Chapter 127. The Wild Demon King Fled!
While watching Catherina’s team approach the demon king, Cedric suddenly remembered the Automatic Armor’s description and had a realization, “Wait, what does ‘defend against any Level 4 attack’ actually mean? What level of defense is necessary to prevent the demon king’s flesh and blood from touching Catherina and the others?”
The description indicated it could handle Level 4 attacks, but Cedric felt the infection wasn't really an active attack by the demon king.
[Because the NE in the demon king’s remnant flesh and blood only becomes active upon contact with other creatures’ flesh. Until then, it's considered normal flesh and blood. Therefore, based on its velocity, different levels of defense may be needed.
“Doesn’t that mean the Level 1 Automatic Armor would work if it’s just meant to protect others from the flesh and blood falling from the demon king when it gets injured?”
[...]
“Stop sending ellipses, and answer me.”
[Damn it, he has gotten smarter]
That screen flashed for an instant before another screen appeared.
[Yes.]
Cedric immediately purchased forty Level 1 ’Automatic Barrier (Technological)’ and sent them to Catherina’s team with an explanation of their function.
He might not even need that many, as the main reason the demon king’s flesh and blood caused significant casualties among Catherina’s team is that they were unaware of how dangerous the demon king’s blood and flesh are. Once they understand, they’ll likely raise their defenses or avoid the demon king’s body parts flying through the air. However, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Level 3 blessings are important combat assets in his current world.
Focusing back on the Crystal Cube world, Cedric saw that Catherina’s team had shared the Automatic Barrier he provided and was now confronting the demon king.
Because of the demon king’s extremely fast rolling speed and the delay caused by handling their zombified teammates, by the time Catherina’s team arrives, the demon king has already destroyed a quarter of the remaining area.
When they arrive, the city, which should be filled with buildings, has already been flattened. As the wind carries the dust and debris it releases, the demon king continues rolling through the buildings, demolishing them and effectively killing all creatures inside.
Although most of the corpses it killed merged with its body to increase its mass, the few that hadn't merged began to develop tumors that exploded and killed them, before being reanimated as wandering zombies in the post-apocalyptic landscape.
Since they came from civilians, these zombies are much weaker than those created from a Level 3 blessed’s body. Still, their large numbers caused Catherina’s team to tremble.
After eliminating a few zombified civilians, they finally regrouped before the demon king. The team leader promptly issued a command: “All of you, use earth magic to bury at least half of the demon king’s body!”
While they hurried to the demon king’s location, they had discussed their battle plan and sent a request for reinforcements to the armies around Grey Coal City. Now, they just needed to execute their strategy while awaiting backup.
After tens of Level 3 blessed used their powers or earth magic to create a large sinkhole beneath the demon king, it immediately fell into the ground, with only about one-third of its body still visible.
The demon king wriggled like an amoeba, shooting wind and water jets as it tried to climb out, but the earth element blessed kept their focus on it, altering the terrain to keep the demon king buried as long as possible.
With the demon king pinned in place, the other blessed cast their blessed power from a long range. Except for the healers, even those with Divine Strength either used processed materials to cast magics and attack from a distance or throw building debris toward the demon king.
After five minutes of bombardment, the demon king escaped from the hole.
But under the dwarf's lead, the team once again successfully buried it after combining all their power.
Nevertheless, the good news is short-lived. Ten minutes after the battle started, one of the Level 3 earth element blessed shouted, “I am running out of mana!"
A few seconds later, other blessed also declared they were running low on mana.
The demon king seized this opportunity to unleash a sudden burst of wind and water jets, which immediately propelled it out of the sinkhole created by everyone.
At this critical moment, Catherina finally spoke with a heroic tone, "Everyone, go and restore your mana. I will hold him off until reinforcements arrive. Go as far as possible and seek shelter in any remaining building. My fight with the demon king will likely get messy."
Before heading into a one-on-one duel with the demon king, Cedric sent her a message.
[As a Level 4 individual, your resistance to infection from the demon king is very high. However, you’re not completely immune, so I will alert you if you’re at risk of infection. When that happens, I want you to quickly retreat from the demon king.]
“Alright, thank you.”
[No. Thank you. Afterall you’re betting your life for my world.]
After a brief exchange, Catherina quickly activated one charge from her Level 4 Wind Lance, releasing a massive transparent wind spear that shattered into multiple smaller wind blades after penetrating the demon king.
These blades inflicted further damage, causing the demon king to wail and attempt to escape. However, before it could retreat, Catherina used her last charge in the Level 4 Earth Lance to conjure several spikes from the ground, trapping the demon king.
With the earth spikes piercing and immobilizing it, the demon king couldn’t escape. So, it tried to reshape itself to flee while summoning wind blades and water jets to break through the reinforced earth spikes Catherina had created.
Watching the demon king struggle, Catherina doesn’t stop. She finally activates the effect of ‘Welcome To The Land Of Giants,’ returning to her original size.
She then enters the melee, holding the Level 4 Wind Blade with one charge remaining in her tail. While trying to hold back her disgust, Catherina continues to punch and slash the demon king with her claws. In response, the demon king wailed, attacking with wind blades and water jets directed at Catherina.
Freed from the constraints of the underground tunnels, Catherina reveals her true strength as a Level 4 blessed with Divine Strength.
By flapping her wing, she generated a strong wind that instantly propelled her massive body to the sky.
Except for some injuries on her scales from the demon king’s wind blades, Catherina has successfully evaded most of the demon king’s attacks and counterattacked by once again beating the demon king.
