Chapter 55: Magic Is Empty
In the past two weeks, Xeron’s troops had not traveled too quickly. Even with this, there was still no news from Rashka’s side.
That evil spirit is most likely dead! Roy thought.
If he could think of it, so could Xeron. Xeron became enraged. He had thought that even if Rashka was unwilling to send too many reinforcements, he would send a few tens or a hundred of them. He did not expect Rashka would really leave him in the lurch!
In a fit of anger, Xeron ordered someone to bring him some water, and without regard for using up his magic power, he used the Water Mirror spell to attempt to contact Rashka.
This world also had this kind of magic for communication. However, due to the elements of this world being more active, long-distance communication magic had large interference, causing distortion, speech confusion, and so on. Thus, they only used this method when there was an urgent need. Otherwise, they would still use the more conventional method of sending letters.
The Water Mirror spell was similar to video conferencing. While Roy watched, Xeron managed to contact Rashka. In the water, Rashka looked blurry and distorted. Once connected, Xeron shouted at Rashka’s image, “d.a.m.n it, Rashka. It’s fine if you don’t want to give me reinforcements, but why kill the messenger I sent?!”
“Wh-what?” Rashka took a long time to respond. He looked confused, probably from not being able to hear what Xeron said clearly.
Xeron had no choice but to repeat it. Rashka was puzzled as he replied, “You sent someone to deliver me a letter? I didn’t receive anything!”
The voice opposite was also distorted, but Xeron could still make out what was said. He could not bear roaring, “Still pretending?! You think you can lie to me and blame this on the elves?”
“No, Xeron, listen to me!” Rashka explained hurriedly, “I’m not even heading toward the east of Erathia, but I’m now moving toward the north. I received news from Ignatius halfway. Lord Lucifer wanted to send Zydar to help attack Erathia, but unexpectedly, after reaching Erathia, Zydar betrayed us and wanted to form his own group. Ignatius’s scouts found his trail in the north, and he wanted me to go capture him. I didn’t go east, so how could I have received your letter?”
“Bulls.h.i.+t! Zydar betrayed us? How is it so coincidental?” The connection was not stable, and even though Xeron only heard dribs and drabs, he caught the keywords ‘Zydar’ and ‘betray’. He did not believe it. “Even if Zydar has betrayed us, why didn’t Ignatius send me a message?”
“How would I know?” Rashka was getting impatient with the questioning. “I alone am enough to capture Zydar. Why would he tell you? He said that he would take my place and attack the elves with you. He should be advancing together with you. You should look for him for reinforcements. Why are you looking for me?!”
Xeron heard Rashka’s words, but because of his preconceived notion, he remained suspicious of what Rashka said. Roy was chuckling in his head as he listened on.
In these past two weeks, Xeron’s army had encountered three large-scale battles, and they were all troops led by elven druids. Due to the slow progress and battles, even if Rashka had not sent any reinforcements, Ignatius’s reinforcements should have arrived. The problem was there were no reinforcements in sight from the rear!
a.s.suming Rashka was telling the truth, and he went to hunt down that demon Zydar and Ignatius took his place to battle alongside Xeron, then it did not make sense that Ignatius had not sent any reinforcements. They had initially agreed that Ignatius would summon high-level demons and send them to Xeron as reinforcements, but now, not only had that evil spirit messenger disappeared, even the reinforcements were missing!
What this meant was that it was really possible that they were intercepted by the elves and killed!
Ignatius might have truly sent high-level demons as reinforcements, but the premise was for Xeron to be close to the same!
However, in order to s.n.a.t.c.h souls, Xeron had, under Roy’s incitement, moved far from the position he was supposed to be. Compared to Ignatius, his troops were now far ahead, and Ignatius was probably unaware of this. If he sent troops based on where he a.s.sumed Xeron should be, the troops that arrived would likely not even know where Xeron was!
In addition, the lost troops could have been attacked by the elves. If so, then it made sense why there were no reinforcements…
This situation was out of Roy’s expectations. Although this was caused by his arrangements, the elves had moved faster than he expected. Roy originally thought that Xeron would only fall into the elves’ ambush and encirclement as he neared their capital, but it looked like the ambush was happening soon!
The elven forces they had encountered during these two weeks now appeared to be more about confirming the exact location of Xeron’s army and consuming the army’s fighting power as much as possible… They were not coincidental encounters…
Although the situation was beyond Roy’s expectations, Roy was not fl.u.s.tered. He had already acc.u.mulated almost enough souls from the three battles. He now had more than six hundred souls and could now prepare.
