Dominic stared at the chaotic abyssal fissure for a long time, his gaze finally settling on Academician Vincent, who sat with his eyes closed, casting a spell.
“How’s it going?” he asked in a low voice.
Vincent slowly opened his eyes, those pale blue irises now glittering with a light that seemed to peer into the abyss’s secrets.
“Found it. Traces left by Lord Casaric.”
As a highly respected court academician of the White Horse Kingdom, he publicly claimed to be a spellcasting scholar proficient in summoning and creation, but in truth his research into demonology ran far deeper than his work with conventional spell schools.
A mere instructor from the Gedon Arcane Academy in Jade City, who rose step by step to become a court mage and enter the kingdom’s inner circles of power, did so not only because of talent but also thanks to the demons’ unseen assistance.
Those “accidentally” obtained ancient demonic tomes, those “unexpected” discoveries of forbidden knowledge, those perfectly timed “helpful” interventions... all guided him toward trading with the abyss.
His reason for dealing with demons was simple—perhaps even pure—he wanted to explore more knowledge, to glimpse the world’s deeper mysteries.
And demons happened to be able to provide the ancient knowledge and power that church and crown classified as taboo. It was that straightforward.
An unknown beam shot from the staff’s tip, pierced through the chaotic abyssal fissure, and plunged into the bottomless darkness as if seeking or summoning something.
At the legion’s front lines, Chen Yu noticed Vincent’s small action in the distance. He didn’t know exactly what Vincent was doing, but by instinct—via the gel—he knew it wasn’t good.
He waved his little gel hand, “Yano, Arthur, go interrupt them!”
“Yes, Boss!” Yano grinned, beating the massive batwing behind him. Clutching that pitch-black greatsword, he became a bolt of black lightning, flying over the abyssal fissure below and charging straight at Vincent and the others.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Arthur slightly bowed as the pale blue soulfire calmly burned.
He tugged the reins; his skeletal steed reared and emitted a voiceless whinny, then ran out at speed. Where the hooves struck the scorched earth, two rows of hoofprints burned with eerie blue flames.
“Your Highness, Princess, I returned alive!” Glenn rode back to the magical creature legion’s position, waving his arms excitedly at Louisa.
“Glenn, stay here. Do not leave.” Louisa gave a brief order, then looked to Chen Yu. “Lord Slime, come with me.”
“Gurg!” Celeste let out a chirp.
Louisa scooped Chen Yu up and set him forward on Celeste’s broad back.
“Gurg, such a hard life.” Celeste sighed faintly, but still flapped his wings and carried the two up into the sky, beginning to circle above the abyssal fissure to observe the situation from above.
Louisa fired Arcane Missiles, blasting open a few sly little demons attempting to sneak closer.
Soon more gargoyles and swarms of Poison-stinger Wasps arrived, clashing fiercely with the demons streaming out of the fissure.
Louisa braced against the bitter wind and asked Chen Yu, who perched on her shoulder, “Lord Slime, do you have a concrete plan to close this fissure, or to deal with those demon pawns?”
“Plan?” Chen Yu pondered, his round body wobbling. “What about eating them all? Does that count as a plan?”
Before Louisa could reply, he leapt off Celeste’s back and dove straight toward the area below where the demons were fighting the fiercest.
“Slime?”
A gluttonous demon with a huge belly happened to look up and licked its thick lips with its tongue, thinking it had not tasted the bouncy texture of slime in ages. Its small eyes brightened.
“Ah—”
It hugged its layered fat belly, took heavy steps and awkwardly adjusted its position, then opened its abyssal maw to the sky, waiting for Chen Yu to fall right into its mouth.
But the next second, the slime the glutton demon had regarded as a mere snack rapidly inflated during its descent, and in the blink of an eye became a purple colossus like a small mountain. Its enormous shadow instantly enveloped the glutton demon and the area around it.
The surrounding demons froze. They had barely looked up before they, too, were crushed under the falling gel behemoth.
