Chapter 215: Chapter 66. The Ark (2)
The ark was the angels’ secret weapon. They gathered at the sacred area and used the plants and wings that they had grown to create the ark. It was the result of all kinds of magic and divine power, and the angels believed that archdukes could not easily destroy it.
Inside the ark were nearly 50,000 angels. The angels slaughtered monsters using holy bullets.
Boom! Bang!
The bullets from the ark eradicated monsters without a trace. Aerial monsters soared into the sky and attempted to attack the ark, but their strikes were blocked by the protective layer, which was made of holy power. If an evil being made contact with the layer, it would receive incurable wounds and feel burning pain.
Some high-grade monsters managed to penetrate the protection, but they were stopped by celestial guards.
About 20,000 angels were guarding the ark. They flew around the ark and eliminated those who penetrated the protection layer one by one.
Currently, the angels’ chance of victory was slim, but they had made a nice comeback.
“Dumb*ss.”
Ufa let his demons take charge and was watching the ark from afar. The archduke was disappointed at his demons who were unable to conquer the ark.
Ufa had assigned strong monsters to his demons, but even they could not reach the ark. He started to think that his demons were inferior to other archdukes’ demons.
“I don’t like them.”
None of his demons were his favorite. Monsters came and went, but demons stayed with him until his death. Ufa was disappointed that his life companions were so incompetent.
The archduke wanted a competitive demon or something equivalent.
“Gustarte is the answer. He is the best shield and sword,” Ufa thought.
If he could tame Gustarte, the wizard would make the best subordinate that he could possibly have. Gustarte was a god, and the thought of commanding a god excited Ufa.
Boom!
The sound of gunshots from the ark brought Ufa back to reality.
The attack threw dozens of wyverns to the ground, which crushed other monsters.
Although most of his demons were incompetent, some of them were useful.
Some of the high demons barely made it through the protection layer and were fighting against the angels.
A few of them were even putting their monsters to the ark using large aerial monsters called golgons.
Ufa’s demons weren’t disobedient, just inept. And Ufa did not like that.
“Beat it. I will do it.”
The archduke pushed aside a count who was standing right in front of him and commanding monsters. Then he stepped up. Ufa did not like to lead in the front, but he hardly thought that his demons would make any progress alone.
The archduke preferred quick fights.
There were many strategies to end a fight, but the best was to intimidate the opponent with one’s overwhelming power.
Whoosh!
When Ufa waved his hand, the wind blew.
Soon, Ufa’s hands controlled dozens of storms.
The archduke combined the storms into one giant black storm.
“The ark looks nice.”
Ufa rode on the giant storm and soared into the sky.
The ark looked brand new, and this thrilled Ufa.
At that very moment, Pandemonium was standing still, with his army not far from the Royal Observatory of Greenwich. The archduke looked uninterested in the fight against the angels.
Pandemonium was most concerned with Randalf Bruciel. He believed that Randalf was by far the most dangerous of all the archdukes. Randalf had killed Oculus, another of the archdukes, and Pandemonium thought that Randalf could easily eliminate another.
Oculus, the eldest of the archdukes, was quite cautious. Some might have called him a coward, but such cautiousness had helped him retain his position as the oldest archduke.
“Does he really have the key?” Pandemonium thought.
The archduke might have been busy fighting with the angels, but his mind was occupied with what had transpired lately.
Everything started with the letter, but the special event was the real trigger.
A message with a few lines that popped up in the air brought all of the archdukes to this place.
And when they were all gathered at this observatory, angels started to attack as though they had been waiting for them to assemble.
“Something’s not right,” Pandemonium noticed.
The first special event, which had never happened, was the appearance of angels. It was possible that the most recent special event was identical to the first one. Some might have said it was a coincidence, but Pandemonium found the similarity somewhat awkward. He felt like someone had conspired against the archdukes.
Such a feeling led the archduke to think of who would benefit the most from this situation.
“Randalf Bruciel,” Pandemonium uttered.
Pandemonium believed that the battles with angels would weaken the power of archdukes and that Randalf Bruciel, who did not have his own faction, would take advantage of this.
At the same time, the archduke could not fathom how Randalf, a demon, could make angels strike other archdukes. To his knowledge, angels did not take orders from demons.
Pandemonium could not find satisfying answers to his questions, and that was why he remained still while the other archdukes were heavily engaged in fights.
He wanted to save as much strength as possible so that if Randalf pulled another trick, he would be able to respond flexibly.
Another reason for refraining from the battle was to surround the observatory with his forces so that Randalf could not play tricks on him.
“It’s a bunch of humans,” the archduke observed.
While Pandemonium was lost in thought, a dozen humans came into his sight.
Humans were intelligent, and they would easily notice the fight between the angels and the demons. However, Pandemonium found their appearance odd.
“Why are humans here?” he asked, confused.
He could not understand why a bunch of humans, despite the grave danger, had come to the observatory.
The archduke looked down on humans. For him, they could not bring about changes but only accept them.
What intrigued the archduke even more was their cautious behavior.
He thought that the humans were up to something.
“I must find out the reason they are here,” he decided.
