Athena ignored Joseph, glanced coolly at Leo's corpse lying in a pool of blood, dismounted, and returned to the Darkmoon side's VIP seats.
Alice and Chen Rui went to meet her. Alice grinned. "I knew Athena would win. Unlike someone who was worried sick, afraid you'd fall out of the sky."
"Hmph! You were just worrying for nothing! We Greater Devils can teleport. Even without that, I'm already a High-Rank Demon. A fall from that height wouldn't hurt me!" Athena shot Chen Rui a sideways glance and ignored him. Yet a strange warmth welled up inside her.
Faced with Athena's icy expression, Chen Rui felt completely innocent. He'd only touched her by accident, hadn't he? Oh, wait—he'd done it a lot...
But Athena had advanced to High-Rank Demon. That explained why the Analytical Eye had shown her strength as D when she'd "gotten her revenge" yesterday.
"You two are acting a little strange. Did you have a fight?"
The perceptive little princess made Chen Rui realize what was going on. He hurriedly explained, "It's nothing. During yesterday's training... I was clumsy and made Athena angry."
At the mention of yesterday's training, Athena felt her face burn. Just then, Joseph spoke up, and Alice's attention immediately shifted to him.
"Leo was too eager to win and broke the competition rules by using magic. I've punished him. We concede this round! To show our apologies and respect for the Darkmoon Territory, I, Joseph Alvin, will personally compete in the second round!"
At those words, everyone's gaze immediately fixed on Joseph.
Joseph had been prepared for defeat in the first round. He'd even told Leo to cheat in secret, hoping to take a chance, but Leo had been far too obvious. Once he was found out, Joseph had had no choice but to silence him immediately. According to their plan, a human apprentice would definitely compete in the third round, so they had to win the second. Otherwise, Chen Rui wouldn't even need to compete—the Chiyou side would already have lost.
The Darkmoon side would likely send Kaguli, the Scythe Succubus from Alice's shop, into the second round. Kaguli was the younger sister of Kagulon, the captain of the palace guards. She was currently a Mid-tier Demon, and her Beast Taming Technique was quite impressive. Even Allen couldn't be certain of victory against her. Joseph still had three of his most capable assistants, all High-Rank Greater Devils, but aerial competition wasn't about personal strength; it was about Beast Taming Technique. None of the three were good at that, so Joseph had made up his mind to compete himself.
Athena couldn't compete again after her first round. As for everyone else, Joseph was absolutely confident he could win outright without revealing his strength. Everything was still under his control!
"Joseph... is going to compete himself?" In the royal palace in Darkmoon City, the Eldest Princess, Shea, was watching the arena through a strange crystal ball. The ball was connected to the arena's magical equipment, and it transmitted not only images but also sound. It was practically a live broadcast from another world.
Joseph's strength was a mystery in Darkmoon City. He rarely showed what he could do; whenever trouble arose, his three High-Rank Greater Devil subordinates handled it. Some believed he relied solely on the influence of his Lord father and the power of his subordinates, and that he was weak himself. Others thought he was powerful but had simply kept a low profile.
Now, the eldest son of the Lord of Chiyou was about to enter the arena himself. Though he represented the Chiyou side, many spectators were still eagerly anticipating his performance.
So, who would the Darkmoon side send to face him?
Amid the crowd's expectant gaze, the little princess, Alice, slowly rose to her feet. Just as everyone thought she was about to announce the next contender, Alice suddenly lifted into the air and drifted down into the arena.
"I'll compete in this round myself!"
Her declaration was even more shocking than Joseph's. The surrounding cheers died down of their own accord, and old Gauss stood up from his chair.
The little princess was going to compete herself? This wasn't child's play. It could easily cost someone their life—the Servant Demon had just broken its leg in a fall.
"What a foolish stunt!" Shea snapped at the crystal ball. She had already vanished from the spot.
Joseph was taken aback. "Princess Alice, you're not joking, are you?"
"Joseph, how dare you look down on me!" Alice cried angrily. Black flames burst into life around her. They were different from the red flames Athena had produced when she transformed. The red flames gave off a feeling of frenzy and savagery, while the black flames represented silence and finality.
Old Gauss's cloudy eyes suddenly opened wide, gleaming with delight.
"The Black Flame of the Lucifer Royal Family!" Some demons recognized the black fire and cried out in alarm.
"The power of the Royal Family's bloodline!"
This was the first time Chen Rui had seen Alice show her strength. The Analytical Eye usually rated her overall strength as F, but now it had shot up to E! It seemed the little princess hadn't been lying about her bloodline awakening. Of course, it wasn't the fake Mind Reading she'd awakened, but one of the three powers that had made the Lucifer Royal Family mighty throughout the Demon Realm: the Black Flame!
The strength of ordinary demons rarely changed. Allen was one such example. Mutant demons and members of the Royal Family were different: they had one level of strength in their normal state, but their power could surge dramatically in battle. Joseph, Athena, and Alice were all like this.
Alice was only thirteen, yet she had already awakened the Black Flame. Even among the Lucifer Royal Family, she could be considered a prodigy.
Still, compared with the unfathomable Joseph, even Alice, with her Black Flame, had no chance of winning.
