The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 290 Returning Home

Back in the demon village on the other side, the Demon King followed Eric to his residence, allowed Eric's soul to return to his body, and then left without saying when he would return.

"Eric..."

After the Demon King left, Natalia immediately looked at the resurrected Eric and asked, "Are you alright?"

Eric stood up, trying to readjust to the slightly heavy feeling of returning to his body, like going from the moon back to Earth.

He quickly told Natalia, "I'm fine, I feel great."

He briefly told her about his outing with the Demon King, and then remembered the enhancements he had received. He opened his attribute panel and saw that both of his job classes had indeed broken through to the eighth rank, and his experience had reached the limit, so he needed to manually change jobs.

"Didn't the Demon King want to reclaim his power? Why is it all being enhanced on you?" Natalia asked.

“I think he has actually regained a considerable portion of his original power. The power in the underground laboratory is what he couldn’t absorb before. What I’m absorbing now is only a tiny fraction of it, but it will give him more security for his current life,” Eric said.

Natalia looked at him for a while. "I'm worried this might be a trap. For example, the power you gained today could be taken back by the Demon King at any time. If we turn against each other, he might use this method against you at a crucial moment."

Eric remained silent for most of the minute. “But the reality is that the Demon King could probably deal with us with just a thought, without having to go through all this trouble.”

Natalia was taken aback. "Really?"

“Don’t think that the methods he showed today are something that just any mage or someone who claims to study souls could do.” Eric shook his head. “Making the soul act independently of the body, returning the same way it came out, is something that has never been heard of before.”

In other words, given the Demon King's expertise in soul research, if used for an attack, Eric might not even know how he died. For this reason, he ruled out the possibility that the Demon King was targeting him from the very beginning.

Natalia Nene.

"In short, if the Demon King wants to deal with us, there's basically no room for resistance. I'm just worried that he might use this to blackmail me into staying," Eric concluded.

Even if the Demon King wants to do evil, it's to use him, not to kill him. And as long as he's alive, there's a way to solve any predicament.

Natalia sighed deeply, "When will we finally be able to return to the lands of the Empire?"

Eric understood that her unease stemmed more from her powerlessness over the current situation.

Her personal abilities were completely useless in the depths of this demonic realm, especially now that she had encountered the old demon king, who didn't take her seriously at all and was completely unable to communicate with her.

“Let’s wait a few more days.” Eric patted her back. “Next time I see the Demon King, I’ll make him give us a specific time first.”

Natalia nodded; there was no other way.

After waiting for two or three days, the Demon King still did not show his face.

Since they couldn't leave for the time being—the Demon King hadn't explicitly stated it, but attempting to do so would only jeopardize their current dignity—and since the Demon King had promised to send them back to human lands more quickly, Eric and Natalia chose to continue deeper into the Demon Realm, observing their surroundings.

The appearance of the old demon king brought another change to them: they became much freer in the demon realm.

They no longer had to worry about encountering demons. Within the village, all the demons treated them with utmost respect, as if they were seeing a demon king—this respect was mainly directed at Eric.

Outside, apart from the camp on the other side, they can now move freely in the wild.

Because of the subtle connection between the Demon King and Eric, neither of them was worried that he wouldn't be able to find them.

On their first day away from the village at the foot of the snow mountain, the two rode snow sheep and traveled several dozen miles north.

That night, they rested in a demon village.

Eric and Natalia were initially cautious, but when the demons on the outskirts of the village spotted them from afar and bowed to them, the two decided to stay there.

"This is already deep within the Demon Realm. These Demon Realms should all be loyal to another Demon King. How did the old Demon King manage to make them submit?"

"Of course it's violence. Demons only believe in this. Otherwise, why would we talk to them about lineage or that I'm their ancestor?"

Eric recalled the dream he had the night he first encountered the Demon King. If it wasn't a dream, then it was the process of the old Demon King's reconquest.

“This is a demon realm within a demon realm. The new demon king has gathered all the demon tribes together to prevent humans from discovering them in advance, but at the same time, he has concentrated the demons’ strength. For the old demon king, this has also saved him a lot of effort,” Eric said.

Natalia expressed some regret that the conquest seemed too smooth, and she could not see any signs of internal division within the demon race.

“Conflict is inevitable,” Eric said. “Perhaps because we’ve just reached the edge of the region, the villages we’ve encountered aren’t very concentrated, making it easier for the old demon king to conquer them.”

“Then we’ll have to be careful.” Natalia looked around the demon house where they would be staying that night. It was given to them by a demon family, and there were traces of their original life everywhere in the house. “So that we don’t accidentally wander into the territory of the new demon king.”

Eric shook his head. "We probably won't go that far."

After resting there for one night, the two discovered a dozen wooden pillars on the other side of the village the next day when they left, each with a charred demon corpse hanging from it.

The conquest did leave its mark, but they didn't notice it last night.

