Arrival

He knew his own situation best. Though he was still in his prime and could afford to act freely now,

in another ten years, he would inevitably begin to decline. By then, it would be too late to seek a way out. So when he heard this news, he set his sights on Jem Woz. Finding an opportunity, he recommended himself and demonstrated some of his methods, successfully earning Jem's trust.

In his view, he was an outstanding talent with genuine skills. As long as he could reinvent himself under the Crown Prince's protection and borrow his influence to clear his name, securing a noble title would be a certainty. After all, the royal family had no reason to reject his allegiance. With their power, clearing someone's name on their own turf would be effortless.

It was a good plan, one grounded in reality. He had not entertained any unnecessary fantasies.

But it seemed things had gone horribly wrong!

The Summoning Ritual he had paid dearly for showed no reaction at all. This was deadly!!

He had never encountered magic failing before.

Didn't the Magic Tome clearly state that as long as the Summoning Ritual followed the proper steps, it would almost never fail?

Just as he began chanting the spell for the second time and considered how to fool the Crown Prince behind him, the Magic Circle began to emit a faint Red Light. An inexplicable sense of dread spread through the hearts of every living creature nearby. It was the instinctive reaction of prey when facing a higher-order predator.

Their genes were warning them that something incredibly dangerous was about to emerge!

The Beastkin around them, whose senses were sharper than humans', immediately grew restless with fear.

Sleeping wild animals awoke from their terror and fled their dens without hesitation. Birds screeched as they flew into the distance, leaving droppings scattered along their path from their frightened incontinence. Even the toads and insects that usually chirped without pause fell silent.

"That is..."

After great effort to calm the warhorse beneath him, Baron Duke looked at the increasingly intense radiance within the distant Magic Circle and felt an unprecedented terror. Every hair on his body stood on end.

The warhorse he rode had been meticulously trained since childhood. Even on a battlefield, facing blades and swords, it would never retreat. Even when attacked by a lion, it would dare to fight back. Yet now, without even seeing its opponent, it was already on the verge of losing control of its bowels and could barely stand, nearly making him stumble and fall. It was something he had never imagined.

Scattered sounds of people falling and cries of alarm continued to come from behind him.

When he turned around, he saw that among the two hundred cavalrymen he had brought, only three or five horses could barely remain standing. The other horses either refused to rise no matter how their riders soothed them, or looked ready to flee madly, seemingly prepared to drag away anyone holding their reins.

Ignoring the chaos around him, Crown Prince Jem Woz had been caught off guard by his warhorse's frantic movements at first and nearly thrown to the ground. However, years of knightly training allowed him to react immediately, swiftly steadying himself without suffering any injury.

Strictly speaking, he had never truly taken up a knight's sword and fought on a battlefield. At most, he had personally executed a few prisoners. Yet his strength ranked among the top three of all the knights present.

Excellent bloodline.

For centuries, the royal family had married only the strongest knights or the most beautiful and intelligent people. After dozens of generations of continuous refinement, there were practically no fools among them.

Combined with the finest martial instructors and the best cultivation resources, even brute force could raise a powerful warrior.

Under such conditions, if Jem Woz had not been the Crown Prince and thus had not needed to waste so much time on matters such as literature, administration, and etiquette, his strength would have been far greater than it was now—reaching a level these people could never imagine.

Glancing at Baron Duke, whose expression was grim as he approached to report the damage caused by the disturbance, Jem neither became angry nor showed any displeasure after hearing him out. He merely nodded calmly, pointed at the Magic Circle in the distance as its Red Light grew brighter, and asked, "What kind of monster do you think that is?"

Unable to discern his superior's thoughts, Duke considered for a moment before answering stiffly, "I do not know, Your Highness. I have personally slain quite a few monsters, but none of them possessed such an aura..."

"I know a little. The ancient secret tomes stored by the royal family record similar phenomena. They call it Abyss Summoning, and it is said to be specifically used to Summon Demon."

"Demons!" Upon hearing Crown Prince Jem's words, Duke was instantly horrified, as though he had seen a ghost.

Although the concepts of monsters and demons were often mixed together, from a more professional perspective, they represented two entirely different forms of life. Any creature capable of using magic power could be called a monster, but demons were completely different...

According to the Church Scripture, those things were born to destroy everything. Once they appeared, they would indiscriminately unleash slaughter and Destruction.

Viciousness was their nature, and brutality was their instinct. There could be no compromise and no coexistence. They were the enemies of all life, the spokespersons of death and Destruction. Killing was their favorite entertainment, fear was their favorite food, and they would burn all things in the world and reduce everything to ruin!

Simply thinking of those descriptions made Duke shudder. He could not imagine what sort of creature that was, but he understood that it would definitely not be friendly toward humans. A trace of hesitation flashed across his face...

