MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

A chimeric creature, his body a blend of various insects, his face that of a fly, stood under the moonlight inside the grand throne room of the Demon King's place, his countless eyes fixed on the man seated atop the Throne.

"My King, why did you throw away the life of Caden even though he was a useful and loyal asset, and when his death served no purpose besides weakening the already slumbering Mammon," Beelzebub said after minutes of staying silent.

"Do you believe if his death did not serve a greater purpose, I will allow him to die?" Ahrimon questioned, and the proud Sin embodiment could only lower his head, knowing he had already crossed the line by raising the question on his King's judgment.

"Once a champion is chosen, everything he had belongs to the master, and that is the price for the gifts they receive,"

"But, A Sin Champion is far more than a Demon champion, and I do not mean the obvious of them being capable of wielding their master gifts or the temporary or permanent possession without any permanent side effects,"

"By everything, I mean the strength they possess, the talent they had, their memories, and they die, everything that could be taken would get stripped and will be given to their master,"

"So, In normal circumstances, the Death of his vessel would have resulted in Mammon going into slumber immediately but not as a backlash but to receive what he could from his champion, his slumber being the lowest price he could pay to satisfy the work of his Sin Law."

"But because he is already paying the price of using his law, which could stretch as far as three decades, now when he will receive the gains from his Champion, the tof slumber instead of increasing will shrink from the previous few decades to few years,"

"Because, when he originally went into Slumber, he chose it as the equal price for abusing his greed Law, but now he doesn't have that option, and the world Law will be responsible for choosing the price,"

"The law always chose the best available option, so the price would be a part of the gains from his Champion, making the process last a few weeks instead of a few years,"

"Once he gains the massive spiritual and physical boost, his worth in the eyes of the Law will increase, and so will be the worth of his time, meaning the few decades that he would have spent slumbering would also reduce to few years because the Law is always just," Ahrimon said, revealing something that was not known to any Sin Embodiment.

Beelzebub was shocked to his core, and rightfully so because their champions were more than just spare vessels, they were students, if not outright children, to even their selfish and heartless selves, their relationship with them as close as family.

Now he was discovering that their champions were being raised for eventual slaughter, and knowing his King, Beelzebub knew their champions' deaths were not merely a possibility but inevitable, a matter of when and not if they would be killed.

It was not that their Champion's death really bothered him because he knew their sole purpose was to act as assurance in case they were to face a tragedy, a lifeline for the Sin Embodiments being prepared for the future.

However, with the new knowledge, the sole purpose of the Sin Champions completely changed, and with this cthe realization that they might be more expendable to his King than he previously believed.

"Now that your curiosity is appeased, lettell you of a more important matter," Ahrimon said, his tone devoid of any attempt to comfort, even though he knew how his general felt at the moment.

"I had made them release one of the Chaos Genrels after embedding an Essence Conduit crystal inside of him and telling him of their fate,"

"Mordrion, the Peak Eight Rank individual, was sent to trail the Chaos Genrels on the run, and a few minutes ago, I received the news that he had an encounter which he lost because he had a part of his memories erased,"

"At one moment, he was trailing his target, and in the next, he found himself awakening from a slumber that had lasted several hours. He had no memories beyond a certain point, and the most puzzling aspect was his lack of injuries as if his encounter had not even been a struggle," Ahrimon said, and after a momentary silence, he continued.

"I had my speculation of there being a leading individual controlling the two Chaos generals on the loose, and now it is confirmed, but the clear identity of the said individual could be anything from a hermit Monarchs to a Chaos Queen," Ahrimon said, a smile spreading across his face, his vast aura leaking out.

"My King, you want one of the Monarchs to begin searching for a thin individual?" Beelzebub asked, not realizing how his king would want to deal with such a situation.

"No, focus on executing the plan," Ahrimon said, and Beelzebub nodded before vanishing into dark smoke.

"If it's a Chaos Queen, then she can very well helpleave this prison, even if temporarily," Ahrimon said, his eyes turning into two pits of the endless void, his skin turning a shade of gray, and a twisting smile stretching across his face, a change that distorted his face to appear inhuman.

--------------------

(Two Weeks After The Death of Caden)

'So it seems I have no other option but to ask Evangeline for any info she could give,' Alex thought after hearing of another failure to find the location of the remaining seven conduit crystals.

It possessed been two weeks since Alex dealt with Caden, and during this time, the Royal guards had checked every piece of information they were able to acquire from Caden, but they found no success.

They were able to find many core locations of the Cult, with members numbering in the hundreds, elders that stood at the top, and things that might erase many noble houses and damage the reputation and core of big organizations, yet they found nothing of real value related to the essence conduit crystals.

However, what they discovered was not even a third of the cult, making them realize how big of a giant the cult possessed becby silently growing in the shadows.

Now, there was a possibility that the Elven Queen and the current human king might have sclues as to where to find the crystals or individuals who could give them information about them.

However, dealing with both of them was anything but easy because the Elven Queen certainly was not going to cooperate, so killing her or forcefully extracting information from her was the only option, and the swas true for the current Emperor.

So, dealing with the former was the sas starting a war, and dealing with the latter was relatively easy, but it was left to the Human Emperor for the tbeing.

Alex possessed no problem accepting Evangeline's friend request and making a deal with her because he might easily hide his nusing a Gold system wish, and as for what she would want in return, it would be nothing compared to what was on the line.

But he waited so long because Alex wanted to get a proper idea of what he was dealing with, and now that he knew, he might finally contact her, even though he did not hold much hope for any real information.