Chapter 916
Sailing From History!
Ewias didn’t open his eyes immediately; he was still praying.
However, his prayer was no longer for the entire Star Antimony Territory, but for this warship.
“I beseech Amber, God of the Sacred Number Nine, God of Perfection, God of Perfect Eternity—”
As Ewias low chanted, the dim yellow amber power began to spread and expand around them, forming a semicircular spherical shield.
The ship, which had originally been drifting on the water, now turned into a perfect static turret as the water was solidified by the dim yellow power, turning into an unyielding ice.
The priests arrived at their positions one by one.
—These were the antler armrests that looked like steering wheels.
They grasped the antlers with both hands, closed their eyes, injected mana, and immersed their minds. The candles on the antlers then lit up out of nowhere.
As the priests in the cabin took their places, balls of candlelight lit up one after another, illuminating the formerly dim cabin.
The warship “Cruel Preacher” thus revealed its true form—
The ruby plates embedded in its hull began to charge and glow, becoming dazzling as the low prayers continued.
The entire ship was as if it were burning, emitting an extremely dazzling light upon the sea.
It was already late at night, yet from afar, the ship seemed to have transformed into the morning sun. The evaporating heat distorted the air, making it blur in the chaos.
And the masses of lower demons, countless in number, throwing themselves at the ship under the dim moonlight, were like countless moths drawn to a scorching flame!
“Your Majesty the Pope!”
Two Pope’s Guards entered the cabin and asked Ewias for instructions: “The charging is complete. Are we ready to engage!”
They both looked like eighteen or nineteen-year-old girls, but their faces at this moment were as resolute as those of battle-hardened warriors.
Ewias slowly opened his eyes.
“—Open fire,” he ordered. “Free fire.”
The next moment, brilliant flames roared—
The thoughts of eighty “crew members” became one with the ship.
Eighty Fourth Tier spells, [Scorching Ray], equivalent to being enhanced by “Spell Focus” and “Spell Amplification,” were simultaneously activated!
This powerful warship, of which the Church possessed only three, finally displayed its brilliance once again after being extinguished for over three thousand years!
At this moment, it sailed forth from forgotten history once more!
In an instant, the night sky was illuminated.
It was like lightning before thunder—except that the electric light had accumulated eighty times in place! After a flash of white light, the night sky was instantly torn apart by a spiderweb of flames!
Each ray pierced through all the demons without obstruction.
The waves were pushed aside by the burning aura, and the sea surface directly caved in. The ice beneath the hull was also instantly melted.
From one end to the other, without any pause—its maximum range was a full twenty kilometers!
The attacks that were near horizontal were not fired too far, to prevent accidental harm to civilians; while the attacks angled upwards pierced straight into the sky.
And as they were pierced by these scorching flame rays, even the demons let out earth-shattering screams.
Their bodies melted and disintegrated in the golden-red flames, emitting a dazzling red light, like pieces of half-melted steel.
The evaporated seawater formed terrifying white smoke, emitting a startlingly pungent odor.
From the warship to the shore, the continuously evaporating white steam formed a thick curtain, hiding the warship behind it.
Even so, the scorching dark-red warship still remained hidden deep within the white mist.
The next moment, burning meteorites fell towards the earth—
Or rather, the corpses of demons rained down from the sky.
—Yes, corpses!
Within the domain of the Fallen Heavenly Envoy, when these demons died, they no longer turned into a small amount of ash-black powder and were sent back to the Dream Realm in a dim black vortex… instead, they left behind lifeless, twisted corpses as if they were truly killed!
The corpses of these demons were twisted and ugly, like charred flesh curled into a ball in agony.
And when these fiery meteors landed on the ground and smashed into buildings, they did not cause much damage.
When they hit the ground, they suddenly shattered. Like a piece of coal being thrown forcefully to the ground. It was a loose solid with a texture slightly similar to the dust left behind by demons when they died in the Material Realm, but with a much richer Path Power.
Even the night sky was illuminated by these fireballs. The entire port of Leipzig rained down a doomsday-like fire.
Those who couldn’t sleep due to fear, seeing this scene, shouted with excitement.
Because most of the approaching demon army had been melted by this attack!
These seemingly impossible to resist, doomsday-like demon legions appeared so fragile before that “sun” that was so scorching it distorted the air!
