't matter to me."
They remain still, unfazed. I grab the hair of the closest one, pulling up a woman and poise with my claws at her throat while I stare at her. Never once does fear cross her face. Slightly impressed, I set her back down.
"While away I have evolved, and I'm no way similar to how I once was. How could you tell it was me?" I ask curiously.
She returns to her prostrate form, "We all have been delegated to be your shrine maidens, Lord Nidhogg. If we could even recognize you no matter what form you take, we would not be worthy, and our lives forfeit." She says.
"What are the duties of a shrine maiden?" I ask, realizing that my cult might be getting a bit out of hand.
"Our job is to maintain the upkeep of the shrine where you decide to grace us with your presence. Each day, one of us is elected be your assistant. We will strive to do whatever you need, so you won't have to do anything." She explains.
"Whose turn is it today?"
From the back, a slender framed blonde rises, with her eyes still averted to the ground. Their presentation and countenance already had me convinced to not just kill them right here, but there was still the matter of actually doing that would fully convince me.
"Gather the Fullbrings." I order.
She bows, then wastes no time walking towards the castle. I look at the rest of them, "Leave me." I order. Without saying another word, they each leave. That was a test and they passed it, but that didn't mean that they got a hundred yet.
Regardless, I needed them to go for the moment because I still needed to gather my thoughts before I addressed the Fullbrings. I get fifteen minutes to sort through all the memories I currently have regarding the church and easily come up with a decision. I don't fail to notice the blonde shrine maiden respectfully keeping her distance, waiting to inform me of something. I wave her over.
"Lord Nidhogg, all Fullbrings have been assembled." She says with a bow.
"Very well. Bring me to them."
She guides me through the castle, which was my first time entering due to my decrease in size. Now, I stood at ten feet, requiring most humans to look up at me. While getting led through the castle, I took note of the lack of colors and the number of banners bearing my mask on it. I stopped for a moment, taking time to study it.
The flag was entirely black, save for the insignia of my mask which was white. Strangely, they managed to capture not my old mask, but the new one, clearly indicating who I was. Overall, I found that I actually like this banner, as I realized that, albeit probably a guess, black was my favorite color.
Black represents a lot of things, but people will always associate it with darkness, or evil. Although evil was a term that I'm sure many would have used to describe me, it wasn't the reason I enjoyed the color. It was my belief, that the first ever representation of the color, was for the lack of. Black was the lack of color, which means there's an emptiness, a void that needs filling. I would say that would define my entire first life.
I shake such thoughts out of my head. What was wrong with me to be to getting sentimental all of a sudden. I focus back up as I drop the banner.
We continue on until I encounter a double door room with two members of the Anti-Light posted there. They bow to me and open the doors to reveal all members of Fullbring standing in two rows, five on each row. Behind them is a cushioned throne with red pillows, that would allow me to lay down.
I walk past all of them and immediately lay on the prepared throne. It was surprisingly comfortable. In fact, unless I was crazy, sitting here made me not even notice my hunger. My shrine maiden stood beside me.
"It's enchanted to alleviate the pains of those who sit on it. The pains are still there, but you won't feel them, Lord Nidhogg."
I take a second to admire the feeling of not having any hunger at all. I definitely needed to watch this less I go crazy and consume everyone. I soon snap back into action, as I decide to knock two birds with one stone.
"Nameless. Come forward." I command.
The three Fullbringers who had yet to awaken their full potential like the rest kneeled before me. Since my evolution, I had become even more sensitive to mana than I was before, so I could see that one was lagging far behind the others.
They knew why I called them forward; I didn't have to explain anything. In fact, they owe me an explanation. "Explain." I simply say in a commanding tone, and they remain silent for a bit.
I study each of them, until I see what I was looking for. The one who was lagging behind the rest glanced at me for the briefest of seconds before returning her glaze to the floor. Her look of hatred told me everything I needed to know. So, I turn my sight to the middle one, who flinches. He was visibly more nervous than the other two.
"My lord, I feel as though I am close to achieving a breakthrough but have hit a bottleneck in my training. Give me more power that I might become your greatest servant." He pleads to me.
I turn to the last one, who prostrates further in defeat. "I have no excuses for you Lord Nidhogg. I am a failure and my life yours to decide." He responds.
Hearing his response, it takes me no time to make a judgement. "Shrine maiden."
She steps forward, "Yes, Lord Nidhogg?"
I point to the Nameless woman, "Kill her."
