The next three days passed quickly without problems. Of course, they were far from quiet days.

Before the end of the first day, most of the church personnel learned Silver’s new evolution. Although there is not a single painting or statue, records and teaching of all the Ice Goddess’s ‘companions’ are taught. The Ice Phoenix is a more revered creature because it is a less difficult ‘holy beast’ to create through the Familiars but that did not mean the Fenrir was forgotten.

In fact, many if not all Paladins and Knights of the Ice Goddess’s order revered it for its power and if not for the fact that Silver did not leave the seal without Nil’s call, they would have wanted to reference it’s image and begin making sculptures.

The first two days went like this and even the fact that the three sons of the family having Devil Familiars went unnoticed, but that changed on the third day.

A very shocking visit from the head priests of the Dark Ice and Dark Holy Church appeared on the third day and both smiled in a very courteous and friendly manner towards Xero as he met them both.

Xero, under the pressure of being courteous and with ‘proper etiquette’ towards higher ranked religious figures, caused him to react a bit stiffly because he was, after all, just a child.

Xero, who was already anxious about his family, had to deal with these political situations causing him quite a bit of stress that had slowly built up. This only relaxed a little before noon as a priest in training came and announced that Nil had regained consciousness. A few priests were applying energy restoring and healing magic to allow his body to regain its strength and dull the pain in his body.

“Sir Null, I came as a representative of the Church of the Dark Ice God in congratulating you in surpassing your limit of level 41.” The head priest of the cities Dark Ice God temple said and nodded.

After Nil was able to stand, he was directed to the room where the priest, and Xero, were waiting.

“I have also come to congratulate you on behalf of my Dark Holy God’s Order.” The man with the black robe with a golden trip.

Nil looked confused and forced a smile before giving a small bow, “I thank sir priests but I have just woken up, I am not really… understanding what is happening.” Nil said.

Xero stood up and took out his father’s own information packet, “Father, look at this.” Xero said.

Nil took the packet and looked through it. “So it evolved again, to think that in just two months Silver would undergo two evolutions and jump so many levels.” Nil said. “Still, I have never heard of this race, the Fenrir.” He said confused.

“That is obvious, until today, your’s is the first registered case of a familiar becoming a Fenrir.” The Light Ice Goddess Head Priest said, “In particular, there is a very rare condition to achieve this, our churches identifier has a unique ability to see all the evolution conditions that each familiar underwent but it can only happen within 6 hours of your familiars evolution. He said and pulled out the small section talking about the evolutions.

Evolve Grey wolf into a Silver wolf and 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.”

“This?!” Nil said in shock. “Demon core of 12 cm big?!”

“You previously asked what a Fenrir was, we shall tell you.” The Dark Ice Head priest said, “Fenrir is an ancient mythical wolf recorded in both Light and Dark Ice God’s church. They are both considered the War Mount as well as hunting companion of the two Gods of Ice and are seen as equals to the Ice Phoenix. That said, the Light Ice church revers the Ice Phoenix while my Dark Ice God revers the Fenrir. It is a shame though that we have never had a recorded image of them and so…” He sighed, “... We lack the ‘splendor’ that the Ice Goddess’s temple usually possesses.”

“Then Fenrir is a Holy beast?” Nil said as his pupils shrank. One cannot underestimate the fanaticism of followers of a God’s church. The church usually has ‘idols’ they always attempt to breed following the scriptures of the church. People who can gain the so called ‘Holy Beast’ are referred to as Saint Priests. Such people are usually Holy Institute students but Fenrir is clearly a different question. The fact that a Silver Wolf can only become a Silver wolf after the master turns 50 being a huge condition meaning that until 50 years old, the person has to remain at level 30 then be near a demon with a 12 cm large demon core and have both crushed at the same time.

He then looked at the Dark Holy church and the man smiled as he looked probably knowing what he wanted to ask.

“My order sent me because of your children.” he said.

“You mean the fact that they have demons?” Nil asked.

The head priest nodded, “Your family was identified as a Demon family, ah that is wrong, your family is a ‘Devil’ family. Your family summon forth demons and they all evolve along the path of devils. One can say that your family’s potential is among the primary greatest and it is not something our Dark Holy order would allow to die in the same manner the two existent Demon families are protected by our order.” He said.

