After crossing the highest peak of the mountain range,
The Immortal Demon King grumbled as she finally reached the North Pole.
Even for her, this journey wasn’t easy.
“Grimudo! What in the world are you doing in this frozen hell!”
Standing in front of his castle, Harmael shouted as if howling.
Her howl was slightly similar to the White Dragon roar, her distant ancestor. This nostalgic sound reached Grimudo’s ears.
Dark clouds covered the sky, erasing the midnight sun and the aurora,
And only a deep, dark, eternal night descended.
Amidst that darkness, a figure of profound black deeper than the darkness itself revealed its form.
The one who always had formidable magic power enveloping his body, making even his face impossible to discern.
Yes,
The Ancient Demon King, feared and revered by all demons, revealed himself.
“You seek Grimudo? He’s not here anymore child. Only Gellie, the despairing scholar remains.”
“Again with this nonsense? Whether it’s Grimudo or Gellie...Why don’t you help instead of wasting ti in this useless place?! If you and I join forces, demons can conquer the continent and establish a thousand-year empire!”
In every era, there are demon kings.
In every era, the demon kings revered and feared Grimudo, who existed before their race was born.
They called him The Ancient Demon King, and yet, Gellie no longer considered himself a ‘demon king’.
Despite Harmael’s beautiful white hair and gem-like crimson eyes,
Despite being a woman so beautiful that her face alone could cause wars, Gellie’s frozen heart was not moved.
After all, he already had found companionship in his neverending despair.
“All demons have beco one under . Soon, I will beco the first Empress of the Demon Race. Only you, the Ancient Demon King refused to stand with . I wish to know why...Everything you might wish for, I can grant you. Even half of this world will be yours should you want it!”
“Hahahaha.”
Of course, Grimudo’s heart was not swayed by Harmael’s proposal.
He simply laughed, amused by her words.
Both as the Grimudo, the Ancient Demon King...as well as Gellie, the despairing scholar found her words completely ridiculous.
“Haha.”
It wasn’t a mocking laugh.
Just the pure amusent that ca from watching a child fumble.
As if he had heard sothing amusing, the demon king simply laughed. He laughed a little and flicked a finger.
“Little one.”
With a flick of his finger, the glaciers lted.
The ground beneath their feet quaked.
A pressure so great that it seed to suck all the darkness and the light in this place overwheld Harmael.
Her previous shout seed like the chirping of a newborn chick compared to this.
“Do you think you are great?”
Harmael’s face paled as she unfolded her wings, hovering in the air while the entire land trembled.
Ice surged upward,
A snowstorm the likes never seen in this era whirled.
Sothing...Enormous was breaking out of the ice.
Sothing...foreign would greet the world once more.
After a few monts, Harmael was faced with a huge eye.
“You may think that the ambition you hold is quite grand.”
A 90-ter-diater eyeball, covered in a thick leathery material, was floating in the air, glaring at her.
Behind the eyeball, a tail that appeared to be made of a similar material trailed in a line.
Even Grimudo’s words did not reach her ears. The presence of that eye monster was so powerful that it captivated Harmael.
“But in reality, such things have little aning.”
Whoosh.
That huge eyeball shifted its gaze from Harmael and looked elsewhere.
It glared at the distant ice cliff, as tall and large as Grimudo’s castle, and suddenly began to emit light. The light monster Beamore. A monster of Grimudo’s Legion.
That gigantic eye itself was a kind of biological lens, emitting a high-output bio-heat ray.
Grimudo’s monster Legion was simply a by-product of his experints with the Primordial’s cells.
Unlike other species that underwent a normal evolutionary process, they lacked the ability to reproduce and evolve on their own, and like the primordial body, they had no reason.
However, their lifespan alone was close to eternal. His monster legion was not created in an instant.
It was just that the ones created little by little did not die and continued to live, increasing in number.
“Beamore. Show that child.”
Grimudo ordered as he pointed at the distant cliff.
The giant eyeball monster willingly obeyed the command. Submitting to Grimudo’s psychic wave, it began to accumulate energy and gather it in its eyeballs. Its lens acted as a biological lens, gradually heating up.
