Chapter 487
Chapter 487
Chapter 487
Yelin's cold gaze pierced through Peter and Howard, whose bodies were paralyzed by poison.
The Bloodline ability users and Draker's knights behind them looked for openings to move, but the mystic arts users' swords at their necks emitted sharp killing intent.
Yelin spoke to Howard.
"There are always rats like you everywhere. Himel, tell him how Ishtar deals with family traitors."
Himel glared at Howard like she was looking at an insect and said.
"We cut off their arms and legs, cover their body in honey, and throw them where fire ants are under the hot sun."
Fire ants had very weak venom.
Thus, even when the ants crawl all over and bite the flesh, it only causes pain without death.
Ishtar never lets traitors die easily.
Yelin approached Howard, held Anexi's dagger to his neck, and said.
"I wonder how Draker will deal with traitors."
Howard trembled in fear, too terrified to even notice Yelin's beauty, as he desperately tried to think.
'Who would do this... C-could it be Kali? Did that woman betray me?'
But he couldn't reach a conclusion easily. Even from Kali's position, she needed his help to gain the Elder Council's support.
He couldn't understand why Kali would need to use Ishtar to strike at him.
BOOM!
Another loud explosion occurred outside.
When Yelin gestured to Himel, she took out a small bottle from her chest and threw it on the floor.
HISS!
As the bottle broke, purple smoke flowed out.
The Bloodline ability users and Draker's knights, being subdued, had no choice but to inhale the smoke.
"UGH!"
Soon they staggered backward.
And at that moment, something jumped out from the purple smoke.
ROAR!
A monster of unfamiliar appearance charged at them.
The Bloodline ability users and knights swung their swords and used their abilities in surprise.
BOOM!
Powerful aura blades flew toward the monster.
The monster's head was severed and it fell, bleeding.
But then another monster jumped out from behind.
Monsters were everywhere.
"Die! Die!"
Draker's knights and Bloodline ability users swung their swords at the monsters they saw everywhere.
The room was beyond tragic.
The knights and Bloodline ability users who inhaled the hallucinogen made by Ishtar's mystic arts were fighting each other to death, seeing each other as monsters.
"ROAR!"
"Die! Die!"
Himel quietly opened the door and let them out.
The knights and Bloodline ability users who ran outside, seeing hallucinations of being chased by monsters, would surely cause more chaos in the underground base.
Peter and Howard, who had been given the antidote in advance, could only tremble while watching this tragedy with their bodies stiff.
When all the knights and Bloodline ability users in the room had left, Ishtar's mystic arts users tried to take the two outside.
"Over there!"
But then, Nostra Family's combat agents guarding the underground base rushed in to save Peter, their executive.
BOOM!
They tried to crush Ishtar's mystic arts users using Bloodline abilities.
At the same time, they opened the cages they brought and released fierce chimeras.
ROAR!
Horrific chimeras that looked like they were made by stitching together limbs of various monsters charged at Ishtar's mystic arts users.
Then Yelin stepped forward, holding Anexi's dagger and jumped into the air.
WHOOSH!
Riding the wind created by wind spirits, Yelin imbued the dagger with chakra power and cut down the chimera in one strike.
SLASH!
The chimera, split in a straight line from head to toe, fell apart sideways.
The Raven brigade members also moved swiftly along the walls to subdue the combat agents using Bloodline abilities.
Just as Ishtar's side was gaining the upper hand.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The entire corridor was covered in flames.
Seeing the approaching flames, Yelin shouted.
"Get down!"
She summoned earth spirits to instantly create an earthen wall.
The solid earthen wall blocked the flames, allowing Ishtar's mystic arts users to survive, but the Bloodline ability users and chimeras outside were turned to ash by the flames.
RUMBLE!
Yelin looked through the collapsed earthen wall at whatever had caused the flames.
'That's...'
The creature surrounded by flames had two horns and red skin.
Yelin realized this being was not human, but a demon.
'Did the Nostra Family summon demons too?'
She had heard from Zeke that a dark magic group called the Abyss was summoning demons.
However, she was currently facing the Nostra Family, and the being before her was clearly a demon.
The flame-wreathed demon opened its mouth wide.
"GRRRR."
Flames flickered from its mouth once again.
Yelin gathered her focus to raise another earth wall, but she wasn't sure if it could properly withstand an even stronger flame than before.
She shouted to Himel.
"Escape with the others while I hold it back!"
In Ishtar, a superior's orders were absolute.
Himel gritted her teeth at Yelin's words, but soon nodded and ran straight to the exit with his subordinates.
Soon the demon breathed out flames.
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
Yelin raised an earth wall to block the flames.
KUGUGUGUGUGU!
The demon's flames strongly pushed against the earth wall Yelin had raised.
"UNGH!"
Yelin summoned a wind spirit to create a vacuum wall.
But the demon's flames ignored such defenses and surged violently toward Yelin, bearing its fierce fangs.
She could be engulfed by the flames at any moment.
Yelin clenched her teeth when she saw that Himel's unit had disappeared.
'I need to retreat all at once.'
If she didn't retreat in one go to a place beyond the flames' reach, she would likely be swept up.
Yelin steadied her breathing.
In that moment, the flames broke through the earth wall and rushed toward her.
WHOOSH!
Yelin quickly stepped back to escape the flames' range.
But something unexpected happened.
The flames that had burrowed into the ground appeared behind Yelin, rushing in from both front and back at once.
The crimson flames opened wide like a beast's maw, trying to devour Yelin.
"UNGH!"
Yelin desperately twisted her body to avoid it, but the flames moved faster.
The fire demon enveloped Yelin.
HWARARARARAK!
Yelin squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the demon's fire to burn her whole body. But even after a moment passed, she felt nothing on her body.
She raised her head and looked forward.
