"No, there must be another way!" the Bard said anxiously. "Is it these ice blocks freezing you that's preventing your recovery? If we melt all this ice, will you revert back to normal?"
The Druid didn't answer. Instead, she lay silently on the ground, her eyes narrowed and motionless.
The Bard circled the Druid several times, finally seeming to realize something. She lowered her head, abandoned the unconscious Druid, and left alone. In a daze, she returned to the surface, back to Demon King's City, where she gazed at the ice-covered city and felt the bone-chilling cold.
In just a few minutes, she had witnessed the deaths of one companion after another. As someone who had run away from home, these companions were now her only family. The pain she felt was indescribable, unimaginable.
Just then, Warrior Bell limped back from outside the Demon King's City, emerging through the pulverized remnants of the city wall. Clutching his forehead with one hand, he stared at the Demon King's City, now a world of pure white, utterly frozen in place. "What happened here?!"
He quickly spotted the Bard and rushed over. "Where's the Demon Lord? What about the others?"
Bell had been blasted away by Olivia's full-powered Divine Smite, briefly losing consciousness. By the time he awoke, three minutes had passed.
In truth, Bell's physical resilience was absurd. Anyone else struck by Olivia's full-power attack would have been instantly reduced to ashes. Yet this guy had shattered an entire section of the city wall, been hurled an immeasurable distance, and emerged with only minor injuries and a brief knockout.
Three minutes wasn't a long time. Bell had intended to return swiftly to rejoin the battle and support his comrades. But upon reaching his destination, he found the entire world transformed.
At that moment, the Bard stood frozen like a puppet. Hearing Bell's voice, she slowly turned her head after a long moment. Her lips trembled as she whispered, "There's no one else left..."
"Huh?" Bell froze, utterly stunned. "No one else... what do you mean?!"
He understood her words perfectly, but it had only been three minutes! How could everyone have been wiped out so quickly? Impossible!
The Bard remained silent for a moment before nodding painfully. In truth, the Druid was still alive, but during their attempt to save her, the Bard had discovered that the Druid was only surviving due to the White Dragon King's formidable life force. This meant she couldn't revert to her original form—not because of the ice, but because of a living being's primal fear and resistance to death.
If she transformed back, the Druid would die within seconds. Thus, her instincts were fighting against restoring her true form!
Bell stood frozen for several seconds before pressing on, "So... what about the Demon Lord? Did you... win?"
The Bard shook her head. "I don't know. She was too strong. We were no match for her. But then, for some reason, she just vanished."
To be honest, if sacrificing five teammates had been the price for completely eliminating the Demon Lord and protecting the world, it would have been a worthwhile outcome. But the problem was that she still had no idea whether the Demon Lord was alive or dead, or where she might be hiding.
Tap tap~
Just then, crisp footsteps echoed beside them. Bell immediately tightened his grip on his weapon, whirled around, and called out sternly, "Watch out!"
However, what appeared before him wasn't the Demon Lord or any enemy, but an elderly man with snow-white hair, leaning heavily on a cane.
"Are there any survivors?" the Bard murmured. "Old man, this place is unsafe. You must leave immediately and seek refuge elsewhere!"
When Half had unleashed the Blue Mist from the sky, the entire city had been within its attack range. Unlike Priests and Druids who needed to breathe fire, the Bard only had to flip through her book, allowing her to freely observe her surroundings. She had clearly seen that in the surrounding buildings—at least those within her line of sight—every civilian had been frozen into ice sculptures.
What the Bard couldn't see was likely much the same. She had initially believed this move would kill everyone. As expected of a ruthless Demon Lord, she mused. Not even sparing the people of her own city?
Yet, unexpectedly, there were survivors after all.
What truly surprised her, however, was that the old man not only rejected her help but glared fiercely at her and Bell, shouting, "It's all your fault! All your fault, you so-called Heroes! This city is in ruins because of you!"
"If not for you damn bastards, we would all still be enjoying the blessed life the Holy Maiden brought us! But now everything has been destroyed by you!"
The old man was truly just an ordinary old man who had lived his entire life in this place. He was already very old, and without the improvements Lady Tribios had brought—more than doubling everyone's standard of living—he likely would have died long ago.
Knowing his life was already near its end, the old man had refused to evacuate with the others, choosing instead to stay and die on this land.
Half's massive area-of-effect attack, originally intended to kill the Catgirl Ranger, appeared to have slaughtered countless civilians. In reality, all the casualties were Jay's illusions. While casting the spell, Half had sensed several genuine presences within the city and deliberately avoided harming them.
Indeed, the old man wasn't the only one who had chosen to remain in this land. Others had made the same decision, a perfectly understandable choice.
Hearing the old man's curses, the Bard couldn't help but look bewildered. "But... isn't this city ruled by the Demon Lord? Shouldn't you all be living in utter misery?"
The old man took a deep breath, unleashing a torrent of vulgarities. "Demon Lord my ass! It's all those dog-spawned bastards from the Kingdom of Ukel, the Kingdom of Green Eagle, and all those other nations! They're terrified of us, so they fabricated this war as an excuse!"
"In my eyes, you lot are the real demons! Why are you still alive? Why don't you just die already?!"
After a brief moment of stunned silence, the Bard's expression crumbled. She fell to her knees. If their immense efforts had truly slain the Demon Lord and saved the world, she could have accepted it.
But the thought that five of them had died to kill another good person was utterly unbearable for her.
Seeing the Bard's distress, Bell stepped protectively in front of her, his gaze remaining wary as he faced the old man. "Be careful. This place is freezing, yet he's completely unaffected. Something's fishy! He might be a high-ranking general under the Demon Lord—or even the Demon Lord himself!"
