Balor
“I, Jesdric, am the strongest…”
A huge Balor stepped on the body of an Orthon while yelling, huge demonic wings flapping while blood spurted out from the wound on his chest.
The Orthon was a greader devil, and its sneak attack had caused a certain amount of damage. As the price of killing the other being, the Balor’s chest was now a complete mess. Scales were upturned with flesh and blood on them, and it was even possible to see pale bones and a thumping heart.
While such an injury might not be fatal for demons, it would still take some time to recover from them.
As a powerful demon with a noble bloodline, many devils eyed Jedric greedily, and there were even demons that did the same. As long as a demon killed it, then a portion of its power would transfer over, allowing the attacker to even increase in rank and become a Balor!
Hence, next to the body of the Orthon, there were also the torn up bodies of demons. These were all of the demons that had wanted to steal what it had gotten, but were torn into tiny bits.
“Come! Give me a little more flesh and souls so that I can advance!”
A bloody-red layer of energy appeared on Jesdric’s body, and large amounts of lava turned into tiny blood vessels that covered it. This Balor was evidently at the brink of advancing. It might need just one more high-ranked opponent for it to please the Abyss’ Will, becoming the peak amongst demons, a Flame Balor.
[Hold Monster]!
SPell rays that were suddenly cast halted the enraged roars of the Balor. Eyes full of anger and astonishment, it saw the figure of a devil emerge from the shadows.
The enemy had a sinister horned, and was evidently a higher horned devil.
[Fireball]!
[Higher Entangle]! The other party obviously did not give Jesdric any time to speak. With a wave of his arms, powerful flames drowned out the Balor. What followed next were the rays of light from summoning.
[Demon Summoning]!
From the teleportation spell formation floating in the air, Leylin’s least devil underlings appeared and dealt the Balor attacks with all their might.
“Haha, concealing spells and a sneak attack! You devils are despicable!”
The Balor roared, tremendous evil rays appearing and causing the least devils to quickly retreat.
“I’m a devil anyway. Am I supposed to play at being a knight with you?”
Leylin snorted, a black dagger plunging into the eyes of the demon.
“Ah…”
A series of pitiful ear-splitting cries. Following that was terrifying snarls, “I will kill you! Jesdric shall pinch your skulls into powder!”
Red flames jetted out from its eye, the great heat melting the dagger from before into liquid.
“It- It’s about to evolve!”
One of Leylin’s least devil leaders exclaimed in astonishment, and was quickly grabbed by the crazed Balor. Terrifying flames climbed up, forming a bright and shining torch of fire.
“You will all die!” With its bellows, another wave of fire flashed past, and most of Leylin’s underlings died in an instant.
When the flames reached his front, Leylin used a [high-ranked teleportation scroll] and left the battlefield.
“Don’t even think of escaping!”
With flames on its body, the Balor looked no different from a Flame Balor. After catching sight of Leylin from the corner of its eyes, it roared and then pursued him in a frenzy.
Whether devils or demons, all turned into minced meat or ashes as long as they were in the way, creating a bloody trail.
“Darned devil. Don’t run!”
Making use of the only eye it had left, Jesdric found that the vile devil had already escaped to under the fortress wall, and seemed to be about to return to the group where it had reinforcements.
Furious, it charged forward, disregarding any danger.
*Bang!*
However, a sudden trap on the ground caused Jesdric to lose its centre of gravity. Its enormous body then fell into a deep pit, creating a small earthquake.
Under its leg, there had been a huge pit that goodness knew when it had appeared.
[Dimensional Scan]!
[Water Shower Spell]!
[Ice Breah]!
The devils that had appeared out of nowhere stood around the pit, casting spells at the Balor in the centre vigorously.
“Sir!” Hanelin headed to Leylin’s side. She had been informed by earlier by Leylin and began to set up this trap. To her surprise, the target was Balor!
No! It was even believable if this was considered a Flame Balor!
In that moment, Leylin’s might was deeply imprinted into her mind.
“You did well!” Leylin nodded to show his approval, and then glanced at the Balor that now had pieces of ice all around his body.
“A.I. Chip, how’s the gathering of data?”
