Chapter 52: Demon Shortage, Help Us

On the edge of Stonehenge, it is now difficult to see groups of demons sharpening their blades.

With the blessings of the Life Giant Tree and the Holy Grail, it is actually hard to say that the people of the Guardian Knights—those Bretonnian knights who decided to use the Holy Grail and life force to reorganize themselves into a brand-new Knightly Order—look any less like humans compared to the demons.

The knights of the Giant Tree Outpost have now begun to use a mixture of Era Oak bark and steel to craft a set of grotesque Tree Helmets. The warhorses beneath them have also gradually twisted and evolved with the life force, sprouting antlers and green eyes, looking tall and unlike creatures of the mortal world. From afar, they even look like individual war fortresses.

In one operation to hunt Wasteland Demons on the periphery, they even had the terrifying combat record of charging head-on against the Khorne Demon's copper bull knights, suffering zero casualties themselves while the enemy was completely wiped out.

Extraordinary life force, inexhaustible energy, and the quasi-magical abilities granted by the Wisdom Path and War Path branched out by Li Ang.

The Guardian Knights have even attained combat power no less than that of a regular Knightly Order of Bretonnia in the Badlands.

And because of the influence of Stonehenge, their charges even carry damage to the soul.

Above the Chaos Wasteland, even the servants of the Blood God have begun to develop feelings of fear and resistance.

When it comes down to it, the reason these Subspace creatures are fearless of death is that no matter what happens, as long as their concept does not disappear, they can be reborn within that concept.

But in the face of Stonehenge and Li Ang's inexhaustible, seemingly all-consuming desire to drain everything dry, all the concepts and Soul Fragments of the demons are forcibly extracted by Li Ang to serve as his food. There are even demons who have begun to fearfully claim that Li Ang is the embodiment of the void, the manifestation of the world's destruction.

Granted, after Li Ang consumes them, the concept itself still exists, but those things are entirely newly fused entities.

They are completely different from their current forms; the demons dare not even imagine what kind of strange things the demons of today will turn into after being consumed.

Therefore, in this environment, Li Ang's hunting plan has instead been affected quite a bit.

Fortunately, although the construction time for the Heavenly Fortress is tight, not everything needs to be thrown in at once.

It takes time to build a beachhead suitable for luring them in, and it also takes time to hunt demons.

But that is on the premise that progress is normal.

If these knights still only care about their own satisfaction, then Li Ang will have to turn up the intensity on them a little, making them realize who the real boss is.

"... You should be slaughtering demons. The life Magic Barrier at the Giant Tree Outpost has already been created, and I have already used magic power and the Norscans to build a complete resting place for you. You should slaughter demons for your honor, you must slaughter more demons."

"But, my lord, we have already been working very hard to kill demons..."

"Hard work? You call that hard work? You are merely enjoying the pleasure of moving in groups and the thrill of charging head-on against the enemy. You are only enjoying the honor of battling strong foes."

Looking at the tall knight who seemed to feel some shame, Li Ang wore an expression of disappointment that they would not live up to his expectations.

After deciding to build the Heavenly Fortress, Li Ang's originally projected construction plan was to kill and build simultaneously, mutually beneficial, with no production line issues. As a result, when it was one-tenth built, Li Ang was enraged to discover that the supply of Soul Fragments had run into problems.

The Norscans and Bretonnians had actually barely killed any demons at all.

Is this kind of thing acceptable? You actually only take down a few hundred demons a day on average; how can you justify this to me? This was the first time Li Ang convened a short, private meeting. It was also the first time Li Ang expressed his dissatisfaction in front of ordinary people.

He was extremely dissatisfied with the current performance of the Bretonnian Knightly Order, or rather, the Guardian Knights. Although their achievements at the Giant Tree Outpost were commendable, their subsequent actions made Li Ang very annoyed.

"The promise you gave me back then was that you swore to resist Chaos and would not disgrace the power of the Holy Grail. I trusted you and gave the Holy Grail to you, but how are you repaying me? What about after you possessed the Age Giant Tree? How can you only fight those big battles instead of running into the Chaos Wasteland and killing every one you see?"

An indignant Li Ang looked at the ashamed knight before him and said loudly:

"Every one of you has infinite energy and life force, every one of you has my blessing, but ask yourselves, are you collecting so-called information and waiting for so-called big battlefields? But while you are pursuing honor, what are the demons doing? The demons are running away; they won't wait for you to slowly ask, 'May I ask if you would like to have a big chaotic battle?' They won't! They won't wait for you! The Blood God's might, but the others absolutely will not! So we must chase them down and kill them! In the grasslands, in the mountains, in the snowfields, in the places where the Winds of Magic are most violent, kill them one by one! No matter how many there are, no matter how pitiful they look, or even if they might be aggregates of certain positive emotions from the Subspace, no demon is worthy of sympathy or pity. What you must do is kill every one you see."

Scattered demons must be killed, assembled demons must be killed even more, and fleeing demons must be killed even more than that. Within your line of sight, or even within your range of perception, as long as the Winds of Magic have a hint of the stench of demons, we must follow them and kill them. Then, after you enjoy the honor, hand the Soul Fragments over to me.

Instead of finding an excuse to play knight-duel games with them in the great snowfields! You have already forgotten your initial oath and are even indulging in knight games. What you are supposed to do has never been to treat this as a game, but to truly go and hunt demons."

"... I understand, my lord. I am very ashamed."

Looking at the thin and pale young man who possessed a powerful sense of strength, the knight leader lowered his head respectfully.

Under the dual irrigation of life force and the Holy Grail, the once-elegant Knightly Order leader had now almost merged into one with his tree armor; tree marks spread across the armor on his body, and there were even two points of fluorescent light in his eye sockets.

The supernatural posture formed by his height of over two and a half meters made the scene of him lowering his head to admit his mistake exceptionally shocking.

But none of the people present had any particular reaction.

It was as if this were a very natural scene.

"It is good that you know. Take my message, go back and make it clear to your brothers. Your behavior can only be called hero games, not truly hunting Chaos Demons."

"Yes, I understand."

The giant tree-man knight said in a deep voice.

Even until he bowed respectfully and turned to leave, not many people spared him a second glance.

"With this, they should be able to get moving... Really, knights actually picking their own opponents, what kind of knight is this? Can't they just kill every one they see?"

Do they know there is a shortage of demons in the territory right now? If there aren't enough Soul Fragments, causing the ambush site to not be built properly, that really will result in quite a few people dying.

Watching the departing giant figure, Li Ang sighed in his chair and looked at Oliver, who had a calm expression, eyes focused on his nose and heart, emphasizing that he understood nothing.

"Oliver, introduce Knight Gede and Knight Joshua. I know you know these two people."

(End of chapter)