What Kabradhabi said made everyone frown.

According to it, demons were waging war on two fronts and the enemy that humanity had never even met was their chief opponent.

That meant, during the previous Battles of Divine Will, the demons had only sent a small part of their army to battle humanity. Knowing this, Roland and the witches, who had been quite confident about the war, started to feel less optimistic.

There were four species depicted in the giant paintings in the Divine Land and the underground civilization had already been eliminated. Given that, Roland speculated that the so-called "Sky-sea Realm" was the homeland of the species in the fourth picture. It was the most mysterious among the four and was a portrait of some deep-sea eyeb.a.l.l.s.

Did demons wage a war against the monsters in the sea right after they defeated the underground civilization and seized its relic? And they simultaneously managed to crack down on mankind in the Land of Dawn.

If it's true, it's no wonder that the Senior Demon showed utter contempt for the witches.

As for the common people without any magic power, Kabradhabi probably thinks of us as nothing more than useless weeds. 

On the other hand, Roland was clear that the demon might have lied to them. Kabradhabi was an unyielding fighter. It had led its troop to penetrate deep into the artillery squad and had utilized the Mind Resonance to invade Zooey's body. Obviously, it knew how to mask its intentions and to never give up fighting, even in the face of great adversity. Since no one was able to check whether it was lying, it might have been bluffing, trying to incite panic.

Everyone looked grave. Roland knew that he needed to bring the situation back under his control as soon as possible.

He shrugged and pretended to feel at ease. He looked at Alethea.

"So... this handicapped warrior is the demon?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I don't know how Zooey did this, but she'd never say anything like that," Alethea replied.

"Good, you saved me the trouble of taking a nap." Roland nodded to Zooey. "You can eat whatever you want in tonight's trip to the Dreamland"

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zooey's lips could not help curling into a smile, but soon her expression returned to normal. "Unfortunately, this guy is already accustomed to our way of thinking. Although it's still unable to flexibly control the body, we can't read his real thoughts through Mind Resonance that easily now."

"It's not your fault. After all, no one has pried deeply into a Senior Demon's mind before. It's natural for you to misjudge the situation."

"Demon? You still call us by such a ridiculous name." Kabradhabi sn.i.g.g.e.red. "You look upon the other species as evil incarnate without realizing that you yourselves are nothing but backward barbarians. Your good days will end soon. When the Fountain of Magic appears again, you'll die out!"

All the people looked at each other simultaneously, since the Fountain of Magic mentioned by the demon reminded them of a thing in their legend.

"Is the Fountain of Magic... the b.l.o.o.d.y Moon?" asked Roland.

"You bugs always see the surface." The Senior Demon did not give him a definite answer.

"Is the red sphere made of magic power?" Agatha interjected. "But that wouldn't make sense. I've seen the Red Moon with my own eyes. No matter what it is, it's way too far away from us. You said the final winner would open the door to the Fountain of Magic. It's impossible unless you can build a ladder to the heavens."

Kabradhabi snorted and turned its head away without explaining anything.

"Where's the Sky-sea Realm?"

The demon refused to respond.

"Did you destroy the underground civilization?"

The demon still remained silent.

"Is your new technology part of the inheritance of the underground civilization? I mean the deformed creature that is capable of growing out black pillars?"

"Save it, bug." Kabradhabi finally opened its mouth to speak. "I've already told you all that I can say. As for the things that I can't say, you'll never force me to tell you, even if you send this female to—" The demon paused for a while and glanced at Zooey. "I won't give you any more information! If you want to kill me, you'd better hurry up. Otherwise, you'll be eliminated by Emperor Hect Zod. And I, Kabradhabi, will be reborn in the Fountain of Magic!"

Now that the interrogation had hit a bottleneck, Roland decided to stop questioning the Senior Demon and leave it to the Taquila witches. He believed that they would be able to get it to talk someday, for its soul had already been transferred into a disabled G.o.d's Punishment Warrior.

With this thought in mind, Roland said with his hands laid out, "You don't want to talk about sensitive things, so how about we change the subject. You said that your last defeat was just a trivial setback for your army, so how powerful are you? What about the army of the Sky-sea Realm? Are they stronger than you? And you mentioned the Sky Lord just now. I want to know how powerful the lord is. Is he a match for a Transcendent? These things aren't confidential, are they?"

Given the demon's character, Roland was confident that it would never miss such a perfect opportunity to boast of their strength.

"Oh, bug..." As Roland had expected, Kabradabi said loudly. "I can tell you. Our power is far beyond your imagination! Do you know why we call you bugs? It's because the difference between an advanced race and a backward species is like that between birds and bugs. It's determined by the nature of magic power. At the other end of this continent, on the border of our territory and the Sky-sea Realm, our soldiers are countless. When we march together, the mountains tremble. Our enemies from the Sky-sea Realm are as strong as us. Otherwise, how could you have survived until now?"

Kabradhabi paused for a moment and then continued. "As for the Transcendents, if you're referring to the most powerful females, they could have been counted as the Sky Lord's rivals in the past, but now, the lord has enhanced its strength and become a prudent and smart commander. If it had led the army in the last battle to fight you, it would have been able to drain the blood from all of you by itself! Bug, when you hear that the Sky Lord is coming, you'd better kneel down and beg for mercy. This way, you can die faster and suffer less!"

Roland automatically dismissed the demons' exaggeration and captured several implicit clues in its words. For the demon army, logistics is always a major obstacle to their movement. Without Red Mist, they can't go anywhere. Therefore, such a large demon army must fight close to their black stone tablets.

Surprisingly, the army from the Sky-sea Realm can combat the demons in the Red Mist and drag the demon army's main forces into a quagmire of war. That means,they aren't just "as strong as" the demons. The Senior Demon apparently doesn't want to talk too much about this matter, which suggests about its att.i.tude toward the Sky Lord and its army.

In addition, it never called the enemies from the Sky-sea Realm bugs or worms, which means that the sea monsters have already "upgraded" themselves. Here's a glaring contradiction. The Senior Demon claims that they are also an advanced race, but up until now, we've only known of one race in the Battle of Divine Will getting eliminated. Wait a moment, Kabradhabi never said that demons wiped out the underground civilization. It just said that each species had to go to the Sky-sea Realm to get a shard. Something is missing here.

When the Senior Demon was still crowing about how mighty its race was, Roland interrupted it.

"In fact, you don't know true power."

"You—" Kabradhabi pulled a long face. "Bug, what do you know?"

"A real, strong power, won't bring darkness to the world. Instead, it'll dispel the myth, be willing to burn itself to illuminate and warm the world... just like the sun."

"What... exactly are you talking about?"

"It's simple." Roland cleared his throat. "You guys are so powerful, so why don't you light the fire?"

The demon seemed at a loss when Roland stood up and left with the witches. He walked toward the gate leading out of the hall, back straight, without looking back.