A thousand years ago, the Giamut Empire was already established on the north of the Central Continent.
There, a young emperor was instated.
With time, that emperor gained the moniker of the Dreadful Emperor.
In the current day, even the people of Giamut still call him that, showing just how terrible his reign was.
The empire already controlled the largest part of the continent at the time, but the Dreadful Emperor took over the rest of the continent.
That created a terrible time for non-human races.
The Dreadful Emperor believed humans were the superior race, oppressing all other races living in the Central Continent.
The highly skillful dwarves, and the long-living elves who used spirit magic detested that reign, so they left the continent.
The civilization that remained when they left crumbled apart with time, and a thousand years later there is hardly a trace of them.
Even the Giamut Empire knew how useful the dungeons in their territory were, but their systems saw scant use.
That was also the reason why the history of the dungeons stopped a thousand years ago too, which Allen noticed while taking history lessons in the Academy.
The races that did not leave the Central Continent back then, all received harsh treatment from the empire.
Beastmen were the ones who were oppressed the most, though that gave rise to a resistance movement.
That movement was the creation of the Adventurer's Guild and the Church of Elmea.
The Adventurer's Guild made it a point to work independently from the government, focusing solely on protecting people from monsters.
That also meant they were against the oppression of other races, eventually standing up against the empire and moving their head office to another country.
Some time later, when the Dreadful Emperor passed away and the situation in Giamut calmed down, they returned the head office to the empire.
The church of Elmea's beliefs and philosophy stood on polar opposites to the Dreadful Emperor's, so they opposed his reign as well.
They believed in the God Elema, who created everyone equally, so they preached kindness to others.
Because of those principles, it was common to see non-human races visiting their church.
There were priests who were from other races as well.
And since Elmea was the God of Creation, there were devotees all around the world.
Since they believed in kindness above anything else, they stood at odds against the Dreadful Emperor.
Unlike the Adventurer's Guild though, there were only a small number of Holy Soldiers, and only a handful of priests knew how to fight.
That led to most of the priests of Elmea's Church being oppressed like the other races, and a lot of blood was spilled.
The Giamut Empire had started on the northern side of the continent before spreading, so the church escaped south, and kept going south, eventually crossing the sea and forming a country that later would play an important role in establishing the Confederacy.
That country was called the Holy Land, Elmaleh.
Their first settlement grew to become the capital city of Theomenia, where they were free to express their faith in the God of Creation Elmea.
But unlike the Adventurer's Guild, once the Dreadful Emperor passed away, they did not return from Theomenia back into Giamut.
The main reason was that the rule of emperors or kings did not align with the beliefs of their church.
While they did build many churches to share their religion, the Central Continent was populated by kingdoms and empires, so they remained in Theomenia.
A thousand years later, the Holy Land continued to prosper as a country.
But the Giamut Empire eventually instigated a civil war, splitting the territory apart.
"That's so horrible."
Cecile said, sitting behind Allen.
They had gotten rid of most of the Pagan Worshippers that had broken loose in the Holy Land, and early in the morning Allen's party had departed towards Theomenia.
Now they could see the current state of Theomenia, the city that had stood for a thousand years, carrying and holding a multitude of prayers.
Unlike the gorgeous and elaborate buildings in the Baukis Empire, Theomenia had been built with wood, water, and stones.
The fire that plagued the city had already died out, but the trees of the city had all turned to ash, the stone buildings charred black, and many buildings had already collapsed.
There was a large amount of Pagan Worshippers loitering in the streets too, their movements erratic making it hard to discern whether they had any free will or not.
Allen's gaze was fixated in the center of the city.
That place was scorched the most, meaning that was probably where the pillar of fire Nicolai saw appeared.
Princess Shea had captured the Cult Leader Gushara, and then some time passed as he was interrogated.
He had insisted on staying in his twisted path, so his execution was arranged, and more time passed as the news of his execution spread through the country.
In an attempt to stop the execution of their Cult Leader, many members of the Evil Cult gathered in the central square, being so numerous they were hard to control. Eventually they were the ones responsible for the terrifying scene that followed.
There were only a few burnt off vestiges showing what had happened in the central square.
Traces of the barriers erected to separate the cultists from Gushara.
The objective of such a disastrous plan was still unknown.
All they knew was that Freya's Divine Artifact was stolen, and something happened there that changed the cultists into Pagan Worshippers.
"So there's a Demon General there."
'Yes.'
After staying out of sight for most of their time in Niel, Melus answered.
Then he flew out somewhere.
Melus was going to take a different route, trying to land a surprise attack on the Demon General they were about to fight.
With how many lives had been sacrificed so far, they had no intention of sparing any kindness for the Demon General.
Allen's party looked at the large temple on the northern side of Theomenia.
Since they wanted the temple to stand out from the rest of the city, it had been built on a hill, making it visible from any part of the city, and letting those on the temple watch life flourish in the city.
