Book 7: Chapter 412: Evil Summoning Ritual Hidden in Ancient Saxton Battlefield
Book 7: Chapter 412: Evil Summoning Ritual Hidden in Ancient Saxton Battlefield
Ancient Saxton Battlefield, the legendary place where the Demon King’s army led by the Twelve Demon Kings fought the last bloody battle against the allied army of the humans. The Human Race’s forces were almost completely wiped out in the battle. Countless heroes fell. Since the humans were last to be attacked, all the elves, dragons, and other races that could have helped the humans were basically crippled by the Demon Kings’ army, resulting in the humans having to fight alone.
The result of that battle was that the humans had managed to win and held onto Olsylvia City while the Demon Kings’ army left in disgrace. This place was sealed by the Radiant Church and covered with a light barrier magic, “Curtain of the Morning Sun,” for ten thousand years. The reason the Olsylvia Academy dared to leave the task of purifying the place to Bella was that they knew that Bella knew a large number of high-ranking members of the Radiant Church. Even if they failed, the Radiant Church wouldn’t say anything.
Bella brought Lisha and the other Renegades over but not her other friends this time. If even they couldn’t handle it, the others wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway. Bella had already prepared a way out beforehand. She had arranged for Collapsing Evil Dragon Emperor Lolita and Devouring Holy Dragon Euphenisia to follow and wait in standby at a distance. If anything unexpected were to happen, it’d be up to these two lolis to cover their retreat.
The final-level attack forces such as Demon God Angel and Evil God Mia were stationed at Rose Society’s base camp and weren’t deployed for now. Originally, it was possible for them to bring over the Radiant Church’s female popes Goldsmith and Roxanne. They were professional priests, but their identities were too special. They were the popes from over ten thousand years ago and would cause unnecessary panic if others were to see that they were actually alive.
Bella’s current party consisted of two dragon knights, Bella and Lisha, Swordsman Princess Kriss, Assassin Noreya, Mage Ariel, Puppet Master Elaine, and Mystic Priest Isaman. The team of seven went to Ancient Saxton Battlefield for the purification operation, and the one in charge of the purifying was Priest Isaman.
Isaman was walking at the very back. Ever since failing the bet, she had been staying at Bella’s dorm. Bella hadn’t had the time to return to her dorm during these past few days, so she was safe for now. However, she wasn’t so sure about the coming days. Now, she was trying to stay as far away from Bella as possible, but Bella didn’t point out that she knew what she was thinking.
There was no direct teleportation array to Ancient Saxton Battlefield since it was said that the scenes inside were absolutely terrifying. No one had stepped foot in there since the Radiant Church sealed the place ten thousand years ago. Many warriors and adventurers tried to explore the place, but they never came back after entering. Since they were acting secretly, the Radiant Church did not record these people into the history books. These were all rumors passed around by the people.
When they arrived at the edge of Ancient Saxton Battlefield, they found that the “Curtain of the Morning Sun” that was originally used to seal the area had already grown very weak. There were quite a few dark figures standing on the other side of the wall of light and were continually hitting the barrier with their hands or scratching at it with their fingers as if they were zombies in some sort of apocalypse movie.
“Strange. Didn’t the Radiant Church arrange people to watch over this place? They should have reported that the curtain barrier had grown so weak.”
“Who knows? But be careful, everyone. I know none of you are scared but it will be troublesome if your clothes get dirty.”
It was as if Bella and the others did not see the terrifying dark figures behind the curtain at all. They soon found the surveillance point where the Radiant Church’s patrolmen were stationed, and to Bella’s surprise, it had already fallen. They found several dead members of the Radiant Church, both holy knights and priests, and the bodies had already been reduced to bones.
This station had been taken down a long time ago. The attacker used evil spirit magic to have a dismembered hand continue to write magic documents and report the situation to the Radiant Church each day on time, leading the Radiant Church to think that nothing had happened here. If Bella and the others came even a few days later, something bad might have happened.