Pandemonium raised his hand. He wanted to find answers to his questions, and such answers would help him see the bigger picture.
From his experience, the archduke had learned that he had to be cautious when taking action.
Boom!
Suddenly, there was an explosion in the air. A large flame struck the ark.
The problem was where the flame started.
Pandemonium turned around.
“It’s doing much better than I expected.”
There was Randalf Bruciel, standing not far away from where he was, with only a few monsters.
The flame had come from Randalf. Pandemonium had assumed that Randalf would stay inside the castle throughout the entire battle, but the archduke finally appeared on the battlefield.
“Pandemonium, are you not interested in hunting angels?” Randalf turned slightly to him and mocked him.
Demons and angels were hostile towards each other, and any demon would want to hunt an angel. Randalf was rebuking Pandemonium for not taking any action even when a bunch of angels were in front of him.
Pandemonium found Randalf’s scolding funny, because he had also been stuck in the castle all this time.
“It’s a good opportunity to enjoy yourself. There’s nothing like angel-hunting for a good party.”
“Are you trying to mess with me?”
Pandemonium frowned. He knew that Randalf was trying to play a game with him and that he could not let the archduke be. Randalf was relatively young compared to other archdukes, and he could be provocative. However, Pandemonium knew that Randalf was a lot more cunning than he could imagine. The archduke suspected that Randalf was attempting to provoke him for another reason.
“I’m not trying to mess with you. After all, we aren’t close enough for that, are we?”
“Beat it, if you’re going to bullsh*t like that. I will deal with you after I’m done hunting angels.”
“What if I can’t do any business with you?”
“You can’t?” Pandemonium became even more serious.
He seemed surprised, as though he had never imagined Randalf to respond like that.
Then the archduke suddenly realized that Randalf could simply be playing with him. Such a thought made Pandemonium lose it.
“Something big is going to happen if you don’t want to do business with me,” Pandemonium warned.
“Well, something big is going to happen to everyone.”
“If I want to find the way back to Devildom, I can at any time. If you don’t allow us to go back there on purpose, the other archdukes will not like it.”
Randalf then smiled.
“Devildom… I don’t care about that anymore.”
“Of course, I know you don’t care about Devildom. You’re just a loner with no faction. And that’s why you don’t deserve to be called an archduke.”
“But my status window calls me an archduke. Isn’t that because all of you admitted that I am one?”
“Even though we agreed, the title is not real. When we return to Devildom, your title will be removed.”
“I do not wish to remain an archduke forever. In that sense, we’re in the same boat.”
When Randalf said that he did not want to remain an archduke, he implied that he would become the Dark Lord one day.
Then Randalf walked away, as though he was looking for a good spot to watch the ongoing battle between demons and angels.
“You little…”
Pandemonium gritted his teeth and shook his head.
Randalf left the castle, and there was no reason for Pandemonium to stay any longer. The archduke needed to finish this battle.
“We will go and hunt angels. Spread out.”
“As you wish.”
“As you wish.”
Pandemonium’s demons started to move out, taking their monsters with them. The archduke was proud of his demons. They were much more competitive than other demons and also self-motivated.
Those who were left behind were spiritless puppet demons and a few monsters that Pandemonium had inherited from Oculus.
“His prime will definitely come to an end someday,” Pandemonium thought.
The archduke closed his eyes.
Since he was joining the fight, the hunting would soon finish.
***
I shrugged my shoulders.
I was almost caught.
I knew what the humans whom Pandemonium had spotted were carrying, and what it could do.
It was me who assigned Kim Youra and Kim Minji to help them transport the item safely.
“I don’t know how useful that bomb will be,” I admitted.
Perhaps, it would turn out to be useful. After all, humans had great hope in that bomb, so they named it Hope.
Joining the battle with my monsters was a smart move.
I ran into Pandemonium, and, fortunately, I gained some useful information.
“They are looking for ways to get back to Devildom,” I muttered.
I thought that Lyhee’s armor would open a way back to Devildom. Perhaps the armor initiated the special event. Lyhee’s armor was special because it transported others to places where they should be.
“Something must have happened in Devildom,” I contemplated. “It might be urgent enough to keep the demons busy.”
Lost in thought, I walked slowly to the center of the battlefield.
Pandemonium’s words had gotten to me.
Pandemonium said that I did not deserve to be an archduke because I did not have my own faction. In other words, an archduke had to have a faction in Devildom. Perhaps the reason why Pandemonium wanted to go back urgently was because something had happened to his faction in Devildom.
One’s faction became an essential support when they became the Dark Lord. Without a strong faction, the title of Dark Lord was meaningless. In addition, the Dark Lord could even be killed by another archduke if their faction was not powerful enough.
That was exactly the reason why I wanted to grow my dungeons as much as possible. I wanted my monsters and dungeons to be the foundation of my support when I became the Dark Lord.
“Although I have no idea what exactly happened, at least I know that something urgent happened in Devildom,” I thought.
This piece of information was worth my effort in the battle.
I looked up to the sky, and I found that Pandemonium had also joined the fight.
It seemed that the angel-hunting would end soon.
However, I knew a small collision that would bring chaos was about to take place.
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