The King opened his eyes.
He was in a meditative stance, his legs crossed and his back straight. He looked at his body and saw he was covered with a heavy amount of dust. He tried to move his arms to dust himself, only to hear his bones creaking. Every small movement he made resulted to cracking noises, considering that it's been in that meditative form for centuries. He exhaled as he slowly tried to stretch his taut bones and muscles.
It's been too long since he used this body.
Being in this body was taxing for him, since it made him unable to use most of his divine ability. But he had no choice. It was the rule of the heavens not to use too much divine abilities in a physical world. It will tip the balance too much if the others along with himself were unable to control their emotions and abilities.
After a few minutes of light movements, he was finally able stand up properly. He looked around the room he was in. It was a room with similar designs to his palace, the same marble walls with golden linings.
He recognized this place. His other bodies all lived in seclusion so its location was somewhere no one would ever visit. Right now, he was inside Heaven's cliff, the eastern side of the Miasma Forest. Heaven's cliff is a perilous path from Anemoly to Edseria, hence people from Anemoly do not have the courage to wage war to Edseria and vice versa.
He decided to quickly get out of the room, eager to get the lost soul back so he can return as soon as possible.
Outside, he was at the bottom of a very deep chasm, looking up at the small opening showing the sky. But with one step, he easily floated above it in a second. His feet floating as he stared at that chasm like it was nothing.
Perilous path they said...
If the thousands of people who lost their lives in that chasm saw his effortless escape, they would be vomiting blood in anger.
Now standing on the edge of the cliff, the King was about to start his blind search. He knew that finding her in a short amount of time is impossible with the human body he had and his weakened abilities. But he had to, because he hated being around heavy sinners. He used most of his life watching the deeds they had done. So much that no one would know their minds better than he did.
But he was at a loss on how to start searching. After all, the only way for him to fully recognize a lost soul is from their incompatibility with the original soulless corpse. They would have their previous habits, emotions, way of thinking, and actions. They would also be unable to know the corpse's past memory and common knowledge in the world. But their words would be what the original owner's language was with a few exceptions. As long as there is someone who started acting strangely, he will have a lead.
Knowing this, he was about to travel to the kingdom of Anemoly to start searching when he felt a faint demonic energy in the western direction.
A Demon? Here? Impossible!
He immediately bolted to the direction but halfway through, it was abruptly cut. He sped up, his brows furrowed as he tried to make sense of what happened. High demons were all either exterminated or imprisoned!
He tried searching for that faint demonic presence again to know where it was, yet it never resurfaced. He was unable to pinpoint the exact location as well, so he was only able to guess its general location.
Arriving, he stopped running and walked around, trying to find the source of the demonic energy. It was in the area, he knew that. So, quietly, he began to walk around.
In Hel Halja, this same soul also had faint prints of demonic energy around the Resurrection room. He was not sure what it really meant but he had a guess. A stray demon might have latched onto her or possessed her to escape! But what he can't fathom is that, how did they get out?
He might be weakening but the seals imprisoning them where still as strong as ever.
While thinking, he began to hear miniscule noises from a distance. It seems that it came from humans. He felt another presence and realized it came from a magical beast.
For some reason, he decided to wait and see. He sat by a huge boulder near a tree. Minutes later, he saw a group of adventurers panting as they emerged from the bushes.
The group was able to trick the beast into going in a different direction, but they knew it wouldn't trick it for long. They decided to stop and catch their breath after passing through the thick bushes. But as they stopped, they saw a man in red robes sitting on a boulder, looking eerily attractive and elegant under the moonlight. But they had no time to look at him closely because they felt the beast catch up to them.
Rod stared at the team and all of them had a silent agreement. They would bypass him to use him to distract the bear!
With that plan in mind, they decided to rest for a short while. When they felt the thumping of the ground from the beast's paws, they knew it was time. They looked behind them just to make sure, before running again. This time, they changed directions and aimed for the man in red!