Your Majesty's money, why don't you engrave my name on it?

"You... you died too?" "I've been waiting for you for so long..." "You've finally come!"

"Roar!!!"

Unbeknownst to Reslaufer, the moment the illusion conjured by the evil spirit appeared, it was immediately met with countless enemies. The demon's trick had succeeded; Reslaufer's subconscious had come to believe it was real. However, its true nature prevented it from manifesting in the real world, instead causing it to fall into the spirits surrounding Reslaufer!

"What are these... what are you?!" In an instant, the demon was forced to see the scene of a hundred ghosts walking around Leslaufer. Even though its physical form was just a heartless corpse, it could feel its scalp tingling.

That land shark!

The illusion created by the demon hastily prepared for battle, but it was no match for these crazed spirits. The land shark, which even Raslauver himself had to exert great effort to kill, was an insurmountable enemy for the illusion. When Raslauver killed the penultimate possessed corpse, the illusion could no longer be maintained and exploded into nothingness.

However, the demon was horrified to discover that the spirits had no intention of returning to silence. They looked numbly at the evil spirits around them, and the next moment, they howled and pounced on them!

They have never shown such aggressiveness when facing other virtual entities!

"Use illusions, illusions—" The demon possessing Ursula's father tried to warn his companions, but it was too late. After becoming a spirit, the land shark possessed "strength" and "physique" that were still far superior to its spirit form. The other demons, who had not been able to establish a connection with Raslaufer's spirit through illusions, were unable to pinpoint the source of their threat—the terrifying monster's spirit was as large as its original size!

The powerful claws still slashed through the evil spirits, tearing through the black jellyfish that were visible to ordinary people in an instant, leaving behind chunks of black, gelatinous residue on the ground.

They failed to return to the abyss!

"No, this is impossible, this is impossible!" A portal opened behind the last demon. It was trying to escape, even though evil spirits were born unable to feel true fear!

This is something they can't handle! What exactly is this man?!

"Hmph, trying to escape?" Raslaufer knew nothing of this, nor did he care. He only saw that the demons died quickly after leaving their bodies, and this one was trying to escape. With a step over several pieces of gelatinous material on the ground, Raslaufer's battle blade pierced the already opened hole in the chest, and with a forceful flick, he severed the upper body in two.

However, the demon had already detached from its body, and its portal had successfully opened. All it needed to do was reach the other side, and it could—

The next second, a claw covered in coarse, black, bristle-like hair suddenly emerged from the other side of the portal, shattering the demon's body in an instant, just as it had taken the heart before. Black, gelatinous material, containing fragments of the demon's soul, was grasped in the claw and hungrily thrust into the gaping maw of fangs that had just emerged from the other side of the portal.

"Ugh—ha—" The demon's body was much larger than the portal, but it passed through without any hindrance. Its bat-winged body cast a long, thin shadow on the ground, and its soul-devouring eyes stared menacingly at Dubler and the others who were on the defensive.

“Demiplane, spirit…” The Soul Eater uttered a string of unintelligible abyssal language, “Interesting, I seem to have some recollection of something similar…”

“But this seems a little different, and… you’re clearly a mortal with absolutely no talent for spellcasting, you can’t even understand what I’m saying. This is completely different from that guy, isn’t it?”

The Soul Eater posed a question, but it didn't expect an answer from Leslaufer; rather, it had already gotten the answer from Leslaufer's unresponsive expression.

"So, mortal, you refused our invitation, how ungrateful you are," the Soul Eater sneered, speaking in the language of the material plane. "Although you killed three of my men that night, you don't really think you can defeat me, do you? Even Heinrich and the other two couldn't do that!"

Raslaufer merely sneered at this. The next moment, his defensive stance suddenly transformed into a most aggressive strafing slash. Behind him, accompanied by an ancient chant, a stream of rocks crashed down from the dome towards the demon. The melodious sound of a matte harp also rose up. From the demon's perspective, a terrifying being with the lower body of a lizard, the torso of an ape, and two ape heads suddenly emerged from its deepest nightmare, charging towards the Soul Eater before Raslaufer could even get there!

