The maid squad is too strong, what use is there for me, the Demon King?

"Um……"

The situation was slightly unexpected for Gray.

Gray could deduce that the valley entrance had been occupied by cultists, and the surrounding area was probably also cult-controlled. Compared to the servants and orcs, the first to arrive at the valley entrance to check the situation would definitely be the cultists, and their numbers would be considerable.

But if the battle wasn't entirely in the hands of the cultists, then surely we should have seen at least a few orc sentinels and Shadow Court servants?

As Gray ventured deeper into the valley, he overcame numerous obstacles along the way.

They encountered only the scorching sun and gray-robed cultists who rushed over upon hearing the commotion, and the scorching soul scorpions from underground.

There was nothing Gray could do but kill as many as came.

So far, the cultists we've encountered so far, apart from the large group that destroyed the cultists guarding the valley entrance, have all been small groups of just a few people each. They are probably acting like scouts in the military, gathering intelligence to a certain extent.

Dealing with these cult members is neither difficult... nor very useful...

They're all just ordinary cultists of the first or second rank. How about some higher-ranking professionals? Even a fourth-rank priest would be fine.

Eliminating a small number of "super-super-super" low-level cultists will have no impact on the overall battle situation.

During this time, Gray also discovered two problems.

One question is about cultists, and another is about Shadow Mountains.

First and foremost, there are cult members.

Judging from the cultists' attire and the information passed down from Shad Munting some time ago, it can be confirmed that the cultists are from the Flame and Destruction faction of the Demonic Order, one of the four minor factions.

The cultists don't have any particularly special abilities. Compared to other cultists, they can only control fire, specifically a rather unique kind of fire.

As for what was so special about the flames, Gray only noticed their camp after he had cleared out the cultists guarding the valley entrance.

Following the chaotic traces and the lingering, strange stench of sweat and burnt flesh in the air, Gray stepped into the makeshift camp of the Blazing Sun Grey Cult's Flame and Burning faction, located on a shady rock face outside the valley entrance. This place, which should have been their haven for a brief rest and replenishment of "faith," was now deathly silent, like a tomb.

The campsite itself was almost primitive: several huge black rocks provided natural, twisted shelter, the ground was compacted sand, and there were several bundles of fuel roughly bound together with drought-resistant thorns (mainly dried sea buckthorn and some kind of pungent desert shrub), some badly worn leather water bags (mostly shriveled), and scattered strips of cloth wrapped with symbols of the scorching sun.

There were no tents or beds, only some dents and circles of ash on the ground, indicating that someone had knelt or curled up here for a long time.

After all, it's just a temporary camp, so it can't be built to be too luxurious. Even for a long-term camp, the scarcity of resources in the desert wouldn't allow for a luxurious one.

There's not much to say about the camp's environment; the important thing is something else.

That's a phenomenon that deviates somewhat from the norm.

There were no campfires or torches in the camp; instead, several rocks were burning quietly, serving as lighting.

Scattered throughout the camp, they varied in size and shape, but without exception, they were fragments of collapsed black rock from the nearby mountains. The stones themselves were deep black, yet at this moment they displayed an eerie, inner radiance.

There were no flickering flames, no smoke, and no crackling sound of burning wood. The "flame" seemed to be seeping from within the stone.

The surface of the rock, especially its edges and fractures, is covered with a layer of flowing, translucent molten gold light, like liquid metal melted by extreme heat but imprisoned within the outline of the stone by an invisible force.

The light emanated steadily, its brightness somewhere between dusk and dawn, casting an unnatural, metallic pale glow on the surrounding ground and rock walls.

The light carried an intensely dry heat. When you got close, you could clearly feel a silent wave of scorching heat hitting you, the air was heated to the point of distortion, and your skin instantly felt tight and dry, as if moisture was being forcibly drawn out.

It is not warm, but carries a burning will, echoing the brilliance of the blazing sun overhead, yet it is more restrained and more oppressive.

Generally speaking, ordinary stones are not easy to burn unless they contain a lot of flammable materials.

Gray initially thought the stone was black and assumed that the Shadow Mountains had a high carbon content, making it a large coal mining mountain range. He figured that handing it over to Aiota as an industrial resource would be incredibly profitable.

If the ingredients are not pure enough, they can be purified. Using the wisdom of our ancestors from the previous world, we can make honeycomb briquettes to ensure complete combustion and avoid problems such as "carbon monoxide combining with hemoglobin to form carboxyhemoglobin, causing hemoglobin to lose its oxygen-carrying capacity, leading to hypoxia in the whole body tissues, which can be fatal in severe cases."

However, when Gray excitedly took down a black stone and tried to burn it with low-level fire magic, he found that the stone simply wouldn't ignite.

Gray was immediately annoyed.

"Is there some kind of 'Boruto' mixed in with this stone of mine? Why can't I get it to ignite at all?"

Perhaps because this stone didn't have enough carbon content, Gray thought he'd try a different one.

No matter how many times I tried, no matter how many stones I used, even when I personally chopped off a piece of rock to try and burn it, and even when I used fire magic directly on the rock, the stone just wouldn't ignite.

Gray confirmed it as well.

This broken stone is not flammable, so why was it able to replace campfires and torches and burn fiercely in the cult's camp?

All Gray could think of was the unique properties of fire.

The seven factions of the Demonic Order each possess certain special abilities.

"Gate of Greed," "Mouth of Thurt," "Shadow Magic," "Killing Bloodlust, the lower the health, the higher the damage," the Lust and Pleasure faction...

Hmm... it seems like they were wiped out too quickly. I didn't discover any special abilities?

Does the mental pollution caused by the projection of the demon of lust and pleasure, Rast, count?

It's highly likely to be related to mental health.

The special ability of this Flame and Destruction faction is fire, and it is easy to guess that it is not ordinary fire, otherwise it would be too low-level. It cannot be no different from ordinary fire magic, right?

Therefore, we can tentatively speculate that the special ability of this faction of cultists is "a flame that can burn any substance".

As for further details, we'll have to wait and see if the flames can only burn matter, depending on the high-level cultists we encounter later.

Or is it that even the soul, and some more conceptual things, can be burned?