Xeron appeared confused after his communication with Rashka. Even though he did not much believe Rashka, what if what he said was true?
Xeron certainly knew Zydar. He was another high-rank demon who served Lucifer Kreegan. Xeron and the rest firmly believed that King Lucifer Kreegan was one of the incarnations of Demon King Lucifer, so they were willing to serve him and were very loyal. However, Zydar was not willing to believe it. He was ambitious, and had always shown signs of rebelling. Xeron and the others could tell, so when Rashka said that Zydar had rebelled and wanted to be on his own, it was truly possible…
Now, at such a crucial moment in attacking the elves, Zydar doing this really caught Xeron and the rest off guard, especially Xeron. He could not wait to capture Zydar, bring him back to the Abyss, and soak his soul in holy water for 666 days and nights!
Although he wanted to contact Ignatius, Xeron found it slightly embarra.s.sing. He did not want to be ridiculed by Ignatius when Ignatius discovered that he had deviated from his position to grab contributions and souls.
After thinking about it, Xeron did not consume his magic power anymore but planned to conserve it to summon demon reinforcements on the spot.
Yes, Xeron faintly felt that something was brewing. While he could not tell what was wrong, a demon’s natural perception toward sensing danger prompted him to think of ways to increase his cards.
Fortunately, the army had plundered a lot of materials when pa.s.sing by the elves’ mines, so he did not lack materials for arranging the summoning formation. After engraving the pattern and pouring mercury into it, a simple summoning formation took shape.
In fact, demon summoning rituals did not need to be too complicated. The human practice of using lizard tails, soaked internal organs, and so on was not necessary. The crux to opening a Gate of the Abyss was the magic power of the summoner.
Roy stared closely from the side. The magic formation to open a Gate of the Abyss and engraved pattern were things that Roy had already committed to heart. What he wanted to observe was the input direction of Xeron’s magic power.
At this time, Xeron had completely forgotten about Roy’s presence. He was so anxious that he had not thought that Roy would be observing him. Thus, when he stood next to the magic formation and placed his demon scythe in it to input magic power, Roy easily observed the magic formation’s starting path.
The radiance in the magic formation first started lighting up from the demon characters on the outer edge, then moved inward, and finally to pentagram in the center of the formation. This process was quite short, and without paying attention, you would have thought that the formation lit up as a whole, but Roy noticed this because he had paid special attention to it.
Xeron once said that if I wanted to teleport back, I would have to input magic power in reverse. So, if I want to go back, the pentagram should be lit first? Roy guessed. When he was ready to escape, he planned on trying to activate it and test it by throwing a few demons in.
This time, Xeron did not hesitate to use up his magic power nor souls and began summoning high-level demons. With him providing sufficient offerings, many high-level demons were quickly teleported over through the dark Gate of the Abyss. Roy took a look and found that there was a large number of succubi!
These succubi were one of the few humanoid female demons among the demon races. Their figures were seductive, and they were not wearing a single thread of clothing. As they were demons, they still had curved demon horns on their heads, and their feet were reverse-jointed demon hooves. In particular, with the pair of demon wings on their backs that grew in the reverse direction, they looked sensual.
Succubi were high-level demons that were skilled in using fire magic and charm magic. Xeron had summoned them to make up for the inadequate long-range troops in the army. After all, there was only so much he could rely on those gogs for.
In addition to the succubi, Xeron had also summoned the deep abyss demons and big demons. Deep abyss demons were a type of demon that walked with their backs curved. They appeared clutching a giant broken sword burning with flames. These swords that were missing half were known as the soul-stealing blades and the main weapons of the deep abyss demons. As for those big demons, they were similar to Xeron. They had the cla.s.sic demon look—giant pointed demon horns and held demon scythes or hammers. Apart from being strong and huge, the appearance of these high-rank demons brought with them a thick sulfuric smell.
“I need all your help!” Xeron finished the summon and looked exhausted. Even with a ma.s.sive amount of magic power, he would be drained after summoning them. But even if they were all high-rank demons, Xeron was at least a top one, so he was still very confident. “Come, sign a contract with me and remain in this world. There’s a war, and I believe you’ll like it!”
“War? Great!” A succubus laughed. “As long as the conditions aren’t too harsh, we’ll obey you!”
A group of high-level demons quickly signed contracts with Xeron. It was quite different from when Roy was summoned, but Roy did not care. He quietly moved to the back of the army, found a place with no one to sit down, and summoned the system interface to begin drawing his plans…