Chapter 320   - 319 - Enemy Or Ally

Point-of-View: Belia Lasmodeus

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"Hey, what's up!? Long time no see!" I greeted cheerfully, as I opened a portal into the Rustlands' throne room and strolled in.

"Wha-...what are you doing here!?" The king responded in alarm, quickly gesturing to his guards to protect him.

"What do you want with us, Belia Lasmodeus?" Inquired the former Queen of Bronztan with a frown, standing up and approaching me.

I really like this woman, she's gutsy...or maybe she's just stupid, but either way, same difference. Now, then, guess I'll cut right to the chase...

"First, let me ask you a question...would you rather have me as an enemy...or an ally?" I responded with a smirk.

"Hm...just what exactly are you proposing?" She replied, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

"Let's looks at the facts, the other races despise humans and are extremely powerful...and the Rustlands lacks any real firepower to defend themselves with, while I have plenty of powerful fighters at my disposal, not to mention pretty significant numbers overall. So, here's my proposal...let me and my troops join the Rustlands. That'll be something like three hundred thousand Silvland troops, plus five or six extremely powerful fighters that would all easily qualify for that X-Rank level that the Rustlands came up with. What do you say?" I proposed with a smirk.

"And just why should we trust you?" She inquired cautiously, but I didn't miss the hint of intrigue in her eyes, "After all, you've caused the deaths of many of the citizens of this nation and you destroyed my nation."

She's pretty sharp, I have no doubt that she wants to reject this offer, but she's aware of how big a difference accepting this could make to their chances of survival...

"Oh, you definitely shouldn't trust me, I'm only in it for my own self interests. But...you should think about your own self interests too...the other races both outnumber and outpower you, but with my forces and I combined with yours, those odds will be somewhat even...well, okay, not really, the other races will still be stronger, but our combined forces will be able to put up a much better fight than either side could have done on their own."

Based on her expression, it looks like I'm convincing her...one more push should do it...

"And don't forget, I've been around for over fifteen hundred years, I have a lot of knowledge about Sant and the other races, knowledge that I'm willing to share. You're free to refuse, I won't bother retaliating, but if you do...can you say with confidence that you would be able to withstand an all out attack from the other races?" I smirked with a raised eyebrow.

Huh, looks like the king is too preoccupied with having his guards protect him to add his opinion to the discussion...it looks like the former Silvland Princess isn't here right now, so this negotiation was now between the former Queen of Bronztan and myself, despite the official leader of the Rustlands being literally in the same room.

"Hm...I can't deny that you make several good points," Responded the former Bronztan Queen, before mulling it over and letting out a reluctant sigh, "Very well, as much as I hate to do this, I can see that it would be foolish to refuse you...fine, we accept your proposal."

Boom, and done!

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Point-of-View: Kuro Black

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Wow, I can't believe what I'm seeing...the Rustlands is taking in Belia and her forces. It was the day after the end of the battle at the Elf forest, and I'd been busy spying on what was going on to see the aftermath of the battle and my destruction of Silvland, and suffice to say that I did NOT expect this.

Well, that settles it...the Rustlands is our enemy. I mean, sure, logically speaking, it makes sense that they're combining forces in order to stand a better chance against the other races.

But come on, really? Silvland was responsible for more deaths of the Rustlands' citizens than even the Vampires were, and Belia was the mastermind behind that. Still, with Belia's forces combined with the Rustlands, and the Laus Domain, we have two seriously powerful enemies to contend with, I think it's time we start really ramping up our defenses and building up our forces.

For right now, though...all that can wait. Because Abyss was currently having a special event...Rai and Rion had finally come up with a ranking system, and they basically begged me to let them make a big show of it, saying that it'll bolster unity and stuff...I only gave them the go-ahead because I couldn't think of a reason to say no.

I was currently at the south entrance to that castle, standing at the top of the stairs that lead up to the doors, and in the courtyard outside, a huge crowd was gathered...Vampires, Demons and humans.

Rai and Rion were next to me...all I had to do was give them an introduction and they'd take over after that. I'm not one for public speaking, but here goes, I guess...

"Attention, everyone! Thanks for gathering, we've got a special announcement to share with you all, specifically, the introduction of a new ranking system," I began in a loud voice, talking into a loudspeaker, before gesturing to the two beside me, "The two who came up with this system, Rai and Rion, will now give you the specifics of the ranking system!"

I then stepped back and handed the loudspeaker to Rion as the two of them stepped forward. Rion then cleared his throat and addressed the crowd...