"Little princess, are you serious?" Joseph gave Alice a strange look. "My eyesight may not be very good, but even I can tell that your Black Flame awakened only recently, and your power is still insufficient. But today's competition is about Beast Taming. Are you confident in your abilities? To be honest, I don't want to see you get hurt."
"I wouldn't hurt anyone else, either—not even you, the Lord's son." The black flames around Alice vanished in an instant. Smiling sweetly, she said, "I'm the little princess of Darkmoon, and I'm also a member of the Lucifer Royal Family. I represent the Empire's most noble bloodline. You're the eldest son of the Lord of Chiyou and Darkmoon's financial officer. To avoid undermining the Chiyou Territory's loyalty to the Lucifer Royal Family and earning a reputation for rebellion; to avoid undermining your loyalty as Darkmoon's financial officer; and to preserve the friendship between the Darkmoon Territory and the Chiyou Territory, I've decided to declare this round a draw. I wonder, are you willing to continue serving the Lucifer Royal Family and working for the Darkmoon Territory?"
A sharp gleam flashed in Joseph's eyes as he finally untangled the implications of Alice's words.
Alice meant that no matter how powerful the Chiyou Territory was, it still owed its allegiance to the Lucifer Royal Family. And Joseph was also a financial officer "serving" the Darkmoon Territory. If he dared to compete against her, he would be showing contempt for the Lucifer Royal Family and Darkmoon City, while deliberately undermining the friendship between Darkmoon and Chiyou.
Alice had offered a draw that was impossible to refuse on principle. On the surface, she was showing the Royal Family's grace. But if Joseph accepted, then even if Allen killed Chen Rui in the final round, the best the Chiyou side could get was a draw. And Alice's final question was a vicious one: if Joseph said he wasn't willing, that would mean betraying the Lucifer Royal Family and refusing to continue as Darkmoon City's financial officer. Even if the suspicious Regent Heiyao didn't care about such "contempt," Joseph wasn't willing to give up everything he'd worked so hard to build in Darkmoon.
Almost every sentence held a trap. When had this little princess become so formidable? Alice's entrance had been an unexpected move, and a situation that should have been a sure victory had slipped out of control.
Though it was frustrating, this wasn't the time to fall out with them... As Joseph weighed his options, he suddenly sensed something and looked toward the far end of the arena. His gaze met two eyes as cold as blades. They seemed to pierce him from any distance, and a sharp pain suddenly stung his eyes. His heart shuddered.
Joseph had already begun to waver. Now, he didn't hesitate. "The Chiyou Territory's loyalty to the Lucifer Royal Family and the Fallen Angel Empire is as enduring as the Twin Moons of the Demon Realm. Chiyou and Darkmoon will always be friends, and I'll continue to serve Darkmoon's development with the most precious gift of all: friendship. Therefore, I accept Princess Alice's draw!"
Darkmoon now had one win and one draw, which meant they could no longer lose. Even if Chen Rui conceded, the competition would still end in a draw, and Darkmoon's reputation would remain intact.
Seeing that Joseph had agreed to the draw, Alice was delighted. She returned to the VIP seats, beaming proudly at Chen Rui and Athena. Then Joseph suddenly spoke up. "In the first round, I mistakenly trusted a despicable subordinate, and the match—which should have been fair—was tainted. For that, I offer my sincere apologies. In the second round, I was impressed by Princess Alice's grace. But a competition is still a competition. I believe everyone here wants to see a truly exciting, fair battle, not cowardice and scheming. Isn't that right?"
His words were highly persuasive. The demons in the arena responded with loud cheers, and the atmosphere grew heated.
Alice, Athena, and Aldas heard Joseph deliberately building up the crowd's excitement to pressure Chen Rui into competing. A sense of foreboding rose in all three of them.
Joseph seized the opportunity to say, "As a testament to the friendship between Darkmoon and Chiyou, I have a special request for the third round: let's change the flying beasts to wyverns! Everyone will witness the mightiest magical beasts—and the fiercest aerial competition!"
"Wyverns!" Alice was startled. Athena shot to her feet, her fierce gaze fixed on Joseph. He glanced their way, met Athena's murderous stare, and calmly gave her his habitual smile.
In Chen Rui's eyes, the murderous intent behind that smile was ten times stronger than anything Athena had shown.
Wyverns usually lived in poisonous swamps or wetlands. They had tough scales and razor-sharp claws and fangs, all laced with potent venom. Even their breath could release a certain amount of poisonous gas. They were among the most powerful flying beasts, second only to Dragons.
The Dragons had always looked down on these "pseudo-dragons," whose strength was lacking by Dragon standards and who had neither intelligence nor a civilized heritage. Still, they had to be wary of the power of these social creatures. Even a mature Dragon wouldn't dare casually provoke a whole pack of wyverns.
A mature wyvern had the fighting strength of a High-Rank Demon. Not only were they difficult to capture and tame, but doing so could easily provoke retaliation from the entire pack. There wasn't a single tamed wyvern in the entire Darkmoon Territory.
A four-wheeled cart carrying a huge iron cage was pushed into the arena. Inside were two long-winged creatures with greenish-brown skin. It seemed Joseph had come determined to intimidate Darkmoon today—he'd brought two wyverns all the way from the Chiyou Territory!
Before you continue