Chapter 373
Chapter 373
Chapter 373
Zeke observed the reactions of knights and soldiers who were shouting at the sight of the giant phoenix floating in the sky.
'Good, it seems the morale boost effect is working properly.'
The giant phoenix was, in fact, none other than Tyrant.
Zeke had used the ability of the Fantasy Mirror to overlay Raven's phoenix form onto Tyrant.
WOOOOOOO!
Raven's phoenix cry, who was riding on top of Tyrant's head, echoed throughout the battlefield.
The mystical phoenix cry raised the allies' morale and made the monsters hesitate in their advance.
Simultaneously, flames erupted where the monsters were.
WHOOSH!
To others' eyes, it appeared as if flames were spontaneously appearing wherever the phoenix flew, but in reality, it was fire breathed out by Tyrant.
When flames arose from the rear, the advancing monsters panicked and fled, breaking their formation.
The Knights of the Dorta Republic Seized the pportunity.
"Let's sweep away the monsters!"
The knights, who had been pushed back by the numerous monsters, regrouped and charged forward.
The atmosphere of the battlefield changed completely in an instant.
The Skeleton Mage, who had been watching this, pulled out a staff with a skull attached to it, unlike before.
『Behold the power of the great 'Overseer of the Abyss'! And tremble in fear!』
WOOOONG!
Red light flashed from the eyes of the skull on the staff and poured toward the undead monsters.
GRRRRRR!
The undead monsters, which were merely moving corpses, began to transform powerfully after receiving the power of the Overseer of the Abyss.
CRACK!
The undead monsters, now transformed and covered in bone armor, charged toward the wall with their eyes glowing red.
KRAAAA!
The power of the monsters who received the constellation's power was on a different level from before.
Seeing this, Zeke spoke to the system.
'System! Can we set up Defense Mode here right now?'
A message appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[Currently, the Defense Mode area range is limited to the fortress. Defense Mode can only be set within this area.]
The Casino City was a metropolis comparable to Atlas.
It seemed impossible to handle the entire city in Defense Mode.
Swallowing his disappointment, Zeke gave orders to the system.
'Execute the area up to that range. Deploy the Guardians and Golem Knights.'
[Building Defense Mode in the arbitrarily designated area according to administrator's command.]
[Deploying Guardians Horus, Idas, and Lynceus in appropriate areas.]
[Recovered Golem Knights are available for deployment. Would you like to designate them arbitrarily?]
'The Golem Knights have recovered too? That's great. Auto-designate them too.'
[Auto-designation complete. Executing Defense Mode in designated area.]
The area designated for Defense Mode appeared before Zeke's eyes, and the Guardians were summoned at the auto-designated points.
WOOOONG!
The largest Guardian, Horus, was positioned above the gate, with Idas and Lynceus taking positions on either side.
The Golem Knights were positioned in key areas where monsters were climbing up, helping the knights and soldiers by blocking their movement with shields.
Hades, who was watching this, also called in Guardians to help the Golem Knights.
Soon after, Horus, who had fully settled on the wall, opened its mouth wide and emitted a massive light toward the monsters.
BOOM!BOOM!
The light emitted by Horus swept away the monsters in one go.
Seeing this, the knights raised their swords and shouted.
"The Knight of Salvation is with us!"
"In the name of the great Zeke Draker, we shall pass judgment upon the enemies!"
The shouting knights felt as if they had become holy knights fighting alongside a legendary hero.
And that's when it happened.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Additional forces from the Dorta Republic arrived on the battlefield one after another.
Although there were still many monsters, as forces poured in from all directions, the flow of battle began to change again.
Zeke roared towards the troops and shouted.
"The evil enemies fear our swords and spears! The holy light shall protect us! We will defeat them with bravery!"
The moment his words ended, Zeke raised the light of the Holy Light Banner to the sky.
Those guarding the castle saw the light of the Holy Light Banner created by Zeke and their morale soared, letting out even louder cheers.
