Book 7: The Sixth: Chapter to Ending the Demon King: Meeting Between Demon Kings
We walked amidst the dark army with all sorts of creatures of darkness around us.
As we closed in on our target, the levels of the creatures of darkness around us rose higher and higher; some higher levels even yelled at us to get back to our positions. However, after I absorbed a greater amount of dark element, they shut their mouths and their attitudes even turned somewhat respectful.
“Do they have eyes or not?” Vival asked in astonishment, “Don’t they notice us just walking in like this?”
I whispered, “As long as they are undead creatures, their eyes have already mostly decayed.”
“But not all of these creatures of darkness are rotten-eyed undead creatures!”
“When I covered our heads with dark element, I roughly shaped that into pointed ears and horns. Creatures of darkness have more or less some ability to sense dark and holy element, so to them, we look like unknown creatures of darkness with pointed ears and horns.”
Vival revealed an expression of sudden understanding. At that moment, Ceo jerked my arm and said quietly, “We are almost there, but that ring of creatures of darkness up ahead looks pretty high level. It probably won’t be as easy to fool them.”
I looked up. Our target with red eyes and fangs was now within a hundred meters. However, the real challenge started now because the creatures of darkness surrounding him were all of the highest levels, and a lot of them were not even covered by the Basic Knowledge of Undead Creatures textbook.
I guessed that this army was probably just chasing after Roland instead of causing trouble in various places. Otherwise, there would probably be massive destruction left in the wake of this army’s forces alone. Even the Church of the God of Light would not be able to stand up to this force and would probably have al…already killed me to solve the problems of the birth of the Demon King, the ceaseless expansion of the lands of darkness, and the rampage of the undead creatures across the land.
We walked to the ring of high level creatures of darkness. One of them stepped in front of us before we could speak and frowned as he looked at us. “You wish to see the general?”
This creature of darkness was a werewolf, but he seemed a little different from normal werewolves; he was at least a full head taller, and his biceps were larger than even my head.
I immediately gathered more dark element and stared sternly at the werewolf.
The werewolf’s expression darkened, and he got off his horse to stand face to face with me… Okay, we weren’t really face to face since my head could only reach his abs.
Then, I inspected him; aside from his muscular body, he was even wearing a full set of armor and had a huge sword strapped to his back. Usually, it was impossible for creatures of darkness to have such intricate battle gear. They didn’t have people like smiths, so all their gear and weapons were seized from beings they had killed, and often by then, the gear would have already been used until it was out of shape.
“You are not one of us!” The werewolf scrutinized us, a malevolent expression coming over his face. He almost unsheathed his huge sword on us.
I immediately said, “’That person’ sent us here. There are some things he wants us to pass on to your general.”
The werewolf hesitated, but he stopped unsheathing his sword. However, he still looked at us suspiciously and asked, “What does the monarch want you to pass on to us?”
“I’m sorry.” I put on a stiff expression and said, “The monarch said to tell none but the general.”
That should do it. The textbook says that werewolves are all muscles and no brain.
“Then tell me, what is the name of the general?”
Gah! I’m going to burn that textbook!
With no way to give his name in reply, I could only darken my expression and coldly say, “I do not know the name of the general. I was personally summoned by the monarch, and the monarch only told me to give his orders to the leader of the army.”
Hearing that, the werewolf frowned, but at least he let us pass with no further comment.
After the werewolf allowed us through, we walked undisturbed toward our target. No other creatures of darkness tried to stop us.
Laica stepped up to me and asked quietly, “How did you know to address Roland as ‘that person’?”
I smiled and answered quietly, “I didn’t know what they address Roland as, so using ‘that person’ was the safest measure. Since this army is only chasing after Roland, if you say ‘that person,’ then they will definitely only think of Roland. From that, they will tell me how to address Roland themselves.”
“…Wow! You are so despicable. You are even more qualified to be an assassin than I am!”
It’s like the person following me is Earth instead of Metal; his every word drips with poison! Could you please stop saying sincere words? Please try talking poisonously!
As we approached our targeted creature of darkness, he lowered his head to look down at us. Although he was expressionless, there was a sense of excitement in his voice. “What does the monarch want you to convey?”
On closer inspection, this creature of darkness did not look much different from a human, with his height of a hundred and eighty centimeters or so, regular facial features, and waist long hair. He was wearing lightweight armor. One thing special about this armor was that the entire back was done away with. It was no surprise as I already knew that this creature could grow wings, so obviously, the back had to be removed to let his wings out.
