Kyle took a deep breath as he looked at the gigantic Ice Demon.
“Hey, Theodor,” Kyle said.
“Do not talk to me! You are not alone!” Theodor shouted.
“He already knows you’re in my head. What’s the point of pretending?” Kyle asked.
“True,” the Chief said. “I am also interested in Lord Theodor’s input.”
Theodor just snorted.
“How strong is that Greater Ice Demon?” Kyle asked.
“On its own, not strong,” Theodor answered. “Sulfur wouldn’t have issues with it.”
“On its own?” Kyle asked.
“Demons are dumb,” Theodor said. “They are even dumber than beasts. They are just elemental forces. It is just minorly more intelligent than fire.”
“Sending a Greater Ice Demon to fight Sulfur would be like sending you to fight an experienced Initial Fighter. An act in futility.”
Kyle decided against commenting on Theodor’s dig.
“However, Demon Masters control their Demons. This means this is a Greater Ice Demon with the intelligence and experience of a Demon Master.”
“That sounds troublesome,” Kyle said.
“It can be.”
“If the Demon Master is outstanding,” Theodor added. “Conjurers are much rarer than Beast Tamers for a reason. Conjurers have to learn much more.”
“Beasts know how to fight. Demons don’t. They just destroy.”
“You can tell a beast what to attack, and it will attack, but when you control a Demon, you have to tell it how to attack. You have to tell it to move to the side, to move an arm forward to attack, to unleash an energy-based attack, and so on.”
“And while you are controlling the Demon, you also have to defend yourself. Your body is weak, and if you are careless, you might accidentally get caught up in your Demon’s attacks since it doesn’t care about you.”
“Approaching your Demon is dangerous due to its uncontrolled power, but staying away from your Demon leaves you open to an attack.”
“Without a team or a Demon by their side, a Conjurer is a Sorcerer without Spells.”
“Conjurers also do not have improved minds, which makes controlling two bodies at once especially difficult.”
“As a Conjurer, you need to know how to summon a Demon, how to enslave it, how to fight effectively as a Demon, how to control two bodies at once, and you need to know all of that without an improved mind.”
“Almost all Conjurers are useless. Even 90% of Demon Masters are useless. There are only very few Demon Masters who are a force to be reckoned with.”
“And I can already tell this is not one of them.”
“Sulfur could take care of both of them,” Theodor said.
“What would he do?” Kyle asked, looking at the Greater Ice Demon, which was going wild on the horizon.
“He would just throw a boulder at the Demon Master and then take care of the lone Ice Demon,” Theodor said casually. “Sulfur knows how to fight. This Demon Master and this Greater Ice Demon don’t.”
At that moment, Kyle noticed that the Greater Ice Demon’s movements had become chaotic.
It was wildly moving its claws around while shooting its ice beams in random directions.
In a way, it seemed even scarier than before.
How could one stop such a force of nature?
“The Demon Master is dead,” Theodor said. “The Greater Ice Demon is out of control.”
“How do you stop something like that?” Kyle asked.
At that moment, a huge explosion destroyed one of the Ice Demon’s arms.
“Have you ever seen mortals putting out a big fire?” Theodor asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s like that,” Theodor said.
Kyle watched silently as another explosion took out another arm.
Then, the Greater Ice Demon was pushed back, and the gigantic pillar tipped over.
‘That was probably Bonk.’
The Greater Ice Demon kept moving in erratic and chaotic patterns, destroying everything around it.
Yet, more and more controlled explosions appeared all over its body, slowly whittling it down.
‘Huh, it really is like putting out a fire,’ Kyle thought. ‘They just keep away from it and extinguish it one spot at a time.’
“What’s Lord Theodor’s opinion?” the Chief asked.
“I’m paraphrasing, but he essentially said that the Demon Master is trash,” Kyle said.
“The Cult of Final Fate is not known for their skill in battle,” the Chief said. “Well, almost.”
“Almost?” Kyle asked.
“He even knows about that,” Theodor commented. “This is highly confidential. Seems like Silvester’s trusting nature has led to an information leak. Only Dukes and the Advisors are allowed to know about this.”
“About what?” Kyle asked.
“I’m not going to tell you,” Theodor said with a metaphorical sneer. “With your loose mouth and your naïve personality, you will tell the next person you see and get executed by the Kingdom.”
“Oh, come on,” Kyle said with a groan. “You can’t just bait me with something like that and then leave me hanging.”
“You shouldn’t know,” the Chief said. “To sate your curiosity, let’s just say that there are worse things the Cult of Final Fate can bring to the world than Devourers, but that happens very rarely.”
“When that happens, even Transcendents are in danger.”
“The last time it happened… we were lucky,” the Chief said.
“Why? What happened?” Kyle asked.
“Because the Duchess of Twilight got involved,” the Chief explained.
“Duchess of Twilight? Should I know who that is?” Kyle asked.
“She is the leader of the Twilight Duchy,” the Chief explained. “There are two Kingdoms and two Duchies in this world. She owns one of the Duchies. The other one is the Divine Duchy, which belongs to the Holy Sea.”
“Ah, Priests and Paladins come from there, right?” Kyle asked.
The Chief wordlessly nodded.
“What about the Twilight Duchy?” Kyle asked. “Do they have anything special?”
“The Duchess of Twilight,” the Chief said.
Silence.
“Aaannd?” Kyle asked.
“That’s enough. They don’t need more.”
“Is she that powerful?” Kyle asked.
“She is the undisputed, most powerful existence in the world. There is no contest,” the Chief said.
“Undisputed?” Theodor asked with skepticism. “I knew she was powerful, but is she truly that powerful?”
“Theodor does not believe you,” Kyle said to the Chief.
“My father said so,” the Chief said. “He said, in front of the Duchess, even if the Winterfire Kingdom and Skysand Kingdom would unite…”
“They would be helpless like children.”
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