Chapter 256: Above the Frozen Land (7)

The moment I struck down with my Chaotic Spear, black lightning shot out in a zigzag pattern from the center of the frozen land. It only took a moment before the pure white land turned black.

[Wooow!]

[What an amazing skill!]

"It's going to crumble soon!"

I pushed Chaotic Spear deeper, and the blackened frozen land, with a crack running down the middle, began to crackle with fierce lightning. Although my original power might not have been enough to cause such a feat, with the Collapsing Ring I obtained recently, I could pull off such a miraculous feat! Even the demons who might have been doubtful were now beginning to understand what I was doing.

[Stop him! That's a skill!]

[Such a powerful skill! If only Lespina-nim was here!]

But this Lespina-nim isn't here, is she!?

I shouted and pushed my spear deeper. In that instant, my skill activated completely. The huge sheet of ice separated into hundreds of thousands of giant pieces and rained down on the ground. The pieces were all strengthened to the limit with my mana and was imbued with the black lightning attribute through Gaia Buster's effect. It was a magnificent sight one would want to capture with his camera.

[Lightning filled with an evil curse! Dodge!]

[There's too many of them, damn it!]

Damn it? That's good to hear! I flew up using Talaria and looked at the magnificent scene I created. The icy boulders crackling with black lightning were all hurling towards the demons.

The demons resisted with their magic or weapons, but there were just too many to deal with. Furthermore, my mana, imbued in each piece of the icy boulder, prevented them from destroying them easily. Once a demon couldn't defend against one, that was it, as several tens then several hundreds of icy boulders soon collected his life. Of course, Gaia Buster didn't end just because its target died. The power of the black lightning lied in its final huge explosion!

[Kuaaaak!]

[It's a disaster!]

[To think there's a human with such a terrifying skill!]

[Im, Impossible... It's the Demon God-nim's fury, Demon God-nim's fury!]

"I'm not a Demon God! I'm Kang Shin! Uhahahaha!"1

The black icy boulders raining down on the coastal area of New Zealand didn't stop until the demons' screams were no longer heard. Whenever demons appeared that seemed to want to say something, the remaining boulders exploded with fierce mana and silenced them.

With so much mana exploding at once, whirlpools of mana were created in several places. I quickly flew down and pulled them towards me with Peruta Circuit.

"Whew, I'm getting so much mana from these. Maybe it's because they were made from my mana! Sharana, Ruyue! Let's kill the survivors!"

[Leave it to me!]

[Me too, me too!]

The two materialized elementals received the mana recovered by Peruta Circuit and shot out in different directions. With Talaria, I quickly soared across the half-destroyed New Zealand and looked for surviving demons.

[You cruel bastard, do you know how many of our kin you just killed!?]

One seemed to have a stealth type ability, as a blue-skinned demon suddenly shot up from the ground when I was flying close to the ground and tried to stab with a dagger. The demon moved quicker than I could detect him with my mana, but he had unfortunately underestimated my reaction speed!

"I might not know how many I killed, but..."

With a swift thrust of my spear, I pierced the demon's neck. However, the speed of his dagger wasn't affected in the slightest. Even as he coughed up a mouthful of blood, he forced his eyes open and shouted with a heinous laugh.

[His Majesty, the great Demon Lord, shall draw your blood as oblation!]

In the Luka continent, I had my fair share of experience with demons. One thing all demons had in common was their tenacious life force. Before his dagger could reach my neck, I ignited chaos flames and burnt up his entire body. Then, I finished my sentence.

"I know I can add another to the count."

[Ku...]

As if to erase even his death throes, chaos flames surged violently and burnt his body to a crisp. I murmured with a snort.

"You massacred millions of humans and what, you're curious how many demons I killed? Are you trying to make me feel guilty?"

There was no such thing as justice. Everyone fought to survive. What was important was knowing the weight of one's crimes and still taking steps forward. I long since had this resolve.

Frozen by the demons, carpet-bombed by black ice, and now burnt and crushed to the ground. The lands of New Zealand now really looked like a scene from a catastrophe. The corpses of the New Zealand's people from when the demons invaded had been buried in ice. Now, they were revealed under the cracked ice... No, most were destroyed. Seeing them, I couldn't help but think that my attack had damaged these corpses.

"This damned demons, they dare to guilt me with human corpses lying everywhere?"

No matter how dirty I felt, I couldn't stop because of it. Even now, Guardian and Freedom Wing couldn't even near the perimeter of Oceania. However, if we went crazy and forced the demons to come to us, Guardian and Freedom Wing would naturally gain a chance to enter. That would mean a quicker reclamation of land.

Though I was a bit ashamed of what I had done, I came here to protect Oceania. I came to prevent any more casualties from occurring. Rather than corpses of already dead people, the living was more important to me.

"Huu... Okay, let's go."

