Chapter Eight: People Of Order

The next day the king could only rub his forehead as a headache started to form. He knew Zerad was trouble, he was above anyone in magic and he was a master manipulator, even manipulating the other Demon Lords. But to think he would do something like this.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and now was seeming like a pretty desperate time to King Gervais.

There was only one solution to the problem at hand. And that was to fight fire with fire. But to that he would need permission from the other leaders he had ties with, of course there was no way they would say no. It was more of a courtesy if anything.

So with a few taps on his royal throne, when suddenly seven people appeared in front of him. Each of them covered by a cloak, hiding any recognisable features that they might have.

"Bring the other leaders of the world, that are on our side, here. We need to have a meeting." Gervais ordered them.

Each of them nodded before disappearing as fast as they appeared, like they were never there in the first place.

The king then moved off his throne as he made his way to the meeting room, where the people he had sent out would return with the world leaders.

While he was walking there someone called out to him. "Father!" He paused and turned around to see his daughter.

She was his second oldest, with glowing blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She had a calm and rational way of thinking of things, and could order a legion into battle and win, at least in training situations but real battle was different than training. Unfortunately, she wasn't a candidate to take over from him if he died, as his oldest was a son.

"What's wrong?" Gervais asked, as he turned around to fully face her.

She took a breath before asking her question. "Am I ever going to be allowed to go on the battlefield?" She asked, but seeing her father already about to deny her she kept on speaking. "I've been training! I've beat some of the best knights from the Lion Order and have gotten close to beating some from the Order of the Dragon! I-"

She was cut off by Gervais's voice resounding out in the hallway they were standing in. "ENOUGH!" He commanded. He took a breath to calm down before speaking again. "I've told you before, you shouldn't be training with the knights at all. Your supposed to be focusing on your studies so that you can be a good Duchess in the future." The king scolded her.

His daughter only scoffed at that and spoke again. "Well that's stupid!" She said outraged, while Gervais looked at her to continue. "Because if we lose this war and Zerad wins then there would be no point in my studies! We'll all be dead-!"

"You won't die." The king spoke sternly.

"Yes I will! We all will if you keep people out of this war because of things like titles and status!" The princess said loudly.

"ENOUGH!" Gervais shouted louder than his daughter, scaring her to back off. "Go to your room." He said, not bothering to look at her.

"What?" She said in a mumble.

"Go to your room." He said again, this time she did hear him but she just stood there. "NOW!" He shouted.

The princess only scoffed at that and went on her way to her room, bumping shoulders with her father as she pushed past him.

Gervais only shook his head at that interaction. She was smart, and wanted what was best for everyone, but she didn't understand everything. If he 'forced' people to go to war, than he would be no better than Zerad. And besides, he couldn't force the nobles of his kingdom go into war, if he did then he would lose their support, and they would pull their personal troops out of the effort against Zerad.

Gervais let out a sigh at that. How he had fallen. He had to get support from the nobles that he hated so much. No wonder his father was stressed all the time, it was a pain to deal with them.

But it was necessary. And as much as he wanted to do something about it, Gervais could do nothing to stop it.

Gervais just shook his head and walked towards the meeting room.

When he got to the door he could hear sounds from the inside. So to prepare, he rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. He let out a breath of satisfaction at the crack that came out and then walked into the room.

In the room were five other people, which was weird because there should have been seven, but he would focus on the people that were here right now.

Susumu, a cat Demi-Human. She had long brown hair and her cat ears on top of her head stood out, along with the tail on her lower body. The cat Demi-Humans didn't have a full kingdom but ruled a piece of territory in a kingdom that they shared with the rest of the Demi-Human people.

Lythienne Reyfir, Queen of the Elf's. She herself was part of a rare species of Elf's called the High Elf's, they were basically Elf's that were better than regular Elf's. She herself had bright blonde hair, green eyes like the grass, and pointy ears. She was also well endowed despite being an Elf.

Silvan, leader of a rebel faction against the other faction of Vampires. He had black hair, glowing red eyes, and skin that was almost pale but wasn't there yet. He himself was a Vampire, but didn't agree with the current leader, so it started a civil war but that was on hold right now as the war between Zerad and everyone else was going on.

Ozamauk, Demon Lord of the Smith. Unlike other Demon Lords he didn't have any plans of grandeur, and really just wanted to create the best weapons possible. Which was why he supported the group that Gervais had put together, so that the war could end and he could focus on his weapons. He had black hair with streaks of red and burning orange eyes, with a light tan on his skin from the heat of his forge.

