With a single punch, black blood sprayed from the Demon Emperor's face.
It was a pitiful sight; the man was being beaten so severely he had no chance to resist.
Ricardo was no saint; once he saw an opening, he beat him within an inch of his life!
It was clear the Demon Emperor was completely defenseless.
Clutched in the Beast Sovereign's grip at such close range, combined with the momentum of the high-altitude descent, even a weakling would have been pushed to their limit.
Assaulted so relentlessly, the Demon Emperor finally erupted.
"Argh! Die!!"
While the Beast Sovereign was still pummeling him, a violent surge of dark elements suddenly exploded from the Demon Emperor's body.
Ignoring his battered face, he reached out and grabbed the Beast Sovereign's mane with a death grip.
That sensation... was he trying to take Ricardo down with him?
The Beast Sovereign instinctively tried to struggle, but the Demon Emperor's hands were locked onto his mane!
No matter how hard the Beast Sovereign struck him, he wouldn't let go!
"Lancelot!!"
Seeing the situation turn dire, Luo Li frowned and called out sharply.
"As you command!"
Lancelot immediately landed beside the two, slamming his massive crucifix into the Demon Emperor's face!
At the same time, Lancelot slapped the top of the crucifix!
The massive cross split open from the front, revealing a giant sword blade within!
Several short swords also emerged from the arms of the cross.
He didn't reach for the largest sword, instead drawing one of the short swords from the arms of the crucifix.
Aiming for the Demon Emperor's wrists, a silver light flashed by!
With a wet thud, the short sword descended, and two fountains of blood shot into the sky.
A heart-wrenching scream from the Demon Emperor followed immediately!
Lancelot showed no mercy. Retracting his blade, he gripped his crucifix in one hand and grabbed the Beast Sovereign's shoulder with the other!
Using the Demon Emperor as a springboard, he leaped back into the air!
"Luo Li!"
As he fell, Asacreus's eyes bulged, his face covered in blood!
Watching the falling Demon Emperor, Luo Li frowned slightly but did not look away.
Instead, she met his gaze, which looked as though it could devour her alive.
At this height, without any flight capability, even a level seventy powerhouse would find it difficult to land safely and unscathed.
Furthermore, the Demon Emperor's hands had been severed, completely shattering his physical balance.
In that moment, the girl the Demon Emperor saw as the pure and flawless Saintess of the Moon slowly relaxed her brow.
A faint, amused smile played across her lips as she looked down at him.
"Die."
Her red lips moved slightly. Although the two words didn't reach the Demon Emperor's ears, he saw them clearly.
The Demon Emperor felt as if fire were erupting from his every pore. His chest felt like it was about to burst, consumed by an uncontrollable rage!
"Aaaaargh!!"
With a roar of insane, unwilling fury, the Demon Emperor's body suddenly began to swell.
It was as if a balloon had been connected to a high-pressure pump!
From his head to his limbs, that handsome face became distorted in an instant.
In the next second!
Asacreus's chest suddenly burst open, and a pitch-black tentacle lunged out from within!
That tentacle was densely covered in eyes and whiskers, followed quickly by a second and a third.
Dozens of tentacles crawled out from the Demon Emperor's body.
And every eye on those tentacles was fixed squarely on the girl atop the black dragon's head.
That fury made Luo Li realize that the sense of unreality the Beast Sovereign had mentioned during their clash must have come from this.
The true Asacreus was likely this mass of tentacles crawling out of the corpse!
Boom!
The tentacles seemed to lack flight capabilities. Facing the departing dragon army, they could only watch with glares of pure hatred.
However, this scene gave Beast Sovereign Ricardo quite a shock.
"My god, this guy's true form is that hideous?"
At some point, Beast Sovereign Ricardo had boarded a skysoar dragon and flown alongside the black dragon.
He cried out in surprise as he looked down at the tentacles crawling out of Asacreus's body.
"That is likely his true form."
Luo Li looked down at the Demon Emperor's corpse as it grew smaller and smaller, eventually becoming a tiny black dot that was almost invisible.
