Chapter 110: A Spark of Hope

Shocked into mutism, he watched powerlessly as the green stream infiltrated the cultist leader's oversized head.Despite the dread gripping him by the throat and the pressure forcing him down, his palms trembled.

'I can't let the Balor possess his body!' The thought rumbled as he pressed harder to push himself off the ground.

He had seen the creature's rank when Timat offered him different evolution paths and remembered that it stood above Luna's species, meaning Balors were at least demon barons.

His teeth cracked under the strain as he corrected his line of thought.

'The incubus path doesn't have an evolution per tier and Luna was most likely a baron or an earl in the demon realm...' An icy knot of dread tied in his guts as the answer rumbled. 'He's a marquis! A demon on the sixth tier!'

Somehow, he didn't need to ponder what would happen if he succeeded. The answer was just that evident.

The Balor would just commit massacres everywhere and summon more demons to help him in his endeavor. And after a week? He would summon Zepar himself.

Yet, all these future consequences didn't concern him. Instead, he focused on the present.

'I'll die today. Then, it'll head to the territory and kill all the civilians.' His face hardened as his eyes narrowed into fiery slits, and his essence surged in his veins like a demonic river. 'I won't let it happen!'

Echoing his defiant inner roar, his energy surged before him and swirled for a second.

Dark flames flickering erratically appeared one after another.

They swirled around his trembling figure and red face before he hurled them at the leader's body.

'I can't move, so what? I'll destroy your vessel before you can settle inside!'

The surrounding temperature increased, the smell of sulfur invading the tower's interior as the fifteen flames he had conjured blurred to the swollen body.

Before they connected with it, he saw its skin tighten and glow with a metallic luster. No... It was as if the abundant blood inside coalesced to reinforce the muscles and condense the body.

BOOM

Charred gravel flew everywhere as the blast sent his flowing hair backwards. The altar in the middle glowed a fiery orange and dripped on the floor, releasing the suffocating stench of melting rocks.

Meanwhile, the flames vaporised the leader's body.

Yet, Adam's breath hastened as he witnessed its bloated appearance shrink.

The loud beating of its torso echoed first as its chest became as chiselled as a Greek statue. Veins as thick as snakes pulsed on its arms, its biceps and triceps protruding like mounds of quenched steel. Legs thicker than both of Muramasa's arms condensed, adding to the dread gnawing at him.

Worse, his mind rumbled at the sight of the leader's enlarging frame. With each second crawling by, its bones groaned and pushed the muscles.

'No! I failed!' His nails dug into the ground, shattering against the rock as blood poured down his fingers.

He would lose everything if the Balor completed the possession. Yet what could he do?

Even now, the flames burned strong on its body but did nothing to hinder the process.

He bit his lips, the metallic tang of blood filling his mouth.

'My Shinkai no Ken could have corroded its body if only I could move.'

Unfortunately, the what-ifs had no place in life. Only results did and he knew it.

His eyes closed, and his head lowered as despair engulfed his heart in darkness.

However, in that moment of powerlessness, a voice pierced his heart with a ray of hope shining brighter than the sun: the voice of the person who made his heart flutter.

"We won't let Zepar's minions invade our territory!"

Luna's wrathful voice reverberated at the tower's gate as she channelled all her demonic essence to deliver a crushing strike.

A colossal serpent formed on her outstretched palm, hints of inky dark melding in her usually green flames.

Instantly, she hurled it at the growing Balor, her voice thundering with all the scorn she felt for its master.

"Zepar is next!"

With her words, the serpent's jaws opened wide, letting its two fiery fangs whistle through the wind. Like a living being animated by its conjuror's hate, it hissed angrily on its path before...

BOOM

A pillar of green and dark engulfed the tower, rising high enough to emerge from its broken roof. The moisture in the air evaporated under the terrifying heat it released as Adam's eyes trembled before the devastating spectacle. Sёarᴄh the Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The noise alone deafened him as sweat covered his pale face. Yet, he endured the temperature, a single thought burning in his mind: did Luna kill it?

Squinting, he tried to find the answer and hoped he would see the Balor's body vaporise on the spot.

His eyes brightened the next second as his fists clenched, and an inner roar pierced his mind.

'The bastard is burning!' Then, he remembered the small gift he had offered her—one that allowed this miracle to happen. 'The kobold leader's carcass! She got abyssal essence from it!'

Heart drumming in his ears, he watched the demon's skin melt with bated breath. Absorbed in his observation, he didn't even notice that the pressure on him lessened enough to let him move.

Yet, where he should have felt delight, a sudden shiver, insidious and illogical, ran down his spine.

He scanned the place, his eyes landing on the Balor's face and... its wide-open eyes.

'Shit! He's still not dead?!'

As the realisation thundered in his mind, Luna pointed her finger commandingly at the Balor.

"Now! Attack before it resumes the process!"

Bart, Ifrit, and Garduck blurred past her. Weapons in hand, they pounced towards the blazing pillar like demonic beasts.

Meanwhile, Adam lept to his feet instinctively and joined them in their charge.

At this moment, their five hearts pulsed with the same goal, the same desire: to protect the territory. And if the price to do so were horrible burns and wounds, they would accept it!

"RAAAAAAH!"

They roared in unison as the heat assaulted their skins. Yet, their determined faces didn't waver when they swung their arms into the pillar.