Pzing.
A high-energy heat ray reaching 10,000 degrees Celsius pierced through the bitter cold and struck the ice cliff directly. The eternal snow lted for the first ti, seeming to boil for a mont before evaporating. The frigid North Pole beca hotter than a desert at this very spot, and steam billowed everywhere as hot and cold winds collided.
The sound of boiling. The sound of lting. The sound created by wind and wind.
All that auditory information tornted Harmael’s ears, but she heard nothing.
Because what she saw was so shocking. The wall of nature, larger than any castle wall, woven by nature itself, disappeared without a trace under the continuously radiated 10,000-degree heat ray.
Her castle, no, any fortress or watchtower built by humans or demons,
Would crumble like a mirage before this heat ray. If the castle walls were in this state, what about people? An army of a million?
If human flesh and blood were exposed to this wide-ranging heat ray even a little,
Even if they were lucky enough not to die, they would beco incapacitated by severe burns.
Moreover, this was the North Pole! The place where heat was the weakest, yet it took a long ti for the temperature to return to its original state.
Kugugung!
Beamore returned deep into the ice, to the surface of the primordial body, to replenish its energy.
Both the Beamore and the Hydra were ultimately created by Grimudo through researching the cells of the Primordial.
Within the genes of the primordial body, a massive creature, there were already traits for emitting heat rays and tabolizing nuclear materials, allowing the birth of monsters with such abilities.
The primordial body absorbs and tabolizes large amounts of radioactive materials in the magmatized rocks deep within the earth’s crust to obtain energy to live.
Beamore rely inserts a straw into its origin, the primordial body, and receives a small amount of that energy.
Of course, this was possible because the primordial body regarded Beamore, created from its own cells, as a part of itself.
“So...did you like Beamore’s ray? Now...Imagine if this was used outside of the North Pole...Perhaps in your ‘Empire’...Do you think those words of yours will still matter then?”
Harmael now clearly understood why Grimudo had mocked her.
However, her pride did not allow her to yield. She deliberately shouted loudly.
“It’s just a slow, oversized monster. That monster may be effective against a large army, but if I’m the opponent, I can exterminate it anyti.”
“Is that so?”
For a mont, a smile flashed across the face shrouded in darkness.
“Then let show you one more.”
And for a brief mont, Harmael’s world stopped.
Her vision flickered, and all her senses died. Her sense of sll and hearing disappeared as if cut off.
Were her five senses paralyzed? No, no. Her body itself was frozen, unable to move.
“Guh...”
However, her magic power did not disappear. Magic energy surged up from within her body, taking the form of a corrupted white dragon. A single shout burst out from between her stiffened lips, and just like with Ardein’s draconic aura, the majestic white dragon soared.
“I am... Harmael! You can’t do anything to with this trick!”
With the sound of an eggshell cracking, rock fragnts scattered in all directions. Only then did Harmael’s senses and vision return. After looking around, she finally realized what had happened to her.
Petrification...!
“I call this one Cockatrice...The Petrification monster.”
Grimudo admitted with a snort.
“For a being of your caliber, it can’t petrify you forever, but how many powerful individuals like you exist in this world? Do you still have the confidence to boast about the greatness of your ambition?”
Harmael turned around and glared at a giant lizard with the face of a chicken.
But even soone like her flinched upon seeing its bewitching evil eyes staring at her.
Compared to Beamore, its height was much smaller, at most only a dozen ters or so. However, it spewed out breaths of deadly poison from its mouth and shot out bio-petrifying rays from its eyes.
Indeed, for a being like Harmael, this Cockatrice was far more dangerous than the Beamore.
Above all, because this creature moved very quickly and nimbly, the level of threat was different from the sluggish Beamore.
It was sufficiently powerful and not easily countered, both against the weak who rushed in relying on numbers and against the few strong ones. It was pointless to even speak of the strategic value of this Cockatrice.
If Grimudo had tried to kill , I would have been dead many tis over...
She had been petrified for a mont, unable to move an inch.
If Grimudo had taken this opportunity to launch even a single attack, she would have undoubtedly died. Soon, Harmael noticed that her body was trembling.
