At that moment, a number of strange waves of magic power started erupting within the Ataru Canyon. It was like invisible air currents, bursting out from the air, the ground, and all directions in the environment before flowing toward and gathering in the deepest area of the canyon.
"Roar…"
"Howl…"
At the same time, the roars of all kinds of demonic beasts started continuously echoing all around.
Only, those roars were filled with terror, sorrow, and pain. It's like they've encountered something extremely terrible.
Shien and Airi both clearly detected this unnatural phenomenon, making the two of them visibly react.
"This is…"
Shien's expressions froze on his face.
That's because this occurrence was utterly identical to what had happened back when Shien and Lucy previously went into the mountains with that half centipede monster.
"Hmph…" Airi on the other hand tsked before noting, "It looks like the ritual has begun."
Airi's words drew Shien's attention.
"Ritual?" Shien asked, "What ritual?"
Right after he asked that question, before Airi even had a chance to respond, Shien once again spoke up.
"I don't care about the demon race's shame or pride or whatever. Right now, something is obviously wrong here, so even if you refuse to tell me the reasons behind it, you should at least properly let me know what this ritual is about. Otherwise, if we end up encountering it, don't blame me if I end up doing something reckless and accidentally ruin things for you, alright?"
Shien's words completely shut down what Airi was about to say.
Airi was speechless for a while before finally letting out a sigh.
"I'm only saying this once."
Airi thus prefaced with her explanation.
Shien also made sure to pay attention.
Thus, Airi begun slowly speaking.
"First of all, I need to tell you one thin." Airi coldly stated, "The half centipede monster that you spoke up isn't a demon, nor is it a demonic beast. It's a Demon Lord."
———— [Demon Lord].
The moment that phrase came out of Airi's mouth, even Shien's heart skipped a beat.
It's because that phrase isn't something that can so casually be used to refer to something.
"Perhaps you're unaware of just what a Demon Lord is, so I'll give you a simplified explanation first."
Airi so spoke with a calm tone.
"The demons in the very beginning were born from the effect of the Demon King's magic power. Thu8s, you can consider the demon race to be a lesser spawn of the Demon King, something like the Demon King's servants. They're sort of like the branches and leaves growing out of a tree, loyal to and reliant on the Demon King."
"And Demon Lords are the fist existences born beside the Demon King. They're the demons whose base is most like the Demon King. If one were to consider the Demon King to be a towering tree and the demon race to be its branches and leaves, then Demon Lords would basically be the tree's saplings. When fully grown, they could theoretically reach the same level as the Demon King.
"Of course, that's only in theory. Demon Lords are existences above that of demons. There's a large gap between Demon Lord and normal demons just like the gap between the Demon King and demons. Even the strongest level 100 demon would likely last less than three minutes against a Demon Lord."
"It's for that reason that Demon Lords are all unbelievably powerful. Even among the three great goddesses, only one of them is stronger than the Demon Lords, with the other two being weaker than them. That's also the original difference in power between the gods and demons, which is the reason why the gods were losing against the demons all that time."
Airi looked straight at Shien.
"And for that reason, a thousand years ago, when the Demon King was subjugated by the Hero of the Mitra Kingdom and the possibility for her revival was cut down by the Highest God, a portion of the demons, without any hope in reviving the Demon King, decided to think of a way to raise up a new Demon King."
"And since Demon Lords are the closest in concept to the Demon King, even if it's only in theory, then the Demon Lords, who had the potential to grow to become a Demon King, naturally became those demons' targets."
"However, the Six Great Demon Lords didn't want to cooperate with this plan and instead started pursuing the issue of peace with the other two races."
"Even without the cooperation of the Demon Lords, those demon still didn't want to give up, so in the end, they came up with a new idea."
"And that is to create a seventh Demon Lord, before then raising this new Demon Lord into a Demon King."
This was the plan that continued for a thousand years.
A plan to create a "Seventh Demon Lord" in order to realize the birth of their "Second Demon King".
"Just how this Demon Lord plan was supposed to be enacted or realized, that bit I won't bother going into the details for. I'll just directly tell you the result." Airi so stated, "In the end, after spending a thousand years, their Demon Lord creation plan seemed to have reached its final stages. The seventh Demon Lord seems to be near completion."
As she got to that point, Airi's face twisted into an expression filled with hate and anger.
It was obvious that the existence of this so called "Seventh Demon Lord" had touched a major nerve for Airi, as well as that of the entire demon race.
"The thing you destroyed earlier is likely a spawn of the seventh Demon Lord, split off from the body of the actual seventh Demon Lord. It's basically a tentacle that's used to collect materials for completing itself." Airi coldly uttered.
"When those Demon Lord spawns appear, they have only one goal, and that is to collect the materials needed for completing its original self."
Thus, whenever that Demon Lord spawns appear, they'll immediately activate a magic ritual.
"The ritual will imprison, lure in, charm, and control all demons and demonic beasts within a certain range, forcing them into a berserk frenzy in which they slaughter each other, so as to mix together all the bodies of the demons and demonic beasts there."
"In that frenzy, be it demon or demonic beast, the moment they kill another demon or demonic beast, they'll absorb their victim's magic power and merge with their flesh to become an even more powerful, more violent monster."
"In the end, when only one is left of the demons and demonic beasts within the ritual, the resulting monster formed of a myriad of sources of magic power and bodies will end up consumed by the Demon Lord spawn."
"Then, that Demo Lord spawn will completely absorb the sacrifice born from that ritual, turning it into a part of the original Demon Lord body, and through that, gradually complete that seventh Demon Lord."
"That's the Demon Lord Completion Ritual – [Demon Refining]."
When he heard all that, what appeared in Shien's mind was a different phase – [Gu].
That's a kind of witchcraft where one placed many poisonous creatures in a sealed container or environment and had them devour each other, ending with one of them having consumed all the poisons of the others into its own body to gradually strengthen its own poison.
And when there's only one poisonous creature left in that container or environment and this last creature has concentrated within itself all the poisons of the other creatures and have thus become the strongest and most poisonous, then that creature is the so called "Gu".
The Demon Refining ritual that Airi spoke of is basically the same as Gu creation.
The difference is that in this ritual, all the demonic beasts and demons are in the end mere sacrifices. When it finally combines into one form, it will be consumed by the tentacle that is the Demon Lord spawn, making the spawn into a portion of the original Demon Lord so as to gradually give birth to the actual Demon Lord.
This is the seventh Demon Lord creation plan.
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