172
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 172
The beast people and Raven, along with Whitey and Caesar, were scattered among several trees.
The original number of escaped beast people was larger, but this was the result of selecting 100 healthy beast people warriors.
Raven immediately used a concealment spell on the beast people gathered in the trees.
Their scent disappeared, and their bodies became blurry and vanished.
Caesar's body was the same.
Caesar pulled Raven closer inward and pointed the axe forward.
Immediately after, a massive group of monkeys passed over the trees.
Caesar sensed Raven's emotions through his psychometry.
-These aren't ordinary monkeys.
It was more accurate to say these were orangutans, not monkeys.
The sight of nearly 500 monkeys moving together through the trees was almost majestic.
If they had directly collided with those creatures, it would have been truly difficult.
The steel monkeys' direction was clear.
They were rushing towards the Geotech soldiers tracking Caesar.
'Take care of it. Steel monkeys.'
-How long are you going to hold me?
-The steel monkeys have all passed by.
Caesar released Raven and said,
"Let's go do some house raiding. I hope there are many magic stones."
Caesar's group began climbing quickly.
***
Geotech was exhausted and washed his face dry.
The battle with the steel monkeys wasn't particularly difficult.
It was just troublesome.
The monkeys seemed to have judged that they couldn't win in a direct fight with the Black Horn tribe, so they threw stone axes and rocks from the trees.
The orcs and goblins were too slow to climb trees and catch them due to the monkeys' incredible agility.
Using ogres was also difficult due to the densely packed red mountain range.
Eventually, Geotech had to strike down each monster with lightning.
However, these trivial monsters were not Geotech's true enemy.
A troll priest cautiously approached Geotech.
"...Geotech, it's time to descend..."
"Shut up! You incompetent fools!"
Geotech's eyes turned bloodshot.
"Didn't I say we must tear apart and kill that red-haired one?!"
Geotech roughly scratched his body and climbed the mountain.
"Catch him faster! Otherwise, the divine being will not descend on this land!"
The followers were increasingly exhausted.
They could endure pain.
But tracking for over a week, with such a long and tedious pursuit, was beyond the followers' fragile patience.
Especially for the large, high-metabolism ogres, it was even more challenging.
"...I'm hungry. So hungry."
"What? Argh!"
The ogre, unable to bear its hunger, grabbed a nearby goblin and shoved it into its mouth.
The black blessing tried to penetrate the ogre's mouth, but the ogre's teeth crushed the goblin faster.
The goblin repeatedly died and lived inside the ogre's mouth and stomach.
The panicked troll priest raised his voice.
"What are you doing! Spit it out immediately!"
"But I'm hungry."
The ogre's eyes began to turn purple.
"I'm very hungry."
The ogre's single horn grew to two.
"I'll eat anything."
The ogre grabbed the troll priest with both hands.
The troll priest tried to escape somehow but couldn't withstand the ogre's brute strength.
Crunch!
The ogre's jaw dropped to its belly button.
There was an unfathomable abyss in the ogre's mouth.
"Aaargh!"
The troll was sucked into that abyss.
"He's a heretic! Kill him!"
The ogre began devouring the Black Horn tribe.
The trolls, orcs, and goblins tried to hold onto trees and roots to avoid being sucked in, but it was futile.
As dozens of Black Horn tribe members were sucked into the void, Geotech finally moved.
"These incompetent bastards!"
Geotech extracted the black blessing from the ogre's body.
The ogre's body lost its vitality and collapsed. But this was only temporary.
The ogre regained its color and sucked in even more Black Horn tribe members.
Geotech unleashed divine punishment on the ogre.
Boom!
Lightning pierced the ogre's body, and it fell with its eyes rolled back.
Geotech struck lightning on the ogre's body multiple times.
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!
The creature's body turned to ash and scattered in the wind.
Geotech sweated while staring at the ogre's ashen remains.
How many times was this now?
The ninth time?
No, it was impossible to know, as similar events were likely happening where Geotech couldn't see.
"...Let's go a bit further."
After coming this far, letting the red-haired one escape was unacceptable.
He had passed through here not long ago.
They must catch him.
Geotech scratched his body until it bled.
This was the only way to find a solution to this terrible itching.
***
Caesar kicked away a steel monkey's backside.
"Is this the last one?"
"Yes, that's correct."
There weren't completely zero steel monkeys in the nest.
There were a dozen steel monkeys with their young. The young had escaped quite a while ago, and the steel monkeys, realizing they couldn't fight Caesar, had fled.
Caesar took in the nest.
"This is El Dorado, truly El Dorado."
It was literally golden.
The steel monkey's nest was filled with gold.
There was so much that when he first saw it, he wondered if it might be brass instead of gold.
Raven examined the gold and spoke:
"These were precisely crafted. And quite a long time ago."
Raven checked the accessories like an archaeologist.
"I've never seen such a unique crafting style... Could these all be works from a forgotten era?"
"What good is asking me that?"
Caesar swept the gold into the space-distortion bag as quickly as he could grab.
"Let's collect first and think later."
"That's a fair point."
At that moment, a beast person in the distance waved.
"Over here!"
Caesar and Raven stopped what they were doing and approached the beast person.
The beast person guided them into the cave's interior.
From the entrance, Raven and Caesar could already sense the cave was full of magic stones.
The brilliant turquoise light hitting the cave walls was clearly a natural emission from magic stones.
Deep inside the cave, Raven was unusually surprised.
"...Are all of these High-grade magic stones?"
Magic stones filled the cave's interior.
The quantity was beyond estimation.
Raven carefully examined the stones.
"Yes, absolutely. These are all High-grade magic stones."
