Chapter 793.2: Demon Race Attack (Part 2)
Today was the last day of the competition of kingdoms, and the atmosphere in Bearcrest City was clearly different from the previous days during which the competition was ongoing.
Due to the exponential influx of people in the city, the inns and hotels were fully booked to the point where some of the citizens from other kingdoms had no choice but to rent a room in the homes of poorer families who took the opportunity to make some extra money.
In Eventide World existed three different types of currencies to put it simple.
First of all, there was the typical currency of each kingdom. This type of national coin was mostly used to buy such things as Rank 0 or Rank 1 clothing, armor and weapons, food, Unclassified mutant beast meat, houses, renting premises, and many more basic necessities. This type of currency naturally only served within the specific realm, and if you took it to another realm it would probably be worth less than what they would pay you for a bit of copper.
Secondly, there was gold. Gold was considered a precious metal not only on Planet Earth but in all the Lower Worlds of the universe; of course, this was not normal gold but was the metal that evolved after the absorption of mana. As for the reason why it was considered a precious treasure it was a very simple one; as surprising as it may seem, gold had good properties for the body and could slowly strengthen bones and muscles, as well as slowly extend life expectancy by 2 to 5 years. Not to mention the fact that gold was a beautiful metal that the higher classes even used to decorate their clothes in an attempt to show off their status.
Gold was used to buy everything that could be bought using the typical currency of each kingdom, except that, unlike the typical currency, the amount of gold needed to buy something was much lower, and unlike the typical currency of each kingdom gold did not lose its value when traveling to other kingdoms.
Finally, in third place were the Soul Stones.
The uses of Soul Stones were many, and while in the hands of normal humans they were worthless, the value of these beautiful small stones was greater than almost anything else in the hands of a soul evolver. If one wished to buy clothing, armor, or weapons above Rank 2, then that person had to pay the right price using Soul Stones; a soul evolver could even buy treasures or skill scrolls from the system using high-quality Soul Stones. At the same time, a soul evolver could use Soul Stones to buy First Order or higher mutant beast meat, and just like gold they did not lose their value when taken to other realms.
There was no doubt that the Gales Kingdom would experience a great economic leap by the time this competition of kingdoms ended after being favored as the chosen site where this generation's competition took place. From gold to Soul Stones, Gales would be favored even if they did not happen to be among the favored kingdoms in case their parent kingdom did not beat the other two.
However, the Gales Kingdom seemed to be crushing in the competition.
"Hey, are you going to watch the final match today afternoon?"
"Hahaha, of course, I am! I'm not missing it even as a joke!"
"Gales really managed to defeat all the opponents they faced. Even the 3 most powerful kingdoms in the world were defeated by its 12 geniuses of the younger generation!"
"Really, who could have expected that other than Liam Anworth, the first princess Ellis would actually have such monstrous talent? She even managed to hold off the assault of the two Second Order soul evolvers from the Ajax Kingdom for over 30 minutes without even taking a step back!"
"Hey, what do you think about the second princess?"
"The second princess Seraphina really managed to be the biggest surprise of this tournament. Who knew that at the age of 16 she had actually already completed all the requirements to advance to the Second Order?"
"Don't forget how powerful her magic skills are! Two or three swings of her magic staff were enough to turn her entire team into even more terrifying monsters than they already were!"
"Who do you think will win this afternoon? The Gales Kingdom or the Azure Kingdom?"
"Mmm... I think Gales will be the winner. If that monster named Liam wasn't with them it might be different though.... Really, I don't understand why a demon is allowed here."
"Don't forget the weapon of the prince of the Azure Kingdom. That weapon seems to be a very powerful treasure, even a Second Order warrior wielding a great shield was knocked down after only three attacks. Even a demon might not be able to stand for long against that thing."
The city guard had several problems containing the excited crowd. Bearcrest City's many prisons were practically full at this point after several drunken or enraged soul evolvers due to disagreements began to cause disturbances in public places and crowds.
Most of the trouble turned out to be caused by differences of opinion regarding the various matches of the day.
High up on the mountain, the castle of the royal family of the Gales Kingdom stood proudly above the entire city. This was a place that even the parent kingdoms did not have the right to enter just because they felt like entering, after all, it was the home of a powerful Third Order soul evolver and while the overall power of the parent kingdoms was higher no one was really willing to antagonize an allied power just for something so small.
Outside a large noble and elegant-looking wooden door, the first princess of the Gales Kingdom, Ellis Di Gales stood for about 5 whole minutes before finally sighing and gently knocking with her beautiful hand.
"Are you awake?"
Her soft and delicate voice traveled down the corridor and reached inside the room, however, even after half a minute of waiting, she did not get any kind of reply.
Just as the first princess' shoulders were about to slump, the door was opened with a soft click.
Ellis' eyes lit up slightly, and after a few moments, she opened the door gently.
What greeted Ellis was the same room she had seen many times before; the room of her younger sister, the second princess of the Gales Kingdom, Seraphina Di Gales.
