Chapter 989: The cunning of a lazy man
The invaders coming from whatever was beyond the Abyssal Rift only saw thousands of flashes of pale blue light approaching at breakneck speeds from the bright spot that was the enemy castle.
"D- Dodge!"
The quickest to react hurriedly moved through space performing evasive moves in an attempt to dodge the enemy attack. Even if they were confident they certainly weren't stupid enough to take head-on an attack that even from a distance had enough power to burn their eyes out as it approached!
However, it was only the invaders who had movement abilities that managed to dodge the first beams. The others were simply not that lucky.
Bright sword flashes flew everywhere in the sky and the sound of the melody coming from the magical musical instruments of each invader helped to weaken the enemy's attack power a bit. However, none of this did any good at all.
BOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOM!!!
BOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOM!!!
...
The sword flashes were shattered and the beams fired from the cannons of the Demonic Army's castle continued to advance with no obstacle able to stop them at all.
Each beam exploded with the power of a high-magnitude atomic bomb when it hit the body of an invader, making them blow up into millions of pieces.
Just the shockwave from each blast was enough to damage all the invaders near the center of the explosion severity and when their bodies were shaken they could do nothing before a cannon beam turned them into minced meat.
As the seconds ticked by, the members of the Demonic Army watched speechlessly as the sky lit up at the glare of each shot fired from the fortress cannons.
About 90% of the time, each shot resulted in the death of at least one invader. As for the remaining 10%, tens if not hundreds of enemies were sent flying back with red blood pouring from their bodies and floating into space.
This was the first time most of those present had seen the power of the castle they often visited, and all of them admitted in their hearts that it was terrifying.
"Each invader has strength equivalent to a Fifth Order soul evolver at the very least. There are even some comparable to Sixth Order beings." A demon with two pairs of black wings, indicative of his status as a Sixth Order demon, sighed and said in admiration, "But in front of His Majesty Lucifer they all fall like flies. They can't even defend forget about fighting back."
Everyone felt considerably optimistic about this war, even those who had participated in previous wars against The Golden Domain felt that way since this time Lucifer was using the power of his Soul Armament without inhibitions.
Only a handful among the members of the Demonic Army realized that while it was true that the power of Alastar, the name of Lucifer's Soul Armament, was terrifying; the reality was that the consumption of using it was not small.
Lilith looked at Lucifer's back with an indifferent expression and calmly commented, "His Majesty Lucifer's Mana has dropped quite a lot of the total in such a short time if I'm not wrong. It seems that his Soul Armament really is a big glutton."
"Beautiful little lady, do you think I can fire these cannons at will anytime I feel like it?"
Lilith jumped in surprise when the voice from the castle spoke to her.
"Alastar, stop flirting." Lucifer rolled his eyes as he retracted his wings and landed in front of the first wall.
"Leave me alone." The castle growled.
After about a minute, the cannon fire stopped and the members of the Demon Army didn't know if this was because the Demon Lord wanted to save energy or if it was because there were no longer any enemies to shoot at.
That's right, there were no more enemies in front of them.
They had all been slaughtered.
However, quickly more and more were coming out of the Abyssal Rift so it was only a matter of time before their ranks would recover.
"Well, that was about 600,000 invaders to me." Lucifer looked at Hellscar and said calmly, "Hellscar, do you want to take some young kids and have some fun?"
"Can I really do that?!" Hellscar roared with bloodshot eyes as he stared at the enemies in the distance like a rabid dog.
"If you don't want to it's fine." Lucifer shrugged at him.
"Brats, follow this master! It's time to kill some little pieces of shit!" Hellscar didn't dare to linger any longer and with a fierce flapping of the six black wings behind his back he turned into a lightning flash in the direction of the enemy army.
Seeing that the members of the faction were looking at him, Lucifer motioned with his head towards the enemy army to indicate that it was all right to follow Hellscar, and when the demons saw this they stopped hesitating.
Hellscar arrived before the enemy ranks in a matter of blinks and an invader whose strength was comparable to that of a Sixth Order demon advanced to attack him.
"Sunfire Slash!" The invading warrior roared as he slashed with his sword horizontally.
A giant crescent-shaped flame seemingly capable of incinerating everything shot out from the blade of the male invader's sword. As the crescent-shaped flame moved away and advanced towards its target, its size grew more and more terrifying and the power with which it burned did not stop escalating to the point where some invaders had no choice but to move back.
"Die!" Hellscar roared even louder than his enemy and without holding back at all he punched forward using his right fist covered by a large gauntlet as a weapon.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
The seemingly normal, small fist clashed with the Sunfire Slash of the enemy that was as large as the entirety of Beijing. Despite the huge difference in size, however, the fire attack was crushed and even space itself trembled.
"Ugh!" The invader hurriedly retreated as he felt the blood inside his body stirring after being hit by the resulting force of the enemy fist.
His attack had been shattered by a mere punch, without even the use of skills or abilities, and despite the distance, he was still injured by the remaining strength of the enemy fist!
