Chapter 82

The wooden statue, which should not speak, began to talk and its eyes glowed.

This delighted Geichis.

"Oh, my lord demon! You have heard my voice!"

The holy knights who burst in were surprised and panicked.

The demon worshippers cannot truly summon demons; they merely worship them. In the process, they offer sacrifices and cause problems such as kidnappings. The holy knights hunt down demon worshippers for these reasons.

There are occasionally dangerous individuals who can truly summon demons, but they are very rare.

The holy knights judged that Geichis was one of these rare dangerous individuals.

"Destroy it!"

The holy knights capable of ranged attacks simultaneously attacked the wooden statue of the demon.

Geichis rolled to avoid the attack. His subordinates, who were slower in evading, were caught in the blast and screamed in pain.

"My lord demon!"

Geichis saw the moment the attack hit the wooden statue.

Thinking that the holy knights' despicable attack had shattered the demon statue, he let out a painful cry. However, a demon cannot be destroyed so easily.

Darkness spread and formed a shape.

It was a humanoid demon clad in pitch-black armor. The full-face helmet had horns, and through the gaps, eyes that glowed like flames could be seen.

"A female demon...!?"

"Impossible. Did he really succeed in summoning a demon?"

A demon is a type of monster.

Unlike other monsters, demons are often powerful individuals. The reason is that demons have wisdom. Monsters that rampage instinctively are easy to hunt down, but wise monsters are troublesome. Shu also used his wisdom to strengthen himself and became a 'King'.

This is particularly true for demons.

They must be eliminated as soon as they are discovered.

"Let's go!"

The holy knight Roam, who led the team, attacked. His magic weapon, which injects poison into the target, is powerful despite its subtle nature. Even a demon can be affected by poison.

However, the demon produced a pitch-black sword in its right hand and blocked the attack.

Roam's sword did not budge, and the demon was clearly stronger.

'Obstruct'

The pitch-black sword deformed, bending like a flowing liquid. The dark sword swept through, as if slipping through Roam's sword, silently severing his head. The magic barrier that Roam unconsciously erected was no match for the demon's attack.

It was an instant kill.

"Eh, ah... Roam!"

"What's happening!"

The team leader Roam, who led the holy knights, was killed in one blow. It was impossible not to feel threatened by a demon that could so easily kill an A-rank holy knight. They were convinced that it had to be killed here.

The remaining seven knights formed a formation and attacked simultaneously.

However, the demon dispelled the pitch-black sword and instead produced a cube larger than a palm. The cube was pitch-black and felt like it absorbed light.

'Die'

The cube split into 3x3x3, forming twenty-seven smaller cubes.

They were launched from the demon's palm, piercing the hearts of the holy knights. The speed of the attack was so fast that even an A-rank holy knight could not react, and the power of the attack could penetrate magical barriers. All of them died, blood gushing from their chests.

This overwhelming scene captivated Geichis.

He pressed his forehead to the ground and worshipped the demon.

"Oh, oh... my lord demon! Thank you for answering my call."

'Hmm? Who are you?'

"I am your loyal servant, Geichis. May I humbly ask for your name, my lord demon?"

'Chromulia. That is my name.'

Geichis looked at the armored demon Chromulia with shining eyes.

And he declared,

"Great demon Chromulia. Please guide us and destroy the Cult of the Demon God."

In response to his plea, Chromulia nodded.

◆◆◆

"Easy"

The true identity of the demon Chromulia was the awakened magic armor Yama Kuroba. She was a subordinate-type magic armor that had been created and was hiding in the nearby mountains.

"Merely unawakened holy knights. They are nothing to us."

And she was accompanied by Mansho Shinri.

The two had come here to actively attack the Holy Grinia as per the emperor's orders. The magic armor of Yama Kuroba can create a humanoid demon. By applying this, they made the demon worshippers believe they had summoned a demon. This would make the Cult of the Demon God think a demon had appeared.

Moreover, the magic armor of Yama Kuroba had once single-handedly destroyed a city 150 years ago. The city was called Braga, and the tragedy was so severe that the demon was called the 'Demon of Braga'.

"Then, Mansho Shinri, let's draw attention by destroying the Republic of Barom."

"The thrill of a real battle after so long. This is the moment to test the results of my research. Please share your vision with me."

"Understood."

Yama Kuroba granted vision to Mansho Shinri. Subordinate-type magic armor can share senses to control the armor from a distance. When mastered, it can even grant senses to others, like Yama Kuroba.

Mansho Shinri, now with vision, activated magic from a distance.

◆◆◆

Geichis, who mistakenly believed he had summoned the demon Chromulia, attacked the nearby town. With the demon Chromulia leading, the surviving demon worshippers followed.

"Listen!"

Geichis used wind magic to amplify his voice and called out to the town of Ronda.

"We are the servants of the true savior, Chromulia. Chromulia laments the arrogance of the Cult of the Demon God and has heard our laments. From now on, the foolish and arrogant Cult of the Demon God will be destroyed. Salvation will be brought by the savior Chromulia."

The voice echoed not only in the town but also in the surrounding areas.

It was a declaration that completely negated the Cult of the Demon God. The town became noisy with the sound of people murmuring.

