How come this arcanist is invincible?

Chapter 254 I Will Remember You

The dark, swarming demon army marched through the cacophony of cannons and giant crossbows, crashing violently into Susas's steel army formation, instantly creating a cloud of blood mist.

The solid shield wall at the front was rammed hard by the demons, who were generally over two meters tall.

In an instant, the demon in the front row was pierced through the chest by a triangular spear, letting out a mournful howl.

The high-ranking demons with life force roared as they smashed through shields, snapped spears in two, and flung the half-elf or human soldiers holding the spear shafts into the demon horde behind them.

The screams abruptly stopped, and the torn flesh fell like rain.

The defensive line was repeatedly torn apart and repaired, with the enormous impact crashing against every inch of the position like a tsunami.

The mid- to high-ranking demons brandished their claws and fangs, using violence and magic to tear apart the ants in their eyes, but were restrained by the iron powder arrows and special potions thrown by the soldiers.

The demons' roars shook the earth, the screams of humans and half-elves rose and fell, the roar of magic cannons tore through the sky, the intense light from clashing spells illuminated the area time and again, and a dense barrage of crossbow bolts rained down like a storm.

Despite the Susas army being equipped with various new weapons, the casualty ratio between the two sides was still one to one under the frenzied attack of high-ranking demons mixed in with them, far exceeding the exchange ratio when the scout legion fought against the berserkers.

At the very center of the army formation, Kane stood silently atop his pure black chariot, his cold gaze sweeping across the blood-soaked battlefield.

A faint shadow surrounded him, and the heavily armored shadow guards, selected from the elite troops of various army groups, were empowered by his shadow power to slay all the demons that tried to approach the chariot.

Over the past five years, Kane has personally taught them combat skills and how to fight using his shadow powers.

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name 12199.99]

After Kane advanced to the fourth tier and gained many Shadow Realm traits, every heavily armored Shadow Guard now possesses pseudo-third-tier strength under the enhancement.

With the cooperation of several people, they can even confront a true third-tier demon head-on.

Furthermore, he had already entrusted the Tower Spirit to Valentine for this battle, allowing the latter to command the overall situation based on the Tower Spirit's precise calculations.

Now Kane has only one thing to do: kill the enemy leader, the former Lord of the Wolves, now Balomobalk.

The opponent's advancement was clearly incomplete, as could be seen from the dark red flames burning on his body.

It requires a sufficient amount of blood sacrifice and souls to go further, gain the Abyss's full recognition, transform into a true Balrog, and become a demon lord in name and in fact.

By then, the armies of the material plane will be meaningless to us.

The mere existence of the sleeve is enough to turn a radius of ten kilometers into scorched earth and fill the air with the corrosive aura of the abyss.

If this continues, the entire material plane may be completely assimilated by the abyss, becoming another layer of the abyss.

Kane raised his head, his calm gaze piercing through the battlefield, meeting Balk's gaze from atop another flaming chariot.

Balk raised his scaly demon head, his eyes burning with malice.

On the city wall of Lambert's territory, Lambert looked at the tragic battle in the distance, his hand gripping the crenellations of the city wall trembling uncontrollably.

Not only him, but also the mercenaries and reinforcements from various countries on the city wall had undisguised fear written on their faces.

This war was far beyond any bloody battle they had ever experienced before.

Those charging demons were far superior to the defective ones used for sieges; and the power displayed by the Susas army was equally terrifyingly precise.

They were like a finely tuned alchemical meat grinder, meticulously reaping the lives of demons.

A roughly equal battle casualty ratio!

This would have been unthinkable in previous wars against demons.

What shocked them even more was that the soldiers, knowing they might die at any moment, still had unwavering eyes and showed no sign of backing down.

-

"This...is this really an army that can be trained in a material plane?"

The staff member next to him gasped in surprise.

Lambert remained silent, his eyes displaying a complex and unreadable expression.

But Shar, standing beside him, had a determined look in her eyes.

The next moment, she leaped off the city wall, which was dozens of meters high.

As the Knight with the Lantern, she was surrounded by a soft white light that protected her.

Behind her, several more Tier 3 warriors and rangers jumped off the city wall, and two Tier 3 squads of five people each quickly assembled and rushed toward the demon army.

They launched a surprise attack from the tail flank of the demon army, unleashing a barrage of arrows and swords that instantly claimed the lives of dozens of demons.

His aides looked anxious and were about to speak up to stop him, but Lambert suddenly gritted his teeth and said, "Let them go. Send the order to prepare the army!"

"This... Chairman?" The aide asked anxiously.

"Shut up! Look over there!"

Lambert pointed to the center of the battlefield.

The staff looked in the direction he pointed and saw that everyone's eyes were focused on the same spot.

The next moment, he finally understood Lambert's decision.

In the center of the battlefield, the elite troops of both sides moved simultaneously.

Hundreds of heavily armored shadow guards surrounded the black chariot and collided violently with the high-ranking demon guards who drove out from the demon formation.

