270.
The demon stared at his fingernails.
He definitely felt them pierce his skin, but there wasn’t a single drop of blood on his nails.
“You’re quite fast.”
The demon’s face hardened at Ron’s words.
At that moment, Gale rushed towards the demon.
The demon quickly raised his hand.
Clang-clang-!
Gale’s aura blade clashed with the demon’s fingernails, creating a sound like swords meeting.
Gale poured even more mana into his aura blade.
The demon irritably swung his hand wide.
Half-moon-shaped magic energy, flowing from his fingernails, split into two and flew towards Gale and Ron.
“Dodge!”
Ron instinctively felt that he couldn’t block it.
The half-moon-shaped magic energy, which could cut even the aura blade that was said to cut through anything, passed Gale and Ron and disappeared only after cutting down dozens of soldiers.
The demon then rushed towards Gale himself.
Gale blocked the demon’s fingernails, which were aiming for his neck, with his sword.
Clang-!
“A sturdy sword.”
The demon lightly turned his body away from Ron’s aura blade, which he felt from behind.
Clang-!
He cut the aura blade with his fingernails.
Bang-!
Gale, reading Ron’s gaze, swung his sword at the demon.
Ron cast a spell.
Tree trunks sprouted from the ground and wrapped around the demon’s feet.
The demon quickly swung his hand.
He cut the tree trunks with one hand and blocked Gale’s sword with the other.
Clang-clang-!
The highest-grade wind spirit ambushed the demon from behind.
When was it summoned?
The demon realized that Ron was a considerably difficult opponent.
Not only was he skilled in swordsmanship, but also in magic and spiritism [the ability to communicate with and control spirits].
Mana was generated in the demon’s fingernails, and he ran towards Ron at a much faster speed than before.
Ron quickly waved his hand.
Fwoosh-fwoosh-!
A transparent wall was erected in front of Ron.
Boom-! Bang-!
The magic energy collided with Ron’s shield, causing a large explosion.
Gale poured aura blade towards the demon’s back.
Ron continuously cast spells.
The ground shook, and tree trunks rose once again.
And hundreds of spheres were created around the demon.
They weren’t all attack magic, but a type of binding magic that could perfectly trap the target.
The demon turned his body as if annoyed and slashed with his fingernails.
The space split, and the magic energy created through the cracked space tore through the magic.
The demon flapped his wings.
Magic energy flowed from his wings to his horns.
Magic energy poured out from his horns like lightning, completely dominating the surroundings.
Boom-! Bang-!
Ron and Gale quickly defended, but pain spread across their faces.
‘This is dangerous as it is.’
Ron bit his lip, realizing that the situation was not easy even though he was facing the demon together with Gale.
Boom-!
He shattered the demon’s magic energy with his aura blade, but lightning was constantly raging from the demon’s horns.
It was truly a powerful force.
There was no room to look elsewhere.
He could lose his life if he took his eyes off the demon in front of him.
Ron took a deep breath and held his sword vertically.
Watching the sword floating alone, the demon observed Ron with an intrigued look.
‘What is he trying to do?’
Even though he was relentlessly spewing powerful magic energy from his horns as if the game was over, the demon did not directly attack Ron.
Soon, the ground shook.
Gooooooo-!
The demon’s face momentarily hardened at the enormous amount of mana emanating from the sword.
‘Something’s not right.’ The moment the demon sensed danger and focused the magic energy coming from his horns on Ron, golden waves flowed out from the sword.
Boom-! Bang-!
The golden waves began to spread.
Absorbing all the magic energy!
Boom-! Bang-!
The demon was shocked that the magic energy he was emitting was out of his control.
‘What is that?’
Blood flowed from Ron’s mouth, but Ron did not stop.
The sword trembled, and the golden waves became even thicker.
Ron’s sword began to fly towards the demon.
It was a very slow speed, but the demon’s eyes widened.
He felt as if the golden waves were binding not only his magic energy but also his very existence.
The playfulness was no longer on the demon’s face.
The four wings spread out once again, spewing out streams of brown magic energy.
The golden waves and magic energy met, and everything around them stopped.
But even in the midst of that, the sword was still slowly flying towards the demon.
‘Space movement is…….’
The demon was shocked that his magic was not activating.
“Gale.”
Ron’s quiet voice landed in Gale’s ear.
Gale drew out his aura blade with all his might.
The blue aura blade shone brilliantly and flew towards the demon.
The demon groaned and focused his magic energy.
Boom-!
The appearance of easily tearing the aura blade was nowhere to be found.
This was because the golden waves binding the demon weakened the power of the magic energy itself.
Nevertheless, the demon blocked Gale’s blue aura blade.
The moment the demon’s eyes widened, Ron’s sword was slowly digging into the demon’s neck.
“Kuh…… Kuaaaaak!”
When Ron’s sword cut the demon’s neck in two, Gale quickly stepped into the air and flew, cutting off the demon’s wings with his sword.
Thud-!
It was a demon he had never faced before, but he had seen enough to know that the wings and horns were the foundation for implementing magic energy.
Thud-!
As Gale’s sword cut off the horns following the wings, the demon’s head and body, split in two, slowly turned to dust and scattered.
And Ron’s sword fell powerlessly, and the golden waves disappeared as if washed away.
