Unexpectedly, during the period that followed, the entire royal capital did not give off the feeling of an approaching storm and instead fell into a strange state of calm.
However, this was not the silence before a storm, but a genuinely eerie stillness, as though all activity had completely vanished.
Through Yuri's intelligence network, Riezel continued to monitor the movements in the royal capital, yet she informed him that absolutely nothing had happened there recently, which left people truly confused.
Because of that, Riezel even took the initiative to contact the Cordelion family for the first time, hoping to obtain information unknown to outsiders through Serena.
Yet Serena never responded to him, causing his suspicions to deepen more than once.
'What exactly's going on right now?'
Riezel repeatedly pondered the matter.
He did not believe the royal capital could truly be this quiet and peaceful.
Not to mention the commotion caused by the royal family previously placing Lizbeth under house arrest, just the many factions that had become involved because of the incident alone made it impossible for Riezel to believe they had not arrived, much less that they would do absolutely nothing.
'Could they still be watching what's going on?'
In the end, that was the only explanation Riezel could come up with.
Even so, he constantly felt as though something astonishing was happening somewhere beyond his knowledge.
It was a kind of intuition, one without any warning signs or logical basis.
It sounded unreliable, but one had to remember that Riezel was already Level 8 and no longer an ordinary mortal.
Falna was a power that allowed the mortal races to evolve step by step, gradually drawing closer to the gods—the higher one's level became, the closer their existence moved toward beings known as 'gods.'
Under such circumstances, although the current Riezel could not yet be considered a god, he had already transcended mortality, so the nature of his existence could no longer simply be summarized with the word 'mortal.'
As a result, his intuition might not have merely been baseless anxiety, but a genuine warning.
After all, divine intuition was not some vague and illusory thing.
Even though Loki had said more than once that there was nothing in the world more unreliable than a god's intuition, gods were still gods—their senses often carried a kind of revelation or prophetic quality.
Otherwise, the people of the Lower World who worshiped the gods would not so often claim to have received divine revelations or heard the voices of the gods.
'Looks like it's time to start taking action.'
As that thought crossed his mind, Riezel decided to stop merely waiting for events to unfold.
===
As night grew deeper, after having dinner together with Lizbeth, Luna, Euryale, and the others, Riezel quietly left the group and entered an empty room alone.
"Summon Monster 1st."
He first activated the effect of the ring that enhanced summoning-type abilities, then immediately unfolded an enormous magic circle and summoned countless creatures.
Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be tiny little fairies no larger than a palm, resembling human girls, though the outlines of their bodies were somewhat blurry. Wings grew from their backs, making them resemble oversized humanoid butterflies.
From both their appearance and the fact that they could be summoned using 1st-Tier Magic, it was obvious that these little fairies possessed extremely low levels, merely Level 1-7, equivalent to rookie adventurers at Level 1 in the world of Danmachi.
In truth, their combat ability was even worse than that of Level 1 rookie adventurers, perhaps not even comparable to that of ordinary adults.
However, as fairies, they still possessed certain supernatural powers.
For example, their very existence could interfere with the cognition of others, preventing anyone from noticing them. Additionally, they were playful and filled with curiosity toward the outside world, causing them to be naturally drawn toward unusual events and unconsciously approach the source of disturbances.
In legends, many mysterious phenomena had occurred because of their playfulness, curiosity, and the accidental activation of their supernatural powers.
And the reason Riezel had summoned them in such large numbers was precisely because of these traits.
"Go."
"Check out every place that seems off to you."
"Use your own eyes to see what's really going on in the shadows of the royal capital, then report everything back to me through our mental connection."
With a wave of his hand and a quiet command, the countless little fairies immediately scattered as though laughing joyfully, vanishing without a trace in an instant.
Right after finishing that, Riezel took out several more items.
First was a large pile of gold coins, followed by a jewel overflowing with magical energy.
Finally, there was a bloody animal heart.
As for where they came from, the gold coins had been created by him using Structure System Magic, while the jewel was one of the magic jewels brought out from Euryale's tomb chamber, and the amount of magical energy stored within it even surpassed that of the jewel devoured by the Demi Spirit on the 59th Floor of the Dungeon.
As for the animal heart, he had used Gate during the day to travel to a monster gathering area within Mavros Territory, where he killed a demonic wolf before removing its heart.
After preparing all these items, he sliced his hand through the air, immediately opening a cut on his wrist and allowing a considerable amount of blood to flow out.
"Summon Demon 10th."
Only after the blood dripped onto the gold coins, the jewel, and the demonic wolf's heart on the ground did Riezel finally activate the magic.
