Sharpening the edges
The first day of the eleventh month in the year 1120194.
The City of Sharpe was named after Mage William Sharpe, who was born and bred there and later became a successful mage.
Even though mages don't interfere in mortal affairs, many kingdoms, cities, and places are named after them.
Ordinary people are aware of the existence of mages; it's just that if they don't pass the test, they can never become mages.
The test is two-layered. One is the mage talent test, which, if it's below 6, one has no chance at all. The other is a character test, which is for finding hardworking people with strong will.
Not many can pass both, but those who do will all have great futures.
...
Zagronan, who disguised himself as a human, was walking in the streets.
He was not surprised or impressed by anything this city had to offer. After all, he had been to the most prominent cities, so this tiny Sharpe city with a population under a million was not eye-catching.
Rachel, however, was emotional.
"Really, nothing is the same! Everything has changed! Even though I'm sure this place is where the main body threw me initially, time has erased all clues!" she thought.
Of course, if she digs deep enough, she will find clues in the code. But, on the surface, all have been eliminated by time.
"Time is the ultimate eraser of the universe; even immortals can't resist it!" she thought.
Theoretically, she can live forever, the same life as the universe, but in practice, accidents happen. Who can guarantee that Rachel will win the war against anti-Rachel?
Even if looking at the current universe, there are many questions she can't answer.
What if the 'office'? What was there before the existence of Rank 14 civilizations? What will happen far into the future?
It doesn't matter if she can theoretically live forever; as long as there is something in the universe that has the power or potential to eliminate her, she is not truly immortal.
"Here," said Rachel.
Zagronan was in the middle of the road when Rachel said this.
"This is the place. Sit here and start," she said.
Zagronan nodded and sat down. His sitting there disrupted the traffic, with many people yelling.
But who cares about mortals?
He simply snapped his fingers and sent them away. To be honest, Zagronan preferred to kill them off, but Rachel disliked killing for no reason, so he only sent them far away. The entire city went dead quiet.
"Here, Zag, I think you went overboard!" said Rachel.
He basically sent the entire city's population away.
He shrugged.
Rank 9 is the final step before becoming immortal. It's when one must prepare for a complete law.
However, the difference between Rank 8 and 9 is only in quantity, not quality.
The limiting factor has always been resources.
To advance, many different pills are needed. However, Zagronan has no problem with resources, thanks to Rachel.
So, the only thing left now is to take the final step, as he has already reached the peak of Rank 9 after consuming Rank 8 pills for more than one hundred thousand years.
One can imagine how terrifying it is to gather all those resources without Rachel.
Zagronan took the 'law condensation' pill. This pill will condense existing law within his body and open up new space in his aperture.
Even demons only work on their aperture, not on their whole bodies. Only mad people like knights spend all those resources to train their entire bodies. They need to strengthen their whole bodies to advance in rank.
But mages and most demons, like Zagronan, only need to strengthen their apertures.
Zagronan has already done all that, and his apertures and meridians are comparable to those of Rank 9 demons. They can entirely tolerate Rank 9's concentration of energy.
The Rank 9 condensation pill used by Rachel began to do its work.
Zagronan's fragment laws began becoming more dense and powerful. His fragment law is wisdom inherited from his father; when he lost his royal status, it was too late to change course.
He continued taking consolidation pills, and because the pills were all rank 9, after a short time, he successfully fused a bit of Rank 9 fragment law. He officially entered Rank 9!
It seems easy because he made all preparations beforehand, like strengthening his aperture and meridians, enhancing his understanding to Rank 9, reaching the absolute peak of Rank 8, preparing a lot of precious pills, etc.
In addition to all that, luck is also required because Rank 9s are all minor protagonists of the world. However, for Zagronan, this is not an issue and is even a boost.
With the main protagonist's luck, there is no danger of breakthrough failure.
He sat down and converted all his fragment laws to rank 9 and then stood up.
"I am a demon king, an existence of the same rank as my father," Zagronan laughed.
Rachel also looked at her changes. No new skills came; only her energy allotment increased significantly.
She can create whatever skill she wants with that energy. As for her administrator rank, it will automatically reach Rank 2 when she advances to Rank 10, Rank 3 when she reaches Rank 12, and Rank 4 when she reaches Rank 13.
Rank 1 administrators are not allowed to know any important secrets, but general knowledge is available. It should be noted that what Rachel considers 'general knowledge' is actually treasured information for other Rank 13 civilizations.
Rank 2 administrators can access much more information but still cannot see sensitive information.
Rank 3 administrators can access most information, with only a few parts concealed.
Rank 4 administrators know everything except what is disallowed explicitly by the main Rachel. It is not uniform, with some rank 4 administrators knowing this secret and others knowing that secret.
Mian Rachel pays attention to rank 4 administrators, who are usually heads of regional headquarters.
Zagronan stood up. "From today onward, I am the Demon King of Wisdom!" he declared. He feels like he can crush everything with just one look.
Most of the time, when one advances, the strength overwhelms them and makes them feel this way, but this time, his feeling is not wrong.