[Beep! Obtained flesh sample. Completion of physical and soul scan. Progress at 100%.] The A.I. Chip loyally intoned.
“Mm, then you’ve now lost all usefulness.”
Leylin leapt forward, and a thin black line streaked past its neck, the supplementary soul attack causing the chaos and craze in its eyes to completely die down.
“No, it’s impossible… I, Jesdric, am the most powerful demon. I still need to evolve into a Flame Balor… How can I die here…”
It muttered as its huge body collapsed.
In the moment that he killed the demon, Leylin sensed tremendous soul energy pouring into his body, and he could even sense that he was getting favour from the hell’s Will..
“Compared to other evolution methods, the profits from blood wars are still the best…”
While this bit of strength was nothing to Leylin, most of the soul energy required to evolve would be available from here if he really was a horned devil.
“High risks mean great rewards! As long as I can survive the blood wars between devils and demons, I’ll definitely be able to advance a great degree. It’s no wonder that the Dark Eight want to risk falling completely to lure the demons over to hell and fight…”
The devils liked using crafty schemes and machinations, changing the battlefield to anywhere else than hell.
There was a secret to this. Only the well-informed pit fiends and hell’s eight archdevils knew of this, and of course, Leylin was aware as well.
If devils were to be killed in hell, then they would truly be dead. There was no way for them to be revived.
If they died on other planes, they still had hope of reviving by paying a price.
In other words, the devils that died in this blood war could not be revived. Even Asmodeus was unable to do it.
To take such a huge risk, the Dark Eight were definitely eyeing something huge.
Leylin quickly came to a realisation.
*Rumble!*
At this moment, a terrifying explosion appeared from the heart of the battlefield. A huge flame storm whistled past, tearing into everything and forming a red mushroom cloud.
“It’s the Self-detonation before the death of a Flame Bator! Looks like the Dark Eight have succeeded!”
The huge explosion continued, allowing Leylin to be certain that four Flame Bators had died by the Dark Eight’s hands.
This attack by the opponents was only dodged by the sly pit fiends who used the Greater Teleportation. This meant that the surrounding greater devils and also numerous demons were wiped out.
”Victory is decided! Four Flame Bators died in succession, as long as a pile of powerful demons. Even the archfiend of the abyss will find his moral beaten down and mourn over this for a long time…”
It was not just Leylin alone who understood this.
In the moment of the first Flame Bator’s Self-Detonation, along with an ear-splitting scream, an enchanting succubus darted out of the siege of four pit fiends and, with the price of becoming gravely injured, streaked through the horizon while leaving a blazing trail behind.
“That should be Red Shroud, the commander of the demon army this time! It’s also the most beloved daughter of the succubus king who’s the archfiend of the abyss… Unfortunately, after this defeat, her status might be in danger…”
Powerful beings had died, and the commander had fled. This was a fatal blow for the enemy army.
As many great devils entered the battlefield and massacred the weaker demons, this became a countdown to the complete destruction of the demon army.
……
After the battle ended, besides the commanding Red Shroud and a very slight number of lucky demons escaping, much of the demon army was killed in the Bronze Fort, amongst which included four Flame Balors! This carved the disgrace of the abyssal demons onto the fort once more.
Such dazzling achievements were rare even in the history of the Blood War.
In this encirclement, the five-coloured demonic dragon Tiamat who had blocked the fort walls and persisted till the end of the battle was to be credited for its work.
After the battle, Leylin saw that parts of its tremendous dragon body had caved in, and there were signs of burns as well. A male headless evil dragon also looked downcast. They had taken on the frenzied attacks of the demons in a hurry to retreat. The self-detonations by the Flame Balors at the end had also given them grave injuries.
Leylin now knew why they had worked so hard. The Dark Eight had promised that they would hand over control of the Bronze Fort and acknowledge it as the master of the Bronze Fort!
In that moment, Leylin smelt a conspiracy.
Control over the Bronze Fort! That was something Asmodeus had schemed for over a thousand years to obtain, yet he was now handing it over so nonchalantly. Even lemures could tell that something was off.
With the devils’ personalities, the only thing that they would compromise so much for was an even greater profit!