Chapter 94 Chapter 93 Post-War Discussion
Jima suppressed her desire for a bath and gathered with her three teammates to prepare for a post-war summary.
Jima personally checked George, who was facing the Chosen of Eternity, Marus, and had sustained the most severe injuries.
His Shalel helmet was missing, one shoulder plate was gone, and large parts of his armor were missing from his shoulder, exposing his white skin. The sword of Marus, the Chosen of Eternity, had once cleaved through his shoulder plate, and the explosion caused by the sword had blown away a chunk of flesh from his shoulder.
Fortunately, George was already a diamond. His life form had transcended; a little less muscle wasn’t a big deal, and with Jenna’s healing, he would be able to fight again.
Jima’s hand moved around his shoulder, feeling the many dents on the cold armor. These were marks left by the shrapnel from the explosion. Her hand then brushed against the scar on George’s face, which ran vertically down to puncture his nose.
She couldn’t help but imagine how George looked when struck by Marus’s sword.
It must have penetrated to the bone, and the explosion probably flayed his skin, revealing his white skull.
Just thinking about it pained her. She said, “You can heal the scar.”
“I’ll keep it as a memento,” George held her small hand. “One day, I’ll return the favor.”
Jima pulled her hand away and sat beside him.
The post-war summary began.
As the team leader, George took the initiative and said, “We couldn’t effectively damage Marus, my Sacred Slash barely tickled him.”
As for the reason, everyone already knew, and George was just getting things started.
A male voice interjected, “Why is that?”
Jima turned her head and saw Felix, who was making his way through the dark. He approached from the direction of the dwarves, wearing a smile, in stark contrast to the gloomy and grumbling dwarves who were complaining about yesterday’s failures and humiliations.
They abandoned their companions and even watched with open eyes as the tunnel built by their ancestors collapsed.
Jima said, “What are you doing here instead of writing poetry? To put it bluntly, you don’t have the qualification. If your butcher friend were here, that would be different.”
“Honorable Lady Jima,” Felix bowed in her direction. “I am here to request to listen in. Yesterday’s experiences have given me much inspiration. I beseech you to allow me to eavesdrop, so that I can compose an epic, and people will sing of your deeds.”
Jima asked, “Weren’t you scared and wanting to go home yesterday?”
Felix replied, “Only a warrior can be fearless. I am no warrior, but after the danger has passed, I am grateful for the experience, as it has provided me with inspiration.”
George said, “You can listen in and ask questions.”
Felix elegantly bowed toward George, “Thank you.”
Since George had spoken, Jima did not object.
George continued:
“I can answer your questions easily. The Chosen of Eternity is blessed and protected by the four dark gods, reducing most of the damage he takes. His armor is tough; even if he removes his helmet and faces a crossbow with his face, he won’t sustain much damage.”
Felix nodded, somewhat understanding, and asked, “Is there any way?”
“Artifacts, for instance, the Holy Sword,” Jima added, “It’s a pity that George, out of jealousy and for personal reasons, insists on marrying me, so the Holy Sword has waved goodbye to him.”
“You are the famous Hero George?” Felix exclaimed, “Last year in Adolf, I heard that you defeated the Demon King Jima with a single sword strike. You are so young and accomplished. When I was as young as you, I was still battling with other poets in the streets, I am truly ashamed.”
Jima took a deep breath, feeling that the speed of information dissemination in this era was too slow. If he knew about George’s other reputations, such as the one she invented, that he had over a hundred wives, would he still mention himself all the time?
George nodded, “That was in the past.”
“I have a small question,” Felix asked, “Why could you kill the Demon King Jima with a single sword strike, but have no means against the Chosen of Eternity? Is the gap between demon kings really that large?”
“What an ignorant fool,” Jima scoffed. “Don’t you understand to look at issues from a developmental perspective? The Chosen of Eternity is not an ordinary demon king. Let me tell you, there are many demon kings, but there can only be one Chosen of Eternity. It’s simple to become the Chosen of Eternity: just kill all the other demon kings.
“Every time a strong enemy is killed, the demon clan becomes stronger and gains better blessings. Even ordinary demon clans behave this way. The Chosen of Eternity is considered the strongest of the strong because he has killed all the demon kings.
“Furthermore, George’s ability to stealthily kill the Demon King Jima with one strike was related to the six months he prepared, and the Demon King Jima was caught off guard, taken by surprise at his bedroom door without even having time to wear his armor.
“I’ve said a lot. Do you understand, little poet? I won’t say it a second time.”
Eve Frostleaf noticed that Jima’s long-winded explanations seemed to contain hints defending the Demon King Jima. She nodded slightly, increasingly believing that Jima was indeed the daughter of Demon King Jima.
“Thank you for your lesson.” Felix was inspired and wrote on his paper: “George is not as rigid as other holy warriors. He is flexible, brave, and fearlessly sneaked into the perilous Demon King’s lair without the Demon King even noticing.
“And George upheld the honor code by waking the Demon King for a one-on-one duel, killing the evil Demon King Jima with a single strike.”
Jima peeked over, her eyelids twitching.
“Wait.” Jima thought of something, “To break the Chosen of Eternity’s defenses, perhaps there are other ways.”
“There are many ways,” George said, “but given our current conditions, we can’t accomplish them.”
