Zuka's Escape

"Demons?"

"How is that possible?!"

"Weren't the demons driven back to their homeland?"

"How could there be demons in such a remote place?!"

Five or six men responded instinctively, while the old hunter's gaze moved past Lasco's face to look at the knights behind him who were still relentlessly venting their lust.

"There's no mistake. This is definitely something only the demon race could do. I served as a soldier at the Great Wall when I was young. Thirty years ago, during the demon invasion, I saw it with my own eyes when the Great Wall army retreated to the second line of defense..."

The old hunter's eyes grew hazy as if he were lost in memory.

However, his voice continued to tremble.

"There is no mistake. These people have certainly been tainted by demon blood. I... I heard other knights say that unless you deliberately use the power within your body to dispel it, you cannot resist the corruption of demon blood!"

"That's why we ordinary soldiers could never fight the demon race directly on the front lines. We could only watch those knights go into the fray."

At this point, the old hunter looked up, his eyes filled with infinite dread.

"This is an ability that only high-ranking demons possess. These people didn't resist at all when they were poisoned. The demonic toxin has already invaded their brains. Now, what awaits them is either death or becoming a low-ranking demon!"

Lasco followed the old hunter's line of sight toward the men.

When the other hunters heard this, one of the quicker-witted men immediately raised his knife.

Without a word, he chopped off a knight's head.

"Brothers, kill them! If we don't, they'll die anyway!"

Before he even finished speaking, he had already raised his blade against a second one.

As for the liberated women, they couldn't even make a sound. Many of them were covered in wounds of various sizes.

The men glanced at each other, and one of them grabbed some clothes from the ground to cover a woman.

There was no time to care for them now. They would provide basic coverage and check on them later.

Lasco let go of the old hunter and joined the others in raising his blade.

They went through them one by one. Even though they were veteran hunters familiar with bone structure, their blades still chipped and dulled against the armor and bone.

They didn't care, simply picking up the swords on the ground that had originally belonged to the knights to continue the slaughter.

As they moved along, the blood of some knights was still red. After their heads were severed, Lasco could clearly see the expressions on their faces.

There seemed to be... a hint of relief.

However, for another portion of the men, the blood flowing from their bodies had already begun to turn black.

Even after their heads fell to the ground, their mouths continued to twitch.

Their entire faces were twisted and terrifying.

Teeth were already beginning to grow again, hair was falling out, and signs of hardening and decay were appearing on the surface of their skin.

These were all omens of demonization.

This kind of tainted demonization would basically turn them into low-level demons.

As for those who resisted with all their heart and soul, they would die after enduring immense agony.

Lasco and his group were essentially liberating them.

They cut their way to the last man, and nothing unexpected happened during the process.

These knights were regular holy knights, and the titles they held allowed them to resist demonization to a certain extent.

Therefore, only less than a fifth of them showed signs of demonization.

The rest found peace in the midst of their pain.

But besides the knights being liberated, the women on the ground were also finding their end.

Lasco walked the entire way, identifying every girl with his own eyes.

But none of them were his wife!

In the end, he still hadn't found where his wife was.

The others lowered their weapons. Some turned to fetch bedding and clothes.

Others stayed on guard where they were.

Only Lasco stood there in a daze.

"Lasco, what are you standing there for?"

Someone nearby reminded him, but Lasco only murmured in response, "I haven't found Lise."

"You haven't found Lise?"

The others couldn't help but look at each other.

The quick-witted hunter instinctively followed up, "Is your Lise not dead?"

The others were also surprised.

If she wasn't dead, she should have been here, yet Lasco said he couldn't find her.

The men exchanged looks and nodded to each other.

Then, they began to search the area.

They had hunted together for years and were familiar with each other's families.

But after searching the entire area, they could only shake their heads in frustration.

Among the women on the ground, Lise's figure was indeed absent.

"Could it be... that your Lise escaped?"

A slightly plump hunter asked, offering a form of indirect comfort.

