Bael Territory: Defence Battle

"Big brother!"

Shirone dived into Masaru's embrace, Angelica was having trouble how she should approach and greet Masaru since they were in public and she could not bring shame to her master. Masaru could not help but feel touched at Angelica's change that was progressing, Masaru gently caress Shirone's hair

"How have you been Shirone? Angelica?"

"Big brother, you need to speak with Uncle Jacob. He is becoming a Demon when I call him Uncle out of respect"

Masaru looked down at the cat who was showing cute upturned eyes towards him,

'Akeno and the other girls influenced this cat girl a little to tease brother Jacob, haven't they. She knows Jacob prefer to be called big brother but to be called Uncle he will naturally become angry and throw a tantrum' he coughed

"What about trying to call him elder brother?"

Shirone shook her head

"No! Because he is not as handsome as big brother so he does not qualify to be called brother"

Masaru began to cough thinking this girl actually had such a ranking system in her mind, he turned to Angelica wiping the tears at the corner of his eyes way from the surprise he received from this mischievous cat.

"Training has indeed become harder but nowadays it appears lord Jacob become even more lively, he keeps humming a tune singing since a few days ago and even now he continues which felt a bit creepy"

Angelica added from her side.

"How rude to call your teacher Uncle and not to mention creepy!"

When Shirone and Angelica heard this they could not help but shiver thinking this guy can take a grudge and drag it longer than the Nile river till he felt satisfied, Jacob felt more relieved after Diehauser told him to resign his post after the Demonic Beast Stampede has been dealt with since he was getting tired of these soldiers who are all "Pure Blood" nonsense like their on steroids.

"Elder brother!"

Jacob who heard Masaru and the way he called him, Jacob could not help but tear up a little. These two girls were even more demon than he was calling him such evil names because he trains them harder for the reason he held great expectations of them.

"Masaru! It's great to see you but why are you here?"

Masaru hands over a letter written by Ajuka, Jacob took the letter reading it and could not help but chuckle

"Just how in the world did you get Ajuka's support?"

Masaru shrugged

"I have no idea, I honestly have been studying in his research facility for a while now. I did help improve a few things with the help of my spellbook, but since it was not my own input I did not dare take credit for it."

Jacob realized once again this little brother of his truly is selfless, even the spellbook that could be considered his own power he does not take credit for it other than things he achieves with his hands.

"Very well, Follow me. We will be heading towards the Military Barracks to announce your arrival"

When they arrived at a quite large temporary built barrack that was near the northern wall, there were several kinds of teams gathered.

'It appears Bael called quite a few families for support since they do not want to take out their elite force like Ajuka-sama said'

Masaru thought as he looked at the quality of the devils around was on the high side but not enough. When Jacob led Masaru and the two girls inside he could hear shouting.

"You want us to defend in this manner? Are you stupid or something!?"

One of the generals leading a team was shouting at the current heir of the Bael Family, the person standing there was Magdaran Bael the current Heir of the Bael family however the one who suggested the idea was his butler who wanted to start piling up achievements for his master.

Magdaran, however, had a stoic facial expression but Masaru could see this boy was not happy with his current situation or is he perhaps unhappy with being an heir, he could not understand but he did read a report that the current heir of the Bael family loved flowers.

"You are hired by the Bael Family in order to support our current Heir!....."

The butler began to argue with the general while calling out several reasons for the current plan, the surrounding people no longer paid attention to the two while the current head of the Bael family who was there allowed the general to openly voice his opinion because he too felt this butler was a problem and will be replacing him soon.

"Lord Bael, I have just received the representative of Lord Ajuka"

Jacob spoke politely towards Lord Bael who looked at Masaru, his eyes squinted as he thought he just heard a joke. But then he read the letter from Ajuka he could not help but sigh thinking they did indeed exploit him in the past so this must be his retaliation, he looked at Masaru with a trace of contempt

"So you are Masaru Belial, the heir of the rising Belial Family and a genius on top of it?"

Masaru did not take to heart the current look the head of the Bael family gave him, Shirone and Angelica had stoic faces but they were still burning with rage within.