“Wait, protected? This means…” Nil started but the priest cut him off with a smile.

“My order intents to set up a Temple within your town, we do not rever Demons but our God is said to be a Devil who once ascended into godhood by merging his Devil magic with Holy Magic and shed his demon origins for the Heavenly origins. It is unlike the demon gods from hell who ascended through demonic means. Our god is regarded as a Light god but by the Holy Church’s words, we are one of the darkest orders. Of course that is not true but we give protection to demon familiar owners and help them train towards the proper path and keep them from corruption and evil.” he said.

It is not often that the Dark Holy Church makes a move but one cannot underestimate their power, said in another manner, the Holy church works to weaken this power and strengthen their own through blatant lies through rumors. It is also rare for a priest to explain the very origins of the god they worship.

“It is not only them, our two orders as well shall set up a temple within your village, you can expect those two insufferable fire orders also to butt in as they always do when we form a new temple.” The light ice goddess’s head priest said.

“Five… church temples…” Nil paled as his forced smile twitched,

“We know of your financial problems, you do not need to worry, all temples begin as chapels and usually they grow along with the village.” He said.

Nil nodded but his face showed a bit of worry because chapels appear only in places of interest for each church, especially the Dark Holy Church.

At this time a young priest entered and bowed, “Head priest’s, Sir Nil, His lord Viscount Warren Blitz, the city’s Financial minister, Reeve Blitz and the captain of the Cities knight order, Sir Tristan, have arrived to see Sir Nil. They say that they must verify Sir Nil’s current level, his Familiar and the killing of the Bandit’s Seven Cat’s.” He said.

The Light Ice Head Priest sighed, “Such hurry, not even allowing Sir Nil to rest a day. My dear sirs, shall we accompany Sir Nil as witnesses.” He said.

“I would gladly do so.” The Dark ice priest said.

“Shall we.” The Dark Holy Priest said.

Nil and Xero were confused by the need of ‘witnesses’ for such a thing but followed behind the three allowing them to lead the way to a large room were three men were sitting. The lord had a powerful aura around him befitting the rank of Viscount. He was only in his 30s and dressed in rich clothing but several pieces of armor was seen under the clothing. To his right was an armored knight who looked in his 60s and had grey hair and a scar coming up from his neck over the left side of his mouth and nose. On his left was a fat, scholarly noble dressed with many fine silks and jewelry and had small beady eyes.

When everyone say the men entering, the three were shocked to have three head priests present. They each stood and gave a bow, “Esteem head priests, I am honored to be in the presence the three sirs.” He said.

“Do not worry, we have simply come as witnesses, we have quite a good impression of Sir Nil and we are also curious about the validity of the claim to having the head of the bandits.” The light ice priest said.

“My order has also prepared our identifier to validify this claim.” The dark holy priest said and from the door, a beautiful woman walked in. She wore a thin black transparent veil and on her head was a headpiece with a gemstone on her forehead. The gemstone was a mysteriously shining cat’s eye gemstone and seemed like a third eye.

She lifted the veil and showed her face, she had thin veil cloth tied around her wrists going to her back while having quite revealing clothing connected by thin transparent cloth.

“I see, so Sir has prepared your own as have I.” He said and an elder walked on with shining blue eyes. The two identifier look at each other.

Only now did Nil realize what was going on, the Viscount was not planning on giving him the reward and rank up making him narrow his eyes a bit.

“Since we have both prepared our people to confirm this, shall we get to it, bring out the bodies of the bandits.” the Viscount said.

Xero walked forward and took out his Magic bag, from it he pulled and soon, Tiger Scar was pulled out, or what was left of him. With the Magic Bag’s preserving function, the corpses had not degraded much since the time they were killed, of which the corpses had also been frozen under the effect of the Tundra Field.

The large body appeared from the back shocking everyone but the men have seen many bloody scenes so besides actually seeing the huge body the head itself was intact making the fat man sneer.

“Hmph, how is this Tiger Scar, I heard he was a man of almost 3 meters but this torso is small, he doesn’t even reach two meters tall!” The fat man shouted.