Even though he was still using summoning magic this time, unlike before, Riezel was clearly aiming for a permanent summon.
If he did not perform a permanent summon, then the previously activated summoning magic would reset, so in order to prevent the group of little fairies from being sent back, he had no choice but to use permanent summoning.
Incidentally, during the conquest of Knossos in the world of Danmachi, the reason he had been able to repeatedly use multiple summoning magic spells without triggering a reset was because of the assistance of Fels and Asfi, the two masters of magic items.
In order to conserve the resources required for permanent summoning, Riezel had discussed the matter with them and informed them of the flaws in his summoning magic.
As a result, the two had spent some time creating a temporary magic item that allowed the effects of his summoning magic to overlap within a certain period without interfering with one another or triggering the reset effect.
Honestly, he had been quite tempted by that kind of magic item, but since it was merely a temporary creation riddled with flaws and lacked any permanent effectiveness, he had no choice but to give up on obtaining one.
Returning to the matter at hand, under Riezel's summoning magic, a crimson magic circle soon appeared on the floor of the room.
*Ba-dump!* *Ba-dump!* *Ba-dump!*
*PENG!*
*Whish!*
In the next second, the demonic wolf's heart on the ground began to beat as the jewel filled with magical energy shattered into powder and scattered over it, while the gold coins suddenly melted into liquid gold and flowed like streams of water before pouring into the heart as well.
Over time, the demonic wolf's heart beat faster and faster until it eventually floated into the air.
Not long afterward, an ominous black aura emerged from within the heart, gradually outlining a figure.
It was an extremely seductive figure, overflowing with an inhuman charm.
Judging from the body alone, its owner appeared to be a mature woman around thirty years old. Her alluring figure, covered in highly revealing red armor that was enough to make anyone's blood race at the sight of it, was so seductive that she was no less captivating than Fire Princess.
Although the owner of this enchanting figure possessed exceptional beauty, a pair of thick ram horns grew from her head, and black markings covered the left side of her face. Combined with her golden eyes, whose sclerae were completely black, it was obvious at first glance that she was not human.
And that was indeed the case, as the being that appeared within the magic circle was neither human nor fairy, but a demon.
"Heart-Eating Demon greets my master."
As she spoke, the seductive female demon gracefully dropped to one knee before Riezel and lowered her noble head in a gesture of complete submission, her every movement carrying an almost unnatural elegance.
"Raise your head."
Riezel's calm and composed voice broke the brief silence.
"Yes."
Looking exceptionally obedient, the female demon respectfully obeyed and lifted her beautiful face, one that was both seductive and filled with an eerie, ominous aura.
"Tell me, what level are you now?"
Rather than asking about her abilities or magic, that was the very first question Riezel chose to ask.
As for why, it was simply because although the Heart-Eating Demon was a demon summoned through 10th-Tier Magic, her level was not necessarily the same as that of other creatures summoned through 10th-Tier Magic, which usually ranged between Level 64 and Level 70.
Because Heart-Eating Demons fed upon the hearts of others and could increase their power by consuming them, with the more hearts they devoured, the stronger they became, they were a very special type of demon.
Moreover, the higher the level of the creature, the greater the power Heart-Eating Demons gained from devouring that creature's heart—and this was the unique ability of Heart-Eating Demons, much like the Doom Lord's Ruinous Night.
Because of that, if this type of demon were summoned through temporary summoning magic, its strength would correspond to the tier of the magic used.
For example, Summon Demon 10th would produce a Level 64-70 demon if it were summoned temporarily, but if a Heart-Eating Demon were summoned permanently, then its level would instead be determined by the sacrifices consumed during the summoning.
Because of that characteristic, Riezel had deliberately made extensive preparations.
He had gone all the way to Mavros Territory to hunt the demonic wolf and retrieve its heart, created a massive amount of gold coins, and even used a magic jewel from Euryale's tomb chamber that had accumulated 11,000 years' worth of magical energy.
All of it had been done to see whether he could summon an exceptionally powerful Heart-Eating Demon.
And the demon's next answer proved that his efforts had not been wasted.
"Master, I am currently at max level, Level 100."
At Riezel's question, the female demon answered respectfully and gently, causing his eyes to light up.
Level 100!
Converted into the level system of the world of Danmachi, that was equivalent to Level 7!
Through all of his prior preparations, his permanent summon this time had produced a female demon comparable to a Sword Saint!
"Excellent..."
Riezel immediately smiled in satisfaction, as the heart of the demonic wolf he had painstakingly tracked down, one whose level had nearly reached that of a Sword Saint, had not gone to waste.
===
[A bonus chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
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