But at that moment, the old hunter suddenly spoke up.

"No, she didn't escape. These knights were tainted by demon blood. You've killed all the infected knights, but that demon... where is it?"

The moment those words were spoken, everyone present immediately became alert.

The square instantly fell into a deathly silence.

No one spoke as they all looked around.

And just then, someone heard a very faint, soft groan.

If the square hadn't been so quiet, no one would have heard that tiny sound.

Almost instinctively, several men looked up toward a distant rooftop at the same time.

At that very moment, a black shadow shattered the silence.

'Squelch!'

The slightly plump hunter didn't even have time to react!

'Splatter!'

Blood mixed with a murky, viscous substance fell to the ground.

Everyone stared blankly at the person on the opposite roof. Something seemed to be protruding from behind him.

Everyone's gaze involuntarily shifted, looking behind them.

The plump hunter's corpse stood where it was, his face still frozen in that expression of terror.

At the back of his head, a tentacle was constantly writhing, stained with blood and slime.

The corpse of the slightly plump hunter trembled slightly. It seemed the body hadn't even realized it was dead yet.

While everyone was stunned by this scene, a low voice finally drifted down from the rooftop.

"Are you all... looking for me?"

Looking toward the source of the voice, the owner of the tentacle was now standing on the roof.

Behind him, several women seemed to have already fallen into a state of delirium. They were stark naked, their bodies entangled by the tentacles extending from behind him.

"A... high demon!?"

The old hunter stared blankly at the figure. The image of the demon general he had seen years ago vaguely surfaced in his mind.

Was it him?

Zuka sneered. The tentacles behind him continued to writhe, while his face was filled with ferocity.

"To be precise, a half-blood high demon. But for you humans... there doesn't seem to be any difference."

As a half-blood, Zuka's own desires were even stronger than most half-blood demons.

"These past few days have been truly hard on me. Without women, I had nowhere to vent..."

"Enough. What else do you want to say to them? None of these people can leave here alive. Why waste your breath on such nonsense! Kill them quickly."

As soon as the voice fell, everyone's gaze was involuntarily drawn toward it.

Standing beside the demon was a man wearing the robes of a Cardinal.

Zuka's voice paused slightly as he glanced at Ferdinand Clapham beside him.

"You humans are truly more despicable than us demons when it comes to these things."

As he spoke, several tentacles suddenly shot out from behind him, piercing through several people like lightning.

Those who weren't fast enough had their brains skewered instantly.

However, the old hunter and Lasco, who had faster reactions, managed to dodge the first strike.

Yet, the tentacles were unbelievably flexible.

They were almost completely unable to dodge the second strike.

Their chests were pierced directly.

The old hunter was unlucky; his left chest was skewered instantly, a hole punched through his heart.

But Lasco was lucky enough not to die immediately, as his right chest was the part pierced.

He coughed almost uncontrollably, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

"Oh? You actually have some skill to be able to dodge the first and second strikes."

At Zuka's level, his dynamic vision was enough to see that Lasco had dodged the second strike as well, but he hadn't fully cleared it.

Although he had avoided the instant death of a heart shot on the left, he hadn't escaped the fatal blow to the right side of his chest.

Actually, there wasn't much difference; it was just a matter of dying a bit sooner or later.

"For an ordinary human to have such eyesight is truly rare."

'Whoosh!'

The tentacle hooked into Lasco's body and yanked him back violently.

The force was so immense it felt as if his chest were being torn open!

Pain. It was too much pain!

"Hmm? You can still hold on? I'm starting to get interested."

Zuka looked at Lasco, a cold smile curling on his lips.

However, at this moment, Lasco wasn't looking at Zuka at all. He instinctively raised his head.

Among the women behind Zuka, he saw his wife's figure.

She was already unconscious, her skin flushed with a sickly pink hue.

"How about it? Interested in becoming a demon? I can give you my blood. As long as you're willing, I'll..."

In this moment, only that one figure remained in Lasco's mind.

