After spending time together in the air, she realized that this so-called Ancestors was not quite as ideal as she imagined. It felt like taking care of an enlarged version of Ham. She could not understand Dragon Tongue, but by actions and gestures she could make herself understood, though the exchange was limited to simple reactions.
They had been flying straight as if searching for Ham, but she was uneasy. Using some Magic, she roughly sensed that those two unlucky kids had likely fallen into Demonkind territory. If they could investigate the town below, they might find clues, so she gestured downward to express her intent.
"That white-haired one wants to go down," Belial muttered. "Alright, let us wait a bit. Sending a scout is fine."
He slowed down, honestly curious himself. He could see light or darkness in beings, usually mixed together, with almost no one being pure. But after coming here, his eyes were opened, since some creatures were entirely dark.
The movements of countless soul lights below were all visible to him, though he had ignored them before. Finding people was the priority, and hunting could wait. Since his companion wanted to check, it was fine, and he was curious too.
"I also want to see what kind of trash those ugly guys down there are," he said. "Their soul lights are strange."
He narrowed his eyes, seeing a dense cluster of soul lights like a blockbuster. By his experience, all souls shared the same essence. Yet these were odd, each carrying faint traces of the aura of kind people who once fed him, though it was very weak.
He did not usually judge by appearance, even if those below looked abstract compared to humans. He had seen too many monsters to care. "But these guys are really strange. My first impression is that they are not good people."
It was not just their looks, since many of them were surrounded by other soul lights. He used to eat the outer layer of souls and spit out the inner light. These people, however, had several lights stitched together in some pattern, releasing the aura of those kind people, which was not normal.
And these were not ordinary souls but resentful ones. With his Diablo power, he could tell easily. What normal person carried resentful souls around? "Let me see how you react. If you really are not good people, I will not hold back… hmm?"
A familiar light appeared before Belial. "It is you. Wait, what are you showing me?"
"Huh…?"
Sylvia directly used Teleportation into a corner of the city without much disguise. In Demonkind lands, all kinds of races existed, so she decided to gather information first. With her experience, she casually found a casino and quietly used Spatial Magic to move away their small funds.
The amount was not large, but enough to buy information. What she learned made her tense. "A hunting competition launched by a Four Heavenly Kings?" "So many armies rushing here to join this game?" "Hunting Black Dragon?"
This was very bad, and they had to hurry before the two kids were discovered. "Hm?"
A massive refined steel bolt, coated with terrifying poison, tore through the air with Rend force and was shredded into powder by her spatial barrier. The silver-haired girl's face turned cold, and when she looked back, a large group of hostile Demonkind soldiers had gathered behind her, armed and armored.
From several High Tower came the sound of mechanisms turning, and huge ballista bolts were aimed at her. "What a pity, it failed," a three-meter-tall two-headed Troll said with a cruel grin, holding a small iron ball with a red dot marking Sylvia's position.
"Give me a reason and explain what you just did."
Sylvia did not change her expression. She only turned back with a cold look, and that chill made many Demonkind soldiers feel a sting at the back of their necks. Even the Two-Headed Ogre sensed it faintly and swallowed, but then he remembered the force behind him, a unit just pulled back from the front lines with over two hundred thousand troops and all kinds of siege weapons.
There were also several Gold Rank fighters present, including himself, so what was there to fear. The Two-Headed Ogre licked his lips greedily, still annoyed that he had been ordered to leave the front where he could fight freely and come participate in that so-called Hunting Tournament. On top of that, his superiors had issued everyone a small device that could detect a Converged Dragon Bloodline, and he had not expected much from it at first.
Yet not long after arriving at this city, the device had started beeping nonstop. It was an instant success.
"You should be a Great Dragon who turned into human form, right. Hahaha, I am really lucky. I will make very good use of your head."
He had heard that Great Dragon possessed the ability to take human form through Magic. He never expected such luck today, though he did not understand why a Great Dragon would wander into Demonkind territory. The Troll did not care about that at all.
All he knew was that promotion and wealth were right in front of him. Even if she was not a Dragonkin, a powerful prey like this was still worth it. The Troll had briefly considered her strength, but once he thought about having at least three Gold on their side, he felt secure.
Three against one, how could they lose. The advantage was clearly his.
"I have no interest in unnecessary conflict with you."
"Open fire!"
With a savage roar and excited battle cries, countless vicious ritual Magic, giant crossbow bolts, and Battle Aura slashes surged toward Sylvia without any concern that this was still inside a city. The Troll charged forward as well, swinging a massive hammer that unleashed an invisible pressure. Everything within several hundred meters was crushed into fine Shard as the blow slammed down at Sylvia.
On the Troll's twisted face, he clearly saw Sylvia's expression suddenly change, as if she had been frightened. Then, in the next instant, her figure vanished from right in front of him. She disappeared completely, without leaving even a trace.
"What is that Black Dragon trying to do?"
Sensing something like a horn blaring, Sylvia teleported into the sky and rushed into the clouds. She hurried toward Belial's position and felt multiple powerful Magic fluctuations at the same time. When she broke through the cloud layer, clear shock appeared on her small face.
More than a dozen dazzling white suns were stacked and densely arranged within layers of Magic Array. They were nested, compressed, and restraining an appalling amount of heat. She recognized this at once, the same reaction as those bombs from before, though each one alone was weaker than that single bomb.
But there were so many of them. And for some reason, she could sense a faint trace of Draconic Magic within them.
"Wait, what is that Black Dragon trying to do?"
Sylvia looked toward Belial in midair and broke into a slight cold sweat. She had a vague guess about what was coming next.
Belial glanced up at Sylvia as she returned nearby and let out a breath of relief. Seeing that their allies had withdrawn from the strike zone, he could finally act. The light had already departed, but it left behind something that gave Belial a reason to move.
It was light, or more precisely, light energy that recorded fragments of past information, like a film that could be watched. There was nothing complicated in it, yet it almost made Belial see red. The scenes showed massacres, sacrifices, torture, and the harvesting of pain.
"You play at mass slaughter, sacrifice, torment, and feeding on suffering. Just looking at you dogs makes my blood boil."
What was recorded were the crimes these Demonkind had committed. By any standard of war criminals or executioners, everyone down there deserved to be erased completely. And this was still the lighter side of it.
The worse acts were beyond what all human punishments combined could repay. It was not just killing, but things so vile they barely qualified even by the worst imaginable standards.
If that were all, Belial might have hesitated for a few minutes, since recorded memories could not be guaranteed to be real. He then used his enhanced vision to personally observe the army below and the city itself. The reality looked only slightly restrained by comparison.
What finally made up his mind were a few smaller details. One was a transaction between a gray-white werewolf and a familiar ugly dragonkin. Another was a so-called kind soul who once fed others, now standing as a statue receiving countless disgusting sacrifices.
There was also the device in the Troll's hand, which carried a familiar aura. And then there was the sight of Ham and Vera, two unlucky kids being chased and attacked by a crowd.
There was no need to hesitate anymore.
"Not only are you connected to that bastard, you have done all this filth and you are hunting our teammates. Amazing. You are really digging your own grave."
"I have no choice but to go all out now."