"Spiral...Lord of the Abyss?!" The Soul Eater seemed to have suffered the greatest shock of its life. "How could you be here—no! That's not right! This is impossible!"

In an instant, it shook off the terrifying, almost real illusion, and looked at the bard not far away with malice and fear: "Who are you?! How could you possibly have seen the most powerful lord of the abyss?!"

Chapter 450 The King's Sword

"You mean a two-headed baboon?" No one understood what Daisy was saying, but judging from the demon's level of horror, she must have done something extremely crazy, to the point that even the demon thought it was impossible.

"What's so difficult about that?" The bard spread her hands innocently, and the next moment, a dim light suddenly shone in her eyes, making the demon dizzy.

Left and right, north and south, high and low... everything seemed to be mixed together. The Soul Eater, who had not yet fully recovered, experienced a momentary mental gap after the great shock, and this was the opportunity that Daisy was trying to seize!

"Didn't expect that, did you? This is my real chain of control—Old Lei, beat him up!"

Without the poet's command, Raslaufer had already pounced on it. When the Soul Eater broke free from its confusion and bewilderment, it was riddled with bloody holes, and even its face was marked with a hideous knife scar that ran across its already ugly face!

"You damned vermin!" Unstoppable rage engulfed the demon's entire body. It spread its claws, one hand blocking Raslaufer's sword as it thrust at it again, while the other hand seemed to grasp all the light in the arena, plunging the entire building into darkness. For humans who could barely see in the dark, such power almost destroyed the last glimmer of hope for the rebels who were still struggling to hold on.

"Your souls will all become offerings to me!" the Soul Eater roared, forcing Leslaufer back several steps. Daisy, however, had already lost the chance to cast two of her most powerful spells. It was as if the tiny wound on the demon's body was the greatest victory they could achieve.

But this darkness is not the end of the road. An opportunity is presented to one person.

Angelita.

After falling into the underground tunnel dug by the land shark, she used the chaos inside to deal with Ursula, a demonic being who was also a spellcaster, making her maneuvering tactics extremely difficult. However, the chaos above made Angreta realize that Raslaufer was unlikely to be able to spare any time to support her.

She has to rely on herself, and now is the opportunity.

"Come!" Suddenly, a streak of emerald green sword light shot into the air from the VIP box with Angelita's low shout, swooping down towards the arena. The demon spirit seemed to have been caught off guard by Angelita's ability to summon her weapon from such a distance. Seeing that Shouzhi Changshi was about to disappear into a cave ahead, the demon, confident in its darkvision, immediately attacked, aiming an energy ball at the crater and hurling it down.

However, behind it, another sword suddenly arrived with a thunderous roar, slashing out a half-circle of blazing white light from bottom to top!

Ursula's head immediately turned backward, and she vomited several liters of blood with a "whoosh." However, the experienced Angelita was not Ursula and was not frightened by such a trick. Her Thunderclap Sword struck the skull of the flesh without any fancy moves, almost splitting it vertically in two.

Black, ethereal tentacles launched a sinister attack from within, heading straight for Angelita's face. A tremendous sense of crisis gripped Angelita's heart. However, at this moment, she did not dodge immediately. The bladeless sword in her hand, which had just released thunder and lightning, suddenly turned at an unpredictable angle. The emerald green flames once again transformed into its blade, slicing off a third of her body from the evil spirit that had just detached from its body!

But the tentacles only touched a patch of silvery-white mist—Angrita had already used her elusive footwork to instantly teleport to a safe location five meters away!

The demon, both shocked and enraged, uttered a series of abyssal mutters, but Angrita had no intention of understanding their meaning. She released the performance sword, which was already overburdened, and with a flick of her wrist, the Guardian Poem that had just attracted the demon's attention returned to her grasp.

“I know I have never been able to unleash your full power. I heard you were the sword of the last Elven King of Corazond?” Angelita held the sword in her right hand and slowly stroked the blade with her left. As she moved, the oaths engraved on the blade lit up one after another, but the faint light quickly went out.

Angrita is not a qualified saint; she is not a paladin like Patrick, and the oath cannot give her any power outside of her spirit.

But this sword... perhaps it can.

