Book 9, Chapter 108

The Eternal War

Seeing his forces being attacked from all sides, Richard frowned and activated the demonic heart within him, pulsing a ferocious aura that immediately rippled out in all directions. Both the demons and devils nearby were shocked, with the former immediately turning around and clawing at their eternal enemies. That the devils immediately focused on their actual enemies as well, giving the humans around a moment of respite.

Richard’s figure flickered as he circled around this small battlefield before appearing in front of Fiora once more, throwing a pile of demon cores towards her. All of the greater demons nearby suddenly stopped moving, dropping like flies as their chests were replaced with a black void.

“What blood are you of?” a powerful conscient swept through the area, voice ringing in the minds of everyone present. It wasn’t one of human origin, but everyone understood its meaning clearly as it pierced into their minds. This most certainly had come from a very powerful demon lord, superior to even Bermond and possibly even at the high standard of level 35. Nasia and Zealor were the only legends under its sway that didn’t lose their mobility, while the saints fell prone to the ground.

“The abyssal dragons,” Richard’s own conscient swept across the battlefield, driving out that piercing voice as he responded calmly. His aura changed to match Daramore’s convincingly, black fog starting to billow around him.

An enormous figure appeared in the distance, standing up to reveal a thousand metres of height. The clouds parted around him as he picked up his hammer whose head alone was ten metres across, the giant weapon seeming like a toothpick in his hands. The lord swung his hammer with enough force to smack all of the lesser devil lords nearby into oblivion, then glaring at Richard with his dozens of eyes.

As those around him felt like they had been laid bare, Richard knitted his brows and shot out a faint light that blurred the space around. Taking control of the surrounding laws in an instant, he broke off the demon lord’s gaze. He then stared coldly at the abyssal, “You have know business knowing why I’m here. Are you running out of devils to fight or something?”

The demon let out a deafening laugh, “I met Daramore only three millennia ago. I would never have imagined anyone from his tribe to reach the level of an archlord. Your company is interesting, are they snacks you carry around?”

Richard didn’t respond to the question, instead growling loudly, “You’re looking for trouble. Continue to provoke me, and I’ll tear you in two!”

The demon lord immediately erupted with rage, forcing his conscient through the distorted space to try and suppress Richard. Richard’s growl turned into a roar as three tetrahedrons flashed around him, a bloody streak shooting into the sky. He had activated the power of Dizmason with all 36 layers of Lifesbane, resulting in a spiritual strike that instantly cut the demon’s will in two. The lord roared in agony, withdrawing its conscient right away.

Before there could be any retaliation or acknowledgement, the two belligerents were suddenly interrupted by a majestic portal in the distance, countless devils surging out from within. A powerful aura quickly engulfed everything nearby; a devil archlord had appeared! Seeing its nemesis, the demon lord lost all interest in Richard and charged into the devil army and started fighting.

The mere aftershocks of an archlord’s aura could spread hundreds of kilometres on each side. Most of the devils that had come in were destroyed before they could even organise themselves, shaking this section of the battlefield to destabilise everyone. However, the laws here were exceptionally strong and this earth-shattering battle couldn’t even tear into the space, forget the planar origin. As shocked as he was by the power of the combatants, Richard was stunned simply by the environment of the Eternal Battlefield.

However, now wasn’t the time to just stop and stare. He was currently near the top of the field, and to reach the depths he would have to probe further. He had the feeling that he would have to traverse the entirety of this special plane that had taken the lives of most of the elves’ nine epics.

Thankfully, the current expedition was meticulously planned. Richard had his Archeron aura that could fool anyone into thinking he was a demon, but the addition of Daramore’s was a blessing that gave him full confidence. Seeing the two archlords getting entangled, he sighed in relief and summoned all of his subordinates to his side. The field of order immediately allowed them to feel more secure.

All of the night elves had already died in battle by this point, with only a dozen of the broodmother’s worms being left alive. These worms had evolved during the endless battles, now each comparable to a saint. There were only three wasps as well, but they too had mutated to survive in the abyss. While all of the legends were intact, only half of the saints were still alive. With the corruption of the abyss accumulating within them, these survivors weren’t of much use at this point either.

Richard gathered the three remaining wasps together, drawing huge spell arrays on each before placing a shattered limb from a lesser demon lord on each. He then called all of the saints and handed them a map, “You can’t be involved in the next phase of this battle; your mission here is done. I’ve made some alterations to these wasps, making them look like powerful lesser lords to other demons. Be careful enough not to face an archlord, and you should be able to thread along this route to return to the reward point battlefield.”

The saints climbed onto the wasps in quick succession. If they returned to Norland alive, this battle experience would allow many of them to become legends in the future. These were amongst the most loyal subordinates the Archerons had, and Richard didn’t want to waste their lives for no reason.

As the three wasps entered a nearby passage, Richard turned around and sent out a dozen drops of fresh blood from the demon lord’s heart. One was absorbed by each of his followers, after which he used his laws to activate these drops and give them an abyssal aura. This way, they would seem like demons; even if they had to fight any devils they came across, that was much better than being targeted by everyone. He would also direct them mainly through areas occupied primarily by demons, reducing their chances of getting caught further.

However, Richard didn’t even manage to set out before his heart suddenly froze, prompting him to turn to the right. An enormous portal that was a full kilometre tall had appeared only a dozen kilometres away, and an army of well-equipped devils marched through. At the centre of them all was a huge devil that was 50 metres tall, the imposing aura making it clear that this was an archlord.

“Why the FUCK?” Richard swore as the devil locked sights on him. He even felt a surge of killing intent that simply refused to go away; his emotions would not be quelled unless he completely destroyed this devil!

His eyes turning crimson, he growled as he shot towards the devil like lightning, only coming to his senses halfway through. He suddenly felt something wrong, only just noticing the huge green crystal sword in the devil’s hands as it charged towards him as well.