The Demon King's Authority

A Great Knight rose from the ground, presumably intending to arrive via Flying Arts Caster, but with the immense power stirred up by the avatar of 'wind,' these mortals who imitated Icarus were forced to plummet into the sea under the pressure of the strong winds.

Thus, the palace reached the skies above the Acropolis, the oldest city in Athens. Athena's original and most orthodox Parthenon Temple was now within the palace's attack range.

She knew, of course, that Athena was not yet complete at this point in time, and that her refusal was also aimed at reclaiming the Gorgon Stone and thus restoring the Triune form. But...

Just as God of War wouldn't surrender to a small stone, Unwilling God in this world who could stand idly by and watch their only temple be destroyed. Therefore...

"Show yourself, Athena," she commanded, and at the same time, the 'boar' avatar from the God of War's bracelet, used to deal with massive targets, was activated. A gigantic black boar, nearly a hundred meters long, appeared, roaring, and charged towards the Parthenon Temple in Athens. Its powerful and immense impact, if it struck accurately, would likely reduce the entire Acropolis ruins to ashes.

Her guess was correct.

For in the very next instant, like a falling meteor, the boar avatar, about to crash into the temple's foundation, abruptly halted in mid-air. It then transformed into a lifeless stone statue and disintegrated into dust. And with the boar's demise, a vast darkness radiated outwards from the Parthenon Temple as its center.

And then the voice of a young girl, or rather young girl, suddenly rang out in the palace.

"What an arrogant fool! Not only did he attack two of my kin on the day he was born, but now he dares to fight against God for the third time before the end of this first day."

A petite figure appeared before the throne, thirty meters away—a safe distance. She had silver hair and black eyes, and an aura of cold indifference surrounded her. At first glance, she even resembled a delicate kitten.

And the kitten is baring its teeth at Miss Surtr.

"But I will not fear the challenge, you fool. What I desire is a snake. If you offer me the snake, I will forgive the offense of threatening my dwelling. But if you cannot..."

A gigantic scythe, utterly disproportionate to her petite frame, appeared in the young girl's hand. Her gaze towards Miss Surtr was filled with fighting spirit.

"Fool, I will here personally end your brief new life."

Miss Surtr responded with a light laugh.

"It seems you have some misconceptions about me. Perhaps you think that fighting two pillar gods in succession would be a huge drain on me. That's why you're willing to accept the challenge, hoping to use the power of defeating the God Slayer as a shield to avoid additional battles while retrieving the lost item... For an ordinary god, it's quite an achievement to think of this much."

She rose from her throne, without her sword, but Laevateinn floated behind her.

A kind of terrifying feeling lingered and dissipated with her footsteps.

"However, such scheming cannot be called 'wisdom.' Indeed... simply seeking your completeness is not enough to make you a suitable advisor. Perhaps I should use my wits to kill you once, and then use your divinity and power to summon another Athena who, yearning for greater wisdom, has become disobedient?"

She walked forward, and for every three steps she took, Athena instinctively took a step back. And as the young Goddess took her third step back, she suddenly exerted her strength and leaped forward!

"What—what do you take this Goddess for!?"

The giant black scythe struck the neck at an incredible angle.

Then, it stopped at a slender finger burning with flames—the tip of the blade paused on the side of the nail, but it was unable to successfully cut it off.

"It's an important asset." Miss Surtr flicked her fingers, and the undying flame surging within her fingertips erased the cracks on her nails caused by the slash. "I need your wisdom, Athena."

"Perhaps you can find a way to prove that you're useful to me for more than just your intelligence?"

Chapter 123 The Lord of Fiends's Authority

—The Seventh King has a fondness for women, even though she herself is a woman.

—The very thing she said to me became, in turn, proof of her subconsciously asserting her own orientation.

On the flight from Milan to Athens, Miss Erica Brantri gently pressed her chest, trying to calm her racing heart—she had spent several hours dealing with the tasks Miss Surtr had assigned her and the tedious affairs of the society before boarding the society's private plane. On the plane, she had the leisure and energy to touch up her makeup, change into a clean and pretty dress, and, incidentally, to gather her thoughts and reconsider her attitude towards the King.

—The Queen is very assertive, according to some sources and eyewitness accounts. Such a personality is hard to imagine in a girl who has lived alone and ill for seventeen years. Therefore, it's either some kind of self-protective disguise, or... the Queen had an extraordinary experience when she acquired that first power, the true nature of which remains unconfirmed.

