Suddenly Silver roared as it bound after Tiger Scar.

The Ice wolves also suddenly rushed to the six others who were about to tail and run away. As for the large demon tiger, it growled as it licked it’s fang’s while looking at the nearby level 30 tiger familiars.

With the wolves attacking, the six people felt a chill down their spine seeing the demon tiger like that.

As for the large iron plated demon it turned and looked at the trapped Ashley and in a cumbersome manner, walked over before grabbing the ground around her and tightening its large hand. The sound of ice shattering was heard and it let Ashley go.

From the pile of snow, a pair of dangerously glowing blue eyes were seen. A slight distortion behind her could be seen as this aura covered the swords making them increase in size.

Her eyes were firmly locked on the glasses wearing mage who had trapped her.

“The glasses are mine!” She said and the iron plated demon nodded before turning. It bent its figure as if it was about to run but it launched itself fifteen meters into the air with a single jump. Coming down like a dangerous black shadow, the iron covered demon smashed down it’s hammer as it landed in the middle of the group. It did not only have large strength, it used its immense weight from the size and armor to it’s advantage.

With a nimbleness that did not match it’s size it spun and the twin horned hammer in its hand skid past one of the escaping bandits touching only the left arm but a crunching sound came and he was thrown off his mount and into a tree five meters away. He slid down and roared in pain but before he could look up, a simple but overpowered black fist smashed down.

HISS! ROAA! ROAAA!

Suddenly the mount of the now dead man began to writhe around. Upon its body chains appeared and upon its head the familiar seal. Slowly they began to brighten, the feline tried to twist and turn to get it off but before it could, they all shattered and the body of beast suddenly exploded turning into bright red cinders.

This is the fate of familiars, they can die but the master live and they will get stronger with each death but if the master dies once, they will follow them to the end.

The slowly rising fist of the iron demon showed the broken corpse, slowly the demon turned and the red eye landed upon one of the women.

All of them paled as they found that there was no escaping, the wolves had surrounded them and now only the demons were fighting.

In the far off distance, the howls of the massive wolf could be heard and the land shook with each one as the battle between Tiger Scar and his familiar resound through the entire village.

“We can only fight back now!” The glasses wearing man said.

“Your opponent is me.” A cold deadly voice said.

The hair on the back of the man’s neck stood on ends. He was a very sensitive man, as a mage, he was conscious of all the mana around him and all movements of it yet he suddenly had to duck to dodge the cutting blade that flew past his head, this time shaving all the hair from the back of his head.

“The next time, it’s you who will bleed and your ear will be cut off.” Ashley said as her figure vanished from behind the man as if she was a shadow.

The man looked around, he could not see or feel her, it was like her presence was cut from the world.

In fact, Ashley was truly not that fast, it is just that her very aura was indeed cut from the world. Her Sword Devil Aura completely subdues the mana around her and blends her body into the surroundings. She can be standing in front of him but he would think she is air because through her body, wind mana flowed freely making her seem like wind.

That said, at this time, her true devil personality had appeared, what was suppressed by her love for Xero would show in the time where she was truly angry.

Everyone looked around but only saw the cumbersome iron demon and the slowly circling demon tiger. Many times bigger than their own felines.

Demons all possessed bigger bodies than monsters, they rely more on their body and strength so size normally showed a sign of strength, though Devil’s were an exception as they had a human form and their strength was still equal to the many giant demons.

Swoosh!

A light breeze flew past the man and suddenly his glasses tilted improperly. He pushed up the bridge quickly but it fell once more. Then he felt something hit his leg and looked down.

As he looked, his left ear was cleanly cut making him go into a daze, slowly he lifted his hand and touched the place his ear once was.

Blood had begun to come out and his hand shook.

“Next, your Right ear shall be cut.” Her voice sounded but was now only in his right ear as if she whispered there.

Before he reacted his glasses fell and his right ear with it.

“ARAHHH! DEMON! DIE!” He roared as he pulled his wand out.

