Chapter 515 - 511: Sacrifice

"Your new generation is really stupid. Last time you survived the complete massacre, but you just had to come back for that?" High Duke Magna said before he raised his right hand and gripped the thin air. 

From what he did, something similar took place in the distance. Even though High Duke Magna wasn't holding the next of the Spirit General personally, the Spirit General could be seen choking. 

It was as if some Mystical force was choking him, making him unable to breathe. 

"Geez, if he is that strong, then why were we even worrying about attacking their base right away? Their strongest warriors are like kids before High Duke Magna," Ryder muttered as he smiled wryly. 

He shifted his gaze to High Duke Oris before he continued, "I suppose you're just as strong. So are we really wasting time here by going easy? Whatever excuse you have doesn't make sense anymore."

"As we said, this is war etiquette. We generally don't break that, but as per your command, we are doing that. Moreover, there's another reason in my mind. It's because we're keeping guard at this place. It's too complicated to explain," High Duke Oris replied. 

...

"He seems like he is in trouble," Alice told the Second Spirit General as she noticed the First Spirit General choking in the distance. 

"There's not much time left in the one minute of boost. Shouldn't you help him?" She asked the Second Spirit General, who was more immersed in using his newly gained strength for killing the enemies with his arrows. 

The Spirit Realm only had three Spirit Generals. Two of them were already here as for the Third Spirit General, who was missing. 

Hearing his words, the Second Spirit General came out of the battle mindset and shifted his focus on other places too. He soon noticed the first Spirit General, seemingly in trouble. 

"I'll help him right away!"

With that said, he raised his bow to aim towards the High Duke. 

The arrow wasn't black this time. Instead, it was golden in color, which seemed different. It was evident that he was using an arrow with a different specialty.

It wasn't an arrow that divided in thousands; instead, it was one that focused all that energy into one. 

"Go!"

He released the string and fired the arrow in the direction of High Duke Magna. 

"Tell me one thing. Do you regret your overconfidence? Or do you regret waging the war which will end up with all of you dying?" High Duke Magna asked the Spirit General who was choking. 

The Spirit General's HP kept decreasing rapidly as he neared death. 

"High Duke Magna, watch out for the arrow!" Ryder called out as he saw the arrow nearing the High Duke. 

Hearing Ryder's concern, High Duke Magna's eyes twitched in annoyance. Did he say that he needed help? He already knew about the arrow. 

"Looks like your friend still doesn't understand the massive gap between the two of us," High Duke Magna muttered as he raised his left hand towards the incoming arrow. 

A small ball of dark light appeared before his palm, which shot out towards the incoming arrow. 

The arrow and the ball of light clashed with each other. The clash didn't last for long enough as the ball of light swallowed the arrow entirely as if it was a hungry beast that finally got its food. 

"So that's his Devouring Orb. I wondered how it worked after he described it. Pretty good skill for defense and offense," Ryder nodded his head in appreciation of the skill, which seemed useful. 

"What? How!"

Seeing his attack being swallowed so easily, the Second Spirit General was shocked. This guy was really so strong? His strength and other stats were twice as strong because of the pillar now. And even then, the attack felt like an attack from a toy. This didn't make sense for him. 

"I can't hold it anymore!" Alice exclaimed as she found herself overburdened. The limitations of this tower were reached as it disappeared swiftly, bringing the strength of the Spirit Generals to normal. 

"I'm sorry," Alice apologized as she sat back on the ground, tired. 

"Don't worry. It's we who disappointed you by our lack of strength. We don't know their High Dukes would be this strong. Their strength is nothing like described in our scriptures. They are much stronger. 

"That was given. They are the strongest warriors of the Demon Realm that defeated you last time. I told you long ago that you shouldn't underestimate them," Alice told the Spirit General. 

She remembered saying that when she was told about this war against the people of the Death Domain. The war was pretty hasty in her opinion. 

She had told them that they were underestimating the enemy a lot by saying they will definitely win and that they are as strong as their enemies. 

"Don't worry. As long as we kill their Prince, we are done with the war. It would be our victory. The Third Spirit General is already doing that much for us. It would be over soon," the Second Spirit General nodded in appreciation. 

"What about the first Spirit General? He would be long dead by then," Alice asked. 

She could see the HP of the first High Duke dropping even faster now that he was without her buff. Soon, his HP was going to be zero. He was going to die. 

"That's fine. A necessary Sacrifice to keep them distracted," Second Spirit Emperor said as he sighed. 

....

"That guy won't live for long. It's strange. Why aren't they trying to save him?"

Seeing the First Spirit Emperor close to death, Ryder was surprised. Apparently, no one was trying to save him, which was really strange. 

"Your Highness, I have a guess. Maybe because that golden pillar is gone? They don't know if they can still attack us or not without the strength? Or without their boost in strength, they aren't that willing to attack at the front?" One of the Dukes chimed in. 

"Maybe," Ryder muttered, rubbing his chin. 

It was when the First Spirit General was killed. His body was tossed back to the ground after he was killed. 

"There goes one. I think there's one more left now. Let's attack them. We'll think about the rest later. No point in wor-"

Ryder was still speaking, talking about attacking, when he suddenly saw someone appear before him out of thin air, thrusting a sword towards him. 

The Sword penetrated Ryder's chest. His HP started decreasing as if it was a race to see how fast it could hit zero. Ryder was sure that within a few moments, he was going to be dead.

"There he is! The Third Spirit General managed to sneak inside! It's our victory!" The Second Spirit General exclaimed as he smiled at the sight of Ryder being stabbed.

...

Since the entire fight was being broadcasted on the website of the Necrosis Corporation, a lot of people were watching it live despite it being night. 

Even now, there were over a million people watching the broadcast, at least.

They all felt like Ryder had an upper edge in the war. His army was stronger, his plan seemed the best, and more importantly, his Warrior, which was the first High Duke, seemed unstoppable. 

Seeing all that, they had decided that Ryder was going to win. Compared to him, his female opponent seemed lackluster. She didn't seem to have any plans. She was just fighting a lost war. 

It was when things changed as they saw a person suddenly appear before Ryder, stabbing him. 

"So the girl wasn't an idiot. She was a scheming girl who was planning to take out her enemy player. Not bad. I guess I lost my bet. The war is over. I should have bet on the girl instead."

That was what everyone thought as they saw the sudden change in the field. 

Along with the war, many bettings had also started, and almost all of them had betted on Ryder winning after seeing the first five minutes of war. 

But now, the ones who had betted on Ryder were sad, whereas the ones who bet on the girl were gleeful. 

... 

Ryder saw his HP going down. He knew there was no escaping it. His decreasing HO wasn't going to stop now. And if he died, it was going to be his loss. 

Not willing to lose, he used his time control to go back in time by five minutes. 

He could now go back in time by up to three hours without dying. But he only needed five minutes to escape from this problem. 

The time started moving back as Ryder found himself back in time. The first Spirit General wasn't dead at the moment. 

High Duke Magna hadn't even started choking that guy. 

"That's better. Let's see who kills me now," Ryder muttered as he stayed prepared for the upcoming attack that was supposed to land on him after five minutes.