"He might just be trying to trick you!"
After a moment of silence, the Bard countered, "No, I don't think... he has any reason to lie to us."
The reason was simple: the Demon Lord's power far surpassed their own. If the enemy's strength were equal to or weaker than their own, deception and trickery would be viable tactics, as Bell suggested. But when the enemy's power far surpasses their own, there's no need for pretense.
"If they had the power to kill us outright, why bother with this elaborate deception?" Bell asked.
The bard replied, "That Demon Lord... she's far more than just a Demigod. The Allied Forces deceived us—she's at least a True God in power."
The White Dragon King Zacharyas, transformed by the Druid, was a standard Demigod-level combatant. Even if he didn't possess 100% of his true strength in that form, he should have retained at least 70-80% of it. Yet even this "Demigod" was utterly powerless against her. The only explanation was that she was a True God, far surpassing Demigod status.
Bell remained skeptical. "If this 'Holy Maiden' you speak of is truly a benevolent person dedicated to the welfare of the nation and its people, why would she unleash such a devastating, city-wide attack? Why did everyone else die, but you survived?"
Bell clearly mistook Olivia, whom they had fought earlier, for the Holy Maiden the old man mentioned. Or rather, wasn't Olivia's presence in the city precisely to impersonate the Demon Lord, the Demigod, and take Tribios' place?
From Bell's perspective, this was a glaring contradiction. The old man, of course, couldn't reveal the truth, as doing so would expose the Holy Maiden's secret plan for seclusion. Instead of answering, he pointed a finger at Bell's nose and unleashed a torrent of curses, insulting every ancestor in his lineage for eighteen generations.
Bell's forehead veins bulged with rage, and he nearly drew his sword to strike the old man down. But the old man simply straightened his neck, radiating an utter fearlessness of death.
The Bard interjected, "Let's go. I have other ways to verify whether this old man is telling the truth or not."
As a Bard, she naturally knew the School of Enchantment's Fifth-Level Magic, Dominate Human. With this spell, she could simply cast it on the old man and uncover everything.
However, she refrained from doing so. The spell could cause irreversible damage to the subject's mind, and in the case of an elderly man, it might even prove fatal. The Bard reasoned that they could wait until they returned to the Kingdom of Green Eagle, find a high-ranking noble, and use the spell on them instead. This approach might even yield more comprehensive information.
Meanwhile, on the other two battlefields, the Giant in the Canyon, now completely stained crimson with blood, finally exhausted its strength and ceased its rampage. On the vast plains, the immortal army, their magic power depleted, began to slowly dissipate on its own. At the center of the army, Jay's body gradually turned transparent.
He gazed up at the sky and couldn't help but sigh silently, "Ah, if only I could have one more drink at the tavern..."
Only then did the Allied Forces arrive late at the Demon King's City. However, due to the city being sealed by heavy snow and the extreme cold, they were completely unable to enter. Even approaching the city's outskirts could cost ordinary soldiers their lives.
Left with no other choice, the Allied Forces left a small garrison stationed nearby, hoping for the ice and snow to thaw, while the rest returned to the Kingdom of Green Eagle.
Following the war's victory, a grand celebration banquet was naturally held. A week later, within an incomparably luxurious hall, all the high-ranking officials from the five Kingdoms gathered to commemorate this momentous triumph.
"I raise a toast to you all!" the Green Eagle King declared, standing before the assembled dignitaries, raising his wine goblet high. "To all the brave soldiers who fought in this war, and to the seven extraordinary Heroes!" He drained his goblet in one gulp.
Afterward, he walked directly to Bell and the Bard, offering each of them a cup of wine. "I'm deeply sorry for the loss of your companions," he said, "but their sacrifice was glorious. I will fulfill every promise I made earlier—the gold has been prepared, and I've already sent word to spread tales of your valor. You are true heroes. Thank you!"
The Bard nodded calmly, her expression unchanging. The Green Eagle King paid little attention, quickly departing from the pair and striding through a series of corridors until he reached a secluded chamber.
The other four kings were already gathered there. Though a banquet was underway, they couldn't spend the entire time mingling with the nobles and soldiers; they had more pressing matters to discuss.
The Green Eagle King wasted no time, opening the conversation with, "Once the ice and snow melt from the Demon King's City, I claim fifty percent of its assets!"
His words sparked anger and resignation on the faces of the other kings, but none dared to protest. The truth was undeniable: under the Green Eagle King's command, Green Eagle's military strength remained the most intact among the kingdoms.
With their forces depleted, waging another war against the Green Eagle Kingdom would be foolish. They knew that if the Green Eagle King claimed this fifty percent share of the spoils, his kingdom's power would skyrocket, instantly making it the strongest among all the kingdoms.
Just then, a flurry of footsteps erupted. Before the five could react, the door swung open, revealing the Bard standing expressionless in the doorway, cradling the Travel Book in her arms.
Behind her stood five Grand Dukes, one from each kingdom, their expressions vacant and their eyes glazed over.
The Green Eagle King's first reaction was to scowl and curse, "What do you think you're doing, Miss Hero? This is no place for you!"
As if triggered by his words, the Bard's face twisted in fury. Gritting her teeth, she snarled, "It's all because of you damned kings and nobles! You're the parasites of this nation! Without you, this country would be so much better!"
After using her Dominate Human skill to control the five Dukes, the Bard had initially intended only to inquire about the Demon Lord. But the truth she uncovered shocked her. Not only did the Dukes reveal the truth about the Demon Lord, they also confessed to a litany of their own heinous deeds—so many, in fact, that they continued confessing for hours!
Seething with rage, the Bard stormed here. As her words echoed, a blue mist billowed forth from the pages of her Travel Book.