As players continued to refine the details of this unofficial organization, the atmosphere in the tavern grew increasingly lively.
The players who drank the Scarlet Millet Wine seemed to be truly drunk. A large group of them were either talking to themselves or listening to the discussions around them. The name, nature, general operational logic, and even the source of funding for the " Adrian Imperial Guard " had been preliminarily determined.
Building such an organization in the game world is like completing a cloze test in real life. Most of the questions have already been determined, and all players need to do is brainstorm and fill in every empty space.
Now, all that's left for the players in the tavern is one last, albeit not-so-problem, issue—
Do their " Adrian Imperial Guard " require passwords or hand signals?
As this issue gradually became a common concern for all players in the tavern, [ Noncompliant Nickname 1214 ], standing at the table, finally spoke up once again:
Does anyone have any suggestions regarding this issue?
A player gestured that he wanted to speak, and [ Noncompliant Nickname 1214 ] looked over. The person grinned mischievously and said:
"Since we've gathered here to protect the Second Holy See and Ed, let's call it 'Uniting Our Will, Defending...'"
"Shut up!"
[ Noncompliant Nickname 1214 ] shouted:
"What bad luck! Does anyone else have any ideas?"
Another player, who seemed to have recently left school, still maintained his student habits, raising his right hand high in an attempt to attract the speaker's attention.
[ Noncompliant Nickname 1214 ] glanced at the player and pointed at them:
"This is even worse! Put it down! Shut up! Does anyone else have any ideas?"
[ Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger ] put down his wine glass, feeling the heated discussion around him, and shouted loudly to the players:
"Gentlemen, what is the purpose of establishing the ' Adrian Imperial Guard '?!"
The players started talking all at once, and although their expressions varied, the core issue remained the same: "Protection" as mentioned earlier by [ Noncompliant Nickname 1214 ].
The player at the table knew the atmosphere had reached its peak, so he glanced at [ Noncompliant Nickname 1214 ] and shouted out his prepared remarks:
"Great, I've received everyone's ideas, but slogans never need to be long, they just need to be inspiring. Brothers, shout it with me!"
"Loyalty to the Second Holy See!"
"Loyalty to the Second Holy See!"
"Loyalty to Valhalla!"
"Loyalty to Valhalla!"
"Loyal to the Son of God!"
"Loyal to the Son of God!"
Loyalty or disloyalty?
"Loyalty!"
"Speak louder, are you loyal or not?!"
"Loyalty!!!"
"Loyal!"
"So loyal!"
The shout of "Loyalty!" echoed through the walls and rooftops, reaching the area around the tavern and making many players feel a special sense of familiarity.
And so, the " Adrian Imperial Guard," a rapid response force, was officially established amidst shouts of "Loyalty!"
After converting several Treant Hunter with the ability to think back into humans, Ed's use of his abilities became increasingly refined.
This time, he brought all the remaining treants into the cathedral and began to transform them all back into human form at once.
The hundreds of Treant Hunter included both men and women, and were all under the age of fifteen.
Ed maintained the same attitude towards their future arrangements as he had towards the previously rescued experimental subjects: those with homes went home, those without homes followed him, and those who wanted to fight Gungnir for training.
Duma appeared beside Ed, and having experienced the players' baptism, he became even more respectful than before.
The demon lowered his head and said politely:
"They will thank the Son of God for his mercy, but... what do you intend to do with those half-tree people?"
This question really stumped Ed--
Unlike the Treant Hunter who can be reverted to humans, the half-treants created by Antiya Lisi were purely mass-produced troops, and the entire transformation was completed in just one hour.
Such a rapid conversion rate is essentially a shoddy job; Antiya Lisi, in his recklessness, destroyed the internal structures of these people.
This meant that Ed was unable to restore them to human form like the teenagers. Even if he could, their bodies would be mangled and they wouldn't live long.
This is indeed a loss.
The vast majority of the Half-Tree people were transformed from the Holy Crusaders in Fir City. It's not necessarily true that Ed had much mercy for them, but the problem is that they should theoretically be going to the High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant, and a small portion of the Half-Tree people were actually innocent bystanders who were just there to watch the show.
"With my current strength, I can't turn them back into humans... Duma, what are your thoughts?"
He didn't actually intend to get any advice from Duma, since Duma's expertise was in warfare. But to Ed's surprise, Duma for a while and seemed to have something to say.
Duma's statement was not unfounded. Discrimination between different groups was very serious among the demons, but at the Second Holy See, he was surprised to find that no matter what a person (or non-human) looked like, the Soul Returner could accept them.
Based on this fact, Duma offered its own advice:
" My Son of God, I don't think we necessarily need to turn those half-tree people back into humans... at least not in the short term."
Ed looked at him, signaling the demon to continue.
Do you know how the lich race came to be?
Ed shook his head, and the demon continued:
"Most races in this world were created by the great Tree God, but the lich is different."
"A long time ago, probably nearly ten thousand years ago... I wasn't even born then, and a group of persecuted humans fled into the Demon Realm."
"At that time, humanity's exploration of the power system was still incomplete. Some of them were black magicians, some were fearsome wizards, and some were just charlatans. In short, they were a group of poor exiled wretches."
"In order to integrate into the demon race, these people conducted a large number of bizarre experiments on themselves and their companions, and eventually one person's experiment was successful."
He transformed himself into a pure magical form, which we now generally call a pure Psionic Energy form, and was able to stably switch between the material and Psionic Energy states. He then replicated this experiment on his companions, and finally named this new race, which he and a few assistants created, the 'Lich.' All liches today are descendants of that group.
"Because they were all exiles, they harbored hatred for humans. The original liches joined forces to destroy the records of their transformation experiments, preventing them from ever turning back into humans. Then they settled and multiplied among the demons."
After recounting the long history, Duma looked at Ed earnestly and said:
" My Son of God, sometimes creating a new race isn't as difficult as you might imagine."