“For humiliating me… it shall be your eyes I claim.” Ashley said and suddenly he felt a massive impact and turned around only to see Ashley with a large hard stone greatsword that had struck his back. She jumped after him and the Demon tiger suddenly pounced at his familiar. All in a single breath and eat it crunching the bone and everything before it vanished returning to the seal.

He lifted his wand but Ashley appeared far too quickly and with just her right index and middle finger, stabbed her small fingers into his eyes slowly pulling them out until they were left crushed and hanging.

The pain he was feeling was beyond compare. He wholly regretted every thinking of coming to this hell on earth but regret cannot undo time.

“For threatening master, I will claim your tongue.” Ashley said and stuck her dirty blood covered fingers in his mouth and with her claw shaped nails, pried the tongue out forcing it out to the limits. Forming a small blade it became a blur as the tongue was cut and blood gushed out.

He could only moan now.

“For threatening master’s family, I claim your life.” She said and suddenly stabbed her little hand into his chest. Breaking several ribs she grabbed his still beating heart and slowly pulled it out of his chest finally ripping it out before crushing it and pushing him down as the last bit of life faded from him.

She slowly stood up and looked at the four remaining, trembling people. They had thoughts of running away or fighting through this but who could have expected this devil to be so fast.

She looked at them emotionlessly, “Kill them but leave the face intact, I believe humans placed a price for their heads, they will pay with their lives and repent in hell.” She said.

The iron demon suddenly opened its jaw and roared as it jumped forward.

“DON’T THINK I WILL DIE SO WILLINGLY!” One of the bulky men shouted and suddenly jumped forward, dodging the incoming fist and swung his giant sword at the chest of the giant.

Ding!

With the sudden impact, the giant took one step back but there was not a single scar left on the armor. In fact, nicks had appeared on the sword.

The demon looked down and suddenly kicked out hitting him full in the chest.

The man flew into a tree, breaking it and landing on the ground. His chest was partially caved in and he was vomiting blood.

ROAR!

The demon tiger suddenly turned and when they turned, the woman that had contested to coming in winter, found the jaw of the demon tiger around the head of her familiar and bit down, ripping out the head. Then in a quick flourish, it swiped its paw but she jumped off.

She landed and began to run around, “This fucker! It was all that stupid glasses fault!” She was crying as she turned her despair and rage into her power as she loaded her sword with mana and swung at the tiger.

Before she even reached it, a large hammer impacted the sword and the two were bound back but the giant turned in a quick spin and swung down the hammer. She jumped back but the impact hammed a hair’s breath away and caused a strong wind to push her away into the ground, rolling in the snow.

When she finally lifted her head, she found Ashley’s blade in front of her eye as it penetrated her eye, then into her head crossing completely through appearing on the other side. Ashley simply spun the sword sideways causing her neck to break.

A roar and a bang happened behind her and she turned to see the last two beaten to the ground before being stomped on by the iron demon and were killed.

“Gather the bodies, return to Master and Father-in-law.” She said.

Turning, the iron demon picked up the corpses like rag dolls and tossed it on the tiger and they all returned.

At the same time, the sound of Silver’s battle turned quiet. As the three demons returned, they found Nil pale and unconscious from the strain, along with the other two still unconscious.

Suddenly the huge wolf returned and in his mouth, Tiger’s corpse, or half of it, as the left arm was ripped off along with the lower waist.

“Master, we retrieved the corpses, they threaten master and the others, they have paid with their lives.” Ashley said in her cold voice.

Xero looked at her with some fear, “Why are you like this?” He asked

Slowly Ashley tilted her head and the deadly aura suddenly vanished as did the deadly voice. “Why? Of course, anyone who endangers master must die?” She said with a bright smile.

Xero looked down at the bodies and almost wanted to vomit. Some of them were badly mutilated and some had bones piercing the skin. Tiger had his guts spilling out. “Why didn’t you get rid of the bodies?” he asked.

