The Power Angel in the sky pulled out the angel's horn and sounded it.
As the beautiful and moving holy sound rose, holy light shone down from above the white clouds, turning into pieces of pure white light feathers, bathing all the temple knights and warriors. Each one received a powerful blessing, and behind each, interwoven light feathers formed immaculate wings. Just as they were shouting about justice, ready to charge at Rody and his companions, a massive column of fire erupted in the distance, blazing towards the sky.
A man approached at incredible speed, arriving before the crowd in an instant.
His appearance was vastly different from that of human men, but his hair was burning flames, rising and billowing, quite extraordinary.
He was dressed in armor flickering with flames, a giant burning cloak draped behind him, hovering in mid-air. Even before approaching, people could feel a wave of heat.
"Ha ha, what a lively scene, I love such excitement. Let me join in this good fun!" the newcomer laughed heartily.
"Are you the Flame Lord?" Rody, seeing this flame-haired demon man, felt a chill. To him, this demon seemed more powerful than the Power Angel. When had he started following him? Was it in the lava underground city, or had he just come with the demon reinforcements? If he had discovered them earlier, why didn't he attack him and Chris?
"No, do you think someone as great as me would be a mere demon lord?" The flame-haired man laughed loudly, "In the demon world, besides the supreme Dark Demon God, there are the Four Emperors. I am one of them, the Emperor of Flames. Of course, few humans know of our existence. They are more familiar with the six demon kings who are less powerful than us, and even then, you mistakenly think there are only three. Those birdmen in the sky love to lie and deceive. It's inevitable that you are fooled."
"What Emperor of Flames, you are just an avatar!" The Power Angel sneered. Rody could see that although the Power Angel appeared calm, he was actually very wary of the man claiming to be the Emperor of Flames.
"Ha, if my true self were here, do you think I would bother talking to you? I would tear off your wings and make them into roasted chicken wings!" The Emperor of Flames laughed heartily.
"Justice will prevail!" The Power Angel pulled out a holy silver whistle and blew it.
"Finally pulling out the angelic whistle to call for help! Ha, you birdmen are even more cowardly than a sesame seed." The Emperor of Flames waved his hand, and the ground trembled violently, nearly knocking people off their feet. The earth cracked open, spewing blood-red molten lava, followed by huge columns of fire and thick smoke shooting up. While people were terrified, the Emperor of Flames laughed, "When it comes to followers, we demons are no less than you angel birdmen! Come out, my subjects!"
Knights riding flame demons rushed out from within the columns of fire, followed by devils with fiery wings, long-spear-wielding fire guards, floating fire spirits, and huge lava fire giants.
These fire creatures were the same as those Rody and Chris had seen in the lava underground city.
"But there were more of those demons with fiery wings, and in the thick smoke, strange beings that laughed eerily as they circled in the fire and smoke. Rody could recognize many of the demonic creatures, but there were a few he did not know. Clearly, they rarely appeared on the battlefields of humans and were not recorded in human history. In the blink of an eye, the number of fire-element demonic creatures that emerged from the pillars of fire had exceeded three thousand, completely surrounding the Temple Knights and the Holy Warriors on the ground.
The Temple Knights and Holy Warriors were inwardly lamenting their misfortune, as they had not yet annihilated Rody's elite squad within their encirclement, and now another circle of demons had appeared on the outside.
Under this pincer attack, the battle had become unbearably dire.
"Stay calm, our Angel Legion will soon descend, and the Temple will send more Temple Knights and Holy Warriors. The priests are chanting, preparing to open the teleportation gate. Once the gate is opened, thousands of reinforcements will arrive!" The words of the Power Angel brought some relief to everyone. If this were true, it would be a good opportunity to kill enemies and achieve merit.
