This time, I won't be the devil.

When the flames died down, the minotaur had been blasted to pieces without leaving any trace.

After destroying the Minotaur, Frey released Tsuchimiya from his control and set the Ape free.

As a highly intelligent primate monster, this spiny ape also understands human nature. It understands that Frey's previous series of actions were to save it.

It gazed at the human before it, imprinting his appearance deeply into its mind, and then let out a cry of gratitude.

Later, such a legend spread among the two spiny monkeys in the maze.

There is a human with black hair and black eyes, holding a baseball bat, and able to manipulate the land.

He is the patron saint of our two-thorn monkeys...

It was already afternoon when Frey and Noelle left the maze. Logically, the live broadcast of the Holy See should have ended long ago.

But when they passed the central square, they found that many people were still there, chattering about something.

After asking around, Frey learned that the people in the Labyrinth City did not get to see the Saint dance as they had hoped.

"What's going on?" Frey asked.

"A few cultists had infiltrated the audience in the square. Halfway through the live broadcast, they suddenly set themselves on fire, creating chaos and interrupting the projection magic."

"Which cult?" Frey asked subconsciously upon hearing such extreme behavior.

"Who else could it be? Return to the sect."

Not surprising then.

Frey had long heard of the name of the Return Sect.

This cult has existed for 500 years and its history is longer than all existing human countries.

Most members of the Return Sect are a group of people who feel despair about reality. In their view, the era of law ruled by King Aiden is the only utopia.

Therefore, the biggest goal of the Return Sect is to resurrect King Aiden and return to the Age of Law.

According to their teachings, the Seven Gods were all traitors who murdered King Aiden. Therefore, they hated the existing human regime that believed in the Seven Gods and committed various evil deeds.

Governments around the world have been vigorously cracking down on this extreme cult, but due to the lack of divine blessing, most of these cultists have low combat effectiveness and cannot achieve anything significant.

But after killing one batch, another batch will appear after a while, just like automatically refreshed wild monsters.

The reason why they are so vital is that their doctrines are extremely inclusive. As long as you are dissatisfied with your current life, you can imagine the era of law that once existed and was described as extremely beautiful.

There is no unified organization among this group of cultists, and there is no threshold for joining. Basically, as long as you yearn for the Age of Law, you will be a member of the Return Sect.

Later on, the cult's behavior became increasingly abstract, and in recent years, they became obsessed with finding the reincarnation of King Aiden.

They believed that King Aiden would appear again and save mankind, so they called the reincarnation of King Aiden the "Savior."

So cultists everywhere used their imagination to find all sorts of bizarre saviors.

Two years ago, a group of cultists found a shepherd boy and worshipped him as a savior.

Last year, a cult member claimed that the pink-haired idol he promoted was the savior and called on everyone to give her money.

On July 7 this year, a cult leader said that he was the savior and that everyone should follow him back to the sky. He then lured a group of believers into committing suicide by jumping off a building.

In short, whenever there is a major event, this group of people will show up to make their presence felt.

"So, who did they find to be the savior this time?"

Frey was very curious about what tricks the returning sect had come up with this time.

"Don't even mention it. These cultists are probably completely crazy. They actually claim that the Demon King Hakimi is the reincarnation of King Aiden and the savior of mankind..."

Chapter 35 King of Aiden

It is said that more than 400 years ago, when the Age of Law had just ended, the power of the Returning sect was once very strong.

However, as the faith in the Seven Gods stabilized, this group of cultists who could not receive the gods' blessing gradually became small fry because their levels could not break through 30 and they could no longer cause any trouble.

At this point, its behavior pattern has changed from subverting the country and sacrificing cities to fraud, pyramid schemes and various other activities to increase its presence.

The commotion caused by the cultists was not considered a major incident as it resulted in no casualties.

The return to religious sects to engage in performance art has been going on for a while now, and everyone is no longer surprised by it.

Although Frey was very curious about how these cultists connected the Demon King Hakimi and the savior of mankind, the cultists had now become familiar with each other in the physical sense, and it seemed difficult to ask answers from them.

Frey didn't know much about the Age of Law that these cultists longed for.

After all, the current demons only rose again after the end of the Age of Law, and humans experienced 200 years of division and chaos after the death of King Aiden.

Therefore, neither humans nor demons left detailed records of the Age of Law, only some vague legends that are difficult to verify.

However, Frey soon realized that if it was a long-lived species like an elf, it might know some additional information.

That night, after the pub closed, Frey knocked on the door of Didoris's room next door to his.

"come in."

Frey walked into the room. Didorice was sitting at the desk, looking at the map of Petrarch's tomb and calculating something with paper and pen.

"Did you interpret the map smoothly?"

Considering the huge area of ​​the maze and the ever-changing terrain, Petrarch's map naturally could not draw a detailed route to the cemetery. The map only recorded the appearance of the cemetery itself, its approximate location, and some nearby landmarks. Didoris was interpreting these contents.