“Right at our fingertips.” Jima said, “Kragg used his rune blade axe to chop through Marus’s armor; I saw it with my own eyes.”
George’s eyes brightened, “Let’s go ask him.”
They found the butcher Kragg, who was participating in the dwarven blood ritual. The remaining seven dwarves were all donating blood, making a cut on their palms with their knives, letting blood drip into a bowl—one bowl filled with the blood of seven.
Jima deliberately asked, “Is this about blood kinship? Or a pledge?”
Butcher Kragg shot Jima a glare, too lazy to speak, and handed the blood bowl to the dwarf with the longest beard. That dwarf, under the dim miner’s lamp, took out a feather quill from his bag, dipped it in the blood of the seven, and wrote on paper: “Today’s blood feud, the Chosen of Eternity Marus actually…”
Oh no, it was the Book of Hatred.
Dwarves hold grudges and remember them very firmly, but even so, they find their memories insufficiently strong, so they write their blood feud on paper and submit it to be bound into the Book of Hatred by the clan leader.
During the reading of the Book of Hatred, all dwarves can perfectly empathize, filling their hearts with hatred.
Jima quickly stepped back two paces, saying, “I stand on your side as well. I am just as helpless about the tunnel collapse; the root cause still lies with the Chosen of Eternity Marus…”
Eve Frostleaf remarked, “Dwarves like to blame others for their own mistakes; it’s been that way since ancient times.”
The dwarf writing the book shot Eve Frostleaf a fierce glare, adding a line to the paper: “…long-eared Eve Frostleaf, sneering afterward…”
George pulled Eve Frostleaf back to prevent a second long-beard war from breaking out. He asked Butcher Kragg, who understood the situation well and cooperated.
The results were disappointing. The reason Butcher Kragg could harm the Chosen of Eternity Marus was simple; his weapon was an artifact from the God of Butchers. He didn’t even know; it was revealed through Jima’s divination.
Butcher Kragg himself was shocked. He said that on the day he vowed to become a butcher, he just happened to pick up two axes along the way.
However, having said that, the squad now had the ability to inflict damage on the Chosen of Eternity Marus. But personally, Butcher Kragg’s prowess wasn’t too high. George was tempted to borrow the axes, but Butcher Kragg refused, saying:
“I seek the glory of death. If I die, you may take these axes as you wish.”
Though he couldn’t borrow the axes, Butcher Kragg agreed to join the rescue team in pursuit of the glory of death.
Jima asked, “If the current hero dies, and the Holy Sword happens to fall into your hands, George, how confident are we in repulsing the Demon King Marus with a smaller force?”
Even proposing to repel this hypothetical felt overly optimistic to Jima.
Yesterday, the five of them besieged half of Marus’s body while he was stuck at the teleportation gate, unable to evade, yet it ended with everyone fleeing.
The four of them discussed briefly, and George said:
“Let’s first ascertain his abilities, and based on that, we can deduce his combat power.”
Jima said, “In a short time, he forced the target into melee range three times. The current conditions for gathering intelligence are unclear; we only know that each time he pointed his sword at me, the invisibility was of no use.”
For Jima, the battle with the Demon King Marus was an ultimate test of her self-preservation ability, and she learned absolutely nothing from it.
Eve Frostleaf reflected on the battle and felt increasingly dispensable, only able to watch as Jima was dragged away time and again.
George wrote in his notebook:
“…and the sword blade has a powerful explosion.”
Just as Jenna was about to speak, Jima interjected, “I suspect he is proficient in fire-type magic, as the small town caught fire during the fight, mainly because he is infamous for mastering fire-type magic in the demon realm.”
George nodded, asking, “How proficient?”
“Once, he cast a fire vortex that burned enemies in a valley, directly causing a demon army to crumble, and afterward, it was counted that over a thousand charred corpses were left.”
“Impressive.”
“This is from the memory of the Demon King Jima.”
“Then how did Demon King Jima escape?”
“Because Marus burned his own people,” Jima explained. “Demon King Jima personally led cavalry to charge at his enemies in the valley. Marus was misled into thinking it was the main battle and intended to kill Demon King Jima, so he summoned the fire vortex to burn away the enemies.
“As a result, Demon King Jima simply ran away; his maneuverable troops were very adept at retreating. It could have been the trick of the Master of Deception, causing the fire vortex to instead move toward Marus’s forces. What followed was straightforward—those burned… everyone trampled each other, those who ran slowly were consumed by the fire vortex.”
George asked, “How many years ago was that?”
“Seventy or eighty years, perhaps.”
George sighed, “To what extent has the Chosen of Eternity progressed now? He might be able to single-handedly command an army.”
Though extraordinary beings are strong, few can single-handedly command an army; otherwise, there would be no point in having armies.
“Elite troops combined with many strong individuals will still die,” Jima said. “He hasn’t even faced the legendary figures of the Order faction. Our team’s combat power only counts as the top tier within the Order faction.”
“But we don’t have an elite army,” George pondered solutions. “We’ll just have to take one step at a time.”
“What’s the next step?”
“Speed up,” George said. “We need to get to the dwarven city and pinpoint the location of the demon king crown fragments.”
He paused and said, “I hope Beo’s team can reach the magic crown fragments first.”
This was quite difficult for the proud George.
