Star Forge Titan

"Your Majesty, I admit that I am terrified and even unable to sleep all night. We must not passively wait for Lind to be fully prepared and allow them to initiate the Second Human-Demon War." Gaius said word by word.

Without interrupting him, the Demon King spoke in a harsh tone.

"go on."

"So, we need to build an army of undead that can be mass-produced through chain-diffusion magic rituals." Gaius took a deep breath.

"An immortal army that knows no fatigue! Does not fear death! Even if destroyed, it can be revived again!!!"

Hearing his words, Gustav flew into a rage.

"No wonder you've been applying to lift those bans on necromancy research."

Although he really transformed from a medical sorcerer to a necromancer, Elrond still created many prohibitive laws related to it after the founding of the country. The great masters of the necromancy school of successive generations wanted to break these bans that restricted their research.

But no one expected that Gaius Marius, the great mentor of this generation, would dare to carry out forbidden research without authorization before the ban was lifted.

"This is treason." Gustav slowly raised his right hand.

Twelve giant knights over three meters tall, wearing heavy black armor and holding huge swords and shields, walked out from behind the curtains hanging on both sides of the palace. They were the personal guards of the Demon King and had the strength of a thousand men at a time.

At this moment, as long as the Demon King swings his right hand, the black knights will rush forward and kill Gaius on the spot.

Even if the opponent is the highest mentor of the Undead School, it would be difficult for him to escape this killing situation without any Undead battle group accompanying him.

But Gustav didn't wave his hand after all.

"Your Majesty!" Gaius took two steps forward and knelt heavily on one knee, his eyes flashing with sincerity.

"Under the best-case scenario, we only need to lose two-thirds of our current population to complete the initial creation of the Eternal Army. All the raw materials needed for further expansion can be obtained through war itself."

After making such a cold and ruthless declaration, the Supreme Master of the School of the Dead once again whispered:

"Your Majesty, we no longer have time for mercy."

"So, are we going to give up on our humanity?" Gustav leaned tiredly on the cold throne.

"If necessary, then my answer is yes, because this will at least save the remaining one-third of the Elrond people." Gaius said without hesitation.

Gustav remained silent for a long time. Half of his face was shrouded in shadow, and his eyes, which appeared under the light, revealed a sadness that was the last struggle of a kind-hearted person, while the other half flashed with cold rationality, the look that a king should have.

"Let me think about it again..."

Chapter 23 Echoes of the Past

Gaius did not linger any longer. He bowed to Gustavus and left the Iron Palace.

"Father, are you really going to agree to that crazy plan?" Ostolfo came out from behind the throne, his handsome brows furrowed, and his right hand nervously pressed the swift sword on his belt, which was scaled down to fit a child's body.

"It's not too late to kill that madman." Although he was only thirteen years old, the descendant of the Demon King still showed the decisiveness and precocity that a member of the royal family should have.

"Come here, my child." Gustav sighed tiredly, with a helpless expression on his sick face.

Ostolfo obediently walked up to him and knelt on one knee.

Touching his son's head, Gustav's eyes showed a look of reminiscence.

"Gaius is indeed mad, but his words are not entirely wrong. You haven't experienced the Human-Demon War 123 years ago. You don't know how terrifying and cruel the human race will become when caught in the vortex of hatred brought about by war."

"Though we stubbornly call ourselves demons, we are ultimately human. However, war will alter this reality, forcing both sides to descend into a bloody hell of utter annihilation, like alien races that absolutely cannot coexist."

"That year, Evermore truly became a city of tears. Almost three-quarters of the noble men died on the battlefield, so there were quite a few families that became extinct." Gustav recounted the historical past that suffocated Otto with a heavy expression.

"What was even more tragic was the most simple civilians of Elrond. The nobles lost their loved ones, but the civilians lost entire villages and even entire cities to the massacre. In contrast, the border of Lind was thoroughly plowed through by the kingdom's knights with swords and fire. The blood feud between them has not been completely eliminated even after more than a hundred years." Gustav shook his head.