When the invader raised his head and prepared to attack again a second later, his pupils contracted to the size of needles and his face went deathly pale: "Wh-"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
After ending the life of one of the most powerful invaders among the present ones, Hellscar did not stop and with a bestial roar advanced. It didn't take him long to reach the enemy army and soon his fists turned into something similar to meat grinders since only one blow of his punches was more than enough to explode the bodies of all the invaders that were in the area of effect of the shockwave.
When approximately 20% of the total members of the Demonic Army joined the fray, the invading troops began to be slaughtered unilaterally with such ease that those watching from behind wondered if they would really be needed in this battle.
However, after about an hour or so, things changed.
From the Abyssal Rift, along with a large army of over 500,000 invaders, an existence whose aura sent shivers down the spine of even those Higher Existences who had already planted their feet firmly within the Sixth Order many years ago.
An invader swiftly retreated just in time to avoid the lethal slash of the sword of a Fifth Order Demonic Army's member at the same time as his bleeding finger struck one of the eight strings of his zither.
"Infernal Purge!" The invader roared.
The Fifth Order demon's movements froze for a second, and without even a cry of pain, his head exploded into a thousand pieces.
The invader with the zither sighed in relief at the sight of the jade-green robed man with a jade-green spear.
This invader was incredibly handsome, so much so that most men present were unable to hold a candle to him. However, his expression was incredibly arrogant even after seeing those who were apparently his fellow teammates being slaughtered.
This man's name was Lim Qinyu, and he was considered a genius in his faction back in The Golden Domain.
His sky blue eyes rested on Hellscar and his lips curved into a sardonic smile.
"Cloud Steps."
Hellscar had just crushed a dozen invaders equivalent to Fifth Order soul evolvers when he suddenly sensed danger and out of pure instinct leaned back in a hurried motion.
BOOM!!!!
Despite his excellent reaction, Hellscar was still hit and his plate armor sank inward into the left shoulder area as his body was forced back hundreds of meters.
Lim Qinyu coldly snorted and pursued. His emerald-colored spear glowed and before Hellscar could fully stabilize his body, what appeared to be the ghost of a giant tree appeared behind him.
"Serenity of Vulnerabilities!"
Lim Qinyu's voice had barely fallen when Hellscar finally managed to stabilize. However, it was at that moment that the ghost of the tree behind him charged into his body and in an instant Hellscar felt his power falling.
Lim Qinyu did not stop there as he quickly stabbed forward with a graceful yet fierce move, "Forest Fiend Stab!"
Hellscar roared and with a lightning-fast movement unsheathed the giant sword that had rested on his back all this time.
"Fury Burst!"
Soon, the spear and the giant sword met at a midpoint.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
An explosion that surpassed all the previous ones by a considerable margin sent every living thing within a 1000-kilometer radius flying with the point of impact between the two weapons as the center be it invader or defender.
The lucky ones escaped with injuries and the unlucky ones were killed outright. It was thanks to this first clash that the two monsters were soon left alone on their own battlefield while the others went at each other's throats.
For the first 30 minutes it seemed that Hellscar was at a slight disadvantage, but after 40 minutes of battle the scales began to tip in his side and 50 minutes after the first clash Lim Qinyu found himself gritting his teeth and grunting as he did his best to block his opponent's increasingly unrestrained attacks.
"Die! Die!! DIE!!!"
Hellscar seemed to have gone mad as he had given up most of his defense while seeking to shatter his enemy's body with attacks that lacked elegance but held enough power to make space tremble every time he swung his giant sword surrounded by a strange fiery red fire-like energy.
From a distance, Luciah watched the battle unfold and said in an emotionless voice, "You did plan it didn't you?"
"Mm?" Lucifer looked sideways at her with a confused expression on his face.
"You left Hellscar locked up for all this time precisely aiming for this." Luciah pointed in a flat voice and without taking her eyes off the ongoing battle voiced her thoughts, "The skill 'Rage of Ancestors' is one that all members of Hellscar's race are born with, but his was particularly strong from a young age. This skill forces him to fight and kill at least once every certain short period of time or else the user will accumulate all that battle drive, which when exploited will take away some of their sanity in exchange for a steady increase in power."
"...and so?" Lucifer raised an eyebrow in puzzlement.
"You knew this was going to happen didn't you? That's why you locked Hellscar up, to have him at full strength." Luciah finally looked at him.
Hellscar might not be the smartest or even the most acute when it came to thinking or planning. However, when it came to battle power and effectiveness on the battlefield probably only 3 or 4 in the entire Demonic Army were capable of surpassing him when he was at his peak.
Lucifer gave Luciah a sidelong glance before turning his attention back to the front. After a moment of silence, he said in a bored voice, "Sis, aren't you overestimating me? I just happened to forget Hellscar locked in that subdimension, that's all. A great misfortune, indeed."
"Misfortune, you say... If you say so then let's say that's the case then." Luciah shook her head saying no more.
* * * * * * *