Yufuyu, leader of the fox Demi-Humans or Kitsune as they are called. She had golden hair like the sun itself and pointy ears and a bushy tail with the tip being white. She currently had eight tails, signaling how much power she had, although she claimed she was going to grow her ninth tail soon, although Kitsune lived for long periods of time in accord with their power so, 'soon' for her could be a few years.

They were all seated at the table that was still out and were waiting for Gervais to speak as he sat down.

Gervais cleared his throat before he spoke. "Thank you all for coming here on such short notice. Although, I can't help but notice that two of our comrades are currently absent." Gervais pointed out.

Susumu only nodded head. "It was no problem coming here, nya~." She said, her verbal tick coming in at the end.

Yufuyu nodded her head as well. "Serge and Orion would rather stay out in battle to help out in the fight. So I'll tell them anything that needs to be that was mentioned in this meeting." Yufuyu reassured him.

Gervais nodded his head, but still let out an annoyed sigh. "Well, it's a bit troublesome that they're not here, but I don't think that'll change the outcome of this meeting."

Silvan looked more attentive at that, whenever there was a big decision to be made, some of the leaders would disagree or would have to make amendments so that it would work out. For something that was a 'big decision', a phrase that Gervais didn't use lightly, he wondered what it was.

Lythienne could tell something was wrong as well. About a day and a half ago she felt a disturbance in nature. And even Yggdrasil increased its mana output to increase the barrier around it, like it was scared. So whatever it was, she would agree with Gervais as long as it benefited her people and Yggdrasil.

"So, what is it?" Ozamauk asked, bored. He didn't like coming out of his forge. It messed up his concentration for making weapons, especially what he was working towards, the 'ultimate weapon' although he currently had no idea what it would be, it could not even be a weapon, but something used for defence.

Gervais sighed. "For you to properly understand what I'm telling you, I'll tell you the backstory for it."

It started when he found a demon, one willing to use his skill set to infiltrate the Demon Lord Zerads army and report what they were doing.

He did that diligently for years, and became a trusted commander of the army. At one point he was considered for the position of general, but wasn't given the position in the end.

Until he recently reported to Gervais that Zerad had done what no other Demon Lord had done before. He had summoned a hero, and got them on his side. It was unknown how powerful they currently were, but with Meld training them their power will certainly be nothing to scoff at in the future, and with their nature as a hero their power would probably be at the level of an Elite Knight in only a few months.

Ozamauk sat up straight from his relaxed position alarmed. "A hero?!" He shouted out in shock. It made sense, no demon or Demon Lord for that matter was crazy enough to summon one like Zerad.

They were considered any Demon Lord's greatest enemy. And they would try and kill them while they were still weak, but because of an overwhelming fear of their strength, even if they didn't have it at the start, they would only send out their underlings to kill the hero.

'So that's what I felt.' Lythienne thought to herself. It made sense why Yggdrasil was so worried and why there was a disturbance in nature, or in the world itself, it was because a hero sided with a Demon Lord. That had never happened before, and the results from such a cooperation could only be anything but good.

The rest of the leaders weren't any less worried. They were against the Demon Lord as well, so they weren't safe.

"Do you have a solution?" Yufuyu asked seriously. 'Hopefully Gervais wouldn't just have called them here without a plan, although even if there is no plan at least we get a warning.' She thought.

"Don't worry, I have a plan." Gervais said calmly. He let out a small smirk of confidence. "Like the saying goes, 'Sometimes to beat fire, you have to use fire yourself'."

"That's not how it goes." Silvan pointed out.

Gervais only waved him off and continued. "So, we'll summon our own hero." He said, his arms going out to the sides in pride of his own plan. "To beat a Demon Lord we use heroes. And there's no way a Demon Lord, let alone Zerad, would allow anyone under his control to get stronger than him. So, the hero we will summon will be able to beat his hero!"

Gervais was standing up at this point, a fist raised in the air as if giving a rallying speech to his people. The others joined him as well, raising a fist at the plan, all in agreement without even a word needing to be said.

And with their plan agreed on, Gervais told them to follow him. They were going to summon their hero as soon as they could, no use in delaying.

'The Demon Lord's Hero and Humanity's Hero. I wonder who will win?' A silent question was asked, and at the moment, there was no answer.