CH 136

Silver Spring City had suffered heavy losses.

The dwarves have occupied the outer city area, destroying the defense barrier, magic towers, and various magical formations of Silver Spring City, causing the city's defenses to collapse completely.

Marilyn has now transferred the surviving elf city residents to the inner city area and activated the backup barrier, temporarily halting the dwarves' advancement.

"Elves!"

"Your final days have come!"

"Face the wrath of the dwarven hammer!"

This is a short but exceptionally muscular and strong old dwarf, standing at just 1.5 meters tall, clad in heavy armor, with a gray-white beard covering his face.

His name was Stormbeard.

The dwarven overlord of the mountains.

The leader of the mountain dwarf tribe, and the city lord of the Ironheart City.

The old dwarf wielded a battle-ax in his left hand and a hammer in his right, both weapons were dripping with blood. He wore a fierce and menacing expression on his face, and his eyes were red with bloodthirst, emanating an aura even more ferocious than that of an orc.

"Come out!"

Stormbeard struck with his hammer, a thunderous lightning crashed onto the barrier.

Instantly causing a massive crack in the inner city's barrier.

The barrier could not hold on any longer!

Marilyn immediately cried out, "We can negotiate terms. The Silver Spring tribe is willing to depart from here!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Too late!"

"I shall offer hundred thousands of your elven souls to the Underground God!"

"Then, the Underground God will bestow even more warrior blood upon the dwarves! My Ironheart clan will be stronger than ever!"

The old dwarf's face was raving with madness!

The other dwarves also had bloodshot eyes.

"Kill! Maim! Rend!"

"Massacre them all!"

"Slaughter all the elves!"

"Leave none alive!"

"Glory to the Underground God!"

The thousands of dwarves let out a frenzy and maniacal roar.

The elven elder of Silver Spring City had an unpleasant and worried expression on his face. He uttered, "Oh no, city lord, the dwarves' madness is even worse than ten years ago!"

Dwarves were known for being short-tempered and were quick to resort to  violence, but compared to orcs and ogres, they were a relatively peaceful race.

However, this tribe of dwarves was excessively insane.

There was a rumor that spoke of a plague of madness spreading within the mountains.

When dwarves contracted this plague, although their intelligence remained normal, their character gradually became twisted, making them extremely bloodthirsty and ferocious.

This peculiar situation had only emerged in the last two hundred years.

After the great mining disaster in the Ironheart City.

The dwarves started to worship an entity called "The Underground God", and it was from that point onwards that the dwarven madness began to emerge within their community.

Dwarves who had contracted the madness were even more powerful than before.

However, they had also become increasingly unreasonable.

Judging from the behavior of this old city lord, it seemed that they and their subordinates had been completely dominated by the desire for slaughter.

"Stormbeard!"

"Wake up already!"

"You and your people are falling into depravity!"

Marilyn continued to reprimand, "You worshiped a demonic deity of unknown origins! That thing is the true culprit of that tragedy! Of your disaster! You dwarves are bringing destruction upon yourselves!"

Stormbeard was immediately set off like a dynamite, fury crawled up to his face, "You DARE to slander the great Underground God?! I will tear you apart limb from limb! DIE!"

In the next instance, Stormbeard's body turned into a hue of red.

His figure grew up to a towering height of three meters tall.

Then, a fearsome storm hammer bolt slammed onto the already cracked barrier.

The barrier completely collapsed, but the violent bolt of thunder showed no sign of stopping and continued to blast towards the elven chieftain.

Marilyn's face paled.

He's too powerful.

Stormbeard.

Although he was beyond redemption and terminally ill, his current strength was beyond imagination.

In order to buy time for the elven citizens to retreat into the safety of the inner-city barrier, Marilyn had single handedly held back the dwarven army and got severely wounded in the process.

At this moment, she had no strength left to withstand such a violent strike.

Despite her swift reaction speed, she could just activate her instantaneous movement ability to dodge the attack.

But what about her fellow elves behind her? They would definitely suffer heavy casualties!

Marilyn gritted her teeth, wrapped her body in Qi, and summoned a magical protective shield to withstand the dwarf's storm bolt.

With a loud boom!

The magical shield was shattered.

The storm hammer bolt, wreathed in lightning, struck her.

Marilyn was sent backwards for ten meters. She used her Qi to cancel out the terrifying force of that strike. She spat out a mouthful of blood and fell to the ground helplessly, no longer having the strength to fight.

