Roland was taken aback when he heard the news.

He didn't have time to ask further questions, and hurriedly followed Leaf to the back garden of the castle. He saw Lightning unloading two demon corpses from Maisie's back onto the ground.

"Your Highness, we won!" Seeing the prince, the little girl jumped down and threw herself into his arms. "We defeated the demons!"

"Is anyone hurt?"

"No, everyone's fine," she looked up, her eyes sparkling with a "praise me" look. If she had a tail, it would definitely be wagging.

Roland sighed. Seeing her expression, he couldn't bring himself to pursue the matter of why she didn't report back after seeing the demons. He had to put the question aside for now. "It's good that no one's hurt. So… what exactly happened?"

After listening to the three of them answer, each speaking in turn, he finally had a general understanding of what had happened.

The battle seemed easy, but it was actually quite risky. If Maisie hadn't taken an electric arc head-on and remained unscathed, or if the demons had found a way to break free from Leaf's restraints, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

"Don't do such risky things again," Nightingale couldn't help but show herself. "With Sylvie here, the enemy has no chance of escaping. Fighting demons is best left to us."

"But we won," Lightning pouted.

"That was just luck. Before the fight, did you expect Maisie to be hit?" Nightingale said mercilessly. "The gunnery I taught you is for you to protect your sisters in times of crisis, not to lead them into dangerous situations!"

"Yes..." Her head drooped. "I understand."

"And you too," Nightingale then looked at Maisie. "Knowing that you should have returned to report, you still messed around with her. If you make this mistake again, you can forget about getting a piece of dried fish from me!"

"Goo..." Maisie's head also drooped.

As expected of the strongest witch in Border Town, Roland gave Nightingale an appreciative look. "Alright, let's not do this again. Go and get Tilly and Agatha for me. Next is the loot inspection."

...

In the castle's basement, two corpses lay flat on the cold stone floor—they were stripped naked, and their damaged clothes and belongings were neatly arranged on the side.

"This is the enemy in the Battle of Divine Will?" Tilly covered her nose.

"They don't seem much stronger than ordinary people," Ashes curled her lip.

Agatha, on the other hand, had a gloomy expression. "Don't underestimate them. Any demon, whether or not it has magic power, is a difficult opponent. If facing a high-level demon, even those beyond extraordinary would choose to wear God's Stone of Retribution." She frowned and looked at Roland. "They really appeared near the town?"

"Ah, almost. According to Leaf, they were less than two li from the town walls," Roland nodded, carefully examining the corpses before him.

They were extremely tall, all over two meters in height, with thick limbs and a pale blue skin. One of the bodies was severely deformed, the entire chest cavity collapsed, and organs overflowed from the abdominal rupture, as if it had been run over by a cement truck. Thinking of Lightning's description of the battle, Roland could imagine how great the impact was at that time.

The other one was in much better condition, at least the front looked complete. There were two holes in the body, still bleeding blue blood—Lightning had fired four shots at the enemy, and two bullets hit the target, one of which went straight through the chest, undoubtedly a fatal blow.

The different blood color was understandable. Human blood is red because it is rich in oxygen-carrying hemoglobin. The other side doesn't need to breathe oxygen at all, so it's not surprising what color the blood is.

The larger bone shape was also not unexpected, after all, it needs to support such a strong body, and also has to resist the burden brought by great strength.

The only thing that surprised Roland was that although the two demons looked very much like humans, they had no *********. "How do they reproduce?" He asked Agatha curiously, "Are demons neither male nor female?"

"As far as I know, they have no gender," the latter shook her head. "The reproduction of demons has always been a mystery. After all, it's difficult for us to get close to the Red Mist Tower. Some people believe that demons are born in the tower, condensed from mist. However, the Secret Exploration Society does not agree with this conjecture, because in the hundreds of years of fighting demons, many people have noticed the phenomenon of demon advancement."

"Advancement?" Ashes frowned. "What is that?"

"Some demons who have been severely injured by witches have changed their form when they reappear on the battlefield, but from the wounds left behind, it can be seen that they are still the same demon—this may indicate that high-level demons are not born, but gain breakthroughs in battles, and once the advancement is completed, even their own form will change," Agatha explained.

Okay... Magic stone technology is worrying enough, and the enemy also has the ability to upgrade. It's no wonder they were able to defeat humans in the two Battles of Divine Will.

Roland squatted down and looked through the clothes and belongings.

Fortunately, these things did not exceed the average level of the current era, and were even... a bit behind. The clothes were a mixture of animal skins and woven fabric, as ugly as the works of primitive people. The seemingly ferocious masks were actually just the skulls of mixed-species evil beasts, and they were all different—this proved that they did not obtain these equipment through manufacturing.

Even the transparent masks embedded in the animal heads were just polished crystal stones, and because they were soaked in the red mist all year round, they had become blurred. Looking at them up close, they were completely scarlet, and he didn't know how the demons could get used to them.

Apart from these, the rest were ten or so black stone slabs and a few magic stones.

"Has the Secret Exploration Society seen these things?" Roland spread out the stone slabs, and saw that some of them were engraved with twisted red runes, while most of them were blank—these dark stone blocks reminded him of the towering buildings standing in the red mist.

"The demons' recording method," Agatha nodded. "This kind of text is also recorded with magic power, but we have no way to crack what is written on it."

"Perhaps their way of thinking is completely different from ours," Tilly said.

"There is indeed this possibility," Roland agreed. "What about these magic stones?"

"Perception stones, wayfinding stones... and marking stones," Agatha glanced at them. "They are all things that reconnaissance demons often equip, and they are not rare."

"Reconnaissance demons..." Roland felt a faint throbbing in his head. "So, the demons have already noticed this place and have begun to send troops to scout the situation in the town?"