She hadn't expected to kill the Demon Emperor in a single engagement.
But this time hadn't been without its gains.
First, they had wiped out the majority of the pursuing demon air force.
Second, they had forced Asacreus to reveal his trump card early.
"Well, it seems none of the demons are any good. But... that tentacle mass looks a bit different from the giant one we saw before. Are they different species?"
"Probably not?"
Luo Li was uncertain.
In her understanding, there were no racial distinctions within the demon race; any member could reproduce with any other.
In other words, the demons had no reproductive isolation.
Without reproductive isolation, they couldn't really be called different species.
At most, they were different manifestations.
It was like dogs; they were all the same species, but they came in different shapes and sizes.
"Forget it, it doesn't matter!"
The Beast Sovereign let out a boisterous laugh and turned to give Luo Li a thumb's up.
"Impressive! I didn't expect the air force to have such a combat method. What do you call it?"
"Dive tactics. Of course, it wasn't just my doing; I have to thank Aigie and Shalin as well."
Luo Li turned to look at the red and blue dragons beside her.
"Thank you both for your help. Otherwise, this tactic wouldn't have gone so smoothly."
Dive tactics could significantly increase the speed of a charge, which directly translated into attack power.
Speed was power.
This was also why the Beast Sovereign could burst with power far exceeding the Demon Emperor's in such a short time.
It was all due to the dive.
However, the reason they could achieve such a result—nearly annihilating the demon air force—wasn't entirely dependent on the dive.
It was also thanks to the thick bank of steam created by the sisters.
The steam mist blocked the vision of both sides.
In that situation, the demons needed to hold onto their mounts, use their weapons, and try to locate the enemy.
But her side didn't need to; they just had to hold their weapons and dive straight through.
They cut down everything in their path!
As a result, even though the demons' strength should have far exceeded the dragon and beastmen army, they were simply crushed.
This was the art of war.
The blue dragon, Shalin, didn't smile, but a soft laugh came from her.
"Hehe. The Saintess overpraises us. If it weren't for your proper command, my sister and I wouldn't have known where to use our abilities even if we had them."
The red dragon glanced at Luo Li and nodded.
"I hate to admit it, but for a weak human, you are indeed different from the others."
Does this count as her accepting me?
Luo Li had suspected Aigie harbored some hostility toward her.
However, she had thought about it for a long time and couldn't figure out how she had offended this Red Flame Great Dragon.
Shalin seemed to notice Luo Li's confusion, and her laughter rang out again.
"The Saintess need not worry. My sister just has that kind of personality. Please be patient with her."
"It's fine."
Luo Li smiled. Regardless, they had held the absolute advantage in this brief clash.
They didn't even have any wounded.
This nearly miraculous result caused her previously heavy heart to soar!
A relaxed, effortless smile unconsciously played across her lips.
"What now?"
The Beast Sovereign's loud voice echoed in her ears. If he hadn't been far enough away, Luo Li felt she might have been stunned by the volume alone.
"The plan remains unchanged. Bypass the Demon King's Castle and head for the evacuation point."
The Beast Sovereign nodded and then rode his skysoar dragon to the rear.
Without needing Luo Li to say a word, Black continued flying toward the east.
Looking at the massive city in the distance, she didn't know if it had been built by the demons or if it was a relic from a thousand years ago. But regardless, Luo Li had realized something.
The underground of this demon island, after a thousand years of development, had become a paradise for the demons.
No wonder they barely saw any demons on the surface. It wasn't that the demons had sent their entire population out as soldiers.
It was that they had moved from surface life to underground life.
It seemed... after she returned, it would be necessary to have the kingdom conduct some surveys.
Right now, the demons could funnel troops inside the Great Wall. What if they went further?
The consequences of that were unthinkable.
However, the capabilities of those tentacles must have limits. Otherwise, the demons would have used them to connect to the continent long ago.
Why would they need to be so secretive? Wouldn't it be better to just launch a full-scale invasion?
If there were limits, that made things easier.
She would find a way to figure out the characteristics of those tentacles and then install targeted detection devices in the northeast region.
That would prevent them from being ambushed again.