"Hahaha!"

"The elves are finished!"

"Let's start with you!"

Under the old dwarf's transformed form, his power had reached its peak, and his voice rumbled and echoed like thunder, striking fear into the elves.

As he spoke, his ax was enveloped with a blood red glow.

With his tremendous might, he cleaved towards the elven chieftain on the ground.

"Nooo!"

"Chieftain!"

The elven elders and city residents cried out in despair. The insane dwarf lord was too fast, and there was no time to stop him in his tracks.

Suddenly, a mysterious power enveloped the two tribe leaders.

The thunderous strike of Stormbeard slowed down to a crawl, and the massive battle ax swinging towards Marilyn was intercepted by a towering silhouette that abruptly appeared.

"What?"

Neither tribe leaders could comprehend what happened.

A burly figure with a domineering presence blocked the ax for the elf, and the raging energy on the battle ax was instantly absorbed, leaving no harm on him.

"Marilyn!"

The elven chieftain heard a familiar voice.

As she turned around to look, she revealed a surprised face, "Nancilia!"

The young city lord quickly helped the chieftain up and teleported them into the crowd of elves, saying, "We've finally caught up in time!"

Marilyn quickly warned Nancilia, "Be careful, this dwarf is incredibly powerful, even you have to beware of him!"

"Hehehe, don't worry. His Majesty has decided to come personally. Do you think I still need to fight him myself?"

"His Majesty?"

The gaze of the elves fell on this majestic and imposing figure standing over three meters tall.

Everyone had a sudden realization.

This was the Demon King.

The Dragon Demon King that their chieftain had pledged allegiance to.

He had effortlessly withstood the attack of that powerful old dwarf, indicating his tremendous fortitude and strength.

No wonder the proud chieftain was willing to bow her head to him.

Although many elves had reservations about joining forces under the Demon King.

There was one thing they could not deny.

His strength had surpassed beyond their imagination.

Perhaps his appearance here might be able to save Silver Spring City!

This was the first time Marilyn had seen the Demon King himself.

She did not expect the Demon King of the Darkness City would personally rush over to save the Silver Spring tribe.

'So this is the Demon King.'

His aura was even more formidable than she thought.

And he was more majestic and dignified than any draconian she had ever observed!

Marilyn had visited Darkness City a few days ago and although she had not seen the Demon King, she had noticed other draconians.

However, against the Dragon Demon King before her, even the high-ranking draconians like Sky Drake Archpriest and Earth Drake Grand Marshal evidently paled in comparison.

"Who are you!"

"Why do you interfere?!"

Stormbeard withdrew ten meters or so with a vigilant expression on his face.

"This is not an interference."

The Demon King spoke calmly, "Silver Spring City is my territory, and the elves of Silver Spring City are about to become my subjects. You dare to lay your hands on my subordinate. Are you prepared to face the consequences?"

Stormbeard roared out in laughter, "You think you can keep these elves from me? You are but a mere Demon King, you're really overestimating yourself!"

"Is that so? Try me."

Stormbeard roared again, his stature growing to five meters tall, his muscles bulging, and even horns growing from his head.

At this moment, instead of a dwarf, he was more of a daemon.

"This is the power that the Underground God has bestowed upon the dwarves!"

The old dwarf seemed to have lost all reason and shouted, "What gives you the confidence to oppose my might?!"

Zhang Nu was a little astounded as he took a look at the dwarf's stats.

[Daemonized Dwarven Patriarch: Stormbeard] Level 4 Overlord

Skills: Blood of the Fallen (Rank A), Thundering Force (Rank A), Lightning Hammer (Rank B), Tempest Hammer (Rank B), Iron Bones (Rank B), etc.

Description: This is the leader of the corrupted dwarves who has absorbed a large amount of daemonic energy and become completely corrupted. Although he possesses great power, he is also under the control of ancient daemons, with only madness and fanatical faith left in his mind.

"Kill, kill, kill!" Stormbeard shouted.

"Kill all the elves!"

All the dwarves present were infused with corrupted blood, entering a state of madness and expanding several times their size, turning into little blood-colored giants.

How could the once pure and peaceful dwarves be contaminated like this?

Zhang Nu shook his head, "What a pity."

Just then.

Stormbeard charged towards the Demon King.

Zhang Nu immediately unleashed the Dragon's King Sanctum, dragging all targets within a radius of one mile into his domain.

"This is...the King's Sanctum!"