—In fact, there was no need for Ewias to act.
They were just mere lower demons of the highest Third Tier.
Their numbers were just a little too large… but if the Pope’s fully equipped escort warship was useless against these minor monsters, requiring the Pope himself to deal with them, then what was the point of them?
“Groups One to Three, begin cooling!”
The Pope’s Guard walked quickly through the cabin, shouting orders, “Group Four, continue pursuit and interception!”
After the astonishing first salvo, the locust-like lower demons had been mostly eliminated.
However, there were still a few survivors—not because they were tough enough to withstand the first attack, but because they were lucky enough to survive in the gaps of the scorching rays.
Many priests stopped chanting and began to rest with a sigh of relief. But none of them opened their eyes and disconnected from the ship.
The next moment, eighteen more rays were fired.
Although not as terrifying as before, as if to invert day and night… this time the beams were not as thick or as long.
The scorching rays, with a range of about two kilometers, flexibly swept back and forth in the air, igniting the remaining few demons that were still approaching one by one. The demons turned into fireballs and fell into the sea amidst shrill screams.
And only then—
The Upper Demons began to appear.
The probability of demons evolving on their own was extremely low—the probability of these souls, who had their will stripped away, spontaneously awakening adaptabilities to other Paths was close to zero.
Compared to these mass-produced lower demons, which could be arbitrarily transformed from the souls of ordinary mortals, each Upper Demon with self-awareness and intelligence exceeding that of humans was a precious treasure.
The first wave of demon tide was merely cannon fodder to wear down mana.
After the attacks weakened, the Upper Demons appeared one after another—
Some revealed themselves from stealth, some teleported from nowhere—and some rushed from afar.
As the ship, locked onto by the Eye Demons, suddenly purple magic circles appeared around it.
Eye patterns kept appearing and disappearing above the warship.
This was the Eye Demon’s innate spell—Plane Anchor!
The Eye Demon used its special vision to inject curses into the cracks of space, thereby altering the nature of this space.
The effect of this spell was to prevent others from teleporting!
In addition, entering and exiting the Dream Realm from here would be obstructed, and communication and divination would also be interfered with—just like the Star Antimony territory at this moment, its rules were even more stringent. At least the territory of Star Antimony did not prevent people from entering and exiting the Dream Realm.
Although the Elf Warship “Cruel Preacher” did not directly enter the territory, the Eye Demon extended this封锁 effect to the sea.
Because it directly affected space, it could still work even on Fifth Tier or even Sixth Tier powerhouses stronger than itself!
—Unless the caster who was gazing at this space was killed directly, or forced to stop sustained casting!
However, with their千里眼 (thousand-mile eyes) and透视眼 (see-through eyes), the Eye Demons could not easily lock onto their positions. So many Eye Demons, it was impossible to kill them all…
But it didn’t matter.
The priests on the warship let out low laughter.
They hadn’t planned to escape.
Killing a few lower demons was nothing to the Fallen Heavenly Envoy. Only these souls he had personally collected had value to him!
However, their curse did have some effect—Zhu Tang’s entry into the dream was blocked by the curse.
Even with the effects of Drunken Dream T, his entry into the dream was instantly interrupted. He looked at the ceiling with a bewildered, vacant expression, covering his eyes, not yet fully sober.
“How much mana has recovered?” Ewias asked.
“…A little over half.” Zhu Tang’s voice was hoarse.
Being abruptly dragged out of his dream, he felt a throbbing pain in his temples: “Fortunately… the problem isn’t big. It’s enough—if you don’t plan to confront the Fallen Heavenly Envoy directly.”
“Of course not, it’s not time yet.” Ewias shook his head.
He knew that he couldn’t face the Fallen Heavenly Envoy at this moment.
Not to mention anything else…
Just the Upper Demons filling the sky were enough for him to handle.
The demons forcibly summoned to the Mortal Realm by the Fallen Heavenly Envoy were under double suppression—they had to compress their scale as much as possible to enter the Mortal Realm through the loopholes.
Only those with extremely high intelligence and divinity—like Punisher Demons, Flame Demons, Night Demons, and other Upper Demons among Upper Demons, had obtained the rank of Fifth Tier. They were all demons summoned individually by the Fallen Heavenly Envoy and were all his apostles.