'His contempt is probably ingrained into his blood, it's only natural you can expect such attitude from those pure-blood fools thinking they are on top of the world unlike the better families like Sitri and Gremories. Right now I'm not his match, I will have to endure it for now...' Masaru thought

Masaru bowed respectfully

"Pleased to meet you, Lord Bael, I am indeed Masaru Belial and I have come to respond as Lord Ajuka's Representative"

One of the other generals look at Masaru with even more contempt

"You are but a brat, what are you trying to achieve here?"

Masaru did not take the general's approach serious and kept smiling as he responds,

"Although I may appear young, I believe I do have the ability to back up Lord Ajuka claim to make me his representative"

Hearing Ajuka's name again the General's face turned slightly pale thinking about the hidden meaning behind those words.

"You think because your the son of Belial family you can just walk in and join the fight? No wonder the family declined with a haughty father and a timid little pussy grandfather it's natural they would have an attention-seeking dog as their heir"

a High-class Devil General spoke out, but this time Masaru's eyes turned towards him, the general flinched and became angry at the thought he was scared for a moment and pounced towards Masaru to teach him a lesson.

Before he could take a single step Masaru was in front of him already gripping his throat before slamming him into the ground.

"Since you dare to speak ill of the Belial family I will have you be made an example of"

Masaru started to beat up the devil while he was on the ground, no one dared to make a move.

They were shocked!

That a brat like him was this strong felt way too unnatural

The general Masaru was beating started to wail and scream for help even Jacob wanted to stop Masaru from making it worse but Lord Bael stopped him.

"That boy has the rights as a Noble to either teach the opposite party a lesson or have a life and death combat for the sake of his house honour... So what he is doing is simply too mild for what that general said to him"

Lord Bael look at the surrounding Generals who still felt that Masaru only used Surprise attack to gain the upper hand but still did not want to provoke this mad man,

"I hope the rest of you will keep your mouths clean from now on, you can insult individuals but never the house itself... otherwise"

Just as Masaru returned to Angelic and Shirone's side, he did not notice until it was too late how Lord Bael launched a ball made out of destruction and annihilated the devil that insulted the Belial family. This action was enough to shut up even the two people arguings,

"You can now retire, I will have a different butler for Magdaran in the future"

The butler's face turned pale before walking away with steps heavier than rocks feeling that his life came to an end, he did not dare argue with the Lord of the Bael house unless he wishes to die.

'To think the Bael Family head is this ruthless... I only held back not to slap their faces by killing him but instead the Head killed him?'

Masaru was a bit taken aback by this move, Jacob placed his hand on Masaru's shoulder allowing the latter to calm down.

"Now that everyone's attention is here, what I propose is to come up with a plan that can deal with the stampede Efficiently and with minimal casualty rate. This stampede although it might appear to look worthless it does indeed possess power enough to trample the territory if it is not stopped perfectly"

Masaru walked over to look at the map, from the looks of it they intend to break the stampede into three different directions with traps planted far in the north with their built route which will lead the Beasts to the North, West and East gates to even out for each section.

"How many demonic beasts are we expecting?"

Masaru asked despite feeling that no one would answer but to his surprise, one of the quiet Generals who did not participate much decided to answer his question

"Right now it is estimated to be two million, it was difficult to count since they were densely packed. The only aerial monsters are the Giant Poison Ravens that will be coming from the West, we have no idea for what reasons"

Masaru looked at the number reports of how many troops were available, including their devil ranks. From what Masaru noticed the number of High class was the minority and Mid-class was the Majority, the low class which was few that included Angelica and Shirone.

Masaru looked at the map once again and noticed they only have enough troops for two directions, they can support a bit of man for the third but it will not last long like this.

'If it is only to defend and hold out, I should be able to handle it with Angelica, Shirone and the low-class devils as long as we can get hold of big sis Circe's potions and sis Elizabeth's bombs'

Masaru turned to Lord Bael,

"Lord Bael I have a proposal"

Hearing this Lord Bael's interest was piqued once again, he already had a good impression of this boy who never moved for his own desire but moved for the family like a true devil.

