Chapter 148 Control
After flying excitedly for a while, Roy finally landed on the ground. It was no wonder he was so excited. He was very clear that under the strict hierarchy system of the Abyss, only by becoming a high-rank demon could he truly obtain freedom.
Yes, becoming a high-rank demon did not only mean strength but also freedom because only high-rank demons could be regarded as having authority and truly become part of the ruling cla.s.s of the demons!
Just like in the human world, people wanted to become officials for that authority.
Although there were the higher hierarchies of demon lord and demon king above high-rank demon, it was rare to see these higher-level demons. If not for the End War in the Darksiders world, it would have been absolutely impossible to gather so many demon lords, let alone a demon king.
In other words, when Roy went to other worlds in the future, he might not encounter demon lords and demon kings. Without these higher-level demons, no one could control and suppress him.
Moreover, even demon lords did not necessarily use force to suppress high-rank demons. Most of the time, high-rank demons accompanied demon lords, and they were existences equivalent to housekeepers. They took care of trivial matters for the demon lords and served them, so the demon lords had to give them corresponding respect. Without a betrayal, even demon lords could not easily execute high-rank demons.
This was all mentioned in Araniya’s inherited memories. It could be said that after promoting to high-rank demon, both his status and authority had improved considerably. Take Roy’s execution mission for example. If he was not a middle-rank demon but a high-rank demon at the time, he could have even chosen to decline! And if he had chosen to decline, then Demon Lord Rogeros could not punish Roy for it.
Therefore, Roy finally climbed to the upper level of the demon pyramid…
Roy landed in a residential area of this city. Perhaps it was because of the density of the floors here, but the blast wave from the nuclear explosion did not completely raze this place to the ground. Many buildings still had some foundations and small structures left, but the gla.s.s of these buildings was long gone. Roy could even imagine the spectacular scene the moment the explosion shattered the gla.s.s in this area…
In this residential area, there were many low-level demons lurking in all corners, searching for human survivors and beasts such as cats and dogs in order to obtain blood and souls. For these low-level demons who luckily survived the nuclear explosion, this world was basically now their paradise. They could find scattered souls everywhere. In fact, when they encountered angels, they could even gang up and could kill them, and they might even be able to obtain the souls of angels!
When Roy landed, because he did not deliberately restrain his magic power, the low-level demons immediately felt the power and pressure exuding from him. They whimpered and spontaneously started gathering toward Roy.
When they came in front of Roy, these low-level demons all knelt on the ground and bowed their heads. Those with tails extended their tails toward Roy. Those without tails spread their claws and stretched their palms up toward Roy.
Roy had certainly seen this scene before. Back in the Heroes of Might and Magic world, the low-level demons Xeron summoned expressed their obedience to Xeron like this. This posture looked like that of an orangutan… From this point of view, Roy’s choice to resist at that time was truly unconventional…
These low-level demons were rather large in number. There were low-rank demons and middle-rank demons, adding up to about a thousand of them in total. It was fine for them to move and hunt for food freely before when there was no high-rank demon leading them, but now that Roy was here, they had to accept Roy’s leaders.h.i.+p unconditionally. This was the unique authority of high-rank demons! From the moment Roy promoted to high-rank demon, he had automatically obtained the authority of a commander, and he could command these low-level demons at any time to lead them in large-scale battles.
Of course, Roy did not need to care about the low-rank demons. But for the middle-rank demons, if Roy wanted to lead them, he had to give them appropriate benefits. After all, middle-rank demons should have their corresponding status.
Roy squatted on a broken statue, looking at the low-level demons kneeling on the ground, and felt an unprecedented sense of accomplishment. He knew that as long as he gave the order, these low-level demons would fearlessly fight for him and plunder a lot of souls for him.
Roy slowly looked around at these low-level demons. These low-rank demons did not dare to look up at him at all, and they firmly lowered their heads to the ground. They did not know the temper of this high-rank demon in front of them, so they did not dare to do anything that might anger him. The middle-rank demons were better and could secretly observe Roy. But when Roy looked over, they quickly lowered their heads, not daring to meet his eyes.