Even though he didn’t look very different from a regular human, that was only based off of his outer appearance. No blood flowed through his body, only thick dark element. His heart was simply a glob of dark element so dense that it had solidified.
From the point of view of a blind person who relied on sensing, he really was beautiful, just like the Eternal Tranquility, with extremely pure element. Of course, to others, they could only see a horrifying creature of darkness…
“The heck, that handsome?”
Ceo’s muttering drifted over from behind, “Is there no justice? He’s a creature of darkness, yet he’s this handsome? If one out of ten creatures of darkness is this handsome, then all women would go live in the lands of darkness!”
What? That handsome? Awaitsun is handsome. This creature of darkness before me is also handsome? Don’t tell me all these dark elemental guys are handsome! No wonder even though the Cathedral of the Shadow God has a dark reputation, their followers are still drastically increasing!
“What are you waiting for? Speak!” the general ordered, annoyed.
I put on a hesitant expression, and then glanced quickly at the creatures of darkness around us. Lastly, I frowned and said, “The monarch only wishes for you to know, sir.”
Hearing that, he frowned but did not speak, looking as if in deep thought. At this moment, I stepped closer. The creatures of darkness surrounding him immediately spurred their horses forward to block my passage, not allowing me to advance any further, but he said, “Let him pass.”
After a few horses moved back, I walked up to his horse and spoke in a low voice, “The monarch wishes to see you, but he does not want too many people to know of his location. He said that if he sees anyone else, then he will not appear and will leave immediately.”
The other asked quietly, “Why is the monarch looking for me?”
“The monarch has some orders for you to carry out regarding the demon king.”
I looked left and right and pointed at a hill a short distance away. I spoke, “Let’s go behind that hill to talk. If anyone overhears our conversation, they might want to go with you. That’s the reason why the monarch specifically said to only tell you.”
He hesitated before saying “Okay” and then sprouted a pair of membrane-like wings.
Seeing that, I wrapped the five of us in dark element and shaped translucent black-colored wings behind our backs. However in reality, I was planning to use wind element to fly while the dark elemental wings were just for show.
It was only when he saw the dark elemental wings that it seemed like he finally believed me. He turned to the creatures of darkness beside him and ordered, “I have matters to attend to. Stay put to await orders.”
“Yes!”
“Go,” he told me. Then he immediately beat his wings, took off into the sky, and flew toward the hill.
The five of us also flew with the help of wind element and followed behind him to the hill. Upon landing, he retracted his wings. Just when he was turning toward us, the dark element surrounding us suddenly lunged at him and morphed into layers of Chains of Darkness that bound him tightly.
“You dare do this? To suppress me with dark element? Na?ve!” He roared as he struggled. He really had the right to call me na?ve because he could actually use his bare hands to tear the Chains of Darkness apart.
Using dark element to suppress a creature of darkness is truly a tiring job, but unluckily for him, I can use as much dark element as necessary. Don’t even mention doubling the amount of dark element, even quintupling it is no problem!
I absorbed more dark element and strengthened the Chains of Darkness. There was absolutely no hope for him escaping now. My Chains of Darkness have once bound a dragon!
Ceo yelled, “Sun! You used dark element again!”
I explained, “Don’t worry! We are still close to the army, so even if Roland really felt that the level of dark element was especially high here, he will think it’s this guy and not suspect me.”
Hearing that, Ceo frowned but did not utter another word.
That creature of darkness struggled madly but could not escape from the layers upon layers of thick chains. With some difficulty, he turned around and growled at me, “Who exactly are you?”
I turned to look at him and laughed, “Grisia Sun, ever heard of me?”
Even though he did not answer, he paled, and this could also be considered as some form of answer. He had indeed heard of me before. I wonder if he found out about me from Roland?
As I thought over the questions I wanted to ask, I first asked some random unrelated questions. “Tell me your name first.”
He merely looked at me coldly and did not speak.
“Not telling, are you?” I grabbed his collar and growled, “Tell me, if I drag you over to blackmail Roland, will he hand the qualifications of the demon king over to me?”
Hearing that, he blanched… So did Ceo and the others.
I am only scaring him, don’t panic!
After using psychic magic to tell them, their expressions returned to normal, and they went back to casually watching me threaten a person… Threaten a creature of darkness!
“Illu,” he finally succumbed and answered, “The monarch named me Illu.”