"Let us all hear it",

Masaru pointed at the map

"From the report, I noticed for the number of demonic beasts we only have enough troops to support two gates, so I think the people who placed the traps need to make the pathways to the East and North to be wider than the west so the majority of the monsters will head towards North and East like here, here and right there. I will take whatever men you can spare for the Western gate and take my two peerage members to defend the west gate"

"What you alone!?"

One of the generals was truly shocked this was a crazy plan,

"I have the confidence to defend it for as long as four days, meaning the two armies have four days to finish their tasks and reinforce us"

The quiet general looked at Masaru as he felt this boy's confidence meant he could do it,

"Are you certain?"

Masaru nodded

"I can only procure a number of bombs from my sister which will aid in our defence from the ground demonic beasts while I and Angelica will focus on the Giant Poison Ravens"

Masaru continued to list a variety of reasons for his proposal to the point Lord Bael gave his immediate approval.

Since Masaru did not need to stay behind for the rest of the matter where the generals will divide their groups in the North and East team, it took a few hours with fast horses to reach the Western gates.

Masaru had Angelica contact Elizabeth and Shirone contacted Circe while he himself went outside the walls started to dig trenches deep enough to hinder the movements of the demonic beasts, using the Spellbook he laid several kinds of magic formations which trigger upon a touch of a certain weight.

When Elizabeth's bombs were transported to the western gate with the help of Ajuka's approval, Angelica began to explain how to use these bombs to the minority of devils. The devils that followed Masaru were all low class which he chose to take since the other devils will not bother giving work for these devils to do so he might as well take them and use them.

Shirone, however, went out into the forest to scout the route the demonic beasts were planning to take to ensure everything was in place.

[It sure is fate, I even get to drink some Demonic beast blood, but boy I suggest you be careful though]

Masaru stopped laying a formation wondering why this dragon is saying this,

[Normally when a stampede occurs is when a new territory lord is chosen and the previous one is either killed or defeated which I believe will be the latter based on the number of monsters they reported]

'What strength level does it have?'

[If it is an infant then it will be low high class, but if it is adolescent then it will be mid high class... Forget an adult... That is minimal high rank - high class up, but don't think their high rank is similar to you devils... I suggest if that Territory Lord appears you have to finish it off fast if you want your plan to succeed]

'Isn't it natural I would?'

[Be sure to use me, boy, this old dragon is going to sleep now]

Masaru finished placing the last bit of formations which start from the middle of the route when the demonic beasts start to split towards each direction to prevent the stampede from stopping and moving in another direction, this way even with the death of beast in the front row they will carry moving along.

"How is the route ahead?"

Shirone shows a thumb up

"Safe, no monsters nearby"

Masaru nodded while turning to Angelica who just finished their training course about the bombs

"Well hello everyone, I am not a man who enjoys talking about for the household's sake or for the devil's. During times like this when facing against Demonic Beast Stampede, we are not fighting for the devils. nor for the Bael family. We are fighting to stop these beasts right HERE!"

Hearing the explosive voice of Masaru causing the devils to flinch, their attention was completely caught.

"That's right! We are fighting to stop their stampede here!!! WHY!? Because if we don't stop it what could happen if the beasts breakthrough and move onto the commoners, your family!? Your lovers!? Your Children!? Your friends!?... If we don't stop them here we can't shout to honour of our family, our people"

Masaru hits his chest with his fist as he shouts even louder

"That is why! I don't need your loyalty! I only need your faith in me, follow my commands to the letter and I swear upon the honour of my family's name of Belial and as the son of Diehauser Belial will lead you all to a victory you can boast to your family for years to come!"

a Massive cheer erupted from the Low-class devils when they heard the name Diehauser Belial there was not a single devil who did not know of him, it was as if the low class has gotten stimulant injections that they were overflowing with fighting spirit while following the orders Masaru was giving out.

The ones throwing the bombs will be in the front rows under the command of Shirone while those who will be using poison-laced arrows will be under the command of Angelica, Masaru walked over giving Shirone a special made finger-less gloves with plated metals sewn firmly to guard the knuckles.