Now, not only was Roy’s four wings exuding powerful magic power, but his body was also much bigger. He was more than three meters tall and had well-developed muscles. Coupled with his even more savage appearance and demon horns, he looked extremely threatening. Therefore, all the low-level demons around were waiting silently, not daring to make a sound.
“Now…” After a while, Roy finally spoke. This was the first time he spoke after promoting. He found that his voice had become much lower, and the scattered magic power mixed into the demon words greatly increased the sense of soul vibration. The moment he spoke, all the demons present could not help but listen carefully.
“Now, all winged demons, move out and fly to the sea to search for human weapons!” Roy gave his first order. “Find them!”
“Roar! Yes! Your Excellency!!”
With the simultaneous roar, the winged demons immediately flapped their wings and flew toward the sea. Roy also spread his wings and flew up, following behind them toward the sea.
Earlier, Roy had seen traces of intercontinental missiles rising in the sky east of the city in the distance. Although they had been hundreds of kilometers away, the strong light of the flames was too eye-catching in the night sky, so Roy knew that there were definitely human s.h.i.+ps or nuclear submarines. Nuclear bombs had been launched in the nearby sea. After all, this city was a large one with millions of people, and human troops had fought against angels and demons in the city before, so it was very likely that there was a military base here. The s.h.i.+ps or nuclear submarines that launched the intercontinental missiles might have sailed out from a secret base in this city.
It had been a few hours since the first wave of nuclear strikes. Although the angels and demons had suffered damage, the losses were not too serious, and many angels and demons were still active in the city. It was impossible for the humans not to observe this situation, so it was hard to guarantee that there would not be a second wave of nuclear strikes.
The humans were already fighting with the mentality of peris.h.i.+ng together. After the first wave of nuclear attacks, environmental damage was inevitable anyway, so it was very possible that they would launch more nuclear bombs in hopelessness and recklessness.
The power of nuclear bombs was still very formidable. High-rank demons who were unprepared and did not have protection could die in the explosions. Of course, Roy did not want to be horribly blasted by a nuclear bomb as soon as he promoted to high-rank demon, so after commanding these demons, his first thought was to find those human s.h.i.+ps or nuclear submarines!
Although he now had the unique ability of Radiation Perception, it was impossible for him to search such a vast sea alone. With the help of so many low-level demons, searching would definitely be much easier…
Numerous winged demons flew toward the sea. To Roy’s surprise, it seemed that he was not the only one who thought of this. Other high-rank demons had also thought of this. When flying to the beach, Roy saw a large number of demons gathering in other directions, and behind them were high-rank demons commanding them.
These demons that gathered divided their search areas tacitly, each taking action to find traces of humans on the sea. Some demons who knew how to swim dived into the sea and searched below.
After flying forward about a hundred kilometers, Roy saw that even the angel army had appeared in the sky above the sea. It seemed that not only demons but angels also felt the threat of human nuclear weapons and did not hesitate to send troops to search.
When the flying demons saw these angel soldiers, many of them looked at Roy, who was flying in the middle, waiting for his instructions. Roy looked ahead and found that there were several angels in this army that emitted rather strong radiation, indicating that they might be powerful, commanding high-level angels!
“Find the humans first. Don’t get into conflicts with these angels for now!” Roy ordered calmly.
Thus, under his command, the demons tried to avoid the areas the angel troops were searching. It seemed that the angel troops on the other side had also discovered the existence of Roy, a powerful four-winged high-rank demon. Out of caution, they did not rashly rush to the demon and only vigilantly watched him while continuing their search.
Both sides maintained restraint tacitly and concentrated on searching for the human s.h.i.+ps first, making Roy feel sorrow for the humans of this world. Not only had they encountered the End War, but they had also aroused the common fear of the angels and demons because they had fired nuclear bombs ruthlessly…
How could this be described with merely the single word tragic…