Scylla's anger quieted down, but the demon Susur had already fallen on his knees and felt suffocated. Without delay, he fawned on the floor and begged her to save his life.
"P-Please spare my life, Your Majesty!"
Dark blood oozed out from his wounds, causing him to pant heavier.
"Please give me another chance, Your Majesty. I will find that culprit and bring those materials back." Susur cried in fear.
"Another chance? Fool! I can get the other materials wherever I want. But that Stone Tablet is not. I won't forgive you for wasting my time and energy on you." Scylla said harshly.
"My Lady, Please!" Susur once again begged, but Scylla coldly snorted and snapped her fingers.
With a whoosh sound, one of Lady Scylla's hair strands separated from her head and started to expand into a one-meter-long snake-like being. It slithered towards demon Susur, opened its snake-like mouth, and bit his leg.
Susur's size began to reduce a second later, and he looked more like an imp with a snakehead!
It turned into an infant Caarth demon.
"I took away your strength as a punishment, Susur. Additionally, I will demote you from the elite squad and send you to the death valley as a foot soldier. I will give you one last chance. Participate in the upcoming wave and get those materials back without help. Now scram!" Her angry voice made the now-demoted-imp Susur shiver in fear.
Four Caarth demons ran into the throne hall a few seconds later and dragged the pitiful young Susur away from the Throne Hall.
Susur looked down at his thin hand with dull eyes as he walked out of the large eerie castle.
He had never imagined being demoted from his ranks and even sent back to the Death Valley as a foot soldier.
More shocking was that Demon General Scylla took away his entire life's work as if it were nothing!
"Is this the power of the Demon General? Even if I become a Greater Demon again, she will have the power to strip away my bloodline, right?' He then realized that he was nothing more than a pawn in the Demon General's eyes!
'First of all, who stole the materials from me?' He angrily muttered and slowly walked out of the majestic castle.
'I must be wary of those Red Caarth members from now on.' Susur felt malicious gazes around it and thought immediately of its mortal enemy.
'I have to rise in rank and become a Greater Demon first. Then, I will return to the Easica Plane and deal with the humans.' He continued to mutter and walked towards his next destination, Death Valley.
...
Royal Palace Garden, Dewsummit City, Peral Kingdom.
It was around 9 P.M.
As demon Susur walked into the bluish portal and disappeared from their sights, Abium exhaled deeply and muttered.
"Finally!"
He then moved towards Helena and others and checked their pulses.
After confirming they were sleeping, he took a leather water pouch from his space ring and splashed the water on their faces.
Slowly, Baron Auguinare, Helena, and Margery woke up from their unconscious state and sat up in confusion.
"What happened?" "W-Where is that demon?" "Where are we?"
All three showed a tensed expression on their faces and reached out for their weapons.
"Don't worry. The demon has long left." Abium said as she helped them get up one by one and slowly shifted his gaze towards Lucius.
Meanwhile, Lucius walked toward the unconscious elite warriors and started waking them up.
But even after pouring water on their bodies, none woke up from their unconscious state!
"Strange. Why aren't these soldiers waking up?" Lucius showed a puzzled look and asked in confusion.
At that moment, Tabitha also moved closer to them and soon saw strange dark lines on their skins.
"Maybe a curse?" She frowned.
"I don't think it's a curse, My Lady." Abium stood up, started walking towards the group of unconscious elite guards, and checked them quietly.
"Their bodies are corrupted by the chaos power, My Lady. More like, they are in a half-demonized state now."
"Is it possible to save them?" Margery walked unsteadily towards them and asked anxiously.
"There are two ways to keep them from being completely demonized." He stopped for a moment and continued with a sigh.
"One cure you can get everywhere on this continent, but it would be very hard to get. No, I would say it would be impossible in our kingdom's current situation."
"Holy water, huh?" Tabitha interjected.
"Yes, My Lady. Because of the dispute between the Light Church and the Royal Family, they won't give even a small drop of holy water to anyone affiliated with our kingdom." Abium said with a wry smile.
