A Core Ship From The Start
Chapter 1610 - 1077: Slaughtering All the Way Through

Chapter 1610: Chapter 1077: Slaughtering All the Way Through

According to Deckard Cain’s description, after the angels and humans defeated and sealed the seven demon heads into the Soulstone, the human world indeed enjoyed several hundred years of peace.

Just like Duanmu Huai mentioned earlier, since there was no way to completely eliminate the subspace creatures, sentencing them to life imprisonment and locking them away was considered a better approach. At least if nothing went wrong, these beings could be kept locked away until the end of the world.

The premise is no one stages a jailbreak.

But there’s always a fear of unforeseen incidents.

Several hundred years later, a royal member named Leoric brought his subordinates, under the orders of the Holy Church at the time, to govern this place.

However, at that time, Leoric didn’t know that this land without an owner was not a good place. Beneath it lay a ruin, and within those ruins was sealed Diablo, one of the three Prime Evils.

Was this a coincidence?

Of course, it was no coincidence. In fact, this was a conspiracy from beginning to end. At the time, a demon who worshipped the Demon God infiltrated the Holy Church and followed Leoric to this territory under the guise of an entourage member. His purpose was simple: to have Leoric lift the seal of the King of Fear and become its avatar in the human world.

After all, for subspace creatures to manifest in the real world, they must have a host to possess, and back then, the smart, brave, and strong Leoric was chosen as a sacrifice offered to Diablo by the demon.

The plan went smoothly. When Leoric came here to govern, he was quickly targeted by the King of Fear. Initially, the King of Fear intended to entirely occupy Leoric’s body, but Leoric’s steadfast will thwarted its scheme. However, this did not mean the King of Fear’s plan failed. After all, no human can indefinitely resist the King of Fear’s incessant whispers. Soon, once benevolent, noble, and courageous Leoric underwent a drastic change in personality, becoming isolated,

Under the spiritual pollution of the King of Fear and the instigation of the lurking demon, Leoric began to believe that others were conspiring to rebel against him. He then launched a brutal massacre, sparing neither his wife, ministers, nor subordinates. He even heeded the demon’s slander to launch a war against neighboring countries and sent his eldest son to the frontline.

Although the King of Fear could not occupy Leoric’s body, the madness of Leoric significantly enhanced its strength. During the prince’s campaign, the King of Fear and the demon turned their attention to Leoric’s second son and kidnapped him.

Meanwhile, Leoric’s frontline troops suffered expected defeats. Upon the guard captain’s return to the royal palace, Leoric flew into a rage upon hearing the defeat news and planned to execute his trusted confidant. Yet the guard captain fought back, ultimately killing Leoric together with his subordinates.

But this wasn’t the end. At the moment of being slain by his own confidant, the remnants of Leoric’s sanity were destroyed by fury, and he wholly dedicated himself to the dark powers. Meanwhile, the King of Fear successfully resurrected by using the second prince’s body, turning Leoric into an Undead King with its power, becoming its harbinger of slaughter and spreading fear in the human world.

The entire territory was ultimately plunged into darkness and evil. Just at this time, Leoric’s first son also returned from the frontline. Confronted with all this, he could only shoulder his heavy burden, delving deep into the underground caves with several brave adventurers to eliminate Leoric, who led the undead creatures in slaughtering citizens, and successfully defeated the King of Fear attempting a resurrection in his brother, sealing it once again.

"...But after that, the prince’s character underwent a drastic change. Although he successfully vanquished evil, he became reclusive, silent, unwilling to interact with others. He often shut himself in his room. At that time, we only thought the prince was heavily traumatized, after all, he had personally killed his father and brother, and his mother had long been slain by his father... But thinking back now, perhaps at that time, his soul had already been possessed by Diablo..."

According to Deckard Cain, just a few years ago, this prince was still living in this small town called Tristram but then quietly disappeared without a trace. No one knew where he went, only that he seemed to be heading east... It now appears evident that the prince has become the avatar of the King of Fear, and it was he who successfully lifted the seals of the other demon heads.

Of course, those are just past happenings, now there’s an even more pressing issue at hand.

"Andariel’s arrival has once again awakened the evil spirits on this once cursed and scarred land, and that king who originally slumbered in the grave has also revived. It is his army that destroyed this town. Steel Warrior, we must defeat Leoric to let him sink into eternal rest!"

"I understand."

Duanmu Huai casually replied while tossing the War Hammer in his hand forward, smashing the blocking skeleton army into pieces.

"That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?"

Indeed, Duanmu Huai wasn’t idly sitting by the roadside listening to Deckard Cain’s ramblings. Afterward, he asked Deckard Cain to lead him to the lair of the Undead King, the nearby Tristram Grand Cathedral, as for the previous background story—as background chatter to pass the time.