The silence that followed Agares's failed retort wasn't just awkward, it was damning. For the Demon Kings, creatures born and forged in violence, who always chose war over words, the fact that none of them leapt to challenge this unknown threat said more than they realized.
They were afraid.
Not that any of them would admit it aloud but the truth was undeniable. A being they didn't understand, a man who had humiliated the highest of Eden and conquered their peer, now lingered in the shadow of their thoughts like a creeping storm. And because they knew nothing of him, they couldn't even be sure they had the strength to face him if it came to that.
Asmodeu who remained quiet all this while, simply listened. His cold, elegant, and calculating. But within his heart he laughed.
If he hadn't submitted to Clyde, hadn't been defeated and forced to kneel beneath that man's overwhelming power, perhaps he would have felt the same rage and confusion boiling in these kings now.