"The new savior, demon Chromulia, will grant eternal happiness to those who follow. If you wish to worship Chromulia, go to the neighboring town and spread the faith. Prove your dedication by doing so!"

It was absurd.

Just by suggesting the worship of a god other than the magic god El Magia, one would be arrested by the guard army. This was essentially rejecting the state religion. Moreover, the savior Geichis proposed was a demon. If caught, one could be subjected to a heresy trial.

Not a single person in Ronda tried to leave the town.

They believed that the demon worshippers would be easily destroyed by the holy knights and the guard army's magic users.

'Calling out is futile. As a demon, you should lead to paradise through corruption.'

Chromulia, a subordinate-type magic armor in full armor, now calling herself a demon, was an awakened magic armor user from the Great Empire.

When Chromulia extended her hand, Mansho Shinri, who was far away, constructed the magic formula based on the sensory information.

Magic power was sent through Chromulia, and the magic array was drawn by thought.

Mansho Shinri's magic armor is a substitution type. His eyes have been replaced by the magic armor. The awakened magic armor's eyes see the world of truth. They have the ability to observe how the world is constructed and how it continues to change. Using this, he developed new magic from theory.

'Even if incomplete, it will have considerable power.'

Mansho Shinri's thoughts mixed with the shared senses, slightly changing the tone.

However, Geichis and the others did not notice.

They were captivated by the giant magic array that appeared before them. It was so large that it covered the entire town of Ronda, and the scale, as measured by its size, was at the level of a forbidden spell. It was a complex and bizarre formula that was said to be impossible to activate individually.

Mansho Shinri had constructed such a formula from scratch.

'Sink into pleasure. The Black Paradise of the Fourteenth Shadow.'

Upon activation, black powder danced within the range of the magic array.

If inhaled, it would rob one of their thoughts and control their will through direct stimulation of the brain. It had the effect of spreading drugs over a wide area.

The town itself fell into the hands of the caster.

It was a truly demonic spell.

Mansho Shinri, by seeing through the truth of the world, organized the insufficiently systematized positive and negative magic. This led to the creation of military magic.

Although the optimization of the formula was still lacking, the data collected from this real battle would allow him to complete it to a practical level.

This new technology was a research project of Mansho Shinri alone in the Great Empire of Subarokia and was not even stored in the forbidden library. It was kept in his own laboratory, far from the capital.

"Great power, my lord Chromulia. You have changed the foolish town of the Cult of the Demon God in an instant. You have given salvation through liberation."

Of course, Geichis, who praised Chromulia fanatically, had been brainwashed. When the holy knights were defeated, Mansho Shinri used the fifth shadow 'Enchantment' to control all the demon worshippers.

This was a prelude to the Great Empire's attack on the Holy Grinia.

The false demon operation by Mansho Shinri and Yama Kuroba had begun.

◆◆◆

"A large-scale rebellion by demon worshippers?"

The information reached the capital of the Holy Grinia, Magia.

It was said that demon worshippers in the Republic of Barom had summoned a demon. Even a low-ranking demon has wisdom and can deceive humans, increasing its power and quickly raising its rank. As a result, most demons are of a higher rank.

"According to the information, they defeated the holy knights."

"The Republic of Barom has already fallen. It is a hopeless situation for a country to be destroyed."

"A demon of that caliber can only be defeated by an awakened holy knight! Or we must be prepared to use high-ranking magic users as expendable forces..."

The bishops in the Magia Cathedral were troubled.

Rebellions by demon worshippers are often handled by the local cathedrals. This is because it is rare for demon worshippers to truly summon a demon. Most are groups that worship wooden or stone statues of demons. A few holy knights can easily handle them.

However, a case where a real demon was born and a country fell is very rare. At least, the bishops in the Magia Cathedral had never heard of such a case.

"Be silent. Do not doubt the god El Magia. Victory will surely be given."

In the midst of this, the pope was calm.

"Based on the characteristics of the demon that appeared, I searched the archives. And I found a matching demon."

The bishops were surprised.

They did not know that the pope had visited the archives himself to search for information. They were ashamed of their own noise.

The pope continued.

"That demon manipulates a flowing dark blade and attacks with darkness. Is that correct?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Then it is the 'Demon of Braga'. It appeared 150 years ago and destroyed the city of Braga in one night. Many lives were lost, and the pope at the time decided to deploy awakened magic users. It was finally defeated. According to the records, the 'Demon of Braga' used a dark blade to cut down holy knights and attacked the cathedral with darkness."

If the demon matches the records, it is likely the same species as the 'Demon of Braga'.

Of course, the information about the female demon in full armor also matched.

Therefore, the pope mistakenly believed that the demon Chromulia was a demon that had appeared in the past. As a subordinate-type magic armor user, Yama Kuroba could avoid being detected as a magic armor as long as she did not reveal her true form. This time, she used the same method to make them believe a demon had appeared.

"To prepare for the movements of the Great Empire of Subarokia, we cannot let the holy knights die in vain. We will order 'Piercing Light' and 'Heaven's Eye' to hunt down the demon."

The war began as the Great Empire of Subarokia had planned.