novelraw Chapter 496 - 486: Home Invasion
Chapter 496 - 486: Home Invasion
Mulin Castle, serving as the royal palace of the Demon Race Emperor, is heavily guarded.
The castle is surrounded by multiple layers of defenses, with the central blood crystal watchtower covering a radius of three kilometers under surveillance. Any anomaly will trigger an alarm, alerting the most elite Blood Guards within the fortress.
Just beyond the edge of the warning range, three kilometers outside, within the basement of a seemingly ordinary mansion.
Old demon Mortis roughly dragged several bound Demons to the ritual nodes, then nodded towards Tanaka, signaling him to come down.
On the table in the basement, sand was slowly flowing through an hourglass set by Foxman Jiro.
Standing here was merely Tanaka’s slothful clone since Jiro himself had arranged everything without even being present.
Feeling the eerie aura seeping out from the ritual beneath his feet, Tanaka felt uneasy: "Abyss Magic... Will it really work?"
Mortis sat outside the ritual, glanced at the hourglass, noting there was still some time, and replied, "Whether it works or not, you should ask that cunning fox."
"Speaking of which," Tanaka hesitated to speak, "I haven’t asked you, why are you helping Jiro? Or rather, why do you trust him?"
Mortis suddenly let out a hoarse laugh, echoing in the basement sharply, "I’ve only seen that guy twice, what trust is there?"
"Twice? Then why do you still..."
"He showed me his abilities," the old demon’s laughter ceased, eyes flashing with determination, "I’m just taking a gamble."
"And if he deceives you..."
Mortis shrugged indifferently: "Then I’ll just lose this lousy life. At least it might inconvenience that traitor a bit."
He looked at the hourglass again, then slowly stood up: "Time’s about up, let’s begin."
"Wait, I have one last question," Tanaka pointed to another Abyss Magic Array in the basement, "What is that for?"
Mortis grinned: "That’s prepared for myself."
The runes beneath Tanaka’s feet glowed with a black light, and amidst the sacrifices’ short screams, Tanaka’s figure flashed and completely disappeared from the basement.
Almost simultaneously, several Blood Guards rushed towards the location of this mansion.
...
The scene before Tanaka changed in an instant, and he shook his dizzy head to find himself standing in a sealed room filled with magic runes.
The room was unlit, but every inch of the walls, floor, and ceiling was carved with runes that emitted a faint glow, providing a weak light source.
Tanaka did not feel any threat or restriction, it seemed as Jiro said, the effect of these runes was limited to outside the room.
His gaze was immediately drawn to the object on the central table in the room.
It was a pure, flawless white cube, like a perfect block, with no marks on its surface, in stark contrast to the dense runes around, hard to ignore.
"Is this the Demon King’s seal?"
Just as Tanaka stepped forward, his left foot was suddenly pulled.
He looked down to find that his left foot was fused with the ground.
"What kind of game glitch is this..." He gritted his teeth, pulling hard, but his foot remained motionless as if it was meant to be part of the ground.
Tanaka gritted his teeth and drew the dagger from his waist.
A cold flash passed, blood spurted from the severed foot, spreading dark stains on the rune floor.
"Damn white-haired fox... Is this your so-called foolproof plan?"
Enduring the intense pain, he jumped towards the white cube on one foot.
But just as he was about to reach it, an invisible wall blocked him.
Tanaka pressed against the air wall, his expression visibly unpleasant: "Weren’t there supposed to be no barriers inside?"
[Hero, restriction lifted]
Before Tanaka could react, the resistance in front of him vanished, and one hand slapped onto the white cube.
The cube fell, its shell shattered like a cracked eggshell, revealing a blob of light-blue gelatinous liquid dotted with faint lights slowly flowing out, glowing with a star-like sheen in the dim room.
"So I came out first, huh?"
Tanaka stared blankly at the writhing substance on the ground: "Slime?"
"Forgive me, young man, it’s a Slime Man," the gelatin seemed to realize something, "This room is... interesting."
The gelatin levitated in mid-air, and Tanaka felt the surrounding magic power begin to change direction, extinguishing the complex magic runes on the floor one by one.
The gelatin silently lifted all the seals off the room without any assistance and without triggering any alarms.
Pulling up the panel, Tanaka hurriedly noted the two most crucial pieces of information.
[Skills: Supreme Mage...]
[Achievement:
Demon King: Unlimited by Racial Level, may randomly draw a special title or skill (used)
...]
Once the last rune’s light had vanished, the gooey creature lightly landed: "You should have prepared your own way to leave, right? As I am now, I can’t take you with me."
Tanaka nodded instinctively.
Receiving the affirmative, the fluid glimmered with magic and disappeared from the room.
The final teleportation’s magic ripple finally triggered Mulin Castle’s alert system.
The piercing alarm echoed throughout the castle, Tanaka didn’t dare delay and immediately deactivated his clone.
His body began to dissipate like morning fog, eventually merging entirely with the air, leaving no trace behind.
When the Blood Guards rushed into the room, all they saw was an empty platform and a room full of deactivated runes.
Frantically, they sealed off the entire Mulin City for a carpet search.
But ultimately, they only found a trace of Abyss Magic use in a collapsed basement, tracking an old demon whose whereabouts were unknown, with no other clue.
Meanwhile, the true bodies of Jiro and Tanaka were already hundreds of miles away.
...
Outside Three Mountains City, the sky seethed in blood-red fury.
Mortis sat on the Throne of Blood, waving his hand to summon endless blood waves, congealing into countless blood crystal spears, each charged with terrifying power.
The blood spears poured like torrential rain, turning the entire battlefield into a scarlet forest of spears.
The sharp breaking sound tore through the air, and the ground trembled violently under the continuous barrage.
In wolf form, Elvyn darted swiftly among the spear forest, his body had swelled to three meters, and his silver-gray fur gleamed dark red under the blood light, each claw radiating a cold glint.
At this moment, his claws were the sharpest sword!
The Prince’s chest bore five deep claw marks, visible to the bone, stubbornly healing due to his quick reflexes.
He was the first to charge forward when the Sword Saint broke through the crystal cluster and nearly got shredded as a result.
Elvyn became extremely cautious, using no combat techniques other than [Extreme Sword].
Even though Mortis hadn’t applied [Envy] on him, he still remembered the fatal interruption of the [Moon Step].
The only thing he could trust was [Extreme Sword]!
Elvyn didn’t rush straight towards Mortis; he continually dodged and destroyed the blood crystal spears, trying to find a weakness.
But the outcome disappointed him.
With the Divine Artifact [Blood Disaster], Mortis completely enveloped himself within a blood curtain, giving the Sword Saint no opportunity.
As if tired of the chase, the Emperor lightly tapped his fingertips, and a massive blood pillar descended, colliding with the dense blood crystal spears, significantly quickening the pace of the battle.
At that moment.
A ring on Mortis’s right hand suddenly shattered, its magical gleam dissipating like stardust.
"Sealing chamber!"
A momentary distraction created a flaw in the perfect blood curtain.
That’s enough!
Elvyn turned into a silver lightning bolt, his claws tearing through space, targeting the Emperor’s throat.
Almost simultaneously, countless blood crystal spears converged towards him from above Mortis.
As the two figures intertwined, three claw marks appeared on the Emperor’s neck, dark red blood slowly seeping out.
But the Sword Saint’s body was filled with blood spears, dropping helplessly from mid-air.