"Ha, you might as well say you're planning to kill me outright."
Upon hearing the demon's words, the Grand Knight Commander, in his despair, revealed a mocking smile:
"You bastard child of the demon race, come forth!"
"Sigh, how can you be so out of touch with reality?"
The demon, his entire body forged in flames, remained standing, looking at the Grand Knight Commander before him with a hint of pity in his eyes.
"I heard your conversation, and to be honest, I don't think that three elite Holy Crusaders Knight Order, plus the original forces of Fir City, are enough to fight against a resurrected god."
"You probably think the same thing, don't you? But why did you do it? Was it wishful thinking? Foolish loyalty? Or some other reason? Are you Sailesi's illegitimate son?"
"Shut up, you bastard!"
The Grand Knight Commander roared, his eyes shifting between clarity and confusion.
"Listen to me. Do you know what I'm going to do with your identity? I was once the most decorated general of the demon race. If you've studied the history of the kingdoms and empires before the Demonic Tide, you must have heard of me."
The demon paused and continued:
"I need your identity because I need to control an army, and I need to witness firsthand whether it is the true, great, and resurrected Creator God."
Despite the demon's incredibly seductive Whisper, a quality seemingly innate to his race, the Grand Knight Commander maintained his rational thinking. He looked at the demon and asked:
"Then how do you determine if He has truly revived?"
"It's very simple."
The demon opened his arms and explained:
"If He defeats me on the battlefield, I will acknowledge Him as the true resurrection of the Tree God; if He cannot even defeat me, then He is nothing more than a counterfeit who has usurped the divine position."
"A fake deity only has one fate: death."
The demon looked at the fallen knight before him and Whisper once more:
"I can make those high-ranking knights bow down to 'you,' but only if the person beneath that skin is me..."
"I have over a thousand years of experience commanding battles; my name once stopped the kingdom's children from crying..."
"I know Sailesi's character. If you lose this battle, you won't even be able to see him again..."
"If you have made your choice, then call my name, call my original name, and entrust everything to me..."
Amidst a series of Whisper, the heavily armored Grand Knight Commander's legs began to tremble.
His sanity was being eroded, his thinking ability was deteriorating, and the legend of the Demonic Whisper was becoming a reality. He finally understood that the description of the devil in the Tree Worship Church's teaching materials was not false.
He thought of Cardinal Sailesi's order, of this almost impossible task, and of his dream of becoming famous.
He opened his mouth, and a final, barely audible resistance escaped his dry throat:
"If you succeed in slaying a god, you must use, you must use my name..."
"Okay, what's your name?"
"Grand Knight Commander, Marba."
"Very well, Marba, I promise you that if I succeed in killing the god, I will live in this name and spend my life in your name."
"Whatever I achieve thereafter, whether I am canonized as Saint or become a cardinal, I will always present myself with this name and this identity."
"Don't worry, I've always been very trustworthy in this regard. You can ask Geliwusi if you don't believe me."
The demon's promise shattered Grand Knight Marba's last psychological defense.
His experience at the seminary twenty years ago was now replaying before his eyes.
Those renowned and powerful figures flashed before him.
Teacher Sailesi... Teacher Geliwusi...
The perspective of recollection shifts from the podium down to the textbooks spread out on the wooden table in front of him:
[... In the year 628 of the Royal Calendar, the Demon Allied Army, led by Marshal "...", began its westward advance. The alliance swept through the lands until it reached the Duke Frostblade's Territory, where it encountered strong resistance from the then- Duke Frostblade...]
Marba strained to make out the name of the demon, and finally managed to make out the blurry name. He then read it aloud in his hoarse voice:
" Duma."
"I am here."
The demon's fiery body vanished instantly and reformed in front of Marba.
He stretched out an arm, his claw-like fingers pointing forward, and pierced Marba's forehead.
The Grand Knight Commander let out a muffled groan, then drowned in endless memories, taking his ideals with him.
Five minutes later, the demon Duma, who had Incarnation the Grand Knight Marba, sat in the only remaining high-backed chair in the military tent, looked at the mess in front of him, and sighed.
This Grand Knight Commander's destructive power was simply too great; with just a burst of strength, he destroyed all the furniture in the tent.
Although Duma is High Tier demon capable of replacing others, he simply cannot make plants grow from the ground to reshape the furniture here.
After all, Marba's symbiotic plant died the moment he died, and as the name "symbiotic plant" implies, there is no way in this world to separate the symbiotic plant from its original owner and use it.
The demon readjusted to its two-armed body, then flipped its right wrist, instantly increasing the brightness inside the tent.
This realm has been abolished, and the world has been returned to its original state from the so-called " Dark Side of the World ".
" Marba " clapped his hands, and soon a guard answered at the door.
"Bring a few people to clean this place up."
"Yes, Grand Knight Commander. Is there anything else you require?"
"Hmm, summon the other Grand Knights and their lieutenants again. I just remembered there were some things I didn't finish explaining."
"Yes."
A dozen minutes later.
"Isn't it unnecessary to verify my identity? I was just here half an hour ago..."
"I'm sorry, but even if you are the Grand Knight Commander, you still have to..."
"Okay, okay, I understand."
After a brief commotion, the tent was once again filled with high-ranking officers from three elite Holy Crusaders Knight Order.
" Marba, everyone's here. What else do you need?"
One of them spoke in a somewhat impatient tone, and everyone could tell he was a little annoyed with Marba, but there was nothing they could do—the two were both Grand Knights of their respective knightly orders, and since they were of equal rank, neither of them was afraid of the other.
Hearing that some people were already getting impatient, Marba nodded and said:
"Gentlemen, we will arrive in the Aduolin Province in a few days to participate in the war against the gods. I have a question for you."
Facing the gazes of the crowd, Marba asked:
Why did the wars between the kingdom and the demons always begin with the defeat of the kingdom's army in the centuries before the Demonic Tide broke out?
Weren't we supposed to be discussing god-slaying? What have we gotten into?
The crowd exchanged bewildered glances. After a few seconds, Marba's knight commander's assistant spoke up in a flattering manner:
"Because the kingdom's army was composed of the private armies of various lords, there was no unified commander. Therefore, at the beginning of each war, all the nobles were thinking about how to preserve their strength or even expand their power by taking advantage of the demon invasion. Although the demons were also an allied force, they made ample preparations for each war and designated a commander to oversee the overall situation..."
Marba nodded in satisfaction:
"That's right, so... what have you learned from this history?"