Chapter 55 Demons
Watching the flames ignite, Mog remained unfazed. His eye sockets were completely covered by crimson flames, and in the center of the flames, a dark ring slowly rotated, covered in intricate runes.
He had to confirm Li Wen’s life or death, otherwise, he could not rest easy.
So the priest walked into the sea of fire. The endless flames did not attack him; instead, they all submitted to his feet. Under the scorching and pulling of the raging fire, the priest’s shadow became huge and distorted, like a grotesque, evil spirit.
The once sacred church was gradually disintegrating. Under the burning flames of purgatory, even rocks would melt. In a short while, only a scorched ruin would remain here.
However, Priest Mog did not see Li Wen’s figure, which made him feel vaguely uneasy.
This unease became reality in the next moment. A pale and sacred arc light cut through layers of fire and instantly appeared before Priest Mog.
At this critical moment, Mog had only time to raise his hand, trying to prevent the arc light from severing his neck.
Unbearable pain penetrated his flesh and reached his bone marrow. The priest’s palm was covered in blood, but fortunately, the arc light did not even cut off his palm.
“False show.”
Priest Mog looked coldly in the direction from which the arc light came. There, surrounded by firelight, stood a girl in a black cloak amidst the flames.
The cloak emitted faint green starlight, shielding her from the firelight and heat. Only then could she hide in the fire and launch a surprise attack on him.
Seeing that the Spell-less Arc Light attack had failed, Li Wen was not surprised.
“I thought you would hold on a little longer. I didn’t expect you to be so impatient?” Li Wen said with a mockery.
Mog… no, the demon whose real name was Tilroghzakh would not fall for such provocation.
“If it weren’t for Siswell’s orders, you would have died on the first day.”
“Oh?”
Li Wen was curious about what flaw she had revealed that made him want to kill her, after all, he was still an unknown spy for Dark Dawn at that time.
Was it because of the Path of Light Chasing? She could only think of this possibility.
Tilroghzakh clearly had no intention of explaining. He didn’t have much time. As a demon who had signed a contract with Siswell, he had to follow the other party’s instructions – one of which was not to act rashly.
If this attracted the attention of the Kingdom’s Disciplinary Bureau, then all of Dark Dawn’s arrangements in the Black Dragon Territory might be discovered, and that would be the real threat.
But now it was different. He had found a loophole in the contract, and coupled with it being the night of no light, the power of darkness was soaring, which was the time when demons like him were most powerful.
Today was his only chance to kill Li Wen. This damned human dared to impersonate a member of Dark Dawn to deceive him and even knew his true name. If he hadn’t tested her abnormality with the Path of Light Chasing, he would still be in the dark. Tilroghzakh swore that he could not let her go!
A demon’s true name was part of the contract. If another person controlled their true name, they would have the ability to command that demon. Tilroghzakh’s true name should only have been known by Siswell.
But Siswell had no reason to give out his true name. Moreover, when he used the High Ceremony to send Li Wen away with those idiots, he had already contacted Siswell. The other party replied today – she was not a member of Dark Dawn, and Siswell’s plan in the Black Dragon Territory was only one!
“You really are a damned person,” the demon said resentfully. “If you ruin Siswell’s great undertaking, even I will have to pay a terrible price for it!”
Tilroghzakh did not know what stage Li Wen’s terrifying ritual had reached, nor its specific function, so he wanted to test it first.
The flames silently crawled at the demon’s feet. Tilroghzakh chanted incantations in the demonic language, and the flames quickly gathered, condensing into the form of a monster snake over three meters tall.
“Fire is my servant!” he shouted.
The fire snake had three heads, all scarlet. Each head had two pairs of eyes and four horns. As it breathed, sparks emerged from its mouth and nose.
Li Wen had already cast a Prayer spell on herself beforehand. Although this three-headed fire snake looked terrifying, it was actually less pressurizing than an uninjured Fire Mage. Dealing with it was more than enough for a level one Li Wen.
But Tilroghzakh was different. He was a true demon. Demons had two forms: one was the demon that had existed in purgatory since ancient times, and the other was a demon formed after a life’s fall.
The former was born powerful, but could not set foot in the mortal realm, and could only descend in a possessed form. The power they could use could not exceed that of the possessed. The latter would inherit the strength and abilities of their original form before their fall, and their power depended on this.
Li Wen did not know which category Tilroghzakh belonged to. She only knew one thing: Tilroghzakh could instantly turn the huge church into a sea of fire, and his strength was at least beyond the Stage One level.
Under normal circumstances, there was an insurmountable gap between Transcendent Stage One and Stage Two. In Stage One, they still had mortal bodies, but upon entering Stage Two, the essence of their life would undergo a huge change.
However, this also said that it was only “under normal circumstances.”
For Li Wen, who had completed the ritual and advanced to Witch Disciple, the answer to this question was still unknown.
At this time, the three-headed fire snake approached Li Wen. It hissed and flicked its tongue, shooting flames from its mouth. Several huge fireballs then flew towards Li Wen.
Li Wen’s expression remained unchanged. With a few feints, she dodged the simple and naive trajectory.
But the fire snake took this opportunity to get close to her. Three massive mouths attacked Li Wen simultaneously. A scorching, foul wind assailed her nostrils. Li Wen gripped the Bone-Corroding Short Sword in reverse, dodged the attack of the fire snake’s left head with a sidestep, and simultaneously severed the other two heads of the fire snake.
The fire snake that lost two heads immediately disintegrated and turned back into flames. Seeing this, Tilroghzakh’s expression remained unchanged.
He took out a bent goat horn and stabbed it into Li Wen’s shadow out of thin air.
Li Wen trembled all over, her body felt numb as if electrocuted, and black patterns filled her right hand, which was holding the Bone-Corroding Short Sword, and her left side of the body, along with unbearable pain.
This was a curse!
Wielding fire and curses were common methods for purgatorial demons.
The barrier of Prayer was still there, but Li Wen inexplicably lost 25% of her life. Before she could even figure out what kind of curse this was.
Tilroghzakh’s cold voice arrived.
“Feeble human, how can you contend with death?”
The demon raised its hands. The surrounding flames were all imbued with life and transformed into eerie monsters, but in this battle, they were destined to be mere sacrifices. Tilroghzakh chanted a long incantation, and the goat horn in his hand pierced his own body. Each monster let out a mournful cry, then collapsed on the ground and dissipated into flames.
But some bloody red liquid remained in place. It twisted and spread outwards like tree roots, resembling the veins of a ritual magic circle.
Li Wen’s chest hurt, her heart felt as if it were being tightly clutched by an invisible hand and could not beat.
Then, the strength that clutched her heart instantly became immense, and Li Wen’s heart exploded like an overinflated balloon without any suspense.
