On the horizon, a golden ray of light emerged from behind the dark mountains, illuminating the black wilderness. Meanwhile, in Calando, the capital of the Edolas Kingdom, a static and heavy atmosphere had descended. Countless soldiers in armor, weapons in hand, flew through the sky, their eyes constantly scanning the streets below, alert to any abnormality.
Immediately, large groups of soldiers would surround any suspicious area, subdue the monsters that were roaring and attacking their own kind, and then take them away to be collectively imprisoned in one place.
Traces of last night's grand celebration were still visible on the streets, but the monster residents of Calando no longer wore the excited, thrilled, and hopeful expressions they had before. Their eyes were filled with unconcealable fear and worry.
Because, since the end of last night's celebration when all the monsters fell asleep, the soldiers guarding the city discovered an anomaly. The monsters on the more remote streets of Calando had all disappeared silently, leaving behind only traces of blood. There were no other clues.
It was as if the monsters who had drunkenly fallen asleep on those few streets had been taken away at the same time without any resistance. But the strange thing was that the magical barrier surrounding the entire Calando showed no signs of disturbance. Thousands of monsters had simply vanished.
While the soldiers were still investigating the missing monsters, suddenly, the vast majority of lower-level monsters and monster cubs within Calando went mad, tearing at the comrades around them, devouring their flesh and blood in large gulps, constantly repeating the word 'hungry'.
After the soldiers captured all the crazed monsters from last night, gathered them together, and provided them with enough food to eat their fill, the monsters regained their sanity. However, when questioned by the soldiers, all the monsters, without exception, had no idea what had happened.
They only suddenly felt extremely hungry, a hunger from the depths of their souls that instantly consumed their reason, until they were full and their sanity returned. They had no memory of what they had done while they were mad.
Another very unusual point was that the demonic energy within all the monsters who had gone mad and then regained consciousness had increased to varying degrees.
Upon discovering this, the monsters who had gone mad even regarded this situation as a good thing, and even some monsters who had not gone mad began to look forward to becoming like that.
However, this situation changed this morning when the sun rose. The monsters who had regained their sanity began to gradually lose their minds again, staring at the soldiers outside the cage with blood-red eyes, constantly roaring and trying to break out.
At that time, the soldiers guarding the cage reacted immediately, quickly throwing the prepared food into the cage. After the crazed monsters inside ate a large amount of food and gradually regained their sanity, just as the soldiers breathed a sigh of relief,
a large number of screams suddenly came from the streets in the distance. Some monster soldiers even clearly saw several crazed lower-level monsters and one mid-level monster pouncing on a comrade on a street not far away, then opening their mouths full of fangs and devouring them completely.
Seeing such a scene, and combining it with the screams coming from all directions of Calando, the soldiers could easily imagine what was happening.
Subsequently, Fila, the high-level monster who was the captain of the city guard, immediately sent a soldier to the palace to inform King Edolas of what had happened, and then personally led the remaining soldiers to begin a full-scale rescue of the injured comrades, and to subdue the crazed monsters and bring them here for centralized imprisonment.
"Fila, what exactly is going on?"
Above the central square, Edolas looked down with a gloomy expression at the densely packed cages and the monsters imprisoned within. This was only a portion of the monsters that had been captured after going mad. The rest were imprisoned separately in other parts of the city.
"Lord Edolas, the cause of the matter has not yet been investigated. In addition to these comrades who suddenly went mad, thousands of comrades also disappeared silently last night. There must be some connection between these two things."
The high-level monster, the lion-man Fila, stood solemnly beside Edolas, telling Edolas everything that had happened last night and this morning in detail. In fact, after suppressing all the crazed monsters before, Fila had begun a full-scale search, wanting to find the cause of this situation.
But no matter what method it used, even using magical perception to almost completely scan the entire Calando, it did not find any abnormalities. But the instinct of a monster told Fila that there must be some connection between the suddenly missing monsters and the suddenly crazed comrades.
"Edolas, what do we do now?"
At this time, the frost wolf Oz approached, looking at the nearly ten thousand cages in front of him, filled with monsters frantically devouring food. With its strength as a top-level high-level monster, it could easily sense that as the crazed monsters continued to devour food, the demonic energy within them was also constantly increasing.
In other words, if this continued, as long as there was enough food to supply them, it would not be long before these crazed monsters would become a powerful army for the Edolas Kingdom. But the problem was that the Edolas Kingdom did not have that much food.