"Remember that joke? Put an Elrond and a Lind in the same room. After a few minutes, when you open the door, only one person is left inside, and the remaining one complains about indigestion."

Ostolfo's expression froze. Of course he had heard this joke before, although he had heard it from the youngest son of a Genoese merchant.

Afterwards, he angrily played a trick on the other person, but as he watched the unlucky guy fall into the compost, he laughed out loud without thinking about the deeper meaning behind the "joke" in the other person's mouth.

There are many jokes of this type. Either the Lind people mock the Elrond people for being like beasts and only knowing how to eat sauerkraut, or the Elrond people mock the Lind people for not daring to go out without armor, and after taking off their armor, they surrender faster than their own advance speed.

"It wasn't a joke at first. A hundred years ago, the relationship between us and the Lind people was so bad that a living Elrond could stay with a Lind person for no more than five minutes, and then only one person would be left alive. They would eat each other alive without any spices or seasonings." Speaking of this joke, Gustav didn't find it funny at all.

"If the 41st Demon King and the Emperor of the Lind Empire hadn't realized that the war could not continue and forcibly closed the borders, allowing the locals to establish several small countries to form a buffer zone, there probably wouldn't be two countries, Lind and Elrond, on this continent of Gondwana."

"Although more than a hundred years have passed and the relationship between our two countries has eased a lot, similar traditional hostile ideas have not disappeared. Besides, Linde is not normal now." Gustav looked towards the south with a deep gaze.

"Abnormal?" Ostolfo asked doubtfully. Although he had learned a lot from his tutor, because the speed of information flow was too slow in that era, his understanding of the international situation was naturally not comparable to that of the Demon King who controlled the national intelligence channels.

"I don't know what they are doing. Even though there are all kinds of new technologies stimulating rapid industrial development, the domestic situation is becoming increasingly tense. The living standards of ordinary people are getting worse almost every day. The relationship between big businessmen and the old aristocracy is also very tense. Some people have even raised the banner of revolution. It's almost to the point where civil war will break out before war is launched." His Majesty the Demon King pondered in confusion.

"In short, even if we don't want to unleash the demon of war, we must be prepared to be forced to fight. Gaius's plan is indeed extreme, but the research on related technologies can..." Gustav hesitated.

"As a last measure."

"I still can't agree with it. That's not right!" Ostolfo puffed up his cheeks and shook his head quickly. His light pink medium-short hair that fell to his neck fluttered like a swaying pink rose.

"So you are still a child." Gustav smiled and looked at his youngest son who looked unhappy.

But then, the Demon King's expression suddenly changed, and he erupted in a violent coughing fit. He had been away from the specialized medical environment of Schönbrunn Palace for too long, and his forcibly suppressed old injuries were showing signs of flaring up.

Ostolfo loudly ordered the servant to call the court physician, and he hurried forward to rub his father's back, but Gustav still couldn't help but fall backwards slowly.

Enduring the severe pain, the 42nd Demon King looked towards the dome of the Iron Palace with great regret.

In his field of vision, the huge mural depicting the first Demon King leading the people of Elrond became blurred, but he could still vaguely hear the sharp and panicked cries of his young son beside him.

If, if the goddess could give me another fifty years, and use those fifty years to complete the reforms smoothly and orderly, then the hopes of several generations of my family would be…

Darkness engulfed the Demon Lord Gustav's vision, and the situation in Evanmore became increasingly tense.

In a large canyon outside Flanders, the president of the local Alchemist Association was looking up at the sky with a frown.

"Damn it, why would the School of Undead just send a great wizard over here? I'm not ready to deal with a guy who's about to turn into a lich." The president, with a messy beard and sour hair from more than a month of field science examinations, shook his head with a headache expression.

"Not necessarily. Not all those who play with bones go that way. Don't the people of the Hippocrates school just like to make bone specimens but don't plan to become bone specimens themselves?" The vice-president, who was also sloppy because of field scientific research, said jokingly.

