Chapter 512: The Demon King’s Soul and Corpse (4k)
“Enlarge it, Eve!”
Eve immediately processed the information in her mind, quickly enlarging the image that Irina was seeing.
Although the clarity decreased significantly, the picture became more expressive.
First to appear on the projection were two bishops with anxious expressions.
In front of these bishops was the carriage that had just been loaded with the Demon King’s corpse.
Everyone in St. Louis Square now knew that it was indeed a corpse.
Just before, Dark had seen these two bishops move the Demon King’s corpse into the carriage with his own eyes.
But something clearly went wrong now!
The two bishops stared intently at the interior of the carriage; one of them rushed onto the carriage while the other turned hurriedly towards the direction of the Pope and the Archbishop.
Soon after, the Pope and the Archbishop arrived with heavy expressions upon hearing the report.
A group of people gathered around the carriage, whispering among themselves and trying hard to hide their panic.
…
Even though they couldn’t see inside the carriage from this angle, they could roughly guess what happened.
“Could it be…”
Dark couldn’t help but speculate.
Inside the teahouse, Little Lily poked her head out of the window, exclaiming excitedly, “It’s gone! It’s gone!”
“What’s gone?” Professor Shylph frowned.
Lily glanced around furtively, as if she had discovered some secret, and whispered, “The Demon King’s corpse is gone!”
Everyone’s eyes widened in shock!
No one doubted the small imp’s words.
If the Demon King’s corpse had suddenly disappeared from the carriage, it could explain why the bishops looked so panicked.
Though the corpse seemed useless now…
The people conducting the ceremony knew that the Demon King’s soul still existed somewhere in the world.
“But who could steal the corpse right under the Pope’s nose?” Aurora exclaimed in shock.
“Could it be remnants of the demon race or some secretive sect?”
Unfortunately, no one could answer her question.
Even the Pope and the Archbishop were bewildered.
Even the Pope, who maintained his dignified demeanor throughout, couldn’t help but twitch his lips.
But given the special circumstances, he couldn’t lash out in anger and order an immediate investigation.
Thus, Dark and the others saw them act as if nothing had happened, quickly separating and boarding the carriage, then driving the pure white unicorn to power up, spreading wings on both sides of the gilded carriage.
Under the collective gaze of the crowd, the carriages rose into the air, gradually disappearing from sight.
Few knew that the carriage in the middle, which transported the Demon King’s corpse, was already empty.
…
As the saying goes, every profession has its strengths.
Even Alvaraite and Claire could only sense something amiss but couldn’t penetrate the carriage’s barrier like the small imp to see the emptiness inside.
To most outsiders, this “Demon King’s Execution Ritual” was unprecedentedly successful.
Though they weren’t sure if the “undead Demon King” was truly killed.
Since the Church said so, they might as well believe it.
After all, the Demon King’s corpse had been sealed by the Church for many years without any mishaps.
Regardless of how poor their perception of the Church was, its depth and resilience couldn’t be denied.
Therefore, under normal circumstances, they could accept today’s events as true, and naturally celebrate the “death of the Demon King”!
People from all over the world gathered in the capital city, these natural tourists and consumers. If they didn’t welcome them warmly, how could they express the enthusiasm of the capital?
Thus, as the Pope and others left, the Church’s priests began directing the knights to dismantle the altar and clean up, and the people rushed to various places of consumption.
A celebration was inevitable.
…
“Convene the Holy Judgment Council!”
The Pope, His Holiness Saint Patricius, took a quick-acting heart medicine as soon as he left the crowd’s view to calm down his emotions.
With increasing age, his rapidly aging body made it harder to control his emotions compared to when he was younger.
This “Demon King’s Execution Ritual,” which appeared incredibly successful to outsiders, was held under immense pressure.
Although the overall progress seemed smooth, there were two significant gaps at critical points.
Firstly, the opening of the Underworld Gate—though only a tiny hole was punctured.
This allowed the “Demon King’s soul,” painstakingly refined, to be sucked into the Underworld, leading to unpredictable consequences.
Moreover, the temporary connection between the Underworld and the real world brought enormous problems.
Who knew what strange entities might have leaked during that time?
Handling these strange entities fell within the Church’s duties.
The severity of this matter even made them overlook the loss of the “Demon King’s soul.”
The second gap…
The theft of the Demon King’s corpse was more infuriating than the loss of the “Demon King’s soul.”
This was not only a severe challenge to the Church’s authority but also a significant blow to the current situation.
“The Demon King’s soul” was merely a fabricated fake, and it should theoretically be disposed of.
But the Demon King’s corpse should be preserved by the Church.
If someone investigated, they wouldn’t have a second corpse to present.
However, these matters were merely troubles for the Church alone.
The real trouble lay in the fact that the “Demon King’s corpse” was essentially a massive “demon gene storage library”!
Though the Church didn’t call it that internally, the reality remained unchanged.
The “undying Demon King” had countless “containers.”
And with each container created, he gained the unique traits of that container.
For example, after turning a vampire into a container, he obtained the “embrace” ability.
Through this, he almost fused with all demon bloodlines.
Though some bloodlines couldn’t be activated, they always existed in his corpse.
This meant that almost all demon bloodlines could be separated from the Demon King’s corpse!
The loss of the “Demon King’s corpse” was far more serious for the Church than the “reincarnation” of the Demon King!
…
If they couldn’t recover the “Demon King’s corpse” soon, the next time they saw it, it might be surrounded by numerous demon species that should have been completely extinct.
There were thousands of demon species, and not all of them were more difficult to deal with because they were stronger.
Some special demon species possessed unimaginable powers.
Humans had paid an extremely high price to deal with those demons.
Nobody wanted to face them again.
Therefore, convening the “Holy Judgment Council” was imperative.