Ron knelt down on the spot and vomited a handful of blood.
“Your Majesty!”
“Arun…… is?”
At Ron’s words, Gale finally turned his gaze around.
Lilian was facing a demon, Olivia was facing Karen, and Arun was also facing a demon.
One of the four demons was floating in the air, simply watching everything indifferently.
* * *
The fight between Phoenix and the demon intensified.
In addition, the impact I received inevitably became greater and greater.
“Ugh!”
The demon’s wings, stretched out like springs, pierced through Phoenix’s flames and accurately pierced my body.
The form of Phoenix is literally a visible form, and the spirit’s body is a pure attribute.
In other words, Phoenix’s body is fire itself.
What could pierce the fire?
The demon’s wings made the impossible possible.
The pain Phoenix felt was felt by me as well, and I suppressed the reversing blood.
‘Does this make sense?’
Not even a demon king.
It’s a demon.
But the spirit king can’t handle it?
I felt the imbalance of power.
‘It’s not that the spirit king is weak, it’s that I’m weak.’
I clenched my fist.
It felt like I was being insulted.
Phoenix is a ‘king’ who restores balance just by its existence.
It was the best being among the spirits and had the power to encompass a world.
He was a top-level spirit who became king in line with my growth.
-Don’t think about anything.
It was a soft word, unlike Phoenix.
At the same time, the flames rising from Phoenix’s body grew even larger.
-The master of the covenant is as noble as the one who proclaimed the first covenant. Your power acts on us spirits as a more powerful force than any will.
The mana in my whole body swirled.
I ended up spitting out blood.
“Keoeok!”
At the same time, the flickering flames in Phoenix’s body were gradually changing from red to blue.
The demon’s gaze changed strangely.
The four wings grew larger and instantly pierced through all sides of Phoenix’s body.
Fwoosh-fwoosh-!
The flames that arose from Phoenix’s body blocked the demon’s wings.
At the same time, Phoenix’s body disappeared, leaving afterimages.
Flames erupted along the path Phoenix moved, belatedly.
“Keok!”
The demon, grabbed by Phoenix’s hand, struggled.
Now Phoenix’s body had completely turned blue.
I became dizzy.
The amount of mana being sucked into Phoenix had already far exceeded the amount of mana in my mana hole [a core within a mage that generates and stores mana].
It felt like my life force was being sucked in.
Then a brown sphere fell from the sky.
The demon in Phoenix’s grasp disappeared without a trace.
Phoenix waved his hand towards the sky.
Boom-!
“Growth always comes with death as collateral.”
It’s the demon’s voice.
He was clearly talking to me.
I looked at the demon who came down from the sky with blurry vision.
He had never moved once since the battle began.
-He is a being close to the Demon King.
“De…… mon King?”
“Lord Belushi has created four high-ranking demons since coming to the Middle Realm. The demon that just disappeared at your hands was also a high-ranking demon.”
The demon smiled and said.
“And I am a being above the highest-ranking demon who has received some of Lord Belushi’s power. I am here to awaken you.”
-Summon Aquilus.
I wanted to ask, now?
Just maintaining Phoenix was already pushing me beyond my limits.
But how can I summon the Wind Spirit King Aquilus in this situation?
I don’t even have the mana to summon him in the first place.
-The master’s call is a more intense and pure will than anything else.
If you wish earnestly, it will come true?
What is this nonsense?
Phoenix continued.
-That is what the master of the covenant means. A being that connects the Middle Realm and the Spirit Realm. A being that protects the balance with only will, without any medium.
I followed Phoenix’s words.
Honestly, the demon in front of me looked much stronger than the demons I had faced.
Unlike the demon who was powerless against Phoenix’s blue flames and disappeared, the demon in front of me was clearly overcoming the blue flames.
The magic energy surrounding his body like a shield was repelling the blue flames.
‘Aquilus…….’
I called Aquilus in my heart, but Aquilus did not respond to the call.
Well, how can you summon a spirit without mana?
A bitter smile spread across my face.
My vision was getting blurrier and blurrier.
“If you fall here, I will annihilate all the humans here. If you cannot summon another Spirit King, the life form called humans will disappear from the Middle Realm.”
The spirit that was moving away returned with the demon’s words.
“Lord Belushi is waiting for you to come. Two have qualified, and all that remains is you.”
Is he talking about Lilian and Olivia?
I could tell even if the demon didn’t give a definite answer.
Belushi was a much greater being than I thought.
It means that he knows everything that is happening in the Empire while being in the Kingdom Alliance.
And he’s waiting.
I trembled.
“Do not be afraid. Lord Belushi is also a mortal being. This is not the Demon Realm.”
I tilted my head at the demon’s words, which gave me hope as if joking.
“Fight, fight, and fight again. Lord Belushi has become bored in thousands of years of struggle. It is a chance to struggle with annihilation at stake for the first time in a long time. If you annihilate Lord Belushi here, the impact will reach the main body in the Demon Realm, and Lord Belushi will have another chance to compete with other Demon Kings with all his might.”
It’s a very kind explanation.
But one thing was certain.
If I can’t summon Aquilus here, not only I but everyone will die.
“Aquilus.”
I called Aquilus strongly once again.