"Is this enough?"
"Not just enough. It's overflowing."
Raven placed her hand on a magic stone larger than herself.
"Let's take them. We have quite a lot to do ahead."
Raven began extracting the magic stones with telekinetic magic.
***
The end of someone with less than a month left before retirement is always leisurely.
In other words, he now had plenty of time to think about what to do next.
Elijah sat by the fireplace in the barracks, roasting a potato common in the demon realm, lost in thought.
'Caesar is leading the beast people towards the Red Mountain Range...'
Though Elijah's body was in the Eagle valley, his vision reached the Red Mountain Range, the Demon King's castle, the magic stone mines, and the rebel army.
This was because black pigeons and Elijah's avatars frequently came to report.
Elijah rolled a potato branch around and thought about Caesar.
'What an interesting guy.'
Caesar was twisted.
Despite knowing his own limits and reality, he constantly tried to overcome them.
Like a fish trying to fly or a bird attempting to swim.
From Elijah's perspective, it seemed like an absurd effort and waste of energy, but Caesar was genuinely achieving things step by step.
He had escaped with the beast people and persuaded them to have Raven teach them about the Forest of Labyrinth.
These two achievements were already incredible, and now he was heading towards the Red Mountain Range.
Initially, Elijah didn't understand why they were going there.
But upon careful consideration, going to the Red Mountain Range was the only way to activate the Forest of Labyrinth.
Steel monkeys.
They were raiding the nest of monsters who loved shiny things to obtain High-grade magic stones.
If they acquired High-grade magic stones and Raven learned and activated the Forest of Labyrinth...
'Geotech and the Black Horn tribe will truly be sealed.'
Elijah sat down and looked 20 years into the future.
Agatha's influence would grow even more, and the beast people would also increase their numbers while restoring the beast people forest.
The beast people would become mere puppets crushed under Agatha's authority as the Demon King, being swayed by Agatha's commands, and the sharp fangs of these beast people would eventually turn towards Elijah.
'Geotech is a necessary evil.'
If Caesar's hand controlling Agatha is gentle, then Geotech is a rough rod to control Agatha.
If Caesar cannot be tamed, there is no choice but to kill Caesar and disband Geotech.
At that moment, a mole crawled into the barracks.
"What's happening?"
"It's an observation report about Caesar. Around noon yesterday, Caesar secured a large number of magic stones."
So it has come to this.
Caesar has finally crossed the line.
"Tell the avatars. From now on, consider Caesar an enemy. Prepare to cut ties with Geotech."
Though he kept trying to hold onto Caesar because his capabilities were too valuable to discard, if he ultimately refuses, there's no other choice.
Elijah's enemies must always meet their end.
"Shall I prepare the Steel Lion Knights?"
"To deal with Barre, we'll need that level of preparation. But the Steel Lions alone won't be easy."
"Then what should we do?"
Elijah took out the potato he was roasting and placed it on the table.
"We just need to achieve at least one of three things. Either prevent Caesar from returning to headquarters for more than two weeks, kill Caesar..."
Elijah took out the golden dagger the emperor had given him and cut the potato in half.
The potato was very ripe and was easily sliced.
"Or kill Raven."
The mole thought for a moment and then spoke.
"It will be tricky if Raven and Barre are together. We'll need to deal with them separately."
"Send five Steel Lions. Have them all capture Barre, while the remaining avatars proceed to kill Raven."
"Yes. Understood."
"And if, by any chance, the Steel Lions are caught by Caesar..."
The mole read Elijah's inner thoughts.
"They will know their heavy duty."
"Yes. I believe they will do well."
Elijah picked up the steaming potato and threw it back into the firewood.
"And tell Sith to attack Luxhope instead of advancing to the Steel Fortress. It will accelerate the collapse of the demon realm's frontline."
"Yes. Understood."
The mole disappeared the way it came.
Elijah muttered while looking at the burning potato.
"This tragedy is of your own making. Caesar."
***
10 days into Raven learning the principles of the Forest of Labyrinth.
Raven had completely comprehended the principles of the Forest of Labyrinth.
"Now that I understand the principles, it seems that without external help, there's almost no way to escape the Forest of Labyrinth."
Caesar planted the magic stone deep into the ground like planting a sweet potato.
"Why is that?"
"First, the Labyrinth doesn't exist to confine people. It exists to escape. That's the difference between a prison and a Labyrinth."
Caesar absorbed Raven's words like a sponge using psychometry.
"So, if it were a sealing technique that absolutely prevents escape, it would have been called a 'forest prison', right?"
"Exactly. But the Forest of Labyrinth is a 'sealing technique'. In other words, it serves the role of a prison to confine something, but it also means that an exit definitely exists."
"But just one."
"Correct. By deliberately placing only one exit, all other means of escape are blocked. You can't escape no matter how much you run forward or backward, use magic, or dig deep."
Caesar received the magic stone from Raven again and planted it deep into the ground.
"Wizard Raven, can't you escape either?"
"I could easily escape from a Forest of Labyrinth I created myself. But for a Forest of Labyrinth created by someone else, it would take quite some time to escape. Because the escape criteria depend on how the spell caster sets them."
"What was the escape criteria for the Hero's Forest of Labyrinth?"
Raven said while applying a magical formula to the magic stone.
"Losing the sword."
"...What?"
"More precisely, if you drop the sword and move at least 500 meters away, you could escape."
Wow, that would be absolutely impossible to escape.
How much did Yan cherish his sword?
He might even want to bury the sword in his own grave when he dies.
"So the other beast people trapped in the Forest of Labyrinth with the Hero could escape immediately. At that time, the beast people didn't have a sword."