“I don’t know how to activate you, but in this situation, you should wake up on your own, not wait for my summons,” Angrita said, unsurprised by Shouzhi Changshi’s silence. She narrowed her eyes, and a final layer of mage armor rose around her, ignoring the demons attempting to attack her. “Let me ask you—”

"Can one be considered virtuous to kill someone and leave their corpse behind?"

"Uncle Raslaw, is he truly a hero?"

"Is it honorable to avenge a friend?"

"Did I come here for personal gain?" Angelita's eyes reflected a pure white light, the same light she used to question the oaths on the sword.

"Evil is here, you must step forward! The demons of the abyss are not spirits! Evil spirits possess you, the truth must be revealed! Exorcising demons is naturally an act of benevolence!"

Four more swords appeared. Angelita could feel the surging energy within them, and she even had a feeling that if she were an elf, she might be able to unleash all the power of this sword at this moment, but she was human, so... it wasn't enough!

"I ask you, do I outnumber these demons from the endless abyss? Am I stronger than these evil spirits? If this place falls, what right do mortals have to survive!"

"I did not summon you to live a life of ignominy—rise forth and defend your king!"

"Crack—" Like the sound of shattering glass, the force field armor around Angelita could no longer withstand the bombardment of the evil spirit demon and shattered with a bang. However, the black jellyfish-like demon saw Angelita raise her head, and the smile on it made it tremble for no reason.

Because another person who laughed like that had just wiped out a whole dozen of its kind, and they didn't even have a chance to return to the abyss!

“Evil will surely perish under the light,” Angelita said, echoing Patrick’s words. A holy light, similar to the power the paladin had once wielded, shone from the epic poem of will. However, the light in Angelita’s hand was not golden, but a snow-white gleam. “Now then, if you dare—the Holy Slash!”

The magnificent and dazzling light broke through the Soul Eater's absorption of light in an instant, melting the evil spirit in front of it instantly. The remaining force was far from over, and it went straight to the back of the Soul Eater on the high platform in the distance, where it was still fighting with Leslaufer and the others, and ruthlessly slashed down!

Chapter 451 Reserve Force

"This is impossible!"

The sudden attack instantly crushed the Soul Eater's body, its terrifying power rendering it unable to determine whether its evil spirit subordinates had shared any of the pressure. But... none of that mattered most.

Most importantly, it had never seen any mortal unleash such a powerful spell! Even those renowned sword saints probably couldn't do it!

A vast amount of pure energy, devoid of any impurities, washed over its body, reopening its recently healed injuries. The combination of new and old wounds caused the Soul Eater to let out a heart-wrenching howl of pain.

But it had no time to wallow in self-pity, for in front of it, Dobul's sword rose like bull horns, stabbing straight toward its heart!

Unaware of the danger, Raslaufer was enveloped in faint, aquamarine ripples that surrounded him, including his battle sword. The pendant of Adas floated silently on his body, releasing a divine protection unaffected by his movements—or perhaps it truly was divine intervention.

In short, while the Soul Eater was being subjected to the baptism of the Holy Slash, which was far beyond the scale of ordinary attacks, Raslaufer, who was fighting it in close combat, was completely unaffected. Even the battle sword in his hand, forged from hell iron, was not affected by its brilliance in the slightest.

But the demon facing Leslaufer has to bear pressure from both the front and the back at the same time.

"You won't beat me!" the demon growled, forcefully deflecting Reslaufer's blade so that it barely pierced its ribs. It then retreated swiftly, and with a series of commands in the language of the abyss, more demons abandoned the mortals they could slaughter at will and charged toward these formidable adversaries.

These demons were beyond description; some resembled abyssal mini-devil versions of Barbasabalone, about the same size; others had hardened scabs around their eyes and maggots wriggling in unhealed wounds; some looked like a skeleton with skin torn off; and still others resembled mold, half-human, half-insect, or something else entirely. Under the call of the Soul Eater, they launched a coordinated attack on Leslaufer and his companions.

"Mortals, how pathetic!" The Soul-Eating Demon clutched its wounds. Except for the areas torn open by the Holy Slash, which were healing more slowly, the rest of its wounds were rapidly shrinking and healing. This required some sacrifice, but in its eyes, it was entirely worth it now. "Reslaufer, you still have one last chance!"

