Chapter 2704: Demon Appears

Saying this, Mr. Meloni took out a wide-mouthed glass bottle, in which leaf-shaped flames were burning fiercely:

"But I have to admit, this is a very good source of fire."

Miss Dannister took the bottle and checked it:

"So the trouble you encountered is this. You can't deal with this kind of cursed object, right?"

The elder Mr. Davis nodded:

"We have tried using holy water, rituals to expel evil spirits, freezing, etc., to deal with them, but none of them worked. As for destroying this tree directly, we are worried that this will cause other consequences. We detected that the temperature in the heart of this tree is quite high. Forcibly destroying this cursed object is afraid to cause its self-detonation.

So I hope you can help and try to see if you can safely and harmlessly process this thing. Now it is the end of autumn, which is the season when forest fires are most likely to occur in a year."

"Let me try."

Miss Dannister said and was about to reach out, but was stopped by Xia De:

"If anyone is to try, it should be me."

"Be careful, directly touching this tree and this deer will cause burn marks on yourself."

Mr. Meloni reminded, but Xia De still touched the trunk directly with his right hand. Almost at the same time his palm touched it, fine cracks appeared on the back of his right hand, and then crimson light radiated from the cracks.

The palm didn't feel much pain. Xia De raised his eyebrows, and "she" whispered in his ear:

【This is a curse derived from some kind of cursed fire. Do not touch these charred things for a long time.】

Xia De then let go of his hand, and the protective effect produced by the body itself, that is, the trace of "First Fire Ember," slowly disappeared from the back of his hand.

"I have some ideas, you guys step back a bit."

Xia De said to his companions, so the two hermits stepped back, and the red-haired young woman hid behind him without going far.

Xia De then took a deep breath:

"Chloe's Ice Breath."

The cold air sprayed from his mouth even directly condensed ice crystals in the air, which led to the rapid fogging of the air. The frost rushed directly toward the tree that could not move, so the tree itself and the charred deer on the surface were immediately covered with frost white.

"When we tried to freeze this tree, Mr. Davis's level was the highest, and the cold air could still play a role, but soon... be careful!"

Following Mr. Meloni's reminder, under the white frost, orange-red firelight rose suddenly on the charred trunk. With a loud "boom," the flames burning around the tree body soared into the sky.

Fortunately, the ritual arranged around was still working, not letting the dense sparks drift toward other places. It's just that the exploding flames still broke through the ritual blockade, but they didn't happen when they hit Xia De.

"Something is wrong."

Mr. Davis reminded, and at the same time sent a signal to let the camp prepare for support:

"When I froze this tree last time, there was no such big movement."

The shaking ground made the four people look under their feet, but immediately they understood that this was not the ground shaking at all, but the tree deeply rooted here was trying to pull out all its roots.

The charred deer made a dizzying cry. While the flames surrounding their bodies became more prosperous, the thick burning roots finally pulled out from the ground one by one. It seemed to realize Xia De's danger and wanted to pull out its roots to possess the ability to move, but this also meant that this thing was not a complete plant, but also possessed animal characteristics.

The twelfth-ring warlock Mr. Davis had already manifested his life ring and was ready to move, but Xia De stopped him:

"Since this thing is afraid of my cold air, it shows that my Miracle Art is effective. Please let me do it, Mr. Davis. I'm afraid it will explode in a while, please ensure that the flames will not ignite the forest."

"No problem."

So the twelfth-ring warlock cast a spell, and a large area of trees around was activated into tree people and then retreated to a farther place. This formed a large open space with dense pits in the forest.

The burning black giant tree that was wriggling and wanting to pull out all the root systems had almost completely possessed the ability to move at this time. But besides the roots that were also burning, there were also the four hooves of the charred deer that were pulled out of the ground.

Xia De asked Miss Dannister not to approach, took off his coat and shirt and threw them to her, and then walked toward the tree with his upper body bare. He pressed his hand on his chest, took out a ball of golden light, and pressed it back into his chest to enhance fire resistance.

Then, with a low drink, his body shape gradually became bigger as he walked, until when he came to the tree, he had already expanded into a small giant four meters high.

Even if it pulled out the root system, its movement speed as a tree was quite slow. When Xia De approached, it could only let the flames surrounding its body form fireballs and rush toward Xia De, but they were all fanned out by Xia De's palm.

