Second World

1922  Chapter 1922. Petty Guy

While Syndrillis was wondering how this tiny outworlder hoped to stop Beelzebub's spell when John said she could not, Beelzebub's spell formation formed its last rune. It was a nine-rune spell. Seeing that, Syndrillis kept her golden shield on full power, just in case.

Beelzebub's completed his spell. The area around him darkened. It was as if something absorbed the light in the surroundings. The completed spell formation exploded with dense dark purple light. This light formed into a thick pillar that zoomed toward the center of the defender force, which was where Syndrillis and Giant Steve were.

Even before the energy pillar arrived, Syndrillis sensed how thick its aura was. John was right. She wouldn't be able to block this attack.

The name of Beelzebub's spell was the Extinguishing Chaos Flash. It was a spell with highly destructive power. Its power could probably match Eoranth's Annihilating Soul Beam.

When Syndrillis' mind was in turmoil, a titanic translucent wall appeared. The dark purple beam crashed into this energy wall. She looked down and sensed that this titanic wall was Giant Steve's doing.

She returned her attention to the wall. Beelzebub's Extinguishing Chaos Flash continued to pour onto the wall from the other side. She could still sense the terrifying power from the beam. Yet, she couldn't sense any aura from the wall stopping the beam. She kept on expecting the wall to collapse any second, but it held. Even after the dark purple beam expired its strength and stopped, the wall was still standing.

She looked down again at Steve. She couldn't believe this outworlder had the power to block such a fearsome attack.

The titanic wall came from Eternal Guardian's level 90 skill, Eternal Wall. With this skill, Giant Steve could erect a giant impenetrable wall. This wall was truly as its description implied, impenetrable. Save from the act of a divine being, nothing could pass or break this wall. This wall lasted ten seconds at its max level, which was a longer duration compared to Beelzebub's Extinguishing Chaos Flash. Thus, the spell failed to do any damage to the defenders.

John was instructing everyone to continue retreating as Steve blocked Beelzebub's attack. The defenders put more distance from the underworld forces.

Beelzebub's face turned into a scowl after seeing his top spell get blocked without doing any damage. That scowl quickly returned to normal. He looked down. His demons were still having trouble getting past the traps. He cast another spell, Catastrophic Earth Wave.

The earth before him churned and toppled. The roiling turned into a large wave of earth that rolled forward. Some demons got caught by this earth wave, but he didn't care. The earth wave continued. All the traps that were passed by this wave were destroyed.

When the spell was over, a wide safe path without traps was before Beelzebub. The demons rushed forward through this path. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Hmph!" Beelzebub harrumphed. He had decided earlier that today would be the day he took out these defenders. That's why he expended much energy to summon a great host of his demonic insects. He was cross his plan failed to be realized.

'Never mind,' he thought. 'I will get them sooner or later.'

*

John stayed at the rear of the retreating army as he monitored their backs. The underworld forces were not seen. This meant they had put a relatively safe distance between them and their pursuers. Still, he bet those demons were not far behind. Duke Alfredo and Jack's other royal agents stayed near him.

Ragorth, True Janus, Agamon, Dytess, and other prominent natives approached John. Ragorth asked, "Sir royal advisor, I heard from Janus that you don't want us to go to the prepared defensive line in the Themisphere border. May I know the reason?"

John opened his map and let Ragorth interface with it. He pointed at a place while talking, "Both Jagara and the Khan regions are filled with mountainous landscapes. The mountains in the Khan region are lush with forests. This makes the region a perfect ambushing place."

"You plan to ambush the underworld force?" Ragorth asked.

"Rather than ambushing, I will say it's more alienating the underworld force from Beelzebub," John answered. "Out of the other devils, he and Belphegor are the two who are most refrain from direct combat. While Belphegor chooses not to do so out of laziness, Beelzebub does so because he enjoys having his minions do the job for him."

"Like you," Jet remarked from the side.

"Grown-ups are talking. Please refrain from interrupting," John said.

"My age is at least twice yours, punk!" Jet returned.

"I would say thrice," Giant Steve muttered.

John ignored them. He continued speaking to Ragorth, "Despite being the leader, Beelzebub preferred to be at the rear. What we need to do was to create a situation where he was separated from his army."

"And then we drop our full force on him," Ragorth said.

"Rather than full force, I think we can only spare the five of us," John pointed at him and his friends. "And probably Jack's royal agents. The rest of you will have to be the wall to stop the demon army from giving Beelzebub assistance."

Ragorth was skeptical about how the five outworlders could hope to beat Beelzebub by themselves. Although they rarely engaged the devil, Agamon and the others did so during the first days of battle. Beelzebub was formidable even without his army. But then he remembered the Angelic Host cast by Purple Mist and the Eternal Wall erected by Giant Steve. These five also had levels above 90, way ahead of the other outworlders. Perhaps their claim wasn't just a brag.

So, Ragorth instead asked, "How do you suppose we separate Beelzebub from his army?"

John again pointed at his map. "Because of the mountainous region, a lot of the time, massive troops will have to form a long line as they march. We will put a decoy for the enemies to follow while we lay in wait inside the forests on the mountains here. We will let the enemies pass us by until we see Beelzebub at the tail. We will then cut this tail. The army will engage the demons while we deal with Beelzebub."

"Can't we just lure them to Mount Tigra?" Giant Steve asked. "The coordinates you gave are rather close to Popoki Village. That place is protected by the Tiger God, whose power is equivalent to a God. That deity should be able to take care of the underworld forces no problem."

"The underworld forces won't be so stupid to wander into a territory ruled by a deity," John said. "That's why the minor race forced from their home was only the frogmen. Those frogmen were more like a nomadic tribe on the sea. They didn't possess a territorial deity."

"Don't forget the demons also have a big bad God backing them," Purple Mist reminded.

"Yes. If the underworld forces somehow go into conflict with a deity, I bet Lucifer will appear. However, I believe the underworld forces will leave these minor races for the last. So, forget about the Tiger God. We can't enlist his help."

Ragorth asked the others, "What do you all think?"

Agamon was the first one to answer, "We are under Themisphere banner. If the royal advisor told us to lay an ambush, then we lay an ambush."

Dytess was next. "My queen told me to follow Themisphere's lead."

"We will be more vulnerable since we don't have defensive structures and siege weapons with us," Janus said. "But Sir Royal Advisor here has brought many victories to Themisphere in the past. I say we trust his plan."

Ragorth turned to the others, who were still silent.

The others looked at each other. After that exchange, Hashi said, "We follow your decision, brother Ragorth." To which the other nodded.

Ragorth gave the matter some thought. Although fighting under the support of the defensive structures was safer, they had been doing that for some while. They were nowhere near victory. Perhaps it was time to try a riskier approach.

"All right, royal advisor. We follow your plan," Ragorth told John.

"Good. Since we don't have the luxury to stay put and talk. We will discuss the details as we move. I'm calling some outworlder leaders to come. We will resume our talk when they arrive. In the meantime…"

John paused his speech because he received a message from Jack.

"Hey, I heard that Hydrurond Northern Front is retreating. So, you don't need my royal agents there. I'm calling them over."

John was about to send a reply telling Jack not to do that, but Duke Alfredo and the others already vanished from there.

"Damn it!" John cursed. Jack's royal agents had the advantage of outworlder's fast leveling. Their levels were high enough to provide considerable assistance when it was time to face Beelzebub.

"Hey, where did they go?" Jet asked. He wasn't aware of Jack's message to John.

"They have been summoned by that petty guy," John answered. "He is doing this to return the favor of me sending him alone to face Satan."