I absorbed the mana released by the demon's body and created a black whirlpool enveloping my spear. At the same time, I roused the power of this mana and shouted at the top of my lungs for all to hear.

"To all survivors, come! The Hero you want to kill so much is here!"

[You used Provoke! All being in this land attacks you with intense hatred!]

From what seemed like a desolate land, injured demons suddenly began to rise. I most likely worsened their injuries with my provocation. It must be painful and vexing. There might have been demons with the ability to resist my Provoke, but most of them probably didn't resist on purpose.

[He's the Hero.]

[If we kill him, the Demon Lord doesn't need to come!]

[He's the one who massacred our kin.]

[Glory to the Demon Lord, Blessing of the Demon God to Lespina-nim!]

The demons began to gather towards me. Ruyue and Sharana busily flew around, creating pillars of ice and scythes of wind to bully the demons. However, their gazes were fixed on me. Looking at their hate-filled eyes, I grinned. At the same time, I roused the power of my Evil Eyes to the limit.

[Kak!]

[M-My body...!]

[The Hero even has Evil Eyes!?]

It was surprising. I expected the demons remaining in New Zealand to be weaker than the ones in Australia, but only about 30% of them instantly turned to stone. Most of the others only had their movements affected. Although I could petrify more of them if I surged up my mana to the extreme, it was quicker for me to just kill them directly. After all, even if I didn't pour mana into my Evil Eyes, they were already restraining the demons' movements.

"Let's fight!"

[You cowaaaard!]

The strongest looking demon, a female demon seemingly about SSS rank in strength, charged towards me. In an instant, I roused my charm and shot it towards her. She immediately stopped moving. Her face flushed, while she roused her magic power to desperately resist my charm. During this time, she was revealing too many openings that I didn't know where to begin.

[You...!]

There was no need to hesitate. A whirlwind of white flames, formed from chaos flames and Heroic Aura, sent her head flying. Although her headless body remained standing for a moment, it soon scattered into the air as particles of mana. Peruta Circuit's powerful rotation immediately pulled the mana towards my spear and strengthened the enveloping whirlpool.

Although the demons had bountiful strength, their defenses were even worse than ordinary monsters. A single hit from them could be fatal, but they were equally likely to die from a single hit. I just had to kill them before they could kill me. How simpler could things get?

[He's...]

[Strong...!]

For a moment, silence descended. It seemed this female demon was really the strongest of the bunch, as the demons looked incapable of accepting the fact that she died so easily. With a smirk, I provoked them.

"What? Aren't you going to attack?"

[... Kill him!]

However, demons each had their special magic, and their black magic was especially annoying to deal with. If they attacked simultaneously, things became even more annoying.

[Burn!]

[This lightning even more powerful than your own will burn you to a crisp!]

The demons surrounding me all attacked me with malice. Without even a single delay, the wings of Talaria flapped. I instantly shot up into the sky, dodging their attacks. Then, I swung my spear once.

"O elementals, help me!"

Like stars lighting up the milky way, countless elementals followed the trace of my spear. An unimaginable number of elementals were sticking to my spear.

[Answer to the Prince's fury!]

[Follow the will of this star, the will of the Prince!]

[Become a part of the light that keeps away evil!]

Eh? The elementals' comments were different from the usual. Did they study philosophy in the meanwhile? Although I was a bit curious, there were already several magic spells flying towards me. Since the start of this battle, I was never late to carry out my thoughts to action.

Ruyue and Sharana flew in and blocked the magic attacks one by one, but I made them fall back. Then, I released the power of mana and elementals enveloping my spear.

"Elemental Tempest!"

[Critical Hit!]

[Kuaaaak!]

[Demon Lord Your Highness!]

[Damn it!]

The fury of the elementals covered the land, and, at the same time, dozens of scythes appeared in the air and sliced the demons apart. The death throes of the demons rang out, and a cool breeze soon blew. It was as if the power of the death god was following me.

"Huuu..."

In the wake of Elemental Tempest was silence. I accelerated Peruta Circuit once more to refill my halved mana and retrieved my spear. At that moment, someone flew into my embrace.

"Daddy!"

"Oh, Ina. You're here, now?"

"Un! I came back after cleaning up the blue flies in the sky!"

Sorry, Ina. Forgive your father who can only teach you these things...

"That's great. Let's work hard for a bit more. When we're done, Daddy will play with Ina for a whole day."

"Really!? Okay! I'll try my best!"

Ina cheerfully clenched her fists. Following her, other members of Revival arrived. We entered New Zealand perfectly. The only thing left to do was to free this from the leaderless demons. I set my resolve and shouted.

"Let's go, everyone! We're going to finish New Zealand by the end of the day!"

[Ueeeeek... I can't spin spin anymore...!]

Good. Thankfully, there was one that failed his philosophy class...

1. Demon God = Ma Shin (마신), which clearly is similar to the MC's name.