—If it's the former, I must be especially careful when interacting with the king. Exposing his pretense without a deep bond will only lead to disastrous consequences. If it's the latter, then I cannot serve the king as I would a peer.

—The latter is slightly more likely...because I remember when I first met the King in the square of Milan, he looked to be about twenty-seven years old, not seventeen as shown in the register when we met again later. Considering the records mentioning Madam Aisha's possession of powers like the Fairy Realm Gate, then the first god the King slew must have been in a secret realm, another world, or even ancient times...

The girl in the red dress gently bit her lower lip. Before the arrival of the Disobedient Surtr, she had even considered personally defeating and suppressing any deity that might descend upon Italy. However, reality dealt her a harsh blow. Under the Divine Might of the Unwilling God, she couldn't even stop herself from kneeling.

This girl, who was the same age as him, or a few months older, accomplished a distant dream that he could never achieve.

—I can no longer accomplish the great feats befitting my birth as a king. However, I can still become the most capable knight by the side of the most powerful monarch. In a single day, I can defeat three... even four Unfallen Gods. Even tracing back to the oldest documents, such a powerful king is a first in the world.

Ah... that's right, four people.

Four hours earlier, she had received intelligence that the Seventh King, who had used his power to create a palace and ascended to the Parthenon Temple, had come into contact with a new, Unwilling God. It is said that the king first unleashed his power upon the temple, after which darkness enveloped the entire city of Athens, centered on the temple.

Darkness—according to historical research, Athena is also rumored to be the Goddess of night. According to the speculation of the Council of Sages, the Seventh King likely sensed Unwilling Athena and thus intervened to test her. And so, the third, known divine war under the cover of night erupted—and then swiftly came to a close.

Because the darkness lasted for less than two minutes, the lights of Athens were only briefly taken away, and then everything returned to the way it was before the war of the gods.

The Princess of the Council of Sages risked using her Spiritual Vision, proving yet another victory for the Seventh King. After that, the Seventh King's palace hovered above the Acropolis of Athens, never to move again.

The plane shuddered slightly and began its descent from the stratosphere. The girl inside looked out the window and, through the faint light of six in the morning, saw the intact Athens, the Acropolis, and the Demon King's Palace suspended about three kilometers above the Acropolis.

A gaze swept over from afar—the knight girl immediately rose from her seat and bowed deeply in the direction the gaze came from.

"Your Majesty, I have fulfilled your instructions. Please allow me to continue serving you."

She spoke loudly, using respectful and humble language.

The next moment, the whisper of the wind could be heard inside the closed cabin.

—'To enter the courtyard, call my name'

Wind.

The power of the wind is the embodiment of the wind of the God of War Ullr's Ragnarok. In mythology, the wind of the God of War can move an army thousands of miles in an instant.

So she humbly said that name.

"Please forgive my overstepping my bounds, my king. The Seventh God Slayer, whose might shakes the world, Surtr."

The next moment, a powerful wind swept around her, tearing through space and turning everything in sight into chaos. When everything returned to stability, she found herself on the outermost platform of the palace.

A faint roaring sound reached my ears. Turning my head, I saw that the plane I was on was passing over the airspace ten kilometers away unscathed—it would land safely and be taken over by the Society's newly established branch in Athens.

The fragrance of flowers lingered around her nose.

She rose and walked straight towards the central hall of the palace, her gaze fixed straight ahead. Without looking around aimlessly, she precisely observed the many details within the palace—she noticed that its architectural style was unlike anything she knew. It belonged neither to the West nor the East, yet every pillar and stone exuded a grand and solemn aura. And as she passed through the first gate, she saw a sea of white flowers blooming on both sides of the path.

It sprouts in three seconds, blooms in ten seconds, blossoms in thirty seconds, and then withers away again in thirteen seconds, returning to dust and giving birth to the next season's life. She saw that every flower was exceptionally beautiful, and the essence of life in this cycle of blooming and withering was like a surging tide.

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may"—for some reason, when Erica saw them, this incomplete line of poetry from the East suddenly echoed in her mind, resonating endlessly.

—Sure enough, more and more evidence is emerging to support the hypothesis. However...

—Does a king prefer to let delicate flowers bloom far away and then wither rather than pluck them and cherish them? If so, then he is truly a cruel king.

Thoughts drifted as she stepped into the central hall of the palace. The first thing that caught her eye was the blazing greatsword of the Seventh king, seated on a black throne, hovering beside her. Turning her gaze slightly to the king's left, a 'birdcage' constructed from golden sword blades floated silently in the air.