Looking at the charred corpses of the demons, Eric became even more convinced that the dream he had seen earlier was the real process of the old demon king's conquest.

The two continued heading north.

As they ventured deeper, the demon tribes on the snowfield became more concentrated and larger in scale.

"Now I understand why so few of the scouts we sent out back when we were still at the Black Ice Great Wall came back alive."

Natalia gazed at the demon tribe not far away. "There's absolutely nowhere for humans to hide here, not to mention the risks of the journey from there to here."

Eric nodded silently.

Because of the language barrier, these places that had been conquered by the old demon king could not provide them with any summary information; they could only observe for themselves.

The most easily observable objects are the charred corpses hanging in the air; the larger the demon tribe, the more rebels there will be.

They were hung in the most conspicuous places on the outskirts of the tribe, or simply piled up to form mountains of corpses. These charred corpses seemed to have become a kind of flag representing a stance, indicating the true ownership of this place.

After noticing this, Eric and Natalia became more cautious as they continued north, and found that all the demon tribes they encountered were indeed like this, which meant that they were still in the area that the old demon king had conquered.

At each demon tribe they visited, they were recognized and treated with hospitality. These demon civilians, who had submitted to the old demon king, seemed to have received his orders in some way. Eric naturally thought of the soul-level connection.

The so-called mind control, which I used to laugh about in my past life, has become a reality here.

He also found it hard not to think about his own situation.

If it weren't for the fact that half of his soul came from his previous life, and that the Demon King had never seen or understood him, he would have already been completely obedient to the Demon King when he was awakened.

Eric then thought that if the game in his previous life had followed a similar trajectory, the old Demon King would inevitably replace the current Demon King and become the new big boss in the main storyline.

The new Demon King conquered the continent with his iron hooves, while the old Demon King's way of wreaking havoc on the continent again should be through his ability to control souls, which also fits the version where soul scholars are in power...

But while games have plot-driven deaths, the real world doesn't follow logic. In the game, the old demon king will inevitably be defeated in some way, but in reality, the simplest way to defeat him is for him to exchange his life for the demon king's.

But Eric doesn't want to die yet, so what they might face in the future is a demon army completely controlled by the old demon king with his soul power.

“…Eric!”

Eric snapped out of his reverie and looked at Natalia, who gestured for him to look ahead.

They were climbing over a snow slope, while on the other side, a fierce battle was raging.

Hundreds of demons were fighting each other, their shouts deafening, blood flowing everywhere. Next to them was a demon tribe, and it seemed they had arrived at the front line of the old demon king's reconquest of the demon realm.

The demons' fighting style is quite primitive; there are no elaborate magical effects or dazzling displays of light and shadow, only the most direct and bloody close-quarters combat.

The two stood on the snow slope and watched for a while.

“I can’t even tell which side is the old Demon King’s people and which side is the new Demon King’s people,” Natalia said.

“I can’t tell either.” Eric looked down at the crowd. “Maybe before this, the difference between them was even smaller than the difference between the residents of Lutia’s North District and East District.”

Natalia looked at him, then down at the ground. "Shouldn't we call it a day?"

“Hmm.” Eric raised his gaze and looked further north. “It’s dangerous any further ahead.”

The two didn't leave either, but stayed there watching the demons below fight amongst themselves, until finally one group wiped out the other and charged into the other tribe.

The bodies of the murdered were piled up like mountains outside the tribe. It was the first time Eric and Natalia had ever witnessed the process of a mountain of corpses being built up.

"Hmm?" Eric suddenly made a sound. Natalia looked at him and then followed his gaze down. A demon seemed to have seen them and was walking towards them along the long snow slope.

The two looked at each other and waited for the other to come up.

Upon approaching the two, the demon warrior, whose face and body were smeared with blood, knelt and bowed respectfully to them.

On the pristine white snow, a pair of bloodstained handprints were left.

The demon warrior spoke in a language the two could not understand, but he quickly realized this and changed his way of communicating.

It pointed north, making a fierce and bloodthirsty gesture, then pointed south and knelt down again.

It got up again, pointed at Eric and Natalia, and kept pointing south.

“It’s reminding us that we should go back,” Eric said to Natalia. The body language of the demon warriors was quite easy to understand. “I just don’t know if it’s because of the danger ahead, or if it’s the Demon King’s doing.”

"m...mo...devil...w...king..."

Both were startled when they heard the demon warrior suddenly speak in broken ancient language.

Eric and Natalia communicate with each other in a common language, which it obviously doesn't understand and therefore won't react to the keywords. That leaves only one possibility.

—The old demon king can directly transmit some kind of information to it, or a voice, or even a kind of will.

After uttering the words "Demon King," the demon warrior knelt down again, bowed, and then turned and ran down the snow slope, leaving Eric and Natalia looking at each other in bewilderment.

