A Demon's Journey

Azaroth and Sophie continued to stay together for the next few days. They continued to have their little dates in the bars of the inn or taverns. However, this time, Sophie didn't drink alcohol too much.

She didn't want a repeat of the earlier situation in which her desires overpowered her rational mind.

And as a young woman, she was quite shy and didn't want to take the initiative regarding sex.

If Azaroth did take the initiative and express that he wanted to do something, she wouldn't be able to reject him.

However, Azaroth's mind wasn't focused on sex. He was more dedicated to digesting the deathly energy within his body.

It was nearly done…

However, there was something that confused Azaroth. The amount of energy he had processed was enough for him to advance to the Demon Lord level twice. So just why hadn't his energy to the 5 Star Rank?

This did worry him a bit. This was the first time he had encountered such a situation.

He was sure that this wasn't some sort of bottleneck created because of a lack of understanding of the energy but something else entirely. He was looking at the situation from the wrong angle.

'Just what it is that I am missing? I need to figure out it quickly or else I will remain stuck at this 4 Star Rank.'

Many of his important skills could only be used at the Demon Lord Rank so he was longing to reach that stage.

'I have already used the humanely and the Demon's methods of breaking the bottleneck but it doesn't seem to work. The way to rise in the ranks of the Humanely Ardor is to train the body and absorb the surrounding energy.'

'For the Demonic Ardor, it is to train the body and absorb the surrounding energy. However, if the user can absorb the death energy, then the person would need much less energy and would be a lot faster while advancing to the next rank.'

'The basic condition of the Celestial Ardor must be the same as that of the Demonic Ardor. If this goes on, then it would take me nearly 3 times of that death energy to finally raise my rank to the 5 Star Rank.'

'If my theory is correct then using the method of Celestials should shorten the time and lower the energy required but if not...'

Azaroth had no other choice than to go along with it since he could no longer change what had happened…

These days, Azaroth was preparing a plan to use the method of Celestials and harvest a lot of energy.

After all, this method of Celestials was much trickier in application than the Demons.

What he had to do was harvest a lot of faith energy from living beings.

Unlike the death energy that could be easily harvested after killing someone, Azaroth would have to form a sort of religion and people would have to offer a sacrifice on his totem or alter. Depending on the value or energy held within that sacrifice, it would then be converted into faith energy and add to the recipient's Ardor.

Naturally, how he should make such a religion was quite tricky for Azaroth. He was wondering whether to create this new religion in the form of a demon, a celestial, or a wandering sage?

This identity would be crucial for his life ahead so he had to plan it properly.

'First, I might need to train more with the Celestial Ardor. I am still not proficient enough in it to even defeat a lower-ranked Angel.'

Soon, the time came when both Sophie and Azaroth had to split apart.

Azaroth was out to leave the carriage when Sophie suddenly hugged him. She whispered with a low voice, "Meet me soon."

"Yeah, sure," Azaroth muttered before leaving the carriage.

He took the reigns of the horse and then rode off in the Wrihull City's direction.

The carriage driver and Azaroth seemed to have left at the same time.

One moved in the northwest while the other in the west direction.

The route ahead was supposed to be clear of monsters or any forest so it was rather safe.

~~

A few days earlier in Tronte's house, Wrihull City.

Tronte received a slip from a white pigeon. He held that slip in his hands while drinking his water.

As he read the contents in the slip, he spat out the water in shock.

"What the?! Edwin and Sophie are booking just a single room when they stay in an inn?! Since when did they get so close?!" There was indeed a hint of jealousy in Tronte's tone as he couldn't believe that his best friend had stolen the heart of their school beauty.

"Damn. I need to know just what happened at that Kloras Town." Tronte was quite curious just how things had reached such a point.

Suddenly, another thought entered Tronte's head and a serious look appeared in his eyes 'That woman better not be thinking of making Edwin a shield. If so…'

Tronte's eyes flashed with killing intent as he wasn't going to have any mercy on her.

