A day and a half later, most of them had recovered enough to do heavy work.
Beyond the broken walls, the land had been reshaped into silence.
Even after looking, there were only a few of them that had remained in town. It had been snuffed out of life. Even the children weren't spared. If they hadn't been turned to demons, they were either dead or had escaped a long time ago. But there were still plenty of livestock, such as pigs and chickens. There were even horses. Just no people.
Outside the town, you could see people transferring the dead bodies and dug holes and made graves.
Soon, rows of freshly turned earth stretched across a field, marked by simple wooden stakes.
It didn't take long. After all, the bodies that demons possessed all turned to ash when they were killed. It was only those who remained human they could carry.
The soil was still dark, still damp, as if the ground itself hadn't finished mourning. A few helmets rested at the foot of certain graves. A broken spear leaned against another. Even a staff. They had placed wildflowers on each one. Where armor once lay, their fragile colors standing out against the gray ruin behind them.
The wind passed softly through the field. They stood there for a while in heavy silence looking at the graves as the town stood scarred but standing, watching over its dead.
Hours passed.
In that moment, Ard was watching the skies from the archer tower above the town gates. There he could see the territory. It was ruined but only half-ruined. He could see what kind of territory it was too. It was a pretty normal one in the inside with a little market it seemed, a castle for the lord, houses all around in scattered places, a few bridges, and some buildings.
However, it was located in the mountains with plenty of stones and rocks. It wasn't like the places they had passed by on their adventurer who one could trace and say it used to be filled with wheat or whatever plants.
This territory, on the other hand, was in the total boondocks.
It was also difficult for probably merchants to go here as it required traversing high lands and a neck to neck summersault death if one makes a mistake while travelling. But tracing the layout of the land, he understood why a territory was placed here.
It was actually a fort.
Instead of the usual walls used as a defense wall against invades, these walls were made to go against monsters raids.
Judging by the location of the territory, that seemed to be the case. His eyes narrowed in focus and zoomed in. Even now, numerous demonic monsters were idling inside the forest visible on his left in the distance, their numbers far more than ordinary.
On his right side, on the other hand, it was a beautiful scenery, overview of the high lands from the town stretching into the distance, and kissing the sky.
It was a beautiful scenery, one you could only see in high places.
Then he shifted his gaze to the sky, and he seemed to see the darkness enveloping the redness of the clouds due to the sunset. At the beginning it was like small dots in the distance, becoming bigger and bigger as it was going in their direction. Only then he realized that something was wrong. The darkness wasn't caused by the nightfall but by the silhouettes of something undulating through the clouds.
They were fast and it was getting closer and closer.
At some point, a defeaning whistle ran through alerting the people in town and obviously it was coming from the figures in the sky.
Then finally, they revealed themselves.
A winged creatures as large three wagons with the muscular body, tail and legs of a lion and the big silvery scaled wings and head of a ferocious eagle dove from the clouds diagonally and speeding towards the town.
'This is a griffin!'
Ard immediately realized once it went out the clouds.
Watching it speed up, the beast met with his crimson eyes and for reasons it slowed down as it tried to halt itself mid-air spreading its wings, but its speed was too fast and it inevitably fell and landed on the lake inside the town, making a huge splash!
Everyone had of course seen this and immediately went.
"What now?" Mike groaned. Like everyone else, they were extremely shocked as they stared at the scene in front of them with racing hearts.
They had enough of this. Why was there a griffin now?!
Finally, a flapping was heard and the griffin rose from the lake and rose to the sky again as fast as possible. It didn't come return.
"Huh?"
While everyone was stupefied, some had noticed a few bubbles in the lake and soon a man who looked to be in his late twenties with white long hair tied with a loose ponytail on the back and crystal-blue eyes emerged drenched wet emerged from the lake and crawled onto the ground.
"Heeeey! Coooome baaack!"
He shouted, looking at the direction where the griffin went.
However, there was no response. The creature had disappeared as he clicked his tongue and sighed hard and long. Then turning around, he looked at the people watching him.
"So…" he said casually, brushing wet hair from his face. "Where's the Demon Lord?"
"Lord Sileus." Knight Faller and the two other knights immediately stepped forward, kneeling.
"Who?"
After a couple more introductions, the man's identity was revealed.
"The Arch Mage of the Kingdom?"
"So he is that Sileus."
Hearing them, Corre then spoke explaining not only to his party but to Ard and Zayn who didn't know.
"It was said that he doesn't appear in public and is simply researching magic in the deep mountains with his apprentices. But from time to time, when important meetings are held or when there are emergency situations like an invasion or a very serious demonic infestation or uncontrollable monster waves, he does appear."
"You know a lot about him." Jane commented surprised.
"Of course. He is after all one of the most powerful people in the world." Corre then said. And for some reason, he looked at the dark haired young man as he spoke.
After his brief talk with the knights who reported the situation, Sileus looked around the ruined town, then sighed in disappointed while removing the water that pooled at his boots as he tilted his head slightly.
He glanced toward the graves outside the walls, then raised a hand.
"By the way…those…"
"They are my dead men and where Doctor Angelo is buried. And some of the corpses of the residents…"
'Angelo, the last I have seen that young healer was two decades ago. Hm, to think he's met his end already.' He thought.
Walking over, he stared down at it for a long moment, rainwater still dripping from the ends of his red hair as some memories seemed to appear in his mind.
"After the Demon King's already been vanquished, too."
A faint, humorless smile tugged at his lips.
"Your bad luck, huh."
They all watched in silence.
Something about the way Sileus stood there made it clear enough that he must have known the man.
But then—
He was looking at the grave and the other graves with intent as if he wanted to do something.
Exchanging glances, no one knew what he was thinking but then his eyes showed a glint of insanity. Seeing this, Hamon and Faller stiffened at his gesture while the other knight seemed confused.
"Absolutely not, Lord Sileus!" Faller said scarily while he went behind him.
"…Huh, I was joking," he said, then laughed lightly while scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "Just joking. Stop looking so scary."
But at the same time, he kept looking at the graves.
He adjusted his soaked robe, water still dripping onto the stone.
"Well," he said cheerfully, eyes gleaming with curiosity, "looks like I missed quite the show."
Then again he turned at the direction where the griffin went, then finally he turned at the direction of the people nearby.
Then Sileus hummed and smiled.
"Well, isn't this interesting?"
'Shit!' Ard murmured to himself.
He doesn't know why but the Archmage is clearly looking at him. But the other party wasn't initiating a conversation and only stared at him.
Just before Ard could say anything, Sileus spoke first.
"So you're the one who took out the Demon Lord, am I right?"
Somewhere along the way Sileus had inserted his way between them, so smooth that Ard hadn't noticed him until he was standing there.
Then his lips barely moved.
He didn't even talk, no.
His voice was instantly lodged within Ard's mind, as heavy as if it had twisted his spine.
'And you are wearing something I own, are you not?'
It was as if Sileus's eyes shone for a moment when he looked down at the ring Ard held, just like a dragon that had saw its hoard in someone else's pocket.
For the first time since the demon king's, Ard felt fear.
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A/N: An archmage is an exceptionally powerful mage who works directly under the king, widely considered not just for its authority but as the pinnacle of magical learning and power.
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