Chapter 236 Demon Lands Best Healer

<Demon Queen's castle>

"The pope is here." A flying demon flew into the throne room informing the queen of the pope and the admiral's arrival.

"Damn, I thought I had some more time." The demon queen, who was sitting on her throne didn't look like she was doing much, but that was far from the truth. Using her telepathy, she was constantly contacting people trying to organise a counter offensive.

It took a lot of her mana as she was sending instructions from across the territory which was no easy feat.

"So far they are travelling by beast and aiming straight for the capital destroying anything in their way." The detailed report helped the queen decide on what to do next and hearing that Klaus was heading straight here meant only one thing.

'He wants the artifact.' Elaina heard about the incident in Ebonscale and how Klaus stole the Eden of control. It was bad news, but without the other remaining 4 artifacts, it wasn't a concern. However, he was now making his move and was most likely going for the other 3.

'Maybe it's better to stop him when he invades the Fox realm or Elfihiem.' Elaine didn't see much hope in stopping Klaus and wondered if for the first time she should reach out.

'No, my pride won't let me.' Elania's pride flared up and there was no way she was going to let Klaus have his way.

"Call Luna and all the strongest demons to the capital. We will bring the fight to them!" Elaine yelled her orders and like a PA system used the rest of her mana to announce it in every major town.

The drain was so bad she almost passed out from mana exhaustion, so she resorted to chugging down the purest mana potion she had on hand. Smashing the bottle on the ground she quickly teleported from the throne to an armoury. It contained many demon swords and armours which have been around for hundreds of years.

Under each item was a plaque detailing information about the item and the cost of using it.

[Demon god of vampiric defence]

When worn the armour can repair any sustained damage through absorbing the owner's blood. Blood can also be offered to the armour to temporarily boost its defensive capabilities.

The armour was midnight purple and was designed to completely cover the user, leaving not a single gap. Even the helmet was meant to fully cover the head and connected to the rest of the armour as if it was all a single piece. It wasn't the grandest looking set, but that didn't matter as it wouldn't be seen.

'This will do.' Elaine chose one of the hardest to use armours, so much so that if anyone other than a demon tried using it they would be sucked dry before they even had the chance to regenerate their blood.

Putting her hand on the armour, she phased through it and the armour began to merge with her body. It was a painful process, but it needed to be done if she wanted to fight the most powerful person on the continent.

Once the armour finished merging it seemingly vanished, leaving only an opaque outer shell of midnight purple around Elaine. Another advantage of the armour is that it is almost invisible, hence why no one bothered adding much decoration to the armour which looked like a basic piece of equipment.

With her armour chosen, she walked over to a wall that was lined with different kinds of weapons. Elaine didn't hesitate in choosing a weapon as she favoured the axe. She skipped over most of the weapons and settled on a double-headed axe, the name of which was Masakari. It was a manhunter axe and the weight alone could crush anyone.

The axe head had a face of a demon carved into the head of the axe and etchings of flames ran around the blade's edge. Put together, the jagged blade gave the impression of a fierce fire demon. The handle was predominantly gold with a red wrap near the axe head. The bottom of the handle was black with a painting depicting the very demon the blade was made for.

[Battle axe of the raging flame]

Upon every swing the blade gets hotter, enhancing the power of each strike. If the user is unable to land a strike after a certain time all the built-up power gets redirected back to them.

'I shouldn't have to worry about this one.' Elania had used the axe before and never had the axe backfire so far, although if it did happen she probably wouldn't survive.

Having grabbed her weapons of choice, she returned back to her throne room and saw a demon half-cat sitting on her throne.

"Luna, now isn't the time." Elania grabbed Luna by the back of her clothes and threw her off.

"Nyaaa!!!!" Luna didn't even get a chance to move before she was flung into the air. Using her water she was able to create a jelly-like substance to soften her fall. Bouncing off it, she landed on her feet.

"I need you to stay close to me while I fight the pope. I'm wearing armour that will constantly suck my blood." Elaina intended to have Luna as a pocket healer in the upcoming battle and use her expertise to the fullest.

"Really? I don't know if that's a good idea since couldn't he just target me?" Luna liked the idea on paper, but knowing that they were up against the pope it sounded like suicide to just expect things will go their way.

"I know, which is why I must ask you. How willing are you to sacrifice yourself for our territory?" Elaina's eyes turned cold as she stared at Luna, waiting for her answer.

This was a difficult decision for Luna since she originally wasn't from the demon lands. Although she grew up here, she never really felt patriotic about the place and only rose in the ranks for her own self interests rather than any intention to protect the land.

The hesitation was enough of an answer for Elaina. Of course, she understood Luna's thought process since if she herself wasn't the queen she too would have opted to preserve her life rather than give it up for a higher cause.

"Heh, you don't have to answer. I just wanted to know if you were willing to give everything up, but I'm glad to see you don't have blind devotion." It did not change much of Elaina's plans, but she wanted to see if Luna would stick by her side until the end. If she did it would make things a lot easier, but as she said all Klaus had to do was target Luna.

"Phew." Luna felt relieved hearing it was a trick question and that she wouldn't be murdered if she said no.

"Anyway, I hope you can support the front line fighting the admirals. Most of them are tier 10 but we can at least be thankful that Himeko isn't there. Hopefully it shouldn't be too much for our elite squad to handle. Although, I do want you to capture the admirals if you can because I have a feeling that the pope is just using them." It was Elaina's gut feeling as other than Himeko, only the pope knew about the Eden of lust. So if his target really was the artifact then the admirals are just his pawns which she believed could be used against him.

"Why? Shouldn't we just kill them for breaking the treaty?" Luna didn't understand the thought process since trying not to kill someone is harder.

"Let's just say I believe some of them actually don't want to be fighting." Elaina was confident in her assumption and she could feel herself getting excited.

"Okay?" Luna still didn't get it, but she was a healer so it isn't like she would be doing any fighting herself.

"Anyway, some people should be arriving soon." It had been a decent amount of time since her announcement so she expected to see people entering the throne room soon.

As she spoke, a group of demons of varying races entered all ranging from tier 8 to even some tier 10. This was the elite squad of adventurers as well as the appointed protectors of the demon lands.

Luna was also a part of this group as she was the main healer for the elite corps, but since they recently finished a dungeon most of them were on a small vacation.

"Issac!" Luna ran up to a pure demon who was fully geared in armour and had a massive shield on his back. He was about 2.5 metres tall and his shoulder pads were wide enough for someone to sit on.

"Hey, Luna." Issac picked up Luna as she ran towards him and put her on his shoulder. The two were childhood friends when Luna grew up in the Demon lands. They stuck to each other like glue and even became adventurers and in the end joined the elite squad together.

"Good to see everyone here. As you heard we are going head to head with the human territory's best warriors. I need you to capture them and turn them against the pope. If they don't comply then kill them, but as you may have guessed I feel that the admirals are being forced to participate against their will." Elaina explained the plan, surprising everyone about needing to capture the enemy. Still, after hearing her reasons it all made sense.

"I will be coming with you all to join the fight. You have 30 minutes to get ready before we leave." She planned to head straight for the pope and would explain more as she found out more.

After she finished her instructions lesser demons came out with trays of consumables that will help the elite squad. There was no use in being selfish so she was going all out giving the best potions she could.