Dark Lord

About
Dark Lords(sometimes translated as "Demons") are creatures conceived by one of the Gods to be the most powerful beings in the mortal realm, with the Demon King being at the top of the pyramid of power.

When a creature becomes a Dark Lord, its appearance may or may not alter. There are cases of drastic changes in appearance, and even a case of sex change.

Unlike the Demon King however, the personality is maintained the same. Despite the scary name, not all Dark Lords are destructive or evil. Quite a number of them are capable of compassion and sympathy, while some are completely apathetic or have no interest in violence.

Dark Lords are created out of ordinary creatures by consuming the blood of the Demon King. The process of turning into a Dark Lord may (or may not) transform the appearance of the creature, and there is no common physical traits to visually identify them.

At any given time, only 24 Dark Lords (not including the Demon king) may exist. Dark Lords do not age, and unlike the Demon King who only get their powers for 1000 years each, an ordinary Dark Lord would remain a Dark Lord indefinitely. If a Demon King wishes to make more Dark Lords, it must kill off some of the existing Dark Lords to make space.

Powers
Those who become Dark Lords have their maximum potential increased exponetially. They are immensely powerful and even the weakest Dark Lords are on par with the strongest humans in history.

Dark Lords are protected by an invincibility field, protecting them from harm by ordinary means. Currently only the following may dispel the invincibility field to harm or kill a Dark Lord: Powerful Magic Seals can seal a Dark Lord for a long period of time and is the safest way for humans to deal with Dark Lords. Magic by the mortals cannot directly harm or damage the Dark Lords, but it can isolate them in a secluded field.
 * The Holy Sword Nikkou
 * The Demonic Sword Chaos
 * The Guardian Hero of the World with the Hero Sword Escude
 * Other Dark Lords (including the Demon King)
 * Devils
 * Gods (including Angels and Holy Beasts)

When a Dark Lord is killed, it turns into a Demonic Blood Soul. When the blood soul is consumed by another creature, the creature may be turned into a new Dark Lord and retain itself, or the self of the original demon may take over and resurrect the original Dark Lord in a new body. The Demon King can also re-absorb the blood soul back into the Demon King's body. Dark Lords reduced to a Blood Soul can be revived if they are consumed by another creature and overcome their will. They only way to completely kill a Dark Lord is by having the Demon King destroy the Blood Soul.

Hierarchy
Due to the powers of the Demon King in their blood, Dark Lords are unable to disobey the Demon King. Even if the Demon King who created the Dark Lord dies, the Dark Lord would still be absolutely obedient to the new Demon King.

Directly beneath the Demon King is the Supreme Dark Lord, a single individual that is elevated to a higher status by the Demon King. The current Supreme Dark Lord is Hornet.

Beneath the Supreme Dark Lord are the Four Elite, four Dark Lords that are older, more powerful and more experienced than most of the other Dark Lords. The current members of the Four Elite are Kayblis, Kesselrink, Silky and Kamilla.

Dark Lords also can form and command a Demon Army, usually to attack human countries.

Apostles
Similar to how a Demon King may use its blood to create Dark Lords, a Dark Lord may give its blood to other creatures and create Apostles. There is no limit as to how many Apostles a Dark Lord may create, but the Dark Lords' power gets spread thinner as the number of its Apostles increases. Also, the more Apostles a Dark Lord creates, the weaker the control the Dark Lord has over them.

Like the Dark Lords, Apostles are immortal and have no limit on life span. However, they do not have the invincibility field and can be killed by normal means. The demands of their master is aboslute to them, and they cannot disobey. If the Dark Lord dies and the Blood Soul is consumed by another being, the authority of the Apostle moves along to the new Demon.

There is also another subset of apostles refered to as the Lesser Apostle. They are being that are not actually bound by the sharing of blood, but rather, a servant loyal simply by an oath of loyalty. They don't have any special ability for it.

Factions
Currently, for the first time in their history, Dark Lords are in a civil war. There are two factions of Dark Lords in conflict with each other. Since the death of Demon King Gi, the Dark Lords were split in two over how to deal with Little Princess Miki not desiring to rule as the new Demon King.

Hornet, daughter of Gi, leads the faction to follow the wishes of her father, and bring peace to the conflict between human kind and the Dark Lords with Miki as the ruler.

Kayblis, the oldest and most powerful Dark Lord of all, desires to kill Miki and become the new Demon King himself. Majority of Dark Lords sided with Kayblis and joined his faction.

The Hornet Faction has contacted Miki and Kentarou many times, even befriending them. Protecting the Little Princess from Kayblis' assailatns is their highest priority.

Despite the fact the Kayblis Faction is immesely larger in size and power, it has conflicts within itself. Many of the Dark Lords follow Kayblis only due to common interest, and in fact despise Kayblis and his ways.

Both Factions also have thousands of monsters that sided with each faction depending on their individuals opinion on the matter.