Chapter 1045 - The Shadow Kings

"My Lord, The Home Guard are ready," Vaul reported as he entered the coveted Dungeon Maker War Room which once housed the War Room against the Demons. Rex nodded his head, but in reality, he was just here as a spectator or at most an advisor. After all, the coordinator for this particular raid was someone else.

Kraft. (Also known as The Bubbling Social Media Director / Bodyguard / Most Awesome Original Bellator / Ultimate Fox Lover / Cyber Hacker / Counter Intelligence Agent - at the rate his title was going, there would eventually be no space for a hand palm sized name card.)

Apart from the usual suspects such as Moloch, Nubwort and Qiu Yue, the entirety of the Fox Bellators were also present in the War Room. Last but not least, Jin who was at the side sitting on a chair with his legs crossed was giving his Devil Bellator the limelight since he had asked the Devil Fox to help with the raid. To mark the occasion Kraft had even changed into an attire making him look eerily similar to a military dictator. (He even wanted Jin to call him El Presidente)

While their initial plan had been to cleanse the internal menace within the City of Demopolis, the situation had changed after they had decided to use this opportunity to relocate the citizens into Pandapolis. In fact, it was a rather successful shift since Pandapolis had been unoccupied and now Demon Citizens of all classes enjoyed a comfortable place to rest.

At the same time, the System also took the opportunity to deep scan each and every citizen that had immigrated into the Pandapolis. It did not take control of them directly but rather, scourged deep into their past memories invasively through a high level mind control spell. Most were unable to resist such a spell being cast onto them but there were a few who were wary about it and did attempt to fight against it.

Whenever that had occurred, Pei had been summoned to handle such cases but those outliers had not even crossed into the triple digits, which indicated that their level of spell casting was not as mighty as Jin had thought them to be. Rather, they had relied a lot on brute strength and numbers to overcome their enemies. If not for Pandapolis intensive preparations to deal with their manpower in the first place, as well as their cheat-like ability to convert enemies into friends, Jin believed that they might not have won against them.

During the immigration process, Demon Citizens who had confessed their affiliations with the Mafia and wished to start anew were given plenty of chances to make up for their mistakes. They were still given jobs like working under the Hotel Pandastic or the other entertainment chains under Jin and they received a roof under their heads for the night. Similar to the other citizens, they had been given a stable wage and food to eat.

Unfortunately, not many were that honest during the process and the System was able to find all the hidden 'moles' related to the Mafias. Unlike those who had confessed beforehand, they were punished for hiding the truth and were sent to the labour camps aka the Giant World under a heavy military escort to pick herbs and vegetables for Lynn's Kitchen.

Yet, they were still given a shared 'luxurious' prison space within the Pandapolis as well as a hefty three meals and a short thirty minute break for the entire day. Compared to the eternal 'Paradise' of Demopolis, some of those moles started to change and repent for the better when they learned how their fellow counterparts were doing in this new city.

Separately, the rest of the Mafia groups had stayed behind and fortified their position. Since the normal goody two shoes citizens had left for Pandapolis, the Mafia groups quickly took over a large portion of the city in order to have more grounds against the military. They were surprised that the Home Guards did not swoop in and actually gave them time to raid the area and set up more defences.

They had become daring enough to even bring out their weaponries and create makeshift barricades with whatever time they were granted. But as the Demopolis got emptier, the Mafia had started to boldly occupy the area. They began to bring up even more solid defences such as casting shapeshifting spells to create high walls and hijacking homes to create traps as such. Their scouts had seen how well defended the Royal Palace was, especially now that their soldiers were armed with ranged projectiles that could bring them down easily.

A few groups of separate Mafia members tried their luck but none of them ever made it back to their bases. Instead, they were ridden with bullet holes and being hung right in front of the Royal Palace as a sign stating not to 'f.u.c.k with the King'. This enraged the Mafia groups even further and caused them to set up their own territory even further to the point that all the Mafia groups had agreed to have a temporary truce among each other and weathered the storm that was coming.

Ironically, by doing just as he had expected they were all playing right in Kraft's hands.

Now that the districts outside the Royal Palace had been taken over by Mafia groups, the Shadow Kings within the depths of Demopolis had also entered the picture. Kraft and Rex had been waiting for the three Shadow Kings that controlled the major mafia groups within Demopolis to feel safe or greedy enough to attempt to take over.

The Eld Enclave, The Atrocity and Tyr Gauntlets.

Although each Mafia group might have a name of their own, at the end of the day, they would merely be a subsidiary of one of the top three factions. Each had a mix of fighters and mages, but all had their own specialities. The Eld Enclaves specialised in dark magic and in particular Old World Magic. The Atrocity relied on brute strength and their members never gave any thought about killing their opponents in cold blood. As for the Tyr Gauntlets, they were a little more special.

One could say that the Tyr Gauntlets were something similar to the defender of the wicked. Ex soldiers, police and even rescue workers worked under Tyr Gauntlets because they had grown sick of the Nobility and their inability to serve the community.

Their numbers were considerably smaller than the other two Mafia factions but one Tyr Gauntlet member could match to a couple of Eld Enclaves and Atrocity members. Their sense of justice was a little twisted, basically all vigilantes, and they were always against the other two Mafia groups. That was also the reason why they had gained traction and popularity especially among the poor.

Years of infighting had caused them to harbour a deep feud against each other and the decadence of King Baal's greed for power had made their fight even more intense. It was mainly because Kiva had funnelled a lot of money into them in order to control the public as well as the nobles for his own benefit. Not many Demopolis Citizens could survive on a decent honest job and it was because of Kiva's fault. (But fear not, justice had been served ever since he had been placed under Ayse's command.)

With the arrival of the New King, the three Shadow Kings had been thinking how to win over Rex's favour since their liaison with Kiva had disappeared. Unfortunately for them, ever since the act of executing and jailing the corrupted nobles, they knew that this king could be hard to deal with. Yet it was the death of a minor Mafia Boss, and subsequently Kraft turning him into a piece of art, that had confirmed the new King's intention to annihilate them. So for the first time in history, all three Mafia had unanimously grouped up against a common threat.

The Royal Crown.