812 Demon Apocalypse
“My hunch is that some soldiers at the base have been converted into demons. Err… It’s demonization, maybe? Lynn, what about your hunch ability?” Ai thought for a moment and felt confident in her claim, but she also wanted to know from someone who could predict the future.
Lynn opened her eyes and nodded. She has just done a fortune telling, and most future possibilities point to something similar. “Mm, I can see it. Some of them are humans with demon abilities. However, what was hidden in the underground base remained undetected due to the energy disturbance.”
“Do they still have the consciousness of a human? Or have they completely become demons without a conscience?” Elysia could tell the situation was worse than it looked. She would hold those high-ranking participants accountable.
“In our previous encounter in Northern Europe, the villagers completely became demons. In the case here, it’s difficult to predict from afar. They currently look like puppets that only move on the orders of their superiors.” Ai scratched her head and looked at the military base in the distance.
“Yeah, soldiers are like that sometimes.” Elysia could understand that impression.
“So, our best bet is to infiltrate and ambush the evil deities? We can’t estimate their exact number yet, and we should disguise ourselves to enter the base. We’ll be sabotaging that trap formation before anything.” Nell folded her arms while glancing at Lifa.
“Yes, the first thing to deal with is that trap formation. It seems to be hidden in a heavily guarded dungeon base. Invisible magic can be of great help for this.” Lifa smiled faintly at Elysia and Elena.
“I feel the trap formation is not located near the military base alone but covers the entire place. The human’s demonization may be the result of experiments from those high-ranking participants. We can’t predict with certainty the movements of the Demon God and his fellow evil deities.” Elena still felt something was amiss, but she didn’t know what it was.
“You overlooked one important thing.” Xero suddenly spoke while staring at the military base with a distant gaze.
“And what is it?” Rhea also looked at the military base. She felt something was wrong with that place too. There were a lot of irregularities.
“There is such a thing as the demonic spirits. The body is just a temporary vessel for them. The human may become a demon from demonization, but what about demons disguised as humans? Some demons can also possess other people’s bodies and fully control them.” Xero looked at everyone. His eyes seemed to glow bright blood red as if thirsting for carnage.
“If it’s you, how do you deal with those demons?” Rhea felt slightly enlightened because of Xero’s critical thinking before jumping into action.
“Total massacre. Leave no one alive. The demons have probably spread across the continent. If they get demonized from those Demon Gods, we just have to eradicate the source into nothingness.” Xero emphasized his last sentence.
“That will only bring us new problems. We will only infiltrate there in four teams. After we sabotage their trap formation, we will start hunting down the evil deities. Only eliminate those who stand in our way, without using large-scale destructive magic.” Elena rejected the proposal because of her consideration of Elysia. She knew Elysia didn’t like killing for no reason if it could be avoided.
“Well, we might be able to convert the bad demon into the good demon. Who knows.” Nell spread her arms and shrugged her shoulders.
“That’s too naive. The ones we’ll face are far more troublesome than anything we’ve been through. If you don’t want to slaughter them, even if it’s just an intention, you’ll only get hurt and regret it.” Xero snorted and folded his arms.
“You’re wrong. That’s not naive, but wise. We could have wiped out that military base with a meteor shower and scorched the demonic spirits with something like soul fire. However, what will we get from this incident? We promised Earth Mother to leave the deities to heaven’s punishment, right? While the bad humans will receive their punishment when the time comes according to the world laws.” Elena shook her head in objection.
“Let’s see what will happens.” Xero didn’t continue this discussion into an argument, but he seemed enthusiastic to see what would happen.
“What do you think?” Elysia asked the nature spirits. They strangely were so quiet now.
“For some reason, we feel a little uneasy. We don’t know what awaits us there… We can only detect they are there, but we don’t know for sure the details.” Sora looked at her fellow nature spirits. They all looked agitated and confused, but they didn’t know why.
“…” Elysia glanced at Rhea because she knew the reason. Rhea wasn’t in a good mood, which affected the nature spirits subconsciously.
“All right, so this is the plan.” Elena clapped her hands for attention before sharing the plan details based on their discussion results.
Although they were divided into four teams, they moved in one plan. They then split up to infiltrate the military base.
“Why should I part with Ely even though I described this plan?” Elena grumbled while sneaking into the underground base with Lifa and Gio.
“Fufu, that’s because we need to sabotage the trap formation as soon as possible. Otherwise, the other teams will be in great danger.” Lifa patted Elena’s back. She was the one who asked Elena to team up with her.
“Well, she’s not in a good mood. Ely can put her mind at ease in this hunting operation.” Elena sighed.
“Yeah…” Lifa was also fully aware of Rhea’s state of mind. Anything related to cruel experiments on living things would always invite Rhea’s wrath.