Tronte flipped the slip and wrote some instructions before tying it to the white pigeon's leg and held it up in his hands. Soon, the pigeon knew it was time to return and began flapping its wings to fly away.

A few days earlier he received the message that Lennox Rees had no idea about Azaroth's identity. Though the man had met up with the King of the Glerian Kingdom, there had been no mention of Azaroth's name.

Tronte was happy as he heard this news. It was because it meant that whatever disguise Azaroth had put up while meeting that man was effective.

~~

Meanwhile, a day had passed since Azaroth and Sophie split up. He was on his way back to the Wrihull City and Sophie was on her way back to Mesenana City, the capital.

Azaroth had built a camp on his way as he and his horse took some rest there. The horse ate the grass in the area while Azaroth placed his back against a tree for a short nap.

When he woke up, his eyes made contact with a rather astonishing individual.

The one who stared right into his eyes was none other than Edwin Rhodes's Father, Jonas Rhodes.

Unlike Edwin's blue locks, the man ahead of him had blonde hair with some stripes in purple color. According to Azaroth's analysis, that purple color was not the original hair color of this man but those purple color seemed to be because of the side effect of a specific technique.

As for the face, the man was exceptionally handsome and Azaroth could understand why Edwin looked rather handsome from the start. He was truly endowed with impressive genes.

And now that Azaroth had also removed all the impurities from his body, his own charm had increased significantly. Such that even Jonas Rhodes was internally surprised as he saw Azaroth's fair skin and appearance.

At a glance, the garments worn by Jonas Rhodes appeared to be absolutely simple with no relation to Ardor.

However, Azaroth vaguely guessed the true reason for his lack of any spiritual clothing.

Jonas Rhodes was a 6 Star Warrior and his pure power could be compared to a Demon King from the Demon Realm. He could ignore most attacks launched by someone below 6 Star Rank.

And if Jonas wanted to use his clothes to assist him in a fight against an equally proficient opponent then their price would be far too great even for the Rhodes Noble Family.

Most importantly though, Azaroth guessed that this man didn't want to grow dependent on external power like clothing or weapon. Personal growth was the best way to go…

While Azaroth was observing Jonas Rhodes, the same was true conversely.

Jonas Rhodes was gauging Azaroth and noted that his son had changed quite significantly.

He guessed that the change must have occurred because of the death of those servants left behind by his mother.

"You have become a changed man. It seems that the cruel experience is finally teaching you stuff you should have known long ago." Jonas Rhodes spoke with a completely emotionless voice.

"Yes, father." Azaroth turned his head as if he didn't want to meet Jonas Rhodes's eyes.

Hearing Azaroth's words, Jonas didn't relax at all. Instead, his gaze grew colder as he asked, "Why did you not inform the family that you were going out? Moreover, you actually went to Kloras Town to provide them aid in their beast raid?!"

Azaroth looked somewhat startled as he heard Jonas's words. Just why was this man angry over this matter? The Rhodes Family should have nothing to do with this matter, right?

"I didn't think it would be such a big deal." Azaroth sharply replied to Jonas.

The tone and the words made Jonas raise his right brow in return. It was rare for his son to talk to him in such a tone.

"So, you have also learned to talk back," Jonas spoke with the same cold voice as before.

Azaroth clenched his fists but he still lowered his head and stayed silent.

Jonas noted that reaction but chose not to comment on it. Instead, he added, "Six months ago, I investigated it earlier and knew that this place had some relation with the demons. I sent my contacts to the Alpine Gerbil Woods and all of them mysteriously died."

"It was at that time I got the idea of luring this demon out and also strike the foundation of our rivals." As Jonas revealed this information, Azaroth connected the dots.

He now understood why there were so many heirs of the Noble Families present to provide aid. It was because Jonas was specifically providing the information of the beast raid to the Noble Families.

Moreover, he seemed to have deliberately played down the threat of this beast raid. The fact that the Noble Families had trusted that information meant that they must have received it from their own intelligence networks.

Azaroth was somewhat impressed since this meant that Jonas seemed to know quite a few secrets of the other Noble Families. No wonder the Rhodes Family was progressing steadily under this man's leadership.