“Very good, Illu.” I continued to ask, “You know of a lich with pink-colored skin, right?”
“No.”
“Tell me, where is she now…” I suddenly stopped. What did Illu just say? He doesn’t know Pink? I growled, “Don’t fool me! How can you not know Pink? You should have at least seen her beside Roland, right?”
Illu frowned and replied, “Never saw her before.”
Is he trying to deceive me or is he telling the truth? I frowned and continued asking, “You were summoned by Roland?”
“Yes.”
“Roughly when?”
“Half a year ago.”
He was summoned half a year ago but has never seen Pink before? I asked in disbelief, “You’ve really never seen the lich? Then was there anyone else who was always by Roland’s side? She’s probably the lich, and you just couldn’t tell…”
“There wasn’t! There was no one by the monarch’s side!” Illu replied with annoyance, “Not even Silent Eagle of the Cathedral of the Shadow God is allowed to constantly be by the monarch’s side. The only one who followed the monarch before was me!”
From his expression, it looked like he was proud of having followed Roland before, so he probably would not lie on that account. However, if Pink was never beside Roland, then where did she go?
Not being able to come to a conclusion, I could only continue to ask other questions. “Where is Roland? At the Cathedral of the Shadow God?”
Illu replied coldly, “If I knew where the monarch was, why would I get tricked by you?”
That’s true! Damn, does this mean this guy knows nothing?
“Why did Roland leave the Cathedral of the Shadow God?”
“The monarch’s will is not something I can randomly guess at!”
This guy is really clueless, and it looks like he really doesn’t know. Don’t tell me I took such a big risk to capture this guy for nothing? If I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have done so much… No! I have to get some information, no matter what!
“What race are you? How many high level creatures of darkness like yourself can Roland summon?”
I figured Illu could possibly be on par with Roland’s previous form—a death lord. If Roland could summon a lot of Illus, then I might as well just obediently surrender to him straight away and have him deal with me however he wishes.
“I don’t know.”
Don’t know…. I abruptly grabbed Illu’s collar and then pressed the Divine Sun Sword flat onto his face. Even though the divine sword had been sealed, it was still a divine object full of holy element. Direct contact for him was definitely not a pleasant experience.
I growled, “You don’t believe that I’ll really use you to blackmail Roland?”
Even though Illu tried hard to remain calm, signs of decay were starting to show on his face. With much effort, he endured the pain and only then was he willing to explain, “I am an exclusive bodyguard created by the monarch from his own blood and a fresh corpse. I do not know how many of us the monarch can create, but creating guards will take away some of the monarch’s own power. The monarch probably would not carelessly create more.”
So the guards are like a distribution of Roland’s power. Lucky for us, or else Roland would be virtually unbeatable… Even though, with this army alone, he will not have many enemies left.
Ceo opened his mouth and asked, “Sun, I’ve been thinking of asking you, are you going to kill him after you finish asking questions?”
“Kill him?” I almost jumped out of my skin. I asked back, “Why kill him? What would I do if Roland becomes furious and comes after me wanting revenge later?”
“Then what are you going to do with him now?” Vival looked down at me with much disdain and said, “Let him go and have him lead the army against you?”
…That is a very good question.
“Sun.” Ceo smiled gently and asked softly, “You did not just grab him without thinking about what you were going to do with him after, right?”
“…” I tried suggesting, “Can’t we just take him with us?”
The three people’s feral expressions almost scared both Tyler and Illu to death.
I used the spell of flight to fly desperately away with everyone. In short, the further we get away from that army the better. After all, I had just kidnapped their general, so it’s common sense to fly as far away as possible. It would be best if we could fly out of this land of darkness.
After flying for an entire day and night, we finally flew out of the land of darkness and landed in a forest. It also proved that my current magical capabilities have grown significantly stronger, even though flight still counted as one of the random jumble of abilities.
After landing, Laica exclaimed, “If you can fly this many people for a whole day, why did we have to ride horses back then?”
I was so tired that I almost couldn’t speak, so I couldn’t be bothered to come up with a retort. I only said, “Pitch, pitch the tents. I need to, need to sleep…”
“Are you alright?” Vival said worriedly, “You should have landed if you can’t handle it. What good is there in being stubborn?”
“I’m alright.” I waved his comment away and sat down against a tree trunk without any further explanation.
Vival shook his head wordlessly and then hurried away to help the others set up.
