The Fourth Beast

6

The Top Ten

I

The Underworld

Extra Demons were the houses of Devils who were not a part of the 72 Pillars. Most Extra Demons had secluded themselves from the present Devil Society, not wanting to involve themselves with the current government. The reason was that in the Civil War, most, if not all the Extra Demon houses joined the old Satans' side. And when their side lost, they were excommunicated from the Devil faction. At that time the reason for the excommunication was justified, but a few centuries later, the current Satans tried to take the Extra Demon houses back, but it was futile.

It was true that the hostility between the remaining pure devil clans and the Extra Demon houses decreased, but many issues still remained. The biggest issue was that the Extra Demon houses followed the old ways, and they were content with that; to the point, if any devils from the Extra Demons involved themselves with the current devil Government, they would have to break all ties with their households regardless of their status.

It was not that the Extra Demons did not want to rejoin the current Devil faction. The main problem lay in reaching an agreement that would satisfy both sides. But,

"Roygun Belphegor, do you accept the terms?"

Roygun looked up from her kneeling position to meet the gaze of the mighty Sirzechs Lucifer.

"Yes, I, Roygun Belphegor, Head of the House of Belphegor, accept the terms written in the contract."

She saw Sirzechs and other Satans nodding their heads at her words.

"Then, by the authority of the four Great Satans, I, Sirzechs Lucifer, welcome the House of Belphegor as the seventy-sixth pillar clan."

"Thank you, Lord Lucifer," Roygun spoke softly.

When she saw the acknowledgment, Roygun stood up, and immediately Grayfia was by her side. She took her to the new council seat arranged for the House of Belphegor, which from today would be known as Belphegor Clan, the seventy-sixth pillar clan.

Yes, there would always be issues in coming to a satisfactory agreement. And it had been like this for centuries. But that all changed when the Devil faction was utterly defeated by the Avalon Kingdom a week ago.

The general devil populace was not ready for the consequences of their defeat.

Roygun looked at Zekram Bael from her seat, who was very quiet until now. She knew that something must have happened to Zekram; otherwise, the four Satans would not be able to take such bold moves.

The first thing Sirzechs did was not hide any facts regarding the Nekoshou massacre. He did not hide the fact that he, the mighty Sirzechs Lucifer, was defeated by the King of the Avalon Kingdom and how the same king went against the full might of the Devil faction and came out as the victor. And in both scenarios, the Youkai King did not simply win, he crushed them. Needless to say, the whole Devil faction lost their marbles.

And unfortunately for many devils, Sirzechs kept his word to the Youkai King. He delivered the punishment that was promised. And it was later found out that quite a few devils, along with the ringleaders, went missing during the fight. There should have been a huge uproar. But the four Satans calmed the masses smartly. They told them that they had handed over those devils to the Kingdom. It was a lie, but they made it work by using their fear against them. It was easy to do so. After all, now every devil understood two simple truthful facts.

One, they were not unbeatable.

Two, every action had consequences.

But it did not end there.