Xero looked at him and snorted, “It’s not for you to decide.” He said.

“Silence boy, you have no say in this scene!” He slammed his hand down.

“Financial minister Reeve, although you may not have met this man before, the identifiers can still identify the identity of a person’s corpse. Please you two.” The Dark Holy Priest said.

The woman walked forward and put her hand facing up. A small crystal orb appeared, it was a layered demon core with 5 layers and from it a light came before a very strange bat creature. It’s main body was round and the front opened into a large eyeball while on its side were two wings while its back had a small tail.

A red light built up in the large eye before shooting into the corpse before it started to float and the light slowly expanded forming a red image that took the shape of Tiger’s body. Behind him a hollowed image of his familiar shadowed him and everyone.

“Indeed, this is Tiger Scar, he was a man that possessed a Level 40 Giant Tiger, and the five claw scar on his face and neck is also a characteristic he possessed.” The Dark Holy priest said as he pulled out a wanted poster of the man himself showing his information.

The fat man pounded his hand down, “This must be fake! A trick of magic! I do not believe a weak level 34 huntsman could definately a trained mercenary like Tiger Scar!” Reeve shouted.

“So it is our identifier who is wrong?” The Dark Holy Priest said with a hint of mockery.

The face of the fat financial minister turned urgent, “No no! I only mean that they must have used some form of trickery to use the corpse of another.” he said.

“And why do you say so? Do you have proof to support the claim?” The Dark ice priest asked.

Reeve sneered at the question of the dark church priests. An obvious hostility in his eye. “I am most curious as to why the Church is so into this case?” he asked.

“Is there a reason I cannot be in it?” He asked.

Reeve snorted and quieted down, it is known that many of the official church where quite strong, backed by tens of thousands of common guards and knights, thousands of paladins, even more priests and not to mention that the Light Ice church is one of the few church with an existing Saint Priestess.

“Reeve, silence.” Warren said with a dark expression.

He looked at the identifier and from the familiar seal a large Peacock appeared.

“Go.” the old man said and suddenly the bird unfurled its tail and on each of the feathers and eye design was visible and shined.

The identification of the church woman vanished as the lights hit the corpse but suddenly the Head priest of the dark holy church waved his hand. “Please do not tamper with the corpse so openly.” He said and the spell of the identifier was completely broken.

The old man began to sweat and huff after his spell was shattered.

The elder looked at Warren who had a dark expression and he began to truly identify the corpse and dropping his gaze after a while he opened his lips, “This is Tiger Scar.” He said.

Unable to affect the corpse as planned and being watched by three head priests he did not dare lie any more, even if the Viscount was above level 60 the Head priests were also level 60. To antagonize the viscount or antagonize three different orders of gods, two of which are dark orders. The pressure built on by the opposition was far higher as the backing was simply beyond what this old man could face.

Reeve’s face turned dark as he glared at the identifier but the City Knight Order Captain secretly chuckled. The City Knight Order was different from the City Guard, the Knight’s order was under the command of the Emperor while the City Guard is part of the control of the lord of the city. Another thing is that it is also an outpost temple of the Warrior god of Honor, of which Grunt once worshipped. The captain found some joy in the suffering of these greedy nobles.

They could have simply handed the bounty and submitted a warrant to the Earl to refill the treasury since the bounty came from the state so it did not matter if they paid up or not but they did not seem to want to allow the Null family to rank up, get money and improve. It was clear as day that there was something behind this.

“It seems our identifier was not wrong. We can assume that if this is Tiger Scar, the other six are also the six other of the Seven Cat’s.” The Dark Holy Priest said with a nonchalant smile.

Xero moved his hand and soon the seven corpses were upon the table.

“Indeed, just like the posters.” the Dark holy Priest nodded. “If I remember correction, Tiger Scar’s bounty was 6000 gold coin and each subsequent head member was 2000 each, with all seven that means 18,000 gold coin.”

“Who is this!? And this!? These bodies are completely disfigured! All of them are definitely fake!” Reeve shouted.

“What’s your problem, you just keep shouting.” Xero complained after finally getting irritated.

“Be quiet brat! You are not a part of this!” Reeve hissed.