Seeing that everyone was busy pitching tents and cooking, I leaned against the tree trunk and felt my eyelids grow heavier. After confirming once more that the Chains of Darkness on Illu were still very secure, I drifted off peacefully…
I felt like I had opened my eyes right after I had closed them, but I realized that I was no longer in a forest but a strange and unknown place.
A deserted hillside. Thick red liquid flowed endlessly from above. All things in the liquid’s path were obliterated… It was lava, and this was the crater of a volcano.
What was more important was the fact that I could see the “red” lava, so this was a dream. It seemed like my spirit was wandering around while I slept again. According to my previous spiritual journey experience, I should be able to meet him again…
I yelled out, “Roland? Roland, are you there?”
“Above you.”
I looked up, and to no surprise, saw three pairs of gigantic wings. I said with annoyance, “Come down. Don’t float above me. Do you think it’s a pleasant view from down here? You are not a woman!”
He chuckled and descended to stand in front of me. Although his height and build were similar to mine, with the addition of those three pairs of wings, he truly had a majestic aura!
I couldn’t help but ask, “Do you still have that ring of disguise from Pink?”
Roland seemed taken back. He said, “I threw it away, why ask?”
“Because I hate facing you like this. You feel too powerful! It makes me think that I’ve lost before we’ve even fought!”
Roland laughed. He took a few steps back and drew his wings forward to cover himself. Then mysteriously, the wings simply disappeared just like that. When Roland reappeared, he looked just like a human again.
He said lightly, “I do not need that ring to disguise myself now.”
I stared at Roland. He hadn’t changed a single bit, remaining the age at which he had died. He already looked younger than me, but still had a quiet power and the aura of a leader about him.
I haven’t seen a person with my eyes for such a long time. It really is completely different from sensing because the sensing ability can’t recognize things like the aura of a leader!
If I get the chance, I wish I could see everyone with my eyes again, see the Twelve Holy Knights…
“I’ve almost forgotten what you look like,” I said with emotions welling up. “As expected, my sensing ability can’t fully replace sight. I really want to see everyone with my eyes again.”
Hearing that, Roland stopped smiling and said lightly, “Maybe you can get your sight back if you become the Demon King.”
I laughed, “I don’t think it’s possible to retrieve things that God has taken away.”
Roland looked at me and said, “Don’t you hate Him? He took away so many things from you without the slightest bit of mercy.”
“Hate Him?” I was shocked and said, “The God of Light has always answered my prayers and let me successfully perform perfect resurrections. Why should I hate Him? That time I resurrected Judgment, He even merely took away the color of my hair. Such a price is so low that it’s ridiculous!”
Roland opened his mouth and said, “Then you…” But he stopped midway abruptly.
Even though I didn’t know what Roland wanted to say, I had a lot of things I wanted to say. Let’s start by revealing the cards in my hands!
“I’ve captured your Illu.”
Roland was first taken back, then he frowned and looked a bit angry. He glared at me while I wordlessly looked back at him with a smile. After a long staring contest, he asked grudgingly, “Why have you captured him?”
“Come find me, and I will give him back.”
Roland laughed coldly. “Do you think I care for a creature of darkness after I’ve even killed you?”
If you really didn’t care, then Illu would not have said so much after I threatened him, right? I refuse to believe that Roland does not care for Illu. If he created Illu, it must be for a dire reason, or else why create a stalker when you don’t want people to follow you?
However, unless there was no other way, I still did not want to utter threats like “I will kill Illu if you don’t come,” so I had to start from somewhere else. “You still owe me an answer. You promised me before to answer one question.”
Roland looked at me, confused. “You can ask now.”
“No!” I growled, “I want to see you, face to face! Not some kind of false meeting like this!”
Roland was silent for a while. Then he replied with a question, “Why?”
I said indignantly, “At the very least, we have been friends since we were children. No matter how things have progressed from there, can’t we meet one last time?”
Roland was silent again. He suddenly growled testily, “I killed you!”
Well duh! I widened my eyes, not understanding why Roland said that piece of useless information. Would I, the person who got killed, still not know who my killer was?
He was agitated. “I tricked you into entering Pink’s secret room, cut your neck, passively watched you bleed all over the floor, and finally killed you! Don’t you have anything you want to say to me for all that?”
So that’s what it was all about. I replied calmly, “Yes, there are a lot of things I want to say. Come and see me, answer my question, and I will tell you.”
