Chapter 299: Strange Demons

Those words lit a fire underneath the soldiers, who were already terrified out of their wits. They didn’t need to hear it twice; they were already stampeding to exit the city. Looking at the men before me, one would hardly believe they were soldiers.

“Pathetic,” Rizor snickered, then spat on the ground.

I understood his reaction. These soldiers were supposed to be our last hope against the demons. If something didn’t change, we would be in serious trouble by the time Conquest came here.

“Well, whatever. Lieutenant’s orders,” Rizor said, chasing after the retreating soldiers and leaving me standing alone.

Sigh

Sighing to myself, I turned around and continued toward the city. Therissa was still somewhere in the city; I could hear her heartbeat and smell her sweat, which told me she was scared.

She was definitely being affected by the two ominous sources of bloodlust that had suddenly appeared. Unlike the others, I wasn’t bothered by it. It felt more like an itch I wasn’t able to scratch. As I walked through the empty city, which was slowly being consumed by nature, I was attacked by several flaming humanoid creatures.

[Congratulations, you have just slain a level 46 Inferno Mummy.]

One by one, I struck down the creatures while making my way toward Therissa. It sounded as if she was fighting and struggling at that. At the same time, a swarm of the Inferno creatures charged at me.

Not wanting to deal with them and waste time, I summoned Cerberus and the other Void Hounds. Cerberus’s massive figure towered over me. His eyes resembled galaxies, and his dark purple fur seemed to suck in all light.

Beside him, the other Void Hounds stood like celestial beasts. I slightly rubbed Cerberus’s wet nose before beckoning him forward. With the first step he took, he slipped between the cracks in space and time, appearing in front of the flaming humanoids in an instant.

I watched them devour the humanoids while I made my way to Therissa. The closer I got, the more it felt as if the temperature was dropping significantly. Ice spikes rained from the sky, and the ground froze solid.

From afar, I watched the battle take place. Therissa was fighting against two Greater Fiend Demons. One looked like a giant ogre with flames covering its body, and the other was a tall, lanky black humanoid creature that stood observing the combat. Its skin looked like oil, and just its leg alone was roughly two meters tall.

The two struck me as an odd pairing. One was fighting, and the other was observing with its hand behind its back. The tall, lanky creature had purple eyes that seemed to spiral. The giant ogre had similarly colored eyes, too.

Could it?

The giant ogre-like creature was the one on the main assault. He hurled rocks, metal shrapnel, and anything he could find at Therissa while she desperately tried to protect herself by erecting ice walls.

Therissa summoned giant ice spikes and rained them down on the flaming ogre, but it did nothing but enrage the creature. Considering how easily those spikes had pierced the wyverns, it was impressive to see the ogre shrug them off as if they were nothing.

The ogre then summoned a massive club in its right hand and charged at Therissa. She panicked and summoned layers of ice walls, but the ogre trampled through them. She could do nothing but watch in horror.

The innocent elf squinted her eyes and covered her ears as she waited for death, but instead, it never came. The only thing that followed was a loud crash as the ogre plummeted to the ground.

Hearing the sound, she slowly removed her hand from her face and opened her eyes to see me standing in front of her with the ogre’s giant heart in my hand. Her eyes widened in surprise, and I could see the tips of her elven ears twitch.

I grabbed both her hands and placed the ogre’s heart in her palm. The heart was the size of her head. Her expression was mostly unreadable, as if she was frozen by shock.

Putting that aside, I then turned my attention to the other Greater Fiend Demon, who was still watching with his hand behind his back. It barely reacted when I killed the ogre.

The giant creature then raised his hands, causing different spatial rifts to form. Bloodlust poured out from the rifts, and soon more giant flaming ogres stepped through, along with more flaming humanoid creatures.

At the same time, the purple-eyed creature created another rift behind it before turning around and disappearing.

This whole thing seemed strange. I’ve never heard Khalissi mention Greater Fiend Demons commanding other Greater Fiend Demons. This one seemed like some kind of anomaly.

Greater Fiend Demons, for the most part, were intelligent creatures. They had their own politics and relationships. Some had their ambitions.

For all we know, they could have their own plots against us before Conquest’s arrival. I had to learn more about them.

Putting that aside for a second, I readied myself to fight the giant ogres who had just spawned.

It had been a while since I’d had a decent fight. Ever since my battle with Damian. I took a deep breath and readied myself, launching toward the ogres. But a split second before I departed, I heard something.

“Umm… be careful.”

Her words barely reached my ears before I was gone. My claws extended, and in a matter of seconds, I arrived in front of the first flaming ogre before the beast could even raise its claws.

A heartbeat later, I was killing the sixth and final ogre. It all happened so fast. My mind briefly zoned out, and before I knew it, I had killed five greater fiend demons and was in the process of killing the sixth.

When did I get so powerful?

All this power from just one evolution, and I haven’t even used the full extent of my power yet. This reminded me once again why Therissa was so crucial. I needed to see the full power of my draconic bloodline.

I turned around to see Therissa’s stunned expression. It seemed even she didn’t expect me to defeat the greater fiend demons that quickly. After killing the demons, I quickly removed their massive hearts and began consuming them.

[Congratulations, you have ascended to level 101]

Probably the best part about my evolution was that I could level up more easily now. I ascended one level just from consuming two of the hearts, and a rush of power enveloped my entire body. I sat on the ground and continued to devour the hearts one by one.

[Congratulations, you have ascended to level 102]

As I consumed the fifth heart, I wiped the blood from my mouth and was ready to stand up, but just then, Therissa stood over me, bowing her head and stretching out the heart I had given her to hold.

“Umm, here. Thank you for your help.”

“You can have it if you want,” I said.

She quickly shook her head.

“Oh no, I couldn’t. I mean, no. Elves only eat plants. We are aware we can increase our power by eating the hearts of other creatures, but we don’t partake in those acts.”

“I see,” I answered as I took the heart from her hand. She also looked as if she was straining to hold it.

She had powerful magic, but her body seemed weak, just like Khalissi.

[Congratulations, you have ascended to level 103]

Unfortunately, I hadn’t received any skills this time. After consuming the final heart, I wiped the blood from my mouth and climbed to my feet.

“You are a soldier, correct? Of course you are; you’re wearing a military uniform. It’s just that I never thought the military had anyone as powerful as you by their side. If they did, then I don’t understand why they are using an airhead like myself…”

“Slow down,” I said, placing my finger on her lips. She was talking so fast I barely understood a word she said. Plus, she spoke with a strange accent.

Now that I was standing this close to her, I realized just how short she was. I towered over her. Maybe I had gotten taller.

She nodded her head, and I slowly removed my finger from her lips.

“You are correct, I am from the military. The other soldiers have retreated, and I thought you might be in need of help, so I came to rescue you.”

“Rescue me?” she spoke the words as if it were unfamiliar to her.

Once again, she seemed lost in a daze. I then grabbed hold of the shackles on her wrist. This seemed to wake her up from her daze.

“What are you…”

CRACK!

Before she could fully ask her question, I ripped the shackles from her wrist and threw them to the ground. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open in shock.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m freeing you. I need your help in learning magic.”

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