The Noble Witch

Isaac paid no attention to everyone's looks. Once seated, he distributed the intelligence he had compiled from the beastskin book along the way.

The beastskin book contained the magic power of the God of Black Orcs. Others could not ignore the lure of magic power as Isaac could.

Moreover, the beastskin book did not actually contain much intelligence. More of it was a gift from the God of Black Orcs—a series of restraining spells, as well as the spell that had caused this situation.

"This is..." The moment they picked up the Manuscript, everyone's brows furrowed.

"The Black Orcs are actually connected to demons? And they can borrow demonic power to mass-produce High Priests... Have they lost their minds?" Barry said in shock as he stared at the Manuscript.

Isaac shrugged, unsurprised.

"The Black Orcs' civilization is rather primitive to begin with. They worship the law of the jungle, and they are divided internally into countless tribes large and small. With an order from the God of Black Orcs this time, it's hardly strange that they would do something like this. Even without one, it wouldn't have been surprising."

Demons, strictly speaking, fell within the category of Divine Species. They possessed a status equal to that of gods, though the disparity in strength between individuals was immense. The strong could rival gods, while the weak...

Were about on the level of Quasi-Knights.

However, because of their status, they were born with many wondrous abilities, such as Blessings.

Like the Outer Gods, they could accept sacrifices and then bestow Blessings upon the person presiding over the ritual.

Of course, there was a price.

It was a transaction.

The sacrificer would gain power, but once the agreed conditions were fulfilled, the demon would come to claim their soul.

Such contracts were even harsher than those of the Outer Gods. Transactions with the Outer Gods were more like one-off deals: whether wizard or Outer God, any tricks could only be played during the ritual. Once the ritual ended, neither side could interfere with the other.

At most, they could leave behind a Magic Item capable of communicating with them, like the Lord of Myriad Flesh and the God of Black Orcs had done.

But in truth, this was not a good thing either. Demonic transactions were unlike those with the Outer Gods, where payment and goods changed hands at once. They were loans.

Only after the conditions stipulated in the ritual had been fulfilled would the demon claim the soul.

And that gave many wizards room to maneuver!

Among the schools of wizards was one known as the Demon Dominators!

They were wizards who excelled in the art of loans. They gained power by signing contracts with one demon after another, then delayed the contracts' conclusion through bugs deliberately left in the contracts after they were signed.

Some wizards could even use the contracts to dominate demons in turn, forcibly extracting even more from them!

Magic power, knowledge...

Isaac was quite interested in this as well. Once he became an Archmage, he planned to look for related spells.

But that was a matter for later...

Returning to the matter at hand, everyone nodded after hearing Isaac's words. This did indeed seem like something the Black Orcs would do. It was not as if such things had never happened before, only never on such a large scale. And usually, before they could launch an attack on them, the Black Orcs would eliminate themselves.

But this time...

"Black Orc demonization..." Gaia frowned deeply and looked toward Cheryl, Isaac, and Barbara the Snake Woman. Only the three of them here were spellcasters. "Do you have any way to deal with this?"

Demonization was a spell—or perhaps a divine spell—that nearly every newly born High Priest knew. By sacrificing a certain amount of life, they could demonize a Black Orc, granting it power comparable to that of a knight!

From fifteen thousand Black Orcs, a total of five thousand Demonized Black Orcs could be created!

That meant five thousand knights!

Solomon Fortress could never withstand such a force!

Unless a High Sorcerer were stationed there—and not an ordinary High Sorcerer, either. It would have to be a veteran High Sorcerer who had been stationed here for many years and accumulated enough resources to handle it.

Five thousand knights...

Looking across the entire Empire, only the Royal Knight Order could reach that level!

In the entire Empire, including nobles great and small, there was one and only one such knight order!

Still, this was not particularly difficult. If they emptied their coffers, Solomon Territory could also assemble such a knight order in a short time. But this was an army, not golems that only needed to be assembled.

Even Alchemical Golems required constant maintenance, let alone people.

Secondly, their actual usefulness was not especially great. Five thousand knights could be held back by three High-level Knights working together, driven off by five High-level Knights, and wiped out entirely by ten High-level Knights!

In this supernatural world, individual Great Power was the ultimate answer!

Unfortunately, Solomon Fortress currently had only Gaia as a High-level Knight. In the short term, pouring in resources could at most produce Caesar. Although Barry was also at the peak of Great Knight, even if he obtained the Smelting Method and the necessary resources, he would still need some time to break through.

As for Cheryl, there was even less to say. The path of an Arcanist was exceptionally steady; there was no such thing as suddenly erupting with power. One could only proceed step by step.

Thus, with insufficient high-end combat power, they could only hope that the spellcasters among them could resolve the issue through spells—for instance, by reversing the Black Orcs' demonized state...

"This isn't my field of research, but I can look into it. The association has quite a bit of information on demonization, and besides, I don't know what spell they used." Cheryl did not make any promises. She did not even hold much hope for herself.

After all, the specialties were far too mismatched. Her primary field of study was material Alchemy, and her knowledge of living creatures was limited.

Still, she looked toward Isaac. If they knew the corresponding spell, there might be a chance. After all, she was an Archmage; her foundation was there.

Isaac nodded, understanding what Eldest Sister meant. "The beastskin book contains the corresponding spell and the spell to counter it. The exact effects will need testing, but there's something wrong with the beastskin book itself, so you can't read it. I'll copy down the spells inside and give them to you later."

After speaking, Isaac paused before adding, "We still have quite a few Black Orcs left. There's no need to waste them. We can use them for some experiments. I'll handle the demonization myself. I happen to be somewhat interested in demons, so this can count as getting to know them in advance."

At that, Gaia's brows knit slightly. He was somewhat dissatisfied with Isaac's desire to make contact with demons, but he also knew Isaac would not listen to him. Besides, if they wanted to resolve the fortress's current crisis, contact with demons was indeed unavoidable...

So he merely frowned and said nothing. Nor did he have the standing to say anything.

After Isaac finished speaking, everyone turned their eyes to Snake Woman. Among them, Isaac and Cheryl were the most expectant.

Though all three were spellcasters, the one most likely to solve this matter was, instead, Snake Woman!

Because she was a Witch. A Witch's power was the least reasonable of all!

Whether Legendary Wizards or Truth Wizards, they had to follow certain rules when casting spells—but Witches did not!

They were born extraordinary!