Chapter 654 - What warrants angelic warnings

The ‘commander’ of the kingdom’s army had heard the commotion outside, and was actually glad to give out information about the demonic invasion that the king wanted to keep secret. The demons’ arrival had long been prophesied by the previous Saint, and the kingdom had been preparing ever since. The stunt with the heroes was just a last minute ploy to get more manpower to protect the palace while the kingdom’s army marched toward the three great faults in the north where the demons were predicted to come out from at midnight this same day.

Of course it had to be at night…

As for the commander himself, as he opposed the king’s will, he was currently being held captive on this underground level, grounded like a disobedient child.

Happy Cloud excused himself before even leaving the commander’s office.

“I have all the information I need. My group and myself will head toward the easternmost fault in the Rumiel forest. So long as you go anywhere else, I shall keep my word and stay out of your way as well. May Sun’s radiance guide your steps,” he told everyone before disappearing with a curt bow.

“The forest fault…” Kuli said, looking at the map on the office wall, “Which one are we going for?”

Mornn caressed the handle of the blade at her waist, “the center one for sure.”

Kuli’s nose scrunched up, “I feared you might say this… I really dislike that kind of environment… It always reeks of rotten eggs…”

“I think the center one is the best as well,” Sofia said while she was busy memorizing the map, “Let’s not waste a second, it’s night already.”

Wait… Doesn’t my left eye have a recording function? Have I even ever used it?

Not quite sure of what she was doing, Sofia took a picture of the map.

“It should be one of those mountains,” Sofia said, watching the mountain chain extending below her. Pareth was in her storage ring and Mornn flying on one of her swords, while Kuli flew in the most peculiar way. Having no flight skill, she had a slow falling artifact similar to the one Sofia used to have, and used some kind of kicking skill that gave her momentum to propel herself up every few seconds.

“Quite a few of these are dormant volcanoes,” Mornn pointed out after few seconds, “I don’t see any active one.”

“I’ll find it,” Sofia said, “Time for the birds.” She grabbed five of Bookie’s pages, summoning two hundred birds, Crowie and Pestle.

Go. You need to find either an active volcano, or one with a visible deep hole.

The skeleton birds spread out while Pestle and Crowie stayed behind. Crowie was fine with just sitting on Sofia’s shoulder, but Pestle wanted a bit more.

“Kill where?” she asked, staying invisible near Sofia’s ear.

We haven’t found the enemy quite yet, Pestle. But I have another mission for you. 

“Not kill?” Pestle asked, confused.

Yes kill, but not here. Go west, find the fault on the coastline. From there, you should kill demons if you can, but your main mission is to kill the other people. You need to prevent the others from killing the demons. As soon as we’re done here we will come join you. This way we can monopolize two of the faults, and ensure we get first place no matter what. Just be careful of Saria and Sen if they show up.

“Understand!”

Pestle departed, breaking the sound barrier with a bang as she left.

At the same time, the birds found the first fault. The group quickly flew over to it.

The fault was in a volcano that was not particularly tall but instead quite large. Looking into the volcano from above was like looking into a black abyss, even for Sofia with her great dark vision, she could not see the bottom. Troops from the kingdom were already in formation around the volcano. They stood in complete darkness with war machines pointed at the great fault, waiting for the decisive moment.

Maybe five thousand troops? I don’t think they have anyone over level 250. If the demons are supposed to be a challenge for us, then this army is going to get obliterated.

Sofia took the opportunity of this last moment of calm ot distribute bone rings to Kuli and Mornn.

“Wear them, they give immunity to one of my skills. I should be useful later. How long until midnight?”

Kuli pulled out a stopwatch from one of her pockets after quickly slipping on the ring without questioning it at all. “About four minutes.”

“Sounds perfect. I’ll give the first blow.”

It had been more than a minute since Sofia had summoned Pestle, so her mana was already back to full.

Mana : 5 365 182 / 5 365 182

She did some quick math. 

Without the summer melody, I can channel about thirty thousand mana per second, and since there is no sun, my regeneration…

That will leave me with under a million mana. Should be enough. Let’s just hope I can handle it.

Sofia started channeling a bolt through her staff.

“I would advise you stand back a bit,” she told the other two.

“I’m fine,” Mornn said, “I want to see this firsthand, after how much you bragged about it.”

“I am quite curious too,” Kuli said, landing on Mornn’s flying sword.

Though their discussions in the Ark’s room had been relatively short, they had all shared most of their skillset, and Sofia had sold the Angel Bolt as her most destructive spell.

“Then be careful not to die,” Sofia said with a smile as she focused fully on speeding up the channeling.

Blue plasma quickly started forming around the scepter. With how fast Sofia was channeling, it turned into a bright light in the sky in an instant, causing a commotion down below. “It’s the demons!” “The portal to the underworld is opening!” she could hear the soldiers shouting. From their point of view, it was hard to see Sofia as anything more than a bright blueflare illuminating the night sky.

“Neh… How- How much mana are sending into this thing?” Kuli asked after about a minute in, “The heat…”

“Told you you should take some distance,” Sofia giggled, “I’m at about two million right now. So roughly a quarter of the way through,” she answered with an innocent smile.

Kuli shuddered. She grabbed Mornn’s shoulders, “We should retreat.”