It should be known that the reason why the Edolas Kingdom launched a war against the human kingdom of Yst was to plunder food, land, and reduce the number of monsters.
"Fila, how much food is still in the royal city?"
Edolas glanced at Oz. How could Edolas, as a Demon Lord species, not know what Oz was talking about? Although it didn't know why it had become like this, the sudden changes within Calando on the surface were indeed a disaster, but from another perspective, it was also an opportunity.
If these monsters continued to maintain this state, with the current rate of demonic energy increase, it would not be long before these crazed lower-level monsters and monster cubs would become mid-level monsters, and even a few of the crazed mid-level monsters would have the opportunity to become high-level monsters.
In this way, the difficulties within the Edolas Kingdom, if not easily resolved, at least could alleviate most of the current pressure on the Edolas Kingdom with the addition of so many mid-level monsters and a few high-level monsters.
Therefore, Edolas asked how much food was currently in the royal city.
"Lord Edolas... If the food in the royal capital continues like this, it can only last for a month at most, and that's if the number of crazed monsters does not continue to increase."
After hearing Edolas's words, Fila raised his head and said with a tangled expression. The crazed comrades needed to eat a large amount of food each time they wanted to regain their sanity, and with the current food reserves in Calando, it could only last for about a month.
But Fila knew that this was simply impossible. Not to mention that monsters in Calando were still going mad every moment, and although the strength of the crazed monsters would also increase each time they regained their sanity, it was accompanied by an increase in their food intake after the next frenzy.
Honestly, Fila couldn't predict how long the food stored in the royal capital could last.
"One month, and that's maintaining the current number..."
Edolas slowly raised his head and stared at the many crazed monsters in front of him. He had already heard the hidden meaning in Fila's words, and he roughly understood the situation in the royal capital as the king.
Then, Edolas turned his head and looked at the many monsters gathered outside the central square. Most of the monsters gathered here had scars on their bodies. They were almost all the family members of those crazed monsters.
And when Edolas saw the old, weak, or severely injured monsters within the monster crowd, an idea appeared in his mind... However, Edolas really didn't want to use this idea until the very last moment.
"Fila, I will have all the high-level monsters except for myself, Oz, and Chris to help you. Investigate the cause of this situation as soon as possible. In addition, provide these crazed comrades with all the food in the royal capital without affecting the other citizens."
A few seconds later, Edolas turned around and looked at Fila with a blank expression and began to give orders. Although Edolas knew that doing so was not the most correct approach, the most important thing for the entire Edolas Kingdom at present was to cultivate Sally into a Demon Lord species and then awaken her to become a True Demon Lord.
As long as it succeeded, then all difficulties would no longer be a problem. At that time, with Sally's Demon Lord-level strength, she could easily plunder a large amount of food from the surrounding kingdoms, coupled with the current situation where these crazed monsters could transform by eating food.
Once that time came, the Edolas Kingdom would become a true top-level kingdom, not only having Sally as the Demon Lord, but also an army with a minimum strength of mid-level monsters, enough to crush most of the kingdoms in the entire world.
Edolas admitted that this was a gamble, betting everything on Sally, but Edolas believed in Sally...
And even if Sally did not become a True Demon before the food ran out, the worst-case scenario would only be the death of all the monster citizens in the entire royal capital. Just in time to collect the souls of the dead monster citizens as nourishment for Sally's awakening.
For Edolas, as long as Sally was still there, nothing would be considered a loss. No matter how much time it took or how great the cost, as long as Sally became the Demon Lord, then everything would change. For this, whether it was the monsters of the entire royal capital or even himself, Edolas, could be sacrificed.
Because he was the king of all the monsters in the Edolas Kingdom. For the sake of the entire Edolas Kingdom, he was willing to bet on the lives of hundreds of thousands of monsters in the royal capital.
"I understand, Lord Edolas."
Fila raised his head and looked at Edolas, nodded, and accepted the order. As a high-level monster, it certainly knew the reason why Edolas was doing this, but its idea was the same as Edolas's. The most important thing at present was for Sally to awaken and become a True Demon Lord.
For this, even if all the monsters in the entire royal capital died, it would not hesitate. Fila had even decided that after Edolas left, he would first lead the remaining high-level monsters to set up a barrier to surround the entire Calando, used to collect the souls of the monsters after death.
