16 (16) Demon Lord

"Welcome fellow bosses.. to Hell's Dungeon."

The whole room was silent, not even the sound of water splashing could be heard from the aquatic monsters. Every single being in the room held their breath subconsciously, the aura from the figure in the shafows was suffocating, they all felt like if that figure ordered them to kill each other, they would do so without hesitation.

As the shadows in front of the figure dispersed, cold, cruel eyes pierced the crowd. His gaze made many monsters uncomfortable as though they were nothing compared to him, not even worthy of being before his prescence.

When the dark, red light illuminated his face entirely, many bosses in the room shifted uneasily, some even bowed down their heads in silent respect, or maybe fear of the being in front of them.

The figure behind the altar smiled. It was not a nice, kind smile, but one that sent chills down the anyone's back. His mouth curved upwards, ending with a sharp point, a cruel smirk. He was satisfied with his complete authority over the lesser beings in front of him.

"I.. am Demon Lord Hato"

Hato paused for a few seconds, watching everyone's movements and reactions. His smile grew colder, as well as more mockingly when he saw a few more bosses lower their heads.

"Well done for making it here, however don't get so full of yourself, I doubt any of you will ever surpass my current power, let alone beat me ever. Your small achievement of becoming a Novice Boss is nothing in the eyes of any of us Lords, let alone the Gods within our ranks. However. I have been asked to welcome you nicely, otherwise I would have sent you all back to the shallow dungeons and cave where you came from. Be grateful to me you lesser entities."

"Weren't you ever at our stage once, who says we can't grow like you did?" A single brave voice resounded from the crowd. The air grew scarily cold and still.

Hato smiled. This smile seemed warm and friendly, however his eyes stayed cold and motionless. His lips slowly parted showing teeth dyed red by the tips and long fangs that were somehow hidden beforehand.

"Who asks?" Hato asked sweetly, too sweetly for a tyrant being like him.

Seemingly missing the hidden details and threats, a large figure stood up near the aquatic area. Large was an understatement, he was almost double Kraton's height; around three times as tall as a human being. His bravery obviously came from his confidence and ego in his raw physical power which would dominate most other monsters in the room.

The giant stood up tall and proud, and looked towards Hato.

"You have made three mistakes ogre,"

The giant's mouth twitched.

"I was never at 'your' stage, I was a compete monster in my generation, I was born with more strength and talents than you will ever gain, that is why even the High-Demon God sent his men to recruit me. You will never surpass me fool" Hato snickered, the giant become green in anger at being called a fool, however Hato spoke again before the foolish giant could interrupt again.

"Your second mistake was standing up, and your third was not kneeling on the floor and bowing to me. Tell me, what should I do?"

The giant was heaving in fury at this point, never in his life had a being mocked him and got away with it. The pea-brained humans that had dared do so paid with a humiliation worse than death. He had toyed with them and kept them in cages, preventing them from dying of by killing themselves. Not even other local bosses dared mess with him, not even talk bad of him for he was also known for not sparing other monsters. This giant was a tyrant in his area, and he thought himself to be the next rising Lord.

"I'll f*****g kill you, you're the damned fool here!" The giant had lost his previous proud composure entirely now, and roared out his fury whilst throwing himself towards the altar and at Hato.

Hato bared his fangs in yet another cruel smile. As the giant flew over the altar and was about to smash Hato's face, the room went silent again. It was a forced silence, nothing and no-one could make a sound, nor could they take their eyes of the giant figure and Hato. In an instant, the giant split in half, his dark, viscous blood sprayed on the altar, collecting in a hollow basin in the middle. The two halfs of the giant twitched and fell to the ground with a heavy thud. No-one breathed.

"Anyone else?" Hato snarled, his question was left unanswered, but it was better to stay unanswered.

"Now then, since there are no more nuisances, let me begin the actual gathering."

For an hour Hato had spoken without interruption, some of what he said was helpful for the bosses, such as how the world works, how to assign attributes to their skill and other helpful pieces of information. During these times he sounded like an actual mentor, however no-one forgot about the ease in which the colossal giant was killed.

However, quite a lot of Hato's speech was about how great he is, how superior the demon race is compared to other races, as well as the hierarchy and ranking of the monsters in the world, of course Hato emphasised on the High-Demon God more than the other high rankers.

By the end of Hato's speech, most monsters were satisfied with the information they recieved, Kraton was part of that group as he learnt a lot of new details about the world. Whilst the other group stayed silent, not daring to voice out their complaints.

After the speech, every boss in the room was brought to the front one-by-one, here they showed Hato their data rock and 'discussed' a few things. Many were mocked and laughed at, but even they left with satisfied expressions, it was clear that Hato had helped them in one way or another. Maybe the initial fright was just to assert his dominance, but then why was the giant's body still on the floor? It should have disappeared by now. Unless... the giant had truly met his death.

No one ever saw that giant again.