The skeletonized hand was still holding a quill, writing the daily report to the Radiant Church, until Bella and the others arrived. Bella did not destroy it. She didn’t want the Radiant Church to get involved for now. Once they were to intervene, they won’t be able to use the site anymore as she would have to find a new venue. That would be troublesome.
A magic door had been opened from the light sealing barrier in front of the surveillance site. After quickly dealing with the Radiant Church’s surveillance personnel, they had broken one section of the light sealing barrier and created an entrance. It seemed like someone had already entered the Ancient Saxton Battlefield, but nobody knew what they were doing in there.
Bella and the others opened the magic door and entered the Ancient Saxton Battlefield. As soon as the door was opened, they could feel a cold aura washing over them. It was the aura of death that had been entrenched in there for thousands of years, mixed in with the stench of decomposing corpses. The stench and the aura were enough to wipe out half a party if they were just a team of ordinary adventurers without any priests.
Bella and the others were stress-free since they weren’t simple humans anymore. Other than the relatively pungent stench, the aura was fine. The environment inside of the Ancient Saxton Battlefield was worlds apart from the outside. It was nighttime here without any lights. All you could feel was hazy black shadows floating around in the sky, and there seemed to be a lot of them.
Bella finally had a clear look at the true faces of those wandering black silhouettes. As soon as she did, Bella and Lisha, who were in charge of being the forward knights, took a few steps back. The faces of those black figures were horrifying. They were a type of zombie. Corpses that had survived with time for over ten thousand years could be classified as Ten Thousand Year Corpse Kings based on dark demonic being classifications.
The older the corpse, the stronger they become. Thanks to the Radiant Church and the monitoring of the various empires in the human continent, a few little Corpse Kings reached over a hundred years old. Five hundred years ago, the strongest Thousand Year Corpse King was discovered by voyagers on an inaccessible island, making it hard to discover it for such a long time.
During that suppression operation, the Radiant Church sent out a large number of Knights of the Church and Priests of the Sacred, including an extra three archbishops. In the end, it was only with the use of forbidden light magic that they finally managed to annihilate the Thousand Year Corpse King along with the island. The purification magic of this dimension’s Radiant Church was extremely ineffective against certain wandering zombies. The zombies here were all ten thousand years old Corpse Kings that the Radiant Church won’t be able to suppress even with all their members.
The human army corpses that died here ten thousand years ago had either mutated into Ten Thousand Year Corpse Kings or Corpse Demons that were now flying around in the sky. Those dark silhouettes flying around in the sky were Corpse Demons, which were harder to deal with than Corpse Kings since they knew quite a lot of magic before their deaths. So, the Corpse Demons also inherited that magical talent.
Bella and the others were disgusted by the appearances of the Corpse Kings. Their faces were completely rotted away as their physical attributes could not be made out. Moreover, the stench really choked them. Bella and the others hadn’t brought any perfume or air freshener, which was inevitably a bit hard to bear. After noticing Bella and her group, the nearest few Corpse Kings attacked.
The Ten Thousand Year Corpse Kings were incredibly fast and appeared in front of Bella in just a few steps. Bella raised her pure white silver shield to block them and was just barely able to block the Corpse Kings’ pounce. However, since the Corpse Kings’ strength was too great, it broke Bella’s silver shield straight out. Lisha, on the other side, wasn’t too good either. Her silver shield was also destroyed.
Bella and Lisha were not equipped with just any silver armor, but one of the toughest kinds of mythril defense gear that they had specially acquired from master dwarven craftsmen. Being destroyed in just one scratch by the Ten Thousand Year Corpse Kings was insane.
“Damn it, get away from me you stinking bastard!”
Bella kicked her leg out, sending the Corpse King flying a dozen meters. On the other side, Lisha struck with her elbow, hammering the Corpse King a few dozen meters. What surprised the two of them was that while the defenses of the Ten Thousand Year Corpse Kings were terrifying, they were nowhere as terrifying as their regenerative abilities. Half of the corpse was missing after they were sent flying, but under the control of some mysterious power, the shattered bodies of those corpses quickly flew back together and healed automatically.