The Skeleton Mage watching this felt the situation gradually turning unfavorable.
The pride of a high-ranking demon would not allow failing to occupy a single human city with this level of forces.
『These wretched humans… how irritating.』
He raised his skeleton staff to the sky again.
Then black smoke began to billow from the skeleton's eyes.
The flowing black smoke gathered and created a huge hole in the sky.
Seeing the black hole created by the Skeleton Mage, Zeke drew out his green sword and called for Arataso.
'Arataso, what is that thing doing now?'
Arataso, who was tired from using power after being summoned after a long time, was sleeping tucked away in the sword and woke up from a light sleep at Zeke's call.
[Mmm, what is it again... huh?]
Only then did Arataso snap to attention, startled by the ominous energy felt around.
[What? Isn't that Nebilos?']
Nebilos was one of the trusted retainers among Abadon's high-ranking demons, trusted enough to serve as an inspector.
Arataso screamed in horror seeing the black hole created by Nebilos.
[Crazy! That's the entrance to the Bottomless Pit!]
As soon as Arataso spoke, something began crawling out from inside the black hole.
GRUUUUUUURL!
The beasts of the Bottomless Pit with horrible tentacles and bizarre wings revealed themselves.
The beasts of the Bottomless Pit that lived on demonic energy from the deep pit had horrifically ugly appearances like deep sea creatures.
However, despite their horrific appearance, these beasts were actually the lowest ranking individuals that became prey for other predators within the Bottomless Pit..
But even so, they possessed strength incomparably greater than monsters of the material world.
Nebilos swung his skeleton staff and gave orders to the beasts of the Bottomless Pit.
"Destroy everything these insect-like humans have created! Show them the power of our great 'Overseer of the Abyss'!"
KAAAAAAAK!
The beasts of the Bottomless Pit that jumped out from the entrance dripped black venom while writhing their horrible tentacles as they flapped their wings and flew up into the air.
As the beasts wildly shook their tentacles and sprayed acidic venom in all directions, the venom fell like rain onto the battlefield.
CHIIIIIIIK!
The venom sprayed by the Bottomless Pit beasts also fell on the monsters charging towards the castle gates.
GRRRRRRRR!
The terrible venom melted everything without distinguishing between friend and foe.
Zeke watched this and swung his chain-connected hammer.
"Tiresome ones. Why don't you just give up now…?"
This is where the difference between humans and demons showed.
In battles of the material world, it was common to surrender when the flow of battle turned against you to some degree.
But demon battles had none of that.
The fierce fighting would not stop until one side completely crumbled.
Zeke muttered in annoyance, then threw his hammer imbued with the power of the Holy Light Banner towards the Bottomless Pit beasts.
WHOOOOOONG!
The hammer loaded with heavy force flew at high speed towards the Bottomless Pit beasts.
The beast stretched out its tentacles to block Zeke's hammer.
But as the tentacles that touched the hammer turned to ash and disappeared, the Bottomless Pit beast had no choice but to retreat back in confusion.
It instinctively sensed the enormous power contained in the hammer.
But the hammer chased after the retreating beast as if it had eyes.
KWADUDUDUDUK!
The hammer pierced through the bodies of the beasts in one go.
Zeke didn't stop there and channeled Lightning force into the chain.
PAJIJIJIJIK!
As the Lightning imbued with light power burned the bodies of the beasts, fragments of the shattered beasts fell down.
While it wasn't too difficult to deal with them, the problem was that this wasn't the end.
KUDUDUDUDUK!
At the entrance opened by Nebilos, other Bottomless Pit beasts were fighting each other to get out while pulling out their bodies.
Just as Zeke was thinking about how to handle them, the fighting beasts suddenly screamed and appeared to be dragged backwards.
Soon after, a giant beast resembling a crocodile stuck out its long snout and pushed its body through to escape the Bottomless Pit's hole.
GRRRRRRRRRR!
When the crocodile-like beast let out a roar, the vibration spread across the entire battlefield.