Many would surely be surprised to discover that the grumpy and not at all delicate second princess had actually decorated her room with lots of girly pink and that she loved stuffed animals so much that her large bed was practically covered with at least 20 or 30 soft and fluffy stuffed creatures of varying sizes.
Ellis said nothing, and after closing the door behind her, she walked over to the bed and sat on the side as she watched her little sister carefully.
Seraphina was wearing a pale pink camisole, her bright golden hair was not tied in two ponytails and instead fell free down her back as she rested on the back of the bed and used her long slender arms to hug her knees close to her chest.
"Sera, you... Girl, you didn't sleep again." Ellis sighed as she noticed the two too conspicuous black circles on her little sister's white skin, just below her eyes.
Seeing those two beautiful green eyes that always sparkled full of life looking a lot duller than they had days ago, Ellis stroked Seraphina's hair and said softly, "If you fall down due to exhaustion, what will we do? Today is the final of the individual matches between our Gales Kingdom and the Azure Kingdom. We need you."
Seraphina wanted to roll her eyes at her sister's words but felt she had no energy to do it, therefore, she simply said in a flat voice: "Even if I didn't participate the victory will be ours anyway. No one can beat Liam or big sister, Katt and the others are also very powerful. A little Azure Kingdom won't be a problem at all."
"You know that's not how it works, silly girl." Ellis said with a bitter smile. "If the Azure Kingdom has a soul evolver powerful enough to beat us all in 1 vs 1, then we'll lose the individual matches."
Seraphina shrugged and noted quietly, "We've already won the team matches anyway. With our current position, having even made it to the individual finals, victory is already ours regardless."
Ellis sighed again. She did not point out the fact that their father had made a significant bet with the Azure Kingdom's king since Seraphina was aware of this fact, instead, Ellis said something different.
"Do you think Bai Zemin would be happy to know that the fierce Seraphina suddenly decided to give up on her dream of making Gales the first kingdom in the history of the competition of kingdoms to take total victory in both individual and team matches?"
Seraphina's dull eyes finally showed some reaction at the mention of the name 'Bai Zemin' and a flame of anger burned in them before fading again.
"Why would I care what an ungrateful orc thinks?"
Ellis didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she pointed out softly, "Ungrateful? Seraphina, girl... He gave up a Third Order Soul Stone before he left. Even though no one knows where he got something as valuable as that, the payment is more than enough for what we did for him, don't you think?"
"Hmph." Seraphina snorted softly and didn't pursue the matter anymore.
Seraphina knew that Bai Zemin had no idea what she had done for him, therefore, she understood that in a way the debt had been settled. However, she was a proud and talented princess, she had used her own hands to clean his wounds and had fainted more than once to speed up his recovery. Forget about a Third Order Soul Stone, even if Bai Zemin had left seven million Third Order Soul Stone, Seraphina would still think it wasn't enough.
"There are things that physical wealth can't pay for." She muttered under her breath.
Ellis naturally heard Seraphina's words, however, she would never understand them since she did not know what her proud, stubborn, and grumpy little sister had done for Bai Zemin.
In the end, Ellis could only resort to the method she had saved for this situation after two days of careful thought. After all, Seraphina had been like this for the past 3 days after realizing that Bai Zemin had actually left and didn't seem to have any plans to return.
"I understand that you saw his name in pink, but precisely because of that don't you think you should work hard? Who knows, if we win we might even ask dad to do us the favor of investing in explorers to search all over the kingdom. We'll definitely find him before he leaves the territory of Gales if that's what he's planning."
Seraphina's head abruptly turned to Ellis and her eyes trembled with some panic as she hurriedly said, "N- No! It's not like that!"
Ellis rolled her eyes and stood up as she said in a flat voice, "Ah, is that so? Then that makes it easier for me."
Ellis walked toward the door, but her hands had not yet touched the doorknob when Seraphina's voice caused her movements to stall.
"Wait!"
Ellis smiled slightly in secret but when she turned around her expression was indifferent as she looked at her little sister curiously.
"Is something wrong? I need to get ready for the finals. I still have to find Bai Zemin after all."
Seraphina frowned, and despite the two black circles under her eyes, the weariness disappeared from her gaze. She looked at Ellis and said carefully, "You.... What did you see?"
* * *
At the same time that the two sisters were chatting with each other and all of Gales and the rest of the human kingdoms were preparing for the final matches of this generation's competition of kingdoms, deep in the Forest of the Ancients the most powerful demons of the closest kingdoms had gathered.
Countless mutant beasts were slaughtered and multiple territories that were previously occupied by other races were taken over by the demons.
Their numbers numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but the most terrifying thing was that all of them were powerful existences against which a normal soul evolver would not be able to fight.
Bel'gos looked down from the top of a mountain at the gathered troops and his eyes glistened with delight. He seemed to be able to feel everyone's excitement as that was how he felt at this moment imagining the blood of humans staining his hands.
"Brothers, sisters! It is time for the humans who think they are the rulers of the world to understand that the only reason they have been able to expand to this day has been only because we, the demon race, and because His Majesty the Demon Lord have allowed them to!"
Soon, the roars of the demons shook the earth and the other races shuddered as the murderous intent soared into the sky.