520
Chapter 520
KUGUGUGUGUGU!
Adnan and Bodmir tensed up as they saw the pure white demon looking at them.
Despite the blizzard that was freezing everything around them, cold sweat ran down their faces from the tension.
The pure white demon glanced at them.
[Foolish mortals of the physical realm.]
The voice echoed in their heads as if transmitting thoughts directly through magical power rather than sound.
At that moment, King Fist was huffing and puffing angrily as he saw his companion turned into a block of ice.
Though he didn't immediately charge in after sensing the threatening presence of the high-ranking demon, his stance suggested he was ready to rush in and swing his hammer at any moment.
Their heads echoed again.
[I am Argidoom, a noble demon of the demon realm who has sworn loyalty to the First Princess Elizabeth.]
As Elizabeth's subordinate and a demon realm noble, Argidoom's presence was entirely different from ordinary demons.
Even Adnan, an experienced Highlander, couldn't find any openings in Argidoom's stance as he stood still.
Argidoom's words echoed in their heads again.
[Mortals of the physical realm. I shall deliver Princess Elizabeth's message.]
WHOOOOSH!
The cold blizzard grew even fiercer.
[My gracious master says she will allow you to continue your worthless lives if you hand over the Third Princess Anastasia and offer a thousand sacrifices.]
Elizabeth's goal was the Third Princess Anastasia.
After rescuing Anastasia, she planned to receive the power and mobile fortress that Anastasia had received from her father, the Archduke, as payment.
The Second Princess Yekaterina had also responded to the summoning to the physical realm and invaded Mycenae with the same goal as Elizabeth.
And Elizabeth, being skilled in demon realm magic, could more easily bring her high-ranking demon subordinates to the physical realm than Yekaterina.
Currently, Elizabeth had the upper hand in the competition.
Argidoom was a loyal noble who had Elizabeth's trust among her demon subordinates.
He opened his mouth again with an arrogant expression.
[I shall permit one of you to enter the castle to deliver the Princess's mercy.]
At Argidoom's words, King Fist who was standing behind couldn't hold back anymore and stepped forward.
"I'll kill that bastard!"
King Fist swung his hammer around before throwing it at the floating Argidoom.
WHOOOOOOSH!
The heavy hammer flew quickly toward Argidoom, powered by King Fist's strength.
The force was comparable to a catapult.
However, Argidoom, a noble of the demon realm, wasn't fazed by such an attack.
As he elegantly gestured with his staff, surprisingly, a snowflake-shaped ice shield appeared in front.
KWADUDUDUK!
King Fist's thrown hammer was blocked by the shield and couldn't reach Argidoom.
But King Fist didn't give up.
He started throwing the scattered remains of ice golems at Argidoom.
WHOOOOSH!
Sharp ice rocks flew toward Argidoom.
The other barbarians around also started throwing ice rocks like King Fist.
Argidoom, who had been blocking with elegant movements at first, was momentarily taken aback when over a dozen ice rocks with unexpectedly strong force came flying all at once.
KUGUGUGUGUGU!
He frowned while making the shield larger to block the ice rocks thrown by the barbarians.
[The struggles of foolish and vulgar mortals are utterly unsightly.]
As he said, he decided to freeze everyone except one person who would deliver Elizabeth's message.
Argidoom raised his staff toward them.
WOOOOOONG!
White light gathered at the tip of the staff again.
Seeing this, Adnan shouted.
"Everyone dodge!"
At the same time, white light poured down on them.
JUAAAAAANG!
A massive ice pillar rose with the white light.
Though Adnan's group tried to dodge, Argidoom's magic persistently followed them.
But then…..
KUGUGUGUGUGU!
Sharp bone walls sprouted from the ground.
KWADUDUDUD!
The bone walls hit by Argidoom's light turned into sharp ice walls.
Adnan recognized the suddenly grown bone walls.
'This is? The magic used by the lich that Sir Zeke controlled?'
KWADUDUDUK!
Something started sprouting from the ground suddenly.
CLANK! CLANK!
Unlike regular skeletons, Dragoons with purple bodies and hellfire flickering in their eyes revealed themselves.
THUD!
At the same time, Durahan, holding his own head, glared at Argidoom while leading the Dragoon unit.
GRRRR!
When Durahan roared, the Dragoons raised their swords and summoned dark power.
KUGUGUGU!
Black flames imbued with ominous energy wrapped around the Dragoons' swords, and they shot those flames at Argidoom.
KWAKWAKWAKWA!
When hellfire suddenly flew toward him, Argidoom couldn't help but be flustered.
[Kugh!]
Argidoom retreated and raised another barrier.
However, even Argidoom's barrier couldn't block the flames shot by the Dragoons.
The Dragoons summoned by Richmond breathed the hellfire of Gehenna from the northern demon realm, which was on a different level from ordinary physical realm fire.
Argidoom shouted at Draker and the Skeleton Dragoons.
[This is Gehenna's flame! Which faction are you from?! How dare you intrude into Pandemonium's territory?! This is a clear violation of the treaty!]
Though he shouted with authority, while Argidoom was flustered by the continuous hellfire, Richmond appeared near Adnan's group.
KWADUDUDUD!
Bone walls emerged all around to protect Adnan's group.
Richmond approached them and spoke.
"Oh my, what a blizzard in this season. Is everyone alright?"
Adnan urgently spoke upon seeing Richmond.
"Where is Sir Zeke? The situation is critical."
Richmond nodded and replied.
"The master went to handle the more urgent matter first."
Adnan was shocked at Richmond's words.
"More urgent? What could be more urgent than here…?"
But then……
KWAKWAKWAKWABOOM!
A massive explosion echoed from far away.
KUGUGUGU!