Xia De directly reached out and hugged the trunk of the burning tree. Bright red cracks appeared on the back of both hands at the same time, and then the cracks spread to the whole body, until his bare upper body was covered with burn marks.

Having swallowed the fire of the Phoenix, plus the resistance provided by 【Inner Fire】 and the power of the First Fire, even though the flames of the tree burning had rushed onto him, Xia De still didn't feel much burning pain.

"Get up!"

His giant-form arms muscles bulged, and then with a "he" sound, he helped the tree completely break away from the earth.

This scene was quite powerful, and Xia De, who was hugging the burning tree, also fell the tree to the ground with a loud bang. The tree, which was already inconvenient to move, lost all ability to move for a short time, and even the burning flames became weaker.

Immediately after, Xia De in giant form spat cold air at the tree root part of the tree again.

Because this form obtained spell enhancement, this chill was even more terrible than just now. In an instant, the flames at the tree root part were almost all extinguished, and even one-third of the bottom of the tree was covered with white frost.

Ga ga ga~

And in the most prosperous flames at the top of the tree, several fire crows flew out from the fire. This burning flame itself had elements, so it was not an ordinary flame, but those fire crows only left some black marks on Xia De's bare back even if they hit him directly, completely unable to stop him from continuing to cast spells and spit cold air.

He maintained this state, holding the bottom of the tree in the raging fire and continuously casting spells, not letting go until the white frost completely covered the entire giant tree. So after the white frost extinguished the flames, the continuous cold air continued to affect the high temperature inside the charred tree and the deer.

Amidst the rustling sound, the frozen charred tree finally broke inch by inch, and the deer that was struggling constantly finally stopped being active.

This lasted for a full five minutes before the tree and the deer finally scattered into a pile of black ashes on the ground. Only a small piece of smoldering black wood remained in Xia De's hand.

No matter how much cold air was used to spray this piece of wood, those nearly transparent flames were no longer affected. This is the curse core of this giant tree, and also the part of the tree that the hermits felt had the highest temperature.

If it weren't for using cold air but other powers to destroy this tree, this piece of wood would probably explode directly, thereby igniting the entire forest.

"Okay."

Xia De's body shape also returned to its normal size. The red-haired young woman holding his clothes and the two hermits hurried over:

"Is this wood the core?"

"Yes."

Xia De lifted the wood with his right hand and let it fly up. Miss Dannister helped him put on his coat again.

Xia De frowned and continued to look at this pitch-black thing. When facing the burning tree just now, he didn't feel it, but directly touching the core of the tree, he clearly felt a very familiar power:

"Demon Vision!"

With the blinking of his eyes, the originally nearly transparent and colorless flames immediately turned black. 【2704

"It really is one thing after another. The business with Bront is barely over, and now a demon has appeared."

Xia De thought to himself after getting dressed. He did not conceal this intelligence:

"The curse originates from a demon."

Both hermits were startled:

"What demon?"

"An ancient evil spirit demon."

He said softly, fished a bottle of holy water out of his pocket, drew the holy water out, and then wrapped it around the smoldering piece of wood. Hissing black smoke immediately emerged:

"Chloe's Ice Breath."

The cold air was exhaled once more, subsequently freezing the holy water that wrapped the wood with a rustling sound. The holy water ice was constantly melted by the piece of wood, but as Xia De used more and more holy water, in the end, although the wood was still burning, the ice had completely encased it.

Xia De grabbed the ice again, confirming that such storage would be fine for a short time:

"My eyes cannot be wrong; this is a monster created by a demon's power. And the question now is, where did this demon run out from? And which demon is this?"

As the Vesta Woodland, where anything might appear, evil spirit demons had of course appeared in history before. When Xia De and Miss Danister visited the Bennett family cemetery together, they had detected a trace of demonic power on the bones of the Bennett ancestors, and Miss Danister had chatted about the local demon at that time.

That was three hundred years ago, but according to reliable records, the demon that appeared locally back then had been sealed by a 13th-tier "Forest Ranger" of the Church of Nature of that era using an Angel-tier relic, and the demon was still being contained within the Holy See of the Church of Nature to this day.

Therefore, whether the demonic power that appeared this time was a remnant of that demon from three hundred years ago, or if an ancient evil spirit had appeared locally again after three hundred years, was the first thing that needed to be determined.