Two figures collided violently in the center of the battlefield, and dark shadows and blazing flames shot into the sky at the same time.

The battle between shadows and flames was incredibly fierce.

Several heavily armored shadow guards, shrouded in shadow, used weapons imbued with shadow energy to slay the fiery demon. In an instant, a high-ranking demon used a giant axe to cut through the shadow guards' heavy armor.

The shadows constantly extinguished the flames, and the flames also frantically devoured the shadows, but the battle ultimately tilted towards more shadows.

Time passed by, second by second.

The numerically superior Shadow Guards gradually gained the upper hand and were about to completely engulf the Demon Royal Guard.

Just then, the most powerful being in the flames, the former Lord of the Azure Wolves, Balk, finally stood up slowly and wielded his enormous golden sword, which was burning with raging flames.

The golden blade descended with earth-shattering force, instantly cleaving through the heavy armor and shadows of the two heavily armored shadow guards as if they were pieces of paper.

Just as the blazing golden blade was about to strike the other Shadow Guards, Kane's figure on the black chariot vanished abruptly. The next moment, he appeared in front of Balk, blocking the attack.

At the same time, several shadow blades, condensed to their fullest extent, shot out like venomous snakes, deeply embedding themselves in Balk's back, leaving several deep, bone-revealing bloody holes.

The blood gushing from the wound was instantly evaporated by the flames on Balk's body, but the sudden attack still caused him to let out a roar.

Balk grinned, revealing a ferocious, maniacal laugh: "Good! Well done! Regent of Sussas, let's fight to our hearts' content!"

Kane remained expressionless as the shadow in his hand swiftly coalesced into a beautifully curved scimitar.

He looked at Balk, who was much taller than him, and his figure disappeared again, reappearing on the other side as he swung his sword heavily.

The head-on collision between the two fourth-tier powerhouses produced a deafening roar, with shadows and flames raging wildly at the center of the impact.

Kane's shadow armor was engulfed by flames, but he remained motionless.

The next moment, his wounds healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and he suddenly leaped up, his shadow blade whistling as it tore through the air, slashing fiercely at Balk.

Balk took a step back, black blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, but the flames on his body suddenly surged, instantly healing his injuries.

The two, who possessed near-immortality, engaged in a fierce battle, and the area within dozens of meters of them became an absolute forbidden zone.

Even third-tier demons and pseudo-third-tier heavily armored shadow guards dared not take a single step inside.

Anything that gets too close will be instantly torn apart by the violent energy.

Commanding the position, Valentine listened to his subordinates' reports with a blank expression.

"The Regent has engaged the enemy's greater demon, suffering a 30% loss of his heavy armored shadow guards, but is still fiercely fighting the high-ranking demon's personal guard—"

""

"Lord Malcolm is leading the mage legion, cooperating with the longbowmen to defend against flying demons in the air. There have been no major losses so far."

"The frontline's secret-recipe medicine has been completely exhausted, and we urgently need supplies from the rear—"

-

"Several high-level professional squads have launched a surprise attack on the rear of the demon army, causing chaos—"

Battle reports came in from the front like a tidal wave.

Valentine silently memorized all the information, and only after the reporting soldiers had left did he turn to look at the strangely shaped bronze bell in front of him.

A cold voice suddenly rang in his mind: "Left Wing Third Army Corps, move fifty meters to the right to fill the gap in the defensive line."

"The artillery regiment shall retreat 300 meters and rebuild its positions."

"Magic Cannons, aim at the 12 o'clock position at a 60-degree angle to the upper right of the battlefield, and fire a salvo!"

"Open up new defensive positions on the right flank."

"Rotate the Third and Fifth Army Corps to allow the heavily wounded troops to withdraw and rest."

A series of precise commands were transmitted directly into Valentine's mind. He opened his mouth as if to question something, but ultimately relayed the commands verbatim to the messengers below.

These orders were quickly transmitted to the front lines via flag signals. The Susas army, which had already lost over 10,000 men, began to slowly shift, devouring any demon that dared to approach.

Valentine breathed a sigh of relief as he listened to the continuous stream of good news.

This strange bronze clock face is said to be the latest research result of the Academy of Wizardry, and was personally handed over to him by the Regent.

Its series of commands were incredibly precise, almost like micro-management of the entire battlefield.

Normally, faced with such heavy casualties, he would even worry that some corps might collapse.

However, under Tarling's command, those heavily wounded units often received aid from friendly forces before they even had time to fall into despair, and were rotated to the rear to rest and recuperate.

Therefore, the entire front remained remarkably stable.

"Um—when will we win?"

During a lull in the fighting, Valentine looked at the bronze clock face in front of him with a nervous expression.

He didn't know what to call this mysterious being, but he knew that the war would eventually be won.

However, the one-to-one casualty ratio was far too high. If Susas's army lost nearly half of its strength, then even if they won, it would only be a Pyrrhic victory.

