Chapter 956
The well-trained demon legion.
With the whistling sound of wind and thunder, silver meteors shot upwards—
Gryphons clad in silver armor, wrapped in lightning, fiercely charged towards the demons in the sky amidst the blood rain.
The dark gray storm tore apart the demon formation from the middle.
The Grand Guardian took the lead, his invisible dual blades crossed in a ‘X’ shape, facing a scantily clad Succubus.
“Philip!”
He called out the name of his gryphon in a low voice.
“I understand.”
Philip responded with a deep voice, and its body suddenly sank. Then, it turned into a storm with the Grand Guardian, accelerating instantly!
When it reappeared, he was already behind the Succubus.
The Grand Guardian’s dual blades parted, and the Succubus’s body instantly revealed ‘X’-shaped lacerations. It disintegrated into black ash with a scream.
And this also meant that George had plunged into the demon horde!
—Boom!
He raised the scimitar in his right hand and clashed with a scythe. He repelled the Winter Demon that emerged from the blizzard, while Philip beneath him suddenly erupted—its claws, wrapped in electricity, delivered a punch as heavy as a bear’s paw towards the Winter Demon!
At the moment of contact, a large burst of electricity erupted, severely wounding the Winter Demon and sending it flying!
At this time, a Punisher Demon enchanted the Lightning Halberd in its hand—the originally two-meter-long Lightning Halberd suddenly transformed into a five-meter-long formidable lightning whip, lashing fiercely at the Grand Guardian’s back!
A flash of electricity accompanied by a burnt smell arrived. The armor he was wearing was instantly damaged, and his back became a bloody mess, with scorpion-like black scorch marks appearing on his skin.
Even a Fourth Tier Extraordinary, if they took this hit squarely, would likely have their heart stop and their organs burst!
However, the Grand Guardian, relying on his own physical strength and lightning affinity, endured the blow unflinchingly!
He didn’t even turn to counterattack—
Because the Grand Guardian trusted his subordinates.
Before the Punisher Demon could strike a second blow, the following gryphons had already charged.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
A Fourth Tier Sky Knight roared, charging on his gryphon—the silver-white spear, imbued with azure lightning, instantly pierced the Punisher Demon and sent it flying!
Immediately after, the gryphon beneath him fiercely bit into the Punisher Demon’s lower body. The Punisher Demon, cursing in Hrasal, inverted the Lightning Halberd whose whip had dissipated and thrust it heavily onto the gryphon’s shoulder!
It intended to stab through the heart, but the gryphon suddenly shook its head, causing the Punisher Demon’s attack to deviate slightly. Protected by the Blessed Armor, the gryphon was not pierced but only staggered in its flight.
At this moment, another gryphon swooped in and bit the Punisher Demon’s head. With a simultaneous effort from both gryphons, they tore the “meat impaled by a toothpick” into two halves!
The Grand Guardian swung his scimitar, creating storm after storm—visible crescent-shaped strikes continuously swept through the demon horde. He himself transformed into a storm, crashing into the demon ranks!
The meteorites in the sky finally began to fall at this time.
With the agility of a gryphon, it was impossible to be hit by such an attack.
However, a few Gryphon Knights, overestimating their abilities, tried to split the meteorites, only to be directly crushed into the sea by the overly heavy meteorites.
The warships and merchant ships carrying mages emerged with protective shields—some shields withstood the impact of the meteorites, producing earth-shattering collisions and barely deflecting the meteorites; some, along with their shields, were smashed into the sea by the meteorites; some shields shattered on contact; and some were hit directly by meteorites, having no time to summon shields.
Ships whose shields were broken or failed to summon shields lost all response after being hit by meteorites, and began to gradually ignite on the sea.
Where the ships sailed, the fiercely burning flames ignited on the sea surface, even leaving behind traces of golden-red flames as the ships moved forward.
The flaming meteorites that fell into the sea also emitted sharp hissing sounds. Dense white smoke instantly vaporized from the sea surface, filling the air with the pungent smell of sulfur.
