Chapter 658 - The master of birds

A singular demon flew out of the western fault. He had expected many possibilities as to what would greet him on the other side, but despite his best effort, none of his previous guesses were even close to the truth.

The vanguard laid eyes on the mangled corpses of thousands of human soldiers near the fault. He wondered for a second if the demons from the other faults had started the invasion early, before he noticed how utterly mutilated the bodies were. Demons were a violent group, certainly, but not the kind to play too much with their food.

This was not his kin’s doing.

The demon turned back. He needed to warn the others.

He heard a whistling noise just as he jumped back into the fault. His dead body landed back into the demon world, riddled with fairy-sized holes.

Soon, the demons sent three elites as a second vanguard group. They were sent back down in the same state as the first one.

Pestle sat down on the rim of the fault, happily swinging her legs. If no demons ever came out, then she didn’t need to worry about anyone else stealing Sofia’s points.

The duke’s magic shields and all of his clones faded as he died.

Kuli wiped the sweat off her brows as she landed on the plains of ash, breathing heavily, “That was… Not easy.”

“That cloning skill was nasty,” Mornn agreed as she landed next to her, the multiple wounds on her body leaking with fire as if she was full of burning gas.

Sofia jumped and landed near them, still in her avatar form and covered in demon blood, “To the western fault, we have no time to lose,” she told them, pointing upwards.

My avatar form won’t last forever!

The others agreed with a nod and looked up. Their reactions were strange; Sofia looked at where she was pointing as well. The portal in the demon world’s sky had disappeared.

“Nah… The demon lord must have been sustaining the entrance…” Kuli commented.

“We’re already in the demon world anyway, can’t we just find the other fault from here? Surely it’s not that far,” Mornn suggested.

“Hmm… Mornn, how long can you charge your signature skill for?” Sofia asked, “do you think you could have broken through the demon’s protection in one hit?”

“I can charge it for about thirty seconds,” Mornn said, “I could probably cleave a mountain in half like that,” she bragged, “but I can’t move while I charge it and I doubt anyone’s going to wait in front of my sword for so long…”

“Really? That’s perfect, then, give me a second…” Sofia told her group as she felt her avatar form start to weaken. 

I’ve got maybe two or three minutes… I need to start now.

To Mornn and Kuli’s surprise, Sofia started channeling another explosive bolt while she was also busy giving Pestle orders. She could not quite feel Pestle’s location, but she could tell they were still connected.

Pestle, do you hear me? I need you to enter the demon world fast. Forget about the other orders for a bit, just quickly enter the portal in the fault and get back out without getting seen.

It wasn’t long until Sofia received confirmation that Pestle had gotten the order. Sofia felt her location for just a second, a small blip in her senses, before it disappeared.

Got it, thanks, go back to preventing people from getting in.

Sofia turned back to her three teammates. “Alright, here is the plan…”

Elite demons surrounded the corpses of their dead reckon group. One of them spoke up, “My lord… What should we do?” he asked the most dreadful-looking demon nearby.

Said demon wore a twisted looked on his already twisted face. “This can’t be the work of the humans,” he analyzed, crouching near the corpses, examining the bloody wounds. “They must have contracted an evil spirit.” The other demons looked shocked at their duke’s revelation, they knew they terrified the humans, but not so much that they would sell their souls to one of the old spirits.

“Do we cancel the attack?” another elite asked.

“No,” the duke answered, “I will go get rid of the spirit myself.”

The other demons cheered, it was rare for the old duke to fight directly, that was an event to celebrate. A strange sound came amidst the cheers, like a low rumble, coming far afar.

The demonic army was engulfed by a explosion of blue fire and lightning.

Sofia watched from afar.

I only expected another demon lord. Good that I prepared an explosive bolt anyway. I thought I only had thirty seconds left but my lightning blood is back to full again.

She checked her kill count, it had almost doubled in an instant, but as expected, the number of lords slain was still at one. Nonetheless, this was accounted for in her plan, so Sofia kept counting the seconds.

As soon as the explosion dies down…

As the explosion’s fireball kept expanding, Sofia managed to locate the high level demon, as it was the only point of stability in a mass of roiling mana.

He won’t even see me coming, that’s even better.

Just before the explosion died down, Sofia activated the third tier of [Runeforged Overlord] with whatever little mana she had left, and flew as fast as she could toward the demon she could not even directly see. In the middle of a sea of fire, Sofia tackled the demon lord she could not even see.

