"So did they accept our offer??" William asked Maris, who had now returned to the domain of infinite;
Her spacecraft had taken off and landed from outside the Riverdale Empire’s forest since the domain of infinite only allowed her to leave through the same entry point where she came from.
She could only leave from her mansion in the imperial capital and walk to the forest secretly, as this was a covert mission from her lord’s side.
Yet she was sure she did not leave any traces behind; even if she did, no one in the empire was perceptive enough, and moreover, Riverdale was going through a slight internal restructuring.
The reason for that was sitting in front of her.
"Take a seat," William told the kneeling figure of Maris inside his hut. He had long decided to drop formalities that seemed good at the start, but now they seemed useless.
Maris complied and sat in a chair at a distance before speaking. "Yes, my lord, Andrea has taken up your offer," Maris replied politely.
"Hmm, good job," William nodded as if thinking about something in distant memory.
Maris looked at him; there was no expression of joy or celebration on his face.
"My lord, congratulations on ending a demon lord’s reign of tyranny; it’s truly your grace that the academy would be able to kill Demon Lord Bellial today," she spoke with the intention to make him cheer up and see some satisfaction in his eyes. After all, she would feel useful and capable if her lord was satisfied with her performance and contribution.
Her voice carried genuine excitement; to her, the event marked something historic.
A demon lord’s fall was never an ordinary occurrence.
William looked at her and shook his head. "No, he isn’t dying anytime soon," he said with silent pursed lips.
All the happiness and fulfillment on Maris’s face disappeared; earlier, she had been truly excited to hear the news and rumours of Bellial’s death when she returned to Riverdale’s capital, and knowing about how she was involved in the whole execution made her thrilled.
She would also be a milestone in her journey from a weak disposable pawn to a powerful individual, as her lord had promised her.
But right now, William was denying that possibility. Maris went silent; she was stunned.
She had gotten some idea earlier about what that array that she had delivered to the academy with her own hands could do in a battle, yet William was now telling her that it wasn’t possible.
"My lord, can I ask the reason behind your words?" Maris bowed and asked with a grim expression; she did not dare express her displeasure.
"The reason I am saying he won’t die is not that I don’t want him to die, but because it’s impossible to do so right now. Demon lords are true-born demons and children of the abyss; their cores are kept separate from their bodies inside the abyss, mostly near the womb from which they were born. That’s the safest place."
Maris looked at him with shock. "By wombs, you mean their mothers??"
William shook his head. "No, only midborn and lowborn demons are born from two parents like all of us; demon lords are not beings born to parents; they are born from embryos of the abyss. The places where these embryos sprout are called ’abyss wombs.’
These places are the most important and sensitive possessions a demon lord or any trueborn has.
He protects it at all costs and mostly keeps their cores near a womb, which starts their revival process instantly. If the core is stored somewhere else entirely separate from the womb, then until the core is placed inside the womb, the revival process won’t start.
William looked at Maris and let his words sink in properly before continuing after a few minutes.
"Even the most powerful beings on Aris are unaware of this fact; only a few individuals at the top know, and today junior Astral Warden Andrea will realize that being an astral warden has long lost its significance and has become a playground of personal interests."
"But my lord, how did people in the past kill demon lords??" Maris asked, looking at William. She could not digest the fact that people at the top would keep this fact to themselves.
To be honest, she never expected that she would be divulged about such secrets so casually by her lord. She knew her lord was mysterious, but knowing the most sensitive stuff about demons that most of the strongest beings on Aris didn’t know meant that her lord’s wisdom surpassed these beings.
William replied to her question.
"Some of the astral wardens, mainly some of the primarchs who killed demon lords managed to destroy their cores for good, while some just killed them superficially on the surface and did not erase their existences entirely, they just managed to get hold of these demon lords’ cores somehow, preventing them from reviving but also keeping the possibility of their revival," William spoke with a sigh.
Maris kept spiraling inside her mind with the questions that kept piling up. "So... why would they ever try to keep those cores intact and not destroy them?" she asked with a frown.
William looked at her with a serious expression. "If you think that the top priority of the prime astral wardens is to erase the demons, then you are mistaken, Maris."
He was about to continue, but he suddenly stopped. "Let’s continue this conversation later." He smiled lightly.
"I need to go out; it seems like we have created a lot of commotion outside." William chuckled and disappeared, leaving Mris alone with even more questions than before.
Meanwhile, William’s figure appeared outside in his camp’s barracks, and he heard a loud commotion from outside. Without waiting for anything, he walked outside and saw cadets and officers had come out of their barracks and training sessions into the open.
Everyone stood under the dark sky and collectively looked at a golden spark in a direction that shone like the sun and created unsettling howls. The winds were moving restlessly as if a storm was approaching.
William saw all this; to him, the scene felt as if the world was ending.
[TheDemon annihilatorhas been summoned, the array is pouring the energy of light stones into the halo.]
[The immense energy of such high purity light stones is infuencing the atmosphere of the whole of Aris, it seems it will be raining soon above your camp]
"Just tell me that we are not going to be the reason for the end of this world right??" William asked with a twitching expression.
[No, we will just be responsible for more global warming :D]
"(┬┬﹏┬┬) bro, you need to be more serious at times, tell me whether heavenly Will is gonna interfere??"
[Unless the demon annhilator tries to break open a pathway to the abyss which seems quite possible, its bloodthirst for demons unmatched after all]
"Well, thank me, I purchased these Demon annihilator summoning formations in those two years of selling chocolates, too bad I only have 3 more left." William shook his head in relief.
"now i just hope it kills as much demons as possible, wish i could see it from my own eyes"