Mages, soldiers, knights—and even gryphons—who died in the raging flames were turned into puppets by the activated flames, their bodies controlled. Their limbs were bent, their bones were broken, and their skin was damaged, with gushing flames spewing out like blood from the gaps.
They rose one by one like the Undead, immediately attacking those around them indiscriminately as if they were casters or warriors.
As for the flames that fell into the sea or failed to attach to corpses, they could only form indistinct shapes resembling no living being. They were like the corrupted fire elementals summoned by the Demon Craftsmen.
At this time, the spells prepared by the mages were finally completed.
They had a good understanding of demons—therefore, they chose almost identical spells.
From those ships, chains of lightning surged and leaped upon the demons; lightning struck down from the sky like rain; and lightning that formed shackles, with one end submerged in the sea and the other bound to the demons, dragged them to the depths of the sea.
—Amidst the crackling, flickering electricity, the demons finally began to retreat, transforming into purple vortexes and teleporting back.
Although the demons had left, the fire spirits left by the Flame Demons were still continuously attacking the surrounding ships.
The flames were as viscous as oil, spreading and extending on the sea surface.
This caused further chaos in the fleet.
They had to divert their attention to clearing out the fire spirits transformed by the Flame Demons, which delayed them for a while.
The warships at the front then fired a second round of pure white beams, once again shattering the dark clouds ahead—
But after the fleet had traveled a certain distance, more purple teleportation portals reappeared in the rear positions—
—The demons had teleported again!
“Damn it! Is this endless?!”
Marshal Louis Victor cursed on one of the ships.
He had encountered similar situations—those Eagle-eyed assassins liked this kind of harassment.
They couldn’t directly defeat the Children of the Moon, nor could they confront the legion head-on. Thus, they would repeatedly harass them by throwing bombs, setting traps, and so on, distracting them while they rested or marched, making them tired and angry.
The only difference was… the Eagle-eyed assassins posed no threat to them, but these demons could!
The demons had a limited teleportation range, but as long as they approached the coast, they would always be within teleportation range—and the demons would strike at the weakest points.
“Don’t these demons have any dignity?!”
Victor became enraged: “As powerful beings, they resort to such despicable tactics!”
After the demons launched a surprise attack on a group of mages and sank some ships, they decisively retreated—this probing attack had already made the demons understand the strength of the Gryphon Knights and the mages. Therefore, they chose to let these forces pass and instead attacked the Iris people’s legion in the rear!
This wave of attack was incredibly swift, directly bisecting the continuous, single-file procession of ships!
There was no one among them skilled in lightning-type damage—although the Children of the Moon had some counteracting abilities against demons, these Upper Demons were exceptionally intelligent and refused to engage in close combat.
The demons merely floated hundreds of meters away in the sky, continuously bombarding them with meteorites, curses, and lightning.
—And at this distance, firearms and crossbows were difficult to inflict effective damage on the demons! “Send for reinforcements, quickly send for reinforcements!”
The Iris people’s legion quickly fell into chaos.
The demons’ attacks were clearly unpracticed—even now, they continued to fight over territory, and the pillars of lightning connecting the sky and sea were constantly interrupted by their own kind. But even so, the demons’ bombardment caused heavy losses to the Iris people.
After a round of retreat, the demons adjusted their strategy slightly.
Now, the demons’ strategy was very clear… concentrated fire!
They didn’t care if the damage was excessive—an ordinary merchant ship, without a barrier or reinforced deck, could simultaneously endure four or five lightning strikes and three or four meteorites. Only when it completely sank, was destroyed, or was controlled by a Flame Demon would the demons move on to the next target.
Under such saturation attacks, they had no possibility of survival.
Whichever ship was chosen as the target, morale would plummet to its lowest. And the demons spared no ship—after letting the mages go, they pursued and bombarded every ship.
After sinking ten troop transports in this manner, the morale of the Iris soldiers suddenly collapsed.
Instead of forming a line to be slaughtered, they turned their ships around and scattered in all directions. Some ships even began to flee backward… The result was that this intense chaos halted all the ships behind them.
It was like suddenly stopping on a highway and even turning back.