“That’s why I put them on the clean sweep team at the back. I’m afraid there’s a vicious test lab down there.” Elena tried to peek deep underground, but a lot of energy interference clouded her vision.
“We are close to the formation core. I detected three cores in total.” Lifa looked around. Her magic vision was obscured, but she could still feel the presence of the formation core even though it was quite faint.
“All right, let’s do this quickly.” Elena nodded in understanding and suddenly stopped in front of a steel wall. She brought Lifa and Gio in by breaking through the wall.
“What’s that?” Elena widened her eyes at what was in front of her.
A large purple beating heart was inside the giant blue liquid tube in the center of the laboratory. Several large hoses and magic circles were attached to the tube. Some scientists seemed to be doing something complicated on their controllers.
‘Stop talking and overthinking. Accompany me to manipulate that formation core.’ Lifa pulled Elena and Gio’s hands to approach that big purple heart. She then put two fingers to her forehead and got into action.
*Bzzt*
Several bolts of electricity appeared out of nowhere and struck that huge purple heart. The danger alarm was about to go off, but Lifa did her job perfectly until it was done.
After that, she did the same to the other formation core. However, things didn’t go smoothly when Lifa was about to sabotage the third formation core.
“I commend you for your unfathomable abilities. However, we are one step ahead of you, the executioners.” A mysterious voice echoed in the room while Lifa sabotaged the last formation core.
“!?” Elena and Lifa instantly became alert. They searched for the source of the sound, but it only led to the brain-shaped diamond in the giant tube.
The room instantly darkened, and the scientists fainted simultaneously. The blue liquid in the tube gradually changed color to red, and the danger alarm sounded.
*Rumble*
A small earthquake occurred, shaking the ground like a bad omen.
“Enjoy the game.” The voice gradually became distant before completely disappearing.
“This is bad. They installed auto-activation on this formation core. The third trap is already active!” Lifa pursed her lips in annoyance.
“Shit! I’m going to crush this brain diamond into mush!” Elena prepared to smash the giant tube as soon as her invisibility was forced to deactivate.
“Please, no! That will only trigger a massive explosion or unknown energy turbulence. A formation core can’t just be destroyed while it’s active. This trap formation will also inflict a heavy backlash t us if we touch that core! We must do something to the caster first, then deactivate it!” Lifa spoke in Vrelenian language as she hugged Elena from behind to prevent something terrible from happening.
“Then, what are we waiting for!?” Elena immediately brought Lifa, and Gio rushed out. She had to stop this trap formation because they would be at a disadvantage the longer they were in this place.
*Bam*
Elena crashed against the wall. Her subtle transformation failed to get her through the wall.
“We can’t break through the wall anymore, huh.” Lifa muttered while applying healing magic to Elena’s bruised forehead.
“Then just destroy it!” Elena was furious and annoyed. She punched a hole in the wall.
*Boom!*
“Let’s go hunt those Demon Gods or whoever it is. I shall beat them into oblivion!” Elena flew away while checking her surroundings periodically.
“Well…” Lifa took Gio to fly and followed Elena. She knew this angry Goddess would destroy anything that got in their way.
“!?” Elysia was holding onto the wall during the earthquake. The sky suddenly turned reddish, and the energy intensity turned oppressive.
“The trap formation is active. We will weaken the longer we are here. They failed to sabotage the trap.” Rhea muttered while glancing down. She could see several massive magic circles under the ground.
“Mm, emergency plan. We need to hunt down the evil deities as soon as possible. They are still here, managing everything from behind the scenes.” Elysia narrowed her eyes because she felt they were targeted by many pairs of eyes.
“Our invisibility is forced to collapse? This is bad… The demons are targeting us!” Elysia widened her eyes when she realized her invisibility was no longer there. She tried to use it again, but no effect occurred.
*Bam!* *Bang!* *Pew* *Pew*
Several fully-armed soldiers shot their rifles toward Elysia’s team.
“Kuh, go inside. We will deal with them in a limited space.” Elysia erected a protective barrier and invited everyone to enter the base. She immediately closed the steel door, and the soldiers seemed intent on breaking it down.
“Ely, there are so many demons here! Hey, Cherub!?” Ai took out her shadow spear, but her pet suddenly jumped away from her shoulder.
“Rawr!” Cherub pushed down a large man at the corridor’s intersection.
He tore his prey’s military clothes and instantly killed his prey like a savage beast. After that, his mouth enlarged, and he swallowed that demon in one go.
“That’s a demon?” Elysia mumbled softly. That large man was more like a ghoul with spider legs on his back.
“And that’s how my Cherub preys on a demon.” Ai stroked her pet’s head as Cherub returned to her side.
*Rumble*
The floor suddenly collapsed. Elysia’s team fell down, but they stabilized their fall with magic. A terrifying sight greeted them when they landed in the underground laboratory.
“Why did you come here!?” Xero exclaimed in surprise.