As for the demons that emerged from the purple vortex, their maximum level was suppressed to Fourth Tier.
Only when the Fallen Heavenly Envoy gradually merged with this World would the suppression on these demons be unsealed—restoring them to Fifth Tier, or even Sixth Tier.
Achieving this was both simple and difficult.
It was to make “the Fallen Heavenly Envoy as the King of the Ground” accepted by this World.
As long as the Star Antimony people gradually recognized the rule of the Fallen Heavenly Envoy, and even accepted the lifestyle of coexisting with demons, the Fallen Heavenly Envoy would become a part of the Material Realm. At that time, the power of balance would no longer suppress the demons, and Star Antimony would not be isolated.
In other words, as soon as mages could freely teleport in and out of Star Antimony, it would mean that these demons were completely unconstrained.
This was also why the Fallen Heavenly Envoy desperately sought human subordinates to help him govern the country.
—But he was too arrogant at the same time.
If he had such a goal, he should not have allowed demons to plunder souls and slaughter civilians from the beginning.
Because these demons were too thirsty.
As soon as they were summoned to the Mortal Realm, they would be suppressed by contracts with heavy constraints. Now, they had finally gained complete freedom—doing anything would not violate the contract!
Although their power was suppressed, they acted in groups!
Just Fifth Tier Upper Demons… considering their priority, they could exert nearly Sixth Tier power.
On the other hand, it was because the Fallen Heavenly Envoy was too simple.
He did not think that these demons’ brutal actions would have any significant negative impact on his rule—
Even with hatred, despair, and animosity in their hearts, as long as they accepted the status quo and gave up hope, they would eventually “recognize the rule of the Fallen Heavenly Envoy.”
Pure violence and threats were also a way of ruling.
—After all, a considerable number of the Fallen Heavenly Envoy’s apostles were once tyrants in the human world.
With their advice and suggestions, the Fallen Heavenly Envoy had no hesitation in his actions.
In a sense, one could not say whether the human world became so corrupt because of the existence of the Fallen Heavenly Envoy… or whether these sinners, branded with Great Sins, gradually corrupted Him after entering the Dream Realm and coming to His side.
Or perhaps, these two always complemented each other. And thus, this World became more degenerate and more corrupt.
In the face of such a scale of demon sea… the Fallen Heavenly Envoy didn’t even need to move. This demon sea alone could drown Ewias!
—This was a legion composed of all sinners from ancient times to the present!
As many people committed great sins in this World, as many people would stand opposite Ewias.
Ewias at least needed some people to help him stall these Upper Demons—even if it was just to stall them, not to defeat them, and to buy him a little time to duel the Fallen Heavenly Envoy, only then would he have a chance to win.
This was a necessary condition for victory.
After all, he was the weaker party.
And transcendence was not overconfidence—it was not something that could be forcibly pushed through by sheer perseverance.
He came here to go in from here… at least to contact Isabel through the Dream Realm first!
“Drive forward!” Ewias commanded. “Charge into the Star Antimony territory—charge in!”
While being locked onto by the Eye Demons, he could not enter the Dream Realm.
But if he actively entered the Star Antimony territory… that would be another matter.
The Eye Demons could not cast curses on continuously distorting space, just as a madman could not go mad a second time.
And before that, he at least needed to clear the surrounding environment, so that he could briefly enter the Dream Realm without being disturbed.
“Continue charging!”
The Pope’s Guard shouted their orders again, “Maintain interception!”
The ice had already melted during the last firing, and the warship began to charge forward again.
The warship hummed, and the huge ruby slab began to glow.
And the eighteen beams, distributed nine on the left and nine on the right, continuously intercepted the surroundings. It was as if the ship had spread its wings, burning to ashes the lower demons who were still fearlessly approaching.
Demons with spellcasting abilities began to attack the warship from the sky—
Dark clouds began to gather.
Terrifying lightning bolts struck the barrier one after another, making the defensive shield Ewias obtained through prayer instantly become precarious.
These were Punisher Demons!
—A full four Punisher Demons!
They wielded chains of lightning in their hands, holding halberds of thunder in their right hands, and looking down at them with grimaces in the sky.
And Ewias knew—it was finally time for him to act.
“—King of the Wild Hunt!”
Ewias raised both arms and shouted loudly!
(End of Chapter)