"Thank you big brother"

Masaru caress Shirone's head when the devils saw this they did not feel envy at all, instead, they admired their commander who was kind and strong.

For Angelica Masaru handed over a fully automatic crossbow that has a turning cylinder and a cartridge filled with bolts, it was the similar style of a Gatling gun allowing the crossbow to shoot bolts in rapid successions and each bolt was coated with paralyzing poison since Masaru intend to use the stampede to kill the poison Ravens and magic for those who survive.

"Thank you, Master"

Angelica's ears had a faint trace of redness.

A Day passes by and the defensive set up for the western wall was finally completed, what the people including Masaru and his team did not realize was that a spy of the Bael family was overseeing the situation of Masaru and already reported it to Lord Bael.

>\/<

"Lord Bael, here is your reports"

Lord Bael took the document from his trusted intelligence officer, after reading through the reports he thought for a moment.

"What is your view of the current situation?"

The officer did not hesitate to give his view

"With all due respect Lord Bael, the time the Northern wall and Eastern wall will be able to deal with the Demonic Beasts will take longer than four days unless they fix their uncooperative attitudes, I can only say that we will have to brace for a larger casualty rate than planned"

Lord Bael nodded while the officer added

"For the Western Side, I believe they have 80% chance of fending off the beasts without support from the Northern team or eastern team"

Lord Bael looked at the officer with surprise because he knew the devils Masaru had under him were all low class and not to mention their total number of troops was not even a quarter of the Northern or Eastern Team size.

"I noticed that the reports of that Spell Book which is Masaru's sacred gear are even more rule-breaking than we are led to believe, just from the magical traps he laid all over the place was enough to take out more than half the expected number of beasts down before they even reach the wall where they will be met by a volley of bombs being thrown at them. I believe Masaru would use Magic to eliminate the beasts that managed to get through the bombing"

Lord Bael thought he should put an extra eye on this boy, if he could take control over this boy's power then the Bael Family's standing will rise even further for sure. But then he remembered those birds that will also be arriving.

"How do they plan to deal with the Raven?"

The Officer heard his master's question and answered

"Behind the Bomb throwing men, is groups of squads of Devils stationed behind them equipped with Bows and Arrows with paralyzing poison smeared on them"

"Paralyze? Won't it become a hassle to kill the birds?"

The officer shook his head

"The Giant Poison Raven has a strong poison resistance so it can't easily get poisoned, however, the paralyzing poison which Masaru plan to use is strong enough to bypass the resistance and attacks only the nerves of its body making it immobile so it will crash in the ground, so if the crash did not kill it the beast that is running over it will not mention Masaru can handle immobile birds with ease"

"I want you to spread the rumour about Masaru's exploits to the Northern team and Western team, use their greed for achievements to indirectly force them to work together. Also, should Masaru's plans work write up a recommendation for Angelica and Shirone who worked together with Jacob for Mid Class promotion"

The Officer looked at his master with confused eyes while Lord Bael smiled

"Before I can try to reach out to control Masaru Belial, I need to first have him feel he owes me one"

The officer understood that Masaru has entered this man's sight, it will either be a subordinate or possibility of elimination.

>\/<

"Alright, everyone gets ready here they come!!!"

Followed by Masaru's loud scream a series of explosions and mournful roars echoed from the forest, but the vibration of the incoming stampede did not stop. Yet in front of the Stampede that was still far from reaching the attack zone, the Giant Poison ravens were approaching fast.

Their bodies were similar to that of ravens from earth but not only were they several times larger but some of their feathers were tinted purple and they have several purple feathers on their forehead, the more the feathers on its head is the more poisonous they were.

Luckily those in the front row were only three feathers which were infants and a six feather was in between them which was a giant poison raven about to become an adult.

"Archers get ready!"

Angelica shouted in an authoritative tone, as the appointed Long Range team leader she dared not bring shame to her master who entrusted this task to her. With a swift motion, the archers nocked their arrows on their bows, with their eyes selecting their targets,

"Draw!"