The Corpse Demons flying in the sky instantly sent out a large amount of dark magic as soon as they discovered the invaders in an overwhelming attack. Priest Isaman put up a light defense barrier to ward off their magical attack. On the other side, Mage Ariel took this opportunity to launch all types of magic in a counter-attack. Both sides bombarded each other with magic, lighting up the sky of the Ancient Saxton Battlefield.
Kriss could feel the support coming from the front. Even though she was a swordsman, the sword she was wielding had an aura that stretched several dozens of meters. Kriss, who could kill her enemies remotely with her sword, was now fighting as a long-range profession. Assassin Noreya and Puppet Master Elaine were currently on standby, observing the battlefield to see how they could reinforce the front.
“Rest in peace, bygone heroes!”
The treasured swords in Kriss’ hand were “Dark Requiem” and “Peace Bringer.” These two swords had exceptional damage effects on zombie-type demons. The Ten Thousand Year Corpse Kings that were attacked by her remotely could still regenerate, but the recovery rate of their bodies was significantly reduced.
Bella and Lisha were carefully dealing with the hordes of zombies swarming them. Corpse poison had strong corrosive effects, so they didn’t dare to fight too close to them as they could corrode their mythril armor. It would be embarrassing if all their clothes were to dissolve. After all, Bella didn’t bring a change of clothes.
The Ten Thousand Year Corpse Demons and Corpse Kings had completely surrounded Bella’s seven-people team. However, due to the deterrence of the “Dark Requiem” and “Peace Bringer” in Kriss’ hands, the Corpse Demons and Corpse Kings didn’t dare to get close as both sides entered a stalemate. When the battlefield was being cleared back then, the human race had to transfer the bodies of the heroes to Olsylvia City’s holy mountain for burial since they lacked both time and funds. The average soldier was hastily buried in the ground, leading to the horrors of all the ten thousand years old Corpse Kings and Corpse Demons haunting this place today.
To prevent any demonic beings from running out, Bella and the others had shut the magic door. They couldn’t retreat now. They could only fight till the end. Bella noticed that both the Corpse Kings and the Corpse Demons looked a bit unusual amid the scuffle, and their attacks seemed to be organized. The severely injured Corpse Kings would automatically retreat to the back, allowing the uninjured Corpse Kings to come forward and continue the fight.
The same applied to the Corpse Demons in the sky. The ones with low energy would retreat to the back to rest so that the other Corpse Demons could come in to fill the blanks. Even if you were to beat her to death, Bella would not believe that the rotten minds of these Corpse Kings and Corpse Demons had the intelligence for such a tactic. If it weren’t for Mage Ariel from Bella’s team being a “cheat” mage, then all her power might have been fully consumed by now.
“Bella, someone is commanding these guys. If we take out the mastermind, we might just be able to suppress this place completely. You had the Tears of the Goddess, didn’t you? Find the base camp of the mastermind, it should be in the center of Ancient Saxton Battlefield.”
“Uh, Elaine, I can’t move from here right now, those Corpse Kings have the way blocked.”
“Just leave it to me. Noreya is an assassin, she’ll infiltrate the camp with you.”
After Puppet Master Elaine said that, she cast the forbidden evil spell, “Puppet Heaven.” Hundreds of near-transparent puppet threads poured out of her sleeve at once, and the Corpse Kings that had silk puppet threads inserted into their spines instantly turned wild and were no longer under the mastermind’s control. Now, they had switched to attacking the other Corpse Kings around them wildly now.
The Corpse Kings that weren’t being controlled had never seen such a thing before and could not react to the situation for a moment. The Corpse King army fell into internal chaos. The pressure on Bella and her team from the Corpse Kings surrounding them reduced instantly due to the internal fighting. Taking advantage of the chaos, Assassin Noreya went forward and took Bella’s right hand.
