Chapter 668 667. The Demon's Cry
"Suppose Rex is traveling at the speed of three hundred kilometers per hour. He's fifty kilograms heavy and collides with an immobile object. What would the impact force be if the time of impact is two seconds?"
"Why am I in the question again?"
"Because you talk the most. Now, be silent and solve the question. It's utterly easy," Sylvester gave questions to the five students sitting behind in the carriage while he alone steered from the reinsman seat.
As they traveled on the Holy Road, heading through the Barrier Mountain Range, he asked them many questions related to all the subjects.
"What is the name of the Pope whose body was mummified in the Mountain of Tears?" he asked.
"I know!" Ella raised her hand proudly. "It's Pope Carwyn Giltbert, the thirteenth Pope. He's the Pope who served the least number of years."
"Absolutely correct, Ella," Sylvester clapped in praise. "You seem to like reading history."
Wraaaaa…!
They heard a deafening, blood-curdling scream just as they made their way through the mountain pass covered in snow. The slopes on both sides were dense with trees. It spooked the horses, but Sylvester immediately calmed them down.
"What was that?!" Rex poked his head out. "Should I take out my sword?"
"That's a dagger," Sylvester shoved the boy's head back in and got down from the carriage. "Stay inside, all of you. There's nothing in this world that can threaten us anymore."
"A Demon?" Elephantkin, Noby voiced. "I have read it in the books. It's a Demon that has possessed a human completely and now uses the human's cry for help to lure victims."
Sylvester didn't feel an ounce of fear or even concern but rather excitement. "A Demon? Perhaps I can make it talk?"
Silently, he sent Miraj into the sky to look and inform if the Demon was in sight. He waited in the cool, snowy breeze, keeping his senses alert and maintaining his gaze on Miraj's form.
"Maxy! Towards the sun!"
Sylvester was alerted and, right away, swung his Spear of Infinity towards the west, where the sun rose. His swing didn't even contain any magic, and with mere raw, physical strength, he cut the air so violently that a massive valley formed in the mountainside, going deep.
"It's still coming at you!" Miraj informed him. "It's crawling like a dog!"
'Dog?' Sylvester retracted the spear's length, placed it back on his back, and waited for the creature to reach him instead.
He waited and waited. The entire time, Miraj kept notifying him.
"Maxy! It's too dumb. It fell into a ditch… oh wait, it came out… No! It bumped into a boulder… Now it's going in the wrong direction… now it's going back up!"
"..."
Speechless, Sylvester sighed, created Light Tiles for himself, and began walking toward the sky. Soon, he looked where Miraj pointed and noticed the creature. A zombie-like creature with rotten flesh, half of its body already skeletonized. It crawled like a dog, running mindlessly while screaming like a human calling for help.
"Does it not have a brain, Maxy?"
"It's a Demon in possession of a rotten body, Chonky. But after seeing this, I don't think it'll be able to answer any questions. Only higher Demons can speak." Sylvester sighed and raised his palm towards the creature. In no time, he sent a beam of white light of pure destruction, devouring the Demon in the scorching heat.
With the Demon dead, Sylvester returned to the carriage, and they started moving again. He continued the lessons as if nothing had happened, and to some degree, the students were also getting used to all his actions that seemed ordinary while, in reality, were otherworldly.
"So, tell me the layers of atmosphere that I wrote down in the basics of geography," Sylvester began to quiz them once again.
Just like that, they soon began to exit the mountain pass and arrived at the greener, fertile eastern region of Blackhart Kingdom. From the height of the mountains, seeing the green flat lands in the distance was quite a sight. However, Sylvester only felt disappointment.
'This isn't enough to support billions of people. Dung fertilizer won't take us far,' he mumbled to himself while descending and heading towards the Last Haven, a major resting town for those traversing the Mountain Range. 'Perhaps it's time to introduce Ammonium Nitrate… but if used the wrong way...'