“That is not up to you, my son’s familiar was part of the fighting force that killed off the bandits. He is very much a part of this.” Nil said not stepping back when his son was being insulted.

“Yes, there, that is what I wanted to hear.” Reeve laughed, “You actually want me to believe that a single level 34 Rank 1 knight and three miserable and shitty brat’s that aren’t even level 20 yet, can actually kill a completely party with six level 30 and a leader level 41? Don’t dream, you are clearly outmatched. There is no way to win when your numbers are so off not to mention your power!” He roared.

The room was silent but soon a high pitched laugh came from behind Xero. Suddenly the red one layered crystal appeared and became the little devil.

“You’re such a fool.” Ashley said and giggled, “Master is weak? That is true, for now he is but I am not.” Ashley’s figure seemed to melt into the air and the expression of every expert in the room turned serious. “Fat fool...” Her voice suddenly appeared behind the fat Minister. The flash of a blade appeared in his eye.

Everyone turned to look and find the little devil floating behind him.

“Although you can doubt master’s strength because it truly is weak, I will never allow you to insult him.” She said and turned the knife in front of his eye. “Beautiful right, the shine the light gives off and the edge is just right.” She said and with the flat side she moved it like a snake and slowly it slid along the fat man’s neck. “Take this as a small warning, someone with no strength should not speak in the world where power is key. The next time you speak, I shall remove your ability to speak. Am I understood?” She asked in the very low Devilish voice she had used to kill the bandits.

A cold ran down everyone’s spine listening to her voice because they knew she was serious.

The knife vanished into thin air and Ashley soon followed returning to Xero’s seal.

A deadly silence covered the room. The silence was broken by the smiling Dark Holy Priest, “Dear sirs, if you contest to the strength of the three we can only say, Sir Nil and his two son’s had the core of their familiars crushed at the end of the battle. The battle strength doubled and Sir Nil’s familiar indeed broke to level 41 and himself has stabilized in level 41 even if many aspects have yet to catch up.” The Dark holy Priest said

“As long as Sir Nil summon’s his familiar and it indeed level 41 then we will no longer pursue this subject and he will be upgraded to Rank 2 Great Knight and will be allowed to command 300 knights.” Viscount Warren said.

The priests smiled and turned to the Nil who nodded, “Silver, come out.” He called.

A bright light shot out and landed next to him and to the shock of all the people, a small puppy, 50 cm long, 30 cm tall with Silver fur on the paws and deep blue on the back.

“What?” Nil and Xero exclaimed.

“Master?” A voice came from the puppy as it looked up at him wagging its tail.

Everyone was in shock but the two Ice church priests were grinning as if they found definitive proof about something.

“What is that? A puppy?! This just proves anything but the fact that he could kill Tiger Scar.” Reeve said but this time not in an exaggerated manner. But suddenly a burst of cold shot out and the puppy began to grow as it circled Nil and turned to face the fat man. The size instantly exploded to several meters big covered in ice.

Silver was growling while glaring at the fat man.

“That’s enough.” The Viscount said and a pressure coming from his body caused the Wolf to be wry of the man as it shrank but when it did it began to huff and shook itself. “What kind of creature is that? Only mythical creatures and those of fabled legend possess the ability to shrink to a form that stresses their body less.” Viscount Warren said.

“It does not really matter at this time, Lord Viscount should be able to easily gauge its aura as it is, there shouldn’t be any problems what so ever now I believe?” The Dark Holy priest said.

The Viscount had a solemn expression but nodded, “Reeve, hand over the 18,000 gold coin for the bounty.” He ordered.

Reeve who was on the ground, trembled as he took out a few small bags, each holding 5000 except the final bag. Nil claimed the bags and stored them in Xero’s bags and bowed to the Viscount, “I thank Lord Viscount.” He said out of etiquette requirements.

Warren snorted and pulled out a medellin, “Present your Nobility Medallion.” He said.

