He doesn't have eyes so all he can do is fixate his divine sense on them and scan them without restraint. He wanted to get to the bottom of their strength. It is pretty rude to scan another demon king so intensely but he doesn't care. He is already in danger. A little more danger can't hurt. But he failed. The two of them successfully defended against his probe. That only reinforced his suspicion.
"Interesting."
He finds it interesting that there are two demon kings ahead of him who are apparently strong enough to defend themselves. What's more interesting is that he found two more demon kings whom he couldn't ascertain if they were using an avatar or not. These four demon kings appear to be in their main bodies like him. And like him, no one is sure if they are avatars without souls.
He thought to himself with a smirk, "The only reason I can think of for being unable to inspect them is if their crown is stronger than mine. I am a level 10 demon king and also a demon king of kings with 41 crowns. So..."
He can only be sure of what he is. He can't be sure of what others are. But the possibility is very high. He returned his attention to his surroundings. His gaze swept through all the demon kings present and he assessed their situation and power from the information provided by the abyss about their influence. Others are also examining him. Especially the ones that he just disrespected by scanning.
Their individual points aren't shown. But their total influence is displayed just above their heads for everyone to see. They can't exactly say how well he performed in each section but they know he did very well. After all, he has an average of 9 in every section.
That means that he is better than 90% of the demon kings in every section. It is a very impressive performance for the newest demon king amongst a total of 271 demon kings.
It is also a very suspicious performance. It hasn't even been one origin cycle since he became a demon king. They didn't even know of him as a demon lord. He suddenly became a demon king and surpassed 270 other demon kings who have been demon kings for millions of years. It is very suspicious indeed.
If he wasn't interesting enough or suspicious enough to the demon gods before, he is now. Every demon God turned their gaze full of interest onto him. He didn't seem perturbed by the attention. He remained calm. He even sat casually with his four thick arms folded against his chest. He isn't going to give them the satisfaction of a reaction no matter how long they wait.
A demon God noticed something odd. So it asked. "Shouldn't there be more than 271 demon gods? Last I counted, there should be more than 300 demon kings. What happened to them?"
It was LUST that asked. She noticed that there were fewer demon kings than normal present at the meeting.
WRATH also discovered the anomaly. "That's true. There are more than 60 demon kings missing. Did they decide not to attend despite the fact that I swore an Oath to guarantee their safety? Those damned scoundrels." It yelled in anger.
WRATH got angry immediately because of the absence of some demon kings. It felt insulted that its oath was not enough to assuage their fears of being in the presence of demon gods.
"I will not allow this to go unanswered." It roared and blasted everyone with its shout.
Aeternus spoke up while other demon kings were cowering and trying to look small, "Not all of them bailed out of this meeting because they were scared. Some of them can't come because they have been captured and held against their will. I, myself have captured 3 other demon kings."
He came forward to clear himself before someone else said something to incriminate him. It is public knowledge that he captures demon kings. But if he owns up to it then it will be a quirk or fetish and not a suspicious point.
Besides, what he said is something that other demon kings do too. Of the 80 or so demon kings missing, he is only responsible for 50 of them.
WRATH calmed down. It muttered, "That's true. Bad luck for them then."
If they are captured, then so be it. He can't say that they should be released unless he is ready to force the demon kings to let go of their captives or pay for their liberation. The fact that they are captured means that they are not worthy enough to be here.
In any society, only free people can vote. Slaves and prisoners can't. They don't have that right and don't have any say in determining the affairs of the society. If he wasn't surprised about the absence then he wouldn't have bothered to ask about them.
But some demon gods have reasons to be bothered. In fact, some of them are very concerned about the missing demon kings. Some of the missing demon kings are their subordinates. It is one thing to miss an internal meeting of their faction. It is another thing to miss an abyss-wide meeting without any information or excuse.
So CARNAGE had to ask. "What about Cerberus? Where is she? Do you have her captured too?"
That question was directed to Aeternus. He can't pretend to not be capable of capturing a level 7 demon king now that his power and influence have been unraveled. So he did what demons are very good at.
He replied calmly, "I don't know who that is your Excellency. What does she look like?"
He lied. It was a blatant lie that he did with a straight face. It helped that his face is actually blank. The truth is that he didn't know her before today when she entered his plane and he has never associated with her before. He denied knowing her entirely to throw away any link between them and it might work too since he just met her today.
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A/N: Bonus chapter for reaching golden ticket goal. I will release the one for voting goal tomorrow.