As the abomination died Chronos prayed to whatever righteous god was listening that those who suffered to create this thing could find peace in the afterlife.
He wasn't particularly religious himself but after seeing such suffering he could only request that God be kind to them.
Looking at the sky he saw the sun rising just over the treetops. It had been a long night, but they still had a lot of work to do before they could rest today.
Sten jumped off its body landing next to them to give a report.
"We've already cleaned up the rest of those devil beasts, but when we tried to capture some of those black clothed people, they committed suicide. Some of them didn't die voluntarily. The dragon paladins killed everyone that fled east but it seems one knight managed to escape."
"Was it the knight wielding two long swords?" Chronos asked
Sten nodded. "Yeah, he was weirdly skilled in escape methods and easily outpaced our werewolves and the lizardfolk. He was headed east so we suspect there is another force waiting in the wasteland for us."
"That's not good. I know it's been a long night but send out scouts to see what's going on and find the remaining ritual sites. We need to destroy them before they can be used." Freydis ordered.
Nodding Sten ran off to fulfil her orders while they went to meet with Commander Stan. They were informed that he was in the keep organizing the documents that had been left behind.
As they walked towards the keep Chronos saw a pile of devil beasts that the others were pouring oil on. That was probably for the best, they didn't know what would happen if they left the corpses alone and burning them under the guidance of a priest would act as a burial ritual. This would allow the souls that had been harmed to move on safely.
Upon reaching the keep they were guided to one of the offices on the top floor where they found Commander Stan sitting at a desk with documents piled higher than he was tall.
"Looks like you have a lot of work. Find anything interesting?" Freydis teased.
It was a well-known fact that nearly all Dragon paladins regarded desk work as a form of torture the only exception were the followers of the gold dragon god who ruled laws.
"Not work, thankfully, but many of these records are unpleasant. Your werewolves moved fast enough to secure most of the documents before they had a chance to burn them, but I think I'll burn most of these myself once I make a report." He spoke with an ugly look on his face.
Setting down the papers he then faced Freydis to hear her report.
"Now, how are things going outside?"
"Sten told me that only one knight managed to escape our trap and fled to the east. I sent some scouts to track him and find any other ritual sites in the surroundings. The others are putting the fortress in order and doing basic repairs but once the nagas troops show up we'll turn the fortress over to them for rebuilding.
As for the devil beast's corpses, their being cremated under the guidance of a priest, hopefully that will put the ghosts to rest." Freydis reported.
"Good, once the cremations are finished, I want the priests purifying the entire fortress. No section is to be used until it has been purified. Oh, and have all weapons checked and repaired."
A guard near the door went to fulfil the order as a comfortable silence filled the room. Chronos kept glancing at the commander with a questioning gaze, but he wasn't sure if he was allowed to ask his question.
"What is it, Chronos? If you have something to say, then say it." Commander Stan looked straight at him as he spoke.
Startled Chronos decided to just go for it and ask the questions that had been bothering him ever since he started interacting with the higher ranks of power.
"Why didn't you stop the escaping knight? Surely you were able to see and catch him if you wanted to."
"Indeed, I could have but you must understand that if I had done that then another king rank would track down someone skilled that I know of and kill them.
It was a common problem in the past and even caused several wars that left major gaps between talented generations. Eventually leading to the more powerful nations suppressing the weaker nations by killing off talent.
After some time, the smaller nations came together to retaliate by secretly killing off the talent of the larger nations and by the time everything was said and done multiple large and small nations had collapsed due to a lack of talent.
In the end those at the peak of our world came together and forced everyone at the lord rank and above to sign various agreements to prevent such destructive wars. One of those agreements is that as long as he doesn't attack me directly then I cannot stop him from escaping nor can I kill him, even if everything in this fortress makes me want to." Commander Stan complained as he set down another document.
That explained it, if all of the powerful beings in the world started killing anybody they felt like then the world wouldn't develop at all, rather it would collapse and have to be rebuilt. By keeping to the rules, they were protecting the future generations and themselves from unexpected consequences.
Hmm, maybe that was why his history classes had several large gaps in them.
He had always found it weird that the Leighla kingdom, which was one of the three strongest nations in the world, would have gaps in their collected history. The world was most likely destroyed and had to be rebuilt during those times.
"Then did aunt Freydis also sign these agreements?" He asked while facing her.
"I did, everyone at the lord rank must sign the agreements or be exiled from every nation in the world.
It's not something to worry about, once you read the agreements, you'll realize that they're basically just things that should be common sense for those who wield great power. The only reason they exist at all is because having power doesn't mean you're intelligent enough to have common sense." Freydis Stated.
"So, a bunch of idiots gained power and now everyone has to learn common sense before they can interact with the world on a national level? Hehe, that's funny. What about those who don't sign the agreements? You said they were exiled from any nation, but where do they go?" Chronos asked.
"Usually, they go to the islands in the outer ocean where criminals run free but sometimes they join one of the forces in the central ocean where they can fight freely with each other as long as they don't attack a nation's force.
It really depends on whether or not they were a good citizen before the lord rank." Freydis said.
Thinking about the shape of Faengsel, Chronos wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not.
The world of Faengsel only had one continent, shaped like a massive circle with the upper portion of the circle looking like a gem on a ring that stretched to the north pole while the southern portion only reached halfway to the south pole.
The outer ocean was the ocean outside of the center of the continent while the central ocean was in the center of the continent. Both oceans were filled with islands that, according to rumors, had all sorts of treasures, ancient structures, and strange creatures on them.
The problem was that if you wanted to cross the ocean to collect these treasures you would need at least three lord rank individuals in order to do so.
Even then you wouldn't be able to go very far from land before some monster from the deep or powerful underwater forces stopped you. Those that could travel through the center of these oceans were all strong enough to establish nations on land.
As for the continent, the northern gem section was cut off from the rest of the continent by a massive cliff that stopped most people from ever going to or from there.
Just below the cliff were two massive nations, the Leighla Kingdom and the Vhalic Empire. In between them was the wasteland that had originally been 15 separate nations that had self-destructed in a huge war.
Further south of the Leighla Kingdom was a federation of smaller nations that had united to avoid being swallowed by the Leighla Kingdom and even further south were a large number of territorial warlords that hadn't managed to form a nation yet.
On the southwestern side of the ring were two more medium-sized nations, but Chronos hadn't studied much about these nations as they were too far away from his home, and he was still too weak to know about them. All he knew was that they had been locked in a cold war for the past two decades.
As for the nations on the eastern side of the continent Chronos knew next to nothing about them, barely any information made it across the central ocean and the Vhalic Empire wasn't willing to share what they knew.