午夜情深深

The sky had turned into bloody red, with the temperature of the air around them rising to the point where breathing turned difficult.

The earth shook more violently, and the buildings which were already in a horrible state began to crumble.

“Your Majesty, moving in will turn dangerous!”

As large buildings were falling down, Erwin used Shield Magic on Luke’s Avenger.

Thud!

The Shield Magic bounced off the fragments, however, Luke paid no attention to anything else.

His eyes were looking at the subspace which had been opened on the other side.

Luke had always summoned the demon to absorb their Magi and powers, so he quickly recognized the identity of the subspace.

‘The demon summoning circle! He is summoning a demon in here?’

He had felt weird for battling with demons which weren’t a match for his troops, and he realized the reason for it.

The appearance of the subspace which would exceed 30 meters wide with eerie and ominous energy was opened, but fortunately, it didn’t seem like any demon had been summoned yet.

In front of the subspace, were two beings.

A pale-skinned demon with horns, and a Lich with dark eyes and a slender skeleton.

Luke’s eyes went wide looking at the Lich rather than the demon beside him.

“Arsene!”

“Kul. Kul. Kul! Luke, You. Are. Over. Now!”

Arsene who looked at Luke, burst over with laughter.

At that moment, Luke rushed in and swung the giant sword with a Gold aura.

‘Ugh...!’

Arsene seemed shocked, he hadn’t expected Luke to go straight for the attack.

He would have avoided the attack right away if he could, but the new body differed a lot from Shaikan’s body in terms of both strength and speed.

Like a goblin struck in front of a dragon, he got caught up in the attack.

Kwang-!

A deep and long strike cut the ground beneath the feet where the Avenger’s sword fell.

If Bargosa arrived even a little late, Arsene would have died once again.

“Indeed, you are a trouble for Arsene.”

“Are you the Arch Duke demon?”

Luke asked the demon, who had helped Arsene by blocking the attack.

At the question, Bargosa was able to realize that the lower demon, whom he had thought to have killed the other day, survived and informed the human right in front of him.

Pointing the sword of the Avenger towards Bargosa, Luke spoke.

“I am not aware of the kind of contract you have signed with Arsene, but if you plan to cover for him, you will end up dead.”

Hearing Luke’s warning, Bargosa’s calm face crumbled into a frown.

“Amazing. I never thought that a human from Middle-earth would threaten me, a master of demons.”

Even Arsene never threatened him.

They only offered reasonable terms in the contract and signed it.

And once he said that, Bargosa’s body disappeared.

Using black magic to quickly move in space, he dropped Magi thunderbolt at the expeditionary troops which followed Luke.

Rumble!

Unlike Luke, the expeditionary troops were all looking at the subspace in the sky and were taken by surprise by the lightning.

“Wha-What!”

“Be careful!”

With a smile on his mouth, Bargosa smiled looking at the humans who were trying to avoid the attack.

“Kuek, don’t be so cowardly. Hitting the weakness in a fight is a tactic... ugh?”

Bargosa, who was trying to justify his attack on Luke, was shocked.

It was because a little girl had come out of the expeditionary troops, and used a huge amount of Divine power and destroyed all the lightning.

‘That can’t be! No matter how the Divine power and Magi counter each other, for a little girl to stop my attack?’

The moment he was stunned at the girl and stared at her, Luke ran to him and struck Bargosa with his giant sword.

Bargosa who detected Luke’s movement hastily opened Dark Shield.

However, after being struck by a huge sword with a gold aura that was being amplified by the core engine, he got hit by the sword and fell to the ground.

Kwang!

“Digging into the gaps in a fight is also a tactic, don’t act so cowardly.”

“Huh, you are no ordinary one!”

Luke with a smile on his lips, spoke back the words with Bargosa that had spoken to him a few moments ago.

When Luke was confronting Bargosa, Erwin looked after Karen.

It was because Karen, who had just stopped Bargosa’s attack, seemed extremely pale. And it wasn’t because of the attack of the demon.

“Princess, are you alright?”

“Ha... don’t worry about me, go and find the Life Vessel of the Lich King! Do it as soon as possible!”

The main goal of the expedition was the Lich, Arsene.

As long as the demon summoning circle was still activated, it meant that a demon would soon come through it.

No one knew what kind of a demon Arsene had summoned, but it wasn’t going to be a normal one.

So Karen decided to find and destroy the Life Vessel before Arsene’s demon came out of the subspace.

That way, they would be able to stop the acts of Arsene permanently without much damage.

The knights and soldiers stood up at Karen’s order and began to search the entire place.

Arsene, who was hiding behind the subspace to avoid Luke, laughed looking at how the humans move.

‘Huh, stupid creatures. Search for a thousand years. For my Life Vessel.’

If he could, he wanted to take down the troops instead of Luke.

However, ever since his body changed, Arsene was a lot weaker than before, and strong people like Karen and Hwang Bo-sung were in the troops.

Moreover, the most important task, the summoning was still in progress.

The summoning would be canceled if any problems came up in between, and Arsene’s life could be in danger.

Arsene decided to hide from both Luke and his troops until the Demon King got summoned.

But his peace didn’t last long.

The troops began to display unusual behavior in their search.

‘A lighthouse built on the shell of a large turtle like...’

Unlike the others, Scarlet stared at the rocky island in the sea opposite to the palace.

