It's the penultimate day before we head back to Amleth.
When people talk about Emas, they usually talk about the abundance of minerals and mines, the dungeons, the golems. The land here is rich in earth mana. It's the land with the word Emas, which means gold.
Nowadays, when you talk about Emas, the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is
"It's still scary" [Diana].
"It's weak, but I can feel him" [Merlin].
"Even if he's still in slumber, he's still causing trouble" [Dana].
"I should station this country's best weapon around the castle, so we can bombard him with spells and artillery when he wakes up" [Princess Siti].
"Will it work?" [Tiara]
"This guy is tough. Super tough. He's not something everyone fears for no reason, but it should be better than nothing. I'm sure he'll resurrect with his army as well." [Merlin]
"The battle that you and the hero of that era fought must be hard for you to say that" [JOATMON].
"We had a hard time, but Aru managed to get through and kill him" [Merlin].
"Make me want to meet this heroine, the ancestors of Diana and Dana" [Teliara].
All of us, after getting the necessary permission to enter the Devil King's castle, do so.
The surrounding area is heavily guarded and barricaded with spells and obstacles. The land will severely punish those who enter without permission. Only the highest and strongest soldiers and knights are allowed to make their rounds here. They're usually accompanied by someone from the church. Again, not just an apprentice, but a full-fledged father and sister. Even the Cardinal of this country will make a round once a month to make sure everything is okay.
We are greeted by the knights standing guard. I can't sense anything wrong with him, which is good. After all, the devil's temptation is something serious, even more serious than what that false Hydra once did to the people of this land.
One of the knights accompanied us into the depths of the castle where the Devil King will awaken one day.
"Don't pretend you don't care. I know you know we're here" [Merlin].
"Still boasting. Merlin and Aru's offspring" [Devil King].
"How dare you do that to Dana back then!" [Diana]
"She's weak and easily tempted, a perfect opportunity to kill you then" [Devil King]
"Why you!" [Dana]
"You really are afraid of Diana, aren't you?" [Merlin]
"A future threat. As weak as you are now, Titania must have had something in mind for her to entrust you with her blessing" [Devil King].
"And I will see to it that what the Fairy Queen Titania entrusted to me will be done" [Diana].
Back then, it's just his head, and after he finished talking to us, he disappeared. Now, there is also a part of his neck. He is still looking down at us.
His miasma is filling the room again. It causes the other one, who never met him, to collapse in fear. The knight, JOATMON, Teliara, Princess Siti, Teacher Tiara. They all spontaneously kneel. They don't really kneel, but they do out of fear. JOATMON and Teliara recover quickly.
"I can't feel any way for you to connect to the outside world. Strange, how did you... Unless you pleade to THE THING to give the dungeon boss your blessing, am I right?" [Merlin].
"I use THE THING, not the other way around! Watch your mouth, you insignificant witch!" [Devil King]
"And yet you're yelling at that insignificant witch, looks like I hit the mark" [Merlin].
I see. I'm glad that the Devil King doesn't have any direct means of influencing this world yet, but he can give his blessing to anyone he wants. That's bad news. Very bad news indeed. I wanted to know if there were others that he had influenced, so I made a wild guess.
"What about Valdrid? What did you do with him!?" [Diana].
"The guy who was consumed by THE THING. Nothing. He's nothing but a puppet for THE THING. I have no interest in him, even when he tried to call me back then. He's insignificant to someone like me" [Devil King].
(Valdrid did what??) [Teliara]
(There's no record of this!?) [JOATMON]
Well, my shot in the dark kind of worked. I wasn't really expecting that as an answer, though. With that said
"The same trick never works twice" [Diana].
"Hmph, insignificant brat" [Devil King].
"And yet you try to kill her again" [Merlin]
And he disappeared. The knight he tempted tried to stab me, but my blessing warned me, so I dodged in time. I immediately purified him of his devilish temptation with my most powerful holy spell. I'm glad he's okay. It doesn't look like he's badly hurt, but he's become unresponsive, so we have to evacuate immediately to treat him. It is also hard to wake up the others, from Princess Siti and Teacher Tiara to the other knights stationed here, but at least Fie Lick is doing the job. Fie also help by carrying the Guard who was tempted by the Devil King.