Splurt!
The sound of bursting viscera rang out as the demons were squashed like tomatoes under a boulder, instantly pulped. Sticky blood and shredded innards oozed from the gel’s edges.
The massive commotion instantly drew every demon on the battlefield’s attention. They all turned to stare at the purple titan standing in the field’s center and rubbed their eyes in disbelief.
“Liam, are slimes on the Prime Material Plane... usually this big?” A magma demon, molten streams running across its hardened skull, croaked in the abyssal tongue as it asked.
Beside it, another magma demon named Liam widened his lava-filled eyes and bellowed hoarsely, “You idiot, that’s a Gold-Rank creature. Run!”
“But its body seems weird...” The magma demon hadn’t finished speaking when its massive form was suddenly pulled by an invisible force and uncontrollably flew toward the slime in the center of the battlefield.
Liam hurriedly lashed out with burning claws to grab his comrade, but his gaze toward the center caught sight of a scene that chilled his soul.
The colossal slime’s belly had grown pitch black like an abyss; the whirlpool inside seemed able to devour everything and unleashed a terrifying suction.
Demons, fallen rocks, even stray mana were relentlessly sucked into the black abyssal belly, vanishing without a trace.
“Are we demons, or is it the demon...” That thought flashed through Liam’s mind as a last idea, then he and his struggling comrade screamed as they were swallowed into the abyssal maw and disappeared completely.
“Louisa, are you sure it’s really a slime?” Celeste quickly climbed higher to get away from the terrible suction and couldn’t help but point out.
Louisa remained silent, her expression thoughtful. She stared intently at Chen Yu below as he frenziedly devoured demons, as if pondering something important.
Meanwhile, on another part of the battlefield away from the fissure, Yano and Arthur had already charged close to Dominic and the others.
Dominic and Samuel advanced to hold them, while Ellen hid in nearby shadows, ready to launch a lethal backstab.
Although this was the first time the two knights from the Slime Motherland had fought together, their cooperation proved unexpectedly seamless.
Yano fought with brute force, like a battering ram suited for frontal assaults, while Arthur was calm and precise, his deathfire targeting vital points and openings.
Together they pushed experienced fighters like Dominic and Samuel back and forced them to barely hold their ground.
“Take my secret art, Great Dark Sword!” Yano shouted wildly, hoisting his black greatsword high and bringing it down at Samuel.
“Secret art? What kind of move is that?!” Samuel tensed; he had never heard a skill called that before.
He raised a small enchanted round shield with his right hand to try blocking Yano’s greatsword while thrusting his knightly blade under Yano’s ribs with his left.
Clang!!!
The greatsword struck the round shield and a tremendous force washed over Samuel. His legs involuntarily skidded back, carving two deep grooves in the ground before he could barely stop the strike. The arm holding the shield went numb, nearly losing all feeling.
“Damn, where does this guy get so much strength...” Samuel grew increasingly alarmed.
As far as he knew, the first Stone Scion Grand Duke in the Dark Realm’s history should have been an assassin famous for stealth and guile.
How did the man claiming to be “Stone Scion Grand Duke” in front of him end up fighting like a berserker?!
He could not have guessed Yano not only possessed a knight’s power, but also the body-forging strength from another world.
After being forced back by another heavy cleave from Yano, Samuel turned his glance toward the abyssal fissure and just happened to witness Chen Yu transformed into a “black hole” devouring demons frantically. He was even more shocked inside.
“Vincent, damn you, are you done yet? I’m about to break!” Samuel cursed loudly, unable to maintain the composed elegance of “Golden Dawson.”
Dominic’s situation was no better.
Usually Holy Light naturally suppressed the undead, but with Arthur it seemed reversed.
The knightly sword in Dominic’s hand, flowing with sacred light, was quickly eroded when it contacted the deathfire on Arthur’s lance; the blade even began to show blotchy rust.