Surprisingly, the demon realm gate floating in the sky was collapsing.
Adnan, Bodmir, and the barbarians looked up with their mouths agape.
'To close such a massive gate alone...'
Adnan realized that Zeke had become a transcendent being on the same level as the High Table.
Richmond also looked up at the sky in admiration.
"Kya, as expected our master is impressive."
He spoke while having skeletons tend to the frozen barbarians.
"The master ordered to quickly get everyone inside the castle. I'll open a path, so follow me."
When Richmond waved his hand, bone walls extended all the way to the castle.
Though experienced Adnan had faced many necromancers, he had never seen anyone handle bones as naturally as Richmond.
'Is it because he's a lich? No... even then, this is an amazing level.'
While Adnan was admiring, Richmond urgently gestured to the group.
"No time! Let's hurry!"
At his urging, the group ran along the inside of the bone walls toward the castle following Richmond's guidance.
KWAKWAKWABOOM!
Noticing this, Argidoom shot ice magic at the bone walls.
Richmond grumbled watching this.
"Aing, being annoying."
When he activated magic, small bones shot out from the bone walls toward the floating Argidoom.
DUDUDUDUDU!
Hundreds of sharp bone fragments flew at Argidoom.
Argidoom was startled by the sudden attack.
BUBUBUBUK!
Though his barrier deflected most bone fragments, some grazed past leaving wounds on his pure white skin.
Argidoom clenched his teeth while bleeding blue blood.
[How dare such lowly creatures…?]
KUGUGUGUGUGU!
Argidoom raised his magical power to maximum in anger.
KWAKWAKWAKWA!
A massive iceberg formed above his head.
The hill-sized iceberg was large enough to crush Adnan's group instantly.
Seeing this, Richmond shouted.
"Hurry! Hurry!"
They quickly climbed up the castle wall using the bone stairs Richmond created.
"Haah!"
Adnan and Bodmir reached the castle wall first, followed by King Fist and other barbarians.
Being first to arrive, Adnan quickly gathered his wits and looked ahead from the outer wall.
An overwhelmingly large iceberg was falling toward the outer wall.
'The wall will collapse.'
But at that moment.
KRAAAAA!
A dragoon appeared from behind the outer wall and pushed hard against the iceberg.
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
When the dragoon pushed, the iceberg fell away from the wall and was pushed to the opposite side.
KRAAAAA!
With a roar,the dragoon soared into the sky then fell back down ramming his horns into the iceberg.
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
The massive iceberg scattered with its debris showering down on the monsters below.
KWADUDUDUD!
The falling ice rocks swept away monsters and completely blocked the entrance path through the south gate.
The monsters behind could no longer advance forward.
That's when the dragoon glided through the air and breathed flames at the monsters below.
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
With their path forward blocked, the monsters were helplessly struck by dragoon's flames.
Watching this from the air, Argidoom wore an expression of disbelief.
[H-How could this…?]
His own summoned iceberg had completely disrupted his allied forces.
He raised his staff again, intending to freeze A dragoon who was breathing flames.
But then….
"You said you're First Princess Elizabeth's subordinate."
Argidoom flinched at the sudden voice behind him.
As a high-ranking demon, his senses were far keener than humans'.
Yet someone had managed to deceive those senses.
Finally noticing the situation, he felt his breath stop for a moment from the sharp presence and sovereign's pressure piercing his skin.
Argidoom slowly turned his head.
Zeke was looking down at him while mounted on Bucephalus.
Meeting his gaze, Argidoom broke into a cold sweat and found himself trembling unconsciously.
Zeke spoke while looking at him.
"Take me to your master."
* * *
STEP! STEP!
A mage in a black robe was quickly walking down a long corridor.
At the end of the corridor was a door guarded by knights disguised in civilian clothes.
Their presence alone revealed they were no ordinary knights.
The robed mage tensed upon seeing these knights.
'Draker's knights.'
Stronger and more tenacious than any knights on the continent, Draker's knights were natural enemies of mages.
The mage swallowed hard and entered through the door that a knight opened, head bowed.
Inside, he grew even more tense seeing who waited.
'Baron Draker.'
The man sitting at the table was Draker's Black Corps Commander, leader of the continent's most feared intelligence organization.
The mage bowed to Baron.
"L-Lord Baron. An honor to meet you."
Baron gave no response to the mage's greeting.
Instead, as he fixed his gaze.
"KUHURK!"
Suddenly the mage’s body twisted and his eyes rolled back.
KWADUDUK!
An ominous energy different from before flowed from the ordinary mage's body.
Only then did Baron speak.
"Welcome, High Priest. Or should I call you Doctor West?"
Harvey West, High Priest of the Abyss, had possessed the mage's body to appear before Baron.
The priest spoke in an eerie voice without preamble.
[...Baron, do you intend to break the treaty?]
"Treaty? Wasn't that already broken when your side conspired with Ramon Jiemens to summon the Evil God?"
The High Priest of the Abyss and Baron Draker of the Black Corps.
They conversed as if they had known each other before.
The priest responded irritably to Baron's words.
[How shameless, after destroying Abel Draker who was to be the vessel.]
KUGUGUGU!
The air in the room changed instantly.
Dark energy surged forth as if to swallow Baron whole.
Yet Baron's expression remained unchanged.
He spoke to the priest.
"I found a better vessel than Abel."
The priest threatened Baron with the gathered darkness as he spoke.
[A better vessel. Surely you don't mean Zeke Draker.]
The one with immortal power and virtually the only one remaining in the physical realm qualified to be a vessel.
That was Zeke.
But Baron shook his head.
"Not Zeke Draker."
Baron continued slowly while looking at the priest.
"What if Arthur Draker became the vessel for the Demon King?"