Outside of the leader's tent, while the crazy girl and Jasmine didn't seem to be the least surprised by what happened a moment ago, Jeanne, Emily ad Reyne were obviously plagued by questions.
Daimon naturally noticed it, and as they walked through the headquarter, under the hostile gaze of the soldiers that previously idolized him, Daimon said.
"We'll talk inside the tent, our previous discussion hasn't changed at all".
"Mm", Jeanne and Emily nodded and then changed their attention to the soldiers that were observing them from afar with wat expressions.
Naturally, after what happened a moment go, old Ben and the others, immediately passed down the command to not approach Daimon's group under any circumstances, if what was happening inside that tent would have continued, humanity would have lost its higher echelon un a single sweep.
That being said, the leaders didn't give specific explanations, so now everyone thought that Jeanne and Emily must have done something, as for Daimon who was treated like a "hero" before, he was a considered a traitor to humanity for allying with them.
Some especially vicious comments involving Reyne, who used to be considered one of the dreamed lovers of a lot of members of the young generation, could be heard here and there too.
After all, everyone knew about the key holder on the flesh eating demon's side, who was a human that was seduced by the daughter of the traitor Cardinal, so they just put Daimon in the same category.
Once they reached the tent, Jeanne and Emily created a barrier around them, though they couldn't imagine old Ben and the others trying to attack Daimon after what happened, who knows what a cornered person might do.
Feeling the curious gazes of those three on him Daimon chuckled and then said.
"Though a bit late, let me introduce you to my... head maid, Rita", following Daimon's words, his shadow extended until it covered the whole room, before Rita who was barely able to restrain the urge to smile, emerged from the shadow.
If it was some time ago, she would have been kneeling down after receiving her young master's call, however the reward she requested from Daimon allowed her to act and speak in an informal way.
And though she still has a hard time adapting to it, she has started to accept the privilege Daimon has granted her, to act without asking for permit, since he trusts her judgement, unlike with the bone general who has an incredible lack of common sense.
"A pleasure", said Rita as she slightly rose the sides of her dress, before sinking into Daimon's shadow once again, she isn't fond of being in public after all, besides there is no more comfortable place for her, than her young master's shadow.
Once Rita returned to Daimon's shadow, the room returned to normal and light was radiated by the magic lamps that were placed inside of the tent.
This time, not only Jeanne, Emily and Reyne were surprised, Jasmine and even the crazy girl were surprised, because they have seen Rita before and know that she is a late stage peak Archmage, but now she was giving off a different sensation.
It was only for a second, but her presence was that of a Stellar ranked for sure, Jeanne and Emily had contemplative expressions on their faces, which Daimon could understand.
"You are wondering why did I make a contract with you, if I have such a strong person at my side, right?", he said as he sat down on the bed.
"Mm, from what I can see you could have alone overpowered the four leaders of the human side, they would have needed to put their lives on the line just to defend against that woman called Rita", said Emily.
"Even if Emi and me join hands, I think well be at most able to match up to her but once our transformation ends, we'll lose, not to mention that she honestly gives off a similar sensation to the Blood Archdukes, if you went to their side, you would have been worshipped by them for sure", added Jeanne.
Daimon nodded in response, some of the guys back at Brown Wind town, freaked out when Rita appeared, and he finally understood why after seeing the Archdukes.
Turns out, that besides Sarah and him, the only ones he has seen who are able to enjoy the boosting effect of Kerrol's atmosphere, are the Archdukes, to put in simple words, the Archdukes are Dukes that have learned how to surpass the limit of the Arch rank, by using that boosting effect.
But as the fact that Daimon who has infinitely harder than others to advance, due to what each minor realm represents for him, becoming a Lord rank thanks to the boosting effect, the Archdukes suck at taking advantage of Kerrol's atmosphere.
The Blood King on the other hand can properly use the boosting effect, and he use to be only peak Arch rank that was able to, that is until Rita appeared.
"To put it in simple words, we are exploiting a flaw of this world, to excel a stronger power than normal, and I'm not stupid enough to rely on such a thing, when there were to some people worth allying with, especially because I was in a bit of a hurry", said Daimon as he gazed at Jasmine, whose face blushed on the spot.
Jeanne and Emily smiled, happy with the answer they got, leaving that aside the had another important question to make.
"Why did they conceded like that, the offer they made was actually quite generous, if not for the existence of the Blood King, I'm pretty sure those guys would have accepted it", said Jeanne.
"That's because I have something they need, which is why they played that idiot to guide him to obtain it, only to have it stolen by Jasmine", said Daimon before adding.
"That being said, you should never, ever trust in anything that guy says".
...
At the same time, at the Ghoul headquarters, two figures were just arriving at the entrance, they were the female Archduke and Adam.
"His majesty has ordered you to go the royal tent", said the woman with a disgusted expression, which made Adam grit his teeth.
"I'm not his subordinate, I'm working with him so...", before Adam could finish speaking, the female Archduke lost interest and turned away to leave.
At the same time, Archbald could see Adam looking at him from the corner of his eyes, with mockery.
'Tough luck fucker, the one that has a leash on you turned out to be a woman, just watch by the sides and regret not having been born with the qualities of a hero like the great me, you fucking npc!', thought Adam as he left.