"Kill all the other mortals around you, and abandon your gods! Then you won't have to die here!"

"Heh." Raslaufer's only response was a cold laugh. Three demons, whose skin and slime were indistinguishable, attacked him from three directions, each wielding a spear. One of them spotted Dople's weakness and tried to defeat the fierce opponent before its companion. However, this single weakness was deliberately created by Raslaufer. The spear that was originally aimed at the throat was suddenly deflected, just enough to deflect another spear tip that came from behind. Dople, on the other hand, turned around and twisted the blade to the side, dislocating the third demon's shoulder in one move.

A disgusting, blood-like slime dripped onto Raslaufer's hand. For most mortals, even if they killed these demons, they would still be injured by this insidious substance. However, on Raslaufer's hand, a shadowy mass flowed secretly, keeping the highly corrosive slime at bay.

The Soul Eater's pupils contracted sharply.

The demons themselves weren't particularly powerful, but they were of considerable origin—they were born from the blood of a demon lord, which was why their slime was exceptionally corrosive. But why was it ineffective on Leslaufer?

That shadow!

To overthrow the authority of a demon lord, there must be... another demon lord! Who is standing behind him!

The Soul Eater's eyes instantly turned a dark, strange light, attempting to discern what was protecting Dople by extracting a portion of his life force. He succeeded, but only halfway—the draining of his life force momentarily weakened Raslaufer, and a demonic claw pierced his shoulder. However, as the Soul Eater tried to analyze the traces of that life force…

What did it see?

Darkness, spiders, webs, and...

"roll."

The Soul-Eating Demon instantly knelt on the ground, and two clear cracking sounds rang out from its bent knees. A large amount of highly poisonous blood was vomited out, which instantly corroded the ground five or six centimeters in front of it.

It couldn't see who it was; it wasn't qualified! Because the other party was far more than just a demon lord!

The Spider Queen! It was the Spider Queen who left her mark on this mortal! To be precise, on that hand. They could kill Raslaufer, but they could not taint Rose's mark!

But the Soul Eater, realizing this, had no comforting thoughts; it was thinking about something else entirely—that demiplane!

That was definitely not Rose's doing; it was someone else's doing!

What exactly does this mortal possess?!

The Soul Eater was initially very confident that its initial forces could completely wear down these people, but now, it seemed less certain. A portal opened behind it, and the remaining demons and cultists hidden in Ironforge and even the surrounding towns were transported over, thrown into wave after wave of attacks.

Meanwhile, the Soul Eater Demon's eyes lit up, and a plan immediately came to mind. A hidden command was sent into the minds of some of the demons. The next second, this group of terrifying beings, who seemed to have emerged from the most unbearable dream, immediately turned their attention to Angrita, who was still below!

"Raslaufer! Even if you are a six-armed serpent demon, you can't possibly manage the battles on both sides!" Looking at the girl who had just been exhausted from fully activating the Guardian Poem and was now forced to face the demon siege, the Soul Eater roared with satisfaction, "Make a choice! Save yourself and one side, or sacrifice yourself so that they can both live!"

Having said that, the Soul Eater once again infiltrated the attackers and launched a sneak attack on Raslaufer. It knew this might not be enough to kill Dople, but it wanted to distract Raslaufer. As long as he kept revealing weaknesses, he would eventually be torn to pieces by the demons.

But... why does he look... like he's mocking me?

“Excuse me,” Raslaufer said, switching between his forehand and backhand blades to launch two attacks in an instant while simultaneously adopting a defensive stance. “I’m a very stingy person, and I don’t want to give up anything.”

"Kalista, make your move!"

Chapter 452 The Arrival of Reinforcements

At this moment, Angelita below was already surrounded, but the others were in a similar predicament and had no power to bring her back to the defensive line above. The Soul Eater Demon took this into account and tried to find a breakthrough from Angelita's side.

However, with a sudden shout from Raslaufer, pairs of eyes lit up in the darkness of countless corners of the arena, followed by a hail of arrows raining down on the demons. Hundreds of ambushers wearing various rat-head masks emerged from their hiding places. Although their attacks were unlikely to actually harm the demons, they certainly caught them completely off guard.