I watch as she doesn't even hesitate, drawing a knife and walking towards the Nameless woman. In response, she draws her own blade, no longer hiding her rage as she comes at the shrine maiden. However, a shadow looms behind her and in an instant, Odin disarms the Nameless woman and pins her to the floor. No matter how much she thrashes, Odin keeps her pinned. She can only watch and scream as the shrine maiden simply walks over and slits her throat. Her screams become mere gurgles as blood erupts from her mouth and Odin lets go of her. Each passing second her eyes lose their luster until the halls become silent once more.
"Shrine maiden." I call out.
"Yes, Lord Nidhogg?"
"Him as well." i say motioning towards the middle Nameless.
Hearing this, he begins to cry softly. As the shrine maiden approaches him, he doesn't bother fighting against her, instead, in between his sobs, he manages to ask, "Can I know why this decision was made? I merely needed more time."
Just as the shrine maiden touches the blade to his neck, "Hold." I command, stopping her. He looks at me, hope in his eyes. "Do you think you're in a position to demand anything from me?" I ask him.
"Y...Well. I've proved good enough to have your power. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" He responds.
"No." And with that, the shrine maiden slits his throat as well. Not bothering to look at his death, my eyes go to the final Nameless. With the knowledge of what happened to the other two, the final Nameless speaks up.
"Permission to speak up Lord Nidhogg."
"Granted." As I wanted to know what his last moments would be like.
"Do you want me to save you the trouble and just kill myself?" He asks.
A minute of silence passes before I answer. "No, step back in line where you once were." He hurriedly gets back in line before I change my mind as I call out to the rest of them.
"Let this be a lesson to the rest of you as well. Remember these words I'm about to tell you and apply them to everything you do. Trust no one. Especially not me. For the moment that you prove to be useless to me, I'll discard you no matter what or how much you've done for me. When it comes down to it, I will always choose my own life over any of yours.
Don't trust in each other. Everyone makes mistakes, but humans make the most. You're more prone to fail each other than I can to you. I don't expect your feeble human brains to understand this one, but don't even trust yourself. No one can fail you more times than yourself." I advise them from actual experiences in my past.
I don't bother checking to see if they could understand what I'm saying or not and instead move on.
"In my travels of the demon realm, I have come across some new information that has shifted my entire perspective. For now, my entire focus will be solely on that of the church. Now, inform me of anything that happened while I was gone."
Developments were made in potions, where we have a healthy amount to start a skirmish, but nothing for a drawn-out war yet. We still need to acquire either an insane amount of ingredients, or a reliable income of them.
In terms of manpower, it was reported that there are over three thousand members who were at the Proficient level. There were those who were exceptional in terms of mana, but so far, no one really stood out. Firepower wise, we had absolutely no items of magical potency but enough weapons for a thousand members.
As for infiltration, our success rate was sitting at eighty percent with hundreds of undercover operatives within the church's rankings. Thankfully, they could easily report back information through Odin, but so far, we didn't have a general idea of what we were looking for.
"Our first step is to acquire more resources before we can really broadcast ourselves as their enemies. Are there any who have entered trade with us?" I question.
"So far, we have those who exchange goods with us, but I fear our negative reputation still proceeds us as there aren't that many who will trade. Much less those of bulk." Montgomery explains.
'I see it was a matter of proving ourselves before they would accept us.'
"Question, Lord Nidhogg." Achlys says raising her hand.
I motion for her to speak, "Could we not just torture these merchants into working with us?" She asks.
"It certainly is an option for some, but it not the correct one as I'm sure a lot of them belong to organizations. These organizations won't take kindly to someone just kidnapping their members. It would bring more harm than good at the moment." I explain to her. It was a harmless question and not too ignorant to warrant an extreme response from me.
"Instead, we'll have to hit the churches resources. Do we know if there are any planets on the churches control that we could hit?" I ask.
"Unfortunately, we only have uncovered one that is extremely well secured and manned. They'd get reinforcements within minutes, so we ruled that out."
Smart decision. We'd be using too much of our own resources just for the slightest chance of getting something.
"Do they trade with merchants as well?" I inquire.
"For certain things, but our intel suggests that they produce their own products for war, such as weapons and potions."
"I'm assuming that we don't know its location." I ask.
"Negative. Everyone knows its location, as they proudly broadcast it. Our problem is that it would take approximately fifteen planet hops to reach that location. We would need around a thousand members to siege the planet but trying to hop that many would be extremely suspicious." Montgomery explains.
I take a second to think about it before smiling. "We have our target."