The Seventh Year the Demon King Captured the Holy Monarch

“That was a war that had nothing to do with the inhabitants of Gasuo, at least in the beginning.”

The story began with a lord’s rebellion.

Perhaps it wasn’t a lord, but a minister, or a general, but that didn’t matter.

The furious monarch immediately sent troops to exterminate the rebels, but the war dragged on, and the front line kept shifting. Although the rebels couldn’t gain much advantage in front of the kingdom’s army, they were surprisingly resilient, causing the king to lose face.

Finally, the rebel army fought and retreated, arriving at the peaceful land of Gasuo.

This was already the extreme north of the kingdom, where snow-capped mountains and ice lakes stretched across. If one went further north, they would leave the territory of the human kingdom.

Once the rebels left the country, there would be endless troubles.

So the monarch crazily sent troops, even personally leading the charge. The flames of war scorched the land of Gasuo, countless mages were sent here, spells fell one after another, turning into rolling smoke.

The people of Gasuo couldn’t defy the monarch, they could only watch their hometown turn into ruins, and their relatives and neighbors innocently lose their lives. All they could do was wash their faces with tears day and night, praying for this undeserved disaster to pass quickly.

But the war situation continued to escalate like a runaway horse, each day was more intense than the previous one.

Some scholars began to worry. They had to remind the monarch that releasing powerful spells without restraint could possibly destroy the surface, and the consequences were unknown.

But the monarch had already seen red. He not only ignored the advice, but also demanded the most powerful mages at the time to release forbidden-level spells, making those rebel thieves have no place to bury their bodies.

“At that time, the most powerful mages…”

The voice echoed in the dark prison, the old woman hoarsely said, “They were the Son of God and the elders of the Temple of Light.”

Across from her, the blond boy listened in a daze, his hands clutching the extinguished lantern.

“The forbidden spell was released, and it indeed brought about hellish disaster. I didn’t witness it myself, but my grandfather said that he would never forget the sight of that day.”

“The earth cracked open, creating a huge crevice tens of meters wide, like the gaping mouth of a demon; red flames spewed from the depths, carrying the toxic miasma with the hot air current, rushing out of the ground, and quickly spreading in the air.”

“Even though it was daytime, the surroundings suddenly darkened. People cried out for help and ran wildly, but they didn’t know where to run.”

“This was undoubtedly a man-made disaster… But, Son of God, can you imagine? Up to this point, it was only the beginning of the tragedy.”

The monarch who caused the disaster panicked.

The clergy of the temple also panicked.

Seeing the miasma surging like black clouds in all directions. If nothing was done, the entire country would fall into the corrosion of the miasma.

In a hurry, they could only grit their teeth and set up a huge seal.

They sealed the miasma, the underground fire, along with this polluted land, and the people on this land, even the soldiers who were fighting for the monarch on the front line…all together.

“——This is impossible.” Langmuir suddenly interrupted coldly.

His eyes were sharp, and only his trembling fingertips revealed his shaken heart.

“I do indeed doubt the truth of the abyss, but…if this is your story, I can’t believe it.”

Langmuir gritted his teeth. “If such inhumane things had happened, how could there be no records left!?”

“Such a vast land! Countless people! Being trapped in the seal by the higher-ups? Under the broad daylight, how could——”

The young Son of God suddenly choked.

Suddenly, as if he understood something, endless fear emerged from his wide-open eyes.

The old woman sighed. “You have realized it. Son of God, you are indeed a smart child.”

“Under the broad daylight, where the grace of God shines, people certainly cannot tolerate such ugliness.”

The old woman’s voice suddenly became gloomy. “——So, they have to fall into a hell without light.”

“No, it can’t be…”

Langmuir breathed rapidly. He suddenly felt cold all over, couldn’t help but tighten his robe, but still started to tremble slightly.

The young man’s Adam’s apple moved, and he shook his head hard and said, “Since the monarch brought many mages, there must be…mages who have mastered the spell to purify the miasma…they could have tried to make up for it…”

Yes, they could have made up for it.

The miasma was indeed terrifying, but it didn’t kill immediately, but tortured slowly.

Those who were locked in, from shouting and cursing, to crying out loud. In the end, they didn’t even have the strength to cry, they could only lie on the edge of the barrier, beating it in despair.

The monarch watched from a very high and distant place, messed up his hair, and his eyes were full of bloodshot.

The mages knelt in front of the monarch and begged. Hurry up and summon more mages to purify the miasma, if they don’t save people, it will be too late, why does His Majesty hesitate?

Stupid guy, the monarch cursed in his heart, why don’t they consider for him?

Leaving aside the probability of miasma overflowing, who would accept a monarch who had sealed his people in fire and poison? If these people were let out, he would be ruined!

“Your Majesty, there is another way.”

The Son of God of the Temple of Light at that time, another culprit of the disaster, came to the monarch late at night.

He lowered his voice and said, “We cast another forbidden spell and let this land fall.”

“Fall to a place deeper than the bottom of the earth. A place where even the sunlight can’t reach, where no one can see…”

The monarch turned his head sharply, he stared at the Son of God, as if seeing a devil’s invitation.