“Of course, I said they had to pay for what they did, so their bounty will pay for what they all did to master and that is still getting off cheap.” She said and snorted.

“Is everything fine now?” a voice said and from the Manor, Jasmine walked out.

“Yes, we are safe now. Sister-in-law help me get brothers and father on my sword, I need to take them to the nearest church so that we can make sure they don’t have any corruption. Breaking a demon’s core is dangerous to the human body.” Xero said. As he pulled out and expanded the sword.

Jasmine helped him put all three laid down on the sword. “You three return to the familiar seal for now. Ashley, help hold them so they don’t fall. Sister-in-law, tell mother and sister that everything is alright so they won’t worry.” He said.

“Alright.” She said.

The last thing Xero did was collect the corpses so that he can actually cash in on the bounty because the village was in need of money, then flew off. Towards the nearest large city with a church.

***

Looking around, Xero was amazed by the architecture of the building he was inside. With impressive white, light blue, sea blue and deep cold ice blue painted around depicting ice and snow, the majestic creatures that thrive in it and at the center the goddess who commands it. This beautiful interior belonged to a large temple dedicated to the Church of the Light Ice Goddess, Polaris.

This was the first church Xero could find after going to the city hall of a town near the village and asking the lord.

When Xero arrived, he wasn’t received quite well because he flew into the city and right in front of the church but once the head priest came out, Xero bowed in apology and explained the situation that happened and the priest had the knight's move the three into the church’s interior rooms while Xero waited in the main hall were the sermons were held.

A few priests in training came and gave him warm soup since he was shivering from the cold since he had come abruptly.

As he admired the pictures, he thought of Madrid as he saw the image of the Ice Phoenix and wondered what level she was to have such a powerful creature.

Soon the head priest walked out with a smile.

Xero jumped off the seat and ran over, “Are they okay now?” He asked.

“Yes, your brothers had very strong bodies when the core of their demons was broken so they had no corruption. They were identified and were completely clean of corruption and only had injuries from combat. It is good you came though, even such things would have been dangerous in the condition they were in. For now they just need rest for a week as their body adapts to the massive and painful flowing of mana in their body.” the priest replied making Xero sigh.

After that Xero calmed down and noticed something in the priest's words. “They were identified? Does that mean their strengths and familiar race were identified?” Xero asked.

“Of course.” The priest said as he pulled out three packets of with several pages. “But I must say~! How surprised were we when we saw your father’s familiar.” He said happy.

Xero opened his fathers packet and found the image of the large wolf from a few angles and then the real information appeared.

“Lesser Fenrir Infant, Level 41, Innate Skills ‘All skills unstable and frozen’, Base strength level 41, Speed level 40, Agility level 41,...” An entire page full of different stats marking between level 37 to 41 in different aspects but the one that made Xero happy was Magical ability at level 41. Then below was his own fathers.

“Nil Null, Level 39-41 (unstable power),...” The same thing followed showing his father's power being unstable all between level 31-39 and while magical ability was completely at level 41 while mana pool at level 12 meaning he needs to develop it more.

“What is a Fenrir?” Xero asked.

It is impossible to know everything after all, not without several dozen years of research.

“Fenrir is a rare mythical wolf that controls ice and snow, living in very cold places like frozen mountains and tundra. It is a being on par with the Ice Phoenix. Legends vary between each church but both Light and Dark Ice church possess records of this creature.” he explained.

Xero was shocked making the Head priest smiling wider, “If you want to know, the Ice Phoenix is considered the Friend of the goddess, being almost an existence similar to the ice goddess herself. Fenrir is also similar but in the records, it is said that the first Fenrir was the Goddess Polaris’s mount in battle and was her favorite hunting partner.” He said.

Xero’s eyes shined when this was said, for his father to get such a strong creature. In truth no one can really guess what the familiars will evolve into, especially these mythical creatures, no one understood how they came to be. When children tried to evolve their creature, they used the strongest method, made the best spells but the potential of most children from magic academy stop between level 50 or 60, the genius stop around level 70 and the true genius of the generations go on to reach the peak at level 90.