He knew with the introduction of basic education, eventually, someone would realize how to make TNT as well. He wished to avoid that, but going straight to urea fertilizer wasn't much different either, as Ammonium was still needed.
"All of you. Tell me what's the use of a sword in one word," Sylvester suddenly asked them.
"Attack!" Rez bellowed.
"Cut?"
"Kill?"
"Stab?"
"Slice?"
Sylvester chuckled, "Why did none of you say defend? Can't a sword be used to defend?"
Hence, Sylvester felt sure that if even these high-IQ students thought of killing before defending, there was no doubt whatever he invented would be used for the worse later on. The only question left now was whether the benefits outweigh the risk.
In time, they began approaching Last Haven town. It was bustling with activity, as one would expect. The entire town was filled with inns and taverns where travelers could rest and eat. As the Blackhart Kingdom moved on a trajectory to develop itself, there was a lot of money to be made from various jobs.
But Sylvester never had to worry about his residence since each town had a monastery.
"YOUR HOLINESS!"
From the Town's Bishop to a dozen of his staff members, they all ran out and knelt before Sylvester. They started crying for no reason. Their hands were clasped together as they tried to speak simultaneously.
"Save us, please. We can't handle it anymore," the Bishop cried.
Sylvester had just come down from the carriage, "What happened?"
"Demons! There were five possessions the previous night. We can't keep them inside the monastery for too long… they're making the Priests and the Bright Mothers sick," the Bishop pleaded, forgetting even to introduce himself.
'Demons? This can't be a coincidence. They're supposed to be rare,' Sylvester could sense there was something more to the story.
"First, tell me your name."
"Bishop Lancel, Your Holiness."
"Good. Lead me to the dungeon, Lancel," Sylvester ordered, raising his spear in one hand. "Tell all of the workers in the monastery to evacuate."
Just as he walked into the three-story monastery building, all the Priests and Bright Mothers ran out. He left his five students behind as well and followed the Bishop downstairs to the dungeon meant to hold heretics. However, from the looks of it, the place was used more like a storeroom.
Grrr…!
Keke…!
Strange groaning noises reverberated in the darkness. It was cold and dry, almost freezing enough that they saw their mouths breathing out mist.
"When did these possessions happen?" Sylvester questioned while creating light in his palm.
"Last night. I-I was called by the Town's Chief. His son was possessed, but just then, the Town's Chief, his wife, his mother, and the servant were also possessed before my eyes—all in the same room in one night."
'This is new. Multiple possessions of the same family?' Sylvester tried to remember if there was any historical precedent for it, but there was none. 'Could it be something like the Soul Eater? One Demon spreading itself like a hivemind?'
"Here… Please be careful, Your Holiness."
Finally, the Bishop opened a metal door and entered a large room with multiple metal cells. Inside one were five bodies standing like lifeless dolls. However, the moment Sylvester's light touched them, they shrieked and began growling heavily.
Right away, he noticed their stage of possession already. "They've already entered the A-class stage this fast. The signs of them being demonic are visible… There's only a fifty percent chance to save them. I'll have to exorcize them right away."
"I'll bring the book of light!" The Bishop was ready to run to his office.
Sylvester refused and, with a single hand, pulled apart the metal bar of the holding cell to enter, "My light is enough to exorcize Demons, Bishop Lancel."
"Unholy possession of the vile Demon.
Screech and hear my holy sermon…"
Sylvester began to say a hymn and formed a halo behind his head. The entire dungeon radiated with warm energy, and the five demons shrank back towards a corner in utter fright.
"Did you find the key?" Sylvester asked while making the Demons scream.
"None… There was no key the—Ghk! Aargh! S-Sav… meh…"
"What happened?" Sylvester quickly created a solidified light shield and caught the five Demons in a corner. Then, he looked back and…
Bishop Lancel's face turned ugly, red as a tomato, and veins bulged all over. His eyes seemed on the verge of popping out as he clawed at his own throat, groaning in absolute pain. His hands lost color and began cracking like the skin was too dry.