A day passed, two days passed. Almost all the people of Gasuo struggled to the edge of the barrier, like a dark mass of ants.

Gradually, some people’s symptoms became severe. They were in so much pain that they rolled on the ground, making intermittent groans.

A woman wrapped her daughter in a quilt, her hair disheveled, tears streaming down her face, and rushed to the front of the barrier.

The child was already on the brink of death, her small face turning purple from suffocation, she had no strength to cry, only weakly groaning and calling for her mother.

“Your Majesty, please… please…” The woman cried out with her neck raised, she knelt down and kowtowed, her forehead hit the ground and blood flowed out.

“There’s no time to hesitate, Your Majesty…” The Light Son of God was still anxiously persuading. “Once the news reaches the other cities, reaches the capital, the angry people will push us onto the guillotine!”

“But so many people have seen it!” The monarch growled in shame and anger. “The whole land has sunk, how to explain it to the people!?”

“Just pretend it’s the power of the Goddess, Gasuo is remote, it won’t cause a big problem. As for those who have seen it, there’s always a way to shut them up…Your Majesty, make a decision quickly, Your Majesty!”

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!” The woman in the barrier was still holding her child and shouting.

More people next to her also started shouting, “Your Majesty, Your Majesty!”

Suddenly, the girl started convulsing, and froth mixed with blood overflowed from the corners of her mouth. All the symptoms of dying appeared on this fragile little life.

“Oh god, no, no!” The woman screamed, she looked up to the sky, the veins in her neck bulging. “God, God, save my child! Save my child!”

The monarch took a deep breath, waved his hand, and said through gritted teeth, “Alright, Son of God, just do as you say.”

The girl gradually stopped moving, dying in her mother’s arms in a rigid posture.

The mother suddenly started laughing madly, kissing her daughter’s twisted face, mumbling something. After a while, she suddenly screamed and threw herself at the barrier in front of her.

Thud. A dull sound, the woman’s head hit the solid barrier, and she stopped breathing immediately.

Her face, full of blood and tear stains, filled with intense hatred, was covered by a gust of wind-blown dust.

…….

The monarch said, he decided to open the barrier. He wanted to purify the demonic breath, to save those innocent people who were suffering.

“Quick, quick, hold on, we’re coming…”

The soldiers were excited and anxious, lying on the edge of the barrier, shouting inside, while not forgetting to urge the mages who were opening the barrier, “Faster, faster!”

Just then, they felt a strange fluctuation of mana.

They turned around, looked up, and saw the Light Son of God standing on the cliff, pulling a golden longbow. There were also the elder prophet, and another group of mages who had not chosen to take the risk to come and save people.

The forbidden level of mana was released again.

The land of Gasuo took away the last group of kind witnesses. It broke and fell, falling deeper than hell, and later came to be known as the abyss.

There was only demonic breath, earth fire, withered plants, and strange demons… The barrier blocked the sunlight, and eternal dark night descended.

“How many people are trapped inside?”

Langmuir didn’t know how he made the sound.

“How many people…I don’t know, no one knows the exact number.”

The old woman said with a sigh, “Later, for a while, the monarch killed many informants, trying to completely bury the truth, but there were always fish that slipped through the net.”

“For example, the relatives of the soldiers who went on the expedition, some of them doubted the monarch’s words; for example, some of the witnesses who were silenced escaped the pursuit; more were the people of Gasuo who happened to be out…like my grandfather.”

“That year he was fourteen, he quietly left home and followed the trade team to ‘gain experience’. Once he left, he never had a hometown again.”

“It is said that in the prosperous capital, he had touched all the copper coins on his body, bought a gift for his father, mother, brother, sister and the old man next door, and happily packed them into his return luggage.”

“Those little things never got sent out. From the time I had memory, they were quietly placed on the windowsill, until my grandfather passed away.”

“But, Son of God, these surviving informants couldn’t do anything. Soon, the Temple of Light claimed to have calmed the disaster with the power of the Goddess, and the monarch also changed his title to Holy Monarch. A year later, the barrier cliff was designated as a forbidden area, and a large number of informants guarding the cliff were slaughtered…”

“Gradually, the human race in the abyss mutated into monsters covered with scales, and the temple began to claim that they were demons, aliens. Every time they tried to climb out of the abyss, the kingdom would send a large army to suppress, the successful war made the hatred deeper and deeper, just like that…until today.”

The old woman coughed twice, pulling open her dirty cloak with both hands.

She forcefully tore open a patch, took out a few pages of parchment from the inner layer, and handed them to the blond young man in front of her.

“Son of God, these are the words written by my grandfather himself, recording the days he had watched over the barrier cliff, including the process of humans gradually metamorphosing into demons…”

“He entrusted it to me before he died. But so many years have passed, his granddaughter is now a useless old woman, would you like to take it?”

Langmuir silently took it.

A comforting smile slowly appeared on the old woman’s face.

Suddenly, she coughed violently, and a line of blood overflowed from the corner of her mouth.