Now, for Zagronan, there are very few things he cannot crush.
"Let's go back," he said to Rachel.
He had found his triplets a long time ago. Along with Lana, they also gave birth to 32 other royal blood children.
As for other untalented children, of course, Lana ate them. Today, she is an expert on how to cook newborn demon children.
...
Lana was busy in the kitchen. "Salt!" she said, and Lust#2 brought it.
"Boiling lava!" she screamed again. This time, Envy#1 brought it.
Over the years, the once terrifying demon kings had become used to being ordered around by her. For survival, they didn't dare to complain in all these years.
Lana was cooking human food. Don't get it wrong; she wasn't cooking humans.
She was producing foods that humans ate, plus her modifications.
She had long ago decided to try them, and she liked it. Sure, it was nowhere near the taste of a demon newborn child, but still, it filled the stomach.
Just then, Zag appeared. "Hey, I reached Rank 9," Zag said with indifference.
"Yeah, I see," Lana replied with disinterest.
"Where are the children?" asked Zag.
"Playing around like always. Hey, Greed #6, go bring them!" Greed #6 sprung into action with a smile.
As for whether the smile was real or fake, who knows?
Lately, he and Lana had fallen out. The reason was simple.
Recently, Zagronan had been making preparations for Rank 9, so they hadn't had any new children for more than two months.
This frustrated Lana.
Among demons of old, she was not the exception but the norm. Demons were evil, only caring about themselves, and had no morals. There were exceptions, but if one picked a demon at random, they most likely chose such a demon.
Of course, evil demons are now extinct, so Lana is one of an existing generation.
Soon, a lot of demons appeared.
Rachel had given each of these 'children' an incarnation, providing them with dark element pills.
Today, all of them are meditating using dark elements, so they are still evil.
But even though they are evil, Rachel keeps them constrained. She never allowed them to go around and destroy cities.
At most, she allows them to go around the country in rural places and destroy a few villages nobody misses.
Of course, everyone's life is equally valuable, and it's impossible to say someone doesn't matter and all that, but Rachel simply didn't care.
She wouldn't personally kill anyone for no benefit and even help if it's effortless, but if Zagronan's children want to do it, it's not her responsibility to stop them.
She already stopped them from attacking big cities where casualties would have been catastrophic, so in her mind, she had done more than enough.
"Rachel, look at these children! They look frustrated. Please, let us go and celebrate!" said Zagronan.
"By celebration, you mean?" she asked.
"Yeah, please, Rachel, I feel like I don't have the edge that a demon king must have," he said.
These days, Zagronan complains a lot about his edges being blunted.
Rachel sighed and said, "Okay. I will contact Lee and tell them you are going to take the capital!" she said.
Rachel felt capital was suitable for the 'celebration' and would satisfy them.
"The capital? I love you!" Zagronan was happy.
The children looked at their father and were puzzled. Zagronan said, "Children, I am a demon king now, so we will celebrate! Let's go to Kobi City!"
One, who had glasses and looked like a smart man, asked, "To do what?"
Zagronan sneered and said, "Of course, to sharpen our edges, to destroy it!"
...
Kobi city was huge, with more than one hundred million people from all backgrounds living there.
In addition to all government buildings, there are many libraries with precious books, museums with historical paintings and statues, and unique structures that couldn't be found anywhere else on the continent.
It was peaceful, with a very low crime rate and a high standard of living.
...
Zag, along with his demon children, appeared not far away.
He was a particular demon, different from the typical idea of what a demon used to be.
He was capable of love, like his love for Lana and his children, as well as his disinterest in other females and loyalty to Lana.
These traits were unusual.
However, he was still a demon who used dark elements to meditate.
He placed humans, elves, beastmen, plant people, demons, etc., all in the same category.
He didn't create two categories, one for unintelligent creatures that could be used as food and another for intelligent ones whose dignity should be respected.
Zagronan didn't give a damn about any of these distinctions. He did what he wanted when he wanted, and it was nobody's business.
In the past, he has been restrained by Rachel. This made him feel like he was losing his demon side.
He hated that feeling, so he craved a good slaughter of innocents just to reconnect with his demon roots.
It was an urge for mindless slaughter, the animalistic type of evil, with no logic behind it; he did it simply because he could.
If he were placed in a human society, he would have been put in a mental hospital as soon as they found out about his way of thinking. Unfortunately for Kobi City, nobody in this world was capable of restraining him.
"Boundary wall," he cast his spell.
A vast and wide wall appeared and surrounded the city.
"Guys, go and have fun! This is a gift from me!" he shouted and laughed.
The children laughed and attacked.
Savior, of course, wasn't here. If he had been there to witness it, he would have been terrified.
Lately, his way of thinking diverged further and further away from his parents.
Rachel also sighed. She disliked these actions but wasn't going to stop them.
All kinds of terrible things were happening every day; should she exert effort to stop them? If she had this mentality, she would have never reached Rank 13.
Just as Zagronan was about to start his fun, Savior suddenly arrived by teleportation and shouted, "Father, wait! Stop it!"