Once the demon warrior reached the bottom of the snow slope, Eric said, "Let's turn back."

Natalia responded.

The two returned along the same route they had come from. They had spent about seven or eight days venturing deep into the Demon Realm, and the return trip would take neither much longer nor much shorter.

Five or six days later, the two were able to see the snow-capped mountain they had crossed earlier.

That night, while resting, Eric said, "Hopefully, when we get back, the Demon King will allow us to return to the mainland."

“The Demon King said he would let us return in a faster way.” Natalia looked at him. “Could it be through the Demon King’s tomb, then teleporting back to Casterfel?”

"Two-way teleportation?" Eric thought for a moment. "I think that cemetery is at most the destination for teleportation. After all, it's the Demon King's tomb. What's the point of two-way teleportation? Is the Demon King's corpse flying around?"

Natalia couldn't help but smile, but the smile quickly faded. "Besides that, the only thing I can think of is that the Demon King sent a demon cavalry to escort us back."

Eric recalled his experience of traveling with the Demon King's soul half a month ago.

He absolutely could not accept returning to the mainland in that way.

"We'll find out when we get back... At worst, we can just walk back ourselves."

After another day's journey, they returned to the demon village at the foot of the snow mountain. The Demon King did not appear, and because of the language barrier, Eric and Natalia could not find out where the Demon King was.

The next morning, the Demon King came to find them and offered to take them back.

"How does Your Majesty intend for us to return?" Eric asked. "Through your tomb for teleportation?"

The Demon King looked at him: "Why can my graveyard be teleported?"

Eric didn't look at Natalia, but he could feel her staring at him. "Perhaps the sarcophagus where you sleep also possesses the same power as that meteorite."

"That kind of teleportation is one-way and can't send you back." The Demon King's words were similar to Eric's own guess, so he didn't elaborate.

“But you guessed right.” The Demon King changed the subject. “I do intend to send you back via teleportation.”

Eric paused, then grabbed Natalia and emphasized, "It's us."

He quickly asked again, "Are there any other ways to teleport?"

“That’s right.” The Demon King nodded. “It took me quite a while to find it again; it’s a portal from you humans.”

"Portal..."

Eric's mind went blank for a moment, and a name he had almost forgotten slipped out: "Raphael's Gate of Redemption!"

The Demon King looked at him. "So you know what that is."

Natalia looked at him too, having only a very vague impression of this name that only appeared in the holy scriptures.

“I never expected it to be in the Demon Realm…” Eric murmured. “No wonder the Church never found the final door to salvation; it was here all along. How did His Majesty obtain it?”

“It was given to me by someone more than seven hundred years ago,” the Demon King said. “It was because I obtained that so-called Gate of Redemption that I realized that extraterrestrial meteorites of the same material could be used for teleportation, as I have already told you before.”

It turns out that the Gate of Redemption was also made from extraterrestrial meteorites...

Meteorites are rare and hard to come by, which is why no other teleportation items have appeared on the continent for so many years.

If the story in the Holy Scripture is true, the Gate of Redemption could teleport him and Natalia directly to the Holy City of Lessier!
Eric was excited, but he quickly realized a problem: "Has His Majesty used that portal? Can it still be used?"

“I’ve never used it,” the Demon King said. “Because the person who gave me that portal told me it could only be used once more, so I just kept it to study it.”

Eric and Natalia looked at each other, both somewhat worried.

If the phrase "can only be used once" refers to one person's trip, then they would rather the two of them travel back to the mainland together.

"It seems you know where that portal will take you," the Demon King said.

"Your Majesty, the holy capital of mankind."

Eric replied, “I happened to have lived there for a few years. You’re right, even if we’ve wasted so many days here, the Gate of Redemption can still get us back there much faster.”

"That church that claims to serve Yela?" The Demon King seemed to recall something. "So, even after all this time, they still haven't disappeared."

"Not only did it not perish, but it also developed into the largest sect on the continent, Your Majesty," Eric said.

The Demon King's interest in the Church of Yela ended there, and he then ordered Eric to follow him to the location of the Gate of Redemption.

Eric and Natalia were both excited and apprehensive, worried that the very possibility they had just anticipated might occur.

The Demon King said the Gate of Redemption was nearby, and since they didn't have much to bring or pack, they mounted their snow sheep and set off with the Demon King.

As they left the village, the two discovered that it seemed all the demon villagers had come out and knelt by the roadside to see them off.

Eric couldn't help but think of one possibility: "His Majesty probably won't leave through the portal with us, will he?"

The Demon King answered quickly, "No."

Eric nodded, and the Demon King continued, "We will meet again sooner or later, Eric."

Eric paused for a moment, then said, "The next time we meet, His Majesty and I will probably be enemies."

The Demon King shrugged it off and smiled, saying, "Before I set foot on human land again, clear away the obstacles brought by Latrell for me."

(End of this chapter)