"Bishop!" Sylvester wasted no time and shrouded the Bishop with his light. He probed his body with Elder Magic's manipulation of solarium and immediately noticed the presence of a second soul, one possessing dark energy. "Another possession?!"
Poof!
Sylvester punctured a hole in the Bishop's throat first to clear whatever was blocking his air passage and let him take a breath. But the demonic presence tried to fight against the Bishop's soul, trying to overpower it and take over.
'So this is how possessions take place… It's a battle of souls. No wonder those who return from advance-possessions lose a part of their sanity—a part of their soul.' Sylvester saw in real time how possession worked. He wanted to see it until the end and allowed the Bishop to be fully possessed as he knew how to save him later.
Closing his eyes, he sensed the surroundings and found something producing a dark aura. It was a small piece of cloth, an armpatch tied around the Bishop's forearm.
'Found the key!'
He watched the fight between the two souls until the Bishop began losing completely. That was when he moved in and destroyed the Key with fire. After that, all he needed to do was chant a hymn and create the exorcism rune circle under them.
"Wraaaaaa!" Bishop roared with a muffled voice that wasn't his own. "Naaaaa… Hea…. hisss…"
'It tried to speak.' Sylvester could feel it.
But the Demon wasn't powerful enough to speak fluently. So, Sylvester chose to finish it and save the Bishop since there was something far more terrifying that he just theorized. A reason why five members of the same family were possessed, a reason why a Bishop of all things was possessed.
Thud!
The Bishop fell to the floor, gasping for breath and slowly returning to his senses, "S-save me…"
Pa!
Sylvester slapped the man, earning his attention. "What was that armstrap you were wearing? Who gave it to you?"
"T… The… Festival…" Bishop Lancel murmured weakly, gasping. "Free… It's free."
"Fuck!" Sylvester cursed, an extremely rare occurrence. "How many people are in town?"
"Eight thousan-nd… S-save meh…"
Sylvester sighed deeply and looked back at the five demon-possessed. He raised his hands and transfigured the metal rods of the holding cell into chains to lock them by their necks. Then, he picked the Bishop on his shoulder and rushed out of the dungeon.
"Who distributed the arm straps?"
"B-Baron…"
Sylvester gritted his teeth and, using his immense knightly strength, jumped up and broke through the monastery ceiling instead of going through various doors. He came out, falling down from the third-story height, taking in the view of the entire town.
"Good heavens!"
"Godfather!"
Sylvester looked down and landed right beside the carriage. Rex was standing atop it and throwing basic elemental attack spells around. The entire carriage was surrounded by a human wall of Priests who cast some magic while the Bright Mothers hid behind.
"Grrr…"
"S…eekh…"
"Aaarrrrr…"
"What's happening?" Rex asked. "Why are there so many undeads?"
The entire carriage was completely surrounded by thousands of people from all directions. As far as they could see, there was a crowd growling and looking red with anger, or even worse—rotten. But their movements were sloppy, and their physical attacks lacked power. However, they were visibly improving.
It was a mind-numbing sight for most, but Sylvester knew this was no threat to him. However, he wasn't ignorant of the misery that thousands of souls were facing in those bodies.
Sylvester sighed, having expected this, and easily cast a massive dome of solidified light to protect themselves. "Someone sabotaged! The entire town is now possessed by Demons."
Bam!
The Demon-possessed tried to attack the dome-shaped shield.
"Ghk… Argh… What… is happe-ning?!"
"Help!"
"I can't br-breathe…"
Suddenly, a few Bright Mothers and the Priests he had just saved began to growl, similar to the Bishop before. They fell down and groaned, clawing and scratching their necks or faces, some punching their own noses.
Sylvester looked all around and noticed the attempts of the Demons to speak with him as they all kept staring at his form.
'It seems… The ruler of Demons is getting restless to speak with me.'
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