"It's good for Cain that he came here. He gets to swap out a Legendary Oath from the demon lord with a Divine Oath from me. It is his luck. I can't wait to bring that luck to her other subordinates. They deserve a better option." Aeternus said to himself.
Seeing Cain's talent made him realize how rich the demon lord is in talented subordinates. Her Oath of the lord might be a lesser rank than his but she has had thousands of years to accumulate the best talents in the plane. Forcing various geniuses in the domain of high-rank demons to be his subordinates won't make up the difference. But forcing her subordinates to become his might just do the trick.
The best way to become rich is not to save but to steal someone else's savings. In the demon realm, stealing is not a sin. It is just resource reallocation based on merit by might. The strongest gets to have the best stuff. The demon lord used this principle to force and coerce demons into her service, so she should be open to having the same done to her.
"If I do that, it will cause a war. Maybe I should do that during or after a war. Everything should be alright if I do it then. I'm so looking forward to the war." He grinned in anticipation.
He knows that a war is coming and he is expecting it. Much more than expecting it, he is anticipating it. War will give him the opportunity to get close enough to her subordinates and offer them a deal that they can't refuse.
Meanwhile the fights continued as another group finished with their quota. Their chaos spark formed and coalesced outside of their body. Most chose to evolve while some chose to leave.
The ones that chose to leave are mostly ordinary high-rank demons who have no confidence to survive the next round of elimination. They struggled to survive and don't want to risk their lives fighting anymore, especially since they will be fighting the geniuses next. He doesn't mind them leaving, he only needs excellent demons.
He shouted to the ones still Fighting, "If you're still fighting by the time the first demon nobles finish evolving, then I cannot guarantee your life."
The fighting began to dwindle as more evolved and more left. The first batch of demon nobles finished evolving in 3 hours. The fortress had calmed down by that time.
"We'll have to move after this is done. I'm sure there won't be any foundation left" He said as he examined the fortress.
So many high-rank demons fighting within it had caused it to be flattened. The aftermath of fights between demon nobles will probably uproot the foundation too.
The new demon nobles went forward to greet their new lord. He accepted them and told them to wait for the others. They surrounded him in the sky while waiting. He spoke to them when they had all finished evolving.
"I will give you time to get used to your power and abilities. The next couple of days will be spent undergoing a tournament. Xander, you will join too."
"Yes, my lord." Xander's voice reached him from the shadow plane.
He isn't going to keep Xander out of the tournament. He wants the best and only the best. That's why he orchestrated this entire thing. If Xander is not among the best, then she will be discarded.
He began to explain the rules of the tournament to them. He doesn't want to waste good talent due to unfair situations like being ganged up on. He will let them choose their opponents based on their ranking. The earlier their evolution, the higher their rank. Xander is number zero, Infernox is number 1 and Bael is number 8th.
The arrangement is as fair as he could make it to give all of them equal chances. The difference in prowess due to Accumulation has reduced drastically due to their evolution but it is still present. That is why he is eliminating the use of Accumulation in the tournament. They are his subordinates now and have to listen to him even if they are about to die.
Genius or not, every demon noble has Accumulation but in varying amounts. Eliminating Accumulation evens the playing field and makes victory reliant on Skill alone. They also get to rest after each battle until they have fought and acquired 9 chaos sparks needed for their next evolution. There are about a thousand of them, so it will take some time to finish the competition.
The competition went on while both the domain of high-rank and noble demons were rocked by the impact of Aeternus's actions. A lot of high-rank demons died and a lot of subordinates were stolen from demon nobles. His actions also created more chaosling whose existence perpetuated chaos. His accumulation continued to increase steadily as the flame on his head grew bigger and bigger.
The competition ended on the 40th day and it left exactly 99 demon dukes with him. These 99 are the best he could get after careful sampling and selection. Xander survived too and maintained her place as number zero. Her ability to hide and ambush her opponent from the shadow realm is unique for a reason. It may not give her boosts to her stats but it is difficult to resolve. She was also able to pick vulnerable opponents because she had watched the earlier fights and knew her opponents.
Xander has grown bigger and stronger now after becoming a demon duke. Her 100m length has increased to 1km and her 5m diameter thickness also increased to 30m. She has two pairs of wings now and 6 horns. She also gained another ability. She was the one that carried him to another fortress where the Khaos family became silent.
Many demons had expected a lot of things from them, especially with the grandiose act that Aeternus pulled off so they were surprised that they chose to lie low. The demon nobles and the demon lord knew why he was staying away from the domain of demon nobles but there was nothing they can do about it. They could only watch as he amassed mid-rank demons to grow his army.
The demon lord felt that he should be pressured and that something ought to be done to make him come within her reach because she could feel that something bad will happen the longer this wait is prolonged.
Allowing Aeternus and his forces to Accumulate their power is obviously a bad thing. But Aeternus's silence isn't because he is trying to Accumulate as much empowerment as he can. Now that he has his generals, he is amassing an army and waiting for the signal to move.
The Zargoth Plane.
This plane looks normal if you gaze at it from above. Most of it is covered with the dry sands of a desert and the little part that has plants are small rare secluded plains. Overall it looks like a dry, hot, inhabitable land that has been battered with the heat of the sun.
The color Green is a good indication of life. It may be nearly absent on this plane, but Zargoth isn't deserted. It is inhabited by a useful race or mother high heaven would have scrapped the plane for parts to make another plane.
The desert is filled with grand cities built by the dominant inhabitants of this plane. You can see the inhabitants who are humanoids with various skin colors moving around the cities shirtless and unbothered by the desiccating heat or the dry, sandy air.
The immunity of these people to the heat and adverse conditions isn't what is odd here. Life always adapts to its environment and when there's mana, life adapts very well. The various colors of the skin of the inhabitants aren't odd either. Differentiation and Variation are good signs of the adaptation of the gene pool of a race. The pyramids at various parts of the city aren't what's odd either.
You'll only be able to notice what's odd if you drop a battle sage monkey into the city. The battle sage monkey will look like a miniature toy amongst real buildings. It is a matter of relativity. The battle sage monkey isn't miniature, the buildings and the inhabitants of this plane are gigantic. That's why Zargoth is also called the home of giants of order.
There are different types of giants in the realm of high heaven. But the giants of Zargoth are called the giants of order because of their immunity to magic. It is this ability of theirs that made their home plane arid. So how can the heat of a desert affect them when they're the ones that caused the desert to appear?
This is the world that Legion-4 is born into. It's a beautiful world too if you ignore the sight of sand as far as the eye can see.