A black back stood before Yelin.
Zeke was protecting her while blocking the flames, holding the holy sword Ascalon.
‘Sir Zeke?'
WHOOOOSH!
Zeke was controlling the flames with his Flame Authority ability to prevent the demon's fire from reaching Yelin.
The powerful fire that could melt stone walls was useless against Zeke.
He grabbed hold of the flames with a wave of his hand and said to Yelin.
"Rest for a moment, Lady Yelin. I'll take care of this one."
Leaving Yelin behind, Zeke stepped forward.
The demon shot out powerful flames toward Zeke again.
KWAKWAKWAKWA!
But Zeke simply blocked the demon's flames by raising his left hand.
It was as if the flames were being sucked into his hand.
Watching this, Zeke opened his mouth toward the demon.
"You seem confident in playing with fire."
KUGUGUGUGU!
Soon, the Elemental Sword Fire Field spread from Zeke's hand.
A piercingly blue flame bloomed from his body.
"Well then, let's play to our heart's content."
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
The blue flames that burst from Zeke's body devoured the demon's flames and rushed forward at high speed.
KAAAAK!
The demon screamed and breathed out flames, but couldn't block the blue flames.
Soon the blue flames spread to the demon's limbs.
JIJIJIJIJIK!
The fire demon, highly resistant to fire, was burning.
KYAAAAK!
The sensation of 'burning', experienced for the first time, gave the fire demon terrible pain and fear.
It tried to escape while barely maintaining its burning body.
But that was impossible.
CHWAAAAK!
Because Zeke's Ascalon had cut off both its legs.
THUD!
The fire demon fell to the ground, groaning in pain from the blue flames consuming its body.
Zeke approached, stepped on the demon's neck, and looked down at it with cold eyes.
"Even the Nostra Family is summoning demons. Everyone and their dog is using demons these days."
He shone the Holy Spirit Energy's light on the fire demon.
CHIIIIIK!
The fire demon's skin began to boil when exposed to the Holy Spirit Energy's light.
But then something surprising happened.
TUDUK!
Cracks began appearing in the red fire demon's skin.
'What is this?'
Zeke felt something strange about the fire demon writhing beneath his feet.
While real demons experienced great pain from the holy sword Ascalon or Holy Spirit Energy, they would typically turn to ashes and scatter, unlike now. This fire demon's reaction was different.
Seeing this unfamiliar situation, Zeke asked Arataso.
'Is this really a demon?'
Arataso's voice resonated.
[That's not a demon.]
What? Not a demon?
[No, it's human. Just possessed by a demon's soul.]
'A demon's soul possessed a human? Not summoned?'
Hearing Arataso's words, Zeke remembered again that this was the Nostra Family's laboratory.
'These bastards, surely not...?'
Zeke immediately read the fire demon's information using Dragon's Wisdom.
The information instantly flowed into Zeke's mind.
Through this information, Zeke realized the fire demon's true identity.
'Crazy bastards. Using flame bloodline ability users as mediums to summon mid-level demons?'
It was an unheard-of summoning method.
The typical demon summoning method involved drawing a summoning circle, paying a price to the demon, and allowing their souls from the demon realm to materialize and stay in the physical world.
Thus, demons appearing in the physical world were in a state similar to being fixed as spiritual bodies.
But the Nostra Family used a different technique .
They would inject enhancers made from corrupted holy blood into ability users with powers similar to the demons they wanted to summon, enhancing their physical abilities and bloodline powers before having the demon's soul possess that body.
This way, while the soul was demonic, the body was human, making it possible to summon mid-level or higher demons to the physical world without karma restrictions.
Demons possessing human bodies in the physical world could absorb souls directly without karma restrictions to grow stronger, making it highly beneficial.
'To create such experimental subjects...'
The fire demon, its entire body burned by blue flames, soon turned to ashes and scattered.
As evident from the current situation, the drawback of this summoning method was that since the human body medium and demon soul became unified, any damage received greatly affected the demon's main body.
The demon struck by Zeke's blue flames had surely received near-fatal damage to its soul as well.
Zeke imagined what would happen if Abyss got hold of the Nostra Family's research.
'Those Abyss bastards might be able to summon high-level demons or above with this technique.'
Abyss had already summoned Anastasia, a top-tier demon.
While Abyss's technique required paying a price proportional to the demon's strength, the Nostra Family's method could greatly reduce the summoning cost compared to Abyss's approach.
'If they created an army of mid-level demons with full power...'
The Central Continent would surely collapse.
Feeling a chill down his spine, Zeke thought he must completely destroy this laboratory.
He approached the fallen Yelin first.
"Lady Yelin, are you alright?"
Watching Zeke easily subdue the demon that had unleashed such powerful flames, Yelin felt herself becoming smaller.
'To fight alongside Sir Zeke... I need to become stronger than I am now.'
Among warriors her age in Ishtar, none could match her.
Thus, Yelin hadn't known her own limits.
But coming out to the world and seeing Zeke made Yelin realize she had been arrogant.
'I'll train harder so next time I can surely fight alongside Sir Zeke.'
Yelin burned with determination to become stronger.
He spoke to Yelin who nodded silently.
"Please leave first, Lady Yelin. I will follow after completely collapsing this place."
Yelin couldn't bring herself to say she would go with him.
With her current abilities, she would only hinder Zeke's work.
She had no choice but to nod and say:
"...Be careful, Sir Zeke."
Just as Yelin turned to leave.
KWAKWAKWAKWA!
The corridor Yelin was about to pass through completely collapsed, with something buried there.
Zeke was shocked to notice that the buried thing was a demonic beast in the form of a giant turtle.
'Dohl?'
Dohl, one of the Four Fiends Beasts said to be the pinnacle of demonic beasts, lay fallen and half-dead.