The lighthouse stood alone on the rocky island, which looked like a turtle shell.

“When the night turns darker than ever, hit the lighthouse which is built on a large sea turtle.”

A message from Master Erenes, which she had forgotten for a while.

When she first heard it, she didn’t understand what he meant.

However, when she saw the night turned darker, a subspace darker than night, and noticed a lighthouse on the rocky island which looked very similar to a turtle shell, the words of her teacher resounded in her mind.

‘Master said to hit the lighthouse. Then, the Life Vessel of the Lich is in the lighthouse...!’

Tat! Tat! Tat!

Scarlet hurriedly jumped onto a nearby stone pillar and picked up the arrow.

She took the arrow which was made by a dwarf elder, in which the arrowhead was made of steel, and also had little magic and Gigantium on it.

If she could put aura onto it, the power the arrow would release would be tremendous, so it had to be used against Sword Masters.

In the current situation, she was more than able to destroy the lighthouse with just one arrow.

Convinced, Scarlet began to push aura onto the arrow.

Wooong!

A bright, blinding light began to form at the end of the arrowhead.

The Aether, which Erenes had shown to her was awakening, even after Luke had called it to be dangerous.

“Sh-she is...!”

Arsene was shocked when he saw Scarlet aiming for the lighthouse.

The Life Vessel was still inside the lighthouse.

He couldn’t just let the red-haired woman shoot her arrow.

“Black Spear!”

“Danger!”

Seeing the Black Spear used, Hwang Bo-sung hurriedly jumped for Scarlet.

As Hwang Bo-sung went close to her, Scarlet had fired the Aether arrow towards the lighthouse.

Swoosh!

The arrow, which was shining flew towards the lighthouse leaving behind a white trajectory in the air.

Thanks to Hwang Bo-sung’s quick move, Scarlet managed to avoid getting hit by the Black Spear but was angry at missing the target.

‘Damn it, I missed!’

As she was pushed by Hwang Bo-sung, the direction of the arrow shifted.

Kwang!

The arrow broke through the roof of the lighthouse.

While she was feeling irritated and regretting using it, Arsene began to scream.

“Kuakkkkk!”

The fragments produced by the arrow had broken in through the roof and struck the Life Vessel, which was stored inside the lighthouse.

Although the Life Vessel wasn’t broken, it was still a considerable damage, and Arsene’s soul was damaged.

Arsene was hurt and was feeling a pain he didn’t till a few years back.

“This, no...!”

Bargosa looked over at Arsene who was on the ground groaning in pain.

He looked over at the subspace.

If Arsene’s condition was too serious to move, then the summoning would get halted.

But fortunately, the subspace was safe.

No, it vibrated a lot more intensely and began to release Magi in huge quantities.

“Ughhhh! It is dangerous!”

“Get back! Step back!”

The Magi was poison, and unless one was a warlock, one could die from being exposed to a certain amount of Magi.

When the troops who were shocked stepped back, a huge hand popped out of the subspace.

The rocks around the subspace began to melt down, and a hand kept reaching out of the subspace.

Shocked, Luke rushed straight in and struck his giant sword. He tried to take down the demon before it crossed the subspace.

Kwang!

A huge wave pushed everyone a few feet back.

But the demon’s hand which got hit by the sword didn’t seem to take any damage. Despite the fact that Gold aura was used to maximum, there was a small cut on the hand.

‘This can’t be...!’

“Kukuk! A great welcome!”

The demon passed through the subspace and spoke with a low voice.

His massive muscular body could be compared to a Hero class Gigant. He has four pairs of horns and began to lit-up his eyes.

“Hiiik!”

“Kuak! Keeek!”

The soldiers who met eyes with the demon died immediately while screaming.

Despite being far from the demon, most soldiers couldn’t handle the Magi the demon was releasing.

Among the knights, there were many who died of a heart attack or even passed out.

Even Sword Masters like Philip and Rogers trembled to stand, and Belfair the demon, threw its head to the ground.

Gregory, Hwang Bo-sung, and Karen were the only ones who could stand.

However, their faces were stiff and pale because of the fear which was creeping into their hearts, fear of being consumed by something stronger than them.

‘Oh my god! I did expect it but...’

Luke was also stiff to move.

However, the skills he had accumulated as a Rune Knight and his sense of mission to protect his people made his body move.

“Disappear!”

In his Avenger, he used the second half of the Gold Sword, Cyclone Rage.

The storm-like sword attack which had turned twice as powerful went towards the demon faster than light.

Kang!

‘No!’

The giant sword broke with a sound.

While was dumbfounded at what he saw, the demon who almost got hit smiled.

“It tickles.”

The demon with a smile on its face struck both his fists.

Kwang!

Just rubbing his fists were strong enough to send shockwaves all over the island.

When the demon stepped ahead, the whole ground shook.

The Avenger which was on the ground rolled back because of the shake on the ground.

“Dad!”

Screaming, Karen rushed towards Luke.

Arch Duke Gregory tried to follow her, but his legs wouldn’t move.

As he watched the demon move, the dizzier his body and mind were turning.

‘That is no normal demon, he is definitely...!’

Demon King.

The highest-ranking demon in the Devildom.

The worst thing one could see, the thing only heard in legends and myths were right in front of their eyes.