...
Back at the human headquarters, there was a turmoil going on, the moment those pillars of red liquid came down from the sky, even if the distance between the two headquarters was quite big, the humans all felt as if something was crawling up their skins.
And it was for a good reason, that huge amount of red liquid was all blood, human blood to be precise, that being said, that's not all that was there, otherwise the liquid won't be as viscous as it looks, flesh, bone, organs, everything was turned into those red pillars that were now surrounding the enemy's headquarters.
Old Ben and the other three leaders, as well as Oliver who was the second in command, came out of the leader's tent, and their faces blackened at the smell that assaulted their noises.
"It hasn't been even fifteen minutes, those fucking bastards!", shouted old Ben.
"H-How many people was needed to create that?", mumbled the female elder from the church.
Antonio saw Daimon's group approaching and he didn't know how to react, he was angry that his daughter ended up in such a state, but on the other hand she was the one at fault, not to mention her life was spared.
Old Ben turned to see the newcomers, it was easy to know who they were, because the nearby soldiers all tensed up and prepared in case a fight broke out on the spot.
"That is quite a large amount of vitality, using nine star knights as reference that would still be a few hundreds of thousands", said Daimon.
The nearby people all paled after listening to his words, due to the first king being someone that escaped from the human farms being a knight, the humans kept there weren't allowed become knights, but forced on the mage's path.
Apparently, Ghouls liked more the flesh and blood of mages either way, so it wasn't that much of a loss to them, anyway, a knight has many times the amount of vitality than a mage.
Meaning that based in Daimon's calculations, those pillars were created by killing a few millions of humans and that is assuming that all the humans in the farms were allowed to become mages, which wasn't the case for sure.
"I see, so while we were busy arguing among ourselves those bastards were acting behind our backs, damn it!", yelled old Ben.
All the people that earlier thought that it was a good idea to hand Daimon's group for a truce, were now burning with anger, they realized that the flesh eating demons were just playing with them, such a large scale sacrifice couldn't be prepared in fifteen minutes.
That guy who came earlier was just planting dissension among them, peace was never an option to begin with, and the worst part is that they fell for it, and drove out the one that would have brought them victory.
"That is the biggest blood sacrifice I have ever heard off, among the records of the church, there is one that said that the subordinates of the Blood King will become stronger, when the king is present, the soldiers that will come to attack us, won't be anything like before, we need to call all the reinforcements we can", said the male elder of the church.
"You won't be able to use the spatial array now, those pillars are messing up with the space of this place, by the time you reach an unaffected area, they will be at your door", said Daimon.
"Then what you suggest us to do?", asked one of the secondary leaders, to which Daimon smirked.
"Well, you guys pretty much don't have a choice but to attack now, those pillars are strengthening the enemies each second, the longer this drags on, the harder you'll have it".
"Everyone prepare to depart!", without a second of delay, old Ben gave the order, at this point he could only pray that the masked youth's goals aligned with them, so he lends them a hand at the battlefield, even if it isn't for the sake of humanity, surviving is surviving after all.
It's not like he was expecting Daimon to do all the work, but judging by the aura coming from the Ghoul's headquarter, at least three of the leaders will be needed to keep the Blood King in check, meaning only one leader will be able to support the others.
And two Archdukes escaped earlier, so the slaughter would be on their side this time, unless Jeanne and Emily join the fight to balance things out, since Oliver isn't at the level to take on an Archduke and win, without suffering heavy wounds currently.
Seeing that Daimon wasn't moving, the four leaders started advancing towards the enemy, only then Daimon and the others flew with Jeanne's help, they were staying behind the lines of the human army, which made some of the soldiers grit their teeth.
Unfortunately for them, Daimon had no intention of putting his life nor the ones of his teammates, in danger for them, the only reason as to why he was siding with them, was because they were needed for his plan, whether they survived or died would depend on their own strength and luck too.
"Stick up to the plan, once the target comes out, we make our move, meanwhile stary next to me at all moment", said Daimon.
"Mm", the girls nodded as they approached the enemy's headquarters, the whole group was stopped by the red pillars from which that viscous blood kept seeping out.
"Fire mages go!", shouted old Ben.
While light might be the best counter to negative kind of spells, like the blood sacrifice used by the Ghouls, the blood could still be used by them, even after purified, so they needed to eliminate it, and for that, fire spells were perfect for the job, having wide areas of effect and fire being a common affinity.
"Haaaa!", a squad made up of exclusively fire mages chanted and a tsunami of flames fell upon the red pillars, making a black smoke be released from them, the blood wasn't evaporating as it should, which was a sign of how much people was killed, to have such a density.
But then they all felt a sensation of danger and turned to see origin of it, just to witness the majestic appearance of Daimon wielding the white cross bow passed down by the first Adjudicator.
"Let's speed things up a bit", said Daimon, a white flame ball condensed in front of the cross bow which was then shot in the form of a white flame arrow, compared to the sea of flames ahead the arrow looked ridiculous.
But the moment the white arrow made contact with the sea of flames, the nearby fire started to change its color to that same white, and before they noticed the dark night was illuminated by a huge tsunami of white flames.
And then a requiem of pained screams, could be heard coming from the Ghoul headquarters, which only added more fun to the party that was about to start.