…
The so-called “Holy Judgment Council” was slightly different from the more famous “Heretical Trial Council” and “Holy War Guidance Council” within the Church.
It was a more secretive and stringent council.
After discovering the “Demon King’s escape,” the Pope convened a Holy Judgment Council once.
Unexpectedly, another crisis arose shortly afterward, forcing a second Holy Judgment Council within months.
The Pope crushed the wine glass in his hand.
…
Those like Dark, who hadn’t fully understood the severity of the matter, became excited upon learning about the theft of the Demon King’s corpse.
Since the crowd downstairs was too crowded, the three professors hadn’t left the teahouse yet.
They set up a small barrier with Irina to prevent eavesdropping and discussed the matter.
The main topic was “who did it?”
“So it wasn’t Professor Didi this time?”
Dark was very surprised; he originally thought that besides the small imp and the cat, no life would dare to do such a thing.
“No, no,” Lily shook her head like a rattle drum.
Dark couldn’t help but ask, “If it wasn’t Professor Didi, then who could it be?”
Others were also puzzled, “Indeed, there aren’t many people who could steal a corpse right under the Pope’s nose.”
Lily continued shaking her head, “I don’t know, but it definitely wasn’t Didi.”
Everyone looked at each other, clueless.
Finally, Professor Shylph could only say, “Forget it, tracing the traces and finding the culprit is the Church’s job. We can’t speculate without knowing the whole story. Unless they let us inspect the carriage, but that’s obviously impossible.”
“That’s it then,” Professor Kazel pushed back his chair and stood up, “We must leave now or we’ll be late.”
“Oh yeah,” Lily quickly stood up as well.
“Let’s go then,” Professor Shylph sighed helplessly and looked into Irina’s eyes, “If the matter ends, and we’re still in the capital, we’ll visit the Duke’s Mansion.”
“Definitely,” Dark also composed himself, speaking earnestly.
“Bye-bye—” Lily came over, grabbing his hand.
Then Professor Kazel released the barrier, and the three professors quickly left.
“What a pity.”
Dark shook his head slightly and said to Irina, “Come back quickly. Without the professors around, that place isn’t safe anymore.”
“Understood,” Irina nodded slightly and promptly settled the bill and left.
The mysteriously vanished Demon King’s corpse gave a sense that “the matter was far from over.”
…
When Irina returned to the Duke’s Mansion, it was almost evening.
She returned unscathed and brought back many souvenirs.
Dark wasn’t particularly interested in the souvenirs, but when he saw a Q-version of the Demon King with a sword through its chest, he couldn’t help reaching out.
The merchants were unexpectedly creative; many of the souvenirs were quite good.
Even if he didn’t need them, giving them to the mana golems as rewards was perfect.
Seeing Mrs. Cook returning, Dark couldn’t help asking, “Where are the students?”
Mrs. Cook replied, “Probably in the classroom taking the exam.”
“Taking the exam? What a nostalgic word.” Dark smiled slightly and asked, “How did the exam go? No cheating, right?”
Mrs. Cook adjusted her glasses and said, “Apart from the mana book trying to flip open to look for answers, everything else was fine.”
“Pfft—” Dark suppressed his laughter, “That’s good. Do you need help grading the exams?”
Mrs. Cook said, “No, we three will finish grading tonight.”
Dark: “So the results will come out soon?”
Mrs. Cook: “Yes.”
Dark was satisfied, “Good, then we can resume normal classes tomorrow.”
Mrs. Cook’s eyes flashed in agreement, “Exactly.”
The two looked at each other, feeling a mutual understanding.
…
The mana golems didn’t arrive at the dining hall until reminded by the supervising maids.
Dark was chatting with the three professors in the dining hall when he noticed the little cuties entering one by one.
Although the exam results weren’t out yet, the scores seemed to be already etched on their faces.
When Eevee entered the dining hall, it walked with an air of arrogance, as if it embodied “pride.”
Deoxys, still holding a book, exuded a quiet intelligence, while the imp with drooping wings looked like it was sleepwalking in the air, clearly indicating poor performance—though it could also be due to excessive acting.
The vampire noble looked dejected, while the phoenix girl remained expressionless, and the soul of the moon goddess seemed indifferent.
These three humanoid mana golems, who were supposed to be role models for studying, now seemed to be setting a bad example.
Their performance was even worse than that of a trash slime…
The pair of clumsy combinations, the baby blue-eye dragon and the little cubone, drooled at the sight of the food on the table as soon as they entered.
…
Dark couldn’t help but rub his forehead.
The personalities and attribute stats of the mana golems were innate and hard to change.
But the success of Meow showed that education could indeed make a difference.
He turned back and continued exchanging insights with the three tutors.
…
Night gradually fell over the Duke’s Mansion.
The mana golems, having completed their阶段性 tests, lacked the energy to study and were scattered like cushions around the room.
Dark stood by the window, looking at the night sky, pondering what the fire prophecy meant.
Not far away, a room still had its lights on, indicating that Pandora Senpai was still awake.
He wanted to take Senpai out to explore the streets of the capital, but the external environment wasn’t suitable at the moment.
“I wonder when Alvaraite and Claire will return?”
Just as he was thinking, the lights at the entrance of the mansion lit up.
Dark’s mind stirred, and he quickly put on his coat, preparing to greet them.
The “Demon King’s Execution Ritual” had temporarily come to an end. Although visitors from all over the world hadn’t left yet, the psychological pressure would undoubtedly drop sharply.
Alvaraite and Claire no longer needed to handle everything personally.
Some matters could be reported to them now.
This included what happened during the “Demon King’s Execution Ritual,” which he wasn’t sure if Alvaraite and Claire had observed.
It was clearly not a minor issue.