Roland looked at me with a shocked expression, and then he laughed. First he chuckled, and then he started laughing loudly. He howled madly with laughter with his head tilted back, until he couldn’t even maintain his disguise properly, faintly revealing his flaming eyes and black flame markings.
However, as I watched him laugh, I felt no happiness from it, only a sense of deep and prolonged sadness… Luckily I could see at the moment, or else had I been relying only on my sensing ability, I probably couldn’t sense such subtle emotions.
Grieving laughter.
At last, Roland abruptly stopped laughing and said to me, “Okay! Sun, I will go see you. Take Illu with you. He is my summoning. I know his location. When you reach the place of the ceremony, I will immediately appear.”
When… did you switch to calling me Sun? Sun is what the Twelve Holy Knights call me. Didn’t you use to call me Grisia?
“Go see them now.”
“Them?” I was taken back, not comprehending what Roland was saying.
“The Twelve Holy Knights.” He reminded me, “Didn’t you say you wanted to see them just now? If you want to see them, go see them. At least right now, you would be able to see them, right? Don’t worry about the distance. Since you easily found me when you didn’t even know where I was, then you certainly have the ability to find the Twelve Holy Knights.”
Is that so? If I can find anyone, then the one I want to see the most right now is…
With golden hair and blue eyes, a posture like that of a majestic lion, known as the strongest Sun Knight in history, Neo stood before me. He held an unknown animal’s leg in his hands, roasted to golden crispness. Just looking at it made me hungry.
As he ate the roasted leg, he complained to Aldrizzt who was squatting on the ground and busying himself with roasting meat. “That bastard Pope, where did he find such awful tasting rations for the army’s provisions? He forced me to hunt for food!”
“Teacher?”
I looked left and right. Roland had disappeared, and this was no longer the crater of a volcano anymore. To my left and right were a whole bunch of tents and many fully armed holy knights, knights, warriors, and even clerics walking around.
I know! This is the camp of the expedition army. With a simple turn of thought, I found my teacher. I never guessed that I was also pretty strong… Who was that? Who just said that this was one of those messy jumbles of abilities?
I walked in front of my teacher and greeted him with respect. “It’s been a long time, Teacher.”
Previously, I got killed and did not even die gracefully, so of course my attitude has to be as respectful as possible!
However, my teacher did not respond to me but continued to rant to Aldrizzt about the Pope’s stinginess. He even dredged up past quarrels to count… I had almost forgotten; I was actually invisible at the moment, so no one could see me. Roland is probably an exception?
I waved my hand in front of my teacher to confirm that he couldn’t see me. How fortunate! Or else, since I died ungracefully and made him lead an expedition against undead creatures, it would be weird if my teacher did not kill me!
“Stop complaining,” Aldrizzt said tiredly. “I’m already roasting meat for you to eat, so stop ranting… Neo? Are you listening to me?”
“Who’s there?” My teacher roared and pulled his sword out at the same time, swinging it right through my waist. If I had a real body right now, I would be in two pieces!
Gah! I almost forgot that my teacher Neo is a special case in all aspects!
Also, Teacher, is there anyone else who would cleave the subject in half when asking for their name? Then what are you asking for? Who cares what their name was. In any case, they are already in two halves, so they are a corpse now!
“Grisia?” My teacher abruptly hesitated, and asked doubtfully, “Is that you?”
Astonished, Aldrizzt stood up and asked, “Grisia? I heard from the Church that he should be on his way to the Cathedral of the Shadow God at the moment, right? Why did you call out his name?”
My teacher looked suspiciously at where I was standing and said, “Because my ears felt itchy, like I was hearing that student of mine blabbering again!”
…I am sorry. I should not have blabbered in my heart.
“Students reflect their teachers!” Aldrizzt shook his head and sat down again to roast the meat. He continued, “Even though I don’t see anything, your student does have many odd abilities. It wouldn’t be that strange if he really were here right now.”
“I don’t care if you are there or not, Grisia!” My teacher roared in my direction, “Hurry up and get this thing over with! Remember, you owe me half a year of retirement! When you retire, you have to be my slave for three years. Do you hear me?”
Why do I have to return three years for half a year?
“It’s interest!” My teacher’s features twisted as he roared.
… Are you sure you really can’t see me?
My teacher roared, “Grisia, did you hear what I just said?”
I smiled and answered, “Yes!”
My teacher actually nodded and returned his sword to its scabbard. He reached over to grab the golden, crispy wing that Aldrizzt had roasted, and then continued to rant about the Pope’s stinginess while eating.