Nil pulled out the medallion that was given to him and Warren took it before separating a piece that sat on top and replaced it with a new one. The first one had been a silver star and this one was a Golden star now. He handed it back, “From this day forth, your are a Rank 2 Great Knight, by decree of the international treaty of nobility, you have the right to command a 300 knight unit and can formally establish a city guard barracks within your village. Yearly wage for your family is in 5000 gold and you're allowed to keep 10% of tax money flowing through your village.” He said as custom though his face was not happy as he handed the medallion back.

“I understand.” Nil said simply and carefully stored the medallion as it was the representation of his status.

“Haha! Good job Sir Nil, as the Representative of the Knight’s Order, I am happy to see our fine Lurianian people grow stronger with another great noble family on the rise. I must advise you, the 300 knights aren’t assigned, besides an elder knight from the Knight’s order and priest of the Warrior God, Rein, the Knights are trained from your fair villagers. The same for the City guard. Also the Knight’s Order is a separate establishment meant to train the knights, besides the 300 recruited knights, we would train our own knights as time goes by.” He said.

“I hope to work with Sir Tristan. I have always admired the Great knight’s order of the War Gods so I shall try to meet the expectations of the great gods.” He said.

Tristan grinned even wider and clasp the man on the shoulder, “It’s not cheap to train a knight, each one a familiar master to be trained to the peak of level 30 or higher.” He laughed. “You have to earn their trust though, you may be a good hunter but it takes a lot of work to be a great leader. I wish you luck, I shall take these corpses and display them upon a post while proclaiming to the entire nation the fall of the Seven Cat’s!” he burst into a laugh as he grabbed the seven bodies and put them into a bag to preserve them as long as possible.

Tristan bowed to the priests and left in a good mood. The Viscount called the financial minister to leave and the head priest of the Ice goddess saw them off and soon returned. “Sir Nil, I must say that the display of your familiar is quite genial, that said, please be careful from now on. Your village is still under the territorial rule of Viscount Warren. The nobles of Baron rank would still be commoners but more than half are under his campain rule. It is easy for him to pay bandit raids and assassins to attack.” He said.

“I should probably return home to calm my villagers and family.” Nil said.

“I shall arrange for some guards to escort you back, I do not trust the Viscount to not try something.” the Ice goddess priest said.

“We can return home flying, there is much less danger.” Nil replied.

“Your son is not the only one that can fly, Sir Nil. Although it removes a great deal of danger, I will not put you all in danger for negligence. Her Holy Saintess would never forgive me.” The head priest said.

“Fufufu, your are correct, I would not.” A voice like spring water dripping down a stream sounded in the room. Standing at the door was a beautiful woman stood and on her shoulder was a very tiny blue bird no bigger the palm of the hand but the eyes held a very intelligent glint. “Sir Head Priest, you have done a good job. I thank the two sir’s for your assistance in this affair.” the woman said.

The two bowed, “Anything for deep Saint Priestess Madrid.” the two head priests.

“Miss Madrid?!” Xero exclaimed.

“You man, this is the Saint Priestess of our esteemed church, you should properly refer to her a Saint Priestess Madrid.” The amiable Head priest suddenly said in a serious tone.

“Oh please, there is no need. Xero, you are Grunt’s favorite little disciple so I will let you call be Aunt Madrid or Auntie.” She said.

Xero smiled wryly, “Miss Madrid, I do not believe that would be appropriate.” Xero said.

“Oh please, all that formality is too stifling for a child, come come, I shall personally escort you, I already arranged a few priests to set up the Temple anyway and a few temple knights and paladins are already ready outside. Just pick up your brothers and I shall personally take you all.” She said.

“Your Holiness, for such a child you would…?!” the head priest asked.

“It is not only my choice but the Popes, now Xero, Sir Nil, come. Get the two boys that are asleep.” She said and grabbed the two men by the wrist and dragged them.

“What!?” The two exclaimed as they were dragged off balance until they were outside and found a few priests and a few dozen heavily knights and some white armored but less heavy, paladins standing there.

Some priests brought out the two Null brothers and some paladins carried them. The blue bird suddenly grew into the giant Ice Phoenix and all the men climbed on before the amazing creature took to the air leaving behind a glitter of ice in it’s wake. All the while Madrid hugged Xero as if using him as a replacement for Grunt as she asked about him and still trying to have Xero call her Aunt and even once big sister.