"What did you say? Angel Legion?" The Flame Emperor, upon hearing this, laughed as if he had heard the most ridiculous thing in the world. "A few hundred angels daring to call themselves an Angel Legion? You might deceive the ignorant humans, but don't put on airs in front of me. Who are you trying to scare? Indeed, the Light God King is very powerful and arrogant, and there are many gods in your Light Divine Race, but so what? Can they descend to the mortal world without any conditions? The seals left by the ancient and prehistoric primordial deities, even the Light God King cannot leave the Divine Realm and descend to the mortal world without any conditions. No, please don't dream! The Divine Realm is a place of no return, even if you have ten thousand deities backing you, they can only watch helplessly as we kill you all. They can do nothing about it!"
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"This is the devil's rumor, miracles are omnipresent, and deities can descend upon us at any time!" the Power Angel argued loudly.
"So there are rules and restrictions!" Rody thought, feeling secretly pleased.
The deities cannot directly descend to the mortal world, no wonder there was a need for a temple to restrain the hearts of people. It seems that the mysterious heavens are not as he imagined; even there, rules exist that bind the gods in the sky, not allowing them to do whatever they want.
This also explains Rody's previous doubts... How did the Earth God protect his descendants from persecution by the heavenly deities?
The reason now came to light: without conditions, deities cannot directly leave the Divine Realm and descend to the mortal world. Therefore, although the Earth God could not directly confront the celestial deities, they could protect the hope of the earth through powerful beings on the ground, like the group of old men in the ruins of the divine domain, who were likely guardians.
"Human beings, let me tell you a great secret that annoys the angels," the Flame Emperor said with a laugh: "The heavens are not the Divine Realm. The heavens are a place where angels and some extremely powerful beings live together, existing above the sky, but not among the white clouds, in another space. The Divine Realm is a higher, more beautiful, and larger space, said to be incredibly wonderful and splendid, inhabited by omnipotent deities! However, it is a realm of no return; even if a powerful being reaches the level of a deity, once they enter the Divine Realm, they will never be able to leave. Therefore, the great Light God King that you humans worship is not the real Light God King! He is just an eight-winged seraph of the heavens, and everything said in the temple is false! Ahahaha!"
"Ah..." All the Temple Knights and Holy Warriors were stunned upon hearing this.
"My God!" Not just them, even Rody's elite squad behind him was terrified. The faith they had held for centuries was false, a shock that was hard to accept. Even more painful was another blow. The 'Light Codex' stated that if believers devoutly worshipped the Light God King, they would receive divine grace after death, be freed from all worldly suffering, and enter the beautiful heaven for eternal life.
Now, if the one they believed in was not the true Light God King, then wouldn't the promise of eternal life in heaven be empty words?
Had all the humans who died for the Light God King fallen into hell?
Thinking this, all the Temple Knights and Holy Warriors were almost scared to death. In their minds, death was not to be feared, for after dying in battle, they could ascend to heaven and enjoy blissful eternal life. But now, if they died here, they might immediately be dragged into hell by demons!
"It's not like that, this is the devil's slander! Wake up, don't be bewitched by the devil! Holy knights, the Light God King is watching over you from the skies!" The Power Angel trembled with anger. He wanted to kill the Flame Emperor with one stroke of his sword, but he knew he didn't have the power to do so before the reinforcements arrived.
"Do you think many reinforcements will come to rescue you?" The Flame Emperor sneered. "The heavens are currently under a combined attack by the four emperors of the demon realm and the three saints of the earth. Your Archangel is overwhelmed and cannot spare anyone to rescue you. My true self is now in the heavens battling with the six-winged principal angel. Do you think there will be reinforcements from the heavens? My subjects, slaughter these fools, drag them to hell, and turn them into your food!"
"Long live evil!" The fire army was exhilarated and boosted in morale, each brandishing their weapons and shouting madly.
"..." The faces of the Temple Knights and Holy Warriors turned pale, and their morale plummeted.
"Everyone, stay calm, the reinforcements will arrive soon!" The Power Angel hoped for a pillar of light from the sky or a teleportation gate to appear on the ground, but despite waiting and waiting, there was no response, and his face grew increasingly serious.
