Chapter 330: Cause of Demonization

"How many times has this made it...?" Vanessa whispered, biting her lips to calm herself down.

Killian heaved a heavy sigh and said, "This is the 213th incident already in the past two hours."

At this moment, the five squads of Sanguine Order were escorting a huge crowd of survivors that numbered more than three hundred.

Each member was spread in intervals to make sure that the whole crowd would be able to pass through the forest smoothly.

Frankly, as elves, they were even more accustomed to the terrain than they were, but the lurking danger and the suffering they had gone through took a huge toll on them.

Naturally, besides the members of the Sanguine Order, capable elven combatants had also volunteered to compensate for the lack of manpower.

Furthermore, because the random demonization of elves showed no visible symptoms and did not discriminate by age or sex, anyone, whether a child, an elder, a man, or a woman, could become demonized at any moment.

As a result, everyone’s workload only continued to increase, making an already difficult situation even more challenging.

Killian, currently being the fastest among them, patrolled within the crowd alongside other speed-oriented combatants to ensure they could respond immediately to any sudden demonizations.

"Are you alright now?" He said as he looked at Vanessa with concern.

Vanessa nodded, "Yes."

"Then, I’ll get going now. I still need to discuss the situation with the others."

Killian’s figure turned into a blur as he sped up to the front of the crowd, where Marzana and the Midas siblings were located.

As he ran, he flawlessly weaved through the crowd, avoiding every obstacle and every elf without so much as brushing a single hair.

At the same time, he remained vigilant for any sudden demonizations within the crowd.

It did not take too long for him to arrive at the front.

Marzana and the others looked at him with exhausted expressions. "Did it happen again?"

Killian nodded in response.

Aurelia could not help but furrow her brows, "What should we do? Once the demonization is over, they return to their normal selves without any trace of abnormality. There’s no way to tell who might suddenly turn again."

This was one of the aspects of demonization that made it really difficult for them.

It would have been far simpler had the demonized elves not returned to their normal selves. In that case, eliminating them would have resolved the problem entirely.

Auryn chimed in with a serious expression, "What if we just kill them anyway?"

Her words caused the area to fall silent, as though the temperature had suddenly dropped to the freezing point.

Had it been earlier, they would have been immediately against it.

After all, the demonization might have been only temporary rather than permanent.

But now that they have struggled for the past two hours, they could not reject it outright anymore.

Killian could not help but fall into deep thought.

’Is killing them really the right thing to do? It would certainly be easier... but what happens afterward? How would Regis handle this situation?’

Faced with such a difficult dilemma and the unknown nature of the demonization, he instinctively found himself placing himself in Regis’s shoes, searching for the course of action he believed Regis would take.

After a few moments, Killian’s eyes lit up as he slowly spoke, "I think it wouldn’t do us any good if we just kill them.

"How so?"

Marzana asked immediately, clinging to the hope that she would not have to kill her own kin.

Pandora, Auryn, Aurelia, and Patti also looked at him, wanting to know what he could have possibly discovered.

Suddenly faced with their gazes, Killian coughed to clear his throat, "Killing them is easy, but I don’t think it will be the solution. We had already experienced earlier when Zild’s mind was suddenly taken over and attacked me, right?"

Everyone nodded at his words.

"Even if it’s not the same as the demonization of elves, I believe it has its similarities."

Killian glanced towards Pandora with an expression that seemed to say: Help me out here.

Pandora placed her hand on her chin as she seemed to think of something, "Earlier, the food and beverages we had were spiked with some sort of poison— possibly having hallucinogenic ingredients as well. This demonization might have the same premise."

"What could that be, though?" At Aurelia’s question, everyone could not help but notice the blood mist that had already spread throughout the Forest of Eternity.

Pandora nodded, "Yes, although I don’t know why it doesn’t have any effect on us besides obscuring our vision, I believe this blood mist might be something that could only affect elves."

"Do you feel something, Marzana?" Killian immediately turned to look at the black-haired elven princess.

However, Marzana only looked at him like he was an idiot.

It took a few seconds before Killian realized his blunder.

He smiled wryly as he scratched the back of his head, "S-Sorry... Anyways, that’s it. Killing those demonized elves would only take a further toll on the others. Their minds might even collapse, which might make the process of demonization easier.

I believe that, as long as we can’t confirm that the demonized elves truly had no chance of being saved, we should do our best not to kill them. After all, this would also preserve the minds of the elves better."

"I agree," Auryn was the first one to speak.

Although she was the one who suggested killing the demonized elves, she was not a close-minded person.

She merely wanted to ease the burden for everyone.

Afterwards, Patti, Aurelia, and Marzana also raised their hands.

Pandora nodded, "Then that settles it."

She turned to Marzana and asked, "How much longer until we reach Paradis?"

"Since leaving Xerxes Village, we’ve already passed through more than fifty villages over the past two hours. With the blood mist limiting our visibility, I estimate we’ll reach the capital in about another hour."

"Then how many villages do we still have to pass through?"

"Approximately thirty."

Pandora nodded in understanding, "Alright, we’ll proceed as usual. Members who aren’t mages will each take turns patrolling the crowd to respond immediately to demonizations..."

While discussing their next course of action, the caravan’s journey towards the Capital of Edenelia, Paradis, continued.