Trembling? I’m trembling? ? No, that’s...
Her teeth chattered,
The Ancient Demon King managed to terrify Harmael just by showing two monsters of his Legion.
What was even scarier, was that she had no idea of how many more he possessed.
Harmael shrank back without realizing it. At least one thing was certain. That bastard could do what she wouldn’t even dream of with a flick of his finger.
“Why...?”
In fact, she had secretly harbored a desire to drive out Grimudo and beco the greatest Demon King among the demons.
But she would probably never be able to do that. Harmael realized this and beca gloomy.
“Why, with such power... and with such forces, do you crouch and live in a place like this?”
“Because I know that everything is aningless.”
Grimudo answered.
“It’s like the elves of Alfheim going ‘crazy’. When you know too much, that’s what happens. I no longer find value in anything in this world.”
Still, it was boring to be alone in a place like this. The reason he teased Harmael with two monsters was ultimately because he was bored.
Stroking the mane of the Cockatrice that had co close and stretched out its head, Grimudo laughed.
“If you understand, go back now. If you want to be subjected to more of my cute pranks, you can stay.”
“...There’s one thing I want to ask. Do you know about the Hero?”
“Of course. She was a guest here before you.”
To Grimudo, the ‘Hero’ wasn’t worthy of being considered an enemy.
After all, the Hero showed up, caused a small disturbance, and ran away like a frightened child.
“The Hero ca here...? And you let him live?”
“Oh? I think you misunderstood sothing... ‘I’ Didn’t let the Hero live. She rely survived my welco and ran away.”
He still rembered. The miracle that the Priest had used while blocking him.
All the starlight in the night sky connected and beca an axe embracing the Milky Way, striking down at him.
That miracle...
The Blossoming Starfall.
He didn’t know what that Priest had consud to use that miracle, but he must have paid a truly imnse price.
It was not sothing a human could use. Of course, no matter how great a price was paid, it could not be granted if the giver’s status was not high enough.
“If it weren’t for that Priest of theirs, the Hero wouldn’t be able to stand before .”
It wasn’t that it was powerful, but rather, it was sothing different.
Even Grimudo had never experienced such an unfamiliar occurrence.
The reason he thought it was understandable was that they succeeded in escaping, despite him opening up his power to so extent to confront them.
“The Priest...?”
“I don’t know if that Priest is still with them. But I’d like to have a conversation with him.”
Which one is he talking about? Saint Aridel or perhaps Archbishop Renheim?
Harmael didn’t even know Kyle’s na.
She must have received reports, but she had long since let them slip by because there was no reason to pay attention. Well, whichever one Grimudo wanted to et, it was none of her business.
“Then, will you co with ? I’ve located the Hero’s party.”
“Hmm...You know what? Sure. I’ll join you, little one. It’s been a long ti since I’ve stretched my legs.”
She just threw it out there, but even Harmael, who brought it up, didn’t expect him to agree imdiately.
After agreeing with her, the Ancient Demon King disappeared into the dark clouds and threw a bead at Harmael.
The expression of the Immortal Demon King Harmael, who carefully received the bead, hardened.
As a distant descendant of dragons, she could tell. How advanced the magic contained within this bead was.
But it was only natural. The ancestors of the demons learned magic from dragons, and it was a free charity and grace that stemd from goodwill.
On the other hand, Grimudo exchanged his knowledge by trading his studies with dragon magic.
Naturally, the dragons had no choice but to teach him much more.
Because with charity, you can throw away anything, but with a trade, you have to do as much as you receive.
“If you find them, break this bead and I’ll be there.”
It wouldn’t be bad if he helps, but...
Whichever side that Priest is on, it’s enough to keep him alive and kill the rest.
If Grimudo helps with that, it’s a deal where Harmael has nothing to lose.
Sigh...My pride is in shambles now...
Despite the humiliation she suffered at Grimudo’s hands, Harmael bit down her lips and accepted his help.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t even think of venting her anger. Because in this short mont, she vividly felt that Grimudo’s power dwarfed everything she could throw at him.
Between the First and Second Demon Kings,
Existed a gap so wide that not even the heavens could fill.
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