The cars driving backward couldn’t turn around, but the cars driving forward couldn’t move. They were instantly blocked.
Without Eivass here, these Upper Demons were almost unresolvable.
But the Church’s ships had to lead the way—otherwise, the sea formed by the Lower Demons would directly drown everyone.
Even the strongest man in hand-to-hand combat couldn’t exert himself if he was packed amidst a dense crowd. When the numbers reached a certain point, they could indeed suppress quality with quantity—provided they didn’t have sufficiently powerful area-of-effect attacks.
Fortunately, the fleet ahead managed to send word in time.
Not long after, the Gryphon Legions flew back.
Seeing the streaks of silver-gray meteors whistling in the distance, these demons teleported away without hesitation.
This time, the Upper Demons didn’t even suffer any casualties—they retreated before actual engagement.
In the distance, Eivass, watching all this through a ritual, frowned deeply.
“Who commanded this? An Eye Demon? Or a Succubus?”
There were capable individuals among the demon legion…
These demons flexibly used their teleportation abilities to move freely within the demon realm. They did not engage the main forces at all—even though they were in the advantageous position.
The demons continuously concentrated their forces to raid weak points back and forth… Even with Eye Demons who could see their troop distribution, this kind of battlefield command was still somewhat excessive.
Eivass felt as if he wasn’t fighting a group of demons—but rather a group of soldiers with considerable tactical acumen.
Although these soldiers didn’t necessarily respect each other and even got into fights, they executed orders with almost no mishaps.
Even the soldiers of the Holy Gryphon Knights would, out of arrogance or carelessness, try to challenge meteorites—attacks that could have been easily dodged. The demons, on the other hand, did not have this habit; after the initial engagement and realizing they did not want to fight in this location, they immediately changed their command strategy.
“…Could it be that the generals of the Star Antinomy Ministry of the Army have all been transformed into demons? Are they the ones in command?”
Eivass frowned deeply, feeling that the situation was becoming increasingly troublesome.
What should he do now…
He could only leave the Gryphon Legions at sea for now.
Have them guard this area and protect the fleet—after all, the demons’ teleportation had a limited range, and they could only teleport to within territorial waters at most. So, the Gryphon Legions would guard the vicinity and launch attacks as soon as demons appeared.
—However, there’s no such thing as guarding against a thief for a thousand days.
The teleportation of demons consumed less mana, but the charges of the gryphons consumed a lot of physical strength. If they were made to dash back and forth a few times, these gryphons might even encounter problems.
But there was no other way—another strategy would be to have the Church’s ships stop in the middle of the sea. But in that case, if they concentrated their firepower on the shore, it would be troublesome.
So, Eivass had to anchor the ships at the port. This way, they could respond to both the front and rear as much as possible, although the rear would be slightly weaker.
Moreover, the Church’s gunboats couldn’t fire indefinitely—the scorching rays also required the mages’ mana.
“What a topsy-turvy situation, the demons have started a war of attrition…”
Eivass grumbled, feeling somewhat troubled for a moment.
“I’ll go, Master.”
At this moment, the Night Demon suddenly spoke: “I’ll watch them.”
“…But how will you watch them? You can’t be too far from me.”
As soon as Eivass finished speaking, he realized what the Night Demon meant: “You’re bringing Lily with you?”
“It’s not like we’re suitable for fighting Fallen Heavenly Envoys, so it’s better for us to stay here. However, just in case, I suggest leaving at least half of the Gryphon Legion to protect us.”
The Night Demon volunteered: “Even with only half the strength, I can seize their control over domain weather. If the Flame Demons and Punisher Demons are eliminated, dealing with the remaining Gryphon Legions will be easier.”
Eivass pondered for a moment, then slowly nodded: “So be it.”
“With you here, I can rest assured…”
And at this moment, another problem arose in the front—
A violent explosion sounded from the mages who were the first wave of landing troops!
—The demons had set up ritual traps!
They had hidden mutated fleshy bombs inside the citizens, causing them to detonate instantly when the mages came into contact with them!
Eivass was somewhat astonished.
There was a capable person among the Fallen Heavenly Envoys…
(End of this chapter)