These level 90 powers almost all have one mythical beast or another. Even among demons, 90% of the demon lords are rare races and almost all being devils with only rare titans like cerberus who is considered a level 90 demon lord.

“D-does that mean that father has a chance to ascend to level 90?!” Xero asked.

The head priest shook his head, “No one knows for sure, this is actually the first event recorded showing of Fenrir as a familiar, your father's skills, the first six were formed naturally while those gained during its evolution during winter were very strong. We believe this might have been why, Fenrir was a wolf once so it had the most basic skills of a wolf before absorbing the ice of nature. Of course it is my thought.” he said.

Xero closed his father’s information and looked at Zip’s and the first image was a front view of the huge iron demon holding the two horn hammer. The next images were different sides as well as surprising feature as the back had spikes hidden between the joints of the armor and the tail as well could become spiked if it wanted.

Then he passed the image and showed a surprised expression before it turned into an interesting on before he flipped through and finally found the information.

“Lesser Plated Devil Infant, Level 24, Innate Skills ‘Imp fire, Forged Demon Claws, Layered Scales Hardening, Plated Devil aura, (Unstable and frozen skills), Base strength Level 24, Defensive strength level 31, Speed level 15,...” Asher’s stats were quite varied, strength and defensive based stats were high but speed was low. Agility and reflex were high though meaning its ability to suddenly move and react without actually running and such was high.

He looked through Zip’s personal information and saw that there was a raise of almost 5 levels in similar stats making his stats almost equal but his strength had gone through the roof to level 30 while the rest was below level 25. In other words, his strength developed as much as Asher’s defense.

As for Void, “Lesser Feral Tiger Devil Infant, Level 22, Innate Skill ‘Demon fire Breath, Savage Tiger Claw, Mountain Lord’s Roar, Feral Devil Aura (Unstable and Frozen skills), Base strength level 20, Defensive strength, level 25, Speed level 26, Agility level 27,...”

Void was similar to Zip in regards to his growth, he was limited to level 20 but his physical strength was as high as level 23 but he had a specifically strong trait that his brother lacked which was explosive strength which was much higher. They each grew in a manner that allowed them to control their devils and keep, shamelessly, venting on them while Xero was stuck training, possibly, for another year before he can catch up to Ashley.

“Are they awake?” He asked.

“No, they are unconscious, most likely your father will awaken within 3 days, monster cores generally have large effect but cause less damage to the human body compared to a demon core. Demon mana and Angelic mana are too potent for the human body and usually causes the masters of the familiar to remain several days unconscious.” the priest replied.

“So there is no problem if I take them home?” Xero asked.

“Of course there is, they are unprotected by their normally raised mana coats, with the frigid cold of the mid winter now upon us, do you expect me to allow you to take them away after being treated.” The head priest shot him down brutally.

“Why? Our family is worried and we left after such an event.” Xero said.

The head priest put his hands behind his back, “Do not worry, first off we already called for the Lord Viscount who lives in the city, you all killing off the Seven Cat’s needs to be verified and I will personally witness. It is a large occasion, then there is another matter.” he said and took Nil’s information packet and pointed to Nil’s and Silver’s level, “Your father has surpassed level 41, his nobility title deserves to rise and it must be confirmed by the Lord Viscount. From there you will also gain 300 common knight guards under the command of your family.” He said.

When Xero realized this, he nodded understanding these facts and could not change them. Politics were not his strong suit so it was obvious that it would be hard for him to understand.

“We have prepared a place for you, the lord Viscount will come after your father wakes up, we have already sent a representative to the village to calm everyone and tell them about the events and your rewards.” He said.

With that, all arguments were cut so he could only nod and accept the hospitality and follow them to see his father and brothers.

***

Further in the south, at the edge of an endless tundra, amazingly a city was found. At the center of this city was a massive cathedral. The stones were made of permafrost ice and everything was either white or blue. All over the city there were images of Ice Phoenix and the Ice goddess. Ice sculptures, buildings and many objects were built of the ice. Even so the space within the town was only snowing soft as some mysterious power blocked the raging storm outside.