"He's no ordinary dragon, he's a Dragon King!"

Everyone present, be it elves or dwarves, was flummoxed by the spectacle.

Marilyn felt the suppression from surging from her surroundings within the domain and realized that what Nancilia claimed was true. This Demon King was not an ordinary dragon, but a powerful and genuine king of dragons!

And yet, judging from the strength of the aura he was giving off, the Demon King should be a Level 4.

Why would a Level 4 possess the ability of a monarch?

According to the records of this continent for the past tens of thousands of years, every single monarch existence had at least reached the strength of a Level 5.

Level 5 was the minimum threshold for a monarch.

Instead of being dismayed by the fact that the Demon King's level was lower than expected, Marilyn felt an unprecedented surprise and exhilaration.

A Level 4 monarch.

What did this signify?

The Demon King's strength still had enormous growth potential.

In the future, he might even become a myth, or even an existence that would surpass the mythic rank!

Such an individual.

He was born to rule.

Silver Spring City was right to follow his rule.

However, Marilyn was oblivious to the matter that the Demon King was already approaching the rank of monarch when he was still Level 1 or 2, and when he reached Level 3, he had already obtained his King's Sanctum.

Otherwise.

Her view of the world would crumble and collapse.

"You're a Dragon King?! How is that possible!"

Even the dwarven patriarch, who was on the verge of completely losing his sanity, felt a hint of fear at this very moment.

He did not even realize what kind of existence he was currently facing.

Zhang Nu's King Sanctum, at this point, was entirely different from what he had when he was still Level 3.

His King's Sanctum was now more than twice as powerful as before, with a wider range of coverage and stronger suppression and restraint effects on enemies.

Even a mighty Level 4 overlord.

Their strength within this domain would be immensely diminished.

And their HP and MP were constantly drained.

Zhang Nu was calm and collected, "Nothing is impossible. Now, entertain me!"

"Monarch?! So what! We have the bestowal of the Underground God!"

"Charge! Kill him now!"

"Glory to the Underground God!"

The dwarven patriarch charged forward in a frenzy once more.

Zhang Nu unhesitantly responded with a dozen thunderbolts.

The old dwarf held up his weapon to defend himself, relying on his incredible strength and fortitude to withstand the barrage of more than ten abyssal lightning bolts.

Needless to say, the dwarf truly possessed great strength.

Yet, unfortunately, he was facing the most dreaded Demon King of the Chaos Forest!

During the barrage of lightning bolts, Zhang Nu had already formed a bolt of Hell Thunderflame. He then released a wave of Dragon Fear that swept over the dwarven patriarch at close range.

"Damn!"

The dwarf was struck by a wave of trance.

He managed to come to his senses swiftly, but suddenly, an unprecedented sense of crisis enveloped him.

A bolt of thunderflame was fired towards him.

Instantly shattered his hammer and ax.

The dwarf patriarch was pierced through his body by a bolt of thumb-thick thunderflame, and was forced to cancel his transformation, screaming in agony as he fell to the ground.

"How could this be!?"

"How could I be defeated?!"

"I have the might bestowed by the Underground God!"

The dwarven patriarch's chest was burned through with a fist sized wound. His bones and internal organs had been carbonized, with flames still burning within him.

Such injuries were beyond saving for a dwarf.

Zhang Nu simply tossed a ball of dragon flames at him.

Instantly, he was burned to charcoal.

[You've slain Daemonized Dwarven Patriarch. Gold +750,000!]

This was a Level 4 overlord unit.

If possible, Zhang Nu would not have killed him but instead recruited him as a subordinate.

Unfortunately, he had assimilated too much of the daemonic power and was too deeply corrupted. It would be difficult to restore him to his original state, so it was better to just end his misery.

After all, a Level 4 overloud could generate a considerable reward.

The other dwarves were all showing expressions of shock and fear.

They had never thought that their invincible patriarch would be so vulnerable and insignificant  before this Demon King, and they were still suppressed by the King's Sanctum, thus they could not even display half of their usual strength.

Zhang Nu summoned the royal guards.

Twenty-five Infernal Warmonger Royal Guards and twenty Infernal Mystic Royal Guards were instantly teleported to his sides.

"Execute them all!"

"Leave none alive!"

Zhang Nu issued a cold-blooded command.

These daemonized and corrupted dwarves were of little value, so instead of forcibly incorporating them, it was better to just initiate a thorough purging and take over Ironheart City while he was at it