Langmuir was startled and quickly knelt up, reaching out to support the old woman, “What’s wrong with you!? Were you tortured in prison, or——”

As he spoke, his other hand was already brewing a healing spell.

But the old woman’s wrinkled hand pressed his wrist. “No.”

“No, good child.” The old woman smiled sadly, “It’s no use, I took poison, just when you entered this cell…”

Langmuir’s vision darkened.

He fell back weakly.

“Why…why…”

The old woman coughed again, she said while coughing, two hundred years had passed, all the eyewitnesses of that year had died, and there were fewer and fewer informants, and they were helpless.

The hatred between the demons and the human race was getting deeper and deeper, and once their generation died, it would be irretrievable.

“So I decided to take a gamble, cough cough cough…That day on the street, your eyes were so clear and kind…Later I heard that the Son of God killed the Demon King in the abyss, but when you appeared in front of people, you were so silent and thin…”

Langmuir murmured in a daze. “So, you…pretended to be ‘possessed by a demon’, deliberately arrested and put in jail to see me?”

The old woman closed her eyes and nodded.

“Son of God, please forgive me…cough cough…I can only gamble with my own old life, but I can’t risk the names and hiding places of my companions…”

“I know, the temple has no shortage of vicious methods, such as spells that can mess up the brain…If you are actually a partner of the evil one, I…”

“Stop talking.” Langmuir buried his head, choked up, “I know, I know…please stop talking.”

“Son of God, I’m sorry. This is destined to be a painful road, but I let a child step on it alone…Hey, I’m really a despicable old one.”

The old woman laughed bitterly, and said again, “Son of God, I’m sorry. I…I’ll sing a song for you.”

“A song?”

“Yes, it’s a song… our ancestors used to commemorate their compatriots, to remember history… Later, the monarch bloodbathed the barrier cliff, as a trophy, they took away that song and changed it into another form.”

“Son of God, please listen to me sing it.”

In the gloomy prison, the old woman in a cloak closed her eyes. She leaned against the cold wall, pulled her throat, and started singing shakily.

“My all-knowing and omnipotent Goddess, my bright golden sun;

Whenever a soul wanders in sin, it will rise and shine.

In the extreme north of the snow mountain, under the dark abyss,

The old human race is multiplying, even if it has changed its appearance;

The flame nurtured it, forging a tenacious heart,

Hunger, cold and suffering, turned into sharp teeth, hard scales and sharp claws,

That was my beloved bloodline, my compatriots;

The monarch sealed it, on the border of Gasuo,

Let the demonic breath be born, the earth fire burned through the city wall;

Bringing the shadow of death, endless sadness,

The people long for salvation, the crying makes people heartbroken.

Falsifying the will of the Goddess, the Son of God pulled the longbow,

The land of Gasuo sank, from the ice-sealed cliff;

Ah, my all-knowing and omnipotent Goddess, my bright golden sun;

The light shines on the earth,

Shining on my beloved bloodline, my compatriots,

The people mourn with tears, for the departed spring light!

Goddess, oh, Goddess…

My compatriots, my compatriots.

When will they return to this land…”

Langmuir quietly knelt in the darkness and listened. The old woman sang it three times in a row, he listened to this song, and also listened to her hoarse voice getting weaker and weaker.

In fact, just half an hour ago, when the old woman was sitting in the cell, looking at him with those bull-like eyes, Langmuir even suspected that she was the incarnation of the Goddess.

To guide him onto the right path and give him redemption.

But she wasn’t. She was just an ordinary old woman. Her hair was gray, her teeth were loose, and her face was full of wrinkles of vicissitudes.

After singing that song, the old woman peacefully fell asleep in the cold and dark cell, with no miracles descending, nor resurrection in flowers and springs.

Langmuir habitually clasped his hands in front of his chest and recited a prayer for her, but as he recited, his expression became more and more dazed.

He finally couldn’t finish, he sat down woodenly next to the old woman’s body, staring at the ceiling of the cell, his thoughts blank.

Goddess, where are you?

Langmuir slowly raised his hand, pulling out the necklace he wore under his clothes.

The pendant was a small figure of the Goddess of Light cast in gold, he held the figure of the Goddess in his hands.

“Goddess, do you see?”

The Goddess of Light eternally looked down and smiled, it was an incredibly kind and gentle look.

Langmuir shook the small figure in his hand, the necklace made a rustling sound.

“Goddess,” he asked softly, “why don’t you speak?”

The Goddess of Light eternally looked down and smiled, still a kind and gentle look.

Langmuir let go of the Goddess figure. The young man’s body hunched over, his forehead pressed against the floor of the cell, his back arched and began to tremble, after a while, he finally started to cry softly.

It was a very suppressed way of crying.

Langmuir cried alone for a while, then sat up woodenly. He sat there for a long time, until Gilbert from outside came in worriedly to find him.

Langmuir said softly, ‘the prisoner is dead, she took poison for fear of punishment’.

He had been kneeling for too long, his legs and feet were numb when he got up, and he almost fell. Gilbert quickly supported him, and at the same time heard the hoarse voice of the Son of God.

“…Don’t go back to the temple yet, Gilbert. Please report to the palace, say I want to see Father.”