Watching Duke's expression constantly change, Jem seemed to see through him. Shaking his head, he said, "Put away that thought. The royal family's secret tomes state that once the Magic Circle lights up, the summoning has truly begun. A demon in another world has answered the call.

"In that situation, even killing the ritual's host cannot interrupt it. Moreover, with the host dead, no one will be able to command the demon anymore. It will completely lose control and cause even greater trouble."

After hearing Crown Prince Jem's explanation, Duke—who had secretly resolved to defy orders if necessary and kill Salter before the demon could be summoned—deflated like a punctured ball. He could only helplessly abandon his plan.

To be honest, if Jem Woz had known that Salter's so-called plan to summon a powerful otherworldly monster and turn things around meant relying on demons, he would never have involved himself in this. Demons were far too unreliable, and the possibility of them losing control was simply too high.

Still, he was not overly nervous, because he knew a demon's arrival would be temporary. With Salter's ability, it was impossible for him to summon a demon permanently, much less summon an overly powerful one.

The instigators of the demon disasters throughout history had all been supreme powerhouses, beings capable of destroying a kingdom single-handedly. As far as he knew, no one at that level had appeared in over three hundred years. Furthermore, the sacrifices required to summon a powerful demon were far beyond what a few dozen prisoners could satisfy. Salter did not have the ability to cause a major disaster.

In Jem's eyes, knowing all this,

the current situation was not ideal and was somewhat unexpected!

But there was no need to panic. After all, as long as a temporary demon had not broken free of control, it would still make a decent thug.

But he soon came to regret that thought. He had truly underestimated—or perhaps overestimated—Salter...

Salter, who was chanting the spell for the second time, saw the Magic Circle react and immediately became as energized as if injected with stimulants, chanting with even greater fervor.

The Cultists beside him witnessed this "miracle" with their own eyes and became increasingly excited as well, chanting even more diligently than Salter!

As though it had heard their urgency, excitement, and anticipation, a mass of flame suddenly appeared within the Magic Circle!

It burned upon the ground without scorching anything. Instead, it gradually spread across the ground into a ring. Once the ring had fully formed, a Flame Arch four meters tall appeared above it.

Salter could not see what lay beyond the arch. He could only vaguely sense an immensely powerful presence approaching.

The next instant, as flames shot more than ten meters into the air from the plaza, a figure appeared beyond the fiery gateway.

The moment it appeared, an immensely thick stench of blood naturally seeped forth. Compared to it, the odor emitted by the dozens of corpses in the plaza was practically air freshener.

Salter, Duke, Jem, and everyone else present all felt their hearts stop for an instant. It was an overwhelming sense of danger they could not resist.

In that single instant, Salter regretted what he had done. He felt that he should never have come to the Duchy of Maldon.

After Orsaga arrived, Salter discovered an extremely cruel fact.

The monster before him was in an entirely different category from the summoned creatures described in the Magic Tome, and the control ability he was supposed to possess showed no response whatsoever.

This meant he had absolutely no ability to control the creature before him...

When Orsaga opened his eyes, lowered his head, and looked at him, Salter felt an unprecedented terror from those indifferent eyes tinged with madness. He felt like a little white rabbit being watched by a lion. His heart began pounding wildly beyond his control, while even his mind seemed dominated by fear, unable to function properly.

Although Orsaga was not here in his true form and was merely a projected Avatar without any power, as long as he did not act, neither his aura nor his oppressive presence differed from his true body. It was not something any Ordinary Human could withstand.

Ignoring the little insect paralyzed by fear before him, Orsaga first examined his surroundings.

Good. There were no mages holding tools, and no priests preparing to throw Holy Water at him.

No traitors!

A proper summoning!!!

Then he sensed that something was slightly off and looked around in confusion.

Other than some humans who clearly did not look like good people, there were only a few corpses lying around.

Where are my sacrifices???

Don't tell me it's just that pile of corpses on the ground?

After excluding his summoners, Orsaga looked at the small number of corpses and thought in confusion.

Though sacrifices were not the main objective, they were still gains. How could they simply be gone for no reason?!

When he had been summoned, he had sensed far more than that—at least a thousand humans.

A few dozen corpses of strong people would have been one thing, but did corpses of this quality deserve to summon a Lower Demon like him?

There was not even a single fucking soul?

With just these things, they could at most barely summon a monster that had only just entered the Lesser Demon rank—and one that was not doing particularly well even among Lesser Demons!

Yet no matter how Orsaga looked, he could not find any sacrifices that matched his status.

Amid his confusion, he thought of a possibility—a somewhat pleasant possibility!

So he directed his gaze toward the Magic Circle beneath his feet and identified the meaning of its runes one by one. The result was exactly as he had expected.