Chapter 1869: Crumbling Defense

Aside from Jack, the others also watched the image projection that showed the scenes from the front line. Their expressions were serious after seeing the situation. There was no time to waste. One by one, they went in the same direction as Jack. They wanted to resume training inside Chris' special training cave. Jeanny guided the five new arrivals to let them know how to use the training cave.

The only one left inside the pavilion was Chris and John. Chris kept on turning to John. He wanted to change the projection but was unsure if John wanted to continue watching the current scene.

"Mister Creator, I have two questions," John asked.

"Just call me Chris is fine," Chris said.

"Sure. Mister Creator, my first question is about the divine factions. I notice that almost every divine faction has a powerful guardian except for Joy's, Hope's, and Greed's faction. I know Greed has eliminated his faction, so no confusion there. The Council of Charites had an internal conflict. Their guardian might have died or left. No big question there, as well. But the Council of Elpo is pretty much still intact. The only one who perished was their God, Hope. Surely, the strongest divine faction should have a guardian. Why is it not fighting with the rest of its faction members?"

"The guardian of the Council of Elpo is rather special," Chris answered. "It can be said to be the strongest being in the upperworld. It is maybe the only one able to battle Satan on equal ground."

"Really? Then why..."

"Because it has an immense pride. The only one it submits to is Hope. With hope gone, I guess it decided to stop being bound in a faction and left to relish its freedom."

"Bloody hell. Why do you have to give the strongest being of the upperworld such a troublesome personality? Might as well let it be Pride's guardian instead of Hope's. So, will it come to our aid on its own accord?" John asked.

Chris shrugged. "After this world turns into reality, many of its inhabitants behave rather unexpectedly. I can't predict what any of them will do anymore."

"Tch...! How troublesome," John said.

"What's your second question?" Chris asked.

"It's about our confrontation with Master," John replied. "I prefer we stop Master before he attains divinity, but let's say we end up facing the God-version of him. We use your Council of Twenty-four to strip his divinity for a duration, and let's say we successfully kill him. What use is that? He has the Immortal Soul. He will just revive somewhere else. He will return to being a God again when we search for him. Are we going to continue playing cat-and-mouse with him?"

"Don't worry about that?" Chris said.

"Oh, I do worry about it. If you don't want me to worry about it, you have to enlighten me."

"Very well, then. When you people get into a confrontation with Master, I will also take action."

"What action?" John asked.

"I have a tool that can cause a world enchantment for a duration. When this enchantment is active, no revive ability will work. Everyone who dies during the enchantment will die a wilderness death, even those who die inside the safe zones. There will be no exception. Whether the immortal soul, the amulet of Rebirth, the Paladin's rebirth skill, the resurrection spell, or anything that brings someone back to life. All of them won't work. So, if you kill Master during this time, he will lose everything."

"... So do we."

Chris grinned. "That makes it more exciting, doesn't it?"

"People say I'm annoying. I now learn the true meaning of, 'outside of sky there is sky, outside of people there are people.' I admit you beat me in being an aggravating son of a b*tch."

"Why, thank you," Chris said.

"Heh. You're welcome," John replied and left to use the training dungeon.

*

At the front line, the battles continued to rage. After the multiple battles, the defenders' number was now half compared to when they first engaged the demon hordes. Despite having support from defensive structures, siege weapons, recovery potions, and war tools provided by the league factions, the defenders continued to lose troops. The reinforcements sent from the six countries were not enough to keep up with the losses.

As for the underworld forces, they were still as massive as when they first crossed the border. The demons who fell were quickly replaced by the next wave coming from the main underworld portal. It was as if the demon hordes never decreased in number. This further demoralized the defenders.

On the defensive line at Northern Palgrost, Sangrod's once big army had been reduced to a sad number. They were fewer than one million and their morale was very low. The player communities had also undergone a great cull. Many players had fallen back to level 1 and could no longer provide any assistance.