All the archers aimed and pulled the string of their bows with the arrow nocked on as far as possible and held. The moment the first wave of Poison Ravens arrived

"Release!"

While Angelica shouted she pointed her automatic Crossbow and soon the skies were blotted with arrows since the front row Ravens had weaker resistance towards poison they fell first quite swiftly.

This process kept repeating till some stronger Ravens who could resist the poison was being dealt with by Masaru who called out his spellbook to start launching rapid successions of air bullets to pierce the wings of the Ravens, The first wave of Stampede beast has just arrived.

The beasts running in the front were large mammal beasts with a hard thick hairless skin and two horns attached to the sides of its head and razor-sharp teeth revealed each time their roar when some of their kind were killed off by the magical traps.

"Bomb squad! Get ready!"

Shirone already grasps her own bomb from a box behind her, each bomb-thrower had a box filled with bombs behind them. If it was not for the requirement of a sliver of mana needed to be injected before it will go off after a period of time they would not have recklessly stored the bombs in a box.

"Throw!!!"

Followed by Shirone's orders everyone started throwing their bombs as far as possible, soon the entire area was lit up with fire explosions and noise loud enough that people could not even hear the voice of their comrades next to them.

"Paralyze swamp!"

Masaru pointed his hands towards the trenches he dug and transformed it into a swamp with paralyzing poison, but one should not look down on this swamp as the poison enters the body through the pores and there were four rows of trenches so reaching the end was difficult for the first few waves of Monsters.

Being crushed under the foot of their own comrades, the first wave of monsters to reach the wall finally arrived and Masaru stood in the front to welcome them.

Since the number of beasts being able to get through the traps, bombing and trenches was minimal it was relatively easy for Masaru to hold the fort with Hrunting in his hands.

"Earthen steps"

Swoosh! Swoosh! Spat!

With each swing of his sword, Masaru began to harvest the lives of the monsters who were already injured and exhausted without mercy. Even his partner, Grendel was going crazy.

[BWAHAHAHAHA! GIVE ME BLOOD! Boy cut them faster! I can hear some addictive screams of dying demonic beasts!]

"Geez, why is it during combat you turn into some sort of mental patient!?"

[Well it's in my nature as the dragon Grendel, I can't help but love this!]

Masaru smiled as he spoke to the sword spirit,

"I have found a perfect name for you...."

The sword spirit dragon quiets down instantly, it was not sure how it should feel since it was called Grendel and it was a fragmented soul of Grendel.

With a swing of his blade, Masaru unleased a beam of demonic energy horizontal taking several beasts down in one go before he muttered softly.

"Drago Deadheart... That will be your full name, you are no longer Grendel's fragment but Drago Deadheart, an individual sword spirit who is my partner"

Masaru did not hear the Dragon's response but he could feel something warm through their spiritual connection, the dragon. No Drago felt like telling Masaru he was way into Corny names but he felt happy, he gained a name.

He was not a copy of Grendel but he gained his own individuality.

Masaru who cut down the last of the current Wave of beasts felt the sword in his hands was different, it felt far sharper compared to before. But then he heard the Dragon laughing

[Thank you, my master... It was thanks to you I could truly become a sacred Demonic Sword instead of Hrunting]

Masaru tilt his head

[Because you granted me a name I have evolved becoming Drago and the sword transformed becoming Deadheart, the Demonic Beast & Dragon Slaying sword]

Masaru smiled feeling happy for the sword, he knew some swords which held spirituality had chances to evolve into different and stronger swords if given them enlightenment which was several thousands of time harder than an intelligent being gaining true enlightenment.

Masaru was lucky with this case since it was his sword's problem who could not decide whether it was a part of Grendel or its own individual apart from Grendel,

"Well, Drago. I Look forward to surviving in this unreasonable world together with you for many years to come..."

[Gwahahaha! Yes, this world is unreasonable but your even more so! But sure, I look forward to working together with you]

>\/<

Thanks to Lord Bael's move of spreading the rumour of Masaru's exploits it forced the teams to cooperate, although they know the boy was strong the fact they are being outdone by a child younger than them damaged their pride as adult men and veteran warriors.