The city's main gates were large with many complex figures adorning them, the next landmark was the central square, and from there a long set of stairs led up to the temple to revere the God of Creation Elmea.
The thousand years of history of the city and its religion were almost palpable there.
That temple enshrining such a long past had its roof blown open, a weird pale blue light shooting up into the sky from within.
High up above the light hit a corner and changed directions, creating a line that went to the south.
"Whazzat Allen?"
"I don't know myself, Dogora. It's best if you ask the Demon General inside."
Dogora asked Allen, but he just redirected the question to the Demon General inside the temple.
They jumped off the Bird B summon and entered the temple.
Bird B was commonly used by the party for transport, and the summon had its pros and cons.
The temple's roof was not too tall.
But Bird B was almost as big as an elephant, making it considerably big.
Even if someone used greatswords or giant hammers while riding it, the summon would remain stable, and could even attack by diving and stomping on enemies.
It could also remain still at a distance to attack with magic or arrows, or maintain a specific distance from an enemy so the rider could focus on attacking.
The ceiling of the temple was slightly taller than ten meters, but it was still small compared to the S Rank Dungeon.
Bird B's movements would be heavily restricted if they fought riding there, so everyone chose to climb off and fight on their own feet.
Temples were buildings designed to pray to God, so usually they had simple layouts, without hidden rooms or twisting corridors.
This place seemed to be that way as well.
There was no door, the stone building was always open for everyone to enter.
There was a straight passage inside, which the party followed.
It was quite wide, with large stone statues lining both sides.
(That's the God of Harvest Mormor. And next is the Fire Goddess Freya.)
Allen had lived many years in that world, so he was familiar with their gods as well.
One of them caught his eye, many times bigger than the statue in the church he saw at his hometown, Kurena Village.
A female with long straight hair and a vacant stare.
The stone looked white, but apparently her hair was supposed to be red.
According to the Spirit God Rosen, the Divine Artifact of the Goddess of Fire Freya had been stolen, so she was losing her power at an alarming rate.
They first heard that story about Freya when they went to the Baukis Empire, looking for the Master Craftsman Habarak to make Orichalcum weapons, and had seen its effect as well.
They had only heard about the Diving Artifact being stolen half a year prior, but for the last two or three years the Goddess' power had been on a decline already.
After the passage, they entered a larger room.
"Are you the Demon General Lycaoron?"
(He looks like a Lycaon beast, and I'm pretty sure Demon Generals are evolved demons.)
Thanks to Melus' return, they had also learned of the relationship between Demon Generals and demons.
Demon Generals were demons that had lived for a long time and amassed experience and strength.
They were above a certain threshold of power, which separated them from regular demons.
To Allen who still had memories from his previous life, he decided to think of it as the way dolphins and whales are separated.
In technical terms, if the sum of their stats was greater than 10000 they were Demon Generals, if not, they were just demons.
Though after the arrival of the Demon King many things had changed, and lately it was more common for the baseline to be 30000.
The exact reason for that change was unknown.
'Yes, I'm the Demon General Lycaoron. ...I assume the First Angel Melus has joined you? I need to report that.'
The pale blue light behind him, the Demon General answered.
He wore rather lightweight armor, and Allen saw he was quite swift during his fight with Melus.
The Demon General associated the arrival of Allen's party with his fight a few days before with Melus.
Melus had come back to challenge him again many times, trying to discover what kind of Demon General he was, but Melus had always lost the fight.
"What's that light?"
The light seemed to come out of a bonfire, which might be some type of magic artifact.
Allen's first guess was that it was a type of altar to worship something.
Allen did not start the fight yet.
He wanted to gather information first.
There were too many mysteries around the entire situation, so he prioritized that.
'Heh, you really think I'd tell you? I know you're Allen, Master Kyubel told me about you. Apparently your brain works pretty well.'
The Demon General with a Lycaon face grinned, canine fangs exposed.
Apparently he was unwilling to answer any questions.
Or maybe he had been ordered to not tell Allen anything.
(Well, Melus was also unable to gather any information no matter what he asked. I guess we'll just have to fight.)
"I see, guess there's nothing I can do about that. I'll just have to destroy it then."
'What?'
"Now Melus! Destroy it!!"
'Wha-?! How! It won't matter though!!'
Melus suddenly appeared behind Lycaoron.
And tried to destroy that mysterious but suspicious object.
The Demon General had not expected the altar being destroyed while they were talking.
But speed was his main forte.
While Melus flew straight at the altar with his fist struck forward, Lycaoron leapt back and stopped Melus' fist.
"Your back is fully exposed."
'Heh, but did your little plan work? You were too slow.'
While Melus was trying to destroy the altar, Allen jumped behind Lycaoron trying to slice his back, but the Demon General twisted his body and evaded the blow.
"Ghah!"
And while still blocking Melus' fist, he kicked Allen on the stomach, sending him flying away.