The defensive line they were fighting at was now close to the edge of Palgrost. Once this defensive line broke, they had to cross the border region and retreat to Sangrod. They would then resume their defense there. Horatio preferred the battlefield not to reach Sangrod but it didn't seem like there was a choice.

Horatio was fighting with his troops. With the enemies outnumbering them, he couldn't afford not to. Darius was fighting alongside him. The war table had been destroyed during earlier battles. Darius almost lost his life along with the war table, but Horatio managed to pull him away to safety.

William of Wellington and the other experts of Saint Edge fought nearby. Saint Jonathan didn't lead his guild here because he was watching over Linda at the Hydrurond's front. Saint Edge was in charge of protecting Horatio along with the emperor's native royal guards. Currently, they were having trouble doing their job because a lot of demons had penetrated deep into their line.

"Ahh...!" A woman's scream was heard.

"Diana!!" William yelled. He saw Diana fall to the ground. Diana was Saint Jonathan's daughter, so she was pretty much the princess of the guild. Her HP was critical. A large demon insect was about to impale her with its long sharp foreleg.

"Miss!" Radiant Phoebe was nearby. She quickly grabbed and pulled Diana when the demon insect stabbed its leg. She pushed Diana away while casting Soothing Light on her. Phoebe then rammed her body into the demon insect, keeping it from going after Diana.

William and Phoebe might have saved Diana, but they didn't notice a high demon was casting a spell nearby. A large gravity well formed around Phoebe. She was unable to move. Dark-element damage continued to assail her while she was trapped in the gravity well.

The high demon cast another spell, Hellish Explosion. Phoebe was not in good shape to begin with. The Hellish Explosion took out her HP. She had already used Paladin's Rebirth earlier, so she stayed dead.

With the obstacle gone, the demon insect rushed forward. It was going after its earlier prey, Diana.

Seeing that, William rushed over to save her. Diana had died several times. She could no longer afford another Amulet of Rebirth. Jonathan had asked her not to join the war, but she was stubborn. She insisted to help with the war. Jonathan had no choice but to ask William to take care of her. William didn't want to let Jonathan down. She cast Healing Spirit after coming close to Diana.

The other Saint Edge's members also rushed over when they saw their princess in danger. They struck the demon insect and the spell-casting high demon to prevent the two from targeting Diana.

What they didn't expect was this was all a ruse. One of the more intelligent demon commanders had learned how dedicated the Saint Edge players in protecting Diana. He had the demons target Diana precisely to draw the players out. As expected, the other Saint Edge members went to save her. Their action caused a huge gap to open within the circle protecting Horatio.

The demon commander sent his signal then. His true target was Horatio.

A company of lower demons and hellhounds charged at Horatio. Seeing that, Darius and the native royal guards hurriedly engaged the demons and prevented them from reaching Horatio.

When they engaged these lower demons and hellhounds, a huge daemon wielding a flaming axe broke the barricades and charged from the opposite side. This took everyone by surprise.

Horatio cast Magic Wall just as the daemon arrived, but it was not strong enough. The magic wall was shattered by one swing from the daemon's flaming axe. Horatio was sent crashing into the ground when the flaming axe hit him.

The demon commander also charged behind the daemon and cast a spell that conjured black tentacles from the ground around Horatio. These tentacles entangled the vampire emperor and prevented the royal guards from rescuing Horatio. While that happened, the daemon lifted his flaming axe again to hit Horatio another time.

Before the axe hit, a powerful explosion occurred. This explosion threw the daemon away. The black tentacles binding Horatio were also destroyed. Horatio was floating in the air with black flames covering him. These black flames formed the aspect of a demon.

Horatio had used an ability from the Book of the Damned, the Devil Possession. He had no choice but to use it to save his life.

Not far away, Belphegor was sitting on the ground while his four little clones fought Wrath's maids. His lazy eyes suddenly enlarged with a lively glint. He looked at the enemy's command base.

"Hm... Seems like I will have to move for a bit," He grumbled.