Moonlight Blue

The castle in the Silent Demon’s Forest is breathtaking. It dazzles as the sunlight illuminates it, making it look more mysterious and mythical. Inside one of the rooms is Abaddon’s office. It is spacious, filled with a lot of books covering the shelfs on the walls of the office. He is sitting on his desk, wearing a beautifully woven red suit. His desk is filled with documents reporting each project’s progression within the Silent Demon’s Forest.

So far, the progression of the Silent Demon’s Forest’s reformation project is going smoothly. The residential sector is under construction and would take at least 3 months for it to be finished. Due to the increase of the population, rising to twenty thousand residents, the construction time ended up being extended by an extra two months.

Due to the influx of residents resulted in the construction of the commercial sector to be accelerated, building dozens of inns and Malls thus providing jobs for the new residents to pay for their daily needs.

However, these 2 sectors don’t hold a candle compared to the agricultural sector. Managed by the spirit king of nature herself, the agricultural sector is thriving, having many herbs, fruits and vegetables fully grow within a few days. Of course, with her powers she could probably grow then in a matter of seconds but that would go against Allen’s orders.

After all, agriculture is one of the most job creators in the world. Not only that, creating food in a matter of seconds would create an abundance of food, which they already have enough of.

The City Hall’s construction is also almost done as well. So far, a temporary City Hall has been made to monitor and help the new residents with finding jobs and creating an identity. Alcohol, cosmetics, clothes and magical item factories and a few others are also under construction estimated to be finished within a month.

“How are the ‘Project Future’ trainees doing?” A sinister and intimidating voice echoes from Abaddon’s mouth.

“Their training is progressing well teacher.” A calm voice responds.

The person who responded is standing near Abaddon’s desk, holding a few documents in her hands. She is wearing transparent glasses and a nice tailored black suit.

Project Future. It’s a plan Allen came up with for World Domination. When he begins conquering kingdoms, he won’t be able to monitor them personally even with the help of the Pillars. So, he left the task to Abaddon to train talented individuals the art of ‘kingdom management’ and war strategies.

These individuals would be the shadow kings of the kingdoms they would conquer in the future. They would be responsible for keeping the ‘acting kings’ that would have been chosen from that kingdom in line and also help them in the management of the kingdom. Abaddon trains them in one of the pocket dimensions to increase their training speed.

Sasha, the secretary next to Abaddon is one of the ‘Project Future’ trainees. Well, former trainee as she has already graduated thanks to her genius level intellect.

“How about the trainees of Phantom Shade?”

“Lady Uriel reported in. It seems their training is progressing well even with the addition of the Grey Wolves clan and the Nagas. However, tension between the Black Cat tribe and the Grey Wolves clan is intensifying, spiking competition between the two.”

“Competition can be good if well monitored but disastrous if left alone. I hope you know what you are doing, Uriel. Has any of them awakened their ‘gift marks’ yet?”

“Yes. Only one. I believe her name was Cat from the Black Cat tribe.”

“Cat huh. It seems she can’t wait to be useful to our master. That’s good. Their services will be needed in the near future.”

A knock on the door interrupts their conversation. “Come in,” Abaddon beckons. A demonic maid enters, bowing to Abaddon before speaking.

“A guard has sent a message. It seems there is a visitor in the village gate requesting to meet with our leader.”

“There are always visitors aspiring to meet with us. What makes this one different from all of them that you haven’t chased them out yet?”

“This visitor is said to be an archbishop from the Holyland.”

Abaddon’s eyebrow shoots up across his forehead.

“I wonder what it is we did to gain their attention? No matter, I’ll greet them personally.”

Accompanied by his secretary, Sasha, they leave the castle and go to the village.

***

The envoy of the Holyland, archbishop Nelson has been waiting outside the towering wall of Lockwood village for more than half an hour now. He is the archbishop of the cathedral situated in the Slavia kingdom. Within the cathedral, he holds the highest authority and is the branch head responsible of the Slavia Kingdom.

In rank, archbishops are second only to the pope who single handedly built the Holyland. Their religion, praising the Goddess Athena, became the state religion of more than 80% of kingdoms within the continent. Only a few small and isolated kingdoms and tribes followed their own religion.

Archbishop Nelson is a respected figure within the Slavia kingdom. Even the nobles and royalty highly respect him and would do almost anything to be in his good graces. That’s just how much power he has. And now, he is standing outside a backwater village, being refused entry by a bunch of peasants.

“How dare these commoners sully your prestige Your Holiness. We ought to drag them all out and execute them immediately,” says a priest who is visibly frustrated and upset by the insolence of these commoners.

Archbishop Nelson, adorn a white attire that has been beautifully embroidered with a gold material at its edges and centre. Not only him, the other priests wear the same attire but his radiates more brilliantly than the others. The knights wear white armour with a golden material infused to it. Their white capes sway with the gentle wind making them look more dignified yet imposing.

In total, the convoy amounts to 30 people, made up of an archbishop, 5 priests, 20 knights and 4 deacons who are essentially servants for the archbishop and the priests.

The priests start to murmur, visibly upset by the disrespect these commoners gave them.

“Enough, all of you.” Archbishop Nelson says with a voice filled with authority and power. “We are their guests and it’s understandable for them to be a little cautious of us.”

The priests are taken aback, confused and at the same time scared of the archbishop. Awkward smiles spread across all of them. Of course, what archbishop Nelson said is churning his stomach left and right. He also, like the rest of them, is frustrated and angry. Even the royal family has never made him wait for this long.

However, he has a reason for maintaining his cool. And that’s because…

“Nelson, you are to go to the Silent Demon’s Forest and investigate the demise of the Demon Lord. Whoever destroyed him must be a very formidable opponent. We cannot risk such a possible ally disappear unnoticed,” said the Pope.

“I understand Your Holiness,” responded archbishop Nelson who was on one knee in front of a giant communication crystal.

“And Nelson, if this person is still there, do your best not to provoke them. I believe that as of right now, there’s only one person who could defeat the Demon Lord all by themselves.”

The pope said the name, prompting archbishop Nelson to raise his eyebrows in shock.

“I understand Your Holiness. I’ll do my best to recruit ‘her’ and help us with the escalating war with those fiendish demons.”

As archbishop Nelson observes the guards standing by the gate, even he is impressed by them. From the armour and weapons, one could tell that they were crafted with valuable monster materials, that is hard even for the major kingdoms to acquire.

Not only that, he could tell that they are also well trained as their eyes never left them, their hand on the hilt of their swords. He knew immediately that if they were to be commanded to kill them, they would do it without hesitation even though they were up against the Holyland itself.

This must be her personal army. I suppose she didn’t just disappear and do nothing all this time. She must have been prepared to take down the Demon Lord all this time.

The sealing technique used to seal the Demon Lord was created by the Holyland and when the Demon Lord was successfully sealed, they monitored the seal as they knew that one day it would break.

Even after all the preparations the Holyland had done these past two centuries, they were still not ready to face the Demon Lord. With only one of the ‘Specters’ awake, it was impossible to defeat the Demon Lord with their current abilities.

One of the guards, clad in black, walk up to them. His aura is intimidating as his glare is fixed on the archbishop. Gerard opens his mouth and speaks with an overbearing voice.

“The leader of your group is allowed to enter but alone.”

The priests and the knights protest, shouting and calling Gerard names. Gerard returns in kind by releasing his mana which surged like a storm startling the priests and prompting the knights to draw their swords.

“If you want to enter, then be prepared to lose a limb,” says Gerald, holding the hilt of his sword.