In the center of the arena, just as the exhausted Angelita was about to be pounced on by a freak, a shield gleaming with silver light suddenly appeared between her and the demon, forcing the latter back.

The shield was unlike any Angelita knew. It looked like a small round shield, but its surface was raised and its interior was hollow. Beneath the openwork patterns, scorching flames burned fiercely, heating its surface to the point of being untouchable. At the tip of the shield, three sharp blades emerged, one in the middle as sharp as a needle, thin and long, while the other two each had a different shape, curved into the shape of the front half of a sword, which could be used to slash or tear apart a target.

This alien weapon, which serves both offensive and defensive purposes, is worn on the arm of a familiar figure: she wears a cat-face mask, but the mask, which only covers her face, cannot hide her curved horns and tail.

The monstrous demons pounced again. These demons, relying on sheer numbers, paid no heed to their opponents' appearances. Instead, they grew even more bloodthirsty and excited by the faint aura of the lower plane. However, the shield seemed to possess precognitive abilities. No matter how fiercely it and its kin attacked, its most scorching side always blocked their path. And the moment they showed an opening, the spike or one of the other two blades would immediately press against them, slitting their throats.

"Are you alright?" Tieflin's rough voice sounded like heavenly music at this moment. She seemed to be handling these low-level demons with ease, while protecting herself and Angrita behind her. "I'm sorry, it took longer than Leslaufer expected to gather the manpower, otherwise I could have arrived earlier."

“Let’s not talk about that now,” Angelita interrupted her quickly, finally catching her breath as she pointed to the passageway to the side. “We need to get out of there and back to Uncle Raslaufer!”

A slight smirk appeared on Callistra's lips beneath her mask: "There's no need to rush, Miss. In fact, quite the opposite, it would be best if we stayed here."

"After all, we can't disrupt the entry of others."

other people?

Angelita was slightly taken aback. The next moment, several entrances from the ground leading to the arena were simultaneously illuminated with a holy light, accompanied by a chorus of loud chanting.

Two abbots and bishops of the Church of Serak stood before one of the passageways, while in other directions stood priests from various other churches and mages from Ironforge! Together they formed a second wave of reinforcements, and when the demons realized that the rat swarm's attack was negligible and attempted to organize a counterattack, they immediately used a massive amount of magic to suppress the demons back into the arena!

As a beam of light crashed down from the dome onto the Soul Eater's head, the white-haired, stern-faced demon scholar joined the fray. He carried a huddled-up little devil, but this didn't stop him from unleashing every spell he could muster upon the demon. Beside him, his student Brandon was operating a magical amplification device to ensure his mentor's voice reached every survivor or reinforcement in the arena.

"Gentlemen! The claws of the abyss reach out to our world, intending to spread chaos and evil. Their schemes are insidious, their methods are varied and utterly shameless, and more importantly..." After only two or three exchanges with the Soul Eater, Heinrich's unhealed wounds had already reopened, but it was precisely this pain that made every word he uttered gritted teeth and filled with unquenchable hatred. "I must say, they and the cultists who submit to them are endless and cannot be eradicated."

"But this is our world! This is Ironforge! We will always outnumber them!"

"Today, we will utterly annihilate the conspiracy of the abyss here!"

Heinrich suddenly threw the Barbasabalone in his hand, and in his hand appeared a heavy warhammer. With a few short prayers, it immediately burst forth with brilliant holy light and crashed down on the increasingly besieged Soul Eater!

"You will perish here, you demon!"

"In my opinion, you'll be the first to die, hehehe," the Soul Eater let out a series of eerie laughs. Its figure vanished from its spot in an instant, dodging Heinrich's fatal hammer blow while grabbing a trembling spectator hiding under a seat and draining his life force in a flash. "My recovery is much better than yours."

“Be careful, old man, you’ll be swallowed up by your holy light. As for me? I’ll just return to the endless abyss and come back here after your funeral,” the demon said sinisterly. “Perhaps you should thank me for laying a bouquet of flowers on your grave.”

“You won’t have that chance,” the demonologist sneered, taking advantage of the gap left by Raslaufer filling his offensive position to mock him. “You think you’re so smart? Look around you, this is your final resting place…”