PARETH, NOW!

Pareth teleported to Sofia. In his large hands, he held Sun’s saintess, who was immobile with her sword held high above her head, brimming with mana. The Saintess’ sword fell down with a bang that blew away the remnants of the explosion.

The demon lord never even got a chance to understand what had happened to him.

‘Your group has murdered [Demon Duke Arzazkaktatan - Hexweaver Lv. 349EX]’

As for Sofia, it was a bit too early to rejoice. The saintess’ attack had left her as little more than a stain of bloodlight and few bones around a cracked mana heart, which barely held on thanks to VPPV preventing her health from falling below 1%. Not only was it quite an uncomfortable situation, but her racial skill [Pillar of Creation] prevented her from moving as her health was too low, and the unlife runes prevented her from healing.

P- Pareth… I hate to ask you this, but…

Pareth looked disheartened, but he readied his sword nonetheless, under the confused stares of Kuli and Mornn.

“Buddy, it’s already dead…” Mornn commented in incomprehension. Sofia had told them she would be fine, and from what they could see, she was still ‘alive’ as far as the trial was concerned.

Pareth had a second of hesitation, and someone took this opportunity to relieve him of his job. Barely slipping in through the closing portal, Pestle barelled into the demon world.

“Pesle help!” she happily cried out, landing right on top of Sofia’s mana heart. Then, without more ceremony, the tiny fairy dispelled her invisibility, grabbed Sofia’s mana heart. Kuli saw what was coming, and tried tostop the fairy, but it was too late. Pestle opened her jaw wide, and bit into the heart.

Sofia died, having never expected that she would become food for her own skeletons. She reappeared on the ground three seconds later, Pestle sitting on her chest. The avatar form should have had plenty of time left but it had ended with that revival.

“Very eat!” the fairy proudly proclaimed, her tiny hands on her non-existant hips.

“Are… Are you alright, Sofia?” Kuli asked, a worried look in her eyes.

Sofia struggled to sit up, “I’m fine, don’t worry. Just a bit weak because of my transformation’s after effects,” she explained while she looked around. Mornn’s attack had left a great split in the land, as if a giant had started to cut the demon world like a cake for dessert. “Your signature skill is quite something…”

“Eheh… For all its downsides, It’s pretty good. I’m hoping I can split an Alphageid like a log with it someday. Not quite there yet.”

“Well it’s a good start,” Sofia commented, “And it’s also the end for me for this event… The penalty for using the avatar form are pretty hefty. I can’t really fight like this.”

Kuli nodded as she looked around, “Well, we can always just do the same thing without the explosion. There must be a third demon lord in the last fault.”

Mornn shook her head, “I have a twenty four hours cooldown…” she reminded Kuli with a sigh.

“Ah right… Well… I suppose we just hide here until the end of the event? We killed two thirds of the demons so the first place is ours no matter what as long as we survive until the end,” Kuli said, sitting down next to Sofia, “How about we sit down and have a drink? I could use a break.”

“You know what… That’s fine with me,” Sofia said, bringing a bone table and some accessories out of her storage. “Pestle can’t be the only one who gets to have a snack,” she said with a giggle, lightly scratching the fairy’s tiny horns.

Mornn scratched her head as she watched the guildmaster starting to brew tea. “Is this really alright?”

Sofia nodded, “Yeah, we’re getting points for just ‘surviving’, might as well find ways to kill some time. The side effects of my transformation only last for an hour, so if the third demon lord is still alive by then, we can always try to go after them. And well, I have another idea for getting even more points.”

“Hmm? I’m listening,” Mornn said, putting a hand back on the handle of the sword she’d just sheathed.

“No, no, you can sit down. Hear me out, the ‘lesser’ demons aren’t very strong. They must also have cities in this world… Do you get me?”

“Nehh… Sofia… You know people are watching, right?” Kuli said.

Sofia cackled a bit a the idea, “If they have been watching us until now I doubt whatever I could do now would change anyone’s opinion of me. Plus I’m a necromancer to begin with, what do people expect? If anything, I’m more worried about what the fairies watching might think of Pestle… Not to mention… These demons are an insult to the real thing, let me tell you...”

On that fateful day, many poor civilian ‘lesser demons’ experienced the terror of being hunted by flocks of level 299 skeleton birds.