"Everything’s gone... just like that." Jared’s mouth was agape as he saw the scene before him.
The town was flattened to the ground. What remained was a deep crater that cut through the earth, along with the scattered remains of the demons.
Everyone’s eyes were transfixed on the spot for a good two minutes before they shifted their gaze to Nox, who was still hovering in the air.
"One down, eight more to go!" Nox said and gestured for the others to follow him as he flew ahead.
As a native of the western region, Nox naturally knew the locations of all the towns, even if he hadn’t visited them before.
"Damn, just what happened to him in the past months?" Jack mumbled to himself as he watched him fly off.
Nyx watched his back for a while, her eyes flashing. ’Before, I could at least try to keep up with him, but now, the gap has become so large that with his current strength, it seems as if we’re worlds apart.’
"Come on, let’s go! If not, we’ll be left behind!" Akira called out as she held the reins of the dragon, gesturing for it to follow after Nox.
One after the other, they moved as well.
It didn’t take long for them to encounter the next town, and the same scene repeated itself once again.
They had easily taken over the town. After rescuing the netizens, Nox launched a single destructive attack that obliterated the town from existence.
The previous dragons that had left returned, but they didn’t remain long, as they had to constantly transfer people back and forth.
"Mummy, I’m scared. Does it bite?" a child pointed at the frost dragon with fear in their eyes.
"It’s fine, they belong to young master Nox. I’m sure it won’t bite us," the mother coaxed her son, who was still traumatized after watching a demon murder his father.
After much convincing, the little boy eventually climbed onto the dragon. Such scenes happened everywhere. It wasn’t just the children; even the elders hesitated.
So far, they hadn’t encountered any powerful demon that had proved too difficult to defeat. Everything was going smoothly, and by the time morning arrived, a total of five towns had been destroyed already.
"Alright, let’s take a break," Nox said. He was back to riding the dragons. Flying with his wings drained both mana and stamina, and now that he wasn’t in any immediate danger, he preferred the comfort of the dragon.
Meanwhile, inside an underground tunnel that passed through mountains and towns within the western region, a group of chained demon beasts were digging the soil with their mouths. Behind them were demons holding spiked whips.
The whip-wielding demons lashed at the demonic beasts, forcing them to dig even further.
They had been digging for several days now. Since the walls of the Cromwell Barony were too fortified for them to penetrate, they had decided to tunnel underground to infiltrate the town.
Currently, they were within the town’s underground limits. Suddenly, the demonic dogs stopped in their tracks when they saw another tunnel up ahead.
The leader of the group, a 6ft tall demon with a goblin-like face and bandages wrapped around his head, frowned.
"A tunnel shouldn’t be here," the demon leader spoke aloud, the frown on his face deepening. At that precise moment, he saw several red figures.
At first, they were hard to make out, but gradually, their features became clear.
Dozens of worker ants, staring at them with menace in their eyes.
Standing right in front of the ants was a beautiful, tall, red-haired woman and a humanoid black ant with sharp blade-like limbs.
"Prepare to fight!" the demon leader roared at the top of his voice.
Aina wielded a long blade with a red hilt. She channeled her divine energy into the blade, and it began to pulse fiercely.
The divine energy around Aina’s blade intensified, wrapping it in a crimson glow as it pulsed like a beating heart.
Without waiting for the demons to organize, she shot forward like a bolt of lightning.
"Divine Crescent Slash!"
Her blade tore through the tunnel in a sweeping arc, the slash expanding into a radiant crescent that obliterated the first row of demon beasts and slammed into the demon leader, sending him flying and crashing into the tunnel walls.
"Don’t let them regroup!" Aina shouted as the worker ants surged forward with killing intent, their mandibles snapping and their blade-like limbs slashing the chained beasts apart.
The demon soldiers panicked, swinging their whips uselessly, only to be swarmed by the relentless ants.
The goblin-faced demon leader coughed out blood as he struggled to get back on his feet, his expression twisting in disbelief. "Impossible... we were supposed to be the ones ambushing them... how did they know—"
Aina appeared right in front of him, her blade flashing. The demon leader’s head was severed in an instant.
With the death of their leader, the rest of the demons lost their order. A few brave ones tried to fight, but the majority fled. The ants, who were much faster and more intelligent, quickly caught up to them and killed them.
"Clean this place up," Aina ordered as her gaze swept through the tunnel.
The ant king gave a sharp nod and barked out orders in a strange clicking language. The worker ants quickly dragged the corpses away, clearing the tunnels.
Aina exhaled softly, her sharp eyes narrowing. "So, they were planning an underground assault on the Barony, huh? Looks like Nox was right to station the ants here."
She turned back, gesturing for a messenger ant to approach. She scribbled a brief note and tied it to the ant’s back to inform Nathan that they had dealt with the threat but, just to be safe, they would remain there for some time.
The ant dashed off into the tunnels and climbed out of a deep chasm at the heart of the Barony. Its compound eyes scanned around the Barony before sighting Nathan.
Meanwhile, on the surface, Elvin and Bridget, the team in charge of investigating the demon summoning artifact, had encountered their biggest obstacle since the operation started.
"No—No.4," Elvin frowned when he saw the figure in the distance. "What does that even mean?"
Bridget narrowed her eyes and took a fighting stance. "It means he’s dangerous, and we need to be careful."