Zeke clenched his teeth seeing the giant Bottomless Pit beast.
'If something like that breaks through, the castle will fall quickly.'
He needed to close that door as soon as possible.
If the Bottomless Pit's door opened wider, even stronger beasts could break through.
That's when it happened.
Hades flew next to Zeke and said with a terrified expression.
"I came to see the Eastern continent, but what's all this chaos?"
"I apologize. However, dealing with that is our urgent priority right now."
"I know. Hmm, that hole seems to have been summoned by demonic power... I think I can do something about it."
Hades' words startled Zeke.
"How?"
"If I apply the formulas I researched while trapped in Blanca, I can reverse the summoning formula and close the hole."
Zeke nodded at Hades' words and said.
"Good. Then what should I do?"
"While I analyze that and apply the formula, keep that damn skeleton from widening the door further."
At Hades' words, Zeke grabbed his hammer and Roland, charging at Nebilos while shouting.
"Understood. Please help us! Lord Hades!"
Hades grumbled while bringing up a control window in the air and began analyzing the Bottomless Pit where demons were trying to escape.
Zeke quickly rushed at Nebilos to buy time.
WHOOSH!
The hammer Zeke threw with all his might flew with lightning of light.
BOOM!
A powerful explosion of light occurred, but Nebilos quickly moved and calmly appeared elsewhere.
Then he pointed his staff at Zeke.
"Insolent human."
He muttered in a displeased voice and cast a curse toward Zeke.
The curse wrapped around Zeke's body but had no effect.
This was because the Protection skill activated and nullified the curse.
When his curse didn't work, Nebilos' blue ghost fire flared larger.
"You're not an ordinary human."
Zeke pointed his sword at Nebilos and said.
"If you're a lich, quietly return to being a corpse like one. Don't cause unnecessary chaos."
At Zeke's provocation, Nebilos' ghost fire flickered violently.
Arataso, who had been watching the situation since waking up, said to Zeke.
[How did you know Nebilos hates being called a lich? Your provocation is quite skillful.]
'Looking at that appearance, anyone would call him a lich.'
Zeke replied with a snicker.
However, Nebilos was strictly a demon, only appearing as a skeleton.
Nebilos, a noble demon of the demon realm who had received a title in Abaddon, couldn't contain his anger feeling his honor was tarnished by Zeke's provocation.
"I shall grant you the most horrible death!"
He pointed his skull staff at Zeke.
Then the skull opened its mouth wide and spewed blue smoke.
Zeke sensed an ominous energy from the blue smoke, cancelled Bucephalus' summon, and quickly raised a radiant blade of light.
Then the blue smoke gathered and a giant blue skull appeared in the air.
'What is that, Arataso?'
Arataso replied in an unbelievable voice.
[That... is a weapon banned even in the demon realm. Good heavens, to see it in person.]
Zeke was shocked at Arataso's words.
'A weapon banned even in the demon realm? What is it?'
As he asked, the blue skull's mouth opened wide and screamed at Zeke.
KYAAAAAAAAAH!
Powerful sound waves that human ears couldn't hear shook Zeke's insides.
'UGH.'
If Zeke didn't have the Healing Factor that instantly healed him, he would have collapsed bleeding from his orifices.
Arataso said to Zeke.
[They agreed not to use it because it causes severe damage even to surrounding territories. Experiencing it firsthand is truly horrific.]
Though he recovered quickly thanks to the Healing Factor, his head was still spinning.
Zeke calmly approached the blue skull that kept sending sound waves at him, one step at a time.
Nebilos could only be surprised watching Zeke.
"A human withstanding this attack? Unbelievable!"
He raised his skull staff and unleashed magic at Zeke.
Black spears shot out and flew at Zeke.
Zeke swung Roland to deflect all the black spears and then threw Roland with force.
"HAAH!"
Roland, carrying a Radiant blade of light, flew like a meteor and pierced through the blue skull, accurately embedding itself in the center of Nebilos' chest behind it.