Luo Li was thinking about how to deal with the tentacles after her return.
By now, the dragon army had reached the rear of the Demon King's Castle.
They were directly east of the castle.
From this position, a massive volcano could be seen in the distance.
She didn't know exactly how tall the volcano was, but the crater was completely covered in ice and snow.
If it weren't for that very characteristic circular crater, Luo Li might have thought it was just a mountain peak piercing the clouds.
"Is that... a volcano?"
Luo Li murmured to herself, but her words were heard by the Red Flame Great Dragon nearby.
Aigie turned her massive dragon head toward the volcano, took a single look, and shook her head.
"There is no concentrated aura of fire elements there. That volcano must be dead."
The volcano was dead?
Could the demons have hollowed out the interior of the volcano?
That possibility couldn't be ruled out.
But if the demons had really done that, what was their purpose?
"Wait, Aigie... you're saying you just can't feel any fire elements there, right?"
"Yes. Any living volcano will have concentrated fire elements, but there are none there."
Aigie glanced at me, a hint of confusion flashing in her massive crimson eyes.
"Do you think my judgment is wrong?"
"No, I didn't mean that. I was just wondering... is it possible that the volcano's fire elements have been entirely consumed? So they can't leak out, and that's why you can't sense any volcanic activity?"
The red dragon's massive eye rolled slightly as if she were thinking.
"How could that be? Judging by its size, once that volcano erupts, its power would be enough to destroy half the continent."
"Who could possibly suppress such a vast amount of fire elements?"
Aigie's response was reassuring, but then her tone shifted:
"But I suppose the possibility cannot be ruled out."
Seriously, can you not stop halfway through a sentence?
Is it fun to keep me in suspense like this?
"I'm not a demon; how would I know if they have the ability to utilize such a massive amount of fire elemental energy?"
That was a fair point, but couldn't you have said that before the previous part?
Luo Li lowered her eyes in thought but didn't dwell on the issue.
In any case, that volcano wasn't something they could explore right now.
Their group of self-rescuing forces, separated from the main army, had to reach the evacuation point as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, if they were surrounded by the demons, it would be trouble!
"Black, pick up the pace. We'll bypass the main force and head straight for the evacuation point."
"As you command, Saintess."
The massive black dragon's body suddenly surged forward, his speed increasing significantly.
The Red Flame and Frost dragon sisters looked at each other and also accelerated to keep up.
Following closely behind them were the two thousand skysoar dragons.
...
The wind howled past Ligeia's ears, her long green hair dancing in the gale.
However, at this moment, Ligeia couldn't be bothered with her appearance.
"My dear little Luo Li... you really do give me difficult tasks."
She looked at the three letters in her arms and sighed.
One was for the Pope, one for Lola, and one for Augus.
She didn't know why little Luo Li favored this newly appointed Cabinet Minister so much.
But she didn't plan to think too much about it, nor did she have any intention of peeking at the letters.
Lola and Augus—under normal circumstances, those two letters would have been easy to deliver.
But now, things felt a bit different.
Because at this moment... Brilliant City was under martial law!
Indeed, it was a lockdown, and a very strict one at that.
Each section of the city wall had three gates, and right now, hundreds of knights were guarding each one.
This was a state of war readiness; every knight was fully armed.
Their horses were right beside them.
Normally, someone of a knight's rank wouldn't be assigned to direct guard duty; they were part of the management class.
But now, knights were personally guarding the city gates?
Clearly, something had happened inside the city.
"Just as you expected. As soon as you left, those foolish nobles couldn't wait to make their move."
Ligeia floated in mid-air, using light elements to completely conceal her figure.
While she could enter the city directly from the air, doing so would inevitably trigger the wartime alarm system.
Even on ordinary days, although the sky above Brilliant City seemed empty, it was actually wrapped in detection magic.
This was magic based on a magic circle, which was fundamentally different from magic triggered by magic stones.
This kind of magic was very difficult to be immune to, and because of that, Ligeia now had to find a way to sneak into the city.
Otherwise, these letters would never be delivered.
Rate on N.U.
