Everything went downhill after the Devil changed his tactic. The Cardists and Mythics supporting the Beast King, the Imperial head, and King Phillip transformed into the Devil’s prime targets and were slaughtered like livestock.

As the sight unfolded before the Beast King and others, they didn’t waste any time and rushed to their supporters. The Mythics and Cardists weren’t strong enough to block the Devil’s ruthless attacks, let alone defeat such a monstrosity. They were torn apart like pieces of paper.

The sight was painful and it was too much for the Imperial Head and the others to bear. They were affected by their people’s death. That much wasn’t surprising.

The Devil sensed their loss of control and struck again. He moved right before tearing a middle-aged woman of the Angy family apart. She screamed one moment, the Devil tightly clutching her in his hands, and in the next moment, the Devil was no more.

He appeared beside the Imperial Head, his claws coated in darkness. The darkness shaped into short blades and solidified instantly, ready to strike, which was precisely what the Devil did. His arms shot forward without hesitation, one blade piercing cleanly through the Imperial Head armor’s runic enchantment while the other blade pierced straight through the armor.

All the Imperial Head saw was a devious smile on the Devil’s lips as the attack succeeded. The darkness blade pierced the armor, striking the Imperial Head where it hurt the most.

“It’s not over yet!” He growled, but the Devil cackled as he pulled the darkness blades back faster than the Imperial Head could see.

A moment later, the darkness blades shot forward again. The Imperial Head tried to move away. To flee from the scene, but it was only now that he noticed his legs were engulfed in solidified darkness. The Devil had captivated him, retracted the blades again, and thrust them through his armor again…and again and again.

The Imperial Head’s eyes widened. He thought the first time might have been a surprise, but that didn’t seem to be the case. The Devil had compressed enough of his power into the darkness blades to pierce the Imperial Head’s armor as long as he applied enough force. And that was no issue for the Devil. He was strong enough to crush the Beast King’s arm. Applying enough force to stab an armored human didn’t seem like a big deal. To the Devil, at least.

The Imperial Head’s eyes widened. First in shock, then in surprise, and finally in disbelief. He couldn’t fathom what was happening, even though it was obvious.

Was he going to die like this?

No. He couldn’t. There was no way he was allowed to die like this. No!!

The Imperial Head unleashed [Herculean Might] at its fullest, and added [Moon’s Champion] and [Lunar Manifestation] with every bit of Lunar Mana he could find in his mana reservoir before adding the Augmentation [Haste] and [Perfect Cleave]. He overclocked [Haste], draining his lifeforce and Essence instead of mana to surpass his limit, and coughed up blood as his longsword burst forward.

The runic enchantments [Power Strike] and [Armor Pierce] triggered with the remnants of Lunar Mana stored in the sword, and it started glowing bright like the full moon when [Lunar Manifestation] coated it.

The Imperial Head prepared everything in a split second. He didn’t have more time than that, either way.

His arm burst forward, the longsword whizzing toward the Devil with deadly speed. It was about to hit the Devil, piercing his throat, ending the mortal realm’s misery, when the Devil’s neck twisted. It cracked and crunched, twisting inhumanly. If the enemy had been anything else but the Devil, it would be dead. A head wasn’t supposed to be in a position like that.

However, they fought the Devil. And all he did as a response to the Imperial Head’s attack was to laugh. He evaded the glowing blade by a hair’s breadth, but he did it.

His head snapped back, and he roared with laughter. He turned to the Beast King and King Phillip, cracking an evil smile, before glancing at the Imperial head.

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His maw opened wide, the Devil’s darkness gushing out to repel the Beast King and King Phillip before they could stop bit, and his head shot down, biting off the Imperial Head’s…head.

…

The death of the Cardists and Mythics had already been bad, but the Imperial Head’s demise destroyed everything. The King lost one of his best men, the man who’d raised and trained him when his father was busy with politics and the grief of losing the only person he had truly loved.

King Phillip stared blankly at the headless body of the man who had known him from the day he was born.

The Devil exploited King Phillip’s grief to teleport to him and attack. It was a perfect tactic, using the human race’s greatest weakness against them: Their fragile emotions.

The Devil’s darkness blades expanded suddenly, with one of them coming for King Phillip’s head. The King twisted his body to an uncomfortable degree to evade the attack. It was an instinctive movement and exactly what the Devil had been hoping for.

The straps on King Phillip’s armor were severed all of a sudden, just like the king’s sword arm. The darkness blade whipped through the air, severing the King’s arm when he twisted his body to protect his head.

A terrifying scream reverberated through the surroundings as the King’s arm flung through the air, but the Devil was not yet done. He executed several well-placed slashes, removing the King’s armor once and for all.

The Devil laughed, enjoying the scenery unfolding before him, until the Beast King, wreathed in Purgatory Fire, smashed into him. The darkness blades diminished after missing the Beast King’s eye and heart, while the Beast King’s searing hot fist smashed into the Devil.

[Monster Regeneration] kept King Phillip alive and sealed his wound, but the shock of everything unfolding around him was too intense. He couldn’t move, his eyes trailing to his friend’s headless body. He felt like vomiting and would have done so if the Beast King’s roar didn’t pull him back to his senses.

“Get back to your senses, or everyone you love will die!!” He rumbled, his voice filled with pain as the Devil’s claws coated in darkness swept across his chest, leaving deep, badly bleeding marks.

The Beast King cauterized his wounds, burning them with Purgatory Fire a moment after the Devil inflicted them. Nonetheless, the damage was done. The Imperial Head was dead, King Phillip lost his sword arm and motivation to keep fighting, and the Beast King alone wasn’t powerful enough to deal with the Devil.

It was only a matter of minutes before he would be pushed to the verge of death as well. That couldn’t be. They couldn’t be losing.

But the situation was bleak.

The soldiers were scared to death, hundreds of common soldiers deserted on the spot when they saw the Imperial Head’s carcass alongside their king’s behavior. If their king couldn’t fight anymore, why should they keep risking their lives?

But most soldiers, whether they’d planned to desert or not, weren’t given the opportunity. Death was everywhere, and the Demons were hungry. Dozens of Byals dove to the grounds and crushed a squad of Glacia Knights. They tore their armor apart or pierced their throats with their razor-sharp claws right away. They didn’t hesitate and started devouring the Glacia Knights’ bodies.

The other Knight Orders, or the Guild’s Adventurers, didn’t fare any better. The morale of all defenders was crushed, shattered into thousands of tiny fragments.

Nobody could flee. They were torn apart.

At last, the demonic forces breached the last line of defense.

It was over. They were defeated.

The Kainesh Kingdom was lost.

The Devil had won.

Tears trickled down the cheeks of the lost souls. They cried their hearts out, guilt, sadness, and fear filling their hearts.

“I don’t want to die–...” One of the soldiers sobbed, his legs giving in as three Archyeas dove for him. Their claws were just about to tear the soldier’s head off his shoulders when white, dagger-sized feathers pierced through the back of their heads.

The Archyeas crashed dead to the ground right next to the soldiers, who screamed in terror when streams of darkness filled with rows of jagged teeth smashed into the corpses right next to him.

The soldier’s pants were wet, but hope blossomed in his heart. He looked up to see a glimmer glacier-blue spot levitating above the bloody battlefield.

“Surrender the ownership of all corpses. Everything!!”

A familiar voice resounded across the battlefield like a thunderstorm.

“NOW!”