"Hmm, it's a big problem, indeed. And if the Light church members somehow found out the truth of this incident, it would become a huge problem, politically and economically." Lucius said slowly.
"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if they sent an army of Holy Knights and a Cardinal to kill everyone in the royal city,"
In truth, Abium knew that the Pontiff would utilize this chance and might invade this kingdom in the name of a 'crusade.'
'Well, even after the arrival of the chaos era, the pontiff of the Holy Light planned to unite all the southern kingdoms and orchestrated civil wars in many kingdoms before annexing half of them forcefully into the Light Empire.' He even heard about the Holy See's tyrannical rule in those kingdoms and felt warier.
What was more shocking was that the mages were the first to be hunted down in those territories in the name of cleansing!
Although the Holy See failed to unite the southern continent halfway, they still managed to cripple almost half of those kingdoms and caused great chaos everywhere.
'They have long laid their eyes on the Keris kingdom. It wouldn't take too long for them to control it completely. Abium slowly breathed out.
Knowing his limits, he decided not to pay much attention to the bigger problems.
Meanwhile, everyone fell into silence after hearing Abium's earlier words.
After a long pause, Margery clenched her fist in anger for not protecting them and asked.
"What is the second way, Mr. Baron?"
"Why not ask Mother Nature's follower? He might have a way to help them, Your Highnesses." Abium said with a polite smile.
In truth, elves had lent help to the Peral kingdom in secret multiple times in the past, making him think more about the Peral Kingdom's origin.
'Maybe this kingdom Royalty also belongs to the descendant of the elves like me?' Such a thought crossed his mind.
For example, the elven soldiers were the first to come and stand behind the Royal Family of the Peral Kingdom after the Grand Nobles' Gathering incident in the past!
'It's too suspicious.'
Abium also suspected Prince Raollet's origin and quickly brushed those thoughts away.
Margery brightened up and nodded.
"Then, I will ask Raollet to get help from the Druids. Maybe their nature magic might cure this demon curse."
Druids!
During their visit to this royal city, Abium had seen them from a distance and was amazed by their strange magic spells of nature.
Druids were mysterious people like mages and rarely showed themselves outside the Elven kingdom.
'Anyway, my job is over now.'
Abium quietly nodded and turned his gaze towards Baron Auguinare and Helena.
"Shall we head back now?"
At that moment, he noticed that Helena was showing a gloomy look on her face and even lowered her head.
"What happened?" Abium hurriedly walked closer to Helena and asked in confusion.
Meanwhile, Baron Augunare let out a deep sigh and responded to him
"She is still shocked by the difference in strength between warriors and the demon, lad."
He slowly glanced at Helena and comforted her.
"Don't be discouraged, child. Someday, you might grow stronger than any warrior and stand against such a demon."
Although Baron was acting tough on the outside, he was rattled in his head.
It was the first time he had seen a real demon, and he felt uneasy.
"But what happened here, kid?" After a slight pause, Baron Auguinare glanced around slowly and asked.
Abium took a deep breath and started giving a short explanation.
Meanwhile, Lady Tabitha walked towards the half-sliced demon's hand, picked it up using a cloth, and stored it inside her spatial ring. Afterward, she squatted down on the snowy lawn and began collecting the scattered flesh. She also picked up the outer scale-like skins, collected the dark drops of blood, and even two severed chains!
While she was focused on collecting the demon's samples, Abium hurriedly ended the explanation, moved towards Lucius, and informed him of their departure.
After that, he dragged Baron Auguinare, Helena, and even Lily from the garden and moved towards the Royal Garden's entrance.
But as they were about to step into the Royal Palace building, a calm voice came from behind and caused everyone to stop their movement.
"Do you have a moment, Mage Abium?"
Instead of getting anxious, Abium smiled calmly and turned his head.
She strolled through the snow-covered garden land and smiled as she approached them.
Lily flinched as she sensed a sharp gaze from the red-robed woman and broke into cold sweats inside.
"How can I help you, my lady?" He asked.
"You are indeed a crafty one, Mage Abium. Where are you going in a hurry without giving my share?" Tabitha arrived closer to him and asked with a sly smile.