The ice lord also appeared quite speechless. As a Demon, he had always been a despicable and shameless existence in the eyes of humans. However, now he felt… there truly was no race more shameless than humans. _(:зゝ∠)_
He looked at the two already frozen holy knights, whose expressions were so full of terror that they couldn't even look straight forward. Although their two sides were enemies, Ice Lord Weize couldn't help but feel sympathy for them
However, he had not forgiven these two unfortunate children, so he put away his staff and pulled out the two holy knights' souls.
Perhaps no one would've thought that amongst the Demons, the one most skilled at soul magic wasn't the fear lord, who was proficient at attacking souls, nor the abyss lord, who loved to peer into other's inner hearts for his own entertainment, but rather the serious-looking ice lord, Weize.
In fact, the ice lord could easily see other people's souls, possibly because ice and snow were inherently transparent. Ultimately, this allowed him to possess a calmness beyond ordinary people and the wisdom of someone able to see through everything.
Ice Lord Weize didn't enjoy examining others too thoroughly, however. To be constantly thinking about peering through others' mentalities was too much trouble for him.
After all, he wasn't the abyss lord. _(:зゝ∠)_
While drawing out the two holy knight's souls, his face was expressionless and his movements were swift. Some Demons liked to torture humans through the extraction of their souls, but he didn't enjoy such a method–it was too cruel. It seemed more like something that the abyss lord would do.
Ice Lord Weize felt that something was off. It seemed that he was constantly thinking of the abyss lord today.
–The abyss lord, within the camp of the Northern Alliance's first line of defense, consecutively sneezed three times. He was currently interrogating human and Beastman generals who were bound up with the five flowers tie[]. However, before he could even begin speaking, out came his snot, spraying directly onto the other's face.
…So angry.
The two holy knights could be considered a part of the Bright God Church's upper echelon, but were essentially bodyguards and thugs. They did not have access to any confidential material. They had a general idea that they were going to be digging up the Demon King's body in order to add yet another glorious achievement to the third elder's resume. After digging up the body, they would then claim that it was the third elder who had slain the Demon King. As for the brave who had actually done it? Who cared about him?
Such words were really unpleasant to hear. Furthermore, it was shameful that the humans were fighting for and stealing credit from each other to this degree. However, the ice lord shook his head as he thought of how, in the past few times the Great Demon Army had fought the Northern Alliance, factions had formed within the Demons, all trying to suppress each other. Oh, how simple the times were when the Demons were still in Hell! After coming up to the surface, they were all led astray and turned into what they were now!
The ice lord's expression suddenly turned dignified as he finally found a solution after a while. The only way to improve the overall quality of the Demons was through exams.
It seems that in addition to looking for His Majesty the Demon King's soul, he would also need to go the human cities and check to see if there were any books that could enhance one's consciousness. The Demons should also continue to improve their entire populations' abilities.
The two holy knights knew, without a doubt, that they would die. Their souls were already starting to sputter out. They only prayed for a quick death. However, as they tried to shatter their container, their courage rose. "Demon! You dare to do this–the Bright God will definitely punish you!"
Ice Lord Weize turned his head over. He had always possessed a lot of patience. "Have you ever actually seen this Bright God that you so revere?"
He tilted his head, his expression earnest, "Seeing as they have never sent down a miracle before, I had always thought that you people had fabricated such a god."
The holy knight was angered to the point of wanting to spit blood. However, because he was in his soul state, he was unable to spit. "You–what did you say?! We have seen His Majesty the Bright God's figure with our own eyes."
Ice Lord Weize responded, "I know, that was a type of illusion magic. When paired together with the holy element, a spectacular event occurs…if you had paid more attention, you would've been able to see through it."
Before letting the two holy knights die, Ice Lord Weize thought about how the Bright God Church's brainwashing abilities were truly too strong.
True Gods and Demons had once existed, but that was in the distant past. It was a time that existed tens of thousands of years before His Majesty Demon King Rozenke's reincarnation. The Shen Juan Continent of then was much different from now. There had been almost no pure-blooded humans. Instead, there were plenty of half-breeds between the primeval humans and Elves, Demons, Trolls, and so forth. Thus, many of today's humans had demonic bloodlines. During that time, Gods and Demons were born from the heavens and the earth. They represented the light and dark, the great earth and the stars. It was unclear how many times greater they were compared to the ice lord who was born from an ice field.
The various intelligent races had not established any civilizations back then. The elves of today, who liked to hang elegance by their lips, had also just been a group of barbaric fellows who squatted by rivers to take a dump. There were frequent battles and blood often flowed freely, but all of it was for the sake of survival. Notions of power, glory, and wealth were things that arose later on.
Tens of thousands of years ago, because the Shen Juan Continent's world's population had increased, there was also an increase in the number of intelligent races that could use magic, which led to the elements becoming unstable. Some of the races that wielded the holy light element and the Demons who wielded the dark element were constantly getting into disputes. A rift was also forming between the worshipped Gods of both sides. This led to the first War of Gods and Demons. If there is a first, there was also a second. Once both sides fought until they were filled with murderous rage, it became difficult to stop the fighting. When the dust settled, both the Gods and the Demons had perished. All civilizations on the continent fell to silence. The various races mourned for a while after. Furthermore, the Demons were driven underground, straight into the middle of Hell.