Call me the spirit of the labyrinth, mortal.

The cold voice rang out again.

"I know your concerns. A demon is just a demon, and war is determined by many variables. My master will eventually slay the demon, but it will take time."

But don't worry, when the battle reaches a stalemate, even the most timid sheep will transform into ferocious hyenas and join the fight.

Valentine was slightly taken aback, but then he realized what was happening.

He said in a deep voice to the guard beside him, "Bring me my alchemical telescope."

Soon, a finely crafted gold-plated telescope was handed to him.

Valentine raised his telescope, his gaze sweeping across the fiercely fighting battlefield and toward the direction of Lambert Territory.

Led by nearly ten thousand Susas scouts who had almost completely annihilated the Frenzied Demons while suffering minimal losses themselves, the gates of Lambert Territory finally opened slowly.

This army, which, after merging, also numbered over 200,000 but was still considered a rabble, finally joined the battlefield.

They launched a fierce attack on the rear of the demon army.

Apart from the elite scout units, Lambert's army suffered extremely heavy losses.

They fought a desperate battle against the demons with a casualty ratio of five to one or even higher, paving the way with their own flesh and blood.

This large and fresh force became the final straw that broke the camel's back in the battle.

Although demons are bloodthirsty and cruel, and regard humans as ants, they are not lifeless undead and will not fight to the last moment.

In fact, even in the eternal blood war between the abyss and hell, many demons would choose to flee when the battle turned against them.

With the Susas army's ironclad defenses at the front and Lambert's army at the rear, the demon army finally began to crumble.

First, a rout appeared in one corner of the battlefield, and then it spread like a plague. Large swathes of demons began to scatter and flee, in a chaotic mess like disturbed flies.

Shar, bathed in demon blood, exchanged glances with the remaining half of her teammates.

Seeing these once formidable enemies now scattered and being wiped out one by one, a weary smile finally appeared on her face.

No, that's not enough.

She spoke in a deep voice to the members of the makeshift Tier 3 squad.

"Only by killing Balk can this all truly end."

The remaining members of the two Tier 3 squads quickly merged, running against the tide through the fleeing demon horde, and sped towards the area in the center of the battlefield where shadows and flames intertwined.

At this very moment, the situation in the center of the battlefield has undergone a dramatic change.

The last high-level six-armed serpent demon was surrounded and attacked by ten heavily armored shadow guards in a fearless manner, and they ultimately perished together.

The serpent demon was riddled with shadow daggers and silver-plated longswords. Its flesh, which could normally regenerate quickly, could no longer recover due to the restraint of the silver-plated weapons, and it finally turned into pus and blood amidst its mournful howls.

But its death also meant that the Demon Royal Guard had been completely wiped out, and the battle had finally come to an end.

Boom—!!

Blazing flames shot into the sky as Balk swung his massive golden sword, slashing fiercely at the few remaining heavily armored shadow guards.

Just then, Kane teleported in and used his Shadow Blade to block the golden knife, saving his subordinate.

Burke, his body covered in countless tiny black wounds, glared at Kane with a ferocious expression and roared, "Give me a real fight!"

"Okay," Kane replied calmly.

Balk revealed a bloodthirsty smile, and his figure suddenly disappeared from the spot.

The massive Balrog body, carrying immense power, poured all its strength into the golden blade and slashed fiercely at Kane.

The air was torn apart by the golden knife, producing a deafening sonic boom.

Kane did not flinch, but merely raised his head slightly.

The shadows on all the heavily armored shadow guards behind him began to slowly fade away, and eventually all the shadows condensed on him and gathered on the shadow scimitar in his hand.

Blood manipulation, shadow power, and many other characteristics he acquired from the Shadow Realm merged into one at this moment, unleashing an unprecedented and immense power.

Click—!

The blood-stained golden blade clashed with the shadowy scimitar once more, and a violent energy annihilation wave swept across the center of the battlefield, instantly turning the surrounding corpses into ashes.

Kane's shadow armor shattered instantly.

But he did not retreat an inch.

Even with exposed bones and bleeding wounds, his shattered flesh instantly healed, only to be covered by a thick shadow once more.

"Next, it's my turn."

Kane looked at his formidable opponent, and in the next moment, he swung his sword fiercely. The strike was unremarkable, devoid of any fancy techniques, yet it seemed to suck all the surrounding light and air into endless darkness.

Balk's face contorted with rage as he abruptly raised his knife to parry.

But the shadowy scimitar eerily pierced through his golden blade, slashing sharply in front of him.

Pfft—!

The cold blade instantly severed Balk's throat, severing his spine and heart in one stroke. Meanwhile, a black shadow crept up Xiu's body, hindering the resurgence of the abyss's power.

Meanwhile, the wounds on the enemy before Him were healing rapidly.

"You are a good opponent, I will remember you."

Kane commented.

Balk looked at him, a relieved smile on his face.

The next moment, the massive body of the Balor Demon crashed to the ground with a dull thud.