Volume 2 chapter 17
"Ugh..."
Serafina groaned, forcing her eyes open. She found herself half-buried in dust and rubble.
"Crash..."
She pushed herself up, stones sliding off her battered body. As far as her eyes could see, there was only ruin. Not a single wall in the fortress stood intact. The roads were cratered moonscapes; the buildings were reduced to skeletal remains.
"Did we... lose?"
Serafina stumbled to her feet, her gaze fixed on the massive breach in the fortress wall, gaping like a wound that would never heal.
In the distance, several demons spotted her and rushed over.
"Lady Serafina!!"
They ran to support her, their faces filled with relief. "You're alive! Thank the Dark Mother!"
"Stop, stop! What is the situation? Did we repel the Alliance?" Serafina had no patience for pleasantries.
"Well..."
The demons exchanged hesitant glances. "The Alliance has indeed retreated... but we can no longer hold this position. We must retreat as well."
"Wha—Cough! Cough... What?"
Serafina’s agitation triggered a coughing fit, blood speckling her lips.
"Please, calm down! Listen to us first! Your Highness, please!"
"Speak..."
"Yes, yes..." An Ice Demon stepped forward to explain. "During the battle, the Alliance's Ninth-Rank Knights breached the artillery platform. The gunners inside... they detonated the ammunition magazine, taking the knights with them. Shortly after, the battle between Her Majesty and the Alliance Saints passed nearby, forcing the Alliance army to pull back temporarily."
The demon lowered his head. "But we have lost all five Fortress Cannons. Our stockpile of wall-cannon shells is critically low—less than three hundred rounds per gun. After conferring with Commander Pram via emergency comms, we decided... retreat is the only option."
"The communicator? Cough... take me to it. I need to speak with him!" Serafina demanded, her voice hoarse.
"Yes, of course... Your Highness, please watch your step."
They helped her down into a makeshift underground command bunker. It was a charnel house. The room was packed with the wounded; even the communications officers were missing limbs.
Serafina ignored the grim sight, grabbed the handset, and dialed Pram.
"Hello... who is this?"
Pram's voice crackled through, sounding incredibly weak.
"It's me!"
"Serafina?! You... you're alive!?"
"Cut the crap. What is this about retreating?" Serafina didn't mince words.
"calm down. Retreat is our only choice. We can't hold them anymore, Sera..." Pram sighed, the sound heavy with defeat.
"That's nonsense! I'm still alive... Cough..."
"Listen to me—Sera!" Pram interrupted, his voice trembling. "I can no longer fight here. The airfield has been overrun. Our planes and pilots are gone. We have zero air superiority left. And on your end... I heard the news. The Fortress Cannons are destroyed, aren't they? The walls are breached, the defensive arrays are shattered..."
"We have nothing left to defend with... Fall back to the rear lines..."
Serafina fell silent. She looked around the bunker. Every demon was looking at her, their eyes filled with a silent, desperate plea.
"How many soldiers... do we have left?"
She lowered the handset and asked the room.
"Inside the fortress, about 148,000... Outside, scattered, perhaps another 400,000, Your Highness," a Fire Demon answered quietly.
"And the Shock Troops? The mid-ranked officers?"
"829 remaining."
Serafina felt her knees give way.
Over half a million soldiers... and less than a thousand mid-ranked officers left to lead them. The backbone of the army had been snapped.
She slumped into a chair, staring blankly at the map on the wall, her mind adrift.
"Your Highness... we..."
A demon's voice trembled.
"We can't win..."
Another demon spoke, his voice bitter.
"The brothers fought with everything they had... but..."
A demon gritted his teeth, tears of frustration welling in his eyes.
Once the dam broke, the grief poured out.
"Sob... My brother... he charged that Sixth-Rank Knight just so I could escape..."
"My sister... she blocked a Seventh-Rank Knight for me... she was only Fifth-Rank... she held him back with her bare hands..."
"My little brother... he died under the Fortress Cannon... he dragged ten human knights into the blast zone with him..."
Ten days of bloody, grinding warfare. Over half a million defenders dead or maimed. Such a catastrophic loss was unprecedented in the five-thousand-year history of the Demon Race.
Listening to the weeping of the survivors, Serafina found she had no words.
She wanted to say something to boost morale, something heroic. But when she opened her mouth, all that came out was a heavy sigh.
"Let's discuss... how to retreat."
She lifted the handset again and spoke to Pram, her voice devoid of hope.
