The Blood Race—a race skilled in manipulating blood and feeding upon it. They grow even more powerful during the night when the sun is gone, especially under the light of the moon. Although their enhancement is not as significant as that of the Night Demons, their weakening during the day is also less severe.
In addition, the Blood Race possesses powerful regeneration, the ability to Polymorph into bats, and even the power to create thralls. Combined with their similarly potent Magic Power and strength, they are considered a relatively balanced race.
Looking at these descriptions, one could see why the Blood Race had the ability to separate themselves from the Demon Race. If the Great Demon King Ai Yue hadn’t appeared out of nowhere to unify the originally disorganized mess of the Demon Race in a short period of time, the Blood Race would likely be ruling half of the Demon Realm by now.
Of course, this was also largely due to the fact that the Blood Race had an extremely rigid hierarchy. As long as there was a King with sufficient ability, they could exercise their full power. Other Demon Races simply couldn’t achieve that level of cohesion.
‘But the Blood Race really does have many things different from ordinary demons…’
Actually, Ai Yue had thought about this problem when she first designed the various tribes of the Demon Race. Some works separated the Blood Race from the Demon Race, while others classified them as the same. To be honest, she had struggled with it for a long time.
In the end, she chose this setting because she found the alternative to be too much trouble.
After all, if she set the Blood Race as an entity equal to the Demon Race, it would mean the workload for scenes and other aspects would require creating enough content for another major race. Even as a workaholic, she couldn’t pull that off!
“The First Demon King requests an audience!”
“Enter.”
At this moment, Ai Yue sat upon a throne forged from extremely rare materials, looking every bit like a supreme being… Of course, this was all an act she was forcing herself to maintain.
Demon knights clad in armor stood on both sides of the walkway, while maids stood near the stairs leading up to Ai Yue.
Upon closer inspection, one could discover that the aura of those maids was even more intense than that of the knights. It was like the difference between seasoned warriors who had survived many trials and ordinary soldiers who were green and lacked actual combat experience.
Ai Yue knew that these maids were actually her personal guards. Every one of them possessed strength close to that of a general, roughly C-Rank to B-Rank, which was enough to destroy a small country.
Being sandwiched between so many powerful figures made Ai Yue tremble, but she didn’t dare show it.
‘Wait, why is Bululu standing right next to me? Even if she’s my personal maid, she doesn’t seem like the type who should be standing with these elite forces, right?’
Whatever, that wasn’t important right now, because the primary threat had already appeared.
At the entrance of the audience hall, a group of Blood Race attendants walked in. Leading them was a girl with long silver hair wearing a black dress. Her slender legs were covered in black thigh-high stockings, and her high heels made no sound as they stepped on the floor. Although she appeared to be a young girl in her prime, her figure was quite well-endowed.
The Blood Queen and First Demon King — Igrette Olivian. This was a character Ai Yue had designed personally. Or rather, she was one of the capture targets.
Ai Yue glanced at the Information Panel. Beneath the Main Quest, a new line had appeared:
[Task One: The Haughty Blood Queen]
Despite the current crisis, as Igrette’s creator, Ai Yue understood her personality settings very well.
Simply put, Igrette seemed haughty on the surface, but she was actually much easier to talk to than one might imagine. Others believed that Igrette had joined Ai Yue’s faction after being defeated in a fierce battle against the Great Demon King, but in reality, they hadn’t engaged in any violent combat. Igrette had mostly been persuaded by Ai Yue.
Therefore, the relationship between Igrette and the Great Demon King was much better than the outside world believed. However, that was exactly why Ai Yue was panicking. ‘If it’s exposed that I’m not the original Ai Yue, Igrette will probably wipe my soul out immediately.’
So, she had to play the role of the Great Demon King perfectly!
“It has been a long time… Great Demon King.”
‘Hmm? What’s going on?’
For some reason, when Igrette spoke those words, Ai Yue could faintly hear a trace of resentment hidden within them.
‘Why? Why does Igrette still resent me?’
Logically, Ai Yue had been in a deep sleep for these past two years. She couldn’t have done anything to offend Igrette.
Something was wrong, but for now, she had to respond.
“Indeed, it has been a long time. So, did you suddenly grace us with your presence for this purpose?”
Ai Yue did her best to imitate the tone of the Great Demon King as she questioned Igrette.
“Of course not. I recently heard that you woke from your slumber and came uninvited to offer my congratulations.”
“Is that so? But there is no need for congratulations. This was merely waking from a deep sleep. You do not celebrate every time you wake up, do you?”
“That is true, but…”
Halfway through her sentence, Igrette’s tone suddenly changed. Her blood-red pupils stared intently at Ai Yue, as if she were trying to see through her very soul.
“I heard that after you woke up, you entered a period of weakness. Although the strength gap between you and us is so vast that even being slightly weakened wouldn’t be enough to bridge it, still…”
At this point, everyone present could tell that Igrette was testing her strength.
‘Crap! Of all the things to test, she chose to test my strength?’
However, she absolutely could not let anyone discover her secret now.
She had no choice. She would have to wing it and trust her luck.
“Are you implying that you doubt my strength? In other words, are you planning a rebellion?”
the moment she spoke, everyone present felt an inexplicable and immense pressure, as if an invisible giant hand had gripped their hearts.
As demons who excelled at fighting and possessed an intuition for the strong, they all realized that this was the aura radiated by an absolute powerhouse!
‘The Great Demon King… truly lives up to her name!’
“…Heh… Is that so?”
Bathed in this overwhelming pressure, Igrette still managed to maintain her composure on the surface.
As the First Demon King, her level was at least Level 95 or higher, making her one of the top elites within the A-Rank. Furthermore, since she was the Blood Queen, she was already skilled in using pressure herself and naturally had countermeasures.
“As expected, your power is still so great. You don’t even need the help of others to accomplish such great deeds on your own…”
As Igrette spoke, the resentment and anger seemed to intensify once more for some reason. She even sounded like she was gnashing her teeth.
This time, it wasn’t just Ai Yue; even the surrounding knights and maids noticed it. Bululu, as the personal maid, was the first to act, glaring at Igrette with a hostile expression.
“Insolent! Or do you truly intend to rebel?”