In mounted combat as well, Dominic, as Second Legion Commander, couldn’t seize any advantage. Arthur and his mount moved as one; their actions were instinctual, each charge, turn, and thrust precise and lethal.
If Ellen weren’t constantly harassing to distract and seek an opening to backstab Arthur, Dominic would have fallen far faster.
Clang! The lance and holy blade clashed fiercely again. Dominic attempted to shift his weight forward to force Arthur back.
He gritted his teeth and said coldly, “Arthur, deciding to kill you back then was the right call.”
“You’re terrifying... more terrifying than your father ever was.”
He knew in his heart that if Arthur had not died in that conspiracy thirteen years ago, and had instead grown with his talent and temperament to the present... Dominic might not even be able to parry a single strike now.
The soulfire in Arthur’s eyes swelled violently, but he remained silent and did not answer.
Only the deathfire on the lance suddenly flared, the pale blue flames surging toward Dominic like a tidal wave.
Boom!
Dominic and Ellen, who had just appeared, were both struck and flew backward.
Ellen clutched an arm burned by the flames, pain on his face.
“The Arevalo knights are approaching, Vincent, are you done?!” Ellen shouted hoarsely, anxiety in his tone.
At that moment, Vincent, who had been casting with his eyes closed, slowly opened his eyes.
“They’ve arrived.”
The staff in his hand gradually dimmed and the purple-black beam that had shot into the abyss vanished.
The abyssal fissure then shook violently and expanded outward faster. Stone claws reached out from inside, gripping the fissure’s edge and prying it open wider, stabilizing it.
Chen Yu, who had been blocking the fissure with his massive body, suddenly felt an enormous pushing force coming from within the crack.
Huh?
He looked down and saw dozens of sturdy, scaled arms stretching out from the fissure, rhythmically pushing against his gel belly.
Unlike the messy low-tier demons earlier, these arms’ owners showed far more order and organization, indicating they were no ordinary creatures.
Chen Yu didn’t care who they were. He braced and his gel belly bounced, forcing the demons inside back in.
He thought he faintly heard frantic demonic curses from deep within the fissure.
Then he felt a sharp pain in his belly, as if something sharp had pierced his gel skin.
Chen Yu instinctively hopped back, vacating the space directly in front of the fissure.
Szzzt!!!
Dazzling blue-white lightning flashed from deep inside the fissure. A lance wrapped in raging thunder thrust out first.
Immediately after, a tall, powerful figure strode out through the lightning and sulfur smoke.
It was a demon half-formed like a centaur.
Muscles bulged on its body. Its strong upper torso was covered in dark red coarse hide. Two enormous curved horns grew from its head; its eyes burned with sulfurous extinguishing flame, coldly fixed on Chen Yu.
It raised the thunder-wreathed lance and let out a warlike roar, a sound like distant thunder rolling across the battlefield.
“Demon Legion, follow me into the invasion!”
Boom...
The thud of demons trampling the earth thundered as countless demon soldiers seized black weapons and strode from the abyssal fissure in somewhat disordered steps.
Behind them came even larger abyssal spiders and banshees adept at psychic attacks.
The demon legion’s scale was immense and they instantly occupied the area around the fissure.
They even pushed out war wagons studded with iron thorns, forming a crude defensive perimeter around the fissure.
High above, Louisa immediately used True Insight to scout, and her expression turned grave.
Via the Gel Network, she told Chen Yu, “Iron Cavalry demons usually serve as the vanguard of a demon legion. They revel in charging, trampling, and tearing enemies apart with lightning. A demon legion organized like this is no simple thing; it might be remnants Casaric left in the abyss that Vincent and the others deliberately summoned.”
“Be careful. This demon iron cavalry’s aura is off.”
Chen Yu’s gaze fixed on the menacing demon cavalry. From the compressed sense of pressure it emanated...
Why did he feel this demon seemed like it was at least eleven ranks?