“Follow me, Bella. I’ll take you to the mastermind.”
“Alright, Noreya, you don’t have to grab me so hard. Be natural, it’s not like we haven’t held hands before.”
“Bella, you… Be serious, we’re in battle right now, we’re not going to a playground.”
Assassin Noreya pulled Bella along in a stealth state. Bella, who was in her stealth state, perfectly avoided the group of Corpse Kings ahead and approached the center of the Ancient Saxton Battlefield. The battlefield at the back was left to Kriss and the others. With Puppet Master Elaine’s control support, the army of Corpse Kings was unable to cause them any major trouble for the time being. As long as they focused on the Corpse Demons in the sky, they should be fine for a short time.
Bella, who was in a stealth state, arrived at the center of the Ancient Saxton Battlefield. There stood a very tall beacon, seemingly a place for the commander to stand on a platform to boost morale when commanding their army. She had to give respect to Assassin Noreya for her night vision. She was able to find this beacon even when she couldn’t even see her own fingers in front of her in the darkness.
The mastermind was right there at the top of the beacon tower. Bella could feel strong traces of dark magic fluctuating around the tower from below. It was summoning type magic, and the person up there seemed to be trying to summon something terrifying. There were no signs of any Corpse Kings or Corpse Demons at the bottom of the beacon tower. The mastermind was so confident that they didn’t even dispatch any guards.
“You go up, Bella. I won’t be able to get in.”
“Why not, Noreya? There’s clearly steps to go up. Huh? Wait, this feeling is… Demon King’s Passage.”
Bella finally realized that the person up there was summoning a Demon King. The area above the beacon tower had already become a Demon King’s Passage’s zone that normal people couldn’t enter. Noreya, who had already become a Renegade, might be able to enter the Demon King’s Passage by destroying it in her dark transformation, but she wasn’t as unprincipled as Bella. Forcefully breaking the zone would indirectly damage the nearby existences at Demon King level or above, then Bella would be the first “casualty.”
“Thanks, Noreya. Then, please keep an eye out for me here. I’ll give you a present as thanks later.”
“You better hurry, Bella. You always give weird clothes as thank you. As if I’d want those!”
Bella did not forget to tease Noreya before she left. Then, she entered the Demon King’s Passage. There were already people inside. A Demon King had answered the summons of the person at the top of the beacon tower and was preparing to descend. In principle, the Demon King’s Passage summoned the Demon Kings based on the number of the summoners. Under normal conditions, an excess number of them won’t be summoned.
The mastermind at the beacon only summoned one Demon King. According to the original rules, Bella was not eligible to enter. Unfortunately, Bella had entered with her true identity as Demon God and then switched back to her Demon King surrogate afterward, cleverly avoiding the rules of the Demon King’s Passage. Apparently, the Demon King who had already entered the Demon King’s Passage did not realize that another Demon King had come in who would show up soon. He had already reached the exit of the summoning door and was only a step away from showing up.
When Bella rushed over, the Demon King was already holding the handle to the summoning door with one hand and was about to open the door. From the small, slim, and fair little hand coming out of the Demon King’s black robe, she knew it was a girl. And, it was not one of the Twelve Demon Kings at Bella’s side. The New Demon Kings at Bella’s side were telepathic with Bella, which Bella found out as soon as she got close. This one that did not feel anything was clearly one of the original Twelve Demon Kings.
Bella couldn’t even think about chatting up a Demon King at this moment due to the time constraints. She just leaned in directly behind her and took her unusually cold little hand, lightly tapping her acupuncture point at the back with her other hand. The Demon King clearly did not expect to find any other Demon King in the Demon King’s Passage and did not react to it for a moment. Her unpreparedness allowed Bella to succeed in her sneak attack. She didn’t even have time to turn around to see her attacker’s face before she collapsed to the ground.
“Ouch! You…”
“Sorry, I’ll be taking this one so you go and rest for a while!”