"How's it going, everyone!? The two of us worked pretty hard on this, and we're pretty confident that we nailed it!" He exclaimed with a grin.

"Before we start though, in the interest of not offending anyone...," Spoke up Rai, before continuing, "Question for the Vampires, would you mind if we did away with the whole Evil Numbers, Knights, Generals and Minions labels in order to simplify things?"

Huh, good call, it'd be confusing if the Vampires had two separate rankings. It took a while to get a definitive answer, so to speed things along, I intervened and suggested that the Vampires fire a Blood Magic blast straight up if they're fine with their old ranking system being abolished.

And as it turned out, pretty much all of them were okay with it. Mainly because Lazarus was the one who came up with those rankings and they're all still salty over him using his King's Decrees on them, so yeah.

"Hmph, this is making me feel pretty offended," Huffed Lazarus, sounding annoyed.

Yeah, I bet, but just ignore it, it's really no big deal.

"...fine, I guess you've got a point."

Anyway, with that, things were back on track.

"Alright, let's start from the bottom and work our way up, shall we!?" Suggested Rion enthusiastically, "The lowest rank we came up with is called Trooper! Those that fall under this category included all respawnable monsters and everyone who was powered up using Corruption Magic, excluding those that were already powerful before that!"

Ah, so all the former citizens of Platinberg that weren't Vampire cattle. If I remember right, our army numbered over four hundred and seventy thousand strong, excluding the respawnable monsters...well, not that they're respawnable anymore.

"Next up, the rank above Trooper will consist of the former Vampire Generals and Vampire Minions, along with all the Demons," Announced Rai, before continuing, "...as well as Misen Ragiu, Selesa Jeule, Lusk Cotuid, Prato Cichudde, Key Angor, and me, Rai Rumel. This ranked is called Sentinel!"

Aren't those the apocalyptic robots from X-Men? Feel like that should be higher than the second last rank. Eh, whatever.

"And above that, is the rank of Warrior! This rank will include the former Evil Numbers and Vampire Knights, along with Ekai Zabel and Siert Huet!" Exclaimed Rion.

Warrior, huh? Well, not the most creative or original, but it works, I guess.

"Now we get to the second highest rank, Archwarrior! Four fall under this rank, Azeria Folix, Persia Gerit, Fuo Wesroh and Rion Xester!" Declared Rai with a grin.

Huh, so that means...that the highest rank only includes myself and Az? Wonder what they've named that rank...

"And finally, last but not least, our highest rank is called...Destroyer! Only two made the cut for this rank, Azyl Roake, and the big boss himself, Kuro Black!" Announced Rion loudly.

So, Trooper, Sentinel, Warrior, Archwarrior and Destroyer, huh? Not bad...though considering how long they took to come up with this, I'd have thought they'd have come up with some, I don't know, cooler titles, maybe. But there's nothing wrong with this, I guess...

"We're not done yet though! In addition to the highest rank, we thought that our leader should have an official, grand title, so we came up with one!" Exclaimed Rai with a grin.

Huh? They didn't tell me about this.

"Wait, what do you m-," I began to ask.

"Yeah, we're pretty proud of this one...since Abyss is also known as The Dark Nation, we figured what better title for it's ruler than...The Dark Lord! That's right, our leader's official title is Kuro, The Dark Lord!"

I...actually kinda like that. Yeah, I think it's pretty cool. Sure, why not, I'll go with that.

"You heard it here first, folks! And, uh...that's about everything, so...we're done," Concluded Rai a bit awkwardly.

"Yeah...what he said!" Added Rion with an equally awkward smile.

They were so confident this whole time, what, did they plan everything out except how to close out the announcement? Actually, now that I think about it, knowing these two...yeah, that's very, very likely to be the case.

Now, then, I suppose that I should say something, just to make sure that these new rankings don't go to anyone's head...

"Alright, thanks, you two, that was great," I spoke up, stepping forward and tapping their shoulders, before addressing the crowd as they handed the loudspeaker back to me, "Now, then, these rankings are all official, but they'll primarily apply only during battles against any opposing forces. This is important, so pay close attention...just because you outrank someone in this new system doesn't mean that you can treat them poorly or look down upon them. I absolutely will not tolerate that, so make sure to keep that in mind. Understood?"

Running a nation isn't easy, it's a lot of work, stressful, and your margin for error is basically nonexistent, because if I screw up, it affects everyone in the nation, and that'll be on me.

That's why I won't cut corners or half-ass it, and making sure that conflict among my citizens is mimized is a huge part of that. If I'm doing something...I'll make sure to do it right...

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