"You don't have to do this." The demon said to him.
Aeternus saw her stats and was impressed. She is a relatively new high-rank demon judging by the low percentage progress of her mark of sin. What is special about her and why the demon lord will care for her enough to kill her other subordinates in the surroundings for her safety is because this demon has the Accumulation ability with a rare quality too.
He replied, "But I want to. This is interest rightly due to me. Even your boss agrees that I deserve this."
The demoness was calm even in the face of death. She spoke calmly as if she is advising Aeternus. "It will be a waste. I have a substitution ritual going on and revival clones. I won't die. You will only create more trouble for yourself."
Aeternus felt amusement. He would have chuckled if he could. "You're a very ignorant demon. There's no such thing as more trouble in this situation. I doubt letting you go will make the demon lord get off my case. We'll see about you not dying. It is an opportunity for me to earn the title of Chaos bringer. Wherever you go, chaos will find you."
The high-rank demon didn't move to defend herself. She was confident in her revival rituals. That's why she is ignorant or why else will the demon lord be so agitated that she refused to say anything? There must be something the demon lord knows that this demoness who is full of herself doesn't.
A ball of Chaos flame flew from his hand and consumed her. She died there and then. Her clones didn't even know that she died so they didn't activate but the demon lord interfered. Her soul was about to be fully consumed when she saved the soul fragment and let it escape. Unfortunately, the demon lord couldn't extinguish the chaos flames which continued their gruesome work on the soul fragment and all the clones it entered.
He chuckled evilly to himself. The futility of their actions amuses him greatly. It was like watching fools trying to patch a hole in the hull of a boat with fabric. He couldn't see their frustrating struggle against Chaos flames, but he could sense it as more and more clones died a gruesome and painful death.
When he was a mid-rank demon, his chaos energy was powerful enough to rip the soul of someone that he killed but is trying to revive with a clone. Now that he has grown stronger, even the clones are not safe from him. If he kills that disgusting worm fly again, then its weak clone without the memory of his death won't be left behind.
The demon lord knew that too. He had already killed a group of her subordinates and they didn't revive. So she killed all of them linked to his ambush in hopes that he won't be able to find this one demoness. The demon lord didn't know how he could find them but she had control of the momentum of the plane and could acquire certain information from it.
The deaths that occurred by using the power of the contract is a true death that no demon could revive from and would have worked as a simple act of anger and pettiness if this demoness hadn't killed another demon on her way to keep herself hidden. The irony is that the attempt to cover her tracks uncovered her presence to him.
"Prepare yourself. You have not seen the last of me." The demon lord said before she retracted her gaze.
He had to admire the demon lord for her intelligence. She had quick thinking and the ability to think ahead. She was able to beat all competitors and become the demon lord, a single unique position in the abyssal plane that is plagued with competition on every level. It showed how admirable and powerful she is.
She couldn't kill this demoness because she was important and also because a lord of the house cannot kill his or her subordinates through their oath like the way she killed the demons she formed a contract with. So she came up with a plan in the little time she had.
She planned his ambush almost perfectly and her plan to protect this demoness would have worked too. He would have been foiled but a demon that shouldn't have died was killed because the demoness was trying to hide from Aeternus. Still, it wasn't enough for him to take her threat seriously. It just means that he has to up his game.
Aeternus flew towards the border of the mid-rank domain. He met Xander the stealth snake waiting for him. She was trembling as he descended.
"Xander has failed you master. I didn't see anything when I got here." She said apologetically.
Aeternus's cold eyes inspected the black snake groveling on the ground. It was not the snake's fault for not seeing anything. The demon lord had used the power of the world to camouflage his ambushers. It was his fault for playing into the demon lord's hands. But that didn't mean Xander will get away with the failure. She is useless to him and if she isn't useful to him, then there's no need for her to be alive.
"You haven't evolved either." His cold steely voice rang in her head.
If it were possible for her to bow lower, her head will have dug into the ground. Instead, she settled for trembling.
"Xander tried. Xander just can't." She managed to say.
She had promised to grow stronger but she hadn't evolved. It didn't happen no matter how many mid-rank demons she killed and ate. It hasn't been long either. Even demons with the potential to grow take years, but all she was given are some weeks not even up to a month. She has a lot of excuses, but she can't say that to the extremely dangerous Aeternus.
"I told you, if you're useless to me, you will die. Now I'll give you a chance. You either succeed or you die trying."