Manny's eyes slightly narrowed as he realized something.
A moment later, the person from earlier stepped forward again and spoke the oath without hesitation.
Five people were now on Kyle's side.
Then, another person stepped forward to swear the oath.
With every new person, the mood became heavier. If there were just two Demons in the audience, they could kill over ten of the most powerful members of Humanity just by sending a voice transmission to each other.
The mood became even more oppressive when more than 50 people swore the oath. These people swore the oath of their own volition. Humanity was the most important thing in their lives, and the words and actions of the people around them had roused their sense of justice and unity.
This group from the Supreme World was the only shot Humanity had at repairing Ayuvar. If they let this chance slip, they might never be truly free.
When 70 people swore the oath, the mood became intense. If there were any Demons present, they would not swear the oath. After all, they were here to deliver information to their leaders. The oath only restricted them from talking about the sensitive information revealed in this event, but simply not mentioning that event wouldn't work.
There were other spies in Humanity, and the location and purpose of this meeting had been spread far and wide, as well as the attendants. Several spies knew of this event and about the people who had been invited. If they delivered intel to the Abyss about the event and its participants, the Abyss would want to know what happened during this event by the spies who had participated.
At that point, the present spies would be forced to answer questions they couldn't. Just talking about the oath itself might kill them. Yet, if they kept quiet, the Abyss would believe that the spies had become traitors. Within just a couple of years, Humanity would receive information about these spies, and they would die.
That was why they couldn't possibly swear the oath.
When 80 people swore the oath, the 80 people looked at the remaining people. There were not many left, and if there were a Demon in their ranks, they could kill over 30 Ascendants with ease.
If this gamble failed, Humanity would find it difficult to resist the onslaught of Demons on the frontlines.
"Fine, I swear..." the second-to-last Ascendant said as she also spoke the oath. When she was done, only Spirit Lords and Overlord Cloudhorn were left.
Some of the Spirit Lords stepped forward, swearing the oath as well.
Only ten people were left.
The atmosphere had become tense and desperate. This would be the most critical moment.
After a short moment without anyone stepping forward, Overlord Cloudhorn stepped forward. "I swear..."
He spoke the oath as well, and finally, there were no more Ascendants left.
The only reason why the Demons, if there were any, had waited to use their newly-granted weapon was their survival. If they had killed every present person earlier, there would still be far more humans than Demons in the group, and these humans might have investigated everyone else. In that case, they would be helpless.
But now, there was actually a chance of survival. If there were five Demons, they could kill everyone stronger than them with a voice transmission and attack the remaining five humans.
If there were only one Demon, they would be helpless since there was no other Demon present to talk to.
Yet, it was also possible that there were no Demons present at all.
The present people waited with nervousness but also with conviction. They were in this together. They had all bet their lives on Humanity's survival and Ayuvar's revival.
The next moments would unveil their fates.
Would all of them survive, or would all of them die?
The moment of truth arrived.
A person stepped forward.
Ten corpses fell to the ground.
It was so fast!
One moment, everything was tense and uncertain, but in the next moment, the ten individuals who hadn't sworn the oath were dead!
Everyone looked at Overlord Stygian.
He held his spear in his hands, and a peaceful smile was on his face.
Then, his eyes lost all color, and his body fell to the ground, lifeless.
Meanwhile, three of the eleven corpses turned into Demons. The remaining eight, including Overlord Stygian's corpse, retained their appearance.
Almost nobody had been surprised by the sudden turn of events. Only a few individuals hadn't seen this coming. The majority of people had known this would happen as soon as Overlord Stygian had sworn his oath.
Overlord Stygian had decided to sacrifice himself and the least driven individuals of the group to save the more driven individuals.
Overlord Stygian's oath had been the one thing that had turned this from a risk into an almost-certain victory, and the way he had done it was beautiful.
Demons might infiltrate Humanity, but they were not human. These Demons, who infiltrated Humanity, were different from the Demons on the frontlines. The Demons on the frontlines had been altered to value causing destruction over their own survival. They just mindlessly charged forward like killing machines.
Meanwhile, the demonic spies had to be intelligent, and they had to be true individuals. They needed their own desires, thoughts, and selves. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to fool the other humans into believing that they were human as well.
Yet, despite their intelligence, there was one thing that differentiated these Demons from humans.
Their highest priority.
Intelligent beasts were not designed with the desire to value a group over themselves. The exceptions were mindless beasts like ants, bees, and so on. As soon as a beast became intelligent enough to infiltrate human society to such a degree, their primary purpose in life would be survival and gaining power. Because of that, they wouldn't sacrifice themselves for the greater good.
Overlord Stygian's oath hit them on their blind spot. These Demons knew that humans often sacrificed themselves for a greater purpose, but they often only noticed it after it had happened or when somebody was declaring that they would do so. They rarely noticed it before it happened if they were not explicitly told, since they didn't share this human trait.
Yet, some Demons might have realized what Overlord Stygian had planned, but that came with another issue. If they told their fellow spies about it, they might accidentally trigger the oath too early. So, it was every Demon for themselves. The dumb ones would die to Overlord Stygian, while the smart ones would swear the oath and survive.
Additionally, since they knew about this eventuality, there was also a chance that their oath wouldn't even count. After all, there was a chance that their suspicion was enough to count as being coerced. Yet, this was still an uncertainty. It was still possible that it counted.
However, an uncertain death was preferable over a certain death.
Of course, since most humans had seen this coming, they were in the same boat.
Around 80 of the 90 survivors didn't know if their oaths counted or not.
The only ones who knew for certain that their oaths counted were the first ones who had sworn them.
They had gotten rid of some Demon spies, but they still didn't know if there were any left.
"I swore the oath under coercion," Overlord Cloudhorn transmitted to the group of six Sages. "I am our penultimate line of defense. Let's hope we don't need to use our last defenses."
Then, Overlord Cloudhorn focused on the others.
"Black Sin Hammer 37 has defeated an Early Spirit Lord Fighter Demon as a Legendary Sage," he announced.
It was done.
It was said.
Everyone looked at the first oath-takers. They were the only ones who had sworn the oath voluntarily.
If there were any Demons present...
They would die now.
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