"Okay, I hope the one who is coming... huh? It seems to be coming." The president fixed his eyes on a black track in the sky.

Accompanied by the screams of ghosts, twelve wandering knights whose bodies appeared as white translucent smoke, collectively pulled a large carriage and slowly landed in the camp at the entrance of the canyon.

A staircase made of bones, hidden beneath the carriage's chassis, unfolded automatically, and the carriage door, inlaid with silver skulls, opened to the right. Lucius, dressed in a neat, aristocratic tuxedo, stepped out of the carriage, holding a long ebony staff.

"Welcome, honorable Crown Mage." The president of the local Alchemist Association hurriedly stepped forward with his men to salute.

Crown Mage is a respectful title reserved for great mages who have reached the fourth level. The president himself is only at the third level, and now he needs help from others, so he naturally behaves with extra respect.

“…” Lucius couldn’t help but frown slightly when he saw the other party’s terrible attire, but he couldn’t care less about that now.

"No need to be so polite. Take me to see the skeleton of that ancient creature."

"Okay." The president and the vice president looked at each other, and seemed a little surprised at each other's eagerness. However, considering that most mages who entered the research state did so, it seemed that there was nothing wrong with this behavior.

"Please come this way." The president took the lead in leading the way into the canyon and began to introduce their experience of this inspection.

"About half a month ago, just before the white tide on the northern ice sheet, a small earthquake suddenly occurred in the mountainous area near Flanders. This incident itself was nothing strange, but afterwards we received a news that local hunters saw the palace of the mountain god in the mountains." The president said as he led the way.

"You know, apart from the true faith in the great god Odin and the Lady of the Underworld, the country folk in the mountains always believe in some strange things. At first we didn't take it seriously, but then the black market in Flanders actually received some fossil fragments from the rumored area. We couldn't tell the age and species, so we sent people to conduct a short scientific expedition there, and the result..." The president rambled on.

Walking along a winding path with a faint silver-grey sheen, Lucius was already getting a little impatient as he walked along the grey-white mountain walls dotted with tall stone pillars.

"The point." The great wizard said coldly.

"Well, the result is that we found some strange things. They belong neither to elves, dwarves, nor other older races. Of course, it is unlikely that they were left by human ancestors. After all..."

The president shrugged. Although he felt a little offended, he didn't dare to argue with a fourth-level mage over such a small matter.

"Bones, what I care about are those bones. When can I see those bones?!" Lucius interrupted him again.

Hearing this, the president and the vice president couldn't help but exchange glances. He felt that the eyes of his subordinates seemed to be saying, I was right, those guys just like bones.

"In fact, you can already see those bones." The president looked like he wanted to laugh.

"To be more precise, you're already in it."

Lucius's expression changed and he quickly looked around.

It turned out that those things that were thought to be curved stone pillars were actually huge ribs!

He was now walking inside a skeleton so huge that it occupied the entire canyon!

"It's spectacular, sir! When I first saw it, I thought I was in an ancient myth." The president walked up to Lucius and said in admiration.

"Legend has it that the gods arrived in Palladios on a gigantic ancient iron whale. They tamed the violent primordial magic of Chaos, dividing it into more gentle forms. The strongest among them, the Titans, were responsible for slaying the massive monsters born from Chaos. They also personally reshaped the mountains, filled the oceans, and created land, making this world habitable for life." Lucius muttered to himself as he told a mythological story.

"Yes, that's the first story that came to my mind." The president nodded, and then he saw the expression of the great wizard next to him darken.

"Why are these the only ones?" Lucius asked with some anger. He found that the skeletons around him only had a spine and some ribs.

"I don't know." The president spread his hands with a helpless expression on his face.

"Don't know? Where is the most important skull? Where can I find it..." Lucius roared.