Lise... Lise!

Her past gentleness and grace, every smile and every look from their life together.

In this moment of impending death, Lasco's rage reached its absolute limit.

Before Zuka could finish speaking, a 'shink' sound rang out.

A shadow flashed past him.

Zuka didn't even have time to react before he felt a cold sensation at the base of his spine.

With a 'thud,' a woman fell to the ground behind him.

He instinctively looked back and saw that one of his tentacles had been severed.

The tentacle that had been connected to that woman.

At the same time, a wound had appeared on the woman's neck, and blood was gushing out in a steady stream.

Zuka's pupils constricted violently. In that instant, he realized what had happened.

"You dared to sever my tentacle! You're dead!"

His face contorted with rage, Zuka spun around, ready to unleash his fury.

But he was stunned to find that the man before him had already used up his last spark of life.

Hanging from the tentacle, he had breathed his last.

Ferdinand Clapham, standing to the side, watched Zuka with a mocking expression, as if he were watching a play.

"I didn't expect this man to remain so rational even in the face of death. He knew he couldn't kill you. If his killing intent had been aimed at your vital spots, you certainly would have noticed. So, he set his target on his wife's neck..."

Ferdinand looked down at the woman lying on the ground. She was beautiful, but clearly not long for this world.

"At least this counts as sparing his wife from more suffering."

The rage in Zuka's heart was nearly at the point of exploding.

But since the man was already dead, getting angry was useless.

"I didn't expect this fellow to actually break through the level 10 limit using that final burst of life before death."

It was true. If he hadn't broken the level 10 limit and relied on the explosive power of that breakthrough, no matter how fast he was, it would have been impossible for him to move his blade in front of Zuka.

Zuka would have broken his arms before he could even raise the knife.

With a 'thud,' Lasco's corpse was tossed to the ground.

Zuka turned to look at Ferdinand Clapham beside him.

He pointed at the woman on the ground.

"Save her!"

Ferdinand's expression darkened.

"Zuka, you need to understand that I am not your subordinate. We are merely in a cooperative relationship."

"I don't care about that. If you don't save her, then our cooperation ends here."

Ferdinand's brow twitched slightly as he cast a grim look at the man's corpse on the ground.

He then turned to face the woman on the ground who was almost dead.

"Zuka, enough is enough. Don't forget, I am also human."

Ferdinand knew very well that a single woman couldn't possibly make Zuka abandon their cooperation.

In other words, this was merely a threat.

Saving a woman was no big deal, but he would not tolerate being threatened in their partnership.

If he actually reached out to help, it would mean he had completely lost the initiative.

"Ha! You still remember you're human?"

Zuka sneered, but Ferdinand ignored him.

Instead, he turned to look at the more than two hundred women lying in the central square.

"Kill them all."

"As you wish."

In the next second, the tentacles behind Zuka began to fall like a mad dance.

One by one, the women were killed in the central square before they could even blink.

Finally, Zuka turned his head to look at Ferdinand.

"What about you? Are you ready?"

"Of course. But you better aim carefully. If you're off by even half an inch..."

"I know!"

As soon as Zuka finished speaking, he suddenly raised his hand. His four sharp fingers plunged into Ferdinand's left chest.

By a mere hair's breadth, they avoided the heart.

At the same time, Ferdinand pressed the switch on his scepter. A sharp short sword shot out from the tip, stabbing into Zuka's lower left chest.

'Squelch!'

Both sides retracted their weapons at the same time and looked at each other.

Then, they each turned and left.

Xilin Town was left in a state of deathly silence.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

"What did you say?! Zuka escaped?"

Inside the communication room of the Temple in Brilliant City.

Lola's expression changed drastically upon hearing the news of Zuka's escape.

"Yes, unfortunately, Demon Marshal Zuka has escaped. Currently, our Archbishop Ferdinand is also in a coma from heavy injuries. We are now mobilizing all our forces to the border at Xilin Town for an investigation. We ask for your cooperation."