Chapter 616 The Grin.
Bella, and the demons surrounded the tall doors. They were specially made to stop anyone from entering. However, they weren't built to survive the onslaught of the Demon General's attacks. After all, the Demon General's strength changed drastically depending of the rank.
Bella was a Demon General of Eight rank. The doors could perhaps survive someone of rank fifty, but someone in the top ten was unlikely.
She raised her bronze-colored fist, and smashed it into the metal doors. A large dent appeared. Following her, the rest of the Commanding Demons unleashed their spells--glowing spheres, long glowing whips, and flying spells.
Once the glowing spheres struck the door, they exploded, causing more dents to arrive. The long glowing whips lashed across the door, leaving behind a long cut, and finally, the flying spells blasted through the door.
Seeing that the door was nearly breaking, Bella raised both her fists, and struck them in the door. Within an instant, she punched the door a thousand times, and finally, threw a kick which broke the door from its hinges, causing it to fall off.
Bella, and the rest of the Demons activated their spells. They didn't know what was hiding behind the door, but the only defense couldn't be the door.
After the smoke cleared, they saw a throne room-sized space, with a glowing sphere in the middle, guarded by hexagon-shaped barrier. The heat was unbearable because there was a disfigured man with bare chest, creating weapons before the door was broken apart.
''W-What?!'' Hephaestus, the blacksmithing god, was frightened. After seeing the intruders, his eyes widened in a shock, and he immediately ran toward the barrier, which guarded the Veil of Illusion. However, one of the demons appeared before him, and punched.
Hephaestus grabbed the fist, and smashed the demon at the ground like he was a ragdoll, ''Get out of my way!''
The demon's bronze skin slightly cracked as he was thrown across the room, then crashed on the granite wall.
The rest of the demons attacked Hephaestus, pushing him away from the barrier. Bella slowly walked towards the barrier, and touched it with her long fingers.
''No!'' Hephaestus screamed, and threw the demons off. However, one of the demons stabbed him by a long, claw-like dagger. He coughed out golden blood, but then grabbed the demon's head, and crushed it.
The rest of the demons didn't look fazed. They sprung to their feet, and attacked the blacksmithing god from every angle. Hephaestus desperately tried to fight back while watching the seductive-looking demon move her hand across the barrier.
'How does she know that brute strength isn't the way to open it?!' Hephaestus cried out. The barrier had a safety mechanism. If someone tried to attack it, it would cause an alarm, that rang throughout all the realms. The Gods, and Goddesses would realize that someone was attacking.
Thus, Hephaestus tried to attack the barrier, but couldn't move even a step forward. Even though he was alone and stronger than the Commanding Demons, there were too many of them.
Hephaestus crashed into the granite wall, and quickly tilted his head to the side. One of the demons missed his head, and kicked the wall. However, the rest of the demons unleashed their spells, and caused a large explosion.
''Aaaargh!'' Hephaestus, smoking like he was on fire, fell on the ground, right beside the forger. There was a hammer lying on top of it. It was long-handled, and the hammer part was covered in shiny steel.
With quick hands, he snatched the hammer, and smashed it across one of the demon's faces, shattering the skull. With a loud roar, he ran across the room while smashing the hammer on the demons.
As they unleashed their spells, he used the hammer as shield, and then smashed it across their bodies. The dead demons littered the ground as Hephaestus leaped across the room, and swung his hammer towards the barrier.
Bella swung her head around, and stood in front of the hammer, her hand raised toward Hephaestus.
''Hmph, die!'' Hephaestus, seeing that the demon planned to take the strike head-on, changed the trajectory from the barrier at Bella.
However, once the hammer struck's Bella's delicate hand, it completely stopped. It was like it was suddenly stuck in time.
''A-Aaaarfgghh!'' Hephaestus screamed in frustration as his large muscles bulged. His ugly, disfigured face was morphed into a struggling look.
Bella moved the hammer effortlessly away from her, and backhanded Hephaestus across his face. He flew out of the room, and landed in the middle of the cavern-like room.
''Sphere of Destruction.'' A small glowing sphere appeared from Bella's finger. She aimed it at the ceiling, and fired it. After the sphere landed on the ceiling, it exploded, causing the ceiling to crumble in pieces. The debris fell right in the place of the door, covering the Veil of Illusion room from the rest.
Bella then turned to rest of the demons, and waved her hand. The previous dead demons rose to their feet like they were zombies. Soon, light returned to their red eyes, and they were back alive.
''Whew, thanks General.'' They bowed in gratitude, and surrounded the barrier. They all placed their hands on it, and started slowly breaking it with gentle touch.
Hephaestus struggled to stand up. Then, he saw from a tiny cracks that all the demons were again alive. The barrier started slowly cracking. He panicked, and ran towards the room. However, there were the debris in the way.
As he smashed his hammer on the debris, his hands trembled, and he lost the grip on the long handle. The hammer slipped off his hold, and flew away.
The debris was made of thick layer of moon rock. He didn't have enough strength to break it. It shocked him greatly that delicate-looking demoness managed to push him off so easily, and even broke the moon rock!
Bella rubbed her hands across the barrier, and soon, it shattered before dissipating into pixels.
''Please don't!'' Hephaestus shouted in panic, ''You don't have to do this!''
''Shut up, filth!'' The demons shouted, and laughed afterward. Bella didn't change her expression, and touched the glowing sphere. It was the last protection the veil had.
This time, they could use brute strength. Thus, with one attack, it shattered, revealing a transparent veil. It looked like it was illusionary, and not from this universe.
Bella grabbed the veil with her two hands. As the demons watched excitedly, she ripped it in half.
...
Thousands of planets away.
''Haaah...'' Lucifer, Demon King of First Heaven, grinned. He sat on a dark throne, in his majestic First Heaven Castle. Surrounding the castle was hundred thousand strong demon army. They raised their halberds, spears, and swords towards the crimson sky, and shouted in unison.
The war was here.