____________________
Conqueror City. The Battlefield of Saints.
"SHOOOM—BANG!!"
Wade slammed headfirst into a mountain, shattering the peak upon impact.
"BOOM!!!"
The Demon Lord was struck by a combined attack, flying backward for several kilometers before plowing a deep trench into the earth.
"Hah!!"
Curtis, sensing blood, didn't give her a moment to breathe. He charged forward, driving a fist mangled by combat into the ground like a nail from heaven.
"RUMBLE..."
The earth caved in. The shockwave turned kilometers of bedrock into dust.
But the Demon Lord burst from the crater yet again.
She looked wretched. Her armor was tattered, resembling that of a fallen knight, and her long, flowing white hair had been burnt away.
She raised her scythe, slashing viciously at Curtis, but Brand and Schnet arrived just in time to block the blow.
Then, Wade—healed slightly by Theia’s magic—charged back into the fray with his sword. The Demon Lord was forced to retreat once more.
Farragut, Melton, and William combined their powers.
A pillar of Holy Light suppressed the heavens; a mana-net covered the eight directions, trapping all movement; a Soul Bell tolled, shaking the spirit to its core.
The Demon Lord swung her scythe. Darkness erupted, forming a colossal hand that silenced the bell, tore through the net, and toppled the pillar of light.
"Impossible... How can she keep drawing power from the Demon God? We can't outlast her at this rate!"
Melton shouted, his face grey with exhaustion.
"What choice do we have? We can suppress her, but we can't crush her..." Theia panted, sweat dripping from her brow.
"I have a plan..." Farragut said, his eyes narrowing. "But I need time to charge it. And she must be immobilized!"
"Leave that to me! Your Holiness, begin charging!" Brand shouted, stepping forward without hesitation.
The Demon Lord parried a combined strike from Curtis and Wade, sending them flying with a backhand blow, then spun to slam William into the ground. She seemed invincible.
"Everyone! Scatter!" Brand roared. Schnet and Melton retreated instantly.
"Coffin of the Sealed Heavens!!!"
Brand clapped his hands together. Space itself, for dozens of kilometers around, was sliced apart and isolated from reality.
"RUMBLE..."
Inside the zone, the sky and earth compressed rapidly, attempting to return to primordial chaos.
The Demon Lord was trapped. She thrashed against the boundaries, but the combined weight of the heavens and earth was too heavy.
"Your Holiness! Quickly!! I cannot hold this for long!!"
Brand’s body began to rupture. Blood sprayed from his pores. He looked like an ancient titan, holding the sky with one hand and the earth with the other, bear-hugging the compressed space to keep the Demon Lord contained.
"It is done!"
Farragut gripped his scepter with both hands, his hair and beard standing on end.
"Holy Art: DIVINE VERDICT!!"
Infinite light converged, forming a titanic figure of pure radiance. Its majesty was overwhelming, collapsing the atmosphere for hundreds of kilometers.
"BANG... PFFT!!!"
Brand reached his limit. The spatial prison exploded like a snapped bowstring. The backlash sent him flying, vomiting blood.
The Demon Lord broke free, only to see the giant Avatar of Light standing over her...
"BOOM!!!"
The Titan of Light brought a massive palm down. Divine might, vast as the ocean, suppressed the ten directions.
"ROAR!!!"
The Demon Lord threw her head back and screamed. billowing black smoke erupted from her body.
Far away, beyond the Wall of Holy Light, demonic flames surged to the heavens. The weakened barrier buckled under the assault, and a stream of power pierced through the blockade, descending across thousands of kilometers to strike the Demon Lord.
The black smoke solidified. It wrapped around the Demon Lord, forming a twelve-sided geometric core. Then, the darkness extended, shifted, and expanded.
A Titan of Darkness rose from the earth to meet the Titan of Light!
"RUMBLE..."
The Titan of Darkness threw a punch.
The fists of Light and Dark collided.
It was a cataclysm. A shockwave capable of erasing civilizations swept out for hundreds of kilometers. Mountains were sheared flat. Rivers were forced to change course.
"No! It's the Demon God! He is transmitting power regardless of the cost! Does He not fear being weakened? Does He not fear being expelled by the Lord?!"
Farragut’s face went pale as he watched the two Titans, one black and one white, wrestling for dominance.
"Could the Lord be... No, no, no... He still answers my prayers. He still grants me Divine Power. He must be fine! But why... why is the Demon God going to such lengths to protect this Demon Lord?"
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