They fought with even stronger vigour to finish off the beast, thanks to that Jacob Black and his peerage members were selected to reinforce Masaru's gate.

When Jacob arrived he noticed that things at the Western Gate were even more relaxed compared to the other two gates, he thought that the number of beasts was surely small but when he reached the top of the walls he saw many devils were already working on collecting the corpses scaring this Werewolf out of his wits.

"How did you managed this?"

Jacob spoke to Angelica who was monitoring the battlefield, she began to explain how they fought and the strategies of keeping the battles a long-range one and only Masaru fought Vanguard for two days before Shirone joined him the third and fourth day.

Thanks to that their death rate was zero but more than half the troops were injured by Ravens who managed to bypass Masaru who was under the attack of several beasts,

"You guys sure did great, if the other two gates were to see this they will be coughing out blood"

"Is it that hard over there?"

Angelica look at Jacob who shook his head

"We were meant to be able to finish off faster but because of the late cooperative mood between teams who wanted more achievements than the other it only worked when the rumours of your side's exploits forced them to work together not to lose to you all"

Angelica felt that it was completely stupid, these fools would prioritize their own benefit even in a dangerous time like this,

"I will have my team take over some of the menial tasks, where is Masaru by the way?"

"Oh, Master is currently together with Shirone scouting the way ahead. Master feels that this stampede was caused because of a fight between two territory lords who fought over the territory"

Jacob who heard this looked at Angelica sternly

"He speculated that? Is he sure about it?"

Angelica nodded

"I will leave the command of my team to you, I will head towards Masaru and back him up"

Jacob did not wait for Angelica to explain anything further, what he wanted to do was to confirm the safety of his little precious brother. Using his strong senses, he began to follow the scent of Masaru leading deep into the forest.

Masaru was currently crouching on the ground touching the massive sized skin that was all over the forest, from the size of it, it should be around 20 meters long and a diameter of 1 meter.

"Seems our territory lord that escaped the fight is a snake"

Masaru began to check the skin but because it already turned white even if he take note of the pattern of the skin he could not determine what kind of snake it was,

"Shirone, be on guard. This friend of ours will certainly be hungry if he or she attacks us"

What was strange the skin was abnormally thick, it was as if the snake shed of its skin to shrink in size which would be crazy to imagine in a human world but then again this is the underworld where such stuff is common sense.

Sticking together the two of them moved silently while being vigilant, they don't have any intent to definitely combat this beast, if it is too strong they will retreat instantly since they only need to confirm Masaru's speculation and then they can have the elite take it down.

Within the trembling bushes of the forests, slithering movements were heading in the direction of Masaru, unlike Masaru's speculation that the snake would be hungry but instead, this snake felt curious.

The reason for this was the snake escaped the Rampage of the Demonic Ape King who detected her recent attempt to ascend from Peak High grade to Ultimate grade, but it was interrupted when the Ape King assaulted her.

Because of the fight that broke out between the two most of the outer region beasts began to run away, naturally, the snake used the cover of the beast while she was shedding her skin along the way due to the damage the Ape King caused to her body.

She was only meant to shed several thin layers of skin but the damage the Ape king was more than she expected which was why her body shrink similar to her once peak high-grade temporary dropped to peak mid-grade till she recovered from her injuries.

The reason the snake was curious about Masaru is that her blood was stimulated by the presence of the spellbook within Masaru's body, the bloodline of the snake could be traced back all the way to Nüwa who used her powers and intelligence to safeguard the humans from the beasts assaults.

Just as it was about to come out of it's hiding to try and test the waters by approaching Masaru, the snake was confronted with Shirone who suddenly appeared in front of her.

Because the current snake is but meter long and thin, Shirone had difficulty to catch the snake because it was its scales were slippery and its movement speed was fast.

[To think a descendant of Nüwa is still living after all these years, it's a pity its bloodline regressed this badly....]

Masaru who heard Drago could not help but feel shocked, this tiny snake actually had the blood of a snake god in it,

[It should not have ill intent otherwise I would have already told you]

"Then why did you not?"