Catherina and the demon king continuously exchanged blows until the demon king finally freed itself from the earth spikes that pinned it.
When the demon king finally broke free from the earth spikes she created, Catherina activated the Level 4 Wind Lance and launched another wind projectile at her. The demon king attempted to dodge by releasing water jets at the wind lance, but Catherina’s Level 4 Wind Lance was just too swift.
The water jets nearly destabilized the enormous wind lance, but it still reached the demon king, triggering an explosion upon impact.
As Catherina watched the rain of blood and flesh from the demon king’s dismembered body parts, she dodged and shouted at the sky, “Hey, can you give me something to pin it in place? I’ve run out of weapons.”
Hearing her shout, Cedric, who is watching from the Divine Space, felt she was calling to him. So, he bought another Level 4 Earth Lance and an additional Level 4 Wind Lance, then sent them to Catherina.
This time, the System issued a warning.
[Please stop affecting the world. Your world’s stability has greatly decreased and will soon reach a critical point, causing disasters to fill the world.]
“Can it still handle the two Level 4 Lances I am sending to Catherina?”
[Yes. But you shouldn’t send anything worth more than 100 GP, as it will reach the critical point.]
“Alright.” Cedric responded to the System while sending a message to Catherina.
[That's the last support I can give you, unless you want disasters to befall the world.]
With the newly sent Wind and Earth Lance, Catherina continued her one-on-one fight against the demon king.
After consuming two of the Earth and Wind Lances, reinforcements arrived. They consisted of several thousand dwarves and elves, all at least Level 1.
Fortunately, the demon king fled toward the city’s outskirts, near the main road where most people were evacuating. Although some buildings had to be flattened, the reinforcements arrived in time.
The Level 3 blessed, who had been hiding to recover their mana, also came out to explain the situation to the armies.
After understanding the situation, the commander of the elven and dwarven army immediately started grinding the demon king’s health.
The thousands of Level 1 and 2 blessed formed three groups, taking turns to create sinkholes to trap the demon king before attacking it.
They also have specialized teams dedicated to building defenses to prevent scattered body parts from infecting the army. Although a few unfortunate souls still got affected, everyone nearby quickly put the zombified individuals to their final rest.
After half a day of relentless bombardment, the demon king's strength was reduced to only 20% of its initial NE, and its body shrank to a small fleshball about one meter tall. This demonstrates just how resilient the demon king’s health is.
Half an hour later, as everyone grew tired and distracted, the demon king suddenly unleashed all its power to escape. The fleshball, barely larger than a basketball, suddenly shot out a powerful jet of wind.
The strong wind that pushed it away, combined with its size and the dark sky, made it difficult for anyone to deal real damage.
Catherina even used her last charge of the Wind Lance to summon a huge blade of wind targeting the demon king, but it managed to dodge out of range after shrinking to volleyball size. This allowed the demon king to escape death and fly away at high speed, with Catherina keeping a watchful distance behind.
***
Inside the Divine Space, after Cedric saw the demon king escape and follow the refugee, he groaned in frustration, saying, “Damn it, I never planned to rely on this Plan B. But now, I guess I’ll need to warn Elisa that the demon king is heading her way.”
His Plan B involves using the refugee as bait to lure the demon king into Elisa’s attack range.
“Sigh... I guess I’ve been losing more of my humanity,” Cedric murmured.
After all, he’s capable of reducing the mortality rate from the demon king’s attack. He just needs to call Lacius for help. But Cedric chooses not to, feeling that asking Lacius for assistance with the elves’ problems would only create more issues than dealing with the demon king’s threat.
While sighing and contemplating his life choice, Cedric isn't idle.
Once Cedric confirmed that the demon king was indeed tracking the refugee fleeing from Grey Coal City to Elisa’s city, he sent a message to Elisa.
[Prepare for combat. The demon king is following the refugee towards your location.]
After issuing this warning, Cedric also provided some details about the demon king’s abilities before messaging Catherina, who was pursuing the demon king.
[Try to lead it to Elisa’s city, and ensure it doesn’t kill too many refugees, or it’ll be strengthened.]
Most of the high-level blessed have gathered in the elves' and dwarves' armies to chip away at the demon king’s NE ‘health bar’. Consequently, the army protecting the refugees won’t be able to confront the demon king even if it's weakened. This means Catherina is the only one who can effectively handle the demon king.
“It’s easier said than done,” Catherina muttered after reading Cedric’s message.
“That tiny ball of shit is flying even faster than I am. Even if I manage to catch up when it attacks a fleeing refugee group, I wouldn’t be able to save them in time.”
[It’s alright, you only need to keep chasing it, and the demon king will be too busy trying to escape from you to kill the refugee. This will make sure the demon king stay as weakened as possible.]
Catherina rolled her eyes. “I’ve been meaning to ask, but aren’t you a pretty heartless god? From what you said, it seems you only care about the refugees so they won’t strengthen the demon king.”
[Once you see millions of people die as the years pass by, perhaps you’ll slowly become like me. Well, if you can even live as long as I do, that is.]
There’s also something Cedric didn’t tell Catherina.
After living so long and being separated from other humans, Cedric kinda feels like the world is a sandbox game. That’s also why he’s pretty chill about whatever insane shit Lacius is doing, as long as it doesn’t affect his world’s overall situation too much.
After he thought so, Cedric sighed, “Perhaps I need to visit a therapist.’