"This is all we found, so we hope to use the power of your school to find the remaining bones." The president was also a little annoyed. He kept interrupting the other party and acted helpless.

"But, the most important thing is the skull? Why is the skull the most important..." The president's expression seemed a little curious, but the vice president next to him suddenly changed his eyes.

“…” Lucius knew he had spoken out of turn and did not continue.

"The situation here has exceeded my previous expectations. I need to notify other people in the school to come and help." The great wizard took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"By the way, have you notified other schools to help? If we want to move such a huge skeleton, we will need the power of at least the School of Conjuration." Lucius pretended to be calm, as if he was really thinking about how to study this huge skeleton.

"Not yet. After all, we have only been investigating for less than a month." The president said honestly, but the vice president tugged at his sleeve, as if he wanted to express something.

"What about His Majesty? Such an important matter must be reported as soon as possible." Lucius continued to ask casually.

"Well, this matter is indeed very important. If it is confirmed that they are the remains of those mythical beings, it will shock the whole world." The president nodded in agreement. "I just wrote the letter and will send it by express mail when I return to Flanders."

Hearing his words, the vice president's face changed drastically, while Lucius breathed a sigh of relief, a rare smile appearing on his wrinkled old face.

However, this smile looked particularly ferocious at this moment.

"That's good."

As he was speaking, a series of screams suddenly erupted from the camp outside the canyon. The president's face changed drastically and he quickly turned his head to look at the exit.

"What happened? Are they bandits? Damn it! We are all alchemists. We came out in such a hurry that we didn't have time to hire many adventurers to protect us." As if he had thought of something, the president looked at Lucius anxiously.

As a researcher, the alchemist's combat effectiveness is almost zero without any preparation, but the mages of the School of Necromancy are different.

"Sir! You brought a team of undead guards, right? Please help us."

"No problem." Lucius nodded, then raised his hand and pointed to the two people beside him.

"Extreme Effect·Split Two·Finger of Death!"

A purple light flashed, and the canyon instantly fell into silence, and the camp at the entrance also returned to peace.

Just as the situation in Elrond was turbulent, Ivan and Afrediya, who were on their journey again, were about to enter a roadside inn.

The moment he entered the hotel, Alvin looked around and only let down his guard after he didn't see any extraordinary professionals.

In order to avoid the possibility of being exposed, they abandoned the magic carriage in the woods. After disguising themselves, the two men headed back towards Evanmore.

In fact, this is the normal situation because the overall number of extraordinary people is too small.

In Palladia before the rise of the nations, even low-level professionals rarely appeared in public. It would take several years for the Royal Academy of Elrond to further expand its enrollment and increase the number of low-level transcendents to a reasonable level.

"Huh, I can finally have a good rest." Afrediya, wearing a hooded cloak, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, when I think about it, it seems like I haven't seen a normal bed for almost half a month." Alvin also sighed.

The conditions in the hunter's cabin were naturally not good before, and they were almost caught up by the enemy not long after staying in the commercial city of Flanders. They were running all the way and naturally could not get a good rest.

Although, after undergoing the ritual transformation, Alvin's strength is not affected by this problem at all, but mental fatigue is not something the body can resist.

They were now entering a roadside inn that provided both accommodation and food.

"Boss, are there any vacant rooms?" Alvin walked to the counter and looked at the fat hotel owner.

"Yes, how many rooms?" The boss was wiping the cups that seemed to never end, and raised his hand to knock on the wooden board beside him, on which the room price list was clearly written.

"Two..." Just as Ivan was about to answer, he heard Afrediya beside him speak first.

"One."

"Uh, how many rooms are there?"

The boss looked at Ivan, who was dressed in coarse cloth, and then looked at Afrediya, who was wearing a hooded cloak but still looked like she came from a wealthy family. He couldn't help but reveal a mocking look in his eyes.

"One room." The eldest princess wanted to make the final decision.

"Let's have two rooms, adjacent to each other." Alvin held her shoulders and took the key from the innkeeper.