But Sun’s Saintess seemed almost entranced by Sofia’s magic. “It’s like she’s forging a sword of lightning,” she mumbled.

Sofia let them sort out their situation between themselves as even Crowie decided it was getting too hot and flew back to land on the Saintess’s sword.

Some of the more excitable soldiers shot a few spells and arrows at Sofia from below, believing this strange light in the sky to be the portal leading the demons to their world. The few projectiles that actually managed to reach her height harmlessly curved around her to finish their trajectory in the sky, if they were not simply disintegrated mid-flight by the sheer heat of the forming bolt.

Even with Sofia’s multiple protections against bright lights, the bolt was still almost completely blinding, and after the third minute of channeling, even her armor made of her own Lumian bones started to slowly melt like a block of ice under the sunlight.

She counted the mana expenditure in her head.

6.7

6.8

6.9

Another bright light appeared suddenly. Coming out of the great fault, a column of red light so intense it drowned out even the bolt’s brilliance for a few moments.

In the corner of Sofia’s vision, a few system windows updated.

[EVENT: Last group standing - Demonic invasion]

[Survival Timer : 00:01.135]

[Demon slain : none]

[TvT : Enabled]

Seven million.

Feeling that Crowie was far enough away, Sofia confirmed that the others had come to their senses and taken some precautions now. Aiming straight down, she released the explosive bolt.

The world itself seemed to be holding its breath as the streak of blue lightning sunk into the depths of the great fault.

Girzaez was a strong demon. Considered an Elite by his kin, he was picked as one of the vanguards for the demonkind’s greatest day, the day they finally freed themselves from the underworld, and made the filthy humans who had locked them there pay.

Today he stood with pride as the mages of his clan finally opened the portal. As one of the twelve Elites under the leadership of his lord, the great Duke Sekkaraziraek, he was to be the first one to jump through the portal. His wide frame and exceptional defensive skills would deflect anything the puny humans would throw at him, should they even be there to witness his arrival, and he would lead the way for his race to find freedom once again.

Soon, he would slaughter the humans with a wide grin on warped face, smiling fang to fang.

The moment he was waiting for came at last, the mages finished their chant, and in the air, it started to open. Like a red scar in the blurry sky of the underworld. Girzaez licked his lips with excitement. He could feel the pulse of the world beyond, its air full of life and tender flesh.

The other demons laughed, elated, they stomped on the ground, sharpened their blades. This was no simple portal, this was their ticket to revenge and freedom, all at once.

The mages gave the signal. The rift was fully open.

Having been given the privilege to be the first out, Girzaez deployed his leathery wings and flew up.

As he approached the rift, he noticed something. Bright blue light. The famed blue sky of the surface world, he thought. It filled him with joy and greed beyond what he had ever felt. What’s more as he himself flew toward the opening in the sky, it felt like the light was also it was coming closer.

Closer?

The ‘blue sky’ pierced the rift.

An impossibly bright, impossibly blue streak of searing sky.

Girzaez’s thoughts ended there.

He felt nothing. The blue sky he had always wished for enveloped him, and he became one with it.

The demons had always believed they had been stuck in hell itself.

Little did they know.

The bolt detonated in the underworld like a spear of judgement hurled through the layers of reality by the one true god himself.

Mountains of black rock turned to mist. Rivers of magma evaporated. Demonic elites with titles spanning thousands of years were turned into scattered ash, indistinguishable from the underworld’s putrid soil beneath them.

Girzaez did not even leave a shadow.

Sofia watched from above as the bolt hit ‘something’ and detonated.

First came the light. Not a sound, not a vibration, simply pure blue light, pouring out from the depths of volcano, illuminating the sky so much it dispelled the night.

Then came the sound. It was not a roar nor a bang, more like a tearing. Like someone dragged a dagger across the world’s seams. The volcano did not erupt, it inverted. The entire mountain was sucked inward, like a ball of crumpled paper before detonating outward in a titanic pulse of white-blue force.

The ground burst. Soldiers and siege engines were flung like toys, tossed high into the air before falling shortly, only to be launched further again. A ring of vapor burst from the fault like a shockwave of divine judgement crushing everything in all directions, flattening the trees and eroding the mountains.

This was not the end. After came the explosion itself, bright ribbons of screaming light escaping from the fault, to lose themselves in the sky, lightning arcing behind them.

The bolt’s explosion faded almost as abruptly as it had come. 

A smooth, glassy crater was all that was left where the volcano once stood, the fault in its center still glowing from the heat.

Sofia stood high above it all, barely visible for her faraway teammates through the dancing shimmer of warped air and mana. Her armor struggled to regenerate, shedding strips of molten bone.

For a few seconds, the mountain range was silent.  

Then the wind came. A heat wave rolled out with a screaming howl melting everything it could reach, melting away even the eternal ice-caps of the nearby mountains. It spread far and wide, far beyond the mountain range, even, as Sofia could see the plains and forest in the distance erupting into as many wild fires that tainted the night sky orange.

Silence slowly returned to the mountains.

[EVENT: Last group standing - Demonic invasion]

[Survival Timer : 00:43.135]

[Demon slain : 

Lesser: 384 852

Common: 46 559

Elite: 12

Lord: 0 ]