Even if they were Demons, the dark environment of Hell was too harsh for them to live in.
However, the Demons had lost their Demon King in the war and had no choice but to return back to the underground.
As for the Demon race, they were more faithful to the Demon King than to the Demon Gods. After humans had lived on the surface for over tens of thousands of years, building up a civilization once again from scratch, they gradually began to forget their original beliefs. The humans had originally believed in the Beast Gods as the original humans had originated from apes, and had counted as family to the Beastmen. However, now both humans and Beastmen looked down on each other. Their relationship was a bit awkward.
As for the Bright God they believe in… this was probably just a God made up by the Bright God Church
At least the Light Gods the ice lord recognized were nothing like the one described by the Bright God Church.
…
At the outer edge of the Burning Hell.
–Some of the Bright God Church's higher-ups met the ice lord while accomplishing a task in the Burning Hell! –Was this a downfall of morals or a loss of humanity?! Why did the ice lord come to such a hot area? Wasn't there a long established rumor that his greatest fear was of heat?
At the last second, the third elder activated his life-saving teleportation badge. When he saw that his enemy was the ice lord, he had already lost all hope of winning the battle.
This isn't fear, Third Elder thought as he wildly ran, using his sleeve to wipe the sweat off his brow. The exquisite silk brushed across his face, but all he could feel was his burning skin and his heart pumping faster. It was akin to the first battle he had ever been in. At that time he had also encountered an unbeatable enemy…at that time he has also retreated…
The third elder thought of an excuse: this is just to prevent the Demons from obtaining more information. He was different from those two guardian knights. He knew too many of the Bright God Church's secrets and could not afford for them to be revealed. He mustn't let the Demons know them. He wasn't just trying to save his own life. What nonsense, this wasn't to preserve his own life! –Nonsense!
It was a shame that the Bright God Church had little influence over the Snow Blade Kingdom's southern lands. As for areas beyond the Snow Blade Kingdom, such as Wilderness City, their influence was even lower, else Third Elder would have asked the local city lord to organize a military escort to protect him.
Although, a guard composed of human soldiers might not be very useful against the ice lord.
When Third Elder thought of Wilderness City, he suddenly remembered that Daeniste was in the Wilderness City looking for that Brave Xu Jun. Suddenly discovering a lifeline, his eyes lit up.
In truth, he didn't believe in Daeniste. In his opinion, Daeniste was still a child, a high-handed, weak, and arrogant child raised by the pope. In Third Elder's opinion, the Bright God Church did not need such a useless holy son. Even the holy daughter of the Ruling Council was much stronger than him. At least she wouldn't turn the entire Bright God Church into a laughingstock because she accidentally missed attending the nobles' ball due to healing some beggars who were about to die.
Furthermore, His Excellency the Pope had even praised how kind his adopted son was!
The third elder severely criticized Holy Son Daeniste in his heart. No, he wasn't going to find that little, bratty boy. Wilderness City was where that Brave Xu Jun, that Brave Xu Jun who had killed the demon king, was located.
Since he could kill the Demon King…then he probably won't lose to the Ice Lord, right?!
Thus, the third elder of the Bright God Church quickly forgot the purpose for which he had entered the Burning Hell for. This man, who had mocked this brave's for his idiocy, now treated Xu Jun as a lifeline.
Since Xu Jun was a brave, he would not turn a blind eye to him. After all, he was the Bright God Church's third elder.
Thus, the third elder nervously ran to Wilderness City, with the Ice Lord following far behind him. The Ice Lord wasn't actually following this elder, but rather because he had discovered that His Majesty the Demon King's soul had been to Wilderness City, and that it had most likely arrived within another person's body. It seems that His Majesty the Demon King has found himself a decent body. However, why didn't His Majesty the Demon King immediately summon them to come over?
The Ice Lord practically only thought about the worst possible situations. For example, the soul of His Majesty the Demon King had actually been sealed by someone–this was nearly impossible. In this world, there was no one who could seal the Demon King's soul.
The third elder of the Bright God Church fled without thought. When he saw the city gates were under repair, he entered from the side doors. He watched as soldiers gathered around a middle-aged man who was possibly Wilderness City's lord. This city lord was followed by a flock of geese.
"Let the geese patrol. All of you, get some rest," City Lord Dika said towards Personal Guard Captain Allen. "You've been working hard these past two days.
Allen wanted to say it wasn't tiring at all, before he seemed to sense someone swiftly rushing towards the city lord. He just drew his blade when–
"Ga! Ga!" The battle geese moved quicker than Allen. The geese lifted their heads and raised their chests, speedily locking onto their target and formed a circle around Third Elder and began honking at his butt.
Third Elder: "Ow–! Let go! What are you doing!"
The author has something to say:
Battle geese! Successful in every endeavour!
So it was that the Ice Lord, who was observing from the shadows, prepared to raise some battle geese for the Great Demon Army.