"Let's kill this birdman first, then capture the human soldiers for food!" The Flame Emperor erupted with a fiery blaze, rushing towards the Power Angel.
"Righteous knights, I will personally ascend to the heavens and bring back reinforcements!" The Power Angel hurriedly left these words, his hand flashing with holy light, opening a small teleportation gate. Before the attack of the Flame Emperor reached him, he escaped and disappeared. Seeing the Power Angel shamelessly fleeing the battlefield, the morale of the Temple Knights and Holy Warriors on the ground plummeted again, with many drawing their swords, ready to commit suicide.
They would rather die than be captives, and they could not accept the terrible reality of becoming food for the demon race.
The Flame Emperor roared with laughter, his flames reddening half the sky.
"Listen to me, all of you, drop your weapons, those who surrender will not be killed, otherwise, you will forever fall into hell! My blood pool has vacant spaces just for you to reside in, to taste the burning of molten lava consuming your bodies! Do you wish to become slaves, or food, the choice is now yours to make! My subjects, prepare to attack!" With the Flame Emperor's command, over three thousand fire-elemental monsters immediately roared in unison, their formidable presence overwhelming the entire field.
Humans were in panic and disarray, unsure of what to do. The blow of being abandoned by the Power Angel had not yet healed, and now they faced a bloody battle. Inside, they had the elite squad; outside, there were thousands of fire-elemental demons, and above them loomed the Flame Emperor, capable of frightening angels.
Their hearts were in despair.
The Temple Knights pulled out their holy swords, placing them against their necks, murmuring farewells to their families and loved ones. They felt not only despair but also heartbreak. They had fought for justice, for the Light God King, but in the end, the angel representing justice and the Light God King had abandoned them. They had always believed that dying in battle was an honor, that after death they would enter the fabled, blissful heaven, only to find out that it was all false.
There was no heaven, no miracles of the Light God King.
Everything was a deception by the angels.
Before being captured by the demon race as slaves, before becoming their food, the only choice left for them was to end their own lives.
"Flame Emperor, do you know what I want to tell you?" Rody suddenly stood up and shouted loudly, "You are an idiot! Are you going to make a move or just keep blabbering? Let your minions attack, capture us! I can't wait to live in your blood pool hell! What now? How long are you going to scare us? Your true self is in the heavens fighting, where did you get these three thousand soldiers? As an avatar, do you really have the power to make the earth crack, to summon three thousand soldiers at will?"
As Rody spoke, he walked forward, surprisingly unharmed on the scorching, bubbling lava.
In the eyes of everyone in disbelief, he bent down, reaching his hand into the fiery molten lava.
In the end, all he pulled up was a handful of fresh black soil. The illusion vanished, and in the sky, aside from the Flame Emperor whose face had drastically changed, there were only about two hundred sparsely surrounding fire spirits. The illusions of the earth cracking, lava erupting, flame knights with wings, molten stone giants, and spear-wielding fire guards, all disappeared without a trace.
"Look, this is the earth spewing lava, so impressive, trying to scare us to death, huh!" Rody held the black soil in his hand, a smile on his face.
That smile was like a ray of sunlight piercing through the clouds straight to the heart, and everyone who saw it felt their chests about to burst with an indescribable emotion.
In the most desperate moment, when the angels abandoned everyone.
He stood up.
This man, branded as an evil necromancer by the temple, in the most desperate time, he stood up. He made everyone understand one thing: when people are at their most desperate, there are still humans to trust; there is this man, known to the world as the miraculous boy, worthy of trust.
"Long live Rody!" Stanley rushed out, lifting Rody onto his shoulders, ecstatically shouting.
"Long live..." Countless people uncontrollably surged forward, whether it was the deliriously happy elite squad or the reinvigorated Holy Warriors. Suddenly putting aside their hostilities, they lifted Rody up, tossing him into the air, and cheered for him unreservedly!