"The beast raid was much stronger than expected. Sophie and I barely escaped with our lives intact." Azaroth informed Jonas of this information calmly.

"Sophie? Who is this woman?" Jonas looked puzzled at hearing this name from his son.

"Sophie Russel, the daughter of Spencer Russel," Azaroth replied to Jonas.

Jonas's eyes narrowed at those words as he whispered softly, "Even Spencer's daughter was entangled, huh? It's a pity she survived."

Azaroth wasn't surprised to hear this from Jonas's mouth. Jonas and Spencer could be considered to have a fierce rivalry.

The two were from the same generation and had risen up with nearly the same speed. However, Spencer had grown up without any resources of a Noble Family and even then, he had eventually exceeded Jonas in terms of strength and cultivation.

Currently, if Jonas could be considered a high-level Demon King in the Demon Realm then Spencer was at the peak of the Demon King.

The King of the Sinyalian Kingdom also favored Spencer more than Jonas.

"You mentioned that only you and that woman barely survived. When did you split up?" Jonas asked Azaroth with a curious gaze.

Azaroth knew why Jonas was asking such a question. As long as Sophie wasn't too far away, he was going to go ahead to capture her or maybe kill her. It was most definitely to mess up with the emotional state of Spencer Russel so that his breakthrough to the 7 Star Rank would be delayed.

His relationship with Sophie was necessary for a few of his future plans so he couldn't have her die just yet.

With a straightforward gaze, Azaroth replied, "6 days ago, we both traveled together for two days until we reached the village named Gremur. After that, we split up as she bought a carriage and began her movements towards the capital meanwhile, I bought a horse and began my return journey as well."

Jonas appeared to be indifferent to Azaroth's explanation. According to his own calculations, if that woman didn't encounter any bandits or other reasons then she should be quite near to the capital.

It was rather risky to show his appearance there and deal with this woman.

At most, he could contact his men in the capital and order them to deal with her if they could.

"What of the status of the beast raid?" Jonas asked casually.

"There were more than thousands of beasts above the 2 Star Rank who fought against us in this beast raid. Moreover, there were also two 5 Star Rank Beasts. One of them was killed by Sophie's guard while the other was still alive before I ran away. I don't know what has happened after that." Azaroth chose his words very carefully as he gave the beast raid's status.

"You managed to survive a beast raid led by two 5 Star Beasts? Impressive." Jonas casually praised his son but Azaroth's expression hardly changed.

"I can't take credit for that father. Many warriors sacrificed their lives that allowed me to escape in one piece. Otherwise, I am afraid I would be nothing more than a rotting corpse right now." This was not what Azaroth was actually thinking. However, Azaroth was sure that this was an answer that Edwin would have given in response to that question.

Although Jonas appeared to be asking that question quite casually, his senses and intelligence could not be underestimated. If this man had even a slight suspicion that Edwin's soul had already been swallowed by someone else, he wouldn't hesitate to pull out Azaroth's soul and torture it for information.

If it was a battle of spirit in his own mindscape, Azaroth was more than happy to fight against Jonas. However, if it was outside of his body, then he wasn't so sure of his victory.

Jonas seemed to have expected such an answer from Azaroth and spoke seriously, "What matters to me is that you survived. You should think that it's their honor to sacrifice their lives for you since you are my son."

'What a narcissistic and self-centered man he is.' These were Azaroth's thoughts about Jonas Rhodes.

"Yes, father." Still, Azaroth replied with a rather submissive look.

"Let's return to the mansion now," Jonas spoke as he grabbed hold of Azaroth's arm.

The two began to fly in the sky. Azaroth looked down at the horse that had been left behind and sighed.

Suddenly though, Jonas's complexion turned slightly ugly as he turned towards Azaroth and asked him coldly, "How are you a 4 Star Warrior already?"

This question was so sudden that Azaroth was rather astonished and the rate of his heartbeat increased exponentially.

'Have I been found out?!