At this time, in the cathedral, a beautiful woman with white jade like skin, light blue hair and sapphire eyes walked through the deeper halls of the temple. She soon arrived at the end and opened a door to find an old man sitting with a white robe and light blue trims while upon his head was a strange hat. This was the Pope of the Ice goddess church.

She walked in and bowed at his side and he extended a hand with a large ring that had an ice phoenix carved into a sapphire.

“Rise.” he said and she did so.

“You have called me your holiness?” this woman asked.

This beautiful woman was no one but Madrid, who had once fallen for Grunt and pursued him until he quit the Holy Institute.

The old man put his hand in his robe and pulled out four packets of information.

Madrid took them and began to read them from top to bottom. She found that it was information of Xero. This was secretly identified information the Church’s identifier had done from long range.

Unlike common identifiers, that specific one had a bit more skill and could include images and verys precise knowledge including spells and even seeing hidden skills that have yet to be revealed.

“This is Grunt’s disciple.” She said.

“Continue.” He replied simply and she put down the file and took the next and frowned as she flipped through it and looked at the pope who had his eyes closed. The next one followed, the two were both Void and Zip showing their demons and the respective masters.

“All three have devils and they are similar in many aspects.” She said.

“Continue.” the pope said.

Looking at the final file she opened it and her eyes widened. She flipped through it and froze upon seeing the name. “Is this…?” She asked.

“It is, the Fenrir, at present it is weak. It also probably won’t grow if receiving at least a few lights from the goddess. Thing is that there is a secret notice that we received on the final page.” He said.

Madrid flipped through it and found a page for evolution conditions. This was a rare page that could only be captured within 6 hours of an evolution by very special identifiers.

“Conditions for the Lesser Fenrir Infant. Train wolf familiar without altering all basic skills, feed grey wolf moon blossom, evolve to Silver wolf. Remain as Silver wolf until it ages into Elder Silver Wolf. Evolve during winter or in heavy snow regions through forced evolution with herbs. Modify Ice field into Tundra Field, break monster core alongside a demon with a demon core at least 12 cm big. Smaller cores should produce Lesser Fenrir Adolescent.”

“Core of… 12 cm big.” Madrid said before looking at the other files and saw the final page and read. The page included the original size of the core before it expanded. “H-how can all three have demons with a demon core of 10 cm and up?!” She asked.

“The same way several dozen noble families have powerful, they possess summoner bloodline, specifically, they are a family of demon summoners. Even more specific their gene make their demons develop into devils.” The pope said.

“This must have a margin of error right?” Madrid asked.

“Who knows, this only the 3rd reported case of a demon family, no it is proper to call them a Devil family, Fenrir requires presence of demons breaking their core alongside it. It may be demon mana or it just needs a large influx of mana to achieve the desired evolution since it jumped 7 levels.” The pope said.

Madrid had a worried expression, she worried about the reaction of the Holy Church but more importantly, Grunt’s reaction. He didn’t show it but he was quite a bit protective of Xero because of his hardworking personality but Grunt and the Holy church are fire and water even during the time he was in the Holy Institute, he would never step back against them. He would never take it lying down if they targeted Xero.

“Madrid, go to Lurian Empire, although it may be a bit strange but enter in contact with the Holy Dark church and the Dark Ice church. With these two set up temples in the village to offer protection, if only presence wise. It will draw the two Fire church over there since they don’t want to be upstaged by us so there will be at least five temples with the primary religions of the empire. If the Null family is really a Devil summoner family, only through them can more Fenrir breed appear.” He said.

She bowed, “I shall go, now that I think about it, the fire churches will also help them out, after all demons are fire element creatures, they won’t hold back in their backing of this family probably.” She said.

He nodded, “Then go.” He said and waved.

She bowed once more and kissed the ring before leaving.