[Because it's curious about you... As for why I don't know]

Masaru was not stupid as he knew this partner of his never shared everything with him but he still trusted this sword partner of his who had his back and never betrayed him,

"Shirone stand down"

Shirone stopped chasing the snake around but what was peculiar was the reason Shirone who could not grasp the snake no matter what technique or power she used, was because of a thin layer barrier covering its body.

Masaru knelt down and held his hand out, he did not speak nor make any other movements. He locked gaze with the Snakes eyes, he could sense her curiosity and strangely intelligent eyes.

The snake did not immediately approach as it was still vigilant of Shirone, it only began to move closer inch by inch while watching Shirone. When it came in front of Masaru it brought her head to his palm trying to sense the familiar feeling it was getting, the snake did not know the familiar feeling it felt was the spellbook, it thought it was familiar with Masaru.

Masaru could feel the soft cold skin of the snake against his hand, he kept still till the snake began to slither around his wrist with its head in the air staring at Masaru for a moment before it lowered its head.

[Seems this snake wants you to accept her as your familiar]

'Familiar? No wonder I felt these past few months I forgot something important!!! I forgot to arrange for the girls and me to sign some familiar contracts!!!'

[I think you should take this snake as your Familiar, it might be weak in attacking but I can personally guarantee it's defence]

'Defence?'

[This snake is the Four pillar snake, it is one of the descendant snakes of Nüwa herself and it gained her ability to use a four-pillar barrier domain to protect itself. In other words, the snake in front of you is a natural-born Barrier Expert]

Masaru looked at the snake

"You wish to become my familiar?"

The snake looked into Masaru's eyes

"Ssshhh..."

It slightly nodded its head.

The Belial family crest magic circle formed beneath the snake and Masaru, soon a spiritual link between Masaru and the Snake was formed similar to the link he held with Deadheart. When the contract was concluded Drago decided to spoil Masaru's mood

[Oh I forgot to say the snake in front of you is the Territory lord who escaped bwahahahaahaha!]

Masaru felt a shiver run down his spine thinking he was bold to stand so carefreely in front of such a creature,

'YOU! You dare trick me!'

[Bwahahahaha I did not lie! It did hold a curious intent towards you... However right now it's only a Peak Mid Rank Beast, it seems it got quite heavily injured in its fight with the other territory lord. Otherwise, the barrier that was only covering its body would have been several times larger and stronger]

'I will find a way to beat your ass'

[hehe, come bite me]

Masaru sighed as he looked at the small snake curled around his arm hibernating to recover,

"Your name shall be Akiva, sleep well my little barrier princess"

"Big brother, what snake is that?"

Masaru began to explain what snake it was including the rank causing Shirone's eyes to sparkle,

"Big brother when can we sign our familiar contracts?"

Masaru chuckled in order to hide his embarrassment for forgetting this important duty,

"I will arrange it for you all soon"

"Masaru! Shirone!"

a familiar voice could be heard from a distance approaching fast, Shirone who caught a whiff of the familiar scent realized who was approaching fast. Jacob who was travelling fast finally caught up with Masaru

"Phew! Seems the two of you are still fine."

Masaru smiled at Jacob's worried yet tired face from running all this way without resting since he arrived by the western gate

"Well we were just about to return back to the western gate since there is no territory lord in this region, I guess it escaped in a different direction when it saw us annihilate the beast stampede"

Jacob nodded thinking it was reasonable since Territory Lord beasts were known for their keen intelligence.

Masaru and Shirone kept the existence of Akiva a secret until they left the Bael territory, luckily with Akiva entering hibernation mode, it made it almost impossible to sense her presence.

"So I take it the stampede is officially over?"

Jacob nodded to Masaru's question

"It should be done by now"

>\/<

"Lord Bael, we have found the daughter of the Bael Family's Traitor... It appears one of the Devil Kings has been protecting her"

Lord Bael looked at the officer

"Send a messenger and have them bring her here for execution"

The officer saluted

"Your orders will be done"