"I've sorted out the information on the map, but you'll need to go to the 19th floor to find the exact location."

"How about you? How was today's maze exploration?" asked Didoris.

"According to the current upgrade speed, we should be able to set off within a month."

After discussing the commission, Frey asked:

"By the way, Dido, how did the elves record the Age of Law 500 years ago?"

"You must have heard about that group of cultists."

"As expected of the famous Detective Dido, I'm curious what you think of the people from the Return Sect."

When it comes to returning to the sect, Didoris thought for a while and then spoke slowly.

"Optimists envision the future, while pessimists yearn for the past. The more distant and vague something is, the more humans tend to embellish it and then yearn for it."

"Then you elves wouldn't have this idea?"

"Of course there are, but we elves have longer lifespans, so the past and future that are unattainable to humans may just be a part of our lives."

There was a hint of vicissitudes in Didoris's words.

After a moment's silence, she turned the topic back to the era of law.

"We elves don't have the habit of compiling history books. Past history is passed down orally by the elders of our tribe, and now there are no people who have witnessed the Age of Law."

In this world, elves are indeed a long-lived species compared to humans, but according to the information Frey learned, their lifespan is not as exaggerated as the thousands of years in traditional fantasy works.

"I remember the lifespan of the elves is about 500 years," Frey said.

"To be precise, the upper limit is five hundred years. Just like a centenarian among humans, only a very small number of people can actually live to this age."

"Furthermore, at the end of the Age of Law 500 years ago, it's said that a catastrophe struck the Forest Kingdom of Alfheim, causing a sharp decline in population. It wasn't until 400 years ago, when we gained the protection of the Wind God, that life returned to stability, and the population gradually returned to its upper limit of 3000."

"By the time I was born, only a few elves survived the Age of Law, and none of them spoke of the events of 500 years ago."

"So you don't know either?" Frey inquired.

"Although I don't know what happened 500 years ago, I have heard some rumors about the Age of Law."

"According to my reasoning, the Age of Law should be an era where everyone's faith is concentrated..."

Afterwards, combining Didoris's account with Frey's own speculations, he summarized the following information.

In the Aiden continent, all extraordinary powers are basically related to the soul.

Today's seven gods gain strength from the faith of their believers, and the so-called faith is essentially a kind of soul power.

For example, if there are 1000 million people who believe in God, it is equivalent to these 1000 million people each dividing a part of their soul power and handing it over to God for safekeeping.

After collecting the power of people's souls, the gods will bestow this power on a few talented people in the form of blessings and protection, allowing them to become stronger than thousands of people and protect other weak believers.

From this perspective, belief in God and paying taxes are very similar in nature. Both are people at the bottom paying part of their income to the upper class so that the upper class can concentrate their efforts on major tasks, thereby maintaining order and protecting the lives of the lower class.

But just as taxes can be abused, those powerful people who have received the blessings of the gods may not necessarily seek benefits for other believers.

According to this theory, in the Age of Law when there were no gods, people's faith should have been concentrated on the legendary King Aiden.

If this is true, then it is no wonder that King Aiden was able to defeat the ancient dragon and win the Dragon Poetry War.

Compared to the powerful ancient dragons, the human soul is too weak.

But what makes human beings special is that they can gather souls together through common beliefs and gather them into a powerful force.

When the soul power of millions of people is gathered together, even the Dragon King who controls the elemental power cannot match it.

After defeating the two foreign enemies, the Dragon Clan and the Demon Clan, King Aiden continued to use this powerful soul power to create various laws for the benefit of mankind, ushering in a 500-year era of law.

And according to the few words spoken by those old elves, the Age of Law was indeed a beautiful era.

In that era, the sky was always sunny, the earth was always fertile and abundant, and the ocean was always calm.

At that time, the lifespans of all races protected by King Aiden were extended to a certain extent. Almost all elves could live to the upper limit of 500 years old, and a large number of centenarians emerged among humans.

It was not until the 500th year of the Aiden calendar that King Aiden died and the continent fell into division again.

During the long war and chaos, people had to find new beliefs, and thus the current seven gods came into being. It was also at that time that the elves gained the protection of the wind god.

Although the words of the cultists are not credible, based on the above information, the claim of the Return Sect that "the Seven Righteous Gods are traitors who murdered King Aiden" may not be groundless.

Thinking of this, the name of the game emerged in Frey's mind again:

Black Soul

……

For a period of time afterwards, in addition to exploring the maze, Frey also experimented with the effects of the special skill [Return].

Skill Effect: Return a stolen item within sight to its original owner.

As described in the skill effect, this skill has three limitations.

First of all, it must be a concrete object, not an intangible object or an abstract concept.

For example, capitalists steal the surplus value of workers, but since the surplus value itself is not tangible, even if you use skills on the capitalists, it will have no effect.