Nox felt a mixture of shock, fascination, and a bit of fear after he watched the scene.
His mind was still spinning with several thoughts, and his eyes kept alternating between Eve and the thousands of dead demons.
He still couldn’t believe that she had single-handedly wiped out 300,000 demons all by herself.
Though it could be said she caught them when they least expected it, still...
Right now she appeared extremely pale. Whatever she had done had taken quite the toll on her, yet she remained standing with a calm expression on her face.
’Will I be next?’ Nox frowned. Though he didn’t care about this body, it could be pretty useful, and it would be a shame for her to just die off like that.
Right at that moment, Eve turned to face him, her cold eyes flashing sharply.
Without saying a word, she stretched her palm forward as a dark mist slowly began to accumulate there.
"Wait!" Nox called out hurriedly.
There wasn’t much of an expression on her face, and merely looking at her, anyone could tell she had made up her mind to kill Akira.
Nox’s frown deepened. He had been planning to avoid doing this, but with the way the current situation was looking, he had no choice, so he did what was the best thing in this disgusting—
"Master!" He shouted these words, and for the first time, there was a noticeable reaction on Eve’s face... one of surprise and confusion.
Skully frowned as well. His mistress, Eve, only had one disciple—and he was currently in the Barony. So why was this person... or wait... could it be...
Eve also seemed to realize at that moment. However, her gaze was still clouded with doubts.
’I knew something was wrong.’ Eve frowned. ’Considering what she did to him in Snowhelm, he wouldn’t just let her go like that.’
Still, she didn’t fully trust Nox’s words.
And her eyes seemed to say it all.
"How did you know that?" she asked, trying to act dumb.
"Because I’m your disciple, Nox." Nox said.
Eve and Skully calmly looked him up and down.
He noticed this and facepalmed. "It’s kinda complicated."
"Yes, it definitely is... the pipsqueak I know had no red skin and melons." Skully said.
"Stop calling me pipsqueak! You bag of bones!"
"Bag of bones? Pipsqueak, is that really you?" Skully’s green eyes flickered with something akin to warmth.
Eve, however, continued to stare at him with a cold expression on her face, not buying whatever this person was saying.
For all she knew, this person might be someone who knew her relationship with Nox and decided to take advantage of it.
This was, after all, Eos—anything could happen.
"How can you prove to me that you’re really my disciple? If this is a disguise spell, undo it."
"It’s not a spell," said Nox. "It’s a special skill of mine that allows me to take control over the body of my pets. I’m currently in the Barony and had been asleep for a couple of days now."
"Mistress, I think it’s really the pipsqueak," Skully frowned.
"We don’t jump to conclusions just like that," replied Eve. "Tell me something most people don’t know about me."
A thoughtful look crossed Nox’s features as he racked his brain... it was quite hard, and because of how tense the current moment felt, he even forgot some key details.
But after a while, he thought of something. It might trigger some unnecessary memories, but it was the only way out of the situation.
Taking a deep breath, he held Eve’s gaze. Those ruby eyes were filled with doubt—and a tiny bit of belief.
"We first met during a meeting held in our manor," he said. "Then I had mistakenly run into you and you dropped Skully’s head on the ground."
Her cold expression slowly broke when she heard this, and for a moment she seemed to recall the past.
The soft breeze gently blew, causing her hair to waver slightly in the air. "Continue," she spoke, her voice much lower and warm.
"Initially, you disliked me because I reminded you a lot of my father. And the reason you disliked my father? It was because..."
"That’s enough," Eve said at that moment. "It’s confirmed that it’s truly you. You can stop speaking about that now."
"Alright, Master." He nodded his head and looked at Eve, guilt building in his heart.
He shouldn’t have brought this up, but it was the only way.
"Hahahaha, pipsqueak, I really missed you!" Skully exclaimed, slamming a hand on Nox’s shoulder.
"I missed you too, bony." Nox smiled.
Eve watched the two reunite with a detached look—at least, that was what she tried to project, but she was failing miserably.
Deep inside her heart, she was also happy to reunite with Nox again.
"How have you been, Master?" Nox asked a moment later.
"I’ve been well," Eve replied. "I see you got my letter and successfully took back the West."
"Yes, I did," he said. "The others told me what you did in the capital, but I know you must have a reason for why you did all of that. And if you don’t mind, I want to hear every bit of it."
The contents of the letter were simply words:
’Retake the West. I’m not on the Demon side.’
Apart from that, it was very vague, and he still had his doubts. The only person who could clear all this was Eve.
"I’ll tell you and everyone else," the necromancer said, turning her back on Nox. "But for now, there’s something I need to take care of."
Eve snapped her fingers and instantly the limbs of the fallen demons started to twitch. Slowly, she muttered in a low voice.
A series of cracking sounds echoed across the plain, and one after the other, the demons started to rise from the ground.
In the blink of an eye, all 300,000 demons—now undead—were up on their feet. They all looked at Eve, who was giving off the aura of the goddess of death herself, and went on their knees, bowing reverently to her.
